Authors: Felicia Jedlicka
Rivals
Copyright © 2013 by Felicia Jedlicka
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Felicia Jedlicka
Book design by Felicia Jedlicka
Editing by
Silver Jay Media
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Felicia Jedlicka
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Successors
Rivals
Lovers and Liars
Bad Blood
Tenants and Tyrants
The Ring Bearer
Gods and Monsters
Beasts and Burdens
Magic and Mayhem
…More to Come…
Corn, Cows, and the Apocalypse
Cow Tipping After the Apocalypse
Corn Husking After the Apocalypse
THE
WARDEN
Rivals
Felicia Jedlicka
Table of Contents
Cori sprinted down the hall of the zoological floor. Her lungs burned, and her side ached, but she was ahead of Ethan so she ignored the pain. She glanced back at him. Despite the three-foot-long harpoon gun he was carrying, he was closing the distance between them. She had opted for a more civilized weapon. A tranquilizer gun wasn’t as effective in these situations, but it was a lot easier to carry.
At the end of the hall, the elevator doors opened unexpectedly. Seeing an opportunity to extend her lead, Cori lengthened her strides to a hamstring-tearing pace.
“Don’t you dare,” Ethan snarled from behind her, already anticipating her plan.
Reaching the elevator at full speed, she crashed into the back wall less than gracefully. She leapt back to the panel, nearly toppling against it as she pressed the “door close” button.
The doors started to shut.
She heard Ethan roar and he leapt through the gap in the closing doors. He collided with the back wall before dropping to a heap on the floor. Even with the double impact, he kept his gargantuan harpoon gun in his hand. He glowered at her from the floor, panting his exertion through flaring nostrils.
Cori pinched back her smile and positioned herself in front of the door. He joined her, all but shoving her aside to get equal access to it.
They silently watched the dial over the door that indicated the car’s slow ascension. The half clock was virtually useless since most of the numbers had fallen off. All the elevators were in sad order, and she was certain that one day someone might plummet to their death in one. She was just hoping not to be that someone.
While they were waiting, she checked that her tranquilizer gun was still securely attached to her belt. Ethan put down the harpoon to tuck his black shirt into his black cargo pants. She wanted to mock him about his monochromatic military style, but the truth was he looked good in it.
She still donned her usual jeans and graphic t-shirt. Today’s wardrobe choice depicted a man sitting on a toilet with a big smile and double thumbs-up. It read, “Pooping is Fun!” The shirt had inspired looks of disgust from Danato, which made it her favorite.
There had technically been no formal discussion on dress code, so she took advantage of it. It was her last vestige of rebellion. That was probably why Danato let her do it. Control of her clothing was the least he could do to appease her need for individuality.
In the closed space of the elevator, Cori became acutely aware of the smell of cologne. She looked up at Ethan wondering when he had become one of those guys. His jaw clenched as if he were anticipating the verbal attack. Instead of taking the opening to tease him, she grazed her eyes along the taut muscles of his neck and down to the sculpted chest that was panting from his exertion.
He’s dead.
The reminder snapped Cori away from her appreciative ogling. She shouldn’t have been gawking at him like that anyway. He was too young—not as young as he had been, but of course neither was she. Perhaps it wasn’t so much about him being too young anymore, as her being too old.
He’s dead.
Cori shook her head, clearing away the etch-a-sketch. Ethan noted the oddity of the movement and leaned forward to see her face. When nothing revealed itself to him he went back to staring at the dial. “What are you making for dinner tonight?” he asked.
“Stroganoff,” she answered.
“I love stroganoff.”
“I know,” she answered with a hint of pride for the knowledge.
He looked down at her, eyes fluttering over her with awe. She smirked at his enthusiasm. It was the simple things that struck Ethan’s heart. She imagined that his on-again-off-again foster care had left him longing for home-cooked meals.
A slight smile perched on his lips, and his eyes softened. For a moment, she thought he might hug her or kiss her, but he didn’t have a chance to do either.
The doors opened with a
ponk
at the seducers’ level.
Game on.
Cori lunged forward to take the lead again, but Ethan shoved her to one side before she could even get out of the lift. Her intended momentum redirected her face first into the button console.
“Damn you!” she griped, but he was long gone.
Courtesy of her forehead, several floors were selected, and the doors started to close again. She slipped between them, but her foot got caught up. Fearful that the antiquated device would cut off her foot, she yanked herself free, minus her shoe. “Son of a…” she muttered, ripping off her sock.
She looked down corridor. Ethan had already made it into the next section. She screamed in frustration and ran after him.
When Cori reached the first airlock, she discovered the glass in the door was broken. The end result of an escapee with a hard head and no opposable thumbs—or hands.
She tiptoed through the sharp mine field to the door. She considered simply stepping through the vacancy, but the jagged remnants lining the doorframe left it too narrow to pass through without getting cut. Despite the obvious section breach, the system still insisted she close the previous door before opening the next.
When she finally caught up with Ethan and their escape artist, he was already hauling the screeching creature down from the ceiling. Even with the harpoon pierced through the wing of the small pterodactyl-like creature, it was still trying to fly away. It took everything Ethan had to draw the creature down to him.
Though it wasn’t inherently violent, it was extremely dangerous. Its knobby head and jet speed designed it to be an airborne battering ram. If it turned on Ethan, he would be the recipient of a skull-crushing head butt.
When it finally flopped to the floor, Ethan used the remainder of his rope to hogtie the beast. It squawked and flailed in objection, but he quickly wove it into a tight bundle, not much larger than a bulldog. Once it was calm, the creature turned to look at Cori. She wasn’t sure the elongated beak could project a pout, but it was definitely unhappy to be denied the expanse of the prison as a playground.
Ethan panted over his prey with his arms on his hips. When he noticed her he frowned. “Where the bloody hell have you been?” he barked.
Her mouth fell open and she pointed back to the endless sea of glass that had threatened to shred her naked foot. Before she could articulate her explanation, she noticed the amusement trickling into his smile.
She glowered at his teasing and he outright grinned at her. She growled through clenched teeth and stalked past him.
“What happened to your shoe?” he scoffed behind her.
“Shut up!” she yelled back at him as she left the section. She heard the beginnings of his hearty guffaws before she shut the door to the airlock.
Cori stormed into the house and slammed the door behind her. She ripped off her coat and slapped it over the back of the couch. Danato eyeballed the misplaced coat over the rim of his glasses from his usual reading chair. “I can’t believe you,” she bristled as Ethan came in behind her. He closed the door gently and rubbed the frame as if he was concerned that she had damaged it with her pubescent spectacle.
“Did you get the buzzard?” Danato asked.
Ethan nodded and hung his coat up. “Yes, we did,” he said with a restrained smile.
“
He
got it!” Cori tattled to Danato. “Even after he specifically said
I
could take it down.” She stormed passed Ethan, clipping his shoulder with hers on the way by. He grunted from the abuse, but she assumed it was just to mock her further.
“Do you not remember saying that?” she asked as she started to search the cupboards for food. Stroganoff was off the menu for the evening. Since it was his favorite, she considered it his punishment for not upholding his deal.
“I do remember that.” Ethan picked up her coat from the couch and hung it up by the door. “Imagine how disappointed I was to find out it wasn’t true.”
Cori paused with a soda and chips in hand to grasp his meaning. “So clever,” she hissed and headed upstairs.
“Don’t take all the chips. That’s the last bag until next week,” Ethan demanded with a fatherly scold.
She turned around and stuck her tongue out at him with childish sass. She expected him to threaten her verbally, but she hadn’t anticipated him launching into a dead sprint to get to her. She yelped and ran up the stairs, no longer concerned for chips or soda, but for the safety of her body.
He tackled her midway up and ripped the bag from her grip. Uninterested in retaliation beyond taking another prize from her, he continued up the stairs. She grabbed for his feet but he hopped away from her grasp and disappeared into his room.
“Ethan. Give them back!” Unwilling to relinquish any more to him, she got to her feet—soda forgotten—and ran to his door. She pounded on the thick wood. “Open this door or I’ll beat it down! You know I will.”
She backed up; giving herself the running start she needed for a truly dramatic entrance. She ran at the door and leapt into it with her shoulder. With prolonged airtime, and a far greater impact than she’d expected, she reached her ultimate destination: the floor inside the room.
Ethan closed the unharmed door behind her, shaking his head. “Don’t wreck the house; she’s already miffed at you.”
Cori took in a few whistling inhalations, forcing air back into her vacant lungs. She rolled over and found the chips. She grabbed the foil bag, but it was a short-lived triumph.
Empty. Wrong bag.
Damn
.
“Looking for this one?” Ethan flaunted the full bag of chips over her before ensconcing himself on his black leather couch. His monochromatic style had officially reached the point of excess.
While he devoured the contents of the bag, Cori examined her surroundings. She was in a bachelor’s living room. The black leather couch was surrounded by modern white plastic end tables. The bookshelves lining the walls were filled with books and a few trinkets. The room even smelled musky like his cologne.
“Where’s your bed?” she asked, searching the walls for a hide-away bed.
“In the bedroom,” he mumbled over his chips. He motioned to the door behind her on the left.
“What?” She backed up and peeked into the fully furnished bedroom. The black embellishments continued, making the room seem dark. “You expanded into the spare bedroom,” she said, probing deeper into his personal space. She found a rather impressive bathroom and a walk-in closet. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice this. When did you guys redo the house?” she yelled from the closet.
“The house redid herself,” Ethan hollered from the living room. “She decides how much room you need.”
“Your closet is bigger than my bathroom.” She emerged from the bedroom and glared at him with pouty lips.