Mags & Nats 3-Book Box Set

by Stephanie Fazio

  If the vials had been filled with anything else, I’d just smash them. But Agent S would burn right through the floor and probably eat through the whole building.

  “I’ll take care of it,” A.J. said. He flicked his hand, and the vials filed out of their hiding place.

  The window opened, seemingly on its own, and the vials zoomed out and up into the night air.

  “While you deal with that,” Yutika said, flipping open her sketchbook, “let’s talk Halloween costumes.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Kaira had dared suggest simply illusioning all of us, and Smith had made the even more daring suggestion of going sans costumes altogether. But when it came right down to it, no one was willing to take on A.J. and Yutika.

  “A party’s a party,” A.J. said, like he was spouting law or scripture. “The rules of engagement must be obeyed, which means we cannot cut corners.”

  So, while Michael drove to the dance club, the rest of us changed into our costumes.

  Normally, I enjoyed parties as much as anyone. Well, maybe not as much as A.J. At the moment, though, I was too preoccupied with what we’d learned about Diego.

  He was making the Magical Reduction Potion and injecting it into the Super Mags.

  “Can we open our eyes yet?” Smith grumbled.

  “Ready,” Yutika, Kaira, and I said.

  I was a little out of breath from squeezing into the outfit Yutika had made me. It was a mere inch or two away from sluttyville, but it was Halloween. Certain liberties were allowed.

  “Looking good, Girlfriend,” A.J. told me.

  “Back atcha,” I replied, grinning at our angel and devil costumes.

  I was the devil. Yutika had even made me a headband with horns and four-inch red thigh-high boots. The red halter top dress was sparkly. I kind of loved it.

  A.J. had a furry halo perched on his head and a white cape with attached wings. His black hair was full of glitter.

  Kaira wore a sexy cop uniform. She claimed it was subtle commentary on the Alliance’s legal system, but I thought the real reason had more to do with the way Graysen was practically drooling at the sight of her. He kept playing with the handcuffs on her belt and giving her fuck me eyes. The rest of us pretended not to notice.

  Graysen was dressed up as the top Mag soccer player in the world—an Argentinian whose name I could never remember. Yutika went as a hamburger, because in her words, she liked to watch the world burn. A.J. seemed ready to blow a gasket at the sight of her.

  “It’s definitely a black bean patty,” I consoled A.J., patting the relevant part of Yutika’s costume. “Non-GMO and everything.”

  No amount of cajoling, pleading, and threatening had gotten Smith to agree to a costume. He would be staying in the van to monitor his tech and was generally opposed to fun.

  And Michael, looking utterly miserable, had a French fries costume waiting for him as soon as he got out of the driver’s seat.

  Kaira illusioned herself and Graysen as soon as we rolled up to the club, but the rest of us were costumed up enough that no one was going to recognize us. Besides, Liquid Magic wasn’t exactly the kind of place where reporters hung out.

  “Try not to get into too much trouble,” Smith said as the rest of us piled out. He sat back in his seat and stared at his computers.

  “We never get into trouble,” Yutika quipped as she squeezed her hamburger patty midsection out of the van.

  It was close to 2:00AM, but there was still a line wrapped around the block. We went right to the front.

  “Hey, Hank,” I called to the scowling bouncer who was guarding the door.

  “Bri, baby!” The giant man’s face cracked into a wide smile. “You little devil, you.”

  Laughing, I reached over to give him a hug.

  For a whole year before I’d joined Kaira and the others, I couldn’t do anything that required a tracker and file…which was pretty much everything. Since Liquid Magic was less scrupulous about documentation, they’d given me a part-time job as a bouncer. The money had been nice, but the best part had been getting to talk to someone besides my family for a few nights a week.

  “Come on in, Bri and friends.” Hank swept his hand at the door. The people waiting impatiently behind the velvet rope let out an enraged cry.

  Inside, the club was a madhouse.

  “Now, this is what I’m talkin’ about!” A.J. yelled over the pumping music.

  “You’re not in there to party,” Smith said across our earpieces.

  “Our priority is to find Diego and the Super Mags,” Kaira said. “Let’s split up.”

  “Kai and I will take the third floor,” Graysen said.

  “I’ll do the rooftop bar with Yutika,” Michael said.

  “There are good camera angles on the second floor,” Smith said. “Leave that to me.”

  “I guess that means you and me are down here, Devil Lady,” A.J. said into his mike.

  “Cool. I’ll take the bar,” I replied. “You start in the back.”

  My friends’ chatter filled my earpiece as I moved deeper into the club. The combination of strobe lights and costumes made it next to impossible to see people’s faces until I was on top of them.

  The smells of perfume, sweat, and alcohol were so strong it gave me a headache. I was glad I’d convinced A.J. to leave Sir Zachary in the van instead of bringing him in.

  “How are we supposed to find anyone in this mess?” Graysen complained. Even though his voice was in my ear, I could barely hear him.

  “We dance!” came A.J.’s immediate reply.

  Shaking my head, I pushed past a group of women dressed as vampires. I reached the bar, which was even more crowded than the dance floor. I leaned over the counter to try and get the bartender’s attention, since everyone knew that was the best person to get intel from.

  I yelped in surprise when cold liquid splashed down the front of my dress.

  “Oh God, I’m so sorry!” The man standing beside me glared at his empty glass, like it was the drink’s fault it had spilled all over me. He grabbed a handful of cocktail napkins and went to dab at the wet spot.

  “I got it,” I told him, taking the napkins from his hand and wiping up the spill myself.

  I reeked of tequila. Awesome.

  “Can I buy you a drink?” the man asked, ducking his head close to mine so I’d be able to hear him over the music.

  “I think you already did.” I gestured to my wet costume.

  “Ah shit, you’re right.” The man put his glass down on the bar and gave me an apologetic smile. “Can I make it up to you on the dance floor?”

  “Maybe later,” I told him distractedly as I tried to wave over the bartender again.

  “Just one dance?” the guy pleaded, clearly having missed my not-so-subtle dismissal. He reached for my hand.

  “I said no.”

  I didn’t want to turn titanium and blow my cover, but that wouldn’t stop me from knocking out a few teeth if this guy didn’t get lost.

  Normally I was more polite, but I was on a mission.

  “Have you guys found anything?” I asked into my mike.

  No response.

  I could still hear my friends’ voices in my earpiece, but my mike wasn’t working. I looked down at the wet spot on my cleavage, which included my mike.

  Damnit.

  I was contemplating whether it was worth trying to find Yutika and have her make me a new one, when the man reached for my hand again.

  I was just about to introduce his face to my knuckles when an intense wave of magic surrounded me. At the same moment, a male body pressed against my back. I caught the faintest hint of cinnamon as his lips grazed the side of my neck. Goosebumps flitted down my bare arms.

  “Sorry I’m late, cariño,” Diego said, loud enough for everyone in the vicinity to hear. He draped an arm over my shoulders and gave the drink-spiller a cold look.

  Diego was shorter than the other man by half a foot, but he gave off serious don’t te
st me vibes. I had no doubt which of them would come out on top in a fight. Maybe it was the tattoos.

  “You’re not hitting on my girl, are you?” Diego asked the other man.

  He didn’t shout, and yet, his voice carried above the music.

  “I, uh, was just going,” my unwanted solicitor said, making a graceless exit as he scampered back into the crush of people.

  “Twice in one night, Bri Hammond?” Diego quirked an eyebrow at me. “I’m beginning to think you can’t get enough of me.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” I replied, removing his arm from my shoulders. “And I didn’t need a rescue. I hope you weren’t expecting a thanks.”

  “I’d settle for another kiss,” he replied.

  “Fat chance,” I said, ignoring the reminder of how good his lips had felt on mine. “But since I have you here, you’re going to give me some answers.”

  “Gladly,” Diego replied smoothly. “But you’ll have to earn them.”

  “I’ll earn them,” I said through gritted teeth, “by agreeing not to beat you into a bloody pulp.”

  “You could.” The cocky bastard grinned and leaned closer. “But it’ll be so much more fun to do it my way.”

  Without waiting for a response, he took my hand and pulled me toward the dance floor.

  After a short internal debate, I decided to play his game. I could always get my answers and then beat him up. At the end of the night, the ordering didn’t matter to me.

  Besides, as long as he was with me, he wasn’t shooting any Super Mags up with MRP. If that was in fact why he’d come here. In spite of all the evidence, I still didn’t want to believe he was our magic ripper.

  “I’m surprised to see you out partying,” Diego said, leading me to a less crowded part of the dance floor. “Don’t you have more important things to do?”

  “I could ask you the same, Diego Agramonte,” I shot back.

  Surprise flashed across his face. I smiled to myself in satisfaction. So that was his real name. I filed that detail away to share with Smith later, since my mike was on the fritz. I could still hear my friends, I just couldn’t talk to them.

  “Where did you hear that name?” Diego asked. His voice was nonchalant, but there was an intense look in his eyes.

  “From my Techie,” I replied. “Now, it’s your turn to answer questions.”

  “Nuh-uh, cariño.” He wrapped his hand around mine. “You promised me a dance.”

  I’d done no such thing. Before I could tell him so, Diego spun me around and pulled me into the cradle of his arms.

  All at once, there was nothing between us. The heat of his body and magic surrounded me until it was an effort just to breathe.

  “She can fight,” Diego said against my ear. “But can she dance?”

  The tequila fumes must have gotten to me, because I didn’t immediately put him in a chokehold and drag him to wherever Michael was.

  I had no idea what it said about me that the first man to ever make my heart race was brewing MRP in his apartment and injecting it into Super Mags.

  Nothing good.

  “Okay, we’re dancing,” I said. “Tell me what was on that piece of paper you stole from me.” And then, because I was feeling feisty, I added, “Cariño.”

  I rolled my R like a native.

  Diego’s eyebrows shot up. “Hablas español.”

  Yeah, for four years in high school with a narcoleptic teacher who did more snoring than teaching. I knew some of the basics and pretty much all of the curses. My friends and I had downloaded and memorized a list of Spanish swear words while we were supposed to be reading Don Quixote in Spanish. We were so cool.

  “Suficiente.” I shrugged.

  Diego leaned closer so his lips touched my ear. “Tell me something dirty. In Spanish.”

  From the way his grip on my waist tightened, I knew he expected me to pull away. I leaned closer. I licked my lips, giving him the most seductive look I had in my arsenal. Judging from the way his breath caught, it did the trick.

  “Algo sucio,” I said, giving him the literal translation for something dirty.

  I never claimed to be mature.

  Diego threw his head back and laughed. And then, eyes still twinkling, he started to dance to the music.

  My body moved in time with his, like it couldn’t help itself. I hooked one arm around his neck—mostly to make sure he didn’t go anywhere until I got the answers I’d come for.

  It had been a while since I’d been this close to another person, and I couldn’t deny I was starved for the physical contact. I told myself it was that, rather than anything particular about Diego, that had me all hot and bothered.

  There was also no denying Diego was as good at dancing as he was at kissing. Not that I’d ever tell him that.

  “I like this,” Diego said, his hand skimming down my spine and splaying across my lower back. “It’s even more fun than fighting with you.”

  I scowled up at him, to which he responded with a smirk.

  “Cute costume.” Diego reached up to flick one of my horns.

  “And where’s yours?” I shot back, giving a pointed glare to his jeans and black T-shirt.

  “Don’t need one.” He stepped back until he was pressed against the exposed brick wall. Diego blurred out until he was completely indecipherable from the wall behind him. He’d even replicated a small crack that went across a row of bricks. If I couldn’t still feel his hands at my waist, I would have sworn he’d disappeared.

  “Neat little trick,” I told him.

  The brick wall camouflage disappeared as Diego turned back into his normal appearance.

  “I have lots of tricks,” he said, drawing me so close our hips and chests were melded together. “Would you like to see some?”

  “What I would like,” I said, trying to get a handle on my skyrocketing pulse, “is for you to tell me what you did with that paper you stole.”

  Diego’s lips quirked. “If memory serves, you were the one who stole it first.”

  “Where is it, Diego?” I demanded. I thrust my hands into his pockets, searching for the slip of paper that hadn’t been anywhere in the apartment we trashed.

  “A little to the left,” he said as I dug my hand into his front pocket. “But no woman has ever had to ask me that before.”

  “Ugh!” I gave him a hard push. “Where. Is. That. Paper?!”

  Diego grinned at me. “I threw it out as soon as I left the house.”

  I squinted up at him, trying to read his expression. All I saw in his eyes was amusement.

  “Why were you in Pruwist’s house, then, if not for that?” I asked, trying to stave off my panic at the possibility that he was telling the truth.

  He gave me an inscrutable look. “No special reason.”

  “Mm.” I stretched up on my toes until our lips were almost touching. Diego closed his eyes and tilted his head. His diamond earring winked in the club’s strobe lights. “It wouldn’t by any chance have anything to do with the MRP brewing in your bathtub, would it?”

  Diego’s eyes flew open. Fear, followed by anger, passed across his face. He took my upper arms and spun, so my back was digging into the brick wall.

  “What have you done?” he demanded in a harsh voice.

  All of his flirty teasing was gone, replaced by cold intensity. For the first time, I saw the obsessive person who had painstakingly compiled those information packets about all of the Super Mags.

  “Destroyed all of it,” I said casually. “Including the stack of Agent S vials you hid behind your dresser.” I gave him a triumphant smile. “You’re probably going to want to call in a cleaning crew, because—”

  Diego moved so fast I didn’t have a chance to react. His body blurred out until I could only feel rather than see him. Then, I became see-through, too. I felt Diego’s arms like a vise around me. And then, I was flying.

  Literally flying.

  I shrieked as we shot straight into the air. Colors blurred as m
y appearance changed to match the purple-and-blue strobe lighting on the ceiling.

  “What—” I gasped, just as I felt the brush of cold, clean air.

  Diego’s arms tightened around me as we spiraled straight through an open window behind the stage. And then we were in the sky, looking down at the club’s roof.

  I tried to shout at him to put me down, but I couldn’t make the words come. I was surrounded by night sky and the Boston city lights. Freezing air rushed by, but I was sheltered by the heat of Diego’s magic. He was so powerful.

  As we flew higher, I remembered our fight in Pruwist’s house. It had seemed like Diego was moving too quickly and silently for any normal person…even one who could camouflage his skin. I couldn’t figure out why it had sounded like his voice was coming from the ceiling.

  That’s why he’d been so impossible to pin down when we’d fought. Diego wasn’t just a Chameleon. The man could fly.

  And that could mean only one thing. Diego Agramonte was a Super Mag.

  CHAPTER 17

  We were on top of the John Hancock Tower—the tallest building in the city.

  I glanced over the edge and immediately swayed on my feet. If Diego’s arms weren’t locked around me, I might have gone right over. Heights weren’t usually a problem for me, but then again, I’d never been this high up and at the mercy of a psycho Super Mag.

  “What the hell?” I demanded, my voice coming out scratchy.

  I blew on one of my fists. I had no idea whether I’d survive a fall from this height even in my titanium form, but I knew my chances if I was normal bones and flesh.

  Well, at least now I knew how Diego had gotten out of Pruwist’s house when we’d trussed him up like a wild boar. He hadn’t needed his limbs because he could fly.

  “What did you do with my Agent S?” Diego demanded. He kept an arm locked around my waist. Unlike before when we were dancing, this didn’t feel like playing.

  “I already told you,” I said. “We destroyed it.”

  “Why?” Diego’s dark eyes were molten fury. When I didn’t immediately respond, he gave me a little shake.

  If I’d been anyone else, I might have been a little afraid of him.