Eli’s eyes had a cruel sheen to them. He met Victor’s gaze for a moment, making his meaning as clear as he could without saying it out loud.
“What do you want from me?” asked Victor, in a quiet voice.
Eli was silent for a long moment.
“You’ve done so much for Monteiro, Victor,” he said. “I don’t want anything from you. I want to help you, and to reward you for all of your hard work.”
When it became clear that Victor had no intention of replying, Eli continued.
“I know you met with Annette Lockwood, Victor,” he said. Victor shrugged.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“See, this is exactly what I mean,” said Eli. “I’m trying to help you. Really, I am. But you have to let me help you, Victor.”
His tone and cadence carried the hidden meaning behind his words. Victor forced himself to stay calm, and to play Eli’s game.
“I needed her help finding my way back into the subway tunnels,” said Victor.
“So she was interested in the Labyrinth?” Eli frowned, and rubbed his chin. “Hmmm… That makes sense. What else?”
“She offered me a job,” said Victor. “And that was pretty much it.”
Eli pulled his chair in closer. He smiled at Victor, and then took his index finger and tapped several times on his injured rib cage, sending a jolt of pain through his body each time.
“You’re valuable to our company, Victor,” said Eli. “I want to enable you and your special talents, to give you the room you need to make more of a contribution. That’s why you’ll be working for me, from now on.”
“You’re the CEO,” said Victor. “I already work for you.”
“I mean directly,” said Eli. “What happened down in the Labyrinth was a… breach of protocol, on the behalf of the elder Ms. Wilson. She’ll be reprimanded for her actions.”
“And I’m to be rewarded?” asked Victor. “It was my choice to be down there.”
“I want what’s best for everyone involved,” said Eli. “For you, for Lucy. For Kiara. I want nothing but the best.”
I can’t say no. Kiara is being treated here in Monteiro Tower. Eli has all the leverage he needs over me.
“…Alright,” said Victor. “I’ll work for you.”
Eli grinned.
“Great!” He stood up and nodded to Victor. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”
He turned and walked over to the door. Victor sat up just before he walked out of the room.
“If you hurt Kiara, or do anything to her that puts her in jeopardy, I’ll kill you.”
Eli looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with him. Victor saw something cold, heartless, and not entirely human stirring behind his pupils.
“No,” he said. “You won’t.”
He closed the door behind him as he continued out into the hallway. Victor started to lay back down on the bed when he felt the soft sensation of a woman’s thighs underneath his head.
“I’m still here,” said Ella. “And I know exactly what our next move will be, Victor. Nobody threatens you and gets away with it.”
Victor let out a long breath and closed his eyes.
BOOK FIVE
THE BETRAYAL
CHAPTER 1
The higher up you go, the colder it gets.
Victor squinted his eyes against the wind, feeling the chill of it to his bone. He’d taken the time to dress properly this time, but even his bomber jacket and an extra pair of sweatpants under his jeans weren’t enough to keep the icy touch of the sky out of his body during flight.
He pulled into a gentle dive in order to skirt underneath the edge of a fast moving, dark cloud. Flying through clouds, even in the middle of spring, was a quick way to end up soaked and on the verge of hypothermia. The sound of the wind, and his clothes desperately flapping against it, was the only thing he could hear.
Undercliff City was a vibrant collection of buildings, lights, and cars around a thousand feet below him. It was Victor’s home, but from above, it looked almost unrecognizable, at least at night.
The city’s center was alive with activity, while the outside edges made him think of dead branches, waiting to be pruned. It made for a scene that looked a bit like a volcano of fluorescent light, exploding out of a single point within the earth, and surrounded by ruins.
Victor sped up a little bit, feeling his body curve upward as he fought against the wind. Using the diamond aura to fly was an art, an ability that it would likely take a lifetime to master. And he was willing to put in the effort, though sometimes his own reckless mistakes hinted at him not needing to worry about investing for retirement.
He let himself sink into a controlled fall and then curved at an angle, flying himself toward the top of the highest of the cliffs that the city took its name from. Bringing his legs underneath him, Victor made an attempt at slowing himself down enough to land in a run.
His feet hit the ground and his body shot forward as though he’s tried to step out of a moving car. Victor tucked his chin and head, pulling his entire body into a ball and letting it roll. Familiar scabs along his back and shoulders broke open. Even with his accelerated healing, they still weren’t getting enough time to close up completely.
Maybe I should consider buying a parachute? It’s not stylish, but at least it’d put a stop to the concussions.
He let the momentum carry his body as far as it would take him and then uncurled, lying motionless on the ground. The light pollution from Undercliff City was too intense for him to make out many stars, but the moon looked amazing, and the clouds pushed their way across the sky at an even clip.
Victor sat up, felt for any serious injuries, and then stood to his feet. He was out flying that night for a reason, just as he’d been the night before that, and the night before that. For a moment, he looked down over the edge of the cliff, remembering something. Then, he broke into a sprint, and leaped into flight.
It was harder for him to fly slow than it was to fly fast. It was a confusing limitation and one that got in the way more often than not. Because of it, Victor had developed a flight path through the city, one that he could take easily without having to worry about being seen by pedestrians, or more importantly, slamming into buildings.
He fell into his standard route, watching the people below go about their business like ants. This was another challenge for him, as it required him to perform a double binding, using his diamond and onyx auras at the same time. The more Victor learned about his abilities, the more he became convinced that his skill with them was no more than that of an amateur.
But this time, he managed it. He saw a lot of people shamefully staggering down the street, heading home after a guilty Sunday night of drinking. He saw an entire crowd of people gush out of a movie theater, as though someone had opened a human valve to release pressure. And then he saw something that reminded him of the reason he was out and about.
In the northern outskirts of the city, a woman was moving at a pace that was just a little bit too fast to be comfortable. A group of three figures, men, Victor assumed, were following a short distance behind her, and even from a hundred feet up, he recognized their body language.
They’ve found their target, and I’ve found mine.
Victor deviated from his regular flight route, doing easy and slightly dizzying circles over the scene as it progressed. The woman broke into a sprint, taking a few frantic turns through an alleyway in an attempt to get away.
The men split off to surround her as though they’d used the same tactics many times before. Victor glowered at them from above and slowly closed in on a nearby rooftop.
His landing wasn’t much better than the one before had been, and this time, it was a gnarly spill against a concrete roof. Victor winced. With Ella’s help, he’d managed a couple of easy landings before, but he’d decided early on that relying on her to enhance his abilities was setting himself up for disaster. So instead he bit the inside o
f his lip and hoped that the blood from the open scratch on his back wouldn’t stain his new t-shirt.
“Aww, come on, sweetheart!” shouted a gruff male voice. “Don’t be like that!”
“Stop it!” shouted the woman. “My… my husband works for the FBI.”
The men laughed. Victor winced as he sat up. He rubbed a hand over the back of his head and felt a badly swollen lump. There was a certain amount of humor in the fact that he was already injured before any fighting had been done, and he tucked it away for later musing.
“Well guess what,” said the man. “Me and my friends? We work for the cops, too. And we think you might have weapons on you.”
The woman screamed. Another male voice laughed.
“Yeah, that’s it,” said another voice. “Search her real good.”
Victor reached the end of the roof and vaulted over it with a single, neat movement. He landed on the ground next to the men and earned the reaction he’d been expecting. All of them froze and stared at him.
“The fuck do you think you’re doing?” demanded a gruff voice, who Victor assumed was the leader.
“I’m stepping in here,” said Victor. “I thought that much was pretty obvious. It’s not your fault though. I’m sure you and your friends have been drinking tonight and aren’t entirely in a grounded state of mind.”
The three men looked at each other. The man standing behind the woman kept his hold over her, while the other two broke away, and moved to face off against Victor. It was his turn to laugh, which neither of the men seemed to find all that funny.
“You need to get the fuck out of here before we wipe that smirk off your face,” said gruff voice. “This ain’t any of your fucking business.”
Victor met his eye and acted as though he was deep in consideration over the man’s suggestion. Over the past few days, he’d encountered enough small time criminals to get a sense of the best way to handle these situations.
“Either you let the woman go,” said Victor. “Or all three of you end up in the hospital.”
He held up his hand and flared his scarlet aura to life, creating a miniature fireball over his palm. The men flinched back visibly.
“He’s…” The gruff man hesitated. “He’s just a stupid fucking magician, or something. Like fucking David Blaine.”
Victor flicked the fireball directly at the man. It hit him in the chest, instantly igniting the man’s shirt and escalating his situation into an emergency. The man screamed and fell back. Victor counted three seconds before flicking to his azure aura, using it to suck the heat out of the flames, and likely sparing the man’s life.
“Well?” asked Victor. “What’s it going to be?”
The man holding the woman pulled something out of his pocket and brought it to the woman’s neck. Victor didn’t need to be able to see in the dark to know what it was. He grimaced, wishing that he’d taken a more aggressive approach from the start.
“We’ll cut her if you don’t stay back!” said the man, his voice shakier than appropriate, given his words. “Just… stay back!”
He thought about his options. The onyx aura would be the surefire way to disable the man, without harming the girl, but it always left a bad taste in his mouth and on his psyche. Using his scarlet aura would only result in getting them both killed, or maybe worse. If he used it at a low level, he’d flare the arousal of both of them, and essentially push the rape forward.
He could put them all to sleep with his azure aura, but then he’d have to look after the girl, and the men could pass the incident off as a weird hallucination, and continue down the path they were on.
No, there’s a better way than that.
“Well?” shouted the man with the knife, more nervous than demanding. “What’s it going to be?”
Victor lifted up his hand and waved it dismissively, using the movement to hide a gentle binding of his diamond aura. The knife flew out of the man’s hand and through the air, and the man stared at Victor in disbelief.
“R-run!” he shouted, pushing the girl forward. Victor caught her as all three of the men darted down the alleyway. He let them go, knowing that the best path forward was for the girl to call 911.
“Are you okay?” he asked. He bound his onyx aura to his eyes to get a better look at her. She had a small scratch on her neck, probably from the way the knife had shifted when he knocked it out of the thug’s hand.
I need more practice.
“You… you saved me,” whispered the woman. She was actually quite attractive, and dressed in clothes meant for an upscale club or party.
“I did,” said Victor. “But you should get somewhere safe if you want to keep it that way. Do you have a place you can go?”
“My apartment is just down the street,” said the woman. “You can… come with me, if you want?”
She twirled her finger through her hair and gave Victor a look that made him blush slightly. He cleared his throat and forced his head to shake back and forth.
“Would that I could,” he said. “But the city needs me.”
“Okay,” said the woman. “Do you at least want my number?”
“Just remember to call 911 once you get home, and give them a good description of your attackers!” Victor turned her in the direction she’d indicated and gave her a small push on the butt. The woman glanced back at him one last time and then started walking.
CHAPTER 2
“She’s probably already fallen for you, you know.”
Ella materialized next to him. She put her hand on his shoulder and poked him in the cheek with her index finger.
“She didn’t even see my face,” said Victor. “And why does it matter, anyway?”
He turned toward Ella and grabbed onto her waist, grinning slightly. In many ways, she was almost a figment of his imagination, the memories of a long lost love mixed with the personality of an AI squatting inside the leftover computing power of his nanites. In many other ways, she was far more than that, sharing experiences with him that went beyond anything he could share with an ordinary friend or lover.
“Hey, I’m just saying what I know you were thinking.” Ella couldn’t actually read his thoughts, in most instances, but this time she wasn’t entirely off base.
Over the past two weeks, Victor had been building a bit of a reputation for himself. A few tabloid stories had gone to press relating to the “mysterious man” who’d been using magic and impeccable timing to save a number of people in Undercliff City from violence and robberies. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, but a tiny part of his ego was flattered by the attention, even if it was tucked away between articles about bigfoot and alien abductions.
“You’re always looking for opportunities to let your jealousy act up.” Victor eyed Ella’s soft lips for a moment and then thought better of it.
“Is that such a bad thing?” asked Ella.
She was just as attractive as the real Ella had been, the one Victor had known in what was essentially another life to him. She had long auburn hair, the breasts and body of the girl next door, and a face adorned with faint freckles and a gorgeous smile. She was wearing a tight fitting black leather jumpsuit, though her appearance could vary as easily as she could change her mind.
“I have to continue my route,” said Victor. “The night’s not over yet.”
“You can stop punishing yourself anytime you feel ready,” said Ella. “It’s been two weeks. You don’t have to-“
“It’s not about that.” Victor cut her off sharply. “This city is fucked up. A lot more fucked up than I realized. People need help.”
Ella came up behind him and softly rubbed his shoulders.
“And you need sleep,” she whispered.
Victor was about to voice his objection when his phone vibrated inside his zippered jacket pocket. It was his second new phone in two weeks. They tended not to survive for very long when he was moving through the air at high speed, and the early mistake of keeping them in his pants pocket had cos
t him almost half his savings.
“Hello?”
“Victor.” Lucy Wilson’s voice came through clearly on the other side of the line. It was soft, feminine, and familiar in a way that caused a stab of guilt to pierce into his heart.
“Lucy,” he said, taking a step away from Ella. “…Hey.”
“I haven’t seen you for the past few days,” she said.
“Yeah. I’ve been busy, and with the transfer…” Victor winced.
For the past few months, he’d worked directly under Lucy at Monteiro, who’d once been his father’s assistant and a bit of a surrogate older sister to him. That had come to an end after his last major case, when the owner of the company, Eli Monteiro, had made the decision to transfer him up to the top floor, to work under the big boss directly.
“Eli asked me about you, Victor,” said Lucy. “I know you’ve been skipping work.”
Victor took a deep breath.
This isn’t a conversation I want to have.
“I’ve been sick,” he said.
“Yeah, that’s what you told him,” she replied. “But you don’t get sick. Not like everyone else does, at least.”
The months old scars on Victor’s chest ached slightly. There was another reason for his withdrawal, beyond wanting to help the city, and beyond any plausible excuse he could offer. And he got the feeling that Lucy was about to push him into admitting it.
“They let me see Kiara again, this afternoon,” she said. Victor’s hand shook slightly, and he shifted the phone deeper into it.
“How is she?”
“They still don’t know what’s wrong with her,” said Lucy. “She’s still in a coma, but they still don’t know exactly why.”
“They…” Victor paused, choosing his words carefully. “They won’t let me see her, Lucy.”
Emotion leaked into his voice as the last few words came out. Victor blamed himself for it. He had been with Kiara when she’d been captured during their last case, and even though he’d rescued her in the end, he still hadn’t forgiven himself.
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