With a crease of her forehead, Paige look up mouthed a "What?" as she crossed the attic to look through the bay window.
"Who is it?" queried Pru with a look of worry.
"No one's there," announced Paige with a look of worry.
"That's weird," commented Pru.
"By now nothing should be weird to you, Pru," quipped Xan, standing by the book.
"At least they didn't knock down the door."
"It might be a trap set by the warlocks!" cried Tainn with urgency.
"Or just the neighbors playing ding-dong ditch. Who knows?" muttered Julia.
"Someone's in a good mood today," said Drew.
"Yah. Well, that someone was rudely woken up by a man-shriek and has yet to have lunch, so bite me."
"Hey guys!" called Paige, catching Drew and Julia's attention and quieting them down. "Let's get serious, okay? There are warlocks after Tainn and they probably know what they're up against by now. We should know what we're up against too."
"So what do you propose we do?" asked Drew.
"We have to act fast. We need a plan," Tainn commanded.
A moment later, Paige was creeping toward the front door, the Madisons and Tainn hiding behind furniture in the parlor. Paige took one last look behind her, making sure the others had her back, before she slowly opened the door. "Hello?"
She stuck her head out the door. With quick turns, she surveyed the porch left and right before she yelled, "I don't think anyone's really here."
A flutter of wings, and Paige orbed in reflex as a sparrow soared right by the spot where Paige had been. Behind it two warlocks materialized from nowhere, charging into the manor as the bird began to shift into her human form.
"Where are you, witch?!" hissed Cat, her mouth having shaped itself from a beak. The two men, Tony and Kian, searched around for the house's residents.
Paige orbed back into the parlor behind the couch where Julia and Pru were hiding.
"Julia, now!"
The youngest Madison rose, a signal for the others to come out of hiding, letting loose a bolt of electricity at the warlocks, striking Tony right in the chest and dumping him into an end table. The other warlock looked back at his fallen comrade and snarled at the witches who had come out of hiding, before his body began to swell, taking the form of a grizzly.
Paige, the Madisons and Tainn stared at the fast growing bear before them. Xan glanced at the Old One, saying, "Okay, when you said big, you should have said really, really big."
The bear bellowed before lumbering toward the six witches. Tainn glowered at the warlock as s he shrank, her clothes melding into her skin, taking a gray-brown tinge. Her nose and mouth were joining together and lengthening like her ears. She fell forward, her hands and feet having shriveled into paws. In the span of five seconds Tainn had shape-shifted into the form of a wolf, and once the transportation was complete, she leapt at the attacking bear, sinking her teeth into his flesh.