As always disclaimer applies. Enjoy.
Chapter 2: Something wicked this way comes.
I looked up, and as soon as I saw who it was I turned and walked out the back door, knowing he would follow. When I got outside my hands shot up, freezing everything with in a 500 foot radius.
Cole, however, being the 'upper-level' pain in my ass that he is didn't freeze.
"Really?" I said, hands on my hips, overly annoyed, waiting for Henry and Tim to realize that everyone was frozen and to come and join me.
"Is that any way to greet your Uncle Cole?" He asked, smirk set on his face.
"Oh, please excuse my rudeness." I said. Then, feigning excitement, I responded, "Oh my god, Cole, it is so great to see you. You look so good, seeing as you're dead." I had dropped any friendly tone at the end, letting him know just how glad I was to see him. "And just incase you didn't get the message, when Aunt Phoebe divorced you, vanquished you, twice, remarried, had kids, then vanquished you again, that was her telling you that you are no longer her husband, or anything else to her, also meaning that you are in no was my Uncle."
"Well, I am glad that you waited for your friends to join us to inform them of my recent history." Cole responded.
To my surprise it was more than just Tim and Henry standing just outside the doorway to Nicky's. Next to them stood four boys. The Sons of Ipswich.
"They don't freeze." Henry told me, as he walked around Cole with Tim, both of them joining me at my sides.
I looked behind Cole, directly into Caleb's eyes. "You do not move," I told them, "You go no where, we are going to deal with him, then we will deal with you. Any of you move one inch or say anything, I will not hesitate to blow you up."
Turning back to Cole I asked the one question that ever really mattered with him. "What do you want Cole?"
He looked as if he were thinking hard. "Well apart from Phoebe," Henry had to hold Tim back at this. "I want to warn you and all of the Charmed Ones of a coming threat. Oh, and I would really like not to get vanquished again."
"Well, sorry," Henry said, still holding Tim back. "But you know as well as any of us that no matter how much you help us you are still evil and therefore we still have every right to send your demonic ass back to hell, again."
"In that case," Cole said, paused, and then he was gone.
"WHY CAN'T HE JUST STAY DEAD?" Tim shouted to no one.
Xoxox
After Tim stopped shouting, we turned to the four boys. They stood frozen, the only evidence that they were not under my power was their blinking. This is not going to be fun.
"All right. At the count of three why don't you all just tell us exactly what is on your mind." I told them. "One." I said
"Two." Tim followed.
"Three." Henry finished.
They all started talking at once, and we had no clue as to what they were trying to communicate to us. Not that we were trying that hard. After a few minutes they all stopped.
"You done? You feel better now?" I asked, ever the sarcastic one.
Two of them nodded. Good enough.
"Alright, why don't we go back in there, you guys tell your girls that something came up and you have to leave. Drive them home. Come back here. Sound good?" Tim asked.
"Assuming that we really don't have much of a choice, then sure." Tyler said, the only one who had recovered at all.
Walking back into the bar we saw that everyone was still frozen. "Places everyone." I told them and they all went back to exactly what they were doing, as I moved myself around to the opposite side of the table. Seeing everyone was back to where they came from I unfroze the room. I repositioned my cue stick and made the eight ball into the corner pocket. I walked over to Reid and Tyler where they were sitting at the stools like before, but talking to each other in hushed whispers.
Grabbing my water from beside Tyler I leaned into the small space between them. "Whispering will not help to convince us not to kill you." I told them, then I walked over to Henry and Tim where they were still at the table with everyone else.
"If you guys have to go it's ok, I can drive Kate and myself back to the dorms later. Tell your mom I said hi though." Sarah told Caleb and Pogue. They both kissed their respective girlfriends then walked out of the bar behind Reid and Tyler.
"Follow us." Henry said as we all climbed into the Wrangler. We led them through the main part of town until we reached an abandoned parking lot, parked and got out. The others did the same.
"Lin you are leading this." Tim whispered into my ear, letting me know that I as in charge for this.
"For security reasons we cannot disclose to you the location of our current residence, so we will be taking you back to headquarters. There we have the means for which to test the authenticity of everything you tell us, and you status. If one of you will hold hands with each Henry and Tim and the other two take my hands we will be on our way." Reid and Tyler both took my hands when Caleb took Henry's and Pogue took Tim's.
"One quick question." Henry said to me. "Which HQ are we taking them to?"
"The Manor." Was all I needed to say before I orbed out of the parking lot and into the attic at the manor in San Francisco. Henry and Tim landing with their own passengers right after me.
All the boys looked slightly woozy.
"If it's your first time orbing then I suggest you take a seat on the couch to your left." Came a voice from our right. All four boys did just that.
"Dad, why aren't you at magic school?" Tim asked Uncle Coop.
The cupid finally looked up. "Well your uncle is under the belief that being what I am, I must also be able to properly give your cousins 'the talk' without embarrassment."
"Oh, don't tell me mom still thinks Wyatt and Chris are innocent?" I asked, knowing which aunt and which cousins he was talking about right away.
"And how would you know?" Henry asked, all three of them turning to me.
"Hey, it is not like I wanted to walk in on one of my brothers dirty deeds when I was 11. The locks in this house just never seem to work." I replied, scared by the memory.
"Wait, Wyatt was already getting some at 16?" Henry asked.
"Nope, Chris, and he was 14 turning 15 in three months. I watched the entire 'Saw' series four times to get the images out of my head."
"Dude, I so need to meet your brother." Reid said in awe, bringing our attention back to our guests.
"Well, I don't really want to know why they are all about to wet their pants so I am going to leave you three to what ever it is that you are planning. Just know for afterwards, you mother is baking downstairs and they will be done in 58 and a half minutes." Then Uncle Coop left the attic.
Henry looked at the guys then looked at me. "I'll go set the crystals up," he said, coward.
"What do you know?" I asked.
"All we know is that twenty minutes ago everyone inside of Nicky's looked like they were on pause, well everyone minus us, you guys and that creep from outside." Caleb answered.
"Why didn't you freeze?" I asked him, seeing he was the leader for all intents and purposes.
"I have no idea."
"Do you know that the only two things that I can't freeze are good witches and upper level demons? So you must be one of the two, but seeing as you don't know who we are, it is difficult to tell the difference."
"Well someone seems to have an ego." Pogue mocked, pretending to whisper it into Reid's ear but saying it so we could all here.
"With good reason." I responded. "When you belong to the most magically powerful family in all of history, other magical beings tend to remember you."
"Oh," he said shrinking back into his seat.
"So what is your story?" I asked getting fed up already.
"We are the Sons of Ipswich." Reid declared; proud of the title.
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" I asked again.
"We are the direct descendants of the original Covenant of Silence. During the witch hunts our families made a covenant so as to protect their families and their power. One family went astray. We have Power. At thirteen you get a taste then at 18 you ascend. When you ascend you get the full powers. It is seductive and addictive. When you ascend the Power becomes your life. Without the Power you die. But every time you use it you become that much more addicted, and every time you use it eats away at you. The Power grows, but the body ages, until you die. Some can handle it, others can't. That is the way that most of our ancestors have gone." Caleb told us all of this, looking at the floor as if in shame.
"Alright, so you have powers and they can kill you. That sounds overly pleasant." Tim and Henry were being strangely silent in this conversation, a matter I will most definitely have to have a conversation with them about later.
"Okay, Henry you ready over there?" He nodded.
"Okay boys. You are each going to be taking a test. Now what I need you to do is go stand by Henry over there." They each went to go stand by Henry, about three feet away from the Book of Shadows and inside of a circle of white crystals, which will activate if Henry places the last crystal in place. Henry then walked outside the circle, to stand next to Tim and me.
"Okay, the test is easy, don't look so concerned. What I need each one of you to do, one at a time, is to go and flip one of the pages in the big book in front of you and read to me the title of the being or spell on that page. Caleb you go first."
Caleb took the two steps up to the book and turned the page then read the name "The Woggyman."
Pogue went next reading "The Windago."
After Pogue was Reid who read "Whitelighters," followed by Tyler who read "Darklighters."
"Nice job, you all passed. You can sit back down now."
"What the hell kinda test is that?" Reid asked.
"The book you just read from is the Book of Shadows. It cannot be touched by evil, if evil were to try and touch it, it would transport itself to the nearest family member to the Elders. The book can also not be read if the person or being were intending to use the book against us, which some of those still considered good have tried. If they do try the book appears to be blank. It comes in handy more often than one would think, seeing as it has a spell in there that can take away all our Wiccan magic." As I explained this to them they sat in shock.
"Wait, take away your Wiccan magic, you have another kind of magic?" Tyler asked, noticing my comment.
"Yes we do." Tim answered. "I am half witch, half cupid." The boys laughed.
"Half cupid? Like as in little cherubs with wings and arrows?" Pogue asked through his laughter.
"For the sake of time yes, kinda."
"I am half witch, half whitelighter. Well actually I am one quarter witch, one quarter whitelighter, one half cop, but the mortal side of the family is always out ranked by the magic side." Henry told them.
"I am the same a Henry, minus the cop, I am just half and half." I said.
"So are you going to tell us what a whitelighter is?" Reid asked.
"A full whitelighter is a sort of guardian angle for future whitelighters and witches. But as we are only half, we have the powers of a whitelighter but are still considered witches, and we can still allergic to Darklighter arrows." I explained. "Now that that is over with I am so in the mood for Mom's baked goods." And we all raced downstairs.
Thanks for reading.