“So, you’re the almighty Job, huh?”
His head snapped up as if he was shocked to find an intruder in his home. Tessie knew how he felt. Lawn green eyes, the exact same shade as the hair at his temple, swept over her. Instead, of the frigid disapproval reflected in Gion’s gaze, though,
this
Phase seemed to like what he saw. Job’s eyes passed over her body in a quick, admiring sweep. That was one of the few good traits about Elementals. They liked women with curves on them.
Tessie was used to guys checking her out. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the world, but she worked in a bar, for God’s sake. Job’s obvious appreciation of her purple halter top was gone, again, as quickly as it appeared. But still, Tessie didn’t feel like smacking him or snarling out one of her patented “dream-on and jerk off” insults. She didn’t actually mind Job’s attention. In fact, it sort of made Tessie feel… powerful.
He cleared his throat. “I’m Job.”
Holy…
crap
. The guy’s voice was incredible.
Really
incredible. Deep and soothing with a lyrical accent that washed over you like syrup. Seriously, Job should quit the whole royalty rat race and get himself a record deal. Jesus, it wasn’t bad enough that he was the biggest badass in the universe, he got to have that voice,
too?
The unfairness of it had Tessie’s agitation climbing even higher.
“May I help you?” He asked.
“You’d better. I got a gigantic fucking problem and I’m expecting you to fix it, big shot.” Tessie could speak Elemental, but she much preferred English. The swearing sounded much better. Since Job had answered her in the human language, she was satisfied that they could keep conversing in good old, curse-filled American. She dropped her zebra patterned backpack onto the boring, earth toned carpet. “It’s your damn fault I’m in this mess.”
“I see.” Job got to his feet and gestured towards a Chippendale chair. “Please have a seat.” His lovely manners didn’t quite jive with his rugged features. His face was a compelling mix of angles and planes that deeply appealed to her. Job might’ve been Mr. Charm School, but there was a harshness about his face that completely belied the refinement of his clothes and the smoothness of his musical voice.
That was actually sort of… fascinating.
Tessie flopped down on the chair’s neutral color upholstery and decided
not
to be taken in by his interesting contradictions. Or the restful, calm vibe he gave off. Just being near him soothed some of her anxiety. A fire crackled in his fireplace, but the twisting shadows it cast didn’t detract from the stillness of the room. Tessie never had stillness in her life. She was always tense and on guard.
Job was peaceful on some very primal level. She felt
sheltered
in his study and that idea disturbed her. Why would this Phase make her feel that way?
“You have no idea what you’ve done to me.” She scraped a hand through her waist length, ebony hair and focused on her real problem. “I’m completely screwed, now, all because
you
wouldn’t connect the dots. Stupid, stubborn asshole.”
Tessie’s plan had been foolproof. She’d laid out all the evidence of human Phase-Matches for Tritone, Queen of the Water House to find. Then, Tessie popped her head up as bait to draw the Elementals to Mayport Beach. Ty was a scientist, a computer geek who spent every day neck-deep in her research. It was easy to lead her right where Tessie wanted her to go.
Job respected the Water House. Everyone knew they were his favorites. It should’ve been a simple matter of Job listening to them present the evidence and then authorizing a search of hospital blood records. Only instead of finding Tessie, the Phases should’ve found evidence of humans with Elemental DNA and saved themselves from extinction.
So simple and safe.
Except, Job refused to believe that the Quintessence even existed. Which led to the Water House going to Mayport Beach by themselves and drawing the attention of half the universe. So, now Tessie was homeless and hunted.
And it was all Job’s fault.
“I see.” Job repeated. It was clear that he had no clue who she was or why she was there. “Have we been introduced?”
“I’m Tessie.” She scowled at him. Shouldn’t he know the Keeper of the Quintessence when he saw her? That was almost insulting. “Aren’t you supposed to be all mega-genius? God, keep up, huh?”
“Tessie?” He sounded skeptical. “Are you sure that you’re in the right place? Because, I…”
“Oh, I’m in the right place, alright.” She interrupted. “I’m declaring sanctuary and you’re gonna provide it for me. It’s the
least
you can do. Now, I have that GI Joe dipshit Chason and his Reprisal goon squad tearing up my town. They’re looking for me with all the subtly of that bumbling Schliemann guy trying to find Troy. There are
reasons
I try to keep a low profile, ya know.”
Job’s expression became a mixture of bafflement, skepticism, and awe. “Are you claiming that you’re the…?”
“The Quintessence. Yeah, hi, how are ya?” She flashed an insincere smile. “Just show me where my room is. I’m moving in here until you get your damn Elementals under control.”
Job blinked. “You’re the Quintessence.” He sounded like she’d just announced that she was the Tooth Fairy.
“Yep.” Actually, Tessie was the
Keeper
of the Quintessence. There was a slight difference there, but she wasn’t explaining that to Lord High Almighty. The last thing she needed was Job figuring out the extent of her non-powers.
Job leaned back in his leather chair and fixed her with a “bow before me peasant” sort of look. “I see. The Quintessence. Interesting. Perhaps, you’d be willing to
prove
that claim, before I rush off to get you fresh linens for the bed and lay mints on your pillow.”
Tessie started at him. “Prove it to you?” Oh, man. That wasn’t going to be easy. “Like how? You wanna see some photo ID?”
“Well, the Quintessence is supposed to be magical. Divine.” He steepled his fingers against his chin and watched her, expectantly. “Do something magical or Divine.”
Shit.
So much for that peaceful, easy feeling.
Tessie rubbed her palm against the leg of her kakis and fought back panic. “I’m not a trained seal. I don’t perform tricks for the crowd, hon. It’s a little presumptuous of you to ask for a show, seeing as how this our first date and all. Have I asked you to put
your
superpowers on display?”
Job didn’t respond to that verbally. Instead, Tessie felt a low-grade pulse of pure strength shake the room. It moved the ground beneath her in an unmistakable earthquake of energy. Tessie’s eyes widened and her hands clenched on the arms of her chair. Job’s power was so controlled that it didn’t even knock over his stacks of papers and so vast that Tessie felt it vibrate deep inside of her.
Her violet blue gaze flashed up and locked on his lawn green eyes.
Tessie’s breathing got faster. Her breasts got tighter. Her toes curled into the bottoms of her flip-flops.
She vaguely processed that Job’s expression reflected absolute astonishment, but then she was beyond any rational thought. His power washed over her from the inside out, humming at just the perfect frequency to send every cell in Tessie’s body into sensual meltdown. “Holy Gaia.” She panted. Her head fell back and she closed her eyes against the onslaught.
How the hell was he doing that?
She didn’t even care, just so he kept it up.
Tessie realized that she could actually come, sitting across the desk from him, just from the weight of his energy stroking against her. She didn’t
have
any powers to speak of and she could still feel the sensation of Job’s Earth forces sliding across them. Could all Elementals do this? Shit, she’d been
way
too hard on them over the years. They were a treasure to the universe.
Job pulled his energy back so fast, it left Tessie lightheaded.
She made a soft whimpering sound of frustration and opened her eyes to stare at him. “What the hell was that?” It came out breathless and wanting. Oh God. For a minute there she’d felt so damn good and then he’d spoiled it. He’d just stopped. Would it be totally wrong if she asked him to do it, again, seeing as how she’d only known him for –like-- twenty seconds?
Probably.
Definitely.
Definitely probably.
“Do that, again.” She ordered, anyway.
Job was shaking his head. Not at her words, but at the entire situation. “What the hell was that?” He demanded, repeating her words. He looked strained. Really strained. His hand was fisted on the desk and his jaw was clenched so tight it barely moved when he spoke. “What the hell did you do?”
“Me?” Tessie scoffed. “Hey, listen, hon, I’m a totally innocent victim of your psychic pawing. I was just sitting here and then
you
let loose with the Elemental aphrodisiac or whatever. Then, you just
stopped
and left me high and dry. Okay, not so dry, but...”
“How did you do it?” Job interrupted. He stood up and Tessie could see that she hadn’t been the only one affected by energy. “How did you mimic the first stages of Phazing?”
Phazing was the Elementals’ supercharged sex-capades. They could only do it with their Match; the one person they could cosmically bond with or whatever. Honestly, Tessie had always breezed out when Parson started in on the wonders of Phazing, because she just didn’t buy into the whole happily-ever-after deal. She’d seen enough in her long, long life to know that reality usually sucked.
Still, she now understood what the attraction was for Elementals.
“That was like Phazing?” Tessie swallowed. “Only the
first stages
of Phazing? Wow! No wonder you guys look so hard for your Matches. That was intense. Are you sure you don’t want to try it again and…?”
Job cut her off, again. “How did you do it? What
are
you?”
Tessie’s aroused high deflated and she came back down to earth with a “splat.” Job was angry.
Really angry.
Shit.
Why were people always wanting to kill her?
“I’m the Quintessence.” She murmured. Her gaze automatically cut to the door, gauging the distance. If Job went nuts or something, she might have to run for it. Typical that she’d picked the most powerful Phase alive to tick off.
Damn Elementals.
At least, Job finally looked like he believed her about the whole Quintessence thing, though. “How powerful are you that you can imitate Phazing like that? How can you create the feelings and the connection…?” He trailed off with another shake of his head. “Nothing should be able to do that.”
“I’m very powerful.” Tessie snapped. She couldn’t let Job know that he could crush her like a really crushable bug. “Incredible Hulk meets Gandalf the Grey powerful. I can do anything.”
He studied her for a beat. “
Why
did you do it, then?”
Tessie had no clue what had triggered the Phazing like sensations. It sure hadn’t been her. It must have come from Job’s powers. Some kind of freak accident or misfire or whatnot. Those had to happen to Phases, right? Young Elementals probably hooked-up all the time in backseats and
thought
they were experiencing Phazing. But, it was really just a reaction to too much vodka, atmospheric dashboard lights, and a strategically worn Wonderbra.
Either that or Job was mistaken about what Phazing even was. If he’d never felt it before, then how could he possibly identify it? Bottom line: neither one of them could apparently explain what just happened, but who cared?
Something
weird had occurred and Tessie wasn’t about to let a golden opportunity slip by.
“You said to prove that I was the Quintessence. Well, I did, hon. What else could’ve done what I just did?”
“
Nothing
could do what just happened.” Job said flatly. “It’s impossible.”
Tessie spread her hands out. “Ta-da!”
Job’s breathing was too harsh. He moved around the desk and prowled closer to her. “Stop it, then. Make the feelings go away.”
“
You
stopped it when you pulled your powers back.” She still wasn’t forgiving him for that, either.
“Not the sexual desire.” He bluntly corrected. “The ‘caring about you’ feelings.”
What the hell was Job talking about? He
cared
about her? Tessie nearly snorted.
Riiight.
This was some kind of trick. Well, Job was in for a disappointment, because there was no way she was playing along. Number one, she couldn’t remove anything that she hadn’t put there in the first place. And number two, she was pretty sure he was lying about the caring thing and trying to catch her up for some reason. He wanted to reveal that, behind the curtain, the Great and Powerful Oz was just an ordinary human.