Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection

by Anya Merchant

  “But shouldn’t we wait for the police? And what about them?”

  The two mind controlled men were slowly stirring back to life. One of them was coughing, and the other was looking around in disbelief.

  “Monteiro prefers to handle these kinds of incidents in-house,” said Lucy. “Kronenberg will take the lead on the cleanup.”

  It was only then that Victor realized that the drone was hovering in the stairway behind them, slightly charred from the fire blast, but still intact.

  “Yes, it’s no trouble,” said Kronenberg. “I love pulling all-nighters, especially when they’re unplanned and full of messy complications.”

  “I’ll mark it as double overtime, you malcontent.” Lucy waved her hand dismissively and started down the stairs. “Call in the night security contractors and have them lock down the building. If you can find her, don’t let her get away.”

  Victor paused for a second and looked over at Kronenberg.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  The drone’s dome flashed orange, though the light was dim and obscured by the damage of the flames.

  “Thanks for what?” asked Kronenberg.

  “You got in the way of that first blast of fire.” Victor bowed his head slightly toward the robot. “That probably saved my life.”

  Kronenberg chuckled.

  “Not a problem, Vic.” His voice sounded amused, and a little flattered. “Part of it was in hopes that this drone body would take enough damage for Ms. Wilson to splurge on a new one.”

  Victor smiled, nodded to Kronenberg once more, and then hurried after Lucy.

  CHAPTER 7

  From outside Monteiro Tower, there was no hint that anything unusual had taken place. Victor stared up at the huge building as Lucy pulled her car out of the parking garage.

  The woman might have already escaped. She could be nearby, waiting for us.

  “Who was she?” Victor turned to look at Lucy in the driver’s seat, who was still wet from the sprinklers. “You said something about her having attacked before.”

  Lucy frowned and hesitated for a moment before responding.

  “We’ve taken to calling her Night Angel. She’s another aura binder, like you. One that shouldn’t exist, as far as we know.”

  “What?” He shook his head, feeling confused. “So I’m an aura binder? That’s what it’s called.”

  “Yeah,” said Lucy. “And so is that woman. She’s attacked Monteiro Tower twice before this, both times during the day when it was better defended.”

  “What is she after?”

  “Honestly, I have no idea.” Lucy shrugged. “We don’t know where she got her abilities, or why she’s using them to come after us. All we know is that she’s out there, and we suspect that she may be the one behind all the unexplained murders that have been taking place.”

  Victor nodded as understanding slowly dawned on him. Undercliff City had been in the news over the past months after several mass murders had gained the attention of the international press. The media labeled them as unexplained events, likely linked to terrorism in some way, but a few conspiracy theories speculated around the details.

  “And those men…” Victor took a deep breath and tried to stay calm as he thought about what he’d seen. “They were under her control, as though they were thralls, or something.”

  “She was using the onyx aura,” said Lucy. “You might have been able to see it. As an aura binder, you should be able to detect when another aura binder is using their powers.”

  “She looked almost… purple,” said Victor. “I can’t believe that somebody would do that to other people!”

  He gritted his teeth as suppressed memories flickered on the edge of his mental awareness.

  I can believe it. I’ve experienced it firsthand, before.

  “It’s nothing for you to worry about,” said Lucy.

  “Like hell it isn’t. I can’t rest easy knowing that other people might be caught up in this, enslaved against their own will.”

  “Kronenberg already has a team on the way to debrief the two men that she had with her,” said Lucy. “There is a very good chance that we’ll have her in custody by tomorrow morning.”

  The words sounded overly hopeful and a bit hollow to Victor. He chewed on his lip and shook his head.

  “In the meantime,” continued Lucy. “You’re going to need rest, and a bit of first aid. I’ll take a look at your arm as soon as we get back to my apartment and you can sleep there for the night.”

  Victor remembered his burn at her mention of it and glanced down at his hand. It was blistered and painful looking, and began to hurt in full force as he examined it.

  “I don’t have some kind of nano aura healing ability to fall back on?”

  Lucy chuckled.

  “No. Though in all seriousness, that’s something we’ve been pouring a ton of research into developing. Unfortunately, at least for now, you’ll take damage and heal like all the rest of us.”

  Victor pondered over her words for a minute. Using the scarlet aura had felt natural to him, almost like extending a part of his body that he hadn’t realized he’d had.

  “What about the other auras?” he asked. “You mentioned them before, but how do I learn to use them? Am I capable of doing what she did?”

  Lucy sighed and glanced over at him from behind the wheel.

  “I’ll explain more to you soon enough. This isn’t a conversation we should be having tonight.”

  Victor didn’t argue. There was something authoritative about the way Lucy laid things out, and it put him at ease. He’d been on his own since leaving home, on a single-minded quest to find the answers to what was going on with him. And now he was getting them, albeit in a manner that created more questions in its wake.

  Lucy drove her car into a different section of Undercliff City, where the buildings were a bit more residential in nature. She pulled into the driveway of a long apartment building, two stories high and the entire length of the block, and then found a parking spot.

  “This is it,” she said. “I’ll carry your bag up for you.”

  Victor started to object and then felt a stabbing pain in his burned hand as he flexed it. He followed Lucy up a staircase that led to a shared patio, and then past a series of identical doors. They stopped in front of one in the middle of the building, and she unlocked it.

  “Come on in.” She smiled over her shoulder at him. “It’s small, but make yourself at home.”

  The apartment was completely different from what Victor had been expecting. It completely clashed with the image he’d gotten of Lucy as a high-powered, no-nonsense, career focused woman.

  There was a couch, a love seat, and an easy chair, all of which were decorated with matching pink floral printed slipcovers. Several books were scattered across the coffee table, all easily identifiable as romance novels. There was a TV on top of an entertainment stand that predated the transition to flatscreens, and above that was a shelf filled with framed family photos.

  “Wow,” said Victor. “It’s, uh… nice.”

  “I don’t spend much time here,” said Lucy. “Most of the decorations are courtesy of my sister, who lives here when she isn’t traveling.”

  There was a hint of embarrassment in her voice that sounded just as out of character as the living room felt. Victor nodded and restrained himself from commenting further.

  She’s going out on a limb for me. It’s more than I expected her to do.

  He walked over to the love seat and sat down on it. His thoughts began to turn back to his father, and everything that had happened to him over the course of the past month.

  “Are you alright?” asked Lucy. Victor nodded and forced a smile onto his face.

  “Were you and my dad close, back when you worked together?”

  Lucy looked a little taken aback by his question. She thought for a moment and then slowly nodded. She’d taken out a first aid kit and walked over to where he sat, pulling his burned
hand in front of her for a closer look.

  “Yeah. We were.” She swabbed on antiseptic and then began wrapping his wound up in cloth. “But I figured you knew that already. Normally it’s not the responsibility of an assistant to babysit the son of her employer, at least not in my experience.”

  Victor chewed his lip. He could tell that Lucy wanted to ask questions, to delve into the truth of what had happened to bring Victor to Undercliff City. But she said nothing.

  “This is a little off-topic, but there are some things that you should know about being an aura binder.”

  Victor glanced up. He’d drifted off into his thoughts without realizing it, and Lucy had made a trip into the kitchen and back. She passed him a plate with a sandwich and chips on it and then sat down on the couch with one of her own.

  “Such as?” Victor started eating, but at the same time, he pushed his awareness out, feeling for his new abilities and their mental triggers.

  “First off, the name itself was Kronenberg’s idea, but it is appropriate, given the mechanism upon which the nanites work.” Lucy paused to take a dainty bite of her sandwich. “Each time you use one of your abilities, you’re extending the nanites through your skin and out of your body, and ‘binding’ them to something external.

  “Yeah, that fits well enough, I guess.”

  “The nanites have permeated not just your bloodstream, Victor, but also your brain.” The look Lucy gave him was deadly serious, to the point of almost being grim. “And as such, they are sensitive to both your emotions and lifestyle.”

  She’s right. When my anger flared up in the fight, the nanites reacted to it.

  “Okay,” said Victor. “I’ll keep that—”

  “Which means,” interrupted Lucy. “That you need to eat healthy, and get lots of rest in order for the nanites to continue working in a balanced, controllable way. However… there is more to it than just that.”

  Victor scratched his head. Lucy finished her food, and she stood up and walked through a door on the other side of the living room, closing it most of the way behind her.

  “Alright, I’ll bite,” said Victor. “What else do I have to do?”

  Lucy came back out into the living room after a moment and Victor’s jaw dropped open. She’d changed into a purple night robe fashioned in the style of a small kimono, covered in floral designs and with elegant black trim. The robe only made it down to her mid-thigh, and though she’d tied it closed across the front, the slit opened across her busty cleavage in a tantalizing way.

  She’d also let her hair down, and she pulled it free of the hem of the kimono as she padded across the living room’s carpet on bare feet. Victor felt himself growing excited, in more ways than one.

  “Sex.” The word sounded hot and dirty on Lucy’s lips. “Or to put it a bit more politely, you need to have an active intimate life. In some of our past test subjects, the lack of emotional balance caused them to become backed up, and led to dangerous accidents when they used their nanites.”

  Victor realized he was nodding up and down a bit too vigorously and stilled the motion of his head.

  “Okay!” he said. “I mean, yes! I can do that.”

  “Good.” Lucy smiled at him. “I apologize for springing this on you at the last moment.”

  And then the doorbell rang.

  CHAPTER 8

  “That’s probably her.”

  Lucy walked over to the door and turned the handle. She leaned forward as she opened it a crack, causing the back of her robe to ride up along her legs, right up to the edge of her buttocks. After too short of a moment, she leaned back and opened the door the rest of the way.

  “Come on in, Piper. Perfect timing.”

  A tall woman, almost as tall as Victor, walked into the apartment. She had neon blue died hair, rectangular glasses that framed a pale, pretty face, and medium sized breasts. In stark contrast to her trendy features, she wore plain jeans with a regular white blouse and button up sweater over them.

  “This better be important,” said Piper. “I just put the kids to sleep, and James and I were looking forward to some…”

  She trailed off as her eyes settled on Victor. He could feel her sizing him up, but there was something about the intensity of her gaze that felt a bit off-putting.

  “And what do we have here,” said Piper. She kicked off her shoes and slowly walked over to him. “I can only think of one reason why Lucy would have a strapping young man in her apartment this late. Well two, but Lucy isn’t really the—”

  “Piper.” Lucy cut the other woman off with the same authoritative voice that she used to boss Victor around. “This is Victor. He’s an aura binder, and he has been having some difficulty controlling his powers. I’m assuming you don’t need me to explain what needs to be done?”

  “No, I can take it from here. Do you want me to preserve a sample of the ejaculate?”

  Lucy nodded and then walked over to the closet near the front door. She fished a small bag out of it, along with a blanket and a pillow, and set everything down on the floor next to the couch.

  “I’ll be in my room,” she said. “You can let yourself out when you’re done. Victor, if you need anything, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Hold on a second!” Victor turned around and looked over at Lucy, feeling a bit strange. “This is kind of sudden.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you’ll find some way to endure it.” Lucy flashed him a coy smile and then stepped through the door of her bedroom, closing it behind her.

  “So, Victor…” Piper walked over to the couch slowly and took a seat next to him. “You’re an aura binder, huh?”

  Victor took a deep breath and then exhaled.

  I don’t have any other choice. Might as well make the best of it.

  “Yeah, I am,” he said. “Though I only found out what that means earlier today.”

  “Fascinating.” Piper inched closer to him on the couch. “I’m the head physician and one of the research assistants for Nano Aura Department and the 13th floor at Monteiro.”

  “I see.” Victor let out a short, nervous laugh. As always, memories of Ella flickered to life in the back of his mind. Things had been different with her. He’d been the aggressive one, back then.

  “Just relax.” Piper reached a hand out and put it on his chest. “You’re pretty handsome, you know. How old are you anyway?”

  Her hand began to slide down, and Victor felt his cock instantly become hard.

  “I’m 63, but everyone says I don’t look a day over 55.”

  Piper laughed. She finally reached the edge of the waistband of his jeans and prodded a finger inside in an exploratory way.

  “Well what do we have here?” she whispered. “I think I’m going to take a look and find out.”

  She lowered herself to the floor in front of Victor as she unzipped his jeans, pulling them down to his ankles and facing him and his now flagrant erection.

  “This is the fun part of my job.” She licked her lips slowly as she looked up at him and then fished his cock out through the hole of his boxers. Victor gasped and felt his body tense up as her fingers touched the sensitive skin of his shaft.

  “Oh man,” he said.

  “It wasn’t exactly in the job description when I applied, but I took to it naturally.” Piper locked eyes with him as she started stroking, her movements slow and sensual. “We just have to keep quiet about it. It’s so I can get a sample for testing, and you can stay in the zone with your nanites.”

  She grabbed a tiny glass jar out of the bag that Lucy had set down for her and pulled away from Victor’s cock for a moment to open it. After one more flirtatious glance up at him, Piper went back to what she was doing, this time holding the jar in one hand.

  This is unbelievable.

  “You’re staring at my lips.” Piper giggled as she spoke. Her face was only a few inches away from the head of Victor’s hardness, but she looked set on using her hand, which admittedly, felt fanta
stic on its own.

  “Yeah, I am,” said Victor, blushing slightly. “What can I say? You have nice lips.”

  “I think my hands will do just fine for what we need, don’t you?” Piper ran her finger across the tip of his cock, rubbing precum around. She gave it a soft squeeze and a silent moan escaped Victor’s mouth.

  “I think…” Victor trailed off, and then, without exactly meaning to, flared his scarlet aura at a low level. “You could do a little more.”

  Piper made a noise. Her face flushed, and she licked her lips again, more slowly this time.

  “Maybe…” she murmured. “For just a bit. But don’t tell Lucy. She doesn’t like me getting too friendly with the subjects.”

  Victor stared at her, half surprised and half ecstatic, as she puckered her lips and planted a soft kiss on the tip of his hard rod. Piper giggled and then kissed it again, parting her mouth slightly and sucking more of it inside.

  “Oh god…” Victor leaned his head back as Piper got into the rhythm of sucking. She ran on hand up his thigh, keeping the other one nearby with the jar.

  I shouldn’t have done that. This isn’t the type of thing I can abuse. It’s taking advantage of people.

  It was hard for Victor to feel too sorry about it, all things considered. Piper knew how to give a blowjob. Victor glanced down and saw her blue hair shaking as she bobbed her head up and down, sliding her lips along the shaft of his cock. She went a bit deeper each time, letting his erection poke further into her warm, wet mouth.

  Victor looked down at her hand and saw something that made him do a double-take. She was wearing a wedding ring. He vaguely remembered an offhand comment she’d made right after she’d arrived, and suddenly felt incredibly guilty.

  She’s a married woman, and I used my powers to make her suck my cock.

  Piper twirled her tongue around the head of his shaft, pulled her head back, and then pushed it forward again. Victor felt his cock sliding into the back of her throat. She made a slight choking noise, and suddenly, he was inside of it.

  “Holy fuck…” H set a hand on the back of her head and enjoyed the sensation, feeling his cock pulsing as she deep throated him with sensual skill.