Bad Blood (Book 4 of The Warden series) (23 page)

“How long were you in special ops?” she asked giving voice to a question she had never gotten around to asking. Time travel leaves so little room for chitchat, especially, when your conversational partner is trying to kill you.

Danato looked to Efrat, but looked away as if pretending not to care what his answer was. Efrat eyed him and turned his attention back to her. “I’m still in it,” he said. “At least they haven’t court-martialed me yet.”

Danato looked back at him perplexed either by his honesty or his answer.

“Is that how you got your scars, or was that an off duty incident?”

Efrat held up his hands and looked at the band scar on each arm. He looked to Danato, but he only glanced at the scars before pretending not to be a part of the conversation.

“Oh, kitten, I really wish I could explain, but of course, there’s just not enough time.” He smiled. “Unless you think we can ditch the chaperon again.”

“Try it and you’ll have two bullet holes to hide from the General,” Danato growled without looking at him.

Efrat gave him a muted glare that may have passed for mere vexation if it weren’t for the static raising the hair on the back of her head. She could feel Danato tense as he prepared to raise the gun.

“Please, don’t,” she whispered the words through clenched teeth and layers of stressed emotions. She hadn’t technically directed at either of them, but it was meant for both.

She felt the static charge in the air abate and Danato slowly released the tension in his arms and shoulders. The elevator doors thankfully
ponked
. It was the most relieving
ponk
ever, and that counted some of her uncomfortable silent rides with Belus.

Danato stepped forward and held his finger to the door open button like a liftman at an expensive hotel. “This is where you get off. I assume you don’t need a code to get back in.”

Efrat stepped into the door’s path and looked back to her. He held out his hand to her. “Care to walk me to my door, kitten?”

Cori looked at his hand, debating whether to go with him. She looked at Danato. He wasn’t giving her any instruction. He was leaving it up to her. His overprotective side was apparently on a break. She had a feeling he wanted to be done with this whole situation as much as her. So far, Efrat was still being compliant, so he probably wasn’t that worried for her safety. If he knew how frightened she was, he probably wouldn’t be letting her make this decision. After all, she couldn’t just go back in time to undo whatever he did now.

“I don’t have much time, Cori,” Efrat said. Without the “kitten” in place of her name, he didn’t sound quite as cocky.

She stepped forward and reached for his hand. At the last second, she pulled her hand back. The extended hand was like a two for one deal at the grocery store that makes you buy two when you didn’t even need one. She stepped forward to follow him and he lowered his hand and led the way.

Not far from the heavy metal door that needed a code to get through, Efrat stopped and turned around. He made a quick assessment of Danato’s position. He was now in the elevator doorway keeping his options open with Cori’s gun clenched by his hip.

When Efrat finally met her eyes, she wavered under his scrutiny. He smiled at that. “Careful, I think your courage is running low.”

“I can’t undo any of this. Kind of takes the puff out of my blustering.” He took a step closer to her, making his beautiful blues a little more unavoidable. “What do you want Efrat? You have no idea how much I want to get home.”

His eyes narrowed and he lost all hope of a smile. “I actually know a lot about that desire.” He glanced around at the proverbial prison.

She huffed out an exhale. “Don’t keep throwing your incarceration in my face like it’s my fault. I didn’t put you here. If you’re here you must have done something to cause it.”

“You think that, kitten; if it helps you sleep at night.”

She shrugged and shook her head and rolled her eyes as if it took all three to deflect what he saying. “Yeah, okay, another obscure reference. I’ll put some thought into that and get back to you when I’ve decided whether or not I should trust an imprisoned man who says he’s innocent; because inmates never say that,” she whisper yelled.

Efrat nodded. “You’re right, I’m being too obscure, but I don’t have time to explain.” He glanced back at Danato again and took a step forward. “I owe you an apology.”

“Yes,” she scoffed, “but for which part. There are so many to choose from.”

“Let’s start with the first shock. The one that killed you.”

Cori could feel herself shake just thinking about that day. How close had she come to dying…all the way? She never thought he would apologize for that, and as much as it probably killed his pompous ass to say it, she really didn’t feel better about it.

“I assumed that you were like all the rest, a mindless drone following Danato’s will, but you aren’t are you? You aren’t even a hired out prisoner.”

“Ethan and I are kind of indentured servants.” Efrat arched a brow at that. “We are here by choice though.”

“Right, Ethan your partner. Haven’t had the pleasure yet.”

Cori was surprised he hadn’t met Ethan yet, or perhaps he just hadn’t picked him out from the forest of black uniforms. Efrat hadn’t escaped on his watch yet, so Ethan hadn’t had the opportunity to distinguish himself.

“My husband,” she clarified. She expected an acknowledgement along the lines of a nod, but she didn’t expect the return of his cocky smile.

“That’s too bad. You’re the only woman I’ve been able to touch with my hands in six years.” To accentuate the point he dragged his finger on the bare skin of her arm. The tickle wasn’t electrified, but the shiver he caused activated her goose bumps. “At least not with my hands.” He licked his lips and she backed away feeling an unwanted reaction that made her feel as sick as it did anxious.

“Stop it. I don’t know what you want from me, but I can’t give it. I don’t even know the codes. I’m not even allowed up here without Ethan or Danato.” She looked a number of places, before she returned her gaze to him.

“I figured as much.” He wasn’t looking at her the same way, but he wasn’t angry that she wasn’t going to be seduced into helping him escape. “As for the remainder of my apology, I’m sorry I doubted your influence over Danato. Clearly, for you, he is a good man. I’m also sorry that I slapped you. That should have been beneath me. There was a time when I never would have raised my hand to a woman, let alone kidney punches and kicks.”

Cori nodded to speed up the list of apologies and get it over with. “Fine, I forgive you if you’re sincere, except the first one, I’m still not over being fried to death yet.”

“Fair enough.”

“So, why did you want me up here? You need to get back in there or it will all be for not.” Cori motioned to the heavy door behind him.

He nodded and glanced back at Danato. “I still need to thank you for saving me, and I need to give you something,” he whispered even quieter. He wiggled his finger for her to come closer. She stared at the hand, but it hadn’t transformed into a snake. “It’s a secret. I can’t just hand it to you, kitten. You’re going to have to put your wedding vows on hold for just a second and come and get it.”

Cori could feel her heart racing. She wasn’t entirely sure what he was asking from her, but the sick, anxious feeling from before returned. “I don’t want it.”

“It’s the answers to my obscurity. You’ll want it. Just step to me so Danato knows you trust me enough to accept a thank you kiss.” She wanted to run away, but her feet were planted. She had no idea what the protocol was for a situation like this. What did her marriage vows say about situations like this? Thou shall not kiss another man unless he wants to secretly pass you something via saliva.

Efrat reached forward around her neck and pulled her forward. “Cori?” Danato drawled from behind.

“I’m okay,” she lied.

Efrat gave Danato a wink, before caressing her cheek and drawing his lips down on to hers. She put her hands on his chest in preparation for her withdrawal from his repugnant advance.

As horrible as she felt having another man’s lips, on her mouth, she was surprised how soft and gentle the first part of his kiss was. If she hadn’t been married, and if he hadn’t tried to kill her, and if he wasn’t in prison, and a long line of ifs later, she might have actually enjoyed the kiss.

As it was, she was worried what Danato was thinking. She was worried what Ethan would do when he found out. She started to taste blood in the kiss and she tried to pull away concerned that he had bitten her. An irrational thought of him being a vampire on top of an elemental popped in and out of her mind.

He gripped her neck tighter and pushed a small flat oddly shaped object against her lips. Without a backup plan, she parted her lips to allow the object to enter her mouth. His tongue was more than happy to usher it through along with itself.

She managed to get the object into her cheek even as he continued to take advantage of her distraction. The sensuous kiss turned hungry. She tried to push him away, but he wouldn’t budge.

She whimpered, and hated that it sounded as if she was enjoying this. She pushed on his neck, but it didn’t stop him. It wasn’t until Danato cocked the gun that he stopped and allowed her to push him away. She nearly fell trying to unravel herself from his arms.

She walk-jogged back to the elevator and tucked in behind Danato who had the gun trained on Efrat at the door. “Go, Efrat,” Danato said more evenly then she expected. The day’s shocks were piling too high for anyone to get excited about any one in particular.

“I’ll see you later, Cori,” Efrat said before zapping the code panel to break back into his cage. The sounds of a raging firefight, started shortly after he entered. The diversion he and his cohorts would create to disguise his three hour absence, rationalize his gunshot wound, and obscure the specifics of the soldier’s blackouts.

“The hell he will,” Danato slammed his fist into the button for the main floor. The doors closed and he glared at her. “You shouldn’t have let him touch you.”

She nodded. “I just thought it was a gesture of thanks. I didn’t know he was going to mouth rape me.” She hated the feeling of another man on her. She scrubbed away the taste on her lips. She suddenly felt horrifically guilty. She was so worried about Ethan with a French woman, and she was French-ing one of the prisoners.

She wanted to spit whatever it was he had shoved in her mouth out, but she wanted to look at it before she showed it to anyone else. At least that was the current rationale. She also wanted to wash her mouth out. She tasted blood, so she assumed that he had the object sutured in his cheek to hide it.

“Are you going to explain this all to me or not?” Danato said by the panel. He was still clenching the pistol. She wondered if he would ever give it back to her. Right now, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to have it either. He must have noticed her observation because he pulled the clip from it and placed the bullets in his front shirt pocket, before handing it back to her.

She flinched at the black handle before she took it in her hands. She couldn’t remember what series of conversations had led to her having a pistol. As she recalled Belus was against it all together. Danato didn’t like the idea of either of them having guns, something about being a target, but since Cori was already a target most of the time, they decided to arm them.

Oh, how she wished she had listened to Belus. Why did she never listen to Belus?

“I need to find out how he is or I’m going to crawl out of my skin.”

Danato pushed the button for the animal level and the elevator
ponked
within a few seconds, as it always seemed to when Danato was a passenger. It wouldn’t dare expect the big man to wait on it.

“Wait here, and hold the elevator.”

She did as he asked, and stood in the door while the doors insisted on trying to close. She thought about moving inside and pushing the door open button, but she enjoyed the steady push the doors were giving, like a bully shoving her in the back to pick a fight. She deserved it.

When Danato returned, he looked grim, but not upset. She nearly screamed when he didn’t give her an answer instantly, but she let him usher her into the elevator and they continued their ride to the main floor. “He’s in surgery.”

She paused, waiting for more. “That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s it. It means he’s alive and they are fixing him. They know their jobs, and they are bribed very well to do it. I don’t think we have any reason to worry, but we will know more in a few hours. Just enough time for you to tell me your story.”

Cori wondered if she could tell her story with this object in her mouth. She also wondered if she could take another round of explanation. She had relived this morning around three times. What had been three hours for them was gaining on eight for her. “Danato,” she whispered. He narrowed his eyes, already sensing her evasion. “I don’t suppose I could shower first?” She held up her hands, which still had remnants of Belus’s blood on them from helping Efrat.

Danato’s face softened and he nodded. “Of course,” he looked her over. He must have seen the stress hiding behind her tired eyes. “If you promise to tell me everything, we can probably hold off discussing this until tomorrow.”