Tenants and Tyrants (Book 5 of The Warden series) (26 page)

Just as when he shot Efrat, there was no lead up or fancy cliché dialogue. It was just point and click-boom. She turned away—to run, duck, or just avoid a face shot. Before any progress was made in any front her face was up against Efrat’s chest. His arms were around her holding a magnetic field that stopped the impact of the bullet.

She looked up at him with honest gratitude. Had she not been in such a dire circumstance, she might have been compelled to hug him. The indignation on his face helped deter that instinct as well. He was looking at her the same way Danato did when he disapproved of her actions.

“You can’t stop all of them Efrat,” Clark announced.

Cori turned back to Clark, but kept her back firmly pressed into Efrat’s chest. She had overestimated Clark’s tolerance for her witty repartee. She had also underestimated his willingness to kill her. Danato’s wrath was apparently no concern to him. “He doesn’t have to. We can end this with a simple exchange. You give me the elementals, and I won’t let Danato kill you when he finds out what’s been going on here.”

Clark shot three more times. Cori cowered against Efrat, but his shield held. “Shit, shit, shit,” she squealed a belated response to the effort.

“He’s right. I can’t keep this up forever. I will wear down eventually.”

“Okay, I’ll jump forward in the speech,” she mumbled pushing back against him. He took the hint and stepped back giving the soldiers a wide birth. “General I’m taking the elementals, if you want to…”

“You arrogant little pain the ass. I am personally going to slap that out of you before I finish you off. What makes you think that you can take them? I am armed to the teeth and you have a Christmas decoration.”

Cori looked down at her snow globe. She was clutching it like a child to a teddy bear in the middle of a thunder storm. “It’s not a decoration. It’s a little birdie.” She smiled broadly, just to see him grimace at her enthusiasm.

“Somebody get him the hell off of her so I can kill this bitch,” Clark growled.

The soldiers started to surround them slowly. They seemed to be reluctant to use their firearms unless it was necessary. The soldiers kept glancing behind them. Cori suspected that Remi and Garr might be threatening to join the fight.

“Times up kitten; what you got?” He said dancing to avoid having anyone directly behind him.

“It’s going to get cold,” she whispered. “Stick with Garr.”

“Are you sure about this?” he whispered shifting them in Garr’s direction.

“No, but do you have any other ideas?”

He dipped in closer to her ear. “I can kill them.”

“All of them,” she mocked.

“Yes.” His voice was breathy, like he didn’t even want her to hear him. She could feel his heart pounding in his chest, like he was as scared as she was, or perhaps he was just anxious. “Every last one. One bolt. Just say the word.”

Cori sensed that he wanted to do it, but his morality was too skewed for him to make the decision on his own. If he was telling the truth—and she had no reason to doubt him—all she had to do was say yes, and he would have laid waste to the entire room for her. It was a dangerous position to be in, particularly because she was scared out of her mind.

For a moment she wanted him to do it, but it occurred to her that even Remi and Garr would not be safe from this type of attack. She wasn’t entirely opposed to the eye for an eye theory when it came to Clark, and she accepted that some of his men might have to be taken down to get through this, but Remi and Garr were still innocent as far as she was concerned. “That’s a great plan B, but let’s try plan A first. More destruction, but less death.” He let out breath that she hoped was relief and not lamentation.

Cori let out a wail that was supposed to be a war cry, before she threw the snow globe to the floor. The heavy containment device for the spirit of Pamola bounced around on the floor without breaking. The snowy interior remained on the interior.

Cori’s mouth dropped open and she huffed in disbelief at her unending bad night. The soldiers stared at the decoration then looked back at her for an explanation. She smiled and shrugged hoping that a little humor might keep them from breaking her nose with the butt of their guns.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Efrat pulled her to one side as he bolted the glass containment. It shattered, whipping glass splinters everywhere. Efrat took most of the shrapnel for her, intentionally or otherwise.

A gust of wind immediately filled the room as a translucent bird that might have been confused for a phoenix floated up from the debris. Efrat continued to push her back as a hail of gunfire, electricity, flame bursts, and laser water sprays erupted in the room.

The cool torrent of wind increased, but her focus of concern was still the onslaught of battle that was barely more than a barroom brawl. She had no choice but to rely on Efrat for protection.

“Cori!” Efrat yelled over the melee. “What the hell did you just do?”

She happily stayed behind him, but she peeked around him to see for herself what in fact she had done. A tornado was developing in the center of the room. The rotation started from the globes wreckage and grew upward to the ceiling. The funnel puffed out billowing clouds into the rafters, like a steam engine. Lightening was even developing, which, considering the occupants of the room, might have been just a little too much energy.

“It’s supposed to make it cold,” she yelled back. “Freezing cold.”

In the midst of blowing winds and gun fire, Cori couldn’t hear much, and seeing was dependent on how fast she blinked. It was no surprise that Clark managed to get behind them without them noticing, but she was none the less shocked to see him charging her.

She shrieked and hit the floor with him weighing on top of her like a sack of potatoes—and the truck they came in on. Efrat whipped around to help her but two men tackled him. While he struggled to get his hands on or near the men, Cori struggled to get Clark’s hands off and away from her neck.

She sputtered and gasped under his incredible pressure. Her head felt like it might explode if his hands didn’t release her neck soon. She clawed at them, but he didn’t seem to feel it even when she struck blood. He was determined to kill her, and a little storm from her snow globe was no deterrent.

She couldn’t believe how many attempts had been made on her life in one short night. She hated giving Clark the satisfaction of killing her, but she wasn’t in a position to stop it. Efrat, her would be heroic bad guy, was saving his own butt. The others were fighting amongst themselves and her stupid globe wasn’t doing anything but messing up everyone’s hair.

If she wanted to survive this, she had to use her only other weapon. Calculated risk wasn’t the right word for revealing your best kept secret to your enemy. Shooting yourself in the foot was a better idiom, but a bloody foot was still better than a broken neck.

Cori closed her eyes and focused on the pain and anger she felt seeing Hirem and Jill dead. She wanted revenge. She wanted to show Clark that she was indeed a pain in his ass. She wanted him dead.

The cold was tangible. She wasn’t sure why Hirem’s power overtook Efrat’s, but the slow decrease in temperature in her hands made her feel in control. It took Clark a moment, before he realized his fingers were numb with cold, and he no longer had the strength to grip her neck.

She pulled his hands away, with an uneven smile, and coughed through her next breaths. His face was in shock. Her power was revealed, but he didn’t understand it any more than she did.

A wave of cold hit them both, and her rings glowed brightly. She looked at the tornado and saw the men closest to it were covered in frost. Everyone was now being impacted by the cold it produced including her.

She pushed Clark off her, while he was distracted and crab walked closer to the cold. He followed still determined to end her existence, but the powerful cold that was icing his breath and frosting his hair was too much.

He tucked his arms and sounded a retreat. The men tried to comply, but they had started to slow down. The cold had frozen the triggers on their weapons, and they were doing all they could to keep their fingers warm. A few of them made it to the door, but it was frozen shut.

Cori could feel her rings burning. They were trying to protect her, but she was too close to the storm. Frostbite was the least of her concerns at this point. She was frozen to the floor by her dress, and she couldn’t even shiver she was so stiff.

Clark and his men huddled together as far away from the storm as they could. They were alive, and might stay alive with that much body heat, but soon they would fall asleep and if they didn’t get help they wouldn’t wake up.

She didn’t mind the idea of sleep either. She closed her eyes just for a moment, but she could feel how easy it would be to just let go. When she opened her eyes, she saw another vision of a bird. The wavering flaming wings of the phoenix approached her.

It took her a moment to realize that it was a person with the flames, not a bird. Garr’s arms were outstretched and the outline of liquid heat surrounding him was beautiful, like an angel. Remi and Efrat were at his back, tucking into the warmth.

“You look chilly, kitten,” Efrat quipped behind wavy heat.

She nodded. Her brain was too tired to think of a smartass remark. When she didn’t move to get up he came around Garr and pulled her from the floor. She winced as part of her leg that was exposed to the floor ripped free, minus a few layers of skin. “Sorry,” Efrat grimaced when he realized what happened. He tucked back into Garr’s heat and headed to the door, which Garr had no trouble opening.

46

For a moment, Cori thought she might be back at the house roasting comfortably by the fire. The hand that pushed back her hair and caressed her face didn’t discomfort her, but the unfamiliar touch did.

When her eyes fluttered open, Garr was holding a giant fire ball above her. She gasped and pulled away. “Easy,” Remi said pressing her hand to her chest to keep her still while she continued to brush back her hair.

Garr let the fire ball burn out. “All warmed up?” He asked.

“Yeah, thanks,” she said wondering if this was the first time they had ever spoken.

“Can you move?” Efrat asked from behind her. She wrenched her neck to see him.

“I think so.” She stood up with Remi’s help. Whether she needed it or not Remi seemed to want to offer it. She also wanted to keep touching her. “How long was I out?” Cori said suddenly concerned that hours might have passed.

“A few minutes,” Efrat said staring through her as much as at her. “What now?”

Cori looked back at the frozen door leading to the soldier popsicles. “They won’t last long in there. We should at least prop that door open to let some heat in. Maybe we can start a fire.” Remi and Garr joined Efrat in the blank stare.

“What the hell would we do that for?” Garr asked looking back at Efrat.

“Because I didn’t come here to kill a dozen men,” Cori clarified sternly before they started to rationalize letting the soldiers die.

“They aren’t worth saving.” Garr’s muted expression made him look cold, but the statement sounded informative more than vindictive.

“They’re soldiers, Garr, just like you three. They are just following orders.”

“You read the file?” Efrat tipped his chin.

“Yes, but I also know about Dr. Jill’s experimental procedure. I know how you obtained your powers, and I know the burden it is to all of you.”

“How do you know that?” Efrat asked narrowing his eyes back to suspicion.

“I read Jill’s mind just before she came up here. That’s how I knew she had come to kill Hirem.”

“Since when are you psychic?” Efrat strode over to her.

Cori looked at the other two. They were eager to hear that answer as well. She wasn’t sure she wanted to share her secret with any of them, but she knew Efrat wasn’t the type of man to be satisfied with,
I’ll tell you later
. He was still waiting for an explanation about her being able to touch him and she had only staved off his insistence about that because at the time, she really didn’t know. “It has something to do with the rings.”

“Is that why we’re able to touch you?” Remi said drawing closer to touch her face. Cori let her, but pulled her hand away with a gentle squeeze before reestablishing her preferred boundaries.

“I don’t really understand it yet, and I don’t have time to figure it out tonight. I need to get back home before Danato sends out a search party. If Ethan didn’t have guests he would already be here. My guess is you have an hour or so before the next shift shows up and finds Clark and his men.”

“An hour to do what exactly?” Efrat asked.

Cori perked an eyebrow. “Escape of course.” To her surprised Efrat and Garr chuckled. Remi turned away and added a distance of her own. “What am I missing?”

“You’re still stuck in that fairy tale world, kitten,” Efrat said flatly.

It was Cori’s turn to laugh, but her voice hardened unable to resist her irritation at his condescension. “I just threw my fairy tale world out the window for you, you son of a bitch! Do you think any of this is going to end well for me?”