Undercover Magic Read Online Free PDF Page A

bedroom door. Without thinking, I blocked his way. I needed to stop
     him. He would risk his life for what he believed in. I couldn't let him do that.
    "We can disappear," I said.
    "No."
    "When I was ten, I survived with the terrorist paranormals roaming the streets hungry
     for human meat. I know how to get around without being seen. We have safe houses like
     this all over the city. I have caches of food and arms even you don't know about."
     I clenched my teeth, desperately wanting him to understand what I could barely admit
     myself—I didn't think I could stand to lose him. "We can vanish. I'm good at it."
    His expression softened. "I know." Cooper traced the tips of his fingers down my cheek
     and the pain gripping my gut compressed into an unbearable ache.
    He moved me firmly to one side and strode out of the bedroom and into the main room
     of the apartment. I followed him, watching with a sickening kind of helplessness as
     he tossed a backpack onto the sofa and then combed quickly through the apartment,
     exchanging items already in the emergency pack with other supplies here and there.
     He dug two iCs out of the back of a kitchen drawer and tossed one to me. I caught
     it and stared at the dull, black surface.
    "Lord Bellmonte might be involved," he said.
    I activated the untraceable iC used by Cooper's clan and slipped it into my pocket.
     "He's promised to hurt people I care about if I don't produce whoever's responsible
     for the drug."
    "He can try. My money's on you."
    Small comfort. I picked up a discarded ration pack of freeze-dried mac and cheese
     that Cooper had tossed down and stuffed it into the other pack for Falcon. I felt
     forlorn and I didn't like it. I frowned at the pack. "You can't protect the people
     you love when they won't cooperate."
    He was instantly beside me. Dropping his pack, he pulled me against his chest. "Cooperation
     is overrated," he rumbled. "It's more fun to outmaneuver."
    His lips came down on mine, possessive and hungry. Our tongues danced together as
     my mouth slanted across his and heat washed over me, making my breath catch. Too soon
     he broke away, the lingering warmth on my lips laced with bitter sorrow.
    Cooper leaned back and his gaze swept over my face as if he wanted to memorize every
     detail of it. Then he grabbed his backpack off the floor and forged past me into the
     bedroom.
    "Trust Ms. Fairview. She'll help you if she can." He headed for the window and something
     tightened in my chest like a fist squeezing the last drop of happiness out of my heart.
    I followed him and stopped in the doorway. This was insane. I had to stop him.
    Drawing my gun, I keyed it to load Were poison. The slim vial of shimmering gold liquid
     clicked into place. If I had to knock him out to protect him, I would.
    I aimed the weapon at Cooper. "I can make you do the right thing."
    He keyed in the lock code at the window. The sash slid silently up. "I already am."
    "Not for us."
    He looked at me, duty and longing battling in his silver-green eyes. "I'm sorry."
    I lowered my gun, the painful clenching in my gut rising up to tighten my throat.
     He swung his leg over the sill and looked at me, long and hard. The trust I saw in
     his eyes burned into me. "Number 53 in forty-eight hours. I'll be there if I can."
     And he was gone.
    Despite myself, I ran to the window. "Damn it, Cooper!"
    Helpless to stop him, all I could do was watch as he sprang from the fire escape to
     the edge of the roof two stories higher—something ten times more amazing than what
     I'd accomplished earlier.
    Another man, deeply tanned with a crescent moon tattooed on his left cheek, met Cooper
     at the edge and gave him a hand up.
    Together, they disappeared from sight.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER THREE
     
     
    The bliss of leaving responsibility behind and thinking only of Addison was a luxury
     Cooper couldn't indulge in. What he'd told her was right—there was too much