Bad to Basics5

Phoebe enters the manor followed by our new friend, Eruin, and me. She is somewhat reserved in an untrusting way, so I had to drag it out of her, what she was doing in that alley. She told me that her spirit guide told her that if she went into that alley at that time, she'd meet a being of great power. Now she considers me that being of great power and the ghoul thing a test in her spirit quest. Oh joy! Phoebe thinks the whole turn of events is quite humorous, but I devolve. Let's get back to the story.

Piper is in the sunroom playing with the kid. She looks up at us when we enter and says, "Well hello Jack, long time no see. I'd like to say that I missed you, but then I don't like to lie."

"Nice to see you too, Piper. This," as I point to Eruin, "is Eruin." We met her in the tenderloin; she was hunting things that go thump in the night. I'm afraid she found one, and Phoebe and I had to save her."

Piper turns towards Phoebe who says, "Yeah, it's all true. We have ghouls in the Tenderloin."

"Oh great!" Piper replies, "And here I thought we were going to have quiet week."

Just then, Paige and Richard burst in through the front door, and Paige announces with a flourish, "Hi everyone, notice anything different?"

Paige is decked out in a new beautiful dark red pants suit with a large gaudy diamond necklace. She extends her right arm to show off a diamond tennis bracelet. Everyone else in the room collectively rolls their eyes, Paige continues, "Isn't Richard the most? A girl could get use to this kind of treatment. Anyway, Richard has procured us a room in the Atlantis, Bahamas, so that's where we'll be for the next week or so.

Richard grinning ear to ear outs his arm around Paige, and they turn and walk out of the front door just as quickly as they entered.

Piper and Phoebe look at each other, and Phoebe blurts out, "Who was that and what has she done with our sister?"

Piper says, "Jack, keep an eye on Wyatt and your new friend. Phoebe and I need to go into the kitchen for a few minutes."

Phoebe followed by Piper walks off to the kitchen, and Eruin turns to me and says, "Ok, how'd you get rid of that ghoul thing? One moment you're confronting the creature; the next you're dragging me off to the side of the alley, and I have a blanket wrapped around me."

I look her in the eyes and say, "Patience my little friend all will be revealed in due time." As I raise my hand and freeze her. I then continue with a little spell, "As the comings and goings of the ants, to Phoebe and Piper's conversation grant me clairaudience.

Almost immediately, I can hear Phoebe talking defensively, "At his coffee shop."

"What!" Piper responds, "You know he can be more manipulative than Chris. I know you like him, but can we trust him?"

"I went to see him just for somebody to talk to. You're busy with the club and Wyatt, and Paige was trying to hunt Richard down, I guess she found him."

"Paige and Richard, that's another story and you're changing the subject," as she throws her hands up in a helpless jester, "You know that every time he's around things just go twisty."

"He's never hurt us," Phoebe says defending me, "He hasn't done much to get on your bad side, not like Paige, didn't she orb him into a garbage dump?" "Yeah, she did, that was funny. You felt sorry for him, so you offered him our shower. Need I remind you of what happened?"

"No," Phoebe hangs her head in shame, "That was just a few weeks after Jason left for Hong Kong the first time. I wasn't in the best of spaces then. He does have a great body for a man of sixty-four."

"Now, you break up with Jason and go and see him not a week later, and you know he hasn't aged normally because of the magical parentage. Remember, we found out he was one of Grams's boy toys when we were kids."

"Yuck, thanks for the reminder."

"Just think you and Grams sharing the same man. You and Grams really do have the same taste in men."

"Oh, you're having way too much fun with this conversation."

"Yeah, I know, but what are sisters for?"

"Ok, if you've had enough fun at my expense, can we get back to the present problems, and no, I have no interest in Jack other than using him as a resource."

Piper chuckles slightly, "Yeah, I'm just wondering what kind of resource you're going to use him for."

"Piper," Phoebe raises her voice slightly.

"Ok," The giggle leaves Piper's voice, "It's just more than a coincidence that Paige goes off who knows where, and ghouls in the Tenderloin and you go and see Jack all in one day. I do not know how the dots connect, but I know that they do. What do you think is up with Paige? She's under some kind of spell of Richard's."

"Yeah, a good place to start, the question is what kind of spell. We need to talk to Paige and Richard right away."

"Leo, Leo," Piper calls out, "Leo, we need to talk."

I hear an audible bzzz even through my clairaudience.

"A busy signal," Phoebe chimes in, "What! Who do you think your bizzing?"

There is silence for a few seconds. "Think I should call Chris?" Piper finally says.

"Might as well," Phoebe says after a few more seconds delay, "Leo is actively ignoring us, and we need whitelighter help."

Both of them blurt out at the same time, "Chris, Chris."

A couple of seconds later Chris orbs in, "What's up? I thought you didn't want me around."

Piper says, "We don't, but Paige and Richard have gone off the deep end, and we need to find them."

Chris concentrates for a while until Phoebe asks, "What's wrong?"

"I can't sense her anywhere." Chris says, "When's the last time you saw her?"

"Just a few minutes ago, she and Richard said something about going to the Bahamas," Phoebe and Piper say at the same time. Another pause of silence, until Phoebe chimes in, "That and Jack's out in the sunroom with his new friend, Eruin, and Jack and I ran into a ghoul, up to speed yet?"

Yeah, that reminds me, how much does Eruin know about us?" Piper asks.

"Only that I'm a good kick-boxer. Jack froze the situation, so she only knows that she might have a gap in her memory. We came out of the freeze and he had us wrapped in blankets and was moving us off to the side of the alley."

"Well good, let's try and keep the amount she knows to a minimum, shall we?"

I drop my clairaudience spell and unfreeze Eruin just as Piper is entering the sunroom. Eruin continues talking, "Patience, I'm twenty years old; I'm not long on patience."

Piper says, "So what have you two been talking about?"

"Talking," Eruin says, but I interrupt quickly, "Talking about a lot of things, the weather, the beauty of your house, how about you?"

Eruin gives me a queer look but drops it quickly, Good girl, I'm thinking to myself, This one seems like one I should keep around, knows when to keep quiet and when to speak.

I look at Piper and see Chris and Phoebe follow her into the room.