Magic Resistant
Authors: Veronica Del Rosa
Tags: #romance, #paranormal, #magic, #demons, #fae
An Enforcers and Coterie Novel
Veronica Del Rosa
Rosa
Smashwords Edition
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places, organizations and incidents are either products of the
author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, events or organizations is entirely
coincidental.
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Cover Art: Angeline Janeiro
[email protected]
Texture: Mayra Hernandez
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To my amazing husband, as always, thank you
for your understanding and patience. When my head is stuck in the
clouds, dreaming up something new, you pick up the slack without
complaint. A better husband I couldn't ask for. Love you
darling!
Thanks to Jessica and Michelle for all your
help. I couldn't have written this without you. You both held my
hand, listened to my crazy thoughts and encouraged me to
continue.
The amazing cover art was done by Angeline
Janeiro. I'm in awe of her skills.
Connect with Veronica Del Rosa
Chapter One for Sylvia’s Torment
Chapter One
JULIA’S EYES SNAPPED
open. Groaning, she rolled over and thumped the pillow, wishing
instead it was the heartless bastard pounding at her front door.
Bleary eyed, she glared at the alarm clock and groaned again as her
mind comprehended the time - 3:12 A. M. What kind of cruel person
banged on the door at this hour?
The heavy knocking continued, forcing her to
leave the comfort of her warm bed. She grabbed her thick red robe
as she muttered unflattering parental references to the person
sadistic enough to disturb her sleep.
“Who is it?” She snapped, hoping it was just
a drunk at the wrong house. Standing off to the side, she waited
for a response. Tired as she was, she still had the presence of
mind to stay out of the line of fire.
A shotgun blast or a high-powered gun would
make short work of her and her wooden door. The outer walls, at
least, were concrete and harder to shoot through. She’d learned
early on her line of work required paranoia. The naïve and trusting
ones either found themselves with a new job or resting in a
coffin.
“Markus. Let me in.” Julia’s mentor growled
through the heavy wood. “I have a lead on Jackson. Hurry up.”
Julia rolled her eyes. Markus’ sources while
correct with their information had horrible timing. Why couldn’t it
be at a more humane hour, say 10 A.M. or later?
She glanced through the peephole and verified
he was alone. As usual, his ink black hair brushed his shoulders.
On another man, it would’ve look effeminate, but coupled with his
striking black eyes, square jaw dusted with stubble and slightly
crooked, once broken nose, he was every inch a virile man. He knew
the drill and had his hands in the air to show his unarmed status.
Or, at least, he held no weapons, neither one of them ever truly
defenseless.
He wore his work uniform, black shirt and
black cargo pants coupled with his usual black overcoat. Most mages
wore them, specially designed with hidden pockets.
Julia and Markus were both Enforcers for the
magical government, the Coterie. They policed the magical community
making sure civilians followed the laws. Mages who broke the law
found themselves hunted by the Mage Enforcers and arrested.
However, with black magic users, they never made it to trial.
Deemed too dangerous to live, execution by mage occurred in the
field.
She’d recently graduated to full status into
the elite group. The last few decades she paid her dues as a
junior. To properly mold her and the next generation of Mage
Enforcers, their training began at the young age of six, away from
their parents. Her schooling consisted of the same topics as the
humans, along with the different studies of magic until her
eighteenth birthday. At that time, she'd paired with her mentor,
Markus, to advance her education until she took her final exam.
Each mage matured differently when it came to
accessing their magic. Some would find that internal switch at a
young age while others waited decades before they could truly cast
magic. During that time, they studied and learned from their
mentor. Julia lucked out. Her switch flipped before her teenage
years.
Too bad her luck didn’t hold out in other
areas.
Many decided to stay with their partner even
after full status as, by that time, they’d developed into a fully
functioning and cohesive team. Julia liked working with Markus,
understood him and came to rely on his expertise and knowledge.
Their bosses, Mara and Roan, kept them together since they had a
high capture rate. Of course, most of it due to Markus himself.
Julia was still trying to prove she was just as competent.
Flipping the locks, she opened the door to
let in Markus and gave him her best unimpressed scowl. Sadly, it
didn’t even give him a second’s pause. She sighed in
disappointment. One of these days, in a century or two, he might
actually think she was a force to reckon with.
Today, however, was not that day.
“Give me a sec. I need to get dressed... some
of us sleep at this hour.” Julia groused as she strode back to her
room.
"Civilian clothes. No Enforcer uniform." He
barked at her, expecting obedience.
She hastily tossed on clothes; loose-fitting
jeans and a pale purple tee-shirt. Her belt had several pouches to
hold various spell components, a loop for her blasting rod and two
more loops for her knife sheaths - one on the left for a dagger and
the other on the right for a hunting knife. She liked having the
option of either slicing or stabbing, depending on her mood. Added
to the arsenal, a shoulder holster with her Beretta 9mm. A
lightweight black jacket completed the ensemble.
MARKUS DROVE THROUGH the nearly deserted
streets of downtown Toronto. He was too much of a control freak to
allow Julia to drive his precious Bentley. Once, only once, when
learning to drive, she scratched his 1988 Corvette. Honestly, who
allowed a sixteen-year-old to drive a brand new car off the lot?
Obviously his own fault but he had yet to trust her with another
one of his cars.
At close to 4:30 A.M., the city was starting
to wake up, many of them trying to make it to work before rush hour
clogged the streets. Most days, she avoided the downtown area with
a car, preferring instead to use transit. If she wasn’t in a hurry,
she loved taking the street car. Unlike other mages, she didn’t
rely on teleportation to get her around. The likelihood of getting
stuck in a wall was too high for her to chance.
Julia patted her chestnut-brown hair, tucking
away any flyaway strands into the high ponytail. While her brown
eyes moved constantly, taking in their surroundings, she took care
not to catch her own gaze in the mirror. She had her moments of
vanity, liking the way the darker shadows highlighted her
cheekbones and gave her eyes a smoky mysteriousness. However, she
didn’t need to see her tired eyes staring back at her from a face
free of makeup. She’d been lucky enough to drag a toothbrush over
her teeth while Markus yelled at her to hurry up.
Toying with one of her earrings, she counted
them off, verifying she had each one. Six in her left and six in
her right; five through the lobes and one in each tragus. It was
one of the few things that had people glancing twice at her as she
didn’t do much else to play up her looks. Maybe one day she’d dye
her hair bright blue.
Slowing the car down, Markus pulled into an
empty spot near the forty story office building. Most of the spots
were clear, the early morning hours working in their favour. In
less than three hours, parking would be all but impossible. Julia
took her jacket off and tossed it into the back seat. She preferred
to keep her weapons under wrap near home.
Here, however, she wanted the hardware
showing. Intimidation wasn't her strong suit. Slender and barely
topping five feet didn't lend a lot of credence to her
authority.
Her neck craned upwards as she took in the
massive office building. Many of the windows glowed yellow in the
retreating darkness, their lights left on during the night. Julia
tisked
at the waste of electricity. Surely there weren't
entire floors being occupied overnight.
The building itself was mainly glass,
polished squares lined with metal. A handful of dark windows
reflected the pale rosy glow of the slowly rising sun. While it
towered over several of the skyscrapers in the area, it was by no
means the tallest in Toronto. A paltry forty stories didn't even
put in it in the big league.
In the financial district, a few blocks away,
was the Trump Tower with sixty-three floors and The First Canadian
Place with seventy-two floors. And then there was the Coterie
Headquarters. Also in the financial district, it housed all the
unmated Enforcers, their training facilities and the Coterie
themselves when in Toronto. It had a whopping seventy-five
floors.
“This is the place.” Markus said as he led
the way to the front entrance of the building. “Source told me he’s
on the 15th floor. It’s empty due to construction and renovations.
Better take the stairs. Don’t want to alert him.”
Security posed no issue as he clouded the
minds of the guards and caused the cameras to glitch. A little
extra energy pushed through the circuits created an overload and
shut down the recording devices without causing any lasting damage.
The spell was a specialty of Markus’. Part of his infamous status
came from his illusions and abilities with technology. The other
part, well, Julia had never seen it directed towards her and never
wanted to.
Humans knew about the supernatural community
having lived side by side in a relatively peaceful co-existence for
the past two hundred years. Before that, it’d been bloodshed. Wars
erupted almost constantly between the races as they tried to
annihilate each other. Treaties written centuries ago forced a
ceasefire.
The younger generations no longer remembered
the horrors of those times. The brutality a distant dream,
half-remembered and indistinct. Many of the older ones held
grudges, nurturing them like hot house orchids. They displayed
their hatred and intolerance with glee.
The Coterie deemed it best to keep the
general public unaware of the harsher, seamier underside. Enforcer
training included keeping quiet about their jobs and shielding the
community at large. Knowledge was, they said, an insidious thing,
creeping into the minds of the unsuspecting, blurring the
boundaries between right and wrong. Especially with the involvement
of black magic and demon summonings.