Tangled Webs

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don't own charmed or anything associated with it. They belong to Constance M. Burge and the WB. The characters Ava, Daemon and Lottie are mine though.

Now that I had seen my little sister I wanted to talk to her friend.

I set the picture of Ava up in front of my fire bowl and lit the fire.

"Through the fire

"I summon thee.

"Through the fire

"Now come to me."

In a burst of flame Ava Jessup appeared in my living room.

"What the hell?" Ava said as materialized. (Actually the only part that I heard was "-ell?" But between the sound and her apprehensive/annoyed look on her face I could guess what she was saying.)

"Welcome." I said.

As she spun around I saw her combat training. "You're that guy from the battlefield." She said.

"Nice to see that you remember me."

"Well forgetting people who threaten to kill you can be pretty dangerous." Ava replied. "Especially when they happen to be demonic."

"What makes you so sure that I'm demonic?"

Ava gave me a you-have-got-to-be-kidding look. "You shimmered both you and Lottie off of the battlefield, your hand glowed when you were threatening to kill me and it wasn't good magic that brought me here." She ticked off the reasons on her hand. "So I'd say that it's a pretty safe bet that you're demonic."

"I see."

"Besides;" Ava shrugged. "Lottie told me what you said to her. And she believed you so I see no reason why I shouldn't."

"Did my sweet sister believe everything that I told her?" I asked.

"Almost everything." Ava said.

"Really?" I mused. "And what parts did Charlotte have a hard time believing?"

"Guess." She said.

"That I want a family? That I mean her no harm?" I smiled slightly.

"Bingo." Ava nodded. "Lottie's not stupid or careless."

"I wouldn't have expected her to survive if she was." I told Ava. "I do not underestimate my younger sister. No matter how well protected she is, Charlotte would not have survived this long without a healthy amount of both caution and common sense."

"Good." Ava replied shortly. "So why am I here?"

"Because I wanted to meet you." I reached out to brush a piece of hair out of Ava's eyes.

She knocked my hand away, but she also did tuck the piece of hair behind her ear. "Why did you want to meet me?"

"The daughter of an assassin…" I replied, slowly circling my guest, who I was pleased to see wasn't showing any fear by turning to watch me as I moved. "Who is also a witch. Who wouldn't want to meet you?"

"Very flattering." Ava finally turned and met my eyes. "So what do you want from me?"

"Other then the pleasure of your company?"

"Yes." Ava finally smiled, although it was a slight one. "I mean other then that."

"Why don't you sit down? I offered, changing her clothes from the t-shirt and jeans that she was wearing to a short cranberry red dress that I thought suited her quite well.

My guest hardly seemed fazed by the change in her clothes. "I generally don't wear heels this high." Was her only comment.

"Why is that?" I couldn't help asking.

"They do weird things to my balance." She answered. "Especially in carpeting this thick."

"Very well." I lowered her heel.

This had the delightful effect of throwing her off balance and causing her to fall forward into my arms. I refrained from holding on to her as she straightened up, muttering something about how the same thing probably would have happened if she had actually tried to walk in those heels.

"I'm glad that you didn't twist your ankle."

"So am I." She replied. "Those things take forever to heal up."

"I just didn't want your mind on pain while we were talking." I smiled when I saw her blush. "Won't you sit down?" I offered again.

"No more cheap stunts like that." She said.

"Very well." I agreed.

Once we were settled at the dinner table Ava was quiet. I saw the precise manner in which she folded her napkin before placing it on her lap. The crease was positively sharp.

"Is it tainted?" she asked me carefully.

"You really don't trust me do you?" I asked her.

"Not really." Ava looked me in the eyes again. "And I don't think that Lottie should trust you either."

"Why is that?"

"Because you're dangerous. No matter what you tell her you are the Source of All Evil given form.

"Now what is the real reason that you summoned me?"

"You're blunt…and sharp at the same time." I commented. "I didn't know that someone could be both."

"Answer the question."

"I see how close you are with my sister." I said. "You two don't like to be apart do you?"

Ava didn't answer me; she just waited for me to continue.

"I gathered that Charlotte's trust is for a large part conditional."

"What do you mean?" Ava's eyes narrowed. "What condition are you talking about?"

"For some reason gaining Charlotte's trust is dependant on gaining yours." I told her. "Which is strange, considering that I'm her older brother and you're merely her friend."

"Well she's known me for most of her life." Ava countered. "She just met you what…three weeks ago."

"The question now becomes…" I smiled. "What does it take to gain your trust?"

"You want to gain my trust Daemon?" Ava said. "You have to earn it. You can't wine and dine me."

"Neither one of us is old enough to drink. You know that." I couldn't help smiling at the anger building in her body language.

"Whatever." Ava stood up. "Look just give me my clothes back and send me home."

After a silent moment she winced. "I really should have phrased that differently."

"Why?"

"That sounded so wrong."

"Not to me."

She looked as though she was about ready to hit me. "You know what I meant."

"Sorry…" I quickly stood up to stop her from leaving. "Look I'm not used to trying to earn someone's trust before. I've never had a body of my own before. Every host body that I've had before has had trust built in to it and anyone else I could just intimidate into doing what I wanted. But you aren't afraid of me and you are the one closest to the one person that I want to get closer to."

"If this is a line I'm not biting."

"It's not a line." I rolled my eyes. "It's the truth. I want to get to know my little sister and you're her closest friend.

"Look." I changed her clothes back. "Can we just start over? I really want this to work."

Taking a deep breath I could see Ava collecting her self-control. "Fine. But if you try anything else involving my clothes I am going to smack you while holding a knife."

"Fair enough." I nodded, remembering that she was the daughter of an assassin. "Please…sit down."

Sitting carefully, as if she were expecting the couch to come alive and trap her (Which it actually could have done.) Ava carefully looked at me.

"Thank you."

"I'm going to regret this." She muttered.

"Oh I don't know." I couldn't help saying. "It could be fun."

This place seemed to be screaming, "Pause here! Pause here! Dramatic effect!"

Thank you to my reviewers.