Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection Read online

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to run through it one more time,” said Victor. “I’ve worked the simulation into my training regiment.”

  Kiara frowned at him.

  “That’s good,” she said. “But you’ve been awfully focused on it lately.”

  “And that’s a bad thing?”

  She shook her head.

  “It’s just…” She chewed her lip, choosing her words carefully. “At least get a haircut, and a decent shave.”

  Victor scowled at her. His hand automatically went to his face, feeling the coarse, scraggly stubble that had developed over the past month.

  The last time I shaved was before we went up against the biosplices.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “There are more important things for me to focus on right now.”

  “Victor,” said Kiara. “You have to stop beating yourself up. Or at the very least, work a minimum level of self-care into this ‘training regiment’ of yours.”

  Victor folded his arms and said nothing. Underneath his t-shirt, he could still feel the scars given to him by the crazed preacher after their last investigation had gone south. His other wounds had healed with unnatural speed in the weeks following that incident, all except for the letter shaped burns on his chest.

  “Are you finished?” asked Victor. “Can I get back to my training, now?”

  Kiara stared at him for a moment and then walked to the center of the empty room.

  “Load it up again,” she said. “My turn.”

  “What?”

  “I have to train, too,” said Kiara. “You’ll have to rest for a few minutes before you’re ready to run it again, anyway.”

  Victor started to object and then shrugged his shoulders. He’d slowly been ramping up the difficulty of the simulation fight for the past two weeks. The man in the suit could now use all four nano auras with more skill than anyone he’d gone head to head with before. The only way Victor could possibly eke out a victory was by mastering each and every movement.

  Or I could figure out how to use the other nano auras.

  He walked over to the corner of the room and began setting up the simulation with his eyes closed. Kiara was more talented than him and able to use all of the auras in one capacity or another, but Victor doubted she’d stand much of a chance.

  “Suit yourself,” he said. “The fight starts as soon as the simulation begins.”

  “I’m ready.”

  Victor leaned against the wall and used his nanites to will the situation into starting. The simulation room vanished, and in its place was an abandoned city block on a cloudy, moonless night. The man in the suit stood across from Kiara and immediately charged at her.

  Kiara let out a battle scream that carried enough ferocity and primal anger in it to make Victor flinch. She flared her azure aura, sending out a massive blast of ice, and then immediately followed it up with a quick binding of her scarlet aura, shooting out a gout of flame.

  She continued like that, the glow around her flickering from red to blue as she alternated between attacking with each aura. Kiara let out another shout and hurled herself forward. The man in the suit had a frozen hand, and one of his shoulders was on fire, but he managed to launch a fireball of his own at her.

  Kiara flared her onyx aura and dodged it as though it was second nature to her. She leaped into the air, extending both feet out in front of her and slamming into the man with a perfectly executed dropkick.

  He fell to the ground, and before he could regain his composure, Kiara was on top of him. Her body glowed an intense, blinding shade of red as she bound her scarlet aura to him directly, disintegrating the hologram’s flesh with fire. He let out a choked scream as his body ignited, the essence of him turning to ash like an exaggerated enemy death in a video game.

  The fight had lasted less than fifteen seconds. Victor blinked and stared at Kiara, his face expressionless, and his pride bruised.

  “That’s how it’s done,” she said.

  Victor brought a hand to his forehead and sighed.

  CHAPTER 2

  Victor bristled at Kiara’s self-satisfied smile as he made his way back to the center of the simulation room.

  The fact that she can use all of the auras isn’t something I should brush off.

  “Don’t look so glum,” said Kiara. “I’m just giving you an example of what you should be striving for.”

  Victor rolled his eyes.

  “And what a modest example it is.”

  “Oh, shut up!” Kiara let her shoulder bang against his playfully as he passed by, and Victor felt his annoyance with her melt away.

  The two of them had grown close in the short time they’d known each other. In Kiara, Victor had found a friend, a rival, and most importantly, someone who understood, at least in part, what he was going through.

  “I’ll have it figured out by the end of today,” said Victor. “I have to admit, it did help seeing how you…”

  He trailed off, noticing that Kiara was no longer listening to him. He followed her gaze to the front of the simulation room, where a tall, handsome, twenty-something man in sunglasses stood, smiling broadly.

  “Bruce…” Kiara walked over to him, shaking her head in excitement. “You’re back?”

  “Yeah.” The man grinned at her. “Figured I’d just drop by and say hello. Calling has never been my style.”

  Kiara laughed and wrapped her arms around him. One of her legs lifted up in a stereotypical, woman swept off her feet fashion, and Victor tried his best not to throw up in his mouth.

  “Are you going to introduce me to your friend?” asked the man. Kiara pulled back slightly, keeping one hand on his chest.

  It almost looks like she forgot I was even here…

  For some reason, Victor felt a stupid smile spreading across his face. He wasn’t happy with the new development, but a sardonic voice in the back of his head reminded him that it’d been far too long since fate had thrown him a curve ball.

  “Of course,” said Kiara. “Bruce, this is Victor Anders. He’s the new friend I was telling you about.”

  Kiara turned to look at Victor, her eyes pleading for him to play nice.

  “Victor… This is Bruce Stillman.”

  Victor nodded and walked over to join the two of them. Bruce was grinning as he extended his hand, and it took all of Victor’s self-control to keep from binding his scarlet aura and burning the other man’s palm as he shook it.

  “Nice to meet you, Victor,” said Bruce.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Likewise.”

  Nobody said anything for a dreadfully awkward moment. Victor chewed on the inside of his lip slightly and tried to reel in his emotions.

  In their last mission, circumstances had led to Victor and Kiara getting to know each other in a physical sense. It had been in a desperate attempt to jumpstart their nanites, rather than out of intimacy or lust, but it had still happened.

  Well, Kiara told me that there was someone else right after we got to safety.

  “Bruce is the founder of Eternity, the software company,” said Kiara. “And an old friend of mine.”

  Bruce put an arm around Kiara, as if adding emphasis to the last point. She blushed slightly, but said nothing.

  “Eternity, huh?” Victor raised an eyebrow. “And now you’re here in Undercliff City?”

  “I grew up in Undercliff City,” said Bruce. “Of course, my company is based out of Silicon Valley, so that’s where I spend most of my time now.”

  “Are you going to be in town long?” asked Kiara.

  “Actually, I’m looking into the prospect of opening a remote office around here.” Bruce smiled at Kiara, and then grinned at Victor. “It would be nice to have a slightly more permanent presence in the area.”

  Victor cleared his throat.

  “If you don’t mind, I was in the middle of doing some training.” He felt a hint of his anger slipping into his voice. “I’m sure you have places to be, Bruce.”
r />   “Of course,” he said. “Kiara, you want to get some coffee at my hotel? Maybe catch up for a bit?”

  Kiara nodded slowly, the inner conflict showing in her eyes.

  “Later, Victor.” Bruce flashed one last cocky grin and then began walking to the door with his arm wrapped around Kiara. Victor looked away just as it began to slip down below her waist. He counted to three after the door slipped shut, and then reset the simulation.

  The man in the suit was wearing the same style of sunglasses as Bruce, this time. Victor bound his scarlet aura with more emotion than he’d felt in a long time and let it all out in a single explosive blast.

  CHAPTER 3

  Victor stayed in the simulation room for a while. Monteiro had set up a reservation system for the 12th floor holo rooms, and he had his booked for the entire day. After meeting Bruce and seeing Kiara’s delighted reaction, he felt too frustrated to leave without having at least a little fun.

  He locked the door and then, using the computer next to it, carefully disabled the internal cameras. Lucy had given him the password to the system for troubleshooting a few weeks earlier, and he quickly discovered a few other reasons why it was a handy thing to have on hand.

  It’s not just for fun. I also have to keep my nanites healthy, after all.

  He walked back to the center of the room and closed his eyes, using his nanites to pull up a custom simulation he’d developed a few days earlier. Victor opened his eyes and smiled at the half dozen gorgeous goddesses standing in front of him.

  “Hello, Victor,” said the one in front, as she walked over. He grinned at her and blushed slightly.

  It was a juvenile, frivolous, and somewhat silly way to use the advanced technology of the simulation room, and he knew it. Victor had just turned 20, and even though he was on the mature side for his age, moments like this made him feel like a very typical, very horny, young man.

  I’m not going to make excuses. It’s harmless fun, just maybe not the family friendly kind.

  The women were all gorgeous, and each one had a different body type, hair style, and outfit. Victor had pulled them from the simulation room’s databank, where each one had been listed with a generic name. He’d heard from Lucy that all of the standard models were created from body scans of actual people. Somehow, that made what he was doing feel a bit dirtier, and a lot more fun.

  He pulled his t-shirt over his head and slipped out of his sneakers and jeans, frowning at the singed leg as he did. The woman in front was a gorgeous young blonde with voluptuous breasts and hips, and she wrapped her arms around Victor’s waist and smiled mischievously at him.

  “Victor,” she whispered. “You’ve been a bad, bad boy.”

  A brunette with a petite body started hugging him from behind, planting soft kisses on his neck. A young woman who looked to be around the same age as him ran her hand down to his crotch, and several others ran their hands across his chest and shoulders with soft, seductive movements.

  This is heaven.

  He slowly dropped down to the ground, making out with the blonde woman who lowered herself down on top of him. She pulled off her frilly pink top and two huge naked breasts popped into view, bouncing with perfection as they slipped free.

  The woman giggled and began stroking Victor’s cock as she planted soft, wet kisses on his cheeks and lips. Another woman made a soft cooing noise and planted a kiss on his stomach. All of them were stripping their clothes off, and within seconds, Victor’s view contained more female nudity than he’d seen in person in the rest of his life combined.

  The blonde woman’s smile said more than words ever could have. He’d designed the simulation with maximum pleasure in mind, and every inch of Victor’s body pulsed with horny erotic intensity as his nanites flooded his body with sensual emotion.

  All of the women were naked now. Hands ran across his stomach, legs, and crotch. Kisses from a half dozen sets of lips slowly worked their way across him, headed toward the key erogenous zone. Victor grinned and felt his muscles tense up with excitement.

  The blonde woman set her index finger down on the tip of his achingly hard cock. She raised an eyebrow at him, as if she was a school teacher accusing him of doing something naughty. Then, she puckered her lips, and slowly lowered them down, planting a soft, almost chaste kiss on the tip of his erection.

  “Oh man…” moaned Victor. “Wow.”

  The other women giggled and followed up with kisses of their own. The six women slowly began kissing, licking, and sucking, taking their time as if testing his reaction.

  And Victor had quite the reaction. The last time he’d run the simulation, there had only been three women. His first sevensome was much, much more intense than he’d been expecting. The blonde woman lowered her mouth over the first inch of his cock, as though claiming that much of it for herself.

  Another woman gently cradled his head, pushing her big boobs into his face. A third and fourth woman began licking and sucking on his shaft, treating it like an oversized candy cane, or a popsicle. Another woman nibbled on his ear lobe. Victor lost track of who was where, and what was going on, and felt pleasure that threatened to drive him mad wash over him.

  “We’ll see each other again. Soon enough.”

  The voice that spoke was soft, feminine, and vaguely familiar. Victor frowned and looked up and around the simulation room. It was still empty, and he could only muse on where the voice had come for a second before slipping back into the other situation at hand.

  The blonde woman was moaning softly and rubbing herself across his cock. She let her thighs and the outer lips of her pussy rub over Victor’s erection with soft, tantalizing movements. The other women switched between using their mouths and breasts, finding any way they could to contribute to the sexual adventure taking place.

  Finally, the blonde woman reasserted control, pushing her ethereal sisters back and lowering her soft, hot lips over Victor’s cock. He put a hand on the back of her head and felt himself lose control, bobbing her up and down getting an inhumanly good blowjob in return.

  “Oh man…” Victor leaned his head back and felt himself finally lose control. His seed blasted out into the blonde woman’s mouth.

  Which in reality, meant that it blasted out onto the floor. The sad truth of the situation washed over him in a post-orgasmic wave of reality and regret. Victor sighed.

  At least they use cleaning robots in these rooms. I can’t imagine leaving this for a human janitor.

  He took a couple of seconds to dress, a couple more to feel annoyed with himself, and then headed out.

  CHAPTER 4

  Lucy was waiting for him directly outside the door of the simulation room. She smiled curiously at him as he walked out into the hallway.

  “The door was locked,” said Lucy. “And Kronenberg said the cameras were turned off?”

  “Uh…”

  “Also, your face is flushed?” Her smile deepened. “You must have been doing some pretty intense training in there, huh?”

  Victor tried not to look as flustered as he felt. Lucy Wilson was a very close friend of his late father and had spent enough time babysitting him as a child to see right through him as an adult. She was also essentially his boss at Monteiro, and Kiara’s older sister, both of which made it extremely hard to get anything past her.

  “It was very intense training, Lucy,” said Victor, in his most serious voice. “And very secret training, too.”

  Lucy watched him carefully for a moment. She was on the shorter side for a woman, with long blonde hair, crystal blue eyes against a lovely face, a full bosom, and interesting curves in all the right places. Victor, for various reasons, did his best not to notice.

  Today Lucy was making it especially hard for him. She had on a long sleeve black blouse with a few buttons undone at the top, and it clung tightly enough to her chest to reveal an alluring hint of cleavage. Her skirt was gray and would have been modest on a woman that wasn’t as lucky as Lucy when it came to having att
ractive, eye-catching hips.

  I need to take a cold shower.

  “Is Kiara around?” asked Lucy. “She said she was coming up to see what you were doing.”

  “She was here for a minute,” said Victor. “And then she left. With some old friend of hers, or something.”

  He couldn’t stop himself from scowling at the floor. Lucy looked sympathetic enough, though she was still smiling.

  “Bruce is back in town, huh?” Lucy folded her arms. “Don’t take it personally, Victor.”

  “Take what personally?”

  “You know what I’m talking about,” she said. “Kiara and Bruce have been on and off since they were in high school.”

  “I don’t care,” said Victor. “It doesn’t matter to me. Why would it?”

  Lucy met his gaze with an all knowing expression.

  I’m a terrible liar.

  “Of course it doesn’t,” said Lucy. “Look, I need to talk to you. Are you doing anything right now?”

  Victor shrugged. Most of his days since the last investigation had been spent at the gym, in the simulation room, or occasionally running odd jobs for the staff of the Nano Aura Department. He had no set schedule, and no real responsibilities outside of continuing with his training. Lucy was paying him a small stipend to live off, but it wasn’t large enough to do more than keep him fed and clothed.

  “I can make time for you,” said Victor. “What’s up?”

  Lucy nodded toward the elevator, and the two of them started walking over to it.

  “Kronenberg needs to check in with you about some of your recent lab results.”

  Victor frowned slightly.

  “About what?”

  “I don’t know, he didn’t say,” said Lucy. “He probably either needs another sample, or is confused about the data he’s getting.”