"Wow," Elena and Caroline spun in circles as they took in the beauty of the Cutler Mansion.

"How is this possible," the blonde demanded. "I was here hours ago to help you guys unpack and this place was still a dump."

"It's called magic, my dear," Phyl handed her a glass of wine laced with blood. "It's an illusion, just until the Aunts figure out the budget for renovating it. You should see the bedrooms," she added. "I totally could have lived in colonial days or the revolutionary and civil war eras."

"Talk about glam," Payton interjected as she came from an undisclosed location. Elena and Caroline still got the two confused though they had learned ways to tell them apart; Payton wore her hair past her shoulders in straight layers that curled softly at the ends and her eyes were just a tad more chocolate brown while Phyl's eyes had a touch of gold right in the center and wore her hear in loose waves.

"How long do you think it will be before we're prepared to take Klaus on," Elena asked and saw her best friend tense up.

"Bonnie is working on that right now," Payton told them. "She's doing some recon down in Tennessee and Alabama; seeing if she can recruit any of the covens to our cause."

"The closer she gets to New Orleans the less I like this plan," Caroline said just as the boys came to join them in the foyer.

"Denny said to tell you dinner is ready," Jeremy told the girls and let the twins show them to the dining room.


"I have got to say, I was a little nervous about how the food was going to turn out but it's delicious," Stefan told the Halliwells.

"You never have to worry about the quality of Halliwell meals unless it's my mom, Aunt Phoebe or Hank cooking. Aunt Piper taught the rest of us how to cook," Phyl told her boyfriend. "It's really nice to have a chef in the family," she pondered and drank more of the wine the Salvatores had brought over.

"I was gonna say," Damon engaged in the conversation, "that it's a rare occasion when someone can make Italian food better than us Salvatore brothers," and lifted his glass to toast with his brother.

"That's all Denny," Payton said. "Aunt Piper had the worse time trying to teach her how to cook but my cousin is a perfectionist. You have no idea how bad it was when Aunt Piper found her kitchen destroyed but a perfect display of six dozen macaroons elegantly showcased."

"If someone made me macaroons I could care less about a ruined kitchen," Elena said.

"It wasn't the kitchen that made Aunt Piper mad, it was the fact that Denny's macaroons were better than hers," Phyl said.

"What can I say," Denny gloated. "The things I'm bad at are few and far between; if I can do anything to make myself capable then I will."

"And modest to boot," Matt joked and they all laughed until they heard a large thump come from behind him.

The witches immediately ran over to find a man lying on their floor. "No," Denny threw a hand out to prevent the twins from coming closer. She knelt down and lifted the injured man's head into her lap.

"What the hell is going on," Damon asked.

Denny wrapped her hands around the arrow that was protruding from his chest and pulled, causing him to yell in pain. "Get rid of this," she told Jeremy and let her cousins take their places on opposite sides of the stranger.

"Go ahead," she told them and the sisters held their hands out over his form, a bright golden hue emanating from their hands as the whole in his chest closed and the sweat disappeared from his brown.

Shooting up, he looked around the room until his eyes returned to the three cousins. "What have you three gotten yourselves into," his voice bellowed and for the first time ever their guests watched the Halliwell cousins look their age; teenaged and in trouble.


"I'm sorry, who are you," Damon demanded.

"Chris Halliwell," the whitelighter glared at the vampire. "I still can't believe you're dumb enough to be working with vampires!"

"Oh, my god," Denny yelled back, "like you never work with demons!"

"That's different," he argued.

"How?"

"Because I don't hide what I do from the family," he shot back. "Phoebe is going to kill you and Paige is going to help her burry the bodies!"

"Bodies? What bodies," Phyl asked.

"Ours, nitwit." Payton was exhausted from all the fighting and threw herself back onto the couch. "This is not how I wanted to spend my night," she rubbed her temples, feeling the migraine coming on.

"Wait," Stefan looked at Chris, "why did you orb to Mystic Falls if you have family in California who could have healed you?"

Heads turned and Chris raised his brows as he thought about that. "Um, so…funny story," he began when his cousins assaulted him.

"You're kidding me, right? You're yelling at us and you're keeping your own secrets in the meantime," Phyl jumped down his neck.

"You and me," Chris said to Stefan, "we're gonna have issues. Just wait 'til I tell her parents she's dating a vampire."

"You wouldn't dare," Phyl screamed.

"You know how Aunt Paige hates vampires," Chris reminded her, as if to say 'try me'.

"Can I kill him for you," Damon asked his brother and Elena smacked him on his shoulder.

"What are you doing here," Payton stood up and came face to face with her cousin. Denny might have been the loudest spoken one in the family but Payton was the one who would go toe to toe with just about anyone.

"I've been working on taking out Klaus; I think you've heard of him," he sighed. "Anyway, one of my contacts brought me out here and we got into a bit of a scuffle. I lost her in the fight; don't know where she ran off too but I should be able to sense her whereabouts. You guys were the closest healers to me."

"And do the aunts know," Payton asked.

"No," he said as the other girls started yelling at him again, "but the elders put me on the case. They've been recruiting more whitelighters and sending them out here to try and protect the witches."

"So it's not just us," Payton asked. "Why didn't the elders tell us about this?"

"They wanted to get you out here before the Aunts found out and tried to stop you guys from taking this on. Besides, who do you think convinced them to let you go on your little road trip?"

"You did that? Why," Denny asked.

"The elders asked me to. They wanted you guys to come out here and start prepping while I continued to get some intelligence. I would have stayed out there but some crazy bitch vampire apparently knew my charge and attacked when she saw us. I orbed us out but Katherine thought it would be better to be on opposite sides of the country for now."

"Wait," Elena held out a hand to pause their conversation, "your charge is Katherine?"

And a hush went over the crowd…