Tenants and Tyrants (Book 5 of The Warden series) (14 page)

Cori smiled broadly. They certainly weren’t lovers, nor had that ever been a consideration, but it definitely had the feel of two former somebodies trying to break the ice enough to speak civilly. “Something like that.” Cori leaned into the glass, mimicking his body, and biting her lip so she could batten down some of her oafish grin. “I’ve missed you.”

“No, you haven’t,” he said wryly. “You’ve been too busy with work and husband to miss me.”

“True, but you know how you see someone after so long, and you suddenly remember how important they were in your life. You kind of get that reverse chronological pain of loss.”

He paused and let that sink in while he stared her down. “What are you here for Cori?” He asked. “Because I know it’s not to catch up.”

“Ouch,” she said slipping her hands, from the glass to stand normally. He did the same. “I guess that’s true, but I think we both know why I haven’t made the effort to come by socially.”

“And we both know that nothing in that area of interest will change,” he added. “What do you need?” He drawled.

“I have an issue with some fem-wolves. Apparently I’m easy to hypnotize and I need that to stop.” He stared blankly at her. “Can you do that? Stop them from being able to hypnotize me.”

“Yes,” he said as if he had already said it. She saw movement below; his fingers dancing through the food slot. “You know the routine.”

“Oh, right.” Cori went to grab his hand, but the thought of her secret pocket trinket popped into her head. She reached and pulled back spasmodically until she found a pocket to slip her hand in to keep it still. “Listen, Cleos, I don’t…”

“What now?” He growled. She was surprised he was being so curt with her, but he was obviously offended by her perceived mistrust.

“I kind of have a secret. It’s just a little one, but you have to understand that, it’s my secret to keep or reveal or just forget about completely.”

“You think I would tell your secret?”

“It’s the only secret I have from Ethan right now. If he were to find out, that would be bad. Finding out from you, would…you know.”

“I do know. He doesn’t know you’re down here, does he?”

“He was busy and the fem-wolves are here. I need to make sure I don’t get taken advantage of by them. I also need to make sure you don’t take advantage of this situation.”

“You think I want revenge.”

“No, but you did tell Ethan you would not try to get between us. You knowing this secret would put you right smack in the middle. If you can’t handle knowing, without telling him, then I’ll have to risk seeing Mezula.”

“Don’t you dare let that sadistic bitch touch you again?” He spat. It sounded protective, but Cori got the distinct impression that it was more about competition. “I can keep your damned secret. Just give me your hand.”

“Okay,” she reached for his hand, but stopped again. “Since you’re going to know my secret…”

“Oh, hell,” he threw his head back, “no wonder he tries to keep a tight rein on you.”

“Maybe you can help me find the answer I’m looking for.”

“There is no plausible deniability with a mind reader you know. Just give me your hand, before I change my mind.”

Cori touched his hand and he shivered as if she had given him a good deal of pain, or a great deal of pleasure. “What’s wrong?” she asked quietly, but didn’t expect an answer.

“I’ve missed you too,” he said through slit eyes, before he leaned his head back. His eyes sorted through her mind to block out whatever loose ends were making it possible for her to be manipulated so easily by the fem-wolves.

As usual, Cleos’s mind read was painless, unlike Mezula who generally ripped open your mind to read you. Her experiences with Cleos, were conversely pleasurable. He could surface the memory attached to the thrill of riding a rollercoaster, or the comfort of a warm blanket, or even the smell of her mom’s homemade scones. Long gone memories could be fished up for him to share, or eat, if they weren’t vital.

She wasn’t really clear on what it meant when he ate her memories. He insisted they were not integral, and that they were buried too deep for her to miss, but the fact that she could never recall that memory again seemed like stealing.

This time was a little different than the other times he read her. She kept getting flashes of things as he scanned her. At first she ignored them, but as a wave of intoxication hit her she leaned forward and closed her eyes, so the images wouldn’t get confused with her real eyesight.

She saw glimpses of women, herself amongst the collage. Too many events passed before her to comprehend. She focused on one spot in the background, and a woman’s image appeared before her. She was crying and kneeling before her. Though she wasn’t corporeal in this place, she felt her touching her hands.

“Please!” The woman begged, “Leave me alone, Cleos! Just let me end this!” There was a pause as if someone else was speaking, but she didn’t hear anything. “You’ve tried that already! I’ve put this off long enough, now go!” Another pause. “It’s my life, and my choice. You needn’t guilt yourself over my death. You are not to blame for the shit my life has become.” Another pause. The woman looked up, and stared blankly at her. “You could do that?” Pause. “I don’t care. There’s nothing I want to keep from this life.”

Cori could feel the pain from the woman, her memories of abuse flashed through her mind, reminding her that there were indeed worse things than death. Cleos housed all of those memories, compartmentalized in his overly stuffed vault. Not because he wanted to feed off them, but because he wished to free the woman from them.

A voice louder than all the cluttered background noise spoke. “What are you doing?” It was Cleos, but in stereo in her head. She could hear him in her mind. “How the hell are you doing that? GET OUT!”

Cleos’s real face and real voice, were no comparison to the mental versions that were pushing her away. Her body flung across the room, either by the will of Cleos’s mind, or her desire to comply with his demand; she wasn’t sure which.

She landed against the cage behind her. Hands grasped at her hair and clawed at her neck. She could see Cleos reaching out to her from his food slot. “Throw me your keys. I’ll come help you.”

Cori tried to reach, but her hands were tangled trying to keep the creatures claws from severing an artery. The racket that sounded down the line of cages, reminded her of a bunch of drunken fraternity brothers cheering on their friend as he beat the crap out of some poor freshmen who was stupid enough to endure hazing for acceptance.

Something about the noise just pissed her off. The vampire clawing at her neck was certainly scary and at any moment could be the end of her, but all she could think was, “shut-up.”

So she said it. “Shut-up! Shut-up you deficient puerile beings!” Her heart was racing, and her hands were starting to make progress. She hoped her anger could give her the adrenaline rush she would need to keep her head intact. “I can’t stand that damned noise!” She yelled and she heard a loud snap.

The vampire shrieked and let go of her. She pulled away from the bars and rolled to Cleos. “Son of a bitch! Why do we even cage these things? They’re like freaking rodents.” Cori groped her hair, trying to figure out what was still attached, and what was just a fistful of loose flaxen surrendered upon her release.

When Cori looked back at Cleos, he was not relieved to see her freed. He looked just as concerned as when she was being held by the creature. “Cori what just happened?” he asked gravely.

“I don’t know. He just let go of me.”

“No, I mean, when I was reading you.”

“I don’t know, you tell me, what happened. I was watching you and then I started getting flashes,” Cori whimpered as she pulled a big gob of hair from her head. “Crap.”

“What happened, metaphorically speaking is, you opened your eyes?”

“I don’t follow.”

“When I go into your mind, it’s like we are joined. For me, it’s as easy as holding hands. For you, it’s like you are there, but your eyes are closed, so you don’t see me. Well, you opened your eyes. For a moment, you were linked with me. You were seeing inside my mind as I was seeing in yours.”

Cori didn’t know what to do with that information. This entire trip was a bad idea. She should have told Ethan, she was coming here. She should have brought him with her. Now with scratches all over her neck, she was not going to be able to hide it from him.

She didn’t understand what a two way mind meld meant, but she knew it wasn’t a good thing. Ethan didn’t like her sharing her mind with Cleos. He certainly wasn’t going to like him sharing his with her.

She stood up, trying not to cry over the fear of what Ethan would do over this. “I need to go and get cleaned up before he finishes with Annette.”

“Cori we need to talk about this,” Cleos said sternly.

She paused in the corridor thinking about what she saw inside of his mind. “Why didn’t you just tell me?” she asked barely loud enough for him to hear.

“Tell you what?” He asked.

She stepped back to his cage and pressed her hands to the glass containment. She wanted to reach through and touch him, but she thought it would only spark another mind meld and she didn’t want to see anymore. “Those women…your so called victims. Did you know them well? Friends? Lovers?”

His head cocked to one side like she was speaking a foreign language.

“Did you love them? Is that why you did what you did? To save them from themselves?” He took a step back. “Lobotomy over suicide?”

“I told you not to use that word,” he hissed as he took another step back.

“She begged you to let her die. That must have been difficult to watch.”

His eyes widened and his chest bolstered. “How dare you? How dare you invade me?”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that they were suicidal?”

“Errant, ignorant child!” He yelled baring his teeth in his sneer.

“Cleos, I understand what you did! You saved them the only way you could! Cleos, I can forgive you for
that
!”

His fist hit the glass so hard. She jumped back half expecting the glass to shatter. “You arrogant bitch!” Cori’s mouth went slack, shocked by the audacity of his insult. “You listen to me, and you listen well. You get the hell away from me and you don’t come back.” His voice was low and filled with threat.

“Cleos...” she whispered wondering what had gone wrong.

“Ever!” He added venomously.

She shook her head trying to find something to say to calm him, but she could see that he was beyond placation. Whatever she had done was beyond apology at this point. Had she not been so shocked and frightened, her innocuous tears might have had been joined, by sniffles and cries. She didn’t dare make a noise to irritate him further.

She backed down the corridor and he watched her go without repentance, which only made his resolve to see her leave all the more ardent. She had preferred his reticence to his anger, but she didn’t have time to fix it now and she doubted he would let her for a while.

21

Ethan watched Annette take vial after vial of blood from the dragon’s neck. For the most part Penelope didn’t seem to mind the procedure. Annette’s rounds of blessings and chants had seemed to put her in a trance. “Does that hurt her to take so much?” He asked.

She looked back at him with a smile that told him it was a stupid question, but she would never tell him so. “This is nothing more than you would lose shaving.”

He crossed over to her and took the vials she had accumulated and placed them in the box specially designed to hold them on her altar. She brought over the eighteenth vial and slipped it into the box. “Would you like to try it?”

Ethan shook his head, but he looked down at the vials. He was curious. “I don’t know that Danato would approve.”

“Danato’s had his fair share of dragon’s blood. If your anything like him, it will only increase your clarity. Don’t worry, worst case scenario, you’ll be giggling through supper.”

Ethan shrugged. “Okay, what do I do?”

“Just open your mouth.” He didn’t relish the idea of putting yet another dragon body fluid in his mouth, but he wanted to try it. Annette reopened one of the vials, and dipped a dropper in. “Lift your tongue.” He did so, and she placed a drop under his tongue. “Let it sit for a minute and then you can swallow.”

After a few minutes of feeling nothing he helped her pack up her supplies. “Well that was disappointing?”

“I’m so sorry, Ethan,” Annette apologized for the lack of reaction as if she were personally to blame for it. “Everyone reacts to the blood differently and every dragon is different. I could possibly bring some in for you from one of my other draws.”

Ethan chuckled as he lifted her folding table and placed it against the wall to put away later. “Annette it’s alright. You don’t have to cross the country just to bring me blood drugs.”

She moved to him and hugged him. He was a little shocked by the sudden affection, but he wrapped his arms around her to reciprocate. “I’m going to miss you.”

“We’ve only just met,” he said rubbing her back slightly. “Are you leaving now?” he asked suddenly realizing this might be a goodbye hug.