Here is the next update in the story! Please review!

Gavin came down the stairs of his family home at a fast pace. He still lived there, wanting to save as much money as possible for his own house with his wife. He slowed as he walked past the family photos on the walls. They were mostly his brothers and him, his father had no pictures from his childhood or before he met his mother. There were a few of his father standing with his six uncles, but they were all adults. Gavin had pondered that fact a few times, no one in this day and age grew up with zero photos, but he had never wondered enough to ask his dad about it. The stairs opened into the front entry and he could already hear his brothers grouching about the early hour.

He had called the family meeting early so that no one would have an excuse to miss it, he wanted to make sure that he had everyone's opinions. Gavin was aware that getting 14 adults in a room could be tricky. His parent has offered to attend, but he wanted to start off with just his brothers and cousins. This was a new generation issue, and he wanted to prove to everyone that he could handle the responsibility of finding his woman.

The living room was the perfect place to have the meeting, there were several couches and easy chairs. The durable fabrics of his childhood and turned into sink-into-me leather after he turned 16, and the beige carpet over the wood floors had been replaced with beautiful hand-woven rugs. Joley had famously declared that she could once again have nice things now that there were no more children in the house. More pictures of family, the beach, and the town were scattered among the books and trinkets of his parents' travels. Her gold and platinum album covers were kept in the studio in the back of the house, but they had hung pictures from her concerts and award ceremonies here. His mother's decree of no television except in the family room meant this was where they always gathered and spent time together.

As he turned into the living room he saw all his brothers spread out on the couches drinking tea, and the feeling of family and love swamped him. This is what he was destined to have, seven sons that would pass on the family gift and the family burden. This is why he was so determined to figure out what was going on with Melinda, he needed to break her shell so they could have this together. He heard the door open and saw his Drake cousins come in. The girls had been the ones doing most of the personal digging so he wanted their opinion on what course of action to take next.

Gavin smiled and hugged them as they came in, Madison stopped in front of him.

"I talked to Chris like you asked, but I going to say it made me a little uncomfortable. He is a patient of mine, I shouldn't be using him like this." She shrugged a little and frowned, as much as she used her gift with her patients, she wasn't used to basically spying on them.

"I'm sorry Mads," Gavin said. He gave her another hug, "But, I really need to know what was going on with this family. She is my destined soul mate, anything we find out is just for that."

"I know, I just want to finish this part so that I can just be his doctor." Madison walked to one of the couches and smiled as Alexi, the eldest Prakenskii brother, handed her a cup of tea. Madison made sure that she kept a lock on her emotions, she didn't want anyone catching on to the fact that she was slowly developing feelings for Chris. It was private and if he wasn't her destined partner it was all doomed for failure. The family was already so wrapped up in helping Gavin she also didn't want to take any attention away from him.

All talk ceased and all eyes shifted to Gavin as he came in the room. While Alexi was the oldest of the boys and Adeline the oldest of the girls, it was the two youngest, Gavin and Shannon, that were the most powerful and the most important to the family. Gavin sat down in the wingchair that was closest to the fireplace, and linked his hands between his legs.

"I called a family meeting for a very important reason. As most of you know, I met the girl that is destined to be the next mother of the seven. But, for some reason she doesn't seem to experience the pull that we are all told about and she is very reluctant to spend any kind of time with me. When I mentioned a date, she panicked and ran from the room." Gavin dragged a hand through his hair and continued. "I don't want to spook her more, but we need to figure out what is going on. Our family's future and legacy depend on it." He stopped and looked at each of his brothers, they all nodded their support. Nothing would stop them in the quest to figure out what was going on.

Camille cleared her throat. "I spoke with Melinda and her cousin Primrose after Gavin asked her out. She was completely panicked, he has that right." She shot him a quick supporting smile. "Primrose was also not surprised that she panicked. Prim told me, after Melinda had left, that her mother and father had a bad relationship. She called it an 'on-again off-again marriage' and left me with the impression that Melinda thinks she's doomed to repeat her parents' mistakes. Add in the fact that her mother died and her father, I think from what Primrose shared, blamed her and Chris, and you have a mess." She picked up her tea and sipped at it while thinking.

Camille straightened a little on the couch and leaned forward toward Gavin. "I used my gift to see if she was lying or not and she was being completely sincere and honest. There was nothing untrue in what she told me. Primrose also said that Melinda deserves love and I think she could be an ally in this."

"Thank you Camille, help us by keeping an eye on her at work, yeah?" Gavin turned after Camille smiled and nodded and looked toward Madison. "Ok Mads, you're up."

"Well, I didn't get that much from Chris. We spent the majority of the time talking about his injuries and the physical therapy that he needs. But while he was in the bathroom right before I left, I looked around the living room of Melinda's house. I got him to talk about his family using a photograph. None of them are married or even dating seriously and his uncle even owns a matchmaking business. Chris put it down to work, and older brother Wyatt is currently living in Africa doing good-will missions, but it's still odd."

Madison turned her tea cup in her hands and wondered how to bring up the next bit. "I try to do some healing of every patient I work with, especially those that are the worst injured. The only thing is, when I send out the healing energy it bounces off Chris and comes back to me. I even got a little jolt the one and only time I tried it and I can't figure out why." She turned and looked at her family, "Has that happened to anyone else?"

A small gasp had gone up when she had mentioned the healing energy was blocked. Madison was the strongest healer in the family, even stronger than Shannon. It was widely believed that she could save someone's life even if a doctor with the greatest technology was unable to. They had never encountered in their lives someone that had been unable to be healed at all.

Several of the cousins frowned, but Adeline spoke first. She pulled a piece of her blond hair over her shoulder and played with it as she thought out loud. "What was his reaction? Did he realize that you tried to heal him?"

Madison frowned and bit her lip as she thought back to when she had been helping him down the hall. "I don't think he noticed at all. I was helping him walk to the bathroom and he might have dismissed any heat or pain as part of trying to move. Obviously, I wasn't going to ask him." Madison frowned at her sister, they had been drilled not to let anyone know what they could do. The healing ability in particular tended to draw the crazies out of hiding.

"No, no obviously you couldn't ask him. But from the family diaries there are only two reasons that are given for someone being able to block a healer's touch. One is personal barriers, the same kind that block empathy and telepathy or a curse." Addie ticked them off her fingers while she spoke. She turned to Alexi, "Does your family have any other reason that could block healing energy?"

"None other than the ones that you already listed. But, let's be serious about this. Magical abilities are incredibly rare. We are some of the only families that we are aware of that have any true strong ability. Sure, there are people that sense when someone is lying or have a strong gut instinct, but not able to move items like we can or cast spells." Andrei dismissed that idea with a wave of his hand. He set his tea down and his piercing blue eyes drilled into Madison. "Are you suggesting that the Halliwells have abilities?"

Gavin frowned at that idea, his mother had been the 6th of 7 daughters and had strong abilities, but none of hers had really passed down to her sons. All of their abilities had come from his father, and his brothers' children would not have strong magic either. It was just the way of the family. None of them had ever met another family that was anything close to the Drakes or the Prakenskiis.

"I don't think that." Madison protested. She shoved up off the sofa and paced the room. "As you said, magic is rare, and curses are rarer still and take a lot of effort and energy. But he has to have some strong natural barriers to stop healing magic."

Adeline shrugged and leaned deeper into the couch cushions, "I don't think it's anything to worry about. It could just be part of his personality, and unless he starts making plates float around his room just leave it alone. Melinda needs to be our main focus." She turned to Andrei, "You ran her background didn't you?"

Before Andrei would respond, Gavin surged to his feet. "You ran her?" Gavin couldn't think with the anger that was coursing through his body. He thought his brothers trusted him, and they were doing background checks on the woman that he was destined for.

"We aren't supposed to misuse our position in the sheriff's department like that! We are supposed to protect and serve!" Gavin stood in front of his brother, body braced. He would fight him over this, he knew he would.

Andrei stood and slightly flexed his own muscles, baby brother or not he wouldn't just let Gavin punch him in the face.

"Both of you chill out!" Alexi stood as well and pushed in-between his brothers. "I told him to run it. You wanted information about her, we got the information. Sit down and let's hear it."

Gavin sat back down, still glaring at his older brothers. Brody, the sixth of the seven, laid a hand on his shoulder and gave him a cautioning look. Gavin nodded and took a deep breath, but didn't say more. He noticed that the twins Gregory and Nicolas, and Stephen who was between the twins and Brody all subtly shifted closer to him. He appreciated the support from his brothers in that moment. Gavin glanced over at the Drakes and noticed that most of them were frowning over the background check as well. Gemma, the second oldest and the mediator of the bunch seemed the most upset.

Andrei pulled a folder out of his work bag that had been sitting on a side table. "I ran both Melinda and Christopher. I ran Chris before any of this happened since he was a victim in an assault and I wanted more details on him. Most of what I found for both of them matches, which isn't unusual since they were both raised in the same house." Andrei paused and rubbed at the side of his nose, Gavin remembered it was tick for when he was nervous.

"Look, some of it is weird. There was a lot of police reports where they are witnesses with various family members. All of them are in San Francisco, and most of the time they were in the company of their mother, a Piper Halliwell. Halliwell is the mother's maiden name, their father is listed as Leo Wyatt."

"Wyatt is their brother's name," Madison interrupted. "Did they all take their mother's last name?"

Andrei nodded and flipped through some papers. "Yeah, Piper and her sister Phoebe both kept their maiden name and gave it to their children. Phoebe has three daughters; Primrose, Pepper, and Poppy. Halliwell is also the grandmother's maiden name, near as I can find it was their great-grandmother who changed her last name when she married. Since then, all Halliwells kept their name except for their half-sister Paige who took her husband's name, but she was never a Halliwell by name." Andrei smiled over at the Drake sisters, "Looks like another family that doesn't take men's names."

Gavin waved his hand, motioning his brother on. "None of that is earth shattering or incredibly helpful. What else is there?"

"So now you want to know what I found?" Andrei smirked at his little brother, but sorted his papers and continued after Gavin glared at him again.

"I think the dad's information is fake or has been altered. There isn't a Leo Wyatt with this birthdate that has a valid Social Security number or school data. The only Leo Wyatt I could find born on the same day and month from the town listed died at the Battle of Guadalcanal in WWII. So, yeah I think his information is fake." Andrei shrugged and looked at his siblings, "It could be that someone entered the wrong data, or the first Leo Wyatt is actually his grandfather and some of their data got meshed. But it's odd."

Alexi gave the same shrug his brother had, "Odd, but not about Melinda. Go back to the witness statements. I find that to be more interesting."

Andrei nodded and cracked a quick grin at Gavin, "Did you know her real first name is Prudence?" Gavin gave him a disbelieving look in return. "Yeah, didn't think so. This family is obsessed with the letter P. Anyways, she was in a lot of police reports and they all abruptly stop when Piper Halliwell died. Never as a victim or as a suspect, but she did witness a lot of violent crimes or disappearances. The last police report she features in is her mother's murder investigation." Here Andrei stopped and paused. He rubbed at the side of his nose again and looked at his brother with an expression of helplessness.

"Gavin, her and Chris found their mother bleeding to death in the kitchen of their house. The crime scene photos are pretty gruesome, she died before the cops or paramedics arrived. I can't imagine what they went through witnessing that, and the case is still open. They never caught the guy that did it."

A silence fell upon the family as they sat and processed all the new information that had been discovered. How could two children live with that weighing on them?

Gavin cleared his throat, "How old was she when her mother died."

"Eleven."

Gavin stood up and walked over to the windows. He looked sightlessly out on the grounds of the large mansion his parents had built for him. A place where he had found love inside every single day, a place that had no bad memories trapped within its walls.

"Anything else?" The words came out gravelly and unlike his usual smooth voice. He could feel the emotions trapped in his chest as he thought of that wonderful young woman finding her mother bleeding out on the floor.

"Chris and Melinda both attended University of California, Santa Cruz. He got a degree in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Forestry, Melinda got a degree in small business management and finance. That's pretty much it, all that I could find about her." Andrei tapped all the papers together and stored them back in his bag.

Brody stood first and walked to his brother, "We will help you win her over. Sounds to me like this young lady could use some love and normalcy in her life."

One by one, all seven of the Prakenskii brothers and Drake sisters ranged themselves behind Gavin at the window.

"I'm going to make sure she is always safe from now on." Gavin closed his hand around his palm, where the faint burn of the mark for his soulmate shone briefly in the early morning sun.

That same sun shone on the teacups and breakfast items scattered on Melinda's kitchen table. The dark wood floor shone from the attentions her deep cleaning even earlier that morning had given it. Small herbs flourished on the windowsill and jars of ingredients peaked out from behind glass fronted cupboards.

Pepper had arrived late the night before and Melinda had wanted to bring Pepper completely up to date on what was going on so she could help Primrose look for information in San Francisco.

Chris finished his tea and wondered internally how hard it would be to convince Melinda to buy a coffeepot, he then wondered how much trouble it would be to simply buy one himself and hide it in his bedroom.

"So, Peppy. That about sums up everything that has happened here in the last few weeks. How is the family holding up?" He set down the cup and pushed the fresh fruit Melinda had dumped on his plate around. She had been pushing vitamins and minerals at him since he had gotten out of the hospital.

"So far, everything is fine. Thankfully Primrose is coming home to take over P3 again so HJ can stop having a chance to boss us around. Wyatt called on the satellite phone, he should be wrapping things up in Somalia for now and heading home in the next few weeks. The idea of the demon that attacked your mom being back has really freaked him out." Pepper poured more tea into her cup, and thought out loud as she added sugar to it. "I think he's leaving earlier than he planned to come and help with this. But this is an all-hands on deck if I ever thought of one! I mean, Melinda stopped demon hunting in high school so we need to sharpen your skills there!"

Melinda looked up sharply at that. "I haven't stopped training or using magic just because I stopped going into the Underworld looking for a fight," she snapped at Pepper.

Pepper's eyes widened at the bite in her cousin's tone and she quickly set down the spoon she had been twirling. "I didn't mean anything like that!" She soothed, laying a hand on her cousin's arm. "I didn't think before I said anything!" Pepper turned wide eyes on her sister looking for help.

Primrose snorted, "Yeah, because that isn't shocking. Before Peppy manages to shove her foot any further into her mouth, I think we should talk about the Magic School alumni event. Aunt Paige called me last night while you were still at the bar, Melinda. She wants to do a big thing." Primrose tossed her hands in the air in an attempt to lighten the mood. She earned suspicious looks from Chris and Melinda for her effort.

"Look, Aunt Paige wants to dedicate the cafeteria to Aunt Piper."

A chill dropped into the room and the tension from that statement could have been cut with a knife.

Primrose took a deep breath and trudged on. "Mom thinks it's a good idea and is on board. But they both want you guys and Wyatt to be the ones that do the unveiling. Aunt Piper came to love Magic School and all it was able to teach us and how it was able to protect us as we learned magic." She paused and looked in appeal at her sister, Pepper nodded enthusiastically and motioned for her to continue. "She especially loved being able to come and cook for the students sometimes or drop treats off for your classes. The cafeteria is the perfect place to remember her."

When stony silence met her little speech, Primrose eyeballed her sister and motioned at their cousins.

Pepper pursed her lips in thought for a minute and then spoke quickly and decisively. "Aunt Paige will do the dedication with or without your presence or approval. If you go to the school and talk to her sooner rather than later, you have a say on the name, the plaque, and the ceremony. Otherwise, it's my mom and Paige that get to do whatever they want. Think on that!" Pepper threw her napkin down on the table and stood up. She motioned for Primrose to follow her and sat down in the living room.

"What was that?" Primrose hissed at her following her into the room. "We want them to come and be involved, not get pissy and take off to sit on a bridge somewhere."

Pepper angled herself to see down the hallway and seeing that neither Chris nor Melinda had followed them, answered her sister. "I want to make them a little mad. It might make them see that they are being too emotional with this still. Naming a cafeteria shouldn't create such a tizzy in them."

Primrose signed and sat down on the couch with Pepper. "I know, but they never got counseling after Aunt Piper died. That coupled with Uncle Leo means they sometimes get into tizzys about things that should be easier to deal with. If we don't see them in like 5 minutes though, we have to go back in."

Pepper nodded in agreement and said, "Agreed. But let's see what they come up with by themselves." She pulled her phone out and paged through her Instagram while she waited, showing photos to Primrose every now and then.

Chris and Melinda sat across from each other at the kitchen table. For the first moments after Primrose and Pepper had left silence hung in their wake. The sunlight streamed across the table and glinted off the silverware laying forgotten on the table. Chris finally broke the stillness and dragged a hand through his hair.

"Are we overreacting?" he asked his sister. "Do we make it impossible for anyone to talk about Mom because we freak out every time?"

Melinda sighed and twisted her hair back on top of her head. Her green eyes met her brother's tired green eyes, and she gave a sad smile. "I think maybe we are. Mom would want us to be ok, to be normal. Freaking out every time someone brings her up isn't normal or healthy. We should go to Magic School and do this for her, it would be good to go back and leave a positive mark like that." She reached her hand out to her brother and they linked fingers.

"Well Piglet, looks like we should apologize to Pepper and Primrose. And we should start thinking of how we want to honor Mom, it needs to be something that would have made her smile." Chris smiled at his sister, and her smile turned into a brighter version.

"I would have to agree Christopher Robin, I would have to agree." Melinda turned her head to the living room and shouted down the hall. "You can come back now, we talked it out."

Primrose and Pepper came back into the kitchen and settled down at the table again, they both looked expectantly at their cousins. Melinda nodded at Chris to talk first.

"Well," he started. "We want to apologize for shutting down when you first mentioned the cafeteria for our mother, it's still hard to talk about her." Chris rubbed at the grain in the table and looked up at Primrose.

Primrose smiled and waved a hand that everything was ok.

Chris sighed and dragged his hand through his hair again making it stand on end. "We will go to Magic School and talk to Aunt Paige about the memorial, but let's just table that for now. We need to talk about how to deal with the demon attack a little more. We need to gather more information." He looked around the table at his family, they all nodded at him in support.

Melinda spoke up, "I think we should go back to where you were attacked, Chris. We might be able to get a sense of him or more evidence of what happened to him after you threw the body into the fire." She looked at Primrose, "I know that Primrose and Pepper are supposed to leave today, but I could orb us out there really quick and we could have a look around."

Chris shook his head in disagreement. "I think it's still too dangerous, there could be cops going over the ground. I have a physical therapy appointment today, so I can't go and I want to be there and protect you guys." He sighed and went back to pushing his fruit around. "I can't lose another family member to this demon."

Melinda bit her lip as she looked at her brother. "I think Primrose and I should go alone. You are still so injured and Pepper can take you to therapy. But we need to go today, we waste any more time and there won't be anything there to find."

Pepper's eyes lit up and she nodded enthusiastically, "I would love to see more of the area! We don't have to go back right away!"

Her brow furrowed, Primrose nodded, but added, "Why don't you just have HJ heal your shoulder and leg?"

Chris flushed a little and made a production of adjusting his sling, "Uh, well I've already been to the hospital and it would be harder at this point to fake the injury than just see it out. Physical therapy and everything, you know?"

Primrose nodded, but her expression didn't look convinced. "Sure, if you think that's the easiest way to deal with it. Melinda and I can orb over to the attack site right after we clean up."

Agreement around the table rang out, and they finished their breakfasts with more positive topics.

Primrose followed Melinda up the stairs to Melinda's bedroom. The actual guest room was up here too, and that was where Primrose had been staying for the few days that she had been in town. The guest bedroom had been a really lovely room with sea-green walls and a handmade quilt covering the bed, but Primrose hadn't really ventured into her cousin's room. Melinda hadn't really slept last night and Primrose had a feeling that Gavin Prakenskii was at the center of that.

Melinda's bedroom was a light and airy space. Light rose colored walls had pencil and ink drawings of San Francisco and other cities covering them. The brass head and foot boards of the bed complemented the lacy bedspread and the heaps of pillows that covered the entire top of the bed. It was a female space, and very different from the smaller, cramped room that they had shared growing up in the Manor. It smelled of Melinda's honeysuckle perfume, a similar scent to what Aunt Piper had worn when they had been children.

Primrose skirted the dresser and the small lady's table that Melinda used to put on her makeup and followed her cousin into the closet. Melinda shoved her dresses to one side of the rod and laid her hand along the back wall of the closet. Primrose's eyes widened as she watched the wall glow a little and a panel open up.

Inside the secret compartment knives, a bow and arrows, potions, potion ingredients, and crystals laid on organized shelves. Melinda took a holster off one shelf and slide two knives into either side before shrugging into it. She adjusted the straps across her shoulders and looked up into her cousin's shocked eyes.

"What?" she asked.

"Where did all this come from?" Primrose wanted to know. She pointed at the rows and rows of weapons and potions. "You made it very clear that you didn't want to keep fighting in high school, you even refused to attend the Senior Attack Magic class. Aunt Paige almost didn't let you graduate since you hadn't finished the coursework."

Melinda bit her lip, and played with the shoulder straps on the holster. "I know," she whispered. "I went through a phase and thought that magic would just kill everyone I love. Aunt Paige convinced me otherwise, but I took more self-defense than attack classes to graduate. I took some more classes in college and kinda, uh… Well, I came up with all this. I'm not going to walk into a situation without everything that I might need at some point. I didn't want magic to overtake my life, but I didn't give it up as much as people thought I had."

"Well, then. Ok, good."

Melinda smiled and handed another holster to her cousin. "Suit up, we don't know what we are walking into."

Primrose gave a weak smile and grabbed a knife off the shelf and took the potions that Melinda handed her. "What kind of potions are these?"

"Your usual garden variety vanquishing potion, smoke screen, and one that causes a bang. Should over any nasty situation that we could get into."

The cousins shared dangerous smiles and Melinda shut the secret compartment door with a bang.

Melinda and Primrose reformed deep in the Northern California forest. Their sturdy hiking boots crunched burnt wood and leaves under their feet. As far as their eyes could see the forest was burnt and destroyed. Melinda could see small signs of green already poking up through the damage, it gave her hope that they took could recover from the blows that had been dealt to them.

She unzipped the light jacket she had tossed over her shirt and crouched near the ground. They needed to find the exact spot where Chris had been injured and see if they could find anything. She studied the tracks and slowly followed them across the small patch of the forest to an area that had been trampled by many different sets of feet.

"Here!" she called to her cousin, "It was here that Chris was attacked."

Primrose quickly stepped over to where Melinda was still crouched and joined her studying the ground. Primrose held her hands over the spot and closed her eyes. It wasn't easy to use her empathy and visions to see the past, but it was possible.

Primrose concentrated first on Chris, she knew that he had been here and suffered so there should be an imprint left in the ground. She caught flashes of the attack and Chris's fear, but couldn't get a read on the attacker.

Primrose tried for several minutes before sighing and curling her hands into fists. She opened her eyes and stood back up.

Melinda had waited quietly, but looked at her in expectation.

"There isn't anything that I can get from the demon. I don't know how he does it, but he managed to cloak his essence within the man that he possessed. I got flashes of Zane and his fear and confusion, but not the creature that was controlling him. The demon has to be powerful, Melinda."

Melinda nodded and jammed her hands into the jacket pockets. "I knew that I would be a long shot, but we had to try. Let's look around before we leave there could be a more normal type of clue."

Primrose nodded and they circled out from the attack spot.

"Haven't the police been all over this area?" Primrose asked as they searched.

"Yeah, but they were mostly looking to either confirm Chris's story or prove it a lie. They wouldn't have been looking for anything to trace back to the attacker since Chris said he was consumed in the fire."

Melinda lifted a burnt log to see if anything was under it when she heard men's voices carrying in the wind. She quickly and quietly darted over to her cousin and grabbed her arm. When Primrose swung around and looked at her, she put her finger to her lips and orbed them out.

I really hoped that everyone enjoyed this update! I'm having a lot of fun with this story and reviews encourage me to write faster!