Dark Seduction

by Cheyenne McCray

  “What the hell?” Janice shouted. “What is he doing in my bedroom, Brian?”

  Tori was so relieved that she felt herself slipping into her own form. Janice watched, her eyes wide and her mouth open as Brian became Tori again.

  Janice seemed to collect herself and narrowed her eyes as she stared at Tori. “You will be sorry.”

  Tori opened her mouth to tell Janice where she could put it when blue magic illuminated the ropes.

  Janice was going to use her magic somehow to free herself. To burn the ropes.

  “Oh, hell no.” Tori leapt for Janice, trying to pin her arms down before she could do anything. “Help me!” she shouted to Logan.

  It was too late.

  The ropes burned away and then a burst of blue magic slammed into Tori. She flew backward against the bedroom wall, chest burning like it was on fire. Her head hit the wall with a crack and her sight blurred.

  Air whooshed from her lungs as she dropped and landed on her ass, fire still burning in her chest.

  Janice shot a bolt of magic at Logan, but he vanished before the magic could hit him and incapacitate him like it had done to Tori.

  Tori tried to get to her feet. Blue light glowed and swirled in front of Janice’s palms.

  Damn. Tori had never faced down magic before. She didn’t even know exactly how it worked.

  “Savage,” Janice said as she neared Tori. “You touch me and I’ll blow a fucking hole through Tori. I want you to show yourself now.”

  Logan shimmered, appearing at the same spot where he had disappeared.

  “Get over by Tori.” Janice’s expression was triumphant as Logan obeyed. “Don’t ever think you can outsmart me, Agent Adams. Not that you’ll have a chance to try again. Once I take you in and interrogate you with whatever force is necessary, you and your friend here will be executed.”

  No way. Tori gritted her teeth. No way is that going to happen.

  “For now,” Janice went on. “You and your friend will be taken in.”

  Tori’s heart pounded and her head throbbed. She reached up and touched her hair and felt something sticky. Blood from cracking her head against the bedroom wall.

  Janice had one palm facing Logan, the other palm aimed at Tori. To Logan she said, “Turn around, hands behind your back, or so help me I’ll hurt her.”

  Logan narrowed his eyes but did as he was told. Janice sent out s sizzling burst of magic that wrapped around Logan’s wrists, cuffing him more securely than rope ever could.

  “Come here now and stand by her,” Janice said and Logan turned around and went to the wall. “Not too close,” Janice added.

  The woman turned to Tori. “One more thing. Where’s Brian?”

  “I don’t know.” Tori met Janice’s gaze head on.

  Janice glared at Tori. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  Tori shrugged. “Our man took him someplace for safekeeping and purposely didn’t tell us where he is so that we couldn’t tell in case something like this happened.”

  With a furious look, Janice flung a blue ball of magic at Tori.

  Tori screamed as her body was enveloped in fire. She felt like she was being burned alive as pain seared her flesh. Every part of her was covered in blue flame and she knew what it must be like to be in hell.

  She dropped to the bedroom floor, twisting, writhing, praying the pain would end. She’d never felt anything like this before.

  The pain stopped. Tears rolled down Tori’s face and she coughed as she tried to catch her breath. Her arms and legs wobbled as she pushed herself to a sitting position and looked up at Janice.

  She towered over Tori, everything about her menacing. “Now tell me where Brian is being held.”

  “I was telling the truth.” Tori’s voice was weak. “Logan and I don’t know where Brian is.”

  Janice raised her hands again and Tori flinched. Then Janice lowered her hands. “This will be a good opportunity to use that CVP device.” She gave a chilling smile. “A test run, so to speak.”

  Tori closed her eyes tight then opened them again.

  Janice gestured with her other hand for Tori to get up. Her legs didn’t want to hold her. When she got close to Janice, the woman raised her fist. Tori leaned back but Janice slammed her fist into Tori’s face. She stumbled back against the wall and dropped again.

  Tori’s head spun and she blinked her eyes just to focus. Pain radiated across her face.

  “Paybacks,” Janice said with a laugh. “Now get up. Turn around so that I can cuff you, too.”

  Janice kept a fireball aimed at Tori in case she tried anything as she turned. Janice’s magic wrapped around Tori’s wrists and it burned like her arms were now on fire.

  “Both of you,” Janice said, “sit down by the wall while I call for reinforcements.”

  Tori’s entire body hurt and her mind swam. No more fireballs, she thought as she leaned back to rest her head against the wall. Pain shot through her skull and she remembered that her scalp was bleeding from having hit the wall earlier.

  Well things had sure gone to hell tonight. Tori churned everything over in her mind as she looked at Logan. She wanted to say something to him, but Janice was within hearing distance.

  She thought about making herself as tiny as a small child and letting the cuffs fall off her wrists. But they were magic cuffs and that wasn’t going to work.

  Logan looked calm as his gaze met Tori’s. “Everything’s going to work out,” his gaze seemed to say. “Don’t worry.”

  Sure. Easy for him to say. Or not say.

  Janice had her phone to her ear as she kept an eye on Logan and Tori. “I have a mess to clean up. My home, Ellis. Now, with the van.” She listened, obviously to Ellis. “It had better be fast. Bring Saul with you, too. I know the idiot is hard to reach. But he’ll answer my calls. Just go to his place and pick him up. I’ll make sure he’s ready.”

  Tori looked at Logan again as Janice called Saul, aka Demitri, and told him to have his ass ready for Ellis to pick him up.

  A world of meaning was in Logan’s gaze and Tori would have smiled at him if they weren’t in such a dire situation.

  A situation that could mean their lives, not to mention the CVP.

  Chapter 19

  Janice’s home was set back with trees shading the driveway, giving the house privacy from street traffic and neighbors.

  “Get to the van.” Janice shoved Tori out of her home toward a cargo van and she stumbled on the pebbled driveway. Her eyes watered and her entire body hurt from the woman’s brutal magic.

  Logan narrowed his gaze as he followed, his mouth a firm, hard line. Tori knew he would have ripped into Janice if the woman wouldn’t continue to hurt Tori even more than she already had.

  Saul, formerly known as Demitri, was leaning up against the van, a smirk on his face. His hair was lank, hanging in his face like dark strings. “Thought you were the only Changeling agent in the city?” Saul laughed at Tori. “No, you’re not. You’re just the worst agent in town.”

  If Tori’s hands were free from Janice’s magic she would have pounded Saul into the gravel driveway.

  Ellis walked around from the driver’s side of the cargo van, shaking his head. “Never thought you would turn, Adams.”

  At that moment Tori didn’t care what he had to say. Her mind swam and her stomach felt queasy as Janice fastened metal cuffs onto her wrists in place of her magic ones.

  Ellis cuffed Logan’s wrists at the same time, also with police-issue cuffs, then forced him into the vehicle’s open sliding door.

  Janice pushed Tori toward the van as Logan got in. Ellis grabbed Tori’s arm to keep her from falling and then he helped her climb in through the van’s open door.

  The interior of the vehicle was dim but she clearly saw Logan already sitting on the floor, his wrists cuffed in front of him. Ellis pushed her the rest of the way in and she landed on her ass beside Logan. Saul climbed in and shackled Logan’s and Tori’s ankles.

/>   The entire time, Janice stood just outside the van’s door, waiting with her magic in case Logan or Tori made a wrong move.

  After he and Saul climbed out, Ellis slammed the sliding door shut then went around the van and climbed into the driver’s seat. Saul jumped into the passenger side.

  Tori was thankful that Ellis put the van into gear and drove off without Janice riding along with them. No more fireballs, Tori thought. She managed to remember to not lean back against the van so she didn’t hurt her head even more.

  So much for the plan with McKnight. She mentally groaned in frustration. She’d told him where the PIA headquarters was but now the man would never be able to get into HQ without her.

  The Psion building wasn’t a far drive from Janice’s home. Tori wondered how Janice planned to get into PIA HQ with Tori and Logan cuffed. It would look suspicious to bring in anyone cuffed into a business building. Janice would have to take the cuffs off, which could open up possibilities for Tori.

  But Ellis drove the van around to the back of the building and parked, answering that question. Apparently there was a back entrance that Tori hadn’t known about. Janice was waiting when the sliding door opened. She used her magic to unlock the shackles at both Logan’s and Tori’s ankles, and Ellis threw the shackles into the back of the van.

  Saul left with the van to park it while the rest of them walked into a darkened cargo bay, the floor stained by oil and other auto fluids. Tori’s muscles ached as they walked, and she still felt a little weak. They reached a large elevator at the opposite side that was no doubt for employees, equipment, supplies, furniture and other things that wouldn’t normally be taken through the front door of the building.

  Once they were inside the elevator, Janice stuck her keycard in a slot. The doors creaked closed and then the elevator dropped at a rapid pace, so fast that Tori felt like it might smash into the bottom of the shaft. When the car came to a soft stop, Tori was almost surprised that they’d made it.

  The doors parted and they stepped out of the car and into a gray room, even more stark than the front entrance to the HQ. Janice had Ellis escort Logan through the door at the far end. She dug her fingernails into Tori’s upper arm, causing Tori to wince as they followed Ellis and Logan.

  The far door opened into a closet filled with cleaning and office supplies, and it smelled of lemon floor cleaner. A lone, bare bulb lit the closet. When Tori glanced over her shoulder, the door closed behind them as if it had never been there in the first place.

  At the front of the closet was another door. Ellis moved aside a small cover that Tori hadn’t seen and he looked through a peephole. He shut the peephole cover then opened the door into the employee break room.

  It all seemed a little unreal as Ellis and Janice took her and Logan through the break room, down a hall, and through a door that led to the holding cells. Each cell had bars in the front—the other three sides concrete with no windows, which made sense since they were belowground. The cells were typical with a small cot, a toilet, and a sink. The place smelled of mildew and something foul that Tori couldn’t identify.

  Metal clanked as two cells were opened. Janice pushed Tori inside one and Ellis shoved Logan into another. With the concrete wall between them, she couldn’t see Logan.

  Janice smirked at Tori from the other side of the bars as she shut the cell door with a loud clang, locking Tori inside of it, and Ellis apparently locked Logan’s cell. Janice had left Tori’s and Logan’s wrists cuffed.

  “Hang around a bit,” Janice said with a mocking smile. “I’ll send for you soon and I’ll get to try out that pretty new device on both of you.”

  Tori narrowed her eyes. “You’ll be sorry, Janice. I promise you that.”

  Janice had her hands on her hips. She’d removed the wig and contacts. She’d changed into jeans stuffed into knee-high leather boots and a ginger-colored blouse that was low-cut in the front “Looks like I have the upper hand.” She laughed. “We’ll see who’s sorry, Agent Adams.” She turned and walked away.

  When Janice and Ellis left through the door from the cells into the war room, Tori gripped the bars in her fists, her wrists still cuffed. She closed her eyes, and put her head against the metal.

  “You okay, Tori?” Logan’s voice echoed in the holding area.

  She opened her eyes and peered out to see Logan looking through the bars of his cell and in her direction. She couldn’t see him well, but knowing that he was there somehow gave her confidence.

  “I’m fine.” She blew out a rush of air. “Can you do your transport thing?”

  “I should be able to,” he said.

  “I know what to do once we get out of here.” She studied the bars and gauged their width. “But we’ll have to work fast.”

  “All right,” he said.

  “I need to get these cuffs off.” She concentrated on an image in her mind of a small child she knew. She shuddered and started to shift.

  Oddly enough, it hurt even more to shrink in size than it did to grow taller. Her muscles compacted, her bones shortened, and she grew tiny and slender.

  The cuffs slipped off her wrists and dropped to the concrete floor with a loud clanging sound.

  “Okay, now.” She sounded like a little girl as she spoke and was tiny enough to slip through the bars.

  When she was out she saw that Logan had vanished. “Logan?” she said as the air chilled around her.

  “I’m here.” His voice came from her right. She looked and saw him stuffing his handcuffs into his back pocket. “Let’s get moving. We need to get to that vault before Janice retrieves the CVP.” He vanished as he said the last words.

  Obviously, Janice had been foolish enough to believe the cells would hold Logan and Tori. Apparently she hadn’t realized Tori could become so small or that Logan could transport himself out. All that Janice knew was that Logan could become invisible.

  Tori moved so that she was close to the door back into the hallway. She stood out of the line of sight from the window looking into the holding area.

  She shifted into a double of Janice. The pain intensified as she went from tiny to adult-sized. When she finished shifting, she grasped the doorknob and eased the door open.

  A guard stood at the entrance, a guy she barely knew. As a senior agent, Janice knew him a little better than Tori did. “Make sure no one comes out this door, Larry,” Tori/Janice said.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He gave her a nod as she walked past him. She noticed he looked puzzled as a cold chill followed her.

  Logan cooled the air around him when he was invisible, which explained why she’d been so cold in the lab the day that the meeting had been called and why she’d felt like she was being watched—because she was being watched. Apparently he hadn’t seen much because he hadn’t suspected her of anything until everything went to hell.

  Two agents passed her coming from the break room. She kept her chin high, her lips tight, and acknowledged them with a nod. She continued on to the back of the PIA HQ where the vault was located.

  Her heart beat at a rapid pace as she walked. Goose bumps broke out on her arms from the chill in the air.

  When they reached the door to the vault, guards stood to either side of the door. “I need to get into the vault,” Tori/Janice said to the men. She stayed in character and said it as a command, not a request.

  “Yes, ma’am.” One of the guards opened the door and held it wide. He started to shut it behind Tori/Janice, but the door seemed to bump on something—Tori guessed it was the invisible Logan. The guard frowned and tried again and this time the door closed more easily.

  “Got to hurry” She spoke under her breath as she stared at the vault door. “Janice could come at almost any time.”

  “Right here beside you,” Logan said, his voice just as low as hers.

  The vault was enormous and from what Tori had understood, one of the safest, most difficult vaults to break into. She went to the vault and put her hand on the print reader. It w
as white and backlit. It scanned her hand then identified her every fingerprint.

  If Tori hadn’t touched Janice, she wouldn’t have been able to duplicate her fingerprints or her retinas. But thanks to Janice being “hands-on” with Tori, that hadn’t been a problem. With her Changeling abilities she could copy a person physically identically, closer than an identical twin was.

  Still, her heart beat fast and her scalp tingled as she waited. She breathed a sigh of relief when the fingerprint scanner flashed and the light turned green beneath her palm.

  She put her eye up to the retina scanner and tried not to blink as it scanned her eye. A moment later it gave a chirp of acceptance.

  Next she went to the keypad and put in Janice’s security code, which had been in her forefront memories that she used regularly, and Tori had attained that knowledge easily.

  Another beep and then the sound of locks clanging as the vault started to open.

  Tori glanced over her shoulder at the door, feeling jittery as she waited for the vault door to swing wide enough to get in. The moment it did, she was through the door and light illuminated the entire vault.

  Stacks of folders and papers were arranged on the shelves. Also on the shelves were some objects that Tori recognized because she’d stolen them for the PIA. She’d been told those particular objects had been turned over to the U.S. government already. Was the PIA getting ready to sell them?

  “Hurry,” came Logan’s voice from behind her.

  She stepped further in and scanned the shelves with her gaze, trying to locate the device.

  “There,” Logan said. “Second shelf on your right, between the gold crown and the Greek bust.”

  “Got it,” she said as she grabbed the petite CVP. She turned and started for the vault door.

  The door slammed shut with a sound like a thunderclap, locking her inside.

  Everything went dark.

  “Not good.” Tori held her hand to her chest and felt her heart thrumming beneath her fingers as she heard the locks engaging in the vault door. “So not good.”

  She felt a hand settle on her shoulder. She could see nothing in the complete darkness, not that she could have seen him anyway, even with the light on, if he was still invisible.