Chapter 209 Chapter 209
With long strides, he walked to where he knew he had a good enough signal. Hitting Cal’s number, he stood and watched the house.
“Jesse?”
He investigated the black liquid in his cup, “yeah.”
“I didn’t expect to hear from you until later.” Calum sounded amused.
“A few new things to discuss.”
“I was just filling Blair and Gage in.”
Jesse took a small sip and swallowed it down quickly. “Is Shaelan there?”
“Hang on. Okay, you’re on speaker now, yes she’s here.”
Jesse sat down because his legs weren’t feeling steady now.
“What’s happened, Jesse?” Shaelan’s tone was in healer mode.
“I was talking to Leah this morning and I was trying to be careful like you said…”
“Is everything all right?”
He looked at the house, “yes, no, not really. I don’t know.”
The line was silent for what felt like an eternity. “Was Leah triggered?”
He nodded, “yeah, but it’s not like you figured, it wasn’t Evanna that came out, it was Minn.” He heaved a big sigh, “Minn is her cat and she came out with hardly enough warning and took off into the bush.” Jesse glanced at the fence, “I think the fence is for Minn and not Thera.”
“Oh.” That was all Shaelan replied.
“Thera took off after her, so I shifted and followed,” He got up because he couldn’t sit still, “by the time I caught up to them Evanna was laying on the ground.” Jesse paced back and forth, “Evanna had to take over Minn and was struggling to hold her in—she was in so much pain, in shock and shaking…”
“Is she all right now?” Shaelan’s concern was coming over the phone loud and clear.
“She’s resting now.” He took a gulp of the brew and almost choked on it. “I couldn’t get her to eat or anything. I had to carry her back.” It made him mad to think about what would have happened if he hadn’t been here. “I don’t know what they’ve been living on since the elders died, but the pantry is basically empty.”
“Okay, so some basic care education is needed.” Shaelan sounded so calm and reasonable. “There’s not a lot of data to go on with dissociative identity disorder as far as shifters go, Jesse, I’ve called a few doctors from the Alliance and they’re looking into some things for me.”
“Dissociative identity disorder?” He frowned, she discussed possible issues with him, but he didn’t remember what the tags were that went with them.
“I really believe that’s what we might be looking at here, Jesse.”
He nodded, “okay, so what do I do?”
“We could send someone…”
He cut off Calum, “No,” he shook his head, “I think that would just freak her out more.”
“He’s right, Cal, too many people after her isolation might put her into a spin that will cause more issues.”
“Okay, what do you need Jesse?” Calum was all business now.
“I’m going to try to talk to Evanna after she’s rested, Leah isn’t going to want to leave this place without knowing what’s to become of everything here…”
“I can talk to Devin and get someone sent there after you’ve cleared out and started packing the place up.”
Jesse clenched his jaw and thought about that. “I think the issue is going to be the graveyard.”
“There’s a graveyard?” That was Blair.
All shifters knew that graves that held shifter bodies were something no clan did. It could bring on a whole new world of issues if unsuspecting one-forms came across the bodies and realized they weren’t one hundred percent normal human skeletons.
“Yeah, and she looks after it regularly.”
“Shit.” That was Calum and now he was understanding part of the mess Jesse was in.
“I’ll talk to Devin and see what he and his dad can come up with.”
“What were you talking about that triggered her?” Shaelan’s voice was contemplative.
Jesse blew out a breath, “That we knew where those addresses were on her mother’s letter.”
“Oh.”
“I’m going to talk to Evanna after she’s rested and see if there’s a way to steer around that.”
“Evanna seems like the protector. Do you know who fronts the most?” Shaelan asked him.
Jesse frowned and looked down at Thera. “Fronts?”
“Who is out the most? Evanna, Leah, or Minn,” she paused for a moment, “there could be more, Jesse, you need to be aware of that. You will have to ask both Leah and Evanna because both may not be close enough to the other alters.”
His brain felt like it might explode. “I really hope not.” And he meant it. “Uh, Shaelan?”
“Yes?”
“How connected are these—alters?” He frowned, having no idea how to ask about something he knew nothing about. “To one another, in likes and dislikes?”
“I really don’t know enough about it to say, Jesse, I’m learning as fast as I can so I can help, but I do know you need to get her down from there so she can get the help she needs.”
He wasn’t going to argue that. “Okay, can you call me later if you find out more?” What he needed to ask, he didn’t want to ask in front of the men, he knew they’d get it, but already he was protective of Leah and Evanna and didn’t want to take a chance of snapping at something someone said.
“I’ll keep checking in with you.”
He nodded, then cleared his throat. “I’ll know later today how soon we can head down this mountain.” Honestly, he had no idea how he was going to know that. Turning, he looked back at the house, he needed to explore the other buildings and find things they could pack stuff into to carry down.
Three hours later, he stood looking down at the list he’d made. That was a long list and this one was just things that needed to be done to close up the place so they could leave. He blew out a breath and found himself wishing for a convenience store so he could stock up on energy drinks. Shifter or no, there was no way he was getting all this done in a day, he’d be lucky if he could in a week. He’d have to call Devin and see if some of it could be done by the team sent after they were gone.
Turning, he glanced at the house Evanna was sleeping in. How much would she want to bring with them? Better question, would Leah want different things? He’d tried to do a quick search on his phone to find out more about this disorder. After reading very dry reports, he was no further ahead. They hadn’t told him about the different alters? That was the word Shaelan had used, at least he was pretty sure at this point. The sites hadn’t told him if the alters liked the same things or not. All he did find out was this was something that had no miracle cure and no matter what happened going forward it wasn’t going to go away. Apparently, it was manageable, but he didn’t understand most of what he read from that point on, so he didn’t know how it was. Case by case was how they dealt with it, there was no point form list that made all people with it the same. Treatment was different for each one.
None of that was helpful. Rubbing his hand over his face, he tried to shake off the frustration. What he really needed to know was what happened if one of the alters didn’t care for a mate like him. What happened then? What if Evanna and Leah were both on team Jesse, but Minn wasn’t? It’s not like he could call up his father and ask about this either. Hell, he didn’t even know where to begin to explain this whole scenario to his family.
He frowned pulled out his phone and checked the day. Okay, it wasn’t Sunday, this was good. He’d never missed a Sunday call yet to his family. He had two days to try to figure out how to tell his folks about Evanna, or Leah… he had to find out who was out the most...
Thera came over and bumped against his leg. He looked down at her. She looked over to the house in the middle. Smoke was coming out of the chimney, which meant Evanna was up and had lit the stove. Tucking the paper into his pocket, he hurried to see how she was doing.