Rodney: Marshall’s Shadow – Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance by Kathi Barton (i wanna iguana read aloud TXT) 📗

have dozed off because when their phones rang, they were both startled awake, and he was tossed off the couch. Answering his phone, when Rebel walked out of the room with hers plastered to her ear, he heard yelling and cursing right off.

“Doctor Marshall, I would like for you to come to a house for a woman that has been beaten nearly to death.” The officer at the other end gave him the address even as Rodney was pulling on his shoes. He asked if he was all right, as his voice was strained and full of anger. “No. No, I’m not. We’re waiting on you so that we can make the charges go either way for Mr. Todd. Murder or attempted murder. There is also an unborn child.”

“I’m on my way. There are children in the house, I’m assuming that’s why you’ve called my wife too?” He said it was, and they were beaten up pretty badly as well. “I’m on my way.”

Just as Rebel came into the room, he started for his bag when she handed it to him. Telling him that she was taking them there, he closed his eyes and held onto her. They were standing right outside the house when he opened his eyes. Kissing her on the mouth, quickly, they headed to the front door opening and then into what he thought was the kitchen area.

There were broken pieces of furniture all over the room. Plates and glasses were broken and lying in a dangerous way on the broken furniture and other items there. Blood was mingled in with all the mess and made the room look like it was a strange and macabre art attempt. There, lying in the middle of all of it, was a woman so badly beaten she didn’t look human at all.

“He beat her.” Mr. Todd started laughing, lunging at Rodney and telling him not to touch his woman until he was finished with her. “The neighbors called it in. When we arrived, he was ready to take an axe to her head.”

“Telling me that she’s not going to birth me a son. I done got me two fucking girls that she won’t let me sell off. Fucking cunt should just die.” No one said a word as Rodney, ignoring the man, felt for the pulse of the woman. “I hope to fuck she’s alive. I want to have another go at her. She’s a lying fucking bitch, and she’ll learn that I mean business.”

“I’m reasonably sure she understood that.” He looked at the officer. “I’m sorry, she’s passed on. I’m going to work on saving her child. I can hear the heartbeat, and it’s going to be next if I can’t save it.”

“Please save one of them.” Nodding, he pulled out the tools of his trade and did something he always did in his practice—he told the patient what he was doing. Rebel joined him in the room, and Officer Layman asked about the children. “When we arrived here, they were huddled in the corner over there. Bleeding and in obvious pain. Never said a word to anyone as we separated them from the mess in here.”

“They’re going to the hospital now. I let them out through the bedroom window so they’d not see what is going on in here.” Rebel looked at him. “You can do this, Rodney. I’ll assist you in any way I can.”

Nodding, Rodney set to work to deliver the child by C-section. Pulling the little girl free of her mother, Rodney handed her off to Rebel. She was tiny, much smaller than he thought she should be for a newborn. He wasn’t sure how far along Mrs. Todd had been, but the baby looked to be fully developed. When Rebel told him to get the other child, he was dumbstruck for a few seconds.

There’re twins there, Rodney. Take the other child before he dies. There is a good chance we can save them both if you hurry. He did so. Freeing the second child, he could see that he was slightly heavier than his sister. But the newborn wasn’t responding to any of the stimuli to get him to breathe. Give him a little of yourself. I cannot stand the fact that in addition to losing their mother, those little girls are going to lose a sibling as well.

Rodney wasn’t entirely sure how to do it, but he just did what came naturally to him. He told the little boy to live. Almost as soon as the word and the magic left his body, the child screamed out his first breath of air, like he’d only been waiting on someone to tell him to.

“That’s my son.” Rodney was cleaning up the little boy while his sister was having the same done by Rebel. Ignoring Todd was the best thing he could think of doing since he was bragging that he was going to raise himself a boy finally. Rodney noticed that the baby boy and girl were both bruised. The boy also had a wound on his left thigh that looked like a gunshot wound. “He’s going to be just like me.”

“Christ, I hope not. Having just one of you around is bad enough.” Rebel looked at him. Tell Layman what you suspect happened to the baby. It will lengthen that monster’s stay in jail. I’ve already told him that I believe the beating of the mother has hurt the little girl.

“This is what I think is a gunshot wound here on his leg. I’ll have to stitch it up and hope the bruising doesn’t cause him any long-term trouble.” Layman had one of the other officers take pictures. Not just of the wound, but both children as they were laid on their mother’s body. “If you don’t need anything else with us, I’d very much like to get these two to the hospital and have them checked out. Also, you’ll need to call the coroner. He’ll need to get her to the