Skin Deep Read Online Free PDF Page A

him. His eyes glittered a deep emerald against his unearthly pallor. Cress stretched up and out of the chair with a sensual shiver that drew Terryn’s gaze. Even without an exchange of words, Laura felt the emotional bond between the two.
    He scanned Laura’s face but spoke to Cress. “Can she report for duty?”
    Cress spoke to Laura instead of Terryn. “You should rest a couple of days, but I don’t think there’s any damage.”
    Laura tried to smile. She clenched her hand again, wondering what she was not remembering. “I feel fine.”
    Terryn shifted his eyes to Laura. “Excuse us, Cress.”
    As she left, the essence field of Cress’s body signature interacted with Terryn’s. He gave no sign of it, but Laura sensed the satisfaction it gave him. Their relationship sustained Cress and kept the predatory aspect of her leanansidhe nature in check. By willingly letting her siphon some of his essence, Terryn helped her rise above what her biology demanded. Laura wasn’t sure what he got out of it.
    “Did you have your shield up?” said Terryn.
    Laura frowned. “I would be surprised if I didn’t. I remember being head-blind, so the body shield could have been affected, too.”
    “Tell me what happened.”
    She recounted the raid in a detached, formal manner as she told him the events step-by-step, from the moment she left the van until the moment she looked up from the wounded body of Sanchez. Her memory failed there, a gap she tried not to show frustration over. As a druid, she had a natural talent for memory retention, and years of training had honed it. Druids might not always recall instantly, but they almost never forgot.
    Terryn’s eyes narrowed when she told him about the unexpected presence of the Inverni fairy, but he didn’t interrupt. She wondered what he would say or do about it. The Inverni fairies were powerful, and Terryn’s family had ruled over the largest clans for generations. An Inverni involved with a crime like drug dealing—to say nothing of trying to kill a police officer—was not something that would be taken lightly by the clans when they heard about it. Invernis had enough problems with their political image without adding lawbreaking to it.
    “You remember nothing after summoning help for Sanchez?” he asked.
    Laura pushed herself higher on the bed. “It went bad from the get-go, Terryn. Either the intelligence was wrong or there was a tip-off.”
    He pulled the damaged USB drive from the pocket of his tunic and handed it to her. “Does anyone else know about this?”
    She pursed her lips. “I don’t think I mentioned it on the comm. I saw it, thought it was odd, and picked it up. It had to have come from the Inverni. I got a good hit on a bag he was carrying. I was alone when I found it, that I’m sure of.”
    Terryn nodded. “Okay, write it up, then I’ll decide what to tell upstairs.”
    Laura didn’t respond. Working as part of InterSec was an exercise in cooperation and misdirection. She’d lost track of the number of law-enforcement agencies involved, and none trusted any of the others. She was proof of that. She’d gone undercover in most of the agencies at some point.
    She threw off the bedsheet and swung her feet around to the floor. “Where’s my gear?”
    Terryn arched an eyebrow. “I imagine Cress would know. Where do you think you’re going?”
    She held the back of her hospital gown closed more for courtesy than any sense of embarrassment. “I have to go back. There’s something I have to check before it’s too late.”
    Terryn crossed his arms. “And if I don’t allow it?”
    Laura looked him in the eye. “I’ll tell everyone you touched my ass.”
    She couldn’t help the twitch of a smile, and neither could he. He bowed his head. “I’ll tell Cress you have something to do. I want you back here as soon as possible, and if you feel at all ill, I want you to return immediately. That’s an order.”
    “Thanks,” she said.
    She paced along