Wind stung his eyes as Zack jogged along the dirt path leading out onto the main road. Zane kept his pace beside him. They hadn’t been jogging for more than five minutes and already Zane’s feet felt like they were about to give way anytime soon. "Maybe Marie hurt him worse than we thought," he said.

Zack shook his head stubbornly. "No," he countered firmly. "Shax's gotta be around here somewhere. He wouldn't leave without getting what he came for."

Zane looked up at the sky, using one hand to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight. "Do you really think he'd attack us in broad daylight?" he asked. "Evil is usually more insidious than that."

Zack came to a sudden stop. Zane, who wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking, slammed right into his back. "Ow!" He nursed his nose. "Why did you stop?"

"Shh!" Zack said, waving his hand dramatically to shush him.

Zane rolled his eyes. "What? We keeping demon-vanquishing a secret today?" He barely had time to laugh at his own joke when he suddenly heard it too.

A swirling sound. Almost like…

The rustle of leaves and a sudden chill of wind from behind them caught their attention. The two spun around just in time to see Shax materializing from his little tornado trick, advancing upon them.

"Here he comes," Zack said, bracing himself. With a deafening roar, Shax reared back and a blue glob of energy emanated from his palm, aimed directly at Zane.

Without thinking, Zane lifted his hand in the direction of the energy glob and concentrated. The fiery orb simply splattered in seemingly thin air, sending waves of blue light out across the invisible wall, and for a moment, defining the curves of Zane’s telekinetic shield before disappearing entirely.

Incensed that his weapon had failed, Shax raised his arms above his head and roared. A blast of wind burst from the ground and ripped across the dirt path, tearing Zack’s blond hair back from his face. Okay, Zack thought irritatedly, that’s it! Without warning, he lifted his hands and flung a burst of energy towards Shax, hoping to blow him up into smithereens.

The demon yowled agonizingly as Zack’s power detonated against him. In a swirl of raging winds, Shax vanished into thin air. Zane raised his eyebrow. "Okay… Is he dead?" he asked.

Zack remained where he was. "Well…" he said slowly. "We didn’t exactly say the spell." He tried to shrug the feeling that something just didn’t seem right.

Zane cracked his knuckles. "Well, maybe we don’t have to. We don’t always," he reminded.

"Yeah, you’re probably right. Come on, let’s go." Zack raked through his hair with his fingers as he turned to head back towards the manor. He sighed. And then suddenly stopped. "Oh, no!"

Zane slammed into his brother’s back for the second time. "Will you stop doing that!? And what do you mean ‘oh no’? What’s wrong?"

"Magic. We used our powers in public. What if somebody saw us?"

Zane rolled his eyes and headed back for the manor. "Don’t worry," he said, waving a hand in dismiss. "I’m pretty sure no one was watching."

If he only knew…

He was wrong.

Zane slapped a twenty-dollar bill into the palm of the delivery guy and slammed the heavy front door in his face. He was in no mood for niceties like hello and goodbye. He then hurried back up into their apartment and into the kitchen, ready to devour the food. Too bad the smell wafting from the bags wasn’t the greatest. "What did you order?" he snapped at Zack, who was on the phone by the kitchen table.

Zack told whoever that was on the phone to wait. "I told you that I was getting Chinese," he answered. In a flash he was back on the phone. "No, I understand," he said sympathetically. "How long will he be in there? Okay, just have Doctor Griffith call me back as soon as possible, all right? Thanks. Okay. Bye." With that, he hung up.

"I told you that I wasn’t in the mood for Chinese." Zane dropped the bags onto the table and peered into them.

"No," Zack countered. "You said you didn’t want sweet and sour. This is spicy and sour. There’s a difference."

"Whatever. Might as well dig in," Zane said, pulling a pair of chopsticks out of the bag. Opening a quart of steaming rice, Zack said, "All right, I called the hospital and they said that Griffith’s in surgery, so no way will Shax attack him in there. For now."

"Okay, but what do we do then?" Zane asked, biting into a crunchy egg roll. "I mean, we can’t protect him indefinitely."

Zack picked up his chopsticks. "Well, if I’m right, we won't have to. I mean, Shax will attack sooner rather than later." He paused, narrowing his eyes in deep thought. Then, abruptly, he put his chopsticks down. "We should go. Now."

"No!" Zane insisted, jabbing a piece of Kung Pao chicken. "We should wait for Kitty to see what she found out, especially with Marie gone. I mean, what if we need the Power of Three?" Zane was glad that amongst his brother’s powers – in addition to his recent ability to blow things up – did not include the ability to read minds. He didn’t want him to find out that the only reason he wanted to wait was because he wanted to finish his meal first. After all, a guy’s gotta eat.

"True," Zack agreed. The phone then rang. "Oh! Maybe that's Griffith," Zack said, jumping out of his seat and grabbing the phone. "Hello?" he answered. After a brief moment he made a face. "Scott? Okay, just wait. Slow down, okay?" Another brief pause. "What? What’s all over it, Scott?"

Zane was slurping down his cold sesame noodles when Zack nudged him with his elbow and whispered ‘News channel’. He sighed audibly, picked up the remote control, and pressed the ‘Power’ button. A grainy video clip flashed across the screen.

"Seismologists believe that this quiet neighbourhood is actually sitting on top of a fault line…" A strikingly attractive female newscaster turned around when a loud background noise interrupted her. The camera followed her glance. "What the hell!?"

Sheer horror overcame the two brothers as they stared at the TV screen. "Oh my god!" Zack blurted, the phone slipping from his hand and clattering onto the tiled kitchen floor.

Zane felt the blood drain from his face as another footage appeared on the screen. It showed the same newscaster holding onto a mike, getting out of a van. To her cameraman, she said, "Here we are approaching the institution of where they allegedly live!"

"O-oh! Fu-!" He dropped his chopsticks and covered his mouth in shock.

The newscaster was now standing in front of the X-Manor. "The Progeny of the Atom. School for the supernaturally gifted youngsters and home to Zachary and Zane Warren. And you're gonna meet them ‘live’ with me – Elana Dominguez – right here, on KCSF."

Zane felt faint. He looked at his older brother and whispered, "What are we gonna do?" Zack didn’t reply. He just stared at the TV, his jaw wide open in disbelief.

They jumped when the double doors of the conservatory suddenly burst open. Forgetting that they had already vanquished him, Zack grimaced, almost expecting Shax to make his appearance any time soon. Instead, a frail teenage girl charged in, took one look around the lush greenhouse, and yelled out excitedly. "Cool! I made it!"

Zack looked up at the girl in disbelief. "Who the hell are you!?" he asked, wide-eyed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his younger brother staring at the girl as if hoping that he could blow her up using the power of his mind.

"Oh!" The thin blond girl gasped, as if suddenly realizing that she wasn’t alone. Smiling daintily, she said, "Um, I’m Alice, Alice Hicks. I've been trying to contact you. I wanna join your coven."

"What!?" Zane screeched, not believing what he had just heard. He was clearly losing his nerves in the midst of the chaos. "A-a-ar-are-are you nuts!?" he sputtered. "This is private property! Get outta here!" He lashed his hand out at Alice, focusing all the irritation and frustration he’d felt over the whole morning into his power, and sent her flying back out of the conservatory door with a telekinetic blast, slamming the door shut after her.

Outside, Alice yelled out in pain as she hit the ground. "You mean witches!" she shouted wantonly.

Zane raised his eyebrow skeptically as he watched Zack push a parlor table against the conservatory door. "I don’t understand why we’re even bothering to do this," he said. If some mad person was bent on getting into the manor, one puny little table wasn’t gonna help much.

"In case time doesn’t resets itself," Zack said through his teeth, rolling his eyes as if Zane was simply being a nuisance.

"Unless time resets itself, this table against that door is not gonna help much," Zane pointed out.

"Yeah, well, then we better start thinking what would, okay?" Zack said. "Because if Kitty and Marie don’t succeed, we’re gonna have to figure out what we’re gonna do."

Zane started stalking away towards the parlor, waving a hand in mock flourish. "Oh… we’re gonna do talk shows and book signings and movie deals and then be taken by the CIA and dissected!" he hissed icily.

"O-okay, how could you be joking at a time like this?" Zack chided, following him.

"Who’s joking?" Zane retorted. He had just about enough of his big bossy brother bossing him around. Zack’s firm hand clamped onto his shoulder and forcefully swerved him around.

"This isn’t funny!" Zack yelled into his face. Zane rolled his eyes. "I know that this sounds totally stupid but I’m scared, all right? And you should be too. Our lives, everything that we've worked for could be completely destroyed w-w-with one stupid mistake. Our entire future, our entire destiny could be wiped out just like that!" Zack snapped his fingers at his last words to emphasize his point.

A gunshot rang out.

Zane’s eyes popped as he gasped out loud. He gripped at the sudden pain that had formed and was rapidly spreading in his abdomen.

"What was that?" Zack grimaced, shocked by his younger brother’s sudden expression, which was contorted with pain.

His hands trembling, Zane peered down, and found a dark red patch seeping through the fabric of his bleach-white shirt.

Suddenly drained of energy, Zane stumbled beneath his own weight, and Zack jumped forward and caught him with a violent effort to keep him from falling.

"Oh, no," Zack exclaimed. "No!"

Zane was breathing fast and his breaths came in short, sharp gasps. Something warm and slightly sticky seeped onto Zack’s hand. He lifted it up and let out a little gasp of his own. His brother is bleeding to death!

"Oh my god," Zack stuttered, his eyes starting to tear as he listened to Zane’s uneven gasps for air. "Come on," he said, half stumbling, lifting his brother onto his shoulder, "we gotta get you to a hospital."

With Zane propped against his shoulder, Zack kicked the parlor table away from the conservatory door and pushed through the double doors. "Kitty!" he yelled out at the atmosphere, hoping that his Whitelighter girlfriend would hear his call from the underworld and come back to save Zane.

Through a narrowing tunnel of vision, Zane watched as his brother raced them to his sleek-black SUV and eased him into the backseat. He watched as the late-morning shadows crept through the car door and fought back tears, trying not to give in to complete terror. All he felt was an agonizing pain, and the life being drawn from him.

His ears heard nothing, nothing but the silence. He couldn’t smell the potpourri Zack kept in a drawstring pouch on the dashboard. He couldn’t smell the lemon scent that always came with the clothes he wore because Marie liked using lemon-scented detergent when she did the laundry.

His vision grew narrower and narrower as the tunnel closed in. He didn’t dare close his eyes for fear that when he opened them again, all he would see would be what he saw when they were closed – darkness.

He focused on the sunlight streaming through the windshield. Fewer and fewer rays were seen, not because the sunlight was fading, but because the opening to the tunnel was growing smaller.

The world was fading away. But how much longer? Zane wondered. How much longer will it be before I am totally surrounded by darkness?

"I do not believe this!" Zack yelled, mortified, as he leaned forward and looked out at the roadblock through the windshield. The mob of reporters, atheists, and witch wannabes had actually put up a red-and-white barrier across the road path.

They were trapped.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing!?" Zack rolled down the window, stuck his head out and yelled, "Get out of my way!"

Elana, the newscaster, was practically drooling in anticipation as she and her cameraman stepped up to Zack’s SUV. "Mr. Warren," she said as she shoved a microphone into his face, "what is going on? Please! Tell us!"

Incensed, Zack threw open his car-door and climbed out. He pushed Elana out of his way and yelled, "Move out of my way! I need to get him to the hospital!" He reached a hand into his car and blasted the horn. "Move! Move outta of my way! What is wrong with you people?"

"Mr. Warren," Elana tried again, this time more persistent. "What is going on?"

Zack narrowed his eyes and stared at her. So this is what I get for saving their sniveling ungrateful butts from evil on a freaking daily basis? His head spun as the weight of the world seemed to crash down upon his shoulders. He focused on Elana again. He stared at her with fury and with power. He stared at her with an anger he never knew he possessed.

Do something! a voice screamed loudly within him. Zack did the only thing he could. An unmistakable flash of anger flamed in his narrowed eyes as he was caught in a moment of desperation. He flung his hands out in the direction of Elana’s microphone and let out a burst of energy. The device instantly exploded and disappeared in a flash of fiery light. Elana screeched as she jumped in surprise. Finally backing up a few steps, she warily watched Zack’s every move.

Zack grinned. He was glad that for once in the past few weeks, his power of disintegration had finally executed properly to his bidding. "All right," he hissed under his breath. Time to expend some pent-up tension. "No more Mister Nice Witch."

He stalked over to the roadblock. There was no way he was going to let his brother die just like that. Not if there was something he could do about it. With one powerful thrust, he flung his hands out at the barricade, blowing it up into smithereens.

More screaming.

But Zack wasn’t finished. He cut off their surprised screams by flinging out another burst of lethal energy at the news van, detonating it instantly in a ball of fire. Bystanders cried out and covered their faces against the heat and intense light of the explosion.

He didn’t waste another second. As soon as the path was cleared, Zack turned and raced back to the car, jumped in, then gunned the engine and burned rubber off the tires as he sped off for the hospital. In the backseat, Zane had to brace his hands against the front passenger seat and the door as Zack raced down the winding street.

"We’re not gonna make it," his brother told him weakly.

"Oh yes we are," Zack shot back. "Don’t you dare die on me!" He slammed down on the gas, took a corner so fast that Zane was sure the left side tires actually came off the ground, and finally shot out onto the level stretch of road at the edge of the woods.