It had crossed her mind that it was just her powers playing up, but she cast this doubt aside quickly. She was an old woman, not new to this life. She had never experienced anything like this before.
She walked through the darkness of the underworld, the torches flickering on the walls casting long shadows. She didn't want to have to tell the Source of this latest turn of events, but she had no choice.
She looked around at the dark stone walls and slowly faded, her eyes being the last thing to disappear, glowing insanely white.
The Seer reappeared in front of The Source, and immediately bowed as low as her fragile back would allow.
"My liege, I have news," she said gravely.
He looked up, disinterested and still angry about his defeat at the hands of the power of three.
"Spit it out Seer, you are wasting my valuable time."
"I haven't felt a gathering of this much power since the power of three was reborn in your cousins."
Dominic got to his feet and stood close to the Seer. "And what does this 'gathering of power' mean?"
"Well, my liege," The Seer began, "The Power of Three is casting a massive spell. The consequences of this spell are uncertain as it seems to be affecting my power of premonition."
Dominic was clearly losing his patience. "What exactly are you telling me Seer?"
"I can not see the future; it's almost as if there is no future sire."
"No future?" Dominic spat, "How could this be?"
The Seer paused, "Sire, this spell, they can not be allowed to cast it. That is all I can clearly see."
Dominic tried to gather his thoughts. The last time he had gone up against his cousins, he had lost. He had fled from the fight with his tail between his legs. His pride and his ribcage wounded. He pondered on the Seers comments.
"What does this spell do exactly?" Dominic asked the Seer.
"I do not know, Sire." The Seer paused as if waiting for death.
Dominic sighed, he clicked his fingers and a man appeared in front of him. The man looked around at his new surroundings clearly confused. His eyes finally settled on Dominic, and as they did, they widened and the man dropped to his knees.
"The Source!" He cried in a whisper, "How can I serve you?"
"I believe you are a shape shifter?" Dominic enquired. The man nodded.
"Yes sire."
"I have a job for you to do, three pesky witches are about to cast a spell and I want to find out what it is and what it does. Do you understand?"
The shape shifter nodded. Dominic told him where to go and the man disappeared from view.
Pia gazed in awe as a single yellow light danced in front of her eyes. It was quickly joined by another light, brighter, which began to encircle the three youths. More lights joined, some dancing, others spinning, flowing round the three. The lights were so bright Pia could see where the lights had been, like sparklers at a fireworks party. The lights glowed and spun, faster and faster until Pia became dizzy.
Soon they could see nothing but lights, white and yellow, becoming so bright it was difficult to keep their eyes open, so beautiful they couldn't help but gaze at it.
The movement of the lights slowed as they dimmed and vanished slowly. Wyatt looked around, it was the same attic, but everything had changed.
The Book of Shadows was noticeably absent from the room, but a stand stood prominently in the middle of the room, it was obviously where the book was generally placed. The room was furnished comfortably, with cushions and tables softening the hardwood floor.
Wyatt whistled quietly, "Looks like they used this room a lot."
"Shh" Pia hissed, leaning against the door, opening it a crack. They heard voices on the stairs.
"And what if they don't come back Prue?" A worried voice drifted up the stairs.
Pia looked back at the boys, "They sound so young!" She whispered.
"They sound close!" Chris replied, "What if they catch us up here?"
"Mum told us not to tell them who we are, they won't believe us." Wyatt reminded them.
The voices moved away, down the stairs. Pia opened the door.
"What are you doing?" Wyatt hissed. "You heard what we just said!"
"I want to see them." Pia said, as she looked wide eyed at her cousins. Chris looked at Wyatt and shrugged.
"I guess we can't stay in the attic all day, they're bound to return and find us."
Pia leaned out the doors, straining to her the women in the house, excited at the thought of meeting her Aunt Prue. Wyatt and Chris followed close behind.
A shrill noise made the three jump and freeze. Wyatt pointed to the phone in the hallway. Pia peeked over the banister and watched the two young women talk. The woman with the darker hair picked up the downstairs phone. Pia signalled for Wyatt to pick up the handset and listen in.
"Did you get my fax?" The man on the other end of the line asked. Chris strained to hear, listening in with Wyatt.
"Darryl its 3AM, where are you?" The dark haired woman asked.
Wyatt put his hand over the mouth piece, "Did she say Darryl?" he whispered to Chris. Chris nodded as they continued to listen to the conversation.
Chris was having a hard time hearing what Darryl was saying, he was too far away from the handset and there seemed to be a lot of background noise.
"I'm in a club down town, following the suspect." Darryl whispered huskily, "Did you get my fax?"
"I'm looking at it now." The dark haired woman held up a piece of paper so her sister could see.
Pia watched as the dark haired woman leafed through a large book. Pia recognised it as the book of shadows, a lot lighter and a lot less dusty than the one she had left behind.
"What's going on?" The younger woman asked.
"Darryl's tracking a murder suspect who he thinks is in league with a demon."
"Based on what?"
"Based on the fact that the killer carves a demonic symbol into his victims' forehead. An inverted triangle. That and the fact that he magically seems to be invading arrest."
The dark haired woman stopped at a page in the book of shadows.
"Stay where you are Darryl, we're on our way."
Wyatt carefully replaced the receiver and looked over at Chris.
Pia joined them. "The dark haired woman is definitely Prue." She said as Chris and Wyatt nodded in agreement, "which makes the other woman Aunt Phoebe."
The three exchanged uneasy glances.
"The question is, what do we do now?" Chris asked as they heard the manor door close and lock.
"First," Wyatt said, "we need to find out if we still have our powers."
Pia looked nervously up at Wyatt, "Even if we have our powers, we still don't really have enough control over them for them to be much use."
"We're going to have to learn fast then." Wyatt said, "We were obviously sent to this particular time for a reason and we need to find out why."
"Ok, let's go get the book and find out what demon they're chasing." Pia suggested, "Aunt Prue left the book open on the page they were looking at."
Pia led the boys downstairs, Wyatt cautiously watching the front door, waiting for the sisters to return and spring them at any minute.
Chris looked down at the open page. "Guardians?" He looked up at Pia, "But Mom said Cole was a demon, these guardians don't fit the bill."
Pia shrugged, "Well something important must happen- we're here for a reason remember."
"Ok," Wyatt frowned, "We're here for a reason, and the sisters have gone chasing demons. We know something important must happen, so how are we going to find out what now that they've gone."
"Oh! I've got an idea! I saw this spell while Aunt Piper was writing the spell to send us here. If Aunt Piper can change spells and have them still work, so can we!"
Pia reached to the book, which wasn't covered in quite so much dust and began to leaf through its parchment pages.
"Here we are!" She exclaimed in triumph.
"That spell calls a sister to us, not the other way around!" Chris pointed out.
"I'm sure we can make a few changes, it won't be as big as the spell which sent us here in any case." Wyatt said, putting a congratulatory hand on Pia's shoulder.
"But this spell needs ingredients." Chris said looking over Pia's shoulder. Pia looked up Wyatt who shrugged.
"No problem," Pia said, "we happen to be in spell central Chris. We are in the house of the three most active witches in history. We'll find what we need."
"What do we need?" Wyatt asked, as Pia looked down at the spell again.
"Actually," she said, "all we need is our blood."
"Blood?" Chris asked, horrified. "No thanks; let's just wait until they come back."
"By which time it may be too late. Look Chris, don't be such a wuss. One prick of a needle and that's all."
Wyatt gave his brother a slap on the back as Chris scowled up at him.
Chris went back up to the attic to find a mixing pot and a couple of candles as Pia altered the spell. She looked at it and passed it to Wyatt.
"I don't know if it'll work," Wyatt admitted, "But it's worth a shot."
"Ok," Chris put down the mixing pot and lit the candles, "let's get this spell cast already."
The three cousins knelt down, forming a circle by the pot. Wyatt quickly jabbed Chris's finger with a needle.
"Ow!" Chris winced, pulling his finger to his mouth.
"Don't suck it!" Pia said quickly, pulling Chris's finger away from his mouth and holding it over the pot. "Blood goes in here!"
Chris took the needle from Wyatt and jabbed his brothers finger. Wyatt winced as the crimson liquid pooled on his skin. He held his finger over the pot.
"My turn," Pia said, holding out her finger waiting for the jab. The jab was quick and sharp. Pia sucked in a short breath as she watched a drop of blood fall from her finger, mixing with her cousins.
"Blood to Blood we summon thee
Blood to Blood we come to thee"
Wyatt opened his eyes, finding himself on his feet in an alleyway. The music pumping from the nearest building brought him to his senses. His eyes strained against the darkness, as his vision cleared he saw Chris and Pia rubbing their eyes and looking around.
"I don't see either of the sisters, maybe the spell failed." Chris worried.
"I don't think so." Wyatt said, "I think this is where Darryl was."
"Let's find out." Pia suggested as she moved off, walking up the alleyway towards the building. At the front of the building they saw a crowd of people spilling out the front.
"We're never going to find anyone in there!" Wyatt complained.
"We won't have to." Pia said as she directed her glance towards another alleyway around the side.
The brothers followed Pia's glance where they saw an arm on the floor. They walked cautiously towards the corner and peered round. They saw the sisters kneeling over another unconscious body, which they recognised as Darryl. A much younger Darryl than the man they knew in their future, but there was no mistaking him.
The three looked at the body which had drawn their attention. They noticed the rune carved into his forehead as it began to glow. Wyatt pulled Chris and Pia further into the shadows, out of sight.
"We have to warn them!" Pia whispered urgently as they watched a transparent being rise from the rune.
"We have to keep out of sight and let the sisters do what they do." Wyatt whispered back, "We can't change anything."
The three hid in the shadows as they watched Phoebe and Prue fight the guardian, they watched Prue use her telekinesis to throw spears at the guardian. Nothing, it seemed, would work.
"Aim for the rune!" They heard Phoebe yell, as Prue made another spear fly through the air toward the guardian. She scored a direct hit in the middle of the rune, The guardian glowed bright blue and disappeared.
Chris whistled silently, "These girls are good!" he whispered. Wyatt and Pia nodded as the sisters returned to Darryl, who was slowly gaining consciousness.
They watched from the shadows as Darryl slowly got to his feet, aided by the sisters, and walked over to the unconscious body still on the floor. He nudged him with his boot and pulled out his phone and turned to the sisters.
"I'm going to have to call this in." Darryl told them.
"We have to move." Wyatt whispered urgently.
"What?" Chris asked, keeping his voice hushed, "If we move, they will notice us."
"In a couple of minutes, there will be police and paramedics with their flashing lights. The police will identify us as witnesses if we stay- the flashing lights will chase away the shadows. We have to get out now."
Pia slowly crouched down and crawled back around the corner, out of sight of the sisters. The boys followed.
"If we mingle with the crowds round the front, we can pretend we're ravers. When the police arrive there will be a load of onlookers trying to find out what went on. It'll be a perfect opportunity to watch openly and not be noticed." Pia suggested.
Wyatt and Chris nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
Within minutes, the scene was awash with police officers and paramedics, as Wyatt had predicted.
They watched as the officers roped off the alleyway and carted off the suspect Darryl had been following. The sisters stayed while Darryl was attended to by a paramedic. The sisters hadn't had time to come up with a good excuse as to why they were around, but everyone congratulated them on saving Darryl.
Prue, Darryl and Phoebe were keeping their voices down, and with all the surrounding excitement it was difficult to hear the exchange. Pia, Wyatt and Chris edged closer, concentrating on the conversation.
The sisters looked eager to get away, but Darryl stopped them.
"You have to give witness statements." He told them solemnly.
"Uh, Darryl," Prue started, trying to ask him how on earth they were meant to give statements when they used magic.
"Prue, you're witnesses to a crime. In this case, the only witnesses." He paused and turned to Phoebe. "Phoebe, listen to me," he pleaded, "without your testimony Emile walks."
Phoebe turned to Prue, as they watched Emile smiling as he was handcuffed and taken away.
"What are we supposed to do?" She asked.
"You'd better decide fast," Darryl said looking through the crowds towards an approaching man, "here comes the ADA."
A man in a dark trench coat approached the sisters and Darryl, as he introduced himself, Pia gasped.
"Ladies. My name is Cole Turner and I'm the Assistant District Attorney assigned to this case. I was wondering if either of you saw what happened here." The man said.
Already, it seemed his charm had worked on Phoebe as she raised her hand, "I did."