Beasts and Burdens (12 page)

31

“What is this?” Cori looked at the blood on her hand from her nose and looked around like she might see the invisible force causing it.

“Come on, Cori, fight! Come back to me!”

“How is she doing this?” Cori stood and walked away as if to find a place to hide, but she only made it to the fireplace. “She isn’t strong enough to fight me.”

“She doesn’t have to be, she just has to be stubborn, clever, and lucky as hell, and yes, she is all that.”

“How can you choose her over me?” Cori returned to him, kneeling before him, her hands touching his chest. “I do everything for you. I provide you with a house. I protect you. You haven’t even begun to see what I can do. My powers are limited only to my energy; I could build you a city.”

“And what would I do with a city? Fill it with the things you create and stare at them. I am truly honored to have a home from you, and I appreciate the cage you have provided for our wizards, but this arrangement is mutual. We feed you energy, you provide for us. You are overstepping your boundaries, by taking the minds of my people.”

“They are superfluous.”

“Not to me!” Danato saw her flinch and she drew back away from him. He wandered if it was
her
he was affecting, or if some part of Cori was still awake enough to feel the boom of his voice. “We are not play things. We are not research opportunities. We are not interchangeable. And we are certainly not expendable.” She tipped her head, taking in the statements, cataloging them, and shoving them in the outgoing pile. This wasn’t working.

“Did you make that baby?” Danato stood and approached her.

Belus and many men before him surmised that this entity was childlike. A child with great power, but never the less, a sentient being coming to terms with new emotions through each and every encounter. It wasn’t a matter of logic. It was a matter of established rules. He had to find a moral boundary that even she didn’t want to cross.

“I am not the creator of flesh.” She stepped away saying the statement with undeserved pride.

“You didn’t make it, but you want to keep it.”

“No, I want to love it. I want to feel love.”

“Why would you love something, you didn’t make? You can’t. A mother loves her child, because she created it. You created this house. You are proud of that creation and as such you have expectations for how we treat it.”

“Yes,” she said looking over the house.

“I would no more break down the walls of this house, than I would burn a work of art. I respect what
you
have created. It is beautiful, valuable, and purposeful.” Cori raised her chin absorbing the compliments without an ounce of humility. “I expect you to respect what I have created also.” Her face pinched, not understanding. “I have created the family that resides in this home. They are my masterpiece and you are desecrating it.”

“I am a replica.” Her voice pitched into a whine.

“But I cannot love you, and neither will Ethan. That is the masterpiece you are ruining, the love that has been created here.”

“I only wanted to be a part of it.”

“You are. You have provided the canvas.”

Cori’s eyes blossomed, delighted by that declaration. Her shoulders rolled back, and she stood a little taller. She was flattered.

“Please,” Danato stepped closer to her and took her hands in his. “Give her back to me.”

Her head twisted awkwardly, and she grimaced. “She is mine. She was open. I like it here.”

Danato wasn’t familiar with children, but he guessed this was the irrational tantrum stage. He should have been terrified for his Cori, but between the rings, her undeniable luck, and the blood coming from Cori’s eyes, he knew this fight was far from over.

“Then we will have to decide on a punishment for your disrespect of my belongings.”

Before Cori could snarl a response, her body convulsed forward. Danato held her up, while she panted and groaned. “Noooooo!” Her eyes were still open but her face was scrunched in pain. She slipped to the floor and Danato followed her, holding her, waiting. “This can’t be!” 

“Oh, I think it can.” Danato laughed despite the seriousness of the situation. “Please sweetheart, come back to me.”

The lights flickered, and the fire flared hot enough to warrant him pulling her away from it. For several minutes she floundered in his arms, groaning and whining about her current predicament. Danato wiped away the blood on her face and shouted for his Cori to return.

When Cori’s body went still, he gasped and opened his mouth to scream, but her eyes fluttered open, a second later. She boomeranged her eyes from him to the surroundings.

“Cori?” It was a question, but he was also begging.

She smiled slightly before rolling on her side and puking. He laughed and pulled her hair back to let her get it all out.

32

“The decision is final, Cori,” Danato said diplomatically when they had reached the loading dock. His eyes were still red from their tearful reunion and she knew that he hated sending her away as much as she hated going, but the house was—for lack of a more charitable word—pissed. 

“I don’t want to leave.” Cori looked to Belus who was standing next to Danato with his arms crossed staring at the floor. He hadn’t said much since she and Cleos had explained their side of things. She wasn’t sure if he was being contemplative, or if he was hiding more emotion than he was sharing. Depending on what that emotion was, she might be just as happy with his silent dismissal.

Cleos however, was watching her with predatory intent from behind Danato just inside the door. She had barely remembered her cerebral interaction with him, but it only took a touch to raise the unconscious memories to the surface. He had saved her life, but it didn’t seem to be out of benevolence or any altruism deeper than the avoidance of tainting his soul’s resume. As she had promised him inside his mind, she kept the conversation on task, and kept her eye contact to a minimum—a concession that apparently didn’t apply to him.

The dock manager was frantically trying to get things in order. He was unhappy that his shipment of non-goods was going to be put behind schedule because of her inconvenient need to flee for her life. He was such a jerk.

“Can’t I just hide out?” She whispered, so no one else heard her pleading.

Danato shook his head. “She needs time to get over this. I can’t risk her trying to get into your head again. Until you two figure out how to fix that,” Danato glanced back at Cleos, but he didn’t even afford him a glance, since it would disrupt his deadlock stare at her, “you’re going to need to be extra careful. Right now that’s coming in the form of an impromptu vacation.”

“What if she doesn’t get over this?”

“She will,” Cleos spoke, and she was forced to look at him, per proper conversation etiquette. “I’ve gathered a lot of information from her memories. She’s a very extant creature. She isn’t capable of long term revenge plots. It’s comparable to you burning your hand on a hot kettle. In the heat of the moment, you might yell and cuss at it, or even risk hurting your hand again just to throw it at a wall. But your anger would dissipate long before the pain, and the pain would be gone long before the mark of the burn.”

Cleos was immobile as he spoke, and at one point she thought they weren’t talking about the creature anymore. She wanted so badly to ask, but she had promised, and she was determined to keep that promise.

“Why can’t I just go see Ethan?” she asked suddenly breaking the connection. Danato glanced at Belus. It was a familiar tactic, but she hated that it was always being used to team up against her. “Please tell me you aren’t afraid that we’ll run off together. Danato this is my home. A home I can barely stand leaving now.”

“You’re a distraction, sweetheart. I know you want to be with Ethan, but if he can provide even a sliver of knowledge about the dragons, we need to let him devote his time to that. I love you both very much, and it pains me more than you know to be without either of you. Besides, traveling that far, in your condition, is less than desirable.”

“How long?” Cori looked to Cleos for the answer.

He shrugged and smiled. “I’ll let you know.” Once again she wasn’t sure if he was answering about the topic at hand or something else.

“We’ll give it a week, Cori.” Danato answered for him. “I want you back here before the baby comes. If necessary, we’ll bunk you up with Belus again.” Danato sounded serious, but his eyes were glittering with delight. He must have gotten an earful from Belus about her impromptu stay. She glanced at Belus, but he wasn’t reacting to anything.

“I’ll fill her in,” Belus finally spoke.

She wasn’t sure what there was to
fill in
. She wasn’t always the brightest bulb, but the “get out” was pretty clear with or without pictures. She could only assume it had something to do with the private conversation she was dismissed from prior to their announcement of her relocation.

Danato pulled her into a restrained hug, so he didn’t hurt the baby. When they split he touched her belly. He was passed the point of asking for permission, and she didn’t mind. It was nice to observe his excitement. “I’ll miss you both,” he looked up at her, and she saw him swallow, “very much.”

She mouthed ‘I love you’ not to conceal it from anyone, but rather to keep it sacred. He mouthed it back and drew away from her. He nodded to Belus and turned to face Cleos.

Cleos finally drew his eyes away from her and looked over Danato. His eyes settled on his cane. “I can still help you Danato.”

For a moment, Danato seemed to consider it, but then he laughed and grabbed him by the shoulder—less than gently ushering him out the door. Neither one of them looked back.

She turned to say something to Belus, but he was already on the raised level of the dock behind her. His sudden looming height made her jump. “Geez Belus.”

“I’ve
called
ahead to Sophie. She will make sure Daniel is there to meet you.”

“Daniel?” She didn’t mean to make a face, but Belus was less than pleased with her placing any insult on his protégés name. “I just mean…I thought maybe I could stay with Jordan.”

“No,” Belus said firmly and she started to ask why. “Because I want you with Daniel. Just in case.”

“Just in case of what?” Her eyes flickered over his, looking for the invisible threat no one told her about.

“Just in case you go into early labor.”

“Oh. Really? What’s Daniel going to do that Jordan can’t? She can drive can’t she?”

“Cori,” his voice was loaded with threat, but she couldn’t mind him since she didn’t understand his reasoning.

“Belus,” she said right back offering an exasperated shrug.

“I want Daniel to attend to you, if you should go into early labor.”

“You mean actually deliver the baby? Belus, he’s my husband’s best friend, and that is a very intimate experience.” He didn’t waver. “Belus!” She pointed to her bulbous belly. “This isn’t your decision. I’ll just go to a hospital
if
it comes to that.”

She could sense his ire rising, but instead of blowing up, he knelt down before her, bringing himself face to face with her. “Cori, I need you to trust me on this. Daniel has been privy to many births. He has saved your life more than once. I trust him implicitly and I wouldn’t have agreed to you leaving if it wasn’t for that contention.”

Cori’s mouth dropped open. She couldn’t imagine how that argument went with Danato. Daniel had begun to earn Danato’s respect, but it was a hard road. Their relationship wasn’t quite ready for trusting him with Cori’s life, or her child’s. On the other side though, Belus was the one who was fighting for her to stay, and the only person he did trust with her life was Daniel.

Oh, to be a fly on that wall.

“Belus.” Cori glanced around the room looking for the argument that wouldn’t disrespect Belus’s authority or incapacitate her claim to adulthood.

“Cori,” he spoke her name softly. It was his concern driving his insistence rather than his desire to have her compliance. 

She still wanted to say no, but the part of her that wanted to keep Belus on her good side, won out against the part of her that didn’t want Daniel to be her stand in gynecologist. “Fine,” she conceded. “I’ll do as you advise, but I want a big ass gold star for this in your book.”

“What do mean, kid, you only have gold stars in my book.” He smirked.

33

Ethan peeked out the window of the horse drawn carriage. It reminded him of the one he had ridden in the night Danato rescued him into slavery, albeit a little rickety. The desert scenery was remarkable, but after 36 hours of planes, trains, and vehicles loosely described as transportation, he wasn’t as captivated by the distant rugged mountain landscape as he should have been.

He was more than disappointed to find out that his rendezvous with Annette was not going to take place in Beijing or Hong Kong, but rather the province of Xinjiang. Naturally the area was undeveloped, under populated, and deceptively cold. His guide and driver, who barely spoke English, was fluent enough to warn him that the desert they were traversing was known by many names, among which was “the desert of death” and “the point of no return.” So much for his vacation disguised as a business trip.