Irene and Lee walked across the dry grass, glancing around the abandoned farm with apprehension weighing their stomachs into the ground. Deep scratches in the dirt, claw marks, tore holes through Lee's nerves and she had to resist wrapping an arm around Irene - and she wasn't sure if it was to comfort the witch or herself. She knew this place.

She just didn't remember how.

"Lee, you okay?" Irene's voice snapped her back into the present and she looked down at the witch. "You're growling."

"This is a bad, bad place, Irene," Lee winced, rubbing her neck as they stopped in front of the big farm house.

"I can feel whatever she's been doing here. The air feels dead, sickly-" Irene was looking around as she spoke and froze when she glanced to the side, eyes widening as she gasped. "Lee, that's-!"

Lee turned, tensing up when she spotted what had grown next to the farm over the years. "A family plot. Look at all those upturned graves."

"This is worsening by the second," Irene said with a grimace, shaking her head and heading up the short steps onto the porch. The house was massive - three stories high, most windows were broken or covered in plywood. An old, ragged "condemned" notice fluttered a little on the door as Irene pushed it open, wand pointed forward as she scanned the foyer. The decaying wood floor groaned underfoot as the two made their way inside. Lee took up the rear as Irene peered around corners. The sick feeling in the air grew stronger as they neared the rear of the house.

Through a door barely holding onto its hinges, a form stood at the stove of a completely trashed kitchen, several melted and mangled pots full of unknown substances that filled the air with a foul miasma. Irene didn't see the woman turn, she simply blinked and Zoe was facing her. Still her entire face and body were obscured by the painful illusion, making it almost impossible to look directly at her.

"Irene, it's so good to see you in person after all these years." The witch's ears ached at the sound of her voice, layered with excessive noise. "I haven't seen you and your brother in so long-"

"Sister." Irene's hand clenched tighter around her wand. "She's my sister, Aunt Zoe, and you know that."

"Oh. Right." Her tone managed to be dismissive under the flattening pitch of her voice. "Because that little bloodsucker messed with his head." Zoe raised a hand, a strange green static dancing between her fingers. Again, if you blinked, you wouldn't see the motion of her arm. "It's such a shame you're standing in my way, sweetheart. You always were my favorite... even if you did have that wild phase," the sneer in her voice was palpable and Irene gritted her teeth.

Before she could retort, Lee snarled and jumped forward, slamming Zoe into the stove. Lee's ears bled as the older witch screamed, a shrill high note higher than Irene could comprehend, as potions scalded her back and face. Lee's hands were burned, too, but she barely noticed, too angry to feel the pain even as she became moderately deafened by the shrieking.

Furious and wild howls erupted from beneath their feet. Irene's skin rose in goosebumps as she realized just how many werewolves were trapped below.

Lee shrieked in sudden and abject agony and rolled away from Zoe, hands tucked against her chest as she cradled a rib that had been kicked so hard it cracked. Zoe stood, brushing herself off and panting hard. "I'm giving you an out now, Irene." She turned, staring at Irene as the younger witch extended her wand into its staff form. "Relinquish control of Sage and I'll kill you quickly. You're family. I don't want to hurt you more than I already have."

"And when I say no?" Irene spat.

"My toys get to eat you alive." The twisted grin in Zoe's voice froze her heart in her chest.

Irene hoped to whatever gods still listened that she would have the strength to keep herself and Lee safe.

A shout from Zoe wound up the werewolves beneath the floorboards, claws digging at the basement's low ceiling. Lee growled and pushed herself back til she was in a crouch on the floor, clenching her broken rib in a hand even as she started changing shape. From behind her, a skinny form jumped on her, interrupting her and tackling her to the floor. The man from the cabin-!

"Get off of her!" Irene moved to cast a spell to blast him away, but a burst of magic slammed into her instead, crashing her through a wall. "Ugh-!"

Zoe stepped through the hole in the wall, cracking her neck in a few swift and unnerving motions and staring down at Irene. "There are so many things I could have taught you if you'd just let me in, sweetie."

Irene gritted her teeth and grabbed her staff, pushing up onto her feet and staggering back as Zoe lunged at her. The witch slammed the end of her staff into Zoe's gut, knocking the breath out of her. "I won't let you hurt them again!" She gasped in pain when Zoe grabbed a handful of her curly hair but slammed forward with her shoulder, catching her under her sternum and shoving her back against the wall. Every grapple dug nails into skin, every shriek of fury was met by grunts, and soon the sound of wood tearing apart in the kitchen caught their attention as the werewolves downstairs started to break out of their confined space. Zoe started laughing and tightened her grip around Irene's neck, keeping her in the choke-hold she'd pulled her into as she pushed her toward the kitchen.

"Come on, let's stop beating around the bush!" Zoe grinned, shoving Irene into the room. Irene caught herself on the battered table and stared in fright at the werewolves trying to claw themselves out of the floor, claws digging in for purchase on the slick floor.

On the other side of the room, a fully changed Lee turned away from the now lifeless shape that had been the red-headed man, blood staining the fur around her mouth as she snarled. Zoe's demeanor immediately changed. "Sage, don't talk like that! You know better!" Lee snarled and leaped over the table, scaring Zoe into running out of the kitchen. 

"Lee, go after her! I'll hold the werewolves off!" Irene slammed her staff against the floor, a bright wave of red washing across the torn floorboards. "Go!"

The werewolf hesitated, letting out a faint whine, but took off after Zoe without another complaint. Irene held her ground holding the net in place, wincing as she held the staff tighter and tighter in her hands to keep her grip. She knew how this would end, even knowing that Lee wanted to bring Zoe in alive. If she could just hold these werewolves back long enough...

Lee slammed through the broken front door, scanning the yard and spotting Zoe's strange form running through the graveyard. Her eyes widened and she roared angrily, running after her and closing the distance in seconds. Even as Zoe brought her hands up to release the spell she was preparing, Lee's heavy front paws slammed down on her back, bringing her down hard to bear on a gravestone. Her head slammed against the stone, a sick crunch, and Zoe lay completely still. The fire spell she'd prepared blasted off at the side of the farm house, hitting one of the upper floors. Lee backed off after a moment, sniffing around the woman's body and wincing, glancing back at the farm house when the howling ceased.

Weak coughing under her made her look back down and Lee pressed a paw down on Zoe's back. The woman laughed weakly, face buried in the dirt. "You caught me, Sage..." Her voice was weak and raspy as the illusions hiding her died, and Lee nearly reeled back at the sight of her - old, decrepit, nearly a zombie in her own right with a face so sunken in, the skull could be clearly seen. "End it then. You always were the best of my toys."

Lee growled and pushed the paw down harder.

"The Council won't end me. They'll lock me up. I'll escape again, and again, like I always do." Her laugh intensified but she still didn't move. Had her neck snapped? Shouldn't she be dead? "My love will bring me back again and I'll be back for you, good little puppy..."

Irene walked out of the house, glancing behind her at the confused werewolves that had changed back to their human shapes now that the magic had let go. The witch shook her head and gestured to them to start getting the hell out before seeing Lee in the graveyard.

"It's all for naught, stopping me now. We're so close now..." Zoe coughed again, harder. What little hair she had was barely clinging to her skull. Lee had never seen anything like it - no wonder she'd wanted to hide the way she looked.

Irene stopped a few feet away, staring at what had become of her aunt. Lee looked up at Irene and whined softly, glancing back down at Zoe before looking up at her again. "She's not what I'd call the best of liches, Lee. But her phylactery's probably around here somewhere." Irene took a deep breath and held it, really not wanting to say it out loud, "I'll have to destroy this entire farm to make sure it's gone."

Zoe livened up immediately at that, thrashing under Lee's weight. "No!! You can't!! I can't come back if you destroy it! Please!"

"I will and there's nothing you can do to stop me," Irene said bitterly, turning away. She shouted to the fleeing werewolves, telling them to look for the cabin about a mile to the north. Once they were out of range of the spell she wanted to cast, she stepped into the rough center of the property. Lee joined her, having toppled a gravestone to lay across Zoe to keep her pinned in place - even if she recovered, in her current state she wouldn't be able to push it off. The white-furred werewolf nuzzled against Irene's elbow, looking distinctly downcast, and Irene stroked her head, kissing her between her eyes. "It's almost over."

Irene raised her hands and staff over her head. With each whispered word of magic that left her lips, the rubies on her staff glowed brighter. The fire consuming the soggy farm house had begun to die, unable to eat the damp wood it was built from, but with some mystical coaxing, it grew and grew. The flames spread quickly, leaving a wide berth around the witch and the werewolf as the witch continued controlling the blaze, and Lee watched in slight horror as the flames reached the graveyard. But the former witch made no sound - Zoe stayed silent, even as the flames turned her corporeal form to ash.

Irene's arms dropped to her sides when she finished the spell, leaning on Lee with exhaustion as she watched the flames consume the ancient farm. "I should've known she'd come back home," she said weakly. "This was her husband's farm." Lee let out a little whine and nuzzled against her. From the house, something audibly exploded with a delicate tinkling of glass and Irene straightened up, seeing horrific trails of magic burst out of the flames, tendrils black as pitch seeking something, anything to cling to... before fading away, disappearing like so much smoke in the sky.

At the same time, Lee started growling and buried her head under her paws, her body changing back to her human shape as she groaned and hissed in pain. "M-my head-!" Similar groans and shrieks of surprised pain came from the forest around them and Irene dropped to her knees, hugging Lee tight after wrapping her own jacket around her.

"It's okay! Just breathe, that's the last of her magic letting go, just breathe-" Irene kissed her cheek, hugging her tighter and rocking her gently as she watched the fire take the house she'd spent so much of her childhood in.