CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Rori looked scared, but then an idea seemed to come to her. "Phoebe! You say it!"

So I chanted the short, and--might I add--stylistically-lacking, spell, and since I'm a Charmed One, it worked like, well, a charm.

"Not a bad spell," Paige complimented Rori with a smile.

Rori shrugged. "It was just a simple Hellbender demon. Just takes two witches, or one Charmed One, apparently," she explained, and then catching Paige's impressed expression, blushed beet-red before adding, "Oh, Mom makes me study our Book of Shadows along with my homework. She calls it my 'witchwork'. She figures since we can't really protect ourselves with our retroes, we better be able to use potions and spells."

Piper looked around and grinned. "I think I like your Book. No clean-up," and she grinned at the lack of demon goo. "All right!"

"It's not over yet," I warned. "When I shoved Rori out of the way, I had a premonition of what looked like Shax, just more, I don't know, more flowy and orangy. And there was a woman who looked like Rori but older and a man with red hair--" I stopped. I had seen this man lying dead on the floor.

Rori's eyes widened in panic. "Mom! Dad! I gotta go home!"

I put my hands on her shoulders. "Hold on, you're staying here," I insisted. "We'll take care of this."

She shook my hands off, her green eyes blazing. "If you think I am going to sit around while my parents are in trouble, you are out of your freakin' mind!" she screamed, giving us our first indication of that temper we now know her for. "Besides, you don't even know where I live."

"She's got a point," Paige admitted. "I can orb, but I can't orb blind."

"Wait a minute. You're not seriously going to go in there half-cocked?" Chris protested. This from the guy who came to the past not even knowing what demon he wanted to vanquish.

"What are we supposed to do?" I demanded. "Just let the demon kill them?"

Chris sighed and looked at the ground for a second. I figured it was just to keep himself calm, because when he spoke again, all feeling went out of his voice. "You don't even know what you're up against. You have no potion, no spell--"

"So we go in, get Rori's parents, and come back here for research," Paige compromised. "But, uh, just in case the demon's already there, you should probably come, too," she told Chris. "We may need some healing."

Chris opened his mouth to say something, apparently thought better of it, and came out instead with, "What about Wyatt?"

We looked to Piper, who took our meaning and called out, "Eve!"

A green flash of light later, Piper's elf nanny appeared in that same marmish skirt suit she always wore, but with a pissier expression than she normally had.

"I was on a date, you know," she grumbled sourly. "You can't keep calling me and expecting me to show up at the drop of a hat. I have a life, too."

"We just need you to watch him for a couple of minutes," Paige coaxed.

"I'm charging overtime for this. Double overtime."

We ignored her and turned to Chris. "Better, Mr. Obsessive-Compulsive?" Paige asked sarcastically. "Now, let's go." She grabbed me and Piper, who held Rori's hand, and orbed.

As the world disappeared and I became orbs, I could barely hear Chris rant to himself, "God, I hate this!" before he followed our trail.

When we arrived, Rori's parents were just sitting down to a dinner of their own. Mrs. Bowen jumped up much as we had when our demon showed up, but Rori stopped her before she could take any further action.

"Mom, Dad," she screamed, running towards them. "We gotta get out of here! Now!"