I sat there panting, slouched over on the attic floor. That had taken so much out of me, I could barely stand. I heard the footsteps on the stairs and I knew my day was not over yet, far from it actually.
"Kat! Kat are you alright!" I heard Paige, my mother, yell as she rushed over to me.
I nodded weakly and lifted myself up off the ground, walked to each of the sisters in turn and let their powers flow back into them, releasing a bit of the pressure that was building up inside of my skull. But not nearly enough, there was still an unholy pounding in my head. I still had the enormous energies of both the demon and the thunderstorm bottled up inside, I needed to let them out, now!
"I'll be right back," I said to no one in particular.
I walked over to the large window in the front of the attic and swung it open, climbing up the lattice-work next to it, which had been placed there for precisely this reason. I crawled up onto the roof and prayed that no one decided to look up at that particular moment.
I knelt down on the flattest part of the roof; I got decidedly wet for it, as the sky was currently dumping on San Francisco. I set about calming myself, which was rather difficult; there were quite a few emotions zinging around inside. I focused on releasing the energy of the storm out first, slowly. Some sparks snapped around my fingers, but it was relatively easy to release the storm. Path of least resistance and all that.
I shifted my focus to the demon's energy, releasing it in small measured amounts. It also left relatively easily, but I knew it would return to the demon eventually, as energy doesn't just sit there with nowhere to go. I kept a bit of his energy for myself and felt a reprieve in the pressure in my skull for my efforts. Though I did have a blinding headache.
"Feeling better?" Piper asked upon my reentry into the attic.
"Yeah, a bit," I replied. "I'm going to get a shower and change," I said, walking past the sisters.
"But we need to talk and…you need to be healed," Mom said.
"I'll be alright, we'll talk in a minute," I replied.
I retrieved a change of clothes from one of the communal closets; we all kept some clothes at the manor. Things often got messy and there were many long nights. I let the hot water stream over me, taking the ache out of my bones, which always accompanied overextending my magic. I scrubbed the blood from my face, coming from a cut by my eyebrow, and took stock of my various bruises and bumps. Not too bad, considering.
I walked into the kitchen, still towel drying my hair.
"Better?" Phoebe asked.
"Much better, thanks," I plopped myself down on a stool next to my mom, who set about healing me. "Whatever that was, he was powerful," I said to the room.
Piper nodded, "So you're going to help?"
"I have a score to settle, it doesn't mean I choose any of this."
"Well let's find out what it was then," Phoebe stated. My phone chose that moment to ring, loudly.
"Hello." I said walking into the other room, annoyed; I really didn't have the time or energy to deal with Riley at the moment.
"I need to see you, "The voice on the other end said.
"I told you, we're finished, done, end of story. So please stop calling."
"No! I refuse to believe that you still don't have feeling for me. What we had, it was special."
"Special is definitely the right word, spot on there Riley. But I mean it, I'm done. What you did, I can't look past that, I won't. I'm sorry, bye Riley." I hung up and walked back into the kitchen.
"Boyfriend trouble?"Phoebe asked.
"Ex-Boyfriend trouble," I replied. "Now what are we dealing with here?"