Liv had managed to take Ryker's mind away from the shadow in the bathroom. While Ryker was busy fingering Liv, the shadow was in the kitchen, staring at Maddie as she prepared tea. It was like an empty space where light simply refused to exist.
A dropping sensation hit Maddie's gut. She turned. There was nothing. The scent of Earl Grey was still in the air. A flicker in the lights happened once.
Immediately, she froze all the shadows in the kitchen with a flash of bright, blue mana. Nothing happened. She must have imagined it. There was absolutely no way her sister would send that thing. She would never be so reckless.
Maddie was just seeing things.
Trying to grab the tea kettle with her still trembling hand, her fingers closed around the handle and she brought it close for a pour.
"I'd like some too if that's not too much trouble."
A feminine voice, smooth and slightly accented, spoke from directly behind her.
Maddie's composure shattered. She spun around, her hand clenching around the tea kettle's handle so tightly her knuckles turned white.
A young woman was sitting on her kitchen counter. She was wearing a maid outfit. Her hair, a cascade of pure silver, was tied back in a bun. Two wolf ears, one black, one white, twitched atop her head.
"Why?" the surgeon whispered, her breath catching in her throat.
"Apparently I'm his maid. Or babysitter. The terms were ambiguous," the woman replied, a bored, neutral expression on her face, "I'd do anything to get out of that hole."
She let out a sigh as she stretched her legs.
"She couldn't let you rest in peace?" Maddie asked, placing a cup of tea in front of the intruder. The girl hadn't physically threatened her yet, but the presence of this... thing was violation enough. A promise that she wasn't safe. That none of them was.
"Relax," the maid, removed her choker to reveal a black crescent moon tattoo on her neck, "I'm all bark," she winked.
"Why would she let you out now? Isabella's going to be there. I'm there. We can protect him from whatever boogeyman you're supposed to protect him from," Maddie argued.
The wolf searched for something in her pocket, clumsily pulling out a phone from her small pocket.
"Uhh how do I... uh," she tried to unlock it, but was struggling with the technology.
Maddie snatched the phone from her, unlocked it with a simple swipe, and handed it back.
The maid was staring at her phone, then at Maddie with wide-eyed amazement, "Magic."
Rolling her eyes, the surgeon took another sip.
"Here it is," the maid held the phone towards Maddie, a voice recording was playing.
Apparently Alya's little tantrum of wanting to join the Academy caused a chain reaction. Her call was intercepted by both the West and the East.
"Ryker Larduca, where have I heard that before," the maid giggled, "Oh he's the one making your daughter moan right now."
The wolf looked up at the ceiling as if she could hear them from the kitchen.
A bright red flush crept up Maddie's neck and bloomed across her cheeks. A professional surgeon, used to the controlled sterility of the operating room, she found herself utterly disarmed by her daughter's loud cries. It was a primal, visceral, and deeply maternal embarrassment.
"Sounds like he has a magical finger," the maid said.
"That's enough Fen," the surgeon snapped, her patience wearing thin.
"Is it?" Fenia's wolf ears swiveled, her head tilting. Another moan from upstairs, this one a ragged cry of Ryker's name.
"I think I'll go check if his room is clean," Fenia said, her mischievous glint intensifying.
Maddie grabbed the wolf's wrist before she could move. Her grip was surprisingly strong, laced with the unadulterated fury of a mother bear protecting her cubs.
"You will not," her voice dropped to a low, dangerous whisper, a flash of blue mana flickering at her fingertips, threatening to freeze the maid to the spot.
"Cute," Fenia simply looked at the fingers holding her. Then she shrugged.
"Anyways it seems that Ryker's name has been circulating more than a wench in a theater," Fenia turned back to her phone, tapping it with one long nail, "I've been sent to protect both him and this mermaid girl as per Valerica's instructions."
Maddie's mind spun, "Why the mermaid? She's just one of the thousands of grand children that monster Lorelei has."
Even the wolf shivered a little at the mention of that name. Then she turned to face Maddie. The playfulness was gone.
"As much as I'd love a rematch," her tail flickered in the air behind her, "This is simply politics. When the East finds out that a Kraken is going to marry a Dracula it's bound to be bloody."
She clapped her hand, "The umibozu's and jormungandr's and all the other primordial families are already salivating. The ocean turning West. What a wonderful thought," Fenia was clearly being sarcastic, but it was also a truth. The whole cold war would change into a hot one.
"But hey I get to leave my hole and see the world," A genuine smile. That was the true Fenia. A bird trapped in a cage and finally let out to fly.
"Speaking of holes, you don't mind if he uses mine instead of your daughter's right?" the wolf winked, and then a small yelp came from her.
Maddie had frozen Fenia's fingers that were on the marble with her ice magic.
Fenia quickly shook it off, the ice falling off like snow on a windshield.
"You Dracula's are all the same," Fenia's mood changed as she pulled out a deck of cards from nowhere, "Play a round of poker? Or maybe chess."
The world's coldest war and this shadow-wolf wanted to play a game.
Shaking her head, Maddie sat down, pouring more tea into her cup. The exhaustion was bone-deep, a weariness that had little to do with the late hour and everything to do with the unending parade of monsters in her life, both biological and emotional.
A few seconds later the cards were laid out in perfection on the marble table. Fenia had prepared a game.
"I should warn you, I'm an undefeated champion," Fenia said, her tail wagging.
"It's quiet easy being undefeated when you only play against yourself," Maddie's words cut through the wolf's bravado.
The shadow-wolf was about to make a witty comeback but stopped. She didn't want to push her any further. She didn't want to drive her friend away.