Chapter 117

Danny’s POV
“What now?” I yell, opening up the door to my room to see Todd hovering around it again. Thankfully, Claudia has taken Sophia for a walk with Mum and isn’t here. Sophia is moving around a lot more and is getting into everything she can get a grip on. Her and Mum thought a walk would be good for her.
“Joanna has rearranged the room for the 10th time this week. It’s doing my head in” Todd sighs, coming into my room. ‘Opening the door wasn’t an invitation’ I say in my mind as I turn to follow him in and sit on the couch across from him.
“Claudia went through this too. It’s not uncommon for mothers to arrange and rearrange the living space. It’s their way of preparing” I explain to Todd the same way Dad explained it to me.
“She’s also very moody. She yells at Doctor Fraser when he tells her, he won’t do anything to get the baby out now” he says, letting out another sigh. “I agree. Cameron will come, when he comes and then she yells at me too.”
It has been three weeks since our meeting and Joanna is due in 4 days. Todd has been coming over to our packhouse every day since the meeting, complaining of the same thing. I find it hard to not yell at him. **“You haven’t had any problems yelling at him from my perspective”** Jesse says with a chuckle.
**“I didn’t ask your opinion”** I snap back with a grin. Counting to ten silently, I turn my focus back to Todd; “Dad had to explain everything you are going through to me. Claudia was the same, just before Sophia was born. She had no problems rearranging the furniture; but if she had to walk up 10 steps, the world was going to end.”
*“Is Todd with you?”* Claudia mind links me. *“Yes, why?”* I answer her. *“Joanna’s just gone into labour. She can’t get hold of him. He must have a barricade up or blocked her out somehow”* she replies and I turn to scowl at my brother.
“Joanna’s trying to get hold of you” I snarl at him as Todd gives me a blank look.
“Why?” he asks, as though he did nothing wrong. “Why do you think, moron. She’s in labour. And why did you block her out so she can’t mind link you?” I shout back at him. Can someone actually do that? I didn’t think we could, but then again; I never tried to stop anyone mind linking me to know.
“Holy fuck” he screams heading out the door and I chase after him. He stops dead in front of me as I almost knock him over. “What do you mean I blocked her out so she can’t mind link me?”
“That’s what Claudia said. We can’t go into this right now. You need to get to your hospital” I yell as we both take off running out the doorway of the western packhouse.
How can he not know he put up a barricade? **“Maybe he did it by accident because he was upset with Joanna again. See if you can mind link him”** Jesse states and I try to open a link. *“Todd, can you hear me?”* I ask, to see if I can mind link him and it just echo’s in my mind. **“Nothing. We may have a problem.” “Ya think?”** Jesse cackles as we both get to his hospital wing.
“WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN? AND WHY CAN’T I GET HOLD OF YOU” Joanna screams as I head over to Mum, Dad and Claudia and hint for them to come with me to the waiting room. “Bunny, I didn’t block you. I don’t know why you couldn’t get hold of me” we hear Todd, pleading with Joanna as we leave the room.
“Dad, I don’t think Todd put up a barricade. I don’t how or why; but if I try to mind link him; I get nothing but an echo in my mind” I tell him as Dad looks towards the door we just came out of. “Can we stop people from mind linking us?”
*“Danny, come and tell Joanna I didn’t put up a barricade”* Todd says to me, through a mind link. *“Hang on. You can mind link us; but we can’t mind link you. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?”* I scream back at him.
“Danny?” Dad questions, looking concerned as I didn’t hear a word of his explanation.
“I just got a mind link from Todd. But I can’t link him back without the echo” I state, trying again and get the same echo I got previously.
“I was saying, I’ve never heard of barricading a mind link. I guess it can happen, same as when you barricade yourself away in your mind and we can’t contact you. But I have never seen someone in control of their mind be able to stop it” he explains again before his, Mum’s and Claudia’s eyes glaze over, probably trying to contact Todd too.
“I get nothing but an echo also” Mum says back to us. “Me too” Claudia nods. “Make that the three of us” Dad says, concern etching his face again.
“Does Jason know, Joanna is in labour?” I ask, opening a mind link to him only to get an echo back from him too. “I can’t get hold of Jason either” I state, pulling out my phone and messaging him.
“Mandy said she’s on it” Claudia states as Dad’s eyes glaze over again, trying to mind link people. “I got hold of Tim, Simon and Chelsea. I got the same echo with Cynthia, Brett, Rick and Denise. Now I know something is going on” Dad says, looking more worried as he messages Rick and Cynthia.
*“Oliver, we need you to come down to the east pack hospital wing. Joanna is in labour; however, we have a bigger problem we need to address”* I mind link him, thankfully it is getting through. *“I’m on my way”* he responds as Jason comes into the waiting room.
“Why didn’t you just mind link me?” he says, heading to the doorway to go see Joanna. “We can’t” Claudia, Dad and I all say at once as Jason stops and looks at us.
“What do you mean, you can’t?” he asks, a puzzled look coming across his face.
“We mean, we can’t mind…Hang on” Claudia says as Amanda comes forward. “Goddess Selene doesn’t know what is happening. She thinks Hades is up to something and Hecate is out for blood, so to speak. They will let us know when they find something.”
“We have established, you can mind link us. We can’t mind link you” I tell Jason as he opens a link to Simon who has come in through the doorway saying ‘yes I can hear you; Jase.’
When Oliver comes in with Tim, Chelsea, Rick and Cynthia we explain what is happening again. “Holy, mother fucker” Rick says, throwing his bottle of water at the wall as everyone in the nurse’s station jumps. “Sorry” he shrugs, going over and cleaning it up.
“Cameron Scott is here” Todd says, coming out of the doorway. We all move forward to see Joanna and the baby. “You’re lucky, I had the whole pack to contend with” I laugh at Todd, walking past him. “You may want to tell the rest of the pack” Dad says, coming up behind me.
As I walk into the room, Claudia and Mum are talking to Joanna. Her scowl towards Todd is relinquishing as she whispers something. “Sorry Todd. I honestly thought you were stopping me from getting hold of you” she says, glancing at the doorway.
“Can you please tell me what is happening now?” Todd spits, looking at me.
I move over to where Todd is at the doorway to quietly talk with him. “We aren’t entirely sure. It’s not just you. We can’t mind link Jason, Rick or Cyndy either. But we know you can mind link us. All we get is an echo when we try. Goddess Selene thinks Hades has something to do with it. Until we can confirm, we have to believe we can’t get hold of you via mind link” I quietly tell him.
“Oh, I thought Sariah or Leon was playing a practical joke on me with a spell or something” he says, dropping his head. “Hmm” I said, looking over at Oliver, then at Claudia.
“Hmm, what?” Todd snaps, hating I wasn’t elaborating.
“Todd, open a link to Claudia, Oliver and myself” I say to him. “You can contact us; we can’t contact you.”
*“What’s going on?”* He links as Oliver and Claudia look at me confused. *“Oliver, wasn’t Callum getting help from a dark coven? Todd just said something. I know Selene is looking into what Hades may have to do with all of this, but can you please get Sariah to look into whether or not the dark coven has placed a spell around the castle to stop us from mind linking?”* I elaborate for Todd.
*“Oh”* Todd says, catching onto what he said to help. *“I’ll see if I can. But yes, I can do that for you”* Oliver states as Todd closes down the mind link.
“You should spend time with your mate and son” I tell Todd, giving him a hug. “Congratulations, big bro.”