The Elementals Collection

by L. B. Gilbert

  “Excuse you,” Loki chirped, affronted despite the fact the cleavage in question wasn’t his.

  The agent finally deigned to meet his eyes. Frowning, he let go and stepped back. “What the hell? Who…who are you?”

  Loki’s mouth dropped open. How could the cop tell? Loki’s glamours were foolproof. He doubted even Serin’s parents could see through him that fast.

  This was big. Loki circled the agent excitedly, studying every muscular limb with avid eyes. “Wow. What are you?”

  The man read as human, but there was clearly more to him if he could see past Loki’s glamour.

  “Loki.”

  Flushing, he started and turned to the door with a slow pivot

  Busted. Serin was standing in the doorway, her eyes like arctic ice.

  “I told you to stop wearing me.”

  “What the fuck?” The agent whipped his head back and forth from him to the real, far-more-angry version standing in the threshold. Romero’s nostrils flared as if he were trying to smell which one of them was the real Serin.

  Loki put his arms down. His was the more fashionable outfit, but Serin’s fully clad leather form was somehow ten times sexier than the gown he was wearing. “How do you look better than me? This is silk…”

  Agent Romero moved to Serin’s side, his irritated expression remarkably similar to hers. “What is going on? Who is this?”

  Loki threw his head back and tittered, his hair doing a pale imitation of the rippling wave the Water Elemental’s did when she moved.

  “Loki. Take me off now,” Serin snapped.

  He blinked, dropping the suggestive pose with a scowl. “But he’s watching,” he pouted.

  She slashed at the air, an abrupt get-on-with-it gesture.

  “Fine,” he huffed, dropping the glamour with a ripple. He held out his arms like a cheerleader, revealing his favored male-greaser persona. “Ta da!”

  Romero watched him with something like horror in his eyes. Loki stifled a giggle, remembering how close he’d come to getting mauled by the man.

  He was on the cop immediately, cozying up to him and batting his baby blues. “You can still kiss me if you like,” he teased.

  The agent pushed away, pointing at him with his mouth open. “You’re the guy from the shooting outside the club.”

  He turned to Serin. “I didn’t know where to find you, but I stumbled on footage of this guy on local traffic cams. He was down at the corner store when I pulled up. I decided to follow him, but I didn’t expect…whatever that was.”

  Serin’s lips were a thin line. Glowering at Loki, she swept past them to set her pack down on the kitchen counter.

  “Your room. Go before I change my mind and deal with you now.”

  Shamefaced, Loki nodded like a bobble-head, but the bag’s pungent odor distracted him. He stopped in the middle of the living room. “Whew. What did you bring home?”

  She put her hands on her hips. “I stopped at an herbalist in Chinatown to make you a poultice because you’ve been healing so slowly. But if you’re well enough to be wearing my skin and making junk food runs, you can make it your damn self.”

  Chastised, he came forward to take the bag. Hugging the smelly contents to his chest, he gave her a quick peck before skipping backward. “Thank you, thank you, thank you…”

  He turned back at the doorway of the guest room. “Don’t worry…I’ll turn the music up loud. Won’t hear a thing,” he said, winking and mugging at the pair suggestively.

  The Elemental rolled her eyes. “That won’t be necessary,” Serin huffed, but Romero’s mouth twitched.

  Loki flashed into the body of an old wrinkled man. He cupped a hand over his ear. “What was that?” he warbled in a thin frail voice. “I’m quite deaf you know.”

  “Loki.”

  He ignored the warning tone, materializing a cane out of thin air to wave at the pair. “Sorry, sugar doll. I can’t hear youuu…”

  19

  Serin was in a foul mood. Not only had she accidentally wrecked the phone and possibly her only lead to Puck, but now the safe house was breached by Agent Romero, who’d apparently been cozying up to Loki in his drag form.

  Romero was shaking his head. He thumbed in the direction of Loki’s closed door. “So the guy from the shoot-out is one of you?” he asked.

  Serin’s lips tightened, debating. What was worse? Too little knowledge or too much?

  He’s traveled in your medium.

  Romero had already seen too much. Once opened, some doors couldn’t be closed. A man with his tenacity wasn’t about to give up without answers, and the last thing she needed was to have him running around, dogging her steps, trying to get those answers on his own.

  She let out a long-suffering sigh. “No. He’s a Loki.”

  The line between his brows deepened. “I thought his name was Loki.”

  “It is. It’s also his species. All Lokis are named Loki.”

  “That makes no sense.” He frowned. “How do you tell them apart? Especially when they can do all that shapeshifting?”

  She sniffed and picked up her backpack, unloading the herbs and dinner supplies she’d picked up on the kitchen counter. The phone she’d confiscated was at the bottom of the pack, wrapped in napkins the herbalist had kindly provided.

  “He’s not a shifter. He’s fae. What he does is a glamour—an illusion.”

  Romero continued to frown, now at the pears and blueberries she was unpacking.

  “What is that?” he asked.

  She narrowed her eyes. “It’s fruit.”

  “But not like, magic fruit?”

  “No. It’s regular fruit.” She was tempted to laugh but bit her tongue, remembering Diana’s run-in with the Apple of Discord. Not all fruit was just fruit.

  “What do you do with it?” he asked, studying the food like he expected it to start levitating or glowing at any second.

  She did laugh this time, continuing to unpack the fish filets she’d picked up for dinner. “I eat it. I do eat.”

  Romero drew back. “Oh.”

  He sat on the stool across from her. Whatever hesitation he’d felt seemed to melt away. His body relaxed, lounging, making himself too comfortable.

  “Is there enough for two?” he asked, a suggestive note creeping into his voice.

  “Yes.” His face lit up at the word.

  “For me and Loki,” she finished.

  The little glow faded, but Romero was irrepressible. He lifted one shoulder. “Don’t worry about him. He ordered pizza.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know how he expects to get better eating like an unsupervised child.”

  “You sound like his mother.” He blinked, a thought occurring to him. “You’re not… right?”

  “No.” Again, she laughed, unable to stop herself.

  He shrugged. “Sorry, I’m trying to piece this stuff together. You said you were old.”

  Serin raised an eyebrow in warning. He coughed. “Well…older.”

  Romero opened his mouth to say something else when the doorbell rang. Loki, back to his normal youthful self, sailed across the room with his hand over his eyes. “Don’t mind me. It’s just my pizza.”

  Serin waited until he finished paying the deliveryman. “Loki, what did I tell you about ordering takeout?”

  “Uh… Don’t have anything delivered to the super-secret safe house or it won’t be super-secret anymore?” he said, grinning sheepishly. “In my defense, I didn’t think you’d be home tonight.”

  He held out the pizza box, opening it and offering a slice with a winsome smile.

  Romero stood, reaching over to take a slice. “There, now you don’t have to cook for me.” He scarfed down the greasy triangle while Loki made himself scarce again.

  The slice was gone before she’d finished washing her vegetables. Her uninvited guest came around the counter to wash his hands at the sink.

  “You haven’t told me why you’re here, Agent Romero,” she said,
focusing on her own meal preparations.

  She nearly jumped out of her skin when his arms came around on either side of her, trapping her against the counter.

  “I told you—the name’s Daniel,” he said in a low voice before he bent his head and kissed the skin next to her ear.

  Serin spun around, intending to give him a piece of her mind, but she lost the thread the moment his lips touched her.

  Time slowed down. A wave of sensations crashed through her, pinning her in place. The feeling was familiar and new at the same time—a rightness that was difficult to describe but easy to recognize.

  Ah, hell. Romero was her mate.

  She should have been surprised. No Water Elemental had been mated to a human in…ever. In all of their recorded history, their mates were selected for their supernatural gifts. It was their duty to pass on their talents and abilities to any offspring they might have. Her parents had selected Jordan because he had been a skilled practitioner. If her parents had known the truth…

  Serin had to remind her body that it had a skeleton. That the disembodied boneless feeling was a trick. Apparently, Romero had skills of his own. He was a damn good kisser.

  And he can travel in your medium. It hadn’t been a fluke, nor was the cop an outlier.

  Daniel. His name was Daniel.

  Serin pushed him away, giving herself a little shake to jar her senses back in place. “You know I could punch a hole through you for that, right?”

  The agent’s face was flushed. He appeared thoughtful, as if he were thinking about his answer. “Will I turn to water because you’re touching me?”

  She snorted. Maybe. The Mother afforded true mates a fair amount of protection from their partner’s gift, but Serin was clueless about this new development. Swearing softly, she pushed him away and turned her back on him to resume cutting vegetables.

  This is not right. Serin had been bonded to Jordan for years—he’d only been gone a few months. But Romero was here now.

  What the hell had gone wrong with the Mother’s plan?

  Serin was suddenly too full. A storm of emotion was roiling inside her, but she refused to acknowledge it. Her dry eyes stung as the knife pierced the eggplant she’d bought, methodically cutting it into thin slices.

  Romero had no idea what was wrong with her. He was watching her with concern, a slightly panicky expression on his face. He was probably worried she was going to start weeping or worse…

  That wasn’t going to happen. Serin had spent a lot of time training herself not to show any emotion. She couldn’t cry, even if she wanted to.

  “What did you get wet?”

  Pulled from her thoughts, she murmured a confused, “What?”

  He reached into her open bag, pulling out the thick bundle of damp napkins.

  “A phone. It’s not mine,” she admitted. “I took it off a suspect.”

  He unwrapped the napkins, revealing the sodden cell phone. “I see. Was it in this state when you found it?”

  Hesitating, she bit her lip before glancing away. “Yes.” A fib.

  “Really?” He held up the phone. A few stray drops fell from it.

  Meeting his gaze again, she shrugged. “Technically, the entirety of the suspect was that wet at the time.”

  His lips quirked. “I guess that’s one of the drawbacks to having water superpowers.”

  She snatched the phone out of his hands, set it on the other side of the cutting board, and then returned to slicing—the fish this time. “I don’t have superpowers. I am talented or gifted. There’s a distinction.”

  “That’s splitting hairs, isn’t it? Just different words to describe the same thing.”

  She focused on her meal preparation. The last thing she needed was to cut off a finger. “No offense, Agent, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Crossing his arms, he leaned on the counter. “Then why don’t you enlighten me?”

  “I don’t have time to teach you about my world. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m on the trail of a thief and a killer. Maybe more than one….” She paused to gauge his reaction. “Does your partner know you’re here?”

  His mouth turned down. “Ray wouldn’t understand. He’s a good partner, but he’s a by-the-book kind of guy.”

  “I’m sure he’s a peach, but that’s not the point.” After setting the knife down, she wiped her hands on a dish towel.

  “Is this the part where you warn me off—tell me I’ll never understand your world, let alone fit into it?”

  Crossly, she shook her head. “It’s not just you I’m concerned about. You’re a man with ties. I’m sure you have a family, friends. Humans in your position can’t stand where you are—with a foot in the door to the Supernatural world. It either sucks you in and consumes you…or it spits you back out. But neither happen without collateral damage.”

  “Well, maybe I’m lucky. I don’t have a family. Since work doesn’t leave me time to socialize, I don’t have friends, either.

  He was a stubborn one. “But you have your partner and other colleagues.”

  Romero’s eyes became hard. “Let me get this straight. You’re not threatening them, right?”

  “Of course not.” Her weariness came out on an exhale. “But people without gifts tend to get hurt when Supernaturals are involved. Some die.”

  “Ouch. Way to pull your punches.”

  Serin threw up her hands. “I’m not exaggerating for effect. You’re out of your depth, Agent Romero.”

  “Or you are.”

  She put her hands on her hips, taken aback. “What does that mean?”

  He cocked his head at her. “How many times have you tracked a suspect? Or fought with one who was ungifted enough to need a cell phone? I’m guessing it’s not a frequent occurrence for you, else you’d know not to soak them until after you’ve frisked them.”

  Serin glared at him.

  “Just saying.” Romero’s expression was smug. He gestured to the phone. “You know I have access to an entire lab of non-gifted techies. They can do wonders with a broken phone.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Serin brushed past him, reaching for the oven controls to turn on the broiler. “I’m sure there’s a spell to fix it.”

  There might even be one in their library. Every safehouse had a stash of weapons and reference books. The latter were constantly being updated as they met and experienced new challenges. She was sure Gia had written down how to recover a waterlogged device somewhere. And if there wasn’t a way, then she would craft one. It would be an easy task with a bit of study.

  “I’m sure there is…or you could put it in a bag of rice.”

  Serin turned to find Romero holding up a little plastic sack. She raised a brow. “Is that an evidence bag?”

  “I always carry some. It’s a tool of the trade,” he said, digging around the cabinets until he found a bag of rice and poured some into the baggie.

  After he sealed it, he presented it to her with a flourish. “Et voila.”

  “A spell would be faster.”

  He wagged the bag at her. “You’re welcome.”

  She snatched the bag, then shoved it into her pack again. “Thank you, now stop helping.”

  Romero leaned in, crowding her again. She told herself she should stop him, but she let him put his hands on her hips, pulling her close to him.

  “I think we both know that’s not going to happen.”

  “Yes, I do.” She reached out, putting her palm against his cheek. He started to lean down for another kiss and Serin focused, channeling her talent through her hand.

  Again, it shouldn’t have been possible for her talent to act on him, but if Romero was her mate, the normal rules wouldn’t apply.

  The agent froze, the color of his skin paling and growing translucent. The counter and room behind him shimmered through his water form.

  “Sorry about this,” she said softly, sending the cascade of water splashing into the sink. “But I can’t have
you interfering anymore.”

  Romero may have been water, but his voice was still loud in her ears. He went down the drain, swearing up a storm the entire way. Serin waited until his voice faded in her head.

  She turned to Loki, who was watching wide-eyed from his doorway, a slice of half-eaten pizza in his hand.

  He whistled. “Damn, girl. That was harsh.”

  Her stomach hurt, but she couldn’t waver. Letting Daniel in would be a huge mistake. “Agent Romero doesn’t belong in this business. He needs to learn to stay out of the way, and you need to learn to be more careful. He found this place because of you. Now we need to move safe houses.”

  Loki tiptoed up to the counter, brushing off the reprimand. “But isn’t Romero your special-some-pony?”

  “My what?”

  Loki grinned. “You’re not a My Little Pony fan, I guess… Where did you send him?”

  She turned back to the cutting board, but she wasn’t hungry anymore. “The beach. He knows how to find his way back to town from there.”

  She turned off the oven, tossing the entire lot of food in the trash bin. They didn’t have time to eat. They had to pack.

  Theoretically, it should take Romero a few hours to get back here, but he was a resourceful man. She reached for her bag, groped inside, and then swore.

  The agent was very resourceful—and apparently skilled at sleight of hand.

  “That ass took the phone!”

  20

  The cute female tech handed over the phone, but continued to linger at Romero’s desk.

  “It’s an older model, but it has most the capabilities of a smartphone,” she said.

  “Yeah, I see that,” he murmured, scanning the report she’d written.

  He glanced up when she didn’t move. “Anything of note?”

  She blushed, reaching out to touch his sea glass paperweight. “We recovered most of the data. There’s a complete contact list, so plenty of leads to follow, but no texts of anything incriminating. They could be using a code, of course, but it’s not an obvious one if they are.”

  “Great, thanks,” he said, skimming the contact list for any red flags.