Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection

by Anya Merchant

  “Is that jealousy I hear in your voice, Vic?” Kronenberg chuckled. “Just because Lucy hasn’t been calling you in as much lately?”

  A stab of annoyance went through Victor’s chest.

  “That’s ridiculous,” he said. “I don’t care.”

  “Good, because Kiara is your senior when it comes to this kind of stuff. Lucy most likely wants you in the tower today to start training with her.”

  Kronenberg leaned forward and flew through the air a bit faster, forcing Victor to take longer strides to keep up. The two of them moved toward the center of Undercliff City, and the buildings around them became a little bit more upscale with every block.

  Monteiro Tower was one of several skyscrapers that collectively formed Undercliff City’s skyline. There were a couple of buildings taller than it, but none of them could match its level of architectural polish. It looked like something out of a projection of the future, the outside of it a reflection of the advanced research and development taking place on the inside.

  Underneath the spotless exterior of Monteiro Corp was something much darker. Victor had gotten a taste of it a month ago after following the trail of Night Angel back to its source, the event that precipitated her fall. The only thing that had stopped Victor from moving against one of the company’s key employees was Lucy and her insistence that there was even more to the situation than what he could see.

  Is that why she’s been pushing me away? Is she trying to distance me from what Monteiro is getting into?

  Victor followed Kronenberg through the doors at the bottom and into the lobby. People in fresh pressed suits and business attire moved around with purpose. Several secretaries lined the main desk, and one of them waved to Kronenberg as he went by. The dome light on top of his drone body flashed in response, and the two of them stood behind a crowd of people queuing in front of the elevators along the back wall.

  “Wow…” Victor shook his head, a little overwhelmed. “I had no idea that so many people worked here.”

  “It’s a multibillion dollar company, Victor,” replied Kronenberg. “Not exactly the type of operation that’s worried about payroll.”

  The two of them stuffed into a crowded elevator. Kronenberg dropped to the floor and Victor stood half over him as more people jammed their way in. The doors closed, the elevator beeped as it passed floor after floor, until finally they reached their destination.

  Compared to the lobby, the Nano Aura Department on the thirteenth floor felt almost barebones. Lucy stood amidst the hallway of cubicles, talking to several young employees that looked more like interns than serious researchers. She smiled when she saw Victor and Kronenberg approaching, and the two of them met her in stride and followed her into the main operations area.

  “Good timing,” she said. “Kronenberg, Jenna has some questions for you about the potential applications report she’s been putting together. Come straight back to me after that, the junior associates are still getting settled and I’m going to need your help keeping them productive.”

  “Sure thing, boss.” Kronenberg floated off, leaving Victor and Lucy relatively alone.

  “Victor,” she said. “Let’s talk in my office.”

  He followed after her and across the main operations room. It was an open area with desk islands and work stations scattered throughout it, one larger than the rest and decked out in monitors. Offices lined the side and back walls, and Lucy’s was set into the back left corner. She opened the door for him and then followed behind.

  Why do I feel like I’m about to be chewed out by the principal?

  “What’s up?” Victor took a seat in the chair in front of Lucy’s desk. She took her time making her way over and leaned forward to straighten out some papers before sitting down.

  Lucy’s hair was up in a neat blonde bun. She wore a gray women’s suit jacket with a matching skirt, and the blouse she had on underneath was surprisingly low cut, showing off her ample cleavage.

  “Victor, it’s time for you to get serious about your training.” She glanced up at him, a few strands of loose blonde bangs framing her face perfectly on either side. “Kiara is going to be your instructor for the foreseeable future.”

  Victor bit his lip and fought back a frustrated reply. Lucy watched him, reading his expression as though his thoughts were written in big block letters.

  “Look, I know the two of you didn’t get the best first impression of each other last night.”

  “She knocked me out,” said Victor, feeling a bit embarrassed as the words came out of his mouth.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Lucy frowned at him slightly. “She’s my sister, and she has a good deal more experience with her nano auras than you do. She will be a capable teacher for you.”

  “This is a waste of time,” said Victor. “There is another killer out there. I should be out on the streets, protecting people where it-”

  “You aren’t good enough yet.” Lucy looked at him flatly. “I don’t mean to insult you, but it’s just a fact. You don’t have enough control as an aura binder, and you haven’t fully come into your abilities yet.”

  Victor struggled to keep from rolling his eyes. Lucy turned back to the papers on her desk, and again, his eyes were drawn to her cleavage.

  Maybe I could use my scarlet aura on her. She’d be a lot more agreeable if I seduced her.

  Lucy glanced up at him, her eyes locking on his as though extending forth the challenge and daring him to do it. Victor felt ashamed of the thought, even if it had only been in passing. And beyond that, he suddenly doubted whether or not his auras would even work on her, given the technology she had at her disposal.

  “Fine,” he said, breaking the gaze.

  “Thank you.” Lucy’s soft lips turned up into a smile, and Victor tried not to wonder about what they would feel like against his skin.

  “Is Kiara on the thirteenth floor, or…”

  “She’s upstairs in one of the simulation rooms.” Lucy nodded to him once more and then looked down at her desk. Victor sensed that the conversation was over and stood up to leave.

  “Victor.” Lucy caught him just as he went to put his hand on the door.

  “Yeah?”

  “Try to get along with her,” said Lucy. “The two of you have more in common than I think you realize.”

  He looked back at her one last time and then exited the office.

  CHAPTER 7

  Victor rode the elevator up to the eighteenth floor, which was designed off a unique premise, even by the standards of Monteiro. He stepped out into a long hallway with a couple of doors on each side and started walking forward.

  The first time Victor had been in one of the simulation rooms, he’d almost been rendered speechless from future shock. The rooms themselves were open empty spaces, equipped with cameras and motion sensors to detect a person’s movements.

  By wearing a pair of specially designed glasses, a regular person could experience and create a limitless variety of hologram simulations. Someone with nanites in their body, like Victor, could take it a step further, seeing, hearing, and even touching the holograms and having the same feedback as if they were really there.

  One of the rooms had its door closed, and Victor assumed that was the one occupied by Kiara. He walked over to it and opened the door, which wasn’t locked.

  What he saw on the other side of it caused him to stop dead in his tracks. The simulation room looked like a fancy hotel suite, the holograms doing a fair job of mimicking the high class ambiance. A window looked out onto a picturesque natural landscape, with a large lake rimmed by mountains in the distance.

  A giant bed in the shape of a heart was at the center of the room, but that wasn’t what caught Victor’s attention. Kiara, along with a tall, muscular man that would have made most male models weep with shame, was partaking in a tight, erotic embrace. The man had her pinned against the wall. Kiara’s skirt was pulled up, and she had one leg wrapped around him.

  Victor cleare
d his throat as loudly as he could. Kiara looked up at him with a look of shocked embarrassment on her face.

  “Sorry,” he said. “The door was unlocked, I just figured-”

  “Jesus Christ!” Kiara glared at him, quickly waving a hand and returning the room back to its empty, unfurnished state. “Have you ever heard of knocking?”

  Without holograms, the room looked like a spotless, perfectly white racquetball court, except with better acoustics. Victor fought back his laughter as he walked over to Kiara, who still looked stunned.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I, uh, thought you were just training in here.”

  Kiara ran a hand through her blonde hair, which was surprisingly frazzled, given how short it was. She straightened out her tiny black skirt and adjusted the tight t-shirt she had on over it. A matching black sweater lay on the ground nearby, and she picked it up and pulled it on.

  She does look pretty good, for a crazy chick.

  “What do you want?” demanded Kiara.

  Victor couldn’t keep a slight chuckle from slipping into his voice as he spoke.

  “Lucy sent me. She said that you could help me with my training.” Victor bit his lip and felt his resolve wavering. “But uh, I don’t think this is what she had in mind.”

  Kiara smiled coldly at him. She looked scary, but somehow that only made the situation even funnier, and Victor had to take a deep, calming breath to maintain his composure. Kiara shook her head and flicked her hair back.

  “I think the only reason you’re laughing is because deep down inside, you wish you could take the hologram’s place.” She leaned forward slightly as she spoke, pushing out her chest and flaunting the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

  I can’t believe she’s related to Lucy.

  “That doesn’t even make sense,” said Victor.

  “It makes perfect sense. And I don’t have to justify myself to you!” Kiara walked over to him, getting right up in his face. “I get the feeling that you’re already thinking about trying it yourself.”

  “As if,” said Victor. “I can get real girls.”

  It was Kiara’s turn to chuckle, and Victor felt an irrational sliver of embarrassment stab at his chest.

  “Can you get girls that look like this?” Kiara snapped her fingers, and a famous actress appeared in the space next to her. “Or this?”

  Two more attractive, busty women appeared, each dressed a little more skimpily than the last. Victor tried not to let it show, but his mind was running wild with ideas.

  “It serves a practical purpose, beyond just having fun.” Kiara began walking a slow circle around Victor. “Lucy explained to you how your nanites work, right? The things that you need to do to keep them working in a proper state.”

  “Yeah, but this is all just a simulation.”

  “Your nanites make it real for you.” Kiara stood next to him and spoke into his ear. “In fact, you can adjust your arousal level and your sensitivity to make it feel even more intense than it would normally.”

  “Look, can we talk about something else? I’m here to train, Kiara, not to indulge you in conversation about your sex fantasies.”

  And if we keep talking about this for any longer, I might start to think that she has a point.

  “Fine.” Kiara rolled her eyes at him and dismissed the holograms. The room was empty again, and she walked over to the center of it and turned to face him.

  “Which auras are you currently proficient with and what can you do with them?” she asked.

  Victor scratched his head.

  “The scarlet aura was the first one I figured out,” he said. “I can use it to make and project fire when I bind it to a target. I can also use it to flare emotions.”

  “All emotions?” asked Kiara. “Or just one?”

  Victor winced.

  “Uh, just one,” he said. “It lets me, well, you know. Get people going.”

  “God, you are such a prude,” said Kiara, with a sigh. “All right, we’ll add that to the list. You need to get to the point where you can focus it enough to flare any emotion you want. What other auras can you use?”

  “The onyx aura is the only other one,” said Victor. “And I’m not a huge fan of what it does, to be honest.”

  “Why not?”

  Victor took a second to think about his answer.

  “Because I don’t think people should be controlled like that,” he said. “I’m fine with using it at a low level and enhancing my senses. But controlling people, even reading their minds, it doesn’t feel right.”

  Kiara watched him carefully, as though trying to interpret every detail of his expression.

  “You don’t forget,” she said.

  “What?”

  “When you read people’s minds, or take control of their bodies,” she said. “There is a downside to it. A bit of them will always stay with you. If you do it too often, it will start to influence who you are, and not in a good way.”

  Victor stared at her. There was the distinctive flicker of knowledge in Kiara’s eyes, the type of knowledge that comes from making mistakes and learning from them over time.

  “The other two auras,” continued Kiara, “match scarlet and onyx. They form pairs with them, in way.”

  “The azure aura…” said Victor. “That was the one you used one me, isn’t it?”

  Kiara met his eye and grinned. For some reason, a bit of pointless anger and frustration pulsed in his chest.

  “Yes. It works a lot like the scarlet aura, except in reverse.” She held a hand up and gestured to thin air. “It can be used to soften people’s emotions, to calm them down, essentially.”

  “And at high levels…?”

  Kiara tensed up her hand, and a thin pillar of air extending outward from her palm froze into dense, reflective ice. A bright blue glow extended outward from her shoulders and back, cloaking her in brilliant blue light. The ice hung in the air until she moved her hand, and then clattered down to the ground, shattering into uneven shards against the unblemished white floor.

  “At high levels, it can be used as a weapon, or as a shield,” she said. “It’s the aura that I first learned how to use.”

  Victor raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Can you use all of them?”

  Kiara nodded.

  “To some degree or another,” she said. “I’m still practicing with the diamond aura.”

  “I’ve seen someone use the diamond aura before.” Victor shook his head slowly, remembering Night Angel and feeling all of the complicated emotions that came along for the ride.

  “Yes. It’s the counterpart of onyx, though the way they complement each other is a little more nuanced.”

  Kiara reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of change. She tossed the coins into the air, and then with a quick flick of her hand, arrested their fall before any of them could hit the ground. They hovered in midair, locked in place as though trapped in amber. Her aura turned bright white, and Victor had to look away.

  She looks like Keiko looked, when she does that.

  “I’m not exactly a master of the diamond aura yet,” said Kiara. “At a low level, it serves as a basic form of telekinesis on small objects. If I could use it at a high level, I think I’d be able to enhance my own abilities. Attack faster, dodge faster, maybe even-”

  “Fly.” Victor turned back to look at her, forcing a pained smile. “You could use it to fly, if you wanted.”

  Kiara frowned at him.

  “Uh… maybe,” she said. “I hadn’t really considered that.”

  Kiara opened her mouth to say something else when her phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and walked to the other side of the room, speaking in whispered tones. Victor was tempted to use his onyx aura to enhance his hearing enough to eavesdrop, but decided against it.

  “I have to follow up on a lead,” said Kiara, turning back to him. “We’ll continue this later.”

  “You’re looking into last night’s case?
” asked Victor

  Kiara nodded.

  “Then I’m coming with you.”

  Kiara glared at him.

  “I’m not a fucking babysitter,” she said. “There’s no telling where this could lead. The last thing I need is a-”

  Victor flared his scarlet aura and shot out a lance of hot fire. It came within an inch of Kiara’s face, almost close enough to singe a stray strand of hair. She blinked at him and then smiled.

  “All right, whatever.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Victor followed Kiara out of Monteiro Tower and onto the street. She walked fast for a girl a head shorter than him and didn’t say much. In that, she reminded him a bit of her sister, fiercely determined and focused like a laser.

  “What part of town are we heading into?” asked Victor. He smiled at her.

  “You’ll know when we get there,” said Kiara.

  “Why not just tell me now?”

  Kiara stopped in mid step, and Victor nearly crashed into her. She turned around and glared at him.

  “This isn’t your show.” She flashed an icy blue eyed glare at him. “I’m following up on my lead, for my investigation. You don’t even qualify as my sidekick.”

  Victor gritted his teeth and felt annoyance bleeding through into his words as he spoke.

  “What’s your problem?”

  “My problem is you,” said Kiara. “I mean that in a literal sense. My sister saddled me with you, and given where this investigation is probably going to lead, that means that I’m going to have to work twice as hard just to keep you from getting yourself killed.”

  “I can handle my-”

  Kiara put her hand on his cheek in what would have been a sensual lover’s caress, if not for the way she flared her azure aura. Victor let out an involuntary gasp as the cold rushed into his face and head, enough to give him the worst brain freeze he’d ever had.

  “I wish you could handle yourself, Victor,” she said softly. “But you can’t, at least not yet. I’m hoping you either learn fast, or figure out what’s best for you and go home.”