Post by StoryGirl83 on Nov 9, 2011 15:12:56 GMT -5
Chapter Sixteen – Worrying About Friends
Brianna sat in the waiting room at San Francisco Memorial very impatient. It had been over an hour since Paige had orbed Max into the back seat of Ava’s car. Ava was up there somewhere working on him with a handful of nurses she had pulled from all over the hospital in order to keep her promise about keeping magic from being exposed. Right now, she didn’t care too much about that. She just wanted him alive and unharmed.
So focused was she on her thoughts of Max, that she didn’t notice anyone approaching her until Toby Edmunds had plopped into the seat next to her. “How’s Max doing?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. They’ve been up there for more than an hour. How’d you know? I’m the empath.”
Toby frowned. “What do you mean they’ve been up there for more than an hour? We’re in a hospital. Max can’t be in a hospital.”
“You think I don’t know that,” Brianna shot back, her voice in a low whisper. “It pretty much came down to this or watch him die. I’m not prepared to do that.”
Toby sighed and nodded. “Can they even help him?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “How can I know? He’s never been this badly injured before. I think this is one of the reasons we avoid fights when possible.”
“We avoid fights when possible, because it is best for those we help that we avoid attention when possible,” Toby corrected her. “And then there’s the power factor.”
“As if I could forget,” she retorted.
“What happened, Brianna?” Toby asked, looking at the main area of the hospital with a worried frown. “Max isn’t someone who goes down easily.”
“What do you know about Synergists?” she asked softly.
“Not much and we aren’t discussing this here,” he informed her as he stood up. He then turned and pulled her up from her chair. “Let’s go talk outside.”
She allowed him to help her up and then followed him outside. A warm spring wind whipped at her long auburn hair as they exited through the emergency room entrance. “You said you don’t know much. What do you know?”
“I know Max’s mother was one,” he informed her. “Come on, I probably know less than you. Why do you ask?”
“Because the demons we were after, two of them were Synergists,” she informed him.
Toby stared at her. “Okay, so that means he knows their weaknesses.”
“Yeah,” she shot back annoyed. “It also means if he’s anywhere near when one is vanquished, it could kill him.”
Toby’s eyes widened. “You mean a sympathetic vanquish?”
“Something like that,” she scowled. “I didn’t know or I would have done this myself or with one of you guys . . . assuming I could even find you. You really need a cell phone.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Actually, I have one of those.”
She shot a startled look at him. “Since when?”
“My father was feeling paternal,” Toby informed her with a shrug. “I hadn’t seen him for over a decade and suddenly there he was in front of me, He handed me a phone and informed me that his number was programmed in and to call.”
Brianna stared at him for several seconds, wondering if he was pulling her leg. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “It was rather strange,” he admitted. “I’m not about to forget a thing like that.”
“And have you talked to him?”
“He’s called me,” he told her, “so yes, I’ve talked to him. We have nothing in common, but that doesn’t really surprise me. His goal is still evil. And mine is still good. Those two things aren’t compatible.”
“But you want to know if you can change him, right?” she asked skeptically, even if she wondered the same thing about her uncle at times, even if she tried to direct her cousin along the right path. They all had their weak spots when it came to family . . . well not Aka and she’d thought not Toby.
He shook his head. “I can’t change him. I know that. I’m just not sure how to extract myself from this. I can’t say I’m all that eager to vanquish him, but I could if it came to it.”
And that was something she couldn’t say for her Uncle Steve. She couldn’t vanquish him. She only hoped that if it came to it, she could do what she had to.
Toby shook his head, trying to clear it. “Look, we can exchange numbers later. You said two of the demons were Synergists. What about the third?”
“Still in the isolation chamber,” she informed him with a shrug. “I suspect that is where he will stay for the next week or so. When you don’t have to feed your ‘patients’ and you are evil to start with, you tend to make it so no one can get in until you are ready to let them out.”
“No way of opening it early?” Toby found that a little hard to believe. There was always a back up plan.
She shrugged, again. “Right now, I’m more interested in Max. And Ben,” she added remembering their friend’s collapsed the day before. “Did you find out what was wrong with him?”
“As far as the world, under and above, is concerned, CT Bennett is just fine,” Toby informed her.
“And as far as his friends are concerned?” she pressed.
“Indigestion,” he reported cryptically.
“Indigestion,” she repeated in disbelief. “What kind of indigestion lasts four months?”
“The kind that is caused by demon possession,” he informed her.
Brianna had met CT, Toby, and Aka long after magic had stopped and thus she had never seen CT while the demon was actively trying to control him. Without magic, the demon had little ability to do much of anything to fight against the growing personality of the little boy he’d thought so easy to control. Aka had shared stories of the boys when she’d first met them, an astounding thought when one considered Aka’s age at the time had been less than a week. Still demons were a funny thing and Aka suspected most of those memories were fabricated from things the two boys had said and not actual memories. “Why now?”
Toby sighed. “I suspect with magic back, Ben’s not the only one now able to control the demons powers and he’s got some pretty big guns in that arsenal to pick from. I mean mental manipulation is nothing to sneeze at.”
“Wasn’t that one of the witch powers the demon stole?”
Toby rolled his eyes. “You pay way to much attention to those stories.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“I think so, but it doesn’t really matter now does it?” he pointed out. “The demon has it now and he’s been trying to use it and other things on Ben. He’s fighting a difficult battle, but it is one that he will win. By possessing him but failing to control him after all these years, the demon has put himself at a severe disadvantage, but he’s stuck. He hasn’t the power to leave either unless he can control Ben.”
“And why would he leave if he succeeded,” she finished. “I know. But you don’t think this will kill him.”
“I think that I cannot honestly say that it definitely won’t,” Toby admitted, “but I suspect that underworld is going to have caused to hate CT Bennett for a very long time to come. Besides, Ben’s got the home field advantage so to speak and he’s got us. That alone gives him a huge advantage. The demon does not, cannot, understand the value and the strength of friendship. In the end I think it will give him the edge he needs to win this battle . . . unless of course you’ve figured out a workable spell.”
“Not a chance,” she returned with a sigh. “I don’t have the strength to fight that demon. In thousands of years the only one who ever did was cursed to being forever possessed by him, so no, I sincerely doubt I can do it. If we could convince the Charmed Ones to . . .”
“That is not possible,” Toby interrupted. “You know that.”
She sighed and nodded. “I do know that, but I think it’s foolish. It’s possible that maybe they would be able to vanquish The Psycho without killing Ben, too.”
“No,” he shook his head. “Even if Ben agreed, I won’t allow you to risk that with my best friend.”
“Ben can’t do this on his own,” she informed him, “and neither can we.”
“Regardless, you won’t do it,” he said with finality in his voice. There was a pause as a frown grew on his face. “What did you call the demon?”
She shrugged. “I gave up trying to pronounce his name a long time ago, so I decided to just call him, The Psycho.”
“His name is Schemamnastic,” Toby informed her.
“Now who’s been listening to the stories too much?” she asked, tongue in cheek.
“Aka,” he shot back.
“Well, I’m not going to try that mouthful,” she informed him, “so The Psycho will have to work.”
He chuckled. “I guess that is a pretty good description of him. What kind of idiot demon really wants to be stuck in the body of twenty-four-year-old witch/demon hybrid whose got the support system that he’s got and the dad he’s got. I’d be scared away just by Ben’s dad if I was . . . The Psycho.”
Brianna giggled. “He is pretty scary when he wants to be and when it comes to Ben . . . I’d be downright terrified to get in his way.”
“Well, why don’t we go check with the nurses’ station and see if they have any info for us on Max and then I’m going to need your help. We need to deal with that third demon before he has a chance to get out of that chamber.”
“He’s not going anywhere, Toby,” Brianna protested, instantly sobering. “Let’s at least wait until Max is out of surgery.”
Toby stared at her, suddenly understanding the gravity of the situation. “Surgery? Great just great.” He kicked at the air and lifted a despairing look upward. “Fine, we’ll wait. Or at least you can. I can’t rest well until this demon is dealt with, so I’m going to go see if I can find out what we’re up against. Ben’s in no condition to fight anything right now except maybe a cold. And even that’s kind of iffy, but he’s got his dad with him, so I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“He’s worse than he looked, isn’t he?”
Toby sighed. “He said he has good days and bad ones and today’s just a really bad one. It will get better.”
“He needs us.”
“Brianna, if we don’t take care of that last demon, we will feel the full wrath of CT Bennett upon us,” Toby informed her. “And because . . . The Psycho would love to get rid of us, he won’t protest.”
“’Cause he’s such a big danger to you,” she snorted. “Toby, you’re a Scabber. They require a Power of Three spell. I’m not even sure that’s accessible right now and we sure aren’t going up against the Charmed Ones.”
He gave her a look. “Let’s get a few things straight. As you said, I’m a Scabber demon. However, a Power of Three spell is not the only way to vanquish us. If you want more info on that, look it up. Your dad has a Book of Shadows and I know for a fact that Scabber demons are discussed in length in that thing. I give him all the info I had on them. Second, I’m also a darklighter. There are several ways to vanquish us. And because I was born a darklighter, it clouds the waters even more. Among other things the combination actually makes me mortal which makes me susceptible to all sorts of additional things . . . like starving to death. Aka and I have also provided your dad with as much info on that as we could.”
“That’s why he didn’t die,” Brianna commented, looking back at the hospital.
Toby frowned. “What?”
“Max,” she elaborated. “Your mixed biology makes you more susceptible to all sorts of things. Max’s gives him a fighting chance at survival. Had he been a full Synergist, everyone seems to agree that he would have died, even Max, but because he wasn’t, he didn’t die instantly. Hopefully they will be able to save him.” She closed her eyes and leaned against the hospital’s outer wall “He’d better make it.”
Toby put a hand on her shoulder. “Max isn’t someone to go down without a fight. If he’s made it this far, he’ll make it.”