The Ring Bearer (9 page)

  “What is it?”

“Nothing, I just…” Cori wanted to tell him everything, but she wasn’t sure yet. She needed to hear his news first. She wanted to know the plan before she showed all her cards. “I’m sorry, Belus.” After a moment of tentative pawing on his shirt, she reached her arms around his waist and hugged him. She heard him sigh in exasperation, but he didn’t push her away.

“Damn you kid,” he grumbled. “Of all the women Danato could have brought here, why did he have to pick such an affectionate one?”

“I’m not that affectionate,” she muttered into his side. “I just have to make up for your hostility.”

He grumbled an acknowledgement and after a second or two of pause, he put his hand on the back of her head, almost petting her. “Hey,” he whispered and she looked up at him, “what was that about you getting pregnant?”

She pulled away from him with a sigh. “Ethan wants to have a baby,” she said in equally hushed tones. “I told him I would have to check with you first.”

Belus glanced toward the door. “Why?”

She shrugged. “Hell if I know, it might turn my hair to snakes, it might cause a plague, or turn everyone’s left shoe inside out. I just figured I should consult with you before I did.”

He grunted another wordless response and moved his papers so he could sit beside her. “So, releasing prisoners not a phone call, but the private lives of you and your husband you need help with.” Cori furrowed her brow. “Are you sure you weren’t just using me as an excuse?” She shrugged. “Do you want to have a baby?”

She crossed her arms. “You’re the second man to ask me that this week, and you’re the second man I don’t have an answer for.”

Belus smiled. “That’s okay, we have less difficult issues to attack right now, but in case it makes a difference, I have no objections to a child. A few precautions spring to mind, but don’t let that stop you.” Cori nodded. She wasn’t sure Belus’s approval was going to make the decision any easier, and in fact knowing that everyone else was on board without her, might have just scared her farther from the idea, but it was nice to know the option was there is she decided to go through with it.

11

Daniel thought he had benefited from not passing out after healing Callin, but the heat wave that had him undressing in the elevator, was enough to make him wish he had. “Feck it’s hot in here,” he said pulling off his shirt.

“We’ll get you outside in just a minute.” Heaton grabbed his hands before he could undo his trousers.

Daniel panted and pressed his face against the cool metal of the elevator. He thought the metal might melt from the heat he was casting off, but instead the metal maintained its cool feel.  If he hadn’t been too delirious to judge he would have sworn it felt colder the longer he pressed against it.

When the doors
ponked
, he ran out toward the foyer and the exit door, leaving friends, shoes, socks, and shirt in his proverbial dust. He slammed open the door to the outside fall air, which for the artic climate, might as well have been winter. He groaned with relief as he lobbed his body into a left over snow drift.

He couldn’t claim that the snow sizzled on contact, but he did feel himself slip down a little from the immediate melting. It was probably not wise for him to change temperatures so quickly, but he imagined that his abilities came with the appropriate bodily compensations for it. He let out another groan as Nevia and Heaton came out to join him in full winter wear.

Heaton clutched his coat, while Nevia carried his clothes. She looked him over as she approached. “You shouldn’t do that. You could burn your skin.”

“On snow?”

“You know what I mean. Sudden temperature change isn’t good for the capillaries in your skin.” She hugged herself. Despite his warning, she still hadn’t brought the best coat. She was still too interested in fashion to comprehend what real cold was about. The navy wool pea coat must have kept her warm in her U.S. winters, but it was useless here.

“Cold?” he asked with a grin. “I’ll warm you up.” He motioned for her to come to him. She glanced at Heaton who shook his head with empathy for his friend’s endless innuendos.

“I’m going to the house,” she announced as she backed away. “Hurry up, you’ll need water.” She called as she stomped off.

Daniel couldn’t help but smile after her. He found some amusement in the fact that she seemed to hate the cold as much as he hated the heat. He supposed that was just one sign that they were a horrible match; followed quickly by their age difference, their conflicting temperaments, and a few other things, which he was still trying to figure out.

When he looked back at Heaton to make a joke about her being a cold fish, he saw a cheeky smile glaring back at him. Daniel furrowed his brow and pulled his head back like Heaton’s beaming lips had actually struck him. He twirled his finger at his face. “What is that wick about?”

“What’s with you two? I think you almost made her blush.”

“Really?” Daniel looked after her like he might actually see the difference between rosy frost bitten cheeks and blushed cheeks. Heaton laughed and offered him a hand up. Daniel took it.

“You do realize you’re hopelessly in love with her, don’t you?” Heaton said as he draped his coat over his shoulders. He wasn’t completely cooled down yet, but the snow melting against his pants was bringing in a quicker temperature drop than his nether region needed.

“That’s bullocks. I just like teasing her.”

“You don’t even see it yet,” Heaton said ushering him forward with firm pressure to the back.

“See what?”

“The frustration, the confusion, the obsession.” Daniel shook his head not grasping the connection. “Don’t you remember the state Ethan was in when he was hung up on Cori, but figured she didn’t want him or did want him, but was too hung up on her dead lover to consider letting herself have him.”

Daniel stopped. “Are you elephants or just a gobshite? This…” Daniel motioned between him and the long since gone Nevia. “…is not the same thing. She’s my partner. We just work together. That is bound to cause a little sexual tension.”

“Hmm, and explain to me how that is any different than what Ethan and Cori are to each other.”

Daniel scoffed and moved on. “I am not burying my head in the bottle and wailing in a drunken fit over some bird.”

“No, you’re doing quite the opposite. You’re keeping you head out of the bottle and making an effort to be less of an ass over some bird.”

“I am not less of an ass!” Daniel spat before he realized how ridiculous the statement was. “And I skipped out on one night of alcohol. That doesn’t mean I’m trading my yockers to suck up to some scanger. If anyone here is in love with her it’s you.”

“Me!” Heaton chuckled. “How may I ask did you come to that conclusion?”

“Oh, come on, the cigarettes, the avoidance, that little conversation while you to were lurching on the dance floor. Tell me you didn’t just finally admit your true feelings to her.”

Heaton chuckled again. “Well, you got me there, Daniel, but no I’m not in love with her.”

Daniel stopped and stared at him. “You know you’re killing me right now with this secret stuff.” Heaton tipped his head like he couldn’t quite manage to look sympathetic without it. “You’re supposed to be
my
partner, not hers. Damn that sounded poof, you know what I mean.”

“I know. I thought we were all partners.”

“Yeah, but not like us. Six years, man. Isn’t that something? Isn’t that worth sticking around for?”

Heaton took in a deep breath and Daniel saw the sympathy he had otherwise been lacking. “I’m sorry I said what I said. I was protecting myself prematurely, and as I can see now, immaturely.” Heaton crossed his arms and looked down at his feet as if they held his next line. “I’m not going to transfer. I…”

Daniel interrupted him with a hug. Heaton laughed and undid his arms to hug him back. He only offered a light pat on the back, but Daniel gave him the full brotherly squeeze that somehow didn’t seem as touching when the other person couldn’t breathe.

When he pulled back he realized that he might have made an already touching moment into a full blown after school special. “Good. I’m glad. Cause you can’t leave me alone with her. She’s freaking nuts.” Daniel kept walking. “She looks at me like I’m a freaking lab experiment. I swear if she could take my blood and look at it under a microscope she would.” Heaton walked on with him, but notably a half step behind him. “I think she may try to remove my brain while I’m sleeping.”

“Have you slept with her yet?”

Daniel paused in his step giving away the answer to the question. “It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t want me, Heaton.”

“What’s that?” Heaton said with mock shock as they reached the front door to the house. “A woman doesn’t want an over sexed, near alcoholic man with anger issues, and a criminal past? That perplexes me.” Daniel glared at him and reached for the door knob, but Heaton stopped him. “How many women do you suppose could handle being shouted at by Danato without being brought to tears?”

“Women, feck that, the man brings tears to my eyes.”

“Right, so maybe your past, your powers, and your acerbic personality won’t scare her away. There are probably a few things that she’s running away from, but it’s not that. Figure out what it is that’s keeping her away and work on that.”

“Why would you encourage this? You know I’m shit with women. This could make our work life hell.”

“So, we don’t invite her to the bar after you break up. Just go for it. A real relationship would be good for you.”

“Why?” Daniel was pretty sure he would give him a laundry list of reasons that he should open his heart to the right person, but Heaton just pushed up the sleeve of his coat and shirt to show his healed arm.

“Because that’s fucking amazing and if she was willing to be your damn pin cushion to get this out of you, then that’s the type of girl you change your life for.” Heaton headed in and shut the door, leaving him to ponder that statement for a bit, as well as finish cooling off.  

12

When Cori and Belus finished their discussion, he called Ethan back in to go over the paperwork he had brought in. Ethan sat down beside her hunched over his knees. Intentionally or otherwise, the position offered little room for contact. She pushed herself back against the wall to sit Indian style and ignored the offence.

“Dr. Jillian Frank,” Belus went on handing Ethan a copy of the Jill’s file, which apparently had made it in on the latest delivery. Cori wondered how fast they would have gotten the information if they didn’t live outside of the information age. “As Cori said, she was the doctor who created the elementals. She was hired by the American military to transplant the hands of recorded supernatural beings to volunteered military soldiers. They believed the hands were the source of the power, and therefore could be transferred along with the hands.”

Ethan handed her the document and she looked at the picture of her, but she passed the paper right back. The only image she had left of this woman was of her head being whipped back by a bullet. Ethan must have caught her discomfort because he changed positions so that he could put his hand on her leg.

“First Sergeant Efrat Alston was pulled off special ops to be the leading member of the planned “super team.” He was one of General Clark’s favorites.”

“Efrat might have mentioned he was in special ops. It’s hard to remember, we were trying to kill each other during that conversation.” Cori wasn’t sure that deemed mentioning, but she needed to pry herself out of the hole she had dug herself, and that was only going to happen with complete translucency. She had been working toward that with Ethan, but she had obviously back slid down a very steep hill…into a hole…with quicksand. As it was, she was still holding back and she knew she needed to get out quick before she lost her job, her mentor, and possibly her marriage.

“He was a decorated officer. Well respected and devoted to his career in the military.” Cori took the new file on Efrat that offered a brief history of his service record and a much younger, much prouder picture of him. She now had two interpretations of Efrat in her head. She wasn’t sure which one was accurate, maybe both, or maybe neither. Six years was a long time to compile bitterness and resentment. Those were hard emotions to let go of.

“Corporal Paul Hirem was also a loyal soldier. He was expected to do great things.” Ethan looked at the document and handed it to her, but she turned away and shook her head. She didn’t need to see his face. She already had enough memories of his face in her mind. Memories that were not her own, and yet too close to not be a part of her.

She could see Belus exchanging a look with Ethan, but she didn’t care. They didn’t understand and they never would. Right now Cleos was the only person who understood how she felt about Hirem and Jill, and he wasn’t likely to help her through it. He wasn’t likely to speak to her ever again. 

“Remi and Garrett, or Garr as we all know him, were privates, they were barely out of boot camp when they were brought into the experiment.” Ethan glanced at both the files, but didn’t hand them to her.

“So, what do we know now that
we
didn’t earlier?” Cori asked getting slightly impatient.