Phila went right to her room, which was in the attic. Leo had separated a part of the attic to get an additional room for Phila. The room wasn't very big, just a bed, a desk with chair and a cupboard, but it was hers. They had enchanted it will all sorts of protection spells and even crystals, so that the demons popping into the attic weren't able to sense her presence or be able to sneak in to her room.
So it was easy for Phila to sneak to the Book of Shadows without using the staircase and alarming the rest of the family. She waited until the whole manor was sound asleep and around midnight she got up, dressed and slid noiselessly out of her room and into the attic.
She placed the crystals in a circle on the ground, lit some white candles and took a piece of paper out of her pockets. She was going to use the lost sister spell but had rearranged it a little bit to call for her father. She took an Athame from a cupboard and cut in her left palm. Blood was dropping on the spell but she already knew it by heart. She held the spell in the flame of the candle that stood inside the circle and recited the spell. She just hoped that he wouldn't make too much noise appearing in the crystal circle.
"Blood to Blood I summon thee,"
"Blood to Blood bring my father here to me."
Immediately a whirlwind began to form inside the circle and she backed away from it, hiding behind the Book of Shadows, just peering over it. It looked like something materialized in the dark wind.
The candles died out and the wind stopped and she stood in total darkness. But she felt that she wasn't alone any more and raw fear just run up her spine and gave her the creeps. With shivering fingers she reached in her pockets for the matches to light up the candles again, at least one. But she didn't get that far. The crystals suddenly glowed in bright white light and she heard someone chuckle.
"Still the same old crystals? You could have come up with something more inventive by this time." Phila heard a deep but nonetheless pleasant voice.
She peered again over the Book of Shadows and saw a man standing in the circle. He was tall, well built, had dark hair and looked exactly like the old photos of her father, she had seen in her mother's dresser. He looked like he hadn't aged at all over the last years.
"So you finally were curious about me Phila?" Cole addressed his daughter.
For since he had received the call of the blood he was sure, it was his and Phoebe's daughter who had called him. Otherwise he wouldn't have come to the Halliwell's house without any demons to protect him. As far as he knew, he had no other blood relation in this or any realm.
"Phila is a good name by the way." Cole told her "I knew Phoebe was going to pick something with a P."
Phila didn't answer. She just stared at him in disbelief. This was the Source, the most evil creature of all. And he - or it - was just standing there trying to do some small talk with her. It was incredible. She relaxed a little bit. The crystal cage seemed to hold him back, so she stepped next to the book, so that he could see her better.
"I'm not curious", Phila corrected him, "I don't know you, and I planned to leave it that way - Belthazor - I just called you because of my mother".
She didn't know how to address him. Father was out of question, Source was not really a name, Cole - for that they didn't know each other good enough, Mr. Turner just seemed too formal for and not suitable for a demon, since they normally didn't have last names. So Phila had resorted to Belthazor.
"I'm not Belthazor", Cole corrected her, lifting one eyebrow, "I'm the Source of all Evil - and you correctly address me with "My liege".
Phila snorted, "You're not my liege – nor are you my father".
Cole looked at her, for an 18 year old dealing with the Source she was pretty bold, too bold for his taste. He would teach her some manners.
He watched Phila closely as he stepped out of the circle without effort. The crystals just gleamed and fell to dust. The attic was engulfed in the night's darkness again.
Phila jumped back behind the book holding on to it, shaking like a leaf in the wind.
She fumbled for the matches and lit the single candle she could grab without crawling in his direction.
"How did you do that", she blurted out as she saw him coming nearer.
"You don't think I would come here unprepared, in the house of my arch-enemies?" Cole asked her with a mocking voice, "didn't your mother tell you not to mess with me?"
Cole's voice wasn't gentle but threatening now and he looked hard at her, eyes flashing with fire.
Phila was really scared and started to question her decision to summon him and thought about calling for her aunts.
"Not my brightest idea to call the Source", she chastised herself.
He was still coming towards her and she couldn't run anywhere. She tried to use her telekinesis on him, and he stopped and smiled an unpleasant smile.
"So you have the power of your late aunt Prue, I see", Cole said, "I wonder which of my powers you have inherited. Maybe we should unbind them to see what a nice demon you make?" he taunted her.
Phila didn't know that he couldn't unbind the Power of Three spell or at least she wasn't entirely sure of it, so she blurted out with a little girl's voice, "Mum is ill."
That wiped the smile off Cole's face and a concerned look came to it.
"Phoebe is ill? What is it? There is so much magic in this house plus some whitelighters, can't be a big deal to heal her?"
Phila watched him in astonishment. The mention of her mother had brought some soft lines to his before grim face, and gentleness to his voice that hadn't been there before. His eyes had stopped flashing and were human again.
"She has cancer. Terminal stage. She is going to die soon", Phila informed Cole, her voice business like not showing any emotion at all as she tried to rebuild her composure.
"No", Cole whispered and staggered back some steps before he caught himself. He turned around and ran his hand through his hair, angry with himself for his outburst of feelings.
Feelings he hadn't felt for years which were surfacing and running through his body. Furthermore he didn't want Phila to see the pain on his face. After all he was the Source and not supposed to be impressed by the oncoming death of some witch.
He should have been thankful instead – to get rid of the biggest enemy without any effort. The Truce was going to end at the very same day that Phoebe died, that was for sure.
But deep inside he had hoped for Phoebe to summon him one day and talk things out. Now she was going to die and he would never see her again. He was the Source. He wasn't supposed to ever go up there to elderland, where she surely would be welcomed with open arms after a life lived for saving the greater good and countless innocents.
"Why did you call me in the first place? Just to tell me that? Shouldn't you know that this is information demonhood should better not yet receive? We will start to come after your family more forcefully as soon as it spreads that one of the Power of Three is disabled." He asked her incredulously.
Phila slumped down with the Book of Shadows in her hands, she hadn't thought about that at all!
"You wouldn't send demons after us, would you?" she tried, "if you know that mother can't defend herself."
She looked at him pleadingly, trying some puppy eyes at him. Unfortunately it didn't work at all.
"I don't forbid demons to go after the Charmed Ones. I just didn't order them to do it or did it by myself in the last years, call it an old weakness", Cole mused, pacing up and down the attic agitated, keeping an eye on the attic door.
He wouldn't like it to be surprised by the Charmed Ones storming in and interrupting his nice little chat with his daughter. He had to find out everything he could, to find a weakness to exploit for dragging her to his side.
But at the same time Phoebe was always coming into his mind, her beautiful smile, her unique smell, the bitter sweet memories he still had and normally hid in the back of his mind.
"So why did you call me then?" he got himself together and asked Phila once again. „I'm not a healer. Healing is not one of the Source's powers."
"She calls your name in the night", Phila admitted, "and I think she wants to see you again before she dies - even if I can not understand why", she finished disgusted.
Could this really be true? After all this time she wanted to see him? Some hope blossomed inside Cole and the Source inside him raged about that, but was suppressed at the moment. He had been trained to hide his emotions for over 100 years, so to Phila he seemed untouched.
Phila was watching him intently. She didn't want to miss any reaction by him to her revelation. But she was disappointed, he didn't react at all, he just kept staring into the void.
With a distant and hoarse voice he asked, "Does she know you called me?"
"No, of course not", Phila said impatiently, drumming her fingers on the Book of Shadows, "if Mum dared to voice her wish openly, my aunts would surely talk her out of it immediately."
"And they would be right", Cole looked at Phila. "It's better she doesn't see me again, there are wounds that shouldn't be opened ever again", he stated firmly and flamed out of the attic.
Phila stood in the dark attic dumbfounded. So he wasn't interested anymore. Good that she hadn't told her mother about it. At least she had been able to see him. It had only reassured her that she hadn't missed out on anything with him not being around.
She put the Book of Shadows back on its altar, disposed all the candles, swept away the dust of the crystals and went back to her bed. But she couldn't find any sleep – she had too much to think about.
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Some days later.
Phoebe was in her bedroom, lying on her bed, reading some book of witch craft she had borrowed from a friend. Phila looked a little bit more down than usual the last days and she was worried about that. But her daughter wouldn't talk to her about the reason for it.
All day long she had the vague feeling that something was going to happen today. But now it was almost midnight, the house was sound asleep and nothing happened so far. Maybe her powers were off because of her illness. She wondered if her bad health influenced her ability to get premonitions.
She more sensed than heard the faint rush of someone magically entering her room. She thought it was Leo, secretly meeting with her to give her a healing energy boost, like he was doing for some time now, without her sisters or the elders knowing about it.
She looked up and reached for her glasses to put them down, put they fell from her hand as she saw who was standing at the foot of her bed.
"Cole" she breathed not able to do anything but look at him, drooling up and down at his features. He hadn't changed at all since she had last seen him.
Still the piercing blue eyes that made her shiver, the sensual lips she had loved to kiss, broad shoulders to lean against, strong arms to hold her and protect her. Phoebe was lost in her train of sweet memories.
"Phoebe?" he asked tentatively. He had already addressed her twice but she hadn't responded at all.
She looked really dreadful. Cole was shocked. Her hair that he had loved and that had framed her face so beautifully was short shaven, like a soldier's. Her face was haggard and the spirit in her eyes was missing. She looked exhausted and very thin. Her full figure had changed to something that looked like the pictures you get from starving people in Africa. Furthermore she had aged visibly, but that had he expected, all humans did that.
"Phoebe, will you talk to me?" he tried once again, but he didn't dare to approach her, so he kept standing where he was, hands in his pockets, feeling uncomfortable and sucking on his bottom lip.
Phoebe managed to snap out of her dreams and looked up at him.
"It has been a long time", she finally acknowledged trying a faint smile, "how have you been?"
"Evil, I guess", Cole answered impishly. He couldn't really answer "good", could he?
"Sorry, silly question," Phoebe apologized, "I'm not at my best at the moment".
"I heard that", Cole said gently, stepping a bit closer, waiting for her reaction to his action. Phoebe didn't flinch at all, unlike he had expected.
"I'm so impolite, please sit down Cole." Phoebe chastised herself directing her hand towards her bedside and pushing her book to the floor.
He sat down on her bed and turned to face her. He was wearing a black suit with red dress shirt. She had always liked him wearing suits and he hadn't wanted to come to her with his robe, unnecessarily reminding her of what he was.
He extended his hands to her, offering to take her hands, unsure what she would do. Phoebe laid her hands in his with a contented sigh and thankful smile.
They sat for some time just holding hands and looking at each other, taking in the others presence.
"Time was nice to you", Phoebe started the conversation again. She hated how she looked old, worn out and ill and he still was the gorgeous man she had known.
"Demons don't age, you know that Phoebe", he said matter of factly, shrugging his shoulders.
"Where did you get that hairdo?" he asked, "did you have a training session with the marines lately?" he tried a joke to lighten the tension.
"No", Phoebe answered," but I surly would have liked that much better than dying of this damn cancer."
As he didn't seem surprised by her disclosure, and just murmured "I'm so sorry for you", and just squeezed her hands, she asked, "You knew already?"
"Yeah, I have my contacts, you know", he answered vaguely.
She was disturbed by his answer. If he knew then other demons could know to, and that would put her family in mortal peril.
"So what is the reason you are here?" Phoebe asked curiously. Inside hoping he was still in love with her, as far as this was even possible for him being the Source for so long time.
"I wanted to see for myself if the rumours are true. Still hoped they weren't", Cole admitted giving her a sad smile.
He was acting so nicely, almost as in old times that she dared to ask him directly. "Did you tell anybody? I mean down there about my condition?"
He shook his head no and she believed him. She had to believe in something right now. Surely Paige would scold her about being naïve when it comes to Cole, but she just couldn't help it. She was much too tired to distrust him.
Phoebe couldn't take it any longer just sitting there doing small talk with him.
She leaned forward stretching her arms to him pleading, "Will you take me in your arms and hold me?"
Without an answer, he immediately rushed forward, and closed the distance between them, almost crushing her in his embrace. He snuggled his face into her hair, showering small kisses on her head, pressing her against him, surrounding her small back with his arms. Phoebe clung to him, her face buried at his shoulder, her arms around his neck. She couldn't stop her tears that were now freely running down her face.
"I don't want to die", she whispered to his chest, "not like this. I always thought I would die some day, saving some innocent or when I'm very old. I mean we both have seen my old self. Now I'm going to go down like this, with tubes in my body, drugged into unconsciousness."
He held her shaking body, stroking her back, as she cried and Cole felt her hot tears run down the front of his neck. He was surprised to find a single tear of his own running down his face.
When Phoebe had calmed down she asked him, "Why haven't you come earlier to see me?"
She dried her face with a tissue and leaned back on the headboard of her bed, feeling emotionally exhausted.
"You made yourself very clear in the letter you wrote me", he answered tensely, and the memory of the harsh words in her letter still hurt him. "And I'm different now. It's not that easy suppressing the Source's powers in me like it was with Belthazor. Furthermore I'm not sure you would have wanted to see me anyway if you weren't dying." He folded his hands in his lap and looked away from her.
Phoebe pondered his answer. Would she have wanted him back, if she wasn't going to die? Yes all the time. Would she have done anything? No, she could have done it earlier, if this had been a reasonable possibility.
"I´ m afraid you are right", she admitted but then curiosity got the better of her and she asked again. "I didn't catch the part with the Source's powers."
"See these powers make me irritable, angry and violent. I really easily loose my temper and do evil – I can only control these feelings for a short period", Cole explained.
"You are doing very well", Phoebe praised, touching his arm and smiling at him encouragingly.
"That's you", Cole smiled, "You make it easier."
To be continued…