EIGHT

"You must be stupider than you look," said Piper. "If you know who we are then you must know your no match for us. The crossbow would mean you're a Dark Lighter. And your demonic friends don't stand much of a chance against my sisters and me."

"Not to mention me," said Cole. "I'm not exactly defenseless."

"That's true," said the Dark Lighter, pulling an amulet out of his shirt. "But this will protect me from your powers. And as powerful as you are, it only takes one to end the Power of Three forever."

Without warning he raised the crossbow and fired. The bolt struck Leo in the shoulder and he went down immediately, affected by the poison on the bolt.

"Now, since you can't count on your White Lighter to help you, let's see if all your bragging is justified, shall we?"

Piper brought her hands up and one of the demons exploded where it stood. At the same instant Cole cast an energy ball at another demon, but it dived to the side and the energy ball narrowly missed it. A third demon suddenly shimmered and appeared behind Phoebe. It grabbed her by the throat and began to squeeze the life from her. At the same time it drew out an athame and prepared to plunge it into her.

One of the remaining demons cast a fireball at Paige. She called for the weapon, redirecting it back at the demon. But this demon also dived for cover and the fireball narrowly missed it. Another of the demons shimmered and appeared directly behind McDonald. Before he could move the demon withdrew an athame and drove into his back. The remaining demon cast a fireball at Cole who narrowly avoided being struck by it. As the demons were attacking, the Dark Lighter moved over and stood over Leo.

The demon on Phoebe was about to plunge the dagger into her back when Kreegan pulled his hand out of the folds of his robes. He hollered at the demon who looked at him involuntarily. Kreegan raised his hand and blew some dust into the demon's face. Almost instantly the demon began holding its throat, dropping the athame it was holding and releasing its hold on Phoebe. An instant later the demon exploded into flames and was vanquished.

The demon on McDonald drove the athame into his back but the athame simply shattered on contact with his skin. McDonald turned and smiled at the demon. He withdrew an athame of his own driving it deep into the demon's chest. This demon, too, was vanquished like the first one.

The demon that had attacked Paige cast another fireball and again Paige called for the weapon. She redirected the weapon back at the demon who again was able to avoid it. The demon facing Cole cast another fireball that again narrowly missed him. This time, however, Cole's energy ball found its mark but only struck the demon a glancing blow. It went down, injured but unvanquished.

Piper turned on the Dark Lighter intent on protecting her husband. She brought her hands up and tapped into her explosive power. But the amulet the Dark Lighter wore protected him. Her power passed around him harmlessly, causing no damage at all. The Dark Lighter simply smiled, and then raised his crossbow again. This time he fired directly at Piper who had no chance of avoiding the weapon.

The bolt flew across the room directly for Piper. McDonald moved in a flurry as he reached out and simply plucked the bolt out of the air. Without breaking his stride he spun around and threw the bolt back at the Dark Lighter. The bolt struck the Dark Lighter in the chest. With a look of total astonishment the Dark Lighter was vanquished.

The demon fighting Paige cast yet another fireball at her. This time she was not quick enough to call for the fireball and instead had to dive to her right to keep from being incinerated by it. As she did the fireball passed by her and struck Kreegan full force. The fireball enveloped the alchemist and then dissipated away causing no harm to him.

The demon was about to cast another fireball when McDonald threw the athame he was holding. The athame struck the demon in the chest vanquishing it where it stood. The remaining two demons glanced at each other and, realizing they were no matches for their opponents, shimmered out of the cavern.

Piper immediately moved to Leo. He was wracked with pain and his breathing was hard and labored. She reached out and pulled the bolt from his shoulder casting it aside.

"We have to do something," she cried. "Cole, you have to see if you can find another White Lighter and bring him here to heal Leo."

"I don't think there's time," said Cole, looking down at Leo spasming from the Dark Lighter poison.

"Give me room," said Kreegan. "There is little time."

He reached into the folds of his robe and pulled out a small vial that was filled with a bluish liquid. He pulled the stopper out of the bottle and poured about half the liquid on the bolt wound in Leo's shoulder. Everyone watched in amazement as the would miraculously healed itself. Leo sat up and looked around, apparently unaffected by the poison that was coursing through his body only moments before.

"Thanks," he said to Kreegan.

"My pleasure," said the alchemist, looking at the half filled body. "Concentrated White Lighter essence. Unfortunately this is all I have left. It is very hard to come by."

"Where did you get White Lighter essence?" questioned Phoebe.

"An alchemist never reveals his secrets," said Kreegan, smiling coyly. He looked around the lab. "This is not good. Now I will have to move my laboratory. It won't take long before those demons spread the word where it is."

"We can't worry about that now," said Piper. "They didn't get what they came for which means every bounty hunter in the Underworld is still going to be looking for us. What I don't understand is how they were able to find this place so quickly. It's like they were waiting for us to get here before they attacked."

"Not waiting," said Cole, "following. I recognized one of the demons. He's one of the bounty hunters I've been avoiding. I think they may have followed our shimmer here."

"Great," said Paige. "Now we have to worry about demons following us wherever we go."

"I don't think so," said Cole. "Like I said, one of them was a bounty hunter I've been avoiding. My guess is he was watching the manor waiting for his chance to strike. When we or Kreegan shimmered out of the manor he probably followed us and the went and got his friends to help him. But as you saw he's not the bravest demon in the Underworld. He was one of the ones who escaped."

"But the Dark Lighter seemed to be in charge," said Leo.

"Yes, he did," said Cole thoughtfully. "And we lost our chance to find out who he was working for when McDonald vanquished the Dark Lighter."

"There is little time to consider options in battle," said McDonald. "My only concern was saving Piper."

"Oh, don't worry," said Phoebe. "He wasn't blaming you. He was just pointing out that the Dark Lighter might have been our only chance to find out just who put the contract out on us."

"Not necessarily," said Kreegan. "There are always alternatives."

"You have a way to find out who's after us?" questioned Piper.

"Not exactly," said Kreegan. "But I can help to locate Mr. Van White. He was the subject of one of my most important experiments. And I always prepare for the necessity that I may have to refer back to an experiment in the future." He walked over to a small box sitting on a shelf and removed a small stone from it. "A tracking stone. Enchanted to specifically locate Mr. Van White, in the eventuality I should have to locate him for some reason."

"Well, that's progress anyway," said Piper. "If we can find Van White we might be able to put an end to this."

"That may be easier said than done," said Kreegan. "If I remember correctly Dorian Gray was a most single-minded individual. He insisted many times that the immortality must be complete and permanent. If it is he who is trying to have you killed it's unlikely that he will listen to reason. Especially if he is convinced you may be able to undo his immortality."

"It's worth a shot," said Phoebe. "The worst that can happen is he won't listen and we won't be any worse off than we are now. At the very least we'll know for sure if it's him or not."

"I shall rejoin you at your manor shortly," said Kreegan. "There are some matters here that demand my attention first. I can't leave my laboratory unprotected. There's much here that could do a great deal of damage in the wrong hands."

"Will you be okay here by yourself?" questioned Paige. "What if demons attack again while we're gone."

"You forget," said Kreegan, "I'm immortal. There's little they can do to harm me." He held up his hand to expose a ring on it. "And with this I am quite capable of protecting myself against virtually any attack."

"An alchemist's ring," said Cole.

"Yes," said Kreegan. "A necessity in my line of work, I'm afraid. I shouldn't be long. I will join you as soon as my arrangements are complete."

"Just don't take too long," said Piper. "More demonic bounty hunters could attack at any time."

Leo and Cole returned them all to the manor as Kreegan set about to prepare the protections he had mentioned.