Disclaimer: ALL CHARACTERS FROM THE CHARMED UNIVERSE BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED. IN OTHER WORDS I OWN N-O-T-H-I-N-G :(
A/N: Hope you enjoy, R&R :)
The Halliwell Manor hadn't been this busy in a long time. With a household of ten, it was hard to keep track of everyone. It had been a week since they all moved into the manor and already they felt crowded. The girls had kept the three rooms upstairs, with the help of magic they managed to make the rooms big enough for them all to be comfortable, even more so than the dorms they would have stayed in. The girls were able to fit two queen size beds in their rooms and had double the closet space. The twins kept Melinda's room which had also been their mom's. Pat and Penny also kept their mother's old room that had previously belonged to their guy cousins before they moved out. Melinda roomed in with Prue, the oldest of Aunt Phoebe's. They won the biggest room on a bet against the other Halliwell girls. All of them added their individual touches to what would now be their home.
The guys on the other hand were left to room in the basement. They were able to clear everything and cramp it in the garage. They too added their individual beds but left a 12'' by 12'' space in the middle of the room where they placed a mat and casted a spell on it similar to the one in Magic School that makes the hallways infinitely long. This way they were able to train without worry. Their beds were arranged two on each side of the mat and they split the corners to give each other a sense of space. Wyatt's corner was on the left side of the entrance stair. It had a simple bookshelf filled with medical books and a plain desk with a lap-top. To the side he had as adornment a sword stuck in a stone, Excalibur. Chris's looked similar though his desk was filled with cabinets and secret compartments where he kept potions and his book shelf had political science books and a cliff notes version of the Book of Shadows. Angel arranged his space with weights, mirrors that covered an entire wall, and a punching bag. A collection of swords and athames served as ornaments on the wall next to his bed since he was skilled with almost every weapon known to man or demon and his aim was remarkable. HJ's corner was across from Wyatt's on the other side of the stairs. His corner had a desk top, speakers, headphones, amp, and two guitars, an acoustic and an electric. His corner was the messiest of all four.
Yet despite all the proper arrangements there was still one thing they could not seem to agree on, the bathrooms. There were only two, one upstairs and one downstairs. Logically it would only be fair if the girls kept the upstairs bathroom and the guys settle for downstairs one. It was a reasonable suggestion or so the guys thought. The moment they implied such a thing all hell broke loose. The girls would here none of that since, after all there were six of them and only four guys. Clearly they could not do with just one bathroom, they had said.
It was a struggle every morning to see who would use the bathroom first and for some reason the girls always managed to beat them leaving them with nothing but cold water. Today would be different, Angel was sick and tired of surrendering the downstairs bathroom to the women. He refused to settle like his brothers and HJ and shower at night. He had set his alarm fifteen minutes earlier than the time the girls got up, after all who would wake up at four forty-five in the morning to shower? Apparently he would. The time didn't matter, it was the principle behind it. He would not back down to a bunch of spoiled brats like he knew the Halliwell women were.
He shimmered into the bathroom and turned on the shower when he realized he still had an alarm set at five. Chris had always been a baby about waking up early, he remembered. He shimmered back to the room to turn it off before it woke one of his roommates. While he was at it he retrieved his toiletries as well as a pair of clothes.
It couldn't have taken him more than five minutes to return to the bathroom. He settled everything into place and shimmered out of his clothes and into the tub. It was good to have a teleportation power, it made life so much easier. And that's when he saw it, her. Was he still sleeping? He had to be. There was no way that she would be in the same shower as him. He should be waking up anytime now like he always did whenever he recognized who he was dreaming about. But it wasn't happening now? The answer came when she opened her eyes and let out a loud yell. Angel realized this was real and he most definitely was not dreaming.
Mel had been feeling guilty over using the downstairs bathroom and leaving the guys with cold water so she had decided to wake up early and take a quick shower before her brothers woke up. It would be a form of truce in the little cold war they'd been having. She never expected Angel to shimmer - naked nonetheless - into the shower with her.
"Mel, are you okay? What happened?"
Melinda turned towards the outside of the tub where both Wyatt and Chris had orbed into the bathroom after hearing her scream. It didn't take long for them to notice how their little sister was barely covered with the end of the bathroom curtain.
"Get out!" She yelled at them and attempted to toss the bar of soap towards them. Her brothers, being the smart witch-lighters that they were had the good sense of orbing out right before the bar of soap stroked them.
Angel had been frozen in place through the whole exchange not knowing what to do. Just as he was about to shimmer away Mel held on to his arm holding him in place.
"Oh no you don't." She said with a tight restrain. "First you're going to tell me why you shimmered in on me." She demanded as she hugged the curtain tighter onto herself.
"I was here first. I only went downstairs for a minute and then I came back. Didn't you notice the shower was on? That should have given you a clue that it was occupied." He retorted.
True. She had noticed the shower on but it was too early in the morning and she wasn't thinking straight. She didn't even bother to question why it was on, all she knew was that she needed a shower. "The door wasn't locked," she answered. It was a lame excuse but that was all she got. "You know what? Just leave." She released him from her hold pointingly avoiding looking at him.
She heard him get out of the tub and dressing himself but her eyes were glued onto the tiled wall. She knew the moment when he finally shimmered out of the room and exhaled a relieved sigh.
By the time Mel came out of her shower, the morning chaos had already started. Everyone was running around in the kitchen. HJ was trying his hand at making eggs as a meal. Aside from herself he was one of the three Halliwells that took a liking to cooking, the other being Penny. He would make enough for everyone, she knew. Penny was setting the table even though chances were no one would be eating together since everyone had their own schedule and agenda. Wyatt was making toast knowing very well that the kitchen was Melinda's domain and it'd be best if he stayed away. It wasn't that he was bad in the kitchen, it just had never been his forte and she and their mom would always scold him for not taking proper care of the kitchen utensils. So he had burned a couple of pots in the past, big deal, Wyatt always said.
The twins had settled for a light meal of cereal which they were eating at a corner counter. Chris, Prue and Pat were having a fight over the Coffee pot. Coffee, she could use a cup of that. Her focus was entirely on the coffee pot that she hadn't realized she had been spotted.
"Mel what were you screaming about? You woke the whole house." Wyatt announced bring her into everyone's attention. Very few Halliwells were morning people, little to say they weren't especially happy to be up so early.
"I though I saw a roach, that's all."
"You know better than to yell in this house unless it's an emergency." Chris told her as he handed her a cup of coffee. She appreciated the gesture since this was his way of apologizing to her for intruding on her privacy.
"Sorry," she murmured taking a sip from the cup. She welcomed the hot burn the coffee provided. "And what have we said about you guys orbing into rooms? Hello, invasion of privacy." She was glad she had managed to gain back her bravado, coffee always hit the spot.
"Well next time don't yell." Chris answered with a smile as he lightly slapped the back of her head and walked away. Apparently he too was glad she was acting like her usual self. Normally she would be furious at them for walking in on her but she was more concerned with Angel who was nowhere to be seen. She couldn't get the memory of what she had seen out of her head, and oh, she had gotten a pretty good look at him. She wondered if he had as well.
"So, did you get the bug?" HJ asked her as he handed her a plate of scrambled eggs. Aside from Pat and Penny she was the only other girls that had a decent breakfast. The rest complained about the calories. She took the plate from him as her thoughts returned to Angel once more. This time she smiled at the thought, bringing a forkful of eggs to her lips. "Nope it flew out the window. Next time I'll get it for catching me off guard."
"Eww, Mel we're eating here." The twins said in unison.
Just then Angel walked in through the back door.
"And where have you been?" Wyatt asked casually. Melinda knew there was no way either of her brothers knew Angel had also been in the bathroom because everything had happened too fast for them to notice anything but her. She knew that and yet her heart still accelerated at the question.
"I was out jogging." He answered nonchalantly. How could he act as if nothing had happened? Mel wondered.
"You missed the morning show." Pan informed him.
"Yeah? What happened?" He asked as he scooped the coffee pot away from Prue.
"Mel woke everyone because a bug she saw in the bathroom." HJ informed him.
Angel shot a glance in her direction and smirked. "A bug?" He said with an almost laugh.
"Angel, your hair is wet." Prue directed back his attention to her when she reached for a strand of his hair.
Angel pulled away from her touch. "Someone on the block had their sprinklers on." He answered. Once more Mel wondered how he could act so indifferent towards what had happened. Didn't it matter to him? Even Chris and Wyatt had been flustered over the incident. She could tell by how they avoided staring at her for too long. They were embarrassed to have walked in on her like that but Angel didn't show the slightest discomfort over what had happened minutes ago.
It attempt to stop thinking about things she shouldn't Mel returned her attention to the conversations around her. Wyatt and Chris had moved the conversation to a different direction. They were discussing giving up their respective apartments. She felt a pang of guilt in her chest because she knew how hard they had worked for what they had and now they were giving it all up for their family and what was worst was that she was actually glad they were coming home. She'd missed them so much since they had gone away to college. Wyatt always had had class or volunteer work at the hospital. Chris was always at the USC campus either in class, studying, or tutoring. And Angel, well he practically made every excuse on the book to stay away from home. She only got to see them on holidays and even then it was only for a few hours before they orbed away somewhere. Despite the circumstances she was happy to be together again.
"I've already contacted the dean of the university so I'm just waiting for his approval to transfer."
"Wait, transfer? As in, you're going to school here too?" Prue intervened Wyatt's conversation.
"Well yeah. It would arouse too much suspicion if people begin to notice that I don't have a place back at Stanford. Not to mention here. We're not just watching out for demons we have to watch humans as well. The last thing we need is a modern day witch trial. We do this by the book." He explained. He grew up knowing the story of his Aunt Prue and her tragic death. Sometimes he had nightmares of losing a family member out of carelessness and that scared him more than anything.
"You too Chris?" Pandora asked.
Chris nodded his head, "Yeah, but before I contact USC about my transfer I was going to check out Berkley and their requirements." He then turned to Wyatt. "You coming?"
"Might as well get that settled, who knows maybe Ava will even give me a recommendation letter and if I'm lucky I'll get my job back." He hoped that Ava, the gypsy doctor, would help him out. When he was in high school Ava offered to vouch for him at Berkley both as an alumni and a friend of the school's dean. "Angel, you should come too?"
Angel, who was busying himself with breakfast turned to face the brothers. "Yeah guys…about that. We need to talk." He emphasized the last word and knew the rest of the family would get the hint and scram. They all pretended to have something to do and left the room.
"I guess this means no breakfast?" HJ asked but before someone answered, his sisters dragged him out of the room against his protests.
Once the coast was clear Angel turned to his brothers who shared the same pose of arms crossed.
"Sooo…here's the thing. I'm kind of…not enrolled at UCSB anymore."
"What?" Chris asked. "What do you mean you're not enrolled anymore?"
"I was kind of…kicked out." He confessed with a shrug.
"Kicked out? Why? What did you do?" Chris asked accusingly. He could hardly believe the words coming out of Angel's mouth.
"That's not really important. I've been going to a community college but the process will probably be longer so I won't be able to attend the fall quarter. I just wanted to let you guys know." He noticed Chris was shaking his head disapprovingly. Knowing Chris he was trying to restrain his anger at him. Chris had always been good in school and every chance he got he showed off his perfect 4.0 GPA. Wyatt on the other hand had been quiet the whole time and Angel was afraid to look at him. Rather he was afraid what he would see in him. Disappointment for not making it like they both had, or maybe betrayal for not telling him, or if he was really lucky he'd get both. He thought sarcastically.
"Well that's that. I'll go take a shower." He stated before shimmering away.
Once gone, Chris turned to Wyatt."You're just going to let him go?" Chris yelled at him pointing in the direction Angel had been a second ago.
"What do you want me to do? He's a grown man. He knows what he's doing." Wyatt replied with a shrug.
"And you don't care why he was kicked out or why he didn't tell us when it happened?"
"Chris just let him be, okay? We both know Angel has too much pride to ask for help when he needs it. Besides, knowing him he's been beating himself up for it this whole time. He'll tell us when it feels right for him."
"I'm not that patient. I'm going to figure this out." Chris declared and orbed out before Wyatt had a chance to stop him. Great just what he needed, Wyatt thought, family drama. Had both his brothers forgotten there was a demon to catch?
"Remind me again why we are under house arrest?" Prue complained to her cousin as she laid on Aunt Pearl's couch of the attic reading a magazine.
"We are not under house arrest, the guys are just being over protective…as always, but that's why we love them, right?" Melinda said, more to herself than to Prue from the podium where the Book of Shadows was located. When her brothers left to attend their business they specifically instructed them not to leave the house. Of course they weren't bound to listen to them by any magical means but as the oldest everyone felt obliged to obey. Not to mention that Wyatt and Chris being half white-lighters practically had a build in GPS on them and they weren't above using their white-lighter powers to sense the locations of them if they felt it necessary. Mel had forgotten how much she hated this part of having her brothers around. Their over protectiveness smothered her more than her own parents.
"Of course you'd say something like that, they're your brothers." Prue responded. "Speaking of which, did you know about the whole Angel deal?"
"Prue you weren't suppose to ease drop." Melinda scolded. She wasn't particularly happy that her cousin had trailed behind the rest to later informed them all of her brothers' conversation.
"Oh come on, you are talking to a psychic here. I would have found out one way or another. At least this way I feel like I wasn't intruding, you know?"
"First of all, that was an intrusion of privacy. And second of all, just because you are a telepath and empathy doesn't make you -"
Prue casted her knowing look.
"Fine you're psychic, but a psychic witch." Mel hated how Prue would always undermine her own powers and abilities.
"Thank you but that doesn't sound any better. You have no idea what a burden it is to know what other people are thinking and feeling. Sometimes ignorance really is a bliss." Prue said. Since a small age Prue had been able to know people's true colors. She knew about the hypocrisy of the world and felt discuss toward it. Over the years she had learn to turn a blind eye to it all. Her only way of coping with it was to pretend it didn't exist.
A silence dragged on and she noticed Mel was staring back at her wordlessly. "I wish I had kickass powers like yours." She said trying to change the subject.
"Yes, because accidentally freezing someone moving them across town and then getting a premonition of their exact location is so much fun." Melinda said sarcastically.
"That never happened, and besides when was the last time you lost control of your powers? Of all the luck in the world what are the chances that you'd get all three of the Charmed powers."
Yes, what were the chances? Mel often wondered that herself. Her first power was of premonition and the earliest memory she had of using it was when she was three and a demon attacked the manor. At first her premonitions scared her but eventually she became grateful since it helped save innocents, even if she wasn't the one doing the saving. Her second power was telekinesis and it appeared when she was thirteen along with her first menstrual cycle. Her brothers had walked in when she and her mom were having the talk about what was happening to her and her embarrassment sent them all three flying across the room .Her last power manifested itself on the party after graduation not long ago. One of her friends had hosted it and her date had been acting in appropriate towards her. Her fear drove her to freeze the guy and she had proceeded to knocking him unconscious with a lamp. No one aside from Prue who had also been present at the party knew about her power. She had been afraid of telling her mom since she would use her lack of control over this new power as an excuse for her to not move out. It had also been due to her stubbornness of not using her powers a week ago for the sake of her father not realizing she could freeze, that he had been injured. She knew she had to let her brothers know but now was not the right time. Not with the recent news about Angel.
"I don't have full control over my last power, so it could happen. Besides you can get premonitions too so who knows maybe you'll also get new powers."
"I can only get premonitions through my dreams and I can't call to them like you can. And of course since I'm half cupid and we're supposed to be all about love I doubt I'll be getting any active powers." Just as Melinda had gotten her telekinetic powers at thirteen Prue had received her first dream premonition of her monthly friend would start her visits. They weren't always coherent and more often than not she felt like she was in Alice in Wonderland during her dream premonitions.
"Beaming to any place you want seems pretty active to me."
"Don't tell me you're still mad about the whole teleportation thing."
Melinda restrained herself from answering her. Yes, she was still mad about that. She was the only one o f the ten that couldn't teleport herself somewhere. Growing up she found it unfair how Wyatt and Chris could orb with their half-white-lighter powers yet she only had Wiccan powers, of course her father was no longer White-lighter when she was conceived. Worst yet, all her cousins had some sort of teleporting power. Aunt Phoebe's daughters could beam. Then there were Aunt Paige's kids who were only a quarter Whitelighter and could also orb. She was older than all of them and it was humiliating for her that she couldn't teleport like the rest. Even Angel could shimmer with his half- demonic genes. Half breeds, sometimes she wished her family would just stick to mortals, why complicate things more than what they already were? In the mist of her frustration she closed the Book of Shadows. "Damn it. I can't find anything in this book."
"Mel don't bother. The book tells us about demons that have been around for years not newly discovered threats." Prue reasoned.
"Well what do you suggest we do?" Melinda seemed to be the only one trying and figure out who was behind their attack. The crest on the athames they left behind was too conspicuous for it to not be in the Book of Shadows. She tried everything, even searching online but there was nothing. The closest thing she could find was a crest of three woven crescents with their points facing the outside, but that was a cousin symbol of the tiquetra and a sign of good. She was beginning to think it was all a diversion from something bigger.
"I suggest we go to Magic School." Prue answered.
"No, you want to go to Magic School because you want to see if that hottie intern is still there, and that is not going to happen. Besides I'm beginning to think this is a dead end."
"Why do you say that?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I know my brothers and there is no way they would have sit still for a week. Not to mention that they are looking into a permanent stay here if they are really transferring. Honestly, I wouldn't put it past them to have to have paid a couple of visits to the Underworld without us knowing."
"So, why have you been wasting your time with the book?"
"Because, I need something to do," Melinda answered stubbornly.
Prue was about to make a comment on what most girls would do to keep themselves busy but was interrupted by the door bell. "Demon?" she asked.
"Yes because most bother to ring the door bell," Melinda answered sarcastically.
Pandora was busing herself doing her nails in the living room when the door rang. She carefully placed the nail polish down and headed for the double doors. She figured it was a door-to-door salesman trying to sell her some housewife product and for a moment she considered not answering.
She should have ignored the doorbell, she realized when she looked at the man standing outside the manor. He was an inch or so taller than her 5'6 figure. His hair was neatly trimmed, making him even more handsome in the suit he was wearing. His eyes were the same coffee color she remembered them being except they didn't have their usual charm. They looked worried and on a closer inspection he looked tired. He pulled her into a hug, preventing her from further analyzing him in the process.
"Thank god you're alright," he whispered desperately into her ear. "I've been worried sick about you," he said in a clear British accent. It seemed forever since Pandora last heard his voice and its effect didn't falter. Even after what seemed to be a betrayal to her, her heart seemed to skip a beat.
Pandora allowed herself to take comfort in his embrace for a moment. This whole week had been overwhelming -to say the least- for everyone to the point where they hardly took a moment to dwell over their loss. Being with her family helped her deal, the mere presence on the Halliwell men gave her a sense of security but it wasn't the same. She missed this so much - she missed him - and seeing him being there for her like he had always been, that's what really made her feel that everything would be alright. She pulled away when she heard foot step closing in on them.
"Johnny," Prue called from the stairs. She rushed down and pulled him into a hug. Johnny Marks was a friend of the family. His father, Simon Marks, was an acquaintance of the Charmed Ones as well as a once-upon-a-time suitor of Paige Mathews. Johnny and his brother were the only other witch-lighters the girls knew that were their age. They attended many of the same courses as some of the Halliwells in Magic School and befriended the four older Halliwell girls.
Everyone seemed to gather in the living room after hearing Prue's outburst. They were getting reacquainted with their friend when Pandora spoke up. "What are you doing here John?"
Everyone turned to the doorway where Pandora stood. Pandora and Johnny had been in an on-and-off relationship all through high school when they took extra lessons at Magic School. They finally broke it off on the day of high school graduation when Johnny didn't attend because he had decided to study the arts of Magic. Johnny loved being a witch-lighter and wanted nothing more than to embrace his Wiccan powers as well as his inner white-lighter. Pandora on the other hand wanted to go to college, get a degree, and live a normal life as much as possible. They were headed opposite directions and although Johnny suggested they'd stayed friends Pandora had refused.
Johnny let go of Prue. "I came because I heard about the Charmed Ones," he said.
"They're not dead." Pandora retorted defensively. She had to fight the attraction she seem to still have towards him, especially if the only reason for him to come back was because he felt pity for her.
"My apologies, I never meant to imply such a thing," Johnny explained. He then turned to look at the other Halliwells. "I'm truly sorry about what happened."
"We'll get them back." Melinda assured him. Melinda had always understood Johnny's need to protect and she had disagreed with Pandora's decision of giving him the ultimatum the most.
Johnny nodded. "That's not the only reason why I came though." He looked around as if searching some something. "And the others?" He asked referring to the older Halliwells. "Everyone should be here for what I have to say."
"Whatever you have to say you can say it to us." Pandora told him not wanting to give him much information. She wanted Johnny to state his business and leave as soon as possible.
"As you wish," Johnny replied without looking at her. "I don't know if you all are aware of this but there have been several attacks towards white-lighters. The first four were thought to be victims of dark-lighters. It was an alarming matter but the Elders had more pressing issues to worry about as you well know. The fifth victim though wasn't a white-lighter, it was a cupid." He gave them a moment to process the information.
"Wait, how do you know it was the same thing?" Prue asked.
"All victims had bite marks on them and are drained out of their magic. It's like a cobra's bite. The Elders don't know for sure but that's not all there is to it. The cupid was able to call for help but the healing didn't work. Whatever type of poison this is, not only is it immune to the Angel's Touch but it infects the healer." Johnny was met by deafening silence. "When I heard about it I automatically thought of you guys. Whatever this thing is, I think it's coming after you."
"The Elders aren't letting any white-lighters decent and I don't think they'll allow your dad to come either." He said to Melinda. "Not how things are. They can't afford to lose him."
"And why didn't you let us know earlier?" Pandora demanded. One thing was them breaking up another thing all together was this. They could have already been attacked without warning.
"I tried calling but you wouldn't pick up and I didn't know how to contact anyone else."
Pandora wasn't surprised since she had blocked his number from her cell phone. "You could have orbed," she accused.
Johnny shook his head. "No, I couldn't. It is believed that whatever is hunting Angels is doing it tracing them when they teleport. It's not safe to orb, beam or even make a teleportation potion."
"Still bitching about not teleporting?" Prue murmored to Mel.
Mel's response was an elbow to Prue's stomach.
"Why not a teleportation potion?" Melinda asked. She on occasion made a batch in case of emergencies.
"It got a witch after she had used one. The poison didn't kill her but it did drain her of her magic."
"How many?" Melinda asked.
"That have been identified? Nine white-lighters, one cupid, and one witch.
"I need to call my brothers and let them know they need to come back." Melinda announced as she headed for the kitchen to make the call.
Johnny looked around the room trying to pick a less dreadful topic of conversation but nothing seemed to come to mind. Penelope, the youngest was clinging on to her older sister Patricia and Prudence had pulled HJ away with some excuse leaving him alone with the twins. Polly tried to distance herself from them to allow him to talk to Pandora. In name of her kind gesture Johnny opened his mouth to say something, anything, but Pandora beat him to it. "I'll go check the Book of Shadows," she said.
Johnny followed her with his eyes until she was out of sight. "Give her time." Johnny looked over his shoulder towards Polina who gave him a sad smile.
"A lot of things have been going on lately. She'll come around." She assured him.
Johnny nodded underhandedly. "First her mom and now this…"
"It's not just that." Polina hesitated on her next words. She wanted her sister to be happy but she didn't want to betray her either. "Our dad kind of bailed on us." She finally said. "Well we don't know for sure. I mean, maybe something really came up and-"
"Slow down Polly. What happened?"
"After the thing with mom and the aunts we all decided it'd be best if we lived under one roof. That night we explained everything to dad and he just accepted it. The next morning Pan and I went to see how he was doing and the whole place was cleared out. We tried to call but it wouldn't go through. We tried scrying and still got noting. We began to worry and then we got an email saying he was alright. There was no 'see you soon' no nothing. Pan thinks dad couldn't take it and just bailed. She feels like everyone she loves is abandoning her, you know?"
"She thinks I will do the same."
Polly shook her head. "She thinks you already did. Why didn't you show for our graduation? She waited for you."
"One of my charges needed me. He was going through a rough time and then with the different time zones…I just…I wish I could have been there. I wanted to."
Polly nodded towards the stairs. "Maybe you should tell her that."
"Yeah, I guess I should…thanks," he said pulling her into a hug. Johnny liked Polly like a sister. Whenever he and Pandora had a fight she would coach him on how to fix things as well as translate Pandora's actions into words. He often wondered how Pandora and Polina shared the same carrot colored hair, the same honey colored eyes, even their voices were hard to distinguish and yet he never once confused them or the feelings he had for each. He could stare at the same face and radically have a change of heart according to the owner.
"Anytime bro," Polly replied jokingly. She stepped away from him and gave him and encouraging push.
"How'd it go?" Prue asked Polly after Johnny left.
Polly waved back her hair in mock arrogance. "You know I'm beginning to think I could give you cupids a run for your money. This stuff is a piece of cake."
Johnny entered the attic of the Halliwell Manor not bothering with mannerism. He waited for Pandora to make the first move. He didn't care if she yelled at him or even if she used her powers against him, he just wanted to see some sort of reaction from her.
"Pan-Pan," he called. He had the satisfaction of seeing her hand falter from changing the page. With renewed courage he continued, "Can we talk?"
She didn't bother to look away from the book. "Isn't that what you're doing?"
"I wanted to be there-"
"If you wanted to be there you would have." Pandora interrupted.
"One of my charges needed me, I-"
"Of course they did." She said sarcastically.
"What is that suppose to mean?"
She closed the book and looked up at him defiantly. "It means John that there's always a charge, an innocent, something that ends up being more important than me. You don't care about me at all. All you care about is the stupid family lineage. The only reason why you even bother with me is because I'm a Halliwell and a witch-lighter like you.
"Is that what you think?" Johnny walked towards her carefully trying harder than ever to contain his fury. Having white-lighter blood in him made him a pacifist by nature and never had he felt as angry as he did now.
"Isn't it?" Pandora challenged.
That was as far as he could go. In a one swift move, Johnny was holding her by the waist. He heard her gasp in surprise but couldn't bring himself to give a bloody dime for it. "I just spent over ten hours on a bloody plane just to see if you were okay and that's not good enough for you? Doesn't that count for something?"
Pandora knew very well that Johnny hated mundane transportation just as she knew by the look on his face that he hadn't bother to rest from the flight. She shouldn't care about either she reminded herself. Instead she desperately tried to get out of his hold but her attempts were futile. "Me? Don't you mean the Halliwells? I'm not the only witch-lighter in the family. You could easily go after Polina, we even share the same face. That is if you haven't already."
"Polly? You can't be serious." That was absurd. The most ridiculous thing Pandora could have possibly come up with.
"Oh, it's Polly now." Johnny had a strict policy of calling everyone by their given name. He never used nicknames on anyone. He would say it was disrespectful especially to call a lady by anything other than their true name. It had taken her forever to have him call her by anything other than Pandora and even then he refused to can her 'Pan' as everyone else did. Now all of a sudden he had no problem calling her sister by the name the family addressed her by.
"I can't believe this. You are such a spoiled brat." He accused. Yes, he did refer to Polina as Polly but that was because he practically considered her family. He would also address Henry Junior by HJ. A little fact that Pandora had coincidently dismissed.
"So what if I am? Did you finally see the error of your ways and realized she was your better choice."
"Where is all of this coming from?"Johnny asked confused by the direction the conversation had taken.
"I saw you," she said. "Now let-go-of-me."
Johnny released her. "I don't know what you mean."
"I saw you. After I told you to choose you propose to my sister, my twin."
"What? No, you have it all wrong. Pan-Pan I-"
"Don't call me that! Let me through."
Johnny blocked her path to the exit of the attic. He had to clear this up. "Listen to me. I didn't-"
Pandora refused to listen to his excuses. Without a second thought she began to orb out of the room.
"Pandora! Don't orb!" Johnny called desperately.
Pandora realized her mistake and materialized herself back in the room but it was already too late.
Red and black orbs formed in the middle of the room. They backed away allowing the figure to take form. It took the shape of a human but it's eyes were pitch black. Not just its irises but the sclera as well and it had weird shaped tattoos all over its body. It didn't take long for them to reach the same conclusion: this was the thing that was killing Angels.
The mutant dark-lighter made a move towards them but Melinda had reached the attic and threw him to the opposite end of the room with a wave of her hand. Prue was right behind her.
"Prue, Pan, Johnny, get out of here. You're all half-angels, if this thing gets to you, you are good as dead."
"We can't leave you here alone Mel," Prue protested as she hid behind Melinda.
"I'm not leaving this battle. You three get out of here. Your lives are far more important than mine." Johnny replied.
He made a move against the dark-lighter after it quickly made a recovery from the attack. He was trying to distract it while the girls made a run for it. However, he had miscalculated the dark-lighter's tactic skills. With super speed it got up and targeted Pandora who had become frozen with fear.
"Pan-Pan! Get out of there!" Johnny called when he noticed the dark-lighter's intent. She didn't respond but Johnny was fast enough to orb her away from the dark-lighter view and into his arms. With a shift of his eyes he aimed to throw the dark-lighter out of the window but the dark-lighter was faster than him and orbed its way to Johnny. It tossed Johnny to the doorway. Johnny quickly orbed all girls downstairs with the rest of the family leaving only him and the dark-light in the attic. He tried to get up but his right leg couldn't sustain him. His next thought was to orb himself out of the place and that was when he felt the ache on his neck, the fangs that clawed themselves into his skin. It only lasted seconds before it became numb and he didn't feel a thing and then the pressure of the bite was gone replaced by excruciating pain.
A/N: As always your guys' thoughts and opinions are much valued. Any and all are welcomed. :-)