Beasts and Burdens (18 page)

“Still not convinced?” Frederique asked seeing him considering the battle anyway. “My, but you are confident. Okay, my final offer for your submission.” She waved her hand and her two roadies pulled hand guns.

He sighed seeing no way out without killing or risking being killed. At the very least he could kill half of them before he got a bullet in his face or a knife in his back. If he knew Cori or her talents better than he might be able to trust her to back him up, but he just couldn’t depend on that.

“Daniel what is your choice?” Frederique asked and Cori stood up beside him.

“His answer is no!” Cori insisted. Her hands trickled with electricity. It started to reach out to the surrounding fire escapes, dancing off the metal. Burned face tried to get close to her, but the power snapping off her was enough to back both of them away.

Her power increased and the roadies struggled to maintain a grip on their weapons. “She’s magnetized,” one of them groused and fired an errant shot that nearly hit Nevia.

Daniel could see everything playing out, but in the end he would still be forced to kill someone. Werewolves were fun to bat around, but they were just too tough to surrender without a significant show of force. Frederique had seen him flex his muscles a time or two, but she still hadn’t seen the feature presentation. She didn’t know what he could really do to her if she pissed him off enough.

He raised his hand to point at “face burn” who was angling to give Cori a kidney shot. “I…will…end…you,” he repeated more fervently. “All of you need to back off or this battle for the throne will be done tonight.”

“Still too damn cocky for your own good, Daniel.” Frederique shook her head disappointed and impressed at the same time.

“Did someone call for cocky?” A tall brunette with a slicked back ponytail, dressed head to toe in black, ambled across the street side of the alley. She paused behind Frederique’s bodyguards to light a cigarette. “Because I am the queen of cock…y.”

The heavy gun hanging from her shoulder strap wasn’t offering much of a threat. However, the six men that rounded the corner after her, aiming their red dot scopes on the fem-wolf and her arm candy, were rather impressive—especially since they were all targeting the vulnerable points Nevia had educated Heaton and him about.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Cori asked. She had apparently stolen the line from Frederique, because nearly everyone offered her a befuddled glance, including the brunette. Despite the surprise change in focus, the brunette was more than happy to answer her question…after a drag from her cigarette.

“I am your hero.” She splayed her arms and almost bowed.

“The hell you are!” Cori hissed losing focus on her power.

The brunette seemed just as surprised by her animosity as Daniel was. Her eyes narrowed to focus on her face, but her curiosity went unfulfilled. 

“Grace,” Frederique said flatly offering a belated greeting that also served to get her back on task.

“Frederique,” Grace said drawing her eyes slowly back to her. “You know I really wanted to just let you have this one. I mean the girl strung up by the neck.” She motioned to Nevia. “This young mother with electrodes stuck up her ass. And who can forget Mr. Machismo with his empty threats.” Daniel scowled at her evaluation, but she didn’t flinch. “I honestly wanted to see you put them in their place, because your work is so beautiful to watch. The torture, the verbal repartee, I mean between you and Angelina Jolie I wish I was a fucking lesbian.”

“I feel the same way about you Grace,” Frederique said cheerfully. “Although I think my fantasies of eating you go a completely different direction.”

Grace laughed heartily. “That’s good, I like that. How about we just call tonight a win, lose, or get kicked in the balls kind of night? You walk back into your club and I escort these fine…” Grace glanced up at Nevia hanging limply by her neck, “…
Kayan
trainees back to their homes.”

“We could do that. Or I could finish what I started with you last month,” Frederique retorted.

“Oh, baby, you’re making me so hot. I would love to have you straddling me again, but I’m not sure you’ve fully healed from that long, hard, exploding tipped bullet I put in your side. Do you still feel it…inside you?”

“I could crush you,” Frederique whispered stepping closer to her. Instead of cringing like most people did, she stepped forward and met her face to face. Grace was a good couple inches shorter than her, but they were otherwise well matched.

“Go ahead,” Grace said a little more seriously. “I just need to be able to label your death self-defense.” She air quoted before resting her right hand on her gun and drawing it forward. Frederique was so focused on the movement of the gun, she probably didn’t even notice Grace’s left hand gripping the nearly invisible black hilt strapped to her thigh.

“One of these days, I’m going to teach you a lesson,” Frederique sneered.

Grace smiled. “Will it be a
hard
lesson?”

“You’re disgusting,” she hissed and backed away. Grace found great pleasure in winning that standoff. Unfortunately, her cleverness was short lived since she wasn’t the only one concealing a knife.

45

Cori couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The woman that she had killed six months ago was standing before her in full military garb, smoking a cigarette in the face of a fem-wolf. Balls of steel didn’t quite sum up her audacity. She really was a psychopath.

Cori saw the knife, but she didn’t know whose side she should be on. In theory, Frederique was an evil bitch, but she wasn’t sure that Gypsy and her cronies were any better. Had she had more time to think about it, she might have tried out that “enemy of my enemy” baloney, but the instant Frederique buried a knife into Gypsy’s shoulder all hell broke loose.

Gun’s fired and werewolves charged from every angle. Cori raised her shield again and bullets audibly plinked as they hit the surrounding walls. Behind her Daniel held off the other werewolves. One man in particular gave a strangled cry for several seconds before he landed somewhere to her right. She could only presume it was the one who had sucker punched her.

Nevia had somehow managed to get her gun out and was shooting rather blindly at Frederique and her roadies, who were bloody with gun shots but still fighting. Cori was frustrated that she couldn’t do more, but then she supposed that she could. She released her shield hoping that Daniel would cover her and she stomped forward.

Daniel called after her, but she continued without regard for her safety…or her baby’s—which she had momentarily forgotten about. This was apparently revenge or maybe she just figured she owed Daniel, but nothing would have stopped her.

She reached the first fem-wolf roadie and pinched her neck. It was an entirely Spock move, but that was the only part of her body she could easily grip. The woman tanked forward—instantly asleep, knocking over her assailant. She reached over to the second, but she already saw her coming and lunged at her.

Before she could topple Cori, she flew back from an unseen force. Cori didn’t even bother checking where Daniel was. He had her back; that was all that mattered. Frederique saw her coming and threw down her beaten victim to face off with her.

Cori’s hands glinted with the ice that had freshly formed on them. Frederique grabbed her neck and she latched on to her. She didn’t try to pry her fingers off, since that was pointless. She did let vengeance seep through from her diluted memories of Hirem.

The ice didn’t just form around Frederique’s arms. It settled in deep, liquid nitrogen deep. Frederique grunted and groaned, but eventually she pulled her arms back. She stared down at the frozen skin that was darkening even as she stood there.

“What are you?” She looked over her disgusted.

“I’m…” Cori lost her name for a moment. She stepped back floundering in her own mind. She hoped that was just an after effect of focusing her energy from a memory, but it concerned her.

“She’s my new best friend,” Gypsy said from behind her, before a knife whipped through the air at Frederique. She was too caught up in her frost bitten arms to defend herself, and the blade went right into her eye. 

Frederique’s animalistic roar vibrated Cori’s body like deep base from a passing car. The sound was a call to war, and the gunfire increased. Frederique dove at both of them, but there was nothing to do to stop it. Heat, ice, or electricity was going to be useless against this feral rage.

Gypsy pushed her down out of the way just as Frederique reached her. Gypsy went head to head with her, or rather nose to elbow. Frederique’s pursuit resulted in a cracked nose and a nearly shattered ulna.

Further infuriated by the offense of human’s actually defending themselves, Frederique picked up Gypsy and threw her into the first available wall.

The fem-wolf came back for Cori, but even the electricity she shot at her seemed ineffectual against her wounded fury. 

Before she could reach her, Frederique’s body jolted back airborne. Other bodies took flight, and the racquet of gunfire lessened. Taking its place was the audible sound of joints cracking, tendons popping, and Frederique’s screams.

46

Daniel could see Cori was going for the heart of the problem. He admired her spirit, but he couldn’t help but think he should have reminded her that werewolves are unfathomably relentless. He kept one eye on her progress so he could help her. He meanwhile was struggling to keep the band off his back. Every time he knocked a werewolf out of his path, one was just returning from their flight. Fighting werewolves non-lethally was an exhaustive pursuit. Even if he could fight them off now, they would wear him down. Eventually, he was going to make a mistake and despite the awesome power of his purview, he was still vulnerable to fists.

When he saw the battle was about to turn sour, he gave in. He directed his deepest anger back on his opponents. Most of them were still coming back to attack, but a few were passed out. The level of power he was emanating didn’t offer the luxury of discerning between self-defense and murder. He would be lucky not to put a hole in the brick wall behind them.

The dust cloud that burst into the air was a mix of disintegrated body and water vapor. It plowed through the line of werewolves like a slow motion grenade. Their lives ended with a few horrified thoughts of pain and regret that were offered to Daniel on a platter. Their contribution to his mind was small, but they would be enough to haunt his nightmares for months and years to come.

When he was finished with all of them he turned his attention to helping Cori with Frederique. She was surrounded, so he couldn’t offer a full scale disintegration attack. Instead he focused on a turbulent back and forth. It wasn’t a new extension of his power, but it was one he hadn’t used in many years. It utilized both spectrums of his power, similar to his impacting bursts, but on a far smaller scale, and with far more power. Without exaggeration, he started ripping her apart slowly, one and every atom at a time.

Frederique screamed as he made his slow approach. She had not felt this before. She had not known this was part of his resume. No one knew about this except Danato, Belus, and Heaton. It was, after all, what put him in prison.

The men in black surrounding Frederique backed away, unwilling to stand near her as the pain racked her body on a cellular level. He wasn’t even preparing to kill her. This was pure pain and it was all in revenge. There was no permissible reason to cause anyone this much agony, except to destroy their will to live.

Without the ability to beg for death, Frederique sunk to the ground cowering beneath him. Her face and body contorted under his will. Her bowels released and yet he still racked her body with pain. He couldn’t let it go. This was the part of himself that he hated. This was the part of himself that didn’t deserve to be outside of a cell.

He might have held her there until her heart gave way, but a sharp pain in the back of his head put him down with surprising speed.

47

“Sorry, hero, had to put you down.” Gypsy pressed a cold compress to the back of Daniel’s neck as he woke. Cori stood back with Nevia watching him stir. She wasn’t sure what to do. She wanted to see if he was okay, but she was terrified. Daniel was such a powerful man, and his devotion to his friends was endless, but it was humbling to see the proof of it powdered all over the alley and on the face of the shattered woman who was now receiving aid from the same people who were trying to put her down.

Daniel looked around at everyone before settling on Gypsy. She didn’t offer him any explanation for her care and he didn’t question it either. “Is she alive?” he asked not really out of concern, but just clarification.

“Yeah, but I think that might have been a mistake on your part,” she said pulling another cigarette out of her pack with her lips. She offered him one, but he only took the lighter from her pack so he could light her cigarette. “Mmm, a gentleman, I didn’t expect that.”

Daniel chuckled as he put the lighter back. He probably figured she didn’t know him well enough yet to assess that. “Who are you?”