Gods and Monsters (8 page)

“You can assume that we’re working toward finding the truth.”

Cori smiled at Belus. “It’s nice to know that you’re consistent no matter how inconsistent my life is.”

Belus put in the code to unlock the door and opened it wide for her to leave. She stepped into the hall slowly and waited for him to shut the door. He pointed down the hall, and she took the lead with him following behind her. She glanced back, but each time she did more distance gathered between them.

“Step into the lab on your next right.”

Cori turned into a room with an exam table and counters filled with equipment she probably couldn’t pronounce let alone know what they did. “Is this going to hurt?” She said hopping up on the table.

“No,” he waved to a nurse before coming in. “Well, it does involve needles, so yes, but if you are who you say you are you should be able to handle it.”

“I don’t know. I’m not your bravest employee.” Cori chuckled, but let the levity die away when she realized there was no hope of making this a social situation.

“Okay, sweetheart,” a round jolly nurse with short salt and pepper hair came in with a toolkit of needles and test tubes. Cori didn’t recognize her, but the nursing staff changed so often, it was hard to remember any of them. “We need to get some blood from you.”

Though she sounded sweet, she strong armed her to lie back on the table rather than ask. Cori tried to position herself to help the woman, but in the end she just went limp so the woman could situate her as she wished.

Belus remained stoic watching her intently, waiting for her to defend herself, or attempt an escape. “You really don’t trust me at all do you?”

“It’s my job to be suspicious.”

“Yeah, I get that, and obviously a complete stranger with magic rings claiming to know you, puts me pretty high on the suspect list, but…ouch.” Cori winced at the bigger than normal needle being inserted into her arm. From the looks of the number of tubes the nurse had, she intended to do a lot of tests. “Do I get a cookie and juice after this?” The nurse ignored her quip.

“But what?” Belus asked drawing her attention back to him.

“But you were aiming a gun at my face before you knew any of that. I’ve only seen you aim a gun twice. Both times at the same man oddly enough. Once defending the prison, and twice defending me. It takes a lot for you to pick one up. What set you off? Why were you so threatened by me?”

Belus stared at her with seemingly no intention of answering. She rolled her eyes and looked at the ceiling while the nurse finished her phlebotomy. After she was finished labeling her tubes, she told Belus when to expect the results and left them alone. Cori kept her arm bent over her gauze bandage and waited for further instruction.

“You look like her,” Belus said after a moment. Cori turned to him with her brow furrowed in the most obvious silent question. “Olivia.”

“That was Danato’s wife. The one who died.”

Belus’s eyes closed gently and they stayed closed until he spoke again. “I am suspicious of a familiar face making claims to get her near a very powerful tool.”

“That’s why he bought me, isn’t it?” Cori asked rhetorically. “He only needed Ethan, but I reminded him of her. He couldn’t resist.”

“I don’t know about any of that, but from my perspective you are dangerous to Danato.”

“You think I’m…what…taking this form to get close to him.”

“Something like that. All I know for sure is that I’m not letting him make the same mistake twice.”

“What mistake?” Cori sat up. Belus shifted in response. “What happened to her? Why is he so damn secretive?”

“It’s not my story to tell.”

“Heard that before.” Cori slipped off the table. Belus took a step back. “Stop cowering! Everything I know about combat, I learned from you so I don’t have a chance.”

“I wasn’t cowering.” Belus’s eyes narrowed. “I was drawing back.”

“Are we done?” Cori shifted to display her bandaged arm.

“For now.” Belus didn’t say anything more as the nurses performed the remainder of the tests and neither did she. When it was all said and done, he returned her to her cushy cell to endure the silent treatment alone. 

15

“Why do you have to try so hard to piss him off?” Ethan growled when they reached the seducers level.

“Ethan you know that’s my favorite hobby.” Gypsy winked at him as they exited the elevator in stride with each other.

“Yeah, I know.” Ethan pulled out a pair of goggles that were dark enough to pass for sunglasses. “You really are screwed up. You know that, right?” He slipped the goggles on.

“Is that your professional analysis doctor?” Gypsy asked as she put on her own goggles.

“My professional opinion is you shouldn’t push Danato’s buttons because one of these days he’s going to fail your little tests.”

“Oh, Ethan, that’s the whole point.” Gypsy didn’t have to see his eyes to know they were tight slits.

They reached their designated cell and pulled out foam ear plugs. The glass to the cell was artificially frosted over, but the shadow of the being within paced not far from the door. There was one small spot on the glass that the frost had been scratched away, revealing translucent glass that was dangerous to anyone who might be stupid enough to peer through it. “Danato is a good man, Gypsy. When are you going to finally trust him?” Ethan slipped in one ear plug.

“I do trust him.” She slipped in one of her ear plugs. “Geez, Ethan, you really don’t get this game do you?” She slipped in her other plug.

“You really don’t get how fucked up you are?” Ethan murmured low enough that he probably thought she couldn’t hear him. She resisted the urge to express her complete understanding of her psychological issues with or without his help, but her amusement with the conversation had long since passed and she didn’t want to deprive him of his ever valued last word.

Once the ear plugs and goggles were secured they opened the cell to transfer their prisoner. The serpentine creature within would have appeared to be a beautiful woman or man to anyone not wearing safety goggles. To them it just looked like a giant cobra with human arms and emerald eyes.

Without the earplugs the screech the creature emitted would have translated into a beautiful song that could lure anyone as easily as a rat to the pied piper. As it was, the screech still held a melodious undertone that begged to be paid attention to.

They restrained the prisoner by either arm and dragged it to an adjacent cell that was properly etched so it couldn’t be scratched off. Ethan proceeded inside the cell with the creature alone. He didn’t need her help, but they never moved the siren by themselves. The desire to remove the earplugs was nearly overwhelming even with the visual block.

Gypsy had often wondered how the siren would make itself appear to her. The creature relied on physical attraction to draw people in. She no longer desired any man, and she had never really had any attraction to women, so what would it lure her with.

Unable to resist her curiosity this time, she pulled off her goggles. She caught a view of a little girl with a teddy bear in hand, before Ethan pushed her away from the door and shut it behind him.

“What the hell are you doing?” He said ripping out one of her plugs so she could hear him yell at full volume.

“Interesting,” she said.

“Gypsy!” Ethan pulled out his own plugs and took his goggles off. He huffed and stammered for a moment trying to find the words to his rebuke. She waited for his anger to simmer, as it always did when she didn’t offer any retaliation to keep it going. “What…what did it show you?”

“A child,” she said.

“Really,” he said. “You think that would work on you?” he asked carefully, not trying to insult her maternal instincts, but at the same time very surprised that she might actually have them.

“She had a teddy bear,” she added.

“Oh.” Ethan nodded as if that was the clincher in the portrait of seduction. He smiled at her. She didn’t like that smile. It was honest enough, but it came with a flicker of interest in her beyond friendship. Ethan knew she wasn’t interested in him or any man in that way, but her tenacity occasionally drew his attraction. When it wasn’t pissing him off that is.

“You want to take a peek?” She asked. “I won’t tell.”

Ethan’s amusement faded as he debated indulging in that temptation. He looked to the cell for a moment and then back at her. “Nah,” he said almost somberly, “I already know what I would see. I’m pretty predictable in that department.” He chucked her shoulder and headed out ahead of her.         

16

It wasn’t until her bland, prisoner worthy meal, and the glimpse of the dusking sky through the skylights, that Cori realized they were actually going to make her spend the night in prison. She was certainly not a rookie at occupying the facility she was supposed to be employed at, but somehow she still thought a certain urgency or priority would be taken with her.

She had managed to make some leeway with Danato, at least in letting her see Cleos, but after the fire incident she could hardly blame him for tightening the leash on his generosity. Her rings were going back and forth between being problematic and helpful. So far, they had been problematic, and she was debating whether or not to make them helpful again.

The door was locked and unlocked by an electronic number pad similar to the elemental cells upstairs. It was a faulty design, since Efrat could always fry them and escape his confines to roam the prison freely. Since she still had his power in her rings, there was no reason not to apply the same tactic.

Technically she would be escaping. That meant she was risking being caught, which meant any progress she was gaining toward convincing Danato of who she was, would be lost.

At this point, Danato was leery of her, Belus was distrustful, Ethan was indifferent to her, and she wasn’t sure what Gypsy thought of her, but it was a good guess that she didn’t really have a friend there.

Cori cursed and pitted her frustrations into the door. It was hard to incur the power without the fear that usually accompanied it, but she knew it was just about concentration. It had always been about concentration, but the elementals were given too much power too fast. They didn’t have the mental capacity to focus that much power, let alone stop it when their emotions flared.

The bolt she released was smaller than she was intending, but it did the trick. She saw sparks through the small window in the door and the door clicked open.

She padded through the hall to the nurse’s station. Two nurses were on duty, one was reading a magazine and popping bubbles with her gum, and the other was painting her toe nails. Cori wondered if she should have been a nurse instead of a horticulturist. Maybe she wouldn’t be searching for a genie in a schism of her own life path.

She hadn’t really planned out what to do after she left the cell. She could certainly attack the women and knock them out, but she wasn’t sure if they had an alarm button. If she could sneak out rather than galvanize the entire prison, she would have more time to deal with the genie.

Cori took advantage of the preoccupied women, and slunk across the floor on her hands and knees. Once she was to the circular counter station, she leaned against the base. The main entrance was through a short field of clear glass that was considered a waiting area. Even if she could sneak to it, she still had to get out unnoticed.

A man’s voice sounded from down the hall behind the hub station. It was most likely one of the doctors, since he managed to convey pomposity with a simple greeting. Cori grimaced at her fabulous luck. She didn’t want to make a snap decision, so she just did nothing. The man stopped at the hub to flirt with the ladies who were more than happy to oblige with sultry responses and ear grating giggles. His white tennis shoes and blue scrub pants were in view, but the overhang of the counter ledge kept the rest of him hidden.

Cori tucked her legs in a little more and rethought the situation. She could have knocked out the two women with ease, but she wasn’t sure about the doctor. At any rate, three against one, was a bet she wasn’t willing to risk on her fluctuating skills.

She waited while the three conversed. She had hoped they might all sneak off to an examine room for a three-way, but propriety and common decency was working against her.

When she had enough of the cheeky laughter and benign small talk, Cori concentrated her energy on the doctor’s pant hem. She tried to imagine she was trying to burn a tiny ant with a magnifying glass on a sunny day, and not trying to set a man’s pants on fire, since a fire ball might have been noticeably abnormal.

Eventually, the fabric of his pants started to smolder, wafting smoke up his leg. The conversation turned to comments about the smell, and Cori geared up for her escape. Just as the man’s pants produced a flame he discovered the source and started yelling and dancing around. The women screamed and one of them yelled for him to stop, drop, and roll as children are taught in school. Of course, no one ever tells you that it’s going to hurt like a bitch when you do.

The nurse leapt over the counter and pushed the doctor down. Cori was nearly discovered twice. Once by the woman patting down his leg in front of her—only a slight turn of her head would have put Cori in her peripheral. The second time she nearly ran into the other nurse’s legs when she whipped around the counter announcing that she was going to get a burn kit.