Frozen Desires (Asylums for Magical Threats) (11 page)

the years, but he’d only been tempted a handful of times. So why was he having such a hard time ignoring

the one woman with whom he had no chance?

Careful to keep his expression light to hide his thoughts, he met her gaze again and she shook her head.

“I don’t hear anything unusual.”

He was putting a lot of trust in Cam’s words, but the terror he’d seen on her face earlier had been

genuine. That was good enough for now. He motioned down the street and said, “Then follow me.”

Marco went down one last street, and checking to make sure that Cam was right behind him, entered a

fairly nondescript two-story house. The door led into a hallway with another more solid door at the end.

Marco knocked out a few beats and a panel slid open. A pair of brown eyes studied both him and Cam.

This wasn’t the first time he’d visited this place. He knew nothing would happen until someone gave the

correct pass-phrase, so Marco said in Spanish, “Take what I want and never forfeit.”

The small panel slid closed, and as the sound of the door being unlocked filled the hallway, he stole a

glance at Cam and said, “Follow my lead and try not to say anything.”

She opened her mouth but the door opened and cut her off, revealing a stocky, muscular man with

close cropped hair. The man nodded them inside and Marco slapped the man on the shoulder. “Thanks,

Garcia. If someone comes looking for us, keep them out and I’ll buy you a drink later.”

Garcia nodded, and Marco pulled Cam inside. A few feet in, he stopped to scan the empty booths. His

usual booth in the far corner was empty, but before he guided Cam over, he noticed that she was being

unusually quiet. Since she’d never really followed his orders before, he glanced at her face to see if

something was wrong, and saw a mixture of curiosity and heat. Following her gaze, he saw the couple in

the corner having sex with their clothes mostly still on.

He imagined him and Cam in the couple’s place, but quickly pushed the image aside. He had a

reputation here, and if he kept standing in the middle of the room, daydreaming, he would blow his cover.

He grabbed Cam’s hand and yanked her toward the far corner.

Cam had been about to tell Marco to go fuck himself when the solid door in front of them had swung

open, revealing a man who could have been an ex-Marine. Marco seemed to know him, said something to

him in Spanish she couldn’t understand, and then pulled her inside the building. When he stopped again in

the middle of a room to look around, she let her eyes roam over her new surroundings to determine where

Marco had brought her.

Men and women were playing poker off to the side, a rowdy bunch of men in soccer jerseys were

arguing near the bar, and various couples were necking in the shadows of the booths against the wall. Her

eyes stopped on one couple in particular, where the woman was rocking on the man’s lap, and Cam swore

she saw the undone buckle of his belt glinting off to the side. Would people really have sex like that, out in the open, where anyone could see them?

At first, the thought of doing something like that had mortified her, but as she watched the couple, their exhibitionism started to intrigue her.

While she knew her way around a sniper rifle blindfolded, or could break into most high-security

compounds without getting caught, Cam was naive when it came to relationships and sex. She’d focused

solely on her work for the last four years, determined to be the best. And before that, she had spent most of her time running from the authorities with the Fed League. She’d missed the experimental years of her early twenties. Instead, she had spent them with her ex, and she couldn’t remember him ever looking at her like

the man in the corner was looking at the woman rocking against him—like the woman above him was the

most desirable woman in the world.

Marco tugged her along again, and she came back to the present. She’d had enough of him always

trying to take control.

She barely resisted a growl, and said, “Just because I let you lead me around earlier doesn’t mean you

have permission to do it whenever you want. From now on, ask me first.”

Someone barked something in Spanish, and Marco replied with a grin before he drew her against his

side. The other person laughed, and Cam wondered what the hell was going on.

Before she could ask, a damp chill brushed against her neck, and Marco gave a nearly imperceptible

shake of his head. In the blink of an eye, his face softened and he looked at her as if she were the most

precious thing in the world. “I thought we’d settled our spat, beauty.” Marco slid into the most isolated

booth, one partially hidden behind a column, and pulled her onto his lap. She squeaked in surprise as she

landed, and Marco put his arms around her. “It’s time to make up.”

She narrowed her eyes. Aware that people were probably watching them, she lowered her head to his

ear and hissed, “What do you think you’re doing? Something is going on that you’re not telling me.”

His arms tightened around her and she felt his cheek against hers. She tried to ignore the warmth of his

skin and the pleasant smell of his male scent mixed with aftershave, but failed. Marco whispered into her ear, “I’m making sure you stay put long enough to tell me who that man was back there.”

She tried to lean back, but Marco’s arms didn’t budge. “I said I’d tell you, and I will. Now, let me go.”

She felt his head shake against hers. “I get a lot of information here, and if I don’t keep up my

reputation, they’ll lose their trust in me. I need you to pretend to be my woman for the night.”

His answer surprised her. She’d thought he’d just wanted to cop a feel, not worry about a cover ID. For

all she knew, he could be lying. “Out of all the places you could’ve taken me, you took me to a bar where

people are having sex in front of everyone?”

“This is one of the last places that man would look for you, am I right?”

Cam stilled and forced herself to say, “Yes.”

Marco chuckled and the vibrations tickled against her skin. “Stop acting so surprised, beauty, and you

might finally notice some of my talents.”

Maybe she’d judged him too harshly. She still thought he was a flirtatious man-whore, but he seemed to

be a man-whore with a brain. “I’m big enough to admit that bringing me here was a smart move. And I can

understand hiding your cleverness from strangers, but why do you continue to act as you do around others

in DEFEND?”

Marco leaned back and looked her in the eye, his voice low. “Because when you act as people expect

you to act, Camilla, it makes you forgettable.”

Her brows knitted. “And that’s a good thing?”

“It is for someone like me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Marco’s eyes darted to something behind her and back. “Sorry to ambush you, but I need you to play

along.”

Before she could reply, he cupped the back of her head and kissed her.

Chapter Twelve

Giovanni Sinclair exited the Austin MTR station in Hong Kong, and headed toward the tallest building

in the city—the International Commerce Centre. That was where they were keeping the elemental earth

first-born he was here to investigate.

Back in the UK, Dr. Ty Adams had made this visit possible. Even now, Gio was surprised that his

adopted father, James Sinclair, had allowed him to come. With Millie Ward pronounced dead and his older

sister Kiarra now free and on the run, anyone would question his effectiveness. Gio would just have to be

more careful whilst in Hong Kong, especially if he wanted to continue having access to the confidential

records of the Asylums for Magical Threats.

While his assignment was to observe and study a particular elemental earth first-born and report the

scientists’ findings back to his father, Gio had additional goals. From what little research he had done on the subject, he knew that there was a large pediatrics facility hidden in the mountains of mainland China, and he intended to earn access to it. He knew the AMT scientists were breeding first-borns inside their

compounds and subsequently shipping off the children to special pediatrics facilities.

However, the records were quiet about how they treated the children once they arrived. He was

determined to find out what happened.

The tricky part would be keeping the information from his father. James Sinclair hadn’t become

powerful and influential with the
Feiru
High Council without being careful and overly cautious. No doubt, his father had someone watching his every move. He would have to find a time in private to call his old

friend from university and ask him how to lose a tail.

He arrived at the foot of the ICC building and looked up. The building was 118 stories high, and he

wondered if the height of the building would affect a first-born’s elemental earth magic. He had no idea

what it would take to move the earth up ninety stories to the research wing where the first-born was being held. The video clip he had seen earlier, that had shown the first-born using her elemental earth magic

without putting her hands in the right direction, had been recorded from her time at a different facility.

Gio entered the lobby. He gave the wide-open space and modern art pieces a cursory glance before he

went to the elevator and pushed the button for floor ninety. From what little he’d been told, the AMT

Oversight Committee held floors ninety, ninety-one, and ninety-two. The nearest AMT compound was in

the Ningxia region, but the facility in Hong Kong served as a special research post. No one had wanted to

tell him what they did here exactly, but his visit today should rectify that problem.

The ride to the ninetieth floor was surprisingly short, and when the doors opened, a woman wearing a

lab coat greeted him. This woman had to be Dr. Carlie Chan. Gio stepped forward and said, “Dr. Chan.”

She nodded. “Mr. Sinclair. Right on time, follow me.”

The woman turned, started walking down the hall, and Gio could do nothing but follow. From her tone,

he could tell that she thought he was a waste of her time. Good, maybe that meant she would avoid small

talk and take him straight to the first-born he’d seen in the video.

Chan stopped at a door, slid a card through a panel, and entered a code. The door slid open, and

without looking back, she entered. Gio crossed over to the door. After witnessing the abuse he’d seen at the other facility back in Scotland, he braced himself for whatever lay on the other side.

There was a woman restrained to a bed, her head lolling back and forth. It was obvious that she was

under the influence of some kind of drug. Of course, after witnessing what the woman could do—use her

elemental earth magic without putting her hand in the direction of elemental earth energy—Gio couldn’t

fault the researchers for doing it.

The first-born woman’s black hair was chopped short, her skin pale, and her almond-shaped eyes half-

lidded in a drug stupor. The woman at least looked physically unharmed.

But he’d only recently discovered that all first-born
Feiru
went through some kind of experimentation, and he would have to dig a little deeper to find out if she’d undergone her own set of experiments. The

drugs sedating her could be masking the experiments’ aftereffects.

No one had wanted to tell him anything over the phone or via email. It was time to find out some

information. Gio looked at Dr. Chan and said, “What have you found so far?”

Chan rattled off her report. “E-1655 is a 25-year old female from Thailand. She previously possessed

low-level elemental earth abilities. But two weeks ago, during an exercise to try to induce fear and bring out her defensive reflexes, columns of rocks rose from the floor to protect her from a fake surprise attack by AMT guards. She was subsequently sedated, moved to this facility, and tested for abnormalities. But despite extensive testing, her results remain unclear.”

“Unclear how?”

Despite the fact that Chan was a good six-inches shorter than he was, she managed to look down her

nose at him. “When a
Feiru
first-born’s hands are placed in the correct compass direction, regardless if they’re conscious or not, particular elements of their DNA will react to elemental particles in the air. So, E-1655’s DNA activity should increase when her hands are positioned to the north. However, in this subject’s case, sometimes the repositioning of her hands will affect DNA activity, sometimes not. If the subject were lucid, she should be able to draw on elemental earth energy at a moment’s notice, regardless of where she

puts her hands.”

Gio looked to the woman labeled E-1655. “Is there no way to have the subject awake to test that

theory?”

“We aren’t willing to risk it until enough safeguards are in place.”

That delay would work to his advantage, giving him more time to look through the files and locate the

pediatrics facility. “Is this an isolated case? Or is it possible that first-born abilities are evolving into something new?”

“That is what we are still trying to determine. Communication between facilities is not what it once

was.”

He sensed a ‘but’. “How about in this facility? Are there any others here with abnormal abilities?”

Chan hesitated, her former arrogance gone, indicating that she didn’t want to talk about it. But he’d

been given high-level clearance, which he reminded her.

Finally, she said, “A few days ago, one of the scientists here was dissecting a rat, post-experiment, per

usual. Partway through, the rat’s organs started to heal. When the researcher jumped back, severing contact, the healing stopped. When he picked up the rat again, the flesh knitted completely back together and the rat started to move again.”