In all the time he'd known the man, Danny had never known Vlad to cry. He'd always seemed to poised, so in control, like there was nothing in the world that could affect him.
Aside anger, but that was another story.
So when Vlad had called him, sob breaking his voice, Danny had flown through the Fenton Portal straight to the man's mansion. He zeroed in on Vlad's ecto-signature and found him in his study, head buried in his arms and still clutching his cell phone.
"It's Maddie," Vlad cried softly. "She... There was..."
Danny had never seen the man at a loss for words. He bit his lip, wondering what to do. He gently laid a hand on the man's shoulder.
Vlad sat up a little, placing a bandaged hand over his tear-streaked face. "I was in the gardens. Maddie was walking with me. There's some development going in a few acres from here, and it must have displaced the wildlife. I'll have to move soon – I don't care for others."
He was rambling. Vlad never rambled.
"Of all things it could have been - ghosts or any other manner of monsters – it was a coyote. A normal, living, hungry coyote."
Danny paled.
"It didn't want me. It went for Maddie. I heard her scream and I lost it. I didn't even change, I just blasted the beast – third degree burns on my hand. I teleported Maddie to the closest emergency vet. They said they would do what they could but..." Vlad couldn't stop the sob that tore from his throat. "They called. I told them to... to go ahead and cremate her..."
Danny didn't hesitate when Vlad turned to cry into his chest. He held the broken man as he sobbed, the one thing that had ever loved him back now gone.
A/N: No Maddie isn't gone for good (I still have too many prompts to go through lol), but I felt this would be a fitting end for her.