Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection

by Anya Merchant

  Is that… lilac? I figured she’d go with something less feminine.

  “Do what he says,” said Captain Brookes, in a level voice. “We have the outside of the building under surveillance. There is no way for him to escape, even with me as a hostage.”

  Victor chuckled and forced himself to resist the urge to pinch her cheek. Instead, he used his free hand to pat down her body, getting in a few accidental gropes of her well-endowed chest in his search for her radio and cell phone, both of which he tossed to the ground.

  “Alright, so here is what’s going to happen next,” he said, in a voice that was more hopeful than confident. “All of you are going to drop your weapons to the ground, and then slowly walk outside the building. You’re going to stand in front of me and Captain Brookes here, and prevent me from being sniped as soon as my head comes into view.”

  The men didn’t say anything. They looked profoundly angry, as though this was their first coworker hostage situation.

  “It’s not going to work, Victor,” said Captain Brookes.

  “Man, if I had a nickel for every time someone said that to me I’d have like… eighteen nickels.”

  “You’re one man,” she said. “Up against the entire police force, dozens of FBI agents, and a few members of the National Guard.”

  “Oh no, not the National Guard!” Victor pressed the gun against her head a little harder, and watched as the men in the room slowly began to comply with his demands.

  “Good,” he said. “We’re all on the same page. None of us want to get shot. None of us want any death, or-“

  A gunshot cut him off, coming close enough to his head to jostle a few of his curly hairs. One of the men in the corner of his vision was the culprit. Victor lifted his hand into the air and bound his scarlet aura in an intense blast without looking, tightening his hold on Captain Brookes as he did.

  The man started screaming. The flames spread across his standard issue police uniform at a disturbing speed. His balaclava caught fire as though it’s been doused with lighter fluid, and the men ripped it in half as he pulled it off his face.

  “You can help him,” said Victor, nodding to the man as he rolled around on the ground. The rest of the police in the room were staring at him, stunned by what he’d just done. Captain Brookes was trembling under his hold.

  He waited until two of them men had effectively patted out the flames on the shooter and then nodded to the door again.

  “Now that we all have a sense of what will happen to anyone with an itchy trigger finger, let’s try this again.” He cleared his throat and nudged Captain Brookes in the leg with his knee. It took her a second to pick up on the cue.

  “Just… do what he says,” she said. “Don’t try to shoot him. Put your guns down and form a wall in front of the door outside.”

  This time, the men listened and acted. Each of them shot Victor a glare as they made their way outside. The man who’d fired before was helped outside with the aid of two other cops. After a minute, the room was empty again.

  “You know what the worst part is?” mused Victor. “I didn’t get what I wanted here.”

  “How tragic,” said Captain Brookes. “Really, I feel for you.”

  Victor rolled his eyes. He held his arm around her waist as he walked toward the door, keeping her pressed against him in a not entirely displeasing manner.

  CHAPTER 10

  There was a force of police, FBI agents, and National Guardsmen the size of a small army waiting for him outside. The group of officers Victor had forcibly drafted into meat shields looked pitiful compared to what he was up against. The street had been closed off on one side, and a large, military issue tank completed the blockade.

  “Are you kidding me?” Victor shook his head. “They can’t actually be considering using that-“

  The tank’s turret swung to face him, as if daring him to call the bluff. There were several dozen law enforcement agents surrounding the building, all of them pointing their guns at Victor.

  “You don’t have a hope in hell of getting out of here alive,” said Captain Brookes.

  “We,” said Victor. “The word you are looking for is we.”

  “What?”

  “We don’t have a hope in hell of getting out of here alive,” said Victor. “Though to be honest, I disagree.”

  He cleared his throat. Despite the number of police, agents, and military men in the area, a hush fell over the block.

  “I have a hostage,” shouted Victor. “And I’m leaving here with her. If you follow me, I’ll kill her.”

  It was a bluff, but he hoped that his voice sounded serious enough to fool at least a few of the people pointing guns at him.

  “Can I take your silence as agreement?” he asked.

  A megaphone scratched on from somewhere over by the tank.

  “Let Captain Brookes go,” said the voice. “You can’t escape.”

  Victor rolled his eyes.

  “Where the hell did you and your people learn to negotiate?”

  Captain Brookes shrugged. Victor tightened his grip around her and pressed his gun against her one final time.

  “Alright,” he said. “We’re getting out of here. Don’t try anything unless you want to go skydiving without a parachute.”

  “What?” Captain Brookes looked over her shoulder at him. “Hold on, not yet!”

  Victor ignored her. He quickly spun her around and hefted her over his shoulder. She was lighter than she looked, and as he bound his diamond aura to lift off into the air, he also bound his scarlet aura, spraying a wide circle of flame outward, over the heads of the other police officers around.

  The affect was similar to a very bright, very explosive firework. Victor heard gunshots ripping through the air, but most of the bullets were wide of him by at least a couple of feet. Anyone who’d been tracking him with their eyes was most likely suffering from a serious after image from his trick.

  Captain Brookes was screaming in his ear, but to her credit, she hung on tightly to his shoulders. Victor couldn’t go as fast as he normally would have liked, which was a problem, as he could see a helicopter approaching in the distance.

  “They never make it easy,” he muttered. He focused on binding his diamond aura, pushing himself on a path north out of the city at a speed faster than the chopper could follow.

  The wind was cold. Victor was used to it, but he felt a little bad for Captain Brookes. Her face was green, and her entire body was shivering against his, either from the chill in the air, or from fear.

  I wish I didn’t have to bring her with me.

  He flew for about a half hour, until the city was shrinking behind him. Then, Victor increased his altitude, bracing himself for the even colder air higher up. He headed west for another ten minutes before dropping down low enough to see the roads clearly.

  They were outside of Undercliff City and its suburbs, in a much more rural area. Victor followed the path of the road, taking turns that lead deeper into the wilderness, and then onto a rough, overgrown dirt trail. Finally, he found what he was looking for and descended down to it.

  An old, abandoned house, miles away from civilization, was where he chose to land. He let out an exhausted sigh and lowered Captain Brookes off his tired shoulder. He expected her to attack him and flinched back as soon as her feet touched the ground, but she only stared at him, and then at her surroundings.

  “Where are we?” she asked, in a quiet voice.

  “I don’t know,” said Victor. “And it’s better if you don’t, either.”

  He didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds, and neither did Captain Brookes.

  “I’m not an evil person,” he said, finally. “I only need to ask you some questions, and you can be on your way.”

  Captain Brookes looked at him, startled.

  “What?” She shook her head. “I thought I was your hostage?”

  “I’m not interested in having somebody besides myself to look out for,” he said. “
I’m just trying to figure out why I was framed, and what I can do about it.”

  Captain Brookes looked even more confused.

  “But…” She pointed an accusatory finger at him. “We have evidence that links you to multiple crime scenes. We have witnesses.”

  “I’m not saying I’m completely innocent,” said Victor. “In fact, I don’t see any of this ending in a way where I don’t end up dead, or in jail. But before it does, I’d like to get to the bottom of why the people whose deaths are pinned on me were killed.”

  Captain Brookes blinked. Her look was one of pure, unbridled, disbelief. Victor waved a hand at her and furrowed his brow.

  “Are you willing to answer my questions?” he asked.

  “It depends on what you’re asking,” she said.

  Victor nodded.

  “Those first seven people who were killed,” he said. “Was there anything off about their deaths? Were they linked to each other? Who were they?”

  A thick gray cloud had moved across the sky, blocking out the sun. Thunder cracked in the distance, and rain began to trickle down, going from droplets to hard sheets in the space of a couple of seconds.

  “Come on,” said Victor, nodding to the abandoned house.

  “Are you kidding?” Captain Brookes shook her head. “This is probably some kind of… murder shack, or something.”

  Victor shrugged and jogged inside. It was dusty, but it didn’t look nearly as abandoned from within as it did from the outside. There was a couch, an old wood stove, and some hunting equipment. And, more importantly, the roof didn’t start leaking.

  He watched Captain Brookes standing in the rain, and could see the strategical assessment taking place in her head. She hadn’t been paying attention as they’d flown in. She had no idea where they were, or even if she could really escape without him coming after her. After a few seconds, in the downpour, was enough to end up completely and utterly soaked, she followed Victor inside.

  “I don’t believe you,” she immediately said. “But… I don’t see any harm in talking to you, given that the women are already dead.”

  Victor nodded to her.

  “That’s enough for me,” he said.

  Thunder cracked again nearby. It was the middle of the afternoon, but looked as though it was early evening.

  “I’m going to start a fire,” said Victor. “I think we’re going to be stuck here for tonight.”

  “Why?”

  Victor chuckled.

  “Flying during a lightning storm isn’t such a good idea.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Victor spent the next fifteen minutes taking stock of everything in the cabin. There were a surprising amount of food supplies stored in the backroom, several hunting rifles stored inside an old wooden chest, and plenty of firewood. There was no bathroom or running water, but Victor hadn’t expected there to be.

  The storm outside was furious, and rain drummed down on the wooden roof in a constant roar. Victor set about building a fire in the wood stove, which with his scarlet aura, he expected to be fairly easy. He kept one eye on Captain Brookes, who was watching him suspiciously as he placed each piece of wood.

  “Are you planning on trying to attack me, Captain Brookes?” asked Victor.

  She shrugged.

  “I haven’t decided yet, to be honest,” she said. “And you might as well just call me Amanda.”

  “Amanda,” repeated Victor.

  She stood up and walked around the cabin, peering out the window into the storm. There was a rustic looking bed in the corner of the room, no more than a futon mattress on top of a homemade bedframe. Amanda sat down on it and crossed her arms.

  “You aren’t going to kill me.” She said the words as a statement, rather than a question. “If I wanted to, I could take off when you’re not looking, and try my luck in the wilderness.”

  “I mean, I guess you could, if you really wanted to,” said Victor. “I’d like to talk to you for a bit first, though, if that’s alright?”

  He looked over at her and smiled. Her expression was neutral, and unreadable.

  This was a bad idea.

  “Here, why don’t we warm up and eat some food, first,” said Victor.

  Amanda didn’t move from where she sat on the bed.

  “Suit yourself.” Victor pointed his finger into the stack of wood he’d stuffed into the stove and set it aflame. He carefully closed the door and then sat down in front of it, feeling the heat building and emanating from the metal structure.

  The cabin was silent for a minute or two. Finally, Amanda stood up from the bed and walked over to join him. Her police uniform looked uncomfortable on her, too tight in a few conspicuous places.

  “I want to hear your story, first,” she said.

  “And then you’ll help me figure this out?”

  She frowned slightly.

  “It depends on what you tell me,” she said. “I’m not making any promises.”

  Victor rolled his eyes.

  “You do realize that if I wanted to, I could read your mind?” He looked at her seriously. “It’s no trouble for me. It would only take a second.”

  “Then why don’t you?”

  Victor mused on the question for a few seconds.

  Why don’t I? Because it’s a slippery slope.

  “Fine,” he said. “Ask me anything.”

  He stood up and walked over to the pantry, which whoever owned the cabin had packed full of bags of dried fruit, beef jerky, and granola bars. He took enough of each for the two of them and carried it back over, handing half to Amanda.

  “How did you end up with your abilities?” she asked.

  “My father used me as a test subject,” he said. Amanda leaned in slightly, examining his face as though trying to determine whether or not he was lying.

  “Okay.” She tapped her finger against her lips. “Do you care to elaborate more on that?”

  Victor shook his head.

  “Not on this question,” he said. “And there really isn’t all that much more to it.”

  “What are you doing in Undercliff City?” asked Amanda.

  “I came here to find out about what’d happened to me,” said Victor. “I stayed because…”

  He paused, thinking about Lucy, Kiara, Kronenberg, and the life he’d built for himself.

  “You really shouldn’t be answering these questions honestly.” Ella materialized behind him, softly whispering in his ear. “Just tell her what she wants to hear.”

  What she wants to hear is the truth.

  “I guess I stayed because I found a life for myself here,” he finished.

  Amanda looked confused by that. She opened her packet of beef jerky and pulled out a piece, nibbling on it with small, dainty bites.

  “How much of what they say about you is true?” asked Amanda. “Everybody was talking about how you, or someone with similar abilities, was flying around, playing at being a superhero. Up until the murders, that is.”

  “I have no idea,” said Victor. “I don’t get out much. Haven’t heard many of the rumors.”

  “Were you really saving people?”

  Victor took a deep breath and then let it out.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I guess I was. Or at least I was trying to.”

  “Did you kill those women, Victor?”

  He locked eyes with her.

  “No.”

  It was hard to tell whether or not Amanda was satisfied by his answer. He got a sense that it wasn’t her first time interrogating somebody. She was confident in her technique, but also very suspicious, wary, and stuck in her own assumptions.

  “My turn,” said Victor.

  “Wait.” Amanda turned so that she was facing him and shook her head. “I have more questions.”

  Victor sighed.

  It’s going to be a long night.

  Amanda asked him more questions than he felt like he’d been asked in the rest of his life combined. Victor didn’t answer all of them in f
ull, but he didn’t lie or stretch the truth in any way. She kept coming back to the dead women, pushing the question, and prodding his responses from different angles.

  “For the last time,” he said. “I didn’t kill them.”

  “Have you ever killed anyone before?” asked Amanda.

  Victor chewed on his lip. She was a cop. It was her job to investigate murders. But something about her demeanor made lying to her now seem like the wrong thing to do.

  “Yes,” he answered. Amanda blinked, not surprised, exactly, but a little caught off guard by his bluntness.

  “Tell me,” she said. “How did it happen?”

  “Which time?”

  “Any of them,” she said. “All of them.”

  “Self-defense,” said Victor. “I do my best to avoid it, but sometimes, it’s impossible. When your life is on the line, you don’t always have a choice.”

  He paused, and a question popped into his head.

  “What about you?” he asked.

  “What about me?”

  “Have you killed anyone before?” asked Victor.

  He thought she was going to brush the question off for a moment. Amanda closed her eyes, and then opened them, meeting his gaze and nodding slowly.

  “Then you should know how it can be sometimes,” he said.

  Amanda didn’t say anything. She stood up and made a small show of brushing her butt off.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

  She took a step toward the door and then looked at Victor curiously when he didn’t get up to stop her.

  “You trust me to go by myself?”

  “Honestly…” He rubbed his hand against his chin. “I don’t know if I do or not.”

  Amanda stared at him.

  “You’re giving up, aren’t you?” she asked.

  “I’m considering it,” said Victor. “It’s been a long couple of days. I’m just… tired.”

  She nodded, as though his response made more sense than anything else he’d said that night.

  “I’ll be back,” she said. “We had a deal, remember.”