Post by StoryGirl83 on Aug 27, 2008 22:57:51 GMT -5
Chapter Two – Orbing Not an Option
Several miles away at the San Francisco Museum of Natural History, Wyatt Halliwell was looking through some boxes with one of his co-workers, Nathan Hensley. The sound of a bright and cheery ring tone coming from Wyatt’s pocket, caused him to pause. He straightened up and pulled out a small cell phone. With a glance at Nathan he asked, “Do you mind if I answer this?”
Nathan shook his head. “Go ahead.”
Wyatt opened the phone while Nathan went back to looking through the boxes. “Hello.”
On the other end of the phone Kali was standing in Mark’s computer room. Mark was sitting in front of his computer researching.
Kali had been pacing the room, but the sound of Wyatt’s voice stopped her. “Wyatt, it’s Kali. I need your help.”
It was so unlike Kali that Wyatt was worried. “Cutting to the chase? That’s unlike you.”
“My boyfriend just tried to kill a fellow student with fireballs,” Kali informed him, exhaling hard at the end of her sentence. “I’m not in a chatty mood.”
“You sure know how to pick them, Kali,” Wyatt replied after a low whistle. Lowering his voice he added, “A demon for a boyfriend?”
Kali sighed at the words she had known where coming. “He’s not a demon, Wy. He’s confused.”
Wyatt walked away from Nathan. This was one conversation he didn’t want his co-worker to hear, either side of it. “You said he threw fireballs, Kal. That’s demonic.”
“I know that,” Kali admitted, “but he thought it was witchy.”
“He said that?” Wyatt asked, surprised.
Well, he hadn’t exactly, but close enough. “It was implied by what he did say.”
“What did he say?” Wyatt asked a little impatient with a nervous glance at Nathan. He relaxed as he saw that Nathan was ignoring him.
“Not now, Wy,” Kali told him. “Can you orb down here and help or not?”
At the word orb, Mark looked over at Kali with a frown.
Much as he wished he didn’t have to say it, Wyatt admitted, “No can do, Kal. I thought Chris told you.” After all Chris had talked her only a few days ago. Why wouldn’t he have mentioned something that was such a big deal.
“Right,” Kali replied, remembering, “your orbing’s down.” Not to be deterred she asked, “In that case can you drive down here?”
Wyatt grinned, relieved that he didn’t have to explain about the lack of orbing. “That I can do. What happened to the other student?”
“He’s fine now,” Kali replied, glancing at Mark. “His whitelighter healed him.”
The shock of her words made Wyatt drop his guard as he fairly yelled, “Your boyfriend a . . .” Noticing that his volume had caught Nathan’s attention, he dropped back to a whisper. “Your boyfriend attacked a witch, Kali?”
That was enough. “Would it have been better if he attacked a nonmagical innocent?” She snapped at him. “Yes, he attacked a witch. Are you going to help?”
“I said I would,” Wyatt repeated, taken aback. Kali wasn’t usually so defensive. “I’m at work right now, but I was working late, so Chris should already be home. I’ll wrap up here and go get him. That work for you?”
“Works fine,” she replied, subdued. “See you in an hour or so.”
“I’ll get there as I can,” Wyatt informed her. “Call me if anything else happens before we get there.”
“You got it, Wy,” Kali replied, a grin actually on her face. “Thanks.”
“See you soon.”
“Bye,” Kali told him before she hung up.
On the other end Wyatt closed his phone and looked across the room at Nathan. “Nathan, I have to go. That was my friend, Kali. She needs my help.”
“Girlfriend?” Nathan queried, curious. He didn’t recall hearing Wyatt talk much about woman and none in the last six months since Amber and Molly Alden had disappeared.
Unaware of Nathan’s thought, Wyatt wrinkled his face in disbelief. “Kali? Not a chance. She’s more like a sister or a cousin than anything else. Definitely not a girlfriend.”
Nathan shrugged, knowing that he wasn’t going to find out much of anything more about Kali. “So what’s up? You needing to leave early?”
“Early?” Wyatt scoffed. “My shift’s been over for more than an hour. I stayed late, so you’d get home sooner.”
Nathan grinned. “Sure and Lacey will appreciate it, but I can see you are eager to leave.” Nathan’s wife, Lacey, was expecting their first child in a few months. She had her first ultrasound that day and Nathan wanted to get home to see his child for the first time.
To Wyatt, leaving was an easy enough concept. “Kali needs me.” And really, that’s all there was to it. When his family and friends needed him, he wanted to be there to help.
“See you later then,” Nathan said, by way of good-bye.
“Thanks,” Wyatt replied, acknowledging how much he knew his friend wanted to get home. Wyatt headed toward the door.
“You were helping me,” Nathan told him.
At the sound of his friend’s voice, Wyatt stopped and turned around.
“Besides,” Nathan added, “this will get me home sooner.” Nathan went back to the boxes and got back to work.
Wyatt left the room and headed for his office to pick some things up before heading home. Much as he hated to renege on his promise to Nathan, Kali needed his help more. Demon or not, her boyfriend was packing demonic powers and that topped Nathan’s desire to go home early any day. He just wished he could explain why he was leaving, but Nathan was mortal and most mortals just didn’t want to know that magic really existed, at least not the evil kind.