Phoebe stood in the middle of the attic holding Piper's address book. She ran her finger along the alphabetised names, praying she would get a premonition. Any insight into who was leaking all of their personal information to the enemy would be fine. Leo was flicking through the pages of The Book of Shadows, but he didn't have much to go on and eventually gave up with a sigh.
"Ugh, this is hopeless!" cried Phoebe exasperatedly. She slammed the book down after reaching the final Z name without having even a flicker of a premonition. Leo orbed her up a glass of water and a chocolate bar, which she devoured in seconds. They'd been in the attic for hours now and had found nothing useful to report back to the others. They'd gone over every person any of them knew well and had come in contact with over the last few days. That had been the shortest task of the morning. Demon-hunting and innocent-protecting had left them very little time to maintain social lives or even friendships. But no one they could think of set off any alarm bells. Really, the only people who even had enough knowledge of the Charmed Ones' lives to be of any use as a mole were Cole, Leo, Darryl and the Elders, all of whom they'd ruled out already. Cole, Darryl and Leo were like family, there was no way any of them had betrayed the Charmed Ones' trust, at least not in Phoebe's mind. Cole was half-demon, but that also made him half human and his half-human side loved her with all his heart. Phoebe knew that this side of him would always win out over the demon one as long as she was around. She may have a hard time keeping her sisters convinced, but Phoebe was absolutely sure he was one hundred percent on their side.
Darryl was an old family friend. They'd met him through Andy, Prue's high school sweetheart, who was Darryl's partner in the police force before he died. Darryl had eventually come to learn of the sisters' secret Charmed identities. Since then he'd covered for them, never telling a soul that they were witches, and in return they solved any demon related murders that ended up as one of his cases. He'd risked his life for the Charmed Ones too many times before to suddenly go against them now.
Leo, being married to Piper and the girls' Whitelighter could certainly not be the mole. Professionally the Elders kept track of his every move, and so if he was working against the Charmed Ones, they would have clipped his wings by now.
"Nothing would be worth double-crossing Piper," he had joked when Phoebe had accused him of being the mole, just for a laugh. "She'd kill me!"
And they'd come to the conclusion that they were not being betrayed by the Elders. They were the greatest source of good in the entire world. It was them who helped the Charmed Ones defeat evil and fulfil their destiny. The idea that they were suddenly working with evil was just absurd.
And so there they were, back at square one. No suspects and no clue when or where they'd be attacked, let alone which demons would be responsible. In the past, when Phoebe had read the Book of Shadows and discovered what kind of demon or warlock they were up against, she'd always felt a sense of fear. Knowing what she had to face seemed to make it all the more real. But now she not knowing who or what was after you was so much worse. How could they prepare for an attack they'd never see coming?
Meanwhile Paige was just finishing up at work. It was late and her co-workers had all gone home already so it was her job to lock up. Cole had been patrolling the perimeter of the building all day, occasionally shimmering in to Paige's office to check on her. He'd just left her office for one last sweep of the premises. A demon appeared out of nowhere and threw Paige against the wall with the blink of an eye. He lunged at her with an athame but she managed to orb out of the way just in time. Her screams echoed through the empty halls as the demon made another attempt to stab her. She would have called for Leo, even Cole if she could speak, but her voice was paralysed with fear. Once again she felt herself thrown against something hard – her desk. Her head hit the sharp corner with such force that she felt dizzy. She winced in pain and tried to stand but she slumped back against the hard wood behind her.
Cole was riding the elevator back to the floor where Paige's office was. His last patrol was clear, meaning it was safe to take Paige down to the car. The elevator slowed and came to a stop with a quiet 'ping'. As the doors opened, Cole heard a blood curdling scream. He sprinted towards Paige's office, and just seconds from reaching the door, everything went silent.
"Oh my God, you're still alive?" he said in disbelief and disdain as he burst through the door. Paige was curled up against her desk, head between her knees and her hands up trying to shield herself. The demon and his athame were just inches from her. Cole felt anger and power swell within him as he transformed into his alter-ego, Belthazor. He lunged at the demon and wrestled the athame from his grasp. Plunging it deep into his chest, the demon let out a roar of pain and was gone.
"Paige, you're safe now," said Belthazor, kneeling in front of her. She looked up and was startled to see another demon in front of her.
"Get away from me!" she screamed and pushed him away.
"It's me! It's me!" cried Belthazor, stepping back and turning back into the man she recognised, Cole.
Paige relaxed slightly, but still shuddered at Cole's touch as he helped her to her feet.
"You're hurt," he said, still supporting her weight. Her hand reached up to her temple and felt something warm and sticky; blood. "I'll drive your car home for you. It's safest for you to orb straight home so Leo can heal you. Are you strong enough to orb?"
Paige nodded. She chucked him her keys and orbed out.
Paige knew she should have gone straight home to the Manor, but she didn't really want to be anywhere Cole was right now. He'd scared her. He'd seemed shocked when he'd walked in on the scene in her office, like he'd expected her to be dead. It was almost as if he'd known about the attack. Instead, Paige found herself standing outside the local police station. She stepped inside and three officers got to their feet and asked if she was okay. Her head was throbbing but she smiled, saying she was fine, and headed towards Darryl's office. She knocked on the door in warning and then entered.
"Paige? What the hell happened to you?" was Darryl's initial reaction. He stood up from his desk and grabbed a first aid kit from the shelf. He patched up Paige's head wound tenderly. It stung and she turned her face so he wouldn't see the tears that had welled up in her eyes. She explained her demon encounter to him in hushed tones.
"There you go. Now, I know you didn't come here so I could bandage your head when Leo could have done it much faster and less painfully. What's up?" Darryl enquired, taking a seat back behind his desk. Paige took a seat on the other side.
"I was just wondering if you knew anything about those multiple suicides that were in the paper this morning?" asked Paige.
"It's my case," Darryl replied, picking up the case file from the top of his pile, "but there's no way they were all suicides. There was no coincidence, it was planned murder. Only the victims don't show any signs of being pushed over the edge. Do you know of any witchy reason that would cause someone to jump off of a building of their own accord?"
"No, sorry," said Paige shaking her head.
"The victims were all 'ladies of the night', if you know what I mean." Darryl continued. They were found down a dark alley way in the industrial area across town where they worked. This guy went to a lot of trouble to choose victims who most likely wouldn't be missed."
"So he takes girls in horrible situations, with no one to notice they've gone missing and talks them into committing suicide by jumping off of a building?" asked Paige, "That's awful".
"Yeah, the manipulative son of a bitch." Darryl cried in frustration, throwing the case file onto the desk.
"Well I'll talk to my sisters and see if we can come up with any ideas. It certainly sounds like there's something sinister going on," Paige promised. "But right now I have to get home; they'll be worried about me." She thanked Darryl for all his help and for the second time that night, orbed out.