Chapter I

The girl

A young girl was sitting at the bar's stool, her drink still untouched in front of her.

Looking at her own reflection in the mirror in front of her with a regretful expression on her face, she gulped her drink to ease the feeling.

Regret.

It wasn't a feeling Bianca McKenzie was used to. If there was a thing her mother had taught her, it was to never regret anything.

Ever.

Regrets weren't known for showing people the right way, they would only bring one on the brink of destruction. Problems were to be faced head first, with a strong soul.

Like her mother had faced their Phoenix coven all those years ago, to free her little girl of the burden an assassin witch had to bear, to give her a normal life. Or at least as normal as a Phoenix witch could ever hope to have.

The coven had accepted - after some ass kicking on her mother's part- that the McKenzie wouldn't be put on their list of Phoenix assassins, on the promise that they'd still honour their heritage. Which meant that her mother Lynn had to teach Bianca all about witchcraft and the Phoenixes' fighting style and history. Something that in the end turned out to be quite useful, since it soon became clear that any witch that wasn't killing innocents became automatically a target in any demon's book.

Bianca didn't mind too much, getting rid of those demons meant that she had saved the life of some inno cent soul out there. In the beginning she was downright scared of killing, she was afraid that the assassin in her would surface and transform her into a monster. Her mother had taken away that fear.

She had explained how the rush of excitement that surfaced during a kill would never make up for the feeling of disgust that came afterward, how the blood of your victim may be washed away from your hands, but never from your soul.

The blood of an innocent could never be washed away, she had said with a faraway look.

She was grateful to her mother, it was only thanks to her that she'd never have to endure such pain.

Bianca only killed demons that came after her or her mother…and the occasional demons she saw threatening innocents, but nobody needed to know that. As a Phoenix she wasn't supposed to care about what happened to mortals: that was the one basic belief that all Phoenixes' covens had in common. Since mortals had persecuted witches and killed them without a second thought, her ancestors gave up on them as they couldn't see them as innocents anymore.

She knew all this, but the first time she saw a girl walk with a demon in a dark alley she couldn't stop herself. How could she just leave the poor girl? It would have been no different than killing her herself.

All things considered she had lived a pretty normal life, she never came in contact with the magical world too much. The only other witches she had ever met were either Phoenixes or the rare good witches that came to ask for help.

Taking another sip of her drink, her eyes turned to the mirror again. Her once brown hair now held a copper hue that looked like red paint in her mind's eye.
What possessed her to do something so stupid!

The happy jumpy coiffeur should have been warning enough, her bubbly look alone should have sent her running out of that stupid pink coloured shop right away.

"Owww…why don't ya try something new gal?" The redhead hairdresser had looked her up and down, examining her attire.

"A plain look never keeps a boy attention for too long, ya know!" She said in a sing song voice.

Bianca almost strangled her right there to make her stupid giggles stop, she was lucky there were so many witnesses. She took a calming breath and smiled at the, still giggling, girl .

"Must be why I never found it hard then", the girl- Bunny( are you serious?)- didn't seem to notice the murderous gaze Bianca was giving her.

"Oh well, come on! I've seen that boyfriend of yours!" And she looked at her with wide eyes, as if that explained everything. The confused look on Bianca's face was pretty clear 'cause even Bunny caught on.

"Come on! I mean, have you seen the boy? When he dropped you here last time even the old ladies were drooling after him!" At the shell shocked expression on Bianca face she added " He's like, smoking gal!"

Bianca would have gladly punched the lecherous smirk off that trump by that point. Stupid witnesses!

"Your dark mysterious look caught his eye, but…don't you want him to… like, stick around?" she smiled this bright smile, that could have lit all of San Francisco and said: "Don't worry! You're in the right place!"

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It was all the stupid petty girl's fault, really! She had shocked her into submission. She could barely utter a word after that, and the stupid girl took full advantage of it. She was lucky Bianca was so shocked, otherwise she'd have pounced on her.

Right now she was really regretting not doing just that.

Bianca sighed again looking at herself. What the hell was wrong with her! She didn't act like this! Ever.
Not even when she had been an hormonal thirteen years old! Since when did she start acting all insecure about her looks!?
What would she have done if she'd actually met him when she was thirteen? Fallen at his feet…literally? Though, back then he would have been eight so maybe she would have fared ...Oh boy, eight! Let's not even go there!

She needed to calm down before he arrived. Meditation wasn't exactly a Phoenix's specialty, but she was gonna try.

Then again, losing her cool like that wasn't normal Phoenix behavior either. Nor was it normal letting anybody play her like that girl had…maybe she was a demon…or some sort of evil witch? She should go back and vanquish her before she got her hands on some innocent girl.

She snorted at her own thoughts.

Yeah, an evil witch that planned to make everybody's hair look awful. She was starting to lose her mind, there was no other explanation… she'd even begun to see demons everywhere lately. If she didn't knew better she'd have sworn a demon had shimmered in her apartment the previous night while they were…er…watching a movie?

It was all that silly girl fault! She was gonna hunt her down tomorrow and make her put everything back in place, starting from the hair! And she was gonna do it for free, that's for sure! Who the hell did she think she was?! Like she didn't know herself that her boyfriend was good looking, handsome, downright smoking.

With those soulful green eyes that seemed to be able to set her on fire every time he looked her way, the wild dark brown hair through which she loved to run her fingers and those lips of his that he knew exactly how to angle to form that charming smirk, that melted her every time. Not to mention all the things he could do with those lips of his.

Okay, no! This was not the place to be thinking about that or about the way his hands …

She had to get a grip, before he came in or she'd end up jumping him in the middle of the bar. It was really too bad that she couldn't thing of a reason why that would be a bad idea.

She looked around to see if anybody had noticed her strange behavior. It didn't look like it, but she was pretty sure she had looked like a lunatic the whole time. The bargirl was looking her way with a strange expression, but maybe it was just her crazy mind playing tricks on her.

The bargirl though seemed to prove her right by coming near her.

" You want a refill?" She said with a lazy smile.

Bianca looked down at her glass with a frown. She had finished the drink without noticing.

"Oh! Yeah, sure." She mentally rolled her eyes at herself. It looked like her ability to talk had been reduced at that of a shy 4 years old girl today. Had she cast a de-aging spell on herself and forgot about it?

The bargirl voice snapped her out of her musings yet again.

"Boyfriend running late?" The somewhat annoyed tone clearly told her the girl's own boyfriend wasn't exactly prone on punctuality. She had to bit her lip not to laugh at the idea of him being late for anything.

"Actually I came early. I'm usually the one late," she added just to see the girl's reaction. Which right on time was one of surprise and skepticism. That boyfriend of her must have done a number on her. Poor girl. But Bianca being…well…Bianca, couldn't help but add with a smug smirk "He's like a Swiss clock usually. Never lets me down."

The girl was now looking at her like she was from another planet. Again she had to suppress the laugh she felt was bubbling up. It was always fun for her to see the expression on the other girls' faces when she talked about him like this. And that's before they actually saw him. This game of hers always made her oddly giddy.

She was woken up from her daydream by two arms sliding around her waist from behind. She looked up to see the expression on the bargirl's face.

Yep! There it was. Open mouth, breath held, round eyes. Bianca's pretty sure the girl was gonna leave her boyfriend within the week. I mean, why can't she find someone like that too?

His soft breath pulled her out of her game. "Hey red head!" She groaned then, she could feel the smirk on his lips without looking at him.

Bianca pulled her head down and twisted to meet his eyes with a scowl. His smirk became even more accentuated. She rolled her eyes while pulling fully back to face him. She looked him up and down with an arched eyebrow:

"I've decided you're entirely responsible." She said evenly, crossing her arms.

Pulling back too and mimicking her stance he just smiled at her. " May I ask what exactly are the imputations Judge Flame?"

Her scowl deepened, which only made him smirk again.

"You're driving me crazy!" Her exasperated voice only managed to make him laugh. She playfully slapped his shoulder, but could barely hold her own smile.

"It looks like you're enjoying this."

"Well now I have to confess that was my evil plan all along. Feels good to accomplish it!" How she hated that smug smirk!

" You want a standing ovation?" She asked in an half annoyed, half playful voice.

Suddenly he leaned toward her, his lips an inch away from her ear.

"I'm sure you can come up with a great prize," he smiled wickedly at her.

"Halliwell!"