The Ring Bearer (23 page)

“Funny, I thought I made it clear that
you
are what I care about.”

“Yes, and your friends, but nothing else. You have no desire to fight for anything beyond that small circle.”

“How does being loyal to my friends make me a man without substance?”

“Don’t you see how different we are? I want to change the world. You’re content with it as it is.”

He couldn’t resist laughing. “Pardon me, love, but Callin getting custody of his son isn’t going to ricochet the world into a new era.”

“No, but collapsing the Council of Moon will change the lives of werewolves worldwide.”

“Feck you are tenacious.”

“Just figuring that out now?”

“No, I knew you were determined, confident, and insolent. I just didn’t realize that you were a spoiled pain the ass.”

“Excuse me.” She stood double dog daring him to give her an excuse to storm off.

“You heard me.” He stood mimicking her crossed arms. She noted his mockery and uncrossed her arms. “You are so used to getting your way, you can’t stand that I’m not falling in line to follow you like your lap dog. You might have more werewolf in you than you realize.”

“You remember I’m armed, right?” She said placing her hands on her hips. She was already losing her footing on superiority. He could tell from her struggle to hold his gaze.

“Go ahead. Pull the gun if it makes you feel better.” He stepped closer to her and pulled his glasses off to look directly at her. She wavered for a moment, but conversely to every other person he looked on, she settled her gaze on his eyes and didn’t look away.

“I’m not afraid of you, Daniel.”

“I know. I’m terrified of you though.” Her brow dipped slightly in question to that statement. “You are a tiny little ball of fire and I want so much to hold you, but you keep burning me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I know you want to change the world, but just because I don’t, doesn’t mean I’m beneath you. It doesn’t mean I’m not good enough for you. If you think it does, then maybe that’s our biggest difference of all. I can be a better man for you, Nevia, but I can’t be a different man. You need to decide once and for all if that’s good enough for you.”

Callin cleared his throat from the front desk. He looked none the worse for wear, except the scratches and bruises. Whatever entanglement his spine was in upon entry, it was now realigned. “Sorry to interrupt, but I would like to continue assisting the search.”

“Yeah, sure man,” Daniel mumbled and led the way to the door. He was glad he had a chance to say his piece, but once again he would have to wait for Nevia’s response.     

48

The cleaver sliced through the duct tape painlessly, but that didn’t prevent Cori from shrieking. She scurried away from Efrat as she ripped the remaining tape from her wrists. He looked on her with the same distant observation he always did. She knew the slight hint of remorse in his eyes was not from what he almost did, but from the missed opportunity to do it.

“You bastard,” Cori snarled nearly in tears, yet restraining her volume. “You would have done it, wouldn’t you?” She got to her feet and he mirrored her movement.

He scoffed. “I’ve killed people Cori, you know that. Why is this so much more heinous to you?”

“Because it’s me!” She stepped forward to make sure every bit of her volume reached him. “I’ve saved your ass more than once!” She could feel the ice rebuilding on her hands, and the hair on the back of her neck standing on end.

“Cori.” Belus’s monosyllabic warning might as well have been to a deaf person because she wasn’t about to stop.

“How can you look me in the eye and do to me what you’re too proud to do to yourself?”

“We are not friends Cori!” Efrat screamed back coming toe to toe with her. His power ebbed around him in blue haze. “You saved me to satisfy your own conscience. I’m a project for your overstimulated morality!”

Cori could feel the color drain from her face. She was no longer upset, or angry, or scared, she had reached antipathy. She was done. “You’re right,” she said ever so softly. “We aren’t friends.” Cori slapped his face. The ice block around her hand was unfortunately gone, but Efrat did get the full impact of her hand. He cradled his cheek defensively. She presumed the reaction was to mock her, but the blood streaming through his clamped fingers told her otherwise.

Efrat looked at his bloody hand appalled. He bore his teeth in a silent snarl and slapped her back. The electricity streaming from his hand wasn’t nearly as painful as the impact.

She counter attacked with a fire ball that threw him against the wall. He patted out the fire that lingered on his flannel shirt/bandage.

He lunged at her with same untamed antipathy as she now held for him. She barely got a bolt off before he landed on her pinning her back on the ground. She could smell burnt hair and skin where her hands touched his forearms. He growled wrenching her hands off and pinning them over her head.

“Stop!” Efrat yelled breathing hard. “Please.” His voice softened and for a moment he just stared at her. Pain was seeping into his eyes, or perhaps it was just fatigue. “Please stop,” he lamented before rolling off her.

She looked to Belus who had observed the fight with a distant fascination. She couldn’t begin to wonder what he thought of her new abilities. She also couldn’t imagine what he thought of her not telling him about them. Before she could find out, a slow applause filled the room.

Cori whipped around to look at the door and found General Clark was observing their fight, including her resume of powers. “Well, well, what have we here?” He drawled looking right at her.

49

Clark smiled but it looked more like a contained sneer. Cori slowly drew herself off the floor. Efrat followed right behind her, his hands ablaze with blue energy. “I thought that whole ice thing was just temporary?”

“Clark you have no business being here. This is—“ Belus started, but Clark didn’t even acknowledge the interruption.

“It’s not just residual is it? You have all four elemental powers…and you can wield them.”

“Yes, which means you should get the hell away,” Cori sputtered her best tough girl retort. She might as well have waggled her head and snapped her fingers as seriously as he took it. “Shall I demonstrate?” She held up a hand full of fire.

“Not at all.” He drew his gun and pointed it at her. “You’ve already won me over. You’ll be a very nice consolation prize.”

“If you lay one hand on her I will kill you.” Belus stepped forward fuming at Clark, but he hadn’t pulled the gun. She presumed it was to prevent unnecessary threat and premature gunfire. That sounded like a logical reason for him to be relying on vacant threats.

Clark looked him over carefully and nodded. “I imagine you would Keebler.” He turned the gun on Belus and fired.

Belus flew back like a victim in a western showdown.

“No!” Cori screamed. She leapt to check Belus, but Efrat closeted her with his arms. The energy from his outstretched hands created a veil protecting them both. “Belus!”

“This has to stop Clark!” Efrat yelled at him over her ear. “She’ll never be a soldier for you.”

“I can be very convincing when I need to be.” Clark licked his lips. Cori got the distinct impression he meant torture, but the notable arousal he got from the topic made her back closer to Efrat. It was a strange position they kept getting themselves into. Like a bad marriage, they hated each other, but they still needed each other to survive, so they just kept coming back again.

“You know your bullets are useless, so save yourself the ammo,” Efrat warned.

“Not necessarily. Ethan had warned me that you were involved in this little kidnapping, so I switched to rubber bullets.” Clark fired the gun again.

Efrat changed tactics from defensive to offensive, but the impact of the bullet in Cori’s stomach put them both on their backs. Efrat struggled to uncouple himself from her, while she struggled to figure out how to work her lungs. The gun fired again and Efrat went down. She struggled to move, but the pain and lack of oxygen left her too dizzy to keep her eyes open.

50

Daniel and Nevia trailed behind Callin while he sniffed out Efrat’s trail. Nevia was doing her best not to pout, but between his ultimatum and Callin usurping her position, she wasn’t hiding it well. At the risk of pissing her off more, he had to ask one question. “I thought your sniffer was better than full werewolves?”

“It is,” she snapped before mumbling the explanation. “It’s too good. Too many smells. It makes for difficult tracking.”

He offered a grunt of acknowledgement and another minute passed in silence.

“I can’t change either you know,” she said abruptly breaking the silence. He glanced at her, but remained focused on following Callin.

“I never asked you to.”

“I never asked you to change either. I just don’t know what the hell we’re doing.”

“I thought we were trying to be a couple,” he said using her word.

She stopped to face him and he did the same. “It’s just, I had an image in my head and…you’re not it.”

“
You
had an image in your head, or your parents put an image in your head?” She didn’t seem to like that accusation, but she didn’t have a defense. “Look we’ve had a two night stand and one really hot afternoon. If you’d rather scatter than give it go; I’d rather know now.”

Nevia opened her mouth to speak, but Callin once again cleared his throat. Daniel must have given him a rather unfriendly look because Callin held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, but do you know any reason that Danato would send for a helicopter?”

“Helicopter? This is a no fly zone. It’s kind of part of the whole secret prison thing.”

“Then I suggest we get outside, because one is arriving right now.”

Daniel glanced between Callin and Nevia a few times before the urgency of the situation settled in. “That son of a bitch,” he grumbled before taking off to the nearest stair well.

51

“Back so soon?” Cleos asked when Cori came ripping through the crowd. She couldn’t fully remember why she was so mad, or who she was mad at, but the uppity bald man staring down his nose at her nearly got backhanded for her lack of focus. “You must be having a bad day.”

“Bad life.” Cori threw herself onto the sofa, put her feet up on the coffee table, and crossed her arms. A cluster of trophy wives gasped at her audacity. “What?” She yelled at them. “You got something to say?”

Cleos hushed her and sat down beside her. “Easy Corinthia. They are just pieces of the former women, and certainly not the better pieces. Don’t waste your time fighting their hypocrisy, it’s all they are.”

“I’m supposed to be doing something!” She griped. “Why am I here again?”

“You must be unconscious again. I presume that means you are in danger again…or still.”

“Great!” She sank deeper into the couch and tapped her foot.

“May I offer a suggestion?” Cleos pulled a pre-lit pipe from his smoking jacket and puffed on it. She turned slightly to hear his explanation. “You should use this time to figure out a plan.”

“I can’t figure out a plan! I can’t remember what’s gone wrong!”

Cleos shushed her again and brushed an errant strand of hair from her face. “The unconscious mind is different than a sleeping one. A sleeping mind is busy reconciling the day’s memories. The unconscious mind is like a movie on pause. It’s just waiting for the conscious senses to start working again.”
“What’s your point?” She sniped and he looked irritated for a moment, before proceeding with his explanation.

“What I’m saying is your mind is still fully functional, you just need to get it the signals to jump start it.”

“No shit, Sherlock. I don’t suppose you have smelling salts for the brain.”

Cleos shrugged. “I could try and find a pathway for you.”

“Good do it.” She opened her palm to him.

He chuckled and slid his hand around hers sensually. “Don’t you even want to hear my speech about the dangers of cutting new paths in the mind? The leaks I could create, which could cause fractured psyches and personality disorders.”

“No, just get me awake again, so I can stop whatever the hell is happening to me.”

Cleos sighed and went into her mind. She caught a glimpse of a slide show in her mind. It was as if she couldn’t think straight, until he found what he was looking for. “There,” he said quietly, “that’s strange. This seems to be…” Cori peeked her eyes open long enough to see Cleos’s crumpled and confounded face. “This is the safest path. It shouldn’t interfere with your personality, though you might lose some connective memories.”

“Okay, what do I have to do?”

“Try not to get knocked out again. I can’t risk doing this twice.”