His patience growing thin, the Source materialized in a fiery display to check on his oracle’s progress. “Anything?” he asked at once.

The Oracle, still coiled around her smoke-filled crystal ball, looked up from it. “Unfortunately, since the last attack, Belthazor has been very elusive."

“Leave Belthazor to the bounty hunters,” he instructed. “What about the other?”

The Oracle confidently waved her hand over her crystal ball, a pouty grin stretched across her attractive face. “Her future's becoming much clearer,” she said, “and it appears…short-lived.” The cloudy contents of the crystal ball morphed into the image of a dancing woman.

***

At P3, a nightclub she had been frequenting for some time now, Paige danced along to a pretty decent band with her newest beau, Shane. Cute and funny, with perfectly sculpted brown hair that probably took more time than hers did, not to mention a great dancer and snappy dresser, he was shaping up to be an interesting prospect.

When the song ended, the crowd cheered, then Paige and Shane drifted over to their table. Wearing a sleeveless burgundy dress and tan Gogo boots, Paige looked distracted as they took their seats.

“You alright?” Shane asked, noticing a change from the girl’s usual bubbly disposition.

“Me? Yeah, why?”

“Well, you seem...a little quieter than usual. That's all.”

“What makes you think I'm not like this all of the time?”

“Well, we've been dating for a month now. So, I think I'd know. Uh, hey, can we get a couple of long necks?”

“Sure,” said a passing waitress.

“Make mine a mineral water, please?” Paige corrected. “Thanks. So much for how well you know me, cowboy. I don't drink. I used to have kind of a problem with liquids. A lot of problems, actually, but that's all behind me.”

Looking apologetic, Shane asked, “Do you want to go someplace else, or…?”

“No, no, no, I like it here. Gosh, I should. I've been coming to P3 for the last year or so, on and off. I mean, ever since that...”

“Ever since what?”

“Oh, never mind. It's boring,” said Paige, then changing her mind upon seeing the genuine interest in Shane’s face, she continued. “All right, but if I tell you all about Paige, and you use it against me, I will get out my voodoo doll and make you sorry you're a man.”

Shane smiled.

“So, my sad story is that I'm adopted, only it's not so sad because I loved my parents, God rest. So, after they died, I went searching for my birth mother, hoping to get some answers. I went to the police, found the church I got dumped at... I checked around. I figured she must've lived near here, you know? They even thought I might've been...related to the Halliwell sisters for a minute, but their mom died a long time ago, so I gave up on that.”

“Well, did you ever meet the sisters, ask them about it or...” Shane enquired.

“Yeah right,” Paige guffawed as she absentmindedly doodled on a napkin. “‘Hi. I think your mom might've abandoned me at birth. What's for dinner?’ No. I don't think so.”

The waitress returned at that moment, giving Paige a much-needed reprieve from this conversation. “Here you are,” she said, placing their drinks down as they thanked her.

Still interested in Paige’s story, Shane prodded, “That still doesn't explain why you keep coming here.”

Paige took a sip of her water before elaborating, “Well, one of the sisters…owns it, so…I don't know. I guess I just kind of feel…connected somehow. That's why I went to the funeral today. I just felt like I had to. Okay. I sound certifiably insane. Good job, Paige. Way to go.”

Shane, touched, leaned in, and gave her a sweet kiss.

Paige responded to the surprising gesture, then pulled back slightly, allowing her vulnerability to show. “Don't hurt me, okay?” she said. “I can't handle any more right now.”

He answered with another kiss, deep and meaningful. She accepted it, returning the passion. When they parted, staring into each other's eyes, Paige’s were ablaze with emotion. “Come on. I have something to show you,” she said, taking Shane by the hand.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Shane hurriedly tossed a twenty on the table before they departed, not noticing that the cocktail napkin Paige was doodling on had a rough drawing of a triquetra, the symbol of the Power of Three.

***

“I don’t think he’s gonna be here,” Cole said, taking in his surroundings, an alley between two unused buildings in the old factory district.

“We’re still on his trail,” Prue replied, “If it hadn’t been for that inspector…”

Cole rubbed his temples. “Come on, Prue. It wouldn’t have made a difference if we had left the wake sooner. We’ve been Shimmering around the city all evening. We’re not going to find Shax like this. He moves around too much because of the way he rides the wind.”

Ignoring him, Prue instructed, “Take us up to the top of that building. We’ll have a better vantage point.”

Cole sighed but acquiesced, taking Prue by the arm and transporting them. While Prue laid down her map and started Scrying again, he observed the surrounding rooftops. “You know you can’t go on like this, right?” he said.

Prue remained silent but secretly wished she could take a break, if only to change out of the clothes she had worn for the funeral. Her toes were crying out for relief from the seldom worn pumps she had jammed them into for the occasion.

“I can only protect you so long while the bounty hunters are still looking for me.”

“I don’t need your protection.”

“Maybe not against your average Zotar, but the Source will come for me himself eventually. He’ll have to if he wants to keep his rivals in check. It doesn’t look good to have a traitor running free.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point,” said Cole impatiently, “is that if you’re with me when that happens, he’ll get you too, and Phoebe’s death will have been in vain. Hell, with the way you’ve been provoking him, he’ll probably decide to get rid of you anyway.”

“Let him come,” said Prue.

Cole ran his fingers through his hair, looking about ready to tear it out.

“He’s still in the area,” said Prue. “Do you see anything suspicious?”

“There’s nothing. Suspicious or otherwise, except…”

“Except what?”

“Just some couple searching for a make-out spot by the looks of it.”

“Where?”

“Over there, the building with the helipad,” Cole indicated with a point.

“Oh. Oh my!” said Prue upon spotting the couple. A girl in an orange jacket, with her shoulders bared, and a man with coiffed hair were kissing passionately. “What do we do?”

“What do you mean, what do we do?” Cole asked.

“Well, we can't just keep watching. I mean, I doubt they’re Shax’s targets, but we should warn them.”

“What are you going to do, kindly ask them to go get hot and heavy elsewhere, because this spot might be taken by a Storm Demon with an anger management problem? If anything, it would be better not to warn them.”

“What are you saying? You want to use them as bait?” questioned Prue, her tone full of contempt. “This is why I shouldn’t be working with a demon.”

“You know, I’m getting a little sick of you bringing that up at every opportunity. In case you forgot, I’m only half demon, and your sister was in love with my human half!”

“Don’t talk to me about Phoebe. If it weren’t for you…”

“What? Go on, say it! If it weren’t for me—”

“Look!” said Prue, pointing to a tornado funnel that was racing across the sky and toward the unsuspecting lovers. The demon, Shax, appeared and fired a concussive blast of air. “It’s him!”

“SHANE!” The girl yelled as the blast hit her date, who went barreling into an air duct, surely knocked out, if not worse. Paige screamed as Shax immediately released a second blast at her. However, just as she threw up her hands to shield herself, she disappeared in a dazzling haze of blue and white, just long enough to evade the blast before returning, seemingly unaware of what had occurred or why she hadn’t been hit.

“She Orbed?” Prue commented. “She’s a Whitelighter?”

Shax seemed just as confused, which the girl used to her advantage, escaping through the roof access door. He proceeded to pursue her in his tornado form.

“But why did she come back? And why’s she running instead of Orbing away?

“You can ask her after we save her, come on!” Cole grabbed Prue by the arm, and they melted into the air.

Inside the adjacent building, a disused factory, Cole and Prue reappeared on an upper-level gangway, which was noticed by Shax and his dark-haired quarry.

“What the hell?” Paige Matthews exclaimed, looking positively terrified.

“It’s you…” said Prue, stupefied upon seeing the girl’s face up close, remembering herself only when her heel got caught in the metal grating of the gangway. “Err, go, get outta here! Hurry!”

Cole fired an Energy Ball at Shax, but it barely fazed him. He fired another one as Paige took off running down the stairs.

“Say the spell, damn it!” Cole barked.

"Make sure you time it right!" Prue ordered, abandoning her shoes before mustering all the anger and magic she could, and enunciating, "Evil wind that blows, that which forms below. No longer may you dwell. Death takes you with this spell!”

Cole unleashed one final Energy Ball as Shax began to writhe in agony, hoping to capitalize on the spell’s power. However, Shax managed to get off a blast of his own, and the impact of the two attacks created a shockwave, which knocked Cole over the stairway rail as Shax retreated into the wind. He plummeted five stories but recovered enough to Shimmer out just before he pancaked.

“Cole!” Prue called after him, leaning over the rail to find nothing below. She jumped slightly as he appeared next to her. “Oh, you’re fine.”

“Don’t sound too excited to see me alive and well,” said Cole sarcastically, adjusting his coat.

“Yeah, blessed be,” Prue deadpanned without missing a beat, then quickly turned in search of Shax’s target. “Damn it.”

“I know. We’ll get him next time.”

Prue frowned, “Huh? No, I was thinking about that girl… Or Whitelighter, I should say.”

“What about her? She’ll have Orbed up there by now, won’t she?”

“She was the same girl from the funeral, the one I was looking for at the wake. No way is that a coincidence!”