Thanks so much for the reviews. It really means a lot to me. So keep them
coming. As an answer to one of the questions, things will get really
complicated and there will be more Charmed Ones in the next couple of
chapters.
Chapter 6.
Paige orbed back to Halliwells manor wearing an expression of amused disgust.
"So how did your little intelligence mission go?" Piper asked curiously, "did Cole notice you?"
Paige scowled. "I doubt that he would have noticed me if I orbed straight in front of him?"
"Oh?" Piper gave her little sister a questioning look.
"He was too busy making out with some blond," Paige blurted out. "They were right at it in the living room."
"With the blond?" Piper frowned, "do you think it's the same girl Phoebe saw him with?"
"Probably," Paige shrugged.
"So did you watch?" the oldest charmed one stared at Paige daring her to lie.
The young witch squirmed uncomfortably. "Well, I did watch for a bit. But it's not what you think," she exclaimed, seeing Piper's mocking expression. "Cole got a phone call just when I orbed in and he immediately looked straight at the balcony as if he was checking whether it was empty. Then he hung up and jerked this girl to his lap. Call me paranoid, but I had a feeling as if he was told that I was on the balcony, so I stayed for a while to see if he was just acting."
"And?" Piper prodded.
"Definitely not," Paige affirmed slightly blushing, "you should have seen them Piper, they were all over each other."
"Who was all over each other?" Phoebe asked walking into the living room.
"Cole and this blond," Paige blurted out, while Piper winced inwardly. Phoebe went pale and gave Paige a wild look. "Well, you wanted me to keep an eye on Cole," Paige continued understanding Phoebe's expression as a question. "So this afternoon I orbed to the balcony of his Penthouse under the invisibility spell. And I saw Cole and this blond girl making out in the living room. Then he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom and I left." Phoebe continued to stare at her younger sister and the later exclaimed, "well, you did not expect me to watch the whole show?!"
"At least we know, that there is no demonic activity going on there," Piper tried to steer the conversation into a different direction.
"And," Paige continued gleefully, "we know that my invisibility spell worked!!!"
Phoebe did not say anything and Piper looked at her with concern. "Phoebe, honey, are you OK?"
"Ahh," Phoebe looked up at her sisters, "yes, I am fine," she said quickly putting a fake smile on her face. "But I disagree with you Piper. We need to keep an eye on Cole. He is dangerous and we don't know what he could do to this girl."
"I think we have a very good idea what he'd do to her," Paige's sultry smile made Phoebe want to smack her in the face.
Piper gave her youngest sister another warning glare and turned to Phoebe. "Aren't you taking it a bit too far, Phoebes? I know that Cole is demonic and everything but I don't think that killing his one-night stands is his style."
"May be not," Phoebe agreed, "but what if she finds out who he is, or if she damps him and he would want to get her back. You know how obsessive Cole can be and he can really hurt her."
Piper was not convinced. "Cole is more careful about revealing his powers than any of us. Come on, he's been alive for more then a century and always had high profile jobs. If he was not able to maintain his disguise than I don't think he would be one of the top Source's assassins. Plus he has this power to manipulate other people minds. It's much easier than killing her."
"Besides," Paige's face resumed a mocked expression, "I don't think many women will leave Cole." This time Paige received a deadly glare from both of her sisters. "What did I say?" she cried out, "It's true. He is a hot looking lawyer who drives a Porsche. If you don't know who he really is why would you leave him?"
"Paige," Piper cried with indignation.
"That's why he is dangerous," Phoebe stated, "and exactly why we need to keep an eye on him."
****************
Nicole felt horrible. She was so embarrassed that she wanted to crawl into the nearest hole and die. Her behaviour had been obscene. She literally tore his clothes off. Why-why-why? Why did she do it? Yes, she was angry, yes, she was embarrassed. But that's not a reason to make a complete fool of herself. She dreaded meeting Cole again. She could vividly imagine the mocked expression on his face when one brow went up and the corner of his mouth went down. Everybody knows that the attack is best defence so when Cole blurred in he was met by a cold stare. "What the hell was that?" she yelled.
Half demon was a little taken aback. "What the hell was what?"
"All of this? Who was this woman on your balcony and why did you invent that whole show?"
Cole's eyes became icy. "Which show are you referring to?" he smiled wryly. "The one where you tore my clothes off?"
Her face flashed red and she said caustically. "I am sorry I damaged your possessions. I am sure you can fix it with one of your hand waves. But next time you want to make out with a woman I suggest that you come up with a better excuse than being spied on."
She turned around and headed to the living room. She did not manage to reach the door. Cole was in front of her in a flash. His eyes were steely blue and his gaze was so full of contempt that Nicole stammered back. "You think I was lying? That I made all this up just to get you into bed?"
"What else am I supposed to think?" she cried.
"I don't know. How about that I was trying to protect you? The Halliwells can be really nosy. If they suspect you are involved in magic they will not let you do one step without them being around or may even vanquish you. And since you can't even control your powers and have no idea what's going on around you I thought it would be good for you to have some peace and some space without them breathing down your neck."
"Well, it's not my fault that I don't know what's going on around me. I have been asking you this for the past 2 days. I have no idea who are your Halliwells and highly doubt that they were spying on me."
They glared at each other. Nicole took a deep breath and said more quietly. "I don't think you were lying, Cole. It's just a bit overwhelming and I don't understand why anybody would spy on you and how would they even get to the balcony."
Cole sighed and ran his hand through his hair. His anger had subsided and now he just felt tired. "This was Paige," he said quietly, "she is one of the three Halliwells sisters, who are the most powerful witches ever called the Charmed Ones. My ex wife whom we met the other day in the restaurant is one of them. Witches fight evil and Phoebe and her sisters are convinced that I am evil. I can only guess but probably when Phoebe saw us in the restaurant she decided that I was up to no good. So Paige used an invisibility spell and she orbed on the balcony."
"Orbed?" Nicole, who was listening with acute attention, interrupted him.
"Yeah," he shook his head, "it's like blurring, moving almost instantly in space but it works differently. It's a whitelighters power." He saw her blank expression and explained. "Whitelighters are a type of angels, which guide good witches. If she found out that we were involved in something magical, they would assume you're evil and will not give you a light of day. Now they will just think that we are lovers and hopefully will leave you alone."
Nicole felt a sting of embarrassment. "And you could not just treat me as a friend?" she muttered more to herself.
But Cole's hearing was too good to miss it. His anger flared again and he sharply turned on his hills to face her. "No, I could not. I don't have many friends and most importantly the Halliwells will never believe I can have one being the demonic bastard I am. So it was either this or incinerating Paige into the oblivion. Would you prefer the last option?"
Nicole could see that he was hurt though his face looked more angry than anything else. In a normal situation she would have tried to respond more reasonably but the emotions of the last days had taken the best of her and she let her frustration spill out. "Don't yell at me. I don't know why your ex-wife and her sisters think that you are an evil bastard but it surely is not my fault. And I did not ask to be in the middle of your "loving" relationships."
"No, you did not. But I also, believe it or not, did not volunteer for the job of your mentor and bodyguard. God knows, why your all mighty uncle could not find somebody else to do it? And I did not even get the explanation why the hell he never even bothered to tell you anything about your heritage and why he could not be around to teach you himself."
The moment Cole finished he immediately regretted his outburst. Nicole's face went red. "I am sorry I have intruded on you. Apologies for any inconvenience." She abruptly turned around and headed to the door once again.
Cole felt horrible. "Look, I did not mean it like that," he muttered.
"Of course you did," Nicole turned around and gave him a cold smile. "From the moment I met you I felt that you did not know what to do with me. You have enough to worry about in your life without having extra troubles with me."
"I do not consider you as a trouble," Cole said softly. "I admit I was not well prepared to meet you. And part of it was my fault; I did not give much thought to what your uncle told me. I was," he paused uneasily, "too much preoccupied with other things. But I always fully intended to help you. And I will if you let me. However, I know almost nothing about his reasons and the grounds behind the will. I think your uncle did not have time to explain it to me or to be more precise he ran out of time."
Nicole interrupted him. "Uncle Will ran out of time? What do you mean?"
"Well," his expression became reflective, "I don't really know. I met your Uncle in the Wasteland, which is like the gates to Hell. I was stuck there after my ex wife and her sisters vanquished me. Schwarzlight started talking about the mission Lugel's have on Earth of protecting the magic and keeping the balance between good and evil. And then," he paused trying to remember his conversation with William Schwarzlight, "something happened. He said that he had even less time than he thought and could not explain everything to me. He then offered me my powers back and to get me out of the Wasteland if I helped you to master your powers and protected you. He was very worried about you." He looked at Nicole, who was listening to him as if her life dependant on his words. "I had nothing to lose so I agreed. He took me by the hand and next moment I found myself here having my job back and my house back, and having the powers I never thought was possible to have. And forty days later I got the invitation to his funeral and the next day you showed up at my apartment."
Nicole nodded. She felt lost and overwhelmed. Feelings, which became too familiar to her in the last few days. All of this was beyond normal life; it was unreal, unbelievable, insane. In one day her life was turned upside down. She used to think that she stood firmly on her feet and was able to take care of herself. And in one day everything has changed. She discovered completely different world, the world to which she belonged by birth and where she was like a newly born cub: blind and helpless. She looked at Cole who still wore the shirt she tore. He looked funny considering his serious face and office trousers. "I am sorry about your shirt," she gave him a small smile, "I'll buy you a new one."
"Don't worry about it," Cole grinned back. He noticed her blush and decided to change the subject. "We should probably go and see your uncle's house. I sincerely hope that we'll find something interesting there." He looked down at his open shirt and caught Nicole's glance. She immediately averted her eyes. Cole cleared his throat, "I am just going to change."
"Okay," she turned to the door.
"You can use the main bathroom, first door to your right," he continued.
When Nicole left Cole quickly pulled a navy blue shirt from the closet and was just buttoning it up when he heard a door bell ringing. A frown crossed his face and he made his way to the door. When he looked through the peephole he saw a policemen standing there with a short stocky man behind him. Damn. This was probably in connection to his car exploding. With everything that happened afterwards Cole completely forgot about this little accident. He opened the door and looked at the men in front of him. "Can I help you?"
The policeman spoke first. "Are you Cole Turner the owner of the black Porsche, licence plate XXXXX."
"Yes," Cole answered; he decided to hear what they had to say before he attempted to manipulated them to create a version of the events, which suited him. "Is there something wrong?"
Before the policemen could answer the stocky man pushed his way from behind and cried out. "I am so sorry, Mr. Turner, it was not my fault. When you brought you car to our garage this morning, I organised it to be serviced immediately. To shorten the time you had to wait I asked one of our boys to start hovering the car, while one of our mechanics was adjusting the breaks. And the next thing I know this fool switched on the engine and took off."
Cole had problems keeping a straight face. He knew perfectly well that he did not bring the car to the garage this morning and he also knew that he did not use his powers. The only explanation to this was that Lugels network has been keeping an eye on the situation and had already created a cover-up story. So Cole decided to play along, he put an outrage expression on his face and glared at the distressed garage owner. "So what happened to my car?" he asked trying to sound angry.
The policemen took a step forward. "Would you mind if we continue this conversation inside?" he requested.
Cole followed his visitors into the living room and saw Nicole sitting in one of the chairs. She looked surprised to see a police guy and then shot Cole a worried look. Cole slightly shook his head and turned to his visitors. "This is my friend Nicole Berg," he introduced. "And this is?" he looked at the police officer.
"Office Brooks", the policemen announced. Nicole nodded. And the policeman turned back to Cole. "I am afraid, Mr Turner that your car has exploded on the XXX bridge. You probably have seen the explosion on TV."
"No, I have not," Cole frowned, his expression becoming cold and arrogant the moment he saw too knowing looks on both man faces, which suggested that they knew perfectly well what activity have prevented Nicole and Cole from hearing the news broadcasted on every news station. "Would you mind telling me how this happened?"
The garage owner immediately returned to his anxious state. "The boy did not know that the mechanic has been fixing the engine so when he reached the top speed it has exploded and..." he paused dramatically.
The policemen continued. "The explosion was very powerful. He died instantly and the car has fallen into the bay. The current there is very strong so I doubt we will ever recover any traces of his body or of your car for that matter."
Nicole had to bite her tongue in order not to gasp when she heard this lie. She shot a glance at Cole who looked very distant and sombre. The garage owner also noticed Cole's expression and exclaimed. "I am so sorry Mr Turner and please do not worry about any problems. We will arrange all the paperwork necessary and we'll deal with the investigation ourselves. And of course we will replace your car straight away. I even took a liberty to bring one down here. It is the same model as yours, brand-new and the same colour as the old one. We have just received it. I hope you would not mind using it and if you like it taking it as a replacement." He handed Cole the keys.
Half demon allowed his expression to soften a bit and looked at the car dealer with less scrutiny. "So what do I have to do now?" Cole directed his question to the policemen.
The late shrugged his shoulders. "Not much. We will open an investigation but I doubt that we would find much material evidence. The identity of the hijacker has been established. He seems not to have any family, comes from the orphanage. The reasons of the accident have been established so you will probably receive shortly an official letter, which you can show to your insurance company if you need. But considering that the replacement would be provided by the dealership," he pointed at the garage director, who energetically nodded, "then I doubt that we'll need to disturb you any more."
With this words both man have nodded to Nicole and left the penthouse. When Cole returned after shutting the door behind them he saw young woman staring at him in disbelief. "How?" she uttered, "how did you do this?"
Cole smiled and lifted his hands, palms up. "I did not."
"You did not?" Nicole repeated incredulously, "then how did this happen or are you going to tell me that you did bring your car to the garage and the explosion 2 hours ago was just me having hallucinations?"
Half demon shook his dead. "It was not me," he said, "but I think what we just heard was a cover-up created by the friends of your uncle. I am sure they have the ability to manipulate minds and conjure evidence. I have the same powers and I would probably do the same but I just did not have time. So they took care of it."
"You can manipulate minds?" Nicole looked at him in disbelief mixed with wariness. "You can even manipulate my mind."
Cole left exasperated sigh. "Yes, it's one of my powers and before you say anything else, no, I have not manipulated yours mind and nor do I intend to." She eyed him warily. "Look," he continued feeling a little frustrated, "I don't go around manipulating people's minds. It's unpredictable and dangerous. And if I have this power then you have it as well and when you learn how to use it and all the side issues, trust me you would much rather prefer not to."
He sounded really sincere and Nicole believed half demon. She nodded and muttered quietly, "Sorry, it's just a little freaky."
"I know," he answered. "Look, let's go to your uncle's house, the sooner we get all the information the sooner we can figure out what to do next and may be contact other Lugels."
Nicole nodded. "How will we get there?"
Cole shrugged, "We can either drive or I can blur you there."
"I prefer blurring," Nicole piped. And when she saw Cole's smirk, she retorted, "it's for your own good, you know. Would be a shame to blow up your new car."
"Of course," Cole drawled. And before Nicole had time to answer he took her hand and disappeared. They reappeared on the quiet lane in front of the massive mansion. Half demon was impressed. The house was very grand, it was on three floors and had a massive garden at the back. Electric gates opened to a curved driveway.
"Why did not you blur us inside?" Nicole asked.
"Because I can't," half demon simply replied, "the house must be protected against any magic entering it."
"Oh," Nicole did not say anything. She pulled out a key and opened the door.
The house was very grand. It was decorated with a great taste and expensive furniture. Cole and Nicole went around all rooms and did not find anything remotely interesting. They even went to the attic. Cole half expected to see an attic similar to the one at the Halliwell manor. But this one was anything but. This attic had massive windows and was full of most gorgeous plants. Cole even allowed himself a surprised whistle. But both him and Nicole were not in the mood to admire the beauties of the house. They returned to what looked like the office and decided to look around. After another 10 minutes they could not find anything interesting. Cole was studying the books for the hundreds time. Nicole was checking the wall behind the painting of a woman on the opposite wall. It was a portrait of the young girl, who was standing near the door with her hand on the handle and her head turned as if somebody just called after her. Cole heaved a frustrated sigh. He felt annoyed and tired. This was not going well and he could feel his stomach grumbling at him. He turned to Nicole. "We should order some pizzas, I am..." he suddenly stopped, staring at the young woman standing next to the painting with her head turned towards him almost as a life copy of the painting. "Oh, my..." Cole uttered staring at the painting in amazement.
"What?" Nicole could see his astonished expression but had no idea what caused it.
Cole swiftly moved towards her. "Put your hand on that painting," he said.
Nicole frowned, "Why?"
"Because I think I know where the hidden entrance is," he answered smiling. "See this door," half demon pointed on the painting, "Place you hand as if opening it."
Nicole obeyed but nothing seems to happen. "I think you're mistaken," she commented dryly. Cole felt really confused. He could not be mistaken. He looked around the library and caught his breath. In the middle of the library where a minute ago was a massive table there was now a vortex.
"Oh, my God," he heard Nicole's voice. "What's that?"
"It's a vortex," Cole quickly strode towards it. "I cannot believe that your uncle used a vortex as an entrance."
"Why not?" a young woman followed Cole to the edge of grey-blue swirls.
"Vortexes need an enormous amount of energy. They usually serve as hidden entrances into different dimensions. Plus they are very difficult to control. It's more like powers of nature, you can use them but you can't control them."
"Well, shall we go in it?" Nicole asked.
"I don't see any other choice," the half demon nodded. He gave Nicole a pointed stare "Look, I'll go first to make sure that everything is OK. You wait here for me."
"No," Nicole was certain that there was not chance she would stay behind and wait. "I am not staying here and waiting for you. What if something goes wrong and then I'll be stuck here alone."
"If something goes wrong, then it will be better to be stuck here than there," Cole pointed out.
"Not for me," Nicole shook her head and took Cole by the arm. "It's my uncle's house and I opened this bloody thing so I am going with you".
Her eyes glimmered with such determination that Cole gave in. "Fine," he muttered. "But don't tell me I did not warn you." With these words he stepped towards the vortex and next moment him and Nicole were caught into the powerful stream of energy. They found themselves in the middle of the library, which looked like exact copy of the one they just left.
"What the hell?" Nicole uttered. "We have not moved anywhere."
Cole glanced around, "Oh, yes, we have. We are in a different plain. I can fill it." He scanned the titles of the books and his eyes grew wide. "This is the most extensive collection of the demonic books I have ever seen, and not only demonic." He approached one of the books. "This looks exactly like the Halliwell's Book of Shadows." He stretched his hand, "And I can touch it."
While Cole was busy admiring the library Nicole was studying the paperwork, which was lying on the table. Her attention was attracted by two brown envelopes, with Cole's and her names on them. "Look at this," she said. "I think these are for us." Nicole picked up en envelop and opened it, Cole did the same. The envelopes looked empty but both Nicole and Cole notices grey mist, which quickly turned into the semitransparent figure of a man.
"Schwarzlight?" half demon's voice was full of disbelief.
"Just a memory of him, Cole" old Lugel smiled briefly then he turned his gaze to Nicole. "I am glad that I can see you, Nicole even if I am a mere memory. You are so beautiful and you look so much like my brother."
Nicole could not believe her eyes and ears. It was not possible. But there he was, her uncle and he looked so much like she imagined him. She stretched her hand to him but it just went through the semi transparent form.
"I am not here Nicole," Schwarzlight said softly. "I am a memory, which has been preserved and even this will disappear in about an hour. And we have a lot to talk about."
Nicole shook her head, "Talk about what?" she said, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat.
"About your destiny," he said sombrely. "You and Cole are the Chosen Two - destined to negotiate peace between the world of evil and the world of good, to save the magic world from total extinction and restore the balance of forces.
"The Chosen Two?" Cole and Nicole exclaimed in one voice.
"Yes," Lugel continued, "you were prophesized a long time ago. Lugels have worked for centuries trying to assemble a key to identify you. The task has been completed by your father Nicole. Since that day we were waiting for a sign. And now we finally have the Chosen Two and it is about time. Magic world desperately needs a break from the bloodshed and it would be your task to negotiate the peace and then maintain it."
"A peace between the Underworld and Powers to be?" Cole repeated incredulously. "That's impossible"
"Why do you think, it's impossible?" Lugel asked calmly.
"Because you will need to convince both demons and witches to stop killing each other? It's their nature to fight each other!" Cole stated slightly exasperated.
"Is it in the nature of witches to go after every demon and kill him?"
"Well, no," Cole shook his head. "But they have to protect their innocents and themselves and this usually involves killing demons."
"So it means that if there are no innocents attacked and their own safety is not at risk the witches will not have to go after the demons."
Cole could not contain his sarcasm any more. "Ye, and the demon world would just agree not to kill any innocents and to leave witches alone!!! How easy!"
"Not easy, but doable," Schwarzlight retorted. "Not all mortals are innocents. Remember Ed Miller. Was he the innocent?"
Cole's face clouded. "If you ask the Charmed Ones, he was," half-demon's voice tingled with resentment.
"Leave the Charmed Ones," Lugel waived his hand. "They are so stuck in their ways of dealing with Evil that they became evil themselves. And by the way that is the main problem of the witchery community. They need to adjust their standards. Not every mortal is an innocent. Mortals are capable of things not a single demon will do. There are many other witches, which have much more reasonable attitude towards the Good and Evil than the Halliwells. And they would be perfectly happy with some mortals going straight to hell literally."
Cole's mouth twisted into a wry smile. "Okay, lets say that the witches will stop killing demons, how are you planning to stop demons killing witches and going after the real innocents."
"Cole, what are demons after?" asked Lugel with a patient smile of an adult talking to the stubborn child.
"Power and wealth," half demon answered.
"Exactly." Lugel smiled triumphantly. "We have done a lot of studies about the correlations between the mortal and demonic realm. Which covers do demons prefer while on there Upperworld missions. And we found that best of all demons like to pause as businessman and lawyers. Two groups associated with wealth and power. The task at hand is to organise the Underworld and to channel its activities into the business world. Plus there are plenty of mortals, which happily will sell their souls and commit crimes. So there will be plenty of pray for demons."
Cole shook his head. "I don't see it happening," he stated.
"Then you better start now," Lugel snapped. He paused and continued in a calmer voice. "Let me paint you a picture. If everything continues the way it's going now then very soon, the population of demons will reduce so significantly that they would be desperate to survive and they'll attack the Elders and Whitelighters realm. Usually demons do not bother, since the realm is so well protected and most demons die in process of getting there. However, desperation makes the enemy reckless. The few demons who will reach the realm will easily kill all inhabitants. Without guidance from the Elders and especially healing powers of the whitelighters witches will be sitting ducks. Most of them will parish in a period of few months. That would be the end of magic. The misbalance of powers would be so great that most mortals will go mad. So how does that sound to you?" he glared at Cole.
The later felt uncomfortable under the old mans stare. "I did not say that I want this to happen," he mumbled. "But what you are suggesting is almost impossible to achieve."
William Schwarzlight's face softened. "I agree it's going to be difficult but not impossible. Especially for the Chosen Two."
"Yes, about that," Nicole who kept silent decided that it was time to step into the discussion, "you two can argue all you want whether this peace deal is possible. But I just want to warn you, uncle Will, you keep talking about the Chosen Two and their task. I have no doubt that you identified Cole correctly. But not me! I don't know anything about magic. I can't even control my powers. Hell, I don't know what powers I have. I have to concentrate really hard even to understand what you two are talking about. And you expect me to play a crucial role in breaking your peace. If something is impossible it is to change the fact that I have no idea about magic and it will take me ages to learn all of it."
Lugel looked at Nicole with soft smile. "Don't worry about learning Nicole. Cole will be able to help you with your powers. It won't be a problem."
Cole shook his head and gave the older man uneasy look. "I don't want you to think that I am coming back on my word. I promised to teach Nicole and I will but I agree with her. In the short space of time we have she won't be able to learn all of it. To control the energy balls is easy enough, but what about fire and also all the spells and just general knowledge of magic. The Charmed ones have been witches for 5 years and they still know very little about the demonic world and general magic world."
Schwarzlight listened to Cole and nodded in agreement. "I understand your concerns," he said and looked at both of them. "If you two have to learn everything the conventional way, it will take you years. And by the way not only Nicole has to learn." He shifted his gaze from Nicole to the half demon. "You Cole have a lot to learn as well. So far you learnt how to control just one part of your powers, but today you received another one, which are mainly what you consider to be witchery powers such as freezing, aerokinesis, premonitions and whitelighters powers: such as orbing." He paused enjoying the shocked expressions on the younger Lugels faces. "Yes, you are both Lugels," he continued answering the question which he read on Cole's face. "And before you start yelling at me, when I came to the Wasteland and made you that offer I had no idea you would become a Lugel. I fully intended to give you Belthazor's powers back. But there are powers beyond my control. I should tell you both that Lugels are not born. They receive their powers in different time in their lives. There are 13 Lugels at any time in the world, well except the last 25 years after Robert my brother and your father died. All Lugels are half-breds, having both evil and good sides to their heritage. Myself I was half demon/half whitelighter before I became a Lugel and your father was half demon/ half mortal. We were only half brothers. We had the same demonic father but different mothers."
"So you mean that I am only quarter magical?" Nicole interrupted him.
Lugel frowned and his expression became a little strained. "No, you are quarter demon/ quarter darklighter and half human." Nicole stared at him in disbelief and he continued. "Your mother is half darklighter. She got her powers bound when your father died. She never was into using them anyway. She got them from her mother, who left them when Katherine was very young. I think she was always embarrassed of her heritage."
"So my mother knew about Lugels and magic?" Nicole interrupted him again.
"Of course she knew." Schwarzlight confirmed. "My brother told her even before their marriage. He did not have to. Most Lugels have log term relationships when the other partner never found out about their real identity. It's not that difficult. But Robert really loved Katherine. He broke rules for her. After you were born he used his magic to put a protecting spell on her. Basically he passed his invincibility to her. He said he did not need it. And it's true. With the amount of powers Lugels have they are never in grave danger. You can detect the danger using your telepathy and premonition. You have fireballs, telekinesis and many more powers to protect yourself and you can always shimmer, blur or orb out of danger. You can put a force shield around yourself. And there are always self healing powers. But invincibility is given Lugels for a reason. Robert simply died in a plain crash. He was meeting there with a witch from another plain who passed him the last peace of the information we needed to identify the Chosen Two. The plain got into the crash and my brother managed to send the witch and the information to me but was too late to save himself. Katherine knew that he was a Lugel. Thank God, he did not tell her that I was a Lugel as well. But she pretty much suspected it anyway. After his death your mother used this knowledge against me. She threatened that she would tell everything to the Source, Elders and papers if I did not give up my attempts to see you. She did not want you to have powers or even finding out about your magic heritage. Katherine arranged for your powers to be bound. She knew I could not harm her. She also knew that she would die if she told the story. If a Lugel goes against his kind or attempts to harm our goal of protecting the magic world from exposure he or she will lose their powers instantly. Since Katherine was protected by Lugel's power she had the same threat. But I also knew that Katherine did not care. She would do it if I did not agree and I could not risk exposure. Also she was your mother and though I doubted you would be happy with her I could not just kill her or erase her memory. So I obeyed. I never made any contact with you."
Nicole was listening to him with acute interest. Finally after all these years she was learning something about her family. "Well, you better had erased her memory," she said quietly. "It would be better for you and Lugels. Because now I am completely useless, I don't know anything about magic and even can't use my powers. Just as my mother wanted it to be." Her voice sounded bitter at the end.
Schwarzlight shook his head. "No, Nicole, I knew that you were the Chosen One before Katherine took you away. And I also knew that you had to be kept innocent to be able to fulfil your destiny. If you stayed with me and knew who you were it would be almost impossible to achieve that. That's why when you contacted me I did not reply."
Nicole's face paled but Cole already learnt that in her case it was a sign of anger. "I should have been kept innocent? Well, you were very successful in achieving that. I am one hell of an innocent, that's for sure. And what your decision cost me does not matter, does it?" she seared her uncle with a deadly glare. "Of course, not. How could I forget?! The GOAL is everything."
Lugel smiled sadly. "Always and anywhere," he said, "that's our slogan."
"But not mine," Nicole said sternly. "And I do not see any reason for me to go with the destiny you prepared for me. Well, except half a billion dollars. At the moment this looks to me more of a payment than inheritance."
"Nicole," the older man lifted his hand, "I know you are angry and upset. But please do not act impulsively. Great powers come with great responsibility and tough choices. And it does not matter whether these powers are magical or not. BalFor Holdings is owned by Lugels but it does not only work for magic. We own many mortal corporations and are involved in different businesses. I wish I could change the past but I can't and I will have to admit that if I was in the same situation again I probably would have made the same choices. But you, you can change the future. And don't let your resentment against me or anybody else stop you from saving many lives. You'll regret it afterwards. And you will regret not taking a chance and experiencing what it means to be a Lugel."
Nicole stayed silent for a minute then she said in a tired voice. "Look, whether I want to embrace my destiny or not does not matter. The fact is that I can't help you. I am absolutely useless. And as Cole said it would take years for me to learn. So I think you have a wrong person."
Schwarzlight smiled, "you don't need years. There are methods to learn which are much faster than the ones you are used too. Lugels has been using them for centuries. We are not exactly trained for the job from our birth like demons or witches. And there are only 13 Lugels in the world so we can't have newcomers spending years learning things. So since the creation of the earth Lugels have been learning using telepathy. That's much faster than anything else. In 2 weeks you'll be perfectly ready for your task."
Both young Lugels looked stunned and then Cole asked, "Do you mean that we'll have a 2 weeks session with one of the Lugels who'll be telepathically pouring knowledge into us."
"Oh, no," the older man shook his head. "Most of things you'll learn from books. Other Lugels will just feel the blanks." Nicole's face expressed such scepticism that Schwarzlight decided that the small demonstration would be helpful. "OK," he said, "take a book from the shelf, any book." Nicole picked up a thin soft back which turned out to be "Darklighters and their powers". "Now," Lugel continued, "open it and start reading." The young woman gave him a stare. "Don't be scared," her uncle insisted.
Nicole opened the book and started reading. "Darklighters are angels of evil. They are direct opposite of a whitelighters, who are angels of good." The next moment a flow of images started to go through Nicole's head: different people with crossbows and arrows; the tip of the arrow became enlarged and Nicole saw the long list of ingredients, the arrow flying into the chest of the whitelighter; the later screaming in agony and many-many more images, which started to change faster and faster. Suddenly everything stopped and Nicole read "Currently there are 10,000 dark lighters in the world." She found herself on the last page and closed the book. She saw Cole looking at her with wary eyes and a triumphant smile of her uncle's face.
The later shot Cole an ironic look, "Would you mind asking Nicole a question about darklighters?"
The half-demon tried to think about the suitable question. "How do darklighters kill?" He asked the first thing that came to his mind.
Nicole shrugged her shoulders. "They usually use the crossbow with the arrows containing the special poison consisting of arsenic, devil's trill,..." she continued to name about 20 ingredients. "They can also kill with the athame but they prefer the crossbow." She stopped for a second and put her hand to her mouth. "How do I know all this?" She stared at her uncle and then at Cole.
"You have learnt all the contents of this book. Telepathically. The book simply projected its contents into your brain." The old Lugel looked very pleased. "And the speed with which you did it shows that your abilities are very remarkable."
Nicole stared at Cole with questioning look. He nodded in response. "It's true. You opened the book and there was a beam of light blasting in your forehead. It was over in mere seconds."
William Schwarzlight glanced at the clock. His expression sobered. "My time is running out. But I told you everything I wanted. I really hope that you will not reject your destiny. If you decide to accept it then for the next two weeks you will stay here. This is another dimension. The Lugels plain. This house has everything in it and you'll be able to properly train here with nobody to disturb you. Trust me, you will need this peace and comfort because it's going to be exhausting. Learning telepathically is faster but it is very intense. Also you need to practice your assault skills. On this table you'll find all the instruction and lists of books you should learn. In two weeks you'll be ready to become the members of Lugel council and the board members of BalFor Holdings. You also will start working for the DLM investments. One of the most high profile investment firms in the world. Nicole will head the Division of Private Equity Investments and Cole will become the head of their Legal Department. This will place you at the top of the financial circles of the US and also give you enough flexibility to work on your task. It won't be easy but I honestly believe that you will make it."
While he spoke Nicole could see as his semitransparent form was becoming even more eluded. The feeling of loss has hit her again.
"Would I ever see you again?" she asked in a slightly chocked voice.
He smiled back, "I am afraid not. Lugels don't become ghosts and cannot be summoned. I know how you feel Nicole, but please don't let the past hold you back. You have a chance to build a new life without our baggage and what an exiting life it will be. Use this chance." His figure became even more transparent and next second he was gone.
Cole kept quiet knowing that it was important for Nicole to have these minutes with her uncle. Suddenly he heard a distinct voice in his head. "Please take care of her. She is vulnerable and she'll need your help. And God help you if you hurt her."
"Aren't all relatives the same?!" Cole thought to himself. "God help me!"
Chapter 6.
Paige orbed back to Halliwells manor wearing an expression of amused disgust.
"So how did your little intelligence mission go?" Piper asked curiously, "did Cole notice you?"
Paige scowled. "I doubt that he would have noticed me if I orbed straight in front of him?"
"Oh?" Piper gave her little sister a questioning look.
"He was too busy making out with some blond," Paige blurted out. "They were right at it in the living room."
"With the blond?" Piper frowned, "do you think it's the same girl Phoebe saw him with?"
"Probably," Paige shrugged.
"So did you watch?" the oldest charmed one stared at Paige daring her to lie.
The young witch squirmed uncomfortably. "Well, I did watch for a bit. But it's not what you think," she exclaimed, seeing Piper's mocking expression. "Cole got a phone call just when I orbed in and he immediately looked straight at the balcony as if he was checking whether it was empty. Then he hung up and jerked this girl to his lap. Call me paranoid, but I had a feeling as if he was told that I was on the balcony, so I stayed for a while to see if he was just acting."
"And?" Piper prodded.
"Definitely not," Paige affirmed slightly blushing, "you should have seen them Piper, they were all over each other."
"Who was all over each other?" Phoebe asked walking into the living room.
"Cole and this blond," Paige blurted out, while Piper winced inwardly. Phoebe went pale and gave Paige a wild look. "Well, you wanted me to keep an eye on Cole," Paige continued understanding Phoebe's expression as a question. "So this afternoon I orbed to the balcony of his Penthouse under the invisibility spell. And I saw Cole and this blond girl making out in the living room. Then he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom and I left." Phoebe continued to stare at her younger sister and the later exclaimed, "well, you did not expect me to watch the whole show?!"
"At least we know, that there is no demonic activity going on there," Piper tried to steer the conversation into a different direction.
"And," Paige continued gleefully, "we know that my invisibility spell worked!!!"
Phoebe did not say anything and Piper looked at her with concern. "Phoebe, honey, are you OK?"
"Ahh," Phoebe looked up at her sisters, "yes, I am fine," she said quickly putting a fake smile on her face. "But I disagree with you Piper. We need to keep an eye on Cole. He is dangerous and we don't know what he could do to this girl."
"I think we have a very good idea what he'd do to her," Paige's sultry smile made Phoebe want to smack her in the face.
Piper gave her youngest sister another warning glare and turned to Phoebe. "Aren't you taking it a bit too far, Phoebes? I know that Cole is demonic and everything but I don't think that killing his one-night stands is his style."
"May be not," Phoebe agreed, "but what if she finds out who he is, or if she damps him and he would want to get her back. You know how obsessive Cole can be and he can really hurt her."
Piper was not convinced. "Cole is more careful about revealing his powers than any of us. Come on, he's been alive for more then a century and always had high profile jobs. If he was not able to maintain his disguise than I don't think he would be one of the top Source's assassins. Plus he has this power to manipulate other people minds. It's much easier than killing her."
"Besides," Paige's face resumed a mocked expression, "I don't think many women will leave Cole." This time Paige received a deadly glare from both of her sisters. "What did I say?" she cried out, "It's true. He is a hot looking lawyer who drives a Porsche. If you don't know who he really is why would you leave him?"
"Paige," Piper cried with indignation.
"That's why he is dangerous," Phoebe stated, "and exactly why we need to keep an eye on him."
****************
Nicole felt horrible. She was so embarrassed that she wanted to crawl into the nearest hole and die. Her behaviour had been obscene. She literally tore his clothes off. Why-why-why? Why did she do it? Yes, she was angry, yes, she was embarrassed. But that's not a reason to make a complete fool of herself. She dreaded meeting Cole again. She could vividly imagine the mocked expression on his face when one brow went up and the corner of his mouth went down. Everybody knows that the attack is best defence so when Cole blurred in he was met by a cold stare. "What the hell was that?" she yelled.
Half demon was a little taken aback. "What the hell was what?"
"All of this? Who was this woman on your balcony and why did you invent that whole show?"
Cole's eyes became icy. "Which show are you referring to?" he smiled wryly. "The one where you tore my clothes off?"
Her face flashed red and she said caustically. "I am sorry I damaged your possessions. I am sure you can fix it with one of your hand waves. But next time you want to make out with a woman I suggest that you come up with a better excuse than being spied on."
She turned around and headed to the living room. She did not manage to reach the door. Cole was in front of her in a flash. His eyes were steely blue and his gaze was so full of contempt that Nicole stammered back. "You think I was lying? That I made all this up just to get you into bed?"
"What else am I supposed to think?" she cried.
"I don't know. How about that I was trying to protect you? The Halliwells can be really nosy. If they suspect you are involved in magic they will not let you do one step without them being around or may even vanquish you. And since you can't even control your powers and have no idea what's going on around you I thought it would be good for you to have some peace and some space without them breathing down your neck."
"Well, it's not my fault that I don't know what's going on around me. I have been asking you this for the past 2 days. I have no idea who are your Halliwells and highly doubt that they were spying on me."
They glared at each other. Nicole took a deep breath and said more quietly. "I don't think you were lying, Cole. It's just a bit overwhelming and I don't understand why anybody would spy on you and how would they even get to the balcony."
Cole sighed and ran his hand through his hair. His anger had subsided and now he just felt tired. "This was Paige," he said quietly, "she is one of the three Halliwells sisters, who are the most powerful witches ever called the Charmed Ones. My ex wife whom we met the other day in the restaurant is one of them. Witches fight evil and Phoebe and her sisters are convinced that I am evil. I can only guess but probably when Phoebe saw us in the restaurant she decided that I was up to no good. So Paige used an invisibility spell and she orbed on the balcony."
"Orbed?" Nicole, who was listening with acute attention, interrupted him.
"Yeah," he shook his head, "it's like blurring, moving almost instantly in space but it works differently. It's a whitelighters power." He saw her blank expression and explained. "Whitelighters are a type of angels, which guide good witches. If she found out that we were involved in something magical, they would assume you're evil and will not give you a light of day. Now they will just think that we are lovers and hopefully will leave you alone."
Nicole felt a sting of embarrassment. "And you could not just treat me as a friend?" she muttered more to herself.
But Cole's hearing was too good to miss it. His anger flared again and he sharply turned on his hills to face her. "No, I could not. I don't have many friends and most importantly the Halliwells will never believe I can have one being the demonic bastard I am. So it was either this or incinerating Paige into the oblivion. Would you prefer the last option?"
Nicole could see that he was hurt though his face looked more angry than anything else. In a normal situation she would have tried to respond more reasonably but the emotions of the last days had taken the best of her and she let her frustration spill out. "Don't yell at me. I don't know why your ex-wife and her sisters think that you are an evil bastard but it surely is not my fault. And I did not ask to be in the middle of your "loving" relationships."
"No, you did not. But I also, believe it or not, did not volunteer for the job of your mentor and bodyguard. God knows, why your all mighty uncle could not find somebody else to do it? And I did not even get the explanation why the hell he never even bothered to tell you anything about your heritage and why he could not be around to teach you himself."
The moment Cole finished he immediately regretted his outburst. Nicole's face went red. "I am sorry I have intruded on you. Apologies for any inconvenience." She abruptly turned around and headed to the door once again.
Cole felt horrible. "Look, I did not mean it like that," he muttered.
"Of course you did," Nicole turned around and gave him a cold smile. "From the moment I met you I felt that you did not know what to do with me. You have enough to worry about in your life without having extra troubles with me."
"I do not consider you as a trouble," Cole said softly. "I admit I was not well prepared to meet you. And part of it was my fault; I did not give much thought to what your uncle told me. I was," he paused uneasily, "too much preoccupied with other things. But I always fully intended to help you. And I will if you let me. However, I know almost nothing about his reasons and the grounds behind the will. I think your uncle did not have time to explain it to me or to be more precise he ran out of time."
Nicole interrupted him. "Uncle Will ran out of time? What do you mean?"
"Well," his expression became reflective, "I don't really know. I met your Uncle in the Wasteland, which is like the gates to Hell. I was stuck there after my ex wife and her sisters vanquished me. Schwarzlight started talking about the mission Lugel's have on Earth of protecting the magic and keeping the balance between good and evil. And then," he paused trying to remember his conversation with William Schwarzlight, "something happened. He said that he had even less time than he thought and could not explain everything to me. He then offered me my powers back and to get me out of the Wasteland if I helped you to master your powers and protected you. He was very worried about you." He looked at Nicole, who was listening to him as if her life dependant on his words. "I had nothing to lose so I agreed. He took me by the hand and next moment I found myself here having my job back and my house back, and having the powers I never thought was possible to have. And forty days later I got the invitation to his funeral and the next day you showed up at my apartment."
Nicole nodded. She felt lost and overwhelmed. Feelings, which became too familiar to her in the last few days. All of this was beyond normal life; it was unreal, unbelievable, insane. In one day her life was turned upside down. She used to think that she stood firmly on her feet and was able to take care of herself. And in one day everything has changed. She discovered completely different world, the world to which she belonged by birth and where she was like a newly born cub: blind and helpless. She looked at Cole who still wore the shirt she tore. He looked funny considering his serious face and office trousers. "I am sorry about your shirt," she gave him a small smile, "I'll buy you a new one."
"Don't worry about it," Cole grinned back. He noticed her blush and decided to change the subject. "We should probably go and see your uncle's house. I sincerely hope that we'll find something interesting there." He looked down at his open shirt and caught Nicole's glance. She immediately averted her eyes. Cole cleared his throat, "I am just going to change."
"Okay," she turned to the door.
"You can use the main bathroom, first door to your right," he continued.
When Nicole left Cole quickly pulled a navy blue shirt from the closet and was just buttoning it up when he heard a door bell ringing. A frown crossed his face and he made his way to the door. When he looked through the peephole he saw a policemen standing there with a short stocky man behind him. Damn. This was probably in connection to his car exploding. With everything that happened afterwards Cole completely forgot about this little accident. He opened the door and looked at the men in front of him. "Can I help you?"
The policeman spoke first. "Are you Cole Turner the owner of the black Porsche, licence plate XXXXX."
"Yes," Cole answered; he decided to hear what they had to say before he attempted to manipulated them to create a version of the events, which suited him. "Is there something wrong?"
Before the policemen could answer the stocky man pushed his way from behind and cried out. "I am so sorry, Mr. Turner, it was not my fault. When you brought you car to our garage this morning, I organised it to be serviced immediately. To shorten the time you had to wait I asked one of our boys to start hovering the car, while one of our mechanics was adjusting the breaks. And the next thing I know this fool switched on the engine and took off."
Cole had problems keeping a straight face. He knew perfectly well that he did not bring the car to the garage this morning and he also knew that he did not use his powers. The only explanation to this was that Lugels network has been keeping an eye on the situation and had already created a cover-up story. So Cole decided to play along, he put an outrage expression on his face and glared at the distressed garage owner. "So what happened to my car?" he asked trying to sound angry.
The policemen took a step forward. "Would you mind if we continue this conversation inside?" he requested.
Cole followed his visitors into the living room and saw Nicole sitting in one of the chairs. She looked surprised to see a police guy and then shot Cole a worried look. Cole slightly shook his head and turned to his visitors. "This is my friend Nicole Berg," he introduced. "And this is?" he looked at the police officer.
"Office Brooks", the policemen announced. Nicole nodded. And the policeman turned back to Cole. "I am afraid, Mr Turner that your car has exploded on the XXX bridge. You probably have seen the explosion on TV."
"No, I have not," Cole frowned, his expression becoming cold and arrogant the moment he saw too knowing looks on both man faces, which suggested that they knew perfectly well what activity have prevented Nicole and Cole from hearing the news broadcasted on every news station. "Would you mind telling me how this happened?"
The garage owner immediately returned to his anxious state. "The boy did not know that the mechanic has been fixing the engine so when he reached the top speed it has exploded and..." he paused dramatically.
The policemen continued. "The explosion was very powerful. He died instantly and the car has fallen into the bay. The current there is very strong so I doubt we will ever recover any traces of his body or of your car for that matter."
Nicole had to bite her tongue in order not to gasp when she heard this lie. She shot a glance at Cole who looked very distant and sombre. The garage owner also noticed Cole's expression and exclaimed. "I am so sorry Mr Turner and please do not worry about any problems. We will arrange all the paperwork necessary and we'll deal with the investigation ourselves. And of course we will replace your car straight away. I even took a liberty to bring one down here. It is the same model as yours, brand-new and the same colour as the old one. We have just received it. I hope you would not mind using it and if you like it taking it as a replacement." He handed Cole the keys.
Half demon allowed his expression to soften a bit and looked at the car dealer with less scrutiny. "So what do I have to do now?" Cole directed his question to the policemen.
The late shrugged his shoulders. "Not much. We will open an investigation but I doubt that we would find much material evidence. The identity of the hijacker has been established. He seems not to have any family, comes from the orphanage. The reasons of the accident have been established so you will probably receive shortly an official letter, which you can show to your insurance company if you need. But considering that the replacement would be provided by the dealership," he pointed at the garage director, who energetically nodded, "then I doubt that we'll need to disturb you any more."
With this words both man have nodded to Nicole and left the penthouse. When Cole returned after shutting the door behind them he saw young woman staring at him in disbelief. "How?" she uttered, "how did you do this?"
Cole smiled and lifted his hands, palms up. "I did not."
"You did not?" Nicole repeated incredulously, "then how did this happen or are you going to tell me that you did bring your car to the garage and the explosion 2 hours ago was just me having hallucinations?"
Half demon shook his dead. "It was not me," he said, "but I think what we just heard was a cover-up created by the friends of your uncle. I am sure they have the ability to manipulate minds and conjure evidence. I have the same powers and I would probably do the same but I just did not have time. So they took care of it."
"You can manipulate minds?" Nicole looked at him in disbelief mixed with wariness. "You can even manipulate my mind."
Cole left exasperated sigh. "Yes, it's one of my powers and before you say anything else, no, I have not manipulated yours mind and nor do I intend to." She eyed him warily. "Look," he continued feeling a little frustrated, "I don't go around manipulating people's minds. It's unpredictable and dangerous. And if I have this power then you have it as well and when you learn how to use it and all the side issues, trust me you would much rather prefer not to."
He sounded really sincere and Nicole believed half demon. She nodded and muttered quietly, "Sorry, it's just a little freaky."
"I know," he answered. "Look, let's go to your uncle's house, the sooner we get all the information the sooner we can figure out what to do next and may be contact other Lugels."
Nicole nodded. "How will we get there?"
Cole shrugged, "We can either drive or I can blur you there."
"I prefer blurring," Nicole piped. And when she saw Cole's smirk, she retorted, "it's for your own good, you know. Would be a shame to blow up your new car."
"Of course," Cole drawled. And before Nicole had time to answer he took her hand and disappeared. They reappeared on the quiet lane in front of the massive mansion. Half demon was impressed. The house was very grand, it was on three floors and had a massive garden at the back. Electric gates opened to a curved driveway.
"Why did not you blur us inside?" Nicole asked.
"Because I can't," half demon simply replied, "the house must be protected against any magic entering it."
"Oh," Nicole did not say anything. She pulled out a key and opened the door.
The house was very grand. It was decorated with a great taste and expensive furniture. Cole and Nicole went around all rooms and did not find anything remotely interesting. They even went to the attic. Cole half expected to see an attic similar to the one at the Halliwell manor. But this one was anything but. This attic had massive windows and was full of most gorgeous plants. Cole even allowed himself a surprised whistle. But both him and Nicole were not in the mood to admire the beauties of the house. They returned to what looked like the office and decided to look around. After another 10 minutes they could not find anything interesting. Cole was studying the books for the hundreds time. Nicole was checking the wall behind the painting of a woman on the opposite wall. It was a portrait of the young girl, who was standing near the door with her hand on the handle and her head turned as if somebody just called after her. Cole heaved a frustrated sigh. He felt annoyed and tired. This was not going well and he could feel his stomach grumbling at him. He turned to Nicole. "We should order some pizzas, I am..." he suddenly stopped, staring at the young woman standing next to the painting with her head turned towards him almost as a life copy of the painting. "Oh, my..." Cole uttered staring at the painting in amazement.
"What?" Nicole could see his astonished expression but had no idea what caused it.
Cole swiftly moved towards her. "Put your hand on that painting," he said.
Nicole frowned, "Why?"
"Because I think I know where the hidden entrance is," he answered smiling. "See this door," half demon pointed on the painting, "Place you hand as if opening it."
Nicole obeyed but nothing seems to happen. "I think you're mistaken," she commented dryly. Cole felt really confused. He could not be mistaken. He looked around the library and caught his breath. In the middle of the library where a minute ago was a massive table there was now a vortex.
"Oh, my God," he heard Nicole's voice. "What's that?"
"It's a vortex," Cole quickly strode towards it. "I cannot believe that your uncle used a vortex as an entrance."
"Why not?" a young woman followed Cole to the edge of grey-blue swirls.
"Vortexes need an enormous amount of energy. They usually serve as hidden entrances into different dimensions. Plus they are very difficult to control. It's more like powers of nature, you can use them but you can't control them."
"Well, shall we go in it?" Nicole asked.
"I don't see any other choice," the half demon nodded. He gave Nicole a pointed stare "Look, I'll go first to make sure that everything is OK. You wait here for me."
"No," Nicole was certain that there was not chance she would stay behind and wait. "I am not staying here and waiting for you. What if something goes wrong and then I'll be stuck here alone."
"If something goes wrong, then it will be better to be stuck here than there," Cole pointed out.
"Not for me," Nicole shook her head and took Cole by the arm. "It's my uncle's house and I opened this bloody thing so I am going with you".
Her eyes glimmered with such determination that Cole gave in. "Fine," he muttered. "But don't tell me I did not warn you." With these words he stepped towards the vortex and next moment him and Nicole were caught into the powerful stream of energy. They found themselves in the middle of the library, which looked like exact copy of the one they just left.
"What the hell?" Nicole uttered. "We have not moved anywhere."
Cole glanced around, "Oh, yes, we have. We are in a different plain. I can fill it." He scanned the titles of the books and his eyes grew wide. "This is the most extensive collection of the demonic books I have ever seen, and not only demonic." He approached one of the books. "This looks exactly like the Halliwell's Book of Shadows." He stretched his hand, "And I can touch it."
While Cole was busy admiring the library Nicole was studying the paperwork, which was lying on the table. Her attention was attracted by two brown envelopes, with Cole's and her names on them. "Look at this," she said. "I think these are for us." Nicole picked up en envelop and opened it, Cole did the same. The envelopes looked empty but both Nicole and Cole notices grey mist, which quickly turned into the semitransparent figure of a man.
"Schwarzlight?" half demon's voice was full of disbelief.
"Just a memory of him, Cole" old Lugel smiled briefly then he turned his gaze to Nicole. "I am glad that I can see you, Nicole even if I am a mere memory. You are so beautiful and you look so much like my brother."
Nicole could not believe her eyes and ears. It was not possible. But there he was, her uncle and he looked so much like she imagined him. She stretched her hand to him but it just went through the semi transparent form.
"I am not here Nicole," Schwarzlight said softly. "I am a memory, which has been preserved and even this will disappear in about an hour. And we have a lot to talk about."
Nicole shook her head, "Talk about what?" she said, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat.
"About your destiny," he said sombrely. "You and Cole are the Chosen Two - destined to negotiate peace between the world of evil and the world of good, to save the magic world from total extinction and restore the balance of forces.
"The Chosen Two?" Cole and Nicole exclaimed in one voice.
"Yes," Lugel continued, "you were prophesized a long time ago. Lugels have worked for centuries trying to assemble a key to identify you. The task has been completed by your father Nicole. Since that day we were waiting for a sign. And now we finally have the Chosen Two and it is about time. Magic world desperately needs a break from the bloodshed and it would be your task to negotiate the peace and then maintain it."
"A peace between the Underworld and Powers to be?" Cole repeated incredulously. "That's impossible"
"Why do you think, it's impossible?" Lugel asked calmly.
"Because you will need to convince both demons and witches to stop killing each other? It's their nature to fight each other!" Cole stated slightly exasperated.
"Is it in the nature of witches to go after every demon and kill him?"
"Well, no," Cole shook his head. "But they have to protect their innocents and themselves and this usually involves killing demons."
"So it means that if there are no innocents attacked and their own safety is not at risk the witches will not have to go after the demons."
Cole could not contain his sarcasm any more. "Ye, and the demon world would just agree not to kill any innocents and to leave witches alone!!! How easy!"
"Not easy, but doable," Schwarzlight retorted. "Not all mortals are innocents. Remember Ed Miller. Was he the innocent?"
Cole's face clouded. "If you ask the Charmed Ones, he was," half-demon's voice tingled with resentment.
"Leave the Charmed Ones," Lugel waived his hand. "They are so stuck in their ways of dealing with Evil that they became evil themselves. And by the way that is the main problem of the witchery community. They need to adjust their standards. Not every mortal is an innocent. Mortals are capable of things not a single demon will do. There are many other witches, which have much more reasonable attitude towards the Good and Evil than the Halliwells. And they would be perfectly happy with some mortals going straight to hell literally."
Cole's mouth twisted into a wry smile. "Okay, lets say that the witches will stop killing demons, how are you planning to stop demons killing witches and going after the real innocents."
"Cole, what are demons after?" asked Lugel with a patient smile of an adult talking to the stubborn child.
"Power and wealth," half demon answered.
"Exactly." Lugel smiled triumphantly. "We have done a lot of studies about the correlations between the mortal and demonic realm. Which covers do demons prefer while on there Upperworld missions. And we found that best of all demons like to pause as businessman and lawyers. Two groups associated with wealth and power. The task at hand is to organise the Underworld and to channel its activities into the business world. Plus there are plenty of mortals, which happily will sell their souls and commit crimes. So there will be plenty of pray for demons."
Cole shook his head. "I don't see it happening," he stated.
"Then you better start now," Lugel snapped. He paused and continued in a calmer voice. "Let me paint you a picture. If everything continues the way it's going now then very soon, the population of demons will reduce so significantly that they would be desperate to survive and they'll attack the Elders and Whitelighters realm. Usually demons do not bother, since the realm is so well protected and most demons die in process of getting there. However, desperation makes the enemy reckless. The few demons who will reach the realm will easily kill all inhabitants. Without guidance from the Elders and especially healing powers of the whitelighters witches will be sitting ducks. Most of them will parish in a period of few months. That would be the end of magic. The misbalance of powers would be so great that most mortals will go mad. So how does that sound to you?" he glared at Cole.
The later felt uncomfortable under the old mans stare. "I did not say that I want this to happen," he mumbled. "But what you are suggesting is almost impossible to achieve."
William Schwarzlight's face softened. "I agree it's going to be difficult but not impossible. Especially for the Chosen Two."
"Yes, about that," Nicole who kept silent decided that it was time to step into the discussion, "you two can argue all you want whether this peace deal is possible. But I just want to warn you, uncle Will, you keep talking about the Chosen Two and their task. I have no doubt that you identified Cole correctly. But not me! I don't know anything about magic. I can't even control my powers. Hell, I don't know what powers I have. I have to concentrate really hard even to understand what you two are talking about. And you expect me to play a crucial role in breaking your peace. If something is impossible it is to change the fact that I have no idea about magic and it will take me ages to learn all of it."
Lugel looked at Nicole with soft smile. "Don't worry about learning Nicole. Cole will be able to help you with your powers. It won't be a problem."
Cole shook his head and gave the older man uneasy look. "I don't want you to think that I am coming back on my word. I promised to teach Nicole and I will but I agree with her. In the short space of time we have she won't be able to learn all of it. To control the energy balls is easy enough, but what about fire and also all the spells and just general knowledge of magic. The Charmed ones have been witches for 5 years and they still know very little about the demonic world and general magic world."
Schwarzlight listened to Cole and nodded in agreement. "I understand your concerns," he said and looked at both of them. "If you two have to learn everything the conventional way, it will take you years. And by the way not only Nicole has to learn." He shifted his gaze from Nicole to the half demon. "You Cole have a lot to learn as well. So far you learnt how to control just one part of your powers, but today you received another one, which are mainly what you consider to be witchery powers such as freezing, aerokinesis, premonitions and whitelighters powers: such as orbing." He paused enjoying the shocked expressions on the younger Lugels faces. "Yes, you are both Lugels," he continued answering the question which he read on Cole's face. "And before you start yelling at me, when I came to the Wasteland and made you that offer I had no idea you would become a Lugel. I fully intended to give you Belthazor's powers back. But there are powers beyond my control. I should tell you both that Lugels are not born. They receive their powers in different time in their lives. There are 13 Lugels at any time in the world, well except the last 25 years after Robert my brother and your father died. All Lugels are half-breds, having both evil and good sides to their heritage. Myself I was half demon/half whitelighter before I became a Lugel and your father was half demon/ half mortal. We were only half brothers. We had the same demonic father but different mothers."
"So you mean that I am only quarter magical?" Nicole interrupted him.
Lugel frowned and his expression became a little strained. "No, you are quarter demon/ quarter darklighter and half human." Nicole stared at him in disbelief and he continued. "Your mother is half darklighter. She got her powers bound when your father died. She never was into using them anyway. She got them from her mother, who left them when Katherine was very young. I think she was always embarrassed of her heritage."
"So my mother knew about Lugels and magic?" Nicole interrupted him again.
"Of course she knew." Schwarzlight confirmed. "My brother told her even before their marriage. He did not have to. Most Lugels have log term relationships when the other partner never found out about their real identity. It's not that difficult. But Robert really loved Katherine. He broke rules for her. After you were born he used his magic to put a protecting spell on her. Basically he passed his invincibility to her. He said he did not need it. And it's true. With the amount of powers Lugels have they are never in grave danger. You can detect the danger using your telepathy and premonition. You have fireballs, telekinesis and many more powers to protect yourself and you can always shimmer, blur or orb out of danger. You can put a force shield around yourself. And there are always self healing powers. But invincibility is given Lugels for a reason. Robert simply died in a plain crash. He was meeting there with a witch from another plain who passed him the last peace of the information we needed to identify the Chosen Two. The plain got into the crash and my brother managed to send the witch and the information to me but was too late to save himself. Katherine knew that he was a Lugel. Thank God, he did not tell her that I was a Lugel as well. But she pretty much suspected it anyway. After his death your mother used this knowledge against me. She threatened that she would tell everything to the Source, Elders and papers if I did not give up my attempts to see you. She did not want you to have powers or even finding out about your magic heritage. Katherine arranged for your powers to be bound. She knew I could not harm her. She also knew that she would die if she told the story. If a Lugel goes against his kind or attempts to harm our goal of protecting the magic world from exposure he or she will lose their powers instantly. Since Katherine was protected by Lugel's power she had the same threat. But I also knew that Katherine did not care. She would do it if I did not agree and I could not risk exposure. Also she was your mother and though I doubted you would be happy with her I could not just kill her or erase her memory. So I obeyed. I never made any contact with you."
Nicole was listening to him with acute interest. Finally after all these years she was learning something about her family. "Well, you better had erased her memory," she said quietly. "It would be better for you and Lugels. Because now I am completely useless, I don't know anything about magic and even can't use my powers. Just as my mother wanted it to be." Her voice sounded bitter at the end.
Schwarzlight shook his head. "No, Nicole, I knew that you were the Chosen One before Katherine took you away. And I also knew that you had to be kept innocent to be able to fulfil your destiny. If you stayed with me and knew who you were it would be almost impossible to achieve that. That's why when you contacted me I did not reply."
Nicole's face paled but Cole already learnt that in her case it was a sign of anger. "I should have been kept innocent? Well, you were very successful in achieving that. I am one hell of an innocent, that's for sure. And what your decision cost me does not matter, does it?" she seared her uncle with a deadly glare. "Of course, not. How could I forget?! The GOAL is everything."
Lugel smiled sadly. "Always and anywhere," he said, "that's our slogan."
"But not mine," Nicole said sternly. "And I do not see any reason for me to go with the destiny you prepared for me. Well, except half a billion dollars. At the moment this looks to me more of a payment than inheritance."
"Nicole," the older man lifted his hand, "I know you are angry and upset. But please do not act impulsively. Great powers come with great responsibility and tough choices. And it does not matter whether these powers are magical or not. BalFor Holdings is owned by Lugels but it does not only work for magic. We own many mortal corporations and are involved in different businesses. I wish I could change the past but I can't and I will have to admit that if I was in the same situation again I probably would have made the same choices. But you, you can change the future. And don't let your resentment against me or anybody else stop you from saving many lives. You'll regret it afterwards. And you will regret not taking a chance and experiencing what it means to be a Lugel."
Nicole stayed silent for a minute then she said in a tired voice. "Look, whether I want to embrace my destiny or not does not matter. The fact is that I can't help you. I am absolutely useless. And as Cole said it would take years for me to learn. So I think you have a wrong person."
Schwarzlight smiled, "you don't need years. There are methods to learn which are much faster than the ones you are used too. Lugels has been using them for centuries. We are not exactly trained for the job from our birth like demons or witches. And there are only 13 Lugels in the world so we can't have newcomers spending years learning things. So since the creation of the earth Lugels have been learning using telepathy. That's much faster than anything else. In 2 weeks you'll be perfectly ready for your task."
Both young Lugels looked stunned and then Cole asked, "Do you mean that we'll have a 2 weeks session with one of the Lugels who'll be telepathically pouring knowledge into us."
"Oh, no," the older man shook his head. "Most of things you'll learn from books. Other Lugels will just feel the blanks." Nicole's face expressed such scepticism that Schwarzlight decided that the small demonstration would be helpful. "OK," he said, "take a book from the shelf, any book." Nicole picked up a thin soft back which turned out to be "Darklighters and their powers". "Now," Lugel continued, "open it and start reading." The young woman gave him a stare. "Don't be scared," her uncle insisted.
Nicole opened the book and started reading. "Darklighters are angels of evil. They are direct opposite of a whitelighters, who are angels of good." The next moment a flow of images started to go through Nicole's head: different people with crossbows and arrows; the tip of the arrow became enlarged and Nicole saw the long list of ingredients, the arrow flying into the chest of the whitelighter; the later screaming in agony and many-many more images, which started to change faster and faster. Suddenly everything stopped and Nicole read "Currently there are 10,000 dark lighters in the world." She found herself on the last page and closed the book. She saw Cole looking at her with wary eyes and a triumphant smile of her uncle's face.
The later shot Cole an ironic look, "Would you mind asking Nicole a question about darklighters?"
The half-demon tried to think about the suitable question. "How do darklighters kill?" He asked the first thing that came to his mind.
Nicole shrugged her shoulders. "They usually use the crossbow with the arrows containing the special poison consisting of arsenic, devil's trill,..." she continued to name about 20 ingredients. "They can also kill with the athame but they prefer the crossbow." She stopped for a second and put her hand to her mouth. "How do I know all this?" She stared at her uncle and then at Cole.
"You have learnt all the contents of this book. Telepathically. The book simply projected its contents into your brain." The old Lugel looked very pleased. "And the speed with which you did it shows that your abilities are very remarkable."
Nicole stared at Cole with questioning look. He nodded in response. "It's true. You opened the book and there was a beam of light blasting in your forehead. It was over in mere seconds."
William Schwarzlight glanced at the clock. His expression sobered. "My time is running out. But I told you everything I wanted. I really hope that you will not reject your destiny. If you decide to accept it then for the next two weeks you will stay here. This is another dimension. The Lugels plain. This house has everything in it and you'll be able to properly train here with nobody to disturb you. Trust me, you will need this peace and comfort because it's going to be exhausting. Learning telepathically is faster but it is very intense. Also you need to practice your assault skills. On this table you'll find all the instruction and lists of books you should learn. In two weeks you'll be ready to become the members of Lugel council and the board members of BalFor Holdings. You also will start working for the DLM investments. One of the most high profile investment firms in the world. Nicole will head the Division of Private Equity Investments and Cole will become the head of their Legal Department. This will place you at the top of the financial circles of the US and also give you enough flexibility to work on your task. It won't be easy but I honestly believe that you will make it."
While he spoke Nicole could see as his semitransparent form was becoming even more eluded. The feeling of loss has hit her again.
"Would I ever see you again?" she asked in a slightly chocked voice.
He smiled back, "I am afraid not. Lugels don't become ghosts and cannot be summoned. I know how you feel Nicole, but please don't let the past hold you back. You have a chance to build a new life without our baggage and what an exiting life it will be. Use this chance." His figure became even more transparent and next second he was gone.
Cole kept quiet knowing that it was important for Nicole to have these minutes with her uncle. Suddenly he heard a distinct voice in his head. "Please take care of her. She is vulnerable and she'll need your help. And God help you if you hurt her."
"Aren't all relatives the same?!" Cole thought to himself. "God help me!"