Phoebe leaned against the brick wall of the Fine Romance building and prayed the heat would let up soon, the last time Piper had taken her temperature it had been 100.5, she was sure it had gone up since than. Her connection with the succubus meant she was cooking, almost literally and it would be literally in regards to her brain if this didn't end soon. Xander eyed her, concerned and wondered if bringing her along had been a good idea. Phoebe had insisted though, she wanted to try to use the connection as another approach to tracking the succubus. It might work, but it might cost them Phoebe. Not a fair trade, as far as any of them were concerned. He murmured 'iniurare auram'. A cool breeze moved through the alleyway.

"What did you do?" Phoebe asked, as she enjoyed the light breeze cooling her overheated body.

"Just a spell to conjure a breeze, manipulating the elements seems to come easier to me then other Magic. Something's take effort, fire barely takes a thought."

"Which will come in handy if the others manage to get the succubus out here, you can just set her on fire. Through it already feels like she is, given how hot just being connected to her is making me. That and aroused."

"Unnecessary information." Xander mock glared at her.

"I'm sorry, but being connected to the succubus is amping up my libido and I'm finding it hard to control it. I kept hitting on guys at the Mall today."

"Maybe you could figure out how to turn it back on her." Xander suggested. "If the connection is two way, than push everything you're getting from her back through the connection. It might do nothing or it might call attention to her, which would make it easier for the others to find her or it might overheat her enough to destroy her entirely."

"Why do you use that word?" Phoebe asked curiously

"What word?" Xander answered.

"Destroy instead of vanquish."

"Vanquish is a nice, neat, clean word with little emotional connotation." Xander replied. "Destroy is more visceral. You don't hate your enemies, Phoebe. My first enemies were vampires and I hate them. They took something very important from me and twisted it. He was my best friend since we were two, brothers in all but blood. And I held a stake to the chest of the thing wearing his face and watched him turn to dust. And I never got a chance to avenge him because the vamp that killed him was destroyed by someone else. It didn't help that the vast majority of what we dealt with in Sunnydale were vampires, I couldn't escape it. Coming to San Francisco may have saved me from being consumed by it. We've been here about five months and haven't seen a single vampire. I don't miss hunting them. And hunting demons really does feel more like a job, than a vengeance quest."

"If something happened to one of my sisters, I think I'd feel the same way." Phoebe smiled sadly. "Especially since we became sister witches, we've been closer than ever and to lose that would hurt worse than anything I can think of."

"Willow has been my friend just as long and I think of her like a sister, lucky for my piece of mind, I did get a chance to avenge her when vamps put her in the hospital needing to have brain surgery. And like I promised the others in our group, if something hurts or worse, kills you, I'll make a mess on your behalf too."

Phoebe laughed softly, Andy had been like an older brother for years, despite Xander's appearance he wasn't older then her, which meant she, thanks to Cordelia, now had a younger brother in law and that felt good too. She thought about Xander's suggestion that she turn the connection back on the succubus and wondered if she could do it. "Do you really think I can turn this connection back on her?"

"Anything is possible, you just have to believe." He reminded her.

'Evil witch with unnatural allure

No longer will I endure

The heat of this connection

Show us now your direction'

"Good try." Xander complimented her. "And it might have an effect, but she's not a witch anymore, remember? She made a deal with evil and chose to become a demon. She has a human form though and it might have an effect on that form."

"Okay, let me try again."

'Former witch, who chose the dark

This connection is not a lark

I return to you your heat

And with these words, you are now beat!'

Inside the building Prue had been doing her best to act aggressively toward women, which made her cringe, but if it drew the attention of the succubus, would be worth the two face slaps she'd so far earned. Damn, being on the receiving end hurt too. She remembered delivering a few face slaps that left her hand hurting. A sudden commotion had her looking away from the woman she was currently harassing to see something that surprised her, Darla, the Fine Romance manager, looked like she was suffering heat stroke, her face was turning red and she seemed to be gasping. She struggled to make her way through the crowd to the door out of the ballroom the mixer was being held in. Every step seemed harder and she fell to her knees as boils started to appear on her face. 'What the Hell?' Prue thought. 'Okay, I'm betting Xander or Phoebe did something. Is Darla the succubus?' just as Darla thrust her now razor sharp tongue at a man. 'Oh yeah, she's the succubus!'

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A/N Original spells created by author. Be kind, please, it's not easy coming up with spells, but Charmed's framework for spells helps.