Post by StoryGirl83 on Mar 11, 2009 9:59:04 GMT -5
Chapter Forty-Eight – Two Sides of the Picture
Chris was sitting in front of the computer comparing information to what was on various scraps of paper when Wyatt entered. Wyatt walked over to the couch and slumped into it. He sighed and looked at his brother. “What a day!”
Chris looked at him and chuckled. “Agreed. Unfortunately we still have stuff ahead of us. Pat’s demon.”
Wyatt groaned. “I don’t want to fight another demon today.”
“I’d rather get it done with,” Chris argued.
“We have more than eight months,” Wyatt protested. “Can’t it wait until morning?”
Chris rolled his eyes. “My research indicates that he gets stronger each day until he’s ready to attack again. He’s capable of attacking; he just usually doesn’t until he needs to, sort of like the soul thieves.
Wyatt sighed. “Fine. If that’s the case, I guess you’re right. Can we summon it? And are you meaning to summon it here, to our little apartment? Oh, and did you find a name for it?”
Chris raised an eyebrow. “Probably, not without discussing it with you, and no.”
Wyatt frowned as he connecter the answers to the questions in his mind. “How about, did you find out why the victims aren’t dead?”
“He draws powers from them,” Chris replied. “They get weaker as time goes, but so long as they are alive he can use them. Once dead they are of no use to him.”
“And why didn’t you ask my help for this research?”
Chris shrugged. “With the day you’ve had you were exhausted.”
“You didn’t exactly have a restful day either,” Wyatt pointed out.
Chris shrugged a second time. “I wasn’t the one under attack. Besides, I tried to wake you, but you wouldn’t budge. Any dreams?”
Wyatt shook his head. It had slowly become an accepted knowledge between the brothers that sometimes Wyatt had troubling dreams and more often when he was emotionally stressed. What they weren’t sure of was whether is was magical in origin or just a major stress all its own.
“That’s something at least,” Chris sighed in relief. “I did find a little info on how to defeat him.”
“You know we could always go to a reliable source,” Wyatt suggested. “Pat got what little she knows from her mother.”
“I called her,” Chris informed him. “She said that they didn’t have to summon him, but she suspected she knew why he attacked them.”
“Wait!” Wyatt exclaimed surprised. “The demon attacked them?”
Chris nodded. “After they started talking to family of the victims, checking out memorials for the victims. She did say she thought is you could collect some sort of DNA sample for enough victims, hair, nail clippings, stuff like that, that you could use them to summon the demon. He’s connected to them.”
Wyatt considered this. “What about a spell using the names of some of the victims?”
“It could work,” Chris agreed after some consideration. “As to defeating him, she said he was fairly easy to defeat. A good potion ought to do it.”
“So summoning is the hard part.” It wasn’t a question.
Chris nodded. “The victims are returned to where they were taken from once he is defeated.” When his brother frowned, Chris asked, “What?”
“Did she happen to say what happens if where they were has something in the way?”
“Sort of,” Chris informed him. “She said one victim was five stories up when abducted and that when they defeated the demon the building no longer existed. It was all over the news as were some of the other long missing victims. He had no memory of the time in between, but other than being weak from the demon he was unharmed and hadn’t aged. It seemed that he was placed five stories below where he was originally taken from, so it appears that they will be placed some place safe near to where they were.”
“I suppose you have a potion all ready, too.”
Chris shrugged. “It’s cooling on the stove.”
“Does Mom know you use those good pans of hers that way?”
“You think I’m suicidal?”
Wyatt laughed as he left the room in search of a potion vial to fill.
This is bad, Steve thought as he looked into the bowl. If they defeat this demon dozens of useless humans will be free and there will be one less demon to help take them down. I cannot allow that.
He looked down at his notes taken while spying on them and a smile formed on his lips. Perfect.