Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection

by Anya Merchant

  “Kronenberg.” Victor turned away from Ella and leaned forward, one finger set to his ear out of habit. “Hey. What’s up?”

  “Oh, nothing much,” said Kronenberg. “There’s a million dollar bounty on your head. The FBI has been called in for a manhunt. And our house is in fucking shambles. I almost got shot!”

  “Sorry,” said Victor. “I made a mess of things. It wasn’t exactly my choice, though.”

  “I know,” said Kronenberg. “Look, they’re bringing me in for questioning. Lucy is going to be scooped up within an hour or two, probably. I can’t do anything to help you right now.”

  Victor shrugged.

  “It’s enough that you believe me,” he said. “It really is.”

  Kronenberg was silent for a moment.

  “There is… one piece of information that I can give you,” he said.

  Victor leaned forward.

  “Go on.”

  “The murders that you supposedly committed took place outside of a bar,” he said. “The police are swarming over the scene of the crime. What they haven’t pieced together yet is where the women work.”

  “Quit building the suspense and just tell me, already.”

  “148 Axel Street,” said Kronenberg. “It’s a small, discrete, Blue Horizon research lab.”

  Victor grinned and pumped his fist into the air in front of him.

  “Perfect,” he said. “Kronenberg, thank you.”

  “It’s what friends are for,” said Kronenberg. “Don’t go getting all emotional on me.”

  Victor chuckled.

  “Don’t tell them anything,” he said.

  “I won’t.”

  There was a beep on the other end of the line. Victor looked out over the city, feeling marginally better about his circumstances. He walked to the edge of the cliff and felt Ella’s presence behind him.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I’m not going to let this stand,” he said. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this, one way, or another.”

  Victor stepped out into open air and bound his diamond aura before she could finish her sentence.

  The city looked like a light show from above, especially with so many cop cars racing down the streets, sirens and lights working overtime. Victor bound his onyx aura to his senses as he passed over one of the poorer sections of the city, listening for the sounds of violence, of muggings, of fear. It was quiet, which made him feel a little better.

  With all the police out looking for me, there isn’t anybody left to protect the people.

  He’d learned the streets of Undercliff City as well as the back of his hand over the last few months. Axel Street was outside of the city proper, and was home to a small industrial park. Victor squinted to make out the building he was looking for and slowly descended to the ground. It was easy enough to spot, especially since it was on fire.

  Only the bare bones skeleton of a building remained. Flames licked their way out of the windows, and smoke poured up as though the entire structure was a massive chimney. Victor swore under his breath and landed in the street nearby, feeling the heat of the fire from several dozen feet away.

  He hadn’t taken a single step when he heard the gunshot. It missed him by mere inches. Victor whirled in the direction that it had come from and saw the lights of a car coming toward him at high speed.

  He dove through the air, desperately trying to position himself behind a pile of trash cans as the car passed by. More bullets ripped through the air. Victor flared his scarlet aura, spraying a desperate, fan shaped array of flames at the vehicle. They didn’t do much damage, but bought him a few seconds to think.

  This isn’t standard operating procedure for the police.

  The car whirled around, burning rubber as it turned and prepared for a second pass. Victor saw a face, illuminated by a single street light, leaning out of the window. It was one of Annette’s guards. He was sure of it.

  The car raced toward him again. Victor didn’t have time to think. Even if he took to the air, the men would have time to get a couple of shots off at him. He might be able to use his azure aura to block them with a shield of ice, but maybe not, depending on the caliber.

  He charged his scarlet aura, aimed his palm at the car, and released a massive burst of flame. It struck the BMW with enough force to knock it onto its side. Flames spilled out from the windows, the hood, everywhere that they could gain purchase. The car looked like a miniature version of the building, as though the same calamity had befallen them both.

  Victor blinked, and then sprinted over to it. There were people inside. He wasn’t a killer.

  I didn’t mean to hit it that hard. I was just… angry.

  It only took a single glance for him to discern the fate of the passengers. One of them, the man Victor had recognized, had managed to get half of his upper body out. The flames had traveled up his clothes, which he hadn’t been able to get off in time.

  There were no survivors. Victor felt numb for only a moment before his rage took over. Annette had framed him, and then sent these men to tie up the final loose end. She’d sent them to their deaths, and probably suspected as much when she gave the order.

  “Victor…” Ella materialized next to him, and took his hand into hers. “Hey. Take a deep breath. Don’t do anything rash.”

  Victor let out a small, painful chuckle. He shook his head.

  “I can’t let this stand,” he said. “I won’t.”

  He heard the sound of approaching police sirens as he took to the sky. It was going to be a long night.

  CHAPTER 5

  Annette’s house was in one of the more upscale neighborhoods of Undercliff City. It was a mansion, with a large garden, exterior pool, and a gate.

  Victor circled around it slowly, searching the area for suspicious cars, hired guards, or night security. There weren’t any, which was more unsettling than it would have been to find a small army waiting for him.

  Annette must have known that I’d come here if her attack failed. Why would she leave herself unguarded.

  Victor picked out a window on the second floor and circled around one final time. The jacket Lucy had given him was leather, and he zipped it up, hoping that it would be enough to stand up to the glass during his approach.

  He hit the window moving fast enough to shatter it, and immediately ducked into a forward roll, landing on the carpet floor clear of most of the shards. He stood up, brushed himself off, and felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle.

  No alarm sounded. He couldn’t hear any panicked voices, or stomping feet. As far as he could tell, the house was empty.

  Victor walked forward down the hallway. He’d been in Annette’s house several times before, and knew the layout well enough. She wasn’t the type of person who’d leave any evidence lying around in easily accessible areas. He frowned.

  Why did I come here?

  “Victor.”

  It wasn’t Annette’s voice that Victor heard, coming from just beyond her half opened bedroom door. It was Kiara’s, and of course it was. The door slid open the rest of the way, and Victor saw his friend, his partner, his lost lover, standing behind it.

  She had on an almost translucent white night gown. Her hair was longer than he’d ever seen it before, falling down to her shoulders and framing her face and neck. Victor could see the rich color of her blue eyes even in the dim light of the mansion. She was beautiful, and he had to remind himself of the facts.

  “Annette,” he said, sharply. “What have you done?”

  Kiara, or rather, Annette, smiled at him. She brushed a few locks of her hair back and adopted a confused expression.

  “What do you mean?” she asked. “What have I done about what?”

  Victor gritted his teeth. He took a step toward her. She didn’t flinch back.

  “You’ve gone through so much effort,” he said. “First to frame me, and then to… what, assassinate me? Did you really think your men would stand a chance?�
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  Annette’s laugh wasn’t anything like Kiara’s, even if it came from the same soft vocal chords.

  “Of course I didn’t think they’d stand a chance,” she said. “I wouldn’t have sent them if I thought they would.”

  Victor glared at her.

  “If you must know,” she said, stepping closer. “I thought that you, being the strong, resourceful man that you are, would find a way to prove your innocence.”

  “I will,” said Victor.

  “You could have, before.” Annette leaned in close enough for her voice to be heard at a whisper. “But now, you’ve actually killed people, Victor.”

  He felt anger flush through his chest.

  “That…” He shook his head. “It was in self-defense.”

  “Those men are part of my security force,” she said, softly. “They showed up after the building alarm triggered, and arrived to find you burning the facility to the ground.”

  “You…” Victor reached out and grabbed Annette’s wrist. “You bitch.”

  Annette laughed again. Victor wanted to attack her. He wanted to fling her across the room, to use his auras, to bring her to her knees in front of him.

  “You can’t do it, can you?” whispered Annette. “You can’t attack me in this body.”

  She pushed herself against him, and Victor felt Kiara’s breasts, her soft body, and smelled her sweet scent. Even wearing Annette’s perfume, she still smelled like Kiara. And though he loathed to admit it, she was right.

  “I will find a way to stop you!” he said, through gritted teeth.

  “It seems like…” Annette’s hand slid down to his crotch, feeling his erection through his pants. “You have more on your mind than just stopping me.”

  Victor pushed her away. Annette laughed again, and a crimson red glow snapped to life around her body. Victor felt her flaring his emotions, sparking his arousal and forcing out all other thoughts. He doubled over, his cock so painfully hard that he could barely think.

  “I could get you out of this, Victor,” she said. “It’s not too late. Just ask me for help, come back to work for me, and we can join together as a team.”

  “No!” Victor leaned back against the wall of the hallway. He tried to force himself to look away, but he couldn’t. Annette slowly pulled the nightgown up and over her head, revealing Kiara’s shapely naked figure. She took another step forward and began unzipping Victor’s jeans.

  “You could have her,” she whispered. “You could have me.”

  “Kiara!” he shouted. “I know you’re still in there!”

  Annette flinched slightly, but immediately regained your composure.

  “Kiara doesn’t exist anymore,” said Annette. “Not as a separate entity.”

  She forcefully pulled down his jeans and fell to her knees in front of him, naked and ready to please.

  “Listen to me, Kiara!” he said. “You have to take control!”

  “Do you want that?” asked Annette. “Is that really what you want?”

  She slowly slipped Victor’s boxers down over his erection and then nuzzled her cheek against it. Victor hated her, but couldn’t stop himself from moaning as her tongue tentatively slipped out, softly caressing the underside of his shaft.

  “Stop it.” He tried to reach down to her head, but his arms felt weighed down.

  “Relax, Victor,” whispered Annette. “Just enjoy it.”

  She planted a kiss on his cock and then took it into her mouth. She flicked her eyes, Kiara’s eyes, up at him as she began to suck. Victor could almost trick himself into thinking that it was really her, and not just her body.

  “Mmmf.” Annette made a tiny noise as she brought her mouth down further on his cock, letting it probe into the back of her throat. She swirled with her tongue, stroking him with wet, hot flicks.

  Annette continued sucking, moving her lips with rhythmic movements of sexual worship. Victor wanted to put a stop to it, but the effects of the scarlet aura took his control out of the equation.

  He didn’t want to enjoy it, but that didn’t stop it from feeling incredible. It was compelling in a way that few things are. Her lips were perfection, and her mouth was heaven. And he wanted to cum more than he’d wanted anything in a very long time.

  Annette bobbed her head back and forth faster. Victor slowly sank against the wall, his legs barely able to hold him up. He regained enough control over his arms to grab onto her head, gently guiding it back and forth.

  “No…” He felt his orgasm building, betraying him to the enemy. “No!”

  Victor began to cum, and Annette pulled her lips, Kiara’s lips, back. His seed splashed onto her face. It was all a trick, a means by Annette to fuck with his head even further. He was demeaning Kiara, her body, and whatever part of her was still inside Annette. It was painful, and sadistic on the part of Annette.

  Footsteps came from the other end of the hallway. Victor pulled up his pants in time to see several of Annette’s bodyguards approaching.

  “Help!’ Annette screamed. “He’s… He’s…”

  She fell away from him, her face twisted into an Oscar worthy expression of fear and disgust. Victor heard gunshots ring out. His body, still fatigued from the mental influence of Annette’s scarlet aura, didn’t move fast enough. One of the bullets tore into his shoulder.

  A man in a black suit ran forward and tackled Victor. He slammed his elbow into him, but the man was built like a linebacker, and took the blow as though it were no more than a slap in the face.

  “Restrain him!” screamed another man. “And set up a perimeter outside.”

  Victor felt his arms being pinned to the ground by the second guard. He tried using his azure aura to put them to sleep, but it wasn’t working. The men were too aware of his influence, and too dedicated to their jobs.

  “I’m sorry,” whispered Victor. He grimaced, and then bound his scarlet aura to his hands, making physical contact with both of the men and pushing heat into their expensive dry cleaned suits.

  Screams filled the air, along with the smell of charred clothing and flesh. Victor forced himself up in time to see Annette preparing to hurl a blast of fire at him, one powerful enough to kill the two nearby guards and possibly him.

  Victor ran to the window and threw himself out of it, leaving a small trail of dark, red, blood droplets in his wake.

  CHAPTER 6

  Victor’s injury made it difficult to focus on keeping his diamond aura bound and staying in the air. His path through the sky was similar to a fly with a torn wing, meandering wildly from side to side and dropping into the occasional low, dangerous dip.

  He didn’t know where he was going. There wasn’t anyone waiting for him, and appearing in public would only lead the police to his location.

  His ability to maintain forward momentum slowed to a standstill as he flew over a section of the city’s southern outskirts. Victor skimmed low enough for a landing, tripping over his own feet as he made contact with the overgrown grass of an abandoned lawn.

  He rolled several times, the movements made painful by his throbbing shoulder, and then sat up. The block he was on was an old residential neighborhood, and as far as he could tell, it was abandoned.

  Victor stood up and walked to the door of the nearest building. He tried the handle and let out an audible sigh of relief when he found it unlocked. It was dark inside and smelled of mold and cats, but he didn’t care. He closed the door behind him and collapsed on the dusty floor.

  “Victor…” Ella materialized at his side, letting her hands rest on his arm. He didn’t say anything.

  “Victor.” Ella shook him gently. “Hey.”

  He was still silent, too exhausted and overwhelmed to put enough effort in for even the most basic of conversations.

  “You’ll get through this,” whispered Ella. “Don’t give up.”

  Victor closed his eyes and almost immediately drifted off to sleep.

  He awoke the next morning lying in a pool of his own
blood. There was more of it on the floor than he’d expected. His injury had closed up enough to stop the bleeding at some point, which he probably owed to his accelerated healing abilities. Ella was sitting next to him, with one hand on his forehead, like a mother taking a child’s temperature.

  “Did you sleep well?” she asked. Victor scoffed at her.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Clearly.”

  “You’ll have to get up and moving soon,” said Ella.

  “Why?”

  “They’re going to start going from door to door,” said Ella.

  “How do you know?” he asked. Ella smiled at him.

  “Because in their eyes, you are the bad guy,” she said. “They aren’t going to stop. Not now, and not ever.”

  Victor took a deep breath and then pushed it out in a single powerful burst, as though doing some kind of deep breathing exercise.

  “Maybe it’s time I start acting like the bad guy?” Victor stood up slowly, brushing himself off.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Victor ignored her. He focused his awareness on opening the nano connection he used to communicate with Lucy and Kronenberg.

  “Hello?” he said. “Anybody there?”

  Half a minute went by before he got an answer.

  “Jesus Christ, Victor!” said Kronenberg. “What the hell did you do?”

  “I didn’t do-“

  “They’re saying that you burned down the facility I sent you to!”

  “Do you think that’s the truth, Kronenberg?” he asked. There was a pause before his friend responded.

  “I… No,” he said. “I don’t.”

  “I need your help again,” he said. “And you’re not going to like what it’s going to involve.”

  “Just tell me what you need,” asked Kronenberg. “Don’t give me any more details than that.”

  Victor nodded and looked out the window of the abandoned house. It was early morning, and the impoverished neighborhood looked like something out of a war zone.

  “I need to hit Annette where it hurts,” he said. “Her security company. Do you know what it’s called, and where the central base is?”