Chapter 29
“Close your mouth, honey, or you’re going to catch flies,” Phoebe said with amusement. Liz laughed and shook her head.
“Sorry, I’ve just never met any other witches, besides my mother. Do you all live around here?”
“No, we live in San Francisco, we’re just visiting for a few days,” Pru said, holding up the vase. “I run an auction house, and had to deliver this to a customer,” Pru explained.
“Wow, you came all the way from California just to deliver something? Either that’s some vase there, or you’ve got amazing customer service!” Liz said.
Pru chuckled and shook her head. “Actually, it was the customer’s request. He was very adamant that I deliver this personally. Something about a wedding gift. But you were sort of right, they spent a pretty big chunk of money on it.”
Liz thought for a minute. “I don’t suppose your customer’s last name is Quartermaine, is it?”
Pru looked at her in shock. “It is, how did you know that? Wait, can you read minds or something?”
Liz chuckled and shook her head. “No, I just know the Quartermaines, and that sounds exactly like something Edward would do. Actually, the wedding is my mother’s. She’s marrying his grandson, so I guess that means the vase is for her.” She noticed the expression on the three women’s faces and quickly added, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell her about it.”
Pru sighed with relief. “Thanks, I have a feeling this man would kill me if he found out you knew about it.”
“So, did you make a family vacation out of this trip? I mean, I assume all three of you didn’t have to deliver this, right?” Liz asked, not sure why she was being so nosy. She just suddenly wanted to know everything about these women.
“Actually, one of our relatives used to live here, and we figured we’d come with Pru and check the place out. Maybe you knew her, her name was Hannah Scott?” Piper asked.
Liz shook her head. “No, but I just moved here myself a few months ago. Did you say she doesn’t live here anymore?”
“No, she died about a year ago,” Phoebe said, a look of distaste on her face. “Got mixed up with the wrong guy, from what we’ve heard. She was our cousin, and we didn’t know her that well, so none of us are really sure what happened.”
Piper snickered. “The wrong guy, yeah, I can relate to that!”
“Yeah, but this guy wasn’t a warlock, Piper, at least I don’t think so....” Pru said.
“Warlock?” Liz asked.
“Evil, male witch,” Phoebe explained bluntly. “We seem to attract them back home. You don’t have them here, do you? We were really hoping for a nice, quiet vacation!”
Liz shrugged. “I’ve never heard of them before. If you don’t mind me asking, how did your cousin die?”
“She went to some island with the guy, and it blew up,” Piper said off-handedly.
“What blew up?”
“The island,” she answered.
“The entire island?!” Liz asked incredulously.
“That’s what I heard. It seems the guy is involved in the mob or something. Hannah was working undercover with the FBI to expose him, but then went and fell in love with him. Guess she learned her lesson!”
“Piper...” Pru said in a warning tone. “It’s not nice to speak ill of the dead.”
“Whatever, it’s not like we really knew her. We didn’t even like her, remember?”
“Still, it’s rude,” Pru said.
“Wait,” Liz said, suddenly thinking of something. “If she was your cousin, does that mean she was a witch too?”
Phoebe shook her head. “No, she was related on our dad’s side, although if you change the first letter of witch from a W to a B, you’ve pretty much got her pegged.”
“Phoebe!” Pru shouted. Phoebe just shrugged and smiled.
“Sorry, I never liked the girl.”
“So,” Piper said, trying to change the subject. “Are there other witches here, or is it just you and your mom?”
Liz shrugged. “I don’t know of any others. I just met my mother a few months ago, though. I was adopted, and didn’t find out until my 18th birthday about her, so I came here to find her.”
“So, you didn’t know you were a witch until then?” Pru asked.
“Not really. I mean, I knew I had some kind of powers, because I’ve always been able to do things no one else could, like light a candle just by blowing on it, or move things around with my mind, but until my birthday, I didn’t know the truth. She had written me a letter right before she had to give me up that told me everything.”
“Wow,” Phoebe said. “That’s so cool. It’s like a movie or something. So, when you found her, was she happy to see you?”
“Yeah, she hadn’t wanted to give me up in the first place, but was forced to by her evil stepmother - yes, she really has an evil stepmother. She threatened to kill me if she didn’t give me up for adoption, so there wasn’t much choice in the matter. We’ve become pretty close already, I’m just really glad I was able to find her.”
“So, you’ve got that fire thing as your special power, what about her?” Phoebe asked, too curious to care if she was being rude.
“She can see people’s auras, what about you guys? Well, I guess I know yours already,” she said, smiling at Piper.
“Yeah, I freeze time. Pru’s got the cool power though, she can move things. Phoebe gets premonitions when she touches certain things or people.”
“But it sucks because it’s totally random, so I really don’t have any control over it,” Phoebe added.
“So, Pru’s the only one of you who can move things? I thought that was something all witches could do?” Liz asked, confused.
They shrugged. “Not us, just Pru,” Phoebe said.
“Well, I’ll have to introduce you to my mother sometime while you’re here. She’ll get a kick out of meeting other witches. I guess we’re kind of sheltered here.”
“That’s cool. Well, we better go check in to our room. This looks like a pretty small town, so I guess we’ll see you around?” Pru asked, anxious to get her delivery over with so they could relax.
“Yeah, I work at Kelly’s, it’s a diner down the street. You can find me there most of the time.”
“We’ll do that. It was nice to meet you, Liz,” Pru said. Phoebe and Piper both nodded in agreement, and they headed off to the registration desk. Liz smiled, then turned to leave the hotel, and ran right into Lucky.
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