Chapter 7 of 9
Families
Chris inhaled deeply and entered the kitchen. She was cooking. How many times had he come to that exact same scene in his life? He cleared his throat and she looked up.
“Can we talk?”
Piper nodded and put the bowl down. She wiped her hands and walked slowly to one of the chairs. Chris sat down on the other one facing her.
He stayed silent for a while and she didn’t know what to think.
“I can’t remember her,” he said quietly and Piper didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Her?” she asked.
“My mom. I can’t remember what she sounded like, what she looked like when she was looking at me. When I close my eyes and try to remember I see you. I see you angry at me, throwing me out of the house, saying I’m lying. The images blur together. And I know I had to separate you, you are not the same. You’re not her yet, but you sound, you walk you talk like her and I didn’t manage to. I didn’t manage not see my mother sneering at me. Yelling at me. Hating me. And it hurt, because if there was one thing I was sure of in this world was that my mother loved me. That she had wanted me. And that was important to me because with the same certainty I had that she had wanted me I knew my father hadn’t. And she was what made Leo being a jerk all my life tolerable. She’s the reason I managed to decide that if he didn’t want me then I didn’t need him.”
Piper nodded sadly but said nothing. She had the feeling that if she stopped him he would run and never come back.
“But when you hated me I started doubting that. I started wondering how could she love me and you hate me? How was that possible? I was the same person, even if I didn’t tell you who I was. You said you didn’t see me, and … I…I want to believe you, I really do. But it’s hard, it’s hard to forget everything you said, everything you did.” The two sat in silence for a moment before he added. “But I want to try to. I want to try to forgive you. Even if I can’t forget.”
“That’s all I am asking for,” she whispered and she wanted to hug him but she knew she couldn’t. He nodded and got up. He left the kitchen. Arms came from behind her and hugged her.
“You heard?”
“I was in the pantry. I want him. I’ll make sure he knows it this time,” Leo said quietly resting his chin on her shoulder.
The next couple of weeks were awkward to say the least. Chris still wasn’t comfortable around Piper but he was making an effort to be there instead of just sending messages as he had been doing before they found out he was their son. Piper on the other hand was doing her best to try to win Chris back, from cooking all of his favorite dishes, which she had gotten from Wyatt. Though by the way Wyatt was happy at having lasagna while Chris just treated it like a normal dish she was starting to suspect Wyatt may have been less than honest. To trying to talk to him, get to know him. Ask him about school and friends. He had been reluctant at first but when she brought Oxford up he had talked non-stop. She had been at the same time incredibly proud and terrified. England was across the ocean for crying out loud! Her baby had been selected from all the seniors in the US! He was a genius!
With Leo the situation wasn’t going that well though. Chris was usually short and to the point with him. He stated what he needed and gave him no opening whatsoever. Leo, though, wasn’t giving up and he imposed himself on every bit of research possible just for a chance to talk to Chris.
Finally the day for Chris to go undercover had come and Wyatt wasn’t very happy.
“I think I better go with you,” Wyatt said and then nodded agreeing with himself. Chris just stared at his brother.
“Are you nuts? You have no powers. You’ll be a liability,” Chris said seriously.
“You’ll be surrounded by demons! All alone,” Wyatt said just as emphatically.
“Who will think I’m one of the. Look Wy, I promise to orb out if there s trouble. But we need to do this.”
“Fine.” Wyatt huffed, crossed his arms and dropped on the couch. Chris rolled his eyes and orbed out. Piper soon came with baby Wyatt and seeing her son’s face asked.
“What?”
“Chris went to the meeting.”
“Paige!” Piper cried. Orbs formed.
“What?”
“I want you on standby. Chris went to the meeting.”
Chris looked warily at his dirty glass of liquor wondering how many diseases he’d get from drinking. The turnout wasn’t that big. Just a few demons but he hoped that wouldn’t disappoint the ones he was looking for.
“Gather round! Gather round!” a young man, dressed in black, “Obviously,” Chris thought snorting, said getting up on one of the lower stools. Apparently they weren’t disappointed. They few disgruntled demons in the bar took chairs around the man. Chris just turned around on his stool and laid backwards resting his back on the bench and crossing his arms. He didn’t want to seem too interested.
He studied the man on the stool. He didn’t have the usual dirty demon look. Chris could have mistaken him for a College student had he not been in an underworld bar.
The man started talking, telling them much of what Chris had already heard. How good always won because they were organized, how evil had to be the same, yada, yada, yada. Nothing new. Not that Chris thought he’d get anything new. No what he was interested in was in after the meeting. Was in where that man would take him.
Chris opened all his Elder senses and zeroed them on that man. He was surprised to realize he was all human. Chris tagged him, and after the meeting following him was easy. Cloaked and invisible, he reappeared in what looked like a very normal house, not unlike Halliwell manor. The man walked into the kitchen and grabbing an apple in what looked as too much of a normal attitude for Chris’s comfort, he took a bite. Someone shimmered in and another young man smirked.
“So?”
“Six, seven if you count one that didn’t look that interested.”
“More than I expected,” the other man shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Patience brings perfection,” he said taking a seat.
Chris was definitely intrigued.
“They are not demons. They’re warlocks. A little family of six united in wanting to rule the world,” Chris said when he orbed back home. He had spent the whole afternoon trailing the warlocks and found a lot of their plan out.
“Warlocks are demons,” Paige said.
“Not exactly,” Chris said making a face. “They’re bad witches. Which is what makes them different from your average demon. They are versed in the same kind of magic as us, except dark magic, and in our way of life. You wouldn’t know them from an innocent by passing them in the street. They go to school, shop, work, just like we do. Even though these ones are not that powerful they managed to manipulate the demons and bind Wyatt’s powers by giving him a binding potion that would be triggered only years later by the trigger word. That’s what had us most confused. How they had bound his powers. Now we know.”
“And they are human. Which explains why they are so intent on having their way up here and not only in the underworld,” Piper said.
“And they are patient. They didn’t care they had to wait 18 years to get what they wanted,” Phoebe pointed out.
“They’re not stupid. They knew they needed the whole underworld by their side for this to work. Any disagreement there and everything would have been lost. That’s why they waited so long. But I don’t think they were that worried about how long they were waiting,” Chris said. “They sons are not much older than me and Wyatt, which means they’ll be fairly young still to enjoy their reign. And that’s what the parents are aiming for,” and he added, “Them being warlocks also explains how they got to Wyatt. They plan on waiting for him to enter school and slip the potion in his food.”
“So what do we do?” Paige asked.
“We have to vanquish, wipe out the whole family,” Leo said firmly. “And do it in a way that demons know about it and know why we did it.”
“The whole family?’ Piper asked.
“Leaving one behind is just asking for being attacked by someone seeking revenge, look at Richard’s family feud.” Paige answered.
“Yes, but they are human,” Phoebe argued.
“They are evil, magical evil and we destroy magical evil. That’s our job,” Paige said firmly.