Bad Blood (Book 4 of The Warden series) (13 page)

“You’ll see.” She caught up with him and yanked her bullet clip out of his back pocket. He turned around and watched her slip the clip in. “I’m going to need these.”

“I told you, bullets aren’t much good against me.” He smiled. His disapproval had vanished and he was back to calm, quiet, and cocky.

“They aren’t for you.” She weaved back into the junk piles. “They’re for saving you.” She winked and ducked down. The prop room door burst open just as she disappeared into the sea of crap-topia. She could see flashlight beams zigzagging the walls, before merging on their target.

Shouts echoed through the room, demanding Efrat’s slow surrender. Through all the raucous, she heard him say, “You bitch.” She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. She was sure, at this point, he was assuming that she had thrown him to the wolves, but as soon as he calmed down, he would remember she had mentioned that she had broken him out once before. Her only concern was whether he would know better than to give her up.

She listened as the guards badgered him about her location, but he denied ever seeing her. It was an outright lie, but one he would likely stick with the whole way. She wasn’t sure what time it was, but she figured she didn’t have long before Danato decided to call in the military.

She knew Efrat wouldn’t give a second thought to amping her into cardiac arrest, but she couldn’t let him be executed like that. Not if she had the time to stop it.

She headed toward the door of the prop room to leave, but instead she arrived back where she began.

24

Cori heard the familiar duet of, “Gun!” She realized she was entering Danato’s office instead of leaving the prop room. She placed her gun in the bin and checked the clock.

8:05.

She had started over again.
She was starting to sense the pattern in the day. In general, the pattern was just chaotic jumping, but it seemed that her time would repeat after a set parameter, regardless of which timeline her clock was ticking in.

From what she gathered from Efrat, she knew that the origin of her timeline aberration started right after she got shocked on the wizard level. But, instead of starting over right at her point of entry, she was bouncing back to the beginning of her morning. She could only assume that there was an automatic reset spot. With the exception of the first repeated morning, when she ricocheted back to her first conscious moment in bed, she was always coming back to 8:05.

Not only was it a pain in the ass, but she was wearing down. Her body didn’t know that it had been without a break for several hours, but her mind did. Between trying to keep track of where she was, when she was, and what needed to happen in order to keep things in some semblance of the functioning timeline, steam should have been coming out of her ears.

“Son of a bitch!” She griped through clamped teeth before falling in a depleted pile on the pleather chair in front of the desk.

Danato looked up at her over the rim of his glasses. “What’s with you?”

Cori wasn’t sure what she looked like to Danato and Belus, but she imagined her thoughts were making her eyes bug out. Their querying faces looked back at her with a mixture of worry and suspicion. It was fairly common for her to stroll into the office chagrined with the news of yet another mishap, but telling them the whole spiel seemed redundant and unnecessary at this point.

If she was right about the time fluctuations—which would be miracle since she was pulling her information straight out of her ass—her original timeline that led to Efrat shocking her, had to be upheld. It was the origin of her actually entering this state of flux, therefore couldn’t be overwritten.

The subsequent 8:05 mornings, were merely a boomerang effect of piggybacking a linear mind on to the nonlinear time matrix of the time bubble. That meant this timeline, as well as all the preceding 8:05 mornings—save the first—would be trashed the minute she woke from Efrat’s shock.

It made complete sense.

Sort of.

Despite her new understanding, she did have an obligation to fill them in on what’s been happening to her. If anything, she could claim later that she did explain everything to them. However, since they wouldn’t remember her explaining or not explaining, she could just as easily say that she told them without actually having to go through the tiresome effort of explaining it to them now. On the other hand, she kind of needed to say it out loud so she could get a better grip on things herself.

Danato and Belus were still staring at her waiting for an answer. She rubbed her face with her hands, and groaned. She straightened up and slapped her hands on the chair arms. If nothing else, she could consider this a measurement of how well Danato and Belus took foreknowledge of her screw-ups as opposed to after knowledge.

“Okay, here goes.” She looked to both of them to make sure they were prepared for the long haul explanation. “At 8:05 this morning I arrived for work. I went to the wizard’s den to plant my crops. After which, I was electrocuted by Efrat. However,” she added as the impending questions rounded on both of their lips. “I woke up again in the morning, which was incidentally the same morning, reported to work at 8:05, told you about the experience, after which, you two decided that I had been attacked by a dream feeder and proceeded to give me a PET scan. While in the infirmary, I had a future vision of Belus shot and dying on the floor.” Cori touched her hand on Belus’s for a moment of sympathy. “However, Efrat was there and helped revive him with his…” Cori wiggled her fingers. “…special skills.”

Danato leaned back in his chair. She could see the veiled annoyance on his face.

“I know what you’re thinking. Impossible, he’s a douche, but what I am to think. So, we head back the office to discuss the incident, and I have another vision. This time Efrat and I are in the prop room, and he tells me that I’m traveling through time. Which,” Cori held up a finger to Danato before he could interject his rebuttal. “You inform me is impossible, even though I was then on my third morning arriving at work at 8:05. After a short discussion, we decide to catch Efrat as he enters the wizard level and get some answers.

“Since he hasn’t technically interacted with me on his timeline yet, he has no answers for us. We return Efrat to General Ass-munch, who promptly executes him right in front of us. A conversation we are so getting into later.” Danato’s questions disappeared from his face, and he crossed his arms, allowing her to continue without interruption.

“I feel I should let you know that at some point in this day, I am going to break Efrat out of his imprisonment, so that he won’t get shot. However,
I
might get shot in the course of this, so we should probably get some “A negative” ready for me. After I free Efrat, I am going to utilize his skills to save Belus once
he
gets shot. And, before you start to lecture me, I already know that none of these events are appropriate or by the book,” she glanced over at Belus, “but I will not stand by on the sidelines of my own timeline and watch anyone die.” Cori crossed her arm resolutely satisfied that all was explained.

“Oh,” she quickly counted on her fingers. “By the way, this is my fourth morning of arriving at 8:05 for duty, so…yeah, I guess that’s it.” She returned to her resolute position, again satisfied that
all
was explained. She waited for the barrage of questions.

Danato and Belus looked at each other.

25

Cori wasn’t sure what she had expected them to do. The scenario up to that point had been the long discussions where they debated what creature or demon could be causing the dramatic changes in her life. She had anticipated a reproach for her abandonment of duties. Given Danato’s concern for her well-being, she had hoped he would have shown sympathy for the hours of baffling jumps through time.

The one thing that had not occurred to her, and was likely to be penciled in for another heated discussion with him later, was him taking her down to the infirmary where he handed her off to the orderlies to be strapped to a bed like a demented lunatic.

Cori knew she wasn’t doing herself any favors by kicking and screaming like a frenzied maniac when the nurses and orderlies took her from him, but she couldn’t help but fight captivity. It was fully integrated into her survival mechanisms and was beyond control.

“Danato!” She screamed as they dragged her into a small room with a high bed bracketed by metal bars like an adult baby crib. He watched them take her, but he didn’t say a word. The stoic expression on his face was scarier than the determined orderlies gripping her. She couldn’t believe he really thought she was insane. All she did was, tell the truth…for once. “Let me go!”

She could feel the hoarse, ear-splitting screams coming from her mouth, but the more she yelled the less anyone listened. Her legs were being held by two male orderlies, while the nurse’s held her arms. She was flailing, but they had no trouble carrying her to the bed.

The pressure they placed on her shoulders and legs, only reminded her of one thing, and she couldn’t distance herself from the fear. She could feel her eyes sting with tears and her lungs hyperventilate. She knew it was irrational, but fear always was. “No! Don’t touch me! Get off me! Danato, please,” she begged through tear blurred eyes. He took a step forward, then surrendered the advancement and crossed his arms.

She ground out a horrific scream and kicked sharply at her male captors’ genitalia. The men doubled over and released her long enough for her to get purchase with her feet. She pushed back against the mattress getting her upper body away from the women. She elbowed one and punched the other. They both squealed in pain and surrendered cradling their bloody noses.

She vaulted from the bed and elbowed one of the men in his back, for good measure. She dashed for the door, feeling the security of the distance expanding between her and confinement.

Her dreams of freedom were dashed as a thick arm wrapped around her waist picking her up like a stuffed toy. She shrieked and kicked, but Danato was not so easily wounded by her quick fists. He dropped her body on the bed and pressed her legs and chest down with two broad forearms. The weight that backed his strength was staggering. She could barely move, but the pressure still left her enough room to breathe.

She felt the others take control of her wrists and ankles. She was down for good. She was caught. She couldn’t explain why that was such a painful prospect to her. Her screams shrank to whimpers and she clenched her eyes releasing the loitering tears.

She felt drops on her neck. It took a moment for her to realize they weren’t her tears. She opened her eyes and saw Danato’s eyes red with fraught. He was holding her down with the strength of a bull, but his face was as fragile and pained as her own.

She had never seen Danato cry. His teddy bear heart was always willing to express his love and affection outwardly, but his iron will had kept this part of him hidden. The situation was just too much for him to watch without breaking him.

She knew he was doing this because it was the right protocol to take when your employee says she’s traveling through time and planning to break out a prisoner, but she had no idea it would be so devastating for him to follow through with.

She stopped struggling and whimpering. She focused on him. She was no longer concerned about her own situation. She was mortified to have caused him this pain. She wanted to comfort him.

She lifted her hand to touch his cheek, but her restraint fell a few inches short. He looked at her hand, and moved his face to meet her hand. He pinched his eyes and let her caress his face. She trailed her bent finger under his eyes to remove a tear, though it was replaced just as fast.

He opened his eyes and sat back with angry determination. “Remove the straps,” he barked at the nurses who were standing by with an arsenal of drugs to make her high as a kite. One of the nurses objected, pointing to her bloody nose, but Danato threw her a glare that stalled her complaint. “Remove them or I will.”

The women unlashed the straps on her wrists and her ankles before leaving the room entirely. They had had enough trouble for one day. Danato was on his own.

Cori laid in the bed, not wanting to make any sudden movements, and not quite trusting that Danato intended to release her. He leaned back into her hand and kissed her palm. He pushed her hair back that had matted to her tear wetted cheeks. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered before laying his forehead against her neck.

She wrapped her arms around him, and rubbed his back. “I know.” She knew Danato loved her more than anything. She wasn’t sure how he had come to love her so much when all she did was cause him trouble, but somehow this giant of a man had a weakness for her.

After a few minutes of calming and consoling each other, Belus joined them. He stood at the edge of the room and cleared his throat to get their attention. Danato looked over at him baffled by his presence.

“Do you need a minute?” Belus asked.

“I’m not doing this to her, Belus,” Danato said it with the weight of his title backing him up, but he was still waiting for Belus’s response.