"Death Undone" (R) - Chapter Six
"DEATH UNDONE"
Chapter 6
Once Cole had ended his call from Phoebe Halliwell, Olivia held out the doctored drink. "How about that martini?" she said with a smile.
Cole frowned. "You got dressed?"
Olivia shrugged her shoulders. "You answered that phone call."
"Oh, I see. This is punishment."
Widening her smile, Olivia replied, "Consider this your chance to make up for interrupting some very promising sex. Starting with a drink." She handed the martini over to Cole. Then she saluted the half-daemon with her own glass. "Bottoms up."
Both Olivia and Cole took a sip of their drinks. Through narrowed eyes, the warlock closely observed the half-daemon. To her relief, he failed to notice anything odd about his martini. "Excellent," he proclaimed. "Quite good." He finished the rest of his drink. After placing his empty glass on the side table, he said, "Now . . . about finishing what we had started . . ."
"I haven't finished my martini," Olivia protested.
Cole slowly approached her, wearing a seductive smile that nearly caused Olivia's heart to flip. "Do you mean to say that you're more interested in that martin . . ." His expression suddenly changed before a gasp left his mouth. "What the . . .?" He clutched his stomach.
Olivia stared at him. "What's wrong? Cole?"
The half-daemon fell to his knees. "There's something . . ." He stared at Olivia with eyes wide with disbelief. "Wha . . . what did you . . . put . . . in my drink?"
"An onion," Olivia blithely replied. "As both of us usually prefer our martini." Cole cried out in pain, as a black cloud seeped out of his body. Olivia grabbed an empty glass bottle from the coffee table and held it out. The cloud immediately seeped into it. "And a power stripping potion. Considering your immense powers, I had to give it an extra kick."
Breathing heavily, Cole demanded to know why she had stripped away his powers. "Oh God! Either you're under a spell or . . . you're not Olivia." He spoke the last words in a whisper. "But you must be . . . her. You . . . Everything about you . . ."
"I am Olivia." The warlock used her telekinesis to force Cole flat on his back. He stared at her with sheer terror. She then knelt over him, straddling his waist. "I . . . am Olivia Jocelin McNeill. And I'm certainly not under a spell." She paused dramatically. Cole struggled to sit up, but Olivia's telekinesis kept him pinned to the floor. "I'm from another dimension. An alternate dimension. In my world, I'm a warlock. As for your Olivia," she removed an object from her pants pocket, "I had put one bullet in her chest and another in her gut about less than an hour ago." She pressed a button on the object and a stiletto snapped upward. "I believe she should be dead by now. And you're about to join her."
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The two McNeills, Paige and Cecile orbed into the middle of the small foyer outside of the Turner penthouse. "Okay, we're here," Harry commented. "Only you don't have a key. The other Olivia took it from you."
"I can orb us all inside," Paige said.
Olivia shook her head. "No, you can't. Besides," she bent down and lifted a corner of the doormat, "I have a spare key."
The other three heaved collective sighs of relief, as Olivia retrieved a key. After unlocking the door, she swung it wide open . . . and came upon a sight that alarmed her. She saw the other Olivia poised to plunge a stiletto into an inert Cole's chest.
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"What the hell?" the doppelgänger cried out. The moment she uttered those three words, Olivia used her telekinesis to whisk the stiletto from the warlock's grip. Then she sent the other Olivia flying against a wall near the kitchen. The doppelgänger crumbled to the floor, barely conscious.
"Cole!" Olivia cried, as she rushed to her husband's side. She knelt beside him, noticing the unbuttoned shirt that exposed his chest.
The Harry said, "Look at this!" Olivia glanced up at her brother. He held a small bottle that contained thick, black smoke. "This must be Cole's powers."
"It is," the half-daemon groaned. "Could someone help me up?"
Both Olivia and Harry struggled to help Cole to his feet. When they finished, they heard Paige cry out, "Livy! Look . . ." Gasps and cries filled the room, as Olivia felt her body fly toward the wall near the penthouse's hallway. Her body hit the wall with a sickening thud, before it fell upon two others that belonged to Cole and Harry.
The other Olivia strode menacingly toward the fallen and muttered, "I've had enough of you all." She rose one hand in a threatening manner, before she cried out in pain. The warlock staggered back, clutching her head.
Olivia glanced around and spotted Cecile staring intently at her doppelgänger. Which only meant one thing - her best friend seemed to be pulling a telepathic whammy on the other Olivia. "Keep it going, Cecile. Perhaps you can knock . . ." At that moment, a vase zoomed past Olivia's face and struck Cecile on the side of her head. The Vodou priestess fell to the floor.
Harry directed his gaze at the doppelgänger. Once again, the latter cried out in pain. "Got her!" the younger McNeill exclaimed. Then he found himself thrown bodily against the living room fireplace.
Olivia spotted the bottle containing Cole's powers on the floor. Her doppelgänger also noticed it and used her telekinesis to grab it. Olivia turned to the Charmed One. "Paige!"
Who needed no further argument. Paige teleported the bottle out of the other Olivia's hands and into hers. Olivia grabbed the bottle, unscrewed its top and tossed the contents at Cole's feet. The dark smoke slowly curled out of the jar and seeped into the half-daemon's body.
The other Olivia's eyes flew open in shock. She immediately fetched her purse, using telekinesis. Then in a swift and sweeping motion, she removed a round object from the purse and muttered a few words in Gaelic. A portal materialized inches away from the warlock, before she stepped inside and disappeared.
"Where did she go?" Paige demanded.
Cole replied, "Back to her dimension." Olivia glanced at her husband, as he rose to his feet. "For good, I hope."
A low moan emitted from Cecile's mouth. Olivia rushed forward to help her friend. "Cecile, my God! Are you okay?" She noticed the slight bruise near Cecile's hairline. "I guess not."
"I'm fine," Cecile replied with a slight groan. After she rose to her feet, she glanced around. "What happened to the other you?"
Paige said, "She's gone. Escaped." The Charmed One and Cole helped a groaning Harry to his feet. "However . . ." she grinned first at Cole and then, at Olivia, ". . . you two are alive. And that means Piper won't get killed."
The last comment took Olivia by surprise. "My other self killed Piper?"
"No, not you," Harry answered in a hoarse voice. "It was a daemon. Someone that Cole's mother knew . . . and hated. His name was Armatus." He shook his head. "I mean Arte . . ."
Cole's voice rang with disbelief. "You mean Artemus? Of the Khorne Order? That can't be! He's in the Stygian Abyss."
"The what?"
The half-daemon explained that the Stygian Abyss was some kind of maximum security prison for the supernatural or any magic practitioner. "Daemons, humans, and other beings have been sent there. Both good, evil or otherwise have sentenced beings to the Abyss." His voice reassumed its tone of disbelief. "But that's not possible. No one has ever escaped from the Stygian Abyss."
Cecile added pointedly, "And no one has ever left the Wasteland . . . until you did two years ago. We think the other Olivia made a deal with this Artemus in order to find this place. Which means that once he finds out that she has failed, he's going to be looking over his shoulder. He's all yours." She turned to Paige and Harry. "Let's go."
Harry gave Olivia a bear hug. "Welcome back, Sis." He nodded at the half-daemon. "Cole."
"We'll see you guys in the future," Paige added. Then she, Harry and Cecile formed a circle. The trio each placed a dagger on the floor - daggers that looked very familiar to Olivia - and vanished in a circle of light.
Olivia glanced at her husband and noticed that his bare chest remained exposed. "Your shirt is unbuttoned," she said and walked toward the bedroom.
End of Chapter Six