by Jo Penn
Labels. Ran remembered what else he had come down here for and made his way to the insanely large walk in pantry. He panted a little. Man, the fun he could have in here! Something dinged and then the smell of beef casserole and red wine wafted his way, followed by bread, and if he wasn’t mistaken, some sort of roast chicken and gravy dish. Rushing out of the pantry where he’d only managed to do a little of his “sorting,” he pulled up a chair where Eber pointed and grabbed the cutlery, immediately eating.
“Wow, I thought I was hungry. Think you win, Ran.” Jayce sat on the other side of the kitchen table leisurely eating a cream puffed pastry. “Want one?”
Ran did, practically salivating. The siren wasn’t so bad after all, he found out. They talked about video games, cars, and Jayce was a fountain of information about his family. Eber joined in a bit but mostly he worked on a little handheld tablet with some very delicate tools.
“Why don’t you eat?” Ran asked the big gargoyle.
“I did before. Still hungry?”
Ran had eaten three containers of food, bread, and a dozen cream puff pastries, and he’d gagged on yogurt Jayce insisted he try. He’d then had a hot dog that Jayce hysterically laughed over after saying it was made from soy, Ran having to admit it wasn’t so bad, and he even had a bowl of ice cream with sprinkles on top. All the while Eber monitored a security panel, got food for them, and worked on his little tablet.
“No, thanks.”
“He’s a gargoyle, a bit like a big, bossy shifter.” Jayce licked chocolate off his fingers. The guy was like a twig but he ate like a bear. “They’re protective, dominant, and take care of others. He, Vic, and Lacy are the Alphas, though River can get a bit dominant also when he says he needs to kick our asses into line. Vic and Eber set up the security, so they know when any of us get up and wander around. Right now he’s paying attention to Mac watching a movie in the family room.”
Ran scraped up the last of his ice cream with his spoon and licked it clean, nodding, eyes darting to the walk-in pantry.
“What’re you up to, brother?”
Ran looked around before realizing Eber was talking to him. “Me?”
“Yes, you are mated to one of my siblings, which makes us family. As such, I will be watching you closely.”
Eep! Ran wiggled a little in his seat, but when he saw Jayce’s big smile, he relaxed and pointed to the walk-in pantry.
“Err, it’s just something I need to do in there.”
“And what would that be?” Eber asked with more curiosity than concern.
“Well…Deak labels everything. He snuck in there earlier, I can tell, and he started labelling everything.”
Eber smirked. “Yes, I watched him, so did Vicus and River. It was amusing. At first I thought he was sleep walking, but no, he had a little labeler and spent two hours meticulously labelling one side of shelves.”
Ran nodded. “Yeah, he’s a bit OCD. Sooo, I’ve gotta change all the labels around now and remove some.”
Jayce spluttered out chocolate sauce, splattering it on the table. He laughed uproariously.
“And why would you do that to your mate who obviously has a few…issues?” Eber asked curiously.
Ran grinned. “’Cause if I don’t, once he finishes labelling the pantry, he’ll begin on the entire mansion, including each of you, your wardrobes, your clothes, shoes, underwear, electrical stuff, right down to what you have in your bathroom cabinets and side tables.”
Jayce and Eber just stared at him, a little slack-jawed. Ran just nodded.
“For real? I’ll just keep my door locked,” Jayce declared.
“Yeah, he’s already acquired a key from that scary housekeeper lady. A master key.”
“Shit. How did he do that?” Eber looked stunned.
“Easy.” Ran shrugged carelessly. “He’s pretty much taking over the running of the place, and believe me, when he’s finished, there’s going to be labels, protective coverings, and you won’t be able to touch anything—”
“Okay, okay, so what do we do? Get Layke to sedate him? Meditate?” Jayce looked frantic. “I don’t want to be labelled! I need to move, and, Gods, Blazh has to touch everything, can you imagine how crazy he’ll get?!”
“Settle down. I say we send the sprite to Sebastian for counselling,” Eber said decisively.
Ran just smiled and nodded. “Yeah, Vicus said he was going to set it up, and when he gets a little counselling, Deak usually settles down a bit. But what I found is, and we’ll just keep it quiet, okay? Cause, like, we’re family, right?”
Surprisingly, Eber smoothed a hand over Ran’s hair and gave vibes of reassurance and protective caring.
“We are. You and Deakin are now part of our fucked up, mixed up, dysfunctional family.”
Ran sighed happily. “I like that. And it freaks Deak out, family means suffocation and everybody touching everything to him, but don’t worry, I’ve got it covered.”
“What’s the plan? Can I help? It’s not mean, is it? I don’t do mean.” Jayce shook his head in such a way Ran thought it would come off.
Eber patted Jayce’s shoulder. “No, you don’t do mean, Jayce, you are good of heart. Ran knows that.”
Ran could see it. Jayce obviously had gifts like all paranormals did, and his were yet to be under control, and he was a bit eccentric, but Ran enjoyed that. He was liking the siren and could see they would be very close, surprisingly.
“It’s really simple. We keep Deakin’s attention focused on a particular area. I usually stick to the kitchen, the pantry to be exact. Sometimes there are mix ups with labels, and sometimes labels go missing, and occasionally, everything goes missing. It keeps him busy and when he goes hyper, I just let him label me.”
Jayce grinned. “Cool! We can do that, but you know what? Come with me, brother.”
Ran followed Jayce through a myriad of halls, Eber following closely behind. At a double door, Jayce threw them open.
“Ta-da!”
Ran gaped. “Oh holy fuck!”
A library. A massive fucking library. Oh yeah, Deakin could go crazy in here.
Eber gave a pathetic whine. “Oh, Gods no.”
“It’s for the best, E.” Jayce admonished with a shake of his index finger. “Can you imagine what would happen if Deakin got into your work room?”
Eber actually paled and crossed himself. Ran grinned and wandered around the library.
“Perfect. And a computer system. Yeah!”
“Yep. So all we have to do is move some books around, take some off the system, remove labels, and voilà, Deakin’s occupied and happily sorting.” Jayce exclaimed, hands flying about as he talked. “Where should we begin?”
Ran pulled a few books off a shelf and tossed one on a sofa, the other he removed the label from the spine and put it on another shelf. Eber whimpered then straightened.
“You two have forty minutes. Get to it.” He hurried away.
“Is he a little OCD?” Ran asked.
“E? Nah, he’s just the one who has to deal with the staff who tidy up and, man, our house manager is nasty!”
They worked for the next half an hour making a bit of a mix up with the books, and even on the library system, and Ran learnt a lot about the siren and his siblings. Macario was human and wanted to go out into the world and have a life as a human, but as he was an Aston, he’d be a target for anyone wanting to control Vicus, so that wasn’t going to happen. Apparently Lacy was trying to find a mate for Macario.
Blazh was cute and harmless and a lot of fun, also very loving and kind and got up to a lot of mischief when not kept occupied. He was allowed out with supervision and actually attended university and was receiving high grades. River was fun and good to them, making sure they did what they should, as well as being a cool big brother, and apparently they had a surrogate brother, a demon named Vinncent Aston who was away at present, but would be back in a few days. He was a mechanic, and on contract with the Alliance here in Milson City. They b
arely touched on Zander. Jayce looked sad and just said that he didn’t know his brother really, that Zander had “gone into his own mind” years before Jayce was even born. Sometimes the brother was lucid, mostly he just sat and stared or painted. Sebastian was working a lot with Zander and the lucid moments were more frequent these days.
As for Jayce, until he could control his gift, he wasn’t allowed out for fear he’d be harmed, or captured, as he was a male siren and they were extremely rare and coveted.
“So you never leave the Estate?” Ran gaped.
“Nope, only if Vicus or Eber are with me and usually they just take me to a shop they’ve closed up for a few hours and let me go crazy, or to an arcade. They pay the owners off and close it up so I can go in. But I’m not alone, I have my siblings, and Luka, Laurie, Marco, and even Ace come to visit me at least once a fortnight. They are really good. Before Mac went crazy wanting to ‘live like a human,’ the dipshit, we were all good friends, along with Blazh and a few others who keep me a guarded secret. Lacy uses her witch magic to cast a spell on whoever visits so they can never tell another about me.”
Ran felt bad for the siren. Jayce seemed to take it all in his stride, but Ran could see the guy was frustrated as well, and maybe a little sad. Vicus was a good brother protecting and caring for each of his weird siblings, and to pay to close shops and arcades so Jayce could have some fun? Yeah, that was real damn good.
Smiling slowly, he looked around. “You know, it’s like two thirty in the morning, there’s no one around, and the city will be closing up for the night.”
Jayce nodded, not sure what Ran was meaning. “Okay.”
“Have Vic or Eber ever taken you for a night drive? They’re lots of fun. You put the radio on and pump the music, cruise the streets, and enjoy the night.”
Jayce’s eyes widened in longing. He did the weird bobbing his head in a way it made it look like it was going to fall off.
“I want to do that!” Jayce leapt around. “Let’s go ask Vicus or Eber to take us!”
“No, no, no.” Ran dropped his voice. “I can take you. Don’t tell Deak, but I learnt how to hotwire cars when I was younger. I still practice to keep my skills up—though I don’t steal any! I just practice.”
Jayce grinned. “Yeah, sure you do. But Vic and E will get real mad.”
“They won’t even know we’re gone.” Ran was sure of it. Well, eighty percent sure. Hmm, maybe forty percent.
Well, it didn’t matter anyway, Jayce needed an outing and now was the perfect time with no one about to catch a whiff or sight of the siren and if they took the time to ask, they’d miss their small window of joy riding opportunity.
So they decided to forgo the asking and apologize later. Jayce led the way out, showing how he’d learnt to override the security system and made it look like he and Ran had returned to their rooms. Instead they snuck into the garage where Ran drooled over the cars.
“That one. Sweet.” Ran slid his hands over the black bonnet of a hotted up Mustang.
“That’s one of Eber’s.”
“Whose is that?” Ran pointed to a decked out racing car.
“River’s. Yeah, he has a wild side, loves to drag race and let off steam. Must be hard being a straight lace attorney all the time.” Jayce tapped in a code on a security panel and the garage doors opened. “They don’t keep the keys near the cars, so choose and get to work before we’re busted and I never get to joyride.”
It didn’t take Ran long to hotwire the Mustang and take over the on-board computer, he’d actually studied up on how to do that over the years and though he never stole cars, he did stay in touch and practiced occasionally when he spotted a newer car or a hotted up one. He’d break in, take over the system then shut it down and get out, locking it up again. It was kind of bad but it was his one itty bitty weakness.
As soon as they got off the Estate, and surprisingly that was freaking easy, they pumped up the music and danced around, Jayce laughing and singing and telling Ran to go faster, then slow down when he wanted to check something out they were driving past. It wasn’t long before they were bopping and cruising through back streets and the next thing Ran knew, a cop car was flashing its lights behind them.
“Oh shit!” Jayce screamed. “Go!”
“No way! That’ll get us into more trouble.” Though Ran did contemplate it until he saw a huge falcon fly across the front of their car and circle them. “Oh man, for real? Ten minutes, that’s all it took to track us down?”
“Yeah, longer than I thought.” Jayce grinned. “So worth it.”
He held his hand up for a fist pump when Ran stopped and pulled the car over to the side. Ran smiled and bumped fists.
“It was.”
The wolf that had pulled them over didn’t seem to think so, especially when Vicus appeared between him and their car. Due to being part wizard, Vicus could magic his clothes back on after shifting, a handy trick Ran wouldn’t mind having for then Deak may stop complaining Ran was the slowest dresser in the entire frigging universe!
Whatever the Avenger said had the police wolf scrambling away, fear permeating the air. Vicus opened the driver’s door and pointed to the tiny seat in the back of the car.
Sighing, getting the drift, Ran unbuckled and climbed over the back as Vicus climbed in, closed the door and started the car.
“Buckle up, mate. Then explain.”
Ran buckled up. “Just a joyride, a bit of fun, you know? No biggie.”
“But it is, my wolf. Jayce must be protected, as must you be. Neither of you can defend yourselves—”
“I wanted to go for a joyride!” Jayce tapped his brother’s arm. “Please, Vic. Whatever punishment after we deserve, I know, I shouldn’t have taken off and gotten into the security system, but when Ran talked about joyriding…freedom, Vicus.”
Vicus studied his brother, sweeping a gentle hand over Jayce’s hair. “Of course, little brother. You only had to say and I will arrange. Whenever you wish to joyride, we will go.”
Ran leant forward, wiggling out of the seatbelt and climbed into Vicus’s lap, the Avenger not batting an eye. Smiling, he sniffed the creature deeply, kissed his throat and patted his chest.
“Joyriding means loud music, dancing in your seat and talkin’ shit. Can you do that?”
Vicus frowned. “I have not done that before. Perhaps it is time you educated me in the ways of joyriding.”
Grinning, Ran wiggled off his mate, noting the Avenger’s grip tightened momentarily before letting him go back to his seat. “Show him, Jayce.”
“Yay!”
So they drove around for another forty minutes, music loud, talking shit and moving with the music. Vicus didn’t move around, he didn’t sing, but he did talk shit, mostly stirring them and telling stories of some of the things he’d seen around the Valley, like the time Tredd Croggen had gotten stuck in a briar bush or when Marco Sanchez accidently shot his brother Baron three times with a dart gun then they had to retrieve Baron after he rolled down a hill unconscious and got wedged between some trees.
By the time they arrived home, yeah, it felt like home to Ran now, they were tired. Eber sent Jayce up to his apartment to get some rest while Ran, hungry again, went to the kitchen and sniffed his other mate.
“Deak?”
Deakin popped out of the pantry holding a label and a jar. The part sprite’s hair was doing something inhumanly bizarre, his pajamas were skewed and the buttons done up incorrectly and the mate had a fanatical look in his soft blue eyes.
“Oh good, you’re back. We’re going to have a chat about stealing cars and joyriding, right after I finish with these preserves. Did you know they don’t have expiry dates on them? Who does that? I’m going to be having a word with the house manager. Someone isn’t doing their job properly!” Deak slid back into the pantry.
Ran’s smile was a bit whimsical, and probably dopey, but he didn’t care, especially when Vicus wrapped his arms around him from behind and pressed a k
iss to Ran’s cheek. He was a very fortunate wolf, Ran knew that, and would never forget it.
“I’ll be watching you closely from now on, kjærlighet,” Vicus said softly. “I think it best I keep security on you whenever you are away from my sight. You seem to attract attention, and have moments where you forget you should not be wandering off by yourself.”
Ran frowned. “I wasn’t by myself. And I didn’t wander off. I went joyriding. Big difference, mate. Want something to eat? I’m starving.”
As Vicus didn’t let him go, and use to that with Deakin who Ran sometimes considered had a bit of boa constrictor in him the way the mate could hold on so tight, Ran gave a few little hints to the Avenger. He moved a bit, then when Vicus didn’t let him go, nudged with his hands against the tight arms. When that didn’t work, he began wiggling.
“Be calm, mate,” Vicus purred. “Eber, I want to hear there will be no more sneaking out of the Estate for anyone.”
Ran calmed down when Vicus told him to and blinked up at the big gargoyle brother who did not look very happy. Oops, probably not wise to tick off that sort of creature, they were the authoritative, don’t back talk type. Ran frowned at the arm around his chest and began wiggling again.
What was it with his mates and hugging him?
“There will be no more unauthorized outings,” Eber growled.
“Oh, he does that all the time, just slips out. You have to nail the windows shut and put bars across them. But he’s a little thing and can just wiggle through if the bars are too far apart.” Deakin came out of the pantry and washed his hands. “How about a nice healthy soup, babe?”
By now Ran was panting and probably looking like a rabid wolf while trying to wiggle and squirm out of Vicus’s arms. Gods, why couldn’t they just give a teeny tiny hug, like, a half second one?!
At the mention of soup, Ran sighed and nodded. “Yeah, okay, soup. Make it a big thick beef one—”
“I was thinking zucchini.” Deakin winked. “’Cause you know that’s your least favorite.”
Ran sagged in Vicus’s arms. “Babe.”
