The wards surrounding her home and shop lit up her bedroom in bright blue, flashing and ringing to wake her. "Oh, for- it's not a trespasser if it's blue, why do they still make noise?" Irene groaned, sitting up and waving a hand. The wards quieted down as she stood up, ruffling a sleepy Lee's hair. 

The witch walked into the kitchen and undid the chain on her door as she heard the footsteps coming up the stairs. "You could have called," she said through the door. She never knew who it was - only her mother had a charm that let her mother pass through the wards undetected. 

"It was kind of a rush order, wasn't it?" The voice made her smile brightly and she threw open the door, laughing as she was rushed and picked up in a giant hug. "Ohh, you are still so little!"

"I'll show you little," Irene giggled, hugging her older sister tightly once she'd been put down. Her older sister, tall as their mother with the same warm, olive complexion, long wavy hair, and their father's brown eyes, smiled back at her as she pulled her long, warm coat off and hung it on a hook on the wall.

"What, you'll turn me into a newt?" Elise teased, sitting down at the table with her. "I'm sorry that I only seem to come home when there's bad news."

"Don't worry too much about it." Irene put on a pot of coffee and sat down with her sister. "Where's Christopher?"

Elise winced and leaned back in her chair. "He's meeting with Alexia and the Council to smooth things over."

Irene raised an eyebrow questioningly, but Elise just pursed her lips in stony silence.

The coffee pot broke the silence a few minutes later with its insistent beep, beep, beep, before it silenced. Neither woman stood.

Lee stepped out of the bedroom, yawning and stretching her arms over her head. "Mm, for someone who sells so much tea, you sure drink a lot of-" The werewolf paused mid-tease as she looked at Elise and Irene, who turned to look at her. "... I'll go put on more than my sports bra and shorts," she shrugged, stepping back into the bedroom.

"She's pretty." Elise looked at Irene curiously.

"She's incredible." Irene couldn't stop a warm smile as she watched Lee come back out into the kitchen to acquire her own mug of joe. The werewolf kissed the top of Irene's head before offering her hand to Elise.

"Name's Lee Mallory, nice to meet you, ma'am."

Elise took her hand and shook it. "A pleasure, Lee. I'm Elise Lucas-Brooks."

"Oh! You're her sister." Lee smiled at her. "Anything in your coffee?"

"Blood, A+," Elise joked, leaning back. Lee looked mildly startled and Elise tilted her head in concern. "Did the joke feel wrong?"

"That's, uh- That's my blood type." Lee relaxed a little when Elise started snorting with laughter.

"Sorry if I freaked you out then. Just milk for me." Elise grinned; despite her fangs being on full display with the smile, it didn't detract from the mirth on her face.

Coffee was quickly served and the three sat together at the table, with Irene still gently prying at whatever it was that was upsetting Elise about Christopher's meeting. Elise, however, was very good at not-quite-answering. The vampire easily danced across the questions, diverting the conversation to how Lee had entered Irene's life: "How did my baby sister start dating a werewolf?"

"I broke down her front door," Lee said simply, finishing her coffee and standing up to get another cup. She scooped up Elise's to refill it; Irene was still nursing hers slowly. She really was more of a tea person at heart, but the gods knew she needed the caffeine today. 

"I've heard worse ways of wooing people," Elise laughed, taking the mug gratefully. But she sombered after a moment, "Aunt Zoe had something to do with it, Mom said."

Irene sighed with a nod. "She turned to necromancy, made herself into a lich. She was using the family tendency toward blood magic to control a near-army of werewolves. Lee broke free long enough to escape Elias's house where she was being held for examination. After that, she's just... stayed here ever since." The witch smiled at her werewolf, who was blushing but clearly happy.

"You two are so sweet. I'm glad you've got someone watching out for you, both of you." Elise smiled, almost tearing up. "Sorry, something in my eye."

Irene put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "You can avoid the subject all you want, Ellie, but you have to tell me what's going on. It's bad enough that Mother insists on keeping me out of the loop. I know Father's going to be in huge amounts of trouble for whatever happened between him and Edmund years ago. I want to know I'm not going to lose you and Christopher, too." 

Elise bit her lip and rubbed her thumbs on her coffee cup for a moment, staring at her dim reflection in the brownish liquid inside - contrary to most beliefs, vampires could see their reflections. "There's..." She took a deep breath and sat up straighter. "Christopher manages funds for a variety of nonhuman clients. You know that." Irene nodded. Lee leaned in, listening intently - she'd always been curious as to how people managed their lives when they lived so long. 

"One of the clients stopped checking in around the same time you reported that Aunt Zoe was finally, actually dead. Christopher started doing some digging, a little bit of prying here and there, some research. It..." Elise winced. "It isn't good. The funds stored in that account were drained within a few hours of you burning down the farm and he can't track where they were placed instead. His boss is furious with him, thinks he and his questions as to who actually owned the account scared off the client. He's technically suspended without pay, right now."

Irene grimaced too and rested her arms on the table. "I'm guessing that the financial district is being a pain right now."

"One of the biggest accounts closing suddenly, with no warning, is enough to cause alarm. The fact Christopher's the black sheep of the family isn't helping. That's why he insisted on coming home - so we can... So he can sort it out," she corrected herself. "The trail went cold. If anyone knows what to do next, it's Alexia."

"What did you mean "we," Elise?" Lee asked, a pinch reluctantly.

Elise bit her lip harder and tapped her fingers against her cup, that stony expression returning to her face.

Irene turned to face her sister, leaning toward her. "Ellie-"

"I can't talk about it. Not until Christopher's done talking to the big wigs." Tears leaked out of her eyes and she rubbed at them furiously. "All I can tell you is that I started getting weird letters, notes addressed to someone that I'm not anymore."

Irene stared at her for a moment before it clicked and she almost hissed, gritting her teeth and rubbing her face. "Zoe."

"Yeah. Christopher's taking them all to the meeting. " She looked out the windows - Irene had patched them up before her nap - and sighed. "I never liked her. Even before."

"I'm not sure anyone in the family really did." Irene got up and hugged her sister tight; Elise turned in her seat to hug her back. "You're my sister and I love you, Ellie. And if anyone's threatened you and Christopher, I'm coming for their heads."

"I wish you didn't have to." Ellie buried her face in her sister's shoulder. Lee got up after a moment to give the sisters a moment of privacy, but Irene gestured for her to come over and join the hug - she knew her sister, and her sister wanted to feel supported. Lee hugged the two close after kneeling next to Elise's chair. 

Elise left after that, her phone ringing and pinging with text after text from Alexia and Christopher and her parents when they realized Christopher had brought her home - Christopher's two texts saying "oh god i'm sorry forgive me, i tried not to blab that you're home." Irene locked the door after she stepped out and she turned to look at Lee, biting her lip.

"I have no idea how to bust into a financial server, I'm a tea seller, not a hacker," Irene said after a moment, shrugging.

"Leave that to the Brooks. Right now, our job is figuring out what your sister did to get involved." Lee pulled her close, hugging her warmly and resting her head on hers. "She's terrified. Like a cornered deer. If she's pushed too much harder, she's going to lash out on someone."

"I know." Irene was quiet for a few minutes. "I know who we need to talk to but I need to set up the meeting. We should be able to catch up to her tonight, she's swinging through at the bar."

"Who is she?" Lee leaned back a bit, still holding Irene affectionately.

"An acquaintance of Ellie's. I've never met her personally; she's a werewolf, travels around the country on her own." Irene shrugged. "Ellie gave me her number as a means to get in touch with her if the normal number didn't work. Her name's Kris." Irene reluctantly slid out of Lee's grasp and grabbed her phone, typing in the text slowly - she had a hard time with the buttons, always had - and hit 'send' before turning to Lee. "What do you want to do while we wait?"

"Could order food-"

A ping interrupted her and Irene looked down at her phone. The text on the screen read, Already at the bar. Observing. Be here by nine. We need to talk anyway.  Irene frowned and texted again, asking who she was watching. The following response made her skin rise in goosebumps, A dead man. Edmund.

Lee sucked in a breath when she read the text. "Fuck."

"He's here. He's in Wodenton. We could-" Irene stopped, shaking her head; without proper preparation, she knew she couldn't handle a lich - or whatever Edmund had turned himself into. With Zoe, that had been a combination of Zoe's own frail and failing power. Edmund was an unknown, a variable teetering on the edge of chaos. "We have to do something."

"We meet with Kris. We plan." Lee wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "Besides, if he does something, I'm pretty sure he'll be very surprised to find that his arms are easily detached from his body."

"I'd rather not go that far. We need him alive, at least at first." Irene shivered.

"We know what he's capable of. I'm sure the Council won't mind if I do their dirty work." Lee kissed her head. "Come on, let's eat dinner, then we'll meet this Kris girl."

Irene smiled up at her and nodded - but she couldn't shake the feeling that a large, ominous cloud was forming over Wodenton.