Chapter 7: Whitelighter


"What the hell just happened?" I cried out as I fell on my ass trying to put as much distance between Eric and myself.

He sighed as he took a step forwards, "Really Mel? You'd think you'd be a little less shocked than this seeing as how you've grown up with magic and all."

"Magic? Wha-? How d'you know that? How d'you know about magic at all?" I asked him still shocked.

"I'm a whitelighter." He answered as he moved down to be at my eye level. I gasped in air only to realize after a few seconds that I wasn't letting it out. "More specifically, I'm your whitelighter." He finished.

I finally let the air out as my eyebrows rose. I just blinked back at him. "What?" Was all I could ask, my face still shocked.

Eric was on his knees now in front of me. "I'm. Your. Whitelighter." He said slower. "I'm here to protect you, as much as I can of course. I mean, you're Melinda Halliwell. You're bound to get into some trouble." He joked. I was still breathing heavily from both, my activities with Aaron and my shock from Eric.

"I- I'm confused. Why are you just telling me now?" I asked him as I sent him a slight glare.

"I couldn't tell you. There was no reason to tell you. You weren't in the kind of danger you are now."

"I- I'm in danger?" I asked him incredulously. At his nod I laughed. "Right. Look, Eric. I'm always in danger I'm the daughter of a charmed one. Demons hate my family. I get it." I stood up to my own two feet as I said this Eric stood as well.

"Then why? Did I catch you nearly having sex with one, if you know that demons hate your family?" He asked now crossing his hands over his chest.

"Uhh… Well-. Listen, Aaron's diff-." After a pause passed I glared at him quickly saying, "You know what? I don't have to explain myself to you. You got that mister? You're not my father, or my brother's. Hell you're not even related to me. I don't have to explain anything to you."

"You're right. You don't. I'm just here to help you."

I gasped suddenly, "Oh, my god! You jerk! I said things-. Things to you when we were drunk!" Sending him a glare as I moved forwards and poked him in the chest. "Private things about me." There was a pause when I turned the other way. "Ugh! You're a freaking whitelighter! An angel!" Turning to face him I added, "Not a very good one considering the amount of times you've gotten wasted with me."

"Actually," He interrupted me. "Whitelighters physically can't get drunk." He corrected.

"So, all those times you've kissed me while drunk, you're telling me that you weren't really drunk?"

He shook his head and anger came over me, reacting to that I pulled back my fist and nailed Eric… in the face. Eric barely flinched, but I felt a massive pain in my fist. I sucked in a breath and let it hiss out as I hopped up and down gripping my right wrist with my left hand I shook my hand out trying to shake away the pain, only to cause more. I groaned and made some unintelligible noises.

"Melinda." I heard him behind me. I practically growled at him as I tried to ignore him. "Mel… Please, will you just turn around?" He asked me. I continued to ignore him as I shut my eyes trying to now will the pain away. Opening them I saw that I was looking into Eric's eyes. "Let me see your hand." He stated as he held out his.

"No." I told him. "You've done enough."

"I'm trying to help you, now will you give me your god damn hand." He said as he snatched my wrist and yanked the injured hand towards him.

"You just took the lords name in vain." I began then scoffed. "Some angel you are." I finished with an eye roll.

"How many times have you said Jesus Christ?" He asked me in a bored tone.

"I'm no angel." I replied with a grin as he healed my hand for me.

"You can say that again…" He muttered under his breath as he took a step back from me.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him angrily as I crossed my arms.

"Angels aren't caught hanging out with demons. Let alone groping them." Eric replied as he took a step towards me.

"Hey! No one told you to follow me around. I don't need you to tell me what I can and cannot do!"

"You don't even realize the amount of times I've saved your ass!" He yelled back at me. I just scoffed, "Oh yeah? When?"

"Countless of times! Too many to count!"

"Uh-huh. Sure so many that you can't even name one." I teased.

"Fine, let me show you." He said as he gripped my arm and suddenly we were somewhere else. I groaned inwardly somewhere in my mind I was worrying over Aaron.

"Mel, go check the upstairs, we'll search the basement." I heard Chris say.

"What?" I asked dumbly. Eric elbowed me lightly and tilted his head in a different direction looking towards that area I saw Chris and Wyatt along with myself. We were younger though…What the hell is going on? I asked myself feeling out of the loop.

"I'm so confused…" I trailed off sparing a glance towards Eric.

"Will you just watch?" He asked impatiently. I held up my hands defensively with a slight huff as I faced off with myself. My brothers had vacated the room and were now downstairs in the basement. I tried to wrack my brain and remember where we were but nothing came to me. There was a creaking noise from behind past me, I jumped around alert, the past me did the same. I turned around before past me on account of Eric grabbing me and turning me around by my arm.

I found myself staring at a demon, coming up behind past me. Suddenly I watched as Eric silently orbed in from across the hall and up on the landing above me. He orbed the big chandelier down on top of the demon just in time before the guy could send the steadily growing energy ball towards me. I blinked in slight surprise while past me freaked out. Jumping to the other side of the room as fast as she (I?) possibly could.

I heard footsteps thunder up from the basement as my brothers stumbled through the doorway. Their voices faded as the room dissipated around me. I was back where I'd previously been with Eric; on top of the Golden Gate Bridge. "So, you're a whitelighter. Big deal. D'you want a medal?" I asked my mind on Aaron.

Eric let a look of frustration pass over his face briefly before letting out a rather dramatic sigh saying, "No, I don't want a medal. But I freakin' deserve one considering the amount of times I've saved your ass." A pause passed between us until Eric added, "As you're whitelighter. I'm supposed to keep you from getting into trouble. In this case I guess I'm supposed to prevent trouble from getting into you, huh?" He laughed out the last part until he looked at my serious face.

"You're so not funny." I told him bluntly. He shrugged in response as he turned away from me and looked out over the water.

"I'm just doing my job, Melinda. I can't have you running around with a vampire."

"He's not just a vampire. He- He's Aaron. I'll be fine… I know I can trust him." I tried make Eric see this my way.

"Yeah? Well, the elders don't-."

"Screw the elders." I cut him off harshly. Eric blinked at my surprised at the tone in my voice. "They're just a bunch of old people who have fun ruining people's lives. I've heard the stories from my parents and Aunts. So you can take your 'elder stuff' and sho-."

"Okay!" Eric cut me off as he turned around holding out his hands. "I hope you know they can hear you." He pointed out.

I shrugged feeling like a badass, a smug grin formed on my face- unintentional, of course.

"Look, just do me a favor. Stay away from him for a while. The eclipse is tonight and vampires aren't really stable around that time so-."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't be around them. Stop my family from summoning them-. Wait, oh, my god. This works out perfectly. I can tell my family that my whitelighter told me the information!" I all but squealed as I remembered Aaron's words from earlier about how I was supposed to tell my family this information without divulging that I was sleeping with the "enemy" so to speak.

"Uhh… yeah, you can, because I just did." Eric said slowly looking at me as though I were slightly retarded. I shrugged deciding against telling him anymore about Aaron and myself.

"Can I go home now?" I asked him aggravated again.

"Depends, are you going to stay away from Aaron?"

I paused at that debating if I should come out and lie, but he knew me well enough to know when I was lying, "Do you honestly think I'm going to?"

He shook his head slowly, "And there's nothing I can do to prevent you from going to him, is there?"

I shook my head, "Even if you did bind my powers and prevented me from going down there. He'd come up to see me." Saying this I saw Eric's eyes flash with something, but I didn't know what it was.

"Fine." I heard him say his voice low. He reached out and touched my arm orbing me back to my room.