by Watts, Mia
As if on cue, Cooper entered the central room, a smile on his face.
“You’re thinking about sex,” her murmured huskily.
Fauna felt her cheeks heat. “How do you do that? It’s like you read minds or something.”
“Nope. No faery mind reading abilities here, just noticing the way your cheeks are flushed and the twinkle in your eyes.”
“Am I that readable?” she mourned.
“To me.” He walked up behind her and folded her in his arms.
Fauna held onto his forearms and leaned back against his stomach. “Everything check out?”
“Yep.” Cooper nuzzled her hair.
She tipped her head back, bumping it on his firm chest. Cooper kissed the spot between her eyebrows. “So let’s discuss this infrared thing.”
Cooper’s smile faltered. “You don’t want to take care of that sexual craving of yours first?”
“Nice try. I’m not getting distracted from the answers this time. Just tell me what the concern is. Pretend I’m Sage.”
“Sorry, can’t. I have absolutely no compunction to fuck Sage,” he joked.
“Then pretend I’m Dill?” She laughed at the look of alarm on his face.
“Gotta say no to that, too. You’re the only Harper I want to see naked and writhing.”
Her belly tightened, and she swatted a hand back to smack his thigh. “Just talk to me, already.”
Cooper blew out a breath and sat on the stool next to her, facing Fauna instead of the computer screen she’d been working on.
“We aren’t just protecting against human threats. We need to look at all the possible threats and contain them,” he explained.
“Faeries? What do faeries want with cloning technology? Most of the time they are hung up on pranks and peripheral stuff.”
“Possibly faeries, I don’t know. I do know that we need to look at the other realms as having a possible interest in this study.”
“What other realms?” Fauna asked, her brow furrowed with apparent confusion.
“Well, the guy a couple of nights ago was an elemental.”
“A what? Is that like that air, water, earth, and fire thing?”
“Yes,” he answered.
Fauna cocked her head, her eyes darting between his. “I don’t understand. I thought the elements referred to categories as a way our ancestors explained what they didn’t understand. If it’s stormy, you must’ve pissed off the air elements. If a volcano blows up, gee, I guess the earth is annoyed with how you’re taking care of it.”
“Not exactly. Elements are categories. Elementals are considered mythical beings like faeries would be. They fall into the same categories, but are called by their proper names usually. Fire elementals are salamanders. Gnomes belong to the earth grouping. Undines belong to the water family, and sylphs to the air.”
“I think if elementals existed, I’d know. I mean, I’m half faery. That’s a ticket to all things otherworldly.”
“Technically, it’s the same worlds, just the unseen, unrecognized portions of it. I’m surprised you don’t know about them.”
“But you think the guy we saw sneaking into the building, like any other breaking and entering robber, is magical?” she scoffed. Suddenly she smiled brightly. “Is that because you couldn’t catch him? You think he must be magical because he escaped you? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
He laughed at her light teasing. “No, I know he’s an elemental. I don’t know which genus though.”
“Wouldn’t gnomes be short and gnomey? Sylphs see-through? Salamanders scaly? Your reasoning is a little thin.”
“They only look different than humans when their energy is tapped out and they need to recuperate,” he replied seriously.
“So what did you really want to talk to me about?” she asked, folding her hands in her lap. She smiled at him, having enjoyed the little joke. He always kept her on her toes. She liked that about him.
Cooper shifted his weight. She thought she saw his jaw tighten and she decided to pay a little closer attention to what he wasn’t saying.
“We need the Plexiglas inner vault for the main laboratory. It’s a lot of coverage, but it’s absolutely critical to have it, or bulletproof glass, with an automated lockdown sequence in the event of an intrusion,” he said, looking into her eyes solemnly.
“Okay, I’ll play along. What magical properties does Plexiglas or bulletproof glass have on an elemental?”
“It blocks. It doesn’t conduct heat. It holds earth and water. It’s a barrier to air.”
“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.
&
nbsp; 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.
>
“Unless you sweet talk the newlyweds next door, but don’t worry,” she added with a mocking, conciliatory pat on his hand. “At least as a fire elemental, you won’t be cold.”
“Yeah, I will be,” he murmured. “I’m never warm enough until I’m inside you.”
Fauna’s breath caught.
“After that kind of heat, everything else is like autumn.”
“You’re not getting into my bed,” she croaked.
“If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
“On the area rug,” she replied as firmly as she could. Thank God she was sitting down. Her knees were too rubbery to support her.
Fauna licked her lips. His eyes flamed red as he watched. “We should tell Sage about all of this.”
“I don’t think he needs to know that I’m sleeping on the floor when I’d rather be boning his sister.”
Her body tingled magically. Fauna slipped from view. “I meant the clone wars.”
“Bad movie.”
Despite herself, she laughed. “You know what I mean.”
“I have to make a report to the council. They will send a representative to him with a lot more information than I can give him this far away. He’ll be told everything we can reasonably share without risking our safety. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Thank you.”
He smiled, warmly. “You’re welcome.”
“Is there anything else I should know?” she asked, hoping he’d finished telling her all the sordid details. She’d be checking her work and rechecking now that she knew the whole fate of the world hinged on her programming skills. Geez, no pressure there.
“Yeah, one more thing.”
I knew it. The mole people are about to riot for voting privileges.
“I knew before I met you, that you’d be my Achilles’ Heel. I watched you work and tried to learn as much about you as I could before coming to work at Harper Security. I expected attraction. I had no way of predicting how you’d make me feel. How could I? You’re half human and half faery, a combination of two realms that don’t exactly play well with the elementals. I don’t know what to call it, but I do know that the idea of not seeing you anymore doesn’t even make sense. I don’t know what magic you cast on me, but I don’t want you to remove it despite the fact that it hurts like hell to know that I can’t touch you again.”
