"Wicked Schemer”
Copyright 2005 Penn O'Hara

 

 

F13

Usual disclaimers apply.

Follows immediately after "Evicted Deceiver".

~*~*~*~*~

Sensing a presence in the room, Zankou tensed where he lay on his side in bed, readying his body for action.   His ability to go from sleep to instant alert saved his hide many times.  Opening his eyes a fraction, he saw the new-day bluing of the sky through the window of the Charmed Ones' Manor.  Birds were auditioning for the dawn chorus and the crispness of the air signalled a bright clear day ahead.  Testing the atmosphere with the rest of his senses, Zankou smelt the unmistakeable odor of a Whitelighter standing behind him.  It wasn't the delectable womanly smell of Paige, so it had to be the other resident do-gooder. 

Leo was home.

Zankou fought down the deep-seated hate he felt for the man and took a long breath, finding his center of control.  Even with Phoenix's ring, Zankou could not outmatch Leo's power.  Only innate cunning would give him the advantage he needed.

Tossing the bed sheet aside, Zankou swung his feet to the cool floor.  He stood and, despite his totally nude state, walked casually to the window.  He never slept in clothes and if Leo didn't like it, then that was too bad.  Closing his eyes, Zankou inhaled the freshly dewed air from the open window, taking it deep into his lungs.

"Good morning, Leo," he said without turning around.  "I didn't hear you knock.  We missed you at dinner last night.  Overtime at Magic School?"  Keeping his back to Leo, Zankou maintained an indifference to the Whitelighter that was deliberately insulting.  "You really shouldn't leave your wife alone so much.  She might get… restless." 

Bracing his hands on the windowsill, Zankou shifted his weight to one leg, then swung his gaze around.  Leo was standing just inside the open door and Piper was right behind him.  Zankou frowned, disturbed that his hatred of the Whitelighter had blinded his senses to the presence of another. 

The witch was looking jumpy and Zankou was amused to see her eyes darting to and away from him.  She was disturbed by his nudity but didn't want to appear so.  Poor girl, but it was her choice to saddle herself with a pale flabby Whitelighter when there was better out there.  Just to prove it, Zankou turned fully from the window and backed up against it, crossing his legs at the ankle and folding his arms, then raised a brow at his audience.

"For what reason has my privacy been invaded without warning?"  Zankou asked, his voice curt.  Leo's silence was starting to unnerve him.  Zankou took another deep breath to cleanse the annoyance from his psyche, leaving it clear of negativity.

"Get dressed," Leo said, his voice clipped and low.

"That's it?  You've walked into my room unannounced with reinforcements," Zankou waved his hand at Piper, "to tell me to get dressed?  A mere knock at the door would have sufficed."

"This isn't your room."

"Isn't it?"  Zankou's eyes darted around the walls, then zeroed back on Leo.   "My apologies then, but I'm afraid Paige made the mistake.  This is the room she brought me to.  I haven't left it.  Oh, except to sample your lovely wife's delicious cooking."  Zankou let his gaze slip to Piper who still hadn't moved.  She was watching him more boldly now, but her eyes kept skittering below his waist.

Leo's lips thinned to the point of disappearing.  "Get dressed and meet me downstairs in the den."

"Of course, Leo, of course.  But first I have to freshen up and sample some more of that home cooking that Piper promised.  If you had been here with your wife instead of pursuing your own interests, you wouldn't have missed the wonderful companionable meal we had around the dinner table last night." 

Zankou smiled in triumph as Leo darted a look at Piper, the first indication that Zankou was getting to him. 

In truth, the night hadn't been that great.  Phoebe didn't return, Paige was nervous and jittery throughout the meal, and Piper watched him so closely, Zankou felt he was a bacterium in a culture dish.  He was the first to retire to his room, needing the solitude to meditate and regenerate from such unhealthy vibes.

"Get dressed, Zankou, and forget about breakfast."  Leo's eyes were slits in his face, evidence he was holding his temper in check with difficulty.  "You won't be staying long enough."  Leo wheeled around and ushered Piper back through the door.  Zankou caught the hissed 'You fed him at our table?' before their footsteps took them down the corridor.

Chuckling, Zankou pushed away from the windowsill and headed back to bed.

oOo

Sauntering into the den an hour later, Zankou was amused to see Piper and Paige seated on the sofa and Leo standing behind it, presenting a united, if somewhat impatient, front.  There was still no sign of Phoebe, proving she was true to her word about staying away until he left. 

"I told you to get dressed," Leo snapped.

Zankou held his arms wide allowing the large satin sleeves of his black kimono to drape from his elbows.  The action parted the robe's edges, leaving his chest and waist bare and revealing matching satin trousers hanging low on his hips.  The effect on the women was worth the loss of the security of his leathers.  Paige's jaw dropped as she openly stared.  Piper breathed in a quick hiss and squirmed on the seat, her hands clenching and unclenching until Leo leaned forward and grabbed one of them.  Zankou was sorry Phoebe wasn't there to appreciate him too.

"I am dressed," Zankou said equably.  "My suit was a little on the whiffy side so I sent it to the cleaners.  I rustled this up in the meantime.  Don't you approve?"

"I thought–" Paige began, her voice tight and high-pitched.  She cleared her throat. "I thought you'd lost your powers."

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Zankou's brows shot up and he looked around the room, his gaze falling on a wooden carving of a horse that looked particularly ugly.  With a flick of an eyebrow, it burst into flames.

"Yesterday… you said…" Piper began.  "Hey!  I liked that horse!"

"I said I couldn't leave the Manor, not that I couldn't use magic."  Zankou grinned, unrepentant that he had allowed them to believe the latter.

Leo jerked where he stood, his fingers digging into the sofa.  "Look, you vain arrogant ba–"

Zankou held up a hand and Leo's jaws snapped shut with a little help from demon magic. 

"That is not a polite way to treat a guest, Leo.  First you come into my room uninvited, then you criticise the way I dress, and now you hurl insults at me.  What offensiveness can I expect next?"

"You think it's polite to sashay around someone's house half-naked?" Leo asked, infuriated.  "I insist on a little more decorum in front of my wife!"

"Your wife," Zankou said in a voice as scathing as Leo's, "saw fit to materialize in my office, right when my wife and I were in the middle of something.  We could have been going hard at it on the floor for all she knew.  It wouldn't have been the first time."

Piper's lips were moving and Zankou waited for her biting rejoinder, but it didn't come.  He immediately looked contrite. 

"Forgive me, Piper," he said.  "I don't want to distress you or… distract you."  Zankou swept an arm across his chest.  "These casual rags weren't meant to offend, but Leo did say he wanted me in the den as soon as possible.  I just threw any old thing on."  Zankou started walking backwards.  "I'll take my leave and redress if that is your wish."

"For pity's sake, Zankou, forget it!" Leo ordered.  "Instead, I want to know how we're going to get rid of you.  Permanently.  Any ideas?"

Zankou's grin broadened with victory.  "Well, really, I have only one.  I've been thinking all night…"  Zankou paused and gave Paige a hot look.  "…when I wasn't dreaming of you, dear Paige."  He caressed her with his eyes, then rallied again to concentrate on Leo.  "If the Charmed Ones can present my cause to Phoenix, we might stand a chance.  If they show her they'll do anything to be rid of me, instead of wanting me here as she seems to believe, she may come around."

"I can do that.  Gladly," Piper said.

"What will Phoenix do to you?" Paige asked.  Zankou was pleased to see a worried frown mar her pretty face.

"I'm very much afraid she'll feed me to the sharks," Zankou said sadly.  "But if you were to assure her there is nothing going on–"

"Sharks!?" Paige gasped.  "What do you mean?"

Zankou hoped she'd take him literally.  "Phoenix has this folly set up on the fifty-third floor of her building." He flourished a hand in the air.  "A huge aquarium, the roof of which constitutes the floor of her office on the fifty-fourth level.  It's quite impressive, especially at night, with the water lights blazing, and the stingrays gliding and the sharks circling and–" 

Zankou broke off as he felt his body tighten with the memory of what Phoenix did to him on that floor.  He swallowed hard, needing to keep focused on his present company.  "She has threatened before that I would make good shark bait."  He lowered his head, thrusting out his lower lip.

"What are we waiting for then?" Piper asked.

Zankou fought back the snarl aimed for the eldest witch.  Despite his mission to deliberately goad the Charmed Ones, Piper's glib attitude was wearing thin.  "I believe there is only the two of you here at the moment," Zankou said, holding his temper in check.  "You will need Phoebe as well."

"You aren't exactly Phoebe's favorite demon at the moment," Paige said.  "You did kill Kira and Phoebe was starting to like her."

"But there is little point in only the two of you going before Phoenix."  Zankou threw himself onto a settee chair at right angles to the sofa.  "My wife needs to be reassured that no Charmed One is interested in taking her man."

Piper made a disgusted noise and looked up at Leo.  "What do you think?"

"I think it's a wild story and we can't trust him."

"If you think you can get rid of him, be my guest," Piper said to her husband, tossing a hand at Zankou.

Leo concentrated hard on Zankou who felt the Whitelighter's energy pour into him.  Leo was strong and Zankou acceded, without the added power of Phoenix's ring now gripping his little finger, he would be hard-pressed to resist him. 

Zankou fought the dissolution and rearrangement of his molecules elsewhere, but was unprepared for Leo's sudden change of tactics which sent him flying toward the den's open window.  Zankou's head and shoulders crashed against Phoenix's force field, which thankfully was still in place, while his hips and limbs thudded against the window frame before he fell in a heap to the floor.  Zankou felt no pain.  He never did.  But his head was dazed from the strength of the kinetic energy necessary for Leo to take him by surprise. 

Shaking himself, Zankou rolled to his feet, his chest heaving, and glared at Leo, past being able to dilute his hate.  "That was a filthy trick!"

"But an effective one," Leo said smugly.  "It proved two things.  It's true that we can't transport you and there is some magnetic field preventing you from leaving this house.  Unfortunately, it doesn't give me any ideas of what to do with you, other than to destroy you."  Leo walked toward Zankou and stopped when he was standing toe to toe.  "Piper has convinced me that we shouldn't stoop to your level and take advantage of you in that way, unless of course, you give me good reason to do so."  Leo smiled with satisfaction and Zankou itched to wipe his face of it. 

"For your own safety," Leo continued, "I suggest you don't supply me with the opportunity, although I can't say I'm not adverse to trying.  And now you have two choices.  At the risk of repeating myself, get dressed, or retire to the room you were given, and stay there until we work out what is to be done."

Zankou closed down on his anger and softened his face with a heavy-lidded look aimed at Piper.  "I wonder if you realize, Leo, how desperately your wife wants to help me go up there and change, but how afraid she is that she'll get side-tracked."

Leo's eyes flared and Zankou was thrown backward toward the den's door and the corridor beyond.  Zankou twisted mid-air, making sure his face hit the doorjamb as he went through it.  When he hefted himself from the floor, he could taste blood oozing from a split lip and was satisfied with the sensation of its flowing freely from a cut below his eye.

"Leo!  Stop!"  Paige shouted, hurrying toward Zankou.

Zankou put up a hand to ward her off, swiping the blood from his mouth with the other.  "I'll be in my room," he said, making his voice ominous, and headed toward the stairs.

oOo

"…fifteen elephants, sixteen elephants, seventeen–"

There was a knock on the door and Zankou immediately rolled into a ball on his side facing the door.  He wasn't pleased.  It took Paige seventeen seconds to come to him, ten seconds longer than he'd anticipated.  He didn't like making mistakes when reading his victims.

"Come in," he called, injecting weariness and resignation into his voice.

Paige opened the door a crack and peered in.  Did Piper tell her about his being naked earlier that morning and the young witch feared the same bombardment?  Zankou smiled to himself.  Pity he hadn't thought of it, but immediately reconsidered.  It would have been too obvious and there was plenty of time for that later.

Paige walked into the room tentatively, armed with a small silver tray.  When Zankou checked its contents, he realized why it took Paige the extra ten seconds.  She'd stopped at the first aid cupboard on the way.  He relaxed with the knowledge that he hadn't been wrong after all.

"Go away, Paige," he growled, knowing she wouldn't.

"I wanted to see if you were all right.  I brought a bandaid."

How sweet, he thought sarcastically.  A bandaid for the demon.  What a pathetic creature she is.

"Thank you," he said, his voice strangled.  Rolling his head on the pillow, he presented his face to her so that she could assess his cuts.

Zankou watched her with hot interest as she prepared an antiseptic swab and then sat down on the edge of the bed.  As she reached toward his face, he gently grabbed her wrist with his fingers and started massaging its inner flesh as her hand hovered over the cut under his eye.

"How very… good of you, Paige," he said softly, licking the dried blood on his lip.  "You don't have to… care."

"I do!  I mean, I'd care about anyone in a bad position that they can't control."

Then you'd best be caring about where you've landed yourself, dear Paige.

"My lip," he whispered.  He lifted his other hand and touched the blood there, drawing her attention to his mouth.  "It stings.  It's very… sore." Zankou's hand smoothed itself behind Paige's neck, stroking, then staying, pressuring very gently, very slowly.  "It needs… something soft."  Her face was an inch away from his.  "Something gentle." 

A final subtle pull brought her lips to his and his other hand came around to circle her waist, pulling her onto the bed.  She cried out and struggled, but only briefly.  His mouth moved over hers, his tongue tasting, his hands massaging her heated body and she sank onto him.  Zankou crowed in triumph deep in his throat as he rolled her underneath him and continued to plunder the young witch's mouth. 

The power her surrender gave him vitalized his ego and his senses thrummed with the soft and giving response of her body.  And to think he had Phoenix's okay to do this!  She would punish his liberties later by chaining him to her wall until she was satisfied, but this was so much fun while it lasted.

Zankou guessed Piper wouldn't be far behind, but he was enjoying himself too greatly to hope she'd hurry.   Although he was tempted to peel the clothes from Paige and explore her further, he was mindful of not wanting to alienate the witches.  Instead, he shouldered out of his own robe and tossed the satin to the floor. 

Poising himself on locked elbows above Paige, Zankou purred a command.  "Put your hands on me, Paige, my sweet thing.  I give you permission to let them roam where they will."

She gasped.  "I can't!  You're married!"

"And you're a good witch and I'm a demon.  Don't you think that's just as impossible a combination?"

"Your wife will–"

"–has sent me packing.  Do you think she believes I will stay celibate and pine for her?  She can't, and won't, expect it."  He kissed her eyelids.  "My skin burns for you, Paige." Zankou deepened his voice so that it was throaty and suggestive.  "Touch it and see.  Touch… me."

Paige shut her eyes and groaned, her hands coming up to flutter at his waist, then flattened against his spine, pulling him closer.

"That's it, my sweet Paige," Zankou crooned, "touch me.  Feel what you do to me.  Grasp the throbbing power within me."

"That's enough!"

oOo

More Schemer to come.