The television show "Charmed," including the characters of Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, Paige Matthews, Leo Wyatt, Darryl Morris, and Cole Turner, is copyrighted by Spelling Television, Inc., a subsidiary of Spelling Entertainment Group, Inc.

"I'll need to freeze," Piper said. "Who wants to be bait?"

Phoebe and Paige shot their hands into the air like schoolgirls. "I do! I do!"

"Bait?" Clara said.

"Pretend to be you, dress like you, putter around the shop, keep her back to the door, and when the bad guy comes he gets a big surprise."

"I can't let anyone else do that for me," said Clara. "I'll be the bait."

"Clara, you already know Leo's an angel," Phoebe said. "The three of us are good witches, and we have special powers. Protecting innocent people like you is what we do."

"If something went wrong and you were hurt, I'd never forgive myself. No, you have to let me be part of this. Unless you're planning to keep me prisoner and break into my office."

Piper grinned toothily and, almost without moving her lips, said, "Leo? Did the Elders mention that she has a death wish?"

"No. They did tell me she's very brave."

"If you're as powerful as you say you are," Clara said, "surely you can protect me."

"We can protect you," the quiet middle-aged man with the persuasive voice was saying to the man in Phoebe's premonition. The two of them were seated at a table by the wall of a run-down bar in which the only light was provided by one small square window with dark glass, two weak ceiling lights, and a small TV set on a shelf behind the bar. Since it was about noon, only a few of the regulars were there, numbing themselves with alcohol and TV, unmindful of the voices behind them.

"You know how I know this is real?" the man in Phoebe's premonition said. His skull-like face stretched into a smile belied by his angry, fearful eyes. "All the magic and stuff you were doing earlier? Because I never see things. When I'm high I feel better, and when I'm coming down I feel like crap, but I never see things."

"Very astute," the demon said. "Then you believe that I can give you what I said – all the money you could want, and no restrictions on how you spend it? Powerful friends in high places who stand by their clients?"

"Oh, I believe it, Anders," the man said. "What I don't understand is why you'd give me all that in exchange for my soul. I'd have thought my soul was a pretty worthless piece of crap."

Anders glanced at the tabletop in deadpan silence for a moment, in which an alert person might have read complete agreement, but over-alertness wasn't the other man's problem. "Don't be ridiculous, Jimmy," Anders said silkily, looking up. "The problem isn't with your soul. It's with the people around you who don't understand what your soul needs, and what it's capable of."

"And you don't actually collect it until I, you know – " Jimmy ran a finger across his throat and gave a cackling, nervous laugh.

"And even then, what happens? I take your soul back where I come from. Now I ask you, do I look like I'm burning in a lake of fire?"

"No, sir, you don't. You look like you're doing pretty damn well."

"I am. And so will you, both in this life and the next. You're a determined guy, Jimmy, and you're willing to do what's necessary. Those are valuable qualities."

"Yeah. Yeah." Jimmy nodded a few times nervously, his gaze flickering around the bar, drawing in a deep breath through his nostrils. It always surprised Anders how even the most pathetic wretches had a moment of hesitation, as though, even in their sealed-off state, the light was trying to reach them. He'd lost a few souls that he'd have thought were sure things in that moment of hesitation.

"I offer you money, influential contacts, freedom to do what you want, and an eternity in contact with power. Really, what other choice do you have?"

"Not much of a one." Jimmy laughed nervously again, and only then met Anders' eyes. "Yeah. OK. I'll do it."

"Excellent, Jimmy. Very smart." Anders smiled and dug into his inside coat pocket.

"So, what? Do I sign something in blood now?"

"Well – if you want," Anders said with an expression of distaste. "This is the only necessary ritual." He pulled what looked like a handful of dark coarse dust from his pocket and cast it over Jimmy's head. The grains of dust burst into intense light as they fell all around him, so that for a second Jimmy looked as if he were surrounded by red-hot wires; then the dust disappeared without a trace. "That lets us track you. You call us, any time, anywhere, one of us will be there." Anders smiled and looked down at the table, and a bound stack of hundred-dollar bills appeared.

Jimmy gave a whoop and grabbed it, but it changed under his hand. He picked up what was now a gun, looking at it with fascination and some excitement.

"You'll have the money soon," Anders said. "But I did tell you that you'd need to do some favors for us from time to time."

"This isn't usually the kind of favor I do for people."

"I think it is now," Anders said.

With the mess Anders had made of the office, there was plenty to do. Clara was putting books back on a shelf as she made the last call to her scheduled clients. "Oh, I'll be back, I'm sure of it. I just don't know when. Until then, you'll keep up the meditation? – That's great. I'm very proud of you. I'll call when this – thing blows over and I'm scheduling appointments again. – I appreciate that. – Goodbye."

She hung up the phone, picked up a file folder, and looked at a filing cabinet that jutted into the room.

The door banged open and Jimmy walked in, his face determined.

"Who are you?" Clara asked.

Jimmy stopped in front of her and raised the gun.

Then, his arm outstretched, his finger on the trigger, he ceased all movement. Clara stopped dead too, a look of fear frozen on her face. The file folder she'd dropped hung half-open in the air.

Piper stepped out from behind the filing cabinet and yelled, "OK!", whereupon Leo and Inspector Darryl Morris entered through the back door. Morris, in contrast to his usual business suit, was wearing a soft maroon sweater and dark casual slacks. "OK, this is going to be the tricky part," he said, going to Jimmy.

Carefully he pried Jimmy's finger off the trigger while Leo stood between the gun and the frozen Clara. Morris worked Jimmy's fingers loose without touching the gun himself, spindled the trigger guard with a pencil, put the gun on the floor and put his foot on it. Then he stood as though he'd just stepped out from behind the filing cabinet, both of his hands on Jimmy's outstretched arm. "Ready."

Piper and Leo hid in the bathroom and, with a wave of her hand in the doorway, Piper unfroze the room.

Morris wrenched down on Jimmy's arm and stomped on the gun, kicking it across the room. Before Jimmy could grasp the situation, Morris had Jimmy's arms pinned behind him and had banged him up against the filing cabinet.

"Where in the hell did you come from?" Jimmy bellowed.

"Clara, call 911," Morris said a little breathlessly, working to restrain the struggling attacker. "Tell them where we are and what happened, that an officer has the suspect in custody and needs assistance."

Clara grabbed the phone. Jimmy said, "You'll get assistance! You'll get my assistance! I have powerful friends and they're not gonna like this!"

"You know, if that's true, they'll bail you out in no time, so you might as well relax."

"Bail is nothing! I'm gonna have all the money in the world and all the freedom to spend it!"

"OK, calm down," Morris said, banging him into the filing cabinet again. "Just relax. You can spend your money when – "

Jimmy wrenched free and ran for the door. Morris grabbed and spun him, and a table full of candles and scented oils went crashing to the floor. Morris tried to get Jimmy's arms again. Jimmy bent and grabbed a long iron candlestick rolling on the floor, swung it at Morris as he straightened. Morris made a little sound as the candlestick struck him in the chest.

"Put that down," Morris snarled, going at Jimmy again. Jimmy swung the candlestick, Morris dodged, the candlestick banged into the filing cabinet with a metallic crunch. Finished with the call, Clara ran over.

Hearing the struggles and crashing, Piper made as if to step out into the office. Leo held her back gently, putting one index finger up to indicate that she should wait another moment.

Jimmy swung the candlestick again. Morris grabbed it with his left hand, pulled Jimmy toward him, and hit Jimmy decisively in the jaw with his right fist. Jimmy fell, knocked out.

"There's a car nearby," Clara said. "They said they'd send it right over."

"Good," Morris said, rolling Jimmy onto his stomach and pulling his hands behind his back.

Piper and Leo came out from the bathroom. "If he's a demon, Heaven wins next week," Piper said.

"Nah, I know him." Morris was pulling his belt off and looping it around Jimmy's wrists as they spoke. "He's a junkie and petty thief, a professional screwup named Jimmy Haines. He tried to talk me into using him as an informant once, but it was pretty clear he'd say anything for money. Using a gun is new for him, though. So is this 'I have powerful friends' number."

"'All the money in the world and all the freedom to spend it,'" Leo quoted. "I think Jimmy's sold his soul."

"To the Devil?"

"To a soul collector. They're upper-level demons. I'd want to see if the Book of Shadows confirms my theory, though," he said, glancing at Piper.

Clara was looking down at Jimmy. "His soul looks like – it looks like there's a cage of fire around it."

"Wish I had a cage," Morris said, pulling the belt tight around Jimmy's wrists.

"Why don't you use handcuffs?" Piper asked.

"I'm off duty, why would I have them on me?" He looked up at Clara. "Do you have a story?"

"Um, yes. I'm thinking of writing a murder mystery, and I had some questions about police procedure. Phoebe's a client of mine, and she suggested I talk to you. You agreed to drop by today, and you had just got here when he came in."

"Have you written anything before?"

"No, I'm a first-time author. I don't even have anything on paper yet."

"Why is this guy after you?"

"I have no idea."

"I like it," Morris said. "It's simple, it doesn't contradict any of the known facts, and it gets him off the street." He looked down ruefully at Jimmy. "Again."

"Oo, major milk craving," Piper said suddenly. "Darryl, I want to get back to the Manor so the baby and I can have a late lunch. Can we take Clara with us?"

"Best if you didn't. The officers should be here in a minute, and they'll want to take a statement from her here. They'll make the arrest and read Jimmy his rights, then when they take Jimmy she can go. It shouldn't take too long."

Clara started for the office door. "All right," Piper said. "Clara, come straight to the Manor after the officers leave. Don't stay in the office alone. Thank you again, Darryl. Very much." She smiled up at Leo. "Shall we?"

He put his arm around her, smiling back, and they disappeared in twinkling blue-white light.

Jimmy stirred and mumbled as Clara looked out the door. "There's a patrol car coming down the street."

"Very good."

At a window table in the coffee shop across the street, Anders watched Clara step out onto the sidewalk and wave at the patrol car. He sipped his espresso, put it down, blotted his mouth carefully with a napkin, and murmured, "Very disappointing."

Author's Note: Thank you for the feedback! I know it's taking him a while to get here, but Cole shows up in the next chapter and is prominent thereafter, I promise!