Chapter 15: Someone you know
Chris´ resolution to play along with Wyatt and show him he wouldn't trick the spell any more faded as soon as Wyatt summoned him. He hated that power Wyatt had over him and he used without even a warning. He looked around. He was at a set up table that had no food in it. He was sitting at Wyatt´s side, at a place where they both could see the door and for the moment, no one else was in the room.
Wyatt smirked when Chris appeared by his side.
"I could have been taking a bath, you know? Why don't you tell me before orbing me like a puppet? " Chris couldn't help feeling annoyed.
"Cause that wouldn't be fun at all. Besides, I told you if I could trust you I would tell you before but I can't trust you. And I´ve checked you weren't taking a bath, don't worry.. Nice clothes, BTW. Your taste has improved lately".
"Very funny. I don´t know how you even notice the difference. But I´m glad you noticed, I´ve spent an hour trying to decide which color fits me more: black or black. I´ve decided for dark black".
Wyatt smiled a little. He couldn't even try to fool himself. He loved Chris´ comment and he always would. Chris took advantage of his brother's apparent good mood to ask trying to be nice but unable to hide the anger in his voice.
"Can I ask why I'm here?"
"To have dinner with your brother as a family, of course"
"I don't want to, I'm not hungry. Watching you take innocent witches eyes it´s not what I´d call a motivation to eat"
"My god Chris, that was some hours ago, get over it!"
Chris couldn´t tell if Wyatt was joking or not.
"You´ve said you would only call me for work stuff and let me decide if I wanted to come for anything else"
"That was before knowing every minute you spend along you are plotting things against your own flesh and blood"
Chris rolled his eyes. "Stop being so dramatic. I did what I had to do"
"You stop being dramatic. So did I" Wyatt sounded even childish.
"You know what? I´m tired of your "it had to be done speech". All you do is just to satisfy your big ego cause you..."
At that moment, two demon servants shimmered in bringing some food. At Wyatt´s indication, they started putting wine and food on the table.
"What were you saying?" Wyatt was surprised because Chris had stopped at the middle of the sentence.
"Nothing you don't already know."
"Why don´t you continue? I what?"
Chris tried to go on but the words weren´t coming out of his mouth. Wyatt laughed; remembering his order to Chris of pretending he'd joined him and showing respect in front of other people, even if he had to lie. The demons were about to shimmer out but Wyatt stopped them with a gesture. They stayed immobile, at one side. Wyatt thought he could have a little fun with that order.
"So, what do you have to say about me, Chris, answer "
"You are wonderful" The words came before Chris could even think about them. That made him realize of what was going on. Angry, he decided the spell didn't stop him from exaggerating. So, he smirked and then he continued with a serious tone "And I wish I had more brothers just like you. I've always thought that if we had another brother mom would have called him Arthur and we would have spent great night killing people just for not thinking as we do and laughing at how silly our parents were. How they died defending good when good doesn't even exist. Then we could drink chocolate as you and I used to do at night when we were little. But killing people is so much better than drinking chocolate and I discovered it thanks to you. Thanks so much for freeing me Wyatt! Of course, I'd never love Arthur as much as I love you but ..."
"Oh, enough." Wyatt waved his hand angrily and the demons shimmered out.
Chris laughed, almost happy. "What's wrong, too much respect for you?"
"Sarcasm is not respect."
"And how do you call using your spell to have fun with me?"
Wyatt shook his head tired. That was just a reminder that he had to be careful, his brother always found a way to fool even the most stupid orders. Yet, if he wansn't so smart he wouldn't be the brother he used to love so much, right? He sighed thinking of changing the subject but unable to stop himself from asking.
"Arthur? Why Arthur? Mom would never use that name"
"I just like the name. If I want to imagine a brother, I imagine him as I want with the name I want. The first name I could thought about was Not-Wyatt but Arthur is still ok. He wouldn't be a double blessed jerk too full of himself. And he would be brunette and younger than me, so I could boss him around and bother him as you always did with me. And he would never put spells on me"
"A pity you can't choose how your brothers are, right Chris?"
"Oh right, I agree"
Wyatt looked at him, smiling a little, amused. Then he sighed
"All right, let´s eat. I´m willing to let what you've done go. I hope you've learn your lesson and let's try to have dinner in peace. I want to talk about the demon that killed mom after this"
Chris was genuinely intrigued by Wyatt´s statement. He decided to try to look happier, so he served some food but flashes of Alexandra's look before dieing came to him and he couldn't make himself eat pretending nothing had happened. Wyatt looked at Chris with disgust when he noticed he wasn't eating.
"You can´t play teen tricks now Chris, you need to eat. I'll order you to eat if I have to"
"You can order me to eat and I can always puke." Chris answered angrily, all his resolution of reconciliation fading. But he had to try; making Wyatt trust him was the only way to know what the hell had happened to his brother. And he didn't need much trust, just a little. He'd cover the rest with magic once Wyatt headed him in the right direction. He was surprised when Wyatt tried a different approach.
"Come on, Chris, I've ordered this food especially for you. I know it's your favorite" the source said almost pleadingly.
That made Chris remember the times where their mom had just died and Wyatt made him eat using that pleading tone. He couldn't help trying a little of food.
"Oh, it was magical made, you didn't use to do that" Chris said in an almost teasing tone. .
"Of course not. First off, I have people working for me that do the cooking. And when we lived together I wanted to use magic to cook but someone said that was personal gain and wouldn't eat if I didn't cook."
Chris shrugged. "At least you've learned how to cook; you said that worked with girls so you had so many girlfriends thanks to me."
Wyatt laughed. "Well, now I don't have to do that anymore. I can have all the girls I want and personal gain doesn't exist any more thanks to me"
"Have you got rid of soup too? Kill anyone that makes it? Because you used to hate that too." Chris said with a smile.
"Now that you mention it, that´s the next thing I´ll do. And tease as much as you want but I had to become a chef just because you were too obsessed with personal gain, admit that."
"I admit it" Chris answered quickly without thinking. He realized it was the spell but it was still the truth. He just smiled and added. "And I'm proud of that. But you could have always let me cook"
"We both know that would have killed us both before any demons, you could only make hamburgers and never good ones."
Chris laughed. "Well, I won't deny that. Do you think that if you order me to cook well that would solve it? "
"Not even the most powerful magic in the world can solve your cooking, little bro" Wyatt said with a smile and Chris laughed. Wyatt went on with a funny expression in his face. "And I remember you convinced one of your girlfriends that you cook very well, did you use magic for that? How? I've always wanted to know that."
"Only once. I used a spell to summon one of your meals and made it look at just made" Chris answered without thinking. "Hey, it's not fair that you use the spell to learn these stupid things."
"I knew it! Yes! "Wyatt smiled happily. Chris shook his head, trying not to laugh; but he had to admit that it was funny.
Wyatt smiled too.
"Did you ever do your homework with magic?"
"Only twice. It was only in extreme circumstances not the same thing you wanted to do."
"Oh so it's not so personal gain if the circumstances are extreme. Like wanting to sleep with a girl "
"Believe me, with that girl, anyone would have forgiven me. I don't know if it was personal but it was definitely a gain"
Wyatt laughed again so hard that he almost choked with his food. Chris couldn't help laughing with him too.
A sudden knock interrupt them and Chris shook, surprised and a little disappointed. Wyatt was great at pretending he was the same one. For a moment, he had forgotten about everything, just that he was with his brother. The knock at the door reminded them both how things were now.
Wyatt frowned; he had specifically order not to be interrupted.
"Why does a demon knock? Why doesn't he flame?" Chris asked. He was also feeling angry at the interruption.
"I don't allow anyone to come into my presence unless I've summoned them. And now I've specifically ordered not to be interrupted, so whoever it is, he'd better have something important to say. Besides, not all my servants are demons as you may know"
Chris shrugged. He had already sensed that the person knocking was Patrick. And Wyatt might have sensed that too. Wyatt opened the door telekinetically and violently. He trusted Patrick's judgment and he knew the demon didn't have a dead wish, so this had to be important.
"What the hell do you want?"
Patrick bowed in front of Wyatt and he gave Chris and evil smirk. He was really scared and both Chris and Wyatt could notice that. He had horrible news and he was also disoriented. He had empathic powers and he had read joy coming from Wyatt some instants before. Could that be? He knew Wyatt for long, he had been working with him even before Wyatt had become the source and he had never read joy coming from him. But it was there he could tell. His eyes went to Chris with hate. This was that stupid good witch's fault. Chris was the bastard that wanted to take his place without even deserving it, the only person that Wyatt had trusted and given a second chance. But that didn't matter. Cause as scared as Patrick was he was happy about one thing that would happen after Wyatt heard his news. Chris would be dead.
Both Chris and Wyatt read this last thought and Chris had to agree with the demon at being scared and at thinking that Wyatt would kill him, but he still pretended to be calmed.
Wyatt got nervous but he didn't show it.
"I've said what the hell is so important to interrupt my dinner, Patrick?"
"Sir, we had some problem at the jails. The prisoners escaped" Patrick said without daring to look at Wyatt. Still, Chris could read his joy, dam, the demon was sure Wyatt would kill him after this, and Patrick couldn't wait to find out if he was right.
"What do you mean, escape?"
"They left the jail, sir."
Wyatt used his telekinesis to throw his dish, full and all against the demon who deflected it telekinetically but didn't dare to lift his head.
"I know what escape means, thanks." Wyatt said remarking every word. He calmed down a little. "How many prisoners?" he asked in a neutral voice that both Chris and Patrick knew couldn't mean anything good.
"All of them" The demon answered almost whispering.
The table shook and Chris couldn't help jumping at the noise and the violence of the movement.
"All of them?" Wyatt shouted. "How could that happened? You did the spell to prevent anyone use any powers, how did anyone got free?"
"It was Ashcroft's daughter, sir. Laura. She lifted the spell"
Patrick was bumped into the wall telekinetically. He clenched his teeth. He hated not defending himself but he knew better than defying Wyatt. Besides, this was his chance to get rid of Chris for good.
"You stupid demon, you are suppose to be so powerful and a second class witch lifts your spell"
"Sir, she's not a second class witch, it's said that the powers she and her sister have are only second to the one the Char.." Patrick couldn't finish, because he was hit by a double telekinetically force. At first he didn't understand what had happened but then he realized that both brothers had hit him at the same time.
"I don't want their names on your dirty mouth" both brothers said at unison.
"Of course, sorry, sir." The demon said, getting up without answering back, trying to hold his anger and addressing purposely only to Wyatt. Besides he didn't have to ruin it by being angry, he had to play his wining card. "Sir, Laura was powerful enough to lift the spell but someone had to tell her how to lift it. I only know one person that lifted this kind of spell before. " he said looking intentionally at Chris.
Chris decided he had had enough of the demon. He threw him lighting and he made him fly to the wall at the same time.
"I don't like distrust. I've joined my brother and I won't accept being accused by a secnd class demon of betraying him" The words had come due to Wyatt's order of pretending to join him. The other things, just because he was angry the demon was so sure Wyatt would kill him and he was having such a great time just portraying that. Chris felt really scared as he knew he couldn't attack Wyatt. He also knew he wouldn't be able to defend himself when Wyatt attacked him, which he probably would, so he just took it on the demon. He threw more lightening at him and Patrick was smart enough not to answer back
"Enough, Chris" Wyatt said. Chris stopped immediately, sending the demon a warning look. Wyatt spoke angrily, like a teacher embarrassing a kid that hadn't studied the day's lesson.
"Patrick, even if she lifted the spell how did she free the other prisoners? Even if she could tell them how to lift it and they all had their own powers back, what the hell were the guards doing that they didn't stop one single prisoner? There were also humans there! How did they escape?"
Patrick hesitated.
"Answer me!" Wyatt shouted.
"They were crying, sir. "Patrick had lowered his head and his tone of voice. But not enough.
"Crying? Crying?" Wyatt's angry voice filled the room.
"Yes. They couldn't stop crying, they seemed to be in a really big pain. They seemed to regret every single tortured they had made and they kept whining about that. So, they did nothing and that's how they all escaped. I'm sorry, sir, I don't know how that happened. There had to be some strong magic involved". He said looking again intentionally at Chris.
"Of course, genius. "Wyatt seemed calmer now but he didn't fool Chris or Patrick. Patrick had been anxious to see Wyatt throwing a dark arrow or something at Chris and he was disappointed to see that Wyatt just stood up slowly.
"Put those demons at the jails. Find new guards and tell them to give the old ones some real reasons to cry. I'll go later with my brother and we'll finish that."
Patrick just stood, there, disappointed. It had to be Chris, Wyatt should know it by now. He was the stupid charmed witch's brother, and they shared a bond as brothers and Wyatt was a telepath, there was no way Chris could fool him. He realized that Wyatt might have read that thought and he confusedly asked, looking at Chris with hate.
"Sir, may I say that...?"
"No, you might not say anything. Leave before I remember it was your spell the one that was lifted. Don't worry I won't trust you for this any more. Chris will take care that no one else will escape the jail. And of course, if anyone was responsible of this, I'll get him punished."
Wyatt's threat had been enough to stop any idea Patrick might have of complaining. He immediately bowed and shimmered out with another mental curse for Chris.
Chris tried not to shake because of course he knew he couldn't fool Wyatt. May be he had just gone too far.
"I know it was you and we'll discuss how later but just to confirm it, was it you Chris? You told Laura the spell somehow? You made the demons cry like that so that all the prisioners would escape?"
"Yes" Chris avoided looking at Wyatt. He wished he could lie but even without the spell it wouldn't have any sense. Wyatt knew it had to be him; Patrick was right in his deliberations. Chris couldn't read anything from Wyatt. Still, with all his knowledge of Wyatt personality and his bond with Wyatt he didn't even see it coming. One moment Wyatt was at the chair and the other Chris felt a big pain in his face as Wyatt slapped him so strongly that he felt from a chair and his mouth started bleeding Wyatt towered him, taking him by his shoulders and slapping him again. Chris looked at him, unable to react, due to the pain and the surprise at how sudden everything had been. Wyatt could also feel the pain, it felt as someone had slapped his own face, and for a moment he thought that he didn't know he could slap anyone with such strength. But he was so angry that he didn't mind his own pain at all. He looked at his brother, Chris' eyes showed fear and also disappointment. Chris realized that this was the first time in their lives Wyatt had slapped him. His brother didn't let him think of anything, he shook him and Chris prepared for another strike but Wyatt just looked at him before speaking furiously.
"Why do you keep doing these things? Why are you so determined to make me look ridiculous or to make yourself killed?"
"Listen, Wy"
Wyatt smirked impatiently.
"Oh..so I´m Wy now?"
"You don´t want me to call you Wy?" Chris sounded even disappointed. That had been the name he had always given his brother.
"Call me however you want but don't change it according to your mood, I´m not two persons, and I hate how you change the name you give me depending on your mood. Especially thinking that you stopped calling me Wy the day I killed that sorry excuse of a white lighter you used to call friend. A stupid whitelighter made you change the name you gave your brother, don't remind me of that. Call me however you want but don't change it according to your mood. So how did you think you were going to get away with this?"
"Listen, Wy" Chris had thought carefully of his decision on the name. May be his brother would understand that he was trying his best to leave Daniel's death in the past and that would calm him a little. He studied his brother's reaction hopefully, Wyatt didn't complain about the name again but his expression didn't soften either and his grip on Chris was still painful. Chris went on, trying to sound as sincere as possible. He wasn't sure but perhaps Wyatt would finally decide to kill him or even force him to kill people if he wasn't careful. That would ruin all his plans. "Wy, I thought you were as tired of this as I was, I thought you weren't going to heal me. If you let me die, you wouldn't have to face the guilt of being the cause of my death and your problems of looking stupid would have been solved. I thought that I had to die and I wanted to do it saving as many people as possible.."
Wyatt smirked; his brother was amazing, thinking he would do that. After all the trouble he had taken just to keep him alive Chris came with this idea .Besides, he needed the power of three to vanquish that demon and he had no intention of losing Chris. He stared at his brother with a threatening expression.
"You are always thinking of anyone but you. I'm the only one that thinks of you, Chris. All those resistance people would't think twice if they could kill you and still have a chance to vanquish me. They didn't even try to rescue you even if you took a huge risk just to warn them. Do you think that Ashcroft will thank you for rescuing his daughter? Oh, I´m not going to kill you or let you die."
Wyatt smirked threateningly and he advanced toward Chris.
" But I'm going to show that you've made a big mistake" he took Chris in his arms when he was next to him, Chris expected to be flamed but Wyatt only whispered in his ear. "I've already told you that if you fooled my orders again it was going to be someone you knew and I always keep my word."
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So if you think this was ok, I promise to post the next chapter next week, and I won't stop until we get to the family reunion.
Thanks again for your kind reviews. You are all really amazing!