Charmed: Tangled Webs

A New Perspective

Disclaimer: Don't own them, so please don't sue. I am a college kid—so therefore I have no money.

I do own all of the OC's though.

It had taken me nearly three weeks to convince Lottie to go on an outing with me. Even then she only agreed if Ava came along. My guess was that my little sister still didn't trust me. Although to be honest; I quite enjoyed spending time with Ava. So I did not mind at all.

I tried to think about where to go from the last chapter, without giving anything away…and I found that continuing to write from Daemon's point of view just wasn't working. So for this chapter I'm writing from Lottie's point of view.

"He wants to what?" Ava said.

"Daemon wants us to go out in public…something like a movie." I said.

"And what part of you thinks that this is a good idea?" Ava wanted to know.

"The part of me that wants him to be telling the truth."

"He's the Source of All Evil, Lottie."

"He's half-Halliwell and we both know it." I returned.

"That doesn't mean that you should trust him."

"I can take care of myself."

"I know that you can." Ava took a deep breath. "It's just that when you trust someone…you tend to show them your back. I don't want Daemon to stick a knife in it."

"That's why you're coming with us." I said.

Ava shivered slightly. "You know that he makes my skin crawl. Can't you just take Taye?"

"Oh…I intend to take him too and Hong-Anh. But they're bodyguards…I need my friend…my sister." I held out my hand…showing her the long scar that traced down from the base of my middle finger to the base of my palm.

Ava sighed and held out her left hand, it had a matching scar. As we clasped hands she sighed. "Just don't leave us alone in a dark theatre…I don't trust him."

"Don't worry." I promised. "I have no intention of being alone with him in a dark room either."

Ava grinned slightly. "I guess that means the movies are out."

"I know that look." I said. "What's on your twisted little mind?"

"Just…what do we do with the Source of All Evil who wants a normal outing?"

"You have an idea." I guessed.

"Oh yeah."

"Uh-oh."

Uh-oh was right. We went bowling. That's right; we took the Source of All Evil bowling.

"You'd think that he'd never bowled before." Ava said, after explaining to Daemon for the fifth time that using one's powers to knock down the pins was technically cheating. It had taken us fifteen minuets to convince him that being the Source of All Evil was no excuse for not playing by the rules.

In spite of saying that Daemon made her uncomfortable, Ava was being remarkably patient with him, even allowing him to put his hand on her shoulder when she showed him the proper way the get that ball down the alley. I watched Daemon, watching Ava. He seemed to genuinely enjoy her company.

For her part, Ava wasn't throwing Daemon over her shoulder was a pretty good indication that while she didn't trust him, she probably didn't want his dead right away either.

"Your turn Lottie." Ava said.

"Indeed." Daemon nodded, moving to join us.

"Ok." I said, standing up to retrieve my ball. As I walked over to the lane I heard Ava make some excuse to go and talk to Taye and Hong-Anh. She really did want Daemon any closer to her then he absolutely had to be. "Oh well."

I threw the ball down the lane and while I didn't get a strike, I didn't get a gutter-ball either.

Daemon came up behind me…I felt the flair of magic and turned to look at him.

"Thanks for the thought," I said. "But helping me make this spare still counts as cheating."

"What makes you so sure that I was going to help you?" he grinned. "Perhaps I was going to make you miss."

"I doubt that you were." I smiled. "Because that would be little brotherly thing to do…and you're trying to act like an older brother."

"Fair enough." He said, holding up his hands.

Glancing over my shoulder I saw Ava in conference with Hong-Anh, I momentarily wondered what was on her mind, but figured that if it was important she would tell me.

"Lottie!" Ava yelled as the Shadow Demon shot an arrow into the leg of her shadow, trapping her. "Look out!"

I was knocked to the floor by Daemon as another arrow sailed over our heads. Looking over at Ava, I saw that the Shadow Demons had not settled for just trapping her leg. There was arrow in each of her arms, her other leg and in the heart of shadow. She was pinned to the spot that she had been standing on/

Taye's throwing knives appeared in his hands and Hong-Anh drew her gun.

"Somebody hit the lights!" Hong-Anh called. "All of them!"

Taye shimmered over to the light switches and turned them all on. Then he went and started pulling the arrows out of Ava's shadow.

Ava screamed as the arrow came out of her shadow. Looking over I saw that she was bleeding from where the arrows had been in her shadow. (Crap)

"Get off me!" I said, pushing Daemon off. Once he rolled off I orbed over to Ava. "Hold still." I told her.

Taye and Hong-Anh moved so that they were on either side of us, keeping their eyes on what few shadows remained in the bowling alley.

"We need to get out of here." Taye said.

"Where's Daemon?" I asked.

"Here." Daemon said, looking over I saw that his shadow had been shot in the leg.

"Can you get lose?" Hong-Anh asked him.

"Not with this arrow in my leg." Daemon said. "It weakens my powers."

"Lottie…" Taye's voice was strained.

My attention was instantly turned back to Ava. Holding my hand up I say the amount of blood she was losing. "Shit." I said. "Someone needs to get her back to the house—quickly, before she turns. Dad and Bane will know how to take care of her."

"You take her." Hong-Anh said. "Taye and I will be able to keep your brother safe."

I tried to orb…but there was a spell blocking it. I extended my senses. "Guys…we've got problems."

"What?"

"There's a spell surrounding this place and nullifies all good magic."

"So you can't orb her out of here?" Taye said.

"Right." I looked at him. "But you can."

"I'm supposed to protect you." Taye disagreed, although I could tell that he really wanted to help Ava.

"Well if she wakes up while her wounds are still open…you'll be protecting me from her."

"Go." Hong-Anh said, "But hurry back. I have a feeling that we're going to need your help."

Crouching down…Taye took Ava in his arms and shimmered out with her.

"Let's get Daemon." I said.

"All right." Hong-Anh nodded.

We quickly ran over. I pulled the arrow out of his shadow's leg.

"Give me your hand." Daemon said, as another volley of arrows flew across the room. Causing Hong-Anh to duck and fire.

"What?" I said, I had been watching the hole in his leg knit itself back together.

"Give me your hand." He reached his hand towards me.

Hesitating for a moment I grabbed his hand.

The power between us flared.

Daemon narrowed his eyes and a stream of fire shot from his hand, incinerating the nearest Shadow Demon. "I have never felt such strength…" he whispered, as another Shadow Demon died. "There is something missing."

(I almost didn't hear that.)

A third stream of fire took care of two more Shadow Demons. Hong-Anh's gun took care of the last one and left us all breathing hard in the middle of a group of panicked looking humans.

Taye shimmered in. "Looks like I missed the fun." He said, although the humor did not reach his eyes. "We need to get out of here. Ava's in real bad shape."

I was still holding Daemon's hand. Without thinking I orbed us both home. Taye shimmered in with Hong-Anh less then two seconds later.

Bane shoved Dad behind him and drew his gun the moment he saw that I had orbed in with a stranger.

"Crap." I said. "Uh…Daemon, don't take this the wrong way, but…"

"You didn't mean to bring me along." Daemon finished, climbing to his feet.

"This is Daemon?" Dad said.

"Yes." Daemon held out his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Dean. You must be Mr. Jessup." He nodded to Bane.

"I am." Bane's hand was still on his gun.

"What's wrong with Ava?"

"We don't know." Dad admitted. "Her wounds are still open, but she was thrashing around."

"We dosed her with sleep dust and bandaged her wounds…but she…well…you'd better come and see for yourself." Bane said.

I nodded and headed for the stairs. I turned around when I heard footsteps behind me. "I don't think that you should come Daemon."

"All right." Daemon nodded, stepping back down the stairs. "If it's all right with you Mr. Dean;" he turned towards Dad. "I'd like to stay for a while. Just until Ava's stable."

"Why would you want to do that?" Bane's eyes were suspicious. "She doesn't like you…in fact she doesn't even trust you."

"But I like her." Daemon shrugged. "And I'm worried about her."

"Come into the living room." Dad said. "But don't try anything funny."

I heard the three of them talking as I went upstairs to check on Ava.

Taye had not been kidding—Ava was in bad shape. Her skin was translucent and she was faintly glowing.

Dad and Bane had chained her to her bed—I didn't want to think what that must have done to them. Even unconscious Ava was struggling against the chains. She couldn't get free, the chains were inscribed with the rune Narthereiz, the rune of restraint. Nothing caught in the chains could get free; in theory. Suddenly I wasn't all that keen to test the theory.

"Ava…" I whispered, hesitantly approaching her. "Ava can you hear me?"

Ava stilled on the bed…turning her closed eyes towards me. Somehow there was nothing that she could have done to scare me more.

"Don't touch her." Daemon's voice came from the doorway. I couldn't tear my eyes away from Ava as he entered the room.

"It's like she's possessed." He said. "There's something inside her…but whatever it is-is both a part of her and not."

"That makes no sense." I managed to say.

He chuckled slightly. "It doesn't make any sense to me either. I just can't think of any other way to describe it."

I was crying. I didn't even realize it until Daemon pressed me to his chest. I felt the tremors that my sobs were causing then.

"This has never happened before…" I said. "At least not this bad."

"Has she been this badly hurt before?"

"Not in years." I answered. "Why is this happening to her?"

"She should be dead…the Shadow Demon's arrow was in the heart of her shadow. Pulling it out was like pulling an arrow out of her actual heart." Daemon whispered. "Whatever this is, it protected her."

"But what is it?"

"It's Demonic whatever it is. Go back downstairs." Daemon said, pushing me towards the door. "I'll try to help her."

"I'm not leaving you alone with her." I said.

Daemon chuckled, tapping me one my nose. "You still don't trust me?"

"It doesn't matter wiether I do or not." I said. "She doesn't and if she found out that I left the two of you alone. She'd never forgive me."

"Your human guard…Hong-Anh I think you said her name was." Daemon seemed to be deep in thought.

"What about her?"

"She doesn't trust me anymore then Ava does." He said. "If she perceives me to be hurting your friend she won't hesitate to pull that gun of hers. I want to talk to you about that gun…but later."

"All right." I agreed. "Let's go get her."

"You're really serious about not leaving us alone."

"Very." I said. "I'm trusting you to help her…that's more then I'm used to doing without having known someone for at least six months."

"As you wish." Daemon said, following me out the door.

And we have now reached the end of Chapter 5. What do people think of the perspective change?

As always reviews are appreciated.