Chapter 22 – In The Line of Fire
Teaserline: It's firestarter season...
June 9th, 2007
The tattered home on Wellington Road was always avoided by the children and young teenagers in the neighborhood because of the aggressive man who lived there. He hated the youth entering his private property because they always had a tendency to run around his field which was layered with crushed blades of grass, dirt scattered amongst the dead flowers, and littered with beer cans. The strangest thing the owner ever found on his lawn was a young nude woman appear in flames and she was too beautiful to resist, so he took her home like an abandoned animal, despite her frightening entrance. It wasn't long before the reputation of this house changed from fear of the man who owned it, to the house where tales of his agonized shouting haunted the place...
(X)
It was early morning when orbs materialized a couple of feet inside from the destroyed fence and quickly gathered around to culminate into two figures as the accompanying jingle was silenced. Paige and Billie appeared and the newfound sorceress looked to her sides as she awaited her mercenary ally. Particles quickly swarmed into view and spun around in their normal fashion before constructing Cameron who dressed for the weather with a sleeveless gray top with wind-breakers to match his black sneakers. "Damn, it's hot."
"No kidding," Billie replied as she pulled out her sunglasses from the pockets of her blue jeans and quickly hung them over her ears to guard her eyes from the sun's overwhelming glare. She looked toward the house and said, "So do we just walk in? What if someone else is with her?"
"That's why we're going to play it safe and knock," Paige explained, feeling the sun radiate its heat towards her bare legs as she comfortably wore her cropped white dress shorts and her sleeveless tan top with black strapped shoes.
"Are you sure you don't want me to particle in and sense who's in there?" Cameron asked as Paige began to walk off with an eager Billie following.
"No," Billie answered, although the question wasn't directed at her. "It's bad enough Paige made me wait until this morning to do this, so I'm not wasting another minute without seeing my sister." Billie sped past Paige and charged for the door with the potions inside her pouch clattering against each other as she gained speed. She jogged up the steps and as she was about to knock, Paige orbed directly in front of her.
"Whoa!" Paige stopped her, holding out her hands before her. "Slow down. Everything I've been saying is logical as you needed that time last night to mentally prepare yourself for whatever Christy's morals are. She might be that sister you're expecting or she might just charge a fireball and send it your way. Who knows? But at least I gave you a few hours to meditate on it."
"Charging crystals to keep me locked up isn't allowing me a few hours to meditate," Billie responded, slightly irritated from last night. "That's holding someone against their will."
"And that very well had to be done! It's my duty to protect you as both your Whitelighter and friend and you were intending on rushing into this with no concerns for others. I have three children at home, and silly me, I actually want to spend some time with them instead of returning home from a vanquish to go Christy hunting," Paige vented, more irritated than Billie because of how much she was being torn from her family. "So as your Whitelighter, I kinda expect you to ignore me a little, but as your friend I ask that you give me some time with my children. One of them being your goddaughter."
Billie frowned and nodded up and down, "You're right. I'm sorry. Really. It was just the adrenaline of finally reaching this point and so much we had to do to get here. I start off with hiding my guilt, then I learn she's alive, then I have to risk my life for a stone, then I have to upgrade who I am, and this was all just to find her alone. I am freaking out about the sister I'm going to find in there, but..." she patted down her pouch and continued, "These aren't to kill my sister. Only for teleporting emergencies in case I have to flee, but no one's dying today."
Cameron felt guilty for what he had to do, but he kept silent.
"Let's hope not," Paige replied, turning her back to Billie as she knocked on the door twice. Paige knew for a fact that if it came down to herself or Christy, she'd guarantee that firestarter would stay down this time as she had too much to live for now.
"So what's the game plan here, Paige?" Cameron asked, folding his arms. "Are we going to ask if there is currently a resident firestarter in this house or if we should be looking two houses down for her?"
Paige rolled her eyes and said, "We don't have to refer to her as a firestarter, but I think I'll ask if there's a girl named Christy here? It might sound crazy, but I'm willing to give that a shot." She knocked another two times and said, "If we so happen to learn that the girl living here throws fire when she's pissed off, we'll consider that an added bonus." Paige knocked harder after not getting a response and shouted, "Hello?! Is anyone home?!" She walked over to the dusty windows and tried to see past, but her vision was blurred.
"Sorry. This patient thing isn't working out for me," Billie said as she twirled her wrist and telekinetically unlocked the door. With a quick wave, she gently pushed it forward and walked closer to physically push it with her hand. The sorceress entered the house with an eye-rolling Paige following and the mercenary behind her.
They all looked around and instantly saw what poor condition the house was in. Spoiled food littered the living room coffee table with roaches stampeding over it, enjoying their meal. The same roaches were climbing into the glasses of soda as they intensely smelled the sweetness of the cola, but ultimately drowned once they ventured too far. Countless flies flew over the food and swooped down for quick bites before continuing their flight amongst the house and multiplied by mating with their identically winged creatures. The vile aroma coming from this house had to be more than just rotten food and they all braced themselves from hurling at that rotten smell as they moved further in.
"No amount of perfume or spray can banish this stench," Paige commented, holding her arm to her nose, but it wasn't enough. The smell had already invaded her nose and stained her clothes as well. She coughed into her arm and said, "This is fowl. I find it hard to believe that anyone lives here, so for Christy's sake, let's hope she's not here either." Billie shot her a look and the Witchlighter defended, "Come on, the Underworld has better smells than here to be perfectly fair."
The three turned when they heard footsteps coming down the creaky stairs. While Paige and Billie remained silent, Cameron held his hand out behind him and prepared to conjure one sai dagger in the case Christy came down attacking.
A balding man in a stained white tank-top with large patches of hair on his arms came down the steps and shouted, "Who the hell are you? You're trespassing!" He came down the steps, furious.
"Please, we don't mean any harm," Paige assured. "I'm sorry, we were knocking for quite a while and no one was responding." The man still looked upset and she continued, "I know it doesn't give us the right to pick the lock, but understand. My name is Paige and we're just looking for someone." She gestured towards Billie and said, "Her sister. We have reason to believe she's here."
"And what gives you that idea?" he fairly asked.
"Is she here or not?" Billie questioned. "This is my sister we're talking about, so don't play any games with me. Have you seen Christy or not?"
Frank didn't bother fighting it anymore. "There's been a girl here, but her name's not Christy; girl named Helga."
"It's possible she could be under another name," Cameron said. "They get memory loss after..." he gestured with his hands to accompany an exploding sound. "If you get what I mean."
Billie glared and dryly replied, "We got it." She turned back to Frank and asked, "So where is Helga?"
"She went down to the market a few streets down to pick up some potatoes and garlic," Frank answered. "She should be back soon, but if you wanna go out and look for her, by all means."
"You two go," Cameron suggested. "I'll wait here and give you a call in case she gets back."
The blonde nodded and headed for the door. Paige followed her and stopped at the door as Billie opened it and Paige turned back to Cameron, "Any problems at all, just call out. This isn't something we expect you to handle alone." Her and Billie both left, closing the door behind them.
"Ain't nothin' to handle alone?" Frank repeated. "What she mouthin' about?" The man walked past Cameron and made his way towards the wrecked dining room.
"Nothing you should worry about," Cameron said as he followed him into the kitchen. He spotted the broken chair leg on the floor and examined the rest of the kitchen where he saw the broken chair, cracked table and torched cabinets. Christy was definitely here. "So what happened here?"
"With the kitchen?" Frank asked and turned to see Cameron nod. "Oh, nothing. Just a huge quarrel with the woman of the house. Before Helga, that is." He opened his fridge and said, "Possibly interest you with a glass of water? Beer?" He pulled out a pitcher of beer from the fridge and grabbed a glass, setting it on the table.
"I'm fine. Back to your story; that explains the broken chair legs, but why are the cabinets burnt?" Cameron interrogated. Something was blocking him from fully reading the guy, which was highly suspicious alone.
"Oh, that was just the woman of the house again. Ah, that crazy wench. I still wonder where the hell she is now," Frank explained as he poured the beer into a glass and held it up for Cameron to take. "It's good stuff, go for it." He scoffed at the non-responsive blond. "You tellin' me you can break into my home and not accept a beer from me? Ain't that somethin'?"
"I'm fine," Cameron responded, taking the beer and placed it down on the table. It was one of his early teachings to not swallow any contents from strangers or people he didn't trust at the risk of having a poison or potion mixed in. "So tell me about Helga. How'd you meet her?" Each time Cameron asked a question, he would attempt to invade Frank's thoughts, but was only getting slivers of memory and would be forced out. He had suspicions. And these suspicions led him to conjure one of his sai daggers under the table.
(X)
Back at the Mitchell-Matthews manor, Henry cradled Sarah in his arms as he entered the kitchen and said, "I really appreciate you coming over to help me, Sir. Kinda lucky you even heard me."
Sam came walking in behind him with Samantha in his arms and said, "Nonsense. I was waiting on this invitation to meet my grandchildren and I'm glad I did." The Whitelighter looked down at the youngest of the twins who was dressed in a purple shirt with pink shorts and he stared into her honey brown eyes as she innocently sucked on her knuckles. "I heard your call because I was communing with the spiritual forces of Good on the top of Golden Gate bridge. There's some concerns, so I was keeping my ears open."
"Anything we should be concerned about?" Henry asked as he balanced Sarah with one arm and opened the fridge with the other. "Or better yet, anything Paige should be concerned about?" The mortal reached in and grabbed a bottle for the hungry daughter in his possession, aware that her twin was content. He walked over to the microwave as he awaited an answer.
"I hope not," Sam answered, sitting down at the kitchen table and put on a ridiculously silly face which received a smile from his granddaughter. He continued with Henry, "I just want Paige to be able to handle her charges without demons and warlocks coming her way. She's been giving some easier charges as an extensive trial, but some of the stronger ones are on the way. I've personally been keeping tabs on them."
"None are dangerous like Rose, are they?" Henry asked, waiting for the microwave to warm up Sarah's bottle.
"No, but she has a new student on the way. One that if she does her job well, she can begin to lessen her load," Sam answered, then put on a new face for Samantha which took as well as the first. "Let's forget about that for now. How's everything going between you two since the memory lane trip?"
"Pretty well actually. The night we got back we just spoke about what the other saw and we really went into depth about some things," Henry answered, grabbing the bottle from the microwave and let it cool for a couple of seconds.
"Glad to hear. Such as what?" Sam asked. "If it's personal, I won't be offended by the confidentiality."
"No, it's fine. We actually just went over the story on how I got my name and we just had a whole discussion on the possible name my birth parents had for me," Henry answer, feeding his daughter her bottle as he sat down across from Sam. "Paige said I could pass for Freddy, Joe, and she even suggested Ivan. I'm pretty sure I'm not Russian, but she said she was just kidding."
"Are you comfortable with the name you were given?" the Whitelighter asked as he stroked Samantha's light brown hair repeatedly. This helped him feel like he was making up for not being able to raise his daughter.
"Yeah, it's just the name I've always gone by. Even if I ever met my real parents, I would let them know that this is the name that defines me. Not whatever they picked," Henry commented as he continued to his eldest daughter with her bottle.
"I'm surprised to even hear you utter their names. Well, title. Do you if you ever find yourself wondering about them more now?" Sam asked and found Henry remaining silent. "I only ask because you have a wife who is venturing out many paths to discover who she is by collecting as much evidence and useful information as possible. I'm curious if this has had you any effect on you. If you choose to drop it, drop it. I won't pick it back up."
"Thanks, I respect that. I gotta be clean and admit I do a little. Ever since having kids of my own, I've felt a stronger connection to all the questions that come with being adopted. It's not as easy to shrug my shoulders and act like I don't care anymore," Henry admitted.
Peter then walked into the kitchen in his orange footsie pajamas, having finally woken up this morning. He looked up at Sam, oblivious to who this man was, and turned to his foster father. "Is dis a fwend, Henny?"
"This is actually Paige's father, buddy. So this would make him a grandfather of yours. So, Peter, this is Sam. Sam, as you know, Peter," Henry introduced, grinning as he watched Peter try to figure out how to approach this.
Peter scratched at his chin as he often saw Henry do with his constant stubble and finally waved with the other hand, "Hi."
"How are you doing, little fella?" Sam asked.
"Sleepy," Peter answered as he moved over to Henry and sat down next to him. He picked out a tissue from its box and flapped it around to better amuse himself.
"He seems quite bored," Sam implied to Henry who only shrugged. "Hey, Peter. I think there's a carnival going on today. Would you be interested in coming with me to check it out?"
Peter's eyes widened and he began to flail the tissue around in excitement. The boy who was tired less than a minute ago had reached a level of euphoric bliss. "Yes. Yeah!"
Sam turned to Henry, "Do you mind?"
"Not at all. With Paige and Billie out, I don't wanna keep him stuck in the house." Henry answered and turned to Peter. "After lunch you can go check it out. Do you want me to go upstairs to help you change?"
"I cans do," Peter answered.
"Alright, I'll have breakfast ready for you when you come back down," Henry informed as Peter threw down the tissue and hopped off of his chair. The mortal watched as his foster son ran around the table and hugged Sam in appreciation. He chuckled as Peter tottered out of the kitchen. "I'm telling you, this kid is easily sold by people. You give him one little toy and he's your best friend."
Sam laughed heartily as he looked back down at Samantha's face. "You have some great children here, Henry. Beautiful baby girls who mirror each other's perfection and a little boy who happened to be accepted into your arms after being dropped into your lap. I intend on being as part as their lives as much as possible, I promise."
"I trust your word, Sir. Thanks for your compliments as well, means a lot. Being a parent is tougher than I thought, but luckily the twins actually enjoy sleeping at night," Henry reflected. "It makes it easier, but this is really pulling me from my work. I know Paige has her responsibilities, but I do as well. It's not fair to my parolees that I have to assign other officers to help with my load because Paige is often tending to charges or everything else she does." He looked down at Sarah, just because he could, and apologized, "You know it's not me speaking ill of my wife, but... It's been hard for me lately to adjust."
"I wish I could be of more help, Henry. I wish I had experiences of my own to pass onto you, but you know very well why I don't. I do suggest you open this to Paige. When you feel the need to vent, you can call on me and then approach her with all your thoughts collected," Sam suggested, standing to sway Samantha back and forth as she began to get fussy in his arms. "Hope that's of some assistance."
"It is," Henry responded. He too stood as Sarah preferred to be higher up in her father's arm then give him the chance to relax his muscles. He looked forward to the times when he would miss being tired from cradling his daughters around.
(X)
Paige and Billie walked on the road as the Witchlighter refused to let her shoes collect anymore dirt. "I should really orb home and change into sneakers or something. I don't know why I thought orbing to Austin, Texas, was going to be clean streets and no dirty pavements."
Billie's hands were tucked into her back pockets as she lightly chuckled and said, "We're already here. I'll personally spit shine your shoes when we get home with Christy." The young sorceress seemed confident that Christy would be coming home with her.
"Alright, as we walk down to this market, we should speak about this," Paige started, still uncomfortable with the pebbles that managed to sneak into her shoes. "Remember how I told you about Sandra's concerns? Well, I personally hold all faith that you're not going to team up with Christy if she's acting demonic, but I wanna know what you plan to do is if she is Evil. You refuse to kill her, but she might not share the same view as you."
"I know she might not, but I am really scared the Triad corrupted her too far. What if my sister is too refusal to love or friendship? She might as well be dead if she chooses to associate herself with demons or even go through this world alone," Billie said, bouncing her shoulders as she pulled her hands out of her back pockets. She sighed, "I want my sister to make friends, maybe even attend classes with me, spend nights talking about cute guys and fighting alongside me against demons."
Paige grinned, "I want that for you as well, Billie. I really do. I would like to make a friend in Christy without having a nagging voice in my head that suggests I watch out for everything she does."
The two women spotted the market which they could tell from afar had a poor paint job with most of the white coating chipped off. The red rooftop made it easy to spot, but mainly because of the sign which read 'Market' in glass which most likely used to be in neon colors.
"There we go," Billie clearly pointed out. Both rushed to it, to Paige's best ability with her heels, and approached it. The blonde looked in before opening the glass door with a 24/7 sign on it. Billie quickly scanned the store, as did Paige, but they were the only customers.
"Let's ask the guy at the counter," Paige suggested as she approached the counter. A clean shaven man with a cleft chin was wiping down the counter and she said, "Excuse me. Just a quick question here. Have you seen a young brunette in here? Light eyes, goes by the name 'Helga'? Ring any bells?"
The guy ran his hand through his dark hair as he answered, "There was a girl who went by that name a few months ago. She's actually wanted by the police, so she certainly hasn't been here."
"Why? What did she do?" Billie asked.
"She killed a man. He wasn't the best of people out there, but no one deserved to die like he did," the man responded. "The guy was only identified by his ashes. It was pretty tough to hear about, even if he was a jerk. The girl ran away though. No one ever saw her again."
Billie and Paige both turned to each other. They had clearly seen Frank back at his house, but it's possible that wasn't him. Paige was still confused, "Wait, so if he died all those months ago, how come no one's bought the house?"
"Poor condition and now everyone's going on about it being haunted. Whenever they say people go on by, his screams of pain are heard and even her screams of pure enjoyment, as well," the Texan replied, cleaning his counter. "I personally never went over to check out these supposed screams, but it keeps the kids off the lawn which is sorta respectful since Frank's ashes were scattered there."
"Thank you for this information," Paige said, pulling Billie by the arm and immediately left the store. "So you know what this means, right?"
"Christy's going around killing people, but it doesn't make sense. I tracked her here," Billie said.
"I know, I know," Paige responded. "Which means that Frank isn't Frank. Christy's gotta be posing as him under a magical disguise." She shook her head. "She was taught too well." The two began to run off to find a secreted place to orb from to make sure Cameron was alright.
(X)
Frank sat directly across from Cameron as he gulped down another glass of beer. "You positive you don't want any?"
"One hundred percent sure," Cameron replied, one hand still tightly gripped on his sai dagger under the table with the other resting flat down on the table. "So, Frank, I'm just really confused on why you would take a girl in. Especially a bitch with a fiery temper." His intense gray eyes stared at Frank without blinking, not wanting to miss one second of him about to give in.
Frank's manner changed as he placed the glass of beer down on the table and slid it off, not wincing as it shattered against the floor. "What are you really trying to say?"
"Possibly that you're not really the slob you are. Just maybe that you take me for a bigger idiot than I am," the mercenary responded, prepared to launch his sai dagger across the table if Frank moved wrong. "Care to tell me if I'm hot or cold?"
Frank grinned, revealing very damaged teeth. He shrugged his shoulders when he replied, "Would it really be too easy for me to just say just how hot you're going to be?" A golden glow washed over Frank as a few dancing white lights spiraled around to complete the transformation.
Frank's hairy and pudgy arms were now very sleek and slightly tanned as his round stomach morphed in and was very lean. The stained white shirt was replaced with a strapless gray top which fell as low as her stomach and as high as her cleavage. Falling on her shoulders was her flatly ironed light brown hair as Christy's fierce hazel eyes were steadily watching the mercenary. "So what? You think you're a big bad Phoenix just because you figured me out?"
The two continued to sit across from each other as if they didn't wield powers which could destroy each other. Both were on edge, but they also felt safe. Cameron was unsure of why Christy felt protected, but he did sense comfort within her.
"Do you think you're the best contender in hide-and-go seek? I must applaud you for hiding out here for nearly a year," Cameron complimented. "And not once did you try and kill Billie." He went on as she remained silent. "I take it being vanquished didn't cause any severe memory loss for you."
Christy bounced her eyebrows and replied, "Whatever I did forget you can assume came back to me." She chuckled, "By the way, I think you can be a good boy now and put your little dagger on the table. Call it being on my toes around you, but I knew it was there the moment it touched your little fingers. Either that, or you were inappropriately touching yourself as I was in my standard glamour. I doubt you swing that way."
The blond moved his hand out from under the table and gently placed his sai dagger on the table, but it still managed to clang and send a quick chill through Christy's spine. "You're a little more mouthy than I heard of."
"It's a little easier to joke about things now. Don't discredit me as if I didn't have it rough. Kidnapped as a child, trained to be a little assassin, and my own sister was willing to kill me for women she knew less than a year. I think after all that, I'm entitled to a white wine and a couple of retorts," the firestarter explained, tapping her nails against the table. "Now are you going to give me a heads up when you reach for your little dagger or am I going to figure that out when it's stuck between my eyes?"
"I'm waiting for you to make a move. You're hard to read," Cameron admitted.
"Telepathy is a good shield for the mind. It keeps out the intruders who like to trespass without even giving a courtesy knock. Though it wouldn't be fair for you to compliment me and not express my gratitude," Christy smiled as she played with the mercenary. She scratched her temple and said, "You're pretty hard to read yourself."
The mercenary reached for his sai dagger and held it tightly in his right hand. He held out his left and the twin blade appeared in a pale yellow light. He remained wordless as he stared at Christy.
"I guess I should run screaming and flail my arms now, huh?" Christy commented as she removed her hands from the table and folded her arms against her chest.
"These aren't for you. I'm assuming you didn't just have to scratch your head and that you probably attempted to make me believe you were trying to read me. I didn't get any psychic hit, so that can only assume you're summoning some demonic pals," Cameron explained as he quickly kicked his chair back and felt it slam into someone. He hopped off where he found a demoness bent over and he quickly swung one dagger in a wide arc and cut through her neck, instantly blowing her up.
The mercenary felt two more presences shimmer in and both demons were armed with fireballs. He exploded into a cloud of particles and quickly soared behind them as they were turning around. He rematerialized and stabbed the daggers into their abdomens. He violently twisted as the demons roared in pain before exploding and left Cameron with an impaired vision of Christy through the smoke.
Paige and Billie ran in, unsure if Christy's cover had been blown yet, but as their eyes fought through the smoke, they saw a young woman sitting there. Billie ran past as she spotted Christy and was so relieved to see she wasn't burnt or scarred. "Christy!"
The firestarter rose from her seat with her arms still folded against her chest and she quickly waved at her sister and tuck it back beneath her arms. Fire ran up from her legs and climbed to her head as she taunted her sister to remember the tormenting image of being blown up. The fire completely consumed her as she vanished away in a roaring silhouette.
"She flamed," Billie pointed out.
"Clearly," Cameron replied. "Your sister's taught herself some new tricks. Either that, or she was lying to you even more than you thought." He swung his twin daggers around in his hands and they vanished in a spiraling yellow glow. "There's something different about her, but she still has evil in her so that doesn't change anything."
"Why not?" Billie asked. "You said there was something different about her. Maybe she's slowly coming away from evil and has just been using this place to reflect."
"Billie, you have to face the facts soon. She killed Frank and assuming she comes back, she may have it out for you," Paige warned. "You need to see reason and we need to possibly stock up on some vanquishing potions." She walked over to the young sorceress and said, "If you don't want to be here, that's fine, but you need to understand that Christy may just be too far from salvation."
"No one's killing Christy. She's my sister and you gotta understand that I'm willing to go whatever depths I need to so I can save her," Billie glared at the Whitelighter and Phoenix and added, "Even if I have to do it alone."
"Billie, she's in league with demons. She actually summoned a few to attack me. It didn't do much, but it's the thought that counts," the mercenary quipped. "I can't allow her to just run wild as she grows as a threat. We gotta cut her off and stop her while we can."
"And who's going to do that?" Billie asked.
"I am," Cameron announced as he quickly exploded in a sea of particles and swarmed away to avoid seeing Billie's betrayed face.
Paige's amber eyes widened and she said, "I can't believe this." She walked over to Billie and said, "We gotta beat Cameron to the punch and find Christy first."
The blonde moved over to the chair as her knees buckled in betrayal and she sat down. Her hazel eyes stared at the floor as she realized, "This must've been his plan all along. Get close to me, help me find Christy, all so he can kill her." She looked up at her Whitelighter, "Paige, we have to find Christy. I can't let him get to her."
"As much as it's going to pain me to help her live, you're right. We can't let Cameron get away with this. We need to regroup though and get ourselves together. Let's head back home to get a crystal to scry for Christy and as you scry, I can start whipping up a Phoenix vanquishing potion," Paige explained, offering her hand to orb.
"No, I'm going to stay here. I trust that Christy is going to come back and I wanna be here in case Cameron is hot on her trail. You go and although I'd really rather not vanquish Cameron, if he gets in the way, it's fair game," Billie explained. She saw Paige was concerned and she added, "I'll be fine. This will give me some time to also look around the place and see if she left anything behind."
"Alright. If you find yourself alone with her, call out for me. I don't care if she feels threatened, but I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone with her. She might just play at your desire to be sisters with her and then she'll stab you in the back," the Witchlighter said, her hand back at her side. "I'll try not to be too long." Paige orbed away and Billie stood to her feet to go upstairs.
(X)
Cameron cut through the crops in the large field where he sensed Christy. Having been near her for so long, it was easy enough to establish a connection where he could be the hunter whereas Christy would be the hunted. The grains, fruits, and vegetables which were being harvested for so long were instantly dropped to the ground after being sliced off by Cameron's black sai daggers which glistened beautifully under the sun's rays. "I know you're here, Christy!" The mercenary boomed through the fields as he relentlessly tore through more crops.
The blond looked ahead where he saw flames consuming the crops and creating a large field fire. The fire came his way and he stared at the sight until he exploded into a cloud of particles which glided over the flames and buzzed intensely. He searched for the source and he saw Christy with her hands on her temples as she unleashed more fire around her. Only the circle Christy stood in wasn't affected and he figured this to because of her manipulating it to stay away. He swarmed into the circle with his sai dagger already swinging as he rematerialized, but he was too late. Christy flamed away.
The mercenary heard the roaring flames closing in on him and he looked up and burst into particles once again, back to tracking Christy.
(X)
Billie continued to look around the room Christy had obviously changed. The bed was pushed against the wall and this made more room for all of Christy's magical assortments; crystals, cauldrons, maps, countless vials of ingredients, a couple of athamaes, jars of blood, violet stones, and more. The sorceress felt as if she knew what all of these ingredients were, possibly because of the power in her which recently surfaced.
She picked up a violet stone and already knew this was the opposite of good's crystal cages and would automatically create a prison to cage someone with dark magic when five were set up. Billie moved over and looked at jars of blood which had names of people and demons labeled on them. Billie figured the normal names were possibly witches who bled dry.
A cauldron exploded its complete potion in a cloud of ashy smoke and Billie turned around to examine it. She moved over and saw the list lying next to it on a notepad and muttered the ingredients, "Demonic viral shells, tablets of troll fetor, three lungs and roasted roots, both from an elder mandrake. Be sure to layer the cauldron with pixie wings and..." the sorceress stopped and pushed the pad away, disgusted. "How could you, Christy?"
"It was easy," the firestarter answered from the doorway, leaning on the threshold. She smirked as her sister rapidly turned around and said, "I kinda had to make do once you killed me. I was also making my best efforts to make sure you wouldn't find me and I tried to destroy as many books in Magic School regarding firestarters as I could, but you just had to help the sisters shut me out from there."
"You were there when we fought the battle?" Billie asked, desperately wanting to hug her sister and beg for forgiveness, but Christy wasn't having it.
"Yeah, I may have seen you fighting a couple of firestarters. I didn't send them, but I did envy that full blown fire thing they do. My witch half doesn't let me do so," Christy explained, walking further into her room. "Mind bottling up that potion for me? It's the least you could do after trying to kill me."
"Christy, you were evil! By the looks all of these ingredients, you still are. I was right in defending the sisters and myself from you. You were ready to kill me and you've would've made it your mission to kill them next. After betraying the sisters and seeing you really embrace the nature of a demon, it was the right thing to do. It wasn't about me loving them more than you, but they're good people. You were corrupted," Billie explained, moving closer.
"I know," Christy admitted in a whisper, shocking Billie. "I know. It's just easier to put up a tough front at the idea of your little sister killing you than to thank you. After being blown up, I lost pieces of who I was. I felt that instantly, but since I was so dominated by evil, I lose chunks there. The one thing I didn't lose is all the knowledge I gained; all the ingredients and their uses, the lessons my mentors taught me, that all stuck with me. I can't go leaving out the burning memory of what was supposed to be my death now, can I?"
The firestarter stood directly across from the sister who blew her up a year ago and said, "But my mentors are dead now. Kinda unfortunate, but I'm on my own now. I'm my own woman doing my own thing." She turned her back to Billie and picked up a brown leather-bound notebook from a table. "I also never lost respect. I have demons who are willing to do my bidding for me. I have their specialties in this book and it's really great to have demonic contacts under my control. So if you came here to try to convince me to team up with you and battle demons, it's not happening."
"So what is it going to come down to, Christy? Are you going to be sending those demons after me?" Billie asked. "You're betraying me now. You knew you weren't dead and you forced me to live with the guilt of that. Nightmares and your screams dominated my thoughts and I went through so much to find you. I risked my life for you and now you're just shrugging me off?"
Christy in a sudden aggression threw her notebook into the wall and glared at Billie. She held up her finger, making Billie believe she was about to attack, but it was just to address her. "You're the one who found it better to throw my fire back at me instead of throwing it into a wall. There were so many options and your reflexes acted quicker than you."
"Yeah, I was scared, Christy. After everything seemed to just blow over with Dumain and the Triad dead, you stood there fighting for them," Billie defended.
"They raised me and taught me everything. The circumstances weren't that great, but this is all I know. I don't know how to love, I don't know how to make friends who aren't capable of betraying me, because let me tell you, it might be nice to have clans of demons calling me their Queen, but I know they're willing to betray me if someone stronger comes around and offers them more," Christy explained and turned on her heel to move to the other side of the room. She leaned against the table and folded one leg over the other. "Being here has given me time to think about what my life became because of the Triad and Dumain. It's just left me confused and I don't want to believe in categories of morality anymore. I intend on traveling with my own cause in mind."
"And what would that be?" Billie asked.
"Here's a clue; I haven't attacked you, have I?" Christy asked and Billie nodded. "Precisely, then. I want to be able to help you, but I didn't want to come into your aid just yet. I need time to think of what to make of myself now. Am I just expected to have servants and try to battle it out with other demons to become the Source or do I just make a name of myself and end up in everyone's Book of Shadows? I tried this gig where I helped random Innocents and that wasn't working for me."
"Christy, if we worked together, we could be an unstoppable force against demons. We could get our own place and just live out our lives together," Billie suggested. "You don't really wanna be living here, do you?"
"This house is just a base I set up for myself. Work on some potions, go outside and get a tan, work on more potions and spells and sleep. I just have no aspirations to waste time looking to get married or going out to clubs or anything, Billie. My life will forever be within the magical world and there's nothing anyone can do about that," Christy explained and looked down to the floor. "I'm just a lost soul finding out how to live her life."
"So I did kill you apparently," Billie commented, sliding her hands into her pockets. "You said you lost parts of yourself and that must've been you losing your ability to trust, befriend, and love people. I killed that in you and now you're going to be living some half-life where you're just obsessed with magic."
"Dark magic," another voice responded. Cameron ran into the room and quickly stabbed Christy in the back with both of his sai daggers.
Christy's eyes widened with surprise as she choked, desperately hoping for an overload of air to drive itself into her, but she fell on her knees and hands. She felt the cold blades rip out from her back as more blood began to pour down her dying body. "Billie..." she whispered.
Billie held up her hands and telekinetically launched Cameron outside of the room and he crashed against the wall. Her hazel eyes returned to her sister as she slid to her knees, "Paige! Paige, hurry!" She slid her arms under her older sister's and just hugged her. "You're going to be okay, just hang in there, Christy. You're going to be fine. Paige!"
Orbs quickly carried an armed Paige in as she looked down at Billie hugging Christy. She noticed the blood pouring down Christy's back and asked, "What happened?" She saw the sorceress point at Cameron and Paige saw the mercenary rising up with blood dripping from the daggers. The Witchlighter launched the potion at him and the Phoenix rolled to the side and vanished in a swarm of black particles. The potion exploded against the wall, knocking it down completely and exposed the bathroom with complete visibility.
Paige turned around to find Billie crying harder and was conflicted on what to do. Help protect Billie's heart by saving her sister, or allow the woman who could potentially destroy her family die? She realized the decision may not be up to her, "There's a possibility, Billie, that I can't heal her. She's evil."
"She's human! She's just confused, she admitted to not even wanting to pick a side, please, just try!" Billie exclaimed and looked back down at Christy who's eyes were closing.
Paige rushed over to Christy's side and held her palms facing Christy's wounded back. She unleashed her heavenly healing light and willed Christy's wounds to heal. She felt as if power wanted to resist healing Christy which reflected off of Paige's personal trust, but it continued to shine down on the wound. Her flesh began to stretch across her open wound and Paige's hands stopped glowing. Christy was healed. "I did it..." Paige breathed.
Billie hugged her sister and to her surprise, Christy hugged her back. "I'm so glad you're okay."
"Must mean she's not completely evil," Paige said. She rose back to stance and rambled on, "Though when I helped heal Cole, Leo needed my help so we can fully heal him, but Christy is mortal... Forget it." She scratched the side of her head in her own confusion and said, "I can't believe Cameron."
Billie and Christy stand, but Billie doesn't let go of her sister's arm. She finally found her and she doesn't want to lose her again. "He used me. He used me just so he can carry out some kill." Her hazel eyes seemed to darken, "He's not going to get away with this."
Christy nodded, "He certainly won't. Now that I know he's after me I'll have vanquishing potions on me all the time." She slid out from Billie's grip and walked over to grab a red silk sheet. She flapped one over one table that held many ingredients and her cauldrons and dropped the sheet on top of it. The sheet fell completely to the floor as if nothing was under it. When Christy lifted the sheet from the floor, nothing was under there.
"Whoa, Houdini," Billie exclaimed. "How'd you do that?"
"You know I can't stay with you, Billie. So I just used this little sheet to transport all my stuff to my next location," Christy explained as she repeated the process with everything else in the room. She turned to Paige and a part of her made her feel as if she should carry out her mission, even in the death of her mentors. The other part of her made her say, "Thanks... For, you know."
"No problem. I can't stand to see Billie cry over you," Paige responded. "Having to see it twice would've been too much to deal with. I'm confused now. What's going to become of you, Christy? It's clear you're not hungry for blood anymore, but I still can't put my finger on any of this."
"I'll be in touch," Christy answered as she finished transporting all her belongings to her next destination. "I just can't be around too much where I'll be forced into saving Innocents and doing the whole witch-mortal thing. I'm both witch and firestarter and I don't intend on living outside the magical world. I hold no interest in the things mortals do." She folded her sheet over her arm as she walked over to Billie, "I'll be around... Just don't come looking for me. When you need me, I'll be there."
"But, Christy..."
"No," Christy silenced her. "I'm alive and you've seen it now. Live your life the way you have, except you have extra hours to waste your time on." She smirked. "My one sisterly request would be to go back to school."
"Christy, my life is in the magical world like yours. I'm a sorceress and that means I have to better situate myself to gain all the necessary knowledge," Billie explained. "Why can't we do that together?"
Christy smirked, "I don't want to ruin you. The whole corruption thing isn't cut out for you. Me on the other hand..." flames ran up her body and all around her before completely teleporting her away.
Paige solemnly looked at Billie and asked, "How are you doing?"
"At least she's alive, right? I guess it's the natural course of sisters to move away from each other anyway, but I was just hoping she'd want to make a life with me that we missed out on," Billie said, shrugging her shoulders. "Guess not, huh?"
"Look at the bright side, Billie; she's not mad at you. Even after having to protect yourself against her, she wasn't making you sweat for her forgiveness. By the sounds of it, she'll be watching over you and whenever you need aid, you might not have to scream out for me as big sister Christy might be there for you," Paige replied, moving closer to Billie with a grin.
"Like what? I doubt Christy can really play to an image with a halo beaming above her head," Billie said as she gave the room one final look as she was well aware Paige was about to orb them out.
"Yeah, I agree. Christy's no angel, but she's not the devil either," the Witchlighter commented as she took a hold of Billie's wrist and placed her other hand on her shoulder. Both their features glowed blue before sparkles of white lights helped entomb them, orbing them away.
This house would no longer give off the haunting screams when kids walked by.
(X)
Billie sat on the front steps under the night sky with a very light sheet wrapped around her bare shoulders and arms. The night wasn't particularly freezing, but the breeze wasn't as welcoming. She just didn't want to stay inside the house and chose to think with nature helping her seek guidance with the shuffling of leaves, whistling winds, and even the occasional car driving by which created harsh ripples with the wind as it polluted it. As a sorceress, she was one with nature now and listening to the elements was becoming less of a foreign language the more she forced herself to be in tune with it.
The sorceress began to pick up on the signals. Winds whistling gently generally informed her that this was a good time for reflection on not only oneself, but on the actions and motives of each other. Harsh winds was a clear sign of danger and popular in knowledge, even before embracing her inner sorceress. The harsh and violent winds were far from the same. The harsh winds were always unpleasantly rough, but messages of demonic attacks or other deadly dangers would never be sailing on these winds.
The violent winds were different. These winds were guarantees that something was going to be forced upon the people and create a change which would affect the outcome of the many branches of life. Messages of danger always soared on these winds, but some messages were too heavy to stay on them for so long and would spiritually fall off before it could reach the one being warned about the great calamity. These winds weren't blowing tonight.
The winds were gentle and leaves rustled at a different pace and for once tonight, it wasn't the winds speaking to her, but a voice. "Hey."
Billie's hazel eyes widened as she turned to her side and looked up at Cameron who was leaning against the wall. She jumped up from the steps and held her hand up, dropping the sheet off her shoulders, but she didn't care as she prepared to telekinetically bang his head against the wall.
"Don't!" Cameron warned, holding up his hand as he slowly pointed at a family coming out of their house from across the street. "Do you really wanna risk the chance of them seeing someone flying across the street without a jet-pack or wings? Despite how bizarre that would still be?"
"Throwing you around wasn't exactly my idea," Billie replied as she lowered her hand down. "In the case you came to plead why the hell you tried to kill my sister, you got until this family gets in their car before we go at it."
Cameron examined the family and began to do the math, "Two kids, one toddler, and one parent. It's going to take at least a minute for the father to buckle the toddler in, deal with the two kids who seem pretty venomous to each other with the way one is stomping her feet behind the other, they might get into a little spat over which seat they wanna seat in, the father will have to deal with it and that should buy me at least five minutes."
"One of which you've wasted already. So what was it? Did Annabelle send you on a little mission to kill Christy?" Billie questioned as she bent down to retrieve the sheet from the ground. "She's not evil."
"Or so she tells you. I thought you were getting out of the naïve stage and actually maturing," Cameron insulted as he moved past her and sat down on the steps, making himself more comfortable than Billie liked. "By the way, give me a little credit. I came behind her, if I really wanted to kill her, don't you think I would've twisted my blades through her spine so she was beyond recovery?"
"Maybe you missed," the sorceress said. "Probably got nervous."
"I don't miss and there were no threats to be nervous from. Except for that little potion Paige threw," the mercenary whistled. "Now that could've taken me out." He sat silent for a few seconds as he watched the leaves rhythmically brush against each other. "I was testing whether or not Christy was evil, believe it or not. I knew if she wasn't, then Paige would be able to heal her and if she was... Well, then I did my job."
"Your job would've caused a lot of heartache," Billie informed. "That's my sister. Evil or not."
"She wasn't so much your sister then as she is now. I will say though she's not as corrupted from what I can gather, but she's still in league with demons and you need to handle that. In the case she gets too comfortable, I'll be forced to finish the job," Cameron said, choosing not to remind Billie of how she retaliated against her own sister. "Remember when you asked me whether or not I killed members of Good?"
Billie nodded, "What to it?"
"In the possibility Christy is good, this is all tying into what I just said. If she starts making moves in the Underworld and gathering a large posse of demons, I'll be forced to call together a team to take them all out. Let's just say she is good at the moment, for argument's sake," the Phoenix scratched his neck and snapped his fingers afterwards, "The second she goes dark side, she'll have energy balls sailing her way before she can even register what the hell is happening."
The sorceress turned back to see the father making his way into the driver's seat. She spun back to Cameron and said, "This isn't your call. You don't get to decide who lives or dies judging by their morality. You or your mother."
"My mother makes calls to the coven which better interest this world. She had to deal with a nasty son of a bitch a few years ago and his manipulative wife to get in her position and ever since then, she's done what's not only best for the coven, but for the community, and allowing your sister to run free with demons tagging along is not in the best interest of everyone," Cameron growled as his gray eyes pierced Billie and he realized just how hurt she was.
Billie swallowed her pride for a moment and admitted, "I had feelings growing for you. I wasn't expecting it, especially with all the responsibilities I have, but... I can't trust you now. I can't trust whether or not you really tried to kill my sister or if you just found a clever way to cover it up. I can't trust whether or not you're going to lojack me somehow and keep up with my visits to Christy to ambush her. I can't trust you." She felt the car pulling out from the driveway across the street and felt the wind wince in pain. She had no means of tending to it, so she walked up the steps and turned the knob of the front door.
"I had feelings for you as well," Cameron replied back, immobilizing her at the door. "Still do, but I guess what I had to do did change everything." He kept his back to her as he watched the car drive away, knowing the risk of Billie potentially attacking him from behind now. If she did, a part of him felt as if he deserved the skin-breaking crash.
Billie scratched her forehead and tried to find the right words and gave in. She lost her hope in him. She opened the door, entered the house, and locked it behind her.
"I guess I deserved that," Cameron said as he looked up to the night sky and exploded in a sea of countless particles which buzzed with the winds, eventually parting from the white house. Emotionally, he was just as broken up as he was physically.
(X)
One of the proudest moments with being a parent was watching your children sleep. As a parent, you always wanted to give yourself an opportunity to relax your muscles after having had your children scream and cry for you to hold them, but it was when they relaxed as they slept that you would want to hold them. Paige missed a good portion of her day with her twins and Peter was still out, so she didn't get the chance to play with any of them. Being a witch and Whitelighter robbed you of these opportunities often, but today was a day for friendship. Helping Billie made her loss satisfying.
The Witchlighter watched as Sarah began to move back and forth and the mother in her wanted her to urge her honey brown eyes open to see her mother standing over her. Paige wanted her presence to be known since she couldn't be with them all day and she was terrified they would clearly love their father more because he was always around. Paige had no luck. Sarah stood asleep, but did grant Paige with the memory of watching her eldest daughter snuggle her head into Samantha's arm. The twins looked closer than ever right now.
A weird shape of orbs fell down in front of Peter's bed and Sam and the bed owner appeared to be asleep in Sam's arms as the grandfather was already resting Peter down to his bed. He placed the one year old down and removed his arms from underneath and allowed him to sleep on a comfortable mattress, instead of his safe arms.
"About time you brought my son home," Paige greeted with his back turned to her. He quickly turned around with a grin as she said, "I was ten minutes away from hiring a bounty hunter to find you."
"Like Billie's little mercenary friend?" Sam asked.
She took in a deep breath and exhaled, "No, we're certainly working with a new agency now." He looked confused as she shrugged it off. "Long story. How was your day with him?"
"We had a great time. We visited the carnival and when he grew bored, we orbed around the world. His favorite spot was on these rocks which were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean," the Whitelighter answered. "We sat there for maybe twenty minutes with waves washing at our feet and he wasn't even scared. He's safe knowing he could be away from a site in seconds."
"That's my Peter. He really loves the whole orbing-thing. I'm assuming that's what tired him out as well," Paige guessed as she moved over to Peter and put a sheet over his legs, knowing the air would cool down in the middle of the night and he would subconsciously pull it over his body. "Thanks so much for taking him for the day. We work hard to give him a family and in the case something ever happens to me or Henry, he'll be with people he's comfortable with."
"There will be no talk of my daughter or son-in-law dying. You guys are going to lead full lives and watch your three children, maybe more, do the same," Sam claimed in high hopes.
"No more children for us. I'm more than content with the three, thank you very much," Paige replied as she stood in between the three children she spoke of. She folded her arms and chose to speak to her father as a Whitelighter, "Something bad is coming, Sam. If not coming, it's already here. Phoebe felt it and she was tapping into my feelings, so in a sense, I felt it as well. Have you picked up on anything?"
The Whitelighter found this all to be random, but fitting. Especially from his visit at the Pacific Ocean, "Funny you mention that. When we were sitting on the rocks, as Peter took the time to marvel at everything, I cheated him out of Grandpa time and wanted to see if I can hear anything on the waves. They're moving quicker than usual. It's almost as if they're trying to run from these grounds. I think something big is happening as well."
"How big?" Paige asked. "I need someone to put it in words that makes me know what I'm looking out for."
Sam nodded and responded, "Stars falling from the sky with the fear they'll be swallowed, waves retaliating and crashing against shores intimidating the surface into believing it's a higher power, skies changing colors, and our world falling apart. The Elders have got to know about this."
"Then why aren't they saying anything? They know I'm the girl for the case," Paige said. "I've done research on Titans, I got the Book here, resources at Magic School to name a few. Why are they keeping shut about this?"
"They might be scared or in denial. Elders will ignore signs if they discover powerful entities that are surfacing that they don't want to believe in. This is the fear Evil has on us. We can never truly believe a demon or power stays down. We're always on edge and they must've gotten some hit," Sam guessed and stepped closer. "Or worst. They haven't."
"Haven't gotten a hit? What could be so powerful that could prevent them from knowing of its presence?" Paige asked.
"Something truly powerful. Whatever it is, it might not want to be found, but the fact that you and I sensed it confuses me. It's pretty clear the Elders aren't up there playing board games and they are always listening for some disruption somewhere. The kind of disruption that makes waves grow violent and such," the Whitelighter pressed on. "Maybe it was part of destiny that you would be alerted early on, but the signs are coming out now. We'll need answers."
"I'll be on it," Paige stated as she folded her arms. "I'll get Billie to help and we might even get Christy to tell us what's going on in the Underworld grapevine. She might be able to confirm this evil we're after."
Sam didn't seem to question an alliance with Christy. Whatever was coming, they could use whatever resource was being offered. "We'll be in touch, Paige. I'm going to head on up now and see what they know."
"Keep me posted," Paige replied as she watched her father orb off with a nod and smile. The Witchlighter glanced at Peter, before turning to her still sleeping twins. They seemed fine to leave in the room, but she would still set her crystals before joining her sleeping husband.
End of Chapter.