Chapter Two

Chris was, in the most simplest forms, exhausted. As soon as he had finished breakfast with Logan, his energy had crashed and had left him dragging. Logan, while he had been amused, was definitely worried about his brother.

Brushing off his younger brother's worried, as soon as Chris had walked through the door of their small house, had gone into his bedroom, and mindless of the German Shepherd residing at the bottom of the bed, threw himself down into it. The German Shepherd, or Carrow, grunted his annoyance before crawling up next to his master, curling into his side.

Chris let his fingers twist in the dogs fur, closing his eyes and going over his theories. He was thinking that the suspicious demon activity might have something to do with it, but he couldn't exactly tell his team that. It wouldn't end up well at all, the only likely person to believe him was Jaime, who was also a witch.

Sighing, he felt for any other presences in the house, only picking up Logan's and Carrow's. He allowed himself to relax.

It wasn't long that Chris been asleep before he was woken up by a phone call, and with a grunt of annoyance, and answered the phone, not bothering to see who was calling.

"This had better be good." He almost growled, rubbing his eyes like a young child with one hand.

"Chris." It was Jaime.

"Jay, there better be a good reason as to why you're calling." Chris warned,

"Have you been attacked by any demons recently?" The man didn't sound concerned, but just curious.

"Not attacked, as such. There was one here the other day, it was easy enough to vanquish, low level. It wasn't going for the book, it was just there. Why?"

"I was thinking that the case might be a demon. I mean, as Abby said last night, it just seems unlikely that a dog would do such brutal killing like that, even one that's gone rabid. To me, something just doesn't seem to fit." Jaime confessed.

"I was thinking along the same lines, to be honest. I mean dogs aren't like that, not even rescue dogs. I saved Carrow from demons that had terrible intentions towards him, and he was vicious, but not to such an extent of ripping throats out. But I don't know of any demons that take the shape of a dog, or even resemble a dog."

Jaime hummed in agreement. "I can't think of any that come to mind. I'll probably go to magic school later today to check out a few books. Did you want to come with me?"

"Depends what time. I've got to meet up with some people some time today, probably sometime in the next two hours. What's the time now?"

"Fifteen past ten. I'll pick you up at four, does that work?"

"Yeah, that'll do." Chris said, fighting back a sigh. "Alright, I've got to go. Bye." He hung up without waiting for his friend's reply. Sitting up, he huffed in annoyance. All he wanted to do was sleep on his day off, but apparently that wasn't going to happen.

He stood up and stretched, rotating his neck back and forth until the bone popped. Yawning, he absently thought that it was going to be yet another long day.

"So, I did some digging around in Magic School," Leo said, after Paige had orbed the two of them into the Manor's lounge room. "and I found that Christopher Jacobson, as it seems, is three-quarters witch, and the other quarter is unknown. He has a few powers listed, telekinesis appears to be his main power."

Leo sat on the arm of the couch that Wyatt was sitting on, and glanced to Piper. "He has some kind of mind power, it's almost like mind control and telepathy combined. He can search your mind and find out everything you know. The other parts of this power seems to be weak though, and only works on lower-level demons or anything less powerful, but he can make people do things, and he can find the core of the mind, and can 'attack' it to destroy the mind and kill the said person. He has sensing, which could be linked to the telepathy and can be considered a sub-power. Other than that, there's not much else."

"Darryl told us on the phone the other day that he's virtually married to his career, it's his basically his life. He doesn't use his witch side for anything but demons, anything else and he'll do it the mortal way. His brother and his work are his two biggest priorities." Paige told the group.

"So, he would prefer not being a witch?" Piper asked, remembering the time where all she had ever wanted was to be mortal, to have never found out about magic. When she had envied her friends for being normal. Now, she realised that was foolish, she now loved being a witch, it was apart of her.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. I would say that he's accepted it, but doesn't appreciate it at face-value." The youngest sister said, frowning slightly. "But Darryl called me this morning to tell me that Chris has the day off, and that he'll be able to meet up with us soon. He said he would call back as soon as Chris tells him what time."

As if Darryl had heard Paige saying that, the phone rang, and Paige smirked at the caller I.D. "Speak of the Devil." She said before answering and putting the call on speaker.

"Good Morning, Darryl." She greeted politely, her tone warm. "You're on speaker, by the way."

The rest of the group took that as their chance to greet Darryl, and he chuckled.

"Good morning. Chris told me that he can meet up in an hour. Does that work for you?" He said, jumping straight into it.

"I think that'll work fine." Phoebe said, nodding along with her own statement. "Is there a certain place that he wants to meet, or did he just want to come here?"

"He said he doesn't mind, but he said that he would appreciate it if the meeting could be quick as possible, because he'd like to get back to sleeping." There was affection in Darryl's tone, and Phoebe smiled. Darryl had obviously taken the younger man under his wing.

"Well, It'd probably be easier here, considering there's five of us and one of him." Piper commented, and there was a hum of agreement from Wyatt.

"I'll tell him that. He'll be over sometime soon." Darryl said before hanging up. Paige shrugged and sat down next to Wyatt.

"The kid just sounds interesting," She said, "I mean, he's got an awesome job and it works him into the ground but he loves it, Darryl said he has a younger brother who Chris doesn't like around other witches, especially male witches, for some bizarre reason, and he's got some kick in powers."

"He does, to be honest." Leo said, nodding. "All witches have a percentage chart of powers. Most witches sit at about fifty to fifty five percent, You three girls sit around eighty five percent, and Wyatt's at ninety five percent when his powers aren't at their full potential. Chris sits at seventy to seventy five percent."

"Wow. Interesting." Piper said at the same time Wyatt asked, "Where do demons sit?"

Leo frowned slightly. "It depends. Most lower level demons are about forty percent, upper level demons can range from anywhere between fifty to eighty percent. The extremely rare demons who are at the same level as Wyatt were either banished or vanquished by a large group of witches."

"So, Chris is pretty powerful, yeah?" Phoebe asked, "Could he be considered a threat in anyway."

"Everyone who you don't trust is a threat, so yes, he could be considered a threat in some way. It's possible that he could catch one of you off guard and invade your mind, but from what I understand, you would be too powerful for him to invade your minds without doing serious damage to himself."

"Okay, that's... reassuring." Paige said, a small frown on her face. "So now we wait for him and hope he won't try to kill us."

Chris looked up at the large victorian manor, eyes scanning it for any threats. Even though he couldn't see any threats, he sensed and found five presences. He softly nudged one but he found he was forced back before he could find anything that could help him. All he found was a name, which was Phoebe. Chris decided that she was the middle sister that Darryl had told her about.

Sighing, he walked up to the front door and had a slight mental battle with himself, fighting the urge to flee and return home. He sucked it up though and knocked on the door softly. There was shuffling from behind the door and he swallowed back the slight anxiety he felt.

A pleasant looking woman stood at the door, two other women standing behind her, they were quickly joined by two males.

They looked intimidating, all five of them standing in the doorway, and he almost ran, fear being almost crippling. He took an internal deep breath.

"Um," He said, "Is this The Halliwells?" He asked.

"Yes." The one infront said, "You must be Chris, right?"

He nodded, gently probing at their minds again to try to get a feel of their personality. Most of their mental barriers were strong though and forced him out. "Yeah."

"Darryl's told us a lot about you," Said one of the women, "Come inside. I'm Phoebe." She greeted warmly.

Chris nodded, following them into the house and got led into the living room. He quickly took in the room. He was directed into a comfortable armchair. Once everyone else had found their seats, they introduced themselves. Phoebe was the middle sister, Paige the youngest sister, Piper the eldest. The two males were Piper's husband, Leo, and her son, Wyatt.

"So," Chris said, breathing out and looking at the people in the room.

"Okay." Piper said, "We've recently had some weird demon activity, and it's bizarre because we haven't been attacked by them in several years. We just wanted to see if it was happening to another witch."

"A few days ago there was a demon in my house. It was easy enough to get rid of. It didn't even attack me and it didn't appear to be going after The Book or any potions."

"The same with us." Phoebe said. "It's unsettling," She frowned. "I tried to get a reading on them, but I couldn't find any feelings. Demons always seem to have at least one feeling. Evil and Anger are the two most common but I just couldn't pick anything up."

"I interrogated one the other day and I got no answers, even when it was in the crystal cage." Paige said.

"I've not had anyone after me, yet." Wyatt commented. "It makes me uneasy, because they usually go after me, or try to get information on me. All these demons seem to be doing is providing a distraction, but for what?"

"I went through the demons mind the other day. There was nothing there to tell me anything about him. It was only a lower level demon. It'd at least have someone telling it what to do." Chris pointed out.

"I think it would be. Lower level demons rarely work on their own, or they at least work for something." Leo said.

"But who are they working for?" Wyatt asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That is the real question." Paige muttered.

It was smalltalk for the rest of the time. The family asking about his job, he had answered with "It's tiring, but I love it." to which Paige snorted to. It wasn't long before Chris decided he had to go if he wanted to get more sleep before having to go out to the library.

Wyatt had given Chris his number, the two having become friendly with each other soon enough. Wyatt reminded Chris of an older brother, and Chris was what Wyatt would think having a younger brother would be like. They had both discovered that they were extremely different though. Chris liked any form of rock, metal and punk. Wyatt leaned more to the rap and popular side of music. Wyatt, while he didn't hate his job, didn't like going all the time, Chris, however, loved going to work. They found that they did have the same taste in movies and both agreed that Scary Movie, while everyone else seemed to love it, was a terrible movie.

He got along with the family pretty well. Despite his anxiety of meeting them, they were kind and the three sisters were very motherly towards him. He felt the meeting went okay, and he'd have to call Darryl later to tell him that. The man would otherwise end up calling him and yelling at him for not calling sooner.

He sighed as he worked through the front door. Logan was sitting on the couch in the lounge room, the TV on, but his attention wasn't directed at it. He looked up at Chris as soon as he came in, and Carrow ran straight towards his master. Chris laughed softly and bent down, allowing the dog to give the equivalent of a hug.

"How'd it go?" Logan asked, standing up at the same time as Chris.

"It was good, actually. They made me feel welcome." He said truthfully. Logan smiled, before it dropped off of his face.

"Listen, a few weeks ago, you said you'd take me out to a shelter so we could get another job, and I know you've been busy lately, but I've looked at their website and I've found a few I really want to look at."

Chris could've hit himself about forgetting about that. Logan had been excited, and Chris had to admit, he was too.

"Yeah, okay. We can go now. What's the time?"

"Half past twelve." Logan supplied, and Chris nodded. "Okay." He said, "lets go."

The shelter was loud with dogs barking and cats meowing. He and Logan had stopped at the cats briefly, just looking to see if they would like to get as well. There was an adorable kitten that Chris was interested in getting, but they came down specifically to get another dog.

Once they reached the kennel, a young, attractive worker came up to the pair.

"Is there anything I can help you with today?" She asked politely, her face held a warm smile, but it was tired.

"We're interested in getting another dog." Chris said.

"Fantastic!" She said, sounding a little bit excited. "Are you after a puppy or an adult?" She asked.

Chris glanced to Logan, who shrugged. "Either works. We're after one that'll get along well with our German Shepherd at home."

"Is the German Shepherd violent?" She asked, frowning slightly.

Chris had to laugh softly, and he felt Logan chuckling next to him. The thought of Carrow being vicious to something that wasn't trying to attack him or his family? Hilarious.

"No," Chris shook his head. "Carrow is extremely friendly. He'll give you hugs every time you get home. We just want to get a friend for him because I work full time and there's not really anyone home during the day."

"Oh, okay." She said, a smile on her face. "I should probably introduce myself though. I'm Sophie."

"Oh, I'm Chris." He said, and Logan introduced himself.

"Well," Sophie started. "For a German Shepherd, you'd want another big dog. How old is the German Shepherd?"

Chris frowned. "I think we got him when he was about two months old, at least that's what the vet said. I rescued him maybe four years ago."

"Rescued?" Sophie asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"There were a few teenagers who had terrible intentions towards him. I grabbed him and took him to the vet. I wasn't going to keep him but he wouldn't calm down around anyone else. He kind of owns us now."

Sophie laughed, "Isn't that the way? My cat took over my bed, and my clothes. She basically owns me. She harrases me when I'm trying to study. It's terrible, but I love her. Anyway. I can think of four big dogs we have here that would get along well with your dog. We've got a Husky, a Border Collie, A Rottweiler, and, I swear by my heart that she isn't dangerous, a pitbull."

This time it was Logan who spoke, "Could we look at all of them?"

Sophie grinned. "Right this way."

In the end, they ended up settling on the Husky. The Siberian Husky had piercing blue eyes and was named Alaska. It was a female, and was almost four years old. She was friendly and both brothers had fell in love with her the second their eyes landed on her. They had known that Carrow would love her too.

As Chris was signing the paperwork, he noticed Logan looking very smug, and cocked his head at him.

"I got Sophie's number." He explained quietly. Chris grinned. "Nice one!" He congratulated, giving his brother a nudge with his shoulder. Finishing up the paperwork and handing it to an elderly lady, he turned to his brother, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Logan groaned, but Chris could see his shoulder shaking with laughter, even as his face remained blank. "Do you have a cruuuush?" Chris asked, smirking.

"Chris!" Logan hissed at him, but there was a hint of laughter in his voice.

"Aww! Little Logan has a crush!" Chris teased, and grunted when Logan slammed an elbow into side. Chris glared at Logan with no real heat. "You're going to pay for that you little shit." He warned, grabbing Logan in a headlock before he could run and ran his knuckles viciously over his little brother's scalp. He smirked as he let him go.

Logan was about to realitate when Sophie came over with a lead in her hand, Alaska happily connected to it. The husky all but ran over to them when she saw them, and both brothers knelt down.

Alaska affectionately headbutted the two of them and licked their faces. Chris laughed and pushed the dog's face away gently, and stood. Having already paid, he took the lead from Sophie.

"Thanks for your help." He said warmly to Sophie, smiling at the elderly lady behind the desk. Logan blushed slightly but echoed his thanks. They made their way out to the car, watching as Alaska used her new-found freedom to sniff everything in sight. Leading her to the car and triumphantly getting her up onto the seats, Chris begun to think that today, while being tiring for him, would be a really good day.

This, in my opinion, isn't the best chapter, but I couldn't manage to get it to come out right. I also figured that I should update some time. This chapter is unbeta-ed, so any mistakes are mine.