Magic Resistant (9 page)

Her body swore an eternity passed. A
delicious, blisteringly hot, incredible eternity.

Something so innocent and it caused a
firestorm in her blood. She flushed at the thoughts swirling in her
head. How in the nine hells was she going to survive time alone
with him? And what in the nine hells was wrong with her? She didn’t
react this way towards a man, especially one she just met.

“Ah, thanks. I’m making French toast.
Shouldn’t take me too long.” She kept her back to him, avoiding all
eye contact. She needed time to wrest her thoughts under control
along with her racing pulse. He left the room and she sighed in
relief.

Absentminded, unfocused on her task, she
grabbed some eggs from the fridge and cracked them into the
bowl.

“Damn it.” She muttered. Shell fragments
mocked her, marring the perfection of the yolk. A tiny burst of
magic lifted them out and she directed it towards the sink.

Turning on the stove, she placed a frying pan
on the heating element. Her thoughts in turmoil, she beat the eggs,
trying to work out what had just happened. Butter tossed into the
frying pan, the sizzle reminding her she needed to dip the bread
into the beaten eggs.

She didn’t read anything into it on his part
though. She wasn’t the sort to attract the attention of someone
like him: smart, good-looking and talented. While cute, she wasn’t
anything special. When she dressed up to the nines though, playing
up her sleek body and healthy chest, she easily turned heads.

Now, she wasn’t even close to looking her
best. No make-up, ratty clothes and lacking a shower. A glance in
the mirror earlier made her fervently wished she hadn’t bothered.
And while she’d had boyfriends over the years, none of them had
been anything like Jackson.

And then there was the Enforcer upbringing to
consider. After being handpicked and joining the Academy at six
years old, they raised the students as siblings. Lumping each age
group together, they went through schooling and training the same
as humans. Once puberty hit, they separated the students according
to their talents. Most couldn’t access their magical ability until
they were older, but still showed an affinity for a certain school
of magic.

At that point, instructors of their preferred
school trained various ages as the talents developed at different
rates. The teachers encouraged the pupils to view each other as
part of a large family. Familiarity helped foster deep bonds and
protecting one’s family was instinctual. Julia thought it was an
ingenious way of making sure Enforcers always had each other’s
backs. It’s why they dealt with traitors so harshly. The betrayal
cut deep, shaking the woven tapestry of their existence and
beliefs.

Jackson probably thought nothing of it.

Chapter Five

JULIA BEGAN EACH day
as if at home. Thirty minutes of work out followed by an hour of
sparring. Normally her opponent was a punching bag suspended from
her ceiling. The physical activity helped clear her mind and kept
her body limber which it needed after sleeping on that dreadful
couch. Damn thing should be burned, put out of her misery. And
while it wasn’t much better than the bed in terms of comfort, at
least she fit on it.

Unlike at home though, she wasn’t alone.
Awkward at first, she gradually got used to spending so much time
with someone she barely knew, sharing intimacies such as waking up
in the same room, splitting bathroom time and accommodating for
each other’s tastes buds.

Mushrooms
, she thought in disgust.
He had to be a mushroom lover. So gross
.

She smiled, recalling their argument about
dishes.

“How can I do my fair share if you keep doing
them? I’m not useless.” He huffed.

“I don’t think you are. It’s force of habit.
It’s what I do.” She washed as she cooked, simple as that. Living
alone meant either she did them immediately, or dealt with crusty
and perhaps moldy dishes later.

“Well, stop it. Keep it up and you won’t like
what happens next.” A tough growl, one meant to intimidate her;
except he was irritated because she left no cleaning for him. The
absurdity of it had her ignoring his not-so-friendly request.

When he realized she had no intention of
stopping, he threw his hands up in the air and stalked out of the
kitchen. To her amusement, she found him defiantly tidying up their
small living space, which consisted of him pushing the chairs in
and attempting to make the couch presentable. Nothing could save
that blasted couch.

Sadly, she didn’t hear what he muttered, but
she was positive it wasn’t flattering.

After that, she swallowed her pride,
apologized and left dishes for him when she cooked. She had to
admit, if only to herself, it was nice having someone else's
help.

The weeks passed in a truce following this
routine, neither one wanting to upset the delicate balance they’d
achieved. The rest of the time they spent digging deeper into the
slavery organization, trying to find who was behind it all or at
least get pointed in the right direction.

Julia received a few more healing sessions
from Jackson on her ankle. With her resistance, he wasn’t able to
fully heal her each time, but it did help to speed up her own
natural healing. A few days and she could stand again without any
pain.

Puzzled by how many times he needed to heal
her, he didn’t push the subject. She didn’t want to lie to him
again, even if by omission.

She settled back on the couch, nestled into
the ugly blanket and searched through the Coterie archives on the
notebook computer. A few days ago, to her surprise, she found she
had access to the Enforcer’s database. Her username and password
active.

Even though the Coterie didn’t hold much
respect for technology, they recognized the value of it. Everyone
had smart phones, personal computers while at headquarters and a
fully staffed I.T. department available all hours. Security was
tight, over the top paranoid and hard to crack.

Keeping that in mind, Julia used the data
plan of a burner phone with the GPS locator turned off to access
her account. She feared they added a flag to it, alerting the I.T
staff whenever she logged in allowing them to track her.

A product of the computer age, she grew up
with the early offerings of technology. It fostered a fascination
with them and she proudly called herself a computer geek. She
realized she was an oddity, a mage who actively used and loved
technology. The next generation of mages, however, was becoming
more integrated. They learned what society as a whole learned.

One of her close friends was Nathan, the head
network administrator in I.T. Several years back, when she’d shown
a keen interest and skill, he’d given her backdoor access to the
mainframe. A super user account, it was wholly invisible to all
other network admins. It’d been one of her first lessons from him
about security and hacking.

It also allowed her to snoop into several
files she normally didn’t have access to. Files detailing missing
person reports for all the races: human, mage, werewolf and
possible abductions of the Fae and demons. The last two didn’t like
to share much with the Earth government, preferring to keep certain
information to themselves.

The truly disturbing file she stumbled upon
detailed various military bases and research buildings around the
world flagged for surveillance and possible termination. It
contained comprehensive reports about the personnel, security,
shift rotations and clearance level required.

As she wandered her way through the Coterie
database, lost in the bliss of research, she forgot an important
fact - Nathan monitoring that particular login. It made sense. She
went missing over two weeks ago and only had contact with her
mother the first night. Markus would’ve gotten the update from her
mother and would know she was fine. Not that it would stop him from
worrying. No one in the Coterie knew her location and the deeper
she dug, the less she wanted them to find her.

While reading a file she had no business
looking through (and had nothing to do with Jackson’s case,
curiosity invited her to play), a text box appeared on her screen
with the words “
Where in the nine hells are you?!?”

She stared at it for a few moments when she
noticed it didn’t say “Who” which meant the other person already
knew. One person was aware she had this login information.

“
Sam?”
She wrote back. Being stupid
was a trait she actively avoided. If it wasn’t Nathan then she
would disconnect instantly.

“
This line is secure, Jewelry.”
She
had complained to him how much she hated the name Jules after a
superior persistently called her it. Tongue-in-cheek, Nathan
decided to call her Jewelry instead. He said it was more classy and
expensive sounding. Soon it became an affectionate nickname she
stopped resisting, at least mentally. On principle, she punched his
arm whenever he said it.

“
I can’t tell you where I am and please
don’t trace me. I need to stay in hiding.”
She sent back to
him, wishing she could see her old friend in person. She missed his
teasing, laid-back attitude. And he had at his desk the best
stockpile of junk food a girl could ask for.

“
Is there anything I can do to help? I’m
worried sick about you.”

“
No, I’m good. Send your wife my
love.”
And with that she signed off and shutdown the system.
She didn’t want to take the chance of someone tracing her.

Talking to Nathan had been an unexpected
bonus. Quite intelligent, he loved unraveling mysteries. He
wouldn’t be head of his department if he wasn’t smart. His wife,
Mary, good-naturedly complained he either had his nose stuck in a
murder mystery book or stared at the computer screen.

Her last words to him a prearranged code. On
impulse, she had decided to send Nathan a copy of all the files
along with a detailed explanation of the situation. She’d spent
many untold hours on previous cases picking his brain.

The words “Send your wife my love” told him
to check their locker in Union Station in three hours. They had
worked out beforehand a way to slip each other sensitive
information as they logged and recorded anything and everything
transmitted over the network. Nathan could delete the trail, but it
was impossible to get everything as there were backups of the
backups.

Since he was
just
a human with no
special training, they banned Nathan from taking part in any
Enforcer investigations. She snorted at that thought. He may not
have any supernatural abilities but he wasn’t useless. His vastly
different experiences from the Enforcers helped him view difficult
cases from different angles.

Plus, the thought of giving copies to someone
else calmed the stampeding elephants in her stomach. Sure, Jackson
said he had friends with copies, but she wanted her own insurance.
Too many strange things didn’t add up.

A click of the bathroom door drew her
attention upwards. Steam wafted from the opening, the scent of wood
smoke and Irish Springs body wash drifted over her. Jackson
wandered out with a towel slung around his hips. He used another
towel to scrub the water from his hair and Julia’s train of thought
derailed, crashed and burned as she watched his chest muscles
ripple. She still hadn’t decided if their enforced intimacy and
comfort level was a blessing or a curse.

“
Please fall…”
The wayward thought
skittered across her mind before she shoved it away. These weeks
together had increased her attraction to him. Seeing him half-naked
did nothing to lessen the lust from frequently rearing its head.
She drew her eyes from his sexy, lean hips and made eye contact.
She told herself that she didn’t want the towel to fall, truly she
didn’t.

Liar.

Thankfully she had enough self-control to
keep her face from reddening as she met his knowing gaze. Some
days, she swore he did this on purpose. He’d shower after their
sparring then wander out with just a towel on, the end goal his
duffle bag. His excuse, he didn’t want his clothes damp from the
steam. A weak reason and yet she never called him on it. A small,
tiny part of her enjoyed watching him.

She almost laughed. Who was she kidding? The
part wasn’t small or tiny. She loved this time of day.

Coughing to clear her throat and gain his
attention as he walked past her to the bed, she kept her eyes glued
firm to a spot past his shoulder.

“You need to get dressed. We have to drop off
information to my friend.”

Jackson turned around, the extra towel he
draped around his shoulders. “A friend?”

“Yes. He can help, maybe dig deeper into the
Coterie files since he built their database and security
systems.”

Jackson quirked an eyebrow at her. Damn, why
didn’t he get dressed already? His chest was too damn distracting
and that bead of water trailing down his pec begged for her to
lick. A slow smile lifted his lips and her insides may have melted
a little.

“What’s this ‘we’?” He strode toward the
bathroom, holding a pair of cargo pants and a thin shirt. The towel
shifted as he went. Eyes drifted downwards as she watched the
fluffy white material. All too soon, the wall obstructed her view
as he entered the other room. She squashed the urge to lean over
the couch and continue ogling him.

“You’re not leaving this room. It’s too
dangerous.” His voice muffled as he pulled on his shirt. “Plus,
you’re as wanted as I am, but for different reasons. I can’t take
the chance you’ll get hurt.”

Astonished by his worry and pissed off at his
heavy-handed attitude, she jumped off the couch and rushed over to
glare at him. She arrived in time to see him pull the pants up his
legs and over his naked backside. Her eyes met his in the mirror
and an impish smile played on his lips.