"We summon now a demon near
We call him now, we call him here
Stoli demon, do not hide
Come here now into the light."
Chris, Eryn and Wyatt stood in front of the Book of Shadows, reciting the spell to summon the Stoli. As they completed the spell, the demon appeared in a swirl of light. He looked around confused, then gave a low, rattling hiss as he saw Chris and Wyatt. Wyatt flicked his hand at one of the crystals he had laid out a little out of alignment, and they formed a perfect pentagram.
The Stoli, not noticing the little movement, gave another hiss and began to step towards them. As he reached the boundaries of the cage, the crystals resonated and a translucent wall of energy formed in front of him. He growled and slammed one heavy fist against the wall, and a wave of energy passed up his arm, making him cry out in pain. He glared angrily at them.
"You're gonna wish you'd never been born, witches," he snarled, scowling at them each in turn. "You two," he added, his gaze fixed on Chris and Wyatt, "You vanquished my mate. You're gonna die. I'm gonna kill you." Eryn swallowed.
"Okay. Let's just say the spell, throw the potion, and get rid of him."
Chris and Wyatt both nodded, and they again began to recite from the Book. The Stoli started to pound frantically on the walls of the cage.
"By Earth and Water and Fire and Air
We vanquish you, right now, right here…"
As they spoke, the Stoli felt something beneath his foot. Glancing down, he saw the end of a rug lying within the confines of the cage. Bending down, he seized the end of the rug and flicked, hard, sending the crystals flying and breaking the cage just as his enemies started on the third line of the spell.
"Let you now forever be…"
The Stoli gave a roar of triumph and shimmered out of the attic, only to shimmer back in behind the three kids.
"Oh, shit," Wyatt remarked a second before the Stoli swung one of his huge arms at their backs, sending the three of them flying. They hit the wall, hard, and slid down to the ground.
"Ow…" Chris groaned, sitting up. He stared at the giant Stoli, who was stalking towards them with the grace one would expect of a much smaller, lither demon. "Oh, not good," he said, beginning to orb out. The Stoli lunged forward and grabbed at him through his orbs, stopping him from orbing. He dragged Chris to his feet and tightened his grip on his throat, choking him.
"Where are you goin'?" The Stoli asked with a grim smile on its face. "We've only just started!" And with that he spun and tossed Chris back across the attic. Chris hit the floor and skidded along for another three feet before stopping. He closed his eyes. This was just about too much pain to be worth it. He raised his head as the Stoli started towards him again and concentrated, hard. At first nothing seemed to be happening, then the Stoli's movement began to slow. Chris took a deep breath in and the Stoli began to look like he was battling a strong wind that was coming from where Chris was, on the ground. Chris began to get to his feet, careful not to take his eyes off the Stoli.
Chris had discovered earlier that year that he didn't just have to use his hands to channel his TK. He could use his eyes, as well, just as his aunt, Prue, had been able to. The upside was he could still use his TK if he had a broken arm. The downside was it was a draining experience. His dad had promised him it would get easier to control, but in the meantime, Chris had to be careful when and where he used it.
The Stoli glared at him, it's scarlet, slit-pupiled eyes stabbing into him. It swiped at him with it's ham-sized hand, but the blow was slow, almost leisurely, and as he was over two metres away, not able to do much harm anyway. He gave Chris an unpleasant grin.
"Fine, witch, we'll have it your way," he rumbled, his voice harsh and low. He cocked his head slightly and continued. "You may have slowed me down, but you haven't stopped me." And with that he held out his left hand and slowly began to conjure a massive fireball. Chris swallowed hard, then held out his right hand so that he could just make it out in his peripheral vision. Slowly, very slowly, a trickle of orbs formed in his hand. For almost a minute, the two stood completely still, each forming their weapon of choice.
"You really think a handful of orbs is gonna stop me, witch-boy?" The Stoli snarled, it's face contorting as it tried again to wrest itself free of the invisible force that held it fast.
Sweat began to stand out on Chris' forehead. Keeping a Higher Upper-level demon in check with an unformed evolution of a power was hard enough - to say the least - but adding in the extra duress of conjuring up an orb bolt at the same time was almost more than he could stand. Especially with the concussion he suspected he had from hitting two extremely solid objects in quick succession.
A furious growl from the Stoli jerked Chris back to reality. He glanced down at the Stoli's hand, then at his own. The fireball the Stoli was conjuring was nearly complete, as was his orb bolt. Just a few more seconds…
A faint golden glow shimmered through the orb bolt: it was ready. Chris sighed with relief and threw it at the Stoli, just as he lost control of its movement. With a roar, the Stoli threw his fire ball, not realizing that the "handful of orbs" speeding his way could do a little more damage than he gave it credit for. The orb bolt smashed into him, and he screamed in agony as it seared into his ribs, burning away flesh and bone.
Chris dodged the fireball, his ultra-quick reflexes, born of years of demon-fighting, coming into play. He stopped beside the potions table, his hands coming up in a defensive guard. The Stoli whimpered and held its left side…what was left of its left side, that is. Chris winced slightly and turned his head away, not eager to see the charred bone and charcoal organs, nor the congealed blood matting the demon's clothes. The Stoli stared at him.
"If I die, you're at least goin' with me," it whispered, shimmering out. Chris had no time to react whatsoever as it shimmered in behind him, grabbed him round the waist and threw him bodily into the pedestal that supported the Book of Shadows, sending it crashing to the ground.
This is way too much pain to be worth it, was Chris' last coherent thought before a darkness stole over his vision.
----
"You'll pay, witch," The Stoli muttered, stumbling slowly over to where the younger Halliwell lay. "You'll pay for my mate, and you'll pay for me…" He stopped as he saw a burn mark on the floor. "All burnt, like me," he remarked. Then, from behind him, he heard a mild voice say in a too-calm tone, "Oh, crap."
He turned to see the red-headed female pulling herself into a sitting position. A small tear was showing in her T-shirt, and she was covered in dust, but apart from that she was fine. He glanced at Chris, lying on the floor, then looked towards the girl.
If I take Chris out first, she will still be standing around to vanquish me, he thought grimly, watching as she shook her head slightly, as if to clear it. But if I take her out, I'll have three comatose witches to kill at my leisure. And to take powers from.
At this thought, he gave a smile that looked a lot like a grimace and started towards the girl.
----
"Um, ow," Eryn muttered. She got to her feet slowly and surely. "Y'know, you should really be picking on people your own size. You do know that, right?" she asked the Stoli, calmly brushing the dust from the floor - and walls, and ceiling - off her jeans. She glanced up at the demon and did a double-take. "Bloody hell, what happened to you?"
"You're little friend over there decided to throw some orbs at me. They packed a bigger punch than I realized," he responded, gravel-rough voice even harder to understand due to the pain.
Eryn snorted. "Orbs? You expect me to believe that a bunch of orbs did that to you?" He snarled at her, and she made a whip-cracking motion with her hand. "Whoa, down boy." She glanced over at Chris, who was lying motionless next to the Book of Shadows. From what she could see, a bruise was starting to come up around his neck, and there were cuts and scrapes all over his arms. "Geez, what did you do to him?" The Stoli smiled, his sharp teeth glinting in the light.
"I just threw him around a little," he said innocently, or as innocently as a six foot ten, black-skinned, no-skinned on the left side, demon with giant brown horns issuing from the top of his head, inch-long, razor-sharp, yellowed teeth glistening in his mouth, and a dirty great stinking - literally - hole in his left side…can.
"Oh, joy," Eryn murmured, wincing.
"And you're next, bitch," he replied with a nasty grin, moving towards her. She sighed.
"Y'know, I'm really starting to get tired of people calling me bitch..." she said matter-of-factly, slowly backing away from Wyatt. The Stoli followed her. "...even though I am one." He gave a gravelly laugh.
"Well, well, well. Someone's honest. I like that in a witch…before I kill them," the Stoli informed her. She gave a small, irony-filled laugh. He narrowed his eyes at her. "What's so funny?" he asked cautiously.
"'What's so funny?'" Eryn repeated, sounding amused. But when she answered, her voice was deadly serious. "You just made the biggest mistake of your entire life. Because I'm not exactly your average witch."
The next second, the Stoli was staggering backwards, an invisible force making him stumble. Fire exploded at his wrists, twining around them and forcing his hands to behind his back, where the two loops of fire merged and became a single loop of shimmering dark-blue fire. Eryn glanced at the carpet he had used to free himself the first time, and it rolled itself up. The crystals, which had been flung to the far sides of the room, flew back into the pentagram configuration it had been in. Instantly, the crystals resonated and the Stoli was trapped.
Eryn nodded to herself in quiet satisfaction, then ran around the Stoli to Wyatt. She knelt down beside him, grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hard.
"Ah, crap…yeah, yeah, I'm awake," he groaned, and Eryn hit him.
"Ugh, how long have you been awake?" she asked furiously. Wyatt winced and rubbed his shoulder. He stood up.
"Relax, relax, I only just woke up…jesus, how the hell'd you do that?" he queried, gesturing at the Stoli.
"Doesn't matter, listen, you've gotta wake up Chris…"
"Don't bother, I'm up," Chris interrupted, slowly getting to his feet and stretching carefully. He eyed the Stoli cautiously. "Um, he isn't breaking out of there anytime soon, is he?"
"No, but we'd better vanquish him quickly, anyway," Eryn said grimly, walking over to him, and the Book of Shadows. Chris glared at the Stoli, then at Eryn, who had picked up the Book and was flicking through the pages, looking again for the page on Stoli Demons. "Okay, this is it," she said, glancing up at them. "Hurry!" Chris shot Wyatt a look, trying to channel his hatred - was it hatred? - of this Know-it-All Whitelighter to his brother, but Wyatt walked over to Eryn and stood beside her, and Chris, seething, followed suit.
"By Earth and Water and Fire and Air
We vanquish you, right now, right here.
Let you now forever be
A figment of our memory."
They chanted the spell in unison, ignoring the Stoli's sudden fear- and rage-filled howl. When they finished the last line of the spell, they threw their respective vials at the Stoli. A scream of agony pierced their hearing, making them all wince, then there was a minor explosion. When the smoke cleared, there was a large burn mark in the centre of the slightly sooty inner crystals of the cage.
----
"Well…" Eryn said slowly, staring at the mark on the floor. "He was a bit of a handful."
"Understatement of the century," Chris snapped.
Maybe it was the fact that he'd nearly gotten killed, or the fact that she'd just said something his Mom had said on numerous occasions about similar demons, or the fact that a Whitelighter was trying to take his dad's place again…what ever it was, Chris decided to snap. Eryn turned on him, a pissed off look on her face.
"Okay. All right. I'll bite. What's wrong?"
"What do you mean?" he asked grimly.
"You know damn well what I mean. I mean 'Why the hell are you treating me like I'm lower than a slug?'. I mean 'Why the hell are you pissed off at me?'. I mean, 'What the hell did I ever do to you, other than save your pathetic ass back there? Not only once, but twice!' That's what I mean!"
Wyatt stepped in between the two. "Look, Chris, Eryn, I think the two of you had better…"
"Shut up, Wyatt." Both seventeen-year-olds said grimly. He glanced at both of their furious faces, winced, and slowly backed away. Eryn took a step towards Chris.
"What the Hell is your problem, Chris?" she asked, her storm-grey eyes flashing dangerously.
"My problem is with you," he answered, his voice rising in volume slightly as he continued. "You think you can just waltz in here and be our Whitelighter? You don't know us, you don't know anything about us…" Eryn interrupted him
"Whoa. Time out. You think I'm here to be your Whitelighter?" She gave a low, harsh laugh of disbelief before going on. "Chris, if I were here to be your Whitelighter, I would have handed in my resignation and orbed my ass out of here by now. But no. I'm not here to be your Whitelighter.
"I'm here because your Dad, Leo - my Whitelighter - seems to think that you and Wyatt have got enough Witchy power up your sleeves to ensure the demonic clan that just happens to be on my ass does not get their hands on me. Know why? Because I am the last, single, solitary thing standing in their way…Before what? Before world-freaking-domination, that's what!
"Now, I'm sorry we don't get along, and I'm sorry you think that I'm a pompous bitch, but I am really, really stressed right now.
"I don't know how long I have to live…in fact, I don't think I'm even gonna live long enough to see my eighteenth birthday." Eryn sighed.
"I'll go. Seeing as you obviously don't want me here, I'll go. Setting up the world for one Hell of a fall, but, hey, that's okay, I'm gonna be dead before that happens." Eryn didn't even give him a chance to answer as she orbed out.
Chris stared at the spot she had been, eyes wide in shock. Wyatt walked over and put an arm around his younger brother's shoulders.
"Chris. Little bro. I think…I'm not sure, but I really think…that you may have just screwed up. Big. And I really mean screwed up."