Magic Resistant (6 page)

“How...” He started, but trailed off, his
mind racing over the possibilities. “Wait a minute, you said
earrings, plural. Do you have more than one? What do they do? Holy
shit, this is amazing. Where did you get imbued earrings?”

He forgot she was an injured Enforcer. Forgot
she would turn him in as soon as possible. His insatiable thirst to
learn, this burning need to expand his knowledge made him a great
Enforcer. That is, before he poked where he shouldn’t have and it
all blew up in his face. His damn curiosity had caused this blasted
situation. He’d been researching a ring of demon traffickers, had
gotten too close to them and they framed him.

It was a hell of a frame job too. If he
didn’t know the truth, he would’ve believed it himself; the video
evidence against him damning. Jackson had watched as “he” casted
the summoning which had freed a nasty lesser demon. The demon
killed three people before the Enforcers caught and banished
it.

Bile raised in his throat as he recalled the
gruesome crime scenes with body parts scattered about, some pieces
missing as the demon had taken its pound of flesh - literally.

A hard stare, stony and obstinate, met his
words. An expression he was familiar with, one perfected by every
Enforcer. He'd get no answers with direct questions. Another
approach might gain some clarity for him.

“What's your name? I'm sure you're aware I'm
Jackson Thorne. I doubt there isn’t a mage alive who doesn’t know
who I am.” Resentment burned in him. Training told him to follow
the trail. He’d wanted to do the right thing and it had shattered
his life.

“It’s Julia. Julia Hill.” She spoke so low he
almost didn’t hear her. Looking away from him, she was nervous yet
trying to hide it. His heart pounded and he swallowed the lump
threatening to choke him. As a rule, he didn’t care about other
people’s opinions about him.

Growing up in the care of the Enforcer
Academy with no parents to sooth his hurts, he’d developed a thick
skin. He’d learned to rely on himself and a small handful of
friends. Why should it matter if this Enforcer thought he was
capable of harming her? At best, she was an unfortunate victim of
circumstances. At worse, she was a trap, left behind to entice
him.

He glared at her as this new suspicion
crowded his mind, pushing aside any softer emotions. Could Markus
have set him up? Would he have left his partner helpless while
casting the Devouring Plague on the faint hope Jackson would take
her with him? Was Markus that devious? Jackson almost snorted out
loud. Of course he was.

With new eyes, he studied Julia. Cute in a
young, innocent way, she appeared to be in her early twenties.
Looks were deceiving with mages, though. She could be several
hundred years old and not show it.

Guileless brown eyes stared at the opposite
white wall as her teeth worried her lower lip and her hands clasped
tight in her lap. Those enticing chocolate strands of hair caressed
her cheek and he clenched his fist. His gaze dropped, skimming over
her full breasts (okay, fine, he lingered), down her flat belly and
fantasized about gripping her sexy hips.

Damn it, he was ogling her like a horny
teenager. He was not a slave to his lower half. Did his body not
realize she was potential bait to trap him?

Dragging his mind away from his dirty
thoughts, he flexed his fingers. The same fingers that still
tingled from holding her silky smooth ankle. Recalling her injury
reminded him his healing had washed over her. A first for him.
Sure, he didn’t excel in the healing arts, however it’d been a
simple enough spell to cast. Her ankle sprained with no breaks or
ripped ligaments, a few minor scratches on her face. It should have
worked.

The puzzle of Julia became more complex than
he first assumed. All inside pieces and no edges.

His life already had too many complications.
Figuring out who was trying to frame him and who was running the
demon trafficking ring was enough for any sane man to deal with. So
why did he find himself wondering about her, her past, how she came
into possession of those earrings and why his healing didn’t work?
And was she a distraction from Markus?

He had a feeling it would take all his
persuasive powers to get her to talk. Enforcers didn’t crack under
pressure, part of their training consisted of withstanding torture.
Not that he could stomach the thought of torturing her. Breaking
her, destroying her will, didn’t sit right with him.

She’d earned his respect. The battle against
the Fae hadn't fazed her. Holding her own, she fought with him
against improbable odds. She didn’t falter until the end when she
collapsed due to exhaustion. Not once through it all did she whine
or complain.

He studied her profile, wondering what she
had to hide. While Enforcer training including reading body
language and looking for the unspoken truth, they also trained
Enforcers to mask those telltale signs. She was uncomfortable about
something and it overrode her training. It made him more determined
to find what skeletons she hid in her closet.

“Why didn’t my healing work?” He watched her
carefully and caught the minuscule twitch she gave at his question.
She turned to glare at him. Anger caused a faint blush to appear
along her cheek and gold flecks danced amongst the brown in her
eyes.

“Yeah, like I’m going to tell you. Why would
I share anything with the person who kidnapped me?” She snapped at
him. Clichéd yes, he had to admit anger suited her. It turned her
from cute to sexy.

She paused for a moment and he saw a flicker
of horror. “Oh no, my parents. They’re gonna freak out. Markus
must've told them by now. Please, you need to let me call them.
It’s not like I know where we are. Please!”

The desperation in her voice seemed genuine.
Shame washed over him. Rare for a day to go by without him checking
in with his friends. Both as a precaution and so they didn’t worry
about him. He felt horrible he’d caused distress for both Julia and
her family.

Jackson weighed his options and the
consequences of letting her call then said screw it. He had a
burner phone with the GPS locator turned off. Simple enough to
destroy it once she completed the call. He pulled the phone out of
his back pocket and unlocked it.

“You can
not
mention my name at all.
Tell them where you are or who you’re with and I’ll cut off the
call. Then they’ll have more reason to worry. Play nice and you can
reassure them you’re fine.”

His eyes bored into hers as he watched for
any sign of deceit. She nodded in earnest, curls dancing around her
face, and held out her hand for the phone.

Standing a few feet away from the bed, he
listened intently to her side of the conversation. Privacy wasn’t
an option. She gave him her back as she dialed the number.

“Hey Mom. Yeah, I’m okay. I’m sorry Markus
freaked you out. No, no really, I’m fine. I’m on assignment right
now. Nothing I can talk about though. I’m sorry but I can’t talk
for long. I wanted to say I’m fine and I’ll be home as soon as I
can. Tell Dad I love him. I love you too.”

She hit the end call button and over her
shoulder she handed the phone back to Jackson. He grabbed it,
gathered a small amount of energy and released it into the
sensitive electronic. Smoke and the scent of burnt plastic drifted
from the now useless cell. He tossed it on the table. Later, he’d
throw it out with the garbage.

Twisting around to face him, Julia demanded,
“What’s going on? If you’re keeping me hostage then I want to know
why. Why did you summon that demon?”

Hearing the accusation in her voice bothered
him. They tolerated no traitors within the Enforcer rank and with
good reason. Trust was vital to the foundation of their society.
With him apparently setting a demon loose on the populace, he
became a traitor. He stood for everything the Enforcers
despised.

The past year, he worked at clearing his
name, figuring out who made him the pawn and received more
questions instead of answers. He’d gone over the information
countless times with the handful of people he trusted. All of them
slammed into the same brick wall.

A fresh set of eyes, Julia was untainted by
long hours of pouring over the same material. As an Enforcer, her
training included critical thinking. And if she truly was Markus’
partner then she had above average intelligence. Markus didn’t
suffer fools.

Of course, if she was bait for a trap set by
Markus, she might not listen with an open mind. Perhaps she already
judged him as guilty. The rest of the Enforcers certainly had. If
he could convince her, maybe clearing his name was possible.

Squaring his shoulders, he decided to trust.
“Everyone says this, but I was framed. I didn’t do it. The past two
years, I’ve been working on a demon slavery ring. No one believes
they’re slaves. Instead it’s thought they’re summoned on a needed
basis and then dismissed. However too many demons are summoned and
there aren’t that many known names."

Julia's gaze never wavered; keen interest had
her wholly focused on him. For a brief moment he wondered if her
intense concentration carried over to the bedroom.

Damn it, focus.

"I’m not sure how familiar you are with the
process, but in order to fully bind a demon to you, even for a
short period of time, you need their true name. It’s not something
most demons like to give out. While some do, it’s a small handful.
I have a theory. They have tattoos that allow their “owners” to
control them. The demons stay on our plane of existence constantly
and don’t go back to their own plane. They’re made into slaves. No
one deserves that.”

Like all of the races, the demons had their
good and bad citizens. Unfortunately, it appeared mainly the cruel
ones visited Earth, their names written down and passed amongst the
summoners. Usually, a summoner controlled the demon, ordering them
to complete whatever task the mage wanted done. In some instances,
demons slipped their lease and caused mayhem. That’s when Mage
Enforcers like Jackson and his partner Victor intervened.

“There’s a lot of evidence against you.” She
muttered, obviously not wanting to anger him. “I’ve seen the
video.”

“Well, that’s how a frame job works.” Jackson
replied, scratching a non-existent itch on the back of his neck. “I
was on patrol the night they claimed I summoned this demon. I’d
gotten separated from my partner, Victor, and was on a wild goose
chase. Next thing I know, I’m wanted for unleashing a demon and
causing several murders.”

“Do you have any proof it wasn’t you?” Julia
moved to the edge of the bed, her legs dangling off the side. She
appeared genuinely interested in his answer.

Jackson shook his head then ran his fingers
through his hair in frustration. “That’s what I’ve spent the last
year looking for. I’m getting close. I'm sure of it. That’s why
they’ve put Markus on my trail a few months back. Everyone knows
when he wants to catch someone, he’s relentless.”

He laughed, mirthless and short.

“The older mages, though, keep forgetting
about modern technology. They rely too heavily on magic and forget
humans have come a long way since the days of squatting around a
fire. I took pictures with my cell phone. I’ve recorded
conversations. And I sent out several backup copies to different
computers at different locations. Some friends have instructions to
send the information out if they imprison or kill me. I haven’t
figured out who's behind all this, but I’ve got several leads. I
got careless though and that’s why they framed me.”

Initially calm, the conversation agitated him
and he paced the room. “They wanted me out of the way and what
better way of doing so than to pin this whole damn thing on me? No
one wants to trust me and many are trying to say my evidence’s
manufactured, that I faked it all to hide my guilt. That’s not
true, damn it!”

He slammed his fist against his thigh.

Thinking back to those accusations, the
distrust and outright anger of his peers left him furious and
aggravated. He couldn’t believe how swiftly they turned on him,
vipers attacking a perceived threat. They dismissed his evidence,
and made him into the villain. He had spent his whole life training
as an Enforcer, looked up to them and worked his ass off to track
down rogue demons to send them back. Instead of trusting him and
looking into his research, they hunted him. The bitterness burned
like ash in his mouth.

“I want to see this evidence you have. Do you
have copies here?”

He'd come this far trusting her. He figured
he had nothing else to lose. Striding into the small kitchenette,
he opened the cupboard and shoved some boxes of food out of the
way. He grabbed the USB key hidden in the back. A few quick strides
had him at his discarded duffle bag. Rummaging through it, he found
his notebook computer.

A powerhouse notebook, it effortlessly
replaced a desktop system. Pulling out the power cord, he carried
both of them to the nightstand near the bed. He brought it out of
hibernate and waited for it to load into the operating system.

“I’m sorry. Some of this will be disturbing.”
He brought up crime scene photos to show her the anomalies. When a
mage banished a demon, they disappeared and reformed on their home
world, intact and unharmed. Demons don't have bodies, just
manifestations while on Earth. In rare cases, if a demon was
killed, not banished, it left behind a corpse. What occurred to its
essence, unknown.

This crime scene held the body of a murdered
demon.

He pointed to the left upper arm, markings
tattooed into its flesh. Basic lines crossing each other making two
separate characters. The black lines were tricky to make out
against the grey skin, but noticeable once he became aware of their
existence. He’d kept a catalogue of all the demons with these
tattoos, some of whom worked for high level officials in the
Coterie. An unusual amount of them stayed with the Werewolves
(Logan and Aaron) and Arch-Demon (Oonis) Coterie leaders. He hadn't
yet figure out the pattern as to which demon had which tattoo.