Frozen Desires (Asylums for Magical Threats) (3 page)

happened to him?”

“Well, first off, the ‘him’ in question turned out to be a shadow-shifter.” He raised an eyebrow. “Do you

have any idea why first the female shadow-shifter back in the States, and now this man, could be following you?”

Shadow-shifters were rare, which made this all the more interesting—and dangerous. “No, but what

happened to the shifter?”

Marco was good at reading people. He’d learned it at an early age out of necessity—his special first-

born training as a teenager down in Colombia had required it.

So he wondered why Cam had seemed to relax upon hearing that the shadow-shifter back in Merida

had been of Hispanic descent.

Part of him wanted to bargain, giving information about the shifter in exchange for the information

Cam had received from the vendor back in Merida. But if he was going to work with her—and he was,

whether she wanted his help or not—then he needed to start earning her trust.

He knew that charming her would only irritate her further, but he needed to keep up appearances to

protect his fellow first-born trainees. Not even Jaxton Ward knew the extent of Marco’s skills.

After all, Elemental Masters weren’t supposed to exist.

He took a few steps toward her. “I chased the shifter to an abandoned shop, but he managed to slip

away.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.”

He forced himself to keep smiling. Telling her that he could best just about anyone with his elemental

magic was out of the question. Instead, he leaned in close and said, “Tsk, tsk, so dismissive. Give me a chance to pin you to the ground, and then maybe you’ll revise that statement.”

Cam rolled her eyes. “Spare me the flirting. You know you don’t have a chance in hell with me.” She

moved toward her pack and said over her shoulder, “Unless you have something else to share, you can be

on your way. I’m sure there are dozens of half-clad girls in bikinis on vacation somewhere in Mexico just

waiting to drool all over you.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Camilla. I’m going to stick around and help you.”

Cam paused in tightening up her pack and looked at him. “This is my mission, Marco, not yours. You

don’t get to tell me what to do.”

“Ah, but you see”—he moved toward her until he was close enough that he could grab her if she tried

to bolt—“DEFEND sent me here to make sure your mission is a success.”

Cam went still, and he tried to figure out what was going through her head. But for once, he had no

idea. She wasn’t happy, that much was clear.

Then she hoisted up her pack and strapped it on as if she hadn’t heard him. She started walking, and

Marco gripped her wrist. “Ignoring me is only going to waste time that could be better spent combining our resources and devising a plan.”

Cam turned her face toward him, her eyes like ice. “If you’d cared to ask, then I would’ve told you that

I already have a plan.” She glanced to his grip on her arm and back again. “You have five seconds to release me before I grab your balls with my claws. Five…four…three…”

He tightened his grip. “You didn’t notice the shadow-shifter tailing you back in Merida, Camilla. No

doubt there are things you’ve missed or overlooked, and I can help with that.”

Cam’s eyes went cold, and Marco knew that he’d said the wrong thing.

Chapter Three

Cam clenched her fist, her claws biting into her palm. Marco, like most every other male member of

DEFEND, was playing the ‘I have a penis so I know better’ card.

If he’d approached her in a normal fashion, and had asked about her plans, she would’ve told him and

seen what he had to offer. But she knew from experience that working with men who couldn’t see a woman

soldier as an equal, let alone a superior, always ended badly. And every moment she spent fighting it out

with Marco was time that could be better spent hunting down the Talents.

The rules of DEFEND prevented her from just knocking him unconscious and leaving, so Cam took a

deep breath through her nose and hoped explaining things would convince the man to leave her the hell

alone. “First off, Jacek would’ve gone after the man harassing my contact’s son if he hadn’t seen you do it first. And second, you know nothing about my plans or what intelligence I’ve gathered. Who the hell are

you to judge me? I may be a woman, but I have more experience with missions than you.”

“This has nothing to do with you being a woman, Camilla.”

“Oh, really? Then do enlighten me, oh ‘Great One’.”

Marco was no longer smiling. “I have knowledge you need. Most
Feiru
don’t know shadow-shifters

exist, let alone how to deal with them. There’s a reason they used to be assassins-for-hire.”

Cam watched him closely as she said, “Did you conveniently forget how I took one down in the States?

You claim that you want to help, yet you dismiss me without a thought.” Explaining had done nothing, so

she dug the claws of her free hand into his arm, but the bastard still didn’t let go. “If this is your idea of

’help’, then I don’t need it. Besides, I only work with those I trust, and you’re not one of those people, especially since you get distracted at the first sign of cleavage.”

He yanked her arm until her face was inches from his. The smile was gone from both his eyes and

mouth. “I’m not letting you go until you accept my help. Jaxton Ward sent me here for a reason, and I’m

not about to let him down.”

Cam shook her head. “You can say that the President of the United States sent you, but I still won’t

believe you. More than that, we both know this—us working together—would never work.”

Marco’s expression was dark, but she’d dealt with far worse.

She raised an eyebrow. “Well, are you ready to put aside this silly notion and let me get on with my

mission? I have a list of things to do, and standing in the forest with a disreputable man-whore isn’t high on that list.”

He let go of her and stepped back. But before she could walk away, a whoosh sounded behind her. In

the blink of an eye, a stream of ice came around her and continued to circle first around her legs, and then around her torso. She tried to push her way through, but the ice nicked her skin and forced her to stand in the middle of the two twirling rings. With the pack strapped to her back, it was going to take finesse to get out of this situation.

Despite his showboating, Marco was a member of DEFEND, and wouldn’t hurt her.

Or would he?

The ice stopped moving, but remained suspended in mid-air. She kept her face expressionless as he

walked up to her, until only a few inches separated them again, his gaze intent. “If I can help break into an AMT compound and escape alive, I’m more than qualified to watch your back and help search a bunch of

Mayan ruins for clues.” The upper circle of ice moved, maneuvering under her chin and gently lifting her

head up. “Have I made myself clear?”

Marco kept his mind partitioned; one side focused on maneuvering the elemental water particles in the air, while the other side focused on the reactions of the woman in front of him. Like any well-trained

member of DEFEND, Cam was keeping her cool under pressure. But as he tipped her chin up with his

frozen ring of elemental water, he saw something he hadn’t expected when uncertainty flashed across her

face.

Uncertain about what? He’d never hurt her, unless she was an actual threat to his life. He was here to

help her.

However, she didn’t know that, did she?
Hell of a way to convince a woman you’re on her side, Marco.

While he understood that Cam respected strength, her taunting had stoked his temper, and he’d

displayed more of his power than he ever should have let someone see. Despite his childhood vow and all

of the years of training with his grandfather, he’d let this woman get to him. In short, he’d fucked up big time.

He couldn’t let it happen again.

Few elemental water first-borns could do what he was doing with the rings. But while he couldn’t

change what he’d shown her in terms of his powers, he could at least wipe the uncertain look from Cam’s

eyes. If he didn’t get in her good graces, he’d never be able to complete the first part of his mission.

And DEFEND needed to be the first to find the Talents.

Determined not to fail, he stepped back and melted the ice before allowing the water to fall to the

ground. “I wouldn’t have hurt you. I just wanted to make my point. Things will go a whole lot smoother if

you just forget my reputation and start taking me seriously.”

Even though Cam was now free of his ice cage, she remained in place, watching him with piercing

brown eyes. Marco’s mother or sisters would be yelling at him by now, or at least they’d be lecturing him

on manners, but apparently not this woman. Her look alone said he was nothing but a hotheaded young

recruit, unworthy of her time.

Her opinion of him shouldn’t matter, but he barely prevented himself from clenching his fist and saying

something he’d regret later. Jaxton had trusted Marco enough to send him here, and he wouldn’t let his

friend and former boss down.

Just as he opened his mouth to try to smooth things over, Cam turned away and started walking.
I don’t
think so, Camilla.
Marco reached for her, but she tossed her pack at him, throwing him off-balance. She rushed low and tackled him to the ground. She was faster than he’d anticipated, and between one blink and

the next, she’d managed to wrestle herself on top of him, the tips of her claws pressed against his neck.

Cam leaned down and her braid brushed his chest as her claws dug a little deeper into his skin. “I don’t

trust you, and your parlor tricks won’t change that.” A drop of warm blood trickled down his neck. “Your

bullshit is a waste of my time. This is me being lenient, so unless you want me to take off the kid gloves and show you what I can really do, stay away from me and mine. You’ll just slow us down.”

Marco wasn’t afraid of her threats, or even her claws. He knew an offensive scare tactic when he saw it,

and overkill-mode Cam was nothing he couldn’t handle. She was going to accept his help one way or

another.

If he wiggled his right hand a little, it would face west and allow him to draw on his elemental water.

Cam would notice the movement, so he needed to distract her.

She’d accused him of being a man-whore, so he decided to act the part. He had a feeling his attentions

would make her uncomfortable long enough to call on his elemental water.

He gazed down at the opening of her tank top and stared at her breasts. They were sheathed in a plain

cotton bra, but were full and round, big enough to fill his palms. His hand itched to cup one and feel her nipple bead at his touch, but he pushed that thought away, knowing full well he’d never get the chance.

No, best to stick to his plan of making her uncomfortable, so he growled in appreciation, “At least I’d

die a happy man.”

Her breath hitched and he took advantage, moving his hand to the west and drawing the elemental

energy he needed to hit Cam with enough water to push her off his chest. He rolled on top of her and used his weight to pin her lower body to the ground while he pinned her hands over her head. He then secured

them in place with bands of ice.

Cam tugged her arms, her muscles straining in an attempt to break free. She tried to buck her legs to

throw him off, but all she succeeded in doing was rubbing her lean body against his. A picture of her

naked, toned thighs wrapped around his waist flashed into his mind, but he quickly pushed it away. He

wouldn’t let this woman use her body to distract him and regain the upper hand.

Marco let his full weight pin her down, the scent of earth and female filling his nose as he whispered

into her ear, “If I were really out to get you, you’d be dead by now, Camilla.” She moved again, and

between the friction and the musky female scent of her skin, it took every bit of control he had to prevent his cock from hardening.

He leaned in closer, hoping the proximity would make her feel more uncomfortable, and said, “You

don’t trust me? Fine. But you will.”

Cam lay restrained on the ground, the ice around her wrists like cold steel. She tried not to think of how Marco had bested her. It’d been nearly four years since anyone had managed it, and Neena had only

succeeded because of her foresight ability.

She needed to concentrate and find an opening to make a move, but she was finding it hard to notice

anything apart from the one-hundred-and-eighty pounds of hard muscle cradled between her thighs. She

remembered how he’d rubbed up against her when she’d first struggled, and combined with his heat

currently surrounding her, she felt feminine in a way she hadn’t in a long time.

What am I doing?
Marco Alvarez was known for his way with women. And somehow, he’d managed

to weave his spell over her.

Thankfully, he stood up, and with Marco’s heavy male body no longer touching hers, the rational part

of Cam’s mind was back in control. She needed to find a way to shift the situation back into her favor. If she could break his concentration, he might not be able to keep the ice around her wrists in place, and she could get free.

She looked up at him, and waited. The man liked to talk, and whether it was the silence or something

else, he finally said, “Whether you accept my help or not, I’ll be watching you, Camilla, just as you should be watching out for the shifter.” He gave a mock bow, and she prevented herself from striking—it wasn’t

the right moment. “I know you’re going to the ruins tomorrow, beauty, so keep an eye out for me. I’ll let