A New Covenant - 1. A New Covenant

Chapter 1:

A New Covenant

Massachusetts Bay Colony; February, 1690

Melinda Warren, John Putnam, Joseph Danvers, Nathaniel Parry, George Simms, and Michael Garwin meet in the Warren household, their minds heavy with the recent events that have been unleashed in Salem. These six families all hold a terrible, yet powerful secret; they have supernatural powers. With accusations flying everywhere, the fates of these witches and their descendants all rest on this meeting, and this Covenant.

Putnam: “I say we agree to keep the others’ secrets ‘tween us, ‘thy fate to be mine own, and mine own fate to be thine’ ‘twill be our silence ought to protect us, and each other.”

Warren: “Ay, but what says the other of ‘ye?”

Simms: “Ay, mine fate is thine’s, and thine fate be mine.”

Garwin: “Ay.”

Parry: “By God, and all that’s good, ‘twill be hell on Earth ‘fore I reveal this secret.”

Danvers: “So say you one, so say you all?”

W, Pu, S, G, Pa: “AY!”

Danvers: “Then so be it. Let this meeting be declared the Covenant of 1692, let none of thee reveal what was said, nor what thee knowest of this, forever shall this hold!”

W, Pu, S, G, Pa, D: “Mote it Be!”

Massachusetts Bay Colony; April, 1692

On April 4, 1692 Abigail Adams accuses John Putnam of witchcraft, while on trial he promises the court to deliver 5 confirmed witches and repent his sins if the court allows him to live. Melinda Warren and Nathaniel Parry cast a spell to erase Putnam’s memory of the Covenant and all other magic.

On April 15, 1692 Melinda Warren is accused of witchcraft by goody Putnam, she is sentenced to death, and is hanged on April 20, 1692. Her only daughter is secretly taken from Massachusetts into Maine by one of Melinda’s cousins.

Parry, Simms, Danvers, and Garwin agree to maintain the Covenant sacred; they remain free of suspicion and remain in Massachusetts.

San Francisco, California; 2012

Three young men stand around a leather-bound tome its pages show its age, the young men read a spell aloud as a deformed figure hurls fireballs at them.

Young Men (unison): “Prudence, Penelope, Patricia, Melinda, Astrid, Helena, Laura, and Grace...Halliwell witches stand strong beside us,
Vanquish this evil from time and space!!”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! You think that spell will kill ME!?! You’ve no idea of my power!!!!!”

The young men separate; the blonde, blue eyed, well muscled one goes left, a younger hazel eyed tight bodied brunette goes right, and a dusty blond, green eyed defined one goes down the center.

Dusty Blond: “Chris, Wyatt, get the crystals!!”

Blonde: “David, DUCK!!”

The dusty blonde, from now on David, jumps into the air and dodges a lightning bolt that comes straight at him.

Brunette: “Wyatt, BEHIND YOU!!!”

The blonde, now Wyatt, disappears in a swirl of lights and reappears next to David.

Wyatt: “Christopher LETS GO!!!! Grab the book, we need to leave!!!!”

The brunette disappears in a swirl of light, reappears by the tome and disappears into another swirl, Wyatt and David follow suit, the deformed figure stands alone in a room, his eyes glow with fire as he scans his surroundings for the boys, and they are not there.

“DAMN YOU HALLIWELLS!!!!! I WILL KILL YOU ALL IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Ipswich, Massachusetts; 2012

Four boys stand atop a cliff looking down on a rave, one is a blonde, slim brown eyes, another is a dark brunette well muscled hazel eyes, a third has dark brown hair, light brown eyes and is well shaped yet not defined, the fourth with shoulder length brown hair and light brown eyes.

Blond: “What took you so long Pogue?”

Long Hair: “Family thing Reid. Caleb how’s the party?”

Well Muscled: “Don’t know yet, just got here myself. You’ve been down yet Tyler?”

Well Shaped: “Got here with Reid.”

Reid: “Well then boys, let’s drop in!!”

Reid drops off the cliff, carefree and confident.

Caleb: “REID!”

Tyler: “Why the hell not!”

Tyler follows Reid’s actions and drops off the cliff.

Caleb: “TYLER!”

Pogue: “Relax Caleb, we need some fun, its ok!”

Pogue drops off the cliff and flashes a smile at Caleb.

Caleb: “Well, when in Rome….”

Caleb jumps off the cliff and begins his high speed drop towards the ground, he flips his body in mid-air, his eyes flash like a burning ember, then go pitch black and he lands lightly on the ground.

“C’mon guys…LETS PARTY!!!”

“yea!”

The boys make their way towards the campfire and their friends. Pogue spots his long time girlfriend Kate and makes his way to her. Caleb, Tyler, and Reid follow him.

“Hey guys….this is Sarah, she just transferred in. Sarah this is Pogue Parry, Caleb Danvers, Reid Garwin and Tyler Simms.”

Sarah is a blonde girl, with a nice body and a killer smile; Kate is a beautiful girl of African-American descent, her eyes and smile light up any room she’s in.

“Sarah Wenham, nice to meet you guys.”

“You know, Sarah is my grandmother’s name and you sorta remind me of….”

“Caleb Danvers…and you don’t bring my grandmother to mind….in any way…”

“Haha, good.”

A third girl approaches the group, she speaks to Caleb, her hair is red and her eyes have malice in them, though not evil.

“Hey Caleb…”

“Kira.”

“How was your summer?”

“Ummm”

“I’m Kira”

“Sarah.”

“Oh, right. From the Boston public. Tell me, how does one go about getting into Spenser from a public?”

“Why don’t you give it a rest Kira?”

A guy about the same age as the boys comes up to the group he has blonde hair and light green eyes.

“Why don’t YOU give it a rest?”

“I don’t want any trouble, Aaron”

“I’m sure you don’t. I think you owe Kira an apology.”

“Actually, I think Kira owes Sarah the apology.”

Aaron pushes Caleb, Reid steps forward, but Pogue holds him back. Yet another newcomer joins the group, this one a light brunette with a mischievous smile and eyes filled with sarcasm.

“You were being kinda bitchy.”

As the brunette speaks, Reid’s eyes flash like embers and a guy standing behind Aaron begins puking.

“Ewwww, disgusting!!”

“You idiot!”

The DJ announces that the cops are coming and the group disperses into the woods.

“Hey, nice going back there. Caleb.”

“Chase, Collins. I thought I was about to fight that dude back there, his friend’s puking sure came at an opportune time.”

“Didn’t it though?”

The group breaks into two, the Sons of Ipswich go into Tyler’s car and Kate, Sarah and Chase go into Sarah’s car. Sarah can’t start her car, Reid uses his power to fix it and both cars go separate ways.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

**From this point on, the Story will be narrated through David or Caleb’s point of view**

We orbed into the Manor thankfully the book had escaped unscathed, and by pure luck so had we, if mom knew we’d gone after an ex-Avatar by ourselves, no potions, plan, or way out she would freak, but that’s mom she worries, she worries and cooks.

“Mom, Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Paige, we’re home!!!”

My mom’s name is Piper, she has brunette hair and hazel eyes, Chris takes after her more than Wyatt or I do, we take after our dad, his name is Leo.

“David Samuel Halliwell, Christopher Perry Halliwell, and Wyatt Matthew Halliwell where have you been, and more importantly why did you take the Book with you?!?!?!”

Mom always does this; she lists us in backwards age order. I’m 16; Chris is 17, and Wyatt is 18. Mom and dad didn’t even take breaks when it came to children, but then again they kinda knew we were coming, what with Chris’s future self having paid a visit and mine coming two year’s later, our family pretty much knew what would happen when, we just had to figure out the how’s.

“Mom, don’t freak we had to summon it ‘cause we couldn’t remember the spell to vanquish a shocker demon, that’s all.”

“AGH! Please come up with a better excuse than that, it’s the simplest spell ever, now out with it, what were y’all doing summoning the book?”

My aunt Phoebe is a good woman, a great aunt, marvelous wife, and kickass witch, but she tends to be overbearing with us at times, that’s what happens when you’re the offspring of a charmed one, you get your mom and two others, whether you like it or not.

“Fine, here’s the truth, we’re trying to create a spell that’s strong enough to vanquish ex-Avatars so we can deal with them, we needed the book to figure out which will make the best combination.”

“He’s lying, they were fighting an ex-Avatar, look at the bookmark on the Book, that’s on the Source vanquishing spell, and they’re all sweating, you don’t sweat from research, you do however sweat from fighting.”

My aunt Paige is a complicated piece of this puzzle, you see she’s half Whitelighter; Whitelighters are a type of angel that protect witches. My aunt Paige is not even supposed to exist, you see before mom and dad Whitelighters and witches weren’t allowed to fall in love, get married, or have kids, but grandma Patty put her up for adoption and saved her, only after my aunt Prue died did mom and aunt Phoebe ever even know that they had a baby sister.

“Well, no use trying to weasel out of this. Yes, we were fighting an ex-Avatar, no we couldn’t vanquish it, but we’re ok, the Book is ok and we covered our tracks really well, can we just be happy about that and be done with it?”

“No David we can’t. You guys know that if the Avatars kicked these guys out of their core, they must’ve had a very powerful reason. Every time you fight one without any help you put yourself and us in danger, I’ve told you this a million times, but apparently you just don’t get it!!!!”

“Mom, please why can’t you guys just see that we can take care of ourselves?!?!”

“Yea, the same way Diana, Don, and Darryl can? Look where that got them, all in a cage for three days, and me and Henry had no idea where!! We worry about you because all of this is happened before; my kids aren’t the first ones to get caught. Do you remember when Melinda, Carrie, and Victor were taken by Chronos to make us give up our powers? Or When Wyatt, Chris and you were taken to the underworld by Carnios and held prisoners for about a week? We’re not saying you guys should live in a bubble, but we don’t want you guys to go through any of that again!!!”

“Aunt Paige, if we only fight when you guys are around then what good will it ever do? We have powers of our own, and we can make these decisions, if you think for a second that we’re gonna just stand around and wait, then we have a very big problem!!”

“Wyatt, please. I’m not gonna waste my breath. Go to your rooms, put the Book back and we’ll deal with this some other time….oh and by the way, your letters from Spenser just came in I put each of them in your rooms.”

Spenser High School is a really high class school in Ipswich, Massachusetts, mom and dad decided that we should go there for this school year; they say it would help Wyatt get into a good university, and it would help Chris and me to bulk up our studies. I know they’re right, but regardless, I know that being away from San Francisco is the true objective of this little trip, mom and dad are worried that there’s so many ex-Avatars, they think it’s a bad omen that such powerful beings keep on throwing out people from their core, when it is that same core which allows them to be so powerful.

I went into my room hoping against hope that I would find a demon or something to fight while I was in my room; I hate stagnant days like this one, nothing to do, and nowhere to go. I’ve always been the wild child, the one who took nothing for granted and hated every bit of the rainy days, because there was nothing to do except sit a round and pray for sunshine.

I opened the letter and for the first time ever realized how much I actually wanted to go to Spenser; I had thought that I was just simply doing it because it was what my parents wanted. Now, with the letter in my hand I realized I actually craved going, I actually wanted to get away from San Francisco, I wanted something new, and I wanted a chance to be more than I was here.

I hesitated, my mind shot to a guy, my guy. Alain and I had been through a lot together; we had shared a lot of things all of which had had no reasonable explanation. That was Alain’s only fault his disbelief in things that were outside of his understanding. He and I have had the “I am a witch” convo and all that had gained us up to now was nothing more than his ridicule and my anger.

I looked at the half-sealed envelope in my hands and realized Alain and I had run our course, even if this letter was denial Alain and I had nothing more in common, we had exhausted our reserves in conversation and we argued more than we laughed. I picked my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed his number…the phone rang once…. twice…three times…

“Hey babe, what's up? A demon coming to getcha? Or is a Harpy after you? Haha you know I’m just playing witcha, any who what’s up?”

“Alain, you can be such an ass!! Thanks for being your typical self; you just confirmed something for me. Anyway I’m calling because I’ve to tell you two things:

First and foremost…Powers of the witches rise course unseen across the skies, come to I who call you near come to me and settle here, with this spell simple and complicated as well, Alain Marlton’s memory I do dispel.

And second I think we should break up, it’s just, we don’t have all that many things in common, and lately you’ve grown distant from me, I just think our relationship has run its course, I’m sorry.”

“Ummm…well I can’t say it’s a surprise, but hey if that’s what you want it’s what you want y’know so…well all I can really say is good luck with whatever you do y’know I hope you find that one special dude y’know…. bye Dave…”

I heard a click and instead of heartbreak or pain I felt relief, freedom, and even a little joy, my life had to begin anew something deep inside me told me that San Fran no longer held anything for me, I had come as far as I would by staying here, I had learned all that this city had to teach me, now it was time for something new, and that would be Spenser, or New York, just somewhere far from home, and my aunts, my mom, my dad, and all the other eternal bullshit that surrounded San Fran.

I opened the letter and read aloud:

“Esteemed David S. Halliwell;

Spenser preparatory school is thankful for your application and attention, it is of great delight to this institution that someone whose I.Q. and grades are of such fine-standing as your own would apply to join our student body, therefore we are proud to welcome you to Spenser High School as a graduate of the class of 2015.

Again welcome to Spenser and we hope that you will achieve all your goals here at our institution.

Respectfully

The Board of Trustees, Alumni, and Staff.”

“MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got in!! I got in!!!!!”

I heard mom rush up the steps, and the others were close behind, my aunt Paige orbed in and my uncle Coop shone in, then my door burst open and in came the rest of the gang, among them Wyatt and Chris.

“I got in too…ugh! Now I have to start all over again…boring…”

“Good spirit Wyatt, good spirit…anyway I got in too!!! I’m so fucking happy…FINALLY SOMETHING!!!!”

“Chris!! Watch your language, and congratulations to all of you, now get packing; you’re leaving for Ipswich in four hours.”

“Mom, did you know we had gotten in?”

“Well…it was actually me…I had a premonition, thought we would get you guys off to a good start so we set up a house for you 30 minutes from school.”

“Thank GOD!! I thought I’d have to share a room with some annoying jock, or some bookworm, now I’ll at least have a place of my own.”

“Wyatt…why? Why do you always look to the darker side of things, why can’t you just be happy about it and be done with it?”

“Because Chris, I just love seeing that look on your face whenever I get to spoiling things for you and Dave…plus, why do you read so much into what I think?”

“Chris, Wyatt, go pack. David, you have to come with me, we need to do something really important before you leave.”

“Yes ma’am”

Aunt Paige orbed out and I followed her orbs with my own to the attic, the place where the Book of Shadows is normally kept. I was surprised she would lead me here, considering we could’ve just walked up the steps.

“What’s up Aunt Paige?”

“Your mom, Phoebe and I have decided that you guys can’t just go to Massachusetts without any magical back-up, considering its history and what-not, so we designed a little spell which let us make this”

She held out the book of Shadows, or so it seemed, the major difference was that the cover of this book was a darker forest green than the cover of the actual Book. I took the Book from her hands and realized that apart from color, this book was an exact copy of the one that rested on the podium in the nook of the attic. I began to flip through the pages, glancing spell after spell, demonography after demonography, history after history, and potion after potion, all of which were written in the original Book.

“I want you to take this book and orb it to the house we bought you guys in Ipswich, the house is actually a replica of the Manor, except for color and façade, and the Nexus of course, but otherwise it has a Solarium, a Foyer, an Attic, five Bedrooms, three Bathrooms, Dining room, Kitchen, Living room, laundry room, and lots of family pictures. We didn’t do it to constrict you guys; we actually did it so that you guys could have a home to go to, and if you guys don’t like it, you could always just void the spells. Both the spell to duplicate the Book and the spell to duplicate the Manor are only in that copy, for safety reasons. Keep it safe, keep it secret, and keep it well, just as if it were the original.”

“I don’t know what to say…I love it…its so…. AMAZING!! Thank you guys so much!!!”

I hugged her, knowing full well that this’d be one of our last moments together for a while. I knew she would only be an orb away, but regardless, this was our thing, this unrelenting love of magic that we shared.

“You’d think he was leaving forever the way you’re holding him Paige, anyway, I should be the one hugging him like that, he is after all my youngest.”

“You’re right; I’ll go say my sayonaras to the other two. I love you Dave, and if you ever need me, just holler my name.”

She was crying; she looked beautiful when she cried; her face gained an unnatural glow, whenever she cried, almost as if tears and laughter had mixed inside her when she was born, and could no longer distinguish one from the other.

I walked over to my mom and hugged her, I loved this woman more than anyone else, and she was the only one that mattered sometimes. She hugged me tightly, and lovingly, and I felt her tears warm my face.

“I’ll only be an orb away mom, and I’ll come home for Christmas, and my birthday and yours and I’ll even come to dinner sometimes, I promise.”

“Oh, it’s not the distance; it’s the growing up part that gets me. Spenser prep means you’re almost all grown up, and now you’ll have a house of your own and a Book to protect, I just see you all just slipping away from me so quickly, I don’t know where the time’s going anymore.”

“Did you give this nice little speech to Wyatt and Chris too? Oh, and more so, is dad giving us all a similar one?”

“Yes and yes. We’re your parents, you should know that we’re gonna bug you ‘till the very end, otherwise we wouldn't be doing our jobs.”

We laughed, because it was true, because it was ridiculous, because we needed it, and because laughter was easier than tears.

We made our way down the stairs and to the manor’s foyer, there were all our bags, and all our family, mom gave me one tight squeeze as we descended the last steps, then she let me go. She let me go from her arms, she let me go on my own, but she would never let me go of her heart, the knowledge that she cared…that they all cared made this bittersweet moment all that much harder to swallow, it made saying good-bye a drawn out affair.

Wyatt, Chris, and I made our way down the front steps, our aunts, uncles, cousins, and our Parents stood at the door, all yelling “good-byes” and “good lucks” at us, and the younger ones even hollering “Blessed Be” and “Mote It Be” as if those words were as common as water below a bridge. I turned back and smiled, I waved at them, I winked at them, and I blew kisses at them, but I knew that this sight would be the last memory I would create in Halliwell Manor, and I was ok with it, because Mom and our aunts had taught us that everything happened for a reason, and that even the darkest of night still held a shinning star, a full moon, or simply a light from home.

We got in the car, we would be arriving by plane, there wasn’t a need for the extra expense, however we had to be seen in town, there had to be a record of our getting there, evidence that we were “normal” even though that was harder to fake than a good orgasm.

The ride to the airport was quiet except for the radio, whispering its songs, my brothers were quiet, Wyatt cried soundlessly, and Chris pretended to draw our surroundings, but I knew he was really drawing Mom and Dad. I couldn’t blame him, my mind kept jumping to them, once I even astral-projected myself into the attic hoping to glance at them, but there was no-one there, only memories and hopes, nothing more; nothing else.

Suddenly I remembered the copy of the Book in my knapsack, I knew it would raise suspicions if I had it in my carry-on, I knew I had to orb to our house in Massachusetts and place the book under the protection of the Manor’s replica,

“Guys I have an errand to run so I’m going to orb out, try not to get to the airport before I get back, it shouldn’t take long.”

“Are you going to our house in Massachusetts?”

“Yea, I have a couple of magical things that I don’t want security to see.”

“My bag’s got some things too; think you could orb the red bag with you?”

“My duffel’s got some stuff too, you should orb that too, and my leather tote”

“Fine, why don’t I just orb most of the bags there, and that way we don’t have to worry about baggage claim and all that other stuff.”

“That’s the best idea you’ve had as to date.”

“Go lick a pussy!”

“You go suck a dick!”

We all laughed, and the weird tension broke, we were brothers again, having an adventure, and suddenly it came to me, we could road-trip our way there, we could go to the airport cash in our tickets, call mom and dad and let them know and go on a road trip.

“I have an even better one. How’s about we take a road trip rather than a plane ride…. think about it…. all of us on the road, no rules, no schedule, just the wide open road!!!”

“Well, as much as I would love to start the semester late, be stuck in this car with both of you, and drive for hours-on-end, I’d much rather take a plane, plus aunt Phoebe pulled some strings and got us first-class, I’d never change that for a road-trip.”

“Dave, I see where that would be really cool, but it would take too long, plus our tickets are non-refundable, and without that money we don’t have enough to get there.”

“Fine. Just move over Chris, I’m gonna orb the bags to the house, just remember: DO NOT get to the airport before I get back, we need to be seen together k?”

“We’re like an hour from the airport, orbing won’t take you that long, just go.”

“Yea, well if I’m late it means something doesn’t it? You know the chances of getting attacked are always changing, so…. well whatever I’ll try not to take too long.”

I got into the backseat and hugged six of the nine bags we were carrying with us, remembering Chris’ duffel and Wyatt’s red bag, and my own carry-on, hoping that these were the only bags that held any suspicious items inside, and with a look at my brothers I orbed off.

I orbed into our house and for one-second thought I was back in San Francisco, the solarium was such a replica of the Manor on Prescott St that I was thrown back for a second. I shook it off, knowing that it was all part of the spell my mom, and aunts had cast, it was astounding non-the-less the chairs, the lamps, everything was in place. I walked from the solarium into the living room and found I knew where everything would be, it was all there down to the last picture.

I had to get back, Chris and Wyatt would be arriving at the airport anytime, and Wyatt was a very impatient person. I took the book from my carry-on and walked up the steps to the attic, it was so astoundingly the same, my breath caught, the podium stood in the middle ready for the book as it always stood. I placed our copy of the Book in its faithful stand and with a last glance orbed out with my thoughts set on the car.

I orbed back in and could sense there was something wrong.

“The Manor’s being attacked, Chris went to do what he could, you should too.”

“No, I’ll take the wheel you go and help, we both know you can do more than I can.”

Wyatt nodded orbed and I grabbed the wheel and jumped over, the car careened out of control and I went spinning onto oncoming traffic, then it all went blank.