Authors: Mia Watts
“Why do you think the intruder was an elemental?”
Cooper’s gaze flitted away for a moment. “Because he knew I was there and kept me from seeing him. Only an elemental can misdirect another elemental.”
His eyes met hers again. Fauna’s heart lurched. Her mouth went dry.
“Spell it out for me, Cooper, and you know what I’m asking.” She heard the rough rasping of the words which had to force their way from her throat.
“I’m an elemental.”
“Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God,” Fauna muttered putting his words into perspective. “You know—”
Cooper reached for her as she spoke. Fauna swatted his hands away.
“You
know
how I feel about Faeries. You know, and you never said a word. Even after we—Oh, God.”
“We aren’t all like the faeries, Fauna. If I had been, you’d have known by now. Trust your instincts.”
“I did,” she replied dryly. “Look where it got me. In bed with a liar.”
Fauna redirected her attention to the computer screen. She didn’t see the data threads she’d spent hours on, though she pretended to read them.
“So you’re just going to ignore me now?” he asked.
If I could
. “I’m going to work. It’s what I came here for and what I was hired to do. I never should have strayed from the original plan.”
She’d deal with Dill and Sage later. If Cooper felt comfortable enough to talk to them about his elemental concerns, it meant they already knew what he was, and had sent him with her anyway. Reluctantly, she admitted that since her brothers weren’t matchmakers, the only reason they would have for not telling her was because Cooper was just that good at his job.
She knew he was. She’d seen him in action in so many ways. Ways she wanted to see and experience again. Her body warmed at the thought of having his hands back on her body. Having him, back in her bed. She’d miss spooning with him tonight after an active round of sex. Fauna didn’t have sex with liars.
She jabbed the enter key. Cooper’s gaze was still on her, waiting for something, it seemed.
Fauna sighed with annoyed frustration. “They hired you to come with me on this job knowing what they know about you, even if they didn’t bother to share that information with me. I’ll deal with them later. Clearly they thought your particular talents could be put to use here, so put them to use already.”
“The Plexiglass,” he said, his only reminder of what he’d been so insistent on having.
Fauna nodded abruptly. “Do it. Make the arrangements and then tell me what you need for the closing device and I’ll program it. Just do it fast.”
“I’ll make the call.” He picked up his cell phone.
“It’s late. Don’t you need to do that tomorrow?” she asked.
Cooper fiddled with his phone, avoiding eye contact, she thought. “I know people in my community. We’re already set up for inter-elemental espionage. They’ll have the materials readily available, where the human community would require a purchase order and costly delays.”
He met her eyes. She considered him for a moment, thinking of the beautiful red lights in them and now understanding that it had to be a trait of the fire elemental. She supposed when she’d thought she’d seen them glow, in the throes of orgasm, that they actually had. God, she was so gullible. Facing him daily while they worked the project was going to be hellish, professionally and emotionally.
She’d made a lot of bad choices in men over the years. Most of them had been in an effort to avoid the faery realm her mother seemed so intent on bonding her to. In dating men she was sure
weren’t
magical, she’d discovered almost all of them had been in some form or another. It was really astounding how many mortals were related to the faery realm. Some didn’t even realize it, but called their uncannily self-benefiting circumstances as “good luck”.
How was it she could be so wrong, so many times? How was it she kept falling for lying jerks that were exactly the kind of man she didn’t want in her life? She’d seen the trickery of the faery realm first hand. Hell, she
lived
it!
She had a sister that transported herself to different locations, another that transmutated into inanimate wooden objects, a brother who froze time, and another brother who read minds. Together with their lot, Fauna disappeared. And of all of them,
none
had control of their gifts. It wasn’t like they could think,
gee what a great time to be invisible and keep an eye on this lab all night
. No, that would be too easy. It was more like,
how’s your morning going, Fauna? Oh, my God! Where did you go
?
But then there was Cooper who waited patiently, as though he were silently asking for permission to make that critical call he needed to make. Fauna relented, nodding. Cooper flipped open his phone and held down a single key stroke, before holding it to his ear.
“You have the elemental council on speed dial?” she asked, disbelieving.
He smiled apologetically and shrugged as he listened. “Greyson, it’s Cooper. I need the sheeting I told you about.” He paused to listen, before continuing. “Straight to the lab, would be great.”
Cooper rotated his wrist to see his watch. “Six would be better. I want at least two hours head start on it before the lab techs come in at eight tomorrow morning. Great, thanks.”
That was it. He hung up with a wide smile on his handsome face. She’d love to have the freedom to kiss that smile again, but resisted the urge. Cooper was an elemental. He was as fundamentally magic as a magical being could be. Cooper was off-limits.
“Just like that?” she asked.
“Pretty much.”
“No measurements?”
“I called earlier with that, in case you agreed to fortify the lab like I hoped you would.”
Fauna grew thoughtful. Would he have told her if she hadn’t pushed the issue? She didn’t think so. Sex was as intimate as things got and he hadn’t bothered to share that part of himself before
that
had happened.
Cooper covered her hand, resting on the keyboard.
Fauna slipped from under it. “Don’t touch me.”
“Is this a racist thing?” he asked jokingly.
“It’s a lying liar-pants thing. You knew how important it was to me, but you kept me from knowing anyway,” she said, lifting her chin defiantly.
“I like you, Fauna. I like you a lot more than I should. My job would have been a thousand times easier if I hadn’t gotten emotionally involved with you, but I did. I just wanted to give you some time to get to know me, before you made a judgment about my character based on the origins of my birth.”
“You aren’t emotionally involved. We had a mutually consensual sleeping arrangement.”
“It’s more than that,” he argued.
“It couldn’t be more than that,” she insisted. “It’s not like we were best buds hanging out every day at the office. You were hired on, I was assigned this project with you, we relaxed the rules, and I got burned. I’m un-burning myself. Hands off.”
Cooper held up his hands like she held a gun on him. “I’m off. Whatever you say, boss. Do you want the rest now, or later?”
A cool, sick, crawling sensation started in her gut. “What do you mean, ‘the rest’? There’s more? Do Dill and Sage know about ‘the rest’ too? Was
anyone
going to tell me
anything
? God, you must all think I’m a complete idiot,” she snapped angrily.
“No, they don’t know. You’ll be the only one who does.” Cooper leaned forward persuading her with his eyes to calm down enough to listen.
“I was planted at Harper Security. I was assigned to work for you, as an agent of the elemental scientific community. It’s our practice to keep an eye on the scientific advancements of all realms. We learn from them, do our own tests, see what works, or what
could
work with some magical coaxing. We knew the results of the cloning tests here, almost as soon as the scientist did. We have elementals in all areas of the country and in all fields, including the government.”
“I knew Condaleza Rice was shady,” Fauna muttered.
He laughed. “No, not her. But we have people up there. Those people made sure to set the university up as the cloning lab. The elementals made sure there was adequate grant money to arrange for the university to accept, and it was the elemental community who made sure Harper Security got the bid.”
“I think I feel sick.”
“I was sent to Harper Security so everything would go according to plan. I think Sage knows there’s something more going on, but if he does, he recognizes that it’s necessary and hasn’t pushed to uncover more than he’s gleaned from me.”
“Great.”
“Fauna, I’m trusting you with this. The elemental scientific community wouldn’t approve. I’d be pulled from the case.”
“Why all the interest?”
“Same reason the humans are interested. The magical community can copy images, even impressively, but we can’t create a working biological clone. Can you imagine what would happen if the wrong magical beings got this information and used it, not only to clone form, but functioning forms? Relationships between the realms are already shaky. A magical army would be nearly impossible to stop. Everything we know the world to be would change completely.”
Fauna felt a little lightheaded. All the information coming from Cooper required that she break a whole lot of previously established ideas about how things ran in the world. She’d only known about the faery realm. Discovering that there was a lot more out there and that they weren’t peaceful, and actively perusing a way to defeat the other realms, was scary.
Morbid curiosity got the better of her. Or, perhaps she just really needed it spelled out for her. “
What
would change?”
“Worst case? A multi-realm coup with a reigning King from another realm. If it’s the wrong group, slavery of beings who don’t have magic to protect themselves. The whole world would be made aware of the magicals.”
Rubbing her temples seemed like a good idea. “I woke up this morning with a great looking guy who I thought was really smart and funny. I thought the project was nearing an end and I’d go back home, take a hot bath, and relax before the next assignment. Now I find out there is a plot to take over the world? When did this become an Animaniacs adventure, Brain?”
“What?”
“Pinkie and the Brain. Never mind,” she said. “How the hell did I get drawn into this mess?”
“I did a reconnaissance, watching Harper Security and researching all the players. Invisibility, even if not predictable, was a great thing to be able to use if it became necessary.”
“Lucky me.”
“Lucky
me
,” he corrected. “You’re beautiful, clever, funny, and your body temperature rose when we first met. Instant chemistry. I knew you were trouble, but I didn’t tell the council that my objectivity might be compromised by working with you.”
“You got the Plexiglas. You can quit flattering me.”
“I’m telling the truth. I wanted a relationship with you. You insisted we remain purely professional with perks, remember? I
still
want a relationship with you.”
“You lied to me.”
“I actively kept the truth from being revealed to you.”
“Semantics,” she said, pointedly.
Cooper blew out a breath. “You’re right. By withholding the truth, knowing that it would matter to you, I lied.”
“That’s a start.”
“Am I still sleeping alone tonight?” he asked.