23 Chapter 23 - Unexpected Trouble

Jamie recovered before I could announce my suspicion of who my ninth bond belonged to. As soon as she had finished her awakening a delighted smile spread across her pretty face lighting it up. Then she pushed aside the blanket that covered her to reveal the hospital gown she was wearing and her long pair of smooth legs that poked out beneath it.

Swinging her legs over the edge of the bed she hesitated for a moment before standing up. Jessica quickly moved to her side as if she expected her sister to fall down. Yet Jamie remained standing with no difficulty. Tears began to stream down her pretty face, "I'm all better Jess." Jamie told her sister happily.

Tears started to flow down Jessica's face as she reached out and hugged her sister tightly.

"That is why." Karen told me from beside the chair I was sitting in trying to recover my energy. "Jessica would have never been happy with us if we refused to help her sister when it was within our power."

I sighed but nodded. While there were other ways we could have used to reach this conclusion, this was the fastest and allowed the twins to stay together. If that was what they wanted I had nothing against it, I just didn't want to irritate the already delicate predicament we had all found ourselves in. As well as they all seemed to be accepting it for the moment, I was sure there would come a time when they resented the bond to me.

"Stop thinking so much." Karen told me. "With as tightly as the bond has bound us to you, do you really believe it doesn't have the ability to help us stay happy?" Karen asked. "Haven't we been a bit to cheerful and accepting of finding ourselves bound to you? Some of these girls are little more than strangers, and while Megan was dating you, it was for less than a day, there is no way that girl was already planning to marry you. Rebecca got in fight with her husband but I never heard her say anything about divorce, not yet at least. Same with me, I was pissed at Michael, but there was no guarantee we couldn't have resolved it. Yet now we are all bound to you permanently and happy about it. You don't find it a bit fishy?"

I didn't meet Karen's gaze, the thought had crossed my mind, but what could I do? More importantly I was afraid of the answer, and even more afraid of one or all the girls coming to hate me. The bond would make sure I was able to feel all their anger and resentment, the idea was terrifying.

Karen laughed at me. "See, you are overthinking it again. If we have problem we will let you know, and you can sense it if we don't." she told me.

I sighed then nodded. She right, whether I wanted to admit it or not.

Before my energy had been completely restored the twins calmed down then turned to face me. Calidia and Karen smiled at the look in their eyes and stepped back from me.

"So?" Jamie asked shyly.

I smiled at her then stood up a bit shakely. "Congratulations on your recovery." I told Jamie as I moved closer and wrapped an arm around each girl and hugging them. Immediately I felt a strong desire to take it farther. Both were incredibly beautiful and twins no less. Now wasn't the time though. Especially not with their father outside the door.

"Your dad is probably just outside that door." I reminded the girls as I stepped back, resisting the urge.

Both girls seemed a bit disappointed but that disappeared quickly at the mention of their father.

"To be truthful, he is actually our uncle." Jamie admitted to me. "Our dad, his brother, died when I was seven, in the same accident that put me in this hospital."

"We call him dad, because he stepped up to fill the role afterwards, though it is still hard since his career takes him away all the time." Jessica continued.

There seemed to more to this story. Arnold had met Jessica at a foster home.

Before I could ask more to clarify the subject I felt a change in our surroundings. It was subtle, and it took a moment for me to realize what it was. There was a change in the zoo, I wasn't sure what it was but the situation there had changed, and it placed all of us in danger.

"Time to go." I said in a stern voice then looked at Jamie, "Get dressed quickly, things have changed and we are going to need to move fast." I told her then headed for the door. "I need to talk to the general."

"Daryl?" Karen called out from behind me surprised.

"Master!" Nala shouted coming into the room before I could reach the door, she was completely naked but I didn't scold her.

"I sense it, cat form please." I told her as I went past her into the hallway where a number of soldiers were staring into the room I had just vacated dazed.

An urgent feeling of danger came across my bonds, as I whirled around to face my women in the room I realized it was from Megan and the others. "How do I use the space ability to teleport?" I asked Calidia in a hurry.

"Don't think just do it." Calidia told me seriously her face turning pale, obviously she sensed something too.

I hesitated for a moment but I was too worried about the other girls. I mentally grabbed a hold of the space ability then following my instincts I thrust it towards the closest wall. A space tunnel appeared in the wall, it was gray in color, short and should have only led into the patient room on the other side of the wall, instead I could see the inside of a store where a lot of people were screaming and running.

"Move out!" Derek ordered quickly adjusting to the situation.

The four soldiers in the hall raised their weapons then went through the space tunnel in single file without hesitation followed a moment later by Derek himself a handgun at the ready.

"Keep me updated! Nala guard them!" I yelled to the girls before I followed the few soldiers who went through the tunnel myself.

"Keep it open." Derek told me once I was through.

I shifted my thought to the tunnel creating the intent for it to stay open until I closed it. There was a change in the way the tunnel felt a drain on my energy but it was something I could handle.

The store was a popular clothing store Nancy's or something like that. There were a lot of people around but they were all moving toward the front of the store in a hurry panic all over their faces.

I ignored the others and used my bonds to search for my girls. They weren't far, a few clothes racks over I spotted them. Emily was crying while Heather was trying to get Bryan back into his car seat while Megan was watching the back of the store. Knowing they were fine I moved towards them while glancing towards the back of the store.

Derek and two of the soldiers were fanning out and moving through the store slowly checking their surroundings carefully. The last two had stayed by the space tunnel to watch it.

"Girls." I said when I reached them.

Megan glanced at me then recognizing me she seemed to relax. "You're here." she breathed out in relief. Heather and Rebecca seemed relieved as well.

I nodded then scooped Emily up into my arms, "We can get you out through that tunnel." I told them.

"Let's hurry then." Megan told me. "It's a blue, and it has a lot of minions."

I nodded then hurried the girls back to the space tunnel and the soldiers guarding it.

Emily didn't want to go through at first but I ignored her and hopped through with her in my arms. The others followed me quickly.

Once I was back in the hospital I handed Emily back to Rebecca. "Stay here." I told them all seriously in the hallway as Karen came out to wrap her arms around Heather who seemed pretty rattled.

"Daryl?" Megan asked me worried.

I winked at her then went back through the space tunnel. If it really was a blue with several minions Derek and his four soldiers were not going to be enough to take them out.

Word must have spread, shortly after I went through the tunnel more soldier's came through. It was a help, but I wasn't sure if they would be enough.

I followed behind the new soldiers and made my way to the back of the store where Derek had already found the blue twisted. It was a large male with black hair, easily over seven feet tall, though given the appearance of its shredded shirt and the split seams on its pants, he wasn't originally that size. As Megan had said it had minions which turned out to be five green and two red twisted which were a mix of men and women.

The blue had a small group of people pinned in a corner near the changing rooms and was roaring at them angrily while the other twisted faced off against the soldiers, Marshal, Rosa, and a few other armed civilians.

"Marshal." I called moving up beside the big man and his cop girlfriend.

"Rebecca and Emily?" Marshal asked.

"Evacuated." I replied.

"Good." Marshal replied relieved.

"You bring the soldiers?" Rosa asked me.

"They came through my space tunnel." I replied.

"Huh?" Rosa asked.

"Got any useful abilities that can help out here?" Derek asked coming up beside me.

"I might be able to dump a few of them into a seperate space, or fry them with my lightning." I replied. "Once that blue is gone, the others won't have a leader keeping them in check." I told him.

Derek nodded.

'Master, I can bind a few of the lesser twisted.' Mary told me from my arm.

"Red and green or just green, and how many." I asked.

'Three, greens only master. The reds are too strong for me to hold.' Mary replied.

I pointed with the arm she was on at three greens to one side of the group. "Those three, let me know when you are ready." I told her.

Mary didn't reply so I looked over at Derek who was eyeing me warily for a moment. I hadn't noticed Mary was only talking to me. "How many can you take?" Derek asked.

I looked at the twisted carefully eyeing the blue who was pacing around angrily. I had no idea why it was acting that way and I had no desire to find out at the moment. The red twisted were closer to the blue while the greens were the closest to us. "I can catch the blue and the reds in a space pocket, Mary will bind the three greens to the left, that will leave the last two greens to the right." I replied.

'I'm ready master.' Mary told me mentally.

Derek nodded at me

I imagined a space tunnel leading to a new pocket I formed appearing in the middle of the three twisted. The idea was to have the door mobile so I could scoop up the twisted into the pocket. Blue first than the reds.

"Go." Derek ordered me. I repeated the order to Mary as I opened the space tunnel beneath the blue twisted. It didn't see it coming and fell through with no trouble. Immediately upon the disappearance of the blue the others started to go wild.

Gunfire met the angry roars of two of the greens while vines flew off Mary like bullets quickly wrapping around the other three greens tying them up.

I shifted the opening of the space tunnel towards the two reds. I caught one with no trouble but the second seemed to sense the threat and dodged away from the opening then rushed towards the humans hiding in the corner.

I didn't have time to shift the tunnel opening and the green was to fast to yell out a warning. I wanted to save them so I did the only thing I could think of. Black lightning flashed from my arm into the back of the head of the red twisted. It staggered then fell to the ground unmoving.