Chapter 13: Nine Years Earlier…

Chris was not as quick on his feet as usual that day. Leo had been angry the previous night, really angry and therefore had been rougher than usual and Chris was more than just bruised. Cole however was unforgiving as well as he pushed him to his limits and got angrier and angrier whenever Chris missed to doge a fireball, a voltage ball, flying rocks or anything else he could get his hands on and throw at him. Today's lesson was getting out of the way and coming up with a counter attack however Chris was not doing so well.

"What is the matter with you?!" shouted Cole as Chris failed to get out of the way of a bolder for the third time and it hit him square in the chest. Chris could swear that he heard a rib crack.

"Sorry sir," he said getting up and taking position again.

"I don't want you to be sorry, I want you to get out of the way!" growled Cole, "if you don't want to do this, you can stop wasting my time!"

Chris was suddenly frighten, he did not want this to end, Cole had paid more attention to him than anyone else ever had in his life, albeit it wasn't always pleasurable attention as he got hit with enough fireballs but Cole was not out to hurt him on purpose like Leo.

He quickly followed Cole as he turned around and made his way from him, "no sir, please, I want this, I NEED this," he pleaded.

Cole turned on him so fast that Chris stumbled back. "Why?" he asked not for the first time but hoping that Chris would give him an answer this time.

"I want to learn to work my powers," he stated like he had before when Cole had asked.

"Yes, you have already said that but the questions is still why?" asked Cole getting tired of the situation, they had known each other for over four months and the boy had not given him much more information other than his name which did not help Cole much.

Chris looked down at his feet what was he supposed to say? He felt that Cole would break their arrangement if he were not to come clean. Maybe he could trust the demon and see what happened. Even if Cole threw him out he had learned so much in the last 4 months that he could tackle learning more on his own.

When Cole thought that the boy was not going to answer him the boy moved. He slowly reached up and removed his t-shirt, Cole could already see the part of his ribs that were getting dark in color and momentarily felt guilty. He knew the boy was moving slow that day, on a normal day the boy would have been able to move away from that bolder easily but there had been something wrong today.

The boy slowly lifted his eyes up to him and Cole who had known sadness, pain and suffering was taken back at what he saw in the boys' eyes. The boy swallowed before turning his back on him. Cole was confused for a second before he saw the boys back.

Now he was a demon and had been the source but he never enjoyed torture. Someone had tortured his young friend. There was no other explanation for it. The boys back was filled with lashes that crisscrossed and covered his entire back. If he had to venture a guess he would say that some were done by a belt and others by probably a stick of some sort and he could tell that the lashes continued down below the waist line of his jeans as well.

And this wasn't just a day's worth. Some were old and some were new. There wasn't an inch of the boys back that wasn't covered. There were lashes that had broken skin and barely healed over and some he knew for sure looked infected.

There were at least a dozen new scars that Cole was sure were very fresh. They had been done by a thin stick of some sort and all had broken skin. Some Cole thought might need stitches.

"I am sorry sir," said the boy, he was looking at the floor and his voice seemed to have gotten very small, like he was ashamed. "He was angry, and I talked back, therefore he was a little rougher than usual," he informed him.

Cole raised a hand as if to touch the boys back to make sure what he was seeing was true. Was someone really hurting this extra ordinary boy? The boy had been coming to him for four months had he been in pain all this time? Why hadn't he picked up on it?

He dropped his hand "Who?" was the only thing he could manage to ask.

The boy seemed to hesitate before answering, "My father," he said in the tiniest of voices.

Cole's head snapped up from examining the lashes to the back of the boys head. All he could see was the bowed back of the boys head. The boy's father was responsible for this? He had assumed the boy was an orphan, he never had new clothes and the ones he had looked like they belonged to a charity organization considering his clothes were not brought for him and the child looked half-starved not that Cole had ever fed him. And there was also the fact that he hung out in the underworld. Cole had assumed that there was no one responsible for him or looking after him.

"Do you have a mother?" he asked, "does she know about this?" he asked the boy, he was part demon and raised in the underworld by his father but no matter what his father was his mother would have never allowed anything to happen to her son. She would have died before anyone hurt her son especially his father. Who would do such a thing to their child? Your child was someone who you were supposed to protect and nurture not torture.

In his musings he almost missed the tiny nod his young friend gave confirming that his mother knew about this.

"Move over to the living area," he said voice coming out harsher then he accepted.

The boy looked even more chest fallen at his request, in the last four months they had known each other he had never allowed the child into his living quarters.

He moved over to his potions store in his study to find something to help the boy. When the boy hesitated at the entrance, "the couch would do fine," he told him before starting to pick up potions.

"How do you want me?" at the quiet and almost sobbed out question he turned back around. Dear God, did the child expect him to beat him as well?

He quickly moved back to him, and saw the boy take a step back in fright. Since he had known the boy he had assured him on more than one occasion that he did not want sexual favors for payment, he thought the boy had understood. He had even regretted suggesting it to the boy that first day they had met, he had tried every hard to assure the child that he was not going to take advantage of him, ever!

This child was not afraid of anything, over the last four months Cole had summoned enough frightening things for the boy to fight against that he knew the boy had courage that could get him killed easily but he was now frightened that someone who he had willingly given authority over him would hurt him.

"Look at me," he requested in a gentle voice. When the boy raised tear filled eyes to him he continued, "I am not going to hurt you. I will never hurt you intentionally away from our training sessions. Never! Do you understand me? Never!" At his intense look the boy was nodding his head probably because he was more frightened than comprehending.

"Now drink this," he said as he gave him a potion. He saw the boy look at the potion first and then sniff it. He was proud of his student for not drinking a potion blindly.

"It is a numbing potion, although I don't think it will take away all your pain, it should help a bit," he said gently.

He saw the boy give him one more look before drinking down the potion. "Gently lay down on your front, minding the ribs," he said while gently guiding the boy onto the couch.

He waited a few minutes for the potion to take affect before reaching out to touch the child. At that the child jumped back up in panic, "what are you doing?" he asked.

"I am going to help you," he said, did the child think he would just give him a potion?

"You can't do that," said the boy and when he saw Cole's look he decided to elaborate. "He would know and he would be angry…" he trailed off.

Cole came to a decision there and then. First he muttered a few spells under his breath changing the wards around them and looked at the boy, really looked at him.

"I don't think you will be going back to your parents," he stated in a clear and authoritative voice.

The boy looked away before answering him, "I don't have anywhere else to go."

"You will be staying here," said Cole as it was the most natural thing in the world.

"I can't do that sir," started the child, "what if they come for me, I can't have them come for me."

"This place as you know is protected," at the boys skeptic look he went on, "don't worry even if they look they would not be able to find this place. Even if the Charmed Ones themselves were looking they wouldn't be able to find you as long as you stay within the boundaries of the lair." He finished, he was proud of his wards and protection spells.

The boy looked at him, "are you sure?" he asked not really believing him.

Cole smiled at him trying to put him at ease, "I am sure, now lay back down."

Instead of laying back down the boy asked, "how will I pay you?"

Cole was not a patient man, he let out a frustrated groan that had the boy backing more into the couch. Cole took a deep breath and asked,

"Why are you so interested in repaying me?"

"Nothing in life is free," came the straight answer, true.

Cole narrowed his eyes, "aren't you a little young to know such things?" he asked with a smile trying to put his young charge at ease. After all he had just committed himself to looking after the child.

The child did not answer him so Cole decided to try to explain, "When you are old and you have seen and done a certain number of things in life, some things you do just for the whim of it."

"Like take in unwanted children?"

How to answer that question? Telling the child that of course his parents loved him would be a blunt out loud lie. "I like you, and I think life has dealt you a hand that no one should get." He smiled, "it needs a bit of cheating in order to win."

"So from now on this is where you are going to call home until you decide what you want out of life and then we will see if we can conjure the cards that are needed to get you the jackpot." He said quite pleased with his gambling references if you did not mind him saying so.

"I already know what I want," came the quiet but sure answer. Cole just lifted and eyebrow, all the child ever told him was that he wanted to learn to work his powers. He wasn't one much to talk.

"All my life my parents have ignored me and cast me aside. I want them sit up and notice me and realize that I am not something they could stick in the basement, beat and forget about," Cole could hear the underlying anger and hate the child had that he had never seen.

He as a source wanted children. Heck he had even hatched a diabolical plan to get himself a son, not to dwell on the past but it had not happened the way he had hoped it would.

And there apparently were people in life that stuck their children in basements and did unspeakable things to them.

Life was giving him a second chance, a son a family did not want given to a man who wanted nothing but someone to love in life. He smiled perhaps there was someone out there that matched the messed up situations in life.

"Lie back down," he said to the boy. "First let's see what we could do for your back then we can talk about what we can do to get your parents to notice you."