The handsome, blonde-haired man looks at his watch for the umpteenth time and sighs. She was late and he was getting impatient. He'd been standing at the San Francisco railway station for about 30 minutes making sure nothing could upset his plans. He looks at his watch again. If she didn't hurry up the time would pass and he'd have to start again.

A woman with long dark hair runs up the steps of the railway station. Why oh why did it have to be tonight that the Con-Ed had decided to dig a hole in the middle of the road? She runs into the station and spots him under the clock. Her face breaks into a smile. Thank the Gods and Godesses he was still here. She hadn't had a date for months and didn't particularly want to lose this opportunity, especially with this guy. He looks up and sees her running towards him. He smiles. The stereotypical wicca devotee he thinks; long hair, long skirt, beads.

'I am so so sorry I'm late. The Con-Ed have the road up. Thank you for waiting, I'm Holly by the way, blessed be.' she blusters. He takes her hand.

'Blessed be, Holly, I'm Ashton. I'm glad I waited. Are you hungry? I know this great place not too far from here.' he replies. He moves towards the exit.

The couple are walking towards an allyway down the side of a nightclub. Holly is just finishing a quick description of her life and how she came to join the wicca.

'... so when I realised that I could sense people's emotions I decided to see what good use I could put it to. So a friend of mine put me in touch with a friend of hers who was a wicca and I finally found somewhere I belonged. But it tends to put a cramp in my dating schedule; no one wants to date a witch.' she finishes. Ashton stops in the alley and looks to the sky. He sees Venus pass into the Moon's shadow and feels a familiar pull. He bends towards Holly as if he is going to kiss her. She turns her face to his as it morphs into a sickly green, scaley, version of his handsome features with long vampiric fangs. She screams as he bites the back of her neck. She carries on screaming as she feels her life force slipping away. The demonic Ashton looks up as three women come running into the alley.

'Stop!!!!' yells the youngest, 'Iron bar.' A large iron bar forms in her hand and she swipes at the demon's leg. It misses but the demon trips.

'Quick, the spell.' shouts the middle one. She joins hands with the other two and they start to chant.

'That which was formed below, here may you no longer dwell...' The demonic Ashton shimmers and disappears.

'Damn, I knew I should have frozen him.' says the oldest woman. The others are leaning over Holly.

'She's in a bad way, can you call Leo?' asks the youngest woman. Some small balls of light start to swirl around them and they form into a man. Another man appears in a shimmer the same way the demon disappeared.

'Cole, did you find out who he was?' asks the middle woman. The man nods.

'I'll tell you later.' he says. The man who appeared first is bending over Holly with his hand on her chest.

'I can't do it. Something's stopping me healing her, can you help?' he says to the youngest woman. She also puts her hand on Holly's chest, her hand glows faintly.

'It's no good. There's got to be some reason for this.' says Leo. They all look up as a police car pulls into the alley. A hispanic man and a stout coloured man get out.

'Well what d'you know! The Halliwell sisters, why am I not surprised.' says Lieutenant Cortez.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Agent John Doggett is sitting behind his desk leafing through the paperwork that's appeared over the weekend. He looks up as his partner Agent Dana Scully comes in.

'Hi, how was the week at Quantico?' he asks. She smiles back.

'The usual. I was teaching a bunch of trainees how to dissect a body. Usual, run of the mill stuff. Anything interesting happen while I was away?' she replies. He shakes his head.

'No, all the ghoulies and ghosties must be taking a holiday.' he laughs. The phone starts to ring. Scully picks it up - 'Guess they've gone back to work.'

'... Yes, Sir, we're on our way up.' says Scully into the phone.

'Well vacations over.' she says as she puts the phone down. 'AD Skinner wants to see us.

AD Skinner's Office

'Come in!' says Skinner. The door opens and Doggett and Scully walk in. 'Sit down!' He gestures at the chairs.

'What can we do for you, Sir?' asks Doggett. Skinner hands over a file.

'The San Francisco field office handed this to us yesterday. They think it's out of their league.' he starts. Doggett hands Scully a series of photos of the victims who have a large portion of the back of their neck missing.

'Ouch, that's one hell of a hickey.' remarks Scully. Skinner nods.

'They're calling him the Witch Finder as all his victims practised wicca. He's attacked five women and killed four of them. He was disturbed by a group of people from a near by nightclub last time so the victim, Holly Martin, survived but she's in a coma which the doctors can't find a cause for.' he replies. Scully's interest is piqued by this.

'There's always a reason for a coma.' she retorts. 'Trauma, oxygen deprivation, the list goes on.'

'Maybe you can explain it while you're there.' says Skinner 'You'll need to contact the local PD and work with them, a Lieutenant Cortez.' Doggett and Scully get up to leave. 'Good luck out there.'

On the way back to the office they meet Agent Monica Reyes.

'Hi, what's up?' she asks.

'We're going to San Francisco to catch a witch hunter.' replies Doggett.

'Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.' Reyes says, grinning.

'Oh ha, ha, very funny.' he retorts. The air conditioning is causing Scully's nose to run. She begins to sniff.

'Sorry to break this up but have you got a tissue, Monica?' she asks. Reyes searches her pockets, pulls out a small packet and gives them to Scully.

'Keep 'em, I've got plenty more.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Piper, Phoebe and Paige Halliwell are sitting in their front room with Piper's husband Leo and Phoebe's boyfriend Cole. All of them are looking troubled after their encounter with the demonic Ashton.

'So, Cole, what do them downstairs say about this neck-biting-blood-sucking fang face?' asks Phoebe. Cole sighs.

'He's called Azrael but he's been bound for decades. He was once a powerful demon. He could control the emotions of weaker beings, for instance humans. He'd use strong emotions like hate, anger, jealousy to his own ends, create havoc and what have you. Anyway, from what I understood, a witch bound him years ago but didn't have the power to kill him, so how did he get free?' he says.

'The witch must have died, like when Grams bound our powers as kids to hide our identities. The spell was broken when she died.' replied Piper.

'So this Azrael is going around absorbing the empathic powers some humans have to... what... recharge the old batteries.' states Pheobe. Cole shrugs.

'Could be, he was extremely powerful. Rumour has it he was challenging The Source for supremecy so he's not going to be too happy to see him back.' he remarks.

'I'll see what the Elders have to say.' says Leo, as he disappears in a swirl of bright light.

'And the rest of us will take the stairs to look at the Book of Shadows.' yells Piper at the ceiling. The phone starts to ring.

'I'll get it.' says Paige.

In Halliwell Manor's attic a large leather bound book was propped up on a stand. A lot of candles and herbs covered the tables. Piper, Pheobe and Cole gathered around the book and started to flick through it.

'Where do we start? If Azrael's been bound for decades he might not be in here.' says Phoebe.

'Well the Book of Shadows hasn't let us down yet. I swear it writes itself. I've looked for information we've used before and not been able to find it.' remarks Piper. She holds her hands over the book. 'Azrael, Azrael, find me Azrael.' The books pages begin to flip over faster and faster until they suddenly stop. She quickly scans the page and frowns.

'Uh oh, I don't like that look. I've never liked that look.' groans Pheobe.

'This is a warning, not a spell. It says that if Azrael is released he will need to replenish his empathic powers, but can only do it by sucking it literally from a witch during the time Venus is in the shadow of the moon. It also says that no one witch has ever been powerful enough to destroy him. Last time it took 3 witches just to bind him.' sighs Piper.

'Yeah, but this time he's got the Charmed Ones to contend with. You're the most powerful witches on Earth.' says Cole.

'Who don't have have a spell to vanquish him with or nearly enough information on his alter ego.' retorts Phoebe.

'That's the least of our problems.' says Paige coming through the door. 'That was Darryl Morris on the phone. He says Lieutenant Cortez has called in the FBI - not the local guys but the big guys from Washington.' She shakes her head. 'We're doomed. Darryl's managed to keep the PD off our tail but we can't expect him to deal with the bureau ,too. He's got too much to lose.'

'Don't worry, we'll deal with them when we come to it. Right now we've got a spell to write and a demon to vanquish.' says Piper.

'You should have let me leave Cortez in the underworld.' snickers Cole. 'He'd have been at home there.' Phoebe has been sitting in the corner thinking.

'Do you think he'll try and finish Holly off? Just think, if she recovers she'll be able to identify him and his alter ego or he may want the rest of her empathic power.' The others stare in amazement at her. 'It was just an idea. The hospital called me today. Remember I did some volunteer work there a few years back? Well they want me to do some holiday cover for them and they're going to pay me, so I thought I could see if I got... you know... a vision of her attacker.' she says. Piper nods.

'Ok, it's about all we've got to go on at this point.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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