"Shouldn't they be attacking us?" Daniel was concerned when the witches just kept staring at them, chanting nonstop.

They had all come out of the safety of their house to fight them head-on.

"The best defense is to attack before they attack," Lia said and moved to the front.

She took in a deep breath, positioned herself, and screamed, pouring out all the negative emotions in her on them.

Everyone behind her crouched down, shielding their ears with their palm until she was through, panting heavily.

They all stood up, hoping to see the destroyed witches but to their greatest shock, the witches were up on their feet. The grass beneath their feet was cleared and the land scorched but the witches were unharmed.

"How is that possible?" Lia was stricken with fear.

"Maybe your powers have lost their effectiveness," Devon was smug, stepping out from amongst them to land her strike.

Lia clenched her fist, recently this girl was getting under her skin. Why was Devon even competing with her? The girl was not even worth her attention! She had a mate to save, children to nurse, council to stop, so the little bedbug was the least of her problems notwithstanding she was almost her same age.

Even Electra who was a hundred years plus older than her doesn't rub shoulders with her, talk more her?

"What is wrong with Devon, she's been giving my sister the attitude?" Trevor whispered-asked Electra, eyes still trained on the battlefield

Electra answered and said,

"Devon's an impulsive, domineering, and proud hybrid who loves attention. But then, She sees Lia as a big competition and this mission is all about her - not to mention she once had a crush on my father. I think she blames your sister for what happened to Asher, "

"Well, she would have to deal with that since Asher made that decision himself - joyfully," Trevour breathed.

"Hey, weakling, can I get some quietness in here!" Devon snapped at Trevor after hearing their conversation amid their effort to keep it down.

"Hey, don't talk to my brother like that!" Lia took offense.

"I don't remember talking to you, demon!" Devon spat at her.

And that did it!

A low growl was enunciated from Lia's throat.

"No, Lia, don't!" Daniel tried to stop the girl but the beast in her had been awoken.

Lia tackled Devon to the ground, her serrated werewolf teeth snapping closely at her face.

Devon magically tossed her away like a rag doll but Lia vamped back, head butting her in the bridge of the nose.

Blood flowed from Devon's nose, she wiped it with the back of her hand, smearing it in the process across her cheeks. Her eyes darkened, she was out for blood.

"Devon, don't!" Ben hugged her from behind but she flung him away by a mere gesture.

Daniel who was holding back the furious Lia from lunging at her was tossed aside too.

Free, Lia leaped at her but Devon froze her in midair, then threw her to a tree, the branch puncturing right into her chest. She hung from the branch, lifelessly.

Everyone froze when Lia didn't stir.

"This is going according to as planned, even better. They already had a rift, making it easier," Daniel heard the four witches cackled.

"Sabrina, something's strange," He said to Sabrina who busied herself firing destructive spells at the witches, but each of her spells kept getting sucked in without achieving its motive.

"What is stranger than the fact they keep absorbing my magic and whatever power we throw at them, " She grimaced, striving to land a successful blow.

"Or stranger than the fact Lia and Devon who are the most reasonable in this group started their fight in this crucial time," Daniel pointed out.

"Oh crap," It dawned on Sabrina, "Those disgusting witches did the spell of discord amongst us,"

"If they cast such, why is everyone not fighting each other?" He couldn't understand.

"Because those two were already at loggerheads with each other in the first place, hence it got them first. Ours might come sooner - gosh! They're trying to make us destroy each other,"

"Hey, what did I miss?" Dan returned from the little errand only to see Lia suspended on a tree through the heart.

It was at that moment that Lia awoke, used her hand to break off that branch from behind, landing on the ground with a great thud. She pulled the rest of the branch out of her heart revealing a massive hole in her chest.

However, she began to heal so quickly that Trevor's human eye couldn't catch up with the whole regeneration. Soon her chest closed up, a sinister smirk curved her lips and she screamed directly at Devon, who at the same time summoned her own destructive spell.

Both of their powers clashed strongly, inadvertently triggering an enormous sonic wave that knocked everyone off their feet - Devon and Lia included.

The four witches as expected, absorbed the wave with their spell hence were left unharmed.

"Mission accomplished," One of them smiled at the other. With most of the works done, they strutted over to the defeated team.

Dan and Daniel were the only ones awake, others were unconscious. But the vampire was disoriented, whatever those two did left him in severe pain while Daniel threw up, he was experiencing nausea and great discomfort.

The witches came into their midst, walking directly to where Lia lay askew and carried her. With a grunt, Daniel grabbed the boot of one of them, refusing to let go. He would rather die than let them take her.

The witch grabbed at the leg was infuriated and raised her hand intending to strike him dead with a spell, but her partner stopped her.

"No don't. The mate bond exists between them, she'd know if something bad happened to him and she's smart enough to connect it back to us. We don't want any kind of disruption to our plan, do we? "

"Fine," She hissed, kicking his grip away instead. Daniel was too tired to even move anyway, he gave in to the exhaustion.

"Let's go," One commanded while the other summoned a portal that would take them back to the council.

Unknowing to the trio of them, the other witch warned against killing Daniel and secretly cast a spell just as they went through the portal.

The ground on which Dan and his gang laid became quicksand. They began to sink gradually till none was seen.