Disclaimer: We do not own Charmed or any of the copyrighted stuff.
A/N: Lyn: So we write more!
Reneey: Yay! … So review?
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Chapter Four – Breakfast at Halliwell's
Wyatt grinned at Lyn from across the table. "So, baby… What's your sign?"
"Sagittarius," Lyn responded, stabbing a piece of sausage and not bothering to look at him. "You know, the Archer. Like Artemis. Who swore off men."
Wyatt widened his eyes as far as they would go. "So you play for the other team?"
Lyn launched her fork at his head but he stopped it in midair, laughing. "Kidding, kidding! I'll leave you alone, I swear."
"How the hell has she not beaten the crap out of you yet?" Chris demanded, looking annoyed. "I save her life and you hit on her for an hour straight but I'm the one with the most bruises?"
"Pervs with no life hit on me all the time," Lyn said, picking up the sausage with her fingers and taking a bite since she no longer had a fork. "People trying to kill my best friend I take more personally."
"For the last time, she's a demon halfbreed!"
"And she's also an eighteen-year-old girl!"
"Enough with the fighting, already!" Wyatt interrupted. "Jeez, Chris, I know you don't have a lot of experience with girls but yelling at them is no way to go."
A steely ring came into Lyn's voice as she switched her glare back to Wyatt. "You know, I'm a third degree black belt with a 186 IQ. I can kill you in your sleep and fix it up so your brother takes the fall and then I'll be rid of the both of you."
"And then nobody will be protecting you from the Elders," Chris said matter-of-factly. "If they banished you once, they can do it again. Whether you want to believe it or not, we are on your side."
"Right, because people are usually on my side," Lyn muttered, taking another bite of sausage.
Wyatt rested his chin on his hands and looked at her. "Alright, out with it. You're snapping people's heads off every time anybody turns around – what's the story?"
"And why in the name of Sequoyah should I tell you?"
Wyatt blinked. "Okay, I'll bite. Who the hell is Sequoyah?"
Lyn sighed irritably. "Sequoyah developed the Cherokee syllabary. The symbols with which to write the Tsalagi language. I grew up just outside Red Clay, the last seat of the government before the Trail of Tears. Both my grandfathers are half Cherokee."
"See, now was that so bad?" Wyatt asked with a grin. "You know, talking about yourself without threatening anyone's life for asking?"
"Alright, look," Lyn said, setting her jaw but at least managing not to glare at him. "You seem incapable of taking a hint so let me spell this out for you: I do not want to talk about my life. Heck, I don't think about it if I can help it. So knock it off or I'll knock off your head. Entienda?"
Chris sighed. "We left her alone… near the Book of Shadows… She should be watched!" he declared, his mind apparently shifting back to suspicion mode by default every five or so minutes. "She could steal it and use it to end the world! Or worse, expose the magical world!"
Lyn stared. "Why the heck is that worse than ending the world?"
Wyatt, on the other hand, rolled his eyes. "Nothing evil can touch the Book. You know that, Chris."
"She could still use something to fool Mom or someone into being her slave so they could steal it for her!"
"Oh, for pity's sake – if she could do that, I would've paid her money to do it to you to make you shut up!" Lyn snapped.
Chris growled but before he could snap back, a sudden blast of energy flew past them, skirting within inches of his face. A blue light appeared and suddenly balls of energy were flying everywhere.
"The hell?!" Wyatt yelled as he deflected some of them.
Chris instantly moved in front of Lyn to protect her only to receive a smack upside the head for his trouble. He growled again and hissed over his shoulder at her, "What the hell?!"
Lyn growled, "I don't need your – hey, look out!"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw an energy ball headed straight for him and as she shoved him aside, held out her hands as if to block the energy. Suddenly she felt her nerves, her blood, her bones all catch on fire. The heat exploded out of her hands, decimating the energy balls on contact and making a wall of flame around herself and the guys.
"Wow. That's pretty cool," Lyn said, blinking.
"Who the hell are you?" a voice snarled as an olive-skinned woman in black leather stepped forward. It was impossible to misunderstand that the energy balls were originating from her. There was something strange about it, though; now that Wyatt looked, he could see that they weren't made of demonic energy at all.
"You're a witch," he said disbelievingly.
"You are truly a genius," the woman said in a voice dripping with both sarcasm and venom. "But I wasn't talking to you. Who's the spare with the firepower?"
Upstairs, the Halliwell women had heard the commotion and went down except for Phoebe, who had stayed with the sleeping Reneey.
"What's going on?" Paige asked as a distraction while Piper entered the room from the other side and used her own power on the newcomer, who somehow managed to deflect it.
"… Okay," Piper said slowly.
"Who's the one who threw the fireballs?" the woman sneered, her eyes set on Lyn. "Who are you?"
"Just the friendly neighborhood pyro," Lyn said with a sickly sweet smile. "You know, I never tried burning a whole person before…"
Wyatt shot her a look. "You've burned part of a person before?"
Chris ignored them and growled at the woman, "Who are you? Are you with her?"
"I don't know who 'her' is, but I work alone… And I always get my mark." A feral sort of smirk twisted her lip and with a snap of her fingers, a tiny spark of energy flared by Chris's right arm, leaving a burn on the back of his hand shaped like a phoenix. "So consider yourself marked."
Chris growled. "What the hell did you do to me?"
"Marked? Girl, you better state your business!" Piper growled as she got ready to aim and fire.
The woman laughed. "Save your energy, old woman; you already saw that won't work on me. Just consider yourself lucky I wasn't expecting the little firestarter or you wouldn't even have had the chance."
As quickly as she had appeared, she was gone, like a shadow melting away in the air. The silence that followed was punctuated only by the crackling sound of the flames Lyn had summoned from nowhere.