Hectic (Arcane Mage Series Book 2)

by T. S. Snow

  Crickets.

  That was all I got.

  Here I was being brilliant, and all I got were crickets!

  I turned sideways on my stool so I could face Andres and glare him into acknowledging my brilliance, but the look on his face had me pausing.

  Awe.

  If awe had a look, it would be the one Andres was sporting. His eyes shone with excitement, mouth agape.

  Mollified, I let him bask in the greatness I’d created.

  Look, I might not be great in a lot of things, but developing magical tech was my jam and there was honestly nothing I took more pleasure in than making the right METs for the right people. Well, maybe beating Bast’s ass online, but other than that.

  “Charisma, this is remarkable,” Andres whispered the praise as if he were having a religious experience and I was so down for his response.

  A girl could get used to this kind of positive feedback.

  “So, I take it you don’t want to see the third option?” I asked.

  “No, no. This is it. That’s perfect.” His response had me breathing a sigh of relief because there had not been a third option. This had been it, unless I had recycled some of the other schematics I’d done for clients which hadn’t been picked.

  “Good. Great. Okay, so, tell me what you need it to do, and we can work out the details. Then I’ll have the mechanical part of the tech developed, and you’ll have your new MET before you know it.”

  I didn’t bother reminding him I still didn’t have magic, or at least enough magic, to pull off any of the programming just yet. No need to give him a crash course in reality.

  Besides, I’d find a way around it if I had to. I always did. This would be no different.

  Magic or no magic, Andres was getting his MET. I’d make sure of it.

  37

  Blaze

  I pulled up at the safe house with a yawn. After the day I’d had, all I wanted was a beer, a warm meal, and a shower. Preferably in that order.

  Although... Charisma was inside, waiting for me.

  That thought made me smile. Maybe I could convince her to join me for that shower. I might be tired, but I wasn’t so tired I’d waste an opportunity to get her naked. Being inside her would be better than any beer or warm meal, that was for damn sure.

  I could get used to this, to coming home to her. Knowing she was safe, knowing she’d been waiting for me.

  I exited the car and walked up to the front door, quickly scanning the neighborhood to make sure we hadn’t attracted unwanted attention from the humans, but so far we seemed to have been flying under the radar.

  Good.

  I opened the door and stepped inside, quickly locking it behind me. “Hey, Char, I’m back,” I called out, putting my keys on the keyring by the entrance and turning to face the house inhabitants.

  The sight that greeted me was not what I’d expected.

  Charisma was laying down on the couch Illudere had claimed for himself, face up, with her laptop precariously positioned on her lap, sleeping. As I watched, she started to say something in her sleep, before the sound of her own voice startled her awake and she jumped.

  I acted fast, running inside to catch the laptop before it hit the ground.

  Thank fuck I’d approached her sleeping form without realizing I was doing it when I first entered, or else her computer would be toast by now.

  I managed to save it just in time before I got up again, placing the laptop on the coffee table that had been moved to the corner of the couch and served more as a place for Illudere to put his blankets and pillow during the day than anything else.

  We really needed to find a way to get rid of him.

  Charisma blinked confused, sleepy eyes at me, as if she couldn’t quite process what she was seeing, and I smiled softly at her.

  “Hey, Little Spitfire, how long have you been up?”

  Charisma kept blinking. “What?”

  “When was the last time you slept?” I tried again, my smiling only increasing at her confusion. She was so damn cute.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. What time is it? It was before I called you to tell you the mole’s location.” She craned her neck to look up to me. “Did you just get back? Did one of the others swap with you?”

  “Yes, Illudere is there right now. Blair texted me, too, saying she had some shit she needed to do. Pretty sure she has a date, but she refused to tell me. Anyway, I’m home now, so why don’t you head to bed? Get some rest?” I suggested.

  As much as I’d missed her and wanted to spend some quality time with her, she was clearly exhausted. I was not going to be the reason she missed sleep, not when so much depended on Charisma and her work. We wouldn’t have any kind of lead if not for her, and I was confident she was going to be one of the key pieces to bring not only the mole down, but the whole resistance.

  “Can’t sleep. Gotta work. Rebels to catch, code to write. I need coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Is there such a thing as coffee in an IV? Sign me up for that, too. I want five. Don’t bother watering it down, just throw it my way. I’d eat the beans if I thought that would work but they taste kind of nasty. Don’t ask how I know that.”

  While she spoke, she closed her eyes again and laid her head back against the couch, falling asleep in record time.

  I just stared at her, amused.

  Instead of fighting her to try and get her to bed, I decided to take matters in my own hands. I scooped her up, sighing in contentment when she curled up in my arms, resting her head on my shoulder, and carried her to the bedroom.

  Knowing her penchant for sleeping in the nude—a fact I much appreciated especially when she sought out my body heat in the middle of the night without conscious thought—I took her shirt and jeans off, making a mental note to get her some shorts or more comfortable shit to wear while she was inside. Spending the entire day even inside the house wearing jeans could not be comfortable.

  I left Charisma in her underwear, covered her up with the soft duvet and went back into the living room to get her laptop. I’d just leave it on the side table for her, this way if it started going off again, she could make it stop faster than any of us could ever manage to.

  When I got back to the room I noticed Charisma had curled over my side of the bed, grabbed my pillow and was cuddling it.

  She was totally falling for me. I just wished she would realize that.

  But that was okay, I’d stick around until she did. I had no reason to go anywhere.

  I turned the bedroom lights off when I left, and headed to the kitchen hoping that one of the others had left some food ready in the fridge. I’d stay awake until Blair got back, then I’d leave her with Andres duty while I caught some rest too. Hopefully with Charisma still in bed.

  It wasn’t the ringing of the phone that woke me up.

  Oh, no.

  What woke me up was Charisma bitchslapping my face in an attempt to reach the phone that somehow had ended on my side of the bed.

  To say this was not my idea of a good morning would be an understatement.

  “Oh. Sorry. I thought you were a pillow.” Charisma’s apology was muffled, and when I looked at her, I saw she had her face hidden under the pile of pillows she seemed to prefer sleeping with. Seriously, she had three or four pillows that she claimed as her own. I only had one. And each pillow had its own strategic positioning for her to be able to sleep properly. Her words, not mine.

  Instead of answering her, I reached for the phone on the nightstand and answered it, not trusting Charisma not to throw the phone across the room in an attempt to get rid of it and go back to sleep.

  She wasn’t exactly a morning person. And by that, I meant that she didn’t do waking up very well, no matter the time of day or night.

  Except for the one time I’d woken her up with sex. She’d had no trouble waking up that day.

  Something to think about later, that was for damn sure.

  “What do you want?” I asked on the phone, seeing it w
as Andres’ calling.

  “Hey, man, is Charisma with you? I tried calling her phone but it kept saying it was either turned off or out of service.”

  A tendril of annoyance rose at the fact he’d woken us both up to talk to Charisma. I wanted nothing more than to hang up the phone and go back to sleep, forget Illudere even existed.

  Then I remembered he was on the stakeout and this might actually be important.

  “Yeah, she’s just asleep. Is it urgent?” I asked, still unsure whether I should just hang up the phone or not.

  Charisma peeked out from behind the pillow that had been covering her eyes, clearly listening in. Since she’d decided for me, I put the call on speaker.

  “I think so, yeah.”

  “Hi, Andres. You’re on speaker phone now. What’s up?” Charisma said, her voice throaty from sleep doing things to me.

  “Hey, beautiful, it’s time to rise and shine.”

  Don’t hang up on the asshole’s face, Blaze. This call might be important, I tried telling myself so my temper would calm the fuck down. That was, until I glanced at Charisma.

  I snorted at Charisma’s annoyed face. Her hair was a pink mess around her, her face had red spots from where the pillow had been, and her eyes were barely open, but she was already full of snark.

  “Please don’t tell me you woke us up to be annoying,” she begged, looking up to the ceiling as if asking for divine patience.

  “No, actually. I think I may have something. So, I’ve been here in this fucking car for the last six hours, and I finally found someone interesting.”

  “I’m on the edge of my seat,” Charisma replied, rolling her eyes at me over Andres’ theatrics.

  He really was annoying.

  “Well, you know that Manteis kid that’s two years our junior? The annoying blond Divination family’s youngest heir who thinks his shit doesn’t stink and that he’s better than everyone else. The twins’ asshole brother. What’s his name again? I always call him dickhead.”

  Charisma jumped from the bed, wide awake. She moved so fast, even I was startled by the sudden move, dropping the phone on the mattress.

  “Minute Man? Minute Man lives there??” Charisma screeched.

  “Who?” Both Andres and I asked at the same time.

  “Michael. The baby Manteis. It’s a long story. Just… He lives there?”

  “Pretty sure he does, considering he came downstairs to get a pizza delivery and then went back up. Looks like even the mighty have a love for Italian food.”

  “I bet he likes pineapple on his pizza. He seems like the type,” Charisma directed her comment to me, making both Andres and I laugh before she went back to business.

  “His name is Michael Manteis, but everyone at AMIA calls him Minute Man. He’s an annoying pain in my butt. He could definitely be up to something. Can you keep an eye on him? Even though he’s not a Nightshade, it could still be him. Or someone he knows. Minute Man is shady as fuck. And if he leaves the building, follow him. I’ll try to see if I can get Blair to join you so one of you can be on building duty and the other can follow him around if he leaves.”

  “Sounds good. Although, good luck reaching Blair. I’m pretty sure she’s, erh... otherwise engaged and won’t pick up her phone. How about I call you guys if I see your Minute Man leave the building, and then you can send Blaze over to be on the lookout here while I follow him?”

  Charisma looked to me as if waiting to see if I’d agree, and at my nod she answered him. “Yeah, that works. Thanks, Andres. Be careful, okay? And stay safe.”

  “You got it, beautiful. Message me if you get anything from your end.”

  The line went dead and Charisma jumped from the bed.

  “Where are you going?” I asked her, admiring her half naked form as she headed towards the door.

  “I need my laptop. Gotta track the MET usage and make sure Andres is following the right person. Also, I need to call Christian and let him know of this latest development. If it really is Minute Man, I don’t know what we’ll have to do. He’s one of the heirs, Blaze.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something, Little Spitfire?”

  She turned to face me. “I don’t think so, why?”

  “You’re half naked, Char. And while I don’t mind the view, is that really what you want?”

  Charisma looked down at herself, saw she was in her underwear and cursed.

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I just did.” I smiled.

  “I mean why didn’t you say anything before?” Charisma started stomping around the room, looking for her clothes.

  “I was enjoying the view way too much.” I shrugged.

  She made this annoyed weird shrill sound before she grabbed some clothes. “Fuck it, I’m taking a shower. And you’re not invited to join me.”

  Well, that was a damn shame.

  “Fine. Go shower, I’ll make you some coffee. Oh, and your computer is by the bed. I brought it closer after I carried you here.”

  I got up from the bed and started to head toward the door, passing through a flustered Charisma and opening the door so I could get coffee started.

  Charisma didn’t let me leave, though. She held my arm before I could cross the threshold.

  “Where are you going?” She hissed.

  “To make coffee.”

  “You’re in your underwear!”

  “I know. It’s comfortable, and we’re alone in the house.”

  “But Blair could get here any time.” She kept tugging on my arm as if to force me back into the room. Her flushed face sparking with something that seemed a lot like jealousy.

  I quite liked it.

  “You heard Andres, she’s getting laid. She’s not going to be back here anytime soon.”

  “But you don’t know that. Go put some clothes on.”

  “I’d rather have a shower,” I replied, trying to fight my smirk from coming out. If I smiled, she’d be onto me and I’d lose my bargaining chip.

  “Urgh. Fine. You can shower with me. But no funny business!” She stormed into the bathroom and I followed behind her, checking out her ass as she walked.

  Oh, there would definitely be some funny business.

  38

  Charisma

  I was just sipping my nightly cup of coffee—yes, I had coffee at night too, there was no rest for the wicked. And besides, I could normalize my body clock once I had my life back—when my phone rang.

  “Hey, Andres. What’s up?”

  “Hey, beautiful. He’s on the move. I’m doing my best to follow him, but I didn’t go to spy school like you guys.”

  “There’s no spy school, Andres.” There was definitely a spy school.

  “Yeah, deny all you want. I know better. Listen, can you send Blaze over to survey the apartment just in case we have the wrong person? Also, can you keep calling Blair until she picks up? I think if we annoy her enough, she will. Send her over to stay with you. She has a bike, so she can be there fast.”

  “Aye aye, captain. Don’t worry, I got you covered.” I got up from my spot by the couch where I had been perving on Blaze while he exercised. The view of his glistening monster arms as he did pushups was amazing. I lightly tapped Blaze with my foot so he’d know I needed him and moved to the kitchen counter, where my pitiful work station was set up once more.

  “Keep me posted on where he’s going, call every hour if you can. I’ll man things from here and text you if we have any progress.”

  “Sounds good, beautiful.”

  I hesitated for a second.

  “Charisma? Are you still there?”

  I bit my lip. “Is it okay if I track your phone? This way I can keep an eye on your location too. Just in case.”

  It was Andres’s turn to hesitate. “Just while I’m helping you guys with this mission, right?”

  “Well, yeah. I wouldn’t invade your privacy if it wasn’t important.”

  “Okay, yeah. Do it. It’ll make both our liv
es easier.”

  “Thanks. And Andres? Stay safe. I’ll keep you informed on whatever I find on my end.”

  “Thanks. I’ll keep you posted too. Good luck.

  He hung up the phone and I booted the computer while I spoke with Blaze from over my shoulder.

  “Listen, Minute Man is on the move, Andres is following him and I’ll call Blair to try to get her on the case, but could you go to the apartment? Keep an eye there and make sure there’s no one else we missed?”

  “Sure. But, uh, why do you keep calling him Minute Man? Is there anything I should know about?”

  I stared blankly at him, until the full impact of his words hit me.

  Ewwwwww.

  From all the guys in Arcane, he thought I’d do something with Michael? Ewwww. I had standards.

  And I was no cradle robber.

  It wasn’t even Michael Manteis’ age that made him a child, it was his personality.

  Not even to stick it up to my family would I ever get involved with Minute Man.

  “Ewww. No. He lost a duel to me, and it was really embarrassing for him. Then he went on a losing streak and all his duels lasted less than a minute. Hence why Minute Man. It takes him a minute to fall over and be unconscious. I don’t know, I didn’t come up with the nickname. It just sort of happened.”

  Blaze had the decency of looking flushed.

  “Oh. Sorry, I thought...”

  “Yeah, and we really gotta talk about your alpha possessive male posturing once things settle down, because I am not a toy and I do not belong to anyone. But that’s for later. Right now, we need you to be in front of Minute Man’s building so Andres’s leaving it won’t fuck up our whole plan.”

  “Right. Sorry. I’ll just... sorry. Stay safe, okay?”

  I nodded and then watched him leave with a frown on my face before I got back to work. I really did need to have a talk with Blaze, and I probably should’ve been nicer to him just then, but he’d been getting on my nerves for a while and I had my limits.