Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection

by Anya Merchant

  “Companion Robotics has a design philosophy focused on fulfilling the needs of people who need special accommodations,” she said. “Mostly that relates to physical work, heavy lifting, cleaning, and that sort of thing. But we are called Companion Robotics, after all.”

  She opened the door, and Victor stepped into another mockup set, this time a bedroom. A gorgeous woman in lingerie was lying on the bed, resting back on her elbows and staring forward with a seductive, albeit slightly vacant expression on her face.

  “Uh…” Victor scratched his head. “This isn’t-“

  “Oh, don’t be shy,” said Rion. “Ever since that article in Popular Mechanics, we’ve been getting quite a few people stopping in to talk about purchasing a robot for their… special needs. Renee, why don’t you show Victor what you’re made of?”

  The attractive robot slowly nodded her head, reaching up to her brazier and letting her fingers slowly glide across.

  “She’s anatomically correct, with Lifex Velvet skin, warmed from the inside out. She’s also self-cleaning, and can charge for a three-hour session overnight.”

  The robot shifted position, leaning forward on her hands and knees. Her breasts jiggled realistically, and Victor felt transfixed by his curiosity for a moment.

  “Erm, this isn’t exactly what I meant,” said Victor. “Look, I’ll just be straight with you. I’m here on behalf of Monteiro. We’re investigating an incident involving an attack on one of our employees.”

  Which is essentially the truth, even though it wasn’t on company time.

  “Oh.” Rion’s face darkened, and she frowned at him. “What makes you think Companion Robotics would have anything to do with that?”

  “We recovered one of the drones involved in the attack,” said Victor. “Look, all I need is a list of any recent clients purchasing drones of this type.”

  “There’s no way I can do that,” she said. “Customer confidentiality. It’s impossible.”

  Victor gritted his teeth. The urge to use his scarlet aura on her was almost overwhelming. She’d tell him everything he needed to know and more, and he’d probably have fun getting the information out of her.

  I can’t. Not this time, not after what happened with Sabrina.

  “Now, if you’re not interested in placing an order, I’d appreciate it if you vacated the premises.”

  “Hold on.” Victor frowned, and massaged his temples with his fingers. “Uh… I am interested in making a purchase.”

  “You are?” Rion blinked in surprise.

  “I am,” he said. “Truthfully. It’s the reason I volunteered to be the one to come here today.”

  “Alright,” said Rion. Her expression softened slightly.

  “But before I do, I just want to explain to you what’s at stake here.” Victor spoke slowly, in a serious tone of voice. “People could die if I don’t get this information. One person already almost did.”

  Rion frowned. The conflict on her face was clear, and it was exactly the reaction Victor had been hoping for.

  “This isn’t information I can give out, not even to customers,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Please. Look, there were a couple of airborne drones, along with one that looked like a giant metal snake. They all looked shiny and new, probably recent deliveries, and it was here in Undercliff City. Just give me an address, and I’ll become a customer here. You must get a commission on single sales at a place like this, right?”

  Rion folded her arms. She was silent for several long, drawn out seconds. Finally, she nodded.

  “Whatever,” she said. “But you didn’t get this from me. And I’m charging the down payment to your account before giving you anything.”

  “That’s fine,” said Victor. “Uh, I think. How much is it going to be, exactly?”

  She told him.

  There goes my rent money for this month… and next month. And my entire food budget.

  CHAPTER 18

  Victor left Companion Robotics with a yellow post it note in his pocket and a spring in his step. Rion hadn’t told him the name of the buyer, but the address was near where he’d followed Bruce to the night before.

  That’s too convenient to be a coincidence.

  It was mid-afternoon, and the sky was overcast to the point of being dreary. Victor passed people on the sidewalk and felt a strange sense of eeriness as he looked into their eyes.

  The robots in the factory had looked real, far more detailed and expressive than he’d been expecting. Now, when he saw actual people, part of him searched for the telltale flaw that would identify them as being less than human. He saw a man walk by with a limp, and his brain jumped at the chance to characterize the gait as being a side effect of silent motors and rubber lined joints.

  I’m just being paranoid. Clearly.

  He made his way into the outskirts of the city, carefully stepping by patches of broken glass from beer bottles and refuse piles. Most of the buildings were run down, abandoned, relics of the 20th century that were awaiting their demolition days.

  There was one, however, that stood out. It was painted a plain gray, while the buildings around it were covered in graffiti. It was windowless, with no apparent holes in any of the outer walls, and large enough to take up the entire lot it was on, with a clear parking area to the side.

  Victor knew it was what he’d been looking for without even needing to check the address. He approached slowly, even though his excitement pushed him to run over and rush inside.

  Before coming close enough into range to make his intentions clear, Victor bound his onyx aura and enhanced his senses. He looked up and down the street, spotting only a few pedestrians behind him on the verge of being out of sight.

  He spent a few minutes listening, but other than the sound of melted snow dripping from rooftops, and cars in the distance, he couldn’t hear anything. That, on its own, was enough to make him suspicious.

  Victor frowned, released his aura, checked around his immediate surroundings once more, and then slowly began walking toward the front door of the building. He didn’t hear any alarms go off. Nothing came rushing out to intercept him, human or drone.

  Maybe it’s just an abandoned building? Rion could have played me just to close the sale…

  He took the last few steps up to the door in slow motion, and then paused. Listening with his onyx aura again, he still heard nothing, other than a gentle electric hum that could have been attributable to almost anything.

  Victor took a slow breath and tried the doorknob. It was locked, which was to be expected. A clicking noise came from behind the door and he immediately flinched to the side, setting his back against the wall of the building and holding his breath.

  The silence returned, and after waiting for a few seconds, Victor shelved his paranoia and tried the doorknob again. This time, it turned, and he was able to push the door open with ease.

  He stepped into a large room with high ceilings, filled with row after row of computer servers. The air was cool, other than him the room was empty, and something felt very, very off.

  There’s no security here? That doesn’t make any sense.

  The door closed behind him and Victor jumped in surprise. He spun around in time to see a tiny led light on the locking mechanism change from green to red.

  Other than that, nothing happened. He tried the door again and found, to no surprise, that it was firmly locked. The server banks buzzed out a gentle, constant, electric hum. Victor explored the room slowly, finding nothing other than more advanced computer technology. There were a couple of desks with large monitors, along with a few choke points where thick bundles of wires connected into unidentifiable hubs.

  He paused as he passed by one of the desks in the center of the room. It had a computer monitor on it, a paperback book left dog-eared, and a pair of sunglasses of the same brand and style that Bruce had been wearing the last time Victor had seen him.

  “I fucking knew it,” he muttered. “Lucy is going t
o be ecstatic when I tell her about-“

  Victor froze in midsentence as a strange energy shifted inside his body. It was almost like the sensation that went through him when he tried to use his nanites, except he hadn’t been trying to, and the energy was stronger than it would have been if he had.

  He blinked, and the room disappeared, replaced by a plane of white emptiness.

  “What the…”

  Victor whirled around. There were no walls and no ceiling above him. He could see his body, but other than that, all he could see in any direction was a perfect, unblemished expanse of white, seemingly stretching out to infinity. Even the floor, or whatever he was standing on, had an empty white depth to it, as though he was staring through glass and into nothingness.

  “Finally. I was starting to get sick of waiting.” A soft, reassuring, feminine voice spoke from every direction at once. “Don’t be afraid, Victor.”

  “No way…” He shook his head. “I’ve finally lost it, haven’t I?”

  The voice let out a beautiful chuckle. It sounded familiar and soothing, though Victor was sure he’d never heard it before.

  “You haven’t lost anything,” she said. “In fact, you’ve gained a great deal.”

  “Let me go…” said Victor. “Let me out of here!”

  Fear coursed through him, the kind that only a person only feels when solidly backed into a corner. He let out a snarl and bound his scarlet aura, shooting out a blast of fire into the air in front of him. It continued outward indefinitely, only stopping when it ran out of energy.

  “That won’t do you any good,” said the voice.

  Victor sent out another fireball into the air over his head. For a moment, it hung in the air, doing its best impersonation of an exploding sun. And then it reached its limit and dissipated, just as the last blast had.

  “Please,” said the voice. “Do not misinterpret my intentions.”

  “Let me go!” shouted Victor.

  He let out blast after nano aura infused blast. He scanned the horizon with his onyx aura, seeing nothing. He thrashed and threw pointless punches into the empty air.

  “Just relax, Victor,” said the voice. “It’s okay.”

  His vision began to fade to white, and his body disappeared, first in his field of view, and then in terms of sensation. It felt like he was going to sleep, and though he tried with every fiber of his being to resist it, he couldn’t. He didn’t even have to close his eyes.

  CHAPTER 19

  Victor blinked. A drop of sweat dripped from his forehead down into one eye, and it stung enough for him to justify stopping the rickety push mower to wipe his face.

  What was I doing? Right, I have to get the lawn done

  He stood in the front yard of the small, suburban house that his father had purchased eight years earlier. He was 18, and it was the summer after his senior year of high school.

  “Hey, Victor! It’s hot out today, huh?”

  Victor turned and saw Mrs. Deckland jogging down the sidewalk. She was wearing running clothes, a tight top and a pair shorts that looked almost painted on. She smiled and waved to him as she came to a stop in front of his house.

  “Oh,” he said. “Hey.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Is everything okay? You seem a little out of it…”

  “I just got the weirdest sense of… something.” Victor shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe déjà vu?”

  Mrs. Deckland laughed. Her chest shook slightly, and Victor’s eyes were immediately drawn to it. She was an attractive woman, and had a bit of a reputation around the neighborhood, though how much of it was fact as opposed to rumor was up for debate.

  “Why don’t you stop by my place tomorrow?” she asked. “I could use a strapping young man like you to help me with some… yardwork. I’ll pay you for your time.”

  Victor grinned at her.

  “Throw in a cold pitcher of lemonade and I’m there,” he said.

  Mrs. Deckland smiled back at him, swished her ponytail around, and returned to her morning run. Victor grabbed onto his lawn mower and had pulled it back into position when he spotted Ella.

  “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that she was trying to turn you into her latest young conquest.”

  A girl of medium height with auburn brown hair, faint freckles, and a lovely smile stood leaning against the white picket fence that separated Victor’s yard from the neighbors.

  “And that’s a bad thing… why exactly, Ella?” Victor grinned, knowing how the comment would get under her skin. Ella shot him an exaggerated glare, and then carefully hopped over the fence, moving with the grace of a gazelle.

  She was barefoot and wore a floral printed sundress that looked a little small on her. She had lovely breasts, on the larger side with a gravity-defying bounce, though Victor did his best not to notice, as he had for most of their friendship.

  “She’s like a predator,” said Ella. “She’ll just eat you up and spit out the bones.”

  “You make it sound more painful than it would probably end up being,” said Victor. “And I believe the term you’re looking for is cougar.”

  Ella rolled her eyes and then turned to look at the half-mowed lawn. She walked across it with slow, careful steps, surveying his work as though she were his employer. Victor stifled his irritation and tried to resist sneaking a peek at her butt, which looked incredible in the dress.

  Easy, now. This is Ella, the same girl that used to literally cry over spilled milk.

  “You still have work to do,” she said. “Haven’t you been at this since this morning?”

  Victor shrugged.

  “I waited too long to cut it,” he said. “The stupid blade keeps getting clogged on the grass.”

  She turned back to him and folded her arms across her chest, as though considering his words. Victor watched her for a moment and then looked away. It felt weird to meet Ella’s gaze. The two of them had grown up together, but so much had changed, physically and how they interacted, both with each other and the rest of the world.

  “So… my mom is out of town,” said Ella. “It’s just me at the house tonight. All alone. By myself.”

  “Are you throwing a party, or something?”

  “If by ‘party’ you mean, ‘curl up on the couch with a book’, then yes.”

  Ella skipped over to where he stood next to the mower. She put her hands behind her back and leaned her face in close to his.

  “I found a bottle of wine that got left out of the locked liquor cabinet,” she whispered. “Do you want to drink it with me?”

  Victor grinned.

  “There’s only one answer to that question, and you know what it is,” he said. “I have to finish cutting the grass first, though.”

  “That’s fine,” she said. “Come over tonight. You can hang out at my place for dinner.”

  “Sure.”

  “Don’t you have to clear it with your dad, first?” asked Ella.

  Victor shook his head.

  “I’d be surprised if he even notices that I’m gone,” he said. “The only thing I have to do is meet up with Ricky for a little bit. He said he needed my help with something.”

  What was it again? It’s… kind of hazy.

  “Alright, cool.” Ella smiled at him, her entire face beaming with a genuinely beautiful presence. “Text me if anything else comes up.”

  She held her hand up in a tiny wave as she walked back over to the fence, pausing to hike her dress up slightly and flashing a bit of thigh. Victor shook his head and forced himself to turn back to the lawn.

  CHAPTER 20

  It took him about an hour to finish, due to the repeated clogging of the mower. Victor stored the machine back in the shed and headed inside to wash his hands.

  The upstairs of the house was empty. Victor didn’t even bother to knock on the basement door. His dad was consumed by his work to the point of obsession, and as much as it had affected him when he was younger, Victor had
grown used to it over the years.

  Instead, he headed upstairs to his room and called Ricky. He got his friend’s answering machine and bummed around for another ten minutes or so until he got a call back.

  “Hey, man.” Ricky’s voice was high pitched and prone to stuttering. “Are you, uh, ready?”

  “About as ready as I can be,” said Victor. “What is it I’m helping with again?”

  “I just need your help getting something back,” he said. “It shouldn’t be too big of, uh, of a deal.”

  “Then why do you need my help?” asked Victor. “I don’t mind, but if it’s no big deal, why not just-“

  “I’ll be at your place in five minutes!” said Ricky. “T-thanks.”

  The line went silent. Victor frowned at his phone and stuffed it back into his pocket. He waited for Ricky outside on the porch, half hoping that Ella would wonder over again and flirt with him some more.

  Ricky showed up exactly when he’d said he would. He’d been Victor’s best friend since he’d first moved to town. Physically, he was Victor’s polar opposite, short and chubby without any muscle to speak of. But Ricky had a great sense of humor, friendly demeanor, and actually gave a damn about people other than himself.

  “You finally got around to mowing the lawn,” said Ricky. “About time.”

  Victor grinned at him.

  “Yep. The grass put up a good fight, that’s for sure.”

  Ricky walked up onto the porch and leaned against the railing. He was sweating, and his expression carried a hint of frustration that only someone who knew him well would have picked up on.

  “So what’s up?” asked Victor. “I can’t remember the last time you were this secretive about something.”

  “It’s, er, complicated,” said Ricky.

  “Just give me the short and skivvy, then.”

  Ricky frowned and let out a frustrated grunt.

  “It’s fucking Mark,” said Ricky. “He… stole something from me.”

  “You mean Mark, the guy you buy weed from?”

  Ricky’s frown deepened.