Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

AQUA

It doesn't take too long to get River's makeshift lab set up in the room off the garage. It's under the house, so it stays cool there all the time, and between me and Zephyr, we can make sure all his samples are maintained at the correct temperature and moisture point until the special fridge Perry ordered arrives. Flame says the room was originally fitted out as a gym for the last owner of the house, but none of us need a gym, so it's just been empty since we moved in.

Why would we need a gym? Exercising indoors when we prefer to be outdoors as much as possible? That's not smart. What is smart is keeping the room clean so now it can be River's lab! Here. At the house. Where I can keep him close and safe from the person who tried to kill him.

Rain starts to fall outside, and George sighs. "Aqua, stop. You're messing with the weather, and we have enough issues to deal with."

Looking up from his laptop, River says, "What?" and looks out the window. "Oh my god, Aqua, are you doing that?"

I smile sheepishly and concentrate on being calm. My River is here, safe, and I can protect him. "Sometimes when I'm not calm, water does things."

He gets up from his chair and comes over to give me a hug. "Be calm. Please. Because if you're not calm, I have to be calm—balance, remember? And I really want to be the one having a nervous breakdown right now."

The rain stops as I wrap my arms around him. "Okay. I'll be calm so you can be upset." I can do that for my beautiful River.

"Are we done in here for now?" George asks. "We should go upstairs so you can tell us exactly what happened."

I'm itching to get into the water, but I understand why it's important that the others hear this story, so we troop upstairs. While they're all getting comfortable at the kitchen table, I fill a bowl with water, and once I slide into the seat next to River, I put my fingers in it.

"Are you okay?" he asks me.

"Sure! After this, we can go to the beach, right? I'll take you surfing." That will be so much fun!

"I've been meaning to ask about that," he says, surprising me. "I think I've seen you surfing a few times, but it always looked like you didn't have a board…."

I shrug and wriggle my fingers, letting the water ripple. "Why would I need a board? It would just get between me and the water."

He tilts his head, and an incredulous smile quirks his mouth. It's the first one I've seen since we went to pick him up at the lab. "So the waves are just… carrying you?"

"Yep!" I nod. He gets it.

"He's the essence of water, remember?" Perry says. "It basically is him."

"That's so cool." River leans against me.

"Yeah, whatever. Come on, tell us a story before Zeph loses interest," George insists.

I look over at Zephyr, who has his usual distant stare firmly in place. I'm pretty sure he's not listening at all.

"I hate to agree with George, but I need to go check on that brushfire again soon," Flame says.

"I thought it was under control?" Perry blinks innocently at him.

"It is, but these situations change fast."

"Plus your firefighter will go off-shift once they put it out, and you haven't gone as far as actually stalking him at home yet," Aether says blithely. "You should, though."

Flame ignores him, but I can't help wondering what Aether means. I'm still thinking about it while River tells his story, but I can't work it out. Does Aether want Flame to stalk the fireman? Why? I thought stalking was bad.

"It really does sound like someone wanted to kill you," Flame says at last. "They weren't expecting you to be able to come back and dispute the whole Tuesday thing."

"Exactly," George agrees. "They figured you'd be missing, presumed dead, or that your dead body would be found. There'd be an investigation, they'd find that you didn't do the whole log thing you mentioned, and assume that you were at fault for not maintaining your equipment. Since you'd be dead, there would be nothing more to do."

Perry shakes his head. "Yeah, but why steal his stuff last night?"

"Maybe they didn't want anyone looking too closely at it," Aether suggests. "River survived when he wasn't supposed to, so they wanted to get rid of the evidence."

"I guess. It just seems shortsighted."

"They probably panicked," River says dolefully. "I don't really care—the thing I want to know is, who wants me dead? And why?"

We all look at each other.

"It has to be someone you work with, right?" I ask. "Somebody who could walk into that building and sign out a boat at the pier?" They don't let just anybody do that. It's so rude—all those people who could be out on the water, but they can't because other people hoard the boats. What good's a boat if it's parked at the marina?

River shrugs. "Yeah. Unless someone with super awesome skills hates me and has worked out a way around that."

"Unlikely," George says. "Let's keep it simple. I'm not in the mood for complicated."

I roll my eyes. "Complicated is awesome , bro. First it's all, whoa, what the fuck? Then you spend some time with it, erode the edges a little, and it all starts to make sense. By the end, it's simple, and everyone knows simple is beautiful."

River gazes up at me with stars in his eyes. "That's such a great way to think of it. You're amazing."

My chest puffs up with pride.

"Don't use the word ‘erode' when you're talking to me," George snaps, but I'm in too good a mood to care. River thinks I'm amazing!

"I'm keeping you," I tell him. "Aether said so."

Perry groans and buries his face in his hands, but River's expression turns thoughtful.

"I'm not going to make any declarations," he starts slowly, "since it's only twenty-four hours since we met. But I kinda think I want to be kept by you." He gives his head a little shake. "Let's just see how things go, but it feels right." He leans up to kiss me, and I pull my hands out of the bowl to cup his face.

"Aqua!" Flame sputters. "Do you have to fucking splash ?"

"I like the splashes," River murmurs against my mouth, and I decide that I'm going to splash as often as I can from now on.

"This is sweet and all that," Perry says, "but let's get back to the point. River, who do you work with who wants to kill you?"

Reluctantly, River pulls away and wipes at the water I've left on his cheeks. A few drops have trickled down his neck, and he leaves them be. I grin at the sight of my water on him.

"I don't know," River's saying. "I thought I got along well with all my colleagues."

George huffs. "Someone disagrees. Did you accidentally eat anyone's food in the break-room fridge?"

"No." River rolls his eyes. "Do you really think someone would want to kill me over that?"

"Humans are weird. What about work? Did you get assigned a project someone else wanted?"

"It doesn't work like that. We're responsible for finding our own research projects and then convincing the Institute to give us funding for them—or applying for external grants. My research is a spin-off of something someone else is working on, but I spoke to her in detail before I even put together my first plan, and she was excited for me. She didn't want to take this angle, but she thought it would be beneficial to her if I explored it. We exchange notes all the time, and one of her most recent breakthroughs was because of something I found."

"So it's not likely to be her, then," Perry muses. "Not unless she's a really good actress."

"It's not her," River insists. "She brought me champagne as a thank-you when she had the breakthrough."

"If we're keeping it simple, it's not her," Flame agrees. "Anyone else? Someone jealous of your progress or your funding or your parking spot?"

River screws up his face. "I don't think so? Not overtly, anyway. There's some people I don't know super well, but we always say hey and nod in the hallways. Nobody's ever complained about m?—"

"There's someone sneaking around outside," Zephyr says dreamily.

"What?" Perry stares at him. "Are you sure?"

"The air says so."

George swears. "Yeah, they're there—I can feel them now. Goddamn paving—I told you we should get rid of it."

"They're sweaty," Zephyr continues, then wrinkles his nose. "They smell stressed."

"What are they doing?" River asks, alarmed. "Oh my god, my lab!"

"It's fine," Aether soothes. "She's just peeking in the window, but she can't see anything… I think. We should go down and talk to her. She doesn't like River much."

River gasps. "You can tell that?"

Aether shrugs, standing, and Perry adds, "He can sense strong emotions from people. Come on."

I give my bowl of water a longing glance, then get up and follow River and the others outside. Once we make it to the deck, we all hear the gasp and see a woman running toward the road.

"Zeph, would you?" George asks, sounding bored. "My way is too disruptive."

The woman freezes midstride.

"What the fuck?" River whispers, and I lean over to murmur in his ear. Mostly because I like being that close to him.

"Zephyr's using the air to hold her in place. Do you know her?"

He stares at her back. "Maybe? I can't tell from here."

"Let's go, then," Flame orders, and we hustle down the steps and across the driveway. Across the road, the ocean calls to me, and I send a wave of reassurance that I'll be there soon—with River. That makes it happy.

When we reach her, River walks around to see her face and frowns. "I know you… Kelly from IT, right?"

"Well, that would explain how she got a copy of your security pass," George says. Kelly doesn't move or speak. "Zeph, let her go."

The shriek that pierces my eardrums makes me wish Zeph would freeze her again. I wince, then step forward to block her path when she tries to run away.

"Could you not?" I ask, as politely as I can manage. "Why are you here?" My eyes narrow. "Did you hurt my River?"

"What the fuck, River?" she yells. "Who are these people and what did they do to me?"

"Why are you here?" River asks, his voice hard, and she blanches.

"I-I… I was looking for you. They're saying at work that someone tried to kill you!" She clasps her hands to her chest. "I had to make sure you were okay!"

Aww, that's so nice of?—

"We've spoken maybe three times in five years," River retorts. "It's not like we're friends. Why would you go to the trouble of coming out here instead of calling, if you were that concerned?"

"And how did you know where to come?" Flame adds.

Mouth agape, she looks around at us all. "What is this, a hair modelling convention?"

Perry snorts, and even my River coughs a little. It's not the first time we've heard things like that when we're together, but it's not our fault our hair is the color it is.

"Look, stop dodging the point or we'll let you get up close and personal with River's research—out there." George points at the ocean, and Kelly's eyes widen as his meaning sinks in.

I want to protest on behalf of my beloved water, but I don't think the ocean would care if Kelly drowned.

As if someone flipped a switch, the stress drops from her face and she hisses at River, "You were supposed to die, damn it!"