Beasts and Burdens (16 page)

Daniel glanced at the door wondering if it was too late to ask her to come back. “When’s Cori getting in?”

“Later tonight. Here are the instructions.” Heaton handed him a paper with the details of her arrival in impeccable handwriting. His handwriting should have been the first clue to his sexuality.

“Wait, aren’t you coming with me.”

Heaton shrugged. “Sorry, I’m affectively on vacation, and I’m going to use it.”

“Where are you going?”

“I was thinking France.” Heaton pursed his lips in thought.

“Why France?”

Heaton grinned. “Frenchmen.” Daniel groaned. Gay humor was funny, but only when the participant wasn’t actually gay. “Come on, let’s move this bed.”

“Excuse me? It’s going to take more than one beer for that.” Daniel scoffed.

“We need to finish your redecorating project. I’m not sure Ethan would mind you watching over Cori, but he definitely won’t approve of you two sleeping in the same room, even if it is the living room.”

Daniel grimaced knowing how true that was. He put down his beer and started dismantling the last vestiges of his bachelor pad.

40

Cori stepped off the train and headed to the gates. She was exhausted, sore from too much bumpy transportation, and nervous about what the coming days would hold for her. When she caught sight of Daniel and Nevia, she could see that he looked irritated. She was so caught up in her own misfortune it hadn’t occurred to her that her visit was probably a huge inconvenience to him.

She slowed her approach to re-adjust the duffel bag on her shoulder. It was beyond heavy. She hadn’t packed it, so it was bound to contain a good number of things she didn’t need, and probably couldn’t even fit.

“Cori.” Daniel caught sight of her and came over. He was beaming ear to ear, but she knew it was probably a forced smile. “You look brilliant.” He paused to look over her rounded belly and smiled even wider if that was possible.

“I’m sorry about—”

Daniel wrapped his arms under her and lifted her with his hug. He was careful not to compress her belly, which was a contortionist feat on top of the already herculean task of lifting her. He set her back down and frowned. “What is all this about? Are you in trouble?”

“Aren’t I always?” She joked as Nevia approached. They nodded politely to each other, but Nevia did not share in the delight that Daniel was offering her arrival.

“Come on. Let’s get you back to my flat so you can rest.” He wrapped an arm around her in a sideways hug, only slightly interrupted by Nevia pulling her duffle bag off her shoulder to carry it. Cori noticed a slight exchange of looks, before Nevia lagged back behind them.

“I’m really sorry about all this. Belus was very insistent I stay with you,” Cori reiterated as Daniel opened the door for her to his flat. He kept it open for Nevia, and again Cori caught a look between them. Whatever animosity she was observing may not have been solely from her impromptu visit.

“I’m always happy to help a friend,” he said closing the door. She gave him a shy smile.

“I’m sure Belus appreciates your help.”

He stepped behind her and pressed his hand to her back and leaned over her shoulder. “I meant you silly.”

“Oh,” she blushed mostly from embarrassment at not assuming that he considered her a friend, but also because his infectious, flirtatious smile was making her feel bashful. “Sorry.”

He chuckled and patted her back. “Don’t worry, my personality grows on you. You’re still about two weeks away from being madly in love with me. I guess we should be glad you’re only staying on a week, huh?”

Cori snorted at his audacity, but she couldn’t hide her smile. As borderline as their relationship was, she couldn’t help but find amusement in his “always on” charm. However, contrary to his speculations, she estimated that the amusement would wane if she had to spend more than a week with him.

“You must be bushed.” He observed as he headed into the kitchen just off the living room. “Do you want something to eat or would you rather just sleep?” He called back to her. Cori looked over the living room. It was cleaner than she expected. The plush couch and chairs surrounding the coffee table looked brand new. She hoped that he hadn’t gone through the effort of buying new furniture for her visit. Then again if the furniture was too embarrassing to share with the public perhaps that was best.

Nevia had already made herself at home on the couch and was reading a fashion magazine. She didn’t look happy, but Cori didn’t know her well enough to judge her demeanor.

“Cori?” Daniel popped back out of the kitchen and she shook herself out of her thought.

“Um…I don’t know.” The tears were as much a surprise as they were unwelcome. She had never been the tough, composed woman that Nevia was, but to be a complete blubbering mess was beyond mortifying.

“Hey,” Daniel came directly to her and pulled her into a hug she could barely move in, much less push away from. They were the wrong arms, in the wrong living room, in the wrong country, but they would have to do for the moment. 

“I’m sorry. I promise I’m usually not such a mess,” she mumbled into his shoulder.

“It’s okay Cori, I’m not judging you. I know you miss Ethan.”

Just the mention of his name, made Cori weep harder. Daniel rubbed her back and directed her to sit on the couch. Nevia stood up and walked to the kitchen. Cori heard her putting water on for tea.

After the immediate necessity of coddling wore off, Daniel reached forward for something on the coffee table and she heard a distant familiar click. In a moment, voices filled the room. Cori snapped up and looked over at the cause of the noise. The flat screen television glowed from the partial kitchen wall.

She laughed and looked at Daniel. He was amused, but a little baffled. He had probably intended to balance out her awkward emotional breakdown with a little back-round noise, but he actually just opened a different can of worms.

A flood of thoughts came to Cori as she thought about the shows she might catch up on, or the movies she hadn’t seen, or the
music
she hadn’t heard. All thoughts of how tired she was, went out the window in exchange for a night filled with rare treats.

Cori gasped and put her hand on Daniel’s chest in earnest. Given his lack of adherence to proper button height, she ended up being skin to skin with him, but she was too excited to care. “Can we go dancing?”

He grinned and patted her hand. She probably looked like a child asking to go to the zoo. “Are you serious? Now?” He checked his watch, and she looked him over waiting for his decision. He shook his head in amusement. “Alright, Mrs. Pierce, dancing it is.” 

She squealed and ran over to her bag to dig out something that might be worthy of a club. Nothing was worthy, but being pregnant, no one was going to criticize her stretchy pants as long as they covered her.

“Dancing?” Nevia asked from the kitchen.

“Aye, I think I’ll take her to that new club that keeps plastering its advertisements to my windshield.”

“I’ll join you,” she said to Daniel.

“I don’t need a chaperone,” Daniel said sharply.

“I do,” Cori answered cheerfully before a bitter fight could break out. She was already uncomfortable enough, without being in the middle of relationship issues. Plus she didn’t want to hang out alone with Daniel. “The more the merrier, right?” Cori looked between the two of them in hopes that they would both absorb her excitement and get happy. Daniel scuttled off to his room and Nevia ducked back into the kitchen. Close enough.

41

Cori hollered the minute she got into the dance club. No one could hear her over the loud thump of the music, but it wasn’t so much to announce herself as a release of the pent up energy that had been pooling in her stomach on the ride over.

She started gyrating to the rhythm even before the bouncer had checked their ID’s. She was surprised to find that Danato had provided her with a fake ID. She wasn’t entirely certain what would happen if someone found out she was alive and well and living in a secret prison in the Kola Peninsula, but she imagined the higher-ups would frown on it.

Daniel wrapped his arm around her waist—as far as it would go—and directed her inside. The bar took up the whole back half of the club and it was on a different level so you could still see the band and the mosh pit below. Rather than taking her down below where she could dance, he moved her to the bar.

She thought she would have to remind him that she wasn’t drinking when he ordered two beers, but he added a Coke. When he dragged the beers and soda off the bar, he handed her the soda. “I want to dance!” She yelled so he could hear her.

“I know.” He grinned at her and handed Nevia the other beer. “We need to case the place first,” he hollered back.

Cori sipped her soda and looked to Nevia for the answer, but she was already in work mode, scanning the dancers for…whatever. “Why?”

“Because we are on the council of the moon’s shit list.” He put his arm around her again, and directed her away from the bar so the desperately sober people could get their drunk on. He tucked her into the corner railing that bordered the back of the designated bar area and the stairs leading to the dance pit. She noted his position leaning on the rail behind her essentially locked her in, but since the night was going to be filled with unintentional groping and some not so unintentional, she wasn’t going to get particular about how he protected her.

“They still mad at Jordan?” Cori looked around for Nevia, but she was gone. She was concerned by that, but Daniel shifted and nodded to where she had moved to scan over the bar crowd. She was resting against the railing like she was waiting to be hit on, but her eyes were darting between faces, and as certain people passed by, she leaned forward to sniff them.

“We’ve had a few close calls. There’s a shit load of uproar going on in the werewolf community.” Daniel eased closer so the mention of werewolves didn’t get noticed by anyone. “Nevia may have started this, but she wasn’t the only person ready to take arms to fight for it. Right now, the council is too damn busy fighting their own kind to mess with us, but we aren’t going to assume that there isn’t a battle left for us.”

“You would have preferred staying home.” Cori pinched her lips and raised her brow offering him an opening to wrap up their night, if he thought it was necessary.

“No, I’m enjoying your enthusiasm. Your wish is my command.”

“Oh, don’t say that.” Cori laughed and he chuckled.

“Seems okay,” Nevia said rejoining them. “I can’t get a clear scent on anything, but it smells human, for the most part.”

“For the most part?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah, for the most part,” Nevia snapped, “you know I’m useless in these places.”

Cori quailed at the tension between them. She felt like she was looking at a divorced couple, rather than an intimate one. She wondered if Ethan and she had quarreled that much before they finally gave into their relationship.

“She wants to dance.” He looked over the crowd. “She’s not going alone, if you’re not sure.”

“Then I’ll dance with her.”

“You don’t have your gun,” he said and she tipped her head in disbelief. He furrowed his brow. “Do you?” He looked around to see if anyone was watching them. Nevia did the same before tugging up on her pants to reveal the gun strapped to her ankle. Daniel smiled at her, and Cori could see that if she weren’t there, he might have pulled Nevia in for a heated kiss. As it was, Nevia’s chest rose slightly and her lips parted in preparation for just that event. Indifferent to her invitation however, Daniel turned away shattering the connection in an instant.

“I’ll take her.” He pulled Cori’s soda from her and left it on a table with his beer, which he emptied with a final swig. “Watch the crowd, I don’t want any surprises.” He snapped the order before taking Cori’s hand and dragging her out of the corner.

She didn’t catch Nevia’s face before they left, but judging by the brooding expression Cori could see from the dance floor, she was probably hurt. “You wanted to dance, let’s dance,” Daniel murmured in her ear and he started moving to the quick beat.

He stayed close to her, but didn’t insist that they dance together. Her center of gravity was off since the last time she danced, but it was easy to find a pace with the thumping that was bringing life to her legs.

Before long, she found herself twisting and whipping her hair like she was a teenager. She knew she was getting a few looks from the other dancers, because she was pregnant, but somehow Daniel’s constant back up seemed to alleviate everyone’s concerns that she was out to get laid. If anything they were probably supposing she was trying to put herself into labor.

Eventually, Cori felt comfortable enough to do a little grinding with Daniel, but they both made sure they kept themselves at a prudish distance, but she couldn’t help but do a few moves that should have been reserved for Ethan.

Daniel shook his head, and smiled. “You’re going to get me in trouble.” He held her hand while she insinuated her body down to a crouch and then back up slowly. She turned around and rolled her shoulders against him so she could lean into his ear.