The Magic Within: Found Magic Book #2

by Cipriano, J. A.

  “So you were basically a sperm donor,” I said as Roberto took my hand and led me after Troy. His grip faltered for a second as he glanced at me, but when he saw the smirk on my face, he relaxed.

  “I guess you could say that, but you don’t realize the honor it is to be your father, Abby.” He grinned at me. “I’m so proud of you.”

  I swallowed as my world slipped off its axis, hit the ground, and bounced a couple times. When I finally recovered, we were in another room altogether. There was a weird looking vending machine in the corner, a couple plush blue leather couches, and not much else.

  “Why are you proud of me?” I squeaked, turning to look up at Roberto. “I mean, it’s not that I don’t want you to be proud of me, but I haven’t exactly done a whole lot.”

  “I could just say that you’re my daughter and that alone would be enough,” Roberto replied, smiling at me as he led me over to the vending machine. “But somehow, I don’t think you’ll feel like that’s a valid response.” He gestured at the vending machine. “Now what do you want, I’ll buy.”

  “Um, everything in here is free,” Troy said from his perch on one of the couches. I hadn’t even managed to make it to the vending machine in the time it had taken for him to make himself comfortable. I didn’t see how it was possible, but there he was, slouched over the side of a couch like a lanky spider, sipping Coke through a straw he’d shoved into the can’s pop top.

  “Don’t ruin my moment, Troy,” Roberto replied in a voice that made me shiver. “Or I’ll throw you off the back of this truck… again.” Roberto smiled, and Troy deflated in a way that made me think Roberto had thrown Troy from the semi before.

  I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It sure seemed so mean, so I just had to hope it wasn’t moving at the time. Either way, his statement affirmed something I’d almost forgotten. Roberto was a bad guy who had worked for my terrorist mother.

  “I want you to answer my question.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “And also I’d like chocolate cream pie.” I glanced over the machine but couldn’t make any sense of it. “Does this thing have that?”

  “Yeah, it cooks stuff. You just put in what you want, and assuming it has the ingredients inside, it just makes whatever you ask for.” Roberto punched some buttons into the front of the machine. It began to whir and make a sort of horrible grinding noise that reminded me of a car with bad brakes. “There used to be an issue with it not having a lot of recipes stored inside, but by now it has a lot in its database.”

  Of course they had a super-vending machine capable of cooking anything. Typical. Now if only my JC’s cafeteria had one of these things…

  “So, uh about the being proud of me.” I smiled up at him, and he shook his head.

  “You’re really not letting that go, are you?” Roberto rubbed his face with one giant hand. “I’m proud of you because even after everything you’ve been through, you haven’t turned bad. It’d be easy for you to become Gabriella, but you didn’t. Hell, you blew up the base and escaped, and even with all her power at your fingertips, you haven’t used it to say drop a bomb on Washington DC.” He smacked one fist into the palm of his hand. “Do you know how many people would have already done something like that?”

  “Um… a lot?” I replied, biting my lip as my world crashed to the ground and shattered for the third time in an hour. Hadn’t that been exactly what I had been trying to do? Hadn’t that been why I’d infiltrated the Agency’s base? I’d wanted to gain control of Gabriella’s resources. The only thing that had stopped me was I’d been thwarted trying to destroy the flit. If I’d stuck to my original plan, I’d have left without even trying to blow up the flit’s ritual chamber. I’d be sitting in an underground base ready to laugh maniacally and stroke my cat. Hell, that had been where I’d been heading when Roberto had saved me.

  Great. Just freaking great. I’d had a dad for all of thirty minutes, and I’d already managed to disappoint him and dash his vision of me as the perfect angel to shards. Fan-freaking-tastic.

  “What’s wrong, Abby?” Roberto asked as thoughts swam through his large dark eyes. “Did I say something wrong?” He shot me a weak smile. “I’m not exactly good at the whole father thing, but I’m going to try.”

  “Why didn’t you come for me sooner?” I asked. I hadn’t meant to say the words, but they’d just come out on their own like little venomous daggers. When in doubt about your own feelings, attack angrily, I guess…

  “What?” Roberto asked, taken aback. He opened his mouth to say something else when the vending machine beeped, and a door slid open. Sitting there inside the small plastic cube was a slice of chocolate cream pie covered in whipped cream and little bits of shaved chocolate sprinkled over the top. Roberto reached in, lifted up the pie-containing paper plate, and offered it to me. “Here’s your pie, Abby.”

  “I don’t want the damn pie. I want to know why you didn’t try to find me. Or better yet, why you didn’t tell me who you were when we first met…” I fixed him with my best glare.

  Roberto stood there with a plate of pie in his hand for a long time before setting it down and keying in some commands on the machine. It began to chug and whir again as he turned back toward me and sighed. “I told you Gabriella wouldn’t let me. As to why I didn’t find you? I tried, but you weren’t exactly making it easy to find you, Abby. It’s not like I had access to all my resources. Ever since Gabriella died, all of her bases have been locked down, waiting for you to unlock them.”

  “You mean that’s true?” I asked, ignoring the puppy-dog look on his face. “About my biometrics unlocking the keys to her kingdom?”

  “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be? Gabriella was going to die either way. Even if she couldn’t get herself implanted in your brain, she still wanted you to have access to all her tech. That’s part of the reason why the Agency wants you so badly. It isn’t just because you were a ‘success.’ They want Gabriella’s stuff. Even though they know where her bases are, they can’t get anything out of them very easily. If they had you, well, it’d be a hell of a lot easier.”

  “So what’s to stop me from phoning the Agency and offering them everything in exchange for leaving me alone?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him and putting my hands on my hips.

  “Not a whole lot,” Roberto replied, staring at me very carefully. “All things considered, it isn’t a bad plan as long as you don’t mind leaving all of Gabriella’s resources in the hands of an evil government agency.”

  His statement sobered me because I was being bratty. Then again, Gabriella had been evil too. Would putting all her tech in the hands of the Agency be that bad? I wasn’t sure, but while some part of me told me yes, I just wasn’t sure it was true. There had to be others out there that were worse than Gabriella, right? Others that the Agency was trying to protect us from… Maybe giving them her tech wasn’t a bad idea. Maybe it would save a lot of lives…

  The machine beeped, and the door slid open again to reveal a plate teeming with steak, creamed corn, and mashed potatoes. My stomach rumbled as I stared at the plate. It smelled so good I couldn’t even see past it as Roberto pulled it out. He took it and my pie off toward the couch. I followed behind him like a dog begging for scraps and sat down next to him on the blue couch. It was so plush, I nearly sank into it up to my eyeballs.

  Roberto laughed as he watched me watch him cut up his steak. “Do you want some?”

  “Yes,” I replied, licking my lips. Originally dessert had sounded like a great idea, but as I stared at the steak, the smell of it wafting into my nose, I knew that had been a bad idea because I couldn’t even remember the last time I had eaten something that didn’t come out of an easy open package.

  “You could have asked me for a steak a minute ago,” Roberto chided, spearing a cube of meat with his fork.

  “It’s different,” I replied, reaching out and touching his shoulder lightly. “You’ll come to understand that parents’ food always tastes better than your own.
”

  “Is that so?” Roberto asked, holding the fork out to me. I snatched it from him and stuck it in my mouth, ignoring the possibility that it was made from poison. If Roberto had wanted to kill me, let’s just say he’d had his chance. Many times.

  The steak was perfectly cooked and damned near melted in my mouth as I chewed. “I need one of these machines,” I said a moment later. “Is there a backpack version?”

  “Unfortunately, no. This is the only one in existence,” Troy said, and the sound of his voice startled me. I’d totally forgotten he was there. Great, he must think I’m a total bitch. “Tom likes to make things to deal with the mundane life details. It’s also why he always wears the same thing every day even though it makes him look like a slob.” Troy shrugged. “He actually owns sixteen outfits that look exactly the same.”

  I was about to make a snide remark, but Roberto chose that moment to offer me my pie. My snark melted away as I took the pie and attacked it with my fork. Let’s just say it was the best pie ever.

  Because it was.

  13

  Troy stood, and a strange smile that didn’t quite fit his face spread across his lips. He looked around as though taking in the scene before loping over to my couch and holding out one hand. “Care to dance?” he asked.

  My mouth must have fallen open because I couldn’t figure out how to make it work. Me? Dance? Here? That was crazy, right? I was about to look at Roberto for help when Troy snapped his fingers and music filtered through the air in a slowly rising tide. It filled up the room like a summer’s breeze, sweeping me off the couch and onto my feet before I even knew what hit me.

  “Wha?” was all I managed to say before he pressed one slender finger to my lips, his other hand snaking around my waist and pulling me toward him. How had this happened? What was going on? Why was Roberto letting him do this to me?

  He spun, shifting on his heels and swinging himself around so I had no choice but to twirl. I did. The little room flashed by me, and I spied Roberto sitting glassy eyed on the couch, head tilted toward us, but even that momentary glimpse told me he wasn’t paying any attention to anything, let alone to us.

  “If you’re waiting for someone to save you from me,” Troy whispered, pulling me against his body so his warmth seeped into me. “It’s simply not possible.” I wasn’t sure if he was trying to be cute or not, but it was coming off mostly creepy. I was about to tell him so when he stepped back. The sudden coldness of the distance between our bodies made me shiver.

  He raised one arm, jerking me up onto my tiptoes as he slid around me, pressing his chest against my back and wrapping our still entwined hands around my tummy. He leaned in close so his breath was hot on my cheek.

  “How does it feel, Abby?” He breathed into my neck before his lips pressed down on my skin. My heart slammed in my chest like a battering ram, and the room sort of spun. Had he just kissed me? Seriously? Had that just happened?

  “What are you doing?” I squeaked. His kisses ran up my neck, making my traitorous knees go weak. “How does what feel?”

  “To kiss?” He swallowed, and the sound was so loud in my ears I could barely think. He spun me around and stared at me. I tried to look away, tried to turn my head, but instead, I stood there utterly transfixed by his eyes, drowning in them. “I’d like to try it, Abby… before I go.” He swallowed again and pressed one of my hands to his chest. His heart was beating so hard I could feel it like a rumbling jet beneath his ribcage. “I’d like to try it with you…”

  I licked my lips unconsciously, not sure what to say or do. Could I really kiss him? As the thought rippled across my brain guilt filled me. Of course I couldn’t kiss him. What kind of girl would that make me? Even if Stephen was evil, was I really the type of girl to go around kissing random boys? I didn’t think I was.

  Besides, could this really be happening right now? It seemed so out of the blue. While I didn’t know Troy well enough to gauge what was normal, I was reasonably certain this was decidedly un-Troy-like behavior. It had to be. It just had to be.

  “Look…” I started to say, but he cut me off by pressing his lips against mine. His teeth scraped against mine as he pressed me backward against the couch, his tongue slipping into my mouth and exploring.

  When we were both on the couch, his right hand released me and trailed up my arm before coming to rest just below my throat. His fingertips rested there, and it was sort of creepy. I reached out, trying to push him off of me, but admittedly, it wasn’t with as much force as it should have been. It was surprise, surely.

  His hand slipped down the front of my shirt and grabbed my breast. He kneaded my flesh like he’d never even touched a girl before, which was crazy, right? Surely… Then again, he’d said he’d never kissed a girl before. Maybe he really hadn’t…

  Either way, I wasn’t going to let some random boy grab my tit without so much as a date. I wasn’t that kind of girl, and besides, Troy wasn’t hot enough. And as shallow as that was, it meant he’d have to try a hell of a lot harder to get any more out of me.

  He broke the kiss and sucked in a breath. “You taste unlike anything I could have imagined.” His eyes went down to my shirt as he pulled his hand free of my clothing and stared it. “You feel even better.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked, shoving at his chest with my hands, but he didn’t even seem to feel it. “That’s not how you treat a girl.” I leveled my best planet-ending-stare at him. “You need to get off me right now before I do something horribly painful to you.”

  “You mean like trying to kill me?” he asked, sitting back so he was straddling my torso with his long spindly legs. “Again?”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, confusion melting away part of my fury. “I just met you a few minutes ago. How could I have tried to kill you?”

  “You don’t recognize me, do you?” he asked, licking his lips in one slow deliberate movement that sent a panicked tremor running down my spine.

  “Um no, should I?” I asked, trying to remember him from somewhere, anywhere. I wasn’t exactly great with faces mind you, but ever since the experiment, I’d been able to place way more faces than I had before. If I’d met him at all recently, I’d remember, and besides, the chances of me trying to kill him before I’d left Folsom seemed a tad unlikely. I mean we didn’t even serve seafood at my mom’s restaurant, so I couldn’t have even given him some bad clams.

  “They rebuilt the ritual chamber, Abby. But, evidently, there’s something intrinsically wrong with me. The scientists didn’t realize it until they put me on your trail. The problem is that because I’m a demon, I’m not human enough to anticipate what you’ll do.” Troy’s eyes sparkled. “So they’ve dumped pretty much every moment of human existence into my demonic brain. They want me to feel, Abby.”

  I stared at him, unsure of what he meant by that. “What are you talking about?”

  He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against mine. “I think I’m in love with you, Abby.” One hand snaked out and brushed the hair from my face. “I still have my orders so I’ll bring you in, but know I feel bad about it. I actually feel bad about it. I wish there was another way.”

  I drove my knee into his crotch, and while the blow should have done something, it didn’t. Instead, Troy just looked at me strangely.

  “You don’t understand, do you?” As he said the words a horrible thought pulsed through my addled, sleep-deprived brain. He’d said they’d rebuilt the ritual chamber… Did that mean Troy was afflicted by the flit?

  “No… it can’t be,” I whispered, shock flooding into my voice. “It’s too soon…”

  “That’s right, Abby.” Troy licked me, his tongue scraping along my cheek. “I’m back.”

  “You’re not an ‘I,’ flit,” I snapped, trying to throw him off of me, but he held me down with that strange demonic strength he always had. He pressed his forearm down on my throat, but not hard enough to choke me.

  “There are s
o many things I want to try with you, Abby.” He moved his mouth down my neck, trailing kisses that made my stomach turn into a tight ball of revulsion and hatred.

  “Awesome,” I murmured when a strange thought struck me. If this was the flit, and it was just learning to be ‘human’ then maybe, just maybe, it was vulnerable to it.

  I reached out with my hand and trailed my fingers along his face, a forced smile on my lips. “Oh… that feels so good,” I whispered, throwing my head back. “But maybe we should get rid of some of these clothes. If you think this is good, imagine what it will feel like with our naked bodies pressed together.”

  “I do imagine it will be quite different, but your body language doesn’t suggest you are ready for something like that.” Troy raised up and looked at me, his fingers lingering above the band of my camouflage pants. “Are you trying to fool me, Abby?”

  I kissed him. I wasn’t sure what else to do. I threw myself into the kiss, only I wasn’t even sure how to kiss. I’d only kissed Stephen a couple times, and while he’d never complained, he kissed like it was an Olympic sport, and he was a world champion. When I’d commented about it, he’d said he’d had a lot of training. I, on the other hand, didn’t have any sort of training because prior to the few stolen kisses Stephen and I had shared, I’d mostly just made kissy faces at my mirror.

  Troy pressed himself against me, his tongue battling to get inside my mouth and down my throat. He was so heavy on top of me I wasn’t sure how much longer I could do this before I fainted from oxygen deprivation. Still as my hands slipped down his chest and grabbed the zipper on the front of his jumpsuit he shivered, actually shivered.