Laura Jo Phillips (29 page)

Chandler grabbed a towel from a pocket in his apron and began mopping up the coffee from the table.  Maxim noted with some concern that his face was nearly white.  He was babbling apologies over and over so quickly that it was difficult to understand much of what he was saying.  

“Chandler, its all right,” Summer said gently.  “Please calm down.  There is no harm done, its just a little spilled coffee.”

Chandler looked up at Summer, an expression of horror on his face.  “But I burned you,” he said plaintively.  “I am so sorry, Miss Whitney, I am such a klutz!  I can’t believe I did that, I
burned
you.”

“It was only a little accident Chandler,” Summer said.  “And I’m not hurt, see?” she held her arm out for Chandler to see.  “So stop worrying, please, and calm yourself.  Everyone has accidents.”

Chandler shook his head.  “No, this was no accident,” he said.  “This was clumsiness.  I’m so sorry.”

Ran felt bad for Chandler and was trying to think of the best way to handle the situation when suddenly he sensed danger.  He glanced at Maxim and understood at once where the danger was coming from.  He could hardly make himself believe that Maxim would go into a blood rage over such a small accident.  Summer was not badly injured, nor had Chandler deliberately tried to harm her.  Nevertheless, his eldest brother’s eyes were glowing brightly, and that meant there was no time to wonder about the why of it.

“Chandler, please go to the kitchen and get a clean towel for Summer,” he said, using his sternest command voice in an effort to cut through the boy’s rambling.  It worked.  Chandler fell silent immediately.  He looked up at Ran in surprise, then followed Ran’s gaze to Maxim, gasping at the sight of the Katre’s glowing, golden eyes.  Glowing eyes on a Clan Jasani was a bad sign, and Chandler knew it.  He immediately turned and hurried away, his heart racing with fear.  He felt terrible about splashing Miss Whitney with the hot coffee, but he didn’t want to be killed for it.

Summer frowned as she watched Chandler practically run away from the table.  She turned her frown on Ran, wondering why he had spoken so harshly to the boy, then turned her attention to Maxim when she heard him begin to growl softly.  She didn’t understand the meaning of his glowing eyes, but instinct warned her to be careful. 

Maxim spun around abruptly and headed for the exit.  Summer glanced at Loni and Ran in confusion.  What was going on here? She wondered.  Was all of this just because of a silly little accident?

Ran hurried around the table and took Summer by the elbow.  “Come on,” he said as he guided her toward the exit, Loni taking up position on her other side. 

“What’s going on?” she asked, struggling to keep up with their long strides as they followed after Maxim.

“We aren’t sure,” Ran replied, his voice low and tight with tension.  “All we know right now is that Maxim is on the verge of a blood rage.”

“Blood rage?” Summer asked.  That didn’t sound good.

“When Jasani males get angry, especially if something happens suddenly that we aren’t prepared for, we can go into what we call a blood rage,” Ran explained.  “The first sign is glowing eyes.  Right now, Maxim is fighting hard to maintain his human form until he gets to the Shift Chamber.”

“And this is because Chandler stumbled and sloshed a little coffee?” Summer asked in disbelief. 

“That’s what it looks like,” Ran replied doubtfully.  “But it doesn’t really make much sense.  It usually takes something really extreme to send someone of Maxim’s age and experience into a blood rage.”

“Are you badly burned?” Loni asked.  Summer glanced up at him and shook her head. 

“No, not at all,” she replied.  “Only a few drops landed on me and it just stung for a bit.  I’m fine, really.”

They rounded the wide bend at the end of the corridor and stopped at the door to the Shift Chamber.  Loni reached out to hit the panel to open the door when they all heard a loud, deep, bone shaking roar come from within.  Summer’s mouth went dry and her eyes blurred with sudden tears.  There was such anger in the sound, and sorrow.  Deep, heart-wrenching sorrow.

The door slid open and Ran guided her into the ante room before releasing her.  They all stepped up to the thick viewing window and watched as Maxim, in his katrenca form, raced around and around the huge room, moving so quickly he was almost a blur.  Again he roared, and again Summer felt his sorrow.  And his rage. 

“This is not because of Chandler,” she said.  “It can’t be.  Its something else.”

“Yes, I agree,” Ran said.  “We need to go in there to find out what the problem really is.” 

Summer glanced up at him.  “How will you find out anything from him while he’s in that state?”

“When we are in our alter form, we are able to communicate with each other telepathically,” Ran explained.  “We need to go in there and shift.  Then we can hear from him what is happening.”

“Is it dangerous?” Summer asked worriedly.  “What if he hurts you?  What if he attacks you before you get a chance to shift?” 

“Do not worry,” Loni answered her.  “We would never attack one another for any reason.  Nor would any of us ever attack you.  You are our Arima and it is not possible for one of us to cause you harm.  Not even during the deepest of blood rages would such a thing be possible.”

“All right,” Summer said.  “But please, find out what is going on and then one of you come back and tell me.”

“We will,” Ran said.  “Wait here for us.”

“Okay,” Summer agreed.  Ran and Loni moved to the narrow door that led into the Shift Chamber and opened it without hesitation.  They stepped through quickly and closed it behind them.  Summer turned to look through the viewing window again, watching as they both shifted into their alter forms.  She could not help her gasp of wonder at the sight.  It was so beautiful to watch, and they were so magnificent in their katrenca forms. 

Ran crouched down low to the ground and focused on Maxim as he continued to race around and around the room.  Loni stood motionless next to Ran, neither of them moving a muscle for several long moments.  Then, suddenly, Ran leapt to his feet and both he and Loni opened their mouths wide and roared just as Maxim had.  Summer was stunned to feel the very floor beneath her feet vibrate with the sound.  She spared a moment to wonder if the ship would break beneath the power of the three huge animals, then shrugged.  If it did, it did.  There wasn’t much she could do about it.  Besides, she told herself, this room and this ship were built with just this sort of thing in mind.  She doubted it would split open from a few roars.

She looked back through the viewing window and her mouth fell open in surprise when she saw that all three of the Katres were now racing around the big room.  What the hell was going on? she wondered. 

She heard the door slide open behind her and turned to see Doc and Darleen step into the anteroom. 

“What the hell is going on?” Doc asked, as though he’d heard her thoughts.

“I don’t know,” Summer said, turning back to the viewing window.  She quickly explained what had happened in the cafeteria.  “Then Ran and Loni went in there to find out why Maxim was so upset, and now all three of them are running around roaring.”

“I can’t believe that they are all in a blood rage over a little spilled coffee,” Doc said.  “But we’re not gonna find out what the problem is till they either burn it off, or you stop it.”

Summer looked at Doc in shock.  “Me?” she asked.  “How in the heck am I supposed to stop that?”

“There are only two ways to stop a full blown blood rage in a mature male-set,” Doc explained.  “The first is they burn it off.  Race around like they are until they get it out of their system or their tempers cool down.  The second is for their Arima to sing them out of it.”

“Sing?” Summer asked, wondering if this was some kind of a joke.  “Are you saying I am supposed to go in there and
sing
?”  Summer glanced at Darleen to see if she was in on this joke too, but Darleen’s face was as solemn as Doc’s.

“Yep,” Doc replied as he continued to watch the katrencas through the view window.  “Either that, or let ‘em work it off.  The way they’re going, it looks like they’re good and mad about something.  It’ll probably be a couple of days before they cool down.”

“A couple of days?” Summer exclaimed.  “Are you telling me they could stay in there, running around like that for a couple of days?”

“Oh yeah, easy,” Doc replied.  “Or, like I said, you could sing ‘em out of it.”

Summer glared at Doc, then Darleen, but neither one of them smiled or laughed at her.  They must be serious, she thought. 

“Okay, I’ll go in there and sing,” she said in resignation.  She knew she was going to feel silly, but she couldn’t let them stay the way they were for days.  She could sense their anger, and if that had been all she sensed, she might have been able to let them run it out of themselves.  But aside from the anger, bigger than the anger, was pain.  Real, heart breaking pain unlike anything she had ever experienced herself.  And she felt it coming off of all three of them in waves. 
That
she could not ignore.

“What exactly am I supposed to sing to them?” she asked Doc.

“That’s something only you can know,” Doc said.  “It’s something only an Arima can do, and only she knows how to do it.”

“Well, that’s not much help,” Summer replied testily.  “I’m sorry Doc, I’m just a little worried.  But that’s no reason to snap at you.”

“Think nothin’ of it,” Doc said.  “Just remember, there’s nothing for you to be scared of.  There’s nothing that could ever make any of them harm a hair on your head.  Anyone else goes in that room, they’d be lucky to live long enough to wonder why they’d done somethin’ so stupid.  But you, you’ll be as safe as a baby in its mother’s arms.”

“Ran told me they wouldn’t hurt me,” Summer said.  “I guess I have to trust in that.”

“We’ll be leaving now,” Doc said.  “Whatever has them in such a state ain’t nothin’ any of you need an audience for.  I’ll get someone to stand outside so’s nobody else can come in.”

Summer watched as Darleen and Doc left and the door slid closed behind them.  Then she turned back to the viewing window.  She watched Maxim, Loni and Ran as they continued to race around the room with no sign of slowing down, and  wondered what she was supposed to sing to them.  She didn’t even know many songs, she realized.  Aside from a few Christmas carols she’d learned as a child, and even those she wasn’t all that sure of.  She supposed she could make up words as she went along.

Summer gasped as that thought led to another.  “Could that be it?” she asked herself softly.  But even as she asked the question, she was moving toward the door, knowing deep down that she was right.

She pushed open the door to the Shift Chamber and stepped inside, afraid that if she hesitated she would talk herself out of what she was about to do.  Even though she believed both Ran and Doc when they told her that the Katres would not harm her, she couldn’t help the relief she felt when they all ran right past her without slowing. 

She closed the door behind her and walked to the middle of the room, stumbling a little in the thick padding that covered the floor.  When she reached the center of the big room she knelt down, paused a moment to ask herself if this was the smartest thing to do, ignored her own answer to the question, and opened her mouth.

She sang softly at first, her voice a clear, high soprano that even she could barely hear over the pounding of racing paws.  She sang louder, the words she had made up to the strange tune of her music box coming to her as though she had last sung them days before, rather than years.

“
Ares tu, ami katrenca, ares tu ami maite
,” she sang.  “
Lasai, lasai ami katrenca, lasai ami maite
.”

As she sang, Summer suddenly understood what the words meant that she was singing.  She had always thought the words were meaningless, made-up sounds to go with the unfamiliar tune on her music box when she was a child.  But now, those made-up sounds made sense. 
What is it, my katrenca, what is it, my love?  Calm, calm my katrenca, calm my love
.

Summer continued to sing, lifting her voice higher and higher until she realized that the katrencas were no longer racing around the room.  They had gradually slowed until, within a few minutes, they all stood watching her, the only sound in the room now her singing and their breathing. 

First Maxim, then Loni, and then Ran released their katrencas and retook their human forms.  Her singing stuttered to a stop when she realized that all three of them had tears on their faces.  They walked toward her and knelt in front of her on the thick matting, their eyes never leaving her face. 

Summer said nothing to break the silence.  She simply waited.  After a little while she inched forward and reached up to wipe the tears from Loni’s face, then Ran’s, then Maxim’s.  As she withdrew her hand, Maxim caught her wrist and held it.  She froze, uncertain what he meant to do.  He waited until she lifted her eyes to his, then he slowly brought her hand to his mouth and pressed his warm lips against her palm in a lingering kiss. 

Summer felt an electric thrill race from the palm of her hand straight to her pussy, making her instantly wet.  She swallowed hard, not knowing how she was supposed to act, or what she was supposed to do.  She had never felt anything remotely like the arousal she felt now, and she really didn’t think this was the right moment for exploring such feelings.