This cannot be happening...

[absolutesnark]

You know what upsets me more than anything? Seeing my sisters in pain. When Phoebe came to me in tears last night, it was painful to watch. She told me she had been seeing someone named Cole and that he cheated on her with some skank. She told me she thought she had found love with this person.

Being the older sister ready to kick the ass of the person who hurt her so badly, I demanded that she tell me who he was and where he lived. She didn't want to tell me. Eventually, she dealt the crushing blow. "You know him as Belthazor," she said. She must have noticed some sort of reaction from me. I know I was fighting back my own tears. I couldn't fall apart on her, though. She actually told me she was sorry because she knew I had feelings for him. And that's when I started crying. I hugged her and told her she did nothing wrong, that I was crying because I hated seeing her in pain. It was the partial truth. I couldn't tell her that it felt like my heart, too, had been stomped on.

How could I tell her? Finding out he was cheating on her with some random chick was bad enough. I wanted to tell her at first. I wanted to tell her she wasn't alone. I wanted to get my feelings out, too. But I just couldn't do that to her. It would devastate her more than she already was.

She wanted me to promise not to confront him. I told her I couldn't keep that promise.

Comments

[absolutesnark]

Piper looked down sadly. "I just wonder how you can be so cruel? You really have no idea how badly you hurt Phoebe."

[demonbelthazor]

Yes, I do.... "She's a big girl," Belthazor said, taking another drag on his cigarette. "She'll get over it. It was just sex. I never promised her -- or you -- more than that."

[absolutesnark]

Piper tried not to let that comment get to her, but it was difficult. "Maybe that's all it was to you, but not to Phoebe..." Not to me.

She tried to fight back her tears, but it was too late. She was supposed to be angry. That's why she was here in the first place.

[demonbelthazor]

He used cruelty as a defense against her tears. He couldn't let her see what he was really feeling. If she told Phoebe, then his attempt to drive Phoebe away might fail. "Yeah, well, not my fault she didn't know what she was getting into," he said. "She was the one who started with all that soulmates crap. All I wanted was to have a good time."

[absolutesnark]

"Weren't you the one who used that soulmates crap on me?" Piper was disgusted with herself for falling for that. "It's usually not a good idea to piss me off. You crossed the wrong family."

Piper pondered what sort of spells should could possibly cast to make him pay for what he did.

[demonbelthazor]

He winced a little. She had him there. What he had told her hadn't entirely been a lie, but he had used it to manipulating her into thinking she was the one who would change his life. Wait...if that prediction was true, what if it was Phoebe who...no. Couldn't be.

"What are you going to do, glare me to death?" he sneered. He shook his head. "Get out of here. I've got better things to do. I've got better girls to do."

[absolutesnark]

"No! You are not going to act like nothing happened! I will not let you get away with this!" Piper threw her hands up in exasperation. Seconds later, the refridgerator in the room exploded.

Piper blinked. "The hell?"

[demonbelthazor]

Belthazor ducked the flying fragments of Lindsey's fridge. "What the hell?" He took a step toward Piper. "You're a witch, aren't you?"

[absolutesnark]

Piper stared at the remains of the refridgerator. "I have no idea what just happened... Did you just ask if I'm a witch? You know about witches?"

[demonbelthazor]

"Yeah, I know all about witches," he snarled. "Guess we both had secrets, huh?" He moved toward her again, backing her into a corner.

[absolutesnark]

Piper tried not to let her fear show. "What are you talking about? I don't have any secrets."

[demonbelthazor]

"Of course you don't, witch," he hissed. "Are your sisters witches, too? What kind of powers do they have?"

[absolutesnark]

"No, just me." Piper wanted to protect her sisters. "My power. Uh, I can apparently blow stuff up?"

She looked up at Belthazor. "What exactly are you?"

[demonbelthazor]

"You don't want to know, little witch," he said darkly. His hand shot out and encircled her throat. "And you don't want to know what I do to witches."

[absolutesnark]

Piper threw her hands up to freeze him, but instead she blasted him into the wall. She was horrified by what just occurred. "Oh god. I didn't mean for that to happen..."

[demonbelthazor]

Belthazor hit the wall and fell to the floor. With a low growl he picked himself up, unconsciously shifting into his demonic form. "You'll pay for that, witch," he roared. He grabbed her by the throat again, lifting her up and pinning her to the wall. An athame appeared in his free hand, and he raised it to strike.

He used to love the last look of fear and desperation in a witch's eyes before he killed her. But this time he hesitated. Her eyes were so much like Phoebe's. And if her sister died here, that would hurt her worse than what he had already done. He couldn't do that to her.

The athame vanished and he let Piper drop down, taking an unsteady step backwards.

[absolutesnark]

Piper backed away slowly, horrified by what just happened. "You're a demon, aren't you?"

[demonbelthazor]

He looked down at his hands and quickly shifted back into his human form. "I...I'm sorry, Piper," he said. "I didn't mean to...scare you."

[absolutesnark]

"I guess we do have secrets after all."

[demonbelthazor]

The demon in him screamed to destroy the witch, but he fought the urge. "You should...you should go," he said shakily. It was an effort to quell his instincts and force the words out.

[absolutesnark]

Piper did as she was told. She didn't want to be there any longer than she had to.

[demonbelthazor]

It took several long minutes after she had gone for his ragged breathing to return to normal. A witch. Great. His soulmate's ex's sister was a witch. And it was his duty to, if not kill her, report her to Raynor and the Source. Fuck.