CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

As usual, Chris started in on us just as soon as he appeared. "Hey, I was just about to come get you. I think I've found a demon who --"

I cut him off before he could lay yet another problem on us. "Nope, this time we have a demon for you."

Chris frowned and listened as we told him everything.

"So, what do you think?" I asked when we had finished. "Any long-lost cousins in our future?"

I half-expected him to get tight-lipped since I'd asked about the dreaded F-word, but he just shook his head. "Not that I remember."

"It's too much of a coincidence," Paige insisted.

"So, you're thinking what?" Chris asked. "A shape-shifter?"

"Yeah. I mean, what better way to take us off-guard than to come in as a Prue look-alike?" Paige put in.

Chris nodded, then struck on another idea. "And if she played nice long enough for everyone to trust her, none of you would defend yourself from her." For the first time he truly looked happy, excited. "She could be the one! We should check the Book--"

"Now wait!" I cried out, for something else had hit me. "Before we get all potion-happy, let's consider the possibility that Piper could be right. I grant you, it's remote, but, I mean . . . she may be acting a little nuts right now, but that doesn't mean she's stupid."

"Are you saying we should let her come to dinner?" Paige asked in disbelief.

I shook my head. "I'm just saying that we need to make sure we're not blowing up an innocent witch."

It was a relief to see that they both understood my point. "So what do you propose we do?" Chris asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know, test her somehow."

"How?" Paige demanded. "If there were a potion to test for demons, we'd use it all the time."

"Then we test her for humanity," I answered. I had just thought of a pretty fantastic plan, if I do say so myself. "What if we made an alum-based potion and sorta slipped it in her drink? It'll make a human strangle, but a demon wouldn't be affected."

"Alum? Like to clean algae?" Chris asked the question that was apparently on Paige's mind too.

"Didn't anybody ever watch Bugs Bunny? The one with the opera singer and Bugs gave him alum instead of water, and his head shrank and his voice got really tiny?"

Now, I know you've seen it, nephew mine, and laughed right along with me, even though Chris and Paige looked at me like I'd gone about as nuts as Piper.

"Wait, you want to poison her to see if she's human?" Paige demanded. "Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose?"

I waved it off. "No, no. If she gets strangled, we'll just whack her on the back, and that's the end of it. But if she's a demon . . ."

"Then nothing will happen, and you can vanquish her." Chris nodded his approval, like we really needed it. "Sounds good. Hop to it."

OOOO! I almost had words with him then, telling us to hop to it like we were his little trained monkeys. My mouth even opened, and my comeback was ready, but I was so not in the mood to waste my breath. Besides, I didn't know how long the testing and vanquishing potions would take to brew, so there was no time to waste either. Instead, I just grabbed his arm and made sure he hopped right along with us, even if it was only to sit around and watch and gripe and tell us to hurry up, while both Paige and I rolled our eyes and did our best to ignore him.

Piper spent the rest of the day in the kitchen or cleaning the downstairs, so we were free to brew both potions without her knowing. Still, to keep her from getting suspicious (not like she would have, with the mood she was in), we went down every so often to check on her or to give offers of help that we knew she'd always refuse. An hour before dinner, though, she called us all down because there was one thing we could do.

"You taste this." She handed me a spoonful of her tomato soup. "And you taste this." She gave some potato and broccoli soup to Paige.

"Why did you make two kinds of soup, Piper?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

"Well, I started thinking, what if she doesn't like lasagna? So I though we'd have soup too, just in case. But then I couldn't decide which to have, so I just made both."

All three of us nodded as though that made perfect sense, and she, of course, smiled when Paige and I told her both were good. Then she seemed to realize something. "Chris, you've never tasted my cooking, have you?" She sounded scandalized that she hadn't thought of this before.

"No, it's okay," Chris assured her. "I will tonight."

But Piper would have none of it. "Here." She surprised him by forcing a spoonful of potato and broccoli soup into his mouth.

It was always really very hard to read Chris Perry, but for some reason, something passed across his face when Piper put that soup in his mouth. I wasn't sure, but it looked almost like sadness. He simply stared into the pot as he chewed.

"Well?" Piper asked.

He swallowed and gave one of those lopsided grins that usually annoyed me but somehow didn't this time. "Just like my mom used to make."

"Is that good?" she pressed.

He nodded. "Yeah," he answered quietly, then suddenly cleared his throat and became unreadable again. "It could use a little more pepper, though."

Piper took a bite for herself and considered it in her mouth. "You're right."

As she reached for the pepper grinder, Chris turned to Paige and me. "I gotta go, but I'll be back by dinner," he told us, then orbed out without another word.