Chapter 10

The next morning, when Kelly woke up, Tempest was already up. She kicked the bed and a leg fell off. "That slimy little Oracle didn't tell me the Slayer was also here! A half-Vamp/Oracle, the Slayer, the Protector, and Wolfe? Were I not so powerful, they could kill me! When I tell the rest of the Underworld about this, they won't be happy." She shrugged. "Oh, well. The Protector's weak, the Witches are all premature, the half-Vamp's only an Oracle until the next full moon so I might as well just kill her. The Slayer, however, may prove a problem. It's not like I can kill her, another one will just get called." She shook her head, thinking. She smiled. "Unless I start sending her a message…letting her know who killed her parents and staged the attack on her and her Watcher…" She started laughing.

5 hours later…

Sarah and Benny were looking through an apartment building for clues on where Tiara may be.

"I hope Kelly's gonna be OK," said Sarah.

"Just a few more days, Sare," Benny said, "Probably just 3 more nights the way the moon's waxing."

"How do you know about waning and waxing?"

"It was in science class, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but you were asleep that day. You were sitting right in front of me and I saw you dozing."

Benny considered this. "Must have subconsciously soaked in when Aunt Danni was talking about Witch stuff."

"Yeah, probably."

Benny smiled as he examined the next room.

Sarah was about to knock on another door, but decided it was time to tell him something. "Benny, there's something I have to tell you."

Benny looked at her. "What?"

Sarah took a few seconds to gather up her breath…and her courage. "Well, remember when Nadine was going out with Nick?"

"Right, Nick Nix."

Sarah nodded. "Well, the thing is…when I volunteered to help you and Kelly investigate him, I wasn't really worried about Nadine…"

"You were concerned for your sister, I get it."

"No…I was worried about you."

Benny stared at her. "Me?"

Sarah nodded.

Benny started to walk closer.

"It was like…in that moment, for like 5 seconds, I wasn't even thinking about her. I mean, she's my sister and I love her…but I'm starting to think that there might have been a little bit more."

Benny got close enough to her, her left hand still resting on the door behind her, that he could feel her pressed against him. He wrapped his hands around her…

Sarah accidentally hit the button to open the door and it flew open, making her stumble backwards but catch herself. She sighed. "Door's open." They walked in, ignoring their spoiled moment. "So…half the building seems empty." She started to go inspect the bathroom.

Benny was pawing through the drawers in the cabinets. "Maybe we've got the wrong place."

Sarah opened the door to the bathroom and stepped back at the sight that met her eyes. She was practically gasping for breath from fright and would've fainted had her powers not been reinforcing her and Benny not in the room. "I-I don't think so."

Benny turned to her. "What do you mean?"

Sarah looked at him, the shock still showing in her eyes. "Maybe you should come see this."

Benny raced over and looked… "Oh, boy…"

A body lay in the bathtub, surrounded by a black substance…

An hour later…

Daniella came out of the bathroom and pinned herself to the door. "Wow."

"Think Tiara did this?" asked Austin, wrapping his jacket around himself so he'd be prepared to race back out in the sun anytime soon (he'd gotten there sticking to the shadows, though, so he could probably do that again).

Daniella just looked at the floor. "Impossible to tell. No bite marks or anything, but the girl was definitely a virgin."

"So anyone looking for power, could've done this," said Kelly, "I mean, why is it always the virgins?" Her virginity had gotten her in trouble with some Vampires the month before, just after the bite.

"It's the symbol for purity, it's always the virgins!" Wendy snapped.

Daniella sighed. That had to be one of the most awful things she'd seen in her life. "Cause of death was drowning in the motor oil."

"Ew!" Lexi said.

Daniella nodded in agreement, still not looking at any of them. "Maybe whoever did it was trying to send us a message."

"Like what?" asked Ryan.

Brenda thought about this. "Like for me. My dad was a mechanic."

Benny's watch beeped. He opened the message. "There's another one down the street. Come on!" He raced out, followed by the other Loonatics, Austin, Ace, Lexi, Tech, Duck, Slam, Wendy, and Sophie. Brenda was hesitant, but she followed, too.

Rev started to follow, but Daniella was still frozen. "You-coming-Danni?"

"I don't think I can take another one, Rev. I've seen some pretty horrible things in my time, but that…that was…" She almost started crying.

Rev cradled her. "It's OK. You're strong." (His voice isn't so fast because he's trying to calm her down.)

"No, I'm not. I never was. I'm hiding behind my so-called 'intellect' because it's what set me apart from the other Witches. Well, now I'm living half my life hiding my magic because I'm living with mortals. Without my magic, everything I know means nothing! I can't live like that. Just because I'm smart about the supernatural world doesn't mean I can handle stuff like we found in that bathroom!"

"OK-OK-OK! Let's just go home."

Daniella nodded. She needed some time to calm down. Maybe seeing Rebekka could give her that. Rev wrapped his arms around her and raced back to the tower, sending Nadine a mental note that he and Daniella were going home.

Luckily, Nadine was listening for Rev's thoughts at the time. She told the others about this as they made their way into the victim's place.

They found the dead body in the kitchen, stabbed with a steak knife.

"Let me guess," said Jack, "You're mom was a cook."

Brenda nodded. "Yeah."

"I got a feeling something's going on," said Wendy.

Austin examined the body and found something interesting… "Hang on a second. This body and the other one are under the same conditions as the body I found in that alleyway the other night. Daniella said the cause of death at the other one was the drowning in motor oil, but the girl's soul was already gone! This is the same thing! Tiara did both of these!"

"Wait a minute…" Brenda thought this out, "How would she know about my parents?"

"What exactly happened to your parents?" asked Kelly.

Brenda told them about how she'd been on patrol with her Watcher the night after she was called and how she'd come home to see both her parents' bodies lying on the couch, killed by Vampires.

"What I don't get is how they got into your house," said Sophie, "They'd need an invitation."

"And the only person I'd invited within the 24 hours was…" Brenda's eyes widened as she realized something. "Wait a minute. There was a girl going to my school that disappeared and then reappeared a few days later. That girl looked exactly like Tempest and I invited her into my house and left her with my parents. Tiara must have cast some spell to take the girl's form and use the form to sneak into my house to kill my parents because she knew I was the Slayer!"

"Wait a minute," said Robert, "So Tempest is Tiara…"

"…and she used this form to kill your parents is now letting you know what happened?" asked Lucy.

"Why would she want us to know?" asked Kelly.

"It's a calling card," Austin said, "She's letting us know she's after Brenda."

"If she was after me, she would've killed me in my sleep last night," Brenda corrected.

"No, she wouldn't," said Austin, "It would've been too obvious if she'd done it the very night we'd brought her into the tower."

"And this wasn't obvious?"

"Wait a minute," said Nadine, "Think about what you're saying: TEMPEST/TIARA IS IN THE TOWER!"

"She's in the tower…" Lexi thought out loud, her eyes widening, "…right now! With Madelyn and the kids!"

They all took a few seconds to look at one another dramatically and then raced back to the tower.

Kelly jumped into the tower. "Madelyn? Aunt Danni? Uncle Rev!" She raced up the stairs when there was no response. Finally, they came to the level where the nursery was…to find Tiara restraining Daniella, who was holding Rebekka and scared out of her wits.

"What'd you expect?" Tiara asked them, "Not everything's so black and white."