For Your Love

Chapter 12

I could barely believe it. I was going to bring Jesse back to life tonight! I was actually holding the ingredients to the spell in my hand! And, sure, maybe Paul was going to do all he could to get rid of Jesse once he was alive, but we could get through that. We'd got this far hadn't we? With Ellie's help we were going to do this.

I was so happy right then and so lost in my thoughts that I didn't realise what was going on behind me. One minute I was thinking how great it was that I had these ingredients. And the next the bag suddenly wasn't in my hands anymore.

I spun round as it was plucked from my grasp. And, sure enough, Paul Slater was standing there.

I gaped at him. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised that Paul would change his mind about this. But I guess the way he had given up like that in his room had made me think that he wasn't so bad. But that was stupid of me. I mean, if he 'wasn't so bad' then I wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place.

The truth was that Paul Slater was evil. And that was that.

"Paul! What are you doing?"

Paul attempted to look like he was sorry. "I'm afraid this bringing-Jesse-back-to-life-thing isn't such a good idea."

No! This couldn't be happening. We were so close!

I stared at Paul, silently begging him to have some compassion for me. If he really cared for me then surely he'd let me be happy.

"Please…"

I swear for a moment I saw something flicker in Paul's eyes when I said that. But it was gone before I could figure out what it was.

I looked at Jesse. I'm sure you can guess his feelings on the matter. Jesse thinks Paul is dirt. And right then he was furious.

"You'd better have a good excuse for this Slater."

Wow. Jesse was actually taking this quite well. Usually he's not nearly as tolerant, where Paul's concerned, anyway.

"And I do," Paul said walking into the centre of the room. "I promise. I mean, what did you think? That this was my big plan? As if. I had much worse in mind for you Jesse."

Jesse glowered at him. I looked over to Ellie and saw she wasn't much happier. In fact, she was worse! As she glared at Paul, I noticed things around my room begin to shake.

"Whoa!" I cried. Then, before I could do anything, she charged at him - to get the bag off him, I presumed… or maybe worse, this was the guy who had killed her after all. Paul calmly stepped out of her way then turned and glared at her.

And she froze!

I swear; she wasn't even blinking! Everything had stopped shaking and Jesse and I just stared at Paul.

He grinned at me. "Anyway," he said, "I wasn't really intending to join you so soon. But then I saw Ellie in the window… You know, everything makes sense now. I don't know how I didn't figure it out before. I mean, you suddenly become an expert on shifting, after stealing the exact same book Ellie wanted. It didn't really click before…" Paul paused for a few seconds. "I still don't know what she wants with you though. It's obviously me she's got the problem with…what story did she tell you?"

I didn't answer; I was still getting over the Paul-freezing-Ellie-with-one-glance thing to tell the truth. "What did you do to her?"

Paul glanced at Ellie's frozen form. "Froze her," he said, like he thought I came across this sort of thing every day. Um, not quite! "She'll probably unfreeze herself soon. She was always good at shifting. Too good at it."

Right.

I just continued to stare at Ellie. How come Paul hadn't taught me that?

I noticed Paul go and sit on the end of my bed. "You're lucky I happened to see her, you know," he said, nodding at Ellie.

"And why is that?" I looked up at Jesse spoke. He'd gotten over the shock and seemed angry again.

"Because she's using you both for something," Paul explained.

"Yeah," I said. "To get revenge on you!"

He looked at Ellie. "Obviously," he agreed, "but do you really think she'd make this much of an effort to help you just to piss me off. Especially when it would be so much easier for her to just come straight to me. She didn't need to go anywhere near you."

I gave Paul a sardonic smile, "You see, Paul," I said dryly, "There are these thinks called good deeds-"

Paul rolled his eyes. "Thanks to you, Suze, I know only too well what a good deed is. And, I'm telling you, Ellie wouldn't waste her time on that nonsense," Paul looked at me. "And I know that really, you don't want to either."

I looked at Jesse who was glaring at Paul, clearly not happy about the way he was looking at me right then. Jesse looked like he would have loved to break Paul's nose again at the very least. But then he didn't seem to keen on turning out like Ellie so he stayed where he was.

I wasn't sure if the was much of a risk anyway. Paul seemed to have forgotten that Jesse was in the room.

"Sure," he said, "Ellie's nothing compared to you Suze, but she refused to settle for all that helping-lost-souls crap." He paused for a second then said, "But then, maybe that's why she died."

Well, all this was news to me. I was having trouble taking it all in. And then Ellie unfroze. Paul turned but she quickly dematerialised so he couldn't freeze her again. He looked annoyed but didn't say anything.

"Okay," I said, "So I'm just supposed to take your word for this? You killed her for God's sake!"

Paul stood up and took a step towards me. "You don't know what happened."

"Ellie told me what happened. She dumped you and you killed her."

"Why should you believe her any more than you believe me?" Paul sounded really annoyed.

"You just admitted it!" I said, exasperated.

"But you don't know the circumstances."

This was ridiculous! Paul actually expected us to believe that he was on our side and Ellie was the one who was out to get us? I wasn't buying it.

"Slater!" Paul turned, annoyed that Jesse had butted in. Paul had been talking to me the whole time; he didn't seem to care what Jesse had to say on the matter. "You have been nothing but trouble since you came here. What reason have you ever given us to trust you?"

"Well I didn't expect you to believe me," Paul told him, then he turned to me, "But you, Suze, I know you know better."

I shook my head, "I don't think so. I think you're just trying to turn us against her. After all, you know she's helping us now, and you know that means we've got more chance of succeeding."

"You're wrong, Suze," Paul looked desperate, but wouldn't he be? I was ruining his plan after all.

"I don't think I am," I said.

Paul stepped up to me. "Suze, you've got to believe me!" He grabbed hold of my arms –

And went flying across the room.

Paul wasn't the only person here with superpowers. And Jesse seemed to have had enough of Paul.

Jesse stepped in front of me and picked up the bag that Paul had dropped. "Get out of here Slater."

Paul stood up. And I saw he was looking absolutely murderous.

Bad move Jesse.

"You're going to be sorry now, de Silva," he said in a low voice.

A/N: I don't know how good that chapter was but I enjoyed writing it. And I actually know what to write next! Hurrah! I'd make it longer but I've got to get a both now, since my shower broke. Gah.

Thanks for the reviews.

Angelic Chocolate Fairy: Even more possibilities now aren't there? Tee hee. Only one way to find out what happens. Keep reading! That is, unless it turns out that you're psychic. Oo-er!

Sweet-shortey: He's not giving up though is he? He said Jesse wasn't going to be around for much longer. Sigh. I don't know why my chapters always seem rushed. I spend long enough on them.

PunkKagome1324: Thank you. I'm glad you like it so much. Was that a quick update? I'm not sure.

Nikki007: Thanks. Just keep reading!

Meggiec: What on earth were you doing up at such an hour for? Um… reading my story obviously. Ok that can be forgiven. And that's not such a bad idea after all. Maybe that is what he was thinking. Who knows?

Ok. Review please!