Cold Case Set On Fire

Abbey motioned to the girl on the floor. "Come on. I'll show you."

"There's chocolate raspberry tea, too," Robert said. "There are mugs and milk and sugar on the counter."

"Is it Uncle Mikey's pot, Papa?" Abbey asked.

"Yes, Dear," Robert smiled. "Remember--ask it nicely."

"Unca Mikey gave Papa a weird teapot as a joke," Abbey told the girl, "but I like it--except when it gets snarky. Then it bites." When she got to the kitchen, she crawled up on the counter and opened the cookie jar. "Take one. They're good. They're chocolate chip. What's your name?"

"You got her out, and you're both safe. Your mission was a success. You did excellent work," He told her. "Magically, a vampire's physiology is different from a werewolf's. The two don't mix. That's why we don't have vampire/werewolf hybrids, and that might be partly why the incessant feuding between those species has never gotten better. It's very likely they knew she was at least part vampire.

"For the moment, though," he said, "I am more concerned about that shoulder. I think it needs to be properly tended. Do you remember how you got it?"

Ekko got up from the floor slowly and walked over to the younger girl. She followed her to the kitchen quietly, thinking about everything that had happened. It was a good thing she was taken away from the werewolves, but that meant she couldn't see Dylan anymore. There was also what the older girl had said about her.

That she was a vampire?

She couldn't believe that. Sunlight didn't both her, well.. it did, but not that much. She remembered her mum telling her that she was probably just allergic or something. Now that didn't quite make sense to her, though.

She looked at Abbey and then at the jar before reaching out and taking a cookie. With a sniffle, she brought the cookie up to her mouth and took a bite. "E- Ekko.." she said softly when Abbey asked her name after swallowing the part of the cookie she'd been chewing. "Well.. It's Eleanor but I like Ekko better." she explained, moving the cookie closer to her mouth again.

"Yeah, I just find it weird that they'd kept her around so long if they knew she was a vampire. There had to have been some reason." She looked at her shoulder again when Robert started asking about it. "Oh. This, yeah. One of them clawed me, dug his nails into my shoulder while he was trying to get Ekko back." she explained.

She thought back to Dylan, he'd definitely changed a lot since the last time she saw him. Before, she'd never thought him capable of hurting anyone, but she supposed people always changed and someone who was turned into a werewolf and forced to live with the pack wasn't an exception. In fact, it would have been weird if he hadn't changed, if she thought about it.

She wondered what Olivia would say if she saw him right now. Would she try to convince him to leave the pack? That seemed unlikely, she'd probably end up getting herself mixed in with them instead.

"Ekko," Abbey repeated, taking a bite of her cookie. "I like it. I'm five. Well, almost, but I'm more than 4 and a half. I got four brothers and three sisters. Well, one sister is all growed up and moved someplace. But we got a big family. That's why my Papa and my Gram live here too with Mama and Daddy and lots of other people. Sometimes, its sorta nuts.

"But, you must be a good person if Daddy went to rescue you. That's what he does, I guess He rescues good people and keeps them safe from bad things," Abbey said. "'Cause there are bad things out there. I seen some, but Papa don't like bad things in the house, so it's all good in here. You'll be fine. You want some tea from the whacko tea pot?"

"Clawing, we can definitely deal with," Robert said, accio'ing his leather messenger bag from the closet. He got some scissors and clipped the torn fabric away from the wound and took a look at the wound itself. "You'll live," he smiled. "I'd prefer to clean it well before I close it." He cleaned the wound and then laid clean gauze over it. Then he laid his hand on the wound itself to start the wound to close using his skills as an energy worker to draw off the pain and then close the wound by touch. He left his hand in place for a moment and then lifted it.

"Much better. It may seep a bit for the next 24 hours or so, but then it should be fine to leave without a bandage. After that, you should not see much of a scar, if any at all. It's a clean straight mark now, so it might very well not scar at all. I'll cover it for you." He taped the gauze in place. "If it starts to give you pain, just say something to me or to Brian or to Khaat. We'll draw it off for you. It's not a big deal to do."

He heard voices outside, talking and occasionally laughing as they walked towards the house. "That sounds very much like the rest of our warriors. Apparently, they apparated to the grounds but not to the house. From the sounds of it, I'd say everyone is in one piece. Oh, Suki prepared your room for you and put out a pair of pajamas. Don't ask me where she found them. I don't know. But, since it is very late, you might want to get some sleep and then we'll think about the school in the morning. I did send word to your headmaster, so he knows you're working with me. Now about a mug of tea to unwind with?"

Abbey had managed to get Ekko to calm down, even though she was still constantly thinking about the events of that night. The ten year old was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she was a vampire.

She was definitely not understanding.

Ekko made a mental note to ask the other girl at some point. She wasn't sure if it was something she should take the risk in asking though, she was scared of the response she would get. She looked at Abbey and blinked. "Rescue?" she echoed the younger girl. She remembered the other girl saying something about that too. She didn't think she had needed any help, to be rescued. "Um, yeah, sure." she said softly, lowering her gaze a bit.

The pain from the wound wasn't too bad, but it didn't mean Hit didn't wince when Robert began to clean and patch it up. Once he was done, she moved her arm a bit and she could immediately feel that it was a lot better. There was a little pain when she moved but it was nothing she couldn't handle.

She sighed heavily, holding her hand to her chest when she heard Robert say the voices outside were probably the rest of them. She was glad, they way they sounded she doubted they were injured and that meant that they'd all gotten away with only minor scraps and bruises (if you can call her injury a scrap or bruise).

"That'd actually be great." she nodded at Robert and moved to go into the kitchen, though she was doing it mostly to check on Ekko.

Abbey saw Anabelle come into the kitchen too, and she figured that perhaps tea all around was a good plan. She looked at the tea pot. "3 cups, please?" Abbey asked politely. The tea pot poured tea into two mugs. Abbey added milk and sugar, stirred them, and handed one cup to Ekko and one to Anabelle.

"Whassa matter?" Abbey asked Ekko. "Papa says that's the face I make when I'm thinking too hard."

Robert was waiting for the others when they returned. He did not see any more wounds.

"All apparently went well, I take it?" he asked.

"Did Anabelle get back?" Brian asked.

"Safe and sound, with the girl," Robert said. "Abbey has taken it upon herself it tend to her."

"I think I'll go give her a hand," Kate laughed, taking off her coat and laying it aside. She looked at her black mission wear and decided it would not do. She cast a simple transfiguration spell to change her clothes into blue jeans and a simple white cotton sweater, with sneakers. That would be less frightening.

She went into the kitchen and found the girls there, and Abbey was handing out coffee.

"Oh, hello," Kate said to them all. She saw Eleanor looking completely confused. "And you must be Eleanor. I'm Kate--Abbey's grandmother." She took it upon herself to Eleanor in a warm hug. "Thank goodness you're alright. We've been looking for you. Well, you're safe here. I know it's all quite confusing, but we can put it all to rights for you."

"Gram, were you out looking for doggies again?" Abbey asked.

"Well, we had to get Eleanor from them, didn't we?" Kate said.

"Ekko," Abbey corrected. "She likes to be called Ekko."

"Ekko," Kate repeated, looking at Ekko and smiling. "I like it. It suits you more than Eleanor, I think. Ekko, it is, then. Abbey has a little acquaintance of werewolves, too, and when she saw our black clothes, she presumed we went out to deal with some werewolves."

"They're bad," Abbey said, sipping on her tea.

"Not all," Kate corrected, "but it was definitely not safe for you to be with them, Ekko, which is why we were looking for you."

"I.. I'm just confused." Ekko responded to Abbey, a small smile on her face that ended up quickly fading.

"It's totally fine to be, we have a lot of explaining to do." Hit told Ekko, sipping on the tea shortly after. "I'm Anabelle, by the way, but I prefer to be called Hit. I forgot I didn't introduce myself at the den, so that might've scared you even more. My bad, but my priority was getting you out of there." she added, moving to scratch the back of her head with her injured arm, which resulted in her wincing once more.

Ekko stared at Anabelle, er, Hit as she winced and her eyes moved to her arm. A sad expression replaced the confused one momentarily as she asked, "Did.. Dylan do that?"

Hit moved her arm down and shook her head at Ekko. "Don't worry about that now, it doesn't matter." She didn't need to make Ekko freak out again, not after just getting her to calm down.

Another woman, who introduced herself as Kate, came in and began speaking to her. She was taken into a hug and Ekko's eyes widened, searching for Abbey and Hit. It had been a while since she'd been enveloped in a warm hug like she was now and it made tears spring to her eyes once more. She felt herself sniffling and she briefly brought her arms up to the woman as she buried her face in her shoulder.

Hit smiled, knowing that the tears that had formed in Ekko's eyes weren't because she was frightened anymore. She brought her cup to her lips, taking another sip of the tea and sighed softly. At least Ekko was starting to get a little comfortable.

"But why..?" she heard Ekko say softly, looking from Kate to Hit. "Why wasn't it safe? I don't understand. They weren't.. mean to me.. But I was kept kind of separated from them." Hit looked to Kate, wondering if it was better to let her explain what was going on to Ekko. She'd already mentioned it, but it had been kind of harsh.

"Let me see if I can explain it. It is a bit complicated, though, so feel free to ask your questions. My husband works for the Ministry. He was the one who ordered that we find you. In the research they did for you, they found your birth certificate and we know who your mother was and who your father is.

"It is that birth certificate that explains why you were in grave danger to remain with the werewolves. I'm sure you were there long enough to know who Fenrir is. He, actually, was not your biggest problem. I'm sure you also know who James is too. He's the very large one, the violent one."

"He is very bad," Abbey said quietly. Even at four, Abbey had painful and difficult memories of the towering hulk of James Blood. Kate reached out with one hand and stroked Abbey's hair to reassure her.

"You're right, Abs," Kate said. She looked back at Ekko. "James Blood has a goal. He wants to rule the world--a world of werewolves, and he wants very much to make every human a werewolf. He's exceptionally dangerous. We've been trying to stop him for a long time. He takes, particularly, women and children because they are useful to him in growing the size of his pack, and that is most likely why he took you. He probably intended to have you live with the pack until you were old enough to join the women in helping to create more werewolf children for him.

"You became a liability to him, though, because, my guess is that Fenrir realized, as werewolves do, that to try to turn you to a werewolf was quite impossible. Your bloodline protects you from that. Once Fenrir realized he could not turn you, he must have also realized who your father most likely was and how dangerous it would be if he let James make any decisions about what to do with you. It put you on borrowed time until Fenrir could decide what to do with you. It was why we had to find you quickly and get you out.

"You see, both your mother and your father were not fully human. Your mother's birth certificate says she was a half vampire. It seems your mother's father was a full vampire, and that made your mother only half. Your father is well known, and it is public knowledge that he is a half vampire. That makes you only half--not a full vampire. You can live your life feeling fully comfortable being human most of the time. Being a half vampire is not enough to make you chained all the issues that a full vampire has, but it was surely enough to keep you protected from being turned into a vampire. The bloodlines don't mix. It just isn't possible to turn a person with any portion of vampire lineage into a werewolf.

"In other words, you might notice, as apparently your father seems to, a sensitivity to bright sunlight, and it seems he prefers to be a night owl as to being any sort of an early riser, at least as far as people have seen him in public. He is, though, very smart and quite charming. I don't have any idea if he even knows you exist. It is possible he doesn't have any idea."

She looked at Ekko and felt for her. It was a huge thing to take in. "I'm sorry, I know this is all a bit much. Perhaps we should take things as they come, though. You don't need to adjust all at once. If you want my suggestion, I think you have the right to soak in a hot bubble bath and get some warm pajamas. Marcus's daughter is about your age, and he does have some of her things here when she visits. I'm sure we could borrow a pair of pajamas for you for tonight. It may all look a bit better in the morning after you've had some sleep and a good hot breakfast. You are welcome to make yourself at home and to stay until Robert is able to contact your father."

Ekko had never known anything about her father other than he was alive and was off somewhere. Her mother had never spoken about him that much, though whenever she did it seemed like it was painful to do. That usually meant something bad happened but Ekko never pried too much, not wanting to make her mother upset.

So, the older girl had been telling the truth. Now it made a little more sense, but it didn't make her any less confused. Why hadn't she been told that she was a vampire (of any kind) this entire time? She felt herself starting to shake as she looked down in front of her as Kate continued. She covered her face with her hands, trying to process everything being said to her right now.

Her heart hurt. There was a chance her father didn't even.. know she existed?

She'd kept her hands on her face when she felt another set of arms wrap around her. They were still warm, but they were different than when Kate had hugged her. They felt a little awkward, and she realized why when she pulled her hands away from her face. Hit had been the one to hug her this time and it was weird. From what she'd done so far, it was obvious that she didn't hug people often, and considering how awkward her arms felt wrapped around her, Ekko knew this to be true.

Hit seemed like she could be a harsh person from what she'd seen from her so far, but Ekko appreciated her trying to comfort her.

"What if.." Ekko started, before her breath caught in her throat and she was forced to stop momentarily. "What if.. my father doesn't want me?" she said softly. She didn't know anything about the man. She didn't know if he was a good person, a bad person, or if he would even want her near him. Would he even believe that they were related? She wasn't sure how she felt about having to move in with someone who she didn't know.

Then again, she had adjusted to living in the den for as long as she had, but there had always been someone there for her. That brought up another question. "Will I never see any of the werewolves again?" she asked.

"Not if you don't want to. If you ever do run into them, I'd suggest you be extra careful, now that you know the truth." Hit explained softly, her arms wrapping a little tighter around Ekko.

"I don't foresee that your father would not want you, but, on the outside chance that would happen, you would certainly be welcome here with us," Kate said. "We have a very big house and a big family. I'm sure Abbey would welcome another sister."
She looked at Abbey who nodded.

"Sure," Abbey said easily.

Kate made no mention that Lorcan had other children by numerous other women. There was time for Ekko to know that, and right now, it wasn't important. Kate had no idea if Lorcan would welcome yet another offspring to the spacious D'Eath Manor or not. She also did not know how quickly he would welcome the idea, even when he would find out. Some men might well need several days to wrap themselves around the idea. Lorcan was a former Slytherin and a Death Eater. Tradition was all around him and in him. She expected him to want Ekko at D'Eath Manor at some point, but she did not know if he would pay even the slightest attention to her. Kate wanted Ekko to know that if Lorcan turned out to be a prat, she still had warm people she could turn to in order to get the love and the warmth that Lorcan might not want or be able to give her. It seemed that her mother had come from different stock than Lorcan was made of. Ekko deserved to have some of those warm things that her mother could no longer provide.

"And," Kate said. "You can choose to ask Robert to take his time in talking to your father, if you wish, until you have a chance to get your bearings a little. Or, if you choose to get to know your father first. You don't need to move in with him the moment you meet him, if you choose not to. You can slow this down just half a tick if you want. There is a good deal to be sorted out, and it does not have to be done in an instant. My best suggestion is that you take just a bit of time to wrap your brain around it all first before you do anything else."

Ekko wasn't sure what she wanted to do. It would be great for her to finally be able to meet her father, especially now that her mother was gone, but she didn't want any of that to go wrong. But she liked the idea of being able to stay with the people who were around her now. They were all nice, at least now.

Maybe she would wait. Maybe she would meet her father first and then decide if she wanted to go with him. It had been ten years since he'd been with her mother, so she assumed he'd probably have a family by now and she really wondered if someone like her would really have a place in a family like that.

Even if he did end up wanting her to be there, the rest of his family might not.

Ekko reached up to where Hit's hand had fallen onto her chest and she held onto it tightly, making the older girl look down at her. "Don't worry Ekko, don't try to rush anything. You heard Kate, you can stay here as long as you need to. Until everything is worked out." She smiled softly at the ten year old, who had been looking up at her the entire time.

It was strange how warm and motherly Hit could sound, even to herself, when she really wanted to. But that was probably because she had younger siblings who, even though she didn't talk to them now, she had always taken care of when they were younger. Ekko might not have been her sister, but when the two were frightened she'd noticed they acted the same.

"There's also the fact that Ekko will be eleven this year, which means that she'll be going to Hogwarts next fall." Hit pointed out. "If she takes her time, to process everything and to get to know her father then if anything happens, Hogwarts is always a good way to get away from things." she said. Hit knew all about going to Hogwarts to get away from problems with her family. She hoped it didn't go that way for Ekko, but it was definitely a possibly for her to be able to be around other people who would care about her.

"I think I should meet him first.. before deciding anything..: Ekko almost whispered as she looked down at the hand that was still on Hit's.