Chapter 12

Tyler groaned and ran his hand through his hair. He had run every bit of information twice and had come up empty handed. Petey had run the names through every bit of software he had and had come up with the same results. If there wasn't any background information, there was nothing they could go on.

He shifted to his other screen. Wyatt had teleported Elijah Wright straight into the office. He had given Tyler the information he needed to get into the mainframe Elijah couldn't access. It had taken him some time but he had finally cracked the code. It was a bunch of mumbo jumbo, numbers running at every angle. It wasn't until Elijah explained what it all meant that Tyler could work out the kinks.

Clint ventured in and sat down across from them. He had either been holed up in the office or in the nursery with Aiden. He had barely had any time to himself but he wasn't going to stop until he knew who was making his family suffer. He had been working round the clock with no sleep.

Tyler looked at him. There was nothing that could be done about the King. He was trying to help as much as he possibly could, but there was only so much he could do with the information he was given. If he could just find out what was going on with this whole thing, he could help them.

Elijah kicked the door shut as he walked through it with a tray of hot chocolate. He set one down in front of Petey, the other down in front of Tyler, and handed the last one to Clint. The King smiled up at him as his hands closed around the warm mug. There were tight lines around his mouth and eyes that said multitudes.

"How is it coming?" he asked. He took a tentative sip then sighed when his soul felt a little lighter.

"I still can't get past that final firewall. There's something odd about its formation," Tyler replied.

"Have you tried the reverse algorithm?" Petey asked. He was spinning around in his chair as he waited for his system to finish whatever it was doing.

"I've tried it backwards and forwards. It just doesn't make any sense." Tyler hit the enter button as hard as he could. When nothing happened, he shoved away from the computer.

"Where are you going?" Clint asked.

"I'm getting out of this room to clear my head." He snagged the mug and stalked from the room. He thought about going outside but in the end changed direction and went towards Jess's room.

Petey looked at Clint and Elijah then shrugged. He was just as stressed out as the older man, but he had learned long ago not to lash out. Then again Austin was usually the one cuffing him in the head to ease his temper.

***

Jess sighed as he rolled onto his back. He was feeling better than ever. He guessed he owed that to Rowan. The Healer was one of the best he had seen and he was nice too. He wondered if his wife Camille realized how decent a man she had married. She must have because that woman owned a bar. Barkeeps were notorious for understanding their clientele the best. If anyone understood Rowan, it was Camille.

He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. He probably shouldn't have gone to New York but Austin had needed his help. The Sector 1 Leader was able to get himself into the worst places possible. His reputation was built around getting himself out of those places, but this tight spot had been the worst.

This time he had nearly died.

They were all susceptible to magic poisoning. Well, all of them except Aiden. None of them knew the reasoning behind it. They figure it was due to the fact that she could convert someone's energy and use it as her own.

If Austin was unable to get himself into a situation that even he couldn't talk himself out of, what would happen to all of them?

A sudden thought hit Jess. Slowly he turned his head and looked over his shoulder. Kasta was lying beside him. He had thought he dreamed it but she was actually there. As he thought about it, he remembered tripping and falling down the stairs. He remembered Kasta smacking her head as she tried to protect him from hurting himself. He remembered she landed hard on his bed and he turned his body to hide her from her father. He heard Cole explaining things far off in his conscious.

What he couldn't figure out was why she had gone against her father. She should have remained stoic and listened to whatever he had to say. Instead, she had come in here and huddled up on the bed with him.

As he was staring at her, her eyes fluttered open. She blinked a couple of times then closed them again to stretch. She made this little noise at the back of her throat then turned over to look at him. His breath caught at the little smile playing on her lips. Not being able to stop himself, he rolled over and looked down at her. She smiled up at him gently.

Jess made a bold move and lowered his mouth to hers. She stiffened for a few moments then relaxed. In the back of his mind he heard the rules of Elven courting. He wasn't supposed to do this but he didn't care. This wasn't an Elven match. He was human and she was his mate.

Kasta sighed into his kiss. She had wondered when he was going to get up the nerve to be forward. All her life she had been taught that a man only kissed a woman when they were married. The courting was to be chaste. There was to be no sleeping with him, even in a platonic fashion. There was to be no form of public displays of affection at all. There was to remain a three foot span between them at all times.

When she met Jess, all of that went out the window. First there had been the spark that had felt as if a hurricane were whipping through her hair. He had been a breath of fresh air. She had seen the silver glow around him and wondered what it all meant. When he explained it all, he had given her time to let it sink in. She had found it hadn't bothered her as much as she thought it would.

In truth she loved the feeling. All her life she had been sheltered. No one had wanted her to see the brutality of humanity. When she had begged to come on this little good faith run, she noticed that everyone tended to like her for her. Especially when they all found out she was destined to be Jess's mate. Jess himself had paid enough attention to her that she felt as if he truly cared for her.

She whimpered a little bit when he lifted his head. He smiled down at her then lowered his it once again, this time nuzzling her shoulder. She inhaled sharply when his teeth sank into her neck. She remembered reading somewhere that this was the way these people bound their mates to them. She wondered briefly why Jess was doing this but then gave up the thought when she realized she didn't really care as long as she was with him.

Jess lifted his head and looked down at Kasta. She hadn't pushed him away and he had been too shaky to ask her what she thought about it. He had promised her he wouldn't do what his brothers had done but he had broken that promise. Now he was going to face her wrath.

She reached up and held his face between her hands. She watched his eyes closely, enjoying the fear and hesitancy there. He felt like he'd made a mistake and that she was about to run from him. She didn't have to be a mind reader to see it in his body.

"I'm not mad," she whispered to him.

He stared at her in shock. "But I promised."

She smiled at him and sat up. He sat back on his side of the bed and looked at her. "All my life people have promised me things. I have been taken care of and sheltered. In a weird way, I'm glad you didn't keep your promise. It meant you would do whatever it took to keep me safe and happy."

He made a face. He twirled a hand in the air as he tried to figure it out. "How do you get that out of me breaking a promise?"

"Maybe it's because I can trust you to keep the big promises and break the little ones that don't make any sense."

Jess felt laughter bubble up. He let it out, laughter rolling over his skin. He wrapped his arms around Kasta and pulled her to him, kissing her dark head.

The moment was broken when someone knocked on the door. Jess groaned. A little pout appeared on his face as he had to let her go. Despite breaking the rules in private, public was a completely different scenario. He didn't want to bring anymore shame to her.

"Come in," he said. The door opened and Tyler stuck his head in. "Hey, Ty. Have you found anything?"

The young man sighed and walked in the room, closing the door behind him. He leaned against it briefly then made a beeline for the chair at the desk. He slumped down instantly, taking great care not to spill his mug.

"I have gotten nothing out of the systems that we have searched. Not one name matches any name in our archives. We're grasping at straws," Tyler said after a few moments of silence. He ran his finger around the rim of his mug as he thought deeply of their predicament.

"What if they're not in the archives?" Kasta stated.

Tyler and Jess both looked at her. "What do you mean?" Jess asked.

"What if whoever it is you're searching for isn't in your archives? The human wouldn't be unless he or she was married to one of your people. You're slowly but surely archiving your interactions with the Elves. It's safe to bet that whoever is doing this is running under the radar."

The men looked at each other, their thoughts whirring. It did make sense. Leave it to an Elf to point out the obvious when none of them could see it.

If the person was not one of them, they wouldn't be in the system. They had only started archiving the names of those who married outside of the Court in their systems to keep their records. It had made it easier to see the demographics and the trends on the differences in mates.

Tyler began to bounce in his seat. "That gives me a whole new genre of searches to go through!"

Jess caught his arm as he bounced towards the door. "We're coming with you. We want to be there when we see the face of the person who's behind this."

The young man nodded. He waited as patiently as he could for them to get dressed in clean clothes. His knee never stopped bouncing in tune to the rate in which his brain worked.

When they were ready, he nearly bounded out the door, leaving them to follow in his dust. They were finally going to figure this whole thing out.