Ok so I know that this chapter took forever, I'm sorry to those of you that are actually reading and following. I planned only to take a small hiatus for my birthday celebrations which wound up being dragged out for over a week, during that time I was also given some bad news about a close friend of mine and I've been dealing with that. Sorry this chapter is still so short, I haven't really been in the writing mood and it's probably more internalizing than anything; but I do hope to have the next few chapters out in a timelier manner. As always questions, comments, praise and flames are always welcome...I can be reached at lokodoki@yahoo.com hope to hear from you guys.
Somewhere in the Underworld
"What do you mean the second son still lives!? He's weak and pathetic, how can you not take out the weakest link?"
"It wasn't my fault Giovanni!" the reply came from a rather large man with eyes that were better suited for a cat than his human appearance. "The older one interfered; they took out Syrex before I could even make myself known, but there is an even weaker link, the second son has taken a lover; a boy that has been on our radar for quite some time now."
"Really, and who might this boy be?" Giovanni's face twisted into a lecherous grin as a plan slowly started to formulate in his devious mind.
"The boy is named Alex, Alex Hamilton; he is one of the son's charges and is protected by charmed magic, but he is still just a mortal. If we manage to kill him then the second son will be an even easier target than now. He will be blinded by rage, and that will be our time to strike."
"We will go after this boy, but we will not kill him; no we will twist and warp him and bring him to our side. The charmed son will come after him with everything he has, but we will be prepared and the final battle, the fight that will bring downfall to the brothers and their impudent sister will be fought and won by the very man that Christopher loves. It will be epic and poetic; this will be our greatest moment and it's all thanks to you Zanethian. Now leave me, I have much to plan."
At his master's words, the large feral looking man slowly fades into the shadow of a very large panther and then fades away all together. Giovanni walks over to a table and uncovers an ancient book, the antithesis to the one and only charmed Book of Shadows. As the book is uncovered, the very air around it is distorted as the sum of the world's evil runs like electricity through it. It had taken many years and had cost quite a few demons their lives, but the underworld had finally managed to reclaim its most sacred relic from the Andes Mountains where Leo orbed it so long ago. The Grimoire currently held the life force of the Source of all evil; the child that died so many years ago during the coronation was only the physical embodiment of the Sources true power. The force, the energy of the Source could never truly be destroyed and was only transferred to the most powerful vessel left in the chamber after the explosion that wiped out the leaders of the underworld. The child's life-force had survived and would be reborn once the proper vessel was found.
"Soon the Source will return to full power, and the Charmed Ones will tremble in fear," Giovanni was speaking to no one in particular, but hearing the words brought him peace. "They have only dealt with a weakened version of the Source so far, the true power, the unadulterated evil that is the Source will have a new home soon. This source will not be so easily vanquished, this source will not be muddled down by demon greed or human emotion; No this source will be evil incarnate and will bring the entire charmed line to its knees, will make them beg for death and will deliver it mercilessly."
Alex's POV
I was sitting at the kitchen table in our tiny little slice of heaven that we referred to as home. My head was down and at the moment I was trying to steal the chill from the glass table with my skin. It wasn't working however, I was still sweating and yet somehow I managed a shiver. My body almost refused to act normally and was not listening to a single command I tried to give it. My limbs felt weak, and it was all I could do to remember to breathe, because at this point breathing had turned into a conscious action that I had to keep reminding myself to perform.
How did this happen?" I thought errantly, willing my normal thought pattern to return but once again being rejected by my own body. Where had I gone wrong?' I kept up the line of questions to my own subconscious each one being ignored by the one being what was supposed to be there for me no matter what. One day you're living on the street, fighting for survival and your next meal, granted that's not a solid existence, and the next you're in love with a beautiful angel that has managed to save your life and where does that lead you Alex?' I asked this last question of myself fully expecting silence to be my only response, instead I finally heard a small voice somewhere far off yet so close to me, You're fucked!" that was the only answer my own mind could come up with, nothing prolific or even useful; two simple words and somehow the meaning behind them went so much deeper than the collective meaning of both words singularly.
I knew from the moment that Chris spoke those four words to me, that everything was just going to be downhill. It wasn't until the words he said after that, that I knew just how far downhill I was actually headed. At this point downhill didn't even cover how far I had fallen in a few short minutes, I was now down the proverbial rabbit hole and Alice was giving me advice. `It wasn't a dream.' My mind kept replaying those words in my head like a scratched cd skipping at the worst part of a song. I was reeling from emotion, and the same phrase over and over in my head wasn't allowing me any peace. I looked up, almost pleading with my own body to obey me and I was met with two sets of eyes. One set belonged to my angel, my knight, my soul; his beautiful hazel eyes stared intently at me, pleading for some sort of assurance, some acknowledgement of some kind that I wasn't allowing myself to give him. The other set of eyes belonged to someone I had slowly begun to consider a brother, a confidant and a mentor; his chocolate brown eyes stared deep into me almost scratching the surface of my soul. I knew that gaze well, it was given to me when he wanted to know how I would react to bad news, but this time the news had already been relayed and the look was more probing than researching.
Fighting with my own muscles, I pushed myself into a fully upright sitting position fully taking in the room around me for what seemed like the first time. Everything seemed normal enough; the refrigerator still hummed with an annoying buzz, there was still one fluorescent bulb that flickered every 45 seconds as if it were on a schedule, the clock above the sink still ticked in normal time. Yes everything seemed normal enough on the surface, but now I saw things just underneath that ordinary façade, and things took on new meaning. The herbs in the pantry were no longer just herbs, the pots in the cabinets were not just for making stews and the recipes I knew paled in comparison to the recipes Wyatt and Chris could create.
How did this happen?' I asked my subconscious once more, one day you're a normal twenty year old, and the next you have a destiny that includes death, and a boyfriend who has more power in his pinky than the president of the United States.' My mind once again either couldn't or refused to answer and left me sitting there blankly, no further along in my own self-diagnosis that when I was initially hearing all of that information.
Chris' POV
I sat there for a long time just waiting for Alex to speak, he had finally looked up a few minutes ago but his mouth remained sealed tight. I was lost and confused, my whole future with the man I loved was literally crumbling before my very eyes, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I stared at him with pleading eyes, hoping against all odd that he would somehow be able to accept this news and be alright, but that wasn't my Alex. My sweet, caring, loving and logical Alex would look for some solution to this problem, as if it were a math equation just waiting for the right calculations to be applied. I also knew that this was not an equation, this was not a problem to be solved, it simply was; and the only possible answers to this situation consisted of acceptance or denial. I prayed for the former; however I braced for the latter. I finally couldn't take it anymore; I was not going to lose my light without a fight, so I spoke and cracked an almost infinite silence
"Alex?" I started, but realized I had no idea where to end. He looked expectantly at me, still confused and very obviously searching for the solution, a solution that I couldn't give him.
"Alex." I said more firmly, and as a statement rather than a question. "Are you ok? I need you to understand that I tried to keep this from you for as long as possible, I knew you would have to learn the truth someday, but I just wanted to keep you safe. Can you understand that?"
He looked into my eyes, gazing deep like he always did when he was contemplating life. He finally spoke; the words were so soft I almost didn't hear them even in the deafening silence. "So where does this leave me?"
His voice was filled with regret and longing and it made my heart tear inside my chest, but Alex was strong I had to believe that he would understand and be able to handle this.
His voice was stronger when he spoke again, "You've dumped this all on me, so tell me Chris where does this leave me? Where do I go from here? How do I handle a future filled with monsters and death and magic? Please explain how I am supposed to look at you the same, how I'm supposed to see any of this the same? You're family, you're heritage is the stuff of dreams and fairytales and you're sitting there telling me it's real and I'm expected to just digest and move on?"
His voice started breaking at that point and I couldn't think to do anything else than move to him and hold him close. It had only been two years since I first met him, two years since I saved my charge from death; and here I was telling him that death had now become a part of his life. I held him while he cried, letting him deal with this revelation in his own way. I looked up at Wyatt and he just dropped his head slowly, knowing how hard this was going to be. No matter how many charges the Elders assigned to us, no matter how many times we had to save an innocent, no matter how many times we had to reveal a person's true nature to themselves; it was always hard, always heartbreaking when a person realized their life would never be the same again. This time however, it was someone that I truly cared about, someone I loved and planned to spend my life with. Alex was special in so many ways, not just because of his destiny, or his past; no Alex was special because of the person he had allowed himself to become through all of the crap he had to deal with his entire life. He had grown into a caring loving man, a man that had stolen my heart and found a way to lodge himself deep within my soul.
"I know you're probably not tired, but maybe you should go to bed we can talk more about this in the morning." I wasn't trying to be dismissive; I was just concerned about how much more his body could take, how much more his mind could take. "Alex, try to get some sleep and I promise we'll talk about this tomorrow, if you want to that is."
Alex's POV
Sleep suddenly sounded like an amazing thing, for as long as my eyes were closed and I was unconscious today, I don't think that I actually slept. I realized at that moment that my mind and body were running on autopilot and I was actually exhausted. I looked up to Chris and then to Wyatt with resign plastered to my face. They both just stared solemnly back at me, knowing full well that me choosing sleep was not me claiming defeat or understanding merely a circumstance of the situation.
I spoke softly, suddenly too tired to make a real effort with my voice, "I am kind of tired, just afraid of waking up again," I chuckled just then realizing that I sounded like some angst ridden teenager from an after school special. "Well not waking up, but having reality come back. This reality anyway; maybe I can play it off as a dream again. I need to go to bed before I stop making sense completely."
I untangled myself from Chris' embrace, looking at them once more before muttering a tired and haphazard `Goodnight.' I walked slowly back toward the bedroom, growing even more tired as I neared the door. As I reached the bed it took all of my effort to actually climb in and under the blankets. I lay there for a few precious seconds just running through my newfound reality as sleep quickly overtook my conscious. The last thoughts to run through my head were that tomorrow would be a new day, and I would awake a new man. I just hoped he was better.