Gods and Monsters (2 page)

He pulled away and the good byes went on longer than necessary. Emily insisted on packing a scone for Jeffery to take. She seemed baffled by the change of plans, but didn’t waffle at having Cori stay longer. When Geoffrey was finally out the door Emily headed into the dining room to have her coffee and scone. Cori followed and nibbled on a bit of scone before proceeding with the nasty business of the truth.

Emily sensed the shift in her demeanor and started to scowl at her. “Young lady, I don’t know what has gotten into you. Suddenly after a beautiful proposal you shrink away from a man that is so devoted to you.”

“Mother,” Cori interrupted. “I need you to shut up.”

“I will not…”

“Mother!” Cori snapped and Emily remained silent behind her angry shock. “I know you have questions, but they are all irrelevant. I’m going to tell you everything. After which, I will leave. I need to go someplace where I can get help, but I’m afraid that means leaving you behind, perhaps forever.”

“Corinthia…”

“Mom I just need you to listen. I’ve been without you for a long time, and I want to tell you what I’ve been doing. I don’t have time for disbelief or concern or even opinion. I’m going to give you the rough cut of my life over the last five years, and at the end I’m going to fetch a cab and go to the train station, so it’s very important to me that you listen, because I may not get a chance like this again.” Cori’s eyes watered, but she cleared her throat, and demanded herself not to let emotion ruin this opportunity to tell her mother about her life.

Cori started her tail of woo explaining that in her version of events, she didn’t survive the cancer. Emily looked a little pale upon hearing that, but didn’t interrupt. When the story turned to the strange underworld of Danato’s prison Cori recognized the askance look in her eyes. It wasn’t until Cori discussed Ethan, that something changed in her mother. Perhaps it was the way Cori described him, or maybe her mother just recognized love, but Emily was smiling.

Even with the basics, Cori still needed to explain a little about the elementals and the magic lamp. Before she knew it, over two hours had passed and her mother was wrapped in the story like a good book.

Perhaps even a great book.

“As happy as I am to see you, and as much as I want to stay here with you,” Cori said feeling her eyes well with tears that she couldn’t stave off any longer. “I have to find my husband. I have to figure out how to get back to where I was. I don’t know how much I’ve changed things.”

Emily pushed away her scone which had long since cooled on her plate. “I’m so sorry.”

Cori furrowed her brow. “For what?”

“For letting the damned cancer win!” She said crossing her arms.

“Mom,” Cori laughed at her mother’s ability to accept her story as truth, despite the insanity of it. “You fought a good fight. I know you tried, but it was just too much.”

“Still, I should have had them chop off my breasts at the first sign. Foolish pride.”

“It wouldn’t have helped. It was too far along by the time we found out.” Cori wiped away another row of tears and reached out squeezing her mother’s hand. “Mom, I don’t blame you! I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I’m trying to tell you that…I’m happy. As crazy a world as I just described, I love it. I only wish…no I don’t wish, but it would have been nice if you could have met Ethan.”

“If he loves you as much as you claim, then I’m sure I would have loved him.”

Cori moved around the table and hugged her. Emily held her for a long time before they separated. Cori could see the pain in her eyes. They both had the same thought in mind.
Just stay.
If only it were that simple. As much as Cori loved her mother, in making her wish come true, she had undone everything she had accomplished in the past two years. She wanted to be with her mother, but she also wanted to be with Ethan.

“A mother doesn’t like letting go of her little one,” Emily said breaking the silent debate. “But you have been a daughter long enough. It’s time for you to be a wife and mother. God willing you will even have time in your life to be a grandmother.”

Cori smiled. She couldn’t imagine being a mother, let alone a grandmother. “I love you mom.”

“I love you too. I hope I wake up from this dreadful nightmare and find that this was all a dream, but if I don’t…” Emily’s eyes finally welled with tears breaking the controlled façade that Cori hadn’t inherited. “You know this.” Her finger flew in Cori’s face with as much threat as a nun’s ruler prepared to whack naughty fingers. “If you come up to heaven before your time, I will kick your butt straight back down to this Earth.” Cori laughed despite the river of tears that were officially irrepressible. “You take care of yourself.”

“I’ll try.”

“You will,” Emily scolded.

Cori nodded. “I will.”

As with any family reunion, the goodbyes lasted forever. The conversation jumped to different topics, as they avoided the inevitable. They both went back for more scones and laughed about the good times before cancer and funerals. For a while, things really were
back to normal
, even if it was the wrong normal.

Emily drove Cori to the station instead of letting a cab take her. It was early morning by the time they made it. The last call to the train was the only thing strong enough to pull Cori away from her mother. She again thought about staying, but since she didn’t entirely understand what was happening, she had to assume time might be a factor in solving it.

Every Cinderella story had midnight.

Every western had high noon.

Her situation was more like a venomous snakebite that required an antidote, but regardless of the metaphor, there were only three men that could help her out of this jam, and she had to get to them.

2

Gypsy Grace hated waiting. It wasn’t simply about being bored, but more about the space between one activity and the next. She hated the space. As far as she was concerned every bit of her time should be productive. She was the queen of type A personalities and she was damn proud of it.

After three more seconds of inactivity she ripped the walkie-talkie off her hip and made a choking sound into it. “Do you hear that?” she asked the persons on the other line. “That’s my patience dying.”

A laughing sound came over the line, before Danato’s voice cut in. “I’m working on it, Gypsy.” He was using his low calming voice that never actually worked on her, but he still insisted on trying.

“I’m going to throw myself off this fucking roof if you two don’t get your asses in gear.”

“Ethan’s almost got her,” Danato relayed over the device. “Are you ready?”

“Really?” she asked sarcastically lifting her rifle onto her shoulder even though he couldn’t see her doing so.

“Forget I asked,” he said. She could sense the smile behind the comment and she couldn’t resist a smirk before she reattached the radio to her hip.

“Gypsy!” Ethan’s voice came over. “She’s coming fast!”

Gypsy didn’t bother responding she just repositioned her rifle to aim off the roof of the prison where she suspected the creature to come up. She fired at the first sign of movement, but she missed. “Son of a bitch!” She yelled. She hated missing. It was a waste of ammo.

The reddish brown bundle of feathers circled above her and dive bombed her. She waited for the creature to get close and she side stepped the impending attack. A last second thrust with the butt of her gun sent the creature scrambling to recover. The roughly one hundred pound half bird, half human skidded across the graveled roof, and massacred a fan vent.

“Seriously?” She droned. “Can’t you crash in a way that doesn’t hurt Danato’s budget.”

“My apologizes. I didn’t see it there.” The creature spoke with a breathy feminine voice as she adjusted her wing feathers. If anyone in the real world had seen an Ekek, they would have assumed that they were seeing an angel. The body was human—give or take the abnormalities in the torso, which allowed for wing support. The females lacked breasts and the males had internal genitalia. Their wings came in an array of colors, but primarily they were browns and grays. 

The Ekek was no bigger than an anorexic ballerina, but Gypsy knew better than to under estimate her size. If that lesson hadn’t been hammered into her head after two years of working with Belus the underdog, she was truly not paying attention.

“Gypsy, we have a problem,” Ethan’s voice sounded over the walkie-talkie.

“Kind of busy here,” she mumbled as she took a shot at the creature. The dart hit firmly in the Ekek’s leg, but she didn’t flinch. Gypsy wasn’t surprised. The medicine took at least thirty seconds to take hold.

“Don’t shoot her!” Ethan’s voice yelled over the radio.

Gypsy looked down at her hip, baffled by the words that had come over the radio. “What?”

“I found eggs in the duct. Empty eggs. Don’t shoot her!”  

The Ekek unhinged her jaw and opened her mouth wider than a human mouth would be capable. “No.” Gypsy shook her head. The creature’s grating shriek was similar to an eagle, but significantly louder.

Gypsy walked away from the bird cursing. She cracked her neck, and rolled her shoulders as she distanced herself from the mother. She ripped the walkie-talkie from her hip. “You know, just once, it would be nice if this shit would go to plan.”

“I’m already on my way,” Ethan said huffing into the radio.

“Good luck with that, she’s already called them. How many eggs?”

“You don’t want to know.” 

“Ah…actually I do. How will I know when I’m done?”

“Eight,” Ethan said.

“Son of a…”

“I told you, you didn’t want to know.”

“I’m switching to bullets,” Gypsy said.

“The hell you are,” Danato’s voice chimed in again.

“Danato,” she said. “I’ve only got nine shots left.”

“That ought to be one more than you’ll need,” Danato said with another hint of his smile looming behind his voice.

Gypsy didn’t respond partially because she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of asking for help, but also because a cherub with hell fire red wings was coming right at her. She dropped the radio and bashed the butt of her gun into the winged brat.

It was difficult at first to associate something that looked like a baby with a deadly creature, but it only took one look at their flesh ripping shark teeth to make her redefine her parameters of cute. If that wasn’t enough, the second one gnawing on her leg, as if it was a fresh batch of fried chicken put things into further perspective.

She shot the second one. At such close range she was still risking killing the little bugger, but given the amount of her blood streaking its face, she didn’t really care. It fell away and she heard three muted eagle cries from above.

The trio attack sent her rolling and shooting. She missed with the first shot, but the next two dropped two. The third veered off, before she could get a good aim.

She felt a breeze behind her and dove forward out of reach of two more baby Ekeks. They didn’t miss a stride and barreled after her half flying, half crawling as she crab walked away from them. Their tiny little chins were wet with salivation. “Sick little puppies.” She scrambled to kick them away, but they clamped onto her proffered boots as an appetizer.

She took it as good fortune and pinned the two beneath her boots. She shot each of them, and kept them pinned while the dart took effect. The last two attacked her from behind by flight. She shot at them, but she wasn’t used to shooting upside down and missed both times.

She did a quick count of her bullets and shot the closest devil baby. She grabbed a dart from one of her now sleeping pinned birds, and loaded it. She shot the eighth one just as it plunged down at her. The not so angelic baby landed on her stomach continuing to writhe. It didn’t completely pass out, but as soon as its breathing slowed and its tiny little vicious teeth disappeared, she risked touching it to move it off her. Even in the drugged state, the little bastard tried to bite at her fingers.

She got to her feet and dusted herself off, just as Ethan made it to the roof. The rifle he had was pointed to the sky scanning for more vicious cherubs, but when he caught sight of her, he relaxed it. “You didn’t even leave me one?”

“Too slow,” She limped over to him. He glanced at her leg, but he didn’t offer her any assistance.

“I made it out of that duct and up here in less than three minutes. I’d like to see you do that.”

“I don’t have to. I’m the front line. I start where the action is.”

“Well, you’re not perfect.” He nodded to her leg.

“What that?” She pulled up her pleated skirt and looked at the blood coursing from the missing chuck in her leg. It really did look bad. “Just another scar for my collection.” She smoothed her skirt back down.

Ethan mumbled something before heading back to the roof exit. Another shriek pierced the calm and Gypsy raised her gun at the mother Ekek as she mustered just enough strength for one last lunge at her. The grand defiance of a mother protecting her young deserved more than one dart. She cursed herself for not thinking of that.

Her rifle clicked unsatisfactorily, but Ethan’s released two more darts that put the creature down in its tracks. With both their guns extended, Ethan faced her still panting from his sprint to the roof. He was waiting for her to say thank you or offer some acknowledgement that he had done a good job.