"Kor?" Charlie whispered as he started up the steps of the Hazleton Manor. He could feel the demon nearby and his heart nearly beat out of his chest as he looked up at the landing. In his hands, he held the bags he'd gone shopping for, filled with various snacks and items that he picked out for himself, Tempie, and his brother. For some reason, after what he heard from Tempie, Charlie half expected the Hazleton family to be waiting for him with cult masks on and ritual daggers in hand. Of course, they weren't. Everything was just the way it had been when he left in the manor.
Still no sign of the demon in cat form but he knew he was near. Charlie turned as he stepped onto the landing and then nearly stepped backward and tripped down the steps when he saw the shape of a person down the hall. Skulking out of the shadows came Charlie's younger brother.
"Shit, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Charlie hissed, stepping forward in a hurry--and away from the steps. "What the hell are you doing out here anyway?"
His brother didn't answer but he did follow Charlie as he made his way towards the bedroom he shared with Tempie. Not that they shared the bed--ever. Just because they got married under the watchful eyes of their fathers didn't mean that they had consummated anything. And Tempie didn't even like him sleeping with her, so he used the little lounging couch in the sitting room. Hurray for big, old fashioned manor bedrooms, he supposed.
Although Tempie was his wife and all, Charlie still felt the urge to knock before he entered the room. He didn't, though, because a man was standing outside the door with a stern expression and it would have been like announcing to the world that he and Tempie weren't the husband and wife everybody in the family thought they were. Instead, he forced a smile, although the man at the door didn't smile back. Then he entered the room with his brother on his heels--almost literally.
"Tempie? Are you ready?" Charlie asked as he placed the bags down on the side table. A splotchy and familiar cat form slunk out with his tail in the air.
"Kor," Charlie said in relief when he saw him. Or Patches, as Tempie had been calling him. "Where's Tempie?"
In a whirl of excitement, apprehension and sheer panic, Tempie ran around the room several times to gather up everything she needed for her big escape. First, she forgot the bag she kept hidden in the back of the closet. Where else would she put her clothes and the spellbook that had been handed down to her?! Only after she had amassed a pile of items did she realize that they all needed a container.
She dove into the closet to grab the bag and hastily threw things into it. Then, when things wouldn't fit the right way, she pulled them all out and sifted through them. The spellbook went in first. Then charms. Then some basic changes of clothes. Then the soft plush bunny toy from childhood that was her one guilty little secret, which had to be extracted from its hiding place and carefully wrapped in a small blanket.
Tempie couldn't believe that this was it—this was her chance to finally get out of the house, and go rescue her brother!
Help came from an unlikely place, however. When she first married Charlie, she thought that he would be just like the rest of the men in the family. Stuffy, rule-bound and sniveling at the feet of the elders. Surprisingly, he wasn't and Tempie was beginning to begrudgingly accept his company. It didn't mean that she liked him or anything! She was just using him to get out! And she could still hex him into an early grave if he tried anything!
She was in the bathroom, grabbing a toothbrush, when she heard the door opening. The bag was under the bed by now, mostly full. Tempie stuck out a head when her name was called and she made a frantic shushing motion. "Keep it down!" She hissed. The man outside could hear everything they said, so they had to maintain the utmost secrecy. "Come in here! Hurry!"
Despite the urgency of the situation, she still spared a Look at Charlie's brother, who was looking at her in some type of strange way. Maybe a hateful way, if she had to put name to it.
"Okay?" Charlie looked over his shoulder, almost expecting to see that man outside hovering behind him. He wasn't, of course, but the idea that he might be listening to them made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Maybe Tempie was right. Maybe he should be more quiet. Shutting his big mouth, he followed her into the bathroom, Kor slinking around his ankles as he did. His brother stayed outside of the bathroom, but his presence was hard to ignore.
"Okay," Charlie said again, this time in a hushed whisper as he drew closer. Why was she in the bathroom, anyway? What was she doing? He eyed the bathroom and then Tempie, noticing that she was wielding her toothbrush. Oh. She was... she was brushing her teeth? His head spun as it seemed to do often when dealing with Tempie.
"That guy outside," he said. "We might be able to get Kor--Patches--to help us get rid of him so we can make a clean getaway. Unless you have a better plan?"
"I was going to stab him with this," Tempie said mostly as a grim sort of joke, prodding the toothbrush in Charlie's direction. But really, she could have cursed him with that blindness curse that her mother loved to put on her! Patches rubbed lightly against her leg as if agreeing with Charlie's plan, and then hopped spryly up onto the counter. Absently, Tempie scratched behind his ears.
"Can Patches get him away from that door? There's a secret passage just down the hallway."
Tempie's gaze landed on Charlie's brother again and she repressed a sigh. He was still standing in the same place, staring at them. At her. At Charlie. The look on his face rubbed her the wrong way, so a little vindictively she closed the bathroom door on him. Creep. He'd probably be outside with his ear glued to the door, if she knew him.
Charlie grinned and let out a nervous laugh--mostly because he thought Tempie was kidding and that was the appropriate response. But also because part of him thought she might not be kidding. Would she actually try and stab somebody with a toothbrush? Haha... Maybe. An amused demon's voice colored his head, sliding insidiously inside as if he belonged there alongside Charlie's own inner voice. Sometimes, Charlie had to wonder if the people who thought they were hearing voices were indeed just hearing a demon.
But that was outdated talk. Along with witches. And other things that went bump in the night. People these days liked to pretend that it was the people of the past that were gullible and foolish. Personally, Charlie found the reverse was true.
Tell her Patches can get rid of that idiot, easy peasy, Kor told him in that forever smug tone of his.
"Yeah," Charlie said. "Patches can do it."
He didn't even have to tell him to do it--he left the bathroom, tail narrowly escaping the door as Tempie closed it.
"Are we ready?" Charlie asked, glancing at the closed door. "I'm worried he might actually do it right now and I don't know what we need. Should I bring the bags I just bought? Should I leave them here? Are we leaving for good? Is your family going to chase us after this?"
"He's such a nice cat... demon cat," Tempie added belatedly, still struggling with the concept of Patches being a demon. She was accustomed to demons—there were summoners on her side of the family, too, but she had grown so fond of Patches. And he seemed fond of her, if his lingering presence by her side meant anything.
Then again, maybe he plain didn't like Charlie or Charlie's silently staring brother.
After the door closed on Patches, Tempie turned to grab the toothpaste. "I don't know what my family will do and I don't care. We'll be far away by the time they find out." She glanced about distractedly, trying to see if there was anything that she had missed. "I already packed a bag. If there's anything you need, you'd better go and get it."
Tempie paused to look at Charlie. There was fresh resolve in her expression, but she couldn't help sparing a thought for him, too. She was uprooting him from his new home and his new life by dragging him into this. ...well, he offered. More than once. Even so, Tempie felt a little badly. Her family would do terrible things to him if they caught him.
We'll just have to make sure we're not caught then!
"Once we're far away from this stupid town, they won't be able to do anything to us!" Tempie would make sure of that. Her brother would, too—and he was much more powerful than her.
"...right."
If only Tempie heard the things Kor said in the privacy of Charlie's own mind. He was a demon so of course, he was uncouth, unpleasant, and altogether... what was the word for it? A brat? The fact that he used a cat form to get around others in the real world was just icing on the cake because he embodied pretty much everything a cat was known for. Why he was so fond of Tempie... That was probably because he was ordered by Charlie to protect her. But he could have resented the order and did the bare minimum. Spoilers: he didn't. He actually seemed to care for Tempie. Maybe more than he cared for Charlie.
Okay, definitely more than he liked Charlie.
"I... no, I think I'll be fine," Charlie said, also somewhat distracted. That had more to do with the fact that he and Tempie were alone in the room now, though. Usually there was somebody else's eyes on them, like Charlie's brother or Kor. At the moment, it was just the two of them. Charlie suddenly felt speechless.
"Oh," he started but Tempie spoke over him--probably didn't even hear him since the word came out so softly. Charlie blinked. Yes. Once they were far away from this place... Charlie wondered where they would go from there--and if Tempie would stay with him or if she would find it an opportune time to be rid of him. He hoped not. His heart ached with the idea of separating. He knew it sounded stupid but... to him, it was love at first sight when he met Tempie, like it was meant to be all along. He quickly learned she didn't think the same way.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat. "Yeah! They can't touch us when we're out of the pull of their weird magic!"
Secretly, however, he was worried that after they broke Tempie's brother out and ran off, they were only going to anger the powers-that-be.
"If everything's together, we should go." He reached out his hand to her.
There was no time for sentimentality. There was precious little time to notice that they were alone, or that in the confines of the bathroom, they were standing much closer together than usual. Tempie maintained a respectable working relationship distance from Charlie--that was to say, she tried to avoid being in the same room with him whenever possible.
Seeing Charlie--just the sight of him--brought up terrible feelings of grief and loss. Tempie had genuinely been in love with that boy. She felt for him more strongly than anyone before, and to lose him so suddenly and violently, to have Charlie thrust callously into her life in his place, it was almost unbearable at first.
But as with all wounds, grievous or light, time healed all. Now there was only a dull throb where the sharp pain used to be. Sometimes Tempie even found herself looking at Charlie, when he was doing something and not quite paying attention to her, studying the line of his jaw or the bend of his back. Sometimes, she smiled at him without realizing it, when he said something funny or strange or unexpected. Charlie was more worldly than Tempie; he hadn't lived his entire life locked away, with no contact to the outside world. Tempie often found herself incredibly curious about what lay beyond the manor house walls, but was always too proud to ask Charlie.
She stared at his hand for several long moments as it remained outstretched to her. Charlie really did try his best to please her, even when she was insufferably rude to him. Tempie did that on purpose, hoping to frustrate him, to goad him into saying or doing something that affirmed her initial impression of him. She wanted him to be an awful, unlikable person but all he was was good-natured and... well, sweet.
"...let's go." Tempie took his hand and, with her other one, opened the bathroom door. Charlie's brother was outside, in the same place they left him. His glance fell immediately to their hands and some kind of funny expression crossed his face.
Outside, there was a commotion. Raised voices reached her ears, the words indistinct. Tempie all but dragged Charlie over to the bed, where she grabbed her bag, stuffed her toothbrush into it, and slung it over her shoulder.
For a few awkward moments, Charlie felt the heat crawl up the back of his neck. Tempie was looking down at his hand like it might turn into a snake and bite her. She still didn't trust him and he hated that; he did his best to be what she wanted but he didn't know when he came here what her life was like. It had taken some time in her presence to see it, to understand it. Of course she saw the world in a wholly different way but Charlie was hoping to open her eyes to a better world.
It didn't help, though, that her family insisted on keeping her locked inside. Also, Charlie's own brother made things even harder. To his relief, though, Kor--AKA Patches--bridged the gap a bit between them. The demon seemed to genuinely care for her, even if he did make some crass remarks a few times.
Eventually, Tempie did take his hand and Charlie smiled in his relief.
"Yeah," he agreed, turning with her to the door and heading out. Not even his brother's Look could make Charlie feel bad about being caught hand in hand with Tempie. She was still his wife, after all! Although... he had a feeling that farce would soon fall away after he helped her bust her brother out. That was okay. He could live with it, as long as Tempie was happy and free.
"We can't leave out the obvious way," Charlie said, which was... er, well, obvious. "The wards around your room are strong but... I think Patches might be able to open a small portal outside. It's not that far, but he can't take us straight there. Is that okay?"
"Yes! Have him meet us outside the west wing, near the gardener's shed. The passage leads right to it," Tempie said breathlessly, giddy and suddenly filled with confidence as their plan was put into motion. Thinking about it made her jittery and nervous but doing things dispelled her fears.
And... well, having Charlie there did make her feel better, too, despite her reluctance to have him join in on the plan.
She gave his hand a slight squeeze. "Come on. We have to be quiet." Reaching the door, she slowly opened it and peeked outside. The man who usually stood there, guarding her room, was gone. In fact, the hallway was empty. Tempie frowned; what on earth did Patches do to the man?
...better now dwell on that, she thought wryly. She didn't want it to ruin her impression of Patches!
Carefully easing out into the hallway, Tempie held still for a moment longer—and held her breath, too. Good. No noise, no commotion. No one had discovered that the guard was missing. "Let's go," she muttered to Charlie, and stole down the hallway.
"Okay," he said in a hushed tone, as if somebody was listening. Well, if Tempie was to be believed, they were. And he couldn't afford to question her. Not that he did in the first place. She knew this place and her family far better than he did. Still, he held his breath as if even that would alert others to their presence while they crept out into the hall. Nothing and nobody. Charlie swallowed hard, also not wanting to think about what happened to the guard. Or guards.
At Tempie's behest, he followed her. So many questions ran through his head and he sorely wanted to ask but now wasn't the time. As they made good time down the hall, he found that dear old Patches had taken care of quite a few of their problems on the way out. His heart started beating faster and his palms began to sweat the closer they got to their way out. Every single step, he was waiting for somebody or something to stop them. But Patches seemed to be really doing his job. Subconsciously, Charlie twisted his fingers into a good luck gesture.
Behind him, he was aware that his brother was also following them but there was no time or reason to tell him to turn back. If they were doing this, they probably weren't coming back here afterward. Charlie would rather have his brother with them than stuck here, left to whatever fate befell him.
But just as they were looking to their exit, free and clear, he heard an imposing male voice down the hall say, "Temperance?"
They were almost there! That secret entrance hidden behind a long wall hanging was known only to Tempie and her brother. They discovered it purely by chance one day, when they were children, fooling around the grounds. Tempie used to slip out late at night to meet with... him.
She tried to push those thoughts away as they neared the maroon hanging. No use turning bitter thoughts towards the past now, when the future seemed even more bleak. Her hand in Charlie's shook; her fingers tightened around his. Behind them, she was aware of Charlie's brother following them like a silent wraith. He seemed to know what was going on, even if she wasn't sure what he thought of the whole escapade. When she looked over her shoulder at him—and also to make sure they weren't followed—she saw that his face was as blank as ever.
"Almost there," she whispered to Charlie, moments before her uncle's voice rang out. Tempie's head flew around. She stared at the still-empty hallway, but already she heard footsteps. "Hurry!" Tempie was running for the secret way out, dragging Charlie with her. "Here! In here!" She swept open the hanging and fumbled with the wall, dropping Charlie's hand so that her frantic fingers could cover more ground.
Click!
She pressed into a part of the wall and a switch flicked. Then part of the wall swung open, revealing a long, black tunnel.
Oh no! They weren't going to make it! They were caught! Charlie's heart pounded in his ears and his lungs burned but they... they somehow made it. Through a secret passageway that Charlie had never seen before. His eyes were wide as the wall seemed to slide behind them. It seemed like they'd lost the old man for now but they had little time to lose. If it was known they were running around, it was probably known they were trying to escape. Charlie didn't know how well the family knew Tempie but they had to at least guess she might try to rescue her brother on her way out.
"We have to hurry to the library, Tempie," he said urgently, tugging on her hand. Then he blinked. Stared. He could hardly hear anything over the pounding in his ears.
"This... this is... this is it," he gasped, unable to quite comprehend it. Magic? Did magic bring them here?
"This is where I saw K--Patches. This is where... your brother is?" He turned to look at Tempie, half afraid of the answer and what they would find.
"Temperance?"
"Where is she?"
"I saw her go in here..."
The muffled voices faded behind them as Tempie ran for her life, dragging Charlie, dragging Charlie's brother along with her. There were two wrists in her hands, such was her frantic rush to get away. Her uncle had to have seen her disappearing into the secret tunnel. They would be blasting through the wall soon and then they'd be caught and--
All of a sudden, the world twisted. Tempie came to a violent halt with her stomach churning and looked around in bewilderment. The dank, cold tunnel had given away to a hallway lined with doors. But directly in front of them was an imposing door that clearly betrayed its true function.
"This... He's here!" Tempie dropped their wrists and ran to the door, putting out a hand to feel the magical barriers surrounding it. Dear Patches. Wonderful Patches. His portal led them directly to where Tempie's brother was imprisoned! "We have to get inside! He's in here!"
She turned to see Charlie's brother with a hand on Charlie's arm. He whispered something into Charlie's ear, something vaguely like an urgent plea for him to leave. Tempie's eyes narrowed but... he was right. Now that Charlie had gotten her here, his job was done and he didn't have to put himself in the path of danger.
"...you two should go. Before my family catches up with us." Her hand slid out, without hesitation, and touched the side of Charlie's hand. "...thank you."
"What?" Charlie stared at Tempie. Even with Robbie begging him to leave, he couldn't. Real or not, Tempie was his wife. He couldn't leave her behind to face whatever came next on her own. What if she didn't get to her brother on time? What if her brother wasn't who she thought he was? Charlie still remembered what almost happened to him, with a chill down his spine. Shivering slightly, he grasped Tempie's hand tightly in his, afraid she was going to slip away from him.
"No," he insisted. "We're helping. We're going through this whole thing together. You might need our help."
If not him, at least Patches. That had to count for something. And if they had to, he could... he could always summon another one. Making pacts with demons stole life from him but what was his life if he couldn't help protect the people he cared about?
"No Charlie! If they catch you--and Robbie--they'll kill you!" She almost had to tack on Charlie's brother, because he was just so... easy to forget. He was an afterthought most of the time, except when he thrust himself into their lives. Usually to glare at Tempie, or to be a creep peeking through keyholes.
"I can't let that happen again! I can't..." She broke off and her voice broke a little too. Tempie blinked hard, willing herself not to get too emotional. That was her problem, they said--she was too sensitive. It didn't do for a witch of her bearing and blood and caliber to be sensitive, so they forced her to bottle everything up and to keep her nose in the air, the way that a Hazleton ought to.
She clung to Charlie's hand for a second longer, then threw her arms around him. What a stupid man. Stupid, stupid Charlie with his hopeful eyes and his eagerness to please, even when his own life--and the life of his brother--was at stake. "Just leave! Please!"
And what would they do to her if they caught her? That was what Charlie was worried about. Of course he was worried about Robbie, too, but he didn't actually think they were in danger--if they stuck together. The thought of walking out now on Tempie didn't sit well with him and his over inflated sense of justice. How could he even live with himself, knowing that he left Tempie to her fate? Whatever it was, he could face it with her. He would.
"Uh...ah." He didn't expect the embrace. Tempie had to be serious if she was going to hug him. Ever since they met, she had kept her distance from him, exuding a cold confidence that left little room for Charlie. Still, he tried his best to be whatever she needed in the moment. Even if that meant sleeping on the floor or a hard lounge settee.
"Tempie..." Her display of uncharacteristic emotion was getting to him now. He hugged her back, tightly, as if letting her go meant he was agreeing with her plan. He didn't like it. He didn't like the idea of leaving her on her own. Couldn't she see that?
"Listen, between us, we can get him free and get out of here," he said urgently as he took her shoulders in his hands, expression and tone earnest. "You need us. You need--"
"If you goons don't hurry it up," said a familiar demonic voice, finally making itself known to Tempie, "you're all going to be caught and little bro's going to bite the ax."
"I—"
Tempie couldn't exactly refute the fact that three people—or two people and one staring brother—were better than one. Charlie and Patches had helped her a great deal up to now, but that was also why she didn't want them to get hurt!
"I—" She tried to articulate her fears and concerns, but Patches cut across all of them. Tempie stared at the familiar form of the cat slinking their way. "Patches!" She broke free of Charlie to scoop him up, giving him a great big hug. "Oh Patches! Thank you!"
Before Tempie could go any further, she heard something clunk open. A door. Swiftly she turned, ready to attack—a hex on her lips already—and then she gaped. A man stood in the door way, staring at them.
"Who are you?!" She asked, almost at the same time as the stranger.
"I'm Yang!" He replied crossly, but now his eyes were on Patches. Something like horror crossed his face. "You!" And then he kicked out at Patches. "You have SOME NERVE showing your face around here again!"
Patches, as he was now known, had a particular fondness for Temperance Ayers. She wasn't just a pretty face. She was highly powerful and she was a little rebel. Patches had an affection for rebels, something he could safely say that his Master Charles was not. Charles played by the book. He played by the rules. He placidly did exactly what he was told to do and it was lip curlingly disgusting to watch. A guy like that didn't deserve a girl like Temperance. But. Oh well. Here they were.
Still, despite liking Temperance, now wasn't the time for hugs. He looked up at her, let out a plaintive meow and then tried to wriggle out of her grasp because--
Of that.
That guy.
Patches narrowed his eyes.
"You have some nerve showing your face!" Patches declared with his chin in the air. He swiped at the air with his cat form, even though I'm Yang! was not within the vicinity of his deadly cat claws. "I told you goons to move it. Now we have to deal with this guy."
"You--you two know each other?" Tempie asked in disbelief as she stepped back, and closer to Charlie. Definitely away from the stranger looming up on them. The man's power was immense. Even without doing anything, Tempie could feel his magic in the air--ancient magic, of such a high order that her mind could barely comprehend it.
"You--you wretch! You no-good lousy irresponsible--" Yang sputtered off, he was so indignant. He kicked at Patches again, and Tempie let out a cry. But the man's foot stopped just short and it looked like he almost didn't really want to kick him. Like he just wanted to vent his frustrations out on poor, innocent, sweet, helpful Patches.
"Don't kick him!" Tempie glared, finding some of her bravery back. "Stop attacking Patches, he hasn't done anything to you!"
"Oh PATCHES, is it? Is that the name he's going by now?" Yang's breast rose and fell visibly in his great--and baffling--anger. "Hiding here all this time, shirking his responsibilities? Eh? Patches?!"
Tempie's brain hurt. She wasn't following any of this, really, and when she looked over at Charlie and Robbie, she thought stupidly that they might know. But they probably didn't. "Who... are you?" she asked again, and Yang's stare in her direction made her squeeze Charlie's hand tightly.
"I," Yang said as he drew himself to his full height, "am Patches'... What do you damn humans call it..." He seemed to struggle to find the word. "Betrothed!"
Shaking his head, Patches let out a sigh. This was not the place or time for this! Dumb idiot betrothed. The thing about rebels? That was Kor. When he was a younger demon, he was the rebellious one who said HELL NO to getting married. Getting summoned by losers was better than getting betrothed!
"That was ages ago. How can you still be on that?" Patches asked, exasperated even in cat form. He swished his cat tail, refusing to switch to a human form or his demonic human form. Either way, he didn't want to be anything but a small little cat--because he could definitely get away faster. Or just, you know, flash out and leave these losers to it.
If he did that, however, he would pay for it because Charles might be a weiner of a master but he was still a master and he couldn't refuse his needs. Pah.
But you know, if time was the thing here--and it was, they were on a major time crunch--maybe it would be better to, ah, speed things along. So he stepped forward and wound his way around Yang's legs.
"Just let the witches do their thing. What do you have to lose, anyway? A silly job?"
With distaste, Yang pushed 'Patches' away with his foot. He had been against their wedding too, and he hated the thought of being wed to his frivolous cousin, but this was their duty. And Yang, he was duty-bound. Maybe it was an odd characteristic for a demon, but it served him well so far. The humans, however, had a much more appreciative point of view towards his dedication than his own family. If anything, they often spoke of 'Patches' and his great escape with grudging admiration.
Hmph.
"What are the witches doing here?" he asked loftily, keeping one eye on Patches and another on the young humans crowded in the hallway.
"We're here to rescue my brother!" The girl said defiantly, and in the blink of an eye she had thrown a hex at him.
Too bad it bounced harmlessly off of Yang, rebounding in a flash of green off the nearest wall. Yang looked at her as though she were a speck of dirt. Which, to be fair, she was--in the face of a being like him. "Are you Patches' mistress?" She didn't reply. She looked stunned, and also baffled. Yang scoffed. "Your tricks are useless here, just answer the question, girl. Which one of you owns this pathetic cat?"
"Um."
Patches... had a betrothed? How...? It was a strange vision, imagining the demon he'd summoned being betrothed to somebody, especially this human looking guy. But no matter how human he looked, he was... very, very not human. There was power rolling off him in waves and the angrier he sounded, the more power seemed to swell through him. Charlie was, needless to say, intimidated.
But he didn't regret his decision. He firmly stood beside his wife, holding her hand and standing at her side. Her magic didn't seem to have even the slightest effect on the Yang guy and worse still, Patches' attempts to placate him weren't working, either. Charlie didn't know what else to do except step forward.
"It's me. I own the... cat. Although... he's not really a cat. He's a demon." Which was dumb of him to say. If the guy was betrothed to him, he must know he wasn't a cat. ...He hoped, because otherwise, things were way weirder than he could handle.
Oh he saw the revulsion in their faces and he heard their simple thoughts. A man and a cat? A man and a demon cat? Obviously, Yang was not a man--though he took the form of one for obvious reasons. Or maybe not. Hidden down here, the only one he interacted with was Zohod and Zohod was no human either. Well, that was unimportant.
These simpletons couldn't comprehend the world of demons. Yang and Patches were destined to be wed from the start--even before they came into being. It was their fate and Patches could only avoid it for so long! Yang appraised the young man who spoke up. He decided that he didn't like him.
"Give his contract to me." His tone brooked no argument.
"What?" The word slipped out unbidden. Give his contract away? Did this guy know how hard it was to commit this contract? There were nights and nights of sweating it out, with no demons taking the bait. And then, along came Kor'ulach. When he first arrived, he was nothing but a plume of smoke. And then a strange man-thing arrived, with sharp teeth and sharp claws and eyes that he definitely never saw on any human he knew.
After that, though, he spent his time in the cat form that everybody grew to know and love. He was a lazy cat, too. He spent hours sunning like any cat. He seemed content enough to live life that way, just watching Tempie and making sure she was safe.
"I..." He started but Patches immediately latched onto his leg and looked up at him with dangerous eyes.
"Don't. You. Dare."
"I don't think I can..."
"Oh, you can, and you will."
Tempie bristled at his tone. Rude! It was rude to command Charlie, to demand Patches' contract, even if they were... betrothed. Because Tempie knew exactly how that felt, she sympathized with Patches even more. Patches should be free to marry whomever he wanted! If it wasn't this man, then Yang just had to accept that Patches didn't love him!
"You leave Patches alone!" She slid to stand in front of both Patches and Charlie protectively. "And give me my brother! I know you have him locked up here!"
"...oh? He's your brother? You've come to rescue him."
Tempie swallowed. Then nodded. "Yes. And I'm taking him with or without your help, so... so stand aside!"
But to her dismay, a large figure appeared in the doorway, stooping almost bent double to get out. She gasped. Another guardian? On top of this strange man who wanted to marry a cat? The second guardian was frowning, and when he spoke, his voice was a low, booming rumble.
"Ey! Ye kids don't belong 'ere! Get out!" He swiped at them, pushing them back and away from the room where Tempie's brother was being held hostage.
"No?"
He wasn't going to hand over the contract, especially not with Patches latched onto his leg and staring him down. Also, Tempie jumping to Patches' defense also sealed the deal. He couldn't do it if she disapproved. This Yang guy would just have to... marry somebody else!
Yang, however, was not alone. There was that other guardian. Charlie shivered under all the power. There was so much of it in one single place and he didn't know what to do about it. He was determined to help but Tempie's magic barely touched them and and and...
"Ahhhh!"
They were shoved aside by the sheer power of the second guardian and Charlie was knocked clear off his feet. In the attack, Patches let go of his leg and rolled away, then stood on all fours, back arched.
"All right, this is getting ridiculous!"
A puff of grey smoke appeared and as it cleared, the somewhat humanlike demon form appeared and threw out a hand, striking back with power of his own at the other two.
"Just give us her brother and stop playing your stupid little games."
Things were going well until Zohod decided to join in the fray, and then they seemed to go rapidly out of hand. Yang had no intentions of relinquishing the prisoner. This tiny little town wasn't ready for his power. These foolish humans didn't understand; they were young and hot-headed and full of themselves, thinking that their puny abilities could overpower that of the guardians.
Yang didn't blink when they all went flying back, but when Kor'ulach appeared in his true form (somewhat), annoyingly his pulse began to race. Not... because he felt for him. Ridiculous. It had simply been a long time since Yang had seen him, that was all. He was startled.
And Yang himself, in his human form, felt ugly. He put it on to fit in but these humans were so... naked. So bare. No protection from anything, their skin was paper-thin and their bodies horrifyingly easy to crush and maim. His own demon form was much more pleasing; everyone said it. They praised his beauty back home, but here... These plebeians had no obvious appreciation for it.
"You don't know what you're doing, idiot," he snorted as he took the brunt of Kor'ulach's retaliation and neutralized it with his own magic. Zohod could deflect magic, too, but this was personal. "We can't let the young Hazleton heir go. He'd destroy everything! Don't involve yourself in things you don't understand!"
"Really? You think some mortal child is stronger than I am?" Kor'ulach scoffed. The very idea was simply insulting. Even if they were speaking of an old mortal, they were still nothing but mortals. Their power was nothing compared to a demon's! And yet, here Yang was, acting as if letting the mortal go was going to cause the destruction of everything!
"If you and this meathead can keep him subdued, why in Lucifer's sweet hell do you think I couldn't handle him?"
He stepped forward, exerting more power toward Yang. Ooh, he would knock him off his feet if it was the last thing he did. Or not really. But he'd play at it.
"Because... he has the blood of Baël in his veins!" Yang pushed back with every ounce of strength that he had, in order to prevent foolish Kor'ulach from committing a grievous error. The humans thought that the young human was simply too powerful, but they didn't know what Yang knew.
Baël would arise, greater in power than ever. In order to do that, the fragments of his being that were imparted to humans must be collected and Yang, well, he was here to make sure that this particular fragment went nowhere fast. He worked for the lesser beings but his duty was to a higher order. One did not simply refuse one of the seven Princes of Hell.
Even now, Yang knew that Baël was roaming the earth, disguised as one of the humans. He was biding his time, collecting souls to strengthen himself. When he arose, Yang wanted to be by his side. The right side. His master would conquer the Earth and the time of demons would return.
And stupid Kor'ulach wanted to ruin all of that, because he was fond of a few humans!
"So not a mortal, then." Kor'ulach stroked his chin in thought. Yang was too serious to make that up and he wasn't a trickster demon like some of the imps Kor'ulach ran into. No, Yang was a much higher caliber than those. He was protecting the offspring for a reason, then. If what he said was true--and Kor'ulach had no reason to believe he was lying--then he truly might bring about destruction.
"How is that a problem?" Kor'ulach asked, raising a brow as he regarded Yang. "Chaos, destruction... Isn't that what we stand for?"
"That's what you stand for," Yang said darkly. "That and running out on your betrothed with no warning." He had to add that. He had to, it wounded him and prickled at him and--it was just insulting! No one said that demons and devils were honorable but that was a whole different matter altogether.
"You're going to ruin everything if you free this human. So stop. Meddling."
For once, he needed Kor'ulach to let things be. Even Yang didn't know the full extent of his master's--that was, his true master and not these humans who summoned him--plans. He made a shooing motion with his hand. "Take these idiot children away from here before the girl's family returns."
"That last part was completely unnecessary," Kor'ulach said dryly. As if running out on betrothed demons was something to stand for. But sure, he stood for chaos and destruction. In fact, he reveled in it. He might have even stirred his poor hapless master into a few messes in the past just because he could. He even intended to ruin the wedding but he actually turned out to like Temperance so he decided to let that one pass.
Although he still thought Charles was undeserving of her.
"So," he said impatiently, "strip his power and hand over the boy. You get to keep all your silly powers and we get the boy. Win/win."
"I can't strip his power. Only the master can strip his power." And his soul, and everything useful within the vessel. Yang wanted to see that happen. The young man that they had imprisoned inside the room was, as the humans put it, a right pain in the ass. Actually he reminded Yang of Kor'ulach. A lot.
"If you won't help, at least don't make a mess of this too," he snapped as he glared at Kor'ulach, then at the humans who were on their feet again, looking scared and wary. "I'm not letting you inside so if you want to go through with this foolishness, then you'll have to kill me."
Not that Yang would stand by idly and let them. He would banish Kor'ulach if he had to. They were demons--death was nothing to them. It barely even hurt. All they had to do was find a way back up top again, usually through an unwitting, foolish summoner.
Kor'ulach rolled his eyes. How powerful could one little mortal be? Yang couldn't even strip his power on his own? He couldn't do it with Meathead? Turning his head toward where the mortal was encaged, Kor'ulach ignored the rest of Yang's rant. Ooh, Kor ruined everything again! Boo-hoo. Why didn't he cry about it to his old crippled master that couldn't even do his own damn dirty work? (Never mind that if Kor'ulach was in his position, he'd probably have minions doing his work for him, too.)
"I'll do it, then," he said haughtily, heading straight for the mortal without a care in the world. How much trouble could he get into, anyway? The mortal was being rescued by him and Yang and Meathead couldn't stop him! (Or they could, he supposed, if they actually worked together. There was probably a reason they'd been the chosen ones for the job.)
He raised a hand and curled his fingers inward to pull the power toward him but he was met with an unexpected resistance.
And then the flow of power started going in the other direction, toward the mortal.
"Stop! Don't! You don't know what you're doing!" Yang cried out as Kor'ulach made a beeline for the inner chamber. Zohod hurried after him too, but stopped in his tracks as though frozen. Yang, too, felt his limbs stiffen. Only his eyes moved, shifting to Kor'ulach in mounting horror. Was this his doing? Did he freeze them? But it didn't feel like his power.
It felt like the Master's.
From where he stood, he could see the cage. And the white, thin, gaunt face pressed to it, with a smile that made his very soul shiver. The look in the young Hazleton heir's eyes was... it was like nothing that Yang had ever seen before. Bony, long fingers clasped the bars and he seemed to be forcing his face closer and closer, almost as though he thought he could squeeze his entire body through if he tried hard enough.
"Kor'ulach! What's happening?!" He had to use telepathy to communicate now, since his lips wouldn't move.
Apparently
he
didn't know what he was doing.
Apparently
he couldn't stop the flow of his own power. Instead of growing more powerful by robbing the power from the mortal, he was instead losing his own power. It was a strange feeling; it had never happened to Kor'ulach in his entire life and he'd lived a long, long, long life.
Try as he might to tug that flow of power back toward him, it didn't work. And when he attempted to simply cut off his power altogether, it didn't work, either. It was like he didn't have control over his own power. Unsettled, he dropped onto his knees and then forward, hands hitting the floor.
"He's..." he could barely even get the words out. "... he's..."
Puff!
The plume of smoke and he was a cat again, dropping onto its side and panting and then letting out a terribly pathetic meow.
"Teddy!"
Tempie ran into the room after Yang and Patches and the giant of a man, calling out her brother's pet name, only to see them frozen in place. At least, the last two were. Patches was kneeling, looking horribly ill, and then--POOF!--he was a cat again. Tempie ran to pick him up, cradling his limp form protectively.
"Teddy stop it! You're hurting him! He's a friend!" She ran to the cage that held her brother and her heart just about broke at the sight of him. He looked like he'd been starved for months. His entire body had wasted away to nothing; she could see the bones protruding from his hands and his cheeks. His hair fell lank by his temples and his eyes--there was something inhuman about the way he hungrily looked out at her.
"Teddy, hold on, I'll get you out!"
With Yang and the giant apparently incapacitated, Tempie looked around for a key. That was pretty stupid, though, because the entire cage had no doors. Magic. It was sealed. She tried to put a hand out to touch it but recoiled as the magic pushed her back. "Charlie! Help! It's sealed!"
"Whoa!"
Everything was going sideways. The guardians were frozen and Patches, Patches was about half dead. Sometimes he played at it when Charlie wanted him to do something but there was something about his limp form that screamed he wasn't playing now. His green eyes rolled back and then they were just white. Charlie's own eyes widened and he touched the top of the cat's head.
Inside the cage, though...
Charlie recoiled at what he saw there. This was what had been trying to steal his energy--his soul. And he looked... He looked like no human being that Charlie had ever seen. He looked... sick. He looked... dead. But he was alive, somehow. Charlie retched in the back of his throat and turned away.
"Oh my god..."
Getting a hold of himself, he managed not to be sick and took in a couple of shaky breaths. Time to man up. He had to help Tempie with the magic.
"Okay. Okay. Let's..."
He reached out and his hand was pushed back, too. The magic was strong but surely... He looked over at Tempie. She was strong, too. Charlie, too. They had chosen the two of them for a reason. Making up his mind, Charlie reached out and took Tempie's hand.
"Robbie, stay back!" he warned. Then to Tempie. "Together, all right?"
"Tempie..."
Teddy's voice was a rough, low croak. He reached out but the force that kept them out also pushed Teddy back. Tempie let out a cry as her heart wrenched again, throbbing in her chest. Those monsters! They were torturing him down here! "Teddy, stay back! We'll get you out!"
She grasped onto Charlie's hand and in that moment, she couldn't remember feeling more fond of anyone in her life. Even if he made that terrible noise at the sight of Teddy--which Tempie heard, oh yes--he was still here. He was here for her when no one else was and Tempie couldn't have been any more grateful.
"NO!" Yang's frantic voice echoed in her mind but she tried hard to shut him out. He was the enemy! Of course he'd try to stop them! She glared at his still-frozen form once, and then turned back to her brother. Tempie focused all of her power, every single bit of it, onto the cage. She willed her magic to bore through it, to drill through and break the barrier. All the while, in the back of her mind, she knew that her family must be closing in but she refused to stop trying.
Sweat beaded on her temple as the barrier buckled. It didn't break, though. "More Charlie! A little more!" She sensed the cracks forming now, spidering all along the face of the invisible wall. Tempie felt like her heart would explode, and every inch of her burned with the exertion, but some feverish inner demon spurred her on. Even when something sharp and metallic tickled the back of her throat, she kept trying. If it killed her, she was going to free Teddy!
"I.... I... am...."
Charlie, too, was accessing every ounce of his magical power and even beyond that. He was pulling from the beyond, from wherever dear old Patches came from. Normally, he would have used Patches' immense strength but he was afraid to try that, now that he was clearly drained of energy. So he pulled from the holes in the dimensions around them and he ripped them apart, tearing them open forcefully and bringing that energy into himself and then back out, toward that damned shield.
And he could feel it working, his power and Tempie's power, combining. It was a force to be reckoned with. Despite the resistance it tried to give, the magical shield around Tempie's brother began to crumble. The cracks widened and pushed apart, the magic giving way.
It felt like it was crumbling Charlie, too. His body had never felt so much strain. Sweat poured down his face and arms and his breath came out harsh, lungs bursting, heart racing. He held tight to Tempie.
"I think... it's working!"
And it was. The holes in dimensions, however, were widening, too. And all around them, electricity crackled and the groans and howls of monstrous creatures not of their world filled the air.
"We're doing it! It's working! It—"
Then, like a giant hand slamming into them, Tempie was knocked back. The barrier reformed, strong and impenetrable, and as Tempie lifted her head, she saw her family and coven there at the entrance of the room. Witches and warlocks were chanting, bringing the barrier up, separating them from Teddy who had shrunk into the furthest reaches of his cell now.
A sob broke out from the very back of Tempie's throat. Without thinking, she clung to Charlie and buried her face into his shoulder. It was no use now. They couldn't fight against the entire coven of elders and experienced witches...
Hard, strong hands seized her then, forcing her apart from Charlie. She clawed and scratched like a wild creature but it was no use. They pulled them away from each other—Robbie too, though he hardly struggled—and Tempie shrieked at them to let her go, all to no avail.
"No!"
He could taste blood dripping down his nose into his mouth as he cried out. The crumbling shield was back up, stronger than ever and he was so drained that he could hardly stay on his feet. The dimensions snapped closed around them but the screams were still in his head. Worst of all, Tempie was crying and her family was ripping them apart from each other, no matter how hard Charlie tried to hang onto her.
"No! What are you doing?!"
They ripped her away and when he went for her, there were several members of the coven grabbing him and pulling him back and away from Tempie. They were so close. So close and this...
"No..." His legs wanted to give out so badly but he refused to show such weakness in front of these people. He tried to pull his limbs from them but they held him firmly in place. And there she was, the matriarch of Tempie's family, walking calmly toward them. But there was something not so calm in her eyes as she looked at Tempie.
"Leave her alone!" Charlie struggled to get to her but his throat was grabbed in a chokehold to prevent him from trying again.
Robbie knew that this was all foredoomed to failure from the very ill-advised start. He went through with the dramatic escape, the battle between demons, even the attempt at breaking the barrier and he watched with mounting apprehension. Though he didn't help them, he didn't hinder them either. He... didn't want this.
All he wanted was to live peacefully with Charlie, the way they once did. But once Temperance Hazleton came into the picture, life became chaotic. Charlie was smitten with her from the beginning; he was in love with her, despite her best efforts to rebuff him. At first, Robbie left well enough alone. If she kept it up, Charlie might give up on her in time.
But then she warmed to him. Of course she would. Charlie was perfect—the perfect witch, perfect older brother. He was patient, loving and caring, and everything anyone could possibly want in a partner. He was also, however, foolishly in love and now all was lost.
Robbie didn't struggle the way that Temperance and Charlie did. He let them pull him aside, watched in silence as the imposing Hazleton matriarch approached Temperance. What she did to her, Robbie didn't know because something crashed into the back of his skull, rendering him unconscious.
When he came to, it was to a throbbing, splitting headache. He reached out in darkness and touched what felt like a limp hand. "...Charlie...?"
"Nmgghhh..."
Why did everything hurt so much? Charlie coughed and his hand twitched slightly under the hand of somebody else. The voice that spoke his name...
"Robbie?"
He was lying face down on a stone floor. Ugh. His everything ached as he forced himself to sit up. When he reached up to wipe something off his face, he found it crusty. Looking down, he could see flakes of something on his hand. What the...? Then he recalled the magic, the power, and Tempie.
"Tempie?!" He reached out for Robbie's arm. "What'd they do with her, Robbie?"
"I don't know."
And as far as Robbie was concerned, he didn't care either. Her family wasn't about to hang her or burn her at the stake. They wanted to keep her indoors, not locked up the way they did to her brother. It was Charlie and Robbie that Robbie was most worried about--a fact evidenced by their obvious imprisonment.
He looked around at their surroundings. They were locked up in a room, it seemed, but one without furniture. No bed, no drawers. One door and no windows. He didn't know if they were still in that place with Temperance's brother in a cage or if they were back inside the manor that Temperance and her family lived in.
Reaching up, he felt his throbbing head and his fingers also came away with rust-red smears. Blood. But he wasn't bleeding now, and neither was Charlie. Slowly, Robbie crawled over to him and sat up. Then he helped Charlie up, too. "What do you think they'll do to us?"
"Well," Charlie said, "I thought they needed me. But maybe they'll just kill me off and find her a more... compliant husband."
He didn't like that idea. The way they were using Tempie just didn't feel right. She was a person, not some tool for them to use. But by the looks of things, the Hazletons viewed their children as little more than exactly that--tools. Tempie was to marry into some demon summoner like himself. And that boy... what did Tempie call him... Teddy? He could have sworn he had a very different name, some uppity upper class name--but he couldn't remember for the life of him what it was. It didn't matter. Tempie mattered and he had to get out, to find her.
But... he also cared for Robbie. They were blood. They were brothers. For a long time, it was really just them. Although Robbie had been strangely quiet lately and maybe a bit of a creeper (Tempie's words, not his), Robbie was still Robbie, that kid brother that came to him with his skinned knees and his math homework.
Charlie slid an arm around his brother's back.
"I'm sorry, Robbie... for getting you into this. But we'll find a way out of it. We always do."
"'s not your fault," Robbie mumbled as he shifted closer. He slid an arm around Charlie's waist too and leaned his head against Charlie's shoulder. When it was just them, like this, he felt... right. Nobody getting in the way and nobody threatening to steal Charlie away. Charlie was all he had now and selfishly, he wished that he was all Charlie had, too.
Wasn't he enough? Why did Charlie need Temperance? Look where being with her landed them--in here, in a locked room. Charlie even had to summon a demon in order to please her family, something that Robbie was sure would shorten his life in some way. Being bound to a demon was draining; it wasn't just a contract and some fancy incantations.
"Hey!" He straightened. "What about Kor? Can you get in touch with him?" Maybe by now, Kor would have recovered and he could come get them out of here.
Maybe...
Maybe this had all been a mistake. But if it was, Charlie didn't want to admit to it because he didn't regret meeting Tempie or falling in love with her. He might have fallen in love with her even if they weren't meant to marry but Tempie said there was somebody else. Somebody they took from her and he saw the pain in her eyes when she said it. She'd been hurt so much by her own family.
Charlie didn't want to be that for Robbie. His little brother was counting on him. The big brother had to be smart and cunning and protective. He had to make sure they got out of this alive. Or at least, that Robbie did. Gently, he laid his head against Robbie's head and he sighed so heavily that it felt like his very soul had left his body.
"I'm so..." Tired, he was going to say, but Robbie suddenly popped his head right back up and Charlie jerked his head back so as not to be head-butted.
"Kor..." He wiped at his face again. How long had they been out? Not long enough because Charlie really did feel more tired than he had ever felt. He almost believed that if he laid back down and closed his eyes, he would fall into a deep sleep and never recover, never wake up. Drawing a knee up to his chest, he narrowed his eyes, and then closed them, feeling for Kor somewhere in his mind, where he always dwelled.
"He's... I don't think he's doing so well... But he's alive. Just not answering me."
He could feel Kor in there, curled into a tight little ball of pain and anguish. But he was there.
"I don't think he's going to be able to do anything for us right now." He took in a breath. "Maybe... Maybe I can try reaching out to a new demon. I... I felt others, when I was helping Tempie try and break that shield. Maybe some of them are still around."
"That guy did something to Kor, didn't he? Teddy." Robbie saw it all unfolding before his eyes, the way that the thing inside the cage looked at Kor when Kor tried to take his power away. It was like nothing Robbie had ever seen or felt before and it frightened him. He wasn't usually nervy or prone to undue flights of fancy, so he knew that what he felt was significant.
The suggestion of summoning another demon made his grip on Charlie tighten. "No! What if it goes wrong? Wait a minute. Wait." He got to his feet laboriously. God, how his head swam. But at least he hadn't exhausted his strength trying to break into that cage back there. Robbie was just knocked out. His magic was weaker than his brother's, but he wasn't totally helpless!
Staggering over to the door, he felt all around it, at the hinges, at the handle. It was locked, but to his surprise, it wasn't magically sealed. It was just closed! He turned back to Charlie with wide eyes and a bit of a hopeful smile on his lips. "Charlie! Maybe we can break out!" Perhaps they weren't all that concerned about Charlie and Robbie. Perhaps they were busy with Temperance, and thought that they would lay unconscious in the room until someone got to them.
He bent his head to the lock again, studying it. It was the old-fashioned kind with a large keyhole, but he couldn't see much beyond it. Robbie jiggled the handle, then felt across the hinges again. Maybe if he heated them until they melted... He tried, at any rate, and focused all of his power on the one hinge.
"Yeah," Charlie said, trying to remember just what happened to Kor during the entire event. Had he been left lying there, a dead cat? No, no. He was alive. His presence was there. Charlie could probably even find him if he followed that presence. He rubbed his aching chest. So many people hurt in their attempt... They should have planned better. He lowered his head.
"I think he was... eating him. His energy."
He couldn't be sure but... it sure seemed like that. The energy was going somewhere and it wasn't going into the shield. Charlie was pretty sure that Tempie's brother was doing to Kor what he'd tried to do to Charlie. He bit his lip and shook his head at Robbie's insistence that he not try to summon another demon. Actually, he was right. If Charlie tried right now, the demon would tear right through him. When he summon Kor, he was strong, he was at his prime, he had a lot of energy. Now he was on empty, zero percent.
"How?" Charlie asked, looking up tiredly. With great effort, he used the wall behind him to get to his feet and he stumbled toward Robbie, watching him. Of course Robbie was a witch, too. He wasn't useless. The hinge seemed to melt away, molten metal dribbling down the side of the door.
"You're doing it!" Charlie tried to push against the door and it groaned. One hinge did not a doorway make, it seemed.
"Hey, don't touch it! It's hot!" Robbie said unnecessarily, as red-hot, glowing, molten metal pooled and slid down the side of the door. The smell of burnt wood soon assailed his nostrils and he wrinkled his nose, but moved on to the second hinge.
Because... yeah. One hinge didn't do much for them.
After the second one was gone, Robbie gave the door another push. It creaked, but held. He felt it rock, however, and heartened by that, he gave it a harder push. The whole thing swung open and revealed an empty hallway.
Robbie gulped. He reached for Charlie's hand as he peered out owlishly, blinking into the light. "I think we're back at the house," he whispered. But that meant that they were surrounded by Hazletons...
Charlie gently ran a reassuring thumb over Robbie's hand, ever the big brother. He couldn't help it. Even if he was the weaker one that needed protection right now, he had to protect his brother. Even if it was just his feelings. He didn't want to see Robbie hurt or worse. Naively, he thought life would be better here, when he was married and they were settled in. If he'd known that Robbie would have been thrown into danger, he never would have let him come with him.
"Where in the house?" Charlie asked in hushed tones, peering around to see what hallway they were in. It was no hallway he remembered. And the room they'd been in seemed to be some kind of... he didn't know. Some kind of storage room without much in it. Where would that be situated in a house like the manor?
"Basement?" he hazarded a guess. "Old cellar, maybe?"
"Basement maybe." It was quite chilly down here and he couldn't see any natural light. Robbie stole quietly down the hallway with Charlie, breath bated. His nerves jangled but he tried to keep a cool head. No use freaking out and putting them both in danger.
"We need to get out of here... Maybe they won't come after us..."
It was Temperance they needed, wasn't it? Robbie heard things about her. About her entire family. They had Big Plans and Charlie was only a peripheral part of them. Robbie? He barely registered on their radar at all.
So... They could just leave, maybe. Leave and never return...
"Wait," he said, tugging on Robbie's hand to pull him closer. Yes, he understood they were in a basement and they might even have a prime moment to escape but...
"What about Tempie? What about Kor? We can't leave them here."
Again, he could never live with himself if he didn't do everything he could to help them. He had no idea where that sense of justice and charity came from. Charlie had just always been that way--the little boy that fixed broken airplanes and nursed drowned squirrels back to life. He could never leave broken things broken.
"We can't help them if WE get caught again!" Robbie argued, half annoyed that Charlie was still thinking about Temperance and half annoyed that he felt bad about feeling annoyed. There was no love lost between himself and Temperance but even Robbie had to admit that the way she was treated by her family was cruel and unusual.
Still. He wanted to get out of here. He was spooked and he'd been knocked out. That didn't happen every day to Robbie—he wanted no part of any of that!
"We can come back for them. With Kor! When we're not..." He flapped his free hand frantically. "Like this!" If a rescue HAD to be mounted, they should at least be in good shape. The way that they were now, they were about one tap to the head away from a permanent nap.
"No..." They couldn't help if they were caught but they couldn't just LEAVE. It went against everything Charlie was, everything that made up Charles Ayer as a person. If it was Robbie, he wouldn't leave him and now Tempie had grown to be an important part of his life, too. And Kor. Well... Kor was a demon and he could probably find a way out on his own but Charlie couldn't help remembering the lifeless form of a helpless cat.
"But we... if we just leave, they're going to think we abandoned them."
Kor probably wouldn't. Kor didn't have the same kind of feelings they did. If anything, he'd be more irritated with Charlie for leaving him behind than anything else. Anyway, Kor was easy enough to get back. All Charlie had to do was summon him; the contract was still his so whatever happened to him, he could be brought back to him no matter where they were.
But Tempie...
"She's going to think I abandoned her," he amended. "She'll never trust me again if I leave her. We have to find her, Robbie."
"But what good are we to her if we're caught and... and killed?!" Robbie insisted heatedly, frustrated with Charlie's one-track mind. He could be like that, Charlie. Once he had his sights set on something, he was dogged in its pursuit. It was the same with Temperance, too. Robbie admired his brother's long chivalrous streak but it could be dangerous, too!
"They'll have her guarded! There's no way for you and me to get her out. You're weak, Kor's not here and I..."
Robbie's powers weren't useful here. Unlike his brother, he couldn't summon powerful demons. He could summon weak little things, but the brunt of his magical abilities laid in their banishment. And unless every Hazleton was connected to a demon, he doubted that his abilities were useful here.
"Come on, Charlie! We're wasting time! She'll understand! She wanted you to leave before!"
True, if they were killed, they were no use to anybody. But Charlie had that strange invincible streak in him, where he just felt that if he was doing the Right Thing then everything would work out in the end. This was the Right Thing now, to make sure that Tempie was okay. Sure, they had her guarded but there had to be a way to reach out to her.
"She didn't, though!" Charlie argued. "Not really! She just... says things like that to keep me from getting close."
He had been telling himself that for a while with some hint of doubt but now he was sure. The way she held onto him, the embrace she gave him... Despite everything, he was sure now that she trusted him. Maybe she didn't love him or didn't love him the way he wanted her to, but she trusted him. No way could he betray that trust.
"We have to find a way to at least contact her. I can't just leave."
"You can contact her from the outside! Once she hears that we escaped, she'll know that... that we'll come back for her!" Then, almost to himself, "You always do."
It felt like everything these days was Tempie, Tempie, Tempie. Charlie's feelings for her came out of nowhere and Robbie had been secretly hoping that they weren't real. Infatuations happened every day, but Temperance was a Hazleton. She wasn't related to them by blood—and blood was thicker than water.
Robbie tensed and put a finger to his lips. Was that a noise? Footsteps? He looked up and down the hallway, almost forgetting to breathe, but the noise soon passed. "Come on Charlie!" He hissed urgently. "Kor—once he gets better, he can get a message to Temperance! But we have to get out now!"
It was now or never. Charlie wanted to pounce forward, to get the drop on their enemy before they got the drop on them but Robbie simply wouldn't stop. There was no time to sit and think and he hated it. Frowning, he listened to the footsteps with trepidation. They were going to meet up with whomever owned those footsteps soon. They could get placed somewhere much more difficult to escape from. And from the outside, at least Charlie could get Tempie back.
He hated it so much, though. He hated having to walk away. But there was no time.
"Fine...!"
He finally allowed Robbie to lead the way out but even as they did, he whispered back fiercely, "But I'm coming back for her, first thing. With or without you and Kor."