(A/N): This chapter has been a long time coming. Probably too long, but its here anyway.
Leo
It was late the next night, the third night of Christmas Holidays, that Danniel burst through the front door at top speed, and barely managed to slide to a stop in front of me.
"He showed up!" For a split second I was confused, before I realised exactly where Danniel had been before he burst in.
Elaine's house. Guarding her mother and brother, from her father, Tarea Hugar.
"What?" I growled, and that wasn't an exaggeration. It was an actual growl. "And you left them unguarded?" I looked to Lisbet over his shoulder, and she immediately nodded and disappeared- on her way to take over watch. Danniel had a pained expression, looking torn between guilt and frustration.
"I didn't know what to do! I needed to tell you, but I didn't have any way to get in contact without alerting them, and after he left, I figured he wasn't likely to come back in the next half hour. Elaine's mum warded the place after he left, so I don't think he could get in again-" I slammed my hand on the table.
"He was inside? If he laid a hand on either of them, I swear to god-" Jo put her hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down.
"Leo, you need to put aside your emotions for a second so we can figure out a plan. Freaking out is for after we know they're safe." She was right. I hated it, but she was right. I took a few deep breaths to steady myself.
"...Okay, alright. Um..." I rubbed the back of my head, trying to think. "First things first, we need to figure out how to keep him out if he comes back- the wards are helpful, but they're not foolproof. Second, we need a way to communicate, quickly and discreetly, from a distance. Thirdly, we need to consider a way to protect them when they're not home- they can't and won't stay in that house forever, especially if they don't think they're safe there." I paused to think it over. The only solution I was coming up with was one I didn't want to enact, but I couldn't see another way.
"Does anyone have any sane ideas, before I propose mine?" Jo and Danniel eyed me warily, probably knowing that my version of sane was a bit looser than most, and worrying about what that would mean for all of us as a clan.
"Well, if it helps anything..." I turned my attention to Herc. "Its not going to solve your communication problem entirely, but..." He pulled his necklace out from under his shirt, a small silver coin on a leather band. "My clan use this charm in case of emergency. You will it to activate, and it sends a distress message to a corresponding object- whether thats another charm, or a beacon. You can have multiple charms connected to each other, so each of you can have one, if you need to." It was a good idea. It certainly wasn't elegant, but it worked, and would be discreet enough for our needs.
"...Okay, that's one problem solved. What about the other two?" No one had any suggestions, so I was forced to put forward my utterly terrifying notion.
"What if... we tell them we want to protect them?"
(A/N): Elaine got Tarea's letter just before Christmas fourth year, and this is fifth year Christmas holidays so its probably been about... about a year. It feels a lot longer than that to me, considering I wrote than chapter roughly six years ago. Also my thought on the twins is that they can control themselves around humans pretty well for the most part, as long as they don't get too close or spend too long in their company, so that's why Danniel was on guard duty.