Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection Read online

  “How realistic are we talking here?” asked Victor. “Balls are one thing, but what about—”

  “People?” Lucy grinned, and after a few seconds on her tablet, conjured up a perfect copy of Victor, complete with a scowl on his face and brooding eyes.

  I don’t actually look like that, do I?

  He closed his eyes and tried to do what Lucy had described before. He pictured her how she’d been the night before in her loose night robe, balancing his hormonal excitement at the mental image against fidelity to his original memory.

  When Victor opened his eyes, a second Lucy stood motionless next to the copy of him. She was frozen in the middle of brushing a few strands of blonde hair out of her face, her robe billowing open just enough to catch his eye.

  “Interesting choice of subject.” Lucy sounded amused, and she tapped furiously on the tablet for a moment.

  In a sudden burst of shapes and light, several nightmarish creatures spilled out of the walls and floors. A grotesque looking zombie stumbled into Victor from the side, while a man in a tuxedo suit with thin, alien proportions grabbed at his head.

  “Jesus!” Victor bound his scarlet aura out of reflex, splashing fire onto the wall. Lucy burst into laughter at his expense.

  “You aren’t the first one to imagine me in a less than modest state of dress,” said Lucy. “The thing is, in this room, the one with the wildest imagination is the one with the power.”

  She hit something on her tablet and all of the simulations faded out, leaving them back in the empty white room. Victor examined the spot where his flames had struck and saw that little if any damage on the wall.

  “This room would be perfect for practicing with my nanites.”

  Lucy nodded to him.

  “That was, in part, what it was designed for,” she said. “Part of my vision for the Nano Aura Department is eventually training enough aura binders to serve as peacekeepers against the abuse of the technology of the future. You can train your scarlet aura in here without worrying about burning the place down, though you should be mindful about the smoke fumes.”

  A noise came from Lucy’s pocket. She pulled out her cell phone and stared at it for a moment, and then started heading for the door.

  “What’s up?” asked Victor.

  “I have to meet with Eli, the big boss. Hang out here for a little bit and get familiar with the room. I’ll tell Kronenberg to delegate you with some minor tasks to keep you busy for the day.”

  “Uh, are you going to pay for said minor tasks?”

  Lucy smiled.

  “Let’s save that conversation for later,” she said.

  Sounds like she plans on keeping me as an unpaid intern.

  Victor held his objections and waited for the door to close behind her. He scanned his eyes across the empty simulation room for a moment and then began focusing.

  The room turned black again. Victor focused on what he remembered from the night before, slowly reconstructing an image of Night Angel.

  She’d been short, at least half a head shorter than he was. Her face had been covered, but Victor had seen Asiatic eyes, along with jet black hair. He chewed his lip as her bust and curves began to take form. She’d been rather attractive, which made the question of her motives all the more intriguing.

  “She’d asked me if I worked for ‘him’, I remember that much.” Victor muttered to himself quietly, contemplating his memories.

  He remembered how she’d moved, the way she’d floated through the air and maneuvered as though the laws of physics didn’t apply to her. To Victor’s surprise, the model began moving, simulating the various attacks and feints he’d seen Night Angel perform.

  The simulation of Night Angel flew forward at him. Victor didn’t flinch back, and the simulation didn’t stop. He felt her soft body collide with him. It wasn’t painful, and in fact, Victor had to keep ideas from flooding into his head as he felt his nanites perfectly recreating the sensation of her breasts pushing against him.

  “Ah-hem.” Kronenberg’s voice flooded into the room from an unseen speaker. “I’m not interrupting, am I?”

  “What? No!” Victor ran a hand through his hair and tried to keep his embarrassment in check. “What’s up?”

  “I’ve found some information that might be of interest to you and the investigation. If you want to take advantage of it, you need to follow it up immediately.”

  Victor smiled.

  “I’ll meet you on the 13th floor.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Kronenberg and Lucy had their own offices on the 13th floor with actual doors, unlike most of the other employees who made due with open cubicles. The door to Lucy’s was closed, and it didn’t look like she was inside. Kronenberg’s was right next to it, and Victor paused in front of the door before knocking.

  There was a tiny drone sized opening that reminded Victor a bit of a doggie door next to the main entrance. Victor smiled when he saw it, and then began to actually think about the absurdity of Kronenberg’s situation within the company.

  What’s his story, anyway?

  “Come in.”

  Victor walked inside. Kronenberg’s office only had a single chair in it, and in the place of a desk was what looked like a charging station for his drone body, which was currently sitting on top of it.

  “Kronenberg… Do you mind if I ask how you ended up working here?”

  “I got hired,” said Kronenberg. “Obviously.”

  “I figured as much,” said Victor. “You know what I mean.”

  “That’s a story for another day.” The drone stood up on its spider legs, flashed its dome light a couple of times, and then took to the air. “For now, we should focus on the lead I mentioned.”

  Victor nodded and took a seat.

  “I’ve been trying to figure out exactly how Night Angel came into her abilities,” said Kronenberg. “Nanites, quite obviously, are not readily available to the public.”

  “Maybe she stole them? Doesn’t that seem like the most obvious answer?”

  “It’s not that simple. Monteiro has a number of security protocols that aren’t easy to bypass. Here in the Nano Aura Department, the scrutiny is even more intense.”

  “Are we sure that she’s using regular nanites, then?” Victor scratched his head and watched as the drone slowly dipped in the motion of a nod.

  “You reported yourself that you saw her glowing with them when she used her powers,” said Kronenberg. “And the way she made her entrance definitely fits the hypothesis.”

  “So then how do we track her down?”

  Kronenberg paused for a moment. The entire back wall of the office flickered to life, and Victor realized that it was a gigantic HD monitor.

  “Out of the two men Night Angel had under her control last night, one is currently a patient at the Undercliff Teaching Hospital.”

  “And the other?”

  “He’s dead. It’s not unusual for the onyx aura to have that effect on people, when overused at high levels.”

  “Alright then.” Victor stood up and started for the door. “I’ll go check it out.”

  “There’s a good chance that he won’t be awake yet. Stay with him if you can, and see if he eventually comes to. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s the best lead we’ve got.”

  “Sure thing.” Victor paused, and considered Kronenberg for a moment. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

  Kronenberg shrugged two of his spider legs in a mockery of the human gesture.

  “I don’t know, can you?”

  Victor rolled his eyes.

  “Why are you helping me on this?”

  “We have to stop this woman. It’s not something we can leave to chance.”

  “That’s exactly what I mean. This is a huge corporation, there must be someone else you can trust to play detective.”

  Kronenberg hovered in the air, watching Victor for a long moment.

  “There’s something about you, Victor. Something beyond the nanite
s, and the can-do attitude.”

  Victor rolled his eyes again.

  “I’m serious,” said Kronenberg. “I can recognize it in you as surely as I can feel it in myself. Something happened to you, didn’t it? Something beyond getting the nanites, something bigger than that…”

  Victor turned and pushed his way out through the door.

  “It’s my turn to dodge a personal question,” he said. “I’ll go check out the hospital.”

  Victor took the elevator down to the parking garage. He walked through the car crowded lot and to the pedestrian exit onto the street. A small part of him worried about Lucy, and how she’d react as his benefactor if she discovered him getting in the middle of things.

  She needs help on this, whether she realizes it or not.

  The sky was overcast, and there was just enough chill in the air to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Victor walked through downtown Undercliff City, weaving through people probably on their way to work or lunch.

  He used his phone to map out a path to the hospital. Undercliff City was large, but most of the outskirts, as he’d seen the day before, were in a state of either near or total abandonment. The core of the city held everything important, which was convenient for him, traveling on foot.

  It took Victor about twenty minutes to get there. The Undercliff Teaching Hospital was a squat, rectangular building, three floors high and in the shape of a large u. He found the front entrance and pushed inside.

  Kronenberg had emailed him a basic dossier on the comatose man. His name was Mike Sanchez, and he’d jumped from one blue-collar job to another for his entire adult life.

  Victor came to a stop at the front desk. A nurse sat behind it, an attractive woman in her forties with a bored expression on her face. She was reading a magazine and only stopped to look up from it after Victor cleared his throat.

  “Hello,” said Victor. “I’m here to see a patient. Mike Sanchez.”

  “I’m sorry, we can only give out room numbers family members,” said the nurse. “It’s our policy.”

  Victor nodded slowly.

  Let’s see if she’ll break the rules if she’s in a more interesting mood.

  Slowly and delicately, Victor extended his awareness into his scarlet aura and bound it to the woman. A tiny red glow that only he could see appeared around her head, making it appear as though her entire face pulsed with light and emotion.

  “Are you sure there’s no way I can check on Mike? We’re old friends, me and him.”

  The woman opened her mouth and looked at him strangely. Victor wasn’t sure which of her emotions he’d flared. It depended as much on the way the person originally felt as it did on his application of of the aura, though so far it seemed to lean toward more passionate emotions when it came to women.

  “You do seem like a nice guy.” The nurse batted her eyelashes at him. “Oh, what the hell.”

  She tapped on the keyboard of the computer in front of her for a second and then turned back to him.

  “He’s in room 134.”

  “Thanks,” said Victor. “I really appreciate it.”

  The woman kept her eyes locked onto him as he walked past the desk and into the hall.

  Finding the room was easy enough. Victor stood outside it for a second, wondering if he should knock. An orderly pushed by him, pulling along a cart full of medical equipment, and Victor decided to just head in.

  He opened the door, slipped through it, and found himself standing across from a man he recognized. The face was the same, but Mike Sanchez looked a lot less threatening lying in a hospital bed than he had at Night Angel’s side.

  “Mike,” said Victor. “Are you awake?”

  The man’s eyes stayed closed, and he didn’t respond. Victor stayed in the room for a couple of minutes before finally giving up and leaving the hospital.

  Well, that was a waste of time.

  CHAPTER 12

  Victor had already started heading back toward Monteiro Tower when his phone rang. The number that was calling was one he didn’t recognize.

  “Hello?”

  “Victor, it’s Kronenberg. I got another lead for you to follow, if you’re up for it.”

  Victor chewed his lip for a second.

  “The last one led nowhere, Kronenberg. He’s still unconscious, as expected.”

  “Hey, I didn’t say this would be interesting. It’s the job though.”

  Victor sighed.

  “What have you got for me?”

  “There’s a woman that used to work for Monteiro,” said Kronenberg. “Jaime Campos. She quit right before the first attack by Night Angel on the tower.”

  “She sounds like our girl,” said Victor. “Why hasn’t anyone followed up on her yet?”

  “Well… she worked in the Marketing Department. And her physical profile doesn’t match what we’ve seen of the mystery woman.”

  “It’s still probably worth looking into,” said Victor. “Send me the address and I’ll check it out.”

  Twenty minutes later, Victor stood outside of a small suburban cottage. The yard was clean and neatly maintained, and a small pink flamingo poked out of a flower patch in front of the porch.

  Victor walked up to the door slowly and pressed the doorbell. After a couple of seconds, the door opened.

  The woman standing in the doorway, as far as Victor could tell, couldn’t have been Night Angel. She was too short, and her hair was a different color than the woman that Victor had encountered.

  What Victor also noticed about Jaime Campos was that she was rather attractive. Her hair was wet and slicked back, mermaid style, and the only clothing she had on was a thick white towel hanging from the top of her chest.

  “Yes, I’m Jaime Campos,” she said. “You can just leave the package on the deck. I’ll grab it once I’ve changed.”

  She started to close the door. Victor had to jump forward slightly and push his arm through the crack to stop her.

  “Hold on, I’m not a deliveryman! I’m just here to ask you a few…”

  The woman’s towel fell as she took a step back, revealing a gorgeous naked body behind it. Victor’s jaw dropped as he absorbed the sight of Jaime Campos’s large, supple breasts, and the small landing strip of pubic hair on her crotch.

  “Whoops!” Jaime blushed bright red as she bent over to grab the towel. She rewrapped it around herself with surprising speed and then waved for Victor to come in.

  “I… didn’t see anything,” said Victor.

  “It’s fine!” Jaime speed walked over to a door across from the entranceway and disappeared behind it. “Let me just get changed. What’s your name?”

  “Victor Anders. I, uh, am investigating something for the Monteiro Corporation.”

  Jaime walked back into the living room. She wore a silk robe that was just as revealing as the towel had been, albeit less prone to coming loose.

  “Have a seat.” She walked closer to him and gestured to the couch. “I don’t mind answering some questions.”

  Victor nodded and sat down. The towel dropping incident had thrown him off balance, and it took him a second to regain his composure and get back to the reason why he was there.

  “Do you know anything about the attacks that have taken place against Monteiro Tower over the past few weeks?”

  Jaime frowned and shook her head.

  “No, I don’t know anything about that,” she said.

  Victor listened to her voice as carefully as he could, searching it for any hint of subterfuge.

  She sounds like she’s telling the truth.

  “They began right after you left the company,” he said.

  “Oh my.” Jaime smiled and sat down next to him on the couch, letting one of her hands come to rest on his knee. “I see why you’d be looking into me, then. Is there anything I can do to ease your concerns?”

  Victor blinked in surprise as her fingers slipped in closer to his crotch.

  I didn’t use my scarlet aura
on her. This isn’t right…

  “Why did you leave your job at Monteiro, Mrs. Campos?”

  “Mrs. Campos?” The woman laughed. “Please, call me Jaime.”

  Victor stood up, feeling a sudden stab of suspicion.

  “Please,” he said. “You said you’d answer my questions. Just tell me what I need to know.”

  Jaime didn’t let up right away. She moved in closer to Victor again, and his reluctance wavered as she slipped the front of her robe open, revealing her naked body.

  “Do you really want to know?” she whispered, her words hot against his ear. “Or do you want something else?”

  “Stop it!” Victor pulled out of her grasp and took a deep breath. “Look, I’m not here to get you into any trouble. I just want to know—”

  “You don’t.” Jaime Campos’s tone changed in an instant. “You don’t want to know.”

  She closed her robe with tired movements and opened the top drawer of the end table next to couch. When she turned back to face Victor, she was lighting a cigarette.

  “You’re pretty cute, you know that?” She smiled him. “How old are you, 23, 24?”

  “19.” Victor felt himself getting frustrated, but he bit back words of anger and forced himself to wait it out.

  “That’s too young for you to be able to see it, I guess.” She took a deep drag off the cigarette and blew smoke toward the ceiling. “I’m surprised that they sent someone like you. You don’t seem like the type of person who’d be willing to intimidate me into keeping my part of the deal.”

  Victor just shook his head. She was giving him a few of the pieces, he knew that much, but putting them together was something else entirely.

  “Look, I’m not trying to set you up, or trap you. I just need to know how you fit into things. It might help keep people from getting hurt.”

  “Maybe some people deserve to get hurt.” Jaime tapped ash off the cigarette into a tray on the end stand. “Victor, you don’t know what you’re getting into.