I'll probably updat this story much quicker than my other ones as it's practically ready except one chapter. I hope you like this one and once again: please let me know what you think! It always motivates me a lot.

Thank you for reading!

Chapter 2: Piper

Piper knew that she was in the past in the moment she saw the furniture. It wasn't hard to realize it as she liked period movies (which Leo really hated, by the way!) and the environment reminded her of the beginning of the twentieth century. She also knew that she wasn't in the room physically because the little boy who sat at the table and was drawing something didn't even flinch, however he was looking exactly at her when she appeared here.

The boy couldn't be more than four and was chewing on the end of his pencil at the moment with a dreamy expression.

Suddenly – somewhere very near – a baby started to cry. The boy gave a start, jumped up and rushed out of the room. Piper followed him curiously. They went into the next room where a cot stood in the middle. The boy ran to it and lifted the baby with practice.

„Don't cry!" he tried to speak calmly but Piper heard a panicky undertone in his voice. „Mother said that we should be quiet! She has a guest and she doesn't want us to disturb her. Okay, Rosie?"

While he was speaking he was also cradling the baby who stopped crying quickly and was watching the boy with her huge blue eyes.

The resemblance between the two children was so obvious that Piper instantly assumed that they were siblings.

„Aren't you sleepy anymore?" the boy asked and the baby grinned at him happily as an answer and started to play with his dark hair.

„Ouch! This hurts! Let's play something instead!"

He put down the little one on the ground and from under the cot pulled out a box which was full of wooden building blocks. Before sitting down he closed the door carefully.

Then he started to build something, maybe a castle. The little girl who wasn't even one year old, in Piper's opinion, pulled herself into a sitting position and watched her big brother with awe. Then she tried to latch on to the game by grabbing a block and shuffling it on the floor.

Piper watched them with a smile on her face and was wondering about her own future: maybe one day she will be able to watch her own children this way.

„Cole!"

The shout scared not just the children but also Piper. Not just because the woman sounded really angry but because she just realized who the small boy had to be and why he was so familiar from the first second on.

The boy – Cole – jumped up and started to toss back the blocks into the box. But before he could finish it a dishevelled looking woman stormed into the room. Her blouse was misbuttoned, her hair stood at different directions and her make up was smeared. She held a crumpled piece of paper in her right hand.

„I have told you a thousand times not to let your filthy things around the house!" she shouted.

„I'm sorry, mother..." the boy mumbled.

„Don't be sorry! Just do what I tell you!"

Meanwhile she reached the children – and quite out of the blue, for Piper – she slapped her son hard. With the free hand she grabbed the smaller child, lifted her and practically dropped her back into the cot.

„It's your luck that your father comes home soon, else you would get your share!" she spoke angrily. „Put those things away! You know that I hate those childish games of yours."

„Yes, mother!"

„I want silence while I'm preparing myself for your father. We'll have a great evening today!"

Piper saw that Cole wanted to ask what his mother meant but thought it better to shut his mouth. The next moment the woman was already out of the room.

Cole put away the toys and then sat down next to the cot and quietly started to tell a story about a prince and a dragon.

Piper had to admit that there was nothing demonic about the two children. She knew as much that Cole's father was human and only his mother was a demon but she always thought that Cole was his mother's son.

Soon they heard a door banged and then a happy voice of a man could be heard:

„I'm home!"

„Do you hear that Rosie?" Cole picked up his sister and rushed out to meet his father, Piper right on his heels.

Piper saw at an instant that in appearance none of the children were like their father. Mr. Turner had warm brown eyes and brwon hair that was missing on the top, he also had glasses on, was rather thin and tall and definitely much older than his wife. When he glimpsed his children though he dropped down the suitcase he was holding and opened his arms for a hug.

„I'm so glad that you're back!" Cole said after he was hugged tightly and the baby was taken from his arms.

„I'm also very glad my son! Oh, and here's my little angel!" he smiled at the baby who grinned back at him. „Where's your mother?"

„Up somewhere..."

In that moment the woman appeared at the top of the stairs.

„Darling!" she greeted his husband with a smile that Piper recognized to be fake. But Mr. Turner didn't see anything as his jaw practically dropped by her sight.

Piper also had to admit that the woman looked amazing in her thight black dress that showed every curve of her perfect body.

„Elizabeth, my dear, you're more beautiful than I rememberred."

They kissed each-other.

„Are we celebrating something?" the man asked.

„Yes..." the woman smile misterously. „I got some news from home."

„As I see those news were good."

„The best!"

„Are you going to tell me?"

„Of course... I'll tell you right now..."

The next second a knife appeared in the woman's hand from nowhere. Her husband's face went pale, his eyes wide and he stumbled backwards.

„This..."

„This is an athame, my dear!" her voice changed, it went deeper and Piper saw that her eyes went black.

„Oh, my God..." the man moaned and those were his last words before the knife stabbed into his throat. Blood was splashing in every direction and the man collapsed to the ground.

There was a stunned silence in the hall, even the baby was silent however she must have hit herself quite badly when she fell, together with his father.

The female demon meanwhile kneeled next to the fallen man and held a strange-looking ball over his head that soon filled itself with milky fog. The man slowly went completely limp and Piper knew that he was dead.

The woman didn't even look back as she spoke.

„Pick up your sister, we'll leave soon!"

Piper only now looked at the boy. His face was almost grey as if together with his father he had lost his own soul as well. Despite this he kneeled down obediently to pick up his sister. Then though he came face to face with his father. He froze in that kneeling position and gently caressed the man's hand. Then Piper saw the first tear-drop rolling down his face and she almost started to cry as well. Cole just kneeled there for long moments and cried silently until his mother came back.

„Don't cry here you pathetic worm!" she grabbed her son by his hair, jerked him up and propelled him into the opposite wall. The baby girl started to cry when she saw this happen.

„I told you to pick up your sister! And silence her or I cut her throat as well!"

Cole picked up the baby without a sound and started to whisper something into her ear, but without success. He looked desperately at his mother, then he put his hand over the baby's mouth. This suprised the little girl so much that she stopped crying, actually.

The woman changed her dress upstairs and now was wearing leather trousers and such a tight top that it made even Piper blush. She had a middle-sized bag over her shoulder.

„Come here!"

Cole stepped to her side, she grabbed his shoulder tightly and they shimmered out.

Piper thought that now she would lose them, but to her surprise she was pulled along and soon found herself in a very different enviroment: in the Underworld.

„Don't lag behind!" she barked and then started off so fast that the four-year-old practically had to run.

They were on a crowded market-like place full of different kinds of magical beings, colourful tents and dark huts. The woman looked around and smiled satisfied.

„At last!" she exclaimed and then she made a move to a nearby tent.

The owner, a filthy, bearded man rushed forward when he glimpsed her.

„Tigra! I haven't seen you for ages!"

„Hi, Vendel! I brought you something interesting" she said after they shook hands and she took out something of her bag. It was a box of jewellery.

„Nice pack" the man said and studied the content piece by piece carefully. „I'll give you four-hundred."

„Seven-hundred" the woman said.

„Oh, no!" the he thought about again. „I'll give you one-thousand for the jewellery and the boy."

Piper felt horrified and waited for the woman's answer.

„The boy worth much more. He has my blood, but I'll give you the other one."

„I don't take babies, too much trouble."

Cole held her sister so tightly that Piper was surprised that she hasn't started to yell, yet. He clearly understood what the adults were talking about. He looked scared but not surprised so Piper guessed that he had been here before and that he knew about his demonic heritage.

„All right, I'll give you five-hundred but this is my last offer."

The woman growled.

„You're a robber, Vendel. But I need the money until I get back on the track."

The man counted down the money.

„What are you doing with those two?" he asked while Tigra was putting away her money.

„I'll take them to somebody who pays more. The boy has power so one of the Lords might be interested in him."

„Go to Raynor. He might see some fantasy in him.

„Thanks, Vendel. See you later."

She pushed her way through the crowd without caring for her children at all and went to a wooden building. Piper thought it could be only a pub.

„You stay here!" she said and went in.

Cole looked around startled then went away from the entrance a little bit and sat down in the dust. His eyes were scanning the crowd continously. Sometimes a demon looked at them but other then that nobody showed any interest and Piper was grateful for that. She would have liked to sit down next to them to take them into her arms and take them away from this ugly place, but she couldn't so she just watched.

Before this she could have never imagined Cole as a child and this scene made her realize how quickly she judged the man. A man who lived for a hundred years and who probably lived through a lot. Things that formed him into the the person he was now. She realized that she never thought about him as a complex person. He was just the demon who fell in love with Phoebe, nothing more.

She was thinking about this when the woman came back out (she couldn't think about her as their mother anymore as she didn't behave like a mother at all!)

„Come!" she growled again and Cole jumped immediately.

Piper realized that the boy hasn't spoken a word since his father was murdered.

They shimmered again and this time they arrived in front of a huge building that looked almost like a palace. Tigra knocked on the gate that was almost instantly opened by a creature that reminded Piper of a hybrid dog who walked on two legs.

„Who are you and what do you want?" he asked.

„My name's Tigra. Your Lord knows me. I have a business offer for him."

„Wait here!" the gate was closed again in their faces.

They had to wait for about ten minutes before the servant came back.

„Follow me!" he said.

The woman walked in but Cole didn't. He probably didn't know what to do: wait outside for his mother or go after her.

After a few steps the female-demon realized that her children weren't there and she turned with a furious expression on her face.

„What are you waiting for, you little bastard?"

Cole practically ran after her and got a good slap on the back of his head, he almost fell forward.

„I told you not to lag behind, didn't I?"

They went through a courtyard, then along some corridors and were then led into a huge room. A middle-aged man was waiting for them in there. The woman bowed.

„Lord Raynor!"

„Tigra, tell me, what brings you here?"

„I have an offer for you, sir. This" and she pushed Cole forward a little bit, „is my son."

She said the word 'son' as if it were something very disgusting. The upper-level demon looked at the boy quite interested. He studied him for a long time while Cole was looking up at him with wide eyes, then Raynor said.

„He's a half-blood."

„Unfortunately. But he isn't weak."

The demon stepped closer and Cole wanted to step backward but his mother held him tightly by the shoulder. Raynor held his hand over the boy's head and after a few seconds he smiled satisfied.

„No, he definitely isn't weak. I'll take him."

The woman nodded.

„And the other one?"

Raynor made the same examination with the girl and this time he frowned slightly.

„Strange... she will never have much power. But it still would be a waste to kill her. I might be able to use her as well."

He nodded and waved at the servant who was standing at the door.

„Take these two to Sara. She should give them clothes and give the boy..." he turned back to the child. „What's your name?"

„Cole..." he said barely audiably.

Tigra hit his son on the back.

„His name is Belthazor, sir."

„I see. Well" he turned back to the servant. „Give Belthazor the room behind the kitchen and Sara should take care of the girl until she's older. And now Tigra, come with me. We can talk about the price in my study..."

Suddenly everything faded around Piper and darkness engulfed her again.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx