"CHRISTOPHER LARABEE? Where did you go with Vin this late in the evening?" asked an angry Gloria Potter, as she faced her two sons who'd orbed back into the Magic Room. She had gone into JD and Vin's room to tell the boys that they were having pizza and had discovered that Vin wasn't there, as he'd gone to talk to Chris. Then Mrs. Potter had gone to Chris's room to tell him and Vin about the sudden change in the dinner plans, but Chris and Vin weren't there. She'd guessed they might be in the Magic Room looking at The Book, so had arrived there just before the two missing sons had orbed back.
"He needed ta sort things out with the future Mrs. Larabee," said Vin with a cheeky grin. "I gave him a lift ta her house."
"Sarah's back in town?" asked Terrence, as he walked into the room; he'd heard voices there and had gone to the room to investigate. Too many times he'd found his sons in the Magic Room, using magic without telling an adult first like they were meant to. Most of the un-permitted spells had been cast for personal gain, and that meant they'd had to face magical consequences for their actions.
"Dad, she wanted to give up her magical destiny. Nate orbed me to the bar she was in earlier and we started talking. If it hadn't been for Vin, I wouldn't have tried to win her back tonight."
"You're forgiven for leaving after curfew this time, Vin. But in future you should ask one of us before you go anywhere this late." Chris didn't have a curfew imposed on him because he was too old for one, so he would have only been in trouble for taking Vin out late.
"I'm sorry, Sir," apologized Vin, "I didn' mean ta orb out with Chris, it was an accident."
"We'll work on improving your control of orbing tomorrow after school," said Terrence - it was worrying that Vin still couldn't control his orbing, as he could accidentally orb himself into danger.
"And don't you dare think of orbing to JD, walk like the rest of us have to," said Terrence sternly, reading Vin's thoughts.
"Okay." Then Vin walked out of the Magic Room to rejoin JD.
Terrence motioned Chris to follow him to his den for a short talk; at twenty, Chris was no longer a child and it wouldn't be long before his thoughts turned to raising a family, and Terrence didn't want his son to be unprepared.
Then Gloria couldn't help but go to Ezra's room to check on him; her usual underlying concern brought to the surface with his close brush with death. The boy's room had an occupant beside Ezra, as Josiah was there, watching his younger brother sleeping; he was scared of leaving Ezra on his own in case a demon blinked into the room and hurt the teenager.
"I wish I didn't live so far away, Mother; any of them could get attacked and I wouldn't be here to protect them," said Josiah softly, not taking his eyes off the sleeping teen for even a second.
"You can't always be here for them, Dear," comforted Gloria, knowing that Josiah felt responsible for the safety of his adopted siblings like he had done for his real sister, Hannah. He wanted to look after his adopted brothers better than he believed he had with Hannah - it was his penance for his sister's suffering at the hands of their real father, Raul Sanchez. The girl had been sent to a special home because the abuse she had suffered had seriously damaged her psychologically.
"Even your father and I can't protect them all the time. You were here when Ezra got hurt today, but you couldn't have acted quickly enough to stop it happening - none of us could. That boy is too - excuse my language - damn brave at times. I clearly need to have another talk with him about looking before he leaps - even if he can't remember doing it today."
"Mother, I need to get home," explained Josiah, "it's getting late and I've got work in the morning."
Gloria called Nathan and he orbed into the room.
"Hi, Gloria, Josiah," the Whitelighter greeted.
"Josiah needs to get home so he can get to bed at a reasonable time tonight," informed Gloria. "He has work tomorrow."
"I'd be happy to orb you home, Josiah," said Nathan with a smile.
The man walked to Nathan and put his hand on the Whitelighter's shoulder; then Nathan orbed them to Josiah's apartment.
"Gloria?" asked Ezra, opening his eyes after being woken up by voices in his room.
"We didn't mean to wake you, Dear," apologized Gloria. "Nathan's just taking Josiah home before he falls asleep in here. He was just watching over you - you worried us all with your act of foolishness."
"I remember something - I jumped in front of someone to stop a knife going into them. Is that how I lost some blood?"
His mother nodded. "You don't remember whom you saved?"
"Was it one of my younger siblings?" guessed Ezra, unable to remember what had happened or why.
"It's too late to talk about this now – we'll have all morning to talk, since you won't be going to school tomorrow." Gloria lightly kissed Ezra on his forehead and then walked out of the room.
Gloria didn't want to tell the boy what had really happened - that his real father had come back to see Ezra after all this time, but only to use his son in his evil plans. Maybe something would come up the next day and stop her from having to tell Ezra the truth about what had happened.
The boy felt tired, and closed his eyes. Five minutes later, he fell asleep.
While the boy slept very soundly, a dark figure appeared in the room and stood beside the bed, looking down at the sleeping teen. Then the figure vanished as quickly as it had arrived.
CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7
In the Underworld, Fowler went into hiding after hearing that Ella had been vanquished. He would avenge her death one day, but for now, he'd rather lie low to avoid letting any demons find out his plans. With her last dying breath, Ella had sent him a message from her mind to his; telling him that her death should be avenged somehow in the future and that she held all the Potter family responsible.
Once Fowler had disappeared, Turner became the next in line to the Source, waiting for the day when the present Source would be killed. Turner wasn't powerful enough to kill the Source alone, so would be waiting for someone else to do it for him - possibly the Potters.
To be continued...in the Epilogue