Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection

by Anya Merchant

  “It’s gray territory, our abilities,” said Kiara. “But there is always a reason behind what we have to do. So please, Victor… Tell me what the woman told you.”

  “If I still refused…” Victor sighed. “You’d probably just use your onyx aura to read my mind, and find out, anyway.”

  “You know, there’s a way to shield your own mind from influence using your auras,” said Kiara. “Remind me to teach you how to do it the next time I get a chance.”

  Victor was silent for a moment.

  “To be honest, she didn’t give me much,” he said. “She said her sister was in a gang, and I guess they might have done it?”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yeah. We might be able to find out more from the church she was going to, Undercliff Congregational…”

  Victor paused, and in the space between words, his phone rang. He nodded to Kiara and turned around to answer it.

  “Hello?”

  “Victor.” Damien’s voice, changed over the years as it had, was unmistakable. “How’s it going, man?”

  “It’s going.” Victor smiled. “I’m just keeping busy, enjoying the December weather.”

  “Nice,” said Damien. “Hey, listen. I know it’s short notice, but I told my mom about you being back in town, and she insisted on having you over for lunch.”

  Victor smiled. He still remembered Damien’s mom’s cooking. It was delicious in a way that only a female matriarch cooking from recipes honed over the ages can approach.

  “Sure,” said Victor. “I mean, I have a friend with me. Is it okay if she comes too?”

  Damien chuckled.

  “Yeah, sure thing,” he said. “I still live in the same house.”

  They said their goodbyes and Victor hung up the phone. Kiara had her arms folded across her chest and was frowning broadly at him.

  “We’re investigating a murder, Victor,” she said. “Did you really just commit us to a lunch social?”

  “Oh come on, we’re going to have to stop to eat eventually.” Victor held his hand out in a gesture of acquiescence. “Besides, I’m still new, or newly returned, at least. This guy is my friend, and I have to catch up with him.”

  Kiara rolled her eyes.

  “God, you’re such a loser.” She shrugged. “Whatever.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Fifteen minutes later, Victor and Kiara walked up the medium length driveway leading to Damien’s house. The house was green with white trim, and several flower beds directly outside the porch. A minivan and a newer model pickup truck sat side by side within the open garage, and it was easy enough to guess which of them drove which.

  Victor stopped outside the door and pushed the bell. Kiara stood close to him and had what appeared to him to be a fake smile on her face. The door opened.

  “Victor!” A rotund woman who gave off an aura of warmth and kindness immediately pulled him into a hug. Victor chuckled.

  “Mrs. Lawrence,” he said. “It’s good to see you.”

  “I was so worried about you!” Damien’s mom stepped back, practically pulling him into the house. “After you left, nobody knew where you’d gone! I thought the worst, both for you and your father.”

  “We were fine, Mrs. Lawrence,” said Victor. “You remember how my dad could be. He was a… very sudden guy.”

  Damien appeared in the hallway, walking into the large living room that also served as an entranceway. Mrs. Lawrence stepped back and noticed Kiara for the first time.

  “This is my friend, Kiara.” Victor gestured to her, and Kiara nodded her head in what almost looked like an old-fashioned curtsey.

  “Your friend, eh?” Damien winked at him and then extended a hand out to her. “I’m Damien, this is my mom, Linda.”

  I should have said coworker.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” said Kiara, in a voice more pleasant than Victor had ever heard her use before.”

  “Come on into the dining room, please,” said Damien’s mom.

  The Lawrence household looked as though it had been frozen in time in the 1980s. The TV was a large, once expensive, CRT model. The floor was old wood and covered with only slightly younger carpets.

  The dining room table had a tablecloth on it that’d been patched in a dozen places. Mrs. Lawrence stopped in front of the oven immediately as they came in and pulled on two pink cloth hand holders before pulling out a pot roast.

  “Damien was so glad to run into you, Victor, you have no idea.” Mrs. Lawrence bustled around the kitchen, grabbing the last of what was needed for lunch. “He’s been so busy lately, and that means lonely!”

  “She’s exaggerating,” said Damien, with a smirk. “But it is good to have you back, dude.”

  “Likewise.” Victor sat down next to him at the dining room table. “Undercliff City… I get a weird sense of nostalgia from almost everything I look at here.”

  “I’ll bet.” Damien pulled a couple of beers out of the fridge and passed one to Victor. His mom gave him a disapproving look, but he shook another one back and forth and looked at Kiara.

  “No thank you,” she said.

  “Anyway,” said Damien. “What have you been up to?”

  “You mean recently, or over the past decade since we’ve seen each other?”

  “Either or.”

  Victor sighed.

  “Honestly, my life has been pretty normal,” he lied. “Boring, repetitive, lots of busy work. That kind of thing.”

  Damien nodded, but from the look in his eyes, Victor could tell that he wasn’t buying it.

  “What about you?” he asked.

  “The same,” he said. “I thought about heading off to college after graduation, but it just didn’t fit. I couldn’t leave mom here alone. It just didn’t make sense.”

  Mrs. Lawrence smiled at her son as she carried over plates full of food and began setting each down in front of them. Damien immediately began digging in, and Victor followed suit.

  “Yeah, I know how that is,” said Victor.

  “What about your dad? Is he back in the city, too?”

  Victor froze. He’d done an excellent job of not thinking about it for the past few days, weeks even.

  “No…” he said softly. “He passed.”

  Damien raised a sympathetic eyebrow.

  “I’m sorry…” he said. “How’d it happen?”

  How did it happen? Can I even admit it to myself?

  “He had a heart attack,” said Victor. “He let himself go, and it just happened.”

  Damien nodded slowly.

  “So what are you doing back here, then?”

  Victor chewed his food carefully as he thought about how to answer. The question was simple enough, but it felt somehow dangerous, more for his own sense of self and purpose than any real reason.

  And then Kiara’s phone rang. She looked up apologetically as she pulled it out of her pocket.

  “It’s my sister,” she said. “I should take this.”

  She got up to walk into the other room. Victor looked back at Damien, who was looking at Kiara as she disappeared out the door.

  “I wouldn’t have pegged her as your type, but she’s definitely a looker,” he said.

  Victor blinked.

  “Oh no, she’s not-”

  “Don’t be bashful, Vic.” Damien chuckled. “Man, I bet the two of you have fun together.”

  “Damien Michael Lawrence!” Mrs. Lawrence’s stern voice sent a wave of nostalgia flowing through the air in the room. Victor smiled and turned his head as Kiara walked back into the dining room, frowning.

  “Victor,” she said. “We have to go.”

  He nodded.

  “Uh, sorry,” he said. “Kiara’s sister has been sick lately.”

  “It’s fine!” said Mrs. Lawrence. “Just come back soon. Can I fix you with a plate for the road.”

  Kiara was already halfway to the front door.

  “No, it’s all right,” said Victor. “Later, Damien.”

/>   “Later, Victor.”

  He took one last look at the two of them, nostalgia and memories of his childhood cresting on the edge of his thoughts, and then headed after Kiara.

  CHAPTER 12

  “So what’s the emergency?” Victor met Kiara on the sidewalk and the two of them started off at a brisk pace.

  “Another murder,” said Kiara. “Up near the Atlas Forest again.”

  She gave him an interesting look and then glanced back toward Damien’s house.

  “What?” Victor scratched his head.

  “It’s nothing,” said Kiara. “Come on, we should hurry.”

  “It’s something,” said Victor. “You barely said a word the entire time we were in there.”

  Kiara didn’t slow down or look over at him.

  “I just got a weird vibe from your friend,” she said. “That’s all.”

  “It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, but we used to be inseparable.” Victor smiled and sighed. “Don’t feel bad about feeling like the odd one out.”

  “That’s not it.” Kiara frowned at him. “Something about him just seemed a little… off.”

  “Kiara, I’ve known him for almost all of my life,” said Victor. “He’s a genuinely great guy.”

  “It’s been ten years since you’ve last seen him, right?”

  Victor nodded slowly.

  “A lot can happen in ten years,” said Kiara. “A lot did happen. For you, and probably for him too. Be careful about what you tell him, Victor.”

  “Whatever.”

  I trust Damien more than I trust her, to be completely honest.

  The two of them moved through the city at a speed that made Victor’s legs ache. They took the same path through the park where the last murder had taken place, and then up beyond that into the forest.

  “There’s a reason why people keep dying around here,” said Kiara. “Whatever it is we’re looking for, it has to be nearby.”

  “Why don’t the police just search through the area, then?”

  Kiara chuckled.

  “Didn’t you used to live here? The Atlas Forest is a gigantic wilderness preserve. There are still cases of people that go hiking there and never come back, every year. It’s one of those stereotypical mob movie type places, where bodies get dumped and people disappear.”

  Victor didn’t say anything. It was starting to snow in heavy sheets, and the lack of wind meant that each snowflake came down on a direct path, like tiny crystalline skydivers. The air was cold and dry and made him wish that he had gloves to wear instead of having to bury his hands in his pockets ineffectively.

  The body was in a small clearing, where the trees parted enough on either side for the snow to collect. The entire area had been cordoned off by yellow tape, and it was easy enough to understand why. The snow was deep enough for trails of footprints and signs of struggle to be blatant clues.

  As in the previous case, it was a woman. Her skin color was off, bright peach yellow in weather cold enough to pale even the freshest corpse. Her eyes were still open, and the pupils looked off, a bit too large and sharp to be normal.

  And then there was the blood. Her arms and legs had been viciously broken at grotesque angles, with shards of bone and reddish gore poking through the skin. She’d struggled against her attacker. That much was obvious. But Victor couldn’t immediately identify which of her injuries had finished her off.

  “Is Lucy here?” asked Victor. Kiara shook her head.

  “No. She was stuck in a corporate meeting.” Kiara walked all the way up to the edge of the yellow tape and stood up on her tiptoes to get a better view. “She wants us to find out what we can and report back.”

  “How are we going to do that without her?” asked Victor. “She’s the one with the special working relationship with the police.”

  “We use our onyx auras.”

  Victor glared at her.

  “Absolutely not,” he said. “Why would you even-”

  “Not to mind control anybody, you dolt.” Kiara rolled her eyes. “It’s not like that would even work with this many people around.”

  At least a dozen cops and detectives were snapping photos, standing next to squad cars, and talking with a crowd of reporters.

  “We use it to enhance our senses,” continued Kiara. “Primarily sight.”

  Victor watched as a dark glow that only aura binders could see flickered to life around her. He reached into his awareness and triggered his own onyx aura, and then took another look at the body.

  The first thing he noticed in more detail was the corpse’s eyes. The irises looked off, composed of hundreds of tiny geometric triangles. Her pupils were bigger than normal, and the size of her eyes was out of proportion with the rest of her face.

  Tiny little hairs protruded from two center points on either side of her face. They were long, thin, and made Victor think of whiskers when he saw them. He began noticing other feline features on the woman, the angle of her ears, and the shape of her nose.

  “She looks almost like a cat.” Victor glanced over at Kiara, who was paying the body almost no mind.

  “There.” She nodded slightly to the north. “There’s a path leading off in that direction.”

  “All right.” Victor took a step in the direction she’d indicated, and Kiara clamped down on his arm.

  “Hold on,” she said. “Let’s head out of the forest and then double back around from a different entry point.”

  “Why?”

  “We don’t want the cops seeing what we’re doing and deciding to follow,” she said. “It’s better for them, safety-wise, if they don’t get involved.”

  Victor frowned at her.

  “How much better off are we on our own?” He shook his head. “The abilities of an aura binder are useful enough, but they have guns and body armor.”

  Kiara flashed him a condescending smile.

  “And this is exactly why my sister sent you to me for training.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Victor followed Kiara back out of the forest the way they’d come, and then back into it a couple of hundred yards further down. The trees were much denser, and Victor cursed as a branch Kiara had moved aside for herself whipped back against his cheek as she released it.

  “Hey! Careful!”

  “Just keep moving,” muttered Kiara. “The snow is coming down fast. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  Victor flared his onyx aura at a low level as they moved forward, but whatever Kiara could see was a bit too subtle for him to notice. The crime scene was out of sight to the east, and they pushed through the frozen, wintery underbrush for several minutes before coming to a halt.

  “There,” she whispered. “I can see something!”

  She took another step forward and then froze.

  “Fuck.”

  “What?” Victor grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back slightly. “What’s up?”

  “Get ready!”

  The words had barely left her mouth when something slammed down on the snow in front of them. Victor blinked, his eyes taking several seconds to process what they were seeing.

  A woman stood crouched in the snow. She was naked, larger than average by at least a couple of inches in height and girth, with dark violet-colored skin. Her hair was jet black, and as she stood to face them, she shook her head slightly and knocked several flakes from it.

  Kiara didn’t stop to ask questions. She immediately began binding her azure aura, extending her palm out toward the new arrival. The woman flew forward, slamming into her before she could properly bind an attack.

  She’s so fast. How is that possible?

  Victor flared his onyx aura, opting for enhanced senses over a direct attack. He could see the woman’s approach in her muscles before it had even begun and managed to neatly dodge an overhead punch aimed at his head. Victor rushed forward, dropping his shoulder into a tackle as he collided into her.

  Nothing happened. The attack was about as effectiv
e as running shoulder first into a brick wall. The woman was built like an amazon and had proportions that were a combination of a lean gymnast and a supermodel. She smiled at Victor, and then slammed her fist into his stomach.

  He flew backward through the air, landing in a crumpled heap in the snow and flipping through a couple of involuntary sideways somersaults before coming to a stop. The wind was knocked out of him to an extent that made him feel as though he’d never be able to breathe again. The snowflakes and bits of ice felt like glass shards against his cheek.

  “No!” yelled Kiara. Victor was dimly aware of the violet woman bearing down on him. He opened his eyes in time to see her fist heading for his head, only for something to get in its way.

  Kiara bound her azure aura with expert aim, creating a circular shield of ice just in front of Victor’s head. It wasn’t enough to stop the blow, but it took enough force out of it to keep it from killing him. The punch grazed the side of his skull, and stars exploded into his vision.

  “You cannot stop the bloom,” said the woman. “It is already here.”

  “Just… relax.” Kiara didn’t sound nearly as terrified as she should have. “Please. We’re trying to find whoever killed the other women. We’re trying to help.”

  “I killed them,” said the woman.

  Victor forced himself up to his knees. He ached in a dozen different places, but knew that it would be suicide to stop fighting. Kiara was facing their opponent, and Victor could see the desperation in her auras, if not her eyes. The glow around her flickered from blue to black as she mulled over her next move.

  He took a deep breath and bound his scarlet aura. The violet woman turned her attention back to him just in time to avoid a lance of pure flame aimed at her head. The flames continued onward, turning a patch of snow collected on the tree behind her into fast spreading steam.

  Kiara blinked, and then shifted auras. She copied what Victor had unintentionally done, binding her scarlet aura and then spraying flames across the thin layer of snow on the ground. Steam rose up, enough to obscure the woman’s vision.

  Without a word, Kiara sprinted toward Victor, flaring her diamond aura and pulling him to his feet. He ran with her, pumping his legs and mostly being dragged along by her supernaturally fast strides.