The Magic Within: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Found Magic Book 2) Read online

  “Did you see that?” I called, dragging the unconscious man backward toward the SUVs as other agents began to come toward us. While it didn’t seem like they believed me, their guns wavered toward the forest. As the first one reached me, one of the grenades I’d stolen from the unconscious agent detonated.

  The shockwave of the blast stole the breath from my lungs as trees and dirt went flying outward in a rippling explosion of flame. It was way bigger than I’d expected, which was good. The agents spun, eyeing the blast as I jerked open the passenger seat of the nearest SUV and pulled the unconscious agent inside.

  I slid around the vehicle and tossed the remaining grenades beneath the other two SUVs before sliding into the driver’s seat. As I threw it into gear, the jackboots turned back toward me. The tires of my SUV squealed on the gravel as we tore out of the parking lot. There were a few random shouts before the window behind me erupted into flame as their vehicles were ripped apart by a geyser of fire and sound.

  4

  “Wake up,” I said and dumped the entire bucket of ice water on the agent’s head. He jerked once, struggling at his bonds like an electrified snake. His eyes shot open, and he stared hard at me for a second before his eyes widened in recognition.

  “You,” he said, gawking at me. Thoughts sprinted across the surface of his brown eyes before he exhaled once, an explosive annoyed sound.

  “Me,” I replied, moving close enough to loom over him. I ran a hand through my hot pink hair and grinned my best crazy smile at him. Then I casually tapped his right hand with a pair of pliers. “I’d like to have a little chat.”

  Donovan smiled at me from behind the man, nodding his bloody head at me. “That’s a girl… now rip off his fingernails one by one until he starts singing like a canary.”

  The agent glanced from my face to the pliers and back again. “What do you want?” he asked. He didn’t seem scared or angry. Maybe this was something they trained for? I resisted the urge to shiver.

  “You think you’re going to get off that easily? You think I just want to talk?” I whispered in his ear. “After what you people have done to me, you think I only want to talk… how cute.”

  “You wouldn’t have captured me if you didn’t want to talk to me,” he replied, voice calm. And why shouldn’t he be calm? He had an excellent point. “I’d just be dead, and let’s be real, Abby. You’re not the torturing type. Gabriella might have been, but our files say you’re not your mother’s daughter.”

  I smacked him across the face with the pliers. His head jerked backward in a spray of blood. A long red gash had opened on his cheek and crimson fluid started leaking down his flesh.

  “Can we just not,” he said, pursing his overly large lips. “You may ‘know’ what you’re doing, Abby, but you don’t really. We both know that.”

  “You should hit him again,” Donovan said, pointing to his collar bone. “Jab them right here and twist. Show him you’re a badass.”

  I stared at the spot for a moment before pressing the tip of the pliers against it. He didn’t even so much as flinch. “You’re making me want to hit you again.”

  “Then do it and get it over with,” he replied, face completely neutral. What was this guy’s deal?

  “He thinks you’re bluffing, Abby…” Donovan smirked. “Show him you mean business.”

  I shut my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. This wasn’t working. Donovan’s way wasn’t going to work with someone who didn’t care about being tortured…

  I opened my eyes and Donovan was gone. The man stared at me, calm and unconcerned.

  “I want you to tell me where my mother’s secret bases are located.” I smiled. Not a creepy smile, but the one I used back home when I asked my teacher for another day to turn in my essay. It had about a thirty-five percent success rate back then, but hey, you work with what you have.

  “Would you like directions? GPS coordinates? What?” he asked, raising one bushy eyebrow at me. “How exactly do you want me to give you that information?”

  “You’re just going to tell me?” I asked, shock filling my voice. “It can’t be this easy.” I shook my head at him. “Nothing is this easy.”

  “Abby, I can tell you anything you want to know, but it won’t matter. I can’t say for certain, but I’m reasonably sure other agents are on their way here right now. I’m not saying that to scare you, just telling you how it is. Even if you try to find one of the bases, you’ll never get to it.” He glanced around the small abandoned warehouse. “You can’t escape the flit. That’s why we deployed it. There’s fifty people in the room watching that demon perform and every one of them is a super genius. Every single time you escape, they are working to ensure you won’t escape again.” He smiled, lips spreading into a grin that chilled me to the core of my being. “And in case you haven’t noticed, I’m what you call a mundane. I'm totally normal. No powers to speak of.”

  His body jerked hard enough to knock over the folding chair I’d tied him to. He hit the ground with a thump before turning his eyes on me. Only… only they were totally empty.

  “Abigail, come with me.” His voice was strangely metallic now, like one of those voices speaking through a drive thru speaker box. “If you do, I will not destroy this man.”

  “Goddammit.” I swallowed and took a step back as I readied my contingency plan. “I’d wondered if he was a normal guy. I mean, not everyone in the agency can be a vampire or whatever, right? That means I had to be ready for you to show up!”

  He cocked his head at me, which seemed like too human a gesture for a body jumping demon.

  “Why is that?” he asked as he tried to rip himself free from the zip ties and duct tape. His muscles strained, cording so tightly, I was sure they were going to pop out of his skin. He tried again, and the zip ties cut into his flesh. I didn’t know how he kept doing it, but I guess soulless demons that don’t care about pain do things like that?

  “I’ve got an experiment I want to try,” I said, wrapping my hand around my taser and driving it into him. He jerked, spasming wildly before slumping against his bonds. He lay there, twitching like a fish, but the strangest thing happened. That weird, uncaring emptiness left the agent’s eyes. Had the flit left? Was it because of the taser? I’d wondered if that would work… I was glad it had, because option two was a couple rounds to the face. I wasn’t sure I had been up for option two.

  I sucked in a breath that smelled like ozone and tased him again for good measure before putting the taser against his neck. After what felt like a year, he looked up at me.

  “Hello, did you miss me?” I asked, smiling as I pushed the taser against his throat. “If you move, I’m going to keep jumping you like a bad car battery, capiche?”

  “I understand,” he groaned, body still slack jelly-like.

  “And nice try with the flit.” I poked him in the chin with the pliers. Honestly, it sort of turned my stomach. Who the hell was I? Since when did I torture people? Even if they were murderous creepoids… “I wondered if you were normal. Nice to know you won’t be able to hulk out and kill me.”

  “You’re certainly clever. I’ll give you that,” he replied, blood ran over his teeth, turning his face into a macabre canvas. “And I don’t know where Gabriella’s bases are. I’m just a field agent. The only people who would know that are the brain trust back at our base.”

  “Where’s that?” I asked, staring down at him, and for whatever reason, he shivered. “Your base, I mean.”

  “Why?” He considered at me for a long time. “You’re not thinking of going there… are you?”

  “Yes,” I said, and I sounded a little crazy and desperate, even to me.

  “I’m not even going to bother to tell you how absolutely insane that is…” He shook his head. “If you look in my coat pocket, there’s a keycard. If you go to the address on the back, it will take you there…” He looked up at me and sighed. “I’m not sure what else to do, short of taking you there myself, which isn’t g
oing to happen.”

  “Why not? If you took me back to base, you could set a trap for me to walk in. Probably get that promotion you’ve been waiting for.” I eyed him carefully as he shook his head.

  “You only think that’s a good idea because you don’t know what it’s like to work for the Agency.” He shook his head. “You may think it’s suspicious that I’m helping you, but I’m following protocol in the event of capture. The Agency doesn’t like it when you violate protocol.”

  “Why is that?” I asked, staring hard at him, trying to figure out his angle.

  “Typically people stupid enough to capture agents don’t live long enough to put the information to use, therefore, they’d rather we be as accommodating as possible.” The agent shrugged. “They have to replace fewer agents that way.”

  “Okay… thanks,” I said and grabbed the keycard out of his pocket. It was all silver with no discernable information on it. “Um… what do I do with this?”

  “Press it against any GPS. It will show you how to get there,” he replied, a tiny smile creasing his lips. “Like magic.”

  “Great,” I said and shoved it in the pocket of my too big pants. “I’m going to leave you here, hope you don’t mind.”

  “You mean you aren’t going to kill me?” he asked, surprise filling his voice.

  “Not if you don’t make me.” I swallowed. “What do you think I am? Some kind of soulless killing machine?”

  He shook his head. “You should kill me, Abby. It’s the smart play.”

  I didn’t even respond. Instead, I walked over to the lights, switched them off and stepped outside into the brisk parking garage air. I looked around because the silver Jetta I’d stolen to get us here wouldn’t do. Fortunately, I spotted exactly what I was looking for, a car with a GPS.

  I ignored the swelling feeling in my gut that using such a vehicle would allow them to find me, and what’s worse leave me at the mercy of the flit. But, well, I was pretty sure they already knew where I was thanks to the flit taking over the agent. Even if they didn’t, I was pretty sure I didn’t have a lot of time, anyway.

  As I approached the Toyota, I thought about trying to jimmy open the lock, but decided against it. I smashed the driver’s window with my elbow and reached inside to unlock the car. I tugged the door open and had the car running in a second. Thanks criminal mom. You taught me well.

  I swiped the card on the GPS. It sort of locked up for a second as weird, runic symbols displayed on the screen. Then it flashed a series of directions across the screen in scrolling black text.

  It took me six tries to commit all of them to memory. I shut off the car and considered, you know, lighting the vehicle on fire, but it seemed like a mean thing to do, especially given that I’d broken a window… I settled for snapping the keycard in half before making my way out of the parking garage.

  The air outside smelled of the cold and damp. A fine layer of moisture clung to the sidewalks, making me wonder if it had rained while I was inside. As I scanned the city streets, I noticed absolutely no one which was good, but not really odd since it was close to three in the morning.

  “He was right, you know. You should have killed him. Right now the agency is homing in on his location, if they haven’t already.” Donovan shook his head as he stared at me from the reflection in a puddle. “I mean, they’d do that anyway, but at least he couldn’t have told them where you were going.”

  “Yeah, well, I want them to see me coming. It will be that much more satisfying when I smash everything they’ve built to atoms.” I punctuated the words with a yawn that caught me off-guard, and when I looked back, he was gone. I stared at the murky black water for a long time before making my way down the winding streets.

  I kept my head low. I wasn’t sure it mattered, but better safe than sorry, right? Then I stole a motorcycle because you know, it was there, and I was tired of walking. It had nothing to do with the three pizzas strapped to the back either. Or the fact that I was so hungry I could barely see straight.

  I sort of felt bad as I left the screaming delivery boy in the dust. I mean, it was partially his fault for delivering pizzas at 3AM, right? I didn’t even mind when he transformed into a soulless sprinter and chased me for half a block before I left him in the dust.

  5

  Rain fell from the sky, splattering across the decrepit lawn and turning it into a patchy mishmash of crabgrass and mud puddles. The chain-link gate in front was so rusted, I was pretty sure the hinges on it wouldn’t work. The lights wound along the sunken cobblestone walkway flickered constantly, but even when they were on, they didn’t really illuminate the place. I couldn’t see much of the building because it was still too dark, but I didn’t exactly have high hopes.

  I’d ditched the motorcycle a couple blocks away and hoofed it the rest of the way. Now armed with my taser, a pistol, and a bellyful of pizza, I was about to storm a super-secret base full of god knew what supernatural creepy crawlies. I looked up into the sky and closed my eyes as rain splashed against my face, plastering my pink hair to my skin and running down the back of my too large uniform.

  “You should have brought more guns so you could kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out. How are you going to satisfy your bloodlust with a pistol and a taser?” Donovan asked like a devil on my shoulder.

  I tried to ignore him because he was a stupid ghost, but it was harder to do than I’d expected. I took another breath. It tasted like smog and old tires. I opened my eyes and made my way to the fence. Then, in a bout of athletic prowess that would have left my gym teacher in awe, I scrambled over the fence and dropped down on the other side.

  I waited, listening for sirens or sniper shots, anything really. A moment passed, then another, and another. After what felt like forever, I began making my way forward, sticking to the shadows as the first rays of sunlight began to spread across the horizon.

  The building slowly came into view… only it wasn’t a building at all. It was a house, so old and unkempt that it made a shiver run down the back of my spine. A stone gargoyle stared at me from its perch above the covered porch, and I fought the urge to run away as its eyes seemed to follow me.

  “Are you sure you’re in the right place?” Donovan asked, sauntering in front of me like a carefree apparition that left bloody footprints in its wake. “I mean when I was in the service, our digs were always a little more upper class.”

  “You lived in a sewer,” I said before I could stop myself. “An actual sewer.”

  “But it was a nice sewer,” he replied, turning and walking backward.

  I moved past him in a low crouch and approached the house. There was a knocker in the middle of the door that reminded me of a lion, only its tongue was the actual knocking part. I glanced around, not really sure how to get inside. I shrugged and grabbed the knocker in one hand. It was warm and slick with the rain so it felt like it was coated with saliva, which was gross, but I womaned up and used it anyway.

  The knocker struck the door with a sound so loud it made me look around for a place to run and hide. When I wasn’t immediately gunned down, I let loose a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

  “Looks like no one is home,” Donovan said, peering into one of the curtained windows, the upper half of his body disappearing completely through the glass.

  “Yeah…” I muttered. As I stepped off the porch to join him at the window, I wondered, not for the first time, if the agent I’d questioned had been lying. Maybe I was on some wild goose chase or worse walking into a trap. Besides, what did I expect, someone to open the door and be like, “oh you want the secret government base? That’s on the third floor just passed the dentist and onsite daycare.”

  The door creaked open, scraping against the stone floor like a lumbering monster. My heart leapt into my throat as I spun, pointing my gun at the opening. Smooth, Abby. Real smooth.

  A man with long white hair and an eyepatch looked at me like I was something he’d stepped in. “What do
you want?” he asked, voice cold and annoyed.

  “I’m looking for a secret government base so I can go inside and kill everyone,” I said before I could stop myself. Why the hell had I just said that?

  He smirked at me and shook his head. “Interesting. It’s not here, but it’s interesting, nonetheless. How did you find this place?” he asked, and for whatever reason, I got the feeling he was telling the truth.

  “I swiped a super-spy locater card on a GPS in a stolen car, and it gave me directions to this place.” I’d thought about lying, but before I could, I’d just responded, which was a little odd… that was the second time it had happened. What was going on?

  “Oh,” he replied, staring off into space like he was visualizing what I’d told him.

  “Um… I should go,” I said, backing away.

  He quirked a shaggy eyebrow at me before stepping out of the doorway and walking over to me. He did it so fast, I scarcely had taken a single breath. He leaned down close to me, so his lips were right next to my ear. “Go two blocks to the left. You’ll see an old motel. Go inside, step into the elevator and hit the buttons for floors four, twelve, and six. In that order. Make sure no one else is in the elevator with you. Also, avoid being identified by the camera in the top left of the elevator or poison gas will fill the chamber.”

  He stood, spinning on his heel and vanishing back into the gloomy house before I could even blink. The door shut with an air of finality that rippled over my flesh.

  “What the hell was that about…?” I mumbled to myself which was great because now, not only was I seeing ghosts, but I was talking to myself. Someone needed to get me some meds… stat.

  “So what’s the plan?” Donovan asked as I began walking back across the lawn. “Are you seriously going to just follow the directions of some weird old guy?”