Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection

by Anya Merchant

  He did his best to keep from considering the possibility that he might be the victim of another mistaken identity shooting and continued up. His shoulder was still unbelievably painful, but even as the wound began to reopen. Victor kept his mind focused on his target.

  He landed on a bush after dropping over the other side and began hurrying past the identical, immaculately maintained houses.

  “It’s going to be the third one across and to the left,” said Kronenberg.

  “What?”

  “Diagonally to the left. At around your 11 o'clock, assuming you came in through the front gate.”

  “I didn’t.”

  Kronenberg groaned.

  “This would be about ten thousand times easier if you’d remembered your smartphone like a functioning adult.

  “Hey Kronenberg, how about you go fuck yourself?”

  Kronenberg laughed. Victor kept moving forward, and as he approached the house indicated, he knew immediately that he’d found the right one.

  All of the lights were off. It was still early enough in the night for that to be unusual. Stranger still was the front door, which was left slightly ajar. Victor slowed as he walked up to it, casually pushed it open, and instantly realized that he’d moved too hastily. A pistol hammer clicked back, and something hard and cold pushed against the side of his temple.

  “Don’t move.” Terrance Pronto’s voice sounded the same as it had when Victor had last encountered him. “Are you working with her?”

  “No.” Victor swallowed, and slowly turned his head so he could see the other man. “I’m with Monteiro. We met the other day.”

  Just enough light illuminated Terrance’s face from outside for Victor to see the look of recognition on his face. He nodded slowly and lowered the gun.

  “She’s outside, waiting for me.” He jerked his head toward the door. “I’m surprised she didn’t use this as a chance to—“

  The door, along with its frame and most of the wall around it, shattered into flaming splinters. Victor was thrown forward into the house. His legs struck against Terrance’s couch, and he sprawled into a front flip and landed hard on his back. Pain coursed through his wounded shoulder, and smoke filled the air.

  “You bitch!” shouted Terrance. “My fucking house!”

  Victor managed to gather himself up. He looked toward the door and saw Night Angel, Keiko Yamazaki. She was silhouetted by the shadow cast by the fires licking the edges of the hole she’d created in the wall. She walked into the house slowly, all of her attention focused on the crumpled heap on the floor that was Terrance Pronto.

  “You deserve worse than I could ever give you.” Night Angel’s aura was bright red as she raised one hand toward her target, palm extended.

  “Stop!” Victor bound his scarlet aura, pushing energy into it and sending out a blast of intense fire. He was surprised by how well it formed into an attack. Night Angel moved to dodge, only barely managing to clear herself out of the way as a pillar of fire the thickness of a telephone pole collided with the edge of the ceiling of Terrance’s house.

  She flipped backward onto the lawn, moving with acrobatic grace in comparison to Victor’s clumsy, accidental tumble. Victor stood and hurried after her as fast as he could, feeling his accumulated injuries bogging down every movement.

  I have to end this fast!

  “You don’t understand what you’re doing,” said Night Angel. Her aura flickered to a blinding white, and she rose up several feet into the air.

  “This ends here,” said Victor. “I’m not going to let you enslave anyone else!”

  He shot another fire blast up at her, smaller this time. Night Angel twisted and dodged it easily. With the light from the moon and street lights illuminating her from behind, she looked deserving of the name.

  “I’ll kill you if I have to.” Night Angel shot a blast of fire of her own down at him. Victor managed to bind his scarlet aura into the shape of a circular disk in front of him, catching her fireball and scattering the flames to either side of him.

  Victor realized almost immediately that he was using up his energy quicker than she was. If the fight went on for an extended period of time, she’d win by default. Several people had come out of their houses to watch, and Victor had a second major realization.

  People are going to get hurt if we fight here! I need to somehow get her away from here.

  Terrance’s car roared to life from the driveway in the back of the house. Victor and Night Angel both heard it at the same time, and an instant later, it screeched out onto the street.

  “No!” Night Angel readied a fire blast that looked capable of flattening an entire house. She pulled back her arm and launched it forward. Victor was already moving before it had left her hand.

  He threw himself in front of Night Angel and bound his scarlet aura around himself, creating a sheath of fire in front of his body that made him look a bit like an outlandish superhero. Night Angel’s blast struck him, and he felt like he’d just thrown open the door to the hottest oven in existence, and then taken a hit to the stomach from a sledgehammer.

  Victor was still in the air when his aura fell. He slammed down on the pavement hard, landing directly in front of a curious family who’d come out onto their porch to witness the commotion.

  “Get… back.” The side of his face was painful, but he didn’t know if it was from road rash or the fire. Night Angel landed a few feet away from him, and out of the corner of Victor’s eye, he could see her frowning.

  “This isn’t any of your concern,” she said. “Why must you get in my way?”

  “What you’ve done… is unforgivable?”

  “Is it? Truly?” Night Angel sighed and shook her head. “I’m not evil. I’m not what you think I am. After tonight, I was planning to leave and never come back. To never have to see this godforsaken city again.”

  Victor gritted his teeth. He poured every bit of energy he had left into his scarlet aura, and then bound it to Night Angel.

  It took both of his hands to control the blast. He held them forward, palms extended, as though shooting energy out of his hands like an anime character. Night Angel sent out a blast of their own, the color of her flames slightly brighter than his.

  They pushed back and forth, doing battle against one another with their wills. The moment could have only lasted a second or two, but it felt like it went on for an eternity. Victor let out an enraged scream and felt his blast break through, slamming into Night Angel and knocking her back.

  Keiko Yamazaki flew backward through the air, contorted herself into an elegant backflip, and landed in the grass, her feet sliding back and creating two trails of torn earth through someone’s lawn. She rushed at Victor, and he met her in the street.

  This time, she attacked him with her fists, throwing a punch at his face that Victor saw coming and still somehow managed to take full in the jaw. He winced and spun, lashing out with a right cross that missed her face by a fraction of an inch.

  Night Angel took a step back and readied the kick that would have ended the fight. Victor didn’t give her the chance. He lunged forward, using his size to his advantage and tackling her to the ground.

  “Let me go!” Night Angel’s diamond aura surrounded her body, and with Victor still wrapped around her, she began to rise into the air.

  I can’t let her take to the air!

  Victor reached into his awareness. His scarlet aura took too much energy for him to use at a high level, and would be virtually useless as an emotion manipulator in a fight. Instead, he bound his onyx aura, and felt something unexpected happen.

  It was receptive to the energy he pushed into it, and with his focus on Keiko, it bound to her immediately. Victor saw a bright flash, and in an instant, the world in front of him, the chaos of the fight and aftermath of the flames, disappeared.

  CHAPTER 20

  Victor understood. It came on all at once, a sudden intermeshing of who he was, and Keiko Yamazaki. The onyx aura, at the le
vel he’d bound it at, was letting him experience who she was, her emotions and the memories that fueled them.

  The way Lucy had described binding the onyx aura at a high level made it sound as though it was a purely chaotic force, designed to be easily abused by people with psychopathic tendencies. Victor had thought that it would be like controlling a marionette and pulling on the strings, and that reading a mind would be like flipping open a newspaper and giving it a scan.

  This was different. Victor felt a powerful sense of vertigo, intense enough to make him want to throw up. Sounds and images shocked his senses, and it took him a moment to make any sense of what he was seeing.

  This is… what happened to her.

  He saw Night Angel, Keiko Yamazaki, as a teenager, younger than he was now. He saw flashes of her growing up in a broken family. Her mother had been a drug addict, and she’d been the oldest of her four siblings, the only one to look out for them all.

  She left for college. Victor saw flashes of her settling into her dorm room and going to classes. Victor saw her smiling, and was surprised by how lovely it made her face look, compared to the dark expression he’d seen on her other persona.

  Victor saw where it began. She needed money. She was still taking care of her sisters on the weekend, still making sure they had everything they needed. And she needed money.

  Victor saw her walking into Heaven’s Galley, blushing fiercely. He saw a flash of her first show and felt her emotions as the men ogled her. She was good at it, good at being sultry, teasing, and flaunting her raw sexuality.

  And then Victor saw Terrance Pronto. He was one of her teachers, and after she had begun her career as a stripper, he became one of her patrons. Victor felt Keiko’s reaction the first time she spotted him inside Heaven’s Galley. Victor watched the way he leered at her, and then the way he took advantage of her.

  He blackmailed her, threatened to expose her secret.

  Victor saw more than he needed to. He saw the inside of Terrance’s house and understood exactly how Night Angel found it so easily. He saw her being degraded, forced to be a slut, a whore. There was another man, and occasionally other women, but the one thing that stayed consistent was Keiko’s subhuman status in their eyes.

  Victor saw the day that Keiko’s secret almost got out. Terrance forced her to stay under his desk while he was teaching a class, pleasuring him for the entire period. He routinely reached under to slap her face, or pinch her cheek roughly.

  And then Keiko was at a funeral, her youngest sister’s funeral. She’d been forced to miss her weekly visit in order to please Terrance, and something had happened back home. That was when the real change came, when Keiko’s eyes lost the light that they’d once held. The scene went dark, and Victor felt his awareness spinning around him.

  “You’re awake.”

  Victor blinked. His eyes had been open for the last couple of seconds. He was in a bed, in a cold, dark room. He lifted his head up and looked to his side to see Night Angel, leaning against the wall, watching him.

  “What…” He shook his head. “How am I alive right now?”

  “You used the onyx aura on me,” said Night Angel. “I’m not sure whether to be flattered or offended.”

  “I…” Victor slowly put things together. “I saw everything, Keiko. I know what happened.”

  She looked at him for a long moment.

  “It goes both ways,” she said. “I saw what happened to you, too. All of it.”

  Victor felt his heart skip a beat.

  “Why haven’t you killed me yet?” he asked.

  “I told you, Victor. I… saw all of it.” Night Angel shook her head and let out a pained sigh. “I’m so sorry.”

  Victor forced himself up and out of the bed, feeling his injuries protesting every movement. Night Angel’s words were confusing to him, as though she was pointing out something that he was and would always be in a blind spot.

  I know what she saw. But I don’t understand why she’d react this way.

  “Where are we?” Victor looked around the room, and as he did, Night Angel walked over and turned flipped a switch on the wall.

  The floor was old white tile. Blankets and posters hung on the walls, which in reality were open and lined with industrial piping. A single outlet had a lamp and a power strip plugged into it, and a laptop computer and mini fridge had been plugged into that.

  “My hideout,” said Night Angel, or rather, Keiko. She’d taken her disguise off, and wore plain jeans and a tight pink t-shirt. “It’s one of the maintenance rooms in the old abandoned subway.”

  More questions swam through Victor’s head, but most of them were of the intangible, impossible to word variety. He stared at Keiko, and for the first time, really noticed her.

  “It happened to me, too, the first time I tried to touch someone’s mind,” she said. “It gets easier with time.”

  Victor forced himself to remember what he was there to do.

  “I understand why you wanted to kill Terrance. But those other men… Why did you think it was okay?”

  “Rapists,” said Keiko. “Every single one of them. One would even come into Heaven’s Gallery to taunt his victims regularly.”

  Victor didn’t say anything. Keiko took a step forward, and then another. It wasn’t until she was standing within arm’s reach that Victor saw the look in her eyes.

  “What are you doing?”

  She smiled at him.

  “What I saw in you…” Keiko shook her head slightly. “…was scary, and intriguing, and depressing, and so many other things at once.”

  She reached her hand out and put it on Victor’s chest.

  “You’re like me,” whispered Keiko.

  Her aura flickered to life, a faint red hue surrounding her body. Victor, had he not gotten a sense of her, would have assumed that it was an attack and reacted immediately. Instead, he hesitated and felt a new emotion bursting to life inside of him.

  She… just flared my emotions!

  Victor blinked, and for the briefest of seconds, his eyes settled on Keiko’s soft, shapely breasts. His cock sprouted into an erection so fast that it caught against the inside of his pant leg.

  “What are you doing?” He shook his head, and despite himself, stepped in closer to her.

  “You can do it to me, too,” Keiko whispered. “Here.”

  She took Victor’s hand and pulled it to her breast. It was soft and far more compelling than it had any right to be. Without thinking twice, Victor flared his scarlet aura, pushing Keiko’s arousal up a notch. She opened her mouth slightly and then pushed herself against him.

  The two of them fell onto the bed. Victor brought his lips to meet Keiko’s and felt an electric thrill shoot through them as they shared a passionate kiss. They began grinding against each other, even as they fumbled with each other’s clothing.

  Keiko unbuttoned his dress shirt and planted three kisses in quick succession on his chest. Victor all but ripped off her top, groping at her breasts through the black bra she wore as soon as he had access.

  “Oh…” Keiko rolled, twisting so that Victor was underneath her, and then rubbed one of her thighs across his hard cock. Victor fumbled with the button and zipper of her jeans and felt her flare her scarlet aura on his emotions a second time.

  “Jesus!” Victor leaned his head back, feeling himself on the verge of cumming early from the excitement. Keiko ran her hand across his bulge, and then slowly wiggled out of her pants, leaving on only her underwear.

  “Victor…” she whispered. “We don’t have to be afraid of what we can do.”

  Victor pulled his pants off, leaning up on one arm as he watched Keiko crawl back onto the bed like a cat in heat. The two of them slammed together in what was half wrestling and half horny, passionate embrace.

  He pushed his rock hard erection against her and kissed her neck. Keiko slipped a hand into his boxers and wrapped her soft, hot hand around the shaft of his dick. Both of them were making soft noi
ses of pleasure and arousal.

  “Keiko!” Victor could still see what it had been like inside her memories. He knew how many men had drooled over her, and the way she’d managed to wrap most of them around her finger.

  She could be doing the same thing to me.

  Keiko flared her scarlet aura, as though sensing what was going on in his head. Victor locked eyes with her, half expecting to see betrayal staring back at him. Instead, he saw something else, something fragile, exposed, and horny.

  He flared his scarlet aura, and Keiko bit her lip and let out a squeal. She began wiggling out of her panties with cute, girlish movements. Victor unclasped her bra with both hands and pulled his cock out of his boxers.

  They kissed again, their tongues swirling together as their bodies locked into the position of passion. Victor pressed the head of his erection into her cunt and felt the hot, wet heat awaiting him inside.

  “Do it,” whispered Keiko. “Please.”

  Victor pushed forward. It was almost like diving into a pool of warm water, except more pleasurable and fulfilling and indescribably beautiful. Keiko gasped, and he felt the inside of her pussy rubbing along his hard shaft.

  There was nothing he could compare it too. The kind of regular sex that Victor had experienced with ordinary women, even his former girlfriend, Ella, was basic and immature compared to the depth of what he was now immersed in.

  Keiko ran a hand through his hair and moved her body to meet his as he thrust up into her. His cock went deeper and deeper, until he’d pushed it so far into her that her back arched, and her eyes slipped shut from the pleasure.

  “Oh god!” moaned Keiko.

  Victor thrust again, and again, and again. It felt a bit like tapping his foot, where once his muscles adjusted to the movement, they began to build momentum that kept it going on its own. Except here, every thrust rewarded him with more pleasure than the last.

  The mattress springs creaked underneath them and bounced Keiko up and down. Victor groped at her soft breasts, kissing at the nipple of one and pinching the nipple of the other. Keiko’s fingernails scraped lightly across his chest, digging in a little deeper on each down stroke of his cock.