Carlos stared at his daughter for a few moments before he shook his head. “You need to be extremely careful about letting others get some of your blood. Especially willingly. There is magic in intention.”
Just when Eva was about to offer a different location, Carlos sighed. “What do you need me to do?”
Eva held out two vials and drew her old crystal dagger. It still lacked a bloodstone and therefore wouldn’t raise any uncomfortable questions about that subject. “Just a few drops from each of you. We’ve got potions inside to cure small wounds.”
Carlos stepped forward and ran his thumb along the dagger’s edge. Five drops fell into the vial. Eva capped it off and turned to Shalise.
Her heart pounded against her chest as she slowly reached a finger out. Three times she drew her hand back to her chest and had to take a deep, calming breath before trying again. Eva could feel her eyebrow twitching as Shalise pulled back for the fourth time.
“It’s just a shallow cut that will be healed in a few seconds. You’ve had far worse.”
“I-I know. I j-just…”
“Do you want Juliana to hold your hand?”
“T-that–”
“Or perhaps Arachne?”
The spider-demon’s grin grew three sizes in that moment. She took a menacing step forward.
Shalise reached out and swiped her finger across the knife blade. In her panicked state, she may have cut a bit deeper than necessary. It wouldn’t matter once she had healed up.
“Arachne, potions for our guests while I register the blood with the ward.” Eva turned back to Carlos and Shalise. “It’ll be just a minute.” She took a step to follow after Arachne when a thought occurred to Eva. “Don’t wander,” she said. “There are more wards that aren’t mine around here. Juliana should know her way around well enough, but if you ever find yourself alone here, don’t enter any building you know you haven’t been in before.”
Shalise gave a few eager nods with her finger in her mouth.
Carlos frowned slightly but nodded anyway. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Hurrying towards her task, Eva all but ran up to the entrance of her home. Her void metal dagger was out of its sheath the moment she stepped inside and out of view from the waiting guests. Both vials of blood tipped downwards to pour out the contents.
As soon as the blood touched her bloodstone socketed dagger, Eva felt it fall under her control. Two small beads of blood hovered in front of Eva’s face before she flicked her wrist. Both beads flew off into her room to join the already-in-place ward scheme.
She waited an extra few seconds for Arachne to return with two potions in hand.
“Remember,” Eva said, “best behavior. Even if he gets invasive. He is a research–”
“I know,” Arachne snapped. She actually let out a low growl as her teeth grit together. “I do not enjoy ferrying around these humans like some mule.” After a deep breath through her nose, Arachne unclenched her claws and her smile became more natural. For her. It still looked like she wanted to bite somebody’s head off. “I’ll play nice. Just remember your promise.”
Eva rubbed her own gloved hand against Arachne’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I remember.”
Plucking the vials from Arachne’s grip, the two headed back outside.
“Here, drink,” Eva said as she offered the vials to Carlos and Shalise. “Those will get you fixed up. Now, if you start feeling tingly, something went wrong with adding you to the wards. If the tingle turns to pain, run back out here immediately.”
“You do know what you’re doing, right?”
“I don’t expect any complication. Still, no sense in being unprepared.
“In any case,” Eva swung an arm out towards her building, “welcome to my home.”
Carlos froze as he entered into the common room. His jaw dropped slightly as he looked around. Shalise and Juliana had similar expressions on their faces.
Higher quality furniture had replaced Eva’s old couches, chairs, and table. The metal bars on all the doors had been replaced with wooden doors. The cinder-block walls had a fresh coat of paint. Everburn candles lit the room from their holders.
A brand new floor rug lay beneath all the furniture. This one was big enough to completely cover the treatment ritual circle still drawn underneath.
It was a shame that Eva couldn’t enjoy most of the changes. The comfort of the new furniture was the limit of her perception.
Arachne was in charge of the color coordination and general layout of everything. Managing anything of the sort while blind was near impossible.
It seemed she did a reasonable job. Shalise’s gaping mouth turned into a smile at some point as she looked around. If she smiled, it couldn’t have wound up as anything too terrible.
