A warlock waits for a chance to attack while a witch meditates in the park. He sees his chance and disappears. The witch begins to get up to leave but the warlock reappears in front of her. She looks confused and scared. “Who… who are you?”

He takes out a blade and the witch runs. She finds her way into some sort of storage warehouse not to far from the park. I need to hide. Before she could get herself to the back the warlock appears out of thin air in front of her. “You can’t get away witch.” She starts to run again in the opposite direction. While she is running, she looks back and sees the warlock with a fireball in her hand. Let’s see if she’s the one. He throws the fireball. Before it could hit her, she put her hand in front of her. A green light appeared in front of it and the fireball was deflected back to the warlock. He vanished as before and appeared behind her. She turned around and bumped into him. He grabbed her and pushed her on the floor.

“What do you want from me?”

“Your power.” He stabbed her and the witch died. He placed his hand on her face and pulled her power out of her. Her white-lighter appeared. She ran to heal her and bowed her head when she saw it was to late. Before he left, the warlock killed her and stole the power to heal. “Now, let’s see if the Charmed Ones can get by a deflection spell.” He chuckled and disappeared.

---

It was the day after my encounter with The Source. “Where have you been?” I was having a telephone conversation with Jackie. ( I had to go visit my grandmother. She’s sick so the family got together at her house. )

“Is she doing any better?”

( Yeah. She’s fine now. She sends her blessing. )

“Really? Did I ever meet your grandmother?”

( No but she’s the type of person hat sends her blessing to everyone. How’s Mike, I haven’t talked to him since I got back. )

“I don’t know. He was sick when I went to get him for school yesterday. I haven’t seen or talked to him since Thursday.”

( Wow. You and Michael haven’t talked in two days? Every time I’m with one of you, the other either comes by or calls. )

“Oh come on, we’re not that bad.”

( Yeah you are. If I didn’t know you guys so well I would think you two are together or something like that. )

I started laughing after she said that. “Dude, I can’t believe you said that. Being with Mike would be too weird. And anyway, he’s always with you too.”

( Jealous? ) She was laughing now too.

“No. Not jealous.”

( Why would it be weird to be with Mike? )

“I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve known him for so long that I actually wanted to be more than just friends with him. You know what I mean?”

( Really? Man. I would’ve never guessed. So why have you never tried to be? )

“I was going to but I didn’t want to freak him out or anything like that. Than I started living with him in his parent’s place and after a while I couldn’t think of Michael like that any more.”

( Really, why not? )

“Michael use to have trouble sleeping sometimes and one day he asked if it’d be all right if he slept with me. When I woke up, my arm was around him. I mentally cursed myself for doing something stupid like that. When I started to remove my arm from around him, he held it there and continued sleeping, so I stayed there. After that day, every time he asked if he could sleep with me, I put my arm around him. I started thinking that maybe whatever I felt for him, he felt for me.”

( So why didn’t you tell him. He must have if he wanted you to hold him almost every night. )

“I went down to breakfast after one of those nights. We were eating and nobody said anything. I looked at him and I knew he wanted to say something. I asked him if there was something he wanted to say…”

*** Flashback To That Day, Mike’s House

“You ok?”

He looked up from his cereal and looked at me. “Alex, you don’t mind me sleeping with you, right?”

“No. I don’t mind.” He still had a questioning face on him.

“Anything else?”

“It’s just that I feel safe whenever you’re around. Don’t get me wrong I’m no punk. I could fight for myself now, but I don’t know. Sometimes I just feel that nothing could happen to me when you’re around.”

“Michael, what do you think of me as?” I looked at him. He was thinking. You could see it in his face. He looked at me still with a question mark there. “Besides friends Mike, what do you think of me as?”

“You’re my brother, Alex. The reason I go to you is because I think of you as my older brother. I don’t know when it was that I started feeling like that. I think it was back when we were in the 8th grade and that punk punched me across the face. Next thing I knew you had that kid crying. You told me not to let people push me around and then you taught me how to fight. Since then, you’ve been around to look after me.”

***End Flashback

“So that’s why I stopped thinking about him like that. He thought of me as a brother and after a while I started to feel that way, too.”

( Wow. Alex, how long have you two known each other? )

“Since we were in the third grade.”

( That’s a long time. And you lived with him for a while too. It’s only natural he’ll end up feeling like that. I’m gonna see how he’s doing. Wanna come? )

“Yeah sure. I’ll see ya in a few.”

( Wanna ride? )

“Great. Later.” I got up and went to watch some TV. I sat there for a few minutes and Luke orbed in sitting next to me. “What up, Luke?”

“Nothin’ much. Any luck finding your brothers?”

“No, not yet. Luke, do witches only try to defeat The Source and his demons?”

“No. You protect innocents from the demons as well. That’s what the premonitions are for. The premonitions will tell you who it is you’re fighting and who your innocent is.”

“Is that my initial power?”

“Don’t know. And we won’t until the three of you call the Book.”

“How am I suppose to vanquish demons without the Book of Shadows?”

“You’ll have to use your powers. All the vanquishing spells and potions are in there. You’ll just have to fight off demons until you have it.” The doorbell rang. “Who’s that?”

“Jackie. Going to Mike’s house.”

“Oh.”

I went to open the door and saw Jackie standing there. I asked if she wanted to come inside before we left and she did. She saw Luke.

“This is Luke. He’s a friend from… work.” I looked at Luke with a look that said to play along. He didn’t pay attention. “Luke, this is Jackie.”

“Nice to meet you, Luke.”

“Same here. Well I got to go. Later, Alex.” I didn’t think he would but he did. He orbed. Luckily, Jackie was in the fridge getting something to drink.

“Ready to go?”

“Yeah sure. Let’s go.” We went outside and got into the car. She started it but the car turned off. She started it again but the same results followed.

“Car trouble.”

“Yeah. I don’t know why though. It was working fine this morning. Guess we walk now.”

We got out of the car and started walking to Michael’s place.

“It’s all right. I’ll tell my father to look at it when I get back.” Jackie’s father was a mechanic. “I remember what I wanted to ask you.”

“What?”

“What did you tell Michael when he said he thought of you as a brother?”

“Well… I said…”

***Flashback

He thought of me as a brother. I could never come clean to him and tell him that I wanted to be more then just friends, to have some kind of relationship. A brother is all I could be for him.

“An older brother, huh.”

“Yeah, an older brother.” He stopped eating for a second. “Alex?”

“Yeah.”

“If you ever find your parents, will you leave me and Jackie?”

“No way. Nothing can keep me from you guys. Nothing can keep me away from you.” He smiled. “I promise Michael, I’ll always be around to protect you.”

“So even if your family wants to take you across the country you’ll stay with us?”

“You guys are my family, Mike. You and Jackie is the only family I got left.”

***End Flashback

“Wow. You really said that?”

“More or less. It’s been a couple of years so I might have added a couple of words.”

We continued walking and talking as we went to Mike’s house. We were a few blocks away when a figure in black just came in from out of the air in front of us. We stopped to look at him. The guy was dressed in black clothes. His hair came down to his ears and his eyes were the blackest I have ever seen. He didn’t say anything. He pointed his hand at us and shot fireballs from them.

“Oh not this again.” I couldn’t fight him off in front of Jackie. She’d find out I was a witch. The demon or whatever it was had made a fireball hit Jackie’s shoulder.

“Oh shit. What the hell is going on?” She was grabbing it. It wasn’t bleeding but it looked like she was in pain.

“I don’t know. Come on, let’s hide over there.” We ran and hid in an alley hoping whoever that was wouldn’t have seen us.

“Is he coming?” She was really nervous and kept making noise.

“Be quiet. He’ll hear you.” I needed quiet to try and talk to Luke again. I didn’t know if I should do something with Jackie around. ( Luke. Luke. )

( Alex? What’s going on? )

( We were walking to Mike’s house and were attacked by a demon, I guess.)>

( You still with Jackie? )

( Yeah. She got hit with a fireball. What should I do, should I just fight even with her around or what? )

(If he comes at you, do what you need to get away. )

“I think he’s coming. Alex, what was that?”

( How did he appear to you? )

( He just came in out of nowhere. He just appeared. )

( A warlock. He blinked. That’s how they get around. Stay where you are. If he finds you just fight him off. But be careful. Warlocks are powerful. )

( What can they use to attack? )

(Not every warlock has the same abilities. I wouldn’t be able to tell you without knowing which warlock he is. Is she hurt badly? )

( No, she’ll be fine. )

“What should we do, Alex?”

“Stay here. I’ll see if he left.”

“What? He could kill you.” Maybe he could, but I wasn’t going to hide from a demon. If I didn’t do something, he could kill me or Jackie and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself thinking it was my fault for not doing anything. I started to get up and Jackie tried to stop me by pulling on my shirt.

“Let go. I’ll be back in a sec.” I got up and went out into the street. I heard her whisper something but I couldn’t make it out. I figured she was trying to make me stay so I just kept going.

I turned the corner of the building and looked around to see if I could find this warlock. I couldn’t see him anywhere. I walked forward to see if he were hiding somewhere when I felt a burning pain on my back. I fell to the floor and looked behind me. He was standing there with another fireball in his hand. I was about to try to freeze him but all of a sudden, he was standing everywhere. He had cloned himself. Instead of trying to freeze him, I used the power to explode to attack them. It didn’t work. The last one I tried it on reflected the power and knocked me back towards the alley. Luckily, Jackie didn’t see me. I got up and thought of a way to beat him or at least hurt him.

( Luke, how do I get by a deflection power? )

(You won’t be able to. You’ll need a Power of Three spell to fight that type of power. )

I couldn’t beat him. He could clone and outnumber me plus deflect my power. I thought of what he would try next. I put myself to be on alert but he disappeared. He blinked. I don’t know what he was going to try and I didn’t really want to stay and find out. I went back to see if Jackie was okay. When I got to her, she was looking at something in her hands. I couldn’t see what it was.

“Did you see him?”

I walked closer and started to see a light coming from her hands. I felt for the charm over my shirt and couldn’t find it. “What are you holding?” As I got closer, I saw her with the charm my father gave me in her hands.

“Oh. You dropped this before you left. Must have come off when I pulled on your shirt. How do I get it to stop glowing?”

Jackie. I didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to think. Jackie is my sister? I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been around her for so long and she turns out to be my sister. She handed me the charm and I looked at her. When she handed it over to me, it stopped giving off its blue light. I couldn’t do anything about this now so. I’d talk to Luke about it later.

“So what do we do? Did you see him?”

“No. No I didn’t but he could come back so we should hurry.” We started to Mike’s house again. She would ask me questions but I wasn’t paying any attention to her. All I could think about is what I would tell her and how I would explain things. The best way would be my parents explaining the whole thing. But she said the spell would be in the Book. And to get the book, the three of us needed to be together.

“Is something wrong? You haven’t been listening to anything I’ve said.”

“I’m all right. Just thinking.” We walked the remaining blocks in quiet. Jackie was looking around thinking that the warlock would appear out of thin air like last time. That’s when it hit me. The Source knew who my brothers were. That’s why he attacked Jackie. I was scared. The warlock lost his chance at her but could’ve gone to try and kill the other. I needed to talk to Luke fast. I had to convince him to tell me who my other brother is.

( Alex, run to Michael house. The warlock is there. )

Michael. I started running leaving Jackie behind.

“Alex, hold up?”

I kept running. I couldn’t wait for her. Michael was about to get killed by a warlock. Could he be the other? There was no time to ponder this but I was going to save him even if it meant exposing myself as a witch to him. He though of me as a brother and as a brother I would do anything to save him. I was scared. Michael could die. I was about four blocks away. By the time I get there, he could be dead. Then, an idea came to me. “Luke. Luke.” He orbed in. “Orb Jackie back to the manor. Keep her there and don’t let her leave. I’m gonna go get Michael.”

“All right. Go. Fast. And orb. He could be dead if you take your time running.” Orbing, of course. I had forgotten I could do that. I started running and orbed while doing it.

---

Luke turned and saw Jackie standing there. He started running to her praying she wouldn’t turn around and run in the other direction. He reached her and she looked at him trying to form words. “Lu… Alex… wha… what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain later. Right now we got to get back to the manor.” He grabbed her hand.

“What are you doing?” She snatched her hand back from him.

“Trust me.” He put his hand on her shoulder and orbed them both.

---

I landed in front of his door. It was melded shot. I couldn’t ram it in so I exploded my way through it. When I got inside the house, everything seemed normal. I looked around the bottom floor for any signs of Mike or the warlock. Then I heard him from upstairs.

“Ahhh.” He was in some sort of pain. I orbed up to his room and landed right next to him. He had blood coming from his mouth. When I landed, a fireball was heading right for him. There wasn’t any time to call for it so I pushed him out of the way and got hit by the ball myself. He’s part white-lighter. It knocked me to the back of the room. There wasn’t anything I could do to fight the warlock because he could deflect anything I throw at him. If I stayed here, he would kill us both.

Michael came over to me and helped me up. “How did you get here?”

“I promised, remember. I told you I’d be around to protect you.”

“Yeah, I remember but I don’t get it. How are you here?”

“I’ll explain at the manor. Grab my arm.” I orbed us to the manor hoping there was a way I could explain all this to them.

---

The warlock watched as Alex and Michael orbed away. “So the witch is part white-lighter. Guess there’s only one thing to do.” He chuckled again and blinked away.

---

“Luke, how did we get here?”

“I told you, I’m not the one to explain that to you.”

“I’m getting out of here.” Jackie started to make her way to the door.

“Jackie no. You can’t leave.” He orbed in front of her trying to block the door. She looked at him and went back to the living room and sat on the couch.

“When is he getting back?”

“He’ll be here soon. Just relax. If you go out there, you could get killed.”

Mike and I orbed in. I started to collapse but he caught me. Luke grabbed me and dragged me to the couch. “What’s going on, Luke? Why do I feel so out of it?”

“You’re beaten up pretty badly. Look at you; you have blood all over the side of your face. What happened?” He put his hands over my face and he started to heal the cut I had across it. “I’ve been having a bad day. I’m fine, heal them.” They were both wounded. Luke went to Mike and sat him down. He placed his hands over his chest and healed his wounds. Then he went to Jackie and did the same.

“Alex, what’s going on here?”

“Hold on. Mike.” I took the charm off and threw it at him. “Catch.” He caught it. The moment his hands touched the charm, it started to glow the light of the white-lighters.

“You too, huh? I felt so close to you I should have known you would be one of them when Luke gave me the clue.”

Michael looked at me and said, “What do you mean?”

“Only took you two days.”

“Yup.”

“What? Alex, what’s going on?”

( Luke, how do I explain this? )

( I’ll do it. ) “The three of you are brothers.”