The lights in the living room were dimmed and Niko, her familiar, was settled on the table drinking from a saucer of unused sacrificial blood. It had been a quick tribute to Paimon, given their new home at all - and Zee had purposely waited until Istvan was out of the house to do so. Everything was already cleaned up, and they had fresh chicken frozen to cook with during the week, and eventually the bones would be dried and ground up for potions and charm work.
Zelda had been lounged out on the loveseat flipping through one of Erzsébet's grimoires, now that they actually had furniture for such things, when she felt someone cross over the protective wards on the property. The first thing she tuned into was that it was family, which caused her heart to skip a beat at the possibility of it being Yersinia. Although.. she doubted her older sister would knock. It was probably for the better that Van had gone out briefly, otherwise he would have flew down the stairs in protective mode - which was adorable but Zee would rather protect him from her family.
As she headed for the door she glanced at the clock to check the time, just out of curiosity. Regardless of the hour, she wasn't expecting anyone but her husband and eventually her son, to return home. Neither of them had such a heavy aura.
It wasn't until she was a few feet from the door that the familiarity truly hit her, causing her to smile to herself. With a wave, the door unlocked and swung open to catch in her open hand. "Are you lost little boy?" she asked teasingly right away, knowing it was Miklós - who wasn't that much younger than her, but he was the only family other than Thalia that she genuinely liked and trusted so.. teasing was a must.
Only he looked terrible. Like he'd just dragged himself half-dead from a frat party.
"Mik.. what happened?" she muttered quietly as her expression fell, reaching out her hand for his to bypass the wards as the other opened the door wider.