Charmed Ever After? The Story Of A Charmed One And A Half-Demon

Chapter 12

Melinda's P.O.V

I watched as my brothers scryed yet again for Wyatt's charge, who had been missing for just over twenty-four hours now. Wyatt had gotten a flash of immense pain about six hours ago and had chosen to locate his charge Elizabeth but started panicking when he knew that even though she was alive he couldn't get a read on her. I instantly knew that Lila, or the demons that were keeping her hostage (I still refused to believe that she had left us) were doing something to block Wyatt's magic.

Though I don't know why they bothered trying, since Wyatt had been purposely ignoring his charges calls so that he could help us with the Lila situation. Chris on the other hand had gone to the Elders to asked to be relieved from his whitelighter duties, which the Elders had grudgingly accepted.

I hated how we lived now. It had only been just over a week since we'd all woken up to find that Lila had disappeared leaving only a note telling us that she basically hated living the way she was. Who would've known that a week would've practically tore my family apart? We all avoided bringing up anything to do with Lila. She had asked us to remember the good times, but even doing that hurt too much. Sometimes we even avoided eating together at meal times, which to begin with had angered my parents but in the end they finally agreed. Only they ate together at the table. Wyatt was usually in the attic with the Book of Shadows trying to figure out potions and spells that we could use on Lila should it come to that. Chris never left their room much and I knew that he probably couldn't bear the thought since her presence was still there and I spent most of my time with Caleb. When I wasn't with him I was running between my brothers, trying to keep them sane while trying to look after myself as well. I was basically doing Lila's role of keeping Wyatt and Chris themselves and while there were times that I didn't mind doing it, there were also times when I hated her with a passion for deserting us like this. I couldn't help but occasionally think she had been selfish. Any other time she would've fought except this time she'd chosen the easy path, not wanting to fight anymore. This angered me more than anything because in all of my nineteen- nearly twenty- years I'd always looked up to Lila because of her bravery.

It had tore me apart inside when I'd read that she would always love me but that she'd had to leave us. It was horrible for me to cope but I knew that it was worse for Chris. My older brother was handling the news terribly. We all knew he didn't sleep since I always heard him crying and the shadows beneath his eyes became more prominent everyday. He'd also lost so much weight over the past week and I knew it was because after six years together Lila had announced that she didn't believe they would've worked had she stayed. This had caused him to break down sobbing for hours afterwards before he finally orbed away to be left alone when my mom kept fussing over him.

Wyatt on the other hand hadn't cried, instead he'd walled himself off from everything, including his emotions as well as Chris and me. The only person he talked too was Amy but even then she told me that he seemed so distant as though he was a totally different person. Wyatt had chosen to throw himself into finding out a plan that would either bring Lila back to us, or destroy her if she became too powerful. I knew he'd also been training with Excalibur, knowing that fighting Lila was a much higher chance than saving her. I sighed as I heard the thunk of the crystal on the map and the relieved sigh that belonged to Wyatt.

"Mel we have to go" he said hurryingly and I nodded before both he and Chris orbed with me following closely behind.

When we landed I saw that we were at the back of a deserted block of warehouses. On the right was the red brick of an old warehouse building and on the left was a chain link fence, separating the land from the railway line just beyond. In between these was a wide space, possibly the length of a parking lot, which was littered with battered cardboard boxes, wooden crates and even recycling cans.