Magic for Hire: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Found Magic Book 3)

by J. A. Cipriano

  Something skittered across the ground behind me, and I shut my eyes, willing myself not to scream even though I hated dark underground mythological caverns. After a quick three count, I opened them and turned back around slowly. There was nothing there.

  I let out an explosive breath and sighed. “I don’t suppose you can look for residual heat signatures or something?” I asked my suit, not really expecting much of a response. The suit swarmed over me, covering my face in an instant and displaying a layout of the area I was staring at filled with colored dots. A legend to my left displayed the temperatures associated with each color, and I smirked in spite of myself.

  “You’re awesome,” I murmured to my suit as I headed toward the right passageway because it had the most heat. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but something warm appeared to have gone through there. Hopefully, it wasn’t gigantic and bull shaped.

  As I made my way to the right, something brushed against my legs, reminding me of an overly friendly cat, but when I looked down, there was nothing there. Which was good. If there had been, my heart would have just exploded in my chest. As it was, it took me a couple moments to situate myself.

  Clearly, I was having issues with that whole nerves of steel thing and part of me wished Bang would just come out and start shooting at me. Then I could snap into superspy mode, and I wouldn’t be afraid of monsters. Wandering around in the dark in an ancient maze was making my mind play tricks on me. That was way not fun.

  After a few minutes of weaving through passageways following the heat trail, I was thoroughly lost. Thankfully, I came to something that didn’t look even vaguely Minoan. A steel door about twelve feet tall was set into the stone. Since I knew the Minoans only had bronze, this had to have been installed after they’d left. Was this where Bang was? I sure hoped so…

  I put my ear to the door, listening for sounds but heard nothing from the other side. I wasn’t sure if that was good or not, especially since I didn’t see a keypad or door handle. So how did the thing open up?

  I contemplated it for a moment, wondering if I should try to blow it open with my magic. While I wasn’t the world’s most proficient mage when it came to fireballs and the like, I could probably take down this door assuming it didn’t have some high powered wards on it or something.

  Unfortunately, I was much more likely to cause a cave in than not if I blew something up down here. Besides, the idea of blowing up a several thousand-year-old pieces of history sort of rubbed me the wrong way. Instead, I traced my hands along the edge of the frame as far as I could reach but felt only the cold kiss of steel and stone. I even tried using my knife along the edge like I’d done with the trapdoor, but that didn’t work either.

  “Well, this sucks,” I mumbled, pacing back and forth in front of the door as I glared at it. I was pretty sure it’d be able to withstand my angry stare so I didn’t have high hopes of opening it that way either. For all I knew, Bang had some sort of remote door opener thing on his person. I threw one last look around the room, wondering briefly if there was a place I could hide and wait for the door to open. Unfortunately, the ten by ten square foot space was pretty much empty.

  I wondered if that was on purpose.

  14

  I waited outside that stupid door for over an hour. I knew because there was a little clock in the top right corner of my HUD counting the seconds. I’d looked at the room with all manner of sensors as well but nothing particularly interesting had been revealed either and tried to jimmy it open with my magical chutzpah, but apparently, a master of magical lock picking I was not. This was why I was heading back toward the surface. Well, that and I was pretty tired of sitting alone in the dark by myself beneath a billion pounds of stone.

  Thankfully, my suit had recorded the directions I’d taken to get here, otherwise, I’d have been hopelessly lost. Still, there was something about the whole thing rubbing me the wrong way. Yes, there was clearly something down here beyond the door, and while I couldn’t get it open and peek inside, I was starting to think this may have been a wild goose chase.

  Why? Because Morris wasn’t here. He’d been pretty quick to steal me away from Raul and then, at the last second, let me come down here alone with no information as to how to open the magic door, nor what I’d find down here either. It made me think he was getting me out of the way. It bugged me because if there was only one way in or out of this maze, and it was through the trapdoor I’d come through to get down here. Why hadn’t we just staked it out and waited there?

  Not to mention, it was ridiculous to think there’d be a military base beneath these ruins. There was one way in and out, how were they going to carry equipment through a tiny trap door?

  Of course, the answer was obviously magic, but even still, I didn’t buy it. While I was no Merlin, I hadn’t seen anything in my admittedly short studies at the agency that let me think they could magically move a military base beneath the labyrinth.

  Either way, I was on my way back to the exit so I could find Morris and ask him those very questions. I was just about to the trapdoor when a loud scraping sound behind me made my heart leap into my throat. I whirled around, hands tucked into fists as I scanned the room with my night vision. A very tiny mouse stared back at me.

  It stood there on its hind legs and regarded me curiously before turning and scampering away. I felt myself blush as I turned back toward the exit. Had I really been scared by a mouse? Seriously? Some magic-wielding badass I was.

  I walked up to the exit and pressed my knife into the spot. There was a grinding noise, and the trapdoor opened to reveal sunlight in the distance. Otherwise, the room beyond was empty. No unconscious guide. I stepped out, not even having to blink as my suit adjusted to the light.

  “You’d think there’d be more guards or something,” I said aloud although I wasn’t quite sure why. As I made my way back out of the temple, my suit changed into a pair of khaki shorts and a blue “Sparta!” t-shirt. See, I was giving it culture.

  A moment later, I found myself amid a throng of tourists all snapping photos as tour guides yammered on about Minoan bulls and artwork. One even went so far as to say the Labyrinth was made up and people who believed in it were stupid.

  I fought the urge to correct her because either she’d think I was crazy or wind up being some kind of assassin sent to root out people who journeyed into its depths. After a few more minutes of blending in, I reached the spot where Morris was supposed to be, but instead of finding him, I found nothing. It didn’t even look like he’d ever been there because the grass where I remembered him standing was unbroken and normal looking.

  “Suit, replay my last conversation with Morris.” As I said the words, an image of Morris appeared in front of me, yammering on about how I should go into the labyrinth and find Bang. I knelt down by his holographic feet and checked the grass. It seemed okay, but as I touched the spot, it felt different, though I couldn’t say how exactly.

  Something struck me in the back of the head. I fell forward, smacking into the grass as my vision went all sorts of blurry. My suit covered me in an instant as a heavy weight settled on my back, pinning me to the ground.

  “Well, if it isn’t Abby, um what do you like to be called, Banks or de la Mancha?” the gruff voice of Bang asked, and I could tell he was shifting his weight on top of me.

  “Banks is good,” I wheezed, trying to figure out how he’d managed to sneak up on me.

  “Okay,” he replied, and I felt him press something against the back of my neck. The coldness of it was startling. “I bet you’re relying on that super suit to save you. But do you know why no one uses them? Aside from the brain cancer thing?”

  “No,” I replied, trying to get my hands under myself so I could launch myself at him, rescue the director, and save my father. The moment I moved, he kicked me hard in the ribs. The blow rocked me, and for the first time in a while, I was scared.

  “Because cold renders it pretty useless.” He held what looked like the end
of a leaf blower in front of my face. “This shoots liquid nitrogen. If I blast you with it, not only will your suit fall off into pieces, but you’ll probably shatter. So I’m going to let you up if, and this is a big if, you decide to play nice. You’re going to come with me very slowly. Capiche?”

  “Yeah,” I muttered, and as soon as the word left my lips, the weight on my back vanished. I got slowly to my feet and looked around. Bang was standing there with his cold gun pointed at me. Flash stood off to his left with her own cold gun pointed at me. Evidently, they were taking no chances.

  “So, where’s Morris?” I asked, putting my hands up.

  “Sent him back to base,” Bang said with a shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know why you listened to him at all. He’s kind of a weasel.”

  “I noticed.” I nodded as I mulled over what he’s said. Sure, Morris was kind of a weasel, but how had Bang sent him back to base? Was he being serious or did he just mean Morris had run away?

  “Told you. Girl not smart,” Flash said, and I somehow managed to like her even less than I previously had.

  “Don’t mind her,” Bang said, waving his hand at her. “Anyway, here’s the deal. You need to come with us right now.”

  “I still don’t see why we can’t shoot girl in the head,” Flash interjected, making a shooting motion with her gun, and sadly, I could see the logic in her statement. If I were in their shoes, I’d want to put me down.

  “Um because we like money?” Bang answered, shaking his head and giving me a “what are you gonna do” look. “Honestly, sometimes I think she forgets we’re mercenaries.”

  “Must be tough,” I replied as I desperately tried to think of a way to escape.

  “See, she understands my plight,” Bang said, glancing at Flash before moving close to me and jabbing me in the ribs. “Now let’s get going. As I said, circumstances changed.”

  Circumstances changed? That didn’t bode well. Everything about this mission seemed to be coming out of left field. Originally, I had been trying to capture these two mercenaries and now they were capturing me, presumably for a pay day? Were they going to turn me over to the Israelis? I wasn’t going to let that happen if I could help it.

  I lashed out, grabbing the gun with one hand as I whirled. The weapon went off, narrowly missing me and spraying the tree behind me. There was a cracking sound as the trunk shattered into a zillion scintillating shards and came tumbling toward me.

  My foot lashed out, catching Bang in the side of the knee. There was a loud popping sound as he tumbled to the ground with a grunt, leaving me in possession of his freeze ray. I pointed it at where Flash had been, but she was gone. Not like she had run away gone, but like she had completely vanished gone.

  A twig snapped to my left, and I threw myself to the side as a blast of cold flew by me and turned the ground behind where I’d been into ice. I fired back, but I wasn’t sure what I was firing at. Bang cried out as I grabbed him around the throat with one arm and hauled him up like a shield. It was pretty hard since he was really heavy and couldn’t stand.

  “Do you really think this is wise?” he grunted through the obvious pain of his knee. “We both know you can’t see her.”

  “That’s what you think,” I growled as my suit switched to heat signature mode in time to see her fist coming right at my head. I ducked and the whoosh of air over my head told me I’d gotten very lucky. I dropped Bang and lashed out, planting a hard kick into the center mass of my attacker.

  There was a howl of anger as the Flash staggered backward. I leapt forward, tackling her to the ground as my vision switched back to normal. Flash’s glamour seemed to short circuit from my contact. Somehow, she’d been able to bend the light around herself, reminding me of the Predator in those movies, but clearly, it didn’t do well with the whole physical contact.

  As I reared back and drove my elbow into her blocking arms, the force of the blow reverberated through my arm and into my shoulder. That was when she grabbed me under the armpits, throwing me forward as she slipped out from under my legs like a goddamn eel.

  I hit the ground on my hands and knees and scrambled to my feet. A gunshot went off. The bullet caught me in the left shoulder, spinning me around as pain ripped through me. I was pretty sure my suit had staved off most of the damage, but it still hurt like hell.

  “Look,” Bang wheezed, leveling the huge blunderbuss he’d used when storming the agency at me. “We don’t have time for this, Abby.”

  Was he really suggesting I was bogging down his schedule when he was the one trying to capture me, presumably to turn me over to the Israelis for a payday?

  Instead of replying, I ran at him, screaming like a crazy person. I was nearly to him when a roar to my left caught my attention. Flash tore out of the brush on an ATV and slammed into me. Breath exploded from my lungs as I flew across the ground and rolled like a busted mannequin. She threw one last glance at me before scooping up Bang and throwing him over the back of the vehicle.

  “Shoot her,” Flash snarled, gunning the ATV.

  Bang stared at me like he was thinking it over in his head, and I wasn’t sure why he didn’t do it. Still, I wasn’t about to look gift horses in the mouth. Before he could get a clear shot, I threw myself backward down the hill. Let me just say this right now. Rolling down a rocky hill is way less fun than it seemed like it’d be.

  15

  Morris was standing over me when I woke up. I wasn’t quite sure how long I’d been lying at the bottom of the ravine, but judging by the position of the sun, and the clock ticking away on the front of my HUD, it’d been less than a minute since I’d jumped off a cliff.

  “You should get bonus points for sticking the landing when you fell off the cliff,” Morris said, offering me his hand like he wasn’t a giant jackass who had told me to venture beneath an ancient ruin and then neglected to help me confront two deranged mercenaries.

  I scowled at him as I got to my feet, sans taking his hand. “Thanks for all your help,” I snapped petulantly. “Let’s go after the mercenaries before they get too far away.” I began walking to a gunmetal colored motorcycle sitting beside the road. Part of me hoped it was Morris’s ride. The rest of me didn’t really care because that motorcycle was about to be my motorcycle.

  “Abby, there’s something I need to tell you,” Morris called as he jogged after me. Evidently, I’d been moving quick enough to have crossed considerable distance while he stood there like the slack-jawed, non-helper he was.

  “If it’s an apology for leading me on a wild goose chase just so I could get ambushed, save it,” I said, leaping onto the motorcycle and fixing him with my best glare. I’m not quite sure what it looked like, but he stopped in his tracks and stared at me. Then he swallowed. Loudly.

  “It’s not like that at all, Abby—” He had probably been about to say more, but I didn’t really care. I kicked the motorcycle into action and roared off, leaving him standing there. What else was I going to do after all? It wasn’t like he’d been helpful and I was going to catch those two mercenaries if it was the last thing I did. Why? Because they were the key to saving my father. If I didn’t get the codes from the director, the life support would shut off and my father would die. I was through wasting time with idiots like Morris.

  “How close am I?” I asked the suit, somewhat annoyed I hadn’t figured out a way to communicate with it that didn’t involve talking. A translucent blue map appeared in my vision displaying two markers. One was a blue dot and indicated my location. The other? A red dot indicating Bang’s position from when I’d stuffed the magical tracker into his belt. Who says I hadn’t learned a trick or two?

  I was hoping he hadn’t found it and, say, thrown it into a random car as I gunned the motorcycle and took off up the road. As I got closer to the dot, traffic got worse, and while I was able to weave through it with the best of them, I quickly realized something. Greek drivers were insane. Speed limits and lanes meant nothing to them.

  Still, I was gaining
on the dot. I kicked into a hard turn that brought me screeching around a corner. Off in the distance, I could just make out the ATV. From here, it looked like they’d ditched their Mr. Freeze guns, but I wasn’t about to let my guard down.

  So what did I do? I twisted the throttle and zoomed forward until I was nearly on them. They never even saw me coming as I jumped from the speeding motorcycle and tackled Flash right off the front of her ATV. We hit the ground with a bone crushing impact that would have ripped my flesh to bits, but I had a protective suit.

  Flash did too, though hers wasn’t nearly as awesome as mine. We rolled across several lanes before coming to rest in the middle of oncoming traffic. Cars began to swerve and honk as I leapt to my feet and advanced on the woman. She was almost to her hands and knees when my boot lashed out, catching her in the chin and snapping her head backward.

  She flopped to the ground as a shotgun blast took me full in the back. I pitched forward to the ground as Bang leveled his shotgun at me and pumped five more blasts into me. If I said it didn’t hurt, would you believe me?

  I lay there, trying to remember how to function as Bang dropped the gun to the ground with a clatter and climbed into the driver’s seat, practically dragging his bad leg along. Pain filled his face as he stomped on the throttle and turned the vehicle into a turn that brought it straight at me.

  I scrambled to my hands and knees, trying to get out of his way as the taste of blood filled my mouth. That wasn’t good. I was on my feet just as he sprang from his ATV. The vehicle crashed into me, driving me forward into the side of a parked taxi. It hurt so much, I couldn’t even see straight even though I was pretty sure my suit had saved me from the brunt of the impact. I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to focus as I reached down and grabbed hold of the ATV, struggling to push it off of me.

  Bang tossed one last look at me as sirens filled the air. They sounded close. Too close. People were everywhere, and I was immediately surprised no car accidents had occurred.