Corinne was still in the Web but a healthy color had returned to her skin. The shield completely enveloped our group and was filled to bursting with power. The way I imagined it in my mind was like a snug fitting gravitational field. Eureka! My brainstorm turned into hurricane and I had an idea to pass on to Silver. My eyes closed and I joined my twin in the Web.
The problem became apparent immediately. Silver was piggy backing Corinne, trying to use her already developed containment method and strengthen it to stand alone. It was never going to work. The design was faulty, but Corinne couldn’t let go without her mother exploding all over the dang place.
Somehow Cora’s blood red pulsing light was expanding as it absorbed the power they poured into the containment field. I tossed the idea at my twin and Corinne’s cold blue presence both, on a tight beam of thought.
Silver shot back just as concentrated, “Where was that idea five freaking centuries ago before Corinne almost died? You’re a genius, though.”
Corinne seemed relieved there was an end, but she had reservations. “What will this do to her? She’ll still be able to function in the Web, right?”
I sent a wave of thought akin to a shrug. “We won’t know until we do it, will we?”
One thing was for certain, we couldn’t stay here trying to hold back and feed Cora’s raging essence at the same time. The point of no return was gaining quickly and if what Maggie said was true then she might have a heart attack if we didn’t stop feeding her energy that didn’t have anywhere to go.
Silver pulled together a glowing dense mass much different than her usual and customary healing sparks—this white hot ball of gaseous reacting light ‘felt’ heavy. My twin passed her creation out toward Cora, and Corinne dented in a section of her sky blue field, bending it inward toward her mother’s center.
The last bit would be tricky. Corinne had to separate the tip of her shield, enfolding the new artificial core, then reabsorb it without letting any of the blood red sickly pulsing essence of her mother’s Web presence escape. So far so good; the white ball sat shining brightly even through the mass of crimson surrounding it. Delicately Corinne reached out to the still inwardly bent tentacle of her shield and spun the light with an extra pulse of energy.
As soon as the spin began it’s speed increased into a self-sustaining high velocity revolution and began to siphon power from Cora’s essence to maintain its function. In theory, the more agitated the councilwoman became, the stronger and faster the core would react. There shouldn’t be any danger of her draining to death since the power pull would only be as strong as it needed to be and no more. If she stayed calm it would only need the most basic of resources to regulate itself.
The reddish dangerous circumference of Cora’s essence began to shrink.
Silver crowed, “It’s working!”
I thought out at Corinne, “See if you can start pulling back your shield, Corinne. I think you mother can drain from it because of your familial link.”
Tentatively, as if she were afraid her mother might explode, Corinne pulled back the sky blue energy field in a tiny pinprick of a hole. When nothing overtly bad happened the pinprick increased to a baseball size and when still nothing happened Corinne pulled it back into herself all at once.
The core grew brighter and brighter until it hurt to look, but it worked its magic. Cora’s red giant of a presence decreased its circumference steadily.
A piercing shriek of pure rage leapt out from Cora’s crimson ball, almost unintelligible in its voracity. “How could you?”
No pain followed it. The emotionally charged lash the councilwoman was used to wielding was non-existent. The core held.
Corinne sent a subdued thought our direction. “Ladies, could you please give us some privacy? Tell Kevin I’ll be out in a minute and that everything’s Jell-O.”
Silver said back, “Jell-O?”
At my sister I said, “Ask later.” At Corinne I thought, “If you need us we’re only a brain tug away.”
Cora’s presence strained against the safety valve at its center as she shrieked, “You turned against your own mother for trash! You’re no daughter of mine! They killed your brother and you’re going to do nothing. How weak and predictable. I should never have had children. You were both the worst mistake of my life!”
Corinne ignored her mother’s outburst but her surface hardened and froze even more rigidly as she thought our way, “Please go.”
Back in the ‘real’ world James and Kara were staring at us with intense concern. Before anyone could interrupt with questions I blurted at Kevin, “Corinne’s fine. She needed a minute to hash it out with Cora. She said to tell you everything is Jell-O—whatever that means.”
Smith’s shoulders relaxed immediately and he shifted his girlfriend’s weight in his arms before saying, “Does she need to be touching you guys anymore?”
At our side-to-side head shake Kevin moved back to their earlier position by the wall, still cradling Corinne like precious fragile cargo. At least she had someone. After this she sure wouldn’t have her own mother. Silver and I weren’t sure that was much of a loss. Corinne’s shield remained in place for a moment and then started to slide away to its host.
I wiggled our arms to indicate the Lees needed to disengage just as Maggie, Mez and David stood, releasing the formerly flailing councilwoman from their hold.
It was too quiet. A sense of hushed expectation filled Silver and I with dread. One of those lovely gut feelings blossomed and we knew whatever was going to happen was already rolling into motion whether we wanted it to or not.
When Cora Harris popped up like reanimated corpse, looking little better than a real dead person I might add, every single one of us jumped. Her face had a waxy, glistening sheen to it and her cold blue eyes were alight with the fervor of insanity. She looked around wildly until her gaze found ours. Lips twisted and nostrils flared as her chest struggled to get enough air, Cora snarled, “You’ll pay. Even if I don’t kill you, I’ll make you live to regret every minute of every day you do get. I’m going to—”
A fist slammed into Cora’s jaw, cutting off her rant and knocking her out cold.
Maggie yowled, as she cupped her knuckles to her breasts. “Ow-w-w-w!”
Mez grabbed her forearm, pulling the injured appendage into the light. “You tucked your thumb inside, Dragon Lady. Who taught you to punch? Now you have a dislocated joint.”
Maggie growled back, “It was worth it.”
James put a hand on our shoulder. “Poor reward for saving her life, I know, but we’ll figure something out. Gerome needs to be informed of the state of things. I’ll go tell him unless Silver wants to?”
Corinne spoke up from her now standing position next to Smith. “I’ll tell Gerome. I have to petition for her Council seat under the heading ‘Non Compos Mentis’. She’s unstable and anyone who sees her in the Web will pick up on it. This has to be by the book or she’ll find some way around it.” Her eyes started to flutter shut as if she might be gone already but her voice rang out solid in the still air of the infirmary. “I don’t like you very much but I respect you. You didn’t have to spare my mother’s life and you helped me do that. It won’t be forgotten. I forgive you for Calvin.” Her closed lips flexed across her teeth as if she had a bad taste in her mouth and then she stilled into a mannequin as she traversed the Web in search of Gerome.
Silver’s words were acid, “How gracious.”
I snapped, “She’s been through a lot, Silver. I respect her, too. Shut it.”
David chimed in from the other side of the bed. “So, now what? We don’t have the resources a hospital does. Do we tie her up? Drug her? Punch her in the face over and over? What?” He’d thrown his hands up from his sides at each question before he continued. “We still have evacuate everyone to who knows where and all with the authorities here. Don’t you think they’d take exception to us carting around a hysterically screaming woman against her will?”
M
ez released Maggie’s hand gingerly before turning his dark gaze to the frazzled nurse. “I can guard her. If she causes trouble I can bend her somewhere or hide us in plain sight with a light field.”
James’ features flattened. “So you came all this way to babysit crazy humans? How noble. Anyway, light fields don’t dampen sound from what I can tell so your plan isn’t viable.”
Mez gave his back to Maggie and cloaked his face in an aloof mask of superiority, holding up an enormous hand. “This should cover her mouth. I came ‘all this way’ to rejoin my Leoght Cor and serve Axsa in whatever ways I am needed. Nothing is beneath me in the pursuit of my goals.”
Oh, boy. That last sentence was a warning and James really needed to pick up on it.
Kal’s solemnly assured voice broke the tension, “Enough, Nefa.”
I reached out to grab James by his elbow and shake our head just slightly when he looked back at us. He yanked his arm from our grasp and straightened, highly offended by the silent warning.
Internally Silver sighed. “Annis save us from the egos of men.”
Wholeheartedly I agreed. “Amen.”
Chapter Seventeen: End Game
Corinne took some time to return from her information sharing quest with Gerome. When she opened her eyes her demeanor was truly serene rather than the facade she’d pulled around herself earlier. She stepped away from Kevin and straightened her disheveled, dirty clothes. “The barracks and cafeteria are intact, along with all our food stores. The gas lines are undamaged so we should be able to prepare a last meal while transportation is arranged. Gerome has asked me to invite you all to join him. The police and firefighters want to remain at the detonation site, inspecting the damage and keeping the area secure.”
Maggie closed her eyes as she held her injured hand to her chest and by the time she opened them Weavers were already rising from their supine positions around the treatment room, gathering their things to leave. Only the barest murmur of conversation broke the silence.
Mez raised his eyebrows, impressed anew and Maggie made a shooing motion at his chest. “Move, so I can go check on my children. Watch our patient, if you will, Taller?”
With a chuckle, Mez picked the fiery-headed physician up by her waist and smoothly set her at the end of the cot. Soft brown eyes framed by a ring of white, my aunt was actually speechless at his show of strength as she navigated to her office, shaking her head.
Voice oozing irritation, James asked Corinne, “Any other orders from Gerome?”
Like someone had pushed a button on a robotic mannequin, Corinne’s head turned to respond, “None for you.”
Her blue gaze skated across the Lees, meandered over Kal and then settled back on our face.
She said, “I need to speak with you privately. I’ve shared with Gerome but you need to know as well.”
Silver waved an arm for the icy blonde to follow and we tromped toward the relative privacy of the laundry room again. Too many sets of feet followed.
Kara chastised, “She said privately, boys…no escorts needed. I suggest you stay here.”
Kevin made some sound of protest that was cut short and only one set of footsteps continued its forward progress at our back so we resumed our heavy footed route to the white washed room. White, to me, was both the absence of color and the essence of light. I found it ironic that so many truths had come out in the same place, as if it were a tiny temple to shed not only dirt from physical things, but bring clarity to our souls and minds as well.
Silver breathed a cool thought of agreement through our head like a pleasant breeze on a hot day as she said, “You may have something there. The universe works in mysterious ways.”
I entered the room first and picked the two industrial-sized sinks to lean against.
Corinne walked through the door and did a slow scan of our environs before choosing to take just as casual a stance against the washer and dryer. Her arms came up and crossed in front of her breasts.
The silence stretched out as we considered one another until Silver grew impatient and ground out in her deeper voice, “You wanted to talk, so talk.”
Barely there eyebrows wrinkled in brief reaction but then smoothed out again before she baldly stated, “My mother was behind the assassination attempt on your uncle.”
A cold dash of reality splashed over our skin, from the roots planted in our scalp to the wiggling toes inside our boots, as we thought it through. I kept my voice just as flat as Corinne’s as I asked, “You would know this how?”
Her vividly blue irises grew and shrank around her pupil as she stared off at the wall. “She admitted it to me right before she ordered me to make an attempt myself. I joined the guard to spy on your uncle for my mother but then I met Kevin and things…changed. When I refused to do what she asked, she said if you wanted something done right you had to do it yourself.”
Silver asked the next question. “So Shiva’s infestation of her Web self wasn’t unwelcome?”
Her arms uncrossed as her eyes refocused to ours directly. “I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put it past my mother to take an undesirable situation and twist it to her own uses. What she does in the Web, her ability, is all about manipulation. It was more subtle until recently.”
The silence stretched again but it wasn’t tense, only filled with consideration.
In a burst of thought I asked, “Do you think she’s been using her talents to sway the Council?”
Face solemn Corinne said, “Undoubtedly.”
Silver picked at a smudge on our coat. “But it never works on Gerome. I wonder why?”
I hazarded a guess. “Natural immunity?”
Corinne started tapping a foot on the floor, fidgety all of a sudden. She blurted, “It’s really confusing when you speak out loud to one another. How can you stand to be so intertwined?”
I shrugged our shoulders and Silver wiggled our hand in a so-so gesture before saying in her deeper voice, “We don’t know any other way to be. It is what it is. There are advantages.”
Fear crept into Corinne’s tone as she whispered, “When my ability first manifested there was no one for me to ask for help. I thought I was going crazy like my mother. I’ve done my best to manage things with her behind the scenes but I knew the day would come when I would have to choose. Kevin found me at my lowest and built me back up. Do you know who sent Kevin to me? Your uncle did. Gerome sees patterns and makes logical leaps based on the information he observes in the world. His gift operates like a database, constantly calculating variables and probabilities.”
Goosebumps traversed the largest organ of our body in earnest this time and Silver got angry. “How do you know all this? Did he tell you?”
Corinne confessed, “I dreamed it. The rest was just careful observation.”
Her feet shifted and the tapping stopped as she cocked a hip and laid her palms on the top of the appliance at her back. Her tone became conciliatory but firm. “I don’t think he can tell the future. His brain isn’t a crystal ball. Gerome may just be able to make a more accurate guess than the rest of us.”
The image of a spider sitting in the center of a web flashed in our mind and a shiver went down our spine that Silver tried to hide by straightening our posture.
I asked, “Is that all or is there more?”
Corinne dropped her eyes to the floor then back up before saying, “I owe you an apology.”
I frowned, suddenly extremely uncomfortable. “Don’t bother yourself about whatever it is. I’m sure we’ll piss each other off again somewhere down the road. Keep on our case and make sure we don’t get out of line. Maggie’s good for that but the twins are her main priority.”
Her stance shifted. “What about Silver? Do you think she wants an apology?”
Silver ran our tongue over one canine then the other before giving a grudging response. “I’m impressed you can already tell us apart. I say I like us as a team when necessity demands it but I’ll never trust you completely and vice vers
a. Our past won’t allow it. I think we would trust you to call us out and speak your mind when we cross a line. Are you game?”
The corner of her mouth ticked up as she responded, “So you want me to be your bitchy Jiminy Cricket?”
Silver said through a laugh, “I’d describe you more as a bitch-tastic Jiminy Cricket.” In an internal aside Silver muttered, “Don’t tell James I used his word or he’ll get all self-satisfied.”
Uneasy truce reached I pushed off the sinks and asked, “We done?”
At her nod I started out the door to the hall feeling somehow cleaner and more refreshed than when we’d gone in earlier. Our clothes were still filthy and we desperately needed a shower but a weight had been lifted off our souls, lightening our steps.
The cots were all vacant but one, and Mez still stood guard by Cora Harris’s side. I wondered darkly if it would be enough to sic him on her. Insanity knew no limits.
Maggie opened her office door, almost ramming into Corinne. At the last second the thin blonde put on the brakes while I continued forward into the open aisle between cots to avoid a collision. Melody followed my aunt out of her office and she had two soundly sleeping three-year-olds on each arm. Reb and Ray’s little heads lay snuggled into her neck, mouths slack and bodies limply propped against her shoulders.
Kevin’s voice boomed out aggressively at us. “Where’s Corinne?”
Silver snapped back in a low, sarcastic tone, “Calm down, Pit Bull. She’s behind the door and she can take care of herself just fine so you might want to ease up before she slaps you again.”
The twins stirred around Melody’s neck as she drew closer to where we stood, and she turned a disapproving eye to Kevin before asking us in an affronted aside, “When did Corinne slap my son?”
Kevin’s stance remained on guard until Corinne joined him and the petite blonde answered the question that had been directed at us in a cool breezy manner, tipping us off to the emotion behind the words.
VECTOR (The Weaver Series Book 3) Page 28
