Chapter 8
Zhen
After Kris left for work, I moseyed about the house for thirty minutes before heading out to pick Jo Jo up from the airport.
I was nothing but free at the moment, so it was easy enough to grab him.
And his three bags. He had packed to the absolute limit, but Jo Jo was an over-packer so I wasn’t the least bit surprised.
He wore his usual black T-shirt and cargo shorts, curly dark hair in a messy fringe that suited him. I grabbed him up in a quick hug. “Bro, it’s been months since I’ve seen you.”
“I know, too long! Glad to come out for that reason alone. Here, let’s get bags into the truck. Then feed me, I’m starving and missed lunch.”
“Sure thing.” I helped load suitcases into my truck, then he and I both got in. I focused on merging into traffic and getting us away from the airport. “Let me guess, gumbo?”
He let out a dramatic sigh. “I was craving gumbo the whole flight.”
“Gumbo it is.” Jo Jo loved a specific restaurant. One of the first places I’d taken Kris on a date, actually, so I knew precisely where to go.
“I can’t wait to meet your wife in person. Which, speaking of, I promised Meemaw I’d give you two a once-over. She’s dying to work on a solution for your little bond problem.”
I pursed my lips and let out a slow whistle. “I thought she was retired?”
“Oh, she’s retired. She’s also bored as hell. She’ll just be sitting in her EasyChair and working things out on paper. It’ll give her a good project to pick at and maybe she’ll come up with an answer for you.”
One of the many problems with slayers and hunters was we all reached an age where we couldn’t hunt anymore.
Normally by fifty we had to retire, as decades of injuries and hard work took its toll on a body.
Most chose to semi-retire and become mentors for the younger generation, passing on all their experience and knowledge.
But even that work was short lived, and by sixty-five or so, you were fully retired.
Jo Jo’s Meemaw was eighty and was not handling retirement well.
She’d been a spitfire as a younger woman, based on the stories I’d heard, and she still had the drive, her body just couldn’t keep up.
She was also the one who’d taught Jo Jo everything he knew, so if there was a prayer of someone figuring out how to undo Kris’s and my bond, it might be Meemaw.
“I’d love for her to tackle it. We’ve certainly hit a dead end.”
“Call her later today, then, give her all the particulars. She’ll be delighted.”
“Sure. She’s not going to dissect me, right?”
“Never know with Meemaw,” Jo Jo shrugged, unbothered by the idea of his best friend carved up on a morgue’s table. “It’ll be a learning experience, either way.”
“What, you won’t defend me?”
“You crazy? I stay on that woman’s good side.”
“Why are all the sweet, pretty women in my life dangerous as hell?”
“I dunno man, same reason why deadly mushrooms are fun colors?”
“Jo Jo! God’s sake, man, I told you to stop eating the mushrooms out of the backyard.”
“But I see such pretty colors and get fun dreams from them!”
We bickered back and forth good-naturedly as I drove through the city. It was great to have my friend at my side. I’d really missed Jo Jo over the past few months. We normally met up more often because our jobs demanded it, but somehow we’d had a dry spell.
As I drove toward the restaurant, Jo Jo looked me over. His words came out almost tentative? And a little probing. “You seem calmer now about the whole bonded-against-my-will. I know you were mad as hell in the beginning.”
“I wasn’t ever mad about Kris.” I felt like I had to clarify that. “And she’s been a gem through it all. Even when I put her in some really sticky situations. I’m mad this was done to us, but I’m not mad about her.”
He tapped a finger against his leg. “I mean, you’ve told me about her. I’ve seen pictures. I’m still trying to reconcile my adrenaline junkie friend being the one with the pretty wife, nice house, and picket fence life.”
I laughed, amused. “It does seem strange, right? If anything, it shouldn’t be me with the stable homelife.”
“I mean, you’re the most batshit insane in our group, so yeah. Yeah, I didn’t see this coming.”
“Me neither. Also not complaining.” I almost confessed that I might be falling in love with her, but the words caught in my throat. I did want to talk to someone my hesitations, but I wasn’t quite ready or sure how to put those words into the air yet.
“She mentioned she has a sister who recently moved out here?”
Yeah, let’s just leave that revelation for a different time.
“The sister isn’t really like Kris, personality wise, I mean. Compared to Kris, she’s the social butterfly. Well, or used to be. Charlotte’s also working through some stuff. Their parents are toxic as hell, and both sisters are no contact with them—”
Jo Jo let out a whistle. “Says a lot, yeah.”
“—and Charlotte only recently realized how bad they are. She’s deprogramming, basically. But she’s also coming around. You’ll likely meet her since she’s Kris’s substitute at the agency when we’re out of town.”
“Gotcha.”
“Kris is eager to finally meet you in person, too, and you’ll get to meet the—” I swerved to avoid hitting an oncoming car. “Sweet baby Jesus! Asshole dipped into my side of the road. People really drive with a death wish. Uh…”
“Brain flushed the cache and you no longer remember where you were going with that?”
“Uh, maybe.”
“Have you tried installing more RAM?” Jo Jo chortled like a loon and I was tempted to boot him from my truck.
“Fuck off, just because your brain cells cooperate with you doesn’t mean I’m as lucky. Anyway, lunch first, then sword?”
“Yeah. I don’t want to haul my gear to your house only to repack it to see the sword. Does he really have an ocelot?”
“He really does.”
“Is he a cat guy?”
“Runs a cat rescue out of his shop.”
“Ahh. Well, at least that makes this easier. I’ve seen people get familiars where they know nothing about the species, and let me tell you, that’s some funny shit to watch on the sidelines. The scrambling is comical.”
“I bet.” I’d never seen it, but I could imagine the chaos all too well.
Thirty minutes later, gumbo acquired and digesting, we were back on the road. Jasha’s shop wasn’t too far away from the gumbo restaurant, so after another ten minutes, we were pulling up at the back of the shop. Another day of thanking the parking gods.
I texted Jasha a quick here and he was at the back door almost before I could reach it.
In his arms, comically, was his familiar.
Literally draped over one broad shoulder, with Jasha supporting the cat with one arm like it was an oversized toddler.
The cat gave us a curious once-over with her golden-brown eyes, Jo Jo especially, but wasn’t at all miffed at people coming into her territory.
According to Google, this breed was territorial, but her reaction once again showed the intellectual difference between a wild animal and a familiar.
“Come in, hi, thanks for coming.” Jasha looked exhausted. Bruises had formed under his eyes that definitely weren’t there yesterday.
Jo Jo trailed behind me, dragging one suitcase with him, but his eyes stayed mostly on the ocelot, looking her over curiously.
I turned to the man of the hour. “You okay, Jasha? You look worn slap out.”
“Well, let’s say things were interesting last night.
I took this new baby girl home, and my neighbors were curious, but one of them flipped out, I guess, because the cops knocked on my door at about eleven o’clock, demanding to see paperwork.
Which I only kind of had. So I was trying to explain and give them what paperwork I do have, but I had to call your dad as a witness.
Thank god he answered. Your dad seriously knows everyone and was able to straighten it out with some higher-up over the phone.
But my neighbor was screaming the ocelot would attack her kids, like epically losing her shit.
The cop had to call her an ambulance because of a panic attack.
So. Looks like I need to move.” The ocelot must have sensed his emotions and nuzzled his cheek, to which he responded with a head boop and tired smile.
“Well, shit, man. If you need to come stay with us for a while to get that straightened out, you can. The top two floors at Grandma’s are also free to use.”
“I might. I seriously might if things repeat again tonight. Hoping it won’t.”
“Just let us know. Your rescue cats at the store still chill with her?”
“Yup, everyone’s just doing their thing.
My main trouble is she likes to be carried, like now”—he used a free hand to gesture to currently attached ocelot—“and I have to keep putting her down to get stuff done, but then she jumps onto my back, like she wants to ride koala-style, which doesn’t really work. ”
Sounded like new parent problems only the baby was furry.
Jo Jo was a huge animal lover. To the degree that, like my wife, it had gotten him into trouble on occasion. Like now, when he strolled up to a familiar who could maw his face if deemed a threat to her person. But Jo Jo showed no fear and cooed, “Hi, pretty kitty.”
Interestingly enough, she turned her small head to look at him and gave a growly, rumbling purr.
“Oh, I think she likes you.” Jasha stroked her spine, resulting in a louder purr. “So far today I’ve discovered she likes people in general, but only some people she’ll purr at.”
“That’s great, man, considering you run a shop and all.”
“After last night, I was nervous as hell opening today, but being here was better than staying at the house. So far window shoppers look at her and coo and assume I’ve got every right to have her.
And customers who come in mostly gush and ask to pet her.
Which is a relief. I mean, most locals are used to cats hanging out in the windows to sunbathe.
She’s just…a bigger version than the norm. ”