The Ties That Bind
Chapter Sixteen
Chris pushed the hair from up from his head, as if to push the bleariness that resided there as well, and willed the growing ache at his temples to dissipate.
Having crashed at the office in P3 rather than creeping through Halliwell Manor in the wee hours of the morning to a disapproving Piper and, chances were, at least one other relative.
He didn't notice it then, but thinking back Chris supposed it was present the day before too, just not as tear-jarringly painful. So, needless to say, exactly what he didn't need was the voice of his mother calling him loudly from breakfast.
"Why now?" he moaned, taking the time to change his sleep-ruffled shirt for a slightly cleaner one and orbed to the Manor, praying for the presence of aspirin, or sometime of painkiller in the medicine box above the potted plant.
It was worse than a hangover, and without the good night out before!
"What?" he said irritably.
"Don't you get snappy with me, mister. Breakfast, now!"
"Can't you badger Cadey? I was sleeping."
"It's nine thirty in the morning!"
"Exactly!"
Piper frowned, "For your information, I called Caden down half hour ago. She's in the bathroom, taking a shower. You're late."
Chris would have rolled his eyes, but the pounding in his head was bringing black spots to his eyes with each thud of his heart. As it was, he settled for trying not to be too obvious in his very sincere gratefulness for the kitchen chair.
Unfortunately by trying to hide what he normally would do without hesitation -hell rolling his eyes was a trademark of his -Chris placed himself smack bang in the centre of his mother's instinctive radar.
"Chris?"
Somewhere, the response he heard in his mind got lost on the way to his mouth, instead a mumble worked its way past a tongue that felt a few millimetres too big.
Piper's tone grew evermore concerned when no sarcastic comment was forthcoming, "Chris? Chris what's wrong?"
If he knew, the information wasn't being very forthcoming. Was this what a migraine was like? Aunt Phoebe used to get them when everything got too much, but she never said anything about feeling this, about them coming on so fast.
Once more nothing intelligible came out, and if he hadn't been so focused on rubbing his eyes, he would've found that fact highly amusing.
The roaring pain however wasn't much to laugh at, and the black spots were taking over his vision -
"CHRIS!"
-
Chris felt himself fall from the kitchen with a detached sensation, felt the air whoosh past his ears, but instead of hitting the floor with his body, the detached part of him kept falling through the floor, through the foundations the rocks, through the dirt and through to the magical underworld somewhere in-between.
So that's not what a migraine's like; came Mel's dry voice, that's what dark magic trying to pull your consciousness to them is like.
Or was it his soul?
Either way he found himself semi-transparent and staring at Kevin, now known as Kalister.
The innocent he failed to save from Wyatt.
"What do you want, Kevin?"
The emotionless mask on his dark-skinned face didn't flicker; he simply turned and walked away to stand motionless a few feet away.
"Kevin? Kevin, answer me."
It was worth a try, but proved completely fruitless, much as pushing the glasslike walls that kept him separated from his body turned out to be.
"Kevin."
Still no reply, still no surprise in the silence, or the zero effect of blowing up his cage.
Kevin was always a man of few words, and now he was Kalister he rarely spoke outside of his work.
This was a bad situation to be in, especially with some demon after Piper.
Chris leaned against a wall and ran a hand through his hair. How was he going to get out of this? What was Kevin waiting for? When was the demon after Piper going to attack? While he was gone? How did that demon know so many cause and effects?
Why was -
A wind cut through his thoughts, whipping around the cavern and pulling at Kevin's black hair. It didn't startle the assassin in the slightest; in fact it seemed to please him immensely.
Balls of yellow-white light swam through the ceiling in spirals, glowing like giant fireflies until they coalesced into four very familiar figures, a fifth joining seconds later.
Piper, Leo, Phoebe, Paige and Cadey.
This bad situation had just got a whole lot worse.
"Aw crap."
Still in full silent mode, Kevin merely threw a bottled potion at the new arrivals not even a second after they all finished forming, and another (somehow) into Chris's cage. Burnt orange smoke and the smell of dying flowers assaulted his senses for a brief moment or two, and then, for the second time that day, he fell, but this time, he knew no more.
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Author's Note: Okay I formatted this for upload on Monday but got a little sidetracked by homework, so my apologies there. I think ya'll were suspecting some big action scene.... whereas me... I'm an angst, sorry pathos, writer. Gawd. T'other day one of my teachers said angst and she should said pathos so i was just sniggering into my folder ;)
'Kay, so from the lack of reply, I guess you guys aren't really bothered about Bonding Flashbacks so I'll only probably only put some in if my homework load is light :)
Review Thank You's and Replies To:
Inversnaid: There you go!
ilovedrew88: I do love flashbacks... as you'll learn in the next couple of chapters :D
Pruedence.Halliwell: You mean Caden has a fan? Cor blimey :O
Sparkling Cherries: looks innocently at her feet sorry about the delay... blame my school! Stupid art... who whudda though A-Level required so much bleedin' drawing! LOL!
