~BOOK 4/PART TWO~ Paranormal: The Battle's Only Just Begun (Multi-Bandom FanFic)

Rachael appeared in the middle of a hallway. She gazed around and immediately recognized her surroundings - Brendon's home. "Brendon?" She called out, her voice echoing in the eerily silent house. She was met with a fit of coughs, rather than a verbal response. "Brendon!" She followed the voice and found the wizard lying in bed, his skin a sickly gray and his eyes bloodshot. His chapped lips were slightly parted and his hair was an absolute mess. "Oh my god..." The witch murmured, walking up to her friend and sitting down next to him, taking his head in her hands. "I thought Kenya was supposed to send a doctor for you."

"Natalie, she...she sent them away," He disclosed, followed by a violent group of coughs that wracked his body.

The witch's eyebrows furrowed together out of anger. "Of course she would."

The wizard closed his eyes shut, tears spilling from them. "I'm in so much pain, Rachael," He croaked, taking in a shaky breath, "I-I think this is the end. I'm dying."

"You're not dying," She assured him, "Nat wouldn't do that to you." The demon might, though, she thought but kept to herself.

"Rachael, I don't...I can't...I..."

"Shh," She cooed, soothingly stroking his sweat-soaked hair. "It's going to be okay, Brendon. I'm here. You're going to be okay." She sat there for a little, trying to comfort him, before standing up and walking over to the closet, where she ripped open the doors and began to search for the wizard's potion kit.

"Wait!" The wizard cried, his body convulsing in pain. She looked back at him and saw the tears streaming down his face, his jaw clenched. "No, we don't have time to make a potion. There...There isn't one that can help me anyways!"

"I'll be damned if there isn't," Rachael muttered, returning her attention forward and spotting the sorcerer's chest full of ingredients, "There's a potion for everything." She grabbed the handles on each side and tugged the heavy container out from underneath the piles of clothes that collapsed once their base had been removed.

"She...She did something to me, Rach," Brendon mumbled, his body relaxing but his breathing becoming heavier and labored, "I-I don't know what she did but she did s-s-something to me and-"

"I said shh," She interrupted him, sitting down on the floor and opening the chest. Vials upon vials filled the hallowed middle, accompanied by a couple of mason jars as well as some instruments. The witch stared at the contents with wide eyes. She had no idea what to do - she never was one for concocting potions. She was more for conjuring things with the abilities she possessed internally.

"Rachael, I-I did something," He stammered guiltily, ignoring the girl's request, "I did something bad and...and now I'm dying. I need...I need you to know-"

"Oh my god, Brendon!" She snapped, looking back at him and silencing the babbling idiot almost instantly, "Just calm down, okay? I'm going to help you."

"I slept with your sister," He admitted bluntly, causing the witch's breath to get caught in her throat. The wizard's head dropped back on the pillow and he whimpered, "Please don't hate me, Rachael. I don't want to die with you hating me."

Rachael remained silent and glanced back down at the chest, saying nothing as she began to search through the vials and jars for what she believed she needed. Brendon painfully pulled himself up so that he was sitting on his elbows and went on to say, "It wasn't me though, Rachael. I think she cast a spell on me, that did this to me."

"Just shut up," She muttered, "You're distracting me and if you want to get better-"

"I'm so sorry, Rachael. I love you and...and I didn't mean to do it. It just kind of-"

The witch rolled her eyes and stood up, rushing over to the wizard and slipping her hands underneath his clammy jawline, leaning in and kissing him on the lips. The wizard felt the pain being transferred from his body into Rachael's, the witch absorbing and suppressing the illness almost instantaneously. She slowly pulled away from him, trying to keep herself from vomiting - a wave of nausea passing over her as the spell she took for herself tried to affect her - and murmured, a weak smile crawling onto her face, "I love you too, Brendon." She meant it. There wasn't an ounce of ingenuity in her words. She actually meant it.

He stared at her in astonishment, feeling a thousand times better. "H-How did you-"

"Darkness," She spit out, holding into Brendon for support and nodding her head, "Whole different world of tricks."

"You've got to teach me one day," The wizard begged, chuckling a little bit. She laughed too, looking into his brown eyes and biting her lip.

Just then, there was a gasp and the two paranormals looked back, seeing their destructive visitor standing in the doorway. "Rachael, thank god you're here!" She rushed in and jumped on the bed, hugging her sister. "I thought Brendon was going to die. I didn't know what to do."

Rachael and Brendon exchanged glances before the witch looked back at her sister and replied, "Yeah, I'm glad I came when I did. I don't think he would've made it much longer had I not."

"What did you do?" The younger of the two siblings inquired out of curiosity, her eyes traveling over to Brendon and narrowing. Her plan was only going half as it was supposed to. She had her sister here, but Brendon wasn't supposed to get better.

"I don't know, but I feel way better now," Brendon answered for her, smiling appreciatively at the older sister. She smiled back at him and the demon inside Natalie growled angrily.

Now that you have her here, you have to get her alone, The demon whispered in the young witch's ear, You won't be able to kill her when she's around this moron.

"Can I talk to you in private, Nat?" Rachael asked, snapping the young girl out of the daze she'd fallen into. The demon screamed at her to take the bait. She was practically giving her what she wanted on a silver platter. The possessor wasn't going to allow her to pass this opportunity up.

"Yeah, of course," Natalie responded, unconsciously picking her body up and waltzing it out of the room. Rachael heaved a sigh and looked back at Brendon who was still smiling up at her, twirling a piece of her hair around his finger.

"I thought I'd never see you again," He murmured.

"I know," She replied softly, wrapping her hand around his and heaving a sigh, "I was going to stay with Link for a while, but-"

"You were staying with Link?" Brendon inquired, sitting upright with a sense of worry, "Rachael, why would you do that?"

"He's the only family I have left aside from Natalie, Brendon. And besides, he's-"

"He's the reason you ran off, the reason you have the darkness inside of you. Remember? Your mom didn't kick him out of the coven because she didn't want to be with him. She kicked him out because of what he did to you."