I had wanted something just for me, just for a moment. Something separate from the Five that I could hold, that I could have for myself.
A choice. A choice made without it being backed by orders or preceded by committee discussion.
For a long while now, every now and then, Mark had looked at me. Across a shared meal or during a recon session. He just looked at me. And in that look, I thought … I felt beautiful, wanted.
He was looking at me that way now, surrounded by team members who deserved our best efforts. Who needed to trust that we would all put our lives on the line for each other. Otherwise, we would cease to function as a unit. And we would all die.
I focused again. I shook my head bluntly. “You are retreating without me. Protocol dictates that the wounded are —”
Calhoun cut me off, switching out his gun for a series of rune-marked stones and a simple slingshot. “You’ve already seen to that, Amp5. I’m commanding officer of this unit. My orders stand.”
Flynn and Jackson separated, facing each other as they dropped their guns across their backs. Each of them snapped their arms up before them, bent at the elbow, readying a dual cast.
“The five of us are more than enough to take down this shit-beast.” Sasha Piper let out a rippling snarl behind me. Then her human visage shifted as her own beast tore through her skin to tower over me, all furred muscle, sharp teeth, and rending claws. Her armor was flexible enough to transition with her.
I clenched my teeth, putting my head down and my blades up. I would let the others do their jobs. Arguing any further was a waste of time. Despite the magical protections and the shielding we all wore during a mission — and even hazarding a guess that the magic coating the demon must have been masking it from general view — any minute now, we were going to pull unwanted attention.
As cloistered as I was kept by the Collective, even I knew that beings of power patrolled this world, enforcing rules of magical conduct. The guardians of the magically Adept. If there hadn’t been such power, there wouldn’t have been any reason for the Collective to form, to unite across magical species, to create the Five. A tool capable of doing all the deeds that would be frowned upon by those who had the power to enforce a basic set of rules on the Adept world.
Such as summoning a greater demon in the middle of LA in broad daylight.
I had a more personal reason for never wanting to meet such a guardian, though. I really didn’t want to face anyone or any force that the Collective feared enough that it inspired them to create me. To create the possibility of what I could do.
So. The demon needed to be vanquished, quickly and efficiently. Before it drew any attention.
Flynn and Jackson snapped their magical net into place. Thick ropes of writhing, dark-blue energy stretched between them. Flanked by Calhoun and Piper in her half-beast form, they rushed the demon. I kept pace a few steps behind them. Sherwood stayed behind me.
In practice, the net would take out the demon’s back legs, forcing it into a lowered position so that I could finish it off. United, the Five wouldn’t have needed the backup of the team or the net at all. But reality rarely unfolded in any way that could be trained for or anticipated.
The demon watched us.
If I hadn’t known any better, I would have sworn it looked amused by our antics.
That angered me.
Yes, completely irrational anger.
A demon was always a reflection of sorts of its summoner. And that summoner — a black witch if Sasha’s sense of smell was as accurate as usual — was playing with us.
Flynn and Jackson deployed the net. Dark-blue tendrils of power snapped out, wrapping around the demon’s hind legs.
The creature opened its many-toothed maw in a mockery of a smile, reached down a three-clawed hand, ripped away a section of the netting, and ate it.
“Lay fire!” Calhoun barked.
The team splintered, tossing a series of premade spells in a rapid sequence around the demon. Calhoun deployed his slingshot, hitting the creature dead center between the eyes with three spelled stones in rapid succession.
Fire, edged by sorcerer magic, exploded all around the demon. It reeled back, staggered by Calhoun’s headshots.
Then whatever spell coated its scaled hide, whatever allowed it to appear while the sun still hung high in the sky, absorbed the fire. Consumed it. It struck forward with both arms, bellowing its displeasure at whatever pain we’d caused. Its shriek boiled through my mind, frying my brain.
Flynn and Jackson stumbled under the onslaught. The demon knocked them down the rest of the way, sending them flying past me.
I kept running, ducking behind and around Calhoun as he crouched to shoot another series of spells, landing another round of bull’s-eyes. Sherwood was tight on my heels.
The demon reared back.
Sasha Piper darted forward and across, scoring its exposed belly with claws and fangs.
Sherwood made a break for the stairs.
I leaped onto the lip of the roof, then onto the top of the exterior stairwell, bringing my blades forward as I took the final leap onto the demon’s back.
Its hide was slick with magic. My blades didn’t find purchase. I scrambled for footing, wedging my feet against the sharp spurs of its external spine. Then I started to climb toward its head.
It twisted and reared, trying to knock me off. But Flynn and Jackson had rejoined Calhoun and Sasha, and Sherwood was firing from the shelter of the stairwell. The demon was fighting on two fronts.
I reached its head, anchoring my stance as best I could. Then I skewered the demon with both blades, straight into the spot where its brain should have been if the placement of its eyes was any indication.
The creature stilled.
A shudder ran through it.
Then it reached up, grabbed me, and threw me across the roof.
I regained consciousness with Calhoun, Flynn, and Jackson huddled around me. I blinked, mentally checking that all my limbs were still attached and in working condition. They hurt, but they moved when commanded. My blades were still in my hands, still tied to my magic, as they would be until I chose to release them.
We were covered in a dome of magic. A shield.
A last resort that most certainly wouldn’t hold against the demon for long.
“Sasha?” I asked.
Calhoun’s expression tightened, but he kept his gaze on the demon. “X5 pulled you to safe ground, then covered you until we regrouped.”
In other words, she hadn’t survived protecting me.
I pressed my aching head back against the concrete, fighting a wave of grief that was all my own. X5 — Sasha Piper — had spoken of having a family. She’d talked of going hiking in the mountains near her childhood home, of chocolate-and-bacon-flavored ice cream. She had smuggled a green sundress and a mango into the compound two weeks previously, having found both in a local market on our last mission.
She’d brought them for me.
Not only wasn’t I allowed out of the compound, I certainly wasn’t allowed to wander even when we were working. I wasn’t allowed to wear dresses or eat food not supplied by the Collective. Sasha and I had eaten the forbidden fruit in the communal bathroom off the cafeteria, juice running down our fingers while we stifled our laughter. I hadn’t even chanced trying on the dress, instead stuffing it under my mattress still in its tight roll.
That night, I’d fallen asleep imagining … imagining the life that dress promised. A life filled with colors and choices. Daily decisions.
Pain surged up in my throat. I choked it back down. Then I pulled myself up into a crouch, casting my gaze around for the demon. “Report,” I barked.
“You’ve been down for about six minutes,” Calhoun said, stripping off his gloves. “We’re pinned. The demon is badly hurt, but appears to be healing rapidly. We can’t cut through the magic coating it with the limited firepower we brought with us. Sherwood made it off the roof, but hunkering down in the stairwel
l and waiting for us to get him out of the building will be his best bet.”
Flynn and Jackson carefully tucked away all their weapons and ammo. Then they also stripped off their gloves.
“We’re implementing final protocol,” Calhoun said. “The Amplifier Protocol.”
I stared at him. Then I glanced down at the bare hands he and the others were holding out to me. I had no idea how Calhoun even knew about the Amplifier Protocol, let alone why he would offer it as a solution.
“Like hell you are,” I snarled.
“Amp5 …” he started, angry. But then he softened his tone. “Socks. You aren’t getting off this roof any other way.”
I looked at each of them in turn, incredulous. “So you’d sacrifice yourselves?”
Flynn shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe it won’t kill us.”
I snapped my teeth shut on an angry retort, on the suggestion that they were anywhere near powerful enough to survive.
I wasn’t thinking about the demon, though.
They would have to survive me. Survive what I could do to them.
The Amplifier Protocol was untested. Entirely theoretical. And for good reason. Even if it didn’t kill those whose power I was drawing from, no one had any idea what kind of long-term effects it might have. Our trainers weren’t certain that even I could survive the massive gathering and casting of magic from multiple sources at once.
“Next suggestion,” I said coolly. “The Amplifier Protocol isn’t an option.”
“It’s the only option.” Calhoun scrubbed a hand over his face, readying some sort of argument.
I thrust my blades forward in response, sending a pulse of my power through the weapons and slicing through the ward shielding us.
The demon was waiting for me on the other side.
Feeling the shield magic collapsing around me, and blinded by my own rage, I attacked. Whirling, striking. Driving the already wounded demon backward, then to the side. The others joined me, casting the final rounds of their magical arsenal, then making a break for the stairwell door. I had cleared the way to that exit with fierce, efficient brutality.
It helped that I’d already badly wounded the demon. But it wasn’t enough.
The demon knocked me down. I rolled under its follow-up strike, seeing Flynn and Jackson make it to the top of the stairs. Flynn was carrying someone. I hoped it wasn’t Calhoun.
Claws scored my side. It was just a glancing blow, but agony raked through my torso and I fell to my knees. I rolled forward, between the demon’s legs. It lifted a hind foot to crush me.
Magic exploded around its head, from the direction of the exit.
Calhoun.
I looked up. Blood obscured my vision. Evidently I’d hit my head at some point, possibly when the demon had thrown me off its back and knocked me out. I’d reopened the wound, and it was bleeding badly.
The demon swiveled toward Calhoun.
I made it to my feet, stupidly scrambling forward. Stupidly forgetting my training, forgetting everything but the feel of Mark’s hands on my skin, drawing pleasure from me …
I shoved Calhoun down into the stairwell, taking the blow intended for him across my back. Screaming, I rolled with the attack, trying to follow Mark through the exit. But the demon stomped down on my legs, breaking both in a fiery agony of pain and pinning me in place.
Then it loomed over me. Leering. Slathering.
It chuckled.
The sound reduced my brain to mush.
The creature flicked its twelve-inch clawed fingers tauntingly in my face, calling my attention back to it. Then it raked those three claws across my stomach.
Again and again.
It punctured my armor.
Over and over.
I screamed. Again and again.
The demon was playing with me.
But there wasn’t anything more I could do, trapped and broken beneath it.
I was truly alone. Possibly for the first time in my life.
The pain faded. I didn’t wish it back.
Instead, I thought about the comforting feeling of falling asleep every night with Tel5 in my head, even though thick concrete walls and layers of magic separated us. I thought about laughing with Cla5 over some silly joke in a battered children’s book. I thought about Nul5 … the warmth of his hands, feeding his magic with my own need for … a release —
The demon hooked its claws under my chin. It was crouched over me as if anticipating how it was going to finish me. Then it would eat me, like it had eaten the magical net. It liked to eat magic. And I was exceedingly magical.
But I was too powerful to be eaten. Filled with my blood, my magic, a demon of this magnitude might break free from its summoner.
And if that happened, many, many innocent people would die.
I gurgled up blood, trying to speak. “Come closer, pretty boy.”
It leaned in, intent on biting my head off, perhaps.
I stabbed upward with my blades with the last of my strength, the last of my magic. As I skewered the demon’s upper palate, its acidic blood spurted all over me. It shrieked, rearing away.
Magic welled up, writhing around the demon. Blood magic, either triggered by the creature’s mortal wound or by the summoner if she was in the vicinity, not wanting to lose her pet.
A black sinkhole appeared under the demon, as if the roof had just opened up to the depths of hell. The creature shrieked, reaching its three-clawed fingers for me, trying to pull me with it.
Then it was gone.
Calhoun and the others were shouting, snapping med-spelled wrappings over me. Most likely trying to hold my guts in place.
I didn’t look.
I released my blade, lifted my hand, and allowed myself to touch Mark’s neck as he leaned over me. Allowing myself the skin-to-skin contact. Just one more time. “I didn’t thank you for last night.”
He met my gaze, seething in fury. “I think you just did.”
I laughed, choking on blood.
Everything went black.
Chapter 2
I wasn’t on the roof anymore. The air was artificially cool. The room around me felt large but empty, smelling of disinfectant …
I was in a medical facility of some sort. If I’d been transported all the way to the compound, I’d definitely lost a chunk of time somewhere along the way.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t open my eyes.
But the pain was gone.
Magic whispered across my mind. A gentle questing touch. Tel5. She was trying to show me something telepathically, helping me hear what she was overhearing.
“She needs to be put down.”
A woman. I didn’t recognize her voice. And I wasn’t certain who ‘she’ referred to.
“On what basis, Silver?” The male voice sounded oddly amplified and muffled at the same time. It was coming over a speaker. “Successfully completing her mission? Rescuing me?”
“I’ve been telling you, all of you, for years that the empathy is a problem. An unfortunate oversight when we bred her.”
“I forbid any unsanctioned action against any of the Five. And especially against Amp5.”
Silver laughed coldly. “And why is that, Azar? Beguiled by those pretty green eyes? Remember we gave those to her.”
“Don’t be petty, Silver.”
“The Collective will see the incident differently. Amp5 had every opportunity to implement the Amplifier Protocol. That’s the action she’s been trained to take.”
“This wasn’t a test. This was an extraction. A successful extraction. The Five functioned exactly as they’ve been trained to do, including forcing the summoner to withdraw or lose the demon.”
Silver snorted, tapping her nails on a hard surface. A table? A desk?
“The shifters shouldn’t have gained such easy access to me,” Azar said. His tone grew suddenly hard edged. “And shifters rarely work with witches.”
“Your point?”
“The commanding officer�
��s report indicated that the summoner was a black witch.”
“And this is relevant to the issue with Amp5 how?”
“Not in any way, Silver.”
“I’m taking the matter to the Collective, Azar. One rotten apple ruins the bunch.”
He laughed harshly. “Certainly you aren’t suggesting that we wipe out the entire generation?”
“I’m suggesting we have a conversation. We review the situation. And yes, then we reboot.”
“Convene the Collective, then. A discussion will be had.”
“I’ll send out notice today.”
“And, Silver? I will also be tabling a resolution suggesting that your tenure as overseer should be shortened, effective immediately. After all, the Five were compromised on your watch …” A soft shifting of sound emanated from the speaker. Azar was flipping through papers on his end of the conversation. “… including Amp5 being attacked by a member of her own team —”
“Simply another example of —”
“Your incompetence.”
“You dare, sorcerer?”
The unfinished conversation faded from my mind, as did the comforting feeling of Tel5’s presence.
But I knew she was alive. And that she was nearby, if she could pick up and share an overheard conversation between the sorcerer Azar and the current overseer of the Collective, Silver Pine. I hadn’t recognized the overseer’s voice because I’d never been in the same room as her. But I knew who she was.
I was back in the compound, then. Immobilized somehow, but … aware. For the moment, at least.
One rotten apple ruins the bunch …
I opened my eyes, slowly coming to the realization that I was staring at a white ceiling. I blinked. Steel-caged, flat-mounted light fixtures came into focus. Six of them, evenly spaced. I blinked again. Three sprinklers. An air vent was situated in the upper corner to my right — the most likely place for a hidden camera.
The Amplifier Protocol (Amplifier 0) Page 3