Agent of Magic Box Set Read online

  Kaya smiled. “It’s not what you think.”

  She ripped the packet open and pulled out the condom, tossing it into a nearby wastepaper basket. She reached into the packet again and withdrew a small chip, no bigger than a cell phone’s SD card.

  “Kaya,” Jay began in a warning tone. “This isn’t something she needs to see.”

  “She saved my life, Jay. You should have seen her out there. It was like watching one of those martial arts movies. And she lied to QZPD to save me from a demerit. I think we can trust her with this.”

  My stomach did an uneasy flip flop. Kaya’s trust was misplaced. I wasn’t some sort of avenging angel here to right her wrongs. It wasn’t like I was going to run to tell her secret, but she was wrong to think that I was here to help her.

  Kaya pressed the chip to the heavy plastic block at her throat. The collar let out a small beep and then popped open. Kaya pulled it away from her throat with a sound of relief.

  “You wouldn’t believe how difficult this tech is to get,” she said, handing it off to Jay. “We’ve got a mage who procures it for us, but he’s not often in the city.”

  My mind flicked back unwillingly to Dominic. Damn this mission for making me think of him so much. But it did seem like the sort of thing he would do. Add that to the fact that he’d taken a leave of absence shortly after I’d been booted out, and it lined up. My erstwhile lover had a white knight complex that vied for competition with his giant ego as the most prominent part of his personality. Freeing the wolves from unjust oppression would speak to him.

  And honestly, it spoke to me as well, though I’d have a different approach to liberation. Dominic would go underground railroad, while I’d definitely prefer French revolution-style justice.

  But if a mage was involved with these wolves, I needed to get the hell out of dodge. On the off chance it was Dominic or someone else I was familiar with, I had to go. I couldn’t be caught with magical paraphernalia on my person.

  “I should go,” I said, glancing back the way I’d come.

  “Scared of the big, bad wolf?” Jay quipped, smirking at me. “Don’t worry. We don’t bite. Unless you like that.”

  Warmth coiled in my belly when I thought about Jay setting his teeth against my throat. It was a little strange to react so strongly to a man like this. I hadn’t reacted this primally to a man since Dominic. I probably had a danger fetish. It couldn’t be healthy. But hell, I’d never claimed to be a bastion of mental health.

  “I’ll pass,” I said, glancing around. Even if I wanted this man, I wasn’t an exhibitionist. I doubted there was a quiet corner in the entire quarantine zone that I could pull him into.

  “I’ve got a busy night ahead of me.”

  Jay caught my arm before I could make it to the doorway. My first impulse was to twist free and punch him in the throat. I stayed it and gave him a level glare.

  “I need to go.”

  “You saved my sister. The least I can do is take you home. We can take my bike.”

  I opened my mouth to protest. I was going to call Declan. But I couldn’t help it. Like most girls, I was a sucker for an attractive man with a motorcycle.

  “Fine,” I huffed. “But don’t expect anything to come of it, buddy.”

  His dark eyes twinkled with good humor. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  ***

  The vibration of the bike rumbled through me. Wind raked its fingers through my hair and stung my face. Jay only had one helmet, and it was probably better that he wear it anyway.

  I leaned into his back, pressing my face into the warm, solid muscle there. He smelled of sandalwood and pine. It was oddly appealing. The lean strength of the man I clung to was also appealing.

  It had been harder to get out of the quarantine zone the second time around. Jay had been forced to bribe a guard. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know with what.

  When we finally came to a stop outside my house the sun was nearly ready to rise. It was the second time in as many days that I’d stayed up to greet the dawn. I really needed to get more sleep.

  Jay glanced up at my home and nodded his approval. “Nice place.”

  After what I’d seen in the quarantine zone? My place was like a freaking palace. I doubted he’d even mind the mess.

  Jay walked me up the stairs to the door and then hesitated. Something crackled in the air between us. Raw, palpable tension rippled through us both. It was something I hadn’t experienced in a while. I’d been so hung up on Dominic for years that I never let myself indulge in this particular experience.

  Before I could make an executive decision on how to proceed, Jay made up my mind for me. He leaned forward, seized my face in both hands and brought his lips down on mine.

  The kiss was deliciously sweet, with just a bite of pain when he pulled my lip between his teeth. It was that pain, the possibility of being contaminated that made me pull away from him. Though my body screamed vehement denial, my mind put a firm foot down. There was no way that I was going to risk everything for a one night stand. Not even with a man as handsome as Jay.

  “Goodnight, Jay. I think you ought to go now.”

  Jay stared at me quizzically for a long moment before nodding. “Alright then, Miss Valdez. Good night. I hope we see each other again.”

  I did too. When the situation was less dire perhaps I could explore it more.

  But somehow, I didn’t think that day was coming any time soon.

  chapter

  8

  “HEY, LOOK WHO’S WEARING PANTS,” Vance greeted me as I stepped through the oak archway that led into the offices of Johnson and Conoley. Was there anyone in this office that wasn’t keen to mention the Dublin incident? Okay, yes, everyone in the room had gotten a good look at my underwear. But that hadn’t been my fault. I’d managed to sleep for a few hours, but now that the sun was going down it was time to get to work.

  Vance Conoley was skinny and a little specky, his blonde curls were perpetually greasy, and he somehow gave off an aura of perpetual teenage misery, though he was nearly thirty now. He lacked the muscle tone that most of the people in Landon’s employ had. I was convinced that the heaviest thing he ever lifted was a pencil. He was Landon’s personal aide and I’d met him more than once when his boss had arranged jobs for me in the past.

  He’d also been the aide to a very prominent wizard at one point, and I wasn’t sure what he’d done to get himself thrown out. He never struck me as more than vanilla human before, when I’d brushed him with my aura. But all of us who’d been cast out had our own sob story. I wasn’t going to pry into the details if he didn’t want to give them to me.

  Instead, I fixed him with a gimlet glare and was gratified when he sank lower in his office chair. “Do you really want to bait me, Vance? I wasn’t even armed when we fought in that pub and I still kicked your ass. I’m wearing a lot more gear than that now. Are you ready for round two?”

  Vance gave me a once over and his practiced eye zeroed in on the side holster that my leather jacket couldn’t completely hide. It was one of the three pieces I had on my person. His Adam’s apple bobbed nervously once.

  “Good point.”

  “Where’s Landon? I need to discuss a stipend for the weapons I need.”

  Vance frowned at me. “You’re probably better equipped than anyone I know, Valdez. Don’t you already have enough weapons to arm a battalion?”

  “Eh. Probably enough for a company, not a battalion. And the Trust took all of my enchanted gear when they sweeped my house years ago. If he wants me to face off against one of the other five I’m going to need to pull out more than a regular pistol.”

  “You can’t enchant your own?”

  “The ones I can acquire without raising suspicion are all polymer. They’d snap under enchantment. I’m going to need some cold iron to face off against any of the Five.”

  “Alright. Sit down and I’ll give him a call.”

  I igno
red the plush red armchair that had been pushed against the wall and opted to stand instead. It would take valuable seconds I’d need to defend against an attack if I had to stand and draw. Scanning the room was just habit at this point, though I couldn’t spot anything out of the ordinary.

  The place looked incredibly clean after what I’d witnessed in the quarantine zone the night before. The white marble floors, richly colored wood and glass partitions that blocked off the back offices gave an illusion of size and openness that had been sorely lacking at Kaya’s home.

  Vance hung up the phone after a minute of hushed discussion and nodded to me.

  “He says it’s already been approved by House Lamonia. You’re welcome to whatever you need.”

  Some part of me had been hoping for an argument. Something to impede my path forward. The decision had been a thoroughly unpleasant one to make and I still wasn’t quite sanguine about it.

  I wanted to march right out the door and take it back. Landon’s presumption that I was going to take this job rankled. Taking out vampires was one thing. I could almost think of that as a service done for the good of humanity. But this was a human. And even though she was probably the most horrid one to live in a while, it would still be unsanctioned murder, paid for in blood money.

  I took a deep, fortifying breath and strode toward the back. It had been nearly two years since I’d visited the back office. Landon kept himself sequestered there more often than not, and only emerged for really important missions. Like the one I was about to undertake.

  The first time I’d walked this hall I’d been high on the illicit thrill of being here. The little side jobs that Landon had given me, knocking off key members in the vampire houses, felt like a counterbalance to all the unforgivable things that I’d been asked to do by the Trust. Surely I saved more lives than I’d ended by doing it?

  Now I felt like I’d swallowed lead.

  Landon’s office was situated at the rear of the building and took up more square feet than my living room. He hadn’t spared any expense in decorating it. I was pretty sure the Persian rug that lay on the floor was genuine. Landon was seated in a wingback chair behind a large executive desk. He didn’t even look up to me as I entered. There was a gray sectional pushed into the corner and it, too, was occupied.

  I’d pulled the Sig from my shoulder holster before I could even think about it. It was pure instinct.

  Ashby Lamonia smiled at me, not bothering to conceal his fangs. His aura was particularly unpleasant this evening, which probably meant he’d murdered someone for supper. You didn’t have to be very magically gifted to sense a vampire. Anyone with basic magical talent could sense the sucking void that was their aura. Magic came from the soul and a vampire was an antithesis to that energy. It helped me temper my reaction to his appearance.

  All vampires were attractive on the surface. The transition smoothed skin, healed injuries, and enhanced the features a person already had. The guy was staggeringly pretty, especially with the change of clothing. Enough that it threw me off guard. His auburn hair had been let loose to curl over the collar of his slate gray frock coat. It suited him better than the modern trappings that he’d donned in the airport. This was the real Ashby. His eyes glowed a rich burgundy and regarded me with amusement.

  “Still twitchy, I see.” His voice was smooth and alluring, which further convinced me he’d fed. His voice hadn’t held this much potency in the Wingtip lounge.

  “Landon, what is he doing here?” I growled. Why hadn’t Vance warned me that the filthy bloodsucker was in Landon’s office?

  “House Lamonia approved the stipend on top of the ten million. But they stipulated that they wanted one of theirs to accompany you. Ashby has apparently taken a liking to you and volunteered his services.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Deadly serious, I’m afraid,” Ashby said and gave me another unsettling smile. “We’re investing a lot into this, Miss Valdez. I’m sure you can understand that we don’t want the money spent on anything frivolous.”

  For a split second, I really considered pumping the undead bastard full of lead. The world would be better off with one less parasite in it and killing him would cause a power vacuum in House Lamonia, destabilizing them for at least a year while they squabbled over the position he held.

  But Cat would die in the meantime, without the machines at Fallen Oak to keep her stable.

  I holstered the Sig with difficulty.

  Ashby’s face grew even more punchable when he smirked. “An excellent choice, Miss Valdez. Why don’t you sit?”

  “I’ll stand.”

  He gave a graceful shrug and relaxed further into the couch. “I have also been instructed to inform you that we will be sending three of our elite warriors to accompany you on this journey.”

  “No.”

  “Yes. As I said, we’re devoting a considerable amount of time and money to this endeavor and, to be frank, we don’t trust you any more than you trust us. We’ll be sending agents to ensure that the mission is carried off to our specifications.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter.” I rounded on Landon and threw my hands up in frustration. “Tell him!”

  “I’m afraid you might actually need the backup this time, Valdez. Lamonia’s surveillance reports have come back with a new wrinkle. The Trust’s defense committee deemed it necessary to send two of the Five. I know you’re capable, Valdez, but do you really want to face off against them both alone? What if the second is Bello?”

  That gave me pause. Two? The last time that there had been more than one of the Five on a protection detail we had been escorting the head of the Trust out of a war zone.

  Who the hell was this girl?

  Landon was probably right, though I was loath to admit it. I may have been in a bad place but I was not suicidal enough to face down two of my fellows without someone at my back. At least, not until I could do my own surveillance and formulate a plan of attack.

  “Fine. I’ll agree to the protection detail for now. But I want the full story about this girl. How did little miss priss turn into a wannabe Josef Mengele?”

  Ashby leaned forward, steepling his fingers. “All in due time. For now, I believe you and I should be off. We’re wasting moonlight. I’ll have my chauffeur pull around.”

  “I’ll be driving,” I said, cutting across him before he could detail his plans any further.

  Ashby’s frown carved furrows into his pretty face. His fangs lengthened in anticipation of taking a chunk out of me. I half-hoped he’d try. I was dying for an excuse to hurt him.

  “I insist, Miss Valdez.”

  “My mission, my weapons, my choice. We take my car or you can count me out.”

  It wasn’t really that big a deal who drove us where we needed to go, but Ashby sent my practiced senses into overdrive. I couldn’t help but think that if I climbed into his fancy car I’d end up with a gun jammed into the base of my skull or fangs tearing furrows into my neck.

  Ashby’s long-fingered hands twitched and I just knew he was resisting the urge to wrap them around my throat.

  “Is this truly necessary?” Ashby ground out, finally balling his hand into a fist on the armrest of the couch.

  “Depends. How badly do you want me to kill this girl, Lamonia?”

  Ashby’s stare felt like ants on my skin as he considered me, sweeping those burgundy eyes over my body like a butcher, trying to decide what the choicest parts were. Finally, he pushed to his feet and gestured toward the door with a tight little smile.

  “After you then, Miss Valdez. Where to first?”

  “Upper East Side. We’re paying a visit to Gunmetal Gray’s.”

  chapter

  9

  IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FASTER to walk from Landon’s office to Gunmetal Gray’s. Or better yet, if Landon had rustled up Declan, I could have been deposited at my destination in a matter of moments. Of course, traveling with a vampire ma
de that difficult. No self-respecting mage was going to use their magic for anything other than exterminating a vampire.

  So it was an unnerving two and a half hour drive to get through New York City traffic. I’d been trapped my beat up 1976 Gremlin with a vampire in my passenger’s seat, who’d done nothing but complain about my car and insult my taste in music. By the time we pulled into the parking space outside our destination, I was ready to stake him just so I could have some freaking quiet.

  Like most of the places I frequented, Gunmetal Gray’s wasn’t what it first appeared to be on the surface. It was situated in the back rooms of a very, very off-broadway theater that was owned by Gray’s husband. The little brick building was sandwiched between a realty office and a small consignment shop. The theater never seemed to be showing anything but it didn’t seem to trouble people. For the most part, it was practically invisible. Which might have had something to do with the enchantment I’d carved into the faded orange bricks.

  Gray was half the reason I hadn’t gone belly up in the last few years without work. Almost every month since he’d gone into business, I’d come in and recharged the enchantment on his shop. My spell ensured that only people looking for Gray could find this place and even then, only if they meant him no ill. My usual price for such an enchantment would have been steep, but for the years I’d worked for the Trust, we’d bartered whatever parts and munitions I needed to finish my work in exchange for the services. After Catalina’s incident and my departure from all things violent, I’d begun to charge. Gray covered most of Catalina’s medical bills every month.

  At least, until recently, when I caught Findlay skulking around, trying to catch me at it. If he could prove I was still practicing magic for Gray, the Trust would assume I was still working for Johnson in violation of my parole. In which case the stay of execution that I’d been given would cease.

  Ashby glanced up at the brick building doubtfully as we exited the car. I rounded the vehicle and made a beeline for the door before he could do much more than sneer.