Leonard couldn't avoid the puzzled looks he was getting from both of Piper's sisters as they all gathered around the same book he had read the spell out of back in his time. Like the house, it looked newer, and many of the pages that had been filled before were not anymore. Piper was flipping through it with ease, skipping large chunks of pages as though she knew them all by heart. Paige, the youngest, munched noisily on a sandwich while Phoebe shot him wary glances out of the corner of her eye. He couldn't help but notice them, and repeatedly he found himself returning the same furtive glimpses.
"So why doesn't Leo just orb Piper up There with the baby?" Paige asked between bites. "Seems like the best idea to me."
Leonard passed one final peek in Phoebe's direction before he shook his head at the comment. "But you're forgetting what I told you. In the vision, Piper called out for Leo, but he never came. No one did."
"So the thing, whatever it was, did something to the rest of us before he attacked Piper. Or we just couldn't hear her. There's no way we would just sit there and let her be killed." Phoebe leaned over her sister's shoulder while she skimmed the remaining pages. Piper, obviously frustrated, slammed the cover shut and huffed, irritated.
"It's not in here," she blustered as she placed Melinda on her hip. "I have demons with red eyes and green skin, human skin and black eyes, but no demons with red eyes and human skin. Are you sure it was red that you saw?"
Leonard nodded, and was about to retell his third vision for the umpteenth time when he was bowled over by a trail of light that entered the attic from the ceiling. Leo materialized out of the tiny cerulean orbs, and smiled as he saw the priest flat on his back. Before anyone else noticed his mirth, he wiped the grin from his face and helped the other man to his feet with mock sympathy.
"I'm sooo sorry about that," he chirped as he lifted Leonard roughly to his feet. "Didn't know you were there. Hmm. I must be losing my touch."
Piper rolled her eyes, knowing full well that Leo knew that the reverend was standing there. "So?" she asked, ignoring her husband's jealous mind. "What did you find out?"
"Well, they could only think of one thing, and it's a long shot. The thing that attacked you wasn't quite a demon. It was sort of a man." Leo waited as he took in the bewildered looks that the girls and Leonard gave him. "They're called Leeches, and they're actually very rare. Only the highest level demons can become a Leech. The elders don't even have a record of the last time a Leech was created, so it's likely that your ancestors were never attacked by one. That's why they're not in the Book of Shadows."
Paige swallowed the last bite of her sandwich with difficulty. "And what exactly does this Leech do?"
"Exactly what its name implies," Leo replied. "It's a parasite of sorts. Once a demon's body is wounded beyond repair, but he is still alive, he has the capacity to use all his remaining power to take over the body of a human being, usually a man, and push the human soul out of the way while the demon controls his body. It lives off the human until its host is too weak to go on, and then both the demon and the human die a very slow and painful death. Emphasis on slow and painful."
Phoebe nodded as she took Piper's hand and patted it reassuringly. "Ok, so that explains the human skin. But what about the red eyes? And where does this demon get all his energy from? If he's almost dead, then how is he so powerful?"
"The red in the eyes isn't just a color. It's burst blood vessels from the human's body working in overdrive to try and push the demon out. And the way I understand it, the Leech uses the power of the Source, or at least the essence of him, to keep control as long as he can. The only reason for a Leech to actually become a Leech is to complete a task for the Source."
"But we vanquished the Source already," Paige whined as she threw her crusts onto a paper plate. "Three times. Don't we ever get a break?"
Leo shrugged. "The Elders don't think that the Leech we're looking for is powered by the Source. They think he is the Source, or at least he will be. A descendant of the one you vanquished, out to be rid of the Charmed Ones forever, even if it means taking his own life. It's the only logical explanation."
Leonard scrunched up his eyebrows, deep in thought. "Let me get this straight," he said after a moment of awkward silence. "Your elder friends up There, wherever There is, know all this about the demon, but they don't know how to vanquish it? Why does that seem suspicious to me?"
"Don't you think that They would do something if they could?" Leo retorted sharply, pointing toward the ceiling. "Don't you think that I would do something? Piper is my wife, and I would never let anything hurt her or our child."
Leonard threw his hands in the air to shield himself from the verbal attack. "Whoa, I didn't mean that you wouldn't, pal. I'm just saying that there has to be some way to defeat this… thing. Every being has a weak spot."
Leo's face reddened as he tried to control his temper. "Look, this isn't some TV show or video game where you just go for the bad guy's eyes and shoot it when it's not looking. This is real life, and people's lives are at stake. If you want to help, then maybe you should just back off." He turned his back to the group and took a few steps away. He spun around to face Leonard, his blue-green eyes fixed. "And by the way, I'm not your pal." He orbed out without another word.
Leonard sat on the hardwood floor in shock, his jaw hanging open slightly. He turned to Piper, who hung her head, her chin to her chest. "I'm sorry," he said to her, placing one hand gently on her shoulder in case she was upset with him and not her husband. "I didn't mean to offend him. I just wanted to help."
"No, no," Piper replied, looking up. She had a feeble smile on her face, which just made her look so completely vulnerable, he was sure he could cry. "It's not your fault. Leo's just… he doesn't like knowing that there's nothing he can do. He likes having options. You kinda took that away from him, and became the savior instead." She wiped a tear from her cheek and stood from her position on the dusty old couch, pulling Phoebe along with her. "Let him have his fifteen minutes to cool down, he'll be back. Until then, we have an innocent to look for. He said the demons infect humans, which makes the victims innocents. We have to find ours. If we do, then maybe we can prevent all of this from happening, and then you can go home." Piper squeezed Leonard's upper arm lightly and smiled one last time, and he felt his heart melt as she walked quickly down the stairs. He remained behind as all three girls left him alone with the ancient book.
"But what if this is where I want home to be?" he whispered to himself. Shaking his tousled hair, he followed the women down the stairs.
***
I'm reduced to drinking my own blood to survive. Granted, I don't mind the stuff, but it lacks the bitter, coppery taste that I so desire in human blood. I can only hope that it will sustain me until I am able to find a proper host. My selection here is rather limited, as I fear that I am too weak to escape this solitary pit in the choking smog of a desolate city. The floors in the dilapidated building where I have come to seek asylum are terribly damp, which doesn't help the ever-growing pain that seeps from the deep hole that has been cut next to my spine. The foul air makes it even harder to breathe than it already was when I collapsed here, and so I have made the effort to make no effort at all. I lie here for days on end, just waiting.
The only humans who have found their way into my humble, if not temporary, abode have been hormonal human teenagers looking for a "good time", as they call it, and runaways with no other option than to spend the night sucking down mold with me. While most of them never even knew I was here, they made for palatable morsels anyway. They always seem to taste better when they know that the end is drawing near. The thrill of the hunt, adrenaline pumping, and all of that human emotion bullshit. They were all great as an appetizer, but for the main course, I feel that I need something with a little more… meat. I hear talk, human voices above my head and through a small window that sheds a little light into my meager existence, of a crew of men coming to demolish the building where I'm currently residing. A crew means men. Men mean hosts. Hosts mean options. And options mean that I finally get to finish what I started before I was stabbed in the back - literally - by my own people. I have to find a human - a male human - who I believe is worthy of such a task. One who will be able to endure my presence within them long enough to let me prove to the council and the entire underworld, not to mention to myself, that I was worthy of the throne, and it was their own fatal mistake to dispose of me so recklessly. They have to know, and since I will lack the time to make them all pay personally, a demonstration of my power will have to suffice. The victim will have to be someone high up, a complicated kill who has eluded the evil masses for a long period of time… a Charmed One would do nicely, but why settle for killing just one, when I can have all three begging me for their lives? Then again, I could make them suffer first. The eldest just gave birth to a child… I wonder if babies bounce. It's quite a random inquisition, I suppose, but a valid one, considering my circumstances. Disemboweling might be a more suitable ending to the Charmed line, but then again, I've never been one for knives. They're always so messy… wait a moment, are those footsteps I hear? Heavy thudding… a human is drawing near. I can almost hear him breathing…
***
Christian let his abnormally large feet fall heavily onto the cracking cement floor in the old building where he was attempting to rebuild an orphanage that had been abandoned years before. He had to duck beneath the crusty, rotted rafters so he wouldn't hit his head. Though he often cursed his six-foot frame, often his work required his lofty height. He loved his job, which was mostly pro-bono work for a small construction company, but it took so much time away from his family. He missed his daughter, a beautiful little brunette with natural ringlets that had just begun to walk a week before, and he had missed it. His wife silently disdained his constant absence, but always greeted him with a loving smile, which just added another layer of guilt onto his heart.
He sighed as he adjusted his hard hat on his head, and wiped a band of sweat from his brow. The oppressive heat in the moldy basement of the building was nearly unbearable, and he paused in front of a small window to catch the light breeze under his sharply defined arms. He took in a low breath, breathing in the clean air. It was a refreshing change after nearly an hour of assessing the damage to the structure room by room, and snorting more dust and mold than he cared to. Using his shirtsleeve to wipe his face, Christian spread his arms out to either side so that the wind would cool down his overheated body. He closed his pale green eyes and tilted his head back, letting his helmet fall to the ground with a clatter. He let it lie there for a moment as he basked in the gusts that puffed in through the window before he bent over, his head down, to retrieve it. He looked up as he stood, and froze as he saw something moving in the shadows of a damp corner. He was perfectly still, holding his breath as he listened. Behind him there was a steady drip of water from a broken and out-of-commission pipe, but in front of him was the low, heavy breaths of something that he believed to be anything but human. He gulped hard as he saw a single gnarled hand reach out into the light, and pull the rest of the body into view.
It's skin was gray, like it was dead or dying, which contrasted sharply to the deep red gash that was cut into it's back. It's pure black eyes glowed with an intense passion as it pulled itself closer, it's pointed teeth bared. Christian took two slow steps backward before he ran into a wall, and out of places to run. He knees trembled as the thing drew closer, and just when he thought that maybe he could jump over it and run, it leapt at him faster than he could dodge it, blanketing his vision with a shower of red. He floundered for a moment against the wall, surprised at the thing's strength before he collapsed to his knees, his mind blank.
