Frozen Desires (Asylums for Magical Threats) (29 page)

distance between them to help him focus, Marco rolled off her, propped onto his side, and said, “At the

Novia del Mar
statue, a woman came up to me. After some chitchat that I’m pretty sure was a test, she wrote out a vague message written in the old language. At first I wasn’t sure what it meant, but while

waiting for your dinner—” He looked at the untouched container of food on the nightstand next to the bed.

“Camilla, you must be starving. Go ahead and eat while I debrief you.”

Touched by Marco’s thoughtfulness, Cam laid a hand on his chest. The lingering dampness and hard

muscles under her fingers reminded her of earlier, and it took everything she had to focus and not reach out

for his still-hard cock. In all honesty, she wanted nothing more than for him to fuck her again.

But she had duties, as did he. She was grateful that he was still helping her but no doubt he wanted to

focus on his mission too.

Since Marco was male—a plainly aroused male—it was going to be up to her to keep them focused

while they were naked. Although with all of his smooth, tan skin in front of her, even she was having

trouble when it came to caring about their missions.

However, sex wouldn’t help them find a Talent.

She focused. What had Marco been talking about? Oh, right, eating dinner. “I ate a protein bar earlier.

Just tell me what you discovered so I can finish my mission and help with yours, if you still want my help.”

He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. She was starting to love when he did that. “I’ll

always want your help, but right now, the only mission I have is yours. Aislinn gave the arson fire

investigation to someone else.”

She sat up. “But why would she do that? You’re the one who found the witnesses that led us to Harry

Watkins. Moreover, I’m the one with the contact to help us catch up with him. My contact is a little paranoid and isn’t going to work with just anyone.”

“I don’t know who your contact is, but I met someone else who can lead DEFEND to Harry Watkins.”

He explained about the shadow-shifter named Jorge Salazar, and his connection with the Fed League.

Cam frowned. “I’ve never heard of a Jorge Salazar. He must’ve joined after I left. Are you positive that

Aislinn and Neena vouched for him? Using his sister as blackmail—even if it’s to save her—doesn’t exactly

inspire loyalty.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You can try asking that to either one of them, but that would mean questioning

them, and I don’t think you have the proof to do that.”

Since Neena could see visions of the future, a person only questioned her when they were positive of

something, and Cam had nothing to make Neena change her mind. “I know, but it just seems unfair that

they’d take this from you, especially when you’ve done such a good job with it.”

He laid his hand on her hip and squeezed. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being on my side.”

She refused to dwell on why she’d done it, and decided that since she didn’t handle gratitude well, it

was best to brush aside his thanks and push on. “What about your family? Will you still be allowed to help them?”

Marco ran his hand down from her hip to rest on her thigh, and it took everything she had to

concentrate on his response.

“Yes, and you can help me with that after we get to the bottom of the clue I got this evening.”

Just knowing that he wanted her to help with his family warmed her heart. Maybe this thing between

them would work after all. “Okay, so tell me about the clue.”

He recounted his meeting with the woman and the message, then he said, “At first, I wasn’t quite sure

what or where San Rafael was, but while waiting for your dinner, I looked it up. We need to head down to

Quito, Ecuador to ask for this Diego person to take us on a special tour to the San Rafael Waterfall.”

Cam tried to remember what she knew of the area down there. “Aren’t parts of Ecuador crawling with

drug traffickers, guerrilla groups, and all sorts of gangs?”

“Most of that is near the border with Colombia. Quito does have some crime, but we’re experienced

enough that we should be safe.”

She definitely needed to get some weapons before they went looking for this Diego person. “What

about contacts? Do you have any down there? If not, I got a few from the vendor back in Merida that we

could use.”

“Colombia is my home turf, so I have plenty of contacts, but I’ll use whatever you’ve got too. Will you

share them with me later?”

There he went, asking her for something and including her in his plans again. Maybe he really was different, and he’d become the first man she’d met who could keep his control and desire to dominate for

when they were naked.

She started to think of what he might do to her if she gave him more rein in bed. He’d restrained her

with ice in the jungle; maybe he could do it in bed too.

The image of cool ice around her wrists and ankles, restraining her while Marco licked between her

thighs made Cam wet.

Marco waved his hand in front of her face. “Cam? Are you with me?”

Her cheeks flushed, but she did her damnedest to act nonchalant. “Yes, of course I’ll share the contacts

with you later.”

He brushed the side of her breast. “Are you sure we can’t spare fifteen minutes? You’re as distracted as I am right now.” He ran a finger over her nipple. “What was on your mind, Camilla, that made you blush?”

Her nipples tightened, betraying her. But she knew if she didn’t set this boundary now—that finishing

missions was more important than anything else—she’d be fighting an uphill battle for the rest of their time together.

She batted his hand away. “We can have hot, kinky sex later. Right now, every minute we waste is a

minute someone else could discover this Talent we’re hunting. And we can’t allow the pro-AMT side, or

even worse, a human, to have a chance of finding the first one.”

Marco’s look sobered. “Haven’t you heard, Camilla? DEFEND already has the first Talent. Your sister

Kiarra is the Fire Talent.”

She blinked. “What? Since when?”

“Since a few days ago. Aislinn told me while you were with Ekstrom. I was going to tell you, but it sort

of slipped my mind.”

Kiarra was a Talent?

The brief few hours Cam had seen her sister back in the States, Kiarra had barely been able to hold a

conversation. Now she was one of the four most powerful
Feiru
on the planet. “How is she handling it? Is there a protection strategy in place? And who would be in charge of that?”

“Jaxton. He and your sister are a thing now.” Marco smiled. “I pity the person who tries to harm the

woman Jax loves.”

She twisted her hair to one side and then tossed it back over her shoulder. She’d noticed how protective

Jaxton had been around her sister, but she never thought he’d fall for one of his trainees. “Love? Bossy and straight-talking Jaxton Ward?” Cam blinked again. “Well, shit. He’d better not hurt her, or I’ll have to cut off his balls.”

Marco snorted. “From what I’ve heard, she can take care of herself. But she’s only the first, and you’re

right, we need to focus on the others. I’ll call one of my buddies to make travel arrangements.” He leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “If you want to take another shower, now is the time to do it.

No doubt we’ll have to leave tonight.”

The first chance she had, she would call Kiarra and find out how her sister was doing—no excuses this

time.

Cam remembered about her team. “What about Zalika and Jacek? I want them to come with us.”

“I can call them, if you want.”

“Since when do you have their phone numbers?”

He grinned. “I can be quite persuasive.”

She slapped his arm. “I don’t want to know. Make your calls, and if you’re quick enough, maybe you

can join me in the shower before we have to meet up with my teammates.” She stood up, and walked

across the room. Marco whistled, and she gave him a look before deliberately bending over to pick up the

duffel bag.

“Woman, you’re killing me here.”

Cam smiled. “Well then hurry up, and maybe you’ll get lucky in the shower.”

Marco whipped out his phone and started dialing. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

She laughed and made her way to the bathroom. Provided there was a Talent at the end of all this clue

chasing, things were looking up for her.

She was a skeptic at heart, but Marco was starting to worm his way inside, making her a little more

optimistic. A week ago, being influenced by a man would’ve scared her, but now, she was actually content.

Maybe even happy.

Hopefully, her track record of things going to hell whenever she finally felt content with her life was

finally broken.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Gio and his guide—a security officer named Xu—approached yet another locked door. They’d been

walking for nearly thirty minutes, and he had yet to see much of anything apart from hallway upon hallway

of doors with random serial numbers.

The facility must wind through more of the nearby mountains than he’d originally calculated.

He noticed that the sign above the door here had more Chinese characters than any of the others they’d

gone through before. Maybe this one would finally lead to the section of the facility he was anxious to see.

Xu slid his keycard through the slot and entered a password. Just like with the other doors, Gio heard a

click before it slid open, except this time, instead of another empty hallway, a man and a woman stood in

the space in front of them.

Xu—like most
Feiru
—spoke some English, and said, “Yang and Wallace will take you from here.”

The female nodded at Xu, and the security officer left. Once alone, the man at her side reached out a

hand to shake. “I’m Gregory Wallace.” He motioned to the woman at his side. “And this is Crystal Yang.”

The man’s Scots accent reminded him of home. “Giovanni Sinclair.” He shook and released Wallace’s

hand. “Are you two going to give me a proper tour? Xu was less than forthcoming.”

Wallace handed him a clipboard. “First, while you’ve been given top level clearance, I need you to read

this nondisclosure agreement and sign it. Once you do that, we’ll answer any questions that you might

have.”

He took the clipboard and read the one page document. He’d seen similar agreements before, although

this one was stricter. Gio was prohibited from sharing the information he learned inside the facility for life.

If he violated the agreement at any time in the future, his case would be decided by the
Feiru
High Council.

Penalties included up to a death sentence.

If this was the kind of protocol that had been used with all of the AMT researchers then no wonder the

general
Feiru
population didn’t know anything.

Careful to keep his face expressionless, he skimmed the important details one more time and committed

them to memory in case he needed to figure a way out of it later. Satisfied, he signed his name at the

bottom.

Wallace took the clipboard and nodded. “As you might’ve guessed from the form you just signed, this

section of the AMT system is top secret.”

It would be best to play ignorant. “What kind of research do you do here?”

The woman motioned for them to start walking. “Given your clearance, I’m guessing you know about

the experiments being conducted on the first-borns?”

“I’ve only recently acquired my clearance. I know there are three types, but could you give me a quick

overview?”

Wallace took over. “Each first-born is assigned to one of three types of experiments during their first

year inside the AMT, and continue undergoing treatment for life. The three experiment tracks are:

psychological, gene therapy, and breeding.”

Luckily, Gio already knew about the breeding experiments, so he could keep his expression bland. “Is

that what you do here?”

Yang shook her head. “No, we do something much more important. We raise the children born inside

the AMT compounds, and monitor them for genetic shifts. Our ultimate goal is to use them to eradicate

elemental magic.”

The pair must not yet know about the other abilities emerging, and he wasn’t about to share it with

them. “What happens to the non-first-born children born inside the AMT compounds?”

Wallace motioned for them to turn a corner. “The records aren’t always kept up to date with which first-

born is bred with who, and each of the three experiment tracks have their own set of secrets, so it was decided to just transport them here, for everyone’s safety.”

“Have any of the children shown dangerous side effects that could endanger others?”

“Not yet,” Yang answered. “But would you want to risk everything the AMT Oversight Committee has

worked so hard to protect? Here we can monitor them closely, in case something goes wrong.”

So the children were guilty until proven innocent.

To mollify Yang, he said, “I’m just trying to understand what goes on here.”

They reached another door that required both Yang and Wallace to put their thumbs to a scanner to

unlock it. Once the door opened, Wallace motioned both Yang and Gio ahead of him.

They walked a few more feet before Yang opened yet another door—he had to commend them on their

security protocols—and Gio followed. Inside the small room were computers, chairs, and monitors. Yang

did something on a keypad, and a screen lifted from the inside to show a dormitory-style room with six sets of bunk beds. The beds were empty, but as he scanned the room through the glass, he noticed twelve