Bad Blood (Book 4 of The Warden series) (10 page)

“Very well,” the genie bowed again and absorbed back into his lamp.

“That’s going to bite me in the ass later isn’t it?” she asked not really intending to get an answer.

“I would imagine so.” He took another step toward her, but instead of backing down, she took a quick step forward and jabbed the gun in his belly. He grunted and bent over putting their faces in line.

“Did you shoot Belus?”

“No, I don’t use a gun, remember?” He waved his fingers at her. “I don’t know how he got shot. I imagine if you knew, you would have tried to stop it, rather than recruit me to save him after the fact.”

“I can’t trust you,” she seethed. “You killed me.”

“Killed you, you’re standing right here.”

“I died more than once on the table from the damage you did to me.” She pushed the gun again. “I want to pull this trigger, so bad!”

“Go ahead, if it means that much to you.” His eyes glimmered with overconfidence. His hands were close enough to her to attack, but so far, he hadn’t. Yet another “why” that was transfixing her mind. “I believe it was the wall that did the damage, not me.”

“You may not have succeeded in killing me, but you are a murderer and no one would miss you.”

His eyes narrowed at the statement. “Am I? A murderer?” He lowered his face, practically touching her forehead. “Is that what you read in my file?”

Cori’s mind blanked and she frantically tried to remember what she had read in his file. After a moment, of gaping like a fish, she remembered that she hadn’t read his file. She had never even seen a file on the elementals. She assumed that was because they were a military contract, but she was surprised that they were not allowed at least a cursory read of the dangers presented by the inmates.

“I don’t have to read your file. Danato told me how many guards you and the other elementals have killed.”

“War isn’t pretty, but if you’re the enemy you had better be prepared for sacrifice.”

“
You’re
the enemy!”

“You’re so sure about that.” He leaned back, giving her breathing room, but his face looming over her, was just as uncomfortable. “I almost envy your ignorance. It must feel good to be blissfully blind to the oppressed.”

“Don’t get sanctimonious with me. You aren’t a goddamn war refugee. Every prisoner in this facility has killed or endangered a human’s life. A good number of them have
me
on their resume, including
you
.”

“That may be true, but I didn’t start tallying my kills until after I was imprisoned.” Cori’s eyes flickered over his, trying to see through the lies. His gaze didn’t falter. She knew she couldn’t trust him. She had mistaken his actions for reverence for her life once before and nearly died for it. However, the statement left room for curiosity regarding his imprisonment. Perhaps there was a file to read and she had just missed it.

“You’re pretty early in your timeline, aren’t you?” Efrat asked as he shifted a step away from her. She extended her hand, keeping the gun firmly at his belly, but he didn’t seem concerned about it. He smiled as he looked her over. Her brow furrowed trying to figure out what his smile was about. “There’s something I owe you, or depending on the timeline I may have earned it. Either way.” Efrat shrugged and slapped her across the face.

Cori fell back feeling red-hot pain even before she landed on the ground. Before she could question her own actions, she pulled the trigger to her gun in his general direction. The gun clicked obediently, but there was no boom or kick back.

She looked at the gun as if it had betrayed her. Efrat waved her clip at her. “Like I said. You won’t shoot me because you’ve already given me your clip.” Cori screamed and vaulted off the floor to manually rip his throat out.

By the time she reached the thick muscled neck, she realized her target had changed. The pens on the desk beneath her, dug into her belly. Her victim was virtually unaffected by her grip, but he was nonetheless unhappy with the surprise attack.

“Danato?”

19

“Cori!” Belus yelled from behind her as he grabbed her legs.

Danato gripped her wrists pulling her hands off his neck. She was back in the office, sprawled across the desk. The only thing more uncomfortable than the stapler in her hip was the look of shock on Danato’s face.

“Oh God, Danato, what’s happening to me?”

His face softened as he realized she was back to normal again—at least as normal as she got. She frowned and
thunked
her head into the desk.

Danato stood from his chair and scooped her up with ease. He could have sat back down and rocked her like a child and she would have gratefully curled into his arms and let him. Instead, he set her feet upright on the floor beside the desk.

She moved to the wall and closed her eyes as she leaned against it. Her head was starting to ache. She wasn’t sure there were any known symptoms of time travel, but a headache seemed reasonable.

When she turned back to Danato and Belus, they were both watching her from opposite sides of the desk. Danato was noticeably concerned, and for once, so was Belus. Neither asked the obvious question. They just waited for her to begin.

“I had another vision of Efrat.”

“Another?” Danato asked.

“Yes, but it may not be just a vision. He’s helping me, I guess. I don’t understand it, but it has something to do with the other vision I had of Belus.” Neither of them reacted beyond extended anticipation for further information. “He says I’m traveling through time.”

In unison, both men shook their heads at her. It wasn’t a surprise since time travel, even from a fictional perspective, took great leaps of faith to accept. Nonetheless, she got the impression it was outside the scope of even the abnormal possibilities.

“What?” she asked looking between them.

Both of them sat down in preparation for the discussion. She moved to the second chair and pulled it a good foot away from Belus before sitting. He noted the movement with deepening confusion, but didn’t say anything. She didn’t care. Until she knew what was going on, she was going to do her best to keep anyone from hurting her family, including herself.

“Cori, I’m not sure what just happened,” Danato began, “but the time bubble is strictly monitored by us. Changes and fluctuations to surrounding timelines would set off a slew of alarms. We would know if you were jumping into a different time.”

“But it’s not…” She touched her cheek where she should have been feeling pain. “It’s not my body. Each time I jump, I am in whatever condition I was at that time. It’s more like my mind is jumping around. It’s as if somebody mixed up the order of my memories.”

Danato thought about that a moment exchanging a furtive glance with Belus. “When did this start?”

“I came in this morning—the first time. I went to the time bubble, did my work, came out, and got shocked by Efrat.”

“Then what?” Danato murmured.

Cori sighed not wanting to waste time going over the same information, but she supposed he wanted to double check her memory. “Then I came in this morning, thinking that my yesterday was just a dream. That’s when we went upstairs for the PET scan, I saw the vision of Belus shot, we came back here to discuss it, but I was sidetracked by a vision of Efrat. Who, by the way, is still an asshole in any timeline, thus the strangulation. Sorry about that.” She shrank down, hoping the explanation would excuse her actions.

Danato nodded, brushing off her mortification as inconsequential to the moment. “And what time did you get in each morning?” Danato asked.

“Well,” Cori debated whether she should mention the discrepancy with the clock. “8:05.” There was no reason to add to that confusion.

“So, you think that we have just gotten back from your PET scan that you took on your second round of the same morning.”

Cori looked between them and smiled like there was a joke she wasn’t getting and should just pretend to get it until it fully dawned on her. “Yeah.” She gulped not wanting to know why that had to be clarified. “What am I missing?”

“Sweetheart, check the clock.”

She looked to the clock. It read 8:09. If she counted back in the minutes, she could guesstimate that it read 8:05 right around the time her hands were clutching Danato’s throat. She was in her third repetition of her early morning.

She stared at the clock hands as if they had betrayed her. “No, that can’t be.” She looked between them for the explanation that she had yet to find in this mess.

“Cori,” Danato stood and came around the desk to her. “Ethan left yesterday. You took the day off. Do you remember that?”

“Yes, of course I do,” she snarled feeling the microscope being positioned on her.

He put his hands up in surrender. “I’m just saying this is the day after that day. You walked into this office at 8:05. Very shortly after that, you tried to strangle me.”

“This is impossible. None of this makes sense. Why am I back here? Where’s the rest of my morning? If I’m going to repeat my day, shouldn’t I at least get to finish it before I start over? Isn’t that the rule?” Cori threw her hands up, but couldn’t decide on whether to slam them back on the chair arms or hide her face in them. She decided to tuck them under her arms for safekeeping.

Belus and Danato looked at her with concern, but neither of them seemed to know where to begin to ease her mind. They also appeared to be having a silent conversation, about what they were going to do about the situation.

“I am not crazy. You two have to believe me. This is the third time I have arrived in this office at 8:05.” She looked at the clock again and wondered if the clock had the power to cause her time shift. As if sensing her accusation, the clock volume increased, resonating three pejorative second hand ticks before resuming as usual. She dismissed the theory, but not the suspect.

“You’ve never made it past the morning,” Belus asked.

“No,” Cori said thinking about it. “I mean if you count the time in the time bubble as my time and not outside time, I’ve had two maybe three hours each time.”

“But you’re not jumping before or beyond this day,” Danato clarified.

Cori shook her head.

“Could it be possible the shock Efrat gave her could have triggered something, mentally or physically?” Belus asked Danato.

“That’s assuming Efrat was really involved and this isn’t another issue,” Danato said.

“Excuse me.” Cori raised her hand. “The PET scan came out fine, so this isn’t a dream feeder.” Both Danato and Belus looked at her like she had just recited a verse of hobgoblin lineage. “We’ve already been through that. Besides, if this morning is starting over again we can just go up to the time bubble and catch him when he sneaks in.”

“What time will that be?”

“In about ten minutes. Actual time about 9:00.”

“What?” Danato looked at the clock.

“Danato, I’ve been 45 minutes late for work the last three mornings. You should really get that clock fixed.”

20

Cori stood at the ready behind the double doors leading into the time bubble room. Her pistol was perched in her hand pointed at the ceiling. Despite objections by both men, she asked that they stay as far back as possible. She knew Danato didn’t like the use of guns, but when it came to a man that could electrocute you with his bare hands, the argument about gun safety became moot.

On the 9 o’clock hour Cori saw Efrat’s hand reaching through the metal doors to touch the light switch. The shockwave traveled up to the control both, and the poor unsuspecting guard they hadn’t warned, fell unconscious against his station.

Cori took two silent steps forward. As the back of Efrat’s head came into view, she jammed the nose of her gun into the base of his skull. “Don’t move!” She said with more force than volume. “Come in, but keep your hands to yourself.”

Efrat stepped into the room sideways keeping his hands half raised in surrender. He wore yet another blue flannel shirt over his stretch gray t-shirt. His boot cut jeans had seen better days, but his brown leather shoes seemed like something he might have actually spent money on. To add to it, his belt buckle was ridiculously large. She wasn’t sure why he wasn’t in the uniformed gray, like the other prisoners, but she didn’t really care enough to ask about it.

“What’s up kitten,” he drawled, “revenge at its coldest?”

She cringed at hearing the pet name again. It was such a condescending nickname. It was like cupcake. Sexist, but with the added insult of observing her youth. She could tolerate the term “kid” from Belus because he was older, and he said it to Ethan too, so it wasn’t sexist. However, Efrat wasn’t that much older and hadn’t earned the tenure to condescend to her in that way.

“Put your…” Cori was about to say, “put your hands behind your head,” but that was a bad choice for this prisoner. “Kneel!”

“I’d rather die standing,” he said.

“I’ll make a note of that,” she said pushing on his calves, which buckled his knees. He fell into the position and folded his fingers in prayer before him. “I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to prove that I really have been seeing you out of your cage.”