Grave Danger (41 page)

“
Corrigan,” Debora spoke his name, drawing it
out using a deeply concerned tone to her voice.

“
Yes,” he answered, fingering one of the
leaves.

“
Will you come and sit over here with
us?”

He looked up to see both his adoptive siblings
sitting in the living room portion of the room which housed
Trueman’s leather recliner as well as a sofa and two other chairs.
There was also a gas fireplace set in the wall which was more for
show than for producing heat.

Corrigan made his way across the room to one of the
chairs. Debora had chosen the striped printed sofa while Trueman
was back in his recliner. As he sat he watched their identical
level stares. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that something
in his charts had displeased them.

“
Would you take refreshment with us,
Corrigan?” Debora asked as she gestured to a service tray that held
an etched glass pitcher of iced tea, several matching glasses and a
plate of homemade pastries that Maude had made and sent over
earlier.

Corrigan was figuring out how best to decline her
offer when he caught sight of Trueman holding up a tiny metal
flask. When Debora wasn’t looking he made a gesture with it over
his own glass of iced tea. Quickly changing his mind, Corrigan
forced a smile on his face and nodded.

Debora returned his smile with one of her own as she
filled the etched glass with the brewed liquid. She placed a sliced
lemon on the glass for effect and reached out across the low coffee
table as Corrigan extended his hand to take it from her.

“
Oh,” Debora exclaimed just as Corrigan had
taken the glass, “I forgot to get the coasters. I’ll be right
back.” Standing up to go retrieve them from the hall closet where
she kept other table linens and such. She eyed the two men before
saying, “Don’t you dare put those glasses down on my coffee table.
If I come back and find even a partial wet ring on the wood, you’ll
both be very sorry.”

Debora left them then, only turning around once to
give them a look that said she meant what she said.

When he was sure she was far enough away Corrigan
extended his glass of iced tea to his brother. Taking off the stop
of the flask, Trueman poured a good amount into his brother’s
eagerly waiting glass. “Don’t be stingy, Trueman,” Corrigan said as
Trueman was about to pull back.

Trueman chuckled as he continued to pour more into
Corrigan’s glass. He watched as his brother took several gulps from
the glass to make room before he extended it out again for a
refill. “You’re a real Irishman, Corrigan.” He emptied the contents
into his glass.
Corrigan’s dark brows drew down as he brought the glass once again
to his mouth. He downed half the contents before he moved it away,
letting it hover over his right thigh. “That’s a poor stereotype,”
he said after he cleared his throat.

“
Maybe,” Trueman said, putting the cap over
the now empty flask. “However, I can’t help but note the obvious.
You’re overly moody with a volatile temper that could rival
Xavier’s if and when you ever let it out.” He held up his now empty
flask, shaking it for emphasis. “And you just downed enough spirits
to kill an average man. I made this little concoction myself. Don’t
tell Debora, because she has issues with drinking.”

Corrigan just nodded, his glass finding its way back
to his mouth. Corrigan had brought the glass to his lips and was
swallowing another mouthful when Debora re-entered carrying a stack
of pretty little coasters. Trueman hastily tucked the flask down
between the cushions as she made her way back toward them. Taking a
quick inventory of her coffee table she set the coasters down in
front of the men. Looking up she noticed Corrigan’s more than half
empty glass.

“
You’re thirsty, aren’t you?” she said as she
filled her own glass. Placing a lemon wedge artistically on the rim
of the glass she arranged herself on the sofa, her ankles crossed
and her dress slacks adjusted so she wouldn’t wrinkle
them.

Trueman stifled a laugh at his wife’s question.
Debora gave him a curious look as he tried to wipe his mouth of the
grin that was more than evident on it. Shaking her head at her
husband’s odd fit of laughter she took a sip of the iced tea she
had made. It was good, not too sweet and extremely refreshing.

Corrigan set the now empty glass on the table,
making sure it found its way onto the coaster lest he get an earful
from his sister. Trueman did the same. Debora fingered the etched
details on her glass as she stared into the mouth of it, watching
the tiny glaciers in her tea bob up and down with the slight
movement of her hand. The room was once again quiet, the light
filtering through the mosaic scene on the far wall, barely reaching
them in the darkest part of the room.

“
Do you know why we are here?” Debora
addressed the room, still looking into the mouth of her
glass.

“
You asked me over to take a new sample,”
Corrigan answered automatically.

Debora looked up then, an embarrassed smile on her
face as she realized that she had spoken her thoughts aloud. But it
couldn’t be taken back now. “No,” she said, shaking her head as she
looked off into a world of her own imaginings. “Why are we ‘here’,
why do we exist?” She made a strange sigh as she placed her glass
down on the coffee table on a coaster of her own.

“
I don’t know.” Corrigan glanced over at his
brother who had put his glasses back on his face. He was adjusting
them over his nose when he caught Corrigan looking at him. He
frowned as he took his hands away, placing them on the arms of his
recliner. “You’re the scientist, Trueman, what do you
think?”

Trueman scratched an area on his forehead, running
his fingers through his slightly out of place hair before fidgeting
with his glasses again. It was compulsive, he couldn’t help it. “If
I knew the answer to that, not only would I be the richest man in
the world, I’m quite sure I’d destroy every known belief system,
past and present and watch as it fell into one crumbling pile of
esoteric rubble. That very question haunts every being on this
planet. It’s the drawback of knowing your own existence because
you’ll spend every day wondering ‘why’. I don’t know and deep down
I don’t really want to know.”

“
You’re dying,” Debora blurted out, unable to
keep the words inside any more. Corrigan was her youngest brother
and even though he was much older than she, there was a
vulnerability about him that brought out a motherly instinct in
her. An instinct that she couldn’t put to good use because of what
she was. “You’re killing yourself, for her.”

Corrigan sat back in his chair, unsure of how to
respond.

“
What Debora is trying to say is…” Trueman
tried to express in better words his wife’s harsh accusation, but
she wouldn’t let him.

“
No,” she shouted at him. “Don’t make it less
than what it is. I won’t let him hurt himself because he feels
guilt over what he is. How can I stand by and watch while he slowly
loses his mind and turns into a,” she paused, her hand going to her
mouth before she finished her sentence on a whisper, “until he
becomes a mindless, cataleptic zombie.”

Corrigan knew what she meant. He’d seen for himself
what could happen to his kind when they neglected themselves, their
minds lost to them until there was nothing left but a sack of flesh
with no purpose other than to consume. They were truly dangerous,
but then the creature didn’t last long to cause much harm. They
were the kinds of creatures fit for the horror movies.

Debora came off the sofa in a flash of movement as
she came to kneel at her brothers chair. Taking his hand into her
smaller one she held it to her mouth. Corrigan was at once taken
back by the gesture. He didn’t know what to say so he just sat
there looking down at her. He watched the tears slip freely from
her eyes, trailing down her unchanging skin.

“
Is she worth ending your existence, slipping
away into those dark shadows where we can’t find you?” she said,
clasping his fingers tightly to her cheek. “Isn’t it enough to know
that I love you as if you were truly my own brother? We are your
family, and we would never make you change who or what you
are.”

Corrigan felt a tightening around his chest at the
utterance of those whispered words. Yes, he knew that they cared
for him, but love, no, he hadn’t known that. But his family didn’t
understand that he didn’t want to be an evil creature anymore.
Clarissa accepted him for what he was, but even then he wondered if
she only suppressed that dark side of him from her mind. Was their
love based on lying to themselves and each other?

“
You’ve not been out with Chas in the last
week and it’s already showing in your chart.” Trueman crossed one
knee over the other, his posture reading one of an observant
doctor. But in his eyes Corrigan could see his own worry; it was
personal. “You’ve lost substantial weight and both your red and
white blood cell numbers are down. I haven’t done enough tests to
see but physically I can see the toll your abstinence is taking on
your system, your skin and the dark circles under your eyes, the
fact that you don’t sleep as you should. You’re wearing thin
Corrigan.”

“
Because of the nature of our genetics we must
replenish our cells constantly as our bodies attack what cells we
have in our system. Right now you’re showing signs of acute
hemolytic anemia, which can be treated well enough in a typical
human but it’s more serious in our species. In fact it can be more
than deadly if left unchecked. You will become a creature without
conscious and we can’t allow that. If you continue to refuse to
meet the needs of your diet,” he paused, his eyes drawing down, his
mouth hardening. “If you refuse then we will be forced to take
matters into our own hands.”

“
You would force feed me,” Corrigan said,
incredulously, knowing his brothers intentions. “You’d force it
down my throat like a child.”

“
If it means your health and wellbeing then we
will,” Debora answered, moving to stand. “We will do everything in
our power to see to your health and safety. It is our job as your
family. If that woman thinks to force you to change because of her
prejudices against us then she has another thing coming to
her.”

“
Clarissa has never made me choose, nor has
she ever told me to change my diet. I’m not the victim you seem to
think I am. If I decide to hunt less then that is my choice, not
yours.” He refused to continue to let them think that Clarissa was
the only reason for his change of heart. He had thought this for
some time now. He wished more than anything that there was another
way, but such things were never easy. He and his family were what
they were and there was no way to change their needs to
survive.

That need to survive beat at his brain every day
that he went without the sustenance of living flesh and blood.
Corrigan told himself that he could hold out, but he knew he
couldn’t. If it went much longer he’d either go on a rampage or
become the very thing his sister feared. Then he’d be truly lost
them; Clarissa too. He didn’t want that. And drinking didn’t seem
to help either. Despite the fact that he’d nearly emptied his
eldest brother, Ambrose’s, good stock he kept in a locked pantry in
the main house.

“
Does she know what will become of you if you
continue abstaining from your diet?” When he shook his head she
continued. “Then I think it’s time we had a girl’s night out. If
Clarissa is going to accept you and our family as we are then she
needs to see us as we
truly
are and not what we pretend to be. Keeping her closeted in
your attic room every night can’t keep the rest of the world at bay
forever.”

She watched as Corrigan looked away and it was in
that moment that she saw the truth. He thought that if he could
keep her to himself that they could stay that way forever. But she
knew better than most that love did not exist in a vacuum. If it
was to survive it had to be out in the harsh elements of the world.
True love shone bright even in the muck and nastiness of everyday
life.

“
Bring her to the house on Friday and we will
see if she can hold up to her promises.”

“
What are you going to do, Debora?” Corrigan
asked, not liking the tiny smile that worked its way on her
youthful mouth. He watched as she wiped her tears and returned to
the sofa. “Clarissa has been nothing but polite to all of you. And
for the most part you all ignore her presence here. Why do you
think I’d allow her to go out with you? Take her on one of your
‘girl’s trips’ when I know it would only serve to alienate her and
make her feel more unwelcome then she already feels?”

“
That is exactly why she needs this; why you
both need this.” Debora fixed a crease in her pant leg before she
leveled her brother with a serious stare. “Drinking yourself into a
stupor is not a way to solve your problems. You,” she said, turning
her focus to her husband, “should know better.” Drawing her
attention back to Corrigan she continued. “If she wants to be part
of this family then she will ‘eat’ with the family and only when
she sees us at our worst will we be certain of her
affections.”

Corrigan placed his hand over his eyes, stopping his
mind from going there.

Chapter 23-

Several Days later at the house of Cyrus
Cercopoly…

She needed to remember to breathe or at the very
least keep up the allusion that air was passing in and out of her
lungs. Ghosts didn’t really breathe like a normal human. The look
of breathing however was aesthetically pleasing to the eye, as a
chest that did not rise and fall was considered ugly and dead by
Eidolon standards. They did not care to look too closely at their
own deaths and distanced themselves from all things that reminded
them of the physical nature of death. But Clarissa was having a
difficult time remembering to ‘act alive’ when inside she was
reliving her own death.