"...shortly after your birth we discovered a prophecy about you. It wasn't complete; someone had already gotten to it. It wasn't safe for the three of us to stick together, so I bound your powers and took you with me so I could try and research as much as possible. Lately, I've found some of the missing pieces but when your father called me I knew that I needed to get here soon. If this Victoria is after you, you're going to need my help. And your powers."
"Wait," Bella stammered. "I'm a witch; your a witch," she said beginning to yell slightly. "My father is really evil, and some prophecy that is supposedly about me forced you and Dad to separate. What the hell is going on here," Bella cried out. "Am I evil," she said mostly to herself.
"No; oh, God no," Prue said crossing over to her daughter. "Genetics don't mean everything," her mother began. "Even if they do consider my family. We come from the most powerful source of good magic ever. That has to count so much more over some silly warlock. You are good," Prue said taking Bella's face into her palms. "The choice between good and evil is one people make of their own accord. You will always have the free will to choose for yourself."
"Than what about this prophecy, and cutting off all contact from your sisters? I mean, hell. You lied to me about my own name!" Bella's voice rose in a yell. "I have all this stuff going on around me and you just pop up and give me this whole new bunch of issues to deal with. What am I supposed to think," she demanded.
"I know it's not fair. But it is your destiny. Get mad at it, cry; but don't fight it. Otherwise it will consume you. Alice," Prue said turning to the vampire. "Can you see anything about Victoria's impending attack?"
"Right now she's standing back. Decide to leave Bella alone, and maybe something will change."
Prue looked at Alice as if to say yeah,right. Bella explained that things constantly change in Alice's visions based on the different things people decide to do from one moment to the next, so Prue decided to leave with Charlie and Alice long enough for Alice to get another premonition.
"She'll come tonight, when Bella's taken her shower before going to bed. Victoria will wait outside her window, waiting for Bella to notice her in the vanity and then she'll attack. As long as nothing changes, that is."
Prue looked at Andy. "Alice, do you know any herbology stores in the area?"
"Yes, there's one about twenty minutes away. I go there to pick up herbs for my night time facial remedies." At this she received incredulous looks from the mortals in the room. "I don't sleep but the lavender is relaxing; it's like nirvana," she said defensively.
Prue smiled and took out a black quilted leather book and opened it to a page in the front. "There's a book of spells that has been past down in my family since Melinda Warren, called the Book of Shadows. Before I faked my death I cast a spell so that my own book was joined to it. Whatever spells are written in any book show up in both; I wanted a way to stay in touch and still contribute to my family. If I'm going to leave Bella alone, which I'm not entirely sure about, we have to unbind her powers so she can practice using them. It will be the only way she can truly defend herself in an attack. These are the ingredients we're going to need for the potion," she said scribbling their names down on the back of a cable bill. "Go there and make sure you get what's on the list. In the meantime, I'm going to take security measures and set up a parameter around the house. It won't be in tact until Bella puts the last crystal in place; securing Victoria. We'll discuss the rest later. Hurry up, now. We only have a few hours."
"Bottoms up," Bella said taking the potion her mother had bottled for her. She threw her head back and knocked it down as if it were a shot of tequila. "What now?"
"Repeat after me.'Powers of the witches rise'."
"Powers of the witches rise."
"Course unseen across the skies."
"Course unseen across the skies."
"Come to us who call you near."
"Come to us who call you near."
"Come to us and settle here."
"Come to us and settle here," Bella said and begun to feel woozy as her eyesight began to go. Why am I seeing tiny, shiny baubles of light she pondered.
"Is that it," Alice wondered.
"Yep. Now this is very important, Bella. These crystals are charged to form a crystal cage, either to keep a demon, warlock or some other entity out or in, depending on what it is you're looking to do. I've placed them in your room, but this is the last crystal. The cage won't activate until you place it in formation with the other circles. If you can trap her in the cage it will hold her until Alice and I can arrive back in time to destroy her. Now vampires are impervious to witchy powers," she began to explain when her daughter and her best friend cried out in a rage, "but that doesn't mean your powers are useless. You can still use them on the things around you and use them on Victoria. Your power is telekinesis, just like me. You might not be able to send her flying but you can send a bed or a dresser or a paperweight at her. Right now we need you to get a handle on your power."
"How does it work?"
Prue ducked her head as a chair went sailing past, making a large dent in the wall directly behind her. "Looks like you don't need that much practice; you have some serious juice, girl."
"Thanks," Bella said with a small smile on her face that she tried to hide by looking at the floor. She had never taken praise well; it wasn't that she didn't like it. She just never thought anything she did was ever that spectacular. To her that had always been Edward, the dazzling wonder.
The mother-daughter duo had been training for forty-five minutes and it was surprising how much control and aim Bella already had. Alice was watching from downstairs. Even though her skin was tough and she had taken apart other vampires before she still didn't like the thought of something flying at her face. Rosalie might be the stunningly beautiful one who always dressed her best but Alice was the girly one of the Cullen family. Indents in your head was just not a good look on anybody, even if they healed at an alarmingly fast rate. Not for Alice, no sirree.
Prue hugged her daughter before exiting her room. "Remember, I'll be here as soon as Alice sees anything. I'm taking Andy with us. We won't be far," she said in Bella's ear; kissing her on the cheek. She made her way downstairs and saw Alice and Andy. "You called Billy and let them know not to come by here, right? It will screw with Alice's power."
"Yes. They've been warned that if even one of them comes with in the vicinity of this place that I'll haul their asses to jail in the back of my cruiser."
"Okay. Let's do this."
Bella found it hard to go through with their carefully laid out plans for the night. She knew that if she wanted for this to be over that she needed to stick to the routine, but Alice's description of tonight's events lined up to Bella's prophetic dreams perfectly. Looking into the bathroom vanity, she wondered where Edward was this very moment. He had left to protect her, but his absence had condemned her to a whole new destiny. Her anger at her parent's lies had fled as she began to understand the danger that was waiting for her, even after Victoria was taken care of. This prophecy, this destiny had lead her here to Edward. Surely that meant something.
Stepping into her shower, she prayed that at the end of this Edward would come back to her. There was a possibility that she would die tonight, or she could go on a dark path that called to her. These past months waiting for him to come home to as normal a life as they could lead had almost killed her and taken her sanity. There was no way she could embark in the supernatural world without him there to guide her and comfort her. She had to face Victoria. It was the only way she knew how to get Edward back.
The silence was taunting Bella as she made the final steps to her bedroom and opened it. The crystal was on her desk and she had her powers down, but her adrenaline was pumping and she could feel the goosebumps vibrating in anticipation on her arms and legs. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up in a creepy, instantaneous moment as her eyes made contact with her vanity and Victoria attacked.