A Master is in Your Mist – Chapter 6

Same place – Same time

The air swirled and the ceiling shook and cracked open until finally the red mist was clear. It felt like life was being shaken out of hell. Then everything all was silent and still. Phoebe lay curled up in a ball, moaning and peeking over at the Hoygles through the heavy rubble covering her.

Unfortunately, due to the commotion and Phoebe's blood-curling scream from the ceiling collapsing on top of her, the Hoygles' glowing, green eyes had her complete attention.

"Oops? Ha, ha, ha! Hi-ya! How are you guys doing? I kind of got lost down here. You wouldn't by any chance know where the bathrooms are, would you?"

The leader signaled the two demons on his left and right side to snatch her.

"I guess…not? Hey! Watch the hair! Where are you guys taking me? I really don't think the bathroom sign is over there," Phoebe yelped, watching as the Hoygle guards threw her next to Darryl's corpse.

"I'd like to hang with you guys, but I have places to go, and people to see. Nice face by the way. Gray suits you guys. Do any of you guys speak English?" Phoebe asked, unable to move or use her power.

"Yes, I do. I am the Hoygle leader, Crow. We are ancient gargoyle demons from the First and you have just volunteered to be our next victim."

"Hoygles to the first what, facial? Let me guess…you guys are not big on the joking. If you let me go, I swear that I never saw this. Mum's the word."

The Hoygle to Phoebe's right slit her finger with a carving knife.

"Ouch! What did you do that for?"

"Silence!"

"But…" Phoebe whimpered.

"I said, SHUT UP!" Crow commanded, giving her a look that could even shake up the undead.

Crow took Phoebe's wounded finger over the flame. Three specks of blood dropped into the flame. The flame burst high into the room as if it had a life of its own, bringing the red mist back into the room. Silence fell as the leader grabbed Phoebe's neck.

"We may need more to finish the ritual." The red mist became visible beyond the Hoygles' sight now and reached Phoebe's vision. The red mist took on a masculine shape as it sifted through the air to connect with its other counterparts.

Phoebe could not keep her eyes off the mist taking shape as the gargoyles slid their knife close to her throat. The shape fused even closer together.

"Let her go! She's not the Slayer," a male voice boomed over the Hoygles' hissing breath.

Crow's key men dropped her forcefully to the ground.

The Hoygles dropped to their knees and bowed down to the dark figure that solidified from the mist. Phoebe glanced up at what the Hoygles were bowing and felt a shock run through her system.

"Sorry, Master. I regret my mistake. My fondest apologies Sire, but she seemed powerful, so I thought…" Crow pleaded.

"You thought wrong, gentlemen. This is my wife. Touch her Crow and you're Slayer bait, understand?" The male threatened Crow by invisibly grabbing his neck until the Hoygle turned purply-gray and then threw him down. Crow heaved out his sour breath unevenly, looking at the dark figure with awe and admiration.

"Yes, Master. Our services are bound to you," Crow stated, giving him an ugly, yellow, slimy grin.

"Cole?" Phoebe's voice was filled with shock and rage.

"What's wrong Phoebe? You look like you have seen a ghost."

"First of all, I am not your wife anymore. Secondly, you're supposed to be dead. Gone! This is not supposed to be happening again," Phoebe grumbled.

"Now really, is that how you welcome me? Where's your manners Phoebe?" Cole teased, brushing his lips gently over hers. Phoebe shoved him away and wiped her mouth with her hand, feeling disgusted.

"How did you bring him back and why did you kill my friend Darryl?" Phoebe asked Crow, trying to grab the creature's neck, but failed as the Hoygle guards grabbed her arms. Their grip was stronger than lead.

"To start a war and open up new Hellmouths. It was only a matter of time before we found the one who can hold the great power to destroy the Slayer and her line and to make the world slaves to our people. Cole is the perfect candidate because he already has a stimulated power for evil as the Source. The Source's power is just a connected, weaker, ancestoral line to the First. That is why we sacrificed your friend Darryl. He knew too much about Cole's past and we needed to make sure he did not get in our way. Plus, Darryl's flesh and blood made an acceptional gift and has linked the First's power into Cole." Crow's ugly face cracked an evil sly grin as he saw Phoebe's face fall. Realization set in that the Charmed Ones had sent Darryl to meet his end and were the ones to blame for bringing on an apocalypse that will devour the world and tear whatever goodness it may have had into dust.

We have opened Pandora's box and have let out a demon of our own making. Whoever is behind the mask of evil is not entirely Cole. We should have been more careful and more aware of Darryl. There is no way we can fight this alone. They are too strong and beyond our power, Phoebe reflected miserably.

"Now what's with that face? Don't look at me like that! You should be happy that I am not mad at you for killing me. In fact, thanks to you I feel reborn and recharged for action. I no longer feel confused or uptight about my place in life and about our relationship. No hard feelings at all," Cole reminisced, lightly touching Phoebe's face. Phoebe jerked, trying to shove him further away from her. Phoebe shook herself from the Hoygles' grip and tried to find a way out of the vision. No dice. Cole laughed.

"Leaving so soon, my love? You didn't think this was like any ordinary vision, did you?" Cole blinked Phoebe's way with fiery eyes to momentarily freeze her in place. "I called to you from the beyond and claimed you as my own. This is what is meant to be. You just haven't seen it through, but I have.Your power is like a tinker toy compared to my own now. Phoebe, you could have the world and so much more if you joined me. Imagine the power and life we could share together. What do you think?" Cole tilted her chin up to read her face.

"Cole get real. You are the last person I could ever trust. What makes you think I would turn my back on my sisters again? You're a crazy son of a – " Cole snapped his fingers and Phoebe's voice was gone.

"What was that honey? You should really watch your language, Pheebs! A girl like you could get herself into trouble with that pretty little mouth." Cole laughed as Phoebe frowned at him. Cole clasped her hands with his and kissed them both tenderly, leaving her unguarded as he used his powerful dark, fiery eyes to hypnotize and reach into her mind for her Achilles heel. The intimate telepathic action turned Phoebe's mind into putty as he reached out toward her chest to pull out the light within her.

"She is definitely the highlight of my existence. I always knew we were soul mates. You guys may look, but do not touch. This soul is not for the taking," Cole placed the soul into a glass jar like a trapped firefly.

"Wow! Nice work. How did you do that Master? I tried to shut her up earlier and she would not stop blabbering!" Crow said with a laugh.

"All it takes is a little politeness, Crow. You need to treat her like a lady, plus, I know her better than you do. Now leave us, all of you. Leave me with my adorable wife. I'll call if I need you," Cole murmured.

"As you wish, Sire." Crow bowed with the rest of the Hoygles and vanished from the room. Cole picked Phoebe up and kissed her. This was not like any other kiss. This kiss was like dark fire, passion and power pulsing through his veins. Entwined power with no limits. What an overwhelming feeling! He finally owned his own body and this beauty was his queen, his second in command. He finally had her body, mind, and soul with no pretenses. There would be no pititful, dumb, failing, mortal priest as his commander. This time the connection was real and true. Phoebe was a part of him as much as he was a part of her.

"You may speak again. How do you feel, sweetheart?" Cole released the freezing power from her as he trailed his fingers through Phoebe's medium length, brown, silky hair. He couldn't get enough of her and could not believe that he could finally be able to feel.

"Hungry for you, of course. Quit talking," Phoebe whispered, lightly biting and kissing his ear.

"As much as this amuses me, I'm going to have to send you back to your sisters for awhile, but don't worry. They won't expect a thing. When I call you, come to me. We have much to plan." Cole kissed Phoebe and with a wave of his hand sent her back to her sisters.

Well at least she has some sense knocked back into her, Cole mused. The only problem was sending Phoebe back to Piper and Paige, but he didn't want the Charmed Ones to suspect anything about Phoebe. The Charmed Ones alone were no threat to Cole as the First. He was going to restore his Hellmouth territory, but he wasn't going to make the same mistakes as last time. No crazy people roaming the streets or killing off each other. He needed to be more devious in order to defeat the Slayer and her team. This time he was going to make sure that no spell was going to stop his plan to kill and rule the Earth for eternity.

Back at the Halliwell Victorian Home
In the living room
One hour later after the vision incident

Phoebe woke up on the coach of the living room with a blue glow covering her body. Leo, the Charmed Ones' whitelighter was healing her wounds from the fall.

"Oh, thank God, she's alive! What happened Phoebe? You just wiped out on us while you were trying to get a premonition. Did you sense or find anything interesting?" Piper said loudly, feeling Phoebe's head for bumps.

"Nothing really. I can only recall parts of the vision. The demons are grayish colored and are called Hoygles. Other then that, I am clueless," Phoebe admitted, limping off the coach.

"You okay, Phoebe?" Piper asked, with a worried expression on her tired looking features.

"I'm dandy!" Phoebe waved a shaky hand to disregard the question and gave Piper a look of concern. "Besides Piper, you shouldn't have to worry about me. You should be taking more care of yourself in your fragile state." Piper just shook her head and sighed. Phoebe was always the Miss Independent.

"I've sketched a picture of the demons and the carved picture in the basement from what I can remember of them, but the Book of Shadows doesn't show any Hoygle demons," Paige said, while quickly flipping through the magic book. Paige handed her sketches to Phoebe. "Do these look like the demons?" Paige asked, her lips tightened and hands behind her back as she waited for Phoebe's delayed response.

"Yep, those would be my boys," Phoebe quickly replied, grinning at the perfectly sketched picture of the gray, horned, bulky, demons.

"Your…what?" Piper cut in, looking at her sister more thoroughly.

"The boys…I said the ...demons." Phoebe stammered, holding her head as if she were going to faint.

"I'll go check with the Elders on these demons and the carved bull plate. They must know something that we don't know." Leo kissed Piper gently on the forehead.

"Hurry back this time, will you?" Piper complained to a patch of blue air. "Well easy come, easy go. I don't know what to do with him sometimes." Piper shook her head and sank into the soft, beige sofa.

"So what do we do now sistas, twiddle our thumbs?" Paige asked, looking aimlessly around the room. "Piper, didn't you mention in the basement that we had a relative who is an expert on this line of attack? You know, ancient demony stuff?" Paige leaned against the coach looking hopeful.

"Yeah, we have a distant cousin who is a witch. I think her name is Willow Rosenberg. She used to live in a shady town known for its supernatural weirdness called Sunnydale and now she lives in Italy as I can recall from her last Christmas letter. I suppose it doesn't hurt to give her a call and ask her about it," Piper replied, awkwardly.

"What's wrong then, Piper?" Paige twisted her head to one side, examining her sister's uneasy expression.

"Nothing, I guess. I'll give her a call and we'll see what happens." Piper took a deep breath and picked up the receiver.

"Wait a minute! You are going to call Willow who has been known for her addiction to evil magic," Phoebe quoted with her fingers. "Have you gone loony?" Phoebe's eyebrows puckered up questioningly.

"I suppose we could forgive our demon lovers, but not our cousin, is that it? Pheebs, I believe in second chances. No one is entirely strong in this world. Everyone is allowed to make mistakes once in awhile. That does not make us truly evil," Paige responded strongly.

"Well sure, if you put it that way." Phoebe yawned. "I'm bushed! I am going to get some shuteye. Will you two be okay when I'm gone?" Phoebe asked curiously.

"We will be fine. I'm going to make that call to Italy. We will give you a holler if we need you," Piper shouted over her shoulder while dialing the phone number to Willow's place. Both sisters were caught up with the phone conversation that they were too distracted to notice Phoebe's evil grin and her eyes turning empty and black as she vanished up the Halliwell's stairs, leaving a trail of red mist.