THREE
Paige closed the Book of Shadows and laid it on the coffee table.
"Well, I can't find anything, just like Phoebe," she said. "There's nothing in the book about two beings merging."
"We could have told you that," said Trey. "Neither of them has ever heard of anything like this happening before. It's unlikely there would be anything about it in the book."
"What about checking in the underworld?" Piper asked. "Maybe someone down there knows something about this."
"I don't think that's a good idea," said Phoebe. "Cole is still wanted down there. Even if some demon knows something they might try to take advantage of the situation."
"But they wouldn't recognize him," said Piper. "He doesn't look like either Leo or Cole."
"But we'd have to explain it to them," said Trey. "It's probably not a good idea to let anyone in the underworld know where Cole is or that he's merged with Leo."
"So what do we do?" Paige asked. "I mean, do you have both of their powers or what?"
"It would seem so," said Trey, "but it's a merging of their powers. I can't be sure how that's going to affect their individual powers."
"I?" Piper questioned.
"What?"
"You said 'I', not 'we'," said Piper.
"Yes," said Trey thoughtfully. "It's strange. Cole and Leo's presences seem less pronounced than they did a while ago. I can still feel them inside me but it's like they aren't as strong individually as they were initially."
"That can't be good,' said Phoebe. "It could mean we're running out of time. If they merge too completely we may not be able to separate them."
"Then we'd better think of something," said Piper. "I don't relish the idea of. . . Trey, what's the matter?"
Trey was staring off into space.
"One of my – that is, Leo's – charges is calling," said Trey. "It sounds serious."
"Whatever it is it will have to wait," said Piper. This is serious and we can't have you running off until we've found a way to fix it."
"I can't just abandon my charges," said Trey. "Cole and Leo may be merged but I still have a responsibility to take care of them. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Before any of the girls could speak he disappeared from the manor using the same shimmering orb he had used to attempt to go to the Elders with.
"That shorb is really unnerving," said Paige.
"Shorb?" Phoebe questioned.
"Yeah," said Paige. "A shimmering orb. A shorb."
"Let's not worry about that right now," said Piper. "Phoebe has a point. They may merge so completely we'll never be able to separate them. We need to find a way to get them apart before that happens. I still think a spell is our best bet despite the risk involved."
"And if it backfires and kills Trey instead?" Phoebe asked.
"I don't think we have much of a choice," said Paige. "We don't even know how Cole's demonic half will affect Trey. "What if that part becomes dominant? He might suddenly turn on us and with Leo's immortality and Cole's demonic powers he might be impossible to stop."
"Leo would never let that happen," said Piper.
"I agree with Piper," said Phoebe. "And I don't think the Cole half of Trey would hurt me either."
"Ordinarily I'd agree with you," said Paige. "But this isn't an ordinary situation. I think you're both thinking with your hearts and not your heads. Piper, remember when you told me about the warlock, Zile? Some evil priestess forced Prue to marry Zile and turned you both evil. You said you actually killed Leo then. He came back when you vanquished the priestess and undid her spells.
"And Phoebe, what about that Woogie thing trapped in the cellar? You said when it took control of you, you couldn't stop yourself. You even tried to kill Prue and Piper. Neither of you would have done that normally but you were being controlled by evil.
"What if that happened to Trey? What if the demonic half of Cole gets control of him? Can you honestly say there's no chance he won't try to kill us? That's what he was sent here for, after all. If his demonic half is devoid of all humanity, he might not think twice about it."
Piper and Phoebe just looked at Paige. She was right, of course. Cole was able to keep his demonic half under control. But if this merging altered their personalities it was conceivable that the demonic half of Cole would prove too powerful to resist. Especially in light of the fact that it had all been caused by the power of another very powerful demon. If that happened they realized they might have no other option. They might have to vanquish Trey to protect themselves and each other. If they could vanquish him.