Post by StoryGirl83 on Aug 27, 2008 21:21:29 GMT -5
Chapter Nine – An Unwanted Power
About a half an hour later Piper stood in front of the cauldron adding ingredients to a potions she was making for the master spy.
Wyatt and Chris were picking up stuff knocked down and around in the struggle. Thought they still had a lot to do, they were making visible progress.
Leo was standing in front of the Book of Shadows with a pad of paper and a pen. A sheet of paper was sticking out form the book, holding the place of the page on the “Rent-a-Spy” demons.
Chris picked up a broken piece of wood that had at once been a chair leg. “Obviously those gels were all they wanted. They left as soon as they had infected both Wy and me.”
“Look on the upside,” Wyatt recommended, pausing to look at his brother. “We killed seven of them and we can still use our other powers.”
Chris frowned. “I’m more interested in the fact that there were ten demons of which we didn’t kill three and that they successfully did something to our orbing powers with their gels.”
Leo looked up from the Book of Shadows. “I think I found your gels.”
All eyes were quickly on Leo. Chris was the first to reach him. The page was entitled, “Orb Stealing Gels.”
Leo looked back down at the Book and read aloud. “It has been four years since my whitelighter, Elizabeth, was grounded. The elders have decided that without her orbing powers, Elizabeth simply isn’t effective as a whitelighter. Not effective? I’m still here, aren’t I? It is strange that though the elders made Elizabeth a whitelighter, they cannot give her back the orbing powers that gel stole. Josias is to completely replace Elizabeth as my whitelighter. The elders offered her a choice between being turned mortal and having her soul recycled. Not surprisingly she chose to be made mortal again. Josias told us that while the elders believe that Elizabeth will become a whitelighter again when she dies again, they do not think she will ever get her orbing back unless an antidote is found. After four years I wonder if one ever will be.” Leo stopped and looked at his family, now standing around him.
“Who wrote it?” Chris asked, peering over his father’s shoulder.
Leo looked at the bottom of the page. “No name. Try calling Josias, Chris.”
“Huh?” Chris looked at his father confused. “Why?”
“If he’s still a whitelighter, he might be able to tell us something.”
“So?” Chris still didn’t get it. “He’s not my whitelighter. He wouldn’t hear me.”
Leo smiled slightly. “You’re half elder.”
Chris stared at his father blankly. “You want me to try and elder jingle a whitelighter?”
Leo nodded.
Chris rolled his eyes and then closed them. In a whispered voice he said, “Josias.” Chris opened his eyes.
To the surprise of all, even Leo, they saw blue-white orbs a moment later. The whitelighter who stood before them, Josias Hinshaw, looked at Chris with raised eyebrows. “This is not elderland. You are not one of my charges. Where am I? And why did you call me?”
“How specific do you need?” Chris asked, still stunned that it had worked. “A country, state, city, house?”
Josias looked at him speculatively. “The family name will do fine.” He looked around at the four people in the attic. “And which one of you is the elder.”
“I’m Chris Halliwell,” Chris told him. “I called you and if you are going to call me an elder you can leave right now.”
Josias gave Chris a look. “As I understood it, only elders can summon whitelighters in that manor.”
“I’m half elder,” Chris informed him, slightly annoyed, “okay. My dad was an elder. He’s mortal now. End of subject.”
With a raised eyebrow, Josias replied. “I take it elders aren’t exactly favorites here either.” There was a spark of amusement in his voice, almost as if he understood.
Wyatt chuckled. He picked up the Book of Shaodows off the podium and brought it over to Josias. “Is this you?”
Josias looked at the book and after a moment he looked up startled. “This is the Warren Book of Shadows. How did you get this?” He looked at them, again, more carefully. “And what did you say your name was again?”
Wyatt and Chris looked at each other. Chris was biting his lip to keep from laughing.
Leo looked at Josias in disbelief.
“We are descendents of Melinda Warren if that is what you mean,” Piper told him, “but our name is Halliwell. Can you tell us about this anti-orb gel? Did you ever find an antidote?”
Josias looked at Chris. His face was suddenly very serious. “A demon got you with one of the gels?”
Chris nodded and looked at Wyatt. “And my brother.”
“You’re both half elder?” Josias asked, addressing this question at Wyatt.
“I’m half-whitelighter,” Wyatt informed him, not really wanting to be associated in any way with elders other than his brother’s elder half. “I was at least a month old before dad became an elder.”
Josias looked at Leo. His words were telling as he said, “I take it you’re the whitelighter who gave up his wings for elder powers. Not a good trade if you ask me. I’d rather be mortal than an elder.”
“Actually I am a mortal now,” Leo told him, thoughts of his time as an elder, mostly bad experiences, flowing through his mind.
Ever the impatient one, Chris spoke up. “Can you help us with this gel or not?”
Josias shook his head. “We haven’t found a cure yet. Phoebe didn’t think we would, but Pam always believed we would.”
At the name Phoebe, Piper looked at his curiously. “At a guess I’m going to assume you don’t mean my sister when you say Phoebe, so who are you talking about?”
Josias frowned. “Pam wrote that. You didn’t know that?”
Piper shook her head.
Josias sighed. When he spoke, there was weariness in his voice. “Phoebe Bowen Campbell and her daughter, Pamela Campbell Rockwell. You must be related to them somehow if the Warren’s Book of Shadows is in your care.”
“Bowen,” Piper mumbled to herself. “Why do I know that name?” The name transported Piper back in time nearly thirty years. In her mind she could see Phoebe running up the stairs and searching all around the attic. She remembered the look on Prue’s face when Phoebe had found the camera that Prue’s past life had used. She remembered the certainty in Phoebe’s voice when her sister had pointed to the name P. Russell on the family tree and said that the name had to belong to her past life. She also remembered the names of the other two cousins. One of them had been P. Bowen. Phoebe Bowen? Piper headed away from the men in search of the family tree.
Chris saw his mom head away from them, but figured she had her reasons. Looking at the whitelighter in front of him, he wasn’t sure how long the guy would stay. He did, after all, have charges. “Is there anything useful you can say to help us?”
Josias thought about it, really thought, his mind wandering back to when Elizabeth had first been hit with the gel or at least the aftermath of it since he hadn’t met her until later that day when he had “temporarily” been assigned to help her. “Where were you hit?”
“Neck,” Chris replied quickly.
“Back of my neck,” Wyatt replied as a sudden shudder ran through his spine.
The look of disappointment on Josias’ face was so obvious it was almost funny . . . almost. “Too bad?”
“Why?” Wyatt asked, resisting the urge to touch the back of his neck, again.
“Absorbed too quickly,” Josias replied, again thinking back to the day he had met Elizabeth and her charges. “Elizabeth got some on her hands and was able to infect the attacking demon with it. Later that day she infected another demon. Neither could shimmer. The next day it proved the effect was gone or else I wouldn’t have been able to orb her home.”
Over by some chests Piper had found what she was looking for and was in the process of pulling the long rolled up family tree out from one of the chests.
“I got some on my hands,” Wyatt admitted, “but I’d rather just vanquish the demons.”
His words brought a very strange thought home to Josias. This guy wasn’t a normal whitelighter. He was also a mortal witch. “That’s right; you’re a witch, too.”
Having gotten the family tree out of the chests Piper stood and headed toward them. She clutched the ancient family tree carefully in her hand.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Wyatt protested in defense.
“No,” Josias replied almost softly. “It just makes it harder on the whitelighter if their charges die when they are in love with them.”
“The voice of experience?” Wyatt asked, curiosity rife in his voice.
“I’ve never been in love with a charge,” Josias informed him, his voice still soft, “but I have lost charges. Phoebe was my charge for a while and she died over fifty years ago. Pam died about fifteen years ago. We lost Paula, Pam’s daughter two months ago. Car accident.”
Piper unrolled the paper in her hand for the men to see, revealing the family tree. It had been updated to include Paige, Prue’s death, and the children of the three living sisters.
Josias looked at it and pointed to a name on the list. Leo and the boys looked where he was pointing. The name was P. Bowen. “That’s Phoebe.”
Chris moved his hand down the tree and touched the paper with his right index finger right below his own name. “Well, that’s me.”
Before Josias could respond Leo frowned and looked at Piper. “Wasn’t your grandpa Halliwell named Allen?” Having met the man, Leo knew his name was Allen and thus couldn’t figure out what he was reading on the page.
“Yes,” Piper replied looking at her husband. “Why?”
“Well,” Leo began looking at the paper oddly and then up at his wife, “it says Jack Halliwell here. And it has your dad listed as Victor Jones.”
Piper looked over the top of the paper and attempted to the read the names upside down. “Odd. I’ll have to ask Grams about that. I think she’s the one that would have put those names on.”
Josias frowned and cocked his head to the side. “I have to leave. Phelicia is calling me. But can you do me a favor?”
“What kind of favor?” Wyatt asked, not sure if he should be suspicious or not.
A found look briefly resided in Josias’ eyes before he replied. “Elizabeth still needs that cure. For some reason it prevented the elders from turning her back into a mortal, so she’s stuck as a whitelighter with no orbing powers. If you find the cure let us know. Please.”
Wyatt nodded.
Satisfied, Josias orbed out.