Bad Blood (Book 4 of The Warden series) (18 page)

“You’re bluffing and it’s pointless. I’m already helping you, despite my personal feelings for you. That should be enough of a feat for you to trust my intentions.”

She snapped the thread and leaned back just as Efrat sat up. He grabbed her arm. The tingling prickles she had felt before were gone. It was only his bare hand on her bare flesh. He was about to speak, but the contact distracted him. He stared at her arm for a moment, before tracing his fingers down her skin.

From the change in his breathing and the gaze in his eyes, she got the distinct feeling that he wanted to feel more than the skin on her arm. It may not have even been sexually motivated, but either way it was not consensual.

“What do want to tell me about Danato?” she asked to break his concentration. He looked up at her, remembering once again that she was in the elevator with him. A flicker of sadness crossed his face, before his smug smile returned.

“No,” he said pointedly. “I don’t want to be the one to disillusion you. If I do, then you will only have me to hate.”

“I already hate you,” she scoffed and shrugged.

“No, you don’t.” She lost her amused smile, and he lost his smirk. “I know what hate looks like. I’ve seen it growing in my reflection for the last five years. This irritation you have with me isn’t hate. You don’t hate me anymore than you hate that transmorph that sucked you in. You feel superior to me because I’m your prisoner, but if you knew the man I was before I came here, you would feel anguish for me.”

He raised his hand and caressed her cheek. His blue eyes were full of more raw emotion than she could translate. She didn’t know if he was grief stricken, infuriated, or if… “I’ll give you the key, but you have to seek out the answers yourself.” He gripped the back of her head and pulled her forward, as he leaned into her.

It took a few too many brain synapses to realize that he intended to kiss her. Although her first instinct was to pull away, she could feel his grip on her neck start to charge with prickling heat. He intended to kiss her whether she cooperated or not.

A flurry of things crammed into her head simultaneously.
What will Ethan do? Should I pull my gun? Are his lips electrified? Did I brush this morning?

A
clunk
sound shattered her thoughts along with his intentions. She backed away pulling from his grip. He looked around. The elevator was moving; down, according to the numbers. He looked to her. “Is this right? Is this what happens?”

“I guess. I never knew what led up to Belus being shot. I assumed they either find us or we find them. One way or another we are going to be surrounded by a room full of guards, a pissed off Danato, and a dying Belus.”

“Okay, how do we do this?”

Cori didn’t want to openly admit that she had no freaking clue what was about to happen, but she hoped it turned out better than her future had alluded to. “Just don’t shock anyone. No sudden movements. Maybe Belus gets shot in a hail of premature gunfire.” She stood up and helped him up. He looked at her regretting his lost opportunity. “Look, maybe I don’t hate you…anymore,” she added for good measure since she was pretty sure she hated him a year ago. “But let’s not get too cozy with our resolve to be friends.”

He smirked. “We’ll never be friends Cori.”

Cori couldn’t help but frown at that statement. He was inches from kissing her only a minute ago. How had he gone back to being her enemy so fast? And people thought she was hot and cold.

33

The elevator doors opened to the part-time level. They were back to where they had started before the botched escape. Cori calculated that they couldn’t have escaped more than a half an hour ago. Her morning thus far hadn’t amounted to much more than three hours. She was stupid to think she could hide out from Danato in his own prison.

There was no flurry of movement outside the doors except to adjust the aim on the pistols and elemental weapons being wielded before them. A short line of three kneeling men stood before a back row of three standing ones. Their guerilla warfare tactics were now useless against the British line up—especially, when they were stuck in a box.

Cori could feel the hair on her arms and neck as Efrat’s defenses rose behind her. He was up, but he was leaning against the rear doors. He looked ready to pass out at any moment. She didn’t have to guess how dangerous it was to be stuck in a metal box with him, when he was wounded and cornered by his enemies.

She raised her hands slightly to the guards and turned her head so Efrat knew she was talking to him. “Don’t. Please.” She added the please even though she knew it wouldn’t make the difference. If he chose not to fry her and the guards in an effort to escape, it would be out of a precarious balance of trust, and not because she was polite.

She could feel the tangible energy wane enough for her to move without creating static shock with her pants. That was all she could hope for at this point.

Danato and Belus were nowhere to be seen, but she knew that wasn’t going to last. This scene was going to play out just as her memory had, and she hoped knowing that future would give her an opportunity to change it.

“Ma’am.” She heard the gentlemanly address and looked to one of the back guards. Duke, one of Ethan’s better friends among the guards, was holding on to his manners as tightly as his gun. “I’m going to need you and the gentleman to come out of the elevator.”

Cori wondered if he would ever use her name, or if they got closer, if he would instantly switch to calling her “sugar.” She nodded. “Sure, Duke. We can do that. Can’t we Efrat?” She said the last part a little loud.

“Yep,” was all he said.

“Ma’am you just need to place your hands high where we can see them. Sir you can just place your hands behind your back,” Duke instructed prior to signally the men to back up.

Cori did as he asked and Efrat did as well. They stepped forward from the elevator and were instructed to move into the hall of the part-time level. There were a few more guards as back up already blocking the hall. Duke and his group completed the circle around them that kept them from plotting any escape.

Now armed with elemental weapons, Cori knew Efrat had no chance of escape. He couldn’t magnetize anything without them deflecting the energy. As much as she wanted to believe that they wouldn’t shoot either one of them with their pistols, she wasn’t sure. They had already tried once, and now they were even further on edge. There would be no room for sudden movements or mistakes here.

“Ma’am,” Duke said almost apologetically, “I’m gonna need you to slide that pistol over to me.”

“I’m afraid I can’t comply with that just yet.” Duke’s face melted as if he knew what that might mean for her. “I know I seem crazy to you Duke. To all of you.” She scanned the room. “I wish that—“

“Cori!” Efrat snapped behind her.

“Shit,” she said realizing how close she had come again to making a wish. Although she wasn’t within earshot of the genie, it wasn’t wise to get in a habit of making that statement with an unused triple wish pack lying around just two floors down. “If Ethan were here, he would give me the benefit of the doubt. I know I’m not him, but I’m concerned that someone is going to be hurt, and I need to protect them. Until I’m sure they are safe, I’m just going to keep this pistol with me.”

Duke looked like he was about to object or plead with her, but Danato and Belus came around from the west elevators. “Cori!” Danato snapped. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Cori took in a deep breath. Any fleeting thought she might have had about explaining things to Danato were gone. His face was already pink with rage. His knuckles were white from gripping his cane like it was a substitution for her neck. Belus was barely keeping up behind him, he was walking so fast.

“I…” She opened her mouth, but she scrambled for an explanation. What could she tell him that wouldn’t make him madder? “I love you.”

The words just rolled out of her mouth like a dog dropping a fresh kill at his owner’s feet, but it worked. His face momentarily blanked and after a stunned silence, he spoke with a calmer, albeit overwrought tone. “Why are you helping him?”

“I need him to save Belus.”

“Belus is fine!” His composure was lost again.

“I only know what I saw, Danato. I’m sorry that I don’t have time to explain this, but I don’t want anyone to die today. I’m just trying to make it through three hours without anyone dying!”

“What you saw?”

“I’m jumping through time, Danato.”

Danato’s face froze for a moment. Cori already knew the thoughts that were going through his head. Demon parasites, dream feeders, brain tumors: it was anything, but what she just said. “That’s not possible.”

Cori lowered her face not wanting to have to explain this all again. “It’s true,” Efrat said behind her. It probably wasn’t helping Danato’s temper for him to be speaking directly to him, but she appreciated being backed up. “I’ve been with her all morning. At first, I thought she was just going nuts, but she’s not, she’s just out of order. Her memories got scrambled. Probably my fault we’re guessing. She’s lucid one moment, and has no freaking clue what’s happening the next.”

Cori gave Efrat a look that hopefully showed her gratitude. She knew he was probably only saying it to keep things civil. He knew as well as she did that they were officially at the end of the line and it was time to start kissing ass to recover from this fiasco.

“You should have come to me with this,” Danato said in an even tone that expressed his anger as equally as his disappointment.

“To what end?” Cori yelled happy to use that turn of phrase back on him again, “The ending where you poke and prod me in the lab or the one where you hold me down on a gurney kicking and screaming while nurses strap my arms and legs.” Cori could feel her voice strain with the emotion of that memory. Although it wasn’t a real memory for him anymore, she was sure that it would need to be answered for before she could trust him again. “Maybe we should just go straight to putting Efrat in front of a firing squad. Those are about the only outcomes I’ve gotten from explaining things up front to you Danato! You demand so much from me: my respect, my obedience, my trust.”

“I think I’ve earned those by this point.” He was quiet, but something in the tone told her she had hurt him with the statement.

“When do I earn mine?” She paused. This was probably the worst time ever to bring up the subject. It was like asking your boss for a raise right after you trash the office. “If Ethan had walked into your office and said he was jumping through time, I kind of get the feeling he might have been taken seriously. Since it’s me…I get analyzed and questioned. Even now, you’re not really listening to me. You’re just trying to figure out how to get me sequestered so you can get my gun, and get me away from Efrat. You’re protecting me, but you’re not helping me!”

His chin rose, expressing his defiance to the statement, but it lowered again, acknowledging the little hint of shame that came with being called on your mistakes.

“It’s not you, Cori,” Belus said. Cori turned to him. He stepped through the guards, but kept his distance. She glanced behind her at the guards trying to see where their weapons were aimed. She didn’t want to do anything to incite gunfire. “He’s too afraid of losing you, to treat you any differently.” Belus glanced at Danato. She followed his gaze and saw the distant misery in Danato’s eyes. “He loves you to a fault. It doesn’t mean we don’t trust you. It just means more precautions will be taken to protect you. That kind of cloistering can have its benefits at first, but you’re probably just starting to see the downfalls.”

“Do you believe me, Belus? Do you believe I’m jumping through time?”

“I have no competing theories, but I did just find out about it.” Cori gave him a thin smile. She should have known better than to expect a simple “yes.”

“Before…in a fractured timeline, you told me that I might need to just let things play out as they had the first time. You said I might not be able to stop you from getting hurt, but I disagree.” She looked around again, for antsy body language. Itchy trigger fingers were a threat as far as she was concerned. “A change in the timeline has taken place. I think I can do it again. I think I might be able to stop you from being hurt.”

Belus shrugged. “Well, you know how I feel about you going against my express orders.” He smiled. She wondered if he was just playing the part of a sympathetic policeman talking a jumper down from the ledge. “But I’m not a proud man. I don’t mind being saved by the damsel.” He chuckled a bit and she knew he was playing her. She didn’t really mind though. She felt compelled to tell him she loved him, just as she had Danato, but she wasn’t sure he would appreciate such an admission before this particular audience.

Somewhere between her compulsion to declare affection at inappropriate times, and her intent to suggest that Belus leave the room for his own safety, she found herself on her back on the floor, with her gun in hand.

34

Cori could feel the stuffiness in her ears, familiar to the time bubble exit, but not quite as bad. Her eyes were closed and she kept them that way. The burning pain where her rings had superheated and the ache permeating her spine told her this was the beginning.