The energy ball barely missed her as she dove behind a rock wall. "This has got to work, please work..." she silently pleaded. Taking a deep breath, she smeared the blood-based concoction across her arm and jumped back into the fray.
The young witch was desperate, having grown up in a dark coven training as an assassin she knew the hierarchy of the Underworld and its quiet attempts to rebuild over the last two decades, but she wanted out. She hated the way she felt after taking out a target, the deep emptiness that settled on her. She hated the constant hunt and fear of becoming a target herself. And she really hated being just another assassin, just another tool to be used. Even though she was only in her mid-twenties, she was a powerful witch and a talented tracker and she knew she was meant for more. A few months ago though, on a tracking assignment, she confirmed her instincts and that's when she had the idea.
She had been sent to recover a powerful athame that had been lost in a vanquish to a witch named Jude. Jude was young, near her own age and not terribly powerful on his own, but he happened to be close friends with those damn Halliwell brothers. Of course she knew the brothers by reputation, they were reported to be good-looking, powerful and cocky-as-hell, but she had never come up against them. After the brothers' mom and aunts had left the Underworld pretty well decimated about twenty years earlier, those who were smart started laying low, using their energies to rebuild rather than attack. The last few years though, she could sense attitudes beginning to change. Nomed had garnered enough powers and supporters to have some semblance of control. He was devious, patient and an acclaimed strategist, forging powerful alliances when it benefited him and betraying those same alliances when needed. It was Nomed who had sent her after the athame, it was reported to be a powerful tool for ritual blood magic and could channel enough power to open portals to other planes, none of this the witch who possessed it seemed to know.
She tracked Jude down, finding his energy signature glowing in a third-floor apartment in San Francisco one night. When he emerged into the night he was followed by two other young men. That was the moment that changed everything. Suddenly her perception turned in on itself, like the world was a t-shirt being turned inside out. Her vision blurred and all she could sense were the two vibrant energy signatures burning before her. The signatures were powerful, without any doubt, but they were clouded, a swirling of light and dark energies and inexplicably linked to one another. She put her hand out to steady herself but felt her breath catch as she was hit with a strange sensation, images and feelings began flooding her senses that had nothing to do with the current moment, followed by a sudden sense of clarity. She knew, finally, what she had to do and how she could get herself out of the demonic world.
She shimmered out to get the help she needed. Not long afterward she had tracked down the two energy signatures she was looking for and called for the low-level attack demons she had recruited. The attack hounds were really just a distraction, it worked and she was able to get to one of the brothers, the tall, blonde one, with enough time to secure some of his blood and shimmer herself the hell out of there, the athame and Jude completely forgotten.
It was his blood she hoped would help now. She needed to summon his whitelighter.
It wasn't long before abandoning her hiding spot that she was hit, she tried apportating the energy ball so that it hit her arm where Wyatt Halliwell's blood was smeared. It worked and she shimmered out of the Underworld and called.
"Brody! Kyle Brody! HELP!"
Nomed's trackers weren't far behind her. He wouldn't let her betrayal go unpunished. She called again for Brody.
"Please work, this has to work!" she thought desperately.
Suddenly the air was filled with a musical sound as blue light swirled around close to her and a very confused Brody appeared.
"Who are you?" he questioned.
"No, time. I need your help, NOW!"
Brody looked around, grabbed the witch and orbed out.
Once safely away, he began to heal her arm, still confused he looked her over and asked again, "Really, who are you?"
The witch looked up at him and sighed, "I need help. I have information for the Elders, but I need Charmed protection."
"Still doesn't tell me who the hell you are," Brody quipped.
"Bianca. My name's Bianca."
