Warning: Death of a warlock in this chapter - only mildly disturbing IMO, but I'm warning here.
Standing in her son's bedroom doorway, Bianca Wilmington watched her son rocking himself on the carpet. The mother knew something was wrong, as Janette had dashed out of the bedroom and left the house without even saying good-bye to her.
"It's not real," said Buck again.
Bianca heard Buck's words and walked to the boy's side. "It's okay, Honey; I'm here for you." She picked him up off the floor and walked over to the bed with the boy in her arms. She sat down and rocked Buck in her arms; despite that he was getting too big for that sort of thing, Bianca felt that he needed comforting. They sat in silence together.
Ten minutes later, the front door opened, and Charles entered the quiet home. He walked upstairs to the open door of Buck's room and looked inside. In the room he saw Buck in his mom's lap as both sat on the side of the bed. The dagger lying on the floor a short distance away caught his attention and he walked over in an attempt to conceal it, hoping that Bianca hadn't seen it already. The instrument was far more deadly-looking than a dinner knife and Charles knew that his wife would be distraught if she saw it, assuming she hadn't yet.
"Buck, Honey, will you tell us what happened?" asked Bianca, as she saw Charles enter the room. She guessed that Andrew, Charles' Whitelighter, must've sensed something wasn't right and orbed Charles home to find out what.
"She tried to hurt me with a big knife," said the boy, crying as he spoke.
Bianca felt angry - she felt sure that Buck would've been safer if he wasn't the son of a witch. Her baby boy could've ended up in the hospital or even killed because of the evil girl who'd tried to attack him. "I need to talk to your father a moment, why don't you take a little nap?"
Buck nodded and Bianca laid him down to try to sleep for a while. He heard his bedroom door closing and guessed his parents didn't want him to hear their conversation.
CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P
After Charles had closed his son's bedroom door behind him, he turned to face his upset wife. "Andrew detected Buck was in danger earlier and orbed into his room. He stopped any harm from coming to him then, but I guess he shouldn't have left so soon - it won't happen again."
"Something like that wouldn't have happened in the first place if he wasn't the son of a witch," hissed Bianca, feeling sure that it was all her husband's fault.
"I can't help what I am, Honey," replied Charles, upset that his wife was blaming him for what had almost happened to their son. "Andrew can always sense if the boy is in danger, so he can quickly orb to Buck and protect him."
"If Andrew was too busy though, Buck could get seriously hurt. Maybe you should unbind our son's powers and start teaching him - then he won't be so defenseless."
"No - I can't do that. It's too dangerous while I don't have enough spare time to teach him - Buck might misuse his magic and put himself in danger."
The woman got angry and pushed Charles roughly against the wall. "If you hadn't kept from me that you were a witch before we were married, we wouldn't be together now and having this conversation, Charles Wilmington."
"That would've been discrimination - just like rejecting me if I was from another country or had a certain religion," returned Charles, annoyed that he was getting all the blame for the attempted attack on their son. "You can't reject people simply because of whom or what they are."
"You can if it is going to affect your future family's safety. Maybe you should leave; perhaps we'll be safer then." Bianca began to cry - her son could've died because of his heritage.
Charles took Bianca into his arms and held her, hoping that he wouldn't have to leave his family for the sake of Buck's future safety.
CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P
After disappearing from the woods, Janette didn't go straight to the Demonic Wastelands like she thought she would - she was sent to a dark cave instead, where her employer, the warlock named Renard, was waiting.
"Did you think you would get away with changing your mission and exposing your magic to the boy, Janette?" shouted Renard, as he began to pace the cave.
"I didn't like your plan or the child and his family," answered the defiant female warlock. "They were too wholesome and he would've made a terrible warlock - assuming that potion actually worked in unbinding his magic."
"For your insolence you will suffer a slow and very painful death. It will be very amusing to me, and you'll have the honor of the Source witnessing your demise."
The Source himself suddenly appeared, covered entirely by his long black cloak as usual. "She doesn't deserve such an honorable death for being disobedient - you should have let the witch kill her."
"The witch would've got my name from Janette before he vanquished her, and I couldn't allow that. I can't help being proud of Janette for having the courage to go against me though," answered Renard, "it takes a lot of nerve for a servant of evil to disobey the orders of their superior despite whatever consequences they will face. She should at least be rewarded for that with an honorable death."
Another reason why Renard had to kill Janette was because he couldn't risk her telling the Source about the potion - he'd told the Source that Janette was going to force Buck's father to say the spell to unbind Buck's magic. The potion didn't really unbind powers - that was just a lie so it didn't seem like they were disobeying rules by harming a bound witch. If Janette told the Source that the boy's magic was going to be unbound by a potion, the Source would know that Renard was disobeying Underworld rules, as no potion could unbind a witch's magic. Whatever the potion really did would be something against the Source's wishes.
"Let the proceedings commence," boomed the Source, eager to watch Janette's death.
Janette felt her heart being squeezed and cried out in pain. She began to scream and thrash about wildly as the pain became even more unbearable. Finally she collapsed to the ground, dead.
"That didn't last very long, Renard," complained the Source, not amused by the very painful, but too rapid death.
"My apologies, I will practice my new power on some witches before I try again on another warlock - then, the next warlock 's death will be far more entertaining, my liege."
CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P
While Bianca and Charles were talking in the hallway of their home, Andrew quietly orbed into Buck's room while the boy was sleeping. Then, the Whitelighter sprinkled a small amount of memory dust over the boy's face - the boy would forget what Janette had done and just think he'd fallen out with her over something non-magical. Andrew also took the knife that lay forgotten on the floor by the wall, realizing that Janette must have tried to hurt Buck again after the first knife had been orbed away. The Whitelighter felt bad that he hadn't taken more action against the warlock, but they couldn't do anything to risk revealing their magic to the boy.
To be continued…