CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

No sooner did Rori say this than the demon of my premonition appeared, and unlike our demon, he didn't let the presence of a few extra people faze him. He smirked at us, reminding me so much of Shax that I felt sick, then raised his arms. In an instant, the room was engulfed in flames, just as if it had been drenched in gasoline. It was looking exactly like my premonition, so I knew we had to do something fast.

Paige must have been thinking the same thing, because she orbed over to Rori and her parents to act almost as a shield. I saw Chris near them, too, looking on at our impending fight almost oblivious to the flames around us.

"Chris!" I yelled to get his attention. "Get them out of here!"

He just looked from me to our innocents, and then back to me, and I got the sinking feeling that he'd frozen up, much as Paige had when she saw a car fire that reminded her of her adopted parents' death. I couldn't help wondering if it was reminding our Whitelighter of something from his past.

But before I could do anything to snap him out of it, the fire demon sent a blast of energy in our innocents' direction, and if Paige hadn't been right there to orb them out of the way, it would have been all over for them.

Paige emerged from another room, having deposited the family safely, and joined me and Piper. I'd had an idea, since this guy looked so much like Shax, but with no time to explain, I grabbed their hands and just started chanting the spell, knowing my sisters would join in.

"Demon filled with ire
Trying to kill us with your fire
No longer may you dwell
Death takes you with this spell!"

We chanted it together three times and then the demon writhed and exploded in demon fashion, and Rori, who had followed us, cast a quick spell to put out the flames. The house was still smoky, so we got Chris to orb me and Piper home while Paige brought our innocents to the Manor.

We were a little while explaining everything to Sylvia Bowen and her husband, James, but having magic in their lives as well, it was a lot easier than it might have been. I couldn't help thinking that Sylvia looked a lot like an older Rori, so she looked like what Prue may have looked like had she had a chance to grow older. It also hit me that Sylvia was the same age that Mom would've been had she lived. It seemed wierd to think that, since as you know, when we see her ghost, Mom always looked to be about our age. Somehow having Sylvia, Mom's second cousin, in the Manor both hurt and yet felt comforting, both in the same time. If only the look on James' face didn't look similar to the look on Dad's whenever he knew that being Charmed had put us in danger.

"You're welcome to stay here for a couple of days," Piper said at last with a smile, and Paige and I agreed.

James shook his head. "I'm heading back to Cambridge tomorrow," and he sounded like he couldn't get away quick enough.

"Tomorrow?" and I could tell how upset Rori seemed at the apparent change in plans.

"But --" and for the first time since Leo's promotion, Piper sounded a little bit upset.

James shook his head, stopping her words. "Uh, do you have a lavatory where I can wash some of this off?" He motioned to the soot on his face and hands.

"Upstairs," Paige directed him.

As soon as he was gone, we all stared at Sylvia, who was looking after him with regret in her eyes.

"James has never been able to get used to the magic," she explained softly, and left the explanation at that. It was really all we needed, because your grandpa was the same way--loving us, but frightened by the constant threat of attack.

"I just want to know if there are any more Shax rip-offs out there," Paige growled. "Because I, for one, would like to get them all vanquished and out of the way."

"And I want to know why they were after you guys," I told Sylvia, a question in my voice, but unwilling to tell her that the demon was specifically after her husband.

"I don't know. But I'm going to find out." She patted her Book of Shadows that she'd insisted had to come with her.

From the corner of the living room, I heard Chris sigh. He'd been sitting quietly over there this whole time, and while I usually wouldn't have minded silence from him, I could also imagine him beating himself up about what happened during the fire, and couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for him, the way I did when I found out about Paige's adopted parents' death.

He looked up and saw me watching him, and must've seen the sympathetic look on my face because the thoughtful look was replaced by an irritated one. He was the world's worst at getting irritated easily. I take that back. When she's not acting LaLa Piper, your mom's got him beat. He came in second

Anyway, he got up then and told us he was headed back to P3 if we didn't need him, and before we could say one way or another, he left us. Sylvia looked at us questioningly and all we could do was shrug.