Chapter 8: Present Time…

That was the moment that Piper walked into the living room.

"What the hell is going on here?" she asked taking in the room.

"Hello Mother," said the maniac in a calm and sarcastic tone, he had caught them all in his web.

Piper took in the living room. She hadn't exactly rushed home after she heard the psychic message from Phoebe saying she wanted to talk however she had finished whatever she was doing as quickly as possible.

Over the years Phoebe's empathy powers had grown and she was able to send messages to everyone in the family. Came in handy, meaning the power of three was able to talk to each at other at all times as Paige heard you because she was a whitelighter.

It looked like they would have to find ways to protect this power as from the look of Phoebe's face her power wasn't hers to control meaning someone else was sending out that message. It looked like the entire Halliwell Coven was present in the room. And as Piper looked around her eyes landed on a handsome young man who was looking at her with hate filled eyes.

Piper was taken back, she had battled many demons, warlocks and magical creatures throughout the last thirty years but she could feel the hate that was radiating off the young (human? demon?) as he looked at her. The evil creatures of this world feared her, respected her, and even revered her, only a few had hated her however never at this level. Never in her life had anyone looked at her as she was the vilest thing on earth.

Beside the hate she could also feel the underlying power the young man seemed to radiate. This man was powerful despite his physical appearance. He was whip core thin almost starved looking, despite looking like he had been fed well in recent times, Piper being a chef, a mother and someone who ran a soup kitchen could see the evidence of malnutrition at a young age. When you were not fed well as a child it stopped the growth process and it showed even when you reached adulthood.

For some reason Piper wanted to take this man and fed him anything she had in her kitchen. She wanted to make him chocolate chip cookies and blue berry pancakes which she knew this man would love. She frowned, where were these thoughts and feelings coming from? What kind of magic was working in the air?

She realized that everyone was staring at her. It seemed that she would be the one to open the line of communication.

"What do you want?" she asked. Thinking let's get the basics out of the way.

"Nothing from you specifically," answered the young man, then a twisted smile came over his face, "just came to see if the great Halliwell's would beg to do my bidding."

"We are not that easy," she replied with force behind her voice, she wasn't the Matriarch of this family for nothing. She looked around the room to take everyone in, Phoebe had silent tears that were flowing down her face and Paige seemed too dazed to follow the happenings. She looked over to the other side of the room and her heart missed a beat when she saw her son on the floor. It looked like he was not breathing.

The young man's eyes followed her line of sight and his smile got bigger when he realized what she was looking at.

"Don't worry mommy dearest, your precious son will wake up," he replied to her silent look.

Piper's head whipped back to the intruder, this was the second time he had called her 'mother'. The first time she was in too much of a shock to realize what he had called her however now that she was looking over the situation she reflected back that he had called her 'mother' when she entered the house.

She was examining him as he was examining her and if it was possible the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as the man just stared at her. She was not an empath but she could feel his fury and it was like ice in her veins.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?" asked the handsome evil familiar stranger with frost in his voice.

Was she supposed to? Piper was not going to let this man have control of the situation. "The only thing I do know is that you have my family here and I will kill you for even attempting coming in here."

Suddenly a fury like none other went through them and Phoebe's and Paige's younger children let out a cry of distress.

The man moved towards her and Piper was truly afraid for one of the few times in her life. Suddenly the fury, the uncontrollable power was brought under control. He looked at her and gave her a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"Tell you what," he said like he was commenting on the weather. "You tell me my name and I'll let you go," he suggested to her.

"I'm serious," he said suddenly becoming very serious. "You just call me by my name and I'll go and never bother you again."

Piper really thought hard about it, perhaps they had met this man before and wronged him somehow. She thought of the many demons they faced in the years and she could not come up with anything. On the other end she was assaulted with feelings, feelings that usually came accompanying memories; she was proud of this man for some reason and she was sure that the feeling of love was in the forefront.

Before she could analyze the feelings and figure out what the hell was going on the man ran out patience. He turned his back to her and gestured with his hand and two demons moved forward and each dragged up a member of the family. One dragged Paige and the other Prue, Phoebe's oldest.

"What do you want?" asked Paige who had been dragged onto her feet by a demon she had never met before. She had gained enough of herself to be part of the happenings.

Leo looked around the room there was nothing they could do, they were cornered. The man turned to face him fully and Leo knew that whatever he wanted had something to do with him.

"I want the Grimoire," he stated clearly.

"What?" was the only thing Leo could think of.

"I know you hid it somewhere and you are the only one who can retrieve it, and you are going to get it for me," he said as you would be commenting on what you are going to do over on the weekend.

"Nothing you can do or threaten will get me to give you the Grimoire," stated Leo with as much calm as he could muster.

The smile that came over the man's face was predatory, "thought you would say that," he said and then gestured to the two demons that were holding Paige and Prue.

Before any of them could do anything the demons that were holding them bit into their necks. Everyone once again got up to move but by now there was a demon for each of them and none could pick a fight without someone being hurt.

"Now," began the man as both Paige and Prue held their necks as they sat down. The man moved toward them and held out a handkerchief for both of them to take which they took and Paige threw him a look of loathing that only she could pull off. "These friends of mine are Volkain Demons. They are related to vampires however only distantly but their bites work in such a more awesome way. The venom in their fangs works wonders on humans. You will be dead within eight hours and it is not a pleasant death." He finished with a smile that said he would like to watch this.

"You will find that there is an antidote in the Book of Shadows but the antidote requires the blood of a Poppy Beaver, a little animal that can only be found on the full moon in a certain forest in Canada and you know that the full moon is 29 days from now," he said and if the situation was anything but this Leo would have been impressed with the boys knowledge.

He pulled out two little potion bottles from his pocket and held them out for the entire family to see, "these here are the antidotes," with that he turned to Leo, "you get me the Grimoire and I give you the antidotes, simple," he stated.

"How do we know we can trust you?" asked Piper who had been silent until then.

"You don't," said the man who turned towards Piper and Piper wanted to take a step back from the man, "however I do not wish for Paige or Prue to die," then he frowned, "if they do die then both powers of three would die." With that the maniac smile came back onto his face, "now why didn't I think of that before," he stated intention clear that is exactly why Paige and Prue had been chosen to be bitten.

Suddenly he looked serious, "but I meant what I said, I do not wish for them to die," he turned on to take in Leo, "you," and then Piper, "and you however are a different matter."

"Get me the Grimoire," he said, "you have just over five hours before the effects of the poison become irreversible, I'll be back to get what belongs to me," with that all the demons in the manor flamed out.

The Halliwell's looked around in shock and Piper raced over to her son as he groaned back to the land of the living.

"What are we going to do?" asked Junior and his question was met with silence, what were they going to do?


A/N: Sorry for the long gap however I have been stuck in the Leverage fandom for months now watching, reading and writing.

For those of you who are reading this however wishing that it was Charmed and Dangerous know that I am working on it. It is going through a dry spell at the moment - I am trying my best and know that I have not given up on it. It will come!