FOUR

Trey had been gone much too long for the girl's comfort levels. If he had reverted to evil any one of Leo's charges could be in serious danger. They had tried calling for him several times all to no avail. But they had been far from idle. They gathered in the living room to take stock of their preparations.

"Is the spell ready?" Piper asked.

"Got it right here," said Phoebe. "With any luck it should separate the two. The potions shouldn't be necessary."

"Well, in case they are," said Paige, "I have a binding potion. Hopefully he'll take it voluntarily and we won't have to use it against him."

"Then we have this," said Piper, holding up one of two potion vials she was holding. "It's a power-stripping potion. It won't hurt him but it should strip his powers if we need to. At least he'll still be alive until we can figure out what to do about this."

"What about the last resort?" Paige asked.

Piper held up the second vial she was holding. They all just stared at it for a moment.

"You . . . you sure it will work?" Phoebe asked hesitantly.

"It should," said Piper. "I used part of the Belthazor vanquishing potion we have. I punched it up a bit to make it stronger. And I used some poison from the Dark Lighter crossbow we got when Natalie was here. It should be strong enough to vanquish both sides of Trey."

"I hope it won't be necessary," said Paige. "I know how hard it would be to have to vanquish him."

"Speaking of which," said Piper, handing the vial to Phoebe, "I think you should hold onto this one. If it does become necessary to use it Phoebe or I might hesitate. That could prove fatal to all of us. You're not in love with either Cole or Leo. You're less likely to freeze up if it becomes necessary."

"Well, like Phoebe said," said Paige, "it is a last resort. Only if and when Cole's demonic half takes control and only if we have no other choice to defend against him. I don't think it's going to be necessary but like I said earlier, we need to be prepared."

"I wonder where he is?" Phoebe questioned. "He's been gone an awfully long time."

"I'm sure everything is okay," said Piper hopefully. "He's been gone a long time before. He probably just got tied up with one of his other charges."

"I hope that's all it is," said Phoebe.

Trey was gone much longer than the girls would have liked. When he did shorb into the manor he seemed almost frantic.

"We're about to have company," he announced as he hurried out of the entryway into the living room.

Suddenly a demon shimmered in behind him. It looked around until it spotted Trey. The demon was about Trey's height and was a light green. It had pointed ears and a ridge of spines running down its back. Its eyes glowed a dull blue and it had long jagged teeth.

"Coward," hissed the demon. "You cost me my prey. You will pay for your interference."

The demon began to move toward Trey. Piper reacted instantly. She raised her hands and the demon exploded but almost instantly reformed. It turned to face Piper.

"Witch," it hissed.

"That's right, greenie," said Piper. "Now why don't you just get out of here before you really make me angry?"

"You don't scare me witch," said the demon. "Your power has all ready proven ineffective against me. I will have what I came for."

"Poker," said Paige. The poker rose from the fireplace and flew across the room, striking the demon in the shoulder. The demon howled in pain and yanked the poker out, turning on Paige.

As it did so Phoebe kicked out striking the demon along side of its head. The demo howled in anger and turned on Phoebe, striking her with the poker. Phoebe fell to the floor, blood running from a wound in her temple.

Piper raised her hands and the demon froze in place. She hurried over and dragged Phoebe away from the demon as Paige called for the poker. It orbed out of the demons had into Paige's hand.

"Piper, its eyes," said Trey. "Destroy the eyes. It's the demons' only weakness."

Piper looked up at Trey and then at the demon. The demon was turning on her and was just forming a fireball. Piper raised her hands and tapped into her explosive power. She directed it directly at the demons eyes. The eyes exploded and the demon exploded into flames and was vanquished in seconds.

Paige immediately moved over to see how Phoebe was. Her breath was heavy and labored. The wound in her temple was bleeding freely and no matter what Piper did she wouldn't wake up.

"Do something," Piper cried to Trey. "Half of you is White Lighter. You have to heal her before she dies."

"Move away," said Trey.

Piper carefully laid Phoebe's head on the floor and moved away from her. Instead of moving to Phoebe to use his healing power, Trey suddenly formed an energy ball. The same type of energy ball Cole, as Belthazor, would use against his opponents. Without saying a word he cast the energy ball at Phoebe and it engulfed her completely.