“I could ask you the same question.” I met his furious gaze. “I’m curious why you’ve been taking away the Super Mags’ magic. Especially because, you know, you’re a Super Mag.”
He didn’t confirm or deny it, but I didn’t need him to. I should have known the first time I felt his magic. My friends and I were powerful, but Diego was in a completely different league. I just hadn’t suspected what he was, since I’d never encountered a Super Mag outside of the MagLab kids.
Part of me had thought my awareness of his magic had something to do with my unfortunate attraction to this man.
“You had no fucking right,” he began, his chest heaving.
“No, you had no right.” I poked a titanium finger into his pec. “You don’t get to go around taking away people’s magic. Who do you think you are?!”
“Someone who understands that no person should have this much magic.” He let go of me to gesture to himself. “You can’t imagine what it’s like. Someone like you could never understand.”
“Someone like me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Diego got right in my face, his eyes dark pools in the black sky surrounding us.
“I’m going to give them…us,” his face contorted in disgust, “a chance at a normal life. I’m going to save hundreds…thousands…by stopping them before they snap like that Pyro.”
“You’re deranged,” I told him.
“I’m right,” he retorted. “That Pyro killed sixty-five people in the MagLab fire, and twenty-seven more at the retirement home.
“If I hadn’t dealt with that kid, who knows how many more people would have burned? None of your precious Directors’ new laws can save Boston from that kind of evil.”
“Kaira and Graysen understand it isn’t their place to play God,” I shot back.
“I spent months learning how to make the Magical Reduction Potion,” Diego said, his voice turning low and threatening. “Good people died for that formula, and I’m not going to let you get in the way of what needs to be done.”
“Good luck with that,” I told him in a frigid tone. “You’re going to have a hell of a time making more MRP without any Agent S.”
Diego’s bronze skin paled a fraction. Then, all emotion fled from his face. He regarded me coolly.
“How’s your memory?” he asked.
Startled by the abrupt change in topic, I said, “Uhh, good, I guess?”
“Then, remember this.”
As soon as he started rattling off numbers, I decided my memory wasn’t as good as the situation required. I batted Diego’s hand off my waist and stepped away from the roof’s edge so I could whip out my phone. Ignoring the dozen missed calls from my friends, I transcribed the rest of the numbers.
“GPS coordinates?” I asked, looking at my screen after he’d finished speaking.
“That’s what was on the other half of the paper you were desperate enough to grope me for.” His voice held that hint of mockery I’d come to associate with him.
“I thought you said you threw that paper out.” I gave him a suspicious look.
This had to be some kind of trick.
“I did.” Diego’s lip twitched. “I just memorized what was on it before I tossed it.”
“Uh-huh.” I stared from the numbers on my screen to Diego’s inscrutable face. “So, you’re telling me this now…why?”
I was under no illusion that he was doing it out of the goodness of his heart. He’d just found out that my friends and I had disappeared his Agent S stockpile. And he didn’t strike me as the forgiving type.
“Because.” Diego leaned in close until his breath stirred the wisps of hair framing my face. “I need Agent S, and you’re going to get it for me.”
“Sure, buddy. Would you like overnight shipping or in-person delivery?”
He lowered his head to give me a sensual look full of dark promise. “In-person. Definitely in-person.” His fingers curled around the hem of my dress. Fiery tingles shot up my thigh.
I forced myself to smack his hand away. I started to back up, before I remembered we were standing at the edge of a rooftop sixty-two stories above the ground.
“You’re going to be arrested for what you’ve done,” I told him. “You know that, right?”
Diego gave me a sardonic smile that wasn’t at all friendly.
“We’ll see, cariño. We’ll see.”
“Diego—” I began.
“As much as I’d like to while away my night on this rooftop with you, I came to this party for a reason.”
Diego leaned in. For a heart-stopping second, I thought he was going to kiss me again. His lips stopped a centimeter from my own.
“Stay,” he ordered me.
Then, he stepped off the ledge.
“You are not leaving me up here. Come back here, you bastard!”
I was talking to empty air. Diego was gone.
✽✽✽
“That piece of shit,” Kaira fumed.
“Watch your mouth,” Grandma Tashi snapped from the other room. “There are children about.”
Kaira rolled her eyes, but only when she was sure her grandmother wasn’t looking.
“It’s five in the morning,” A.J. said to Kaira’s grandmother. “Why are you still awake?”
“Someone had to stay up and make sure you came back in one piece,” Tashi grumbled. “Now get yourselves upstairs and to bed. Quietly. You’ll wake the whole damn house.”
“Did you just say damn?” Kaira asked, momentarily distracted from her Diego-induced fury.
“I said bed!” Tashi hollered.
Knowing we were beat, we did as we were told.
It had taken close to half an hour for me to stop cursing Diego at the top of my lungs…from the top of the tallest building in Boston. Afterward, I’d called my friends. With one bar of reception on my phone, it had taken a small miracle to convey the gist of what the Super Dick had done. It had taken even longer for us to figure out how to actually get me back to the ground.
In the end, Yutika had created a small cart, like the ones found on amusement park roller coasters. A.J. had flown it up to the top of the building, since he could only control inanimate objects with his telekinesis and couldn’t just fly me to the ground. Then, once I was in the cart, A.J. was able to bring me back down. Kaira kept us all illusioned so someone from a neighboring skyrise didn’t start spreading rumors about a flying person.
It hadn’t helped my mood that the ride down was decidedly bumpier and more nausea-inducing than the flight up.
Diego Agramonte was a dead man. And I didn’t mean that figuratively.
When we got back into the club, all of the Super Mags were gone except for one of the girls. 00545 was crying in the corner. It took Michael about three seconds to learn from the distraught child that she’d been injected with the MRP.
00545 had been a Level 16 Teleporter and was the Super Mags’ primary mode of transportation.
Lower-level Teleporters could only manage quick jumps over a short distance. This girl could get from the US to Europe without batting an eye.
00545’s only crime was that she was suspected in a drugstore robbery that had involved fifty bucks’ worth of stolen goods—most of which were sour gummy worms. She was also eleven years old. And now, because of Diego, her magic was gone.
After we helped the girl get home, I told my friends about the fun fact that Diego was himself a Super Mag.
None of us could figure out how he’d managed to go this long without being detected. We also couldn’t figure out why a Super Mag would be hunting down his own kind.
His explanation on the rooftop had made no sense.
I’m going to give Super Mags a chance at a normal life…. I’m going to save hundreds….
At best, Diego was delusional and a narcissist.
“At least tonight wasn’t a total loss,” Yutika said, interrupting my brooding. “We have the other set of coordinates.”
As luck would h
ave it, the location was right here in Boston.
“We’ll check it out in the morning,” Graysen said, yawning. “And by morning, I mean afternoon, since it already is morning.”
“You all are looking extremely peaked,” A.J. said, giving us pitying looks. “I become more exotic with shadows under my eyes, but the rest of you are getting a little scary.”
“Thanks for the self-esteem booster.” I patted him on the arm.
“Let’s sleep until noon,” Kaira said, leaning against Graysen as we climbed the stairs. “Then, we’ll go check out those coordinates.”
We all bid each other sleepy goodnights and headed to our respective rooms. Despite the fact that I hadn’t gotten a decent night’s sleep in longer than I could remember, I was oddly awake.
I did two reps of jumping jacks, a hundred sit-ups, and fifty push-ups. I didn’t stop until my mind had quieted enough to give me a fighting chance at sleep.
I said good morning to Herbert, the window-tapping woodpecker, before pulling my blinds shut. As I stripped off my devil costume, I caught the hint of cinnamon on my clothes. I wasn’t sure how that was possible after the tequila and everything else that had happened during the night, but the smell brought Diego’s smug face right to the forefront of my brain.
I couldn’t help but remember what it had felt like with our hips and chests molded together as we’d danced, and then as we’d flown.
We’d flown.
Granted, Diego had been pissed as hell and I’d been threatening him at the time. Those details aside, it had been the biggest rush of my life. The fear of falling, while somehow knowing he wouldn’t let me go, made me want to do it again. And again.
Maybe I was an adrenaline junkie.
Since I was still too wound up for sleep or rational thought, I decided to take a bath. I hadn’t used my amazing tub once in the four months since we’d moved in. I lit two vanilla candles and poured a frightening amount of vanilla-scented bubbles into the running water.
My skin naturally carried a faint smell of metal, regardless of whether I was using my magic or not. I didn’t mind it, but I found that metal combined with vanilla made for a nice mix—sweet on the surface and hardness underneath.
I slid into the water, letting the bubbles close over me like a filmy blanket.
Vanilla and cinnamon, I thought hazily. Perfect combination for pastries, candles, and coffee creamer. But that was all.
I soaked in the bath until I’d washed away the day’s adventures and purged all thoughts of a certain sexy, infuriating magic ripper.
CHAPTER 18
Six solid hours of sleep later, and I woke feeling like a new woman. Ma’s brunch, which was hot and ready when we got downstairs, sealed the deal. I dug into a tofu scramble, hash browns, and fruit salad. I gave the cinnamon donut holes a wide berth. If I never got a whiff of that scent again, it would be too soon.
We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on Alliance business. All I wanted was to race off to investigate the coordinates Diego had given us, but it wasn’t like the city was going to pause everything else in the meantime. Besides, this whole thing was starting to feel more and more like a wild goose chase.
Kaira, Graysen, and Michael had been in meetings with Emory and the rest of the Super Mag kids for the last several hours. Kaira and Graysen had come up with the idea of starting a Super Mag-led coalition that would give the kids equal representation in the Alliance. The only problem was that after a lifetime in MagLab, looting and running wild on the streets was a lot more fun than being law-abiding citizens.
I couldn’t really blame the kids.
Yutika was putting the final touches on a fairytale house for the Super Mags on our property to entice them to stick around. We had more than enough land, and it would make it easier for us to keep an eye on them.
The Super Mags hadn’t agreed to live on our property yet, but I was sure once they saw what Yutika had made for them, they wouldn’t be able to resist. Not to mention, with Diego on the loose and injecting them with MRP, the kids were feeling less invincible than they had before.
Smith was doing Techie things in his office, which was so full of wires and machines that there wasn’t room for anyone except him inside. I had a sneaking suspicion he’d done that intentionally.
A.J. was busy doing damage control from the Red Sox game debacle. From the sound of it, he had also booked several photo shoots and TV appearances that Kaira was going to give him hell for once she found out.
I did my usual security rounds, checking in with all of my people. I also hired two new security guards…after they passed the Sir Zachary sniff test. I figured since he wagged his tail instead of barking fire at them, it was a good sign.
We reconvened for a quick dinner and meeting. Then, while there were still a couple of daylight hours, we headed out to the location Diego had given me the night before. After our failure to find anything useful in California, we brought Charlotte and Sir Zachary with us for extra olfactory support.
We piled out of the van in front of what was left of MagLab. The ground was covered in a fine layer of gray ash from the Pyro’s fire that had freed fifty of the Super Mags…and killed sixty-five others.
The whole swath of ground was marked off with police tape and still carried the faint odor of something that was probably carcinogenic. Kaira illusioned all of into police as a precautionary measure, even though we were the only ones around.
We picked our way through the rubble as Smith’s GPS tracker led us to the exact coordinates.
Acutely aware of Diego’s reasoning for sharing the coordinates—that he thought I was going to bring the Agent S to him—I was on high alert for any hint of his presence.
I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but as we gathered amid the scorched rubble, my heart sank.
“Sexy Cinnamon Man screwed us,” Yutika observed.
“Either that,” Graysen said, “or this was the location we needed, but the fire destroyed whatever we were supposed to find.”
“It’s hopeless,” A.J. groaned.
“Not necessarily.” Smith, the pessimist of our group, held up a hand.
He closed his eyes.
“I can feel tech under here.” He tapped his foot on the ashy ground. “Working tech.”
“How far down?” Kaira asked.
“Hard to tell,” Smith replied. “There’s a lot of interference from the dirt and rubble.
“I’ll go down and check it out,” Charlotte said, her voice coming from the body of an overweight male cop.
Kaira dropped Charlotte’s illusion just as the little girl transformed into a furry mole. I thought it was cute, until I caught sight of its paws. They were too big for the animal’s body and looked like human skeleton hands…with nails. Yuck.
Sir Zachary gave the mole a tentative sniff and then wagged his tail.
“Be careful down there,” A.J. said, unperturbed by the freaky little monster animal.
The mole’s snout wiggled, and then it began to worm its way into the dirt.
I rescinded my earlier assessment of those creepy hand-paws when I saw how fast Charlotte-the-mole could dig. In seconds, all that was left was a small pile of dirt the mole had displaced.
The rest of us waited.
My legs were starting to cramp from standing in one place for so long, when Sir Zachary gave a happy little yip. Seconds later, a twitching nose emerged from the dirt.
There was a ripple of movement. Then, the furry mole with the creepy hands transformed into a little girl.
“Blech.” Charlotte spat out a mouthful of dirt.
A.J. handed over his polka-dotted hankie.
“There’s some stuff about ten feet down,” Charlotte reported. “I can see where there was an entrance from inside MagLab, but it’s all burnt and crumpled now.
“Can you show us where to dig?” Yutika asked, already sketching shovels on her pad.
In no time at all, we’d dug the hole. Yutika had even
devised a pulley system so no one would break a leg coming in or out of the hole.
At the bottom, we found several blackened floor tiles and a metal hatch.
“It’s stuck,” Graysen said, his muscles straining as he fought to pry it open.
“Move aside,” I said with a wink, blowing on my fists.
The metal hatch groaned and snapped. I hauled off the covering, which must have weighed more than I did, and tossed it to the side. We all looked down into a black, circular hole.
Aside from the top of the ladder that was attached to the hole, it was impossible to see anything.
“Who’s going first?” Yutika asked, pressing a finger to her nose to indicate she wasn’t it.
I didn’t wait for anyone else to volunteer. I grasped the top rung and started lowering myself down.
Within seconds, I was surrounded by darkness. I couldn’t see anything except for the dull silver gleam of my own skin. The air smelled dank and musty. I got an intimate preview of the life of an earthworm.
I didn’t like it.
I heard voices and felt vibrations shimmy through the ladder as my friends followed me down.
I squeezed my eyes shut when a bright light flooded the hole.
“Yutika, you’re blinding me,” I yelled up.
“Oops,” she replied, before angling the flashlight toward the wall.
We climbed. And climbed.
Hundreds of rungs turned to thousands. I lost count as the air grew thicker. An overwhelming sense of foreboding crawled across my metal skin. I was just beginning to wonder whether I’d climbed down some Alice in Wonderland black hole and would keep climbing forever, when my foot hit solid ground.
I immediately turned so my back was to the ladder and held up my fists, but no one jumped me. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight.
I was in a circular chamber about ten feet in diameter. There was a tall, metal door opposite the ladder and nothing else. I was about to yank the door open, when I noticed a black box next to the door. It had a red blinking light and looked like one of those key card scanners. If there was some kind of alarm system rigged to this door, I didn’t want to set it off by breaking in.
Mags & Nats 3-Book Box Set Page 83
