by Johanna Rae
“Tini thinks the Eros bond has been damaged. She won’t learn to control her beast until it’s repaired.” Eddie ignored the look his father gave him.
“Shit Jodie that sucks,” said Rufus. “Do you need coffee?”
“For fuck’s sakes, you have got to stop feeding her so much coffee. It’s not a miracle cure all!” Mark groaned.
“We can’t have coffee anyway, Ainsley broke the coffee pot,” Jodie pointed out.
“We could always have real coffee.” Ainsley suggested, pointing to the espresso maker.
“True... ” Jodie grinned in Mark’s direction.
“I hate to think what your insides look like,” he rolled his eyes.
“Are you staying for dinner?” Eddie asked his father.
“No thank you, I have many things to do before I find my way home tonight. I’ll let you know if I think of anything that might help with the transition. Thank you for your hospitality, it was nice to meet you ladies.”
The moment Tiniraumano had departed, Ainsley threw her hands up in the air. “Omigod Eddie!” She shouted. “Why didn’t you tell me your father would be here?” “I didn’t know you were coming,” he muttered.
“Don’t you two start fighting too,” Rufus sighed.
“I’m not angry,” Ainsley said to Rufus. “Well maybe a little bit... but not really.”
“That makes no sense.” Jodie screwed up her face.
“Yes it does.” She argued. “I’m embarrassed! I would have dressed for the occasion, greeted him properly and I so wouldn’t have broken the coffee pot.”
“I tried to make him coffee. I broke the cup, spilled the milk and dropped all the spoons on the floor.” Jodie tittered.
“You two are hopeless.” Mark groaned.
“I’m not hopeless, I just get nervous around people I don’t know well.” Jodie attempted to explain herself.
“If you think we’re hopeless then you haven’t spent enough time around Jessie.” Ainsley interjected with a giggle.
“Oh yes I have,” Mark insisted.
“She seems harmless enough,” Rufus shrugged.
Good grief, he has no idea.
“When she found out I was a chef she asked if I might be related to Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver.”
Despite having been present when the question had been asked, Jodie couldn’t hold back the laughter and she wasn’t the only one. Mark had plenty more ‘Jessie’ stories to tell and they were soon in stitches.
Jodie managed to put the meeting with Tiniraumano out of her mind and enjoy her evening. Everything had been fine until Ainsley decided she wanted to go to bed. She asked if Adam and Jodie would be sleeping in Eddie’s room again, to which Jodie said no. They needed their alone time and Jodie wouldn’t put Ainsley through that trauma twice. It left her with a dilemma though, where would she sleep? Jodie didn’t want to make that decision.
Adam must have known what she’d been thinking.
“Any of us will be happy to help.”
“But what if I-“
“Then we’ll heal,” he cut in before she could finish.
“I hate this!” She cried in exasperation.
“Who’s on Jodie-watch tonight?” Jarvis asked from the doorway.
“We were just discussing it,” Adam answered, his blond head swiveling to face the door.
“Must be time I took a shift,” he said.
“I hate this,” Jodie repeated in a more anguished tone.
“We’re doing our best to resolve it,” Eddie reminded her, “but for now you’re just going to have to accept how things are.”
“I know.” Jodie sighed.
“If you’d rather it be someone else, I understand,” Jarvis added.
He sounded disappointed, making Jodie feel even worse. Oh great, now I’m hurting people’s feelings as well as their physical selves.
“It’s not that, Jarvis. I’d be grateful if you were willing to help,” she conceded as graciously as she could.
His chestnut brown eyes lit up, “sweet! I’m just going to take a shower and then I’m all yours.”
Jodie hadn’t expected a miracle, but another night spent on the verge of shifting didn’t leave her feeling very well rested. Jarvis talking in his sleep didn’t help matters either, inbetween her episodes Jodie found it impossible to sleep with all the random chatter.
The first couple of times she’d tried conversing with him, even answering his questions. That turned out to be a big mistake; he might as well have been awake. Both Adam and Jarvis made it through unscathed, the only good thing to have come out of the evening.
After breakfast Jodie decided that she just had to get out and about. She’d begun to feel as though she might start climbing the walls if she had to spend another full day bound to the confines of the house. Jodie begged Adam and Jarvis to take her somewhere but Adam’s reluctance made that a problem.
Jodie wasn’t about to coerce Adam into something he didn’t want to do. After what had happened the last time he’d taken her somewhere, she couldn’t blame him for being apprehensive.
Jodie’s disappointment must have shown for Jarvis took pity on her. He mentioned that Rufus had planned to run some errands and he didn’t mind Jarvis and Jodie tagging along. They piled into the old Holden and off they went.
Though Jodie had no idea what she’d thought the morning would entail, she felt surprised when Rufus’s tasks turned out to be real errands. He withdrew several hundred dollars from the ATM and drove to the fruit market.
After leaving with a large box of produce, he then stopped at the butchery. Rufus and Jarvis’s Uncle Hemi owned the place and greeted the brothers with a mile wide grin. When Rufus had finished purchasing a sizable quantity of meat, they got back in the car again. The next thing Jodie knew they were in one of the less desirable areas of town.
Rufus parked in the driveway of an old state-house that looked like it hadn’t been painted in thirty years. Jodie tried to see beyond the cracked windows, the rusted tin roof and the jungle of a front yard, watching when the dilapidated porch steps creaked and groaned under Rufus’s weight as he made his way to the door. Jarvis dug around in the back of the car, trying to condense the shopping into one box. It seemed a hopeless task so Jodie got out to assist.
“You don’t have to help,” Jarvis said.
“I don’t mind,” she shrugged, taking one of the boxes before Jarvis could protest further.
Jarvis carried the box of meat and Jodie followed him into the house where Rufus embraced an older Maori woman. They drew apart and she held her arms out to Jarvis. After the greetings had been taken care of Rufus introduced Jodie to Edna Ramanui, their mother. Jodie also met Rufus and Jarvis’s three half-sisters who were between the ages of nine and fifteen.
She could tell that none were Therian so Jodie studied Edna and discovered that neither was she. It had been the first time Jodie could distinguish this on her own.
Partially disabled, Edna walked with a cane. She appeared to have injured her legs at some point and her movements came slow and awkward. Nevertheless, she appeared proud to hobble around her home showing Jodie photos of her boys during their childhood and sharing family stories.
In the car on the way home Jodie questioned the type of injuries Edna had suffered, she had no way of knowing the weight of what she’d asked. The brothers Ramanui were quiet for a moment and after some reluctance Jarvis volunteered the information.
Their Canadian father had killed himself when Rufus was twelve and Jarvis eight. Rufus had already been guided through the change but Jarvis had been too young. It became Rufus’ responsibility to show Jarvis when he came of age.
There’d been no choice in the matter because nobody else could do it.
Edna remarried when Rufus turned fourteen, giving birth to her first daughter a year later. When Rufus turned twenty and Jarvis sixteen, Rufus finally decided to show him how to change. His nerves got the better of him and nothing went as planned. His anx
iety rubbed off on Jarvis, compounding the situation even before their stepfather stumbled across them and panicked.
Confused and scared, he tried to stab Jarvis but Edna threw herself in the path of the large butcher’s knife he held. She came within an inch of her life, suffering massive internal damage and a permanent spinal injury.
Her husband fled, leaving Edna with five children and a lifetime of physical therapy ahead of her. She’d never worked again. At that time, both the brothers worked for their Uncle Hemi in the butchery. Things had been almost unmanageable at first, then the brothers had met Lancaster.
Rufus and Jarvis gave almost everything they earned back to Edna to support her and their sisters. They paid the mortgage, the bills, purchased her groceries and paid her ongoing medical costs. It was the reason they didn’t wear fancy clothes or drive expensive cars.
The fact that it had all been a terrible accident made no difference, they saw it as their duty to take care of their mother, refusing to have it any other way. Jodie’s heart ached for the trauma the family had suffered, feeling overwhelmed at the selflessness the brothers possessed.
The guys in the unit possessed a far greater depth than anybody ever knew. Doug’s words echoed in Jodie’s mind, he said they loved her because she saw them as more than the thugs that they were. After this small insight into Rufus and Jarvis’s life, Jodie decided that they were anything but thugs.
Chapter 27
Jodie and the Ramanui brothers arrived at the house just in time for Rufus to get ready for work, so he disappeared into his room. Danny and Eddie breezed in a short time later, fresh from some Therian business and spoke in hushed tones with Doug before going to get ready themselves. Mild chaos ensued until they were out the door and then the house fell silent again.
Jodie’s spontaneous decision to bake almost got put off by the expansive kitchen, she couldn’t seem to find anything. She stood at the door to the walk-in pantry staring up at set of scales on a high shelf when Doug walked into the room. Since Jarvis had been the only other one home it could have been a lucky guess, but Jodie had become familiar with everyone’s scents now.
“Can you get that down for me?” Jodie huffed in frustration, “please?”
“It will cost you, I get first sample of whatever you’re making.” He may have teased but Doug obliged without hesitation.
“After the number you pulled on my laptop, you were going to get first sample anyway,” she grinned back.
Doug set the scales down on the kitchen counter and surveyed the ingredients she had laid out ready to use, “are you making cake or cookies?”
“I had planned to make chocolate mint squares, does that sound okay to you?”
“Do fish swim?” He laughed and helped himself to a can of coke from the fridge. “I’ll have a cup of tea when you bring it in, you know how I like it.”
And with that, Doug sauntered off, leaving Jodie standing with both hands propped on her hips. I don’t think I have ever seen that man prepare anything for himself, she realized with a dumbfounded smile. How on earth did he manage to get away with that? Still chuckling to herself, Jodie moved back over to the counter and started measuring out the ingredients.
Sometime later, as she took the squares out of the oven, Jodie heard the soft tones of the security keypad in the rear entrance passage. Pausing with the pan in hand, she turned her head toward the door with a frown. None of the guys should have been back yet; their shifts had hours to go.
When Lancaster appeared in the kitchen, Jodie froze. This is a home, shouldn’t he knock first or something? The general strolled in with a casual gait; giving the misleading impression he’d come for a social visit. However laid back it may have seemed, Jodie wasn’t stupid. Unimpressed, she eyed him with suspicion, removing her oven mitts and crossing her arms.
“Can I help you?” Her polite tone belied the cool gaze she directed at him, Jodie didn’t like the man and didn’t care if he knew it. Relative or not, he had yet to impress her so far.
“This looks domestic,” he drawled, parking himself at the large kitchen island. His freshly trimmed grey hair and steam-pressed shirt gave him an air of importance. The collar lined up perfectly and every button sat flat in its button hole. Even the way he sat screamed text-book etiquette. Lancaster’s grooming always appeared so immaculate that it gave Jodie a sense of unease, it just didn’t seem natural.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” Jodie planned to stand her ground, at least as long as her leopard would allow. The beast stirred even while the thought crossed her mind.
“Look at you still struggling with everything that you are, drowning in a world you don’t understand.”
“It’s none of your concern,” Jodie bit back at once.
“I am of your clan, the superior to your Eros, it’s every bit my concern. You are naïve and ignorant Jodie, you’d do well to pay attention to those who want to help you.”
If they’d been outside Jodie would have spat at his feet. “You don’t want to help me; you only want to help yourself!”
Lancaster considered this a moment or two and rose to his feet, walking across the room. He undid all Jodie’s strong will just by advancing toward her. The firm line of her jaw disappeared and she began to inch backward. She couldn’t explain it but Jodie felt that if she didn’t bolt, something bad would happen.
He could see she felt uncomfortable and almost seemed excited by the fact. “I’m going to show you how things are done around here,” he told her with a smirk.
“What do you mean?” Jodie’s mask of confidence began to disintegrate. She could smell his dominance and it scared the hell out of her.
“You’ll come with me and I will instruct you.”
No, no, this is all so wrong. “I don’t want that... I would like you to leave.”
“Jodie...” he sneered at her. “You have no authority here; I’m the one who calls the shots.”
Advancing again, Lancaster’s fingers closed around her arm. Jodie’s leopard flared to life but she wouldn’t let it out for him, she would not be his puppet, she couldn’t. Giving into him felt so wrong. Though she hadn’t quite comprehended what she’d done, Jodie had halted her leopard.
Lancaster began to make his way back to the door. Jodie’s feet skidded on the kitchen tiles as he dragged her behind him, making a horrendous squeaking noise. She resisted him every step of the way but it didn’t matter, his size and strength far surpassed hers.
“Let me go!” She demanded as she started to struggle against him.
Without bothering to respond, he yanked open the security door and kept walking. Panic gripped her as she clawed at the walls, desperate to prevent him from making it outside.
“Help!”
Face distorted in fear, Jodie continued to beg and plead but it was no use, her chances of avoidance had disappeared the moment he had her arm in his grasp. Digging her heels in, Jodie fought him all the way across the lawn to the turning circle where his vehicle sat parked.
Lancaster shoved her into the back seat and closed the door. The moment his hands were gone from her body Jodie pawed along the door panel. Oh God, where is the handle? There’s no way out! She looked back at the house as Lancaster gunned the engine and saw that Doug had come running out, waving and yelling in brave protest as Lancaster drove away. Trying to play the hero and come to her rescue, he’d arrived too late.
DOUG HADN’T BEEN THE only one who’d heard Jodie’s cries for help. Danny might not have been close enough for the sheer desperation in her voice to pull on the old heartstrings, but he didn’t need that to know that something had gone very wrong. The moment Jodie had started to panic, he’d felt it. Of course he had no idea why she’d started freaking out, which caused a little freaking out of his own.
Danny had been in the middle of mixing a cocktail when Jodie’s distress filtered through the Eros bond they shared. The bottles plummeted to the ground and shattered as he leapt over the bar and ran for th
e side door. He’d been in such a hurry to get the hell out of there, he hadn’t seen the shocked looks on Adam and Eddie’s faces. Danny Archer had never been prone to panic, fleeing like that wasn’t his style.
Reaching under the wheel arch of Eddie’s SUV, Danny plucked out the spare key and let himself in. His cell pinged with a text alert before he’d even pulled away from the curb but he ignored it. It’s bound to be Eddie, Danny thought as he sped down the road.
What he’d sensed had been more than just Jodie trying to hold back her leopard. This was terror plain and simple. Something had happened and he damned well wanted some answers. It didn’t matter if they weren’t a couple any more. If Jodie needed him, Danny would be there.
Roaring into the driveway, Danny’s impatience almost cost ISIC a security gate. Driving through before it had finished opening, the paintwork on Eddie’s SUV only just escaped intact. He screeched to a halt in the turning circle and saw Doug’s lean frame curled into a fetal position on the concrete. Danny’s eyes widened and he jumped out of the vehicle, not even bothering to shut the door in his haste to get to his comrade. What’s Doug doing outside the house? What the fuck happened?
“Doug?”
Danny felt reassured that though trembling and hyperventilating, Doug still clung to consciousness. It looked as though he’d tried to crawl back to the house before the anxiety got the better of him. Sighing and slipping an arm around Doug’s torso, Danny hauled him to his feet. The guy could barely stand, talking didn’t enter the realm of possibility.
“It’s okay, we’re going to take you inside, get you a tranquilizer and it’s all going to be fine.”
In accompaniment to his calm voice, Danny let his energy wash over Doug. It helped, but didn’t reverse the damage. It was the worst panic attack Danny had seen him have in more than two years. He needed to know what happened, but Doug’s wellbeing remained his first concern.
Retrieving the first aid box, Danny set it on the table next to where Doug sat. He shook like a leaf as Danny prepared the needle, Danny had to wrap an arm around him to hold him still. Just as he injected the benzodiazepine into Doug’s bicep, Jarvis wandered into the kitchen.