CHARMY TEETH
Chapter 3: Does It Matter if You're Black or White?
"You!" Phoebe gasps, her spoon dropping from her hand and falls to the floor.
"Oh no! Now I'm going to have to clean that up," Piper complains and looks at the ice creamy stain on the rug beside the couch.
Paige's jaw drops and she looks first at Phoebe, then at Piper, and then at Eric.
"What is going on here?" she mostly directs the question at Piper. She then turns her head to her other sister. "Do you know this guy?" she demands to know, pointing at Eric with her thumb.
"He's our innocent," Piper says as if they are getting some pleasant surprise. Paige gives her a look as if she escaped from a mental hospital.
"He was at the meeting with the judge!" Phoebe exclaims.
"And I have a reason for that. I came to talk to you. Unfortunately, Cole turned me into something."
"A water cooler," Phoebe fills in with a sigh.
"How original," Eric says, seeming to think that was creative and amusing incident rather than something disturbing as Phoebe thinks. He seems to ponder Cole's originality while he sits down on a chair in front of her.
"How can you be so sure he's an innocent, Piper?" Paige asks her sister.
"Because Cole's after him. Isn't it obvious?" Piper says, without understanding why Paige doesn't, thinking that she must be a bit dumb. She also sits down, leaving Phoebe and Paige on their feet, still on guard, and still not convinced of his innocence.
"Sit down," Eric says and Phoebe does what he says, because there's just something unavoidable about his words.
"Why is Cole after you?" she asks him. "He didn't seem to be so after you when we met."
"Oh, trust me, he will be," Eric muses and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands loosely.
"Why do you say that?" Phoebe asks him, but gets no answer from Eric, he just looks intently into her eyes.
She discovers that his eyes have got a really pretty shade of blue before she breaks their eye contact.
"Yeah, well," Phoebe sighs, figuring that whatever Eric's reason is, it's not that important because they still need to get rid of Cole since he's getting so dangerous, "What we need to do now is figure out how to vanquish him. I mean, he's not Belthazor neither the Source anymore so those methods shouldn't work."
"I think it's worth a try anyway," Piper says.
"Yeah. We've still got some left of the potion we used to vanquish him when he was the Source," Paige shrugs. "Maybe we could try to mix it to create an even more powerful potion."
"Good idea, sis," Phoebe says, sounding a bit more alive when the talking of vanquishing Cole has developed into action, instead of simply dreading the fact that he's back without actually doing anything about it.
"I'm going to go check the book and experiment a bit, tell me if you need me," Paige says and orbs up to the attic.
"She's getting lazy because of all that orbing," Piper analyzes.
Eric, who has been silently regarding the sisters' interaction, now stands up to leave the house.
"You should try to get rid of him quickly, before he becomes too big of a threat for you to handle," he says and turns around to walk toward the front door. "I have no intention in dying."
"I'm just wondering," Phoebe begins. "Why can't you deal with him yourself? You're a vampire. You're practically as powerful as a demon."
To this Eric turns around.
"Vampires are neither good nor evil. We act on our own benefit, which is what we've done for centuries..."
"Sounds pretty evil to me," Phoebe states.
Eric ignores her and continues:
"...We do not take any sides. You people are always trying to decide what's black or white. In your world there are no gray zones, but in reality, we are that gray zone."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. There's still a tiny little detail left," Phoebe says ironically and shows how tiny that detail is with the void between her thumb and index finger. "You haven't explained why Cole is after you."
"He's not after me yet, but he will be, in time."
"Why? And how could you possibly know that?" Phoebe asks.
"I've got my reasons."
"Hey, you can't just barge in here and expect us to help you without giving us a real reason for it!"
"I wasn't expecting it. I'm counting on it," he says dramatically and walks out of door.
Phoebe opens it right after he has closed it but finds that the street in front of her is completely empty.
"Typical vampires," she mutters.
~Chaaarmy~
The vampire queen of Lousiana is angry. She stares at Eric, who's keeping his eyes on the floor, and says:
"What have you been doing in San Francisco?"
Eric is kneeling and is careful to always keep his eyes low, only seeing the bottom of her skirt.
"I'm seeking out the Charmed Ones," he tells her. "One of them is psychic and I believe she'll be of great assistance to you."
The queen snorts.
"I'm still questioning your authority. You got Sookie killed. A telepath. Do you really believe a psychic will match up to those abilities?"
Eric swallowed. "I believe they will."
"Well. She better be good."
"She is."
"Okay. Bring her back here and I'll test her. Your head is on stake here, I can't have you being sheriff of area five when you get our most valuable resources killed."
He gave a small nod.
"You're dismissed."
