Free Gods and Monsters by Felicia Jedlicka

through it. “Danato is a good man, Gypsy. When are you going to finally trust him?” Ethan slipped in one ear plug.
    “I do trust him.” She slipped in one of her ear plugs. “Geez, Ethan, you really don’t get this game do you?” She slipped in her other plug.
    “You really don’t get how fucked up you are?” Ethan murmured low enough that he probably thought she couldn’t hear him. She resisted the urge to express her complete understanding of her psychological issues with or without his help, but her amusement with the conversation had long since passed and she didn’t want to deprive him of his ever valued last word.
    Once the ear plugs and goggles were secured they opened the cell to transfer their prisoner. The serpentine creature within would have appeared to be a beautiful woman or man to anyone not wearing safety goggles. To them it just looked like a giant cobra with human arms and emerald eyes.
    Without the earplugs the screech the creature emitted would have translated into a beautiful song that could lure anyone as easily as a rat to the pied piper. As it was, the screech still held a melodious undertone that begged to be paid attention to.
    They restrained the prisoner by either arm and dragged it to an adjacent cell that was properly etched so it couldn’t be scratched off. Ethan proceeded inside the cell with the creature alone. He didn’t need her help, but they never moved the siren by themselves. The desire to remove the earplugs was nearly overwhelming even with the visual block.
    Gypsy had often wondered how the siren would make itself appear to her. The creature relied on physical attraction to draw people in. She no longer desired any man, and she had never really had any attraction to women, so what would it lure her with.
    Unable to resist her curiosity this time, she pulled off her goggles. She caught a view of a little girl with a teddy bear in hand, before Ethan pushed her away from the door and shut it behind him.
    “What the hell are you doing?” He said ripping out one of her plugs so she could hear him yell at full volume.
    “Interesting,” she said.
    “Gypsy!” Ethan pulled out his own plugs and took his goggles off. He huffed and stammered for a moment trying to find the words to his rebuke. She waited for his anger to simmer, as it always did when she didn’t offer any retaliation to keep it going. “What…what did it show you?”
    “A child,” she said.
    “Really,” he said. “You think that would work on you?” he asked carefully, not trying to insult her maternal instincts, but at the same time very surprised that she might actually have them.
    “She had a teddy bear,” she added.
    “Oh.” Ethan nodded as if that was the clincher in the portrait of seduction. He smiled at her. She didn’t like that smile. It was honest enough, but it came with a flicker of interest in her beyond friendship. Ethan knew she wasn’t interested in him or any man in that way, but her tenacity occasionally drew his attraction. When it wasn’t pissing him off that is.
    “You want to take a peek?” She asked. “I won’t tell.”
    Ethan’s amusement faded as he debated indulging in that temptation. He looked to the cell for a moment and then back at her. “Nah,” he said almost somberly, “I already know what I would see. I’m pretty predictable in that department.” He chucked her shoulder and headed out ahead of her.         
     
    16
    It wasn’t until her bland, prisoner worthy meal, and the glimpse of the dusking sky through the skylights, that Cori realized they were actually going to make her spend the night in prison. She was certainly not a rookie at occupying the facility she was supposed to be employed at, but somehow she still thought a certain urgency or priority would be taken with her.
    She had managed to make some leeway with Danato, at least in letting her see Cleos, but after the fire incident she could hardly blame him for tightening the leash