The Ring Bearer (8 page)

For the second time that day, he topped his stupid list. He jumped up and stood between Nevia and Frederique. Nevia yelled for him not to, but he didn’t listen to her any more than he did Heaton. Frederique seemed thrilled by the play toy placed before her and smiled maniacally.

He focused the torrent of emotions that he felt and activated his powers on opposite spectrums. The activation usually prompted a warning for the transmorphs in his path. It was not pleasant, but it was as far as he could go without activating the power. Even at partial strength, his power would strip her clothes and skin her alive before he could stop it.

He expected the same reaction as he always got, the straightened of the spine like she had been hit with an enormous blast of heat, but that wasn’t the result. The power vibrated in his ears, before he felt the detonation that threw him across the room.

He landed sliding to a stop and looked back at Frederique. He feared that his power had backfired, or worse that he had somehow blown her up. She was across the room. She had been thrown in the opposite direction. She was struggling to rise from the floor.

He got to his feet with minimal difficulty. Nevia rushed to him with a dozen questioned molded into the expression on her face. He grimaced at her and shrugged. He didn’t really know what he did either.

Heaton moved to intercept Frederique. He helped her up though she seemed annoyed by the need for it. She panted struggling to breathe and she clenched her chest. She glared at Daniel as he approached with Nevia who was unnecessarily supporting him by his right arm. “Are we done with this?” Daniel asked playing like he had intended to do what he just did.

“We will adjourn for the day.” Frederique was no doubt in a great deal of pain. He suspected that she either had cracked ribs or a collapsed lung, but so far he seemed to be fine. He wondered if he had been farther from her, if he would have missed the bulk of the impact.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Daniel said.

“You might want to view the infirmary before you head back to your accommodations,” Heaton offered giving Daniel a furtive glance.

“Yes, I think you’re right.” Frederique also glanced at Daniel, but to his surprise it wasn’t filled with as much anger as he expected. It must have been a good while since any man had bested her, let alone a human—albeit a disperser…but still. She seemed to recognize power as something to respect, even if it came from someone she might normally find beneath her. Respect was a hard thing to earn from a fem-wolf; he would have to try not to let it go to his head.

Heaton attempted to assist Frederique to the elevator, but she pushed him away in lieu of her fellow council members. Each of them lined behind her as if they were still the threatening stampede of beauty that they were when they entered, but their doubled over leader had taken a good deal of the swagger from them.

Leona collected her babies and started to follow them, but Callin poked his arm through the bars. “Leona!” She paused before passing the three of them and looked back at him. “Is this what you really want, a bickering sister lording over you? She’ll never give you the throne. She’ll only give it to her daughters. None of them will be any fitter for it than she is.”

Leona shook her baby to quiet it again, but it didn’t work. “All I want now is to raise my babies.”

“Alone?” He pressed his head into bars. “Why are you being such a coward?” He seethed. Leona glanced back at the three of them and they did their best to pretend they weren’t watching the interaction intently, even though they clearly were. “You are stronger than this. You could be more than just a single mother.”

“The law doesn’t allow it.”

“She is the law! She tells us what to do! She dictates! She doesn’t want a matriarchal society, because she is already the matriarch of us!” Callin reached out his unbitten hand to touch her, but she stayed just out of reach. “You are the only one who can end this.”

“I can’t convince her…”

“I’m not asking you to convince her,” Callin said sternly. “I’m asking you to overthrow her.” Leona shook her head. “You could bring equilibrium back to our people. Don’t you see how pathetic our species has become? We castigate the half breeds of our clan, but yet we don’t allow the full bloods to be raised with the benefit of two parents. How can we demand purity of our race, when we have no unity within it?”

Leona started to walk away. “Fight Leona! Fight for something, if not for me than our son. Fight for his right to be with the woman that he might someday love. Fight for your new daughter. Fight that she might have the right to be more than a foot stool to Frederique, like you are.” Leona threw him a glare and continued to walk away. The baby wailed as she tromped past them.  

“It’s her leg,” Nevia said as Leona passed. Leona whipped her head around to face her as she stopped. “The baby’s leg is broken, that’s why she won’t stop crying.”

“What?” Leona hissed. “How do you know that?”

“She smells of pain, her left leg is hanging limp, and she cries more after she is moved or tousled.”

“You think I hurt my child?”

“I’m not saying that. Babies are fragile. It happens. I am merely suggesting that you stop by the infirmary to see your sister and have the doctor check it.”

“I will not be told how to care for my child,” she fumed.

“
I
don’t tell people how to care for their children. That’s the council’s territory isn’t it?” Leona shuffled off, though with slightly less speed, since she seemed to sense the change in the child’s pitch as she started moving again.

Heaton and Daniel exchanged looks and brought their attention to Nevia. A dozen or so questions leapt to his mind. Before Daniel could ask them Heaton and Nevia turned quizzical faces back on him. A dozen or so questions were on their minds as well. Before anyone could riposte, Callin cleared his throat.

“I don’t suppose anyone is interested in taking
me
to the infirmary.” Callin looked pale as he held of his bloody finger to them. He still had hope that it might be reattached. Fortunately, Frederique did not swallow it. Thankfully raw flesh was not nearly as appealing to werewolves while they were in human form.

It took a moment for Daniel to get the hint from Heaton and Nevia’s dead stare that they expected him to do something about this. “This power is starting to suck,” he grumbled before trying to save Callin’s dismembered digit.

10

Somewhere amidst the tears, Cori had drifted off to sleep in Ethan’s arms. She was surprised to find him still holding her when she woke up. She had apologized to him for everything, but none of that seemed to matter to him. All he wanted was to see her. That should have been a good thing, but she had a feeling it only meant that the issues from this new betrayal would come back to haunt her later.

She was about to force the issue when she heard a metallic tap on the door. They both looked over and saw Belus slip into the still unlocked door with a pile of papers in his hands. The guards had either given up on keeping people out, or Belus didn’t offer enough risk for them to bother. If they knew him better they might still have let him in, but for different reasons.

He also closed it behind him to offer the appearance of privacy even if there was none to be had. Cori removed herself from Ethan’s arms and sat beside him on the bed. She was relieved and ecstatic to see Belus. She wanted to hug him, but as per his instructions, not to mention his abhorrence for her feminine zeal, she didn’t. She however, did give him a smile which she hadn’t been able to muster for anyone else. “Please tell me you have good news.”

“I have information. I’ve already shared it with Danato. He’s asked me to fill Ethan in, and since you’re here…” Belus trailed off as he flipped through his papers.

“Seriously, I am the one sitting in jail here, don’t you think I have a right to know what’s going on.”

Belus’s eyes snapped back to her, and she sensed that she had said the wrong thing at the wrong time. “Right to know?
You
be serious Cori. You aren’t sitting in this jail cell for no reason. You let out three prisoners. This isn’t something that was done to you. You chose this by not telling us about it first. Don’t ask me to be honest and upfront with my information when you haven’t been with yours.”

Cori felt herself flush under Belus’s reprimand. “I didn’t think Danato would understand or agree with my urgency.”

“Then you call me!” Belus yelled. It was a rare event, and even though it wasn’t comparable to Danato’s cacophonic bellows, it gave her pause. Belus glanced at Ethan as if he didn’t want to speak in front of him.

Ethan leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek before getting up and heading to the door. “Ethan?” Cori asked questioning his sudden abandonment.

His eyes flickered between them, and settled in on her. He shrugged. “You lied to us all, Cori.” She shook her head, but there was no denying it. Even if she could take back the crime of letting prisoners out, she still lied about the key. “You can give any excuse you want about it, but bottom line is you lied. I get that you didn’t trust Danato. I get that you didn’t want to pit me up against him. What about him?” He nodded to Belus. “He’s your go to guy now, isn’t he? He’s the one you can’t even get pregnant without consulting.” Belus’s raised a brow at that, but didn’t interrupt. “Why
didn’t
you call him?” Ethan slipped out leaving her to face Belus alone.

Cori was surprised how quickly things in her life went from bad to worse. She thought Danato was going to be her biggest problem in all of this, but apparently not. “Well,” Belus said after a moment. “Care to field that one.”

“I didn’t call you, because…” Cori realized she hadn’t really ever considered calling Belus. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Belus shook his head. “That’s a load of crap. You had calmed down enough to go search for a way to suppress Clark’s men and plot the escape.”

Cori sighed knowing honesty was her only safety net in all of this. “I didn’t even think to call you. I don’t know why?”

“I do.” Belus tossed the files beside her. “Care to hear it?” Cori sighed. It didn’t matter if she cared to hear it or not, he was going to share, but she nodded obediently to offer him his segue. “It all goes back to that day you saved us from the elementals. You had to do it on your own. You didn’t trust my plan, so instead of standing up for what you believed, you just slipped away and plotted one out yourself.”

“Belus…” He didn’t let her finish, but she didn’t really have much to say after that anyway.

“I’d like to say that you’re selfish, and you want to just do everything by yourself, but I don’t think that’s it. I think you’re just a coward. I think you would rather sit in this jail cell for making the choice to act alone, than stand up for what you believe in and risk not getting it.”

“So, I’m a selfish coward?” She offered with an eye roll. Belus stepped forward. For a moment, she thought he might slap her, but he threw his finger into her face.

“You want to continue this, or would you rather I leave without filling you in.”

She shook her head, feeling the sting of his reprimand like she was a child again. “No, sir,” she managed to get out without crying.

“I don’t think your selfish Cori.” Belus pulled his finger back. “Quite the opposite, you’re too compassionate. You see something wrong, you want to fix it. You see oppression you want to alleviate it. The problem is you don’t take the long term consequences into account. Not every situation is good versus evil. Whether you want to admit it or not, the elementals are dangerous beings. They needed to be assessed before any consideration for their release took place. I mean physiological and psychological. Yes, we’ve determined they were wrongfully imprisoned here, but with powers as great as theirs, freedom may not be the best choice for them either.”

Cori nodded. Belus was making sense. She hated that. Clark was on one side of the good and evil spectrum by holding them against their will. Cori was on the other side by wanting to free them into the wild like they might suddenly become functionally members of society. Naturally, Belus was somewhere in between. He understood that nothing in this place was yes or no, mostly it was just a lot of “maybes” with back up plans of “if all else fails.”

“I should have gone to you,” she mumbled at the realization of an unused ace in her hand.

“You should have told me about the key,” Belus corrected. “You should have told me that Efrat made you doubt Danato.” He sighed and looked around the cell. “Danato told me about his…threat.” He paused looking her over. “I really don’t want to see you demoted. You have more to offer than that.”

“I don’t want that either.”

“Ultimately, it might be his decision, but I can fight it if it comes to that.” He put his finger back up in her face. “But if I do, I need to know you are with me, and not off on your own. I’m not like Danato, kid. I won’t take you back. I might forgive, but I never forget.” Cori nodded. “No more secrets involving prisoners or anything that sounds remotely suspicious to you.”

“Yes, sir.” Cori looked to the door to see if the guards were close by. They were perched by the door within ear shot. When she looked back Belus was tipping his head with confusion. He could already sense her unrest with her secret.