Authors: Mia Watts
By the time they got to the lab, Cooper had to excuse himself until he could get his libido in check.
He surveyed the Plexiglas installation first. It was up and firmly in place. A Plexiglass door had been created with a Plexiglas handle and Plexiglas encased access grid. He nodded his approval though more to himself than anything else. Without a metal handle, salamanders couldn’t use it to conduct their way to the inside. There was an airtight seal around the door, too. The sylphs wouldn’t be able to get in. Those were the only two that would have presented a problem if there’d been a leak. He saw that the duct work for the self-contained air system had been completed and small plastic strips flipped from the vent to show that it was on.
He faced the camera and dialed Fauna’s cell number. He gave the camera a thumbs up when she answered. “It’s all set.”
“I’m working on the coding now. This is going to be tough. I could use your help.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Cooper turned the corner, taking the corridor toward their central set up. He was distracted, he rationalized later. That’s why he didn’t notice the change in the air temperature until he heard her scream his name.
His heart pounded with fear. “Fauna!”
Something moved out of the corner of her eye. She knew without looking that it wasn’t Cooper. Cooper didn’t slink. She jerked her head up as a squat bear of a man snarled and leaped at her. Fauna jumped off her stool and ran around the other side of the lab table.
“Cooper!” she yelled. She heard him call back to her.
She didn’t think, she just grabbed the small fire extinguisher under the table, pointed, and fired. White spray jetted toward her intruder. He wailed, scratching at his face and arms.
“Bitch! I’m going to kill you!”
He clawed his hands over his cheeks, clearing the fire retardant. Fauna’s throat dried up with horror. His face, covered with black scales, rattled and his eyes blazed red. Yellow stripes ran from the top of his head down the sides of his body where it disappeared in his clothing. A lizard man, in human guise. Fauna shivered.
She used the only weapon she had. More fire retardant. An unearthly screech blasted her from the attacker. The fire extinguisher sputtered to empty and she threw it at him, backing up to the next lab table and blindly reaching for another extinguisher.
“Fauna!”
She swung around, brandishing the red weapon in both hands. Cooper paled, eyes riveted to the tube as he held his hands up in surrender. “Don’t. Please. Not at me.”
“Cooper? Oh, thank God, it’s you.” She swung back around to the man who was curled into a ball on the floor, writhing. “Is he?”
“A salamander.” Cooper snarled the word angrily. “He’s on the council with me.”
“She attacked me,” the man-lizard gasped, shivering with pain.
“I swear, Cooper, he attacked
me
,” Fauna insisted.
“I know, baby. Lachen has never agreed with the board in protecting scientific information.”
“Shouldn’t you tie him up and call the authorities?” she asked him.
He looked at her with horror. “I can’t touch him.”
“Why not?” She swung the extinguisher in exasperation.
“Honey. Please watch where you point that thing. Hold it on
him
. He won’t go anywhere except try to crawl toward heat. If he comes at you spray him again. Trust me when I say, he’s almost completely incapable of hurting anyone right now.”
Cooper pulled out his cell phone and dialed. “We found the spy. Lachen.” He smiled grimly. “Fauna nailed him with fire retardant. Yeah, you’ll want the insulating suits on to deal with him. She’s got him covered. Just get here as soon as you can.”
“Cooper?”
“Yeah, hon?”
“Do you look like him?” she asked nervously.
“No. Every family line is different. I’m dominantly red with black markings.”
Fauna licked her lips. She’d been having sex with a lizard. That was enough to sober a girl up. “Why’s he twitching?”
“You zapped his heat. That shit hurts. Remember when we staked out the building the first night? I came back and couldn’t stop kissing you?”
She nodded.
“I had touched glass on my way back to you. It was enough to make needing heat critical. I can’t look human if I’m not normalized.” He pointed to the sobbing, shivering creature on the floor. “He’ll have some serious recovery ahead of him.”
Lachen squirmed toward Fauna. “Please…please…”
“Don’t let him touch you, Fauna. He’ll take your heat and leave you hypothermic.”
Fauna climbed onto the lab table. “You used my heat before. What if you needed it like this man? Would you?”
Cooper planted his hands on his hips. “I’m a thinking being, sweetheart. He’s acting on instinct, but he also doesn’t love you. I do. There isn’t anything I’d do to hurt you.”
“But what if you couldn’t help it? If you were dying?”
“If you were dying and it meant killing your sister to save yourself, would you do it?”
“No,” she snapped.
“Then don’t reduce me to an animal living purely on instinct. I have a brain and I use it. I have a heart and it belongs to you. Why the hell would I ever put you at risk?” He shook his head at her like he’d been insulted.
She supposed he had been. She’d done nothing but berate him for being who he was born to be, and insinuating that it made him less than human. She was no less human for her faery-half. If anything, she embraced it more fully. Maybe even to the detriment of the other half of her family.
For the first time, she wondered what her rejection of the faery realm felt like for her mother. God, she’d been so selfish. So hateful. Her mother must have felt like Fauna disdained her, or loved her less than her father. It wasn’t true, and she’d told her she’d loved her countless times, but when you rejected something that was inherent, it had to sting. It wasn’t like those traits could be removed at will. They just existed.
And I either learn to accept them, or I go on being bitter about something I can’t change and hurting those I love
.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she held the extinguisher steady on Lachen. “Cooper?”
“Yeah.”
“Are they going to get here soon?”
“Any minute, honey.”
“Good,” she declared.
“Do you want me to leave a guard, so you can go back and rest?”
“No.” She met his gaze steadily. “I want to finish this work. It’s important for all our kinds. Once the cloning on human DNA is completed, though, how will that change anything?”
“We’ve kept a low profile since the beginning of time. We have people everywhere, just like humans and faeries. I think it’s time we all stepped out for a summit, humans, faeries, and elementals.”
“Won’t everyone know about us then?”
“No. Kind of like Area 51 or other governmental secrets, this can be kept too.”
“What about others like Lachen?” She nodded to the still form of the salamander who’d passed out from pain.
“There will always be others. We’ll just keep doing what we can to keep the peace and hope it works. What else can we do?”
Fauna nodded. She hugged the extinguisher to her chest since it appeared Lachen wasn’t an immediate threat. Cooper came to her and carefully pulled the device from her hands, setting it aside with great care.
“I guess winter sucks for you.”
He smiled and it set her heart to tripping. “Not my favorite season, but I manage. Salamanders can increase their skin temperature and their core body temperature as needed. It just takes more energy to keep the cover in place.”
“Why didn’t he?” she asked, motioning to Lachen.
“You put compressed cold chemicals on him. That doesn’t just wipe off, it clings. Things that aren’t us, aren’t naturally occurring, are difficult to compensate for. Like glass, or the Plexiglas, or chemically engineered fire foam. Snow is just water. Cold air, is just air. Those adjustments are easy.”
“Oh.”
He lifted himself up to sit on the lab table beside her while they waited.
“Cooper?”
“Hmm.”
“I’m sorry.”
“About what?”
She took his hand, lacing her fingers with his and relishing the heat between their palms. “A lot of things, actually. I’ve been so narrow-minded about you, about magical beings in general. I know I have a lot of biases to work through, but you aren’t part of my hang-ups.” She looked at him, earnestly hoping he’d understand.
“I want to be part of them, because it means I’m part of your life.”
“I’ve been unfair. This thing we have is pretty scary for me.”
“How can I help?”
“You are, just by letting me take time to figure out what’s happening between us.”
“As long as you don’t say it’s a work-sex thing again.” He smiled teasingly as he said it. The words had to have hurt him.
“It’s never been that. I was too stubborn to admit that I wanted you. I thought if I
said
it was a work convenience that I could believe it.”
“You don’t?”
She caught her bottom lip under her teeth and shook her head. “I’ve been attracted to you since the day I fell on my face in my office.”
“I know. Your heat signature gave you away.”
She sighed, exasperated. “Thanks for sharing.”
“Hey, you had me going since I first read the security docket on you before I ever took this case. Sure, I thought you were insanely gorgeous and that’s all I had to go on at first, but Fauna Harper, you challenge me in so many ways. Being with you is a daily adventure.”
She laughed. “And being with
you
is a daily biology experiment.”
“Surely there’s more to me than that,” he scoffed.
Fauna captured his face in her hands, and dragged it down to hers. She kissed him, taking her time testing the softness of his full, warm lips, the sweetness when the tips of their tongues brushed and retreated.
“I hate being wrong.”
“Oh, yeah?” He waited with apparent interest.
“Sex with you has nothing to do with bodies moving. I love you, God help me.”
Cooper growled, swooped toward her in a full possession kiss that left her breathless. “Council better get here quickly,” he muttered.
She laughed, circled her arms around his neck to keep him close. “When I get you back to the room, I’m going to generate some serious heat with you.”
“Baby, you already are. Much more and I won’t be able to walk.”
Chapter Eight
On the last step at the inn, Cooper grabbed Fauna. She turned in his arms, laughing and when he lifted her, she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on. Cooper carried her all the way to the bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him.