Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection

by Anya Merchant

  Cassandra leaned against the door and clicked a series of heavy locks into place. It was the room’s only connection to the outside world, and it explained something that he’d been wondering about.

  The Labyrinth was an underground realm of lawless vagrants. Cassandra was an attractive, idealistic woman. And the heavily barricaded chamber was very likely the only thing standing between her and a countless number of unpleasant outcomes.

  And for some reason, she chose to let me in.

  Cassandra was watching him as he scanned the room. Victor finally turned his eyes onto her at the end. She was wearing a lab coat that looked far too pristine for a subway tunnel over jeans and a black blouse, and he couldn’t help but notice the rather appealing curves of her body. He also noticed that she was frowning at him, and looked as though she was a few seconds away from kicking him out.

  “Well?” she asked. “Are you going to badger me and get violent like your girlfriend out there?”

  Victor opened his mouth to dutifully correct her and explain that he and Kiara were just friends when Ella materialized in the corner of this room.

  “Let her keep thinking that,” said Ella. “If you play this one right, you can get the information without having to do too much.”

  He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t object.

  “Uh, yeah, sorry about that,” said Victor. “She can get pretty cranky sometimes.”

  A noise came from beyond the door behind him that sounded suspiciously like an annoyed gasp. Victor took a deep breath and pushed onward.

  “I’m not really sure what you’re expecting me to tell you,” said Cassandra. “The Labyrinth has always been dangerous. People disappear, sometimes under odd circumstances. But they also sometimes just leave, head back to the surface, and it’s hard to be able to tell which.”

  “Cassandra,” said Victor. “Please.”

  He locked eyes with her. Ella smiled and gestured her hand.

  “Oh yeah,” she said softly. “Walk in close to her. Get within a couple of inches.”

  Victor buried his skepticism and took a few steps forward, followed by a few more when Cassandra didn’t back away.

  It’s not like I have anything to lose…

  “You say you want to help people,” she said. “But how far are you willing to go for that?”

  “As far as I need to,” said Victor. Ella smiled from where she stood next to him, approving of his answer.

  “There are things that I need,” said Cassandra. “Maybe we can help each other out?”

  She smiled at him, and for a few seconds the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. Then, she looked away, and walked over to a small desk in the corner of her room.

  “There are a couple of spots within the tunnels where I’m worried about the structural integrity of the concrete overhead,” she said. “Each time there is a cave-in within the Labyrinth, people run the risk of ending up trapped. And it’s not as though the authorities care all that much, certainly not enough to organize rescues.”

  “Of course,” said Victor. “Do you think this might be somehow related to the disappearances?”

  Cassandra shrugged.

  “Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not.”

  “She definitely knows more than she’s letting on,” said Ella. “Press her hard. And I mean literally.”

  Victor kept his facial expression neutral as he walked up behind Cassandra, who was facing away from him at the desk.

  “Cassandra, please,” he said. “I can help the people here, just like you do. Tell me what you know about what’s going on and let me do what I can.”

  “How much can you really do?” She slowly turned around, her eyes intensely skeptical. “You’re just one man. Do you really think you can get the job done?”

  “Flare your scarlet aura a little,” said Ella. “And then kiss her.”

  Victor bound his scarlet aura with the softest touch he could, enflaming Cassandra’s arousal. He leaned in slowly, watching her reaction. Even before his lips made contact, her body language began to open up, practically urging him on into what was to come. He kissed her and felt his cock stiffening in his jeans.

  “She’ll only tell you if you make her,” whispered Ella. “But don’t worry, it’s for a good cause.”

  She may be right, but this still feels… wrong.

  Despite his misgivings, Victor let the kiss intensify, flicking his tongue out to meet Cassandra’s as her body began to melt against his. He leaned forward, lifting her up onto the desk and sliding her thighs to the side.

  “Victor?” Kiara’s voice was muffled from outside the door, but still discernibly upset. “What’s going on in there?”

  “The door is locked,” whispered Cassandra. “We can keep… conversing, without having to worry about interruption. Or, we can stop, if that’s what you want.”

  Victor felt a battle waging inside his chest. On one hand, he knew that Kiara would be angry with him, even if it was somewhat unjustifiable, given that they were just friends. But they needed the info, and if it happened to mean that he could enjoy himself for a couple of minutes, then what was the problem?

  “I’m working on it, Kiara,” Victor called. “But it might take a few more minutes.”

  Cassandra kissed him on the neck and slid one of her hands down to his hard bulge. Victor shivered as she began to massage it through his pants. He slipped his hands into her lab coat and pulled it down her shoulders, the pristine white garment falling to the desk like a makeshift sheet.

  Her body was warm against his, and the heat of both of them intermingled as they began to grind together, slow and steadily. Ella was watching with an amused look on her face from her spot against the wall.

  Cassandra leaned back onto the desk, which was just wide enough for her petite frame. She knocked a medical textbook off, which let out a sharp snap when it hit the ground. Kiara made a frustrated noise and stomped down a foot from outside the door.

  “Shhh,” said Victor. He pulled Cassandra’s blouse up and over her head and was rewarded with the sight of two glorious naked breasts, voluptuous and full of jiggle. Cassandra’s hands worked the fly of his jeans open with quick movements, and Victor slipped his cock out through the hole of his boxers.

  “Ooh, yeah,” she whispered. “Don’t worry. We’ll be quick, and then you can get back to your little girlfriend.”

  Victor frowned slightly and pushed forward so that he could kiss her neck. Cassandra’s jeans had an elastic quality to them, and he was able to pull them off her without much effort. She wore a pair of black and red panties underneath, and Victor pulled them to the side with an eagerness that even he found surprising.

  Am I doing the right thing? Do I care?

  He pressed the head of his cock against the tight, wet opening of her cunt, and both of them let out a guilty, pleasurable sigh.

  “Victor!” Kiara banged twice on the door. “What the hell is going on in there?”

  “Just a few more minutes.” Victor started to thrust, and it made even more noise. The desk creaked as he pumped his hard cock in and out of Cassandra, and she added her own movements to the mix.

  Both of her breasts bounced directly in front of Victor’s eyes, and the sight was mesmerizing. He felt horny at a primal level, the kind of emotion that takes short cuts and leverages the brain’s pleasure cycle.

  “Oh god,” whimpered Cassandra. “Yes! Do it! Fuck me!”

  Ella smiled and walked in closer to where the illicit act was taking place. She caressed Victor’s cheek with a soft hand, as if reminding him that what she cared about were his heartstrings, rather than physical fidelity.

  Am I still in control of myself?

  His hips slammed into Cassandra, as if answering his question. Their bodies were mashing together with urgency and need, and each thrust was louder than the one before it. Victor didn’t care, at least not in the moment. He was only interested in getting to the prize at the end of the race.

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nbsp; Cassandra arched her back and wrapped her legs around Victor’s waist, changing the angle of his thrusts. He grabbed one of her breasts in each hand and squeezed, eliciting a squeal from the woman.

  “Are you getting the information, or not, Victor?” Kiara sounded irritated, almost to the point of snapping.

  If she wanted to, she could smash her way in here and see for herself what’s really going on.

  “I’m getting it.” He shifted his hands to Cassandra’s waist and started pulling her into him with each thrust, amplifying the sexual pleasure of the act.

  Cassandra’s moans began to grow significantly louder, and Victor realized that she was nearing an orgasm. He reached his hand out to gently cover her mouth and her eyes glittered with eager, kinky arousal.

  “I don’t plan on waiting around forever, Victor,” said Kiara. “Hurry the fuck up!”

  She’s not stupid. She knows what’s going on.

  “Oh, don’t worry.” Victor drove his cock deep into Cassandra and pulled his hand back, this time letting the audible evidence of her pleasure fill the room. “It shouldn’t take long.”

  “Oh god!” moaned Cassandra. Her body tensed up as Victor turned his intensity up to the next level, putting all of the muscle on his athlete’s frame into pounding her senseless. Ella smiled knowingly at him, as though she was taking a particular satisfaction out of watching the events play out.

  A few more seconds went by. Victor felt himself being pulled in, pleasure blinding his judgment as surely as it had blinded Cassandra. He leaned forward over her, kissing her passionately and groping at her breasts. His cock pumped into the woman a few final times, and then he felt himself pass over the limit as he began to unload in hot, sticky, spurts.

  Pleasure surged through him, at least for the first few seconds. Victor began to feel something that often comes alongside casual sex and spontaneous encounters.

  “Don’t think too much about it,” said Ella. “It’s just what you needed to do.”

  Victor turned away from Cassandra as he pulled his pants back up.

  “The disappearances, Cassandra,” he said, feeling a bit like a broken record. “Tell me about them.”

  She watched him with eyes that were more open, and more honest than they had been before. Finally, she nodded.

  “I haven’t seen anything directly supporting this, but one of the vagabonds that travels through the tunnels told me that they’ve been avoiding an area they call the Cavern.”

  “The Cavern?”

  “It’s a huge, open area that was originally designed to be a terminal, but was never finished,” said Cassandra. “It doesn’t connect with the surface, but a few of the tunnels pass through it.”

  “Can you point me toward one?”

  She pulled a piece of paper out of the desk they’d just fucked on and scribbled down a few directions, along with a very basic map.

  “Here,” she said. “There’s one other thing that you should probably know.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you know about Monteiro, the nano and biotech company?”

  Victor blinked. He opened his mouth and then immediately closed it, stifling his immediate response. He hadn’t told Cassandra enough for her to know that he was technically a Monteiro employee, and got the distinct impression that it would be a bad idea to bring it up.

  “I’ve heard of them before,” he said.

  “Rumor has it that they’ve dumped things down in the Labyrinth before,” said Cassandra.

  “Things?”

  “Experiments, bodies, chemicals.” Cassandra shrugged. “You name it.”

  Victor scoffed.

  “That’s ridiculous,” he said. “Why would they do something like that?”

  “Hey, I’m just telling you what I’ve heard.” Cassandra turned her cheek to him and pulled on her blouse. “It makes sense, in a dystopian kind of way. They practically own Undercliff City through their plants in the government and police department, and nobody cares about the people living down in the Labyrinth. Nobody thinks of anyone down here as anything other than junkies and lunatics.”

  Victor watched her for several long seconds. He felt a little awkward, and more than a little chilled by her information.

  “Thanks.” Victor nodded to her a bit more politely than what was necessary and then walked over to the door. He opened it and stepped outside into the dimly lit tunnel.

  CHAPTER 9

  Kiara was waiting for him outside Cassandra’s office. Her arms were folded, and she didn’t make eye contact with Victor as he closed the door behind him and walked over.

  “Hey,” he said. “I got the info.”

  Kiara didn’t say anything.

  “We’re headed deeper into the tunnels, toward a place that Cassandra called the Cavern,” he said. “It’s about a mile in from here.”

  Kiara remained silent.

  “Kiara…” Victor frowned and rubbed his temples. “Look, I’m not going to make any excuses for what happened. You aren’t stupid. You know how we operate, and what it usually takes to get information.”

  “You could have used your onyx aura.” Kiara’s voice was sharp, with barely contained emotion behind it.

  “You know what that does to people,” said Victor. “And what it does to the one using it. It’s not safe, not as a long-term strategy.”

  She didn’t respond, not even looking in Victor’s direction.

  “There’s something else you should know,” said Victor. “Cassandra says that they’ve received reports of Monteiro dumping things in the Labyrinth.”

  That, apparently, was enough to captivate her attention, even through the veil of her anger. She looked at Victor and pursed her lips.

  “Dumping things?” she asked. “That’s about as vague as it gets.”

  “She’s just doing us a favor by passing on what she’s heard,” said Victor. He pulled the directions out of his pocket and started walking.

  “Well, apparently, that’s not the only favor she knows how to do.” Kiara snatched the paper out of his hands and took a few steps forward, putting a little distance between the two of them as they headed into the foreboding darkness of the tunnel.

  Victor started after her and then noticed Ella standing nearby, her lips drawn up into a faint smile. When she saw Victor looking at her, she brushed a lock of hair out of her face and shrugged.

  “Jealousy is an ugly color,” she said.

  “And I’m sure you know that as well as she does,” Victor mouthed.

  The tunnels were dark, even through the enhanced vision of their onyx auras. The cement of the walls was crumbling in places, and large, ominous cracks formed a web in the ceiling. There were a few hovels, now abandoned, that suggested the little shanty town may have once extended further into the Labyrinth.

  “We take a right up here,” said Victor. Kiara looked at him, and then down at the little map, and nodded.

  A rat moved by in the darkness, followed by several more. They were huge, almost the size of house cats, and Kiara cringed away from them.

  “Don’t be afraid,” said Victor. “But don’t touch them either, if you can manage it.”

  “Obviously,” said Kiara.

  Another rat darted out of a cardboard box and circled between her legs. She let out a squeal and jumped a few feet backward, colliding with Victor and almost knocking him over.

  “Easy,” he said. “It’s okay.”

  His hands were on her shoulders, more from the way she’d knocked into him than intent. Kiara pulled forward, shrugging them off.

  “It surprised me,” she said. “That’s all.”

  They continued on. The abandoned subway system was well deserving of the name. Victor quickly realized that the directions Cassandra had written out for them were not just a convenience, but a necessity. There was a good chance that they’d get completely lost without it, and maybe even become unable to find their way back out.

  As they approached another intersection
, a scraping noise came from one of the tunnels to the left. Victor trained his onyx aura enhanced eyes on the darkness.

  I don’t see anything. And I doubt anyone would be this far out into the Labyrinth.

  He turned to look at Kiara just in time to see a disheveled man wielding a rusty screwdriver descend on her from behind.

  “Kiara!” Victor reacted, rather than acted. He sent out a blast of flame at the man. Without taking the time to focus or aim, it was only by pure luck that it managed to hit one of the attacker’s legs, knocking him to the ground and forcing him to direct his attention at an immolated pant leg.

  Five more men appeared, each group closing from different directions. The variety of weapons in their hands was worth noting. Victor saw everything from broken bottles to what looked like an old table leg.

  “Don’t kill them,” said Kiara. “They’re desperate, not dangerous.”

  Victor frowned at her.

  She’s probably right, though.

  The man with the broken bottle lunged at him. Victor had practiced a few similar combat scenarios in the simulation room, and dodged to the side, sweeping out the man’s feet underneath him.

  Two of the men rushed Kiara at once. She held out a hand, and her entire body shone with blue light as she bound her azure aura. It looked like the energy was being sucked directly out of them, each step they took toward her becoming weaker as they slowly descended to the ground, and into unconsciousness.

  The other two active attackers circled around Victor. One of them had a long length of rusty chain, and twirled it over his head like something out of a post apocalyptic movie. The other had a knife, and appeared to take about as much pride in it as a man could.

  Victor saw what the man with the chain had planned a second before it happened. He pulled the chain back and then hurled it forward with all his weight behind it. The chain whistled slightly as it whipped through the air, headed straight for Victor’s head.

  Again, Victor moved without thinking. He focused on the chain and knew instinctively that there was only one way for him to avoid taking it to the face. Victor bound his diamond aura, the bright white light from it throwing off the contrast of his vision, and used it to adjust the chain’s path.