Aya didn't have a name for what she had been - or what she was currently. People had called her things but none of them seemed right and it really wasn't up to people to define her, she simply was. She still had some of her gifts but becoming corporeal had stripped some of them away. It was a pity but all things came at a price and she knew this well, she'd often made people pay that price. The curse however, it was a price too steep. She had thought she was free now that the witch had broken her spell but she'd been wrong. Her gift allowed her to go anywhere she wanted, manipulating doors to lead to anywhere at all, but she learned the hard way that the farther she went away from Aidan O'Reilly, the sicker she felt. Going into town for an hour seemed to be fine, but longer than that and her nose started bleeding and she started feeling light headed. Out of town? Forget about it, the onset was immediate. She'd been quick to put two and two together. She was bound - if not to Aidan, than to his home.
It pissed her off like nothing had in a long time. She wanted to explore and enjoy this new world but she was stuck on a farm with a witch. Needless to say, she was poor company and she'd evaded everyone in the house for a while, especially because three of them were damn witches and she kind of hated them right now. Nevermind that they weren't the same witches as had cursed her, she had to direct her anger somewhere. The lone human in the house was less offensive to her during her period of raging. He was so clueless and drunk most of the time. She'd sat with him once and he'd just asked her when she was leaving, thinking she was his brother's one night stand. Stupid boy. So she did retail therapy, five finger discount - more accurately 'stepping inside shops in the middle of the night and taking what I want' discount.
It had been a week and avoiding people was easy when she could manipulate doors and go wherever she wanted but now she was ready. She was going to be staying here for a while, whether she wanted to or not, she might as well make nice with the other residents until she figured out how to fully break the curse. The thought occurred to her that they might even be able to help - being witches and all - but there was no way she could trust them with that. They'd probably just stuff her back into a statue and be done with her. Still, her anger was wearing off and she was admittedly curious about the other non-human creature in the house. A familiar, she thought. So she let him and the girl witch find her when they came looking. She'd sat crossed legged up on a kitchen counter with a bag of snacks she'd obtained from a local supermarket and she was really enjoying the crunchy noise it made when she chewed it. Simple pleasures, having a body meant there were so many of them.
Shayna Mae had been distracted by so much this week that she hadn't thought much about Aidan's "friend". Well, that wasn't entirely true. She did still wonder where the woman had gone, and how much trouble she was going to cause them. Shayna Mae felt this was ultimately Aidan's problem, but they still had to handle things as a family. Having already met with Reagan Kelly about her problem, Shayna Mae sat on her bed with her family's grimoire in her lap, reading the notes that might help the other woman get her magic back later that evening.
And then Knox poked his head in to tell her that the woman was back... and in their kitchen. Curious, Shayna Mae set the grimoire aside and led Knox downstairs to where their visitor was making herself at home in the kitchen. She was very pretty, this woman, and Shayna Mae could see where Aidan had gotten distracted by his dick, but still.
"We were wondering where you had gone off to," Shayna Mae said in lieu of greeting. "I'm Shayna Mae, and this is Knox. Aidan told me a little bit about you, but not much."
Knox had been only briefly aware of another Presence in the house on New Years Day before it was gone again. Shayna Mae had filled him in on what Aidan had told her, and while he’d felt some vindication that his instinct about the bird statue had been correct, it was unsettling to think about some other entity he couldn’t identify being around. He’d felt her pop in and out since then, sometimes for longer stretches, sometimes not, but Knox could never find her. Her presence was muted somehow. It was frustrating as fuck to him. Aidan seemed to think she wasn’t dangerous, and Shayna Mae hadn’t asked Knox to really track her down, so he’d just dealt with it, figuring she would show herself eventually.
Then she did, and it was time to figure out what she was. After fetching Shayna Mae, Knox followed her back down to the kitchen. He stayed silent while his mistress spoke to the woman-thing on the counter, just stood behind Shayna Mae with his arms crossed, reaching out with all of his senses to try and get a handle on what exactly she was.
Aya could sense them coming, so she was prepared. She'd only seen pictures of these people so far so it was interesting to see them face to face. Aidan's sister was pretty, almost fae-like herself, and not much taller than Aya herself but Aya still sort of towered over her, sitting where she was. She'd never tower over the familiar though, the guy was a lot bigger than she could have imagined and she wondered just what he'd been before he was this family's familiar. "I'm guessing you have a lot of questions," she said casually after giving them a wave that was more of a wiggle of her fingers. "But questions are kind of boring and I don't have a lot of answers anyway." She plopped some chips in her mouth and chewed, letting them crunch between her teeth noisily as she gave them both a little shrug and a smile.
"Aidan said that you told him you were his familiar," Shayna Mae said. She didn't care if Aya thought questions were boring. If she planned on staying in this house near Aidan, Shayna Mae needed some idea of what and who this woman was. She wouldn't feel comfortable in her own space with a virtual stranger around, one who could potentially cause harm. "Is that what you really are? He told me about his inability to get back into the bathroom after leaving you in the shower. How he kept ending up back in his room. I'm guessing that was your magic?"
"My magic?" Aya said, quirking a brow at her and letting out a surprised little laugh. "No, but he was really drunk," she pointed out. "I'm surprised he got out of bed. But yes, I'm his familiar. We're bound together." She wasn't too happy about that, it limited her freedom considerably as she'd been finding out in the last few days and she wondered if the big guy standing guard experienced the same thing. Was it a familiar thing too? Because she wasn't really a familiar, Aidan hadn't summoned her as such, this was something else; another piece of the puzzle and another damn branch of her curse. "He gets it," she said with a click of her tongue as she pointed at Knox and winked.
Knox didn’t doubt that Aidan was wasted, but he could usually find his way from his bedroom to the bathroom and back when he needed to. He knew this creature hadn’t been completely magically quiet, he could smell the residue of it everywhere, it was just so frustratingly foreign and vague and unidentifiable. That worried him more than her presence alone. What if she’d been sent by their enemies? What if she was some sort of demon in disguise? “I don’t get anything,” he said flatly. Knox still couldn’t place what the fuck this girl was, even being in the same room. “Aidan didn’t call for you, didn’t bind you, you’re not his familiar.” Aidan didn’t need another familiar.
It didn't set well with Shayna Mae that the woman was lying to them. She supposed there was the small possibility that the woman didn't know what she was, and that maybe she and Aidan were bound together... but it gave Shayna Mae a bad feeling, regardless. Aidan would be lucky if she didn't wring his neck later. "You came from the bird," Shayna Mae said, keeping her tone amiable, rather than annoyed. If they were stuck with this woman, it wouldn't do them any favors to start this off with hostility, especially as they didn't know the limits of her magic. "You're not a familiar, but you're certainly something. Are you truly bound to Aidan? Is that why you're still here? I can't imagine someone like you wanting to hang around a place like this unless you have to."
"Well, you're no fun," Aya told Knox with slightly exaggerated disappointment before rolling her eyes and turning her attention to Shayna Mae. "You are smarter than your brother," she conceded. "But also no fun. Right though, I'm not loving the whole bonding bullshit but he stole my statue so here we are." She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees as she squinted with one eye. "Don't go getting any fancy ideas about putting me back in the statue, it's broken. Cat's out of the bag so to speak." She pursed her lips to the side momentarily, amused. "I'm the cat," she added as a way of explanation, in case they were idiots. "Well, bird, really. Analogies are weird."
Knox thought he was plenty of fun, when his family was safe and happy and there weren’t strange intruders wandering around the well-warded house. It wouldn’t do any good to grumble about it, though. He didn’t think this being was a cat or a bird, not like he could be, anyway, but he was probably taking her too literally. He tended to do that when he was upset, and this was upsetting. Knox didn’t answer, just glanced between the creature and Shayna Mae.
"I'm not here to be fun for you," Shayna Mae simply. "This is our house. We can try to break the bond between you and Aidan, and we won't try to put you back into any kind of container, as long as you don't cause any trouble for us here." She wasn't thrilled about having an outsider in the house, especially one capable of some kind of magic, but there wasn't much they could do about it until they could break whatever it was bonding the woman to Aidan. If they had to put up with this person, then Shayna Mae wanted things to be as easy as possible for everyone. She didn't really have the patience for anything else.
"You'd do that? Break the bond?" Aya asked, feigning a hopeful look for a moment before her expression turned neutral again. She uncrossed her legs and slid down until she dropped silently to her feet, taking one step closer to Shayna Mae. "You're very pretty," she told her, studying her face as she spoke and while that didn't have anything to do with anything, she felt compelled to tell her before she actually spoke her mind. "I'm not here to hurt you or your little brother," she murmured then, dropping the facade. "But I trust you about as much as you trust me so whatever ritual you have in mind? I won't be helping you." She would never voluntarily step inside a witch's spell again, she knew that much. If anything she'd disrupt the work as much as she possibly could because she had no way of knowing if Shayna Mae was actually trying to break the spell or banish her to some hell dimension. Witches were tricky and Aya wasn't a big fan of their work. She smiled again. "Don't worry though, you'll barely know I'm here."
Shayna Mae's spine straightened when Aya took a step toward her. She was ready to defend herself if she needed to, but she didn't think the woman would try anything, not with Knox standing there too. "I have no intention of hurting you," Shayna Mae said, though she had the instinctive feeling that nothing she said in that moment would reassure Aya. They were strangers to one another, and Shayna Mae could understand Aya's apprehension. Shayna Mae would have felt the same way, had their roles been reversed. That didn't mean she wouldn't try to break whatever bond was between Aya and Aidan. If she couldn't get Aya back to where she had been, she would at least try to get her unbound from their home. Ultimately Aya was Aidan's responsibility, but Shayna Mae didn't know how responsible Aidan would be about it. And she didn't like making threats. That would create too much hostility in the house. Shayna Mae would just have to figure out this problem without Aya's help...which she was confident she could do. "Just please be mindful of the people here, and the fact that this is our home. We don't want any trouble."
Aya gave her a pained look for a moment because Shayna Mae might as well have said they didn't want any fun. It was fun to bother people, to make them get lost, to make them lose things and watch them curse and stomp around. "No trouble in this house," she agreed sulkily and she had to admit that having a woman in this house made things trickier for her. It was impressive that she seemed to be in charge even if she was very young and not imposing at all but a house full of men would have been far more fun to mess with. She supposed she could have her fun elsewhere for now, with people less likely to catch her and hurt her. Looking at Knox she arched a brow, amused. The familiar was like furniture at the moment, imposing and ready to strike furniture but still furniture, stock still and looming. Aya had no doubt he could do serious damage if he wanted to but his witch seemed to be keeping him in check. That was power. "Keep your boys on a leash, little mama. You won't even know I'm here," she murmured, then started backing up toward the door, not quite ready to turn her back on these people though she made it look casual, almost like a little dance.
Knox was indeed ready to strike if the situation called for it, both physically and magically. He wasn’t sure he could actually hurt this creature, because he still didn’t know what she was, but if it came to defending Shayna Mae, he would do anything to keep her safe. He watched the woman-spirit carefully as she started backing up toward the door that led outside, wondering if she was impervious to the cold like he was, how far her range away from Aidan was, what the extent of her powers were. She could be placating them, agreeable to their faces and wreaking havoc behind their backs. Knox was definitely going to keep an eye on her. “I’ll always know you’re here, so watch yourself,” he warned Aya himself, his voice low and serious.
Shayna Mae lifted a hand to rest on Knox's arm, but she kept her gaze on Aya. She wasn't afraid, but she was extremely perturbed with her brother for bringing this creature into their home so carelessly. Knox didn't need a leash, but Aidan might. Hopefully this wouldn't turn out to be a total disaster. But even if Aya was difficult, Shayna Mae still planned on finding a way to break her bond with Aidan. She would do anything to protect her family, even if it turned out to be unsavory. "Be careful outside. We have a lot of magic placed in the woods around us. I'm sure you can feel it, but just in case you can't... the perimeters could be uncomfortable for someone like you. Just be mindful of it."
Aya only just managed not to laugh at Knox's threat, even if she was taking it seriously. She gave him an amused look, lips pressed together to smother that urge before she turned her attention to Shayna Mae again. "I will be mindful," she said, her amusement only peaking. She wasn't going outside, that door would lead her elsewhere because she would will it to do so. It was still vital information and she had to admit she was surprised Shayna Mae had offered it up to her. A trick, perhaps, to make her more trusting. It was something Aya probably would have figured out on her own so that made it a low-cost offering. It was smart, guarding against the woods, any witch worth their weight would do that and Aya knew this from what she'd gleaned from Aidan, the woods hadn't changed, they were still hostile to humans. She turned once she felt the door at her back, opening it and stepping outside - inside elsewhere. They would have to watch closely to see through the glamor that she really was just right there, outside their door. "Bye," she said playfully, wiggling her fingers at them before shutting the door between them.
It was such a strange encounter, made even stranger by how the door didn’t open to their back porch like it usually did, but some other room somewhere else. It made Knox’s back feel tight. That must’ve been how she’d kept Aidan all confused on his way to the bathroom, or whatever had happened. Once Aya was gone, Knox gave Shayna Mae an uncertain look, his hand coming up to rest on her back now that they were alone again. “I don’t like it,” he murmured to his mistress, a bit sullenly. The house didn’t need another familiar, he fulfilled all those roles for all of them, and he didn’t like another semi-incorporeal being hanging around. “I knew there was something fucky about that statue as soon as I touched it.”
"I don't like it either," Shayna Mae said, watching Aya go before she sighed and looked up at Knox. "But there's nothing we can do about it now. I'll have to find out exactly what this bond between her and Aidan is, and if it can be broken. But until then, we'll just have to keep an eye on her. Make sure she doesn't hurt dad, or Max." She felt like she could handle this on her own, but if not, well, at least she knew some witches in town who she could call on. Shayna Mae took Knox's hand and brought it to her lips to kiss his fingers. "Try not to worry yourself too much. If she tries anything, you'll know before we will, and we can handle it."
Knox took his role as protector of the family very seriously, and none of this set well at all. But it was what it was, and they would just have to deal with it. He would just be extra on his guard from here on out. He squeezed Shayna Mae’s hand gently and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “I’ll take care of us,” he murmured to her. “I love you.” He loved them all and he would guard dog them all, but Shayna Mae was special. She was their matriarch and destined for great things. Knox wasn’t going to let some upstart cursed spirit fuck that up in any way. They would deal with it, he would just trust in his witch-woman and stay alert.