Post by StoryGirl83 on Nov 6, 2011 21:13:18 GMT -5
Chapter Fourteen – Call For Help
Piper Halliwell looked at the note on the kitchen table. Leo had, apparently, been in a hurry, when he left early that morning.
“Dear Piper,
“Kevin was in here this morning. He wanted me to help him with a little girl. Her mother was a single mother and she died in a car accident last night. She is now a whitelighter, but that means her daughter is without any parents. I’ve met her before. She in a second grade class with one of my students, so Kevin thought it might be helpful if I were to talk to her, maybe reacquainted her with my student.
“I don’t know how much use I’ll be, but I called Henry and asked him to go with me since he’s with the police. Paige agreed to help if we run into trouble with social services.
“If all goes well, I should be back around noon, but I promised Hank I’d be over around two and I have a meeting with the college admissions office at four. I should be home from that by five. If you need me for anything, call me.
“I love you,
“Leo”
Piper put the note back on the table and headed toward the kitchen. She was stepping through the doorway when the phone rang. She shook her head and headed into the front hall and grabbed up the phone. “Halliwell.”
“Mom, my powers are gone,” Chris announced from the other side of the phone.
Piper inhaled sharply. “What did you say?”
“I said my powers are gone,” he repeated, “and I really need them right now. Wyatt needs my help.”
“What’s wrong with your brother?”
“I’m on that,” Chris informed her.
“Christopher Perry Halliwell, you do not tell me that something is wrong with your brother while you have no powers and then tell me nothing.”
“I’m still learning the details, Mom,” Chris admitted, “but I kind of have to go. Can you try and figure out what’s wrong with my powers?”
“Not without you here,” she informed him.
“Well, try,” Chris requested. “I need to hunt down some ingredients for a potion Wyatt’s going to need and I don’t have time to wait.”
“You do not just dump something like this on me,” Piper repeated. “Get over here and . . .”
“And what?” Chris interrupted. “Wait around and do nothing. My brother is in danger and innocents are at stake. My information is extremely limited, but I know Wyatt will need this potion. Is there anything you can do without me? I mean if my powers have been stripped, I can’t exactly get them back and if they’ve been bound, there’s not a whole lot we can do until we find who bound them and how.”
Piper closed her eyes. She didn’t want to let him just go off on his own without his powers. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t had them for nearly two decades. There weren’t demons chasing after him during those two decades. Now there were.
“Mom, I’ll be all right,” Chris tried to assure her. “I’ve got help, another witch. And I can fight. Aunt Phoebe taught me well.”
“Phoebe,” Piper mumbled sadly. “Why can’t we find her?”
Having no answer for his mom, Chris didn’t answer. “Can you look into this without me?”
“At least give me some idea where you are going or what is wrong with your brother,” his mom insisted. “If one of my sons is in immediate danger, then I am not going to let the other one just go without some explanation, especially when he doesn’t have any powers. Can you at least cast a spell?”
“No,” Chris admitted. “I tried a couple and nothing worked.”
Piper sighed. “Christopher.”
“Call Seth,” Chris suggested. “He’s looking into it, too. He left me some papers, but I think he probably was on to something.” There was a catch in his voice as he added. “My boss, at Centennial. He was cursed, is cursed, and I had no idea. He was trying to find a stone called The Aphrodite Crystal, because it was supposed to bless the person with some sort of powerful attraction to someone they were attracted to or something like that. Only some demon got their hands on it and they cursed it, made whoever got too near it paranoid and suicidal.”
“Are you saying your brother is suicidal?” Piper practically yelled.
“Only if he’s been infected,” Chris informed her. “The last I knew, he hadn’t been. However, his friend Nathan has been, or at least that’s what I got out of the message Wy left and he destroyed Wy’s phone, which is what I got out of the comments Emily passed on from her brother.”
“Now you’re having Emily pass on messages for you?” Piper asked, slightly annoyed now that the fear had lessened. “You have to be careful about that.”
“Wyatt’s the one who used her to pass on a message,” Chris informed him. “And I have to go. If you need information call Seth. Please, Mom.”
Piper sighed. “Be careful.” There really wasn’t much she could do. It didn’t make her feel any better about it.
“I’ll do my best,” Chris assured her before he hung up.
Piper looked at the phone and considered what to do next. A smile crept across her lips as she dialed in an unfamiliar number, one that was quickly becoming familiar. “Hi, Andy,” she said to the man who answered the phone. “Is Prue home?”