Beasts and Burdens (11 page)

Cori tipped her head back and forth examining Danato just like the fire projection did the night before. “Doesn’t this make you happy?”

Danato shook his head slowly. “No.”

Cori moved closer to him facing off with him between the couch and coffee table. “Does this make you happy?” Cori untied the wrap dress and revealed sexy red lingerie underneath. Danato looked away, shaking his head.

“No.”

“But you love her,” she rationalized.

Danato pulled the dress ties from her hands and rewrapped the dress around her. “Not like that,” he stated carefully.

“I thought you loved Olivia, but you destroyed her. Will you destroy Cori as well?”

Danato looked down at the floor. “If you don’t leave her, I will have to.” He caught sight of the glowing rings on her hands. They were fighting to protect her, but they weren’t keeping the entity out. He hoped that it wasn’t too late to help her.

Cori shook her head. “I was everything that Olivia was, why couldn’t you love me, the way you loved her?”

“Is that what you want?” Danato narrowed his eyes on Cori trying to read between the blank faced expression and the tone in her voice. “Do you want me to love you?”

Cori tipped her head in thought. “Yes. I want to experience love. I want to feel love.”

“You do feel my love. I loved Olivia and I love Cori. They are different forms of love, but both very powerful. You must feel that from me. You must sense my draw to them.”

“Yes, I feel your love toward them, but I do not experience their love toward you. I want to…
be
in love. I do not understand this emotion. I understand happy, sad, angry, and jealousy, but I do not understand love.”

“It isn’t a singular emotion that you feel in the moment. It is a condition, so to speak.”

“It is a sickness?” Cori asked tipping her head again.

“It is a connection, an imaginary tie that draws ones attention repeatedly back to that person. It opens you up, leaving you vulnerable to joy and pain.”

“Is that why you destroyed Olivia? Were you defending yourself against pain?” Danato sat down on the couch and looked into the fire. Cori sat down next to him, intent on receiving an answer.

“I destroyed Olivia because you are a creature with great power, and you hurt people when you take a body over.”

“No pain.” Cori touched her own cheek, as if she was consoling herself.

“I mean emotional pain. You are taking away the person I love.”

“I am an
exact
replica.”

“So are twins, but as they develop they deviate from each other. Life experience changes everyone. You can never duplicate who Cori would become.”

“That is irrelevant. You don’t know who she will become.”

“It’s relevant, because I know you aren’t her. I only love Cori and the fact that you can’t reciprocate that emotion should be proof enough that you are an inadequate replica.”

Cori turned away absorbing that information. Danato had a half hope that it would be enough for the entity to release her, but it faded when she smiled. “Her mind is strong. She is very angry. She wants me to let her go as well, but I won’t. I believe I can experience love, when this child is born.” Cori pet her belly tenderly. “All human mother’s love their offspring unconditionally. If I experience this, then I will know love. I will feel love.”

Danato frowned. Cori wasn’t due for another month. That would be too long. Even if the being was satisfied with the experience, she wasn’t likely to give up Cori’s body.

“If you don’t leave her, I will destroy her,” Danato threatened.

“No, you won’t. You couldn’t kill Olivia. You won’t kill Cori. You definitely won’t risk the baby. You love this child, and you haven’t even met it. That I find very interesting.”

“I find it interesting that your nose is bleeding.” Danato smirked. Cori touched her nose revealing the blood that Danato was seeing. “What’s the matter,
darling
? Is she fighting harder than you expected?”

29

“This is going to hurt him isn’t it?” Cori asked Cleos(1) who was content to lean against the fire and watch Cleos(2) meditate in preparation for the coming battle. He was sitting on the leather couch that had unceremoniously returned to its original position when no one was looking.

“Oh, yes, I can’t say I’ll feel much though, so I’m not really concerned.”

Cori frowned at Cleos(1). “You’re kind of an ass, aren’t you?”

Cleos(1) shrugged. “Yes, but I’m fun at parties.” He winked and she held back her smile for the most part.

“It won’t kill him?” She asked.

Cleos(1) waggled his head. “It’s always a possibility, but as the central core of his ego, I can’t admit to any shortcomings in strength or ability, because I’m awesome.” 

Cori moved to Cleos(2) and sat beside him. His frown told her that he knew she was there. “If this is too dangerous, you don’t have to do it.”

His eyes fluttered open giving her the usual glare. She wondered if he would ever look at her with the same flirtatious, mischievous gaze he used to. She would never have guess that she would miss it. “What happened to, ‘Cleos help me?’”

“I want your help, but not at the expense of your life.”

“What do you care?” He grimaced.

“I’m not the one trying to abolish this friendship, you are! Plus, I am not an asshole! I actually give a damn about you. I don’t know why. Between you and Efrat, I should be put off making friends for the rest of my life, but somehow I still keep fighting to find that sliver of hope. And you know what I figured out, thanks to Efrat. It’s not about you, it’s about me. I am a good person, and I will fight to find good in everyone, no matter what.”

“Even Gypsy?”

Cori blanched and lost her train of thought. “How do you…” She gave up the question. Cleos knew everything, about everything. “Whatever. She was a bitch. I don’t blame her for that. I just blame her for being a psychopath. Can we get back on topic?”

“Certainly,” he agreed, but she could see the slight amusement in his eyes. He had gotten his stab in. He would be content for a while. “Are you ready for this?”

“No, what are we doing…exactly?”

“Her mind is in your mind, and your mind is in mine; so, by the law of distribution, she is in my mind.” He smirked.

“But she’s really powerful.”

“Yes, but only part of her mental capacity is inside your mind. We just need to introduce her to me, so I can educate her on proper etiquette, and to stay the hell away from my friends.”

“Is that what we are?” Cori asked before she could stop herself.

Cleos’s enthusiasm dimmed, and she instantly regretted drawing attention to the verbal slip up. “First we’ll see if we can use the rings to our advantage. No matter what happens, you need to let me keep control. This is going to get messy, and my mind is not someplace you want to get lost in. Understand?”

“Yes.” She nodded abjectly.

He reached out his hands and she took them not questioning anything more. The room faded out like dimming lights at the end of Act 1. In the darkness, she could hear a conversation. It was muffled, but she sensed it was Danto and her, or rather
her.

“Cleos?” She spoke and the words echoed.

“Shhh!” She felt the hush more than heard it. “Stay calm and open your eyes.” Cori opened her eyes and found herself standing on a small wooden pedestrian bridge. There was no water to speak of, but in and around her were images that if she focused on would become clearer. “Don’t worry about that,” Cleos said from one end of the bridge. She started to move toward him, but he put up a finger. She stopped instantly.

“Do you know how vast my mind is?”

“As vast as your ego?” She said automatically without thinking if it would anger him. A slight smile played over his lips, but it faded into something that might have been sadness, but it was probably just annoyance.

“It is the key characteristic that separates readers from collectors. It’s what makes us do what we do. I can house thousands of minds inside of me. Hundreds of thousands if I just take a pinch. Once in while I find a mind that appeals to me. There is no rhyme or reason. I’m just drawn to it. You my dear are one of those minds. It’s a dangerous temptation putting your unconscious and my unconscious together. What should happen if they decided to runaway together?”

“What
would
happen?” Cori asked quietly.

“They can’t,” he said flatly like she had just ruined his metaphor with logic. “I’m just trying to impress upon you that we really need to fix this connection. However, since it is available to us now… I’m going to use it to my advantage, but…for the record, I’m only doing it because your house creature is bound to have some invigorating memories for me.”

“I don’t believe you.” Cori stared blankly at him. “It’s not the only reason.” His response was nothing but cold inquisitive eyes. “If it makes it easier on you though, I’ll pretend. Help me on this
and
stop intentionally trying to hurt me and I’ll give up. I’ll leave you be. Whether I owe you that is still up for debate, but I’ll do it, because I…”

Cori couldn’t say the words. She tried to think about ways to skirt around it, but there was no point. He was listening to her, but only to watch her writhe. She wanted to express her sincerity, but not to the point of diminishing herself. If this was what he really wanted, then in gratitude for all the help he had been over the last few years, she would release him from any obligations of friendship.
“The connection between mind and body,” Cleos continued when it was clear her performance was done, “for someone such as yourself is profound. I may meander in and out of my own mind like it is a real physical place. You, however, are very connected with your body. Even now, as you stand here, you are not fully here. Your conscious self is fighting very hard to get control back. While she is handcuffed to your body and being body slammed by a superior intellect, you—your unconscious self—are remarkably free to help her.”

“How?” Cleos pointed to the far end of the bridge, opposite him. A light sparkled at the end of it, like sun through water. Cori started to walk toward it, but he hissed behind her. “What do I do?”

“You calm down, and then you close your eyes, and reach out to me and to yourself.”

Cori didn’t bother asking, ‘how’ again, since she was likely to get the same answer. She did as he asked and literally extended herself to and fro. He didn’t laugh at her, so it must have been a reasonable albeit metaphorical approach.

“No matter what Cori, you come no closer to me and no closer to her. Just stay in the middle. You are my bridge, to her, to you, and to your body. I will do the rest, but be prepared you don’t have the easy job.”

30

Cori could feel the pull from both directions. The moment she slipped forward, she pulled back, and then did it all again; fighting the gravity of her body, and mental draw from Cleos. She hadn’t expected physical pain, but since she was two horses away from being quartered, something was bound to hurt.

She screamed and pulled back on both ends. Cleos was saying something encouraging, so she must have been on the right track. As near as she could tell, she was either trying to draw Cleos closer to her or
her
closer to Cleos. Either way she was moving mountains with her mind.

She felt white hot stinging around her fingers, and she was certain that the rings were about to sear into her hands. A thought had been at the back of her mind, but it suddenly jumped forward to scare her. She worried that the rings might someday adhere to her hands permanently.

She lost focus and the imaginary mountains snapped back. She was about to give up entirely when she heard Danato. It was low and distant, but he was calling to her, begging her to keep trying. She must have been affecting her body somehow.

She pressed on, pulling her arms nearly out of socket before the weight moved. It occurred to her that the weight couldn’t be real and it was just her mind’s way of translating the energy it was taking to do this task, but of course that didn’t make it any easier.

“Cleos?” She ground out as the two forces were nearly touching.

“You’re doing everything right, just a little more. Once I get access to your mind, three things are going to happen.” His voice was so soothing, it took all her concentration not to let go and lay down for a nap. “Your rings are going to absorb my gift, just as they did before. You are going to get ricocheted back into my mind—remember, don’t get lost. Then I’m going to start devouring every last inch of that bitch I can get to.” The disdain in his voice was only slightly less than when he talked about his photophobic neighbors.

Cori’s hands touched and a flash from her rings blinded her even through her eyelids. All three things, happened as he said they would. What he didn’t mention was that it would feel like a rollercoaster coming to a full stop mid dive.