Deadly Desires
When Leo orbed in behind her, Piper waited until his hands were around her waist before turning to face him. "Surprise!" Piper said, as she gestured into the next room, where the large table was filled with plates of food and candles flickering gently. "I arranged for Prue and Phoebe to give us a night alone."
Leo smiled. "Have I told you lately I love you, Mrs Halliwell-Wyatt?"
"Yes but you should tell me again." Piper replied as she laughed.
"I love you, I always have and I always will." Leo said.
"I love you too…" Piper stopped suddenly as she saw Leo's attention avert to something behind her. Spinning around, Piper saw what she had always dreaded ever since finding out Leo's secret. A darklighter's crossbow, and it was aimed directly at them. Raising her hands, Piper used molecular combustion to explode the darklighter.
In the corner of her eye, Piper saw orbs and relieved that Leo was out of the manor, Piper turned and vanquished more darklighters who had appeared. Checking first to see that all was safe, Piper was satisfied no darklighters had stayed. "Leo!"
As time passed with no answer, Piper became more anxious. Looking down at the ground where Leo had last stood, Piper noticed a dark red patch on the carpet. Crouching down, Piper felt it nervously and when she lifted her hand, the tips of her fingers had blood on them.
Piper shook her head as she stood up, there has to be some other explanation. "Leo!" When nothing happened once more, Piper ran up the stairs to the attic.
Doubting her decision, Piper waited hesitantly in front of the Book of Shadows, hoping that Patty or Grams would support her decision and flip to the page she wanted.
If I can't save the people that matter, I don't want to be a witch. Biting her lip, Piper turned the pages until she found the one titled 'Switching Powers' Pulling a pen and paper to her, Piper wrote down the spell. As an afterthought, she also wrote one of the spells she remembered by heart: the spell to relinquish powers. Piper edited the wording slightly to mean that only her powers would be relinquished. Slamming the Book of Shadows shut, Piper closed her eyes and traced the triquetra on the front with her finger.
I'm only doing what I should have done years ago. Piper walked out of the attic and closed the door. Sitting at the bottom of the stairs, Piper waited hours for the return of her sister. When Phoebe returned, the manor was in darkness. Switching on the hallway light, Phoebe was startled when she saw Piper.
"Phoebe, you've always wanted an active power, right? Would you like my two?" Piper asked.
"Yes, you know I'd love to have your powers but Piper, what do you mean?" Phoebe answered, watching Piper stand.
"You'll understand soon." Piper whispered. "What's mine is yours, what yours is mine, let our powers cross the line, I offer up this gift to share, switch our powers through the air."
"Piper, why did you do that?" Phoebe asked. Ignoring Phoebe, Piper continued with the next spell as Prue entered. "From whence they came, return them now, vanish the words, vanish my powers."
Turning, Piper began to run upstairs but Prue stopped Piper in her tracks by astral projecting in front of her.
"Get back downstairs." Prue instructed. "We're going to talk."
After all three sisters were seated in the front room, Prue forced an explanation from Piper. "Piper, why did you give up your powers? We've just lost the power of three and if you think you can hide in your room to avoid confrontation, you had better think again!"
"You want to know why I gave up my powers, gave up on being Charmed?" Piper shouted. "It's because I'm not you, Prue, I could never be you."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Prue asked, keeping her voice controlled and calm.
"It means I'm not the witch you are and I can't deal with the fact that I've lost Leo because of our magic." Piper answered.
"Andy was killed because of our magic and I didn't give up. Just because you don't have Leo around doesn't mean you can give up." Prue shouted.
"I already have given up and to spell it out for you, Leo isn't just not around, he's dead." Piper shouted back. "So to sum up, I'm not the witch you are and I could never be as selfless as you are and put innocents before myself." With the momentary silence and guilty pause from Prue, Piper fled the room in tears.
Prue turned to Phoebe. "How was I to know Leo was dead?"
"You weren't." Phoebe whispered. "What do we do know?"
**********
The next day, Prue had seen neither of her sisters but Phoebe had left a note for her to say Piper had gone to P3 and Phoebe had gone to college early.
Finishing the last of her cup of coffee, Prue slipped on a coat and headed for the hallway. In the doorway of the kitchen, Prue was flung back by a demon Falling against the counter, Prue felt a knife cut into her skin. Sliding down to the floor, Prue dragged herself from the demon's view and with one swift motion, pulled the knife from herself. Raising herself to glimpse the position of the demon, Prue tossed the knife at the demon.
In an instant the demon was vanquished, flames obliterating the body. With the demon now vanquished, Prue pressed her hand to her wound, as her world turned to darkness.
Prue woke to a gentle shaking and as her eyes flickered open, she saw Cole kneeling beside her. Trying to stand brought waves of pain to Prue's consciousness and she leant back against the counter. "Pass me a towel."
Cole took a towel from the top of the counter and lifted Prue up, holding her as gently as he could without hurting her further. "Do you want to go to the hospital?"
"No, I can't. Not after what happened yesterday." Prue answered.
"Okay." Cole said, as he shimmered into the front room and set Prue on the couch. Folding the towel, he pressed it against the wound and placed Prue's hand over the towel. "Keep the towel over the wound. Do you have any bandages?"
"They're in the kitchen, in the cupboard under the sink." Prue answered. After Cole left the room, Prue took a shaky, deep breath as she lifted the towel a little.
When Cole returned, Prue sat up and waited patiently as he bandaged her stomach covering the wound.
"You know, you really should get this checked at the hospital." Cole said.
"Why would you care?" Prue replied, standing up. She was still shaky and as she stumbled, Cole held her by the shoulders.
"Phoebe won't want to lose her sisters." Cole answered. "Anyway, where is Leo?"
"Darklighters attacked yesterday, Leo was killed, Piper switched powers with Phoebe and relinquished her powers. So, without the power of three, I'm also weaker by myself." Prue answered, looking down at her side where her hand was pressed against the bandages.
Holding his hand against Prue's face, Cole was silent for a moment. "I guess you're really suffering from what has happened."
"I guess so." Prue whispered, aware of Cole's hand on her face. Tilting her face back, Cole kissed her lightly.
Pulling away, Prue stepped back. "What were we thinking? We can't hurt Phoebe."
"We can't but I'm not sorry Prue." Cole replied before shimmering out.
Me neither. Prue admitted, as she touched her own hand against her face.
**********
As yet another tear rolled off her face and onto the paper on the desk in front of her, Piper stood up and looked out of P3's office window, gazing up at the clouds in the sky.
Why did you have to leave me all alone? Piper closed her eyes and leant her head against the wall. When she heard a knock at the door, Piper tried to ignore it, not wanting to be disturbed.
Piper opened her eyes and turned as a click signalled someone was entering. It was Phoebe. Smiling, Piper waited for Phoebe to explain her arrival.
"I don't have any lessons this afternoon, so I thought I'd come and see if you would be able to train me to use your… my powers?" Phoebe said.
"Sure I can." Piper said, with a wry smile as she picked up a blank sheet of paper and crumpled it up. All of a sudden, Piper tossed it at Phoebe who lifted her hands to catch it but instead exploded into small pieces.
"Well, I was hoping you'd freeze it first but that is a start." Piper said, laughing. "And you'll be cleaning this up when we're finished."
After Phoebe had been able to separate the two powers, Piper and Phoebe took a break and sat at the bar, each with a drink.
"Piper, I've been wondering, about why Leo's body didn't stay. You could have switched powers with him, like you did last time." Phoebe asked, her voice quiet and hesitant.
"I wanted to." Piper shook her head. "As usual the Elders interfered, they must have orbed his body away."
**********
In the attic, Phoebe was sat on the floor with the Book of Shadows in front of her. Turning the pages one by one, she frowned when she reached the end of the book without finding out anything about the Elders.
Now what? I can't challenge them if I can't get to them. Phoebe sat silently, the need to help her sister driving her determination. Right now nothing else mattered except giving Piper the chance to move on, and that could only be done by getting revenge at the Elders for taking Leo away
**********
Downstairs, Prue was apologising to Piper for what had been said the night before but her new knowledge to her vulnerability to demonic attacks added further to stepping closer to another argument over Piper relinquishing her powers.
"Piper, I'm sorry for the way I acted yesterday but I had every reason to. Phoebe has to learn to control new powers, we're both weaker as lone witches and demons will be attacking more when they see we only have the power of two." Prue said.
"I'm sorry, okay? I just didn't think about the consequences but honestly, I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing if I had the chance to take that decision again." Piper replied.
"It's not just Phoebe, I'm worried about you too. Right now demons could easily kill you. I can see now why the Elders didn't want you and Leo together or any other witch and whitelighter. It always leads to death in some way." Prue added softly as Piper turned away and headed to the front door.
"I have to go to P3."
Prue sighed and watched as Piper shut the door, making her escape. I just don't know what I can do.
**********
P3 proved to be a useful distraction for Piper. It was a busy night, even though the only music was pre-recorded songs to bring in the crowd. Thankfully all the staff who had been assigned to work that night were able to work, so at least Piper wasn't short-staffed.
"Hey, can I get a drink?" A customer seated at one end of the bar shouted over the music.
Piper who was closest, walked over. "Yes, what would you like?"
"Just a coke for now." He answered. Piper poured it out and handed over the glass. "So, are you the owner of the club? Piper?"
"Yes, I am. Why? Who's asking?" Piper replied.
"I'm Damon." Damon extended his hand. "I wanted to say you've got a great club."
Piper shook her hand. "Thanks, I appreciate all comments, especially if they're positive."
Damon laughed. "You're welcome."
Seeing her youngest sister enter P3, Piper waved her over. Phoebe took the only empty seat remaining, beside Damon.
"Damon, this is my younger sister, Phoebe. Phoebe, this is Damon." Piper introduced.
"Hi Damon." Phoebe said, responding first.
"Hi." Damon replied.
By the end of the night, Phoebe was sipping a glass of water after being asked to dance throughout the night while Piper had been talking to Damon.
"Should Cole be jealous?" Piper teased.
"Of course not!" Phoebe exclaimed, laughing. "I love Cole, you know that."
"Yes, I do." Piper said, still smiling."
"Anyway, I may as well head home, I've got an early class tomorrow." Phoebe said, finishing her drink of water and passing the glass to Piper.
Piper waved. "Bye." Turning back to Damon, she smiled. "That is my wonderful, yet very annoying, sister."
"How about the rest of your family?" Damon asked.
"Well, there's my oldest sister Prue." Piper answered, a little evasive.
"What about your parents?" Damon added.
Piper hesitated. "My mom died when I was about five and my dad, he's around, but I don't see him often."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to remind you of any bad memories." Damon apologised.
"It's okay, I'm used to it now." Piper replied wit a shrug of her shoulders. "Anyway, what about your family?"
"There's not much to tell. I don't speak to them often." Damon answered. "I guess you'll want to be closing up now. Can I have your number?"
Piper paused. "Okay, why not?" Pulling some paper from the shelf under the bar, Piper wrote down her number and handed it to Damon.
"I'll call you." Damon promised as he left.