Legacy: Pieces of Eight

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Two: Candace

"So, this is where Candace was supposed to be hiding out at?" Susan asked as she pushed open the door to a condemned apartment building. "You know, she should probably think about going someplace that was a little bit more crowded. This one just screams 'demons, here I am, come attack me!'" She shook her head as Alex glared at her. "Well, it does."

"Maybe so, but she's just trying to lay low for awhile, until this danger has passed. The last time that demons were after her amulet, it nearly got her killed, remember?" Climbing up the broken stairs, Alex glanced towards his cousin. "So, uh . . . what exactly is the story with your boyfriend, anyway?" he wanted to know. "How'd you two hit it off?"

"He's my next door neighbour, we met when Brooke and I moved in, end of story," Susan answered absently as she carefully climbed up the stairs. Chris had volunteered to go back to the apartment and find out what the amulets were for, since Alex had no idea, and give Brooke and Wyatt the updates on what was going on. "Brooke's dating his older brother, by the way."

"Yeah, that's really going to end well, considering her history with guys," Alex said grumpily as he pushed open a door on the second level. Susan winced; she had forgotten that Alex and Brooke used to date, long before she and Ryan had been an item. Back before they even knew Brooke was a witch. "Candace? Candace, it's Alex. You here?"

"Alex?" A girl around eighteen years of age poked her head around the room, her expression of pure relief when she saw Alex standing there and she hurried to him, hugging him tightly. Alex hugged her back as she saw Susan over his shoulder and regarded her suspiciously, looking towards her Whitelighter with a curious expression.

"Candace, thank the gods you're all right!" Alex said as he pulled away from the embrace, looking her with a concerned expression. "It's okay, this is my cousin Susan. She's a witch." With a nod, Candace regarded Susan warily, but she looked at Alex trustingly. "Are you okay? That phone call you gave me had me kind of worried."

"Yeah, I know, but I had to get out of there," Candace explained. "Natasha got the warning to me just before she was taken, so I know that they were coming after me next. So, what's your gift?" she asked, looking at Susan curiously. "What can you do?"

"Weather manipulation, precognition," Susan answered, realising that she meant what powers she had. "And I've got orbing from my Whitelighter side." Candace nodded as she looked at Alex. "Okay, so what is it that this demon's after and what's the demon's name?"

"To be honest, I'm not so sure that it is a demon," Candace admitted, sighing. "I don't know what's after the guardians, but they want the amulets, that I know for sure."

"What else could it be, if it's not a demon?" Susan muttered, shaking her head tiredly. "A warlock, a dark witch?"

"Possibly." Candace started pacing back and forth across the floor. "All I know is that the amulets were never supposed to come back together. And the only reason I know that is because Alex told me. I have absolutely no idea where the amulets come from or why they even exist. The sole reason why they were kept in separate parts of the world was so that they would be kept apart, as far away from each other as possible."

"Then this Natasha wasn't from California?"

Candace shook her head. "Just visiting," she answered. "Her sister lives here with her family and Natasha was staying with her until she went back home to Massachusetts." She sighed as she sat down on the bed. "You don't know how glad I am that you guys are here. I've been sitting here for two days, just worrying that they were going to come here and kill me next." Candace gave them a weak smile that showed them just how frightened she'd been.

"Candace, you need to come with us, okay?" Alex told her. "It's not safe for you here, all by yourself. Susan, her friends, and I will protect you while we try and figure this out."

"We'll find something out," Susan assured her when Candace looked sceptical. "Believe me, I've handled worse." Especially lately, she thought.

With a small sigh, Candace stood up and headed over to the corner, pulling out a small grey and white cat. "Not without Maurice," she said fiercely. Alex grinned and she pulled Candace with the cat in her arms out of the room with Susan pulling up the rear as they headed down the steps.

It was only when they were almost halfway out the door to go to her car that Susan realised that someone was in the room with them, standing just out of view. "Uh . . . why don't you guys orb back to the apartment?" she suggested, looking at her cousin. "I'll catch up."

"Why?" Alex looked at her worriedly. "What's going on?"

"I just want to go check with a contact, see if he might know anything about what's going on," Susan lied. Alex looked sceptical, but nodded as he took Candace by the arm and orbed them both out to Susan's apartment. With a small sigh, Susan walked over to her younger half-brother and hugged him tightly. "I was so worried about you?"

"Yeah, well, you worry too much, you know that?" Bobby said with a grin towards her. Susan wanted to tell him that as his older sister, she had very good reason to worry, but he was still under the impression that she knew nothing about their relationship and for the time being, she wanted to keep it that way. "But there's some things you need to know about. It's about the amulets. You know, the one that girl had?"

Immediately, Susan felt her warning bells flare up. "What do you know?" she asked anxiously.

"Not much," Bobby answered, shaking his head. "Just that Dad wants all of the amulets for some reason. He's the one that's killing the guardians. It's not just the one from Massachusetts that's been killed. There's others. At least six of them," he told her. "Maybe seven, I don't know. Either there's one or two still left and that girl Candace is one of them."

"What are the amulets for?"

Bobby shrugged. "Not a clue, but that's what we're going to find out," he said with a smile, pulling a parchment out of his pocket. "This is an incantation to speak with the Oracles."

"The Oracles?" Susan echoed, cocking an eyebrow. "Who are the Oracles, Bobby? They don't sound like they're friendly."

"Oh, I'd say they're probably not," Bobby answered as they headed out the door and into the crummy part of the city. "But they might know what the amulets are for and what Dad wants to do with them. Of course, they might just turn us into toads or something," he added weakly. Susan stared at him. "Look, they work for the Powers That Be, okay? It's not a joy ride, but we're running out of time."

"The Powers That Be, huh?" Susan sighed as they climbed into her car. "Well, we haven't got much to lose. What's the catch?"

"We're gonna have to make a little pit stop first," Bobby said with a small smile. "These Oracles, they're really picky and they're not gonna be answer any questions without us bringing some kind of gift for them. I figure a nice vase down at the antique store will probably do it."

"A gift?" Susan muttered. "It was so much easier when we just threw potions at demons and they blew up."

--

"Find anything?" Wyatt asked his brother as Chris flipped through the Book. Brooke had her nose buried in a bunch of books on amulets and other magical items from Susan's rooms while the elder Halliwell was scrying to find where the amulets were being kept at.

"You mean since you asked me two minutes ago?" Chris countered without looking up. Wyatt glared at him as he continued to hold the crystal above the map, trying—and failing miserably—to find the amulets. "Okay, it's official, you guys. There's nothing in here that even relates to witch guardians that are protecting amulets."

Wyatt looked up as orbs appeared in the kitchen, materialising into a young man with a frightened teenage girl. "Uh . . . who are you?"

"That's Susan's cousin Alex," Chris told him and Alex gave a nod of introduction to Wyatt. "And I'm assuming that this would be Candace?" he asked, directing the question towards Alex, who nodded. "Hi, I'm Chris, this is my brother Wyatt and this is Brooke."

"Hi, Brooke," Alex said with a sigh towards the telepathic nymph. Brooke only nodded, giving him a scathing look before looking away. Wyatt wondered vaguely if there was any history between the two.

"Susan's has a cousin?" he wanted to know, making sure he understood this right. "That's weird; she never talks about her family back home."

"Nah, she wouldn't, considering that her own family was pretty much stripped away from her," Alex said tiredly as he walked over to the table, sitting down. "Candace, why don't you sit down, while we figure this out?"

"You know, Alex, I would prefer it if you didn't give orders in my apartment," Brooke said disdainfully, glaring at him. Alex looked towards her as he surveyed the nymph-witch. "And since when did you get off of probation? I thought that you were still on the Elders' bad side after what happened to that one charge of yours."

"It's so nice to see that you haven't changed a bit, Brooke," Alex said, his tone calm, but his eyes had grown dangerous as he stared at Brooke, as though daring her to continue, but Brooke was far from done from attacking the Whitelighter.

"So the Elders just decided to bring Mr. Psycho-Whitelighter out of retirement just so he can get another one of his charges killed?" Brooke snapped. Wyatt frowned when she said that; what did she mean by that? "Wasn't it your irresponsibility with Vincent that got him to playing with more powerful magic that he was able to handle? And then he cast a spell that was way more powerful he was capable of performing, which ultimately killed him . . . all of which was under your supervision? Weren't you right there when he cast that spell, watching him?"

Candace went dead white as she looked towards Alex in shock. Chris stared at Brooke before looking towards Alex. Wyatt's mouth dropped open in surprise. Alex only stared down Brooke.

"People change, Murphy," he said quietly. "As I recall, it wasn't that long ago that you were head over heels for Ryan. Didn't take you too long to get over him, I see," he muttered, glancing sideways at Wyatt, who suddenly felt very uncomfortable to be in the room.

"That's different," Brooke said after a long moment. "I didn't get people that I was supposed to be taking care of killed. I didn't abandon my duty because I was sick and tired of being told what to do and took an innocent kid on a wild ride."

Alex stood up carefully. "I was sixteen," he replied quietly. "And who do you think you are to be questioning the Elders, Brooke? If They think that I'm ready to go back into the field again and start guiding witches, don't you think that you should trust Their judgement?"

"Right, because the Elders showed such great judgement when They hired an assassin to kill your cousins," Brooke said coldly.

Slamming his hand down onto the table, Alex glared at her with such cold fury that it made Wyatt move towards Brooke protectively. Cousin of Susan's or not, he wasn't going to take any chances. "You want to know something, Brooke Kathryn Murphy?" he hissed angrily. "I know how you feel about me. I've known about that for years. You've got no reason to trust me, but we are kind of on a time limit here, because we have no idea who is after these amulets or even what they are supposed to do. So could we possibly save this until after this is over?"

Brooke's jaw stuck out stubbornly as she walked away from the table and headed into her room, slamming the door behind her. Wyatt frowned as he looked towards Alex, who took several calming breaths before speaking.

"Right," he said quietly, "so where were we at?"

"What's the story with you two, anyway?" Chris inquired, glancing up from the Book. Alex ignored him as he took Brooke's vacant seat and started skimming through the books as another series of orbs appeared.

"Hey, guys, we've got . . . . big trouble with demons," Brandon James announced, immediately spotting Alex and Candace. "Uh . . . Alex, hi, what are you doing here?" he wanted to know, placing his hands on his hips and staring at her curiously.

"Getting my cousin's help with my charge and stopping whoever or whatever is after the amulets," Alex replied, glancing at him. "I take it that the Elders sent you down here to warn them about this?"

"Kind of," Brandon admitted with a smile. Wyatt shook his head and Chris sighed. "Where is Susan at, anyway? And Brooke?"

"Brooke's in her room," Candace said helpfully. "And Susan said that she was going to check out a source, see if they knew anything."

"A source?" Wyatt echoed, frowning. "What source?" Then, looking at his brother, comprehension dawned upon him. "Oh, right," he said weakly. "Right. Bobby."

"Bobby," Chris agreed.

"Bobby," Brandon sighed.