It was a lovely summer day in San Jose.

People roamed the city like any lovely day, unaware of the dangers that lurk in their midst. Two adolescent girls walked down a back alley where one such danger was following them in the walls, ready to jump out of hiding and devour these two idiots when the time came.

They came to a stop at the end of the alley where their path was blocked by a massive brick wall. The demon was glad that he had put out a sign that read "Short cut to the station". For the past two weeks, people had walked in here thinking the wall had been removed. The demon always waited until the last moment, when they realize their mistake, to come out and devour them. Today was no different. He jumped out of the walls and showed its full evil form, jaws open and ready.

These girls didn't fret. They didn't even scream when they turned around. On the contrary, they were completely calm. Most people would have screamed to the top of their lungs when they saw his dark purple skin, glowing red eyes and single horn sticking out of his forehead.

He must have done something wrong. Well, perhaps he should remedy that, he thought and summoned a fireball into his palm. One of the girls waved her hand, and the flames extinguished as quickly as they came. The demon gasped as realization hit. These were no ordinary girls. He turned to run, but one of them materialized in front of him in a swirl of orbs to block his path.

"Going somewhere?" she said.

He raised his hand and concentrated on tossing his strongest energy ball that would send her to the afterlife. But before he could finish forming his attack, she had stretched out her hands and destroyed him with a deadly blast of power.

"Well, that takes care of that," said Melinda Halliwell, who had her hands on her hips now.

Tamora Mitchell, her cousin from their mothers' side, nodded. "Thanks, Mel," she said, "That demon was very elusive. He was only tangible when he came to devour his victims."

She shrugged. "All in a day's work." She checked her phone. "Oh, no. I have to get back to school. Class is starting in about twenty minutes. Do you need a ride?" she offered.

Tammy shook her head. "I'm helping Henry supply shopping for police training. He's coming to pick me up at school."

"I thought he did that last week."

"Last minute additions. Need to be ready by tonight, or else he'll just bug us."

Melinda and Tammy laughed. Henry Mitchell Jr was Paige's adoptive son, and Tammy's little brother. Everyone loved him and treated him like part of the family. Even their great-grandmother who despised men was excited to meet him when he was a newborn. Unfortunately, being adopted into a magical family had its drawbacks. For one, the family was almost constantly at risk of being attacked by warlocks and demons. Their parents had to go to great lengths to keep their children safe and maintain a semi-normal life. For another, Henry was the only family member who didn't have any powers of his own. He had to watch his older sisters and cousins practice magic growing up. One time he witnessed Melinda's eldest brother Wyatt conjure a dragon out of a storybook. And whenever they wanted to go somewhere, they only needed to focus on a location, and then they would dissolve in a swirl of lights.

But Henry was completely mortal, just like his father, grandfather and Uncle Leo. It took a long time for the poor boy to figure out how to deal with this exclusivity. Their dad taught him to fight and to defend those in need. Because whether he was mortal or magical, it was a matter of how he connected himself to the rest of the world. If he could use whatever strength he had to help others, then it won't matter if he was magical, because he would still be a hero to them.

They yelped when a sudden swirl of white lights appeared in front of the cousins. It was Tamora's twin, Kat. She didn't seem to notice their anguish.

"Ah, there you are," she said, throwing her arms in the air, then gave Melinda a brief greeting before turning back to her sister, "Tam, I've been calling. Why didn't you answer?"

Tammy fished out her phone. The screen showed four missed calls from Kat, and also half a dozen from Henry. She checked the time on the screen, and realized why her sister had come looking for her. "Oh, sorry," she apologized, "The vibration's very bad and I turned off the sound. Is he there now?"

Kat nodded. "You weren't at the dorm, so he asked me to come find you."

Uh-oh.

"Oh, okay. I'm going." She turned to their cousin. "See ya later, Mel."

Melinda waved them goodbye. They were gone in seconds. She immediately left the alley and headed toward the subway. The train was a ten minute ride, so with any luck she should be able to make it to class if she ran the rest of the way back to school.

Tam and Kat rematerialized in a bathroom stall, and made their way to Tam's dorm room. She almost screamed when she saw Henry snagging her chocolate chunk cookies, which she hid under her bed.

"Hey, those are my cookies," she complained and turned to her sister. "Did you tell him?"

Kat raised her hands in the air.

"She didn't have to," Henry said, "You always hide your treats somewhere. Mom had to orb them out from under your bed when you were little. I figured since you no longer live under their roof, why wouldn't you have something."

Kat chuckled.

"Shall we go?" Tam asked.

"Where were you anyway?" Henry wondered.

"Demon hunting with Melinda."

Kat grunted. She suspected that was what they were doing. No one had gone with her on a magical venture in ages. The last time she went along on a demon hunt, a Marlov demon snagged an innocent under her watch and she got knocked unconscious. One of her cousins had made it in time to save the poor boy and vanquish the demon. Since then, no one had wanted her to join them on their missions, and she was beginning to get sick of being left out.

Henry stood from the bed. Kat stole a glance at him and instantly refrained from complaining. Right now, her brother was what mattered.

"Come on, let's get going," Tam ushered. "I have a date tonight, and you need to get ready for tomorrow." Turning to Kat, she said, "And you should probably get back to work."

Kat rolled her eyes. Her shift at the nearby diner was an hour away. Tam may be better at choosing the right equipment due to having gone to summer camp, but that didn't mean she wanted to stay put while her brother and sister went shopping.

"I can kill the time until my next shift," she assured them. "Besides, I wanna help my little brother pick out tools for his police training too."

Henry grinned and approached to give his sisters a group hug. "Man, it's so great to have my sisters around."

"Well, better get used to not having us around then," Tam advised, "Starting tomorrow, you'll be on your own for a while."

He snickered, "At least I won't have you two hogging the bathroom."

His sisters burst into a laughing fit. In that moment, Tam snagged her cookie box away from Henry's hands. "These are mine," she said and left the room with it in her hands.

Kat and Henry laughed some more before following.