The Lady’s home was massive, if luckily built around a few simple hallways that fed into the center of the home. Passing past more than one room that might have been a living room, I had a slight suspicion I was stuffed into a distant corner of the house that rarely saw use. A suspicion that was only confirmed as I went down the spiral staircase to the first floor, and only then saw my first other person here.

  A maid in a uniform that showed more flesh than I thought was normal was vacuuming, no surprises there with The Lady, and I barely had time to ask where to go before she gestured me to a nearby room. Through a pair of heavy white doors, I stepped into yet another room that might have been a living room, where The Lady sat.

  The Lady wore a dark blue maxi skirt and puffed white blouse, with a straw hat sat next to her as she sipped her tea and watched some baking show. Shaking her head, she cooed softly, barely acknowledging me entering as she complained, “none of these mortals know how to make a tart.”

  “Good show?” I asked, trying to make some small talk, not wanting to jump straight into questions and thanks.

  The Lady offered me a lazy glance, shaking her head as she repeated, “good show…I like to begin my…well, whenever I wake, with such small joys. I must say, seeing you such though brings no joy, Mary, you rather look…not yourself. Would you like some tea? I set you some ready to steep when I heard you were awake.”

  I nodded, walking over to sit in a chair near her as I saw a small tea cup with a mesh ball in it. Taking my cue, I picked up the kettle and went to pour, hitting the edge of the cup before I quickly corrected myself, pouring the water and picking up a napkin to clean the mess.

  Letting out a few muffled curses I looked around for a trash can, before awkwardly holding the wet napkins in my lap as I told her, “I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

  “You’re sorry,” The Lady said, sighing as she sipped her tea idly, “loss of…depth perception is to be expected with your state. You should begin training to compensate for the fact. I can’t have my right hand unable to perform her-”

  “I just lost my fucking eye, and got shot at by my dad,” I snapped, frowning as I sat forward in my chair, feeling the urge to fucking punch her suddenly even if it’d probably end in my death, “can I have a fucking moment?”

  The Lady fell silent, and we sat for a long while until she reached out to take the tea leaves from my cup and place two cubes of sugar in it. She stirred, and I watched until she finished and passed the cup to me, the dark liquid a little bitter and a little sweet on my tongue. It was a small distraction, and I didn’t care that it burned my throat and tongue as I drank it in a few short gulps.

  I felt like giving into the wolf, I wanted to transform and run out of here and go deep into the woods. I wanted to run, chase something, hunt something, have its blood flow into my mouth and have it scream. I wanted to find a cave or fucking hollow somewhere and go inside and never be seen again.

  I wanted to cry again.

  Shaking my head, forcing the thought aside as I wiped wettened eyes, I told her, “my dad tried killing me,” once more, and saw her look on rather bored.

  Setting her cup aside, the woman finally shook her head and announced, “your dad tried to kill you…I will see what I might do for you, my favorite morsel. In the meantime I’m taking you off your current assignments and ordering you to…take two weeks, we’ll say.”

  The words struck like a weight, and I looked on not sure that I’d actually heard her right. It wasn’t the sort of thing I expected The Lady to say, not the sort of thing she actually fucking did from what I’d seen. She threatened people, broke bones as a warning, she acted like a fucking mob boss, and she was…caring?

  Worried about my health?

  Wanting me to fucking watch myself and get used to missing a fucking eye?

  There had to be something being it, there had to have been a fucking angle.

  And I was too tired to think of one.

  “There are people missing now, dozens,” I started, shaking my head in disbelief as I leaned back in the chair, “we need to stop it, we need-”

  “We need to stop it,” The Lady agreed, sighing as she went about steeping another cup of tea, “I will have…one of my other agents finish figuring out these disappearances, I believe I’ve collected everything you know so far. Samuel at the least should be able to…guide the next course of action, and if not who’ll remember?”

  I nodded, feeling a little disgusted by the idea of not getting to help Sigyn, not getting to help protect Barbie, but with nothing else to say I asked, “is my stuff still at Vergil’s, or did someone bring it over here?”

  “Is your stuff still at Vergil’s,” The Lady repeated, clicking her tongue a few times, “your phone and a change of clothes were recovered, placed in this room’s corner, though you may keep what you are wearing if you desire. That closet hasn’t been…properly used in some decades, and I’m happy to part with the items. They flatter your form.”

  “You’re being nice to me.”

  “I’m being nice to you,” The Lady agreed, the smirk she gave like a fox with a chicken in its mouth, and somehow still so genuine.

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  I nodded, leaving it at that as I rose to my feet and went to the corner, finding a large blue bag waiting there. Taking my phone and cigarettes from it, I went about turning it on and asked The Lady if I could make a call and smoke in the room I’d been in. She agreed, and I made my way back with uncertain steps as I scrolled through, ignoring the voicemails and texts and going to one contact.

  My finger hovered over the call icon, and eventually I forced myself to call as I sat on the bed and went about lighting a cigarette. Unable to see my right hand or phone, I felt a growing sense of wrong about it before I quickly changed hands.

  It rang a few times, I almost didn’t expect an answer, and as I was about to hang up Gevuadan’s voice came over as she cheerily announced, “hey, Mary, wasn’t expecting you to call. Everything good?”

  A part of me wanted to lie, tell her everything was fine, and instead I shook my head and answered, “my dad tried killing me, I lost an eye, and I’m not allowed to help the people I care about right now.”

  There was a long silence, and slowly Gevaudan muttered, “oh,” and paused for a moment longer before she asked, “is there anything I can do?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted, feeling on the verge of tears as I admitted, “I…I wanted to talk to Marty, but he’s…he’s asleep isn’t he? He’s a kid, I think it’s-”

  “He’s awake,” Gevaudan confirmed, and I felt a little comfort in the fact as she added on, “he’s eating breakfast now, I actually just finished, if you can hang on for a few minutes I’m sure he’d love to talk to you.”

  “That sounds nice,” I admitted, taking a long drag from the cigarette, letting the thin cloud leave my lips before I asked her, “have you been up to anything? How was the trip back?”

  “Oh, pretty busy, I have two kids now, though I get a lot of help” Gevaudan laughed, cooing something quickly as a baby cried in the background. There was a rustling, and now sounding like she was on speaker she answered in a calming baby voice, “Jeanne’s much more active than Marty was, aren’t you? You’re such a sweet thing though, isn’t that right?”

  “I’m guessing it’s a good thing Chaser got you a little extra money?” I asked with a small laugh at how she was behaving.

  “With the extra kid? Definitely, I’m actually looking a little better than I was before though, at least for a long while,” the woman admitted in the same baby soothing voice, before speaking to me in it, “don’t think this is an invitation for having me adopt more though. Is it? No, no it’s not. Two kids is perfect for me, yes it is.”

  I laughed, I felt guilty that I laughed, and felt even worse as I told her, “I had a date recently, I forget if I told you I had that coming up, know our calls have been inconsistent.”

  “Hey, good job, I thought I might have needed to set you up with another family member, and my brother has shitty taste in music and movies and my sister…well, you’re not her type,” the woman said, temporarily breaking the babying voice. Seeming to sense her mistake, she quickly switched back and asked me, “what is this guy's name? What’s his name, Jeanne? What do you think his name is?”

  “She’s an artist,” I said, smiling as I laid back in the bed, at this point too tired to care about where the ash went, “her name’s Barbie, it’s kinda cute she dresses like one too with all the dresses and her hair. She’s actually been painting me, apparently it’s for some class project — I’ve probably made it harder for her now I’ve lost the eye.”

  “Oh, artists like that shit, it’s like telling an actor their character can have a limp,” she comforted me, sounding almost humored by the idea, “My older brother was an artist. When I got mono he spent the whole day watching Star Trek with me doing sketches. I think he did probably ten of them just trying to get the ‘feeling like I’m going to die’ look down. I mean, he also did a few years of theater too in High School, and he did like to get over dramatic with the roles.”

  “You never talked about your older brother,” I admitted, knowing pretty well Gevaudan was the only kid from Chaser’s first marriage my former mentor actually spoke to.

  “Eh, well, I technically have two older brothers; don’t talk to the oldest though, he’s a Purist in Florida or something. I mean, got plenty of half-siblings I’ve never met as well,” Gevaudan admitted, sounding almost bored by the story, “my sister and younger older brother basically raised me after mom left though. I mean, she left when I was six, didn’t even see her again until I was sixteen, and she gave me a phone number to talk to her.”

  “No offense, but surprised you talked to her after that,” honestly finding it all a weird place in what I knew about Chaser.

  “I was in a bad place then, everyone in the family was,” Gevaudan admitted, sounding almost hesitant to continue, “it was nice having someone I could talk to, especially when the others couldn’t. She ended up helping me pay for college so I could be a doctor, my siblings got pissed when they found out. Fucking… didn’t talk to them until I adopted Martin and finally told them I needed them, you know?”

  “Well, at least it sounds like you mended it,” I admitted with a small sigh, before letting out a laugh, “never had any siblings really, I think you’re the closest I’ve come.”

  “Well, I’m happy to help,” she said, giggling softly at the fact, “Marty’s good, if you want to talk to him.”

  I nodded to no one, closing my eyes — eye — and braced myself for it as I told her, “Yeah, I need to.”

  There was a rustling, and Gevaudan declared, “it’s mommy, you want to talk to her before you get ready?” followed by a long pause before Gevaudan giggled as she said, “he nodded.”

  I laughed, and shaking my head I asked him, “how’re you doing, baby? Are you having fun at school?”

  “I made a friend,” he confirmed, sounding extremely happy about it. “Her name’s Mary. She likes bikes and…dinosaurs.”

  I nodded, wiping a tear from my eye as I told him, “Hey, my name’s Mary.”

  “No,” Martin answered confidently, “you’re mommy.”

  “Yeah, but my name is-” I started, stopping myself as I let out a small laugh, “you got me.”

  “I know things, I’m not a slut,” Martin confirmed, surprising me as I coughed on smoke and another laugh.

  “I’m so sorry,” Gevaudan apologized, sounding horrified by it despite my cackling, “he heard me complaining on the phone the other day talking to my brother, he picked up on some of what I told him.”

  “It’s fine, he’d have heard a lot worse from me,” I admitted, chuckling as I asked, “what’re you doing today?”

  “Aunty’s taking us to the zoo!” Martin declared happily.

  “Oh the zoo, I love seeing animals,” I said, watching the slowly shortening end of my cigarette, “you have any favorite animals? I like otters.”

  “What’s an otter?”

  “They’re semiaquatic mustelidae… they’re small and long animals that are covered in fur and like to swim.” I explained.

  “I want to see otters!” my son said, honestly making me feel a little proud.

  “If they have them,” Gevaudan comforted him, and I rather liked the tone she used. A little bit of comfort that he was in the right place.

  “I better let you go then, don’t want to interrupt zoo time,” I admitted, sighing as I sat back up in the bed, “I love you, Marty.”

  “I love you too, mommy,” Martin told me, before happily adding on, “have a nice day!”

  “Right back at you,” I said, trying to sound a bit confident in it.

  There was a pause, and Gevaudan asked me, now sounding off speaker, “are you going to be okay, Mary?”

  “I’ll live,” I answered, feeling only a little better than I had before the call, “I have to get going, I’m going to make a couple calls. I want to stay out of the house as long as I can.”