Post by StoryGirl83 on Aug 27, 2008 23:13:04 GMT -5
Chapter Thirteen – Splitting Up
Back at the manor Leo Wyatt was looking through the Book of Shadows. Nearby Piper had set up a table and was mixing potions.
Leo looked up from the book and watched his wife amused. “Didn’t you say you already gave them a potion to use?”
“Demons are back,” Piper reminded him, dryly. “We are waiting for our sons to call. I need something to fill the time, so I’m stockpiling.” At the sound of the phone ringing Piper looked over at the phone. She walked over to it and picked it up. Putting it to her ear she said, “Hello?”
On the other end Chris had Wyatt’s cell phone to his ear. “We have a name for you to look up.”
Piper raised an eyebrow. “Hello to you, too, Chris.”
“Sorry, Mom,” Chris replied at once contrite. “Things are getting more complicated.”
Piper excepted the apology for the moment. “Do you know what happened yet?”
“Actually, no,” Chris admitted, “but we do know who the source is.”
“The source of the demonic powers Kali’s boyfriend has?” Piper asked to confirm.
“Right,” her son agreed.
Piper walked over to where Leo stood by the book. “Okay, what’s the name?”
“Galskaper,” Chris repeated the name he had heard earlier.
Piper’s eyes widened and her lips formed a quirky smile. “Galskaper. Odd name.” She looked over her husband’s shoulder as he flipped through the book in search of the name of their latest demon.
On the other end of the phone Wyatt and Chris waited quietly in an unoccupied computer room. Wyatt sat at one of the computer stations, staring at the blank screen. “I think one of us should go with Kali to get Arie,” he said suddenly. “Kali is worried about Arie. I’m not so sure Kali can protect her from a demon attack.”
Chris looked at his brother and then at the phone in his hand. He sighed. “Do you want to talk to Mom or go with Kali?”
“Kali,” Wyatt replied without hesitation. I am so bored. If anything is going to happen right now it will happen there.
“Okay,” Chris agreed. “I’ll see you.”
Wyatt stood and walked out of the room.
Back at the manor, their parents had found the entry they wanted. Piper put the phone back to her ear. “Chris, still there?”
“I’m here,” her son replied from the other end. “Did you find something?”
“We found him,” Piper revealed.
“What does it say?”
Understanding her son’s impatience Piper started reading as Leo stepped out of the way. “Galskaper extracts powers from mortals and uses the mortals to assassinate both mortals and witches who pose a threat to either him or someone who hired him.”
“He’s for hire?” Chris asked, apprehensive.
“That’s what it say,” Piper confirmed. “Do you want me to keep reading?”
Chris considered this briefly before asking. “Does it say how to vanquish him?”
“No.” She didn’t even have to look. It was one of the first things she had checked.
“How to fix his victims?”
Piper skimmed the page. “No.”
Chris groaned. “Anything we can use?”
Piper skimmed the page again, looking for an answer to the new question. “His victims go crazy after they have killed their victims, often the guilt is a factor, but it’s also the power.”
Nice. As if it isn’t enough that we have to keep the demon away from both Gary, Mark, and their sisters, we have to get the power out of Gary or he’ll go crazy and no one knows how to do this. Chris snorted. No one said this would be easy. “Anything else?”
Even though he couldn’t see her, Piper nodded. “There is nothing here on how to defeat him, no potion, no spell. And the way it’s worded, I think the power actually comes from Kali’s boyfriend. Galskaper just brought it to the surface. You might try a stripping potion if the one I gave you doesn’t work.”
Chris frowned. “Are you saying the Gary is a demon?”
“No,” his mother denied, “definitely mortal, or human anyway, just power sensitive or something like that. Or maybe there is some sort of power in everyone, something they can’t use but is there.”
Chris scrunched up his nose. “If it’s there, they should be able to use it.”
“It’s a theory, son,” Piper reminded him.
Chris smiled.
When he said nothing, Piper tried again. “It’s also possible that their power is a combination of something in them and something in this demon.”
“I like that one better,” Chris decided. “Anything else?”
Piper rolled her eyes. “You can’t just pick a theory because you like it.”
Chris grinned. “Anything else I need to know?”
Piper flipped some pages. She stopped on the page about stripping potions. “Let me give you the stripping potion formula just in case.”
Chris got out some paper and a pen. “What do I need?”