Her Quest : Magic in the Blood

In the days that followed, Sonia tried to soak in everything her new world was offering. Although she had not visited any of their houses, because one or the other person would constantly come around to see her, she learned a lot about everyone in the Richard family, individually.

Uncle Jamey enjoyed building things every now and then. Uncle Jack liked to paint and Uncle Ray loved to laze around in his free time and joke with everyone around him.

The Richards ran a law firm together. The trio of them were lawyers by profession.

Aunt Carol had a shop in the town that Sonia had yet to visit. Aunt Kate was a perfect homemaker, while Aunt Cassie loved pottery.

Sonia was treated as family. Not an outsider anymore. She was showered with immeasurable love and care for the first time in her life, making her develop a strong emotion towards them, especially towards her Uncle Jamey. Maybe because she had never received any fatherly affections from anyone before.

She also learned that Emm liked to carve things out of wood in his free time. Ian much to her surprise, liked to read, while Gage was just like his father. He loved to be lazy all the time and poked his nose in about everyone's work. Nothing interested him too much. However he would observe everything very carefully. Dim was usually found working out or helping with plumbing, repairing and such work. The boys worked alongside their fathers, interning.

But the biggest surprise was Jake. The boy could cook, do dishes and tend to the gardens without so much as a complaint. And if anyone acknowledged his work, crimson coloured his cheeks almost immediately.

Sonia found herself bonding with Jake. She was more comfortable in his company. Actually, she felt at ease with all the brothers, except for Ian.

It was clear to her after a day or two, that Ian had been making special efforts to ignore her. He would change directions on seeing her, even turn down her attempts at a polite conversation. Soon enough, Sonia realised it and made it easy for him by keeping her own distance. However that was nearly impossible while living under a same roof and practically in front of each other.

***

It was a fine evening, when Ian poked his head in her room. Sonia was perched on her bed, typing away furiously on her laptop. She had to mail the article the next day and she didn't want to procrastinate it any longer.

Her brows were drawn together in concentration but oddly, her body seemed relaxed. Her fingers ran over the keys in a blur but her foot moved as if tapping in time to a beat. She looked so full of energy yet so tired and exhausted.

Ian had promised himself that he wouldn't be rude this time. Reminding himself of it once again, he entered her room and shuffled on his feet awkwardly before calling out to her softly, "Sonia".

She didn't seem to hear that and he sighed before trying again, "Hey there!"

That brought her head up, “Hey!" her lips were curled into a wide smile. His lips quirked up involuntary in answer to hers’.

Sonia's smile dropped a little as soon as her eyes took in his face. He noticed that and winced internally.

She's so carefree with the others, he thought.

"Uh, I am heading out. Mom and Dad are - well, they left for a party a while ago." This is difficult, he thought.

"Oh, okay. Have fun," she said with an easy smile.

Yeah thanks, but aloud he said, "Uh...I thought you might want to tag along?”

"Tag along where exactly?" A delicate brow raised in question.

Was it not clear enough? Gage always said that girls were good at reading in-between the lines. Surely, that was not the case here.

He fisted his hands tightly to keep the expression of irritation from showing on his face and took in a deep breath, "You are going to be alone here, so you can join me if you want,” Ian struggled to keep the annoyance from seeping into his tone and managed to do just fine.

“So nice of you. But I don't want to be a bother to you,” Sonia placed the laptop aside and got up.

"You'll be bored. Mom and Dad will be late and so will I,” he tried to reason and ran his hand through his hair. He sounded somewhat desperate. That was a first.

"It's alright. I have work, anyway." Sonia gestured towards the abandoned laptop on her bed before adding, "Maybe next time,” She flashed him a smile. The one that was always directed to one of his cousins but never towards him.

That is another first, Ian mused.

"If you say so," he turned to leave the room but stopped at the doorway, "You sure you'll be fine?"

"Absolutely!”

Ian nodded and quietly left the room, feeling a bit low.

Sonia watched him leave, then turned and went back to her work.

***

He DID want to enjoy the party. Nevertheless, his mind seemed to be having plans of its own. It kept wandering off, worrying about her. Well not actually worrying, but she had been here - in a new place - for only a few days now. Not to mention, she was holed up in the house the entire time, either working on her assignments or helping his mother in the kitchen.

How can someone be so closed up and still be happy about it? He thought, sipping on his beer while trying to catch up with what his brothers were discussing and failing miserably.

What if she needs something? What if she goes out for a stroll and cannot find her way back? She was new to the area, wasn't she? What if...

He was brought out of his reverie as someone bumped into him.

"Oh! I am so sorry. Please excuse me," an unfamiliar voice spoke. Ian frowned at the person. No, she was not Sonia. He grunted an, “It's okay,” and chugged down his beer.

"Damn hot!" Gage exclaimed.

"Huh?"

"That girl who bumped into you. She was hot, don't ya’ think?" He sighed when Ian ignored him.

"What's the matter with you, bro?" Emm asked slapping his shoulder playfully but hard enough to get him out of his daze.

"Nothing,” Ian muttered, looking over at his cousins.

"Is our girl giving you any trouble?" Gage asked, a smirk appearing on his face.

Ian's eyes narrowed as he took in the similar smirks on the other three faces as well, “Since when did Sonia became your girl?" he asked in a low voice, barely controlling his angry growl.

"Gotcha!" Jake let out a hoot of laughter, "No one mentioned Sonia. You said her name yourself.”

Everyone else hummed in agreement.

"But you were talking about her," Ian tried to reason. He never gave another thought to a girl but here he was, so engrossed in her thoughts that he was making a fool of himself.

"There are a lot of our girls here," Gage said gesturing towards the room full of partying people, "But you were busy thinking about her to give any other girl a second thought."

"Yeah. So?"

"So?" Gage prompted, wiggling his eyebrows mischievously.

"So, what?” Ian snapped, "She's alone at home and I am just annoyed to have left her there.”

"Are Aunt Uncle not home?" Emm questioned, taking a huge gulp from his drink.

"No. They left for a party a while back. I do not know where or who's. I zoned out when Mom went into the details. I just got the part that they are going out and will be late."

"You should have brought her along" Jake pipped, his tone laced with a hint of annoyance.

That riled him up, "What do you think I did? I came without trying to do that very thing?"

"She refused your offer?" Dim spoke for the first time. He looked at Ian, wide eyed not believing him.

"Yes. No. I mean - ," Ian struggled to get the right words out. "It's not like that," he raked a hand through his hair, "I – umm - kind of went and informed her that Mom and Dad were not home and I was headed here and that she would be alone so she could join me if she wished,” Ian's face turned a slight shade of red as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"No wonder she refused," Emm muttered going back to his drink.

"What!"

"Look at you, man,” Gage couldn't hide the irritation he felt towards his cousin. And it showed on his face as well as in his tone, "I mean, you are a Richards. We have a reputation to maintain here, you can't just let a girl refuse you," He paused for a moment and nodded his head in understanding, "No she's right. I would have done the same thing. Who in the world asks a girl out like that?" he made a rather guttural face and attempted to move away from Ian.

"Will you just stick it up?" Ian growled lowly taking a step towards him.

"Whoa whoa guys, stop," Emm pulled Ian away from Gage and faced him, "What exactly happened?"

Ian opened his mouth to respond but Jake cut in, "Oh, that's so nice of you but I don't want to be a bother to you. How about next time?"

They all stared at him, utterly confused. Ian cleared his throat, drawing the eyes back at him, "That's what she said," he pointedly looked at Jake, "although she also told me to have fun. But now, I think I must head back. It's late already."

The others agreed without another banter and he hurriedly left, anxious to get back.

***

The cab drove off and he was left staring at the house. The lights to her room were still on. He felt rather stupid for worrying over nothing in particular. She was still up in her room, probably working on her article.

He shook his head, chuckling to himself and headed inside. As he was more or less on his own now, he decided to pass some of his time by watching ESPN. Before doing that, he made his way to his room to change his nice and proper clothes. They made his skin itch if worn a single minute longer than necessary.

After showering, he changed into an old eons grey t-shirt and sweatpants. Running a towel over his wet hair, Ian made his way out of the room.

Dumping the towel in the basket outside his door, he looked towards Sonia's room and stopped.

I should probably check in on her, he thought and turned the doorknob to peek inside.

Much to his surprise, she was not there. He frowned and entered the room. When he couldn't find her anywhere, he walked towards the terrace. She was not there either.

Panic struck him. Turning around, he rushed out and down the stairs. He barged into the library. To his horror, she was not there either.

What if something actually happened? He tried to calm himself down and went into the kitchen. It was just as empty. He turned to exit when he heard a voice.

Fearing what it was, he slowly turned around. The door was ajar, the wind making it sway slightly. Horror crept in on him, making him go stiff all over.

There was an intruder and Sonia was nowhere to be seen. That left just one possibility.

And his Mom would skin him if that was the case.