Post by StoryGirl83 on Jul 19, 2010 20:07:59 GMT -5
Chapter Eighteen – No Time Left
Flashback
Seth frowned as no one seemed to be doing something. With little time to waste, he shimmered himself in front of the door.
“Be back,” Paige called to no one in particular. “Tyler, get your family and Hope out of here.” She added just before she orbed out of the room.
Chris pushed himself up, wincing as he did. It hurt to put weight on the right side of his body where he’d hit the table corner.
Tyler tried pulling his family and Hope toward the door. Miranda and Halli came easily enough, but Hope wasn’t going to have it.
Hope moved away from the Westcott family and started creeping around the edge of the room. This was the monster that took her sisters from her. He wasn’t getting away with that.
As Wyatt grabbed up the paper with the spells he and Chris had written he registered with surprise that his mom was headed toward the kitchen. Figuring she had some sort of plan in mind, he decided to ignore her actions and started chanting one of the spells. “Human once, demon now. Little wonder you know how. Blending as a mortal son, only to kill and make them run. Banish this evil from my sight; vanquish him now; end this night.”
Hope grabbed up a table leg from the broken table and swung it at the demon. “I want my sisters back.”
Avoiding the blow James laughed. “You think I care what you want.”
“Nope,” Hope admitted with a bit of sass in her voice. “I don’t imagine you do.” She kicked her leg out at him, this time hitting him in the shin. “But I want my sisters back and I will get them back.”
He sneered at her as he ducked to avoid a potion being thrown by Paige as she orbed back in. The potion hit the floor. “You aren’t even worth my time, little girl.”
“What makes someone worth your time?” Hope demanded. “Why did you take my sisters?”
“Hope,” Chris called, pulling her away, “don’t get too close.” He winced as the action pulled at his injury.
“He took my sisters,” Hope announced unnecessarily. “I want to know why he didn’t take me.”
“You have no powers,” James informed her with another sneer. “You’d die too quickly.” He sniggered as he ducked another of Paige’s potions.
Paige scowled in frustration.
Chris waved his arm, sending the broken potion back toward the demon. It hit him, but did little more than make him wince.
“Wyatt, come here,” Piper called as she reentered the room and froze it. She was carrying a knife.
“What’s with the knife?” Wyatt asked confused. “Now, is not a time to be cooking?”
“I need an ingredient for a potion,” Piper informed him, “and I really don’t want to get it.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
Wyatt looked at his brother. “Do you have any idea what she’s talking about?”
Chris shook his head. “Not a clue.”
“And here I thought you two paid attention to my potion’s lessons,” Piper scowled.
“We did,” both brothers promised.
“You think he’s an upper level demon?”
“Maybe,” Piper agreed. “And if he isn’t this should still work.”
“What should work?” Wyatt asked as the sound of the front door opening caught his attention. “Someone’s here.”
“Piper,” Leo Wyatt called from the hall. “We have a visitor.”
“Tell, them to go home, please,” Piper called back.
“Is something the matter?” Ava Nicolae asked as she looked around the corner. “Oh!” she gasped as she saw the scene in the sitting room.
“This can wait, right, Ava?” Piper asked.
Ava nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll see you later.”
“Take Tyler with you.”
“Tyler?”
Tyler entered the room with Miranda behind him hold Halli. “Hi.”
“Take them over to your place, Ava, please.”
“Sure,” Ava agreed. “I’ll let your friends explain that,” she added pointed into the sitting room.
“Give me that knife,” Paige demanded as she grabbed it from Piper. “He’s going to unfreeze and we need to make that potion. And if I’m getting that, it had better work.”
“What is she doing with that knife?” Wyatt asked his brother as Ava lead the Wescotts out of the house and Paige headed toward the demon.
“I think she means to cut the demon,” Chris guessed.
“With that dinky knife?” Wyatt frowned. “I do not remember anything in potions lessons about this.”
“I think I do, but only vaguely.”
“Hey, guys!” Seth called out as the demon started moving, again.
Piper waved her hands up and down, freezing James, Leo, and Seth. Then, she waved her hands at Leo to unfreeze him. She looked into the sitting room long enough to wave her hands at Seth and unfreeze him, too. “Paige, bring that to me as soon as you have it. I’ll be getting the potion ready for it.”
Paige nodded and headed back into the sitting room. She approached the demon with a grimace.
“What’s she doing?” Seth asked Wyatt and Chris.
“She’s going to cut off a piece of his flesh for a potion,” Leo informed all three.
Wyatt wrinkled his nose in disgust.
Seth shook his head. “Aunt Paige, I’ll do it. I’d like to feel that I’m contributing.”
“With pleasure,” Paige agreed as she handed over the knife.
Seth took it and approached the demon. He swiped down with the knife and cut a piece off James’ ear. He squatted down and picked up the ear piece between two fingers and headed toward the kitchen.
“What now?” Wyatt wondered. “Got any more potions, Aunt Paige?”
Paige threw some at him, but none of them seemed to have any sort of effect.
Hope took a second one of the broken pieces of table and started toward the demon. That was when the freeze wore off, again.
James grabbed Hope, causing her to drop the broken wood, and started toward the door. “You wanted me to take you.”
“No!” Hope yelled, chomping down on his arm. “Let me go.”
James howled in pain, but kept his course.
“Hope!” Paige yelled trying to orb her to her. Nothing happened except James kept his run toward the door.
“You aren’t using that trick twice,” James retorted without looking back.
Chris was the closest to the demon and forced himself to ignore the pain in his body as he ran at James and tackled him.
Wyatt was there seconds later. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in pain?” he asked his brother as he tried to pry James arms open.
“I’m fine,” Chris insisted. “Hope needs help.”
Paige picked up Hope’s make shift weapon. She jabbed the wood into James and he dropped his hold on Hope long enough for Chris to pull her out and roll them away.
“Thanks, Aunt Paige,” Chris called as he got Hope out of the way, doing his best to ignore the pain he was in.
As Seth reentered the room he noticed the air around James start to shimmer and yelled, “Cover your ears,” before immediately letting out a shriek that dropped everyone to their knees including James.
Wyatt glared at his best friend. His glare grew even more menacing when Seth shrugged. “Aunt Paige, any anti manticore potions on you?”
Paige opened her mouth to answer, but stopped as she noticed Seth had stopped moving. She looked toward the back of the house to see Piper entering with a potion vial.
“Sorry about that,” Piper told them. “I needed to focus on the potion.”
“It’s ready then?”
There seemed to be no audibly answer to Wyatt’s question. Instead Piper threw the vial at James, hitting him. It broke, smattering potion all over him, glass shards hitting the ground.
Paige frowned. “Nothing?”
“He didn’t bleed,” Piper announced, freaking out. “He’s not bleeding. There’s not blood. There’s nothing.”
“Yeah,” Phoebe commented, “of course he’s not bleeding. He’s frozen.”
“He’s frozen,” Piper mumbled. “But I’ve vanquished frozen demons, so why would that matter?” She waved her arms anyway, unfreezing the room.
Leo and Seth started moving, again, just as James started to twitch and scream.
“Is everyone all right?” Leo ask as he looked around.
“Except for the demon, yeah,” Piper informed him as James exploded into a million indistinguishable pieces. “Everyone is good.”
The door suddenly popped open and a loud squeal of victory came across the speaker. “It worked!”