Thanks for your reviews! I'm always glad to read them and it's great that you like to read the story!
Zerli
Thank you! You are right, I'm also sure, that Prue wouldn't act this way, if her sister were there, too. They would interfere and I'm sure, they'd ruin everything.
Okay, I hope you'll like the next chapter!
16. Chapter
The next Morning Prue was in the kitchen together with Danny, while Mrs. Jennings was upstairs, when Cole came into the room. He held the phial in his hand and looked at Prue asking. "How does it work?" He wanted to know.
"You only have to put one drop into a drink." Prue explained and looked at him sceptically. "But I really don't know, if that's the best solution to find out the truth." She trusted Madam Zadie's abilities more or less, but nevertheless she didn't feel well with this potion. She still didn't want to use magic here, and especially magic made by other people.
"I don't know another way." Cole explained. He was convinced about it and added. "Where did you get it from?"
"I've already told you. From a voodoo priestess, I met yesterday." Prue explained. "And therefore I won't take the blame, if it doesn't work or if something happens to Amy."
"I'm sure that it'll work out all right." Cole said confidently and looked at the phial in his hand. He didn't want to take care about the possible side effects, he had Wingrove breathing down his neck.
When Cole entered the remand prison two hours later, he was led into the small room again. A warder was taking Amy shortly after.
Amy told Cole without a welcome that Mr. Wingrove has visited her last afternoon.
"And? Am I still your lawyer?" Cole asked cooly and went to the drinks machine in the edge of the room.
"Yes! Although you can act like a real bastard, I've told Mr. Wingrove that I don't want another lawyer." Amy said.
"I'm sure, he was glad, when he heard it." Cole said grinning and pulled out two cokes. Without thinking twice he opened one of them and dripped a drop of the potion into the drink. "And one for you." He said and went back to his place.
Amy took it and looked at the can doubtfully. "Actually I prefer Fanta, but you didn't even ask me."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Cole said and opened his coke to drink a drop of it. Amy was still holding her coke in her hand and made no move to drink it. He should have asked her, Cole thought angrily. "Just try it, it's really good."
Amy looked at him in disbelief. "I've drunken coke before, finally I'm not coming from the moon." She explained shaking her head. But he was looking at her so begging, that she did him the favour and drank a little bit- an ordinary coke!
Cole leaned back and looked very satisfied with himself. "Okay if you accept me as your lawyer, you'll finally have to tell me everything about the murder." Cole explained and looked at her attentively.
"But I don't want to." Amy said firmly.
No question, that was the truth, but she would have given this answer without a truth potion, too. "Amy please, what did you plan for that night? What did you do there?" Cole wanted to know.
"I wanted to celebrate Beltane." Amy explained calmly and wondered, why she couldn't keep her mouth shut, but the words were flowing out of it and she couldn't do anything against it. "I wanted a ceremonial confirmation, at least that. I wanted to jump over the fire with him, so that we would be tied together for at least one year." She was really taken aback and she looked at Cole in disbelief, she never wanted to tell it to anyone.
"You and your boyfriend?" Cole asked, now he knew that the potion worked. When Amy nodded slowly, he asked her the most important question. "Who is responsible for Adam Boucher's death?"
Amy gave a loud sob. "Me, it's my fault." She explained and started to cry.
Cole looked at her amazed, that was the last thing he wanted to hear. "Do you mean, you have stabbed him?" He asked and looked shocked.
Amy looked up. "No, of course not. But he was there because of me. If I didn't invite him, he would be still alive."
Cole heaved a sigh of relief, she didn't murder him, he knew it. "But why did you invite Adam Boucher?" He wondered.
Amy looked at him in surprise. "But I already told you, I wanted to tie him to me. I wanted to jump over the fire with him and to sleep with him under the open sky. If he decided for the church, I'd like to have a witch wedding at least. A trail marriage for one year. I hoped, that he would think about everything again, but he didn't want it." She gave a loud sob again. "He was angry that I brought him to come. We had an argument about it and then I threw the necklace into the fire. It was his present for me long ago and I told him, that I don't want to hear anything of his church ever again."
Cole was completely surprised. "Adam Boucher was your boyfriend?" It would never have occurred to him.
"Yes, we met each other two years ago on a students party. What a coincidence to meet him there, I mean, we were both coming from New Orleans, but we had to be far away from home to meet each other." Now she has started to tell him everything about it and she didn't need further words of encouragement. "I fell in love with him immediately and so did Adam. First I couldn't believe it, I have never been so lucky before." She looked at Cole. "I knew that he was studying theology, but that doesn't mean a thing. When he has taken his final examinations, he went back to New Orleans. It was terrible, I missed him so much, every day and every night, well every hour. We wrote and called each other, but that wasn't the same. You can't feel anyone through the phone. And in the end of the semester I was so happy to go home for vacations to finally meet him again." Tears were running down her cheeks. "But he was so reserved. He told me, that he has decided to become a priest. I couldn't believe it. And what should happen to me? How could anything be more important than love?" She looked at Cole asking, but he could only shrug his shoulders.
"Well you've come to the wrong person to ask this question." he told her.
"Anyhow I thought, that I just have to be with him and he would change his mind. Therefore I told my parents, that I wouldn't go back to university, that I would stay at my parents' place. They put up with it, because they were never interested what I was doing as long as I wasn't in their way. So I went to the church again and again to see Adam. But he gave me the cold shoulder. He told me, that I should go back to university, that I should forget him, but I couldn't do it. In the end I even told him, that we could be together secretly, if he wanted to become a priest at all costs. But he didn't want." she explained sadly.
"What an idiot!" Cole said approving.
Amy smiled sadly. "You can say that again. After all I had the idea to celebrate the first May. A stupid idea, I know, but I was desperate."
"How did you know about the May celebration?" Cole wanted to know. "It isn't a typical ceremony for this region."
"No, but voodoo never had an attraction for me. It's too scary. But the witchcraft always held a great fascination for me. Especially after I met the old Mrs. Turner. She was an old crotchety lady and lived in a beautiful old house with a enchanted garden behind the house. It is located in one of the old districts of the town." Amy explained.
Cole could imagine very well, which house she described, but he didn't want to interrupt her flow of words.
"I always visited her, when I was at home to learn a little bit about the witch-craft.She told me that there were sleeping powers inside of me and that I would finally find them, if I met her more often." She smiled softly. "She even wanted to leave her book of shadows to me, but then she suddenly died and her house was unoccupied for a while, but then her heirs moved in. I don't know what they have done with the book."
Cole decided to change the subject and asked. "Who is Adam's murderer?"
She looked at him desperately. "I don't know, it was a creature standing immediately with a knife in his hand in front of us. It walked to us and stabbed the knife into Adam's heart. It happened so fast, that I couldn't do anything. I screamed, but there wasn't anybody else who could help us. The creature grinned and then it disappeared into thin air, I can't describe it in a different way. I kneeled down beside Adam and pulled out the knife, but then the wound was bleeding even more. I tried to stop it with my blouse, but it was impossible." She shed bitter tears. "I couldn't do anything." She explained in tears. "Everything was red and Adam didn't say a word, I've tried to talk to him, but he was already dead. And the last we have done was quarreling." She let her head falling down on her arms.
Cole didn't know what to do, so he had got no choice and went on asking. "Why did you say it was a creature?"
Amy looked up and wiped off her tears. "Because that was it, it wasn't a human." She shrugged her shoulders. "Perhaps I lured it with my May celebration, perhaps I brought it up."
"Nonsense." Cole explained. "If it was really a demon, he would have his own reasons to be there."
"A demon?" Amy shrugged her shoulders. "Perhaps that was it, in any case it didn't have a heart."
"No heart?" Cole asked in surprise. "What are you trying to say?"
"That's exactly what I said." Amy explained and looked at Cole uncertainly. "I can see it." She said in a low voice. "Some people have an ice-cold lump, or it's hard as stone, or a big wall surrounds it." She smiled softly. "I know it sounds more than strange, but it's the truth. And this creature had nothing, there was just an empty place. I have never seen anything like that before."
Cole was confused, he has never heard about such an ability before. "Have you been able to do it all your life?"
Amy looked at him thoughtfully. "I've a special feeling, that I was able to see it, when I was a little child, but later I couldn't. Only when I met Mrs. Turner and spent my time together with her, it was coming back."
Cole resisted to ask her, how his own heart was looking like, at least there wasn't an empty place like it was at the demon. But nevertheless he didn't want to know it exactly. Still lost in thoughts, he noticed that Amy took a close look of her coke.
"You put something in my drink, didn't you?" She asked indifferently.
"Oh no, what gives you that idea?" Cole asked with a surprised smile.
"Well, otherwise I wouldn't have told you the truth." She explained plainly and held the drink out to him. "Try it yourself."
Cole looked at the coke. "No thanks!" he said. "I don't like to drink out of something, when somebody else already drank out of it."
"Your a liar!" Amy said and couldn't help smiling. "You see, it's the truth." she held the coke out to him again. "Come on drink a little bit, or are you a coward?"
"No." Cole explained with a grin. "But I'm no idiot, either."
Amy shook her head. "You bastard, you really gave me a truth serum. I can't believe it."
Cole shrugged his shoulders. "I had to find out the truth and you were happy to finally get everything off your chest, weren't you?"
Amy looked at the coke and nodded. "Yes, that's right." she said in a low voice. Oh no, she hated this compulsion to tell the truth, she thought angrily. Then she looked at Cole again carefully. "Will you be able to help me?"
Cole nodded. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of prison." He assured her confidently.
"But it won't bring Adam back to me." Amy explained and stood up. She took the coke and gave it to Cole. "Take it, otherwise a wrong person could find it."
Cole stood up too and took both cans in his hand, when Amy suddenly embraced him clumsy. "I'm happy, that you are my lawyer." she muttered and rushed to the door, where the warder was already waiting for her.
Cole looked after her in surprise and tucked his briefcase under his arm to follow her. Another warder looked at him sceptically when he saw the two cokes in his hands. "She didn't like it." Cole told him and looked around, there was a wastepaper basket beside the warder's desk. It wasn't a perfect place, but he wanted to get rid of Amy's coke as soon as possible. He emptied the coke into the basket, without thinking twice.
Meanwhile the warder looked at him angrily. "This is a wastepaper basket!" He snapped at him. "Dispose your rubbish somewhere else." He went to Cole, while Cole was throwing the can into the basket.
"Just look at the mess you've done. It's disgusting!" The warder scolded.
"I'm so sorry." Cole said with an excusing smile. He was still holding his own coke in his hand, he drank it up quickly and threw it into the wastepaper basket, too. "It won't happen ever again." He said and saw that he left the building as soon as possible.
Shortly after Cole speeded along the highway and didn't keep an eye on the speed limit. He racked his brain over Amy and her confession. How should he get her out of prison? When a demon was the culprit, it wouldn't help him along. Lost in thoughts he didn't notice that a police car turned up beside him and gave him signs to stop at the edge of the road. Cole looked at the speedometer and knew immediately what was wrong, he pulled over to the side and waited reluctantly.
One of the policemen walked to his car and it was obvious that he took himself very seriously. "Driving license and car documents." He said firmly.
Cole gave him the papers and looked at him innocently. "What's the problem?" He asked.
The policeman looked at him with a trace of a smile. "You can tell me yourself, Mr. ..." he looked at the paper. "Turner."
Cole, who was never at a loss for an excuse, opened his mouth, but the only words he could utter were. "I ignored the speed limit."
"I'm glad that you are reasonable at least." The policeman told him satisfied. "But nevertheless there's no getting away for you from a ticket." He started to write something and didn't notice, that Cole watched him intently. He would accept everything, as long as the policeman would disappear without asking needless questions.
Cole didn't know how, but he must have drunken something of the truth potion. He put out the phial carefully from his pocket and looked at it attentively. There was only one drop left. If he had taken too much of it and this was the side effect of the use? But no, when he was together with Amy, he didn't have any problems to lie. Suddenly he remembered Amy's clumsy embrace. This bitch must have done something to exchange the contents of the cans.
Meanwhile the policeman was ready and gave Cole the ticket. "And in future you'll drive more carefully, otherwise you'll get into trouble." He admonished Cole. But to Cole's relief he turned around without waiting for an answer.
When the policeman was gone Cole heaved a sigh of relief. He leaned back and watched the police car disappearing. He waited for a while until he drove off again carefully. How could anything like this happen to him? Cole wondered, a little girl was able to outsmart him. He was out of practise, it was awkward. He took great care to avoid to attract attention and thought where he could spend the next hours. Amy put him into a dangerous situation and he didn't want to meet anyone. He turned into the road to his house and passed it slowly. Mrs. Jennings car wasn't standing in front of it and Cole decided to park at the end of the road. Mrs. Jennings wouldn't expect him at home, if she didn't see his car, when she was coming home.
Cole got off the car and walked back to his house. He opened the door and listened carefully, but nobody was there. He entered the hall and decided to barricade himself in his bedroom until the effect of the damn potion would wear off. But first he went into the kitchen to search for something to eat, before Mrs. Jennings would come back. He found something and went back to the hall, when he heard some noise and stopped rooted to the spot.
The door flied opened and Prue and Dianne entered the hall laughing.
Cole looked at them horrified. "What are you doing here?" He asked.
"We were in the swimming fun land together with the children." Dianne explained happily. "We needed to relax."
"So you don't have to work?" Cole wanted to know and decided to disappear as soon as possible.
"Dianne didn't have any clients and Petersen gave me off this morning. He is very obliging lately." Prue told him, obviously satisfied with this situation. But then she looked at him doubtfully. "Why do you want to know?"
"Well I didn't expect anyone at home." Cole explained with an excusing smile.
"Oh, do you mean, you wanted to avoid our nice company?" Dianne asked laughing.
"Indeed." Cole said according to the facts and looked at the door to his bedroom longing. "I'd prefer to be alone."
"Why?" Prue asked on alert, she noticed that something was wrong.
But instead of disappearing with a good excuse, the words came gushing out. "I drank something of this damn truth potion and now I don't want to answer your questions." He pulled a face annoyed of himself, he didn't believe it. He couldn't have chosen a worse place to hide.
Dianne had a good laugh. "If you have to tell us the truth, then will you finally tell me, why you've send Prue and your son alone to New Orleans?" She looked at him rather curiously.
"I didn't send them to New Orleans." Cole explained, gladly that the truth was so simple.
"Oh, I see, but why didn't you come with them at once?" Dianne went on. "What did you do in the meantime?"
Cole opened his mouth and he couldn't do anything against it. "I wanted to get back my wife, but she didn't want me. It was over and gone for her. But I couldn't accept it and I tried to win her back. In the end I even built an alternative reality. But it didn't work, she still didn't want to have anything to do with me and vanquished me without batting an eyelid. So I was stuck in a between world until the Angel of Destiny offered me to come here. That's the simple reason, why Prue was alone in New Orleans for the first months." Cole explained and looked at Prue beseeching. "I'll better go now." He said and rushed to his door.
Dianne looked after him thoughtfully. "Mm, I expected something like that." She explained nodding.
Prue looked at her astonished. "What?" she asked.
"Of course," Dianne considered carefully. "..he used strange metaphors, but nevertheless it was obvious, that he didn't come to terms with the death of his wife. He should undergo therapy." She looked at Prue encouraging.
"Well I think, there is no chance." Prue said and led Dianne discreetly to the garden. "He has finally got over it."
Dianne shrugged her shoulders and followed Prue to the garden. "Do you know, Prue, some people feel so much, but they act as if they wouldn't feel anything." She looked at Prue requesting. "It's just an advice, but I think he would listen to you."
Prue shook her head. "I doubt it very much." she explained plainly and guided Dianne to the garden door.
When her neighbour finally said good-bye, Prue went back into the house and stopped in the hall thoughtfully. She didn't understand, why Cole has drunken something of the potion, even he couldn't be so stupid, or could he? She looked at his door, when suddenly somebody opened the entrance door. Mr. Jennings appeared weighed down with shopping.
"It was like all hell let loose on the market." She announced, while Prue took off some bags. They went into the kitchen and put them on the table. After they had packed away the food, Prue sent Mrs. Jennings and Danny upstairs, while she went back into the hall. She stopped in front of Cole's door. Although she made up her mind not to do it, she couldn't pass up this opportunity. She opened the door slowly and slipped into the room.
"Why does this damn door don't have a lock?" Cole asked angrily.
Prue looked at him, he was sitting thoughtfully in the armchair under the window. "Because we don't need one." She explained cooly and sat down on his bed. "Why did you drink anything of the truth potion?"
"Probably because I'm too stupid or just too confiding." He explained according to the truth.
"So it worked? Did Amy tell you the truth?" Prue asked.
"Yes, it worked." Cole decided to tell her all his conversation with Amy, then Prue couldn't ask him anything.
But Prue stopped him at once. "There's no hurry. You can tell me about it later." she said firmly and looked at her watch. "I'll have to go in a moment."
"That's great!" Cole said in relief. "Don't let me keep you, that can wait until tonight."
But he didn't get rid of her so quickly. "But first I have some questions." Prue said and smiled nastily. "Or did you expect that I would let you escape so easily?"
"No, although you should remember that you may not use magic for your personal gain." Cole told her intently. He didn't want to answer one of her questions. He wasn't interested to find out, what she would like to know from him. He didn't want to speak about his past, about secrets, he even hid from himself. He looked at her begging. "Please go, Prue."
She focused on him, she knew it wasn't fair, but she had to ask him one question at least. "What would you do, if Phoebe turned up here?"
"Mm." Cole looked at her calmly. "I'd take Danny and go away with him as far as possible." He told her without hesitation, but he had to bite on his tongue not to go on, because he didn't want to tell her, that he hoped that she would come with him. Finally that wasn't her question and it would be rather unlikely that she would come with him and why did he wanted it at all?
"Why?" Prue asked in surprise, because she has reckoned with a lot but not with this answer.
"Because she would take Danny away from me, although she didn't want him. He would always bear a stigma in her point of view. A demon was his father or worse the Source of all evil, and no matter how hard I tried, she couldn't be persuaded that he is good. I know, how it is and that's the last thing I want for him. I don't want to see him evil, he shall be lucky and he'll only be lucky in your world. I'm no danger for him ... and I'm no danger for you." He looked her straight into the eyes without batting an eyelid. "Perfectly content now?"
"I've no idea!" Prue said and stood up to go to the door. "The effect will come to an end after two hours. So you should stay here."
She left the room without turning around again. She didn't want to be lead into temptation to ask him all the questions, she was interested in. She didn't want to think about it, she didn't want to know which questions she would really like to ask, because she also didn't know, how she would react, when she would hear the answer. And it was wrong to take a personal advantage from this situation, because as much as she wanted she couldn't get rid of this strange feeling that she did something wrong. She knew exactly that such actions could backfire on her. Therefore she has stopped it, for her own peace of mind. And there were a lot of things she didn't even want to know. It was better as it was. And the truth, well the truth always depended on the person who saw it. Because she doubt it very much, that he wasn't dangerous for her.
When Prue came home that evening, diner was already waiting for her. Cole has set the table with the best delicacies and even a bouquet was standing in the middle. Prue looked around and was impressed. She has thought about the chance she had missed all afternoon. She wasn't sure, if she had done the right. She had let Cole get away too easily. But now it was too late. She took a seat and decided to stop thinking about it.
Cole sat down opposite to her and started to tell her about Amy's confession.
After he finished, Prue looked at him thoughtfully. "And what will you do now? It won't help Amy, if a demon is the murderer."
"I know, but I'll find a way to get her free." Cole explained confidently.
"But how?" Prue asked sceptically.
"Mm, I'll think of something." Cole said and took his cutlery.
After they finished their diner, they brought the rests into the kitchen and placed them onto the table and the sink. Prue looked around doubtfully, but Cole shook his head. "Mrs. Jennings will take care about it tomorrow." He decided and led Prue back into the living room.
Prue sat down on the coach and looked at Cole thoughtfully. "What was that supposed to be?"
Cole shrugged his shoulders. "I just want to thank you, Prue."
Sie looked up and asked in surprise. "For what?"
"You know very well what I mean." Cole sat down in an armchair opposite to her. "That you just asked me one question."
"Oh I see, that I didn't reach your wretched little secrets." Prue shook her head. Perhaps she should have taken the opportunity to find out everything what could help to protect Danny and herself in future. But she doubted it very much, that it would have helped her at all, therefore she explained calmly. "Don't mention it, I'm not in the least bit interested in it."
"I'm glad to know." Cole said with a gentle smile. "But what did Dianne say, when she heard my answer?"
Prue laughed. "Don't worry, she was impressed of your way of expressing." When she noticed Cole's sceptical look, she added. "That's the truth, she was convinced that you've tried to express your undigested emotions with metaphors."
"Oh no." Cole laughed. "I'm glad that it was Dianne who heard it, I don't want to know what other people would have thought." He looked at Prue and the smile faded from his lips.
"I'm also wondering, what's all this about. Another reality?" She asked sceptically.
"Mm, just forget it, it didn't harm anyone, just me." He told her and kept his distance.
"And Phoebe did vanquish you? I thought, you've told me, that it was Paige?" Prue wanted to know.
"And I thought, that you aren't interested in it." Cole said with curt.
"If my sisters were involved in it, then I am interested." Prue told him coldly.
"Well unfortunately it's too late, you've missed your chance." Cole told her angrily. "And I won't allow this stupid discussion to spoil this evening for me."
"Just answer me who it was." Prue urged him.
Cole gave an angry sigh. "In my point of view Paige was responsible, but Phoebe did it, okay?"
"How did it happen? What have you done to her, that she came to do it?" Prue asked sceptically. She knew her little sister very well and even if she acted on impulse very often, Prue was convinced that she would always climb down in the last moment.
"Why can't we just try to enjoy this good spirit. No, you have to spoil it." He told her angrily. "Do I really have to tell you all the mess about the source? I thought, you've caught it from above."
Prue looked at him sceptically. "And that was everything?" she wanted to know in ironical voice. "What did you do later?"
Cole looked at her sneering. "I rescued Phoebe of a witches' hunter, I brought her back when she preferred to be a mermaid, I rescued her, when she was a pumpkin, I ..."
Prue raised her hand annoyed to stop him. "Your good deeds weren't the reason, why she vanquished you, were they?" she asked angrily. "So what did happen?"
"Well somehow they were a reason, too." Cole said with a shrug. "And what do you think, what happened? I was getting evil again, what else? As she always predicted me, my demonic powers were stronger, okay?" He answered in a low voice. "Is it that, what you wanted to hear?"
Prue looked at him thoughtfully, it was so easy to forget, what he was, or what he had been, a demon, who had killed countless innocents. She shouldn't ever forget it, she had to be careful. But nevertheless, when she looked at him now, she couldn't get around to see him as a kind of a victim, too. Because despite of his put on coolness, she noticed that he suffered of the knowledge what he had done in the past. "I have to know it Cole, finally you are living with me now."
"And I've told you, that I'm no danger for you." He explained angrily. "And even, when I had to tell you the truth."
"And if your demonic powers will come back?" Prue wanted to know and told him, what Madame Zadie has told her about the natural source of power.
"I've never heard about anything like that." he said thoughtfully. "But even if my powers come back, I'll be able to cope with it, I can control them."
"In the past you've always claimed that, too." Prue said in a low voice.
"You're right." He stood up and sat down beside her. He looked her deep into the eyes and said softly. "The last times I didn't manage, but now the situation is different. And I know that you are very observant." His hand stroked over her cheek to her neck. "And if I start to act strange..."
Prue leaned forward to whisper in his ear sneering. "You always do, don't you?"
Cole ignored her objection and continued. "... don't have a shave for days and have a crazy look, it'll be the critical moment." He kissed her neck. "And if I'm supposed to suddenly be normal again, with a fresh shave and clean clothes, the evil will have won." He leaned back to look at her. "Is that enough?"
Prue shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I'll make sure that I won't forget it."