Beasts and Burdens (26 page)

“Who is shooting at my home?” Mrs. McGrath was angry, but she was more than happy to do as she was told.

“I’m about to find out. Stay down.” Cori created a veil of magnetic energy with her borrowed power that bounced from the stove to the fridge. She stood to peek out the window and found just what she expected to find. “Frederique.”

She cursed as she watched a team of a dozen men and women walking up the drive to toward the house. Each one held a gun in hand. It was an unusual use of weaponry for a werewolf, but one that Daniel had predicted in response to their colossal failure the other night.

As they approached, they branched off hiding behind the various outbuildings on the property. Frederique was left with two women behind her. Amongst the triad, a man stumbled barely keeping himself upright. Frederique stopped at the far end of the drive and said something over her shoulder.

The man faltered around her revealing his identity and his injuries. “Heaton!” Cori gasped at the swollen bruises on Heaton’s face. He had taken a good number of hits. By the looks of his shirtless torso, he had received puncture wounds and burns as well. She cringed as he walked slowly toward the house.

She ran to the front door off the formal living room and waited for him to arrive so she could usher him inside. Half way to the door, Frederique gave the nod and her female counterpoints shot him twice.

“No!” Cori screamed as Heaton went down to his knees. His teeth were bore under the pain of the double calf injuries, but he didn’t scream.      

“You bitch!” Cori opened the door and threw fire balls one after another at the three women. Frederique escaped the firestorm by hiding behind her already burned team members. Cori attempted to go after Heaton, but the gunfire started again and she was forced back inside to duck for cover.

“Ma!” Daniel’s voice echoed down the corridor from the kitchen.

“Cori!” Nevia’s footsteps ran toward her.

“Here!” Cori peeked up from behind an overturned coffee table.

Nevia looked relieved to see her. “It’s Frederique! I can smell that bitch a mile away.”

“I know and she has Heaton,” Cori said as Nevia helped her up.

“Heaton? Shit.” Nevia’s eyes went wide.

“What about Heaton?” Daniel marched in from the hallway.

“He’s outside.” Cori glanced at Nevia hoping to get some idea of how to gage Daniel’s familial level of devotion to his friend. Judging by the concern etched on her face, Cori knew she should tiptoe. “He’s wounded. They are using him as bait to draw us out.”

Daniel dipped his brow in confusion and marched to the window to see for himself. The image of Heaton, face down bleeding on the McGrath lawn crumpled Daniel’s face into horrified pain. Tears sprang to his eyes, but they quickly melted off as his expression turned cold and deadly.

He moved to the door, but Cori and Nevia jumped in his way. “Daniel no! It’s what they want!” Nevia yelled at him, like she knew a simple statement wouldn’t get through to him.

Daniel picked her up easily and set her aside. “I’ll kill them all,” he said matter-of-factly.

“No, Daniel, they’re hiding,” Cori insisted backing away as he moved forward.

“I’ll destroy everything then.”

“That’s too much Daniel!” Nevia dragged down his arm. “I know you don’t want to kill unless you have to.”

“I have to!” Daniel screamed pinching his eyes shut.

“There are too many guns! You can’t stop all the bullets!” Nevia brought his own argument back to face him.

“I don’t care!” Daniel pushed her off brusquely, leaving Cori as the only thing between him and the door. “Move Cori.” His eyes leveled on hers, and she felt the same uncomfortable feeling she usually felt when they were eye to eye. She didn’t understand how Nevia could stand his scrutiny. This time however, she forced herself to look into the abyss. “Move Cori, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Daniel,” she said soothingly, and took his hands in hers. “I don’t want to hurt you either.” She released a crackling shock that crawled up his arms and snapped in his face.

He narrowed his eyes on her, trying to discern if she was bluffing or not. “Cori I could knock you on your ass just as easily as you can me.”

“Daniel!” Nevia hissed behind him.

“Both of you need to let me help my friend.” Daniel reached for the door knob but found his hands covered in a layer of thick ice that had essentially shackled his wrists together. He looked back up at her impressed, but angry.

“Daniel I could put you to sleep right now, but I need you awake. Let’s try this the hero-way first, and if that doesn’t work, then I’ll help you turn this place to ash.” Daniel nodded and his face lit up with the thought of their mutual vengeance. “Now let’s—”

Cori’s vision blurred suddenly and for a moment everything was out of focus. Everything except the tattooed genie who was suddenly in front of her. Before she could speak, the genie held up one finger in her face. The vision ended as fast as it started, and the genie was gone.

“Oh, shit,” Cori looked around for the impending problem. “Minor inconvenience number one.”

“What?” Both Nevia and Daniel asked exchanging glances.

Cori felt her pants moisten and water dripped from her pant leg. She looked down as did Daniel and Nevia. They each added their own particular colorful statement to mark the moment.

72

“Ma!” Daniel bellowed from the living room as he ushered Cori into the spare bedroom. “We need clean towels!”

“No, I can still help,” Cori objected. “The contractions haven’t even—ahhhh!”

“Started?” Daniel couldn’t help but mock her. “Melt this shit off me now.” Daniel extended his hands out to Cori and with great concentration she managed to separate the ice holding his hands together. He didn’t bother asking her to melt the rings around his wrists; he just smacked his cuffs on the door jamb shattering the ice.

“What’s happening?” Maggie shoved into room around Nevia. “Oh, dear, the baby. It can’t come now!”

“Minor inconvenience my ass!” Cori grunted as she leaned against the back wall holding her stomach.

“I need to get Heaton. Ma, can you watch her.”

“You can’t go out there!” Nevia yelled.

“You need to help her!” Maggie objected.

“Ma, you’ve given birth, I haven’t.”

“It’s a hell of a lot different from this end son!” Maggie scolded.

“The baby can wait. We can get Heaton together!” Cori groaned. “I just need to create a magnetic field so you can grab him.”

“Cori, you’re too distracted,” Daniel snapped. “You barely got the ice melted.”

“Daniel, you stay with Cori,” Nevia ordered. “Your mother and I will go get Heaton.” Nevia grabbed Mrs. McGrath by the arm and pulled her to the door.

“Yeah, okay…wait, what!?” Daniel grabbed her arm and yanked her back. “You aren’t going out there!”

“Yes I am! And your mother is coming with me to carry Heaton.”

“I am?” Maggie looked between them.

“Yes, Heaton is a tall strapping man; it’s going to take some of your hard earned farm muscle to drag him inside.”

“You…my mother…feck no!” Daniel stammered.

“Move the furniture to block any stray bullets in the front room. Then give Cori a damn rifle and prop her up. I’ll go out the side door and lasso Heaton with that extension cord from the mud room, so your mother can help me drag him back to the house. She won’t even have to step outside. You clear out any unnecessary riff raff that happens to pop its head out while I’m roping up Heaton. Somewhere between all that, catch the baby and get her healed back up so we can put up a full fight.”

“What about the bullets?” Daniel yelled exasperated. “They will shoot at you!”

“Yes, they will, but they won’t get me.” Nevia slapped her forearm. “Natural Kevlar. Another trade off, I don’t have a lot of strength, but what muscle I do have is bound tighter than a spider silk quilt.”

“Bullet proof?” He clarified and she nodded. “Why the feck didn’t you ever mention that before?”

“It’s not something I readily share. Besides I still prefer to be on the distributing end of the bullets.” Nevia started to move away, but he grabbed her and kissed her. He sensed his mother’s disapproving eyes on him, but he didn’t care. “I’ll be okay, Daniel, I promise,” she said when he released her.

“You better be, or I’ll rip a hole in the fecking earth to swallow all of them up.”

“I know.” She nodded unfazed by his fury. “Come on, Mrs. McGrath.”

“You’re a werewolf?” Maggie stammered looking over Nevia.

“One quarter werewolf, but don’t worry, I don’t turn.”

Maggie nodded and followed her obediently. His mother may not have liked his choice of woman, but after tonight, she wouldn’t be so heavy handed with the insults.

73

Cori held the rifle in the window sill. The chair she was sitting in was sturdy enough to hold her, but the only thing protecting her from bullets, was plaster and wood. The pain resonating on and off in her abdomen was no doubt normal, but far more painful than she wanted to admit.

After the last one past, she couldn’t keep from crying. She wanted to help save Heaton, but now she was a useless liability. She sniffled uncontrollably and Daniel looked over from his station beside her. He wasn’t armed but he didn’t need to be. All he needed was to see his target.

“Hey,” he touched her leg, “I’m sorry I was so harsh. I get…intense sometimes.”

“I get that,” she whispered keeping her aim focused. “If that was Ethan lying out there, I wouldn’t be any calmer.”

“How’s your pain?”

“It’s okay,” she lied, but her face scrunched up in a flood of more tears. “Daniel, I’m scared.”

Daniel moved his hand to her belly. “Just hang on a little bit longer, and I’m going to help you through all that, okay. Can you help me save Heaton first?”

“I’ll do my best.” Daniel touched her belly gingerly and she pressed her hand against his. “I know Belus trusted you with this, and I trust Belus.”

“So do I.” It was a lot of responsibility to put on his shoulders, but she knew he wouldn’t balk under the pressure.

Just as Nevia explained, she ran out to Heaton with her gun holstered and an orange extension cord in hand. The gun fire started immediately, but there was no one visible to return fire on.

Nevia’s small body was wracked and volleyed by tiny unseen forces. She had described herself as bullet proof, but that didn’t account for the damage to her skin. Cori could see the puckering red welts from the bullet impacts, and in some cases the bleeding gashes.

Daniel ignited his power into the space between Nevia and the werewolves. The bullets ceased to disrupt her and she was able to get Heaton lassoed under the armpits. She signaled for Mrs. McGrath to pull, and the rope tugged Heaton toward the house. If Mrs. McGrath struggled at all with his weight, it didn’t show.

Three of Frederique’s men attempted to follow Nevia inside, but crossed Daniel’s line of sight proved deadly. Cori fired a few shots, but her aim was too poor to do more than threaten a bruise.

“Daniel!” Mrs. McGrath dragged Heaton in under his arms and laid him out in the back of the room away from the windows.

Daniel jumped to his side and started healing his more desperate wounds, starting with the holes in his calves.

Nevia stepped over the healing in progress and took the rifle from Cori. “Mrs. McGrath get Cori prepared for birthing, and then take over the rifle.”

Cori was glad that Nevia was barking orders, but Mrs. McGrath’s bitter beer face hinted that she disagreed. She did however collect Cori and take her back to the bedroom to disrobe. She handed her an oversized nightgown that appeared to come with the room. “Put this on, dear. You won’t want anything too confining.”

Cori put on the gown and groaned as another contraction pushed her to one knee. “Daniel?” She huffed and crawled toward Daniel just outside the door.

“I’ll be right with you mama girl,” Daniel said not looking up from his work on Heaton’s torso.

“Mrs. McGrath!” Nevia barked from the front windows. “We got creepers!”

“Coming!” She hollered and jumped over Cori to take up her rifle position. After a few cracks of the rifle, Nevia gave her congratulations on a good shot. “It’s not my first tango with werewolves, dear.”

“I’d love to hear that story,” Nevia said before she cracked a few shots with her pistol that was met with equal kudos from Mrs. McGrath.

Cori sidled up beside Heaton’s bruised and broken body. “Heaton, are you awake? Daniel’s working on you so don’t mmmmmove!” She leaned her head on his upturned shoulder to bury the pain.

His hand reached up and caressed her face. “Heaton, thank God!”

“I’m sorry.” His voice choked and blood dripping from his mouth to the floor. Cori glanced at Daniel and he took note of the disappointing revelation of the internal damage that he wouldn’t readily be able to access. He repositioned to gain access to the other leg.