The three boys make their way out of the basement and quietly down the hallway where they are greeted with yells from their friends and those of a strange voice.

“You will all die, tell me where he is.” The stranger states. “Tell me and I’ll let this one go.” He indicates towards Howie who he has in a tight grip with a long, sharp knife pointed towards his chest.

“Who be you and why should we tell you?” Lynn states from her place directly in front of the remaining boys.

“I? You ask who I am? Surely witch, you know of me?”

“Neigh, I know not. Speak your name.” Lynn states.

“Listen witch, I know the young wizard is here. Now tell me which is he, before I kill all that are not.”

“You’ll be killing no one today, wizard.” Johnny states as the 3 white-lighters return to the house yet again. “Remove yourself from this house, you have no powers here.”

“Surely you jest, white-lighter. I have all powers here, just as I do anywhere.” Although the wizard sounded sure that what he was saying was true he did look around as if looking for some type of barrier.

“This house is protected. Just try a spell and see…It will not work here.” Again Johnny sounds much more sure of himself than he truly is.

JC reaches up and grips the medallion around his neck. He reaches out and whispers to Joey and Justin, “Stay here, be silent.” Then makes his way down the hall, stopping short about three feet behind the stranger.

Lynn notices JC and attempts to keep the wizard from noticing him. “Why have you come wizard, there is nothing here for you?”

“Stupid witch, you know why I am here. I come for the young wizard. He has yet to choose which side he wishes to serve and I am here to show him the dark side, as you and your kind have no doubt shown him the side of good.”

“And if he refuses to go with you?” This from Darren.

“Then IT will begin.”

“Then I guess IT begins,” JC states from his place behind the wizard. “I have no intention of becoming evil, if even for one minute. I shall stay with my brothers and fight all that is evil til I breath no more.”

The wizard spins and faces JC, dropping Howie, who promptly scurries away. “So you are the young wizard. Come, you have been summoned.”

“Summoned by whom? And since you didn’t hear me the first time I shall repeat myself. I have NO intention of going anywhere with you.”

“You have no choice. You have been summoned. He will not take No for an answer.”

“Well, he’s going to have to. I said no, and that means no. Now remove yourself from this house.” JC growls. The blue aura that had been seen only twice by his friends shows itself for the third time.

“So you have already chosen? He will not be happy.” The stranger states as he vanishes into a puff of black smoke.

As soon as he leaves the blue glow around JC begins to subside and he leans against the wall.

“Josh? You ok?” Justin states as he moves in on JC, Joey hot on his heels.

JC meets Justin’s concerned eyes and then looks around the room at his friends, “He will return. We must find a way to keep them from coming back into the house.” He looks around the room, sees the ‘Book’ lying on the table and heads for it.

“Oh great, more riddles to figure out.” Chris states, “I can’t wait to see what it says this time.”

JC places his hands over the ‘Book’ and the pages begin to flip.

“Has anyone else noticed that he’s getting stronger every minute, or is it just my imagination?” Lance states.

“He is coming into his wizard powers. I’m not sure what has triggered it or why it is happening but it is. All we can do is help him deal with it as best we can.” Diane states, “Even the ‘Powers that Be’ don’t know what’s going on.”

“Great, now that just makes me feel a whole hell of a lot better.” AJ grumbles.

“Alex, watch your mouth.” Kevin states.

“Ah, this should work.” JC states. “Guys, come here. I’ll need your help if this is going to work.”

The rest of the boys join him at the table as he reads from the ‘Book’:

Joey heads for the kitchen and begins rooting around in the cabinets. Kevin follows but says nothing as Joey begins mixing the contents of two small bottles. Once he’s done he brings the mixture back to JC who hands it directly to Brian.

“We must do this together, all of us at each entrance, including windows. Brian, Joey, Nick and AJ take the second floor. Kevin, Howie and Justin the basement. Lance and I will take the attic.”

“But we only have 2 bottles,” Joey states.

‘Yes but the bowl is still on the counter in the kitchen, isn’t it?”

“You know me too well Josh.” Joey leans in and places a light kiss on JC’s cheek, walks over to Justin and does the same, then turns, “Alright lets get this house secured men.”

Kevin takes one of the bottles from his cousin and leads his crew to the basement.

JC and Lance make their way to the kitchen, grab the bowl and head for the attic. The two boys reach into the bowl and swipe some of the substance across the two windows. JC pulls out his cell and calls Justin, “You guys done? Good. Ok start the chant.” He hangs up and dials Joey’s cell. “Ready Joe? Good. Yeah we’re gonna start now. Love you too Joey.” He hangs up again and turns to Lance.

Lance smiles and takes JC’s right hand in his left turning so that his back is against JC’s and takes his other hand in JC”s free hand “Ready C?”

JC closes his eyes and begins the chant. The blue begins slowly building from JC, engulfing first Lance, then the attic, expanding until it is surrounding the entire house.

After repeating the chant several times JC opens his eyes, thus causing the glow to fade but not disappear. He turns to Lance who had turned towards him. “Is that what you guys are all talking about?”

“Sorta, but it was stronger til you opened your eyes. Must have something to do with how hard you concentrate.”

“Could be, have to check the ‘Book’. I wonder if the bookstore has any books that might help.”

“They might. You want Chris and I to check? We were gonna head down there later anyway.”

“That would be great. Would you guys mind taking AJ with you? He seems a bit overwhelmed by all this. Brian and Nick seem to be adjusting pretty well but Kevin and Howie…”

“Yeah, we can take him and I hear you on Kevin. I think you need to turn Justin and Joey loose on Howie and then have a long talk with Kevin. He’s more uptight than you are and that is so not a good thing.”

“Ha, ha Lansten…” JC smiles as the two boys emerge from the attic.

“Ok…” Kevin states. “What the hell was that blue shit? And where’d it go?”

JC and Lance share a smile and then Lance grabs one of Chris’ hands and one of AJ’s “We’re heading to the bookstore, see you in a bit.”

Brian grabs Nick and looks at JC, “Can I borrow that ‘Book’ of yours? I wanna see what other Protection spells I can find.”

“It’s in the kitchen?” JC looks at Joey who nods. “Help yourself. Just don’t blow up Lynn’s kitchen or you’ll be on cleanup duty for a month.”

Nick smiles ‘You got it man, no messes or explosions.”

{J…could you and Joe talk to Howie? Maybe answer some of his unasked questions?} Justin gives JC a confused look. {Please baby, I need to talk to Kevin.} When Justin grabs Joey’s hand and one of Howie’s JC smiles. {Thanks baby, I owe you.}

{I’m sure I’ll think of some way for you to make it up to me.}

{I’m sure you will, now scoot gorgeous.}

Once all the others had left JC took Kevin by the hand and led him up the stairs and into the Attic. He closed the door and then took a seat in the middle of the floor. “Ok, talk to me. I’ll answer what I can.”

Kevin stood near the door trying to decide which question to ask first.

{Just pick one Kevin.} At the startled look that passed over Kevin’s face JC smiled and spoke, “Yes, I can read your thoughts. No I don’t normally listen to the voices unless it’s a situation like this.”

“So you’re a mind-reading, witch wizard?”

“Yes, but we’ve already established all of that Kev. Why don’t you ask the questions that you didn’t want the others to hear?”

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Just pick a question and we’ll go from there.” JC stated calmly.

“K…Well…How about we start with something simple? I know what you said you are and what the others all seem to be, me included but I don’t understand why you are so much stronger. I mean, yeah you’re part wizard and that ‘could’ enhance your powers but I get the strange feeling that it is more than that.”

“I honestly don’t know why I am stronger than the others. I do know that some of them I’ve always had but didn’t pay any attention to because they caused more trouble than they were worth. Now that I’m exercising them they seem to be progressing quickly. I think the rest of that question will have to be addressed by one of the white-lighters or someone other than myself.” JC states.

“Fair enough,” Kevin sighs. “Ok, what’s with you, Justin and Joey?”

JC looks up and meets Kevin’s steady gaze, “We’re in love.”

“All three of you…” Kevin stammers, “Together?”

“Yes…I love both of them, they love each other and me.”

“Hmmm, and this works for you all?”

“Pretty much. I mean we have disagreements but…most couples do.”

“This doesn’t bother Chris and Lance?”

“Nope, sides I think they’re too busy with each other to care about the three of us.”

“That’s cool. K, next question. Who was the guy in the hallway earlier?”

“Good question. I have no idea who he was, other than he was a wizard, and a bad or evil one at that.”

“Yeah, I kinda guessed the evil part. You got any idea what he wanted with you?”

“No and that has me a bit worried. I can usually get a feel for what people are up to or, in some cases, read their minds to see what they are planning but not this guy. He’s obviously had a great deal more training than I have.”

“Well, perhaps it’s time you look up some information on wizards. Maybe even find a ‘good’ one to help you learn about that part of your heritage. I mean, you can’t possibly be the only one around.”

“True, that’s a good idea. Maybe Lance and Chris will have some luck at the bookstore.”

“Let’s hope. Do you really think this protection spell we just performed will work?”

“I hope so. I’m not too sure though. The ‘Book’ didn’t say anything about wizards, just said it would keep ‘evil’ out.”

“Well then it should work…I mean against ‘evil’ wizards anyway…they are still evil, right?”

“That’s what I was thinking. I just hope it works. I don’t think I’d be strong enough to fight that guy on my one if he comes back.” JC worries.

“But…you aren’t alone. You have all of us here to help you.”

“I know but I can’t…” JC shakes his head, “It’s just…I don’t want to bring you all into something that you don’t need to be in. You guys aren’t ready and I don’t want the others to get hurt or possibly killed because of me…because of what I am.”

“I don’t think you have much say in that anymore. Not only do we outnumber your scrawny rear, I have a feeling you’d be hard pressed to get any of us to back down at this point. We may not know what’s going on but, hell, when has that ever stopped any of us from doing anything? We all were crazy enough to get into this business, right? This should be a walk in the park. Besides we all seem to be getting better with these ‘Powers’ so that’s gotta mean something. Those wonderful ‘Powers-that-be’ wouldn’t just throw us together if they didn’t think we could handle whatever was coming. They couldn’t be that stupid or they wouldn’t be called ‘The-Powers-that-be’ now would they?”

“Good point Kev.” JC smiles, “But I’m still not that comfortable with all this. It would help if someone around here had a clue as to what was going to happen. It worries me more that the white-lighters couldn’t get any kind of answer at all about what’s going on from ‘Them’ than I could from ‘The Book’.”

As the boys continue to worry over their predicament Lance and Chris return carrying several books.

“Jace, where you at man?” Chris yells.

JC and Kevin make their way to the living room from the attic.

“I take it you found a couple books that might help?” AJ states, lifting a couple of books off the coffee table.

“We can only hope,” Brian states.

JC sifts through the stack of books, pausing as his fingers land on one in particular. The book looks rather old but in almost perfect condition. It has a soft leather cover and the pages are made of what seems to be parchment paper. He takes a seat on the floor, places the book in his lap and allows it to open on it’s own. Once he is seated, the others in the room have since moved to allow him room and watch closely, he lifts his hands over the book and speaks quietly: