Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or any of it's characters.

This chapter is a bit longer than the last chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

CHAPTER 4

The sun rose in the morning sky. Phoebe and Coop dropped Sarah and Prue off at the manor to spend the day with their older cousins. Then, they drove two houses down to the house where Alyson lived with her mother. Alex and Peyton would stay with Alyson's mother, while they moved everything to the apartment.

Phoebe and Coop rang the bell and Alyson answered. "Hey, guys." She said.

"Hi." Phoebe replied. "This is my husband Coop."

Coop offered a hand out to shake. "It's nice to finally meet you. Peyton won't stop talking about your daughter."

"Dad!" Peyton interjected. She felt a bit embarrassed.

"It's nice to meet you too." Alyson replied as she shook his hand. "I appreciate the help. Alex is up in her room if you want to go and find her."

"Thanks." Peyton tore up the stairs with a smile on her face.

Alyson introduced Phoebe and Coop to her mother before they started packing up the cars and moving things.

Peyton found Alex upstairs in her room. They talked, gossiped, and browsed through some teen magazines hoping to spot pictures of their favorite singers. They listened to music and even did a little dancing, though neither one of them was very coordinated on their feet. They spent a good chunk of the afternoon just goofing around and having fun.

After a while, Alex decided she wanted to show something to Peyton and Peyton followed her downstairs. "Grandma, we're going to play in the yard." She said as she peeked her head into the front parlor where her grandmother was engrossed in a book.

"Ok." She replied.

Alex lead Peyton through the kitchen to the back door. She opened it, closed it, and turned to the basement stairs. "I thought we were going outside?" Peyton asked.

"There's something I want to show you in the basement." Alex replied. She maneuvered down the old stairs and turned the corner. There was a table with a box on it. A book laid next to the box. She opened the box and pulled out some of the candles and herbs that were in it. Her mother must have packed it all for the move. "This is the stuff I was telling you about and this is the book."

Peyton opened the old brown book and read the first page out loud. "Pearl's Black Magic, 1923." She flipped to the second page and started reading out loud. "I am Pearl Russel..." She paused for a moment, recognizing the name. "a witch born of the Warren bloodline."

"What, why did you pause?" Alex asked. "What's with that look on your face?"

"Uh nothing, it's just that this book is a little strange." Peyton lied. Pearl Russel was an ancestor of hers and a past life of her mother's. She was a witch that had been led astray, using her magic for her own means and even falling in love with a warlock. She didn't tell Alex that she knew who Pearl was or that she was related to her.

"I know and my mom's been reading this and doing stuff down here at night." Alex informed her.

Peyton flipped through some more pages in the book. There was a spell for wealth, one to separate two lovers, and various other spells. Alex's mom did recently come into some money and conveniently, her father and his secretary girlfriend had ended their relationship. Maybe spells were to blame. They were spells Peyton was taught to never use, especially if they were ones that could harm another. "Have you asked your mom about this?" She asked Alex.

"Are you kidding me?" Alex asked back. " I haven't said anything to her about this."

Zenic sat in a Starbucks sipping a caramel macchiato. When he wasn't in the darkness of the Underworld, he liked to blend in with the mortal world. He found that coffee and cappuccinos seemed to be a weakness of his. He enjoyed them very much.

Zenic also liked to people watch. His eyes followed an array of people in and out of the coffee shop as they got their fix of caffeine for the day. His senses spiked when a woman walked in. She was older with graying hair and she ordered a simple black coffee. He smiled at her as she passed him on her way out. She was a witch and he knew it the moment she walked in. He was tempted to follow her, but he preferred younger witches. Killing her would be too easy.

That aside, he was too focused on the night ahead of him. He hoped to finally have Pearl Russel's magic book and with it, the spell that would instantly kill a Warren witch. There was no proof the spell would even work, but there were rumors that Anton tried the spell on a Warren witch and that it worked like a charm. Of course, the rumors were just that...rumors.

As evening came, Peyton sat in her Aunt Piper's kitchen eating a piece of cheesecake. Her parents had helped Alex and her mom get moved into their new place and were now finishing up dinner with family. She fought her cousin, Wyatt, for the last piece and was enjoying every last bite as her Aunt Piper and Paige did dishes at the sink.

"Did you have fun with your friend today?" Paige asked Peyton.

"Yeah, but something kind of weird happened." Peyton answered.

"What's that?" Piper asked, setting her rag down and turning to face her niece. Paige continued drying dishes, but turned to her niece as well.

"She thought that her mom might be doing magic, that she might be a witch and she showed me this magic book that she found her mom reading from one night." Peyton paused for a moment. "I think the book belonged to Pearl Russel."

"Pearl Russel? Wasn't that Phoebe's past life?" Paige asked Piper.

"It was." Piper answered. "Why do you think it was her book?"

"It had her name in it. Plus, there were journal entries and spells, potions." Peyton explained. "There was a spell to make someone wealthy and her mom did just win the lottery and get a raise at work. There was another spell to separate two lovers and Alex's dad and girlfriend broke up kind of suddenly."

"And you think her Mom used spells from this book to make all that happen?" Piper asked.

"I don't know, but it's kind of weird if you ask me." She replied.

"Yeah, it is kind of weird." Paige added in. "Maybe we should talk to Phoebe."

Phoebe walked into the kitchen with dirty dessert plates in hand. "Talk to me about what?"

Piper smiled at Peyton. "Why don't you go and see what your cousins are doing." She suggested.

"You know, you could just say that you want to talk alone." Peyton replied before walking out.

"What's going on? Don't tell me it's a demon thing?" Phoebe said as she piled the dishes next to Piper at the sink. It had been weeks since their last demon encounter and even then, Wyatt and Chris had taken care of it.

"Not exactly." Paige said.

"Peyton said that Alex thinks her mom is a witch. She showed Peyton this magic book of her moms and it had Pearl Russel's name in it." Piper explained to Phoebe. "It had spells, potions, and even some kind of journal entries."

Paige added in. "She thinks that some of the spells could be the reason that Alex's mom has been so fortunate lately."

"Wait, Alyson has a book that belonged to Pearl Russel? If she had a book, wouldn't it have been in the attic with all the other random junk left by our ancestors?" Phoebe asked.

"Pearl was evil, wasn't she?" Paige asked. "She did a lot of magic for personal gain, so maybe she had a book and had to keep it hidden from her cousins. I mean, they didn't live in the manor together did they, maybe she kept it at her own place. Besides, we all have our own little books of spells aside from the big book upstairs."

"Well, if her cousins disapproved of her use of magic, I guess she could have put her spells in her own book." Phoebe said. "So what do we do, confront Alyson?"

"We might have to, especially if she is using the spells for her own gain." Piper said.

"I guess I can call her..." Phoebe was cut off by the sound of sirens outside. It was more than just your typical police car. "I wonder where they're going?"

Wyatt stepped into the kitchen. "Hey Mom, police cars and an ambulance just whizzed by and I think they stopped at Alex's house."

"What?" Piper screamed. Her and her sisters quickly made their way through the house and out to the front porch, glancing down the street in shock.

"Oh my god." Phoebe said.

Leo joined them on the porch, which in all reality was not really made to hold four people. "Isn't that Alex's house?" He asked.

"Yeah, we'll be right back." Piper said. "Stay with the kids." Her, Phoebe, and Paige walked down the street and stopped where police had begun to rope off the scene. Some of their other neighbors had already begun to gather in awe on the sidewalk and street.

"What happened here?" Paige asked one of the police officers.

"Woman called, thought someone had broken into her home." He explained. "Looks like a burglary gone bad. They're taking her to the hospital now."

Paramedics wheeled the gurney out of the house with a body on it. One pushed the gurney as another pushed his hands up and down on a woman's chest. A third paramedic pushed the gurney with one hand, while his other hand compressed an oxygen mask that was over her mouth and helped her to breath. It was hard to see who the woman was, but Phoebe assumed it was Alex's grandmother. She would have been the only one in the house now that Alyson and Alex were all moved into their new place.

Phoebe's eyes began to water some, though she didn't personally know Alex's grandmother all that well. She scanned over the crowd of onlookers and stopped on a taller man who seemed a bit out of place with a dark smile formed on his pale face. Frantically, she pulled on Piper, getting her to focus her attention on the man. "There." She pointed.

Piper looked just in time to see the man disappear in the blink of an eye. "A warlock." She said.

"Where?" Paige asked, turning her attention to whatever it was Piper and Phoebe had been looking at.

"He was right there." Phoebe pointed.

"I guess this confirms that Alyson is a witch. Why else would a warlock be after her or her family?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, but why is he after them?" Paige asked back, her hand resting on her hip.

"I have no idea. Maybe the warlock's in the book." Phoebe replied.

The sisters walked back to the manor and up to the attic where the book laid in it's usual spot on the podium. Paige was the first one to the book. She flipped open the cover and browsed the pages trying to find the warlock. "There's a dragon warlock." She said to her sisters, who had sat on the old couch near the podium. "Say's he's a witch killer."

"I'd say they're all witch killers, but he's been vanquished already." Phoebe replied.

"Oh, guess that was before my time." Paige said back. She continued her search. She passed a page for the Collectors. She had heard a story about her sisters encounter with the Collectors and assumed they were not the warlock they were looking for.

"Yeah, there was a genie involved and it was this whole mess." Phoebe explained. She stood and went to the book. Paige stumbled on a page for a warlock named Zenic. " I think you found him." She said to her sisters. There was a picture on the page of a warlock with brown hair and very fair skin. It was hard to see his features outside in the darkness of the night sky, but his face looked similar.

"It says that he's lived for centuries and takes pleasure in killing young witches before they can learn the craft." Paige read aloud. "Alyson's not exactly young and neither is her mother."

"She could be new to the craft." Piper said.

"It also says that he's even been known to turn a few witches into warlocks." Phoebe added in. "Apparently, he has a lot of powers, most unknown."

"But he can be vanquished with an upper level potion." Paige said.

"I guess I'll head to the kitchen and get started." Piper replied with a sigh. She rose from the couch and went for the stairs.

"I think I should go to the hospital and see if Alyson's Mom is ok. Maybe Alyson will be there and I can talk to her about everything." Phoebe said.

"That's a good idea. We should get the kids home so they can get to bed. Henry's getting them up early tomorrow and taking them out on his friends boat for a few hours." Paige replied.

"Yeah, I should get the girls home." Phoebe said. Her and Paige followed Piper downstairs so they could rally up their families.

Phoebe drove Coop and the girls home, dropping them off before she headed to the hospital. San Francisco General Hospital was the closest to the manor and she assumed that was where Alyson's mother was taken. When she arrived and asked around, she found Alyson sitting in a chair, her head in her hands as tears streamed from her eyes.

"Alyson?" Phoebe questioned.

Alyson looked up and wiped a way a few tears. "Phoebe, what are you doing here?" She asked.

"I was at my sisters house and saw them taking your mother away in an ambulance. The police think it was a burglary gone bad." Phoebe answered. "Is she ok?"

She shook her head, trying to fight a few sobs. "She didn't make it." Alyson replied. "She was burned really bad. It doesn't make any sense. The police said there was no evidence of a fire at the house whatsoever." She continued to cry.

Phoebe sat next to her and placed an arm around her, trying to console her. "I'm so sorry, Alyson." She waited a moment and continued. "I know this is hard for you, but I need to ask you something."

"What? What is it?" Alyson replied.

"You're daughter told Peyton that you were casting spells, that you're a witch." Phoebe said.

Alyson cut her off before she could even ask any questions. "That's absurd."

"If you're a witch, you can tell me because I'm a witch too and so are my sisters." Phoebe explained. "And I think a warlock attacked your mother."

"A what?" Alyson asked. She stood, backing away from Phoebe. "You're crazy."

"Alyson, listen to me." Phoebe pleaded. "He killed your mother and he could be after you too. You're not alone. I'm a witch too."

"No, I'm not a witch." She argued. "All I did was try a few spells. I didn't expect them to work, but they did."

"That doesn't make any sense." Phoebe said. "If you're not a witch, you shouldn't be able to cast spells."

"I don't know." Alyson replied. "This is all just too much."

"It's ok." Phoebe assured her. She stood and embraced Alyson, letting her cry on her shoulder. "It's all going to be ok."

I wish I could add photos to my story. I have a bos page that I made about Zenic that I wish I could share with you all. The sisters now know about Alyson's use of spells and it's lead to dire consequences for her. Anyways, more to be posted in the next few days. Thanks!