Frozen Desires (Asylums for Magical Threats) (26 page)

Marco watched as the small cruise ship continued to rock and pitch. He was careful to keep the boat

from tipping over, but the more extreme he made the situation, the more the crew on board the other ship

would start to panic. And he was counting on their panic for his rescue mission to work.

Santos stood next to him, peering through the high-powered binoculars. He heard her whistle, so he

asked, “What is it?”

“Your lady friend just jumped off one of the mid-level balconies.”

It took everything he had not to drop his hands and grab the binoculars. “Did she hit the deck or the

sea?”

“She jumped when you had the boat tilted.”

“And?”

“She hit the sea.”

A sense of relief washed over him, although, Cam wasn’t safe yet. “Did you see her surface?”

“These binoculars are good, but not that good. You’re going to have to ease back on your magic,

Alvarez, or you might kill her.”

Damn it, Santos was right. But the trick was how to confuse and contain the threat on board the

Collector’s ship long enough to find Cam.

The trick he’d shown her back in the park gave him an idea. He never would’ve attempted it if he’d

been in plain view of humans. But he had a feeling that even if there were humans on board the Collector’s ship, no doubt she’d take care of them rather than expose the
Feiru
world.

Marco stopped the rain and snow falling from the sky at the same time he stopped moving the water

around the boat. He now had enough concentration to start moving elemental water particles around the top

section of the boat.

As he started to create a shield, he willed the water to freeze. There was a slight delay, but within a few seconds, the water turned solid and an ice dome started to take shape. Even if the crew were brave enough

to jump ship, it was now too late. No one, save a Talent or another Elemental Master, would be able to

break through his ice barrier.

Keeping the ice in place was much easier than creating it, so once the ice finally met at the top of the

oval shaped-dome, he turned his head toward Santos. “That should keep them occupied. Tell Jimenez to

start searching the water for Cam.”

Santos looked to the small cruise ship, now covered by a two hundred foot high ice containment dome,

and then to Marco. “Where the hell did you learn to do that?”

He’d deal with the repercussions of showing his Elemental Master training later. “Contact Jimenez.

Now.”

His steely tone worked, and Santos picked up her long-range walkie-talkie and said, “Cam’s in the

water. She jumped off one of the balconies on the east side. Find her and bring her in.”

“Roger.”

Now, all Marco could do was wait.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally saw Jimenez’s small boat heading toward them. It took

everything he had not to lower his hands, dive into the water, and swim over to find out what had

happened to Cam. Apart from Jimenez, he couldn’t see anyone standing or sitting upright.

That worried him.

No, he wouldn’t think like that. Instead, he checked the ship in the distance. But his dome was still in

place. It was going to be tricky to remove the dome and cover their getaway, but he would do whatever it

took to get Cam to safety.

Jimenez finally pulled alongside their boat and cut the motor. Santos rushed to the side and said, “Fuck,

is she okay?”

Marco’s heart clenched. “What’s wrong with her?”

Jimenez answered. “She’s cold to the touch and unconscious, but her heartbeat is strong. If we can just

warm her up, she should be fine.”

He clenched the hand at his side. “Jimenez, get her on the boat and wrap her in the emergency blanket.

Santos, once they’re aboard, start our getaway. When we’re in the safety zone, I’ll finish warming up Camilla.”

Santos went to the driver’s seat and turned on the engine as Jimenez hefted up Cam and climbed into

the boat.

Santos turned them around and started heading back to the coast, but Marco turned to keep his hand to

the west or his ice dome would collapse too early. When the cruise ship was a dot in the distance, he

decided they were far enough away. He stopped controlling the elemental water particles and let them go

free. A sense of exhaustion slammed into him. But he pushed it aside and raced to Cam’s still form in the

back of the boat.

He motioned for Jimenez to keep watch from the front of the boat before he looked down at Cam.

Her face was pale with dark circles under her eyes. He cupped her cheek, and was grateful that it was

only slightly chilled.

Deeming the air warm enough—they were in the Gulf of Mexico after all—he removed the blanket and

slowly lifted Cam up against his chest, not caring if he’d get wet in the process. When he finally had her cradled against him, he leaned down and kissed her forehead, letting his lips linger on her skin.

He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent. With Cam unconscious, it was almost easier to admit how

scared he’d been when Santos had told him about Cam jumping into the churning ocean. He knew she was

a capable soldier or she never would’ve been able to escape. But he was fast discovering his protective and possessive streak when it came to the woman in his arms.

Cam stirred and nestled into his chest, and he smiled. He’d never really had someone to care about

before, and he sure as hell wasn’t about to give her up. No doubt she’d make a big fuss when she woke up

—either because of poisoning him or some other excuse—but he was ready to fight for her.

Chapter Thirty-One

Gio was back in his assigned room, pacing. Evans had left straight away to hide in his new lab. Not that

he minded since the lab would hopefully keep Evans focused and prevent him from lapsing back into a

depression of self-pity. Gio wanted to know more about these latent abilities, and only a focused Evans

could give him that information.

Earlier, Evans had told him about the two other cases he’d discovered. One of them—about a woman

using her singing voice to command others—had triggered the long-lost memory that had been nibbling at

the back of his mind, a memory of his mother telling him and his two sisters one of her grand bedtime

stories:

Gio leaned against his sister Kiarra, and pinched himself to stay awake. He was so sleepy, but tonight
his mama would finally tell them the story he’d waited so long to hear—the story about Loreley the Siren.

His mother tucked a blanket around him and his two sisters before she sat down at the foot of the bed.

“Gio is looking a little tired. Maybe I should put off this story until tomorrow.”

Gio shot up. “No! Please, mama, I want to hear it.”

His mother smiled and patted his leg. “If you think you can stay awake…”

“I can, mama, I can!”

His sister Cam poked him in the ribs and he yelped. She snickered. “I’ll make sure he stays awake.”

“Mama, make her stop. Her poking hurts.”

Their mother simply gave them a “look” and the three of them settled into place. When they were calm

and waiting patiently, she nodded. “I think we’re ready. Let’s begin.

“Many years ago, a young woman named Loreley lived in Western Germany with her father and two

older brothers. Even though she was the youngest child, Loreley had always secretly longed for elemental
fire, like her eldest brother. And one day, just after her twenty-first birthday, her wish almost came true.”

Kiarra interrupted their mother’s story. “Are we going to hear about her brother using elemental

fire?”

“No, Kiarra, not today. Now shush, so I can tell the story.”

Kiarra didn’t look happy, but she nodded and their mother continued. “Loreley was sitting in her

favorite place, on one of the ledges of a huge rock face that sat on the river not far from her house, when
she noticed a huge wooden ship coming around the bend. Since she came to sit on the ledge at least a few
times a week, she knew all of the usual ships that came down the river. But this one had a strange flag on
it, one that she’d never seen before. Recently, she’d heard tales of raids in other parts of Germany, and
afraid for her family, she murmured to the ship, ‘Go away.’

“Of course, the ship kept coming toward her. She repeated the words, but for some reason, she felt the
urge to sing them. Over and over, she sang them; wondering why she felt this need. As the ship drew closer,
she noticed that it started to change course—it was now heading straight for the huge rock outcropping
she was sitting on.

“Not wanting to find out if the ship crashed or not, Loreley climbed down as fast as she could to reach
the ground. Once she made it, she ran all the way home and straight into her papa’s study. She’d always
been close to her papa, so when he asked her what was wrong, Loreley explained everything—including

her urge to sing and how the ship had changed course.”

Gio’s mother paused, as she always did at important points in the story, and asked, “What do you

think happened next?”

He always hated this part. He didn’t want to guess, he wanted to
know
. But his sister Cam always took
a guess. This time Cam said, “She has a special power. Maybe she’ll lead an army.”

Cam always wanted the women to lead armies, and if he didn’t say something, Cam would keep on
guessing, so Gio said, “Tell us what happened, mama.”

His mother smiled. “Camilla is correct; Loreley did have a special power. She was a Siren, which

meant that she had the ability to command people with her voice. But you’ll never guess what her father
did next.”

Kiarra leaned forward and asked, “What did he do, Mom?

“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow night. It’s bedtime.”

All three of them groaned and begged her to continue, but like always, she never gave in. She put her

arms out for Gio, and he jumped into them. After kissing his sisters goodnight, she carried him to his
room, tucked him into bed, and said, “Sweet dreams, Giovanni.”

“Goodnight, Mama.”

Gio had tried for so long to block out the memories of his childhood. After his parents had died and

he’d been separated from his sisters, all he’d ever wanted was for his adopted father, James Sinclair, to

accept him. Even as young as he’d been, Gio had known that he couldn’t be happy with his new father if he

kept trying to remember his real parents.

For more than ten years, he’d succeeded in severing ties, and putting aside any tender feelings for his

past life. But hearing about a real-life Siren from Evans earlier, had been too much. In some ways, he was grateful for the memory because now he remembered another important fact from the second half of

Loreley’s story.

Centuries earlier, Loreley had only been one of thousands of
Feiru
with latent abilities that had gone on to protect the legendary Four Talents.

If the new abilities were as widespread as he was beginning to believe, it meant that the story of the

Four Talents and their periodical reappearances might be true, too.

There was a knock at his door, and Gio decided he’d have to mention the possible connection between

the Talents and the emerging latent abilities to Evans later.

For now, he needed to focus on his upcoming tour of the facilities. Maybe he’d finally see how all of

the children who had been born inside the AMT compounds were treated.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Cam snuggled into the soft, warm bed and groaned. The last thing she remembered was being cold—

freezing—and wet, yet now she was warm and toasty. But as she rubbed her head against a soft pillow, it all came back to her—the ship, the man reaching out for her, and jumping into the sea.

She tried to sit up, but the action was met with a combination of resistance and a small pinch in her

right arm. She remembered crashing into the glass door, but after moving her left arm again, slowly this

time, it barely hurt, and she knew it wasn’t broken.

Still, she didn’t know where she was. She wondered if that man with the tattoo on his neck had

retrieved her and taken her somewhere. There was only one way to find out, so Cam opened her eyes. But

the room was full of overly bright light, so she promptly shut them. The brightness was like daggers

stabbing into her eyes.

“Camilla Melini, open your eyes right now or I’ll force them open.”

Wait a second.
“Zalika, is that you?” Cam blinked her eyes until she adjusted to the brightness. Sure enough, her friend was sitting next to her, smiling. “You’re alive.”

“Of course I am. A team of DEFEND members rescued Jacek and me.”

“Is Jacek all right?”

Zalika rolled her eyes. “He’s fine. Although, you’d guess from the way he goes around, showing

everyone the tiny scab on his neck, that he’d barely escaped with his life.”

Because Zalika had always been good at hiding her true feelings—a thing Cam had in common with her

—she pushed. “Tell me the truth—are you okay? Did Richard do anything to you?”

“I’m fine, I swear. There was a hairy moment when I thought your asshole ex might actually slit Jacek’s

throat, but things turned out all right in the end. Richard Ekstrom is now in the custody of the
Feiru
Enforcement. Your hottie new boyfriend, Marco, set up his capture, so make sure to thank him.”

She was too exhausted to correct her—Marco wasn’t her hottie boyfriend. At least, not yet. “Where’s