The air was hot and sticky one moment then much too cold the next. Elise pulled the covers around herself and shook uncontrollably, a deep scowl on her face. She had clearly told Carmen that that magic salve would give her the shakes, and here she was, with the shakes. Sighing, she stared up at the ceiling of Carmen's room and counted the seconds that ticked by to try to clear her mind. It was a stupid, pointless thing to do, but she did it all the same.
Elise wasn't entirely sure how long she'd been in Carmen's care but she was getting restless. Her leg began to itch not long after she woke but she couldn't scratch it, and not because she didn't want to. Carmen had caught Elise scratching her wound and inadvertently reopening it, so Carmen forced Elise to wear a special pair of gloves that couldn't be taken off by the wearer. She also made Elise wear extra bandages on her leg just in case. It made Elise feel like a child, a destructive one at that, but she did admit to herself that she was a terrible patient.
Elise rubbed her foot over her wound since that was the best she could do but it just wasn't satisfactory. She chewed on her gloves with sharpened teeth, which she had done numerous times when she was alone, but, like before, the gloves remained intact. It was more than frustrating.
Elise growled and turned on to her side, trying to forget the itch. Someone was coming and she couldn't be caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be. She angrily eyed the doorway to the room and waited.
"Hey," Ivy said, making her way into the room, her hands full. "You're awake."
Elise growled some more and narrowed her eyes. "I'm itchy."
"Good. That means you're healing." Ivy set down a bowl of ice cream on the nightstand next to the bed, then cocked a hip, not cowed by Elise's baby anger. "Hungry?"
Elise shot up and grabbed the bowl, her itch, and irritation, pushed aside for the moment. She licked her lips. "Finally come to your senses and realize that ice cream is the perfect breakfast?"
Ivy chuckled and dragged a chair to Elise's bedside. "No. But you deserve a treat." She sat down and idly watched Elise inhale the cold treat. She smiled and crossed her legs at the knee.
Elise left an empty bowl within a minute, her hunger ravenous. She was still hungry, but the ice cream was a good start. She placed the bowl back on the nightstand then lied back down and rubbed her belly. Her relative contentment was evident in the way she exhaled, and the way her eyelids fluttered.
The two women remained in comfortable silence for a long while, and Elise's thoughts went nowhere while Ivy wondered if Elise really was okay. Sure, Elise's body was healing, but what about her mind? Elise was forced back into a world where she had almost died once a long time ago, only to come to that point again. Now she had three scars, two of them Ivy's fault. Ivy tried not to show how guilty she was feeling as she inspected Elise's ear. The tear was stitched up but the ear was forever misshapen. The top of Elise's ear now came to a point and Carmen had said that there was nothing that could be done about it, not unless Elise wanted to put herself through surgery or surgical magic.
As her belly settled and her thoughts came back, Elise slid her eyes to Ivy and wondered what the woman was thinking so intently about. "Have you checked up on Judah yet?"
Ivy perked up, shook herself mentally, and forced a smile. "What? Oh. No, not yet. I've been staying here to make sure that you'd be okay."
"Wait... how long have I been here?"
"Almost three days."
"Three days!" Elise sat up and flung her blanket away. She had been in and out of it, but three days? How could she allow time to slip by so easily? She berated herself for not being on the ball. "What if Judah burned down the house? That man doesn't have much brains, Ivy."
Ivy pushed at Elise's chest, trying to get Elise to lie back down. "Relax, relax."
"Relax? Judah was staring directly at the sun the last time I remember. What if he gets curious above the stove this time and burns down the house? What if he wanders outside?"
Ivy didn't want to admit it, but Elise's questions were starting to get her to worry too. Judah wasn't the most capable person now. "Okay, okay. I'll go check on him and make sure we still have a home. Will that make you feel better?"
"I can't let you go through the Hub alone. You're human!" Irritation seeped back into her and Elise wanted to scratch her leg more than ever. "And very nice Pre bait..." she added under her breath.
"Say again?"
Elise waved her hand. "Nothing, nothing." She turned to get out of bed and as soon as she her feet touched the floor, the itching sensation became too much. She clawed at her leg with her gloved hands and only become more frustrated. The specialty gloves felt like clouds rubbing against her wound and there was zero satisfaction, especially thanks to the extra bandages. "These damned gloves!"
Carmen came into the room just as Elise yelled and she rolled her eyes at the scene. She muttered under her breath and came to stand beside Elise, flicking the wolf directly in the middle of the forehead. "Calm down. This is exactly why I put the gloves on you in the first place."
"Take these off, Carmen!" Elise scrunched her nose as another flick came. "Estoy en dolor!"
"Pain?" Carmen's eyes slittled suspiciously. "Does it really hurt?"
"Well, no," Elise admitted sheepishly. She was emotional, but not too much as to get away with stretching the truth to Carmen. "It just itches really badly. Please take these off?" She held up her hands and whimpered.
"No." Carmen smirked when Elise wailed pathetically. "Stop. Lay down. I'm going to check your leg and maybe even scratch it for you."
"Really?" Elise grinned and snuggled back into bed, tossing her leg out for Carmen to check.
Carmen shot a glance at Ivy and they both shared a look- Can you believe her? Chuckling, Carmen started to remove the bandages from Elise's leg. Elise was the cutest little wolf without meaning to be.
"Hey, Carmen," Elise said, shaking her leg a little. "Can you send someone home with Ivy? She, uh, needs to check on something. I don't want her to go through the Hub alone."
Carmen hummed, rolling the bandages into a bundle as she removed them from Elise's leg. "Sure. But I think she'll be fine on her own."
"There's no harm in being cautious."
"Says the woman with a tear in her leg." Carmen fully removed the bandages and held back a gasp at what she found. Elise's leg was discolored and clearly infected. The magic salve didn't take, or Elise had scratched it out before the gloves were put on. Carmen moved to hide Elise's leg from Ivy's eyes. "How bad does it itch?"
"Really bad. Really, really bad. Can you scratch it?"
Carmen poked her finger around the wound cautiously, and pus leaked out without much prodding, and continued to leak when Carmen pulled her finger away. Elise threw her head back into the pillows behind her and sighed in relief and said a quiet thank you. Carmen wiped the pus away with the old bandages then covered Elise's leg with the blanket. "And it doesn't hurt?"
Elise shook her head. "Nope."
"Good, good..." Carmen stood and motioned for Ivy to follow her out. "Come on. I'll send you with a friend." When her and Ivy were out of the room and back into the shop, Carmen turned on Ivy and got to the point. She didn't play around when it came to the safety of friends. "Elise's leg is infected. It could spread if it's not treated immediately."
Ivy wasn't sure if Carmen was telling the truth. Usually when someone gave bad news, they eased into it. "Are you serious?"
"Very. I have most of what I need to treat it but I'm missing one thing."
"What about that white stuff you put on her leg? You said it would clean it out. You said there'd be no infection. You said she'd be okay!"
Carmen almost brought a hand to Ivy, but she stopped herself. She didn't want to deal with Elise getting upset over a slap. "I know what I said. I also said I didn't know what caused the injury. Look, I'll take the blame for this, I know it's my fault, but I'm trying to fix it. Are you going to help me or are you going to keep yelling at me?"
Ivy crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine. What do you need?"
"I'm going to give my friend directions to the shop and he'll take you to-"
"Carmen!" Elise's unexpected scream was so loud it shook the lighter items on the shop shelves.
Carmen shook her head and sighed. "Sounds like she knows she's infected, too."
Elise screamed again and Ivy twitched. "Okay. Send me with your friend, whatever, let's just do this quickly."
Carmen nodded then went to her store front and opened the door. She stuck two fingers into her mouth and whistled shrilly continuously for a few seconds. When the sound ended a man ran into the store and looked to Carmen expectedly. She spoke to him in spanish and he nodded along with her words, taking everything in. He turned to Ivy when Carmen was done speaking and smiled. It was innocent and sweet and Ivy found herself feeling a bit safer that she would go through the Hub with this mystery man.
"All right. Get going," Carmen said, shooing the man and Ivy out of the store. "Elise doesn't have all day."
Ivy stopped just short of leaving. "I hope you're joking."
"I hope I am too."
In Carmen's room, Elise was staring at her infected leg, her eyes wide. It was bad enough that she had to endure the shakes of the magic salve Carmen had given her, but the salve didn't even work in the end! Why hadn't it? Elise tried to reach a solution and the only things she could think of were that the thing that had bitten her was poisonous or that she had ruined the salves healing process by scratching her wound. Elise grumbled and pretended that it wasn't her fault, it was all on the creature that had bitten her. That train of thought made her feel a little better.
She shouted for Carmen again, and even tried shouting for Ivy, but neither woman showed up in a timely manner. What kind of nurses were they?
Sighing, Elise tried not to focus on her ugly leg. Instead she touched her left ear, remembering how it had been torn, and assessed the damage. Immediately she frowned- her ear felt misshapen. Carmen had obviously stitched the tear but perhaps she had stitched it wrong? Elise rummaged around the bedside table drawers, looking for something reflective so she could see her ear. Eventually she found a compact mirror and angled it so that she could get good look at her ear. As soon as she saw it, she forgot all about her infected leg.
"I look like an elf!" she shrieked, softly touching the tip of her ear. If Carmen couldn't get it to look normal, then Elise figured that reconstruction required surgery of some sort. She didn't want to have surgery, not even surgical magic. It was a hassle and costed lots of money. Elise sighed and put the compact back where she found it. She'd need more than a tattoo to hide her new souvenir from the home of flesh roses.
Elise's skin prickled.
The flesh rose.
Where had Ivy put it? Elise didn't remember what happened to it when they came back into the Hub. It would be devastating if they went through all that trouble and didn't even succeed in their mission. Elise hoped that Ivy had the obsidian container and was taking it home. She also hoped that Ivy didn't come home to ash remains and find Judah in the middle of it all, too dumb to even explain how things got destroyed. That would be much worse than Rayna's wrath over not having a flesh rose.
Elise sat up against the headboard and pondered once more why Rayna would want such an abomination in the first place. It was an item that had very few uses, especially for a witch. Flesh roses were wanted by carnivores, for the obvious reason, but witches? No. There were few rituals that required preserved human flesh and even when it was required it could always be substituted with an animal carcass. Elise hummed to herself, then was brought out of her thoughts as Carmen entered the room.
"You rang?" Carmen said, smiling.
Elise wanted to ask Carmen about her affiliation with Rayna, but there was something more pressing to attend to. Elise huffed and pushed the blankets off her body dramatically. "Yes, I did ring, many times. Look at my leg!"
"It's infected."
"Which you knew and then left me to find out on my own."
"Yes. I didn't want you to panic."
Elise flung her arms in the air. "I'm panicking!"
"And I wish you wouldn't. I sent Ivy to get a last ingredient I need to help you."
Letting her arms fall, Elise frowned. "On her own?"
"No. I sent my cousin with her."
"Which one?"
"Enrique."
Elise calmed. Enrique was an extraordinarily kind young man. Ivy and Enrique were sure to get the ingredient that Carmen needed to heal Elise's leg properly. Elise tried not to look at her leg as she forgot about the infection and tried to think of a way to tactfully bring up Rayna and her dealings. No matter what way she brought it up, she was relatively certain that Carmen would tell the truth. They had history and that had to count for something. Elise hoped that was the case with Carmen, since it sure as hell wasn't for Rayna.
"Hey, Carmen?"
Carmen hummed and lifted her eyes just barely, to let Elise know that she was listening. She had taken Ivy's chair and was gently inspecting Elise's leg. Elise's leg twitched of its own accord when Carmen poked a particularly sensitive area, but Elise didn't even notice. Carmen mumbled an apology in her native tongue and continued on. Elise watched Carmen work for a bit longer, then she sighed inwardly and came right out with it.
"I know you and Rayna are doing something together."
Carmen stabbed the edge of Elise's wound roughly, but Elise didn't react. Not a good sign. Carmen sat back in her chair and raised an eyebrow. "Say again?"
Elise's brows drew together. She hated when Carmen did that, skirting the issue, pretending not to fully understand. But she repeated herself anyway. "I know you and Rayna are doing something together. She told me just as much."
"Did she?" Carmen did it again, in that sly patronizing way. "Go on, that sounds like some story."
"Just be straight with me, please," Elise managed to get out. "I almost died because of whatever you and Rayna are planning. Maybe I am dying."
Carmen's face darkened. "What did Rayna have you do?"
"She sent me after a flesh rose."
Elise jumped as Carmen shot out of her chair. "She did what!" Carmen was fuming, cursing in spanish and saying some very interesting things. Elise only caught a portion of it, as Carmen shut her mouth and chewed on her inner cheek. "Tonta!"
Elise frowned at Carmen's insult. "What did I do?"
"Not you." Carmen waved her hand dismissively and sat back down in her chair, though her body looked like it ached to move. She sighed and calmed herself. "I can't believe she did that. You could have been killed."
"Finally," Elise groaned, "someone cares about my welfare."
"Shut up. You were stupid for going."
Elise lowered her head and whimpered. "Sorry." She brought her gaze up to Carmen. "Why do you guys need a flesh rose anyway?"
Carmen's jaw twitched. "Doesn't matter. I'm glad you're safe." She got up and started to walk out of the room.
"Wait!" Elise brought herself to the edge of the bed, but when her hurt leg touched the ground, she couldn't feel it. The unfamiliar nothing had her fearful, but she wanted to talk to Carmen. "Tell me what's going on," she implored. Luckily, Carmen stopped retreating, but she didn't turn around to face Elise. "Everything is wrong. You and Rayna suddenly knowing each other, you two bringing back Ivy's brother, suddenly I have to keep Ivy safe while she fetches things for you. What are you two planning? What are you doing to Judah? What could you possibly want with a human and a dead man? What do you want with me?"
Carmen was silent for a long time. "Just worry about yourself," she eventually said, adding, "Mi lobo," in a tender voice, trying to appeal to Elise's sensitive nature. "What witches do in their spare time is of no concern to you."
Elise wasn't tricked by Carmen's play. "It is when I'm being used as a pawn!" But she was shouting at an empty doorway. She silently fumed to herself, angry at Carmen, angry at Rayna, angry at anyone who could possibly be involved despite not knowing who they were. She was angry that her leg was numb and her ear was forever ugly. She was angry at Ivy for bringing her into this messed up situation, for adding to her array of scars and bad memories and pain. She was angry at Judah for dying and being the catalyst for everything wrong in her life.
Trying to keep herself together, Elise sniffled and bit her bottom lip. She knew she was wrong for being mad at Judah, the boy didn't ask to be sick and die. She knew shouldn't be mad at Ivy either, the poor woman was only grieving. But she sure could be mad at Carmen and Rayna. Knowing that, she let the red hot anger flow through her veins to stop the tears from spilling. She glared at the doorway and growled. I let myself be ignorant before. But I'm keeping my eyes open now, and a storm is coming. Elise was ready now. She had said that she was on Ivy's side, and that was true, but that was mostly for Ivy and Judah's safety. Now, with both Rayna and Carmen's betrayal, Elise was itching to flash her teeth and invest herself in 'what witches do in their spare time'. She was going to protect Ivy, she was going to protect Judah, and she was going to protect herself. In the process, she was going to raise hell to stop Rayna and Carmen and whoever else involved from bringing about whatever catastrophe they had in mind.
-----
Ivy arrived back at Carmen's store quick enough, holding Carmen's medical item and news of Judah for Elise. Ivy chattered on about Judah while Carmen worked on the infection in Elise's leg. Elise listened to Ivy while ignoring Carmen. Elise just wanted her leg to be healed so she could go. She had had enough of backstabbing, deceitful so-called friends.
Ivy was saying that Judah was perfectly fine and didn't burn down the house. Though he did, accidently, stumble into Elise's room and break the plastic covering of Elise's pet door. Ivy blushed and apologized but Elise didn't really mind. She had expected some damage from that Judah man, and a plastic covering was easy to replace.
"Okay," Carmen said, when she was done dressing Elise's wound. "You should be fine. Just don't poke or prod it for a day or so. Don't remove the bandages either. Let the medicine soak in." She stood but no one in the room reacted to her.
Eventually, Ivy spoke up, "Thanks. I'm glad she's going to be okay."
"Sure. She should probably not walk on it so much either, don't stress it. You two can stay here for another night and-"
"No," Elise cut in. She was already sitting up and putting on the shoes that Ivy had so graciously brought. "We're leaving. Now." Then added in an almost hiss to Carmen, without looking at her, "I'll give back your clothes eventually."
Ivy was utterly confused but she could sense that some fight had occurred between Elise and Carmen while she was away. She helped Elise up from bed and half carried her out of Carmen's room and to the shop.
Carmen stopped them just before they left. "This isn't necessary, mi lobo. I can take care of you, you know I can. You can trust me. Please don't hate me for something so small. We can work this out." She smiled lovingly, but her eyes showed uneasiness. She was scared of losing Elise.
"No me toques," Elise growled when Carmen tried to physically stop her from leaving. She urged Ivy to keep moving. She didn't even bother to respond to Carmen when Carmen begged to talk. It was too late, Elise thought, Carmen had her chance.
Elise's frustration had Ivy feeling uncomfortable, and it clearly had that effect on others as they made their way through the Hub and back to Ivy's car. Ivy wasn't sure if she should ask about what happened or just remain silent. Luckily, Elise spoke out on her own.
"We're not taking Judah back there ever again."
Ivy gawked and sped through an intersection. "What? What are you talking about?"
"Listen to me, Ivy. Whatever they're doing to Judah isn't natural. When you bring back someone from the dead, everything is intact. Understand me. Intact. They lied to you. They're not keeping Judah's soul together or whatever crap story they made up. They're doing something else to him, something that benefits only them."
Ivy frowned at the road. "I already told you we have to do these things. Whatever fight you had with Carmen isn't going to stop me from-"
Elise grabbed the steering wheel and forced the car off the road. Ivy screamed and slammed on the brakes, sending the car flying through gravel to finally come to a violent, sliding stop.
Breathing heavily, Ivy turned on Elise. "What do you think you're doing! What if we were in a residential area? What if we had hit someone?"
Elise counted herself lucky that that wasn't the case. She stared at Ivy head on for so long that Ivy looked visibly uncomfortable. "Do you trust me?"
Scoffing, Ivy slapped the steering wheel. "What the hell is this? You drive me off the road and-"
"Do you trust me?" Elise asked again. She leaned forward and made Ivy pay attention.
Ivy blinked stupidly, but didn't move or back down. "Yes," she said. "I trust you."
"Then believe me when I say that Rayna and Carmen and any other person you've met that is involved in this, is lying to you. We're not running errands anymore, we're not putting Judah in their hands anymore, we are not going to be used anymore."
Ivy thought she was hearing the sound of a revolution, or revenge. She searched Elise's eyes but found not even an inkling of deception. "I don't..." She couldn't help but notice how absolutely serious Elise was. Elise looked like she was ready to bite the head off of the next person that tried to force their way into her world. Ivy wondered if Elise's world included the Atkin's siblings. She stared at Elise, who was waiting for a response. "What does this mean?"
Elise grinned, a wicked, scary thing. She put her hand over Ivy's. "This means that we're- me, you, and Judah- are on our own. We count on one another. I'm not going to hide anymore and I'm not letting my so-called friends take advantage of us. I'm ready to fight back if you are."
Ivy bit the inside of lower lip nervously. She caught a glimpse of Elise's mutant ear, and that somehow gave her strength. If Elise could get so hurt, so beaten, and yet remain in the state of mind that willed her to protect what was hers, then so could Ivy. Ivy blushed at thinking of herself as Elise's, and willed the heat to disperse from her face, thinking that Judah was also in the 'Elise package'. She nodded resolutely, suddenly believing that Elise was right about Rayna and Carmen and everyone else. Deep down, she knew all along, but she had been scared before. Now, with Elise, she could stop hiding. "I'm ready."
Elise smiled, this time warmly. "Good. Now let's get home. We have to make preparations."
-----
Preparations, as Ivy quickly found out, was reinforcing the house in any way possible. Since Elise had to rest her leg, she made Ivy go around the house to make sure that every door and window was properly secured. Elise showed Ivy how to make small protective spells out of the leftover ingredients that were in Judah's bunker and she had Ivy place them at the correct locations around the house. When Elise was satisfied that everything was done to her specifications, she told Ivy to put all of Rayna's items in Judah's bunker for safe keeping, just in case someone tried to steal them. Elise didn't want Rayna to get those items since she didn't know what they were for, but if Rayna so desperately needed them, then they were worth hiding. When Ivy was done doing Elise's work, she waltzed into Elise's room and slumped down on Elise's bed.
"Do you really think all of this is necessary?"
Elise was sitting on the floor, sticking a makeshift cover over her pet door to keep the bugs out. "Yes. Rayna had someone tail us and we weren't even doing anything wrong. We're actively going against her now. I'm not taking any chances."
Ivy's stomach was suddenly in knots. "Do you think she might... try to kill us?"
Elise crawled directly next to her bed then lifted herself up onto it, careful of her leg. "No. For some reason she needs you and Judah. It's the whole reason I'm in the picture. I'm pretty sure she won't try to harm you."
"Pretty sure?"
Elise smiled. "I think we should be more worried about me, huh? I'm not the one that she needs alive."
Ivy blushed and felt embarrassed. "Right, sorry."
"It's okay. As long as nothing happens within the next day or so, things will be fine." Elise sent out a prayer that Rayna would wait for a few days before demanding something of Ivy. Elise needed time for her leg to heal so that she could be at her best to protect the household. "Hey, help me to the bathroom? I want to get rid of Carmen's clothes and the aura of her house."
Ivy complied. She got a pair of pajamas and a towel for Elise then helped her Host to the bathroom. When she was, Elise sat on the edge of the tub and sighed.
"Do you need help?" Ivy asked, wondering if Elise was in pain.
"No, no. I'm just stressing. I can't believe all of this..." Elise waved her hand at nothing, shaking her head. She slipped off her shoes. "I misjudged two people in my life. People that I thought were friends. They planned to control six months of my life through you, and I was almost going to let it happen."
Giving Elise a sympathetic look, Ivy lifted herself onto the bathroom sink, sensing that a long conversation was coming. "I don't really know what to say."
"You know how it feels now, though, right? Now that you know they've been lying to you?"
Ivy turned her face to the ceiling as Elise stripped off her shirt. She could hear the tub spout beginning to dispense water. "I suppose. But you knew before I did so you've had a lot more time to soak in it."
Elise was fully naked and she managed to get herself in the tub, letting her left leg hang out over the edge. She idly wondered why Ivy was thinking so hard, her face upwards. "But I've also had more time to come to terms with it. Are you... feeling okay?"
Ivy looked back down and was glad that Elise was submerged in the tub, and her nakedness was hidden. "Yeah. Sure, it's a shock, but... I don't know. Somehow it feels like I knew that was the case all along. Too good to be true, you know?"
Elise nodded, slipping underneath the water to wet her face and hair. She popped back up and spurted water from her mouth. The tub was sufficiently full so she turned the water off and relaxed. "I'm sorry that you got such a bad deal."
"I'm sorry that I dragged you into it."
Elise shrugged. "It's not so bad. My ear's jacked up and I'm pretty sure I'll have a scar on my leg, but it's been pretty fun hanging out with you and Judah."
"You're not so bad yourself."
Elise chuckled. She washed herself, scrubbing her bum leg carefully, then turned to Ivy. She was actually surprised that Ivy was still in the bathroom with her. "I might need help getting back to my room when I'm done getting dressed. I'd really rather not die from a slip and fall in the bathroom after everything I've been through."
Ivy laughed and promised to help.
-----
The next two days went by easily. No one came to visit, no one came to ask anything of Ivy. All was quiet. Elise was glad, and when day three came around, she sat on her bed and started to remove the bandages on her leg. She could feel the limb perfectly and was anxious to see if she was healed. As the bandages came away, Elise found that there was indeed a scar as she had feared. It was jagged and startlingly ugly, and Elise wasn't sure what type of tattoo would cover it up.
Ivy strolled into the room holding breakfast, as she had the days before so that Elise didn't have to walk anywhere. She made a strange noise as she noticed Elise bare leg. "Whoa." She handed Elise's breakfast plate over then moved to get a good look at Elise's leg. She poked the scar experimentally, glad that Elise didn't twitch or hiss in pain. "You were right about the scar."
Elise scooped eggs into her mouth as Ivy sat down at the other end of the bed, starting on her own meal. "Yeah, I know. But it's okay, just another thing to make me sexier."
Ivy almost choked on her food, amused by Elise. "You can make the best out of anything, can't you?"
"You'd be surprised."
Ivy shook her head and continued to eat in silence, listening to the sound of utensils scraping against glass plates. Elise finished quickly, wanting to get up and walk around. The last two days were awful. She hated being bedridden, though to be fair, she wasn't always in her bed. When Ivy slept, Elise walked around the house, putting the slightest weight on her hurt leg, to keep herself from going stiff.
When they were done with breakfast, Ivy stacked their plates and waited. She could tell that Elise wanted to get up and move. Elise did exactly that- she hopped out of bed and stood with her legs spread, checking to make sure that her scarred leg could handle the weight.
It could.
Elise grinned happily, starting to jump around, slamming down on the floor forcefully. "I'm mobile again!"
Ivy clapped and clapped, showing Elise full support. The wolf was wild. After a minute, Judah ambled into the room with a look of scared confusion on his face. Both Ivy and Elise stopped, wondering what was wrong with Judah.
He stared at Elise. "The loud noise."
Elise chuckled. She had been making a lot of noise, and probably shaking the floors, with all of her jumping and stomping. She pat Judah on the shoulder. "Relax, dead man. It was only me."
Judah nodded, his face going blank again. "Okay." He shuffled away without another word.
Ivy walked passed Elise to take their dishes to the kitchen. Elise followed behind simply because she finally could. She walked around the kitchen aimlessly as Ivy washed their dishes, dried them, and put them away. Finished, Ivy watched Elise walk around, a smile on her face. It was nice that Elise could finally get around on her own. As much as Ivy liked helping her Host, she had to admit that it was much better that Elise was independent again.
As Elise made her sixth lap around the kitchen, the doorbell rang. Elise stilled and pumped up to her full height, her back straight and eyes alert. Ivy was gripping the counter behind her with all her strength. Neither woman was certain that whoever at the door was on Rayna's payroll but they were wary of anything now, now that they were fighting the good fight.
Elise finally snapped out of her vicious mindset and let herself simmer at a cool irritation as she answered the door. The old woman that always had a slip of paper for Ivy was standing on the porch. Elise growled and filled the doorway menacingly.
The old woman held out her hand, familiar slip of paper between her fingers. "Give this to-"
"No." Elise snatched the paper and tore it, the red ribbon holding it together falling to the floor. "You can tell Rayna to shove it. We're not doing anything for her anymore."
Face darkening, the old woman pulled her hand back to herself. "Don't start stepping out of line, dog."
Elise took a step forward, an air of tightly wound anger around her. "Tell your boss she just lost two employees. If I see you around here again, I wont be afraid to attack. That goes for anyone else you try to send to my home."
The old woman slowly smiled. "You've made a big mistake."
"Yeah? So have you. I don't like threats."
"I'm not threatening you." The old woman giggled and her eyes slid past Elise's shoulder. A shrill scream broke out and Elise turned in reaction to it. The old woman laughed. Elise growled at the woman, wanting to attack, but she couldn't ignore the screams. They were so clearly Ivy's. Elise ran into the house, slamming the front door behind her, and tried to find where Ivy was. The screams filled the house so fully that Elise couldn't tell where they were coming from. She sprinted through the house, desperate. Ivy was in her room, standing in the corner, crying and still screaming for help.
Elise stopped short as she saw Ivy. There was a ring of fire surrounding Ivy's body, the flames slowly but surely closing in. In just a matter of time, Ivy was sure to be consumed.