Magic Resistant (36 page)

“Of course it’s true. I wouldn’t have said it
otherwise.” Markus was quite calm, as if they were discussing the
weather and not a huge betrayal.

“Why? Why would you do that to him? I thought
you were friends. He’s spent the past year hiding, looking over his
shoulder, trusting few people. I did it for two weeks and my nerves
are shot. I can’t imagine doing it for so long. You’re a heartless
bastard. I don’t think I can ever forgive you for this.”

A living statue, eyes locked onto Markus,
Jackson noticed the twinge of anguish before it disappeared. Markus
must have known how she’d react and yet he still told her. Cold
logic tried to force the rage from Jackson, yet he wasn’t willing
to let it go. What possible reason could he have for betraying him,
throwing him to the wolves like that? It hurt, it deeply hurt that
Markus considered him expendable.

“I knew he’d survive. He was digging too
deep, getting too close and if he continued, they would’ve
eliminated him. No, not by me.” He clarified when Julia snorted in
anger at that statement. “I’ve been working this investigation for
several years now. It’s top-secret and deep undercover. It’s never
been what you thought. The demons are here of their own volition.
They’ve giving out the names for summoning in order to get a deeper
foothold into Earth’s politics. Some are also here as punishment.
They betrayed their masters and their name is then given to a mage
for them to become a slave. A humiliating punishment. At the beck
and call of a lowly race. However, some of them have also been
stealing vampire blood and selling it to anyone who would buy
it.

“With my work in illusions, it’s easy for me
fool others into believing I’m someone else. I’ve managed to split
myself into two places at once. Finally I’m at the point where I’m
in contact with some of the higher level people. And I say ‘people’
loosely. Jackson was jeopardizing the whole mission because he’s
too damn smart and stubborn. He kept digging and it caused panic.
In order to keep him alive, I modified the video to show him as the
summoner. Forced him into hiding, to go underground. If our people
couldn’t get to him then neither could anyone else.”

“You haven’t mentioned any of this
investigation before to me. Do the lies ever stop? I don’t even
know who you are!” The anger in Julia almost rivaled the fury in
Jackson. “Tell me about this investigation. You destroyed his
career, put his life in danger and he lost a year to this. We want
answers, now.”

Julia impressed him with the strength in her
voice. Hard to believe she had less power than Markus and yet was
fully willing to go up against him.

Even more impressive, Markus caved.

“I’m sorry, Julia. Truly, I am. I never
wanted you involved in this.” Jackson noted he didn’t apologize for
everything done to him, just for Julia getting dragged into it. She
noticed as well.

“Not good enough. It’s not just me you
screwed with. I’m so damn angry with you right now. I want to hear
all of it. No more keeping secrets from me. I'm getting so damn
sick of that word!"

He sighed, looked to Keeper who gave a small
nod. “There’s nothing illegal in demons giving out their names, in
making their presence known more widely to the human world. You
stumbled upon a small group of demons working with the werewolf
Coterie and his Elite Enforcers.

“The missing persons you found in the
database - which, by the way,
highly
classified - were also
part of the investigation. Positive someone within the council had
a hand in the disappearances, I didn’t put it together until you
mentioned Logan. Digging deeper, I found him in the vicinity with
his Elite Enforcers each time a human disappeared.” Shaking his
head in disgust, Markus toyed with a flame on his fingertips. He
bounced it from tip to tip, a trick taught to the juniors. It
consumed excess energy without harming the mage.

How did Markus have any surplus magic after
freezing him? That spell alone consumed a huge chunk. Damn mage was
a walking battery.

“Mara and Roan ordered me to look into this
by myself. I was to tell no one. They didn’t want any leaks.

“We’re still not sure where the blood came
from. There’s no samples left to test and demons can move swiftly
between continents. It could've come from anywhere in the world.
That’s another part I’m still investigating. All of this is why I
needed Jackson to back off. I couldn’t explain it to him because
they’d already marked him for death. They talked about bringing
Revenant in to take care of him.”

Keeper snorted. “Revenant isn’t an assassin
for hire. Even for a crazy nut, he has his own brand of justice and
he helps the innocent.”

The look that passed between Keeper and
Markus confused Jackson. Positive he was missing something, he
couldn’t ask any questions. Damn, how long did this spell last? He
had a bad itch on his cheek and it was driving him crazy. Also, he
wanted to participate in this discussion since it had to do with
his life!

“Once I heard the whispers about Revenant, I
knew I had to act. I stumbled on the demon summoning by accident
and figured it would work in my favour.”

“Wait a minute. You hid what those bastards
were doing? Do you know how many people they tortured and killed?
Holy shit, this keeps getting worse!” Julia wasn’t able to sit
still anymore. She started pacing the room, fists clenched.

“No! I didn’t know about the torture. If I
had, they wouldn’t have lived to see trial, Coterie Council or
not.” Finally, the calm facade cracked on Markus. Deep anger seeped
to the surface and Jackson knew he would have executed the
werewolves without hesitation. “I had only seen the summoning and I
kept an eye on them afterwards for anymore summonings. I certainly
didn’t expect them be slaughtering humans. Damn it, they’re to
uphold the Treaty, not piss on it. I didn’t and couldn’t tail them
constantly. Draining enough to be in two places, three places
wasn’t possible. Would’ve torn me apart. I made a mistake, one I’d
dearly love to fix, but I can’t. What’s done is done and I’ll have
to live with that.”

“So what now?” Julia stopped her pacing to
glare at Markus.

“You and Jackson are not to touch the rest of
this investigation. I’ll find out about the vampire blood myself.
I’m ordering you both as a senior Enforcer and as your friend.”
Julia sniffed her disdain at being his friend. “No matter what you
think, I am your friend. I did what I thought was best even if I
screwed it up.”

His voice hardened, a superior talking to a
subordinate. “And I mean it. You two are to stay the hell away from
anything to do with this. There is nothing left to do except hunt
down whose blood they used and that’s my investigation. They’ll
leave Jackson alone if they believe he’s staying away. We don’t
know if any demons are still on the loose. With Jackson’s
reputation for hunting down rogues, it’ll either scare them into
deeper hiding or they’ll attack, causing me to lose any chance of
finding out whose blood they’re using. Also, Jackson’s cleared of
any wrongdoing, including any that occurred while he was on the
run. His standing is reinstated and he’s cleared for duty.”

“What’s happening to the werewolves?”

“The other wolves ripped apart Logan along
with the two Elite Enforcers involved. The wolves want nothing to
do with torture. Many of them work with the human populace everyday
and some even have family who are human. They will need to vote for
another Alpha since we need to have two.

“And speaking of the wolves, Sylvia is still
missing. No one has seen her since the night of the art showing. A
team of Enforcers, both wolves and mages, are trying to pick up her
scent. Victor is heading the Mage Enforcers.” Jackson tried hard to
get Markus’ attention, a difficult endeavour when he couldn’t even
move his damn eyeballs.

Surprisingly, Markus waved a hand and
released him from the spell. He fell to the floor in a heap as he’d
been ready to spring at Markus.

“Damn it, that hurt! Next time, just let me
punch you.” He stood up, stretched out some kinks and settled back
down on the couch. Julia rushed to his side, checking he was
alright. A small, male part of him loved the fussing.

“Victor’s friends with Sylvia. He’s a good
one to search for her. He’ll look under every rock and won’t rest
until he finds her. I want to be part of this.”

“No, you can’t. It might be the same ones who
wanted you dead and this will put us back at square one. Victor is
a damn good mage and investigator. He’ll find her.”

Jackson choked back the retort. Markus had a
point. He hated, absolutely hated, being on the sidelines. Even
while hiding, he'd been in the thick of things. Now, they shut him
out when a dear friend was in trouble. A bitter pill to
swallow.

“I want updates. That’s the condition of me
staying out of it. I’m privy to all the information. Nothing is
kept from me, no matter how small. I can be a sounding board for
Victor. No one will suspect anything when we get together since
we’re partners.” In this, Jackson was immovable. He needed to do
something to help Sylvia. She wouldn't have been at that damn party
if she hadn't been chasing down leads for him.

“Fine. And I’ll give you any information I’m
able to share. There will be some that’s too sensitive, but I do
value your opinion, yours and Julia’s.” Markus said.

“Really? That’s not how it appears to me.
Seems like you prefer to treat me like a child. Or as the saying
goes, I had a mushroom childhood. Kept in the dark and fed
bullshit.” She snapped at him. Jackson put a calming hand on her
arm, hating to see her so hurt by the ones she loved. In time she
would forgive them, but for now, she needed space.

“I think maybe it’s time we went home.” He
made it sound like a suggestion, but there was no mistaking the
command in his voice. Julia needed time to recover from all these
shocks and would do better in her own place. No one argued and soon
enough they were on their way.

Chapter
Thirty-One

MOVING INTO
JULIA’S house had been an insane adventure. Her family insisted on
helping with everything, from the packing to the moving to the
unpacking. Friends constantly dropped by, wanting to verify they
were both safe and to hear the stories straight from the horse’s
mouth, so to speak.

Morning was their only alone time before
company descended. They used the two-week mandatory vacation to
settle in and catch up on friends and family. Now, they were both
getting ready to head to work with their respective partners.

Victor almost hugged Jackson in relief when
he’d heard the news. His temporary partner was a smug, overbearing
narcissist. Victor stated he’d claimed that role in the partnership
long ago and he wasn’t giving it up to someone inferior to him. And
even worst, he didn’t appreciate Victor’s sense of humour.
Obviously he had to go.

Jackson took a few mouthfuls of pancakes,
relishing the combination of vanilla and cinnamon mixed with syrup.
A drink of orange juice to wash it down and he was ready to corner
the dragon crouching in the room.

“You can’t stay mad at them forever. It’s
been almost a month now.” Jackson broached the touchy subject,
wishing for a way to help her. It killed him to see her so
upset.

“Yes, I can. They lied to me. All my life,
they both lied to me. Me almost dying got them to finally tell me
the truth.” A quiver of her lower lip the only indication of her
inner turmoil.

“Well, in all fairness, you lied to me and
I’m not angry at you.”

“That’s different. I couldn’t tell you right
after we met, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m magic resistant, please don’t
kill me.’ Yeah, that would’ve gone over well.”

“Yeah, and when would you’ve told me? After
our first child’s birth? On our 10th wedding anniversary?” He hoped
she’d see reason. Throwing away long-standing relationships without
attempting to mend them would eat away at her.

“Assuming a lot aren’t you? Children,
wedding?” She teased him, trying to shift the emotionally charged
atmosphere to something more lighthearted.

“Please. You simply can’t resist my charms.
And don’t change the subject. It is the same thing. At first, they
couldn’t tell you because they didn’t know how you’d react. After
that, the lie became too big. They had no easy way to confess after
so many years passed. Once you stop being so angry at them, you’ll
understand why. Here’s a secret: it’s because they love you.”

“Damn you, stop making sense. It’s easier to
be pissed off at them. I’m not willing to let go of it just yet.
Give me another day or so, or better yet, a year or two, and then
I’ll think about it. Why aren’t you still mad? He screwed with your
life and you lost a year because of it.”

Jackson sighed. “I understand why he did it.
Yeah, I’m still a little pissed at him, but I looked at all the
angles and he’s right. The other Enforcers wouldn’t have survived
as long as I did. And Markus helped me on the sly. He put up
roadblocks whenever someone got close to me, giving me enough time
to escape. He also buried my trail several times and even helped me
with safe passage through Fay a few times. Not sure why Seraphina
was there when we went through together, but at least we survived
it. Plus if this hadn’t happened, who knows when we would’ve
met?”

“Well, it’s Markus’ fault we never met
anyway. The bastard.” Jackson could hear the hurt beneath the
anger. It would be a long road of emotional healing for her, but
she’d get there. In time, she’d understand why they did it and
forgive them.

“What?” He asked. “No, I don’t want to know.
I’ve had way too many shocks this past while and I’m willing to
leave it behind me. No more anger. I’m just grateful I have you in
my life and I'm back on active duty.”