Frightening Little Princess

Summary: The Ipswich Covenant isn't the only power around. A powerful friend of the families returns to Ipswich at the request of her grandmother, who fears for her life. But returning to Ipswich makes things worse and puts them all at risk. Sometimes the only way to save the ones you love is to sacrifice everything, including your life. TylerOC.

Disclaimer: Yeah… I own nothing. Damn.

A/N: Please tell me what you think! Please? Oh, and I'm currently putting this as "T" but that might change depending on reviewer feedback. But that will come later; for now please enjoy!

C-C-C

1691- Ipswich Colony, Massachusetts

The light of early evening was fading into the darkness of night. Lucas Simms sat on a bench outside his large home, staring into space. He had a strange feeling; a feeling that had been plaguing him for the majority of the past two days. He was sure that his friends had felt it as well, as his wife, Charlotte, had implored at dinner why he and his "brothers" were acting so strangely. All of the wives, it seemed, had noticed and they were worried. So worried, in fact, that all had insisted that the men met that night and try to discover why they felt so strangely.

Lucas and the others –Edwin Danvers, Oliver Parry, John Putnam, and Paul Garwin- believed their wives to be overreacting; Putnam in particular as he did not like to see the women dictating matters of the Covenant. In fact, he honestly didn't care for them at all, as his wife was no longer one of them, having lost her several years before to a decidedly nasty illness that no doctor, healer, or shaman that they found could diagnose. He was left widowed, childless, and bitter.

"Darling?" The sweet voice of his wife asked, "Are you well?" She continued walking out of the doorway and sitting next to her husband.

Looking to his wife, Lucas replied, "Yes Love." Charlotte rested her head on her husband's shoulder. Neither she nor her friends were comfortable when their husband's were out of sorts. Being who they were, it made their discomfort more extreme and less frequent. Charlotte tried to remain calm, fully convinced that her husband and the men he considered brothers were going to discover exactly what was wrong.

After several moments, a rustling reached Lucas's ear. He listened intently, not moving to avoid alarming his wife. Again he heard the noise, which was clearly coming from the side of the house, "Darling. Go inside. Stay away from the windows." He said. His tone was not that of request, Charlotte could tell, it was a demand. She knew her husband well and complied quickly as he rose and carefully made his way towards the noise.

Turning the corner around his home, Lucas was shocked at what he saw. A young girl, very petite with red hair, was trying to climb the apple tree situated not far from the house. The rustling must have been her skirt against the tree trunk. As he watched, the girl managed to grab one apple from the very bottom of the tree and yank it off. As she did so, several others fell to the ground. Quickly, she jumped down and gathered all of the rather unripe apples onto her petticoat.

"Excuse me!" Lucas called, causing the girl to look up. Her face showed extreme panic and her body soon caught up to that as she dropped all of the apples and ran in the opposite direction as quickly as possible, "Wait!" Lucas called again, running after her as she made her way towards the woods. She was very quick, but Lucas managed to keep up with her until she just entered the woods.

The girl weaved quickly between the trees and Lucas, completely unconsciously, used the Power to stop her. She squirmed in place, her arms tightly clenched to her sides, as Lucas scolded himself for being so careless. There was no way to explain to her why she couldn't move. Walking closer to the girl, Lucas saw that her squirming became less clenched, her arms pulling away from her body and her feet squishing into the mud. Quickly she turned, her body free and her eyes black as death. Lucas stopped in shock as she stared him down and shoved him back with a blast of Power.

Landing flat on his back, Lucas managed to get himself to a sitting position just in time to see the girl turn around, seeming almost as shocked as he was, and run again. This time, however, she didn't get far. Lucas watched as she leaned against a large tree, swayed for a moment, and collapsed. Standing quickly, not even bothering to brush the mud and dirt off of his pants, Lucas rushed over to the unconscious girl. He turned her over gently, moved her hair from her face, and took in her appearance. She was beautiful in a strange, animalistic way. Her face was perfect in proportion, but her high cheeks were flushed.

Lucas automatically felt compassion for the girl. She had been willing to steal and eat unripe apples and had clearly been frightened of him, as if thinking he was going to hurt her. She was very young, no more than twenty he was sure, and sick looking. Picking the girl up -shocked at just how light she was- Lucas turned for home. If she was willing to steal apples far from their peak, the least he could do was spare some food for her. Charlotte, he knew, had a soft spot for people in need and he could trust her to watch over the girl while he met with his brothers at their hidden meeting place.

C-C-C

Present Day- Ipswich, Massachusetts

Kate Tunney was undeniably feeling better. She'd been in the hospital for just over a week and soon, she knew, they were going to release her. During her stay, she'd had had plenty of visitors. Sarah, Caleb, Reid, Tyler, her friends from school –not that she had many, as most were stuck up and bitchy. There were several people that she had yet to see. This was good for the most part, but for one person she wasn't sure.

The good news was she had yet to see her parents or that snot nosed little brat that her parents insisted was her sister. Jeez, they were annoying! She was one hundred percent sure that she was adopted. There was no way she could be related to such stuck up pricks.

The one thing she wasn't sure about was Pogue. He hadn't been to see her since she had gotten sick. When she woke up, she had been shocked to find herself in the hospital. The doctors fully explained her situation, but she had been confused. She didn't remember getting bitten, much less by hundreds of spiders. She didn't argue though, she was too tired. Sarah came to visit her later that day, ecstatic that she was okay. It was then that she learned about Pogue. He had been in an accident trying to get to the hospital to see her. He was two floors down in his own hospital room.

The thought brought Kate nearly to tears. She knew he loved her and she loved him and he'd been hurt coming to be with her, but she couldn't forget the way he acted sometimes. She wished that she wasn't so conflicted over him.

A knock on the door pulled Kate from her thoughts. She looked over and smiled, "Mrs. Parry." She said happily. The elder woman gave her a familiar raised eyebrow, "I mean, Bea." For as long as Kate had been dating Pogue, Beatrice Parry had been insisted that Kate call her Bea.

"Kate, darling," Bea said in a motherly voice; her British accent was still prevalent even after nearly twenty four years in the United States, "Are you alright dear?" She asked, leaning over and kissing Kate on the cheek, "I would have seen you before, but Wayne and I were out of town. He's coming back tomorrow, but I couldn't wait."

Shaking her head, Kate said, "I'm fine, Bea." She replied. Most people thought the Parry's were uptight, regal, cold, and/or stuck up. Kate knew them well enough to know that, while they had their moments, they were wonderful people. Bea had been raised as a proper British young lady and Wayne had a strict sense of duty and protocol, thus occasionally putting him at odds with his son but it wasn't anything that they couldn't get over quickly.

Bea pulled a chair from across the room and sat down next to Kate's bed, "What happened?" She asked.

"Spider bites." Kate replied, "A lot of them apparently." Bea looked her over worriedly, taking in the fading bite marks that doctors said would scar but the young nurse swore would be concealable. Bea took her hand and placed the back of it on Kate's forehead. Kate chuckled at the motherly affection; it was certainly something she couldn't expect from her own mother. Tears welled up in her eyes, something Bea immediately took notice of. She sighed lovingly and leaned over, wrapping her arms around Kate as the young girl broke down.

"Shh… Shh…" Bea whispered.

Breathing in and out slowly, Kate felt herself calm slightly. This was what she needed; someone to comfort her. Bea pulled away, smiling, and wiped away the tears that stained her face. Kate opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by a loud noise outside the door.

"Get away from me!" A voice that both women recognized as Pogue yelled, "Look man, I have nothing against you personally, but if you don't get away from me, I will hit you with this!" Bea was going to yell to her son, but he entered the room before she had a chance. He was in a wheelchair with his IV clipped onto the handle and a food tray on his lap. Kate had to hold in a laugh when she realized that that had been what Pogue was threatening a harassed looking doctor with. The doctor entered behind Pogue.

Bea stood, "Is there a problem here, doctor."

"Mrs. Parry, please tell your son that it wasn't a good idea for him to leave his bed. He's getting better, but he shouldn't exert too much energy." The doctor that Kate didn't recognize said.

"I grabbed a wheelchair for a reason." Pogue mumbled.

Bea sighed, "Dr. Mullins, my son is very resilient. If he wants to visit the young lady," She indicated Kate, "I see no reason as to why this should be a problem." Dr. Mullins huffed and left. Bea turned to her son, "Did you really plan to hit him with a tray?" Pogue looked down causing Bea to sigh.

Pogue turned to Kate, "How are you?" He asked, rolling the chair towards her.

"Fine." She replied in a small voice.

Bea looked between the two and sighed hopelessly, "Oh dear! Did you two have another fight?"

"Mother!" Pogue hissed.

"What?" She asked indignantly, "I don't like it when you two fight." She thought for a moment, "I suppose the letter makes sense now."

Pogue raised his eyebrows, "What letter?"

Bea pulled an envelope out of her purse and looked at it, "It's addressed from California." She said. Pogue and Kate immediately knew what that meant.

"Raven!" Kate exclaimed as Bea opened the letter.

"Mom!" Pogue said incredulously, "You do know it could be considered a federal offense for you to open that, right?" Bea raised her eyebrows at her son, "Tampering with U.S mail." Bea rolled her eyes and continued opening the letter.

Clearing her throat as she pulled the letter out of the envelope and unfolded the paper and read; a chuckled escaped her throat, "Oh, she always was so colorful with her language." Pogue sighed; of course. Raven had never been one to mince words, "Would you like me to read it to you, darling?" Bea asked her son.

"You're going to anyway, so why not?" He replied.

Smiling sweetly, Bea went back to the letter and read, "Pogue… What the hell is wrong with you? I did NOT get you and Kate together just for you to act like a total douche bag every time she looks at another guy. You and Caleb are on my shit list. Call me so I can yell at you properly. Seriously, Tyler is the only one that ever calls me anymore! Do you guys hate me or something? Call me, tell me what's up –Raven."

Pogue sighed, "That was better than I expected." Bea stood and held out the letter, "Is that all?"

"Yes." Bea said as he son took the letter, "Call her." She continued before leaning over and kissing Kate on the cheek, "I have to go. I'll be back later." She said to no one in particular.

C-C-C

Present Day- Palo Alto, California

Like any self-respecting high school senior at five in the morning on a school night, Raven de Mon was asleep. The bright California moon shone in as the wind blew her curtains around, but the sky was lightening. Through the slight crack in her window a silver mist crept in. Raven turned in her sleep, completely oblivious to the mist.

The silver lingered over Raven for a moment before descending upon her and resting by her side. Lowly, yet surely, the mist began to solidify and the outline of a person began to emerge. Raven squirmed as the weight of an arm rested on her middle. The added weight on her bed threw off Raven's delicate balance; her squirming a reaction to the throw off. After several minutes, Raven's eyelids flicked open to reveal irritated green eyes.

"What the hell?" She mumbled at the arm around her torso. She gasped and turned to look at the figure, "Holy shit!" She screamed, jumping so much that she fell off of her bed, "OW!"

"I'm sorry!" The figure exclaimed. Raven looked up in irritation.

"Lorelei," She groaned, "It's five in the morning."

Lorelei sighed, "Sorry, but I got bored."

Raven groaned, "Lor… You sleep… on occasion. Couldn't you do that now?"

Shaking her head, Lorelei replied, "I have to be in specific conditions to sleep. On this plane those conditions are hard to come by." Raven sighed and ran her hands through her fiery red hair, "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to wake you. I merely wished to observe you. Human sleeping patterns are much different than those of my kind. I still do not understand much about humans." Raven raised her eyebrows, "Touching you allows me to get a better look at your internal mechanisms while you sleep. I didn't think I would wake you."

Sighing again, Raven said, "Honey… You are two thousand years old. You've had plenty of time to observe humans."

"Wrong." Lorelei replied, "Raven you know that the Elders of the Ancients absolutely forbade human contact, or even mere examination; that they believed humans to be lowly and destructive and of little use. The only reason that humans were not wiped out on the Elders' orders was because the Elders knew that the destruction of humanity would throw off the natural balance and evolution of the Universe."

"Assholes." Raven murmured. Being what she was Raven had come to know a lot about the Ancients and their Elders and what she found out, Raven did not like.

Either Lorelei didn't hear her or ignored her comment, "I came into being with an uncharacteristic curiosity. I have always wanted to know more. You know that is why I was banished." Raven sighed, nodding. She met Lorelei two years before while on a hiking trip in the Redwood National and State Parks. Lorelei had been masquerading as a small bobcat, but Raven had sensed something different about her (again a part of being who and what she was). In interest, Raven had followed Lorelei to a den that the latter had created for herself. It was in the den that Lorelei had transformed back into her true form and, only after, realized that she had been followed.

The next few hours had been a blur to Raven. She had been sure that Lorelei was going to kill her and she hadn't even known how to address the "creature" –the only thing she could think to even call her- properly. "You could not pronounce my true name even if you tried, human." Lorelei had said. She had let Raven go unharmed but had shown up again a week later, this time in Raven's room and in her true form, inquiring as how she recognized the bobcat ruse. After a lengthy explanation Lorelei had pleaded to stay with Raven and follow her experiences. It took some convincing but Raven had eventually said yes and the rest was history.

However, Raven had said, she couldn't stay in her true form and she needed a name. Finding this not only acceptable, but necessary, the "creature" asked for help in creating an alias. Raven agreed and pulled out several of the many magazines that she had and began looking for various facial and body characteristics from different actors and models. Then they went on a naming website, neither of them remembered which one, and picked out the name "Lorelei Zilberschlag" because Lorelei wanted a very unique name. They had then gone to Raven's grandmother and guardian, Jane, to help with acquiring the proper identification papers. This only worked because Jane was very well connected.

Standing final, Raven looked at the alarm clock. 5:12 am. She rolled her eyes, "Well, I'm up. You have to take notes if I fall asleep in class."

Nodding, Lorelei said, "I will. I'm sorry." Raven shrugged and pulled herself from the ground. She walked over to the closet and pulled out her school uniform. She took the clothing to the private bathroom attached to her room and closed the door behind her. Lorelei heard a shower faucet turn on. One thing about Raven, she knew, was that she didn't take long in the shower.

Standing, Lorelei, who was fully clothed in her own school uniform, looked around the room. She loved Raven's room; it was very calming. The harmony that Raven felt with the Universe and its elements, and the internal battle that she felt when things were out of whack, read in all of her mannerisms and actions. She used her room as a way to free herself from the things that she had learned long ago she had no control over. To help her, Lorelei, who from observation had learned that Raven liked a clean and orderly room (much different from some people. She was shocked to see the many discrepancies between people of the same race) turned to Raven's bed and began shaking out the blanket. She smoothed the cresses as she pulled the blanket taut over the bed. When the blanket was perfectly placed on the bed, Lorelei grabbed the pillows and, in an attempt to fluff them as she had seen done before, pulled and punched at them. When she thought they were fluffed enough, she gently placed them back at the head of the bed.

Lorelei heard the shower turn off and looked at the alarm clock. She was shocked to see that more time had passed than she thought. Did it normally take twenty minutes to make a bed? Shaking off the thought, Lorelei wandered over to the desk in the corner of the room. It was covered in neat stacks of papers, books, and other supplies. There were also pictures. Lorelei had seen them all many times but she had never fully understood them; she wanted to be there, to have experienced those events, not to just see the pictures. She wanted to know why Raven found them so special.

Many of the pictures were from various events involving Raven and her grandmother or people that Lorelei knew; people that went to school with her and Raven at Castilleja School, an all girl college prep school, or friends who didn't attend Castilleja. But those pictures, in some way that Lorelei didn't fully comprehend, seemed to have less meaning than the pictures of the four boys in Massachusetts that Lorelei had never met, but was dying to do so.

Lorelei knew all of their names; Caleb Danvers, Pogue Parry, Reid Garwin, and the infamous Tyler Simms. Lorelei knew more about Tyler than the others merely because the Simms family had been closest to Raven's family since the 1690's. The others were like brothers to Raven, but Tyler (as was the case with his family) had always been different. Ever since Tyler's ancestor Lucas had protected Raven's ancestor and brought her into the Ipswich Covenant (despite the fact that her power was much different than theirs) the Simms had been the rock for Raven's family.

For Raven, Lorelei knew that that rock included a torch. Raven had been best friends with Tyler since the boy was born, six and a half months after her, and that had developed into hardcore feelings, at least on Raven's side. Lorelei, who stayed away when Tyler and his family came to visit during the summer as to not take away from the little chance they all had together, had heard the story of the last two summers. Both times Tyler had come and they connection between them was undeniably stronger. They had stayed close together the entire time, sometimes even sharing a kiss, but when the time came for Tyler to leave, he couldn't take anything to a new level. "The guys just wouldn't understand." It had happened twice only because Raven had thought (more likely hoped) that time and distance had given Tyler reason to change his mind. Lorelei had to shake her head at the thought. If Caleb, Pogue, and Reid couldn't accept the deep connection that the two had, then they weren't friends; that much she knew.

The door to the bathroom opened and Lorelei looked over. Raven was standing in the doorway, fully clothed with a flat iron in her hand, "What are you looking at?" Raven asked as she ran the iron over her hair, the red becoming even more fiery as she straightened it.

"Your friends." Lorelei replied, "I don't know how, but your pictures of the Sons seem more important than the others. I can't understand it."

Raven smiled as she finished with her hair, "They're my guys." She said, "It isn't something that I can explain." Lorelei chuckled, knowing that there were some things that she would never understand. Raven went back into the bathroom and returned with her hair in a ponytail.

"Aren't you going to brush your teeth?" Lorelei asked, knowing that Raven's internal schedule was such that she brushed her teeth after showering, dressing, and doing her hair.

Chuckling, Raven replied, "I need more toothpaste." Lorelei raised her eyebrows as Raven grabbed a plastic grocery bag off of the floor and pulled a toothpaste box out, "That's creepy, by the way. You knowing my whole morning routine."

"Sorry."

Shrugging, Raven went back into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Lorelei turned her attention back to the photographs. The boys were handsome, that went without saying, and they were certainly very entertaining to be around (from what she had heard). She sincerely wanted to meet them. Raven loved them and, therefore, Lorelei was sure that she would too.

Raven exited the bathroom and smiled at the framed picture that was taken the Spring Break before, when she and, eventually, the Sons visited Hawaii. They all were laughing and smiling and happy. There was no sign of the tension between Raven and Tyler, but Raven remembered feeling it the entire time. She sighed and went to pick up the picture, with a strange result.

The moment her fingers touched the wood the room in front of her disappeared and she found herself outside; it was dark and it was raining. Raven looked around as she was pelted with freezing rain. Turning 180 degrees, she was shocked to see Caleb fending off an attack from another with the Power. She watched as Caleb blocked the clear balls of power that the other and returned with an attack of his own. Caleb dug deep within himself and created a massive ball of power, throwing at the other and knocking him back into a structure that Raven recognized as Putnam Barn.

Just as quickly as it happened, Raven found herself back in her room, "Raven?" Lorelei asked, "Did you just have… A premonition?"

Breathing heavily, Raven replied, "I… I think I did." Lorelei raised her eyebrows in shock. She recognized the premonition, but she didn't understand it. Raven's powers had never included premonitions.