Tenants and Tyrants (Book 5 of The Warden series) (25 page)

Cori nodded. She just needed him to trust her until the door.

“Unless you think that I’m a monster that just randomly kills people who are in my way?” Clark pulled his gun, but left it at his side. Efrat must have moved again because the men in front of her moved forward directing there weapons more obviously at their target.

She glanced down at the gun. She was really starting to hate the efficacy of bullets. “No, of course not. I will vouch for what I witnessed: self-defense and the security of the prison. I understand you now…fully.” Cori hated pandering for her life, but what was the alternative.

Clark smiled. “You’re a very smart young woman, Cori. You’ve come a long way since you first started here. You aren’t the little hot head you once were, are you?”

“No, sir.” She knew he loved her groveling, but fortunately the last of her anger had been replaced by cowardice. Little metal bobbles were an excellent anger management device. “I have my moments, but in the end I try to do as I’m told.”

He smiled again and looked her over. He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “That was such a pretty dress I hope it’s not ruined.” She looked down at the gown and found the red blood was meshing well with the scarlet. The drops and smatters of blood dotting her skin were more alarming. “You know going home covered in blood might alarm, Danato. We don’t want to do that do we?”

Clark brushed back a tendril of her hair. She wasn’t entirely sure what he was getting at. She naturally feared any suggestion that might involve her losing her clothing, but she got the impression from his glance behind her that he did it to make Efrat flinch again. “Maybe you could clean yourself up, and slip on a jacket before you went home. Wouldn’t that be better than walking in covered in blood?”

“Yes, I think so. I can do that.”

“That way by tomorrow I can have a report prepared for Danato, about Jill and Hirem. All you have to do is nod your pretty head convincingly and the paperwork will be a breeze. That’s what you want isn’t it, for this all to be done with?”

“Yes,” she barely spoke it.

“Now Mrs. Pierce,” he pulled her shoulder so she was facing him straight on. “I know you aren’t that hot head anymore, but I have to make sure I have your full compliance. If I have to be investigated, I won’t be happy. If I’m not happy, I might misinterpret the intentions of my prisoners.” Clark raised his pistol aiming it behind her. She looked back and verified the target was Efrat.

She was surprised he had moved so close to them. He didn’t quail at Clark’s threat, but she did. She couldn’t bear to watch Efrat or anyone else be shot. “No.” She pressed her hands to Clark’s chest. She could see she was shaking. “Please don’t kill anyone else. I’ll do everything you’ve asked. Please.”

With his gun still trained on Efrat he grabbed her face, pinching her cheeks until her lips looked like an open mouthed fish. “Let me make this perfectly clear you conniving little brat. If my rental agreement is compromised, or if I get even the slightest hint that Danato is investigating me or my prisoners, then…BAM! BAM! BAM!” She recoiled at his volume. “The remaining three are dead, and trust me; close range bullets will kill them, as you saw with Hirem. Have I made myself perfectly clear, Mrs. Pierce?” He threw her back with his release and pointed the gun at her.

“Yes, sir, I won’t tell Danato anything until after you’ve spoken with him. I promise. I’ll clean up and go home and leave you alone. I don’t want to be a part of this anymore than I have to,” she said backing away slightly. She glanced at Efrat. “I’m sorry I even got involved in the first place. I
wish
I had never come here,” she said the last statement like it should cause the floors to shake and the walls to cave in.

Efrat’s interest heightened, but the lack of change caused him to perk his brow. Their mutual confusion waned, replaced by disappointment. Cori looked at her rings and wondered if they were preventing the wish from transpiring.

“Good.” If Clark noticed their momentary hope of survival he didn’t mention it. “Now get out!”

The guards started pushing her along. She kept looking back at Efrat for an answer. She wanted to get out of there, but she didn’t want to leave him at the hands of a madman. She finally understood. Maybe the gray areas were stretched a little too far to make the elementals good guys, but they certainly weren’t malicious. Bitter, traumatized, and mad as hell with an imbalanced sense of morality, but six years was a long time to play the part of Frankenstein’s monster. After so many brandished pitchforks and torches, it was no surprise they resembled the monsters everyone accused them of being.

Efrat shook his head. He wanted her to go. He wanted to save her. She appreciated the gesture, especially since he still had several more attempted murders to make up for. Somehow she knew though, that she had disappointed him. He had given her the key, so she could discover the truth and help him. After tonight she was going to be just as trapped as he was. She couldn’t fight to get him out, and now with Clark on hyper alert she couldn’t even manipulate the system to negotiate for his freedom. She was turning out to be a pretty useless heroine.

43

Cori should have gone home. She had already cleaned herself up. The blood on the dress could have passed for punch, but she put on her jacket just to be sure. She had already informed the doc manager that the truck could leave. It took a stern look to keep him from calling Danato about it, but he seemed to sense the stress she was under and let it go.

She was done with her necessary cover-ups, and it was time to go home, but she was standing in the front foyer at a cross roads without a plan. Door one was simply to go home and try not to let the guilt and anger get the better of her. She already knew she couldn’t go home without tattling on Clark.

She knew that if anyone was capable of getting her out of this mess it was Danato, but her concern was not with his ability, but rather his desire. If he had signed those files six years ago, then he already knew the elementals were innocent victims of a government agenda, and he was apparently okay with that. As much as she wanted to run to Danato for help, she suspected that he wouldn’t give her the type of help she wanted.

Cori wanted to free the elementals and she knew that Danato hated them too much to do that. Even if she could convince him they weren’t deserving of their imprisonment, Belus would demand that they follow protocol to release them. A slew of paperwork would only result in Clark killing them and abandoning his rental agreement. She couldn’t play by the rules if she wanted to keep them alive.

Violence at this point was futile. Without recruiting the entire staff to back her up, she had no chance of freeing them. Even if she did miraculously find a way to get them out, what would she do with them? Her only option would be to let them go. She wasn’t sure how well that option would work, but she was very sure that it would involve a good deal of yelling from several men.

Her irritation with her lack of options, led her to the prop room. She let the door slam open. She huffed and stalked into the fluorescent lit room. The buzzing lights barely provided enough light to walk, let alone find what she needed. The blinking dying bulbs were in desperate need of changing, but since no one was supposed to be in here, she doubted anyone would be concerned whether the trespassers could see well or not.

“Where the hell are you? I was supposed to have wishes wasn’t I? I wished for normalcy and you didn’t deliver.” Cori backtracked three times before she found anything remotely familiar. She knew the prop room was disorganized, but she couldn’t even find the blob of mess she had previously bumped her lamp from. “I need to save lives, damn it.”

Cori picked up the snow globe that had fallen in her lap during her time warped day. The lamp should have been near it, but she couldn’t see it anywhere. “Shit,” she whispered feeling her last ditch effort hit a speed bump. It was probably just as reckless to use her wish to free the elementals, as it was to break them out with weapons, but she owed Efrat for saving Belus, and he did take a bullet for her.

She rolled the snow globe around in her hands as she made her way back to the door. When she made it into better light, she looked it over to see what exactly it was. There were probably thousands of dangerous and useless trinkets in that room, but so far as she could see, this was just a snow globe.

She flipped in over to see if there was any reason the decoration was even in the prop room. The base of the globe was covered in duct tape and a handwritten index card. The card read: Spirit of Pamola: Do not break, causes winterized conditions detrimental to human tolerances. If broken evacuate area immediately.

Cori looked deeper inside the glass ball and found the figurine of a bird inside. She felt the weight of the snow globe in her hand. It was heavy, but no heavier than her guilt, and a good deal lighter than her desire for revenge.

44

Danato couldn’t help but wait up for everyone to get back. He liked having house guests, but keeping track of so many bodies kept him on high alert. When Heaton and Ethan walked through the door, he felt his parental relief set in. When Ethan shut the door behind him, he felt his leg cramp with tension.

“Cori not with you?” He tried to sound casual, but Ethan knew him too well for that.

“She’s just saying goodbye to the band. They impressed her. She wanted to thank them.”

Danato grunted some kind of a response and Ethan took it for what it was: discontented retreat. Heaton and Ethan headed straight for the fridge to grab a beer. Danato rarely dipped into his private stash of alcohol, and he abhorred daily drinking, but he knew that Ethan only drank this much when he was around his friends. He could hardly criticize him for wanting to indulge the social scarcity.

Daniel came downstairs just as Heaton and Ethan settled in on the couch. “Daniel, grab a beer and join us.” He glanced at the fridge and shook his head.

“Nah, but I’ll take the company.”

Heaton and Ethan exchanged looks. “Dude, are you sick?” Heaton asked legitimately concerned. Daniel shook his head and sat down in the chair across from Danato. He started to put his foot on the coffee table, but corrected the offense immediately. “Seriously, what’s wrong?”

Daniel looked across at Danato like he wasn’t sure he should speak in front of him. He leaned back in his chair indicating that he wasn’t leaving. “Can’t I choose to end this night soberly?”

Ethan and Heaton looked at each other and answered in unison. “No.”

“Speaking of sobriety,” Daniel leaned forward and looked at Danato. “Annette usually leaves us a tip for accompanying her up here. Did she leave it with you?”

Danato dipped his brow in feigned confusion and watched Daniel’s face melt like a child getting socks for Christmas. He chuckled and Daniel wiggled his finger at him. “That’s just cruel, big man. You know how much we look forward to our tip.”

“I’ll give it to you just before you leave. The last thing I need is you two giggling like school girls on my couch.”

Daniel and Heaton snorted at even the thought of the dragon’s blood high. He noted a look of disappointment from Ethan; he must have coveted the experience himself. Danato remembered being disheartened by his experience at first, but now he was glad for the clear mind he got from the blood. If Ethan’s experience with the dragon was legitimate, he may find that being able to communicate with dragons is a far superior experience to a psychedelic twitter fest.

45

Cori fought the urge to use her bolt on the first soldier that stuck his gun in her face. Clark already knew she was resistant to the elementals' powers. She didn’t need to announce that she could absorb it and reverse it as well.

When Clark came ripping out of the control booth she knew she had used up his last smidgen of patience. She wanted to be sassy and sarcastic in the face of his bluster, but the truth was she was treading on thin ice. She hoped to make some new ice to keep her afloat.

“What the hell are you doing back here?”

Cori pushed through the guards toward the center of the room before Clark could reach her. Efrat shook his head at her like he couldn’t believe how stupid she was. There was a fine line between tenacity and stupidity, and she definitely skirted the edge of it…repeatedly.

“You didn’t think I would be that easy to get rid of, did you General?” Cori pulled the globe her crook of her arm. Clark analyzed it stopping his approach.

“What’s that?”

“You’ve put me in an awful position General. I can’t let two murders go unanswered for. Even if I could rationalize your motives for that, I can’t allow three innocent people to stay in your custody just because you don’t like the results of Jill’s project.”

Clark’s eyes flared with anger. “How the hell do know about that?”

She backed away feeling the error in revealing the information. She was 0 for 3 at this point in the enemy banter category. “These men shouldn’t be here,” she continued on her rant, but Clark pulled his gun before she could wrap her head around the fact that she was about to die.