anexandra - I'm very pleased that you're interested! I hope you stay that way! :) Thank you for the review, too!
Shawntail - Haha, I'm proud of you! Focusing more on silly stories rather than studying. ;) I'm sorry to leave you with the cliffhanger... but I had to! And, hey, here's some more! So don't pout, k? I'll make it better (I hope.) :D
Anyways, enjoy this next chapter.
P.S. - towards the middle, there's a point-of-view change. It goes to Third Person POV, then back to Delilah's POV. You'll know because there's bolded words, so just be prepared for it. :)
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His wide eyes clung to my face. "Delilah? What are you doing here?" he asked hastily and turned to Phoebe, "Phoebe, you know her?" His tone was aggressive and concerned.
I couldn't believe he was really there. "Belthazor," I said softly again, my heart pounding in my chest. 'Did he come for me?' I thought. 'Perhaps he missed me, as I longed for his return.' I couldn't help myself then; I ran toward him and leapt into his strong arms, wrapping my frail ones around his neck. My nose was pushed into his collar, and I inhaled his scent I had smelled long before.
"Whoa! Prue! Piper!" Phoebe shrieked, her face no longer shining with happiness but filled with shock and rage.
"What, what is it?!" Piper yelled back, the two older sisters coming from the kitchen. "Oh, wow! I see!" she said, her eyes bulging while her feet came to a halt along with Prue's.
Belthazor pushed me off of him and backed away. Puzzlement etched my face. "Why are you walking away?" I asked, quiet and hesitant. "Didn't you come for me?"
Phoebe spun around toward him, her voice thundering throughout the manor, "What is she talking about, Cole?! Is this some kind of game?!"
Belthazor looked at her stunned. "Phoebe, believe me, I don't want anything to do with her."
My heart was no longer pounding; it was breaking down into little pieces. "Belthazor... why?" I whispered shakily. "I spent nights awake hoping you would return! You told me that you would come back! You came back before. Why is this next time different?!" I thundered. The Charmed Ones all stared at me in disbelief. Belthazor's face barely changed. "You used to love me... Did I do something wrong?" I asked quietly. There was no response. "Did I?!" I screamed, causing all four of them to jump a little.
He walked toward me slowly. "Delilah, I..." he began, glancing back at Phoebe before advancing completely to me, "...it's a long story." He laughed lightly.
My bottom lip quivered. Before anything else happened, I slapped Belthazor hard. The pink mark was already appearing when my arm drew back. "You're just like all the rest. You kill, you cum, you leave," I said bitterly. "I thought you were different, Belthazor." I ran around him, past an open-mouthed Phoebe, and out the front doors. Flinching briefly at first from the harsh light that I was still not used to, I started to run, down the steps from the Halliwell house, down the cracked pathway, and I ran.
After minutes of running non-stop, the adrenaline rush fading, I stopped where I saw water. Maybe it was the ocean, like I'd read in books. The ocean always sounded beautiful and enchanting. Suddenly, without any warning, raindrops fell onto the tan sand below my feet. The drops covered my hair, clothes, and pale skin as well. I looked up into the sky of many shades of grey, feeling small splashes of wetness upon my skin. Lightning struck in the distance, its long nails scraping along buildings, while thunder boomed noisily around me.
Among the thunderous clutter, a voice called out to me, "Delilah?" I spun around but the rain was falling fast now, creating a mist in front of my eyes. My moistened skin was colder now, longing for the sun's bright rays. The voice came again, shouting my name. I tried to recognize it, but I couldn't think. A hand grasped my arm gently, pulling me through the watery fog. I saw the face of the voice who'd been calling: Prue. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. Her long, dark hair was hidden under a bright blue raincoat that brought out her brilliant, green eyes. I nodded, blushing wildly, though she probably couldn't tell through the haze, thankfully. "Come on," she said, pulling me to one side of a vehicle, opening the door, and helping me in before going to the opposite side and joining me. She pulled off the watery hood, whipping out her hair at the same time, and turned a knob near a bunch of other buttons that caused warm air to spill out over us from tiny vents.
"Whoa, that feels great," I said, sighing happily and leaned back into the leather seat. Prue was staring at me intently, a tiny smile across her face. "What?" I asked, the redness coming back to my face.
"You're different." That's all she said.
I laughed uneasily. "What does that mean?"
She shrugged and changed the subject, "Are you okay?" She'd said it before when she was calling for me, but this time the worry wasn't as prominent in her voice.
The feeling hit me again - the pain that sank into me when I realized that Belthazor no longer cared for me. I turned away, my eyes watering, and lowered my head. "He doesn't care anymore," I whispered sadly.
Silence filled the empty space in the vehicle. Prue spoke suddenly, "You loved Cole, didn't you?"
I turned to her again, this time with teary eyes. "Cole?" I questioned.
"Oh, sorry," she said, "Belthazor."
"Cole's his human name?" I guessed. She nodded once. I rolled my eyes. "Suits him. His heart's as black as coal." I hated him and cared for him so much at the same time. "I don't mean that..." I mumbled. "No, wait, I do!" But I wasn't sure. My hands covered my face as I wept in confusion and heartache.
"Hey, it's okay, shh," she said comfortingly, placing her hand on my shoulder.
I flinched away, removing my hands from my tear-cluttered eyes to see her pull back in an unsure manner. "I-I'm sorry... I'm just--" but I couldn't finish. I pulled my knees up to my soaked chest and snuggled into myself, sobbing freely.
Prue waited a few moments before pulling out of wherever we were and back toward the manor. We arrived much faster than I expected, the rain still pouring from above. Prue quickly got out of the car and opened my door, helped me out, and placed her raincoat over me as we ran together inside the large house. Taking the blue hood off my wet head, I saw Piper standing near the living room, arms crossed like Prue and I were late for something. Prue looked at Piper then to me. "Why don't you go up to my room and dry off? I'll be up there soon, okay?" Prue said to me consolingly. I sniffled and nodded before heading up the stairs, drenched with rain, and heartbroken.
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Third Person POV
Piper walked up to Prue, arms still frozen in place. "Where was she?"
"Near the ocean, surprisingly. She ran really fast," Prue said, her teeth chattering from the cold.
"Looks like she's not the only one who needs to dry off," Piper said with a smirk. Prue smacked her on the shoulder and grasped Piper's black jacket from a hook and wrapped it around her shivering form. "Hey!" Piper shrieked, unfolding her arms and using one to point a finger at Prue to wag it at her.
Prue rolled her eyes and sassed, "Hey yourself. Where did Phoebe and Cole go?"
"Wherever he planned on taking her, I guess, though I'm hoping it wasn't to the beach..." Piper told Prue and then added, "Phoebe was pissed, though. I was surprised she even left with Cole. She said they'd be gone until tomorrow afternoon, but who knows if they'll even make it till lunchtime."
"Something is up with them. Or was up, I guess," Prue mumbled, more to herself than to Piper, who didn't catch what the elder sister said. "Did Cole tell you anything?"
Piper shook her head. "No, Phoebe wouldn't let him explain; she said she'd deal with him on her own." Prue nodded but looked like she had other things on her mind. "Are you worried about her?" Piper asked.
"Phoebe knows how to handle Cole, I think--"
"No, not Phoebe," Piper said, "Delilah."
Prue turned her head toward the stairs, unsure of what she was actually feeling. "Yeah," she breathed. "Piper, I feel... different when I'm around her. It's like..." Piper was staring at Prue dumbfoundedly. "Okay, remember when I was briefly an empath?"
The younger Halliwell's eyes widened. "Yes, but what does that have to do with this?" she questioned, hoping that that problem hadn't resurfaced in Prue.
"Well, I remember when I came home after getting the empathic power, and Cole and Phoebe were saying good-bye or whatever, and I felt this twinge in my heart. Like it was heavy and light... it started to speed up but felt like it was moving so slow..."
"The feeling of... what, love?" Piper remarked.
"I think so," Prue replied quietly. "Piper, when I'm around Delilah, my heart kind of stops and pounds at the same time. I-I-I can't breathe, and I can't help but... worry that if I don't get to know her and help her, something horrible will happen to her." She stopped, her hand, subconsciously, clung to the jacket right above where her heart was.
"Prue," Piper paused and took ahold of Prue's other, wavering hand, "I think... you're falling in love."
She had a feeling that Piper would say that, but hearing the words made it stick to her skin, trying to settle in. Prue glanced up at the stairwell, where Delilah had just been. "But, Piper... it'll be so different... I've never been--"
"It doesn't matter, Prue," the brunette interrupted her sister's start-of-a-ramble. "Don't think about it. Feel it."
The older Charmed One swallowed hard, her eyes clinging to the stairs. Then she looked at Piper, smiling happily, and replied, "Okay."
The middle sister smiled back and hugged her older sister. "You deserve to feel like that, Prue, more than anything. Now, go. Go get your girl."
Prue's face was glowing. She took of the jacket, returned it to Piper, and walked up the stairs.
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Delilah's POV
I opened the door of Prue's bedroom and shut it tightly. My wet clothes clung to my icy body. 'I need to take these off,' I thought. 'I need to get out of here now, before my emotions go crazy. Damn Belthazor. Damn him straight to hell.' Then I remembered that he'd probably like it there. I sighed depressingly and wrapped a wool blanket at the end of the bed around me. The warmth was nice, but I was still shivering from the cold rain. My body wasn't used to being left alone for so long. Usually demons would come to use me day after day. The longest time, before now, that I'd been untouched by someone else was only a week and a half. Now it'd gone on for longer than two. I hated to admit it, but I needed the sex. "You're a slut, you know that?" I scolded myself. "A dirty, filthy slut."
Despite the fury against him, I wished that Belthazor was here. He kept me company after he'd killed one of his witches he was assigned to destroy. His red chest would rub against mine; his sharp teeth would nibble along my neck; his long shaft would slide through my wetness. We would cum together, crying out in sheer bliss, then lay together, him still within me, and sleep. Guards would eventually tell him to leave, but he swore every time that he would return. Then he told me he'd be gone for a long while.
"Why must you leave?" I had asked. It was months before my father had given me my assignment to seduce Prue. Belthazor had been putting his pants back on, leaving my naked form on the bed, wrapped up in my blood red comforter. "My father's done this?"
"No," he had told me, "The Triad. Sending me after three witches."
My heart had slumped. "Will you be gone long?"
"Hopefully not," he had replied. I half-smiled at him. "Oh, watch this," he had said, baring his sharp teeth in a slick smile.
I stared at him intently, and had witnessed his transformation into a human. The Cole that I'd seen earlier this present-day. "Wow..." I had breathed, feeling a little more excited to see him in a less scary way.
His hand had grazed my cheek as he leaned in to kiss me passionately. When he pulled away, his eyes were glazed with regret.
The three witches he was sent to murder were the Charmed One. He must've fell in love with the youngest of the three. I knew he was happy, though, and so was Phoebe. Maybe it was time for me to move on. I didn't want to, but I knew, somehow, I would.
Someone knocked on the door, making me jump out of my skin. "Delilah?" It was Prue again. "Can I come in?"
A smile lit my face. "Yeah, of course," I said kindly.
Prue opened the door and closed it. She was still wet to the bone like I was. She sat on the bed, sitting sideways from me, her legs dangling off the side of her bed. I was sitting cross-legged near the center, still cuddling the wool blanket. "Feeling better?" she asked sweetly, silently encouraging me to talk back with more complete sentences.
I swallowed hard. "Not really. I can't seem to-- To get him off of my mind."
"Who?"
"Bel-- Cole," I replied, remembering his human name. She had this cold look in her eyes when I said his name. "You don't like him, I take it," I said.
Prue tried to find the right words. "I don't... trust him. He did a lot of lying to us when we met him. He tried to kill us."
I nodded understandingly. "You guys definitely must be difficult to get then. Belthazor was one of my f-- The Source's best assassins," I said, catching myself before saying "father." Hopefully she didn't notice.
She didn't seem to... really. "How did you know Cole? Or Belthazor, whatever," she asked, shaking her head as if to erase the first name she said.
I bit my lip. If I was going to tell her how I knew Belthazor, I would have to be telling her everything, and that would risk me being found out and destroyed - by the three witches and/or my father.
Prue sensed my uncertainty on whether or not to tell her the truth. Her body moved so that it was in front of me; her eyes were glued to mine, filled with sensitivity and acceptance. "Please, Delilah. I think you owe me some explanations."
She was right; I did owe her some. My lip shook and a shuddering breath escaped my throat. "About fifty years ago, a witch with the ability to enhance her senses to being able to see, taste, hear, and smell anything from almost a mile away lived. She also owned the ability to hear peoples' thoughts whenever she pleased. A good, powerless, male witch had fallen in love with her, married her, and they had conceived a beautiful baby girl that they named Lily.
"Shortly after her birth, a powerful demon attacked Lily's parents, leaving her father dead and her mother injured but hungry for vengeance. She committed herself to finding the demon to torture it like it had tortured her and her daughter. After creating a summoning spell, the strong witch recited it and the demon appeared before her very eyes. She said another spell in hopes to vanquish him, slowly and painfully. However, the spell only deformed the demon's face and body. The demon killed the witch instantly after, and shimmered away with young Lily in his arms."
My eyes were clung to my hands, which were shaking horribly from the cold and my anxiety. I sniffled as tears inked out my eyes. A hand clasped mine and held onto it tightly. Her touch was warm and delicate. I exhaled loudly and held onto her hand closely.
"The demon kept Lily in the Underworld inside a cave that no one had access to except him. Surprisingly, he kept her well fed and well nurtured. On her thirteenth birthday, he told her that he had a surprise for her." My head twisted to the wall, trying to keep myself from crying by concentrating on something else. I shook my head quickly as I remembered the story, what would come next. Prue's hand was clutching mine still, her gaze not moving an inch. Shuddering, I continued, "The surprise was him... raping her, filling her with his seed, for he wanted a son, an heir. Betrayed and hurt, she watched her stomach grow, wishing that the child within her wasn't there." I choked on a hard sob.
Prue's hand squeezed mine harder; I could hear her sniffle. "The baby..." she began but couldn't finish when I turned to her with sorrow in my eyes.
"I'm the baby," I whispered. "She never wanted me." The pounding of my heart was soaring. "I was conceived in pain and hate... an evil desire!" I cried. Prue flinched at my words.
"My father wanted a boy," I continued shakily, "A boy that would be able to kill good witches; a boy that was able to show off his masculinity to fellow demons and dominate over defenseless women. Instead--" I bit hard onto my tongue to keep myself from screaming. "Instead he was given a feeble girl. My father gawked at me with disgust. My mother was only given time to name me before he killed her with a fireball."
We sat there, both of us crying, only Prue with sympathetic tears, and me with tears of fury and loathing. "I'm so sorry." Prue's words hung in the atmosphere as I took shallow inhales of warm air.
"He kept me alive, even though he thought of me as nothing. He might as well of killed me..." I said, thinking aloud.
Prue shook her head in disbelief. "I don't believe that. You've been through a rough past, and I know that a lot of people wouldn't have been able to carry on," she said. Then she smiled and added, "You're a strong woman, Delilah."
I smiled sadly and shook my head. "I've been hurt so much, Prue. My father..." - I gulped hard - "My father used me as a prize for other demons."
Her smile faded into a confused frown. "I don't understand."
I let go of her hands and rose from the bed, my fury intensifying. "He made me into a slut, Prue!" I screamed. "He kept me inside the cave, the same as my mother, and would allow his demons the pleasure of having their way with a defenseless, vulnerable teenage girl! They would.. do such disturbing things... like I was some rag doll... some" - a harsh laugh fled my throat - "free toy to fuck. Did you know that there's no point in saying 'no'? It only excites them more." My breathing was coarse and hard to control.
The eldest Charmed One had water flowing from her shimmering orbs. She stood up and walked toward me but I moved away. "No! Don't touch me! Please..." I cried and fell into a blubbering mess on the carpet, crawling up into the smallest ball. She was afraid and cautious but wanted so badly to help, I could see in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I whispered, trembling and sobbing uncontrollably.
"Shh..." she whispered back, sitting beside me and rubbing my arm with her gentle fingers. She gently pulled me up into her arms, and I placed my face right above her breast, getting used to the feeling of an embrace around me. "It's okay, shh..." she continued to say quietly, stroking my matted hair. The embrace lasted many minutes, and I was settling. The heat of her body was warming mine; I was beginning to feel... safe.
I sniffled and pulled away, wiping away some stray tears from my eyes. "Thank you," I mumbled thankfully. "I'm sorry for--"
"Don't worry about it," she said, though she didn't smile. She was still curious to know more, it looked, but she was mostly concerned. "You told my sisters and me earlier that The Source had found you and taken you away." It sounded like a mix between a statement and a question.
My head dropped to the floor, tears threatening to fall again. "The Source kept me away, yes."
"No," I heard her say, disbelieving. The pieces were fitting together inside her head.
"Yes," I said, and turned my head back to her. "The Source is my father."
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So... highlights: Delilah smacked Cole! Prue's considering the feeling of love... And Delilah has done some confessing.
THOUGHTS THOUGHTS THOUGHTS?! :D I'd love to hear some!