Shine (Mageri Series: Book 5) Read online

  Also By Dannika Dark:

  THE MAGERI SERIES

  Sterling

  Twist

  Impulse

  Gravity

  Shine

  NOVELLAS

  Closer

  THE SEVEN SERIES

  Seven Years

  Table Of Contents

  Also By Dannika Dark:

  Acknowledgments:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  SHINE

  A Mageri Series Novel

  Book 5

  DANNIKA DARK

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2013 Dannika Dark

  No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author. You must not circulate this book in any format. Thank you for respecting the rights of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Professionally edited by Victory Editing

  Cover design by Dannika Dark. All stock purchased.

  Dannika Dark Newsletter

  Fan page located on Facebook

  Acknowledgments:

  Thank you for taking this journey with me.

  Dying isn’t the hardest thing you’ll ever do—living is.

  —Sterling

  “Fate brought us together for a reason; there are no accidents. Everything that happens in our lives leads us to a greater destiny, even if we don’t always understand the purpose.”

  —Twist

  Chapter 1

  “Do it again, Peaches.”

  “Don’t call me Peaches,” I growled.

  Justus, my Ghuardian, circled the mat in our training room like a predator. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get you motivated enough to try harder.”

  A bead of sweat trickled down his temple and he locked his cobalt eyes on mine. Brilliant flashes of light sparked in his irises as he leaned forward, bracing for my attack. I tried not to allow his physical appearance to intimidate me. His broad shoulders were impossibly strong, his body conditioned from rigorous training, his thighs as powerful as a rugby player’s and built for running. Justus had the commanding appearance of a warrior, all the way down to his chiseled jaw and menacing stare. He didn’t have any hair I could grab during our training sessions because he kept it closely shaved, which drew attention to his masculine features.

  I flashed at him with concentrated speed and before contact, I bent to the right and tried to kick him in the face with my left foot.

  Justus grabbed my calf and swung me around.

  “Is that the best you can do?” he mocked.

  Even though I hung upside down, I defiantly shouted, “No!” and yanked down his track pants.

  Laughter pealed out of Simon, who was watching from the sidelines as Justus stood helpless in a pair of silk boxers.

  Justus dropped me on the floor and when he bent over to pull up his pants, I sprang to my feet, grabbed the back of his head, and shoved his face into my knee. He fell on his side like a bag of concrete, blood splashing across the mat.

  “Atta girl!” Simon applauded from his spot on the floor, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. He wolf whistled at Justus, who clumsily reached down and pulled up his pants.

  When I tried to touch his face, he jerked away.

  “Your nose is bleeding,” I said regretfully. “Let me heal you.”

  Training was serious business in our world. We could heal our injuries by borrowing energy from sunlight or another Mage, but Justus preferred not to. His motto was the “suck it up” kind. Maybe he perceived the injuries inflicted upon him in the training room as “deserved” and thought they should serve as reminders of his mistakes.

  “It will heal,” he murmured, stripping off his tank top and wiping the blood off his mouth and chin.

  Justus had taught me to ruthlessly take him down and then run. Logan had watched our sessions a few times, but with great difficulty. He not only took issue with seeing me suffer injuries, but had also rebuked Justus for not showing me how to fight offensively. But deep down, my Ghuardian still believed a woman was incapable of becoming a warrior. His lessons were more extensive than they used to be, but the end move was always to flee once I weakened my opponent. If escape proved impossible, he’d instructed me to juice them.

  That meant stealing their light by joining hands. The core light within a Mage is the source of our energy. Juicing is comparable to draining a battery, weakening the victim so he can’t flash and keep up. It was a last resort since Justus never wanted me juicing from another Mage.

  Light can be addicting.

  “Disrobing your opponent will not be a move that wins battles,” Justus advised, rising to his feet.

  Simon lurched forward and swaggered to my side, then draped his arm over my shoulder. “I don’t know, mate. That looked like a battle of the britches to me, with ten points awarded to your Learner. Good thing you had your underpants on or I might have had to skip lunch.”

  I rocked on my heels and my lips eased into a playful grin. “I don’t know, Simon. Call the fire department because that would have been totally hot.”

  Justus turned beet red and spun on his heel, reaching for a lethal dagger on the wall. I often riled him up to see him crack a smile on his stern face.

  Justus had become emotionally distant over the past few months since his falling-out with Page, my Relic. We’d been communicating through phone and Internet, but her life had become too chaotic for socializing. The number of clients Page handled had doubled after Justus put a dagger in her ex-partner’s chest. Her Council hadn’t assigned her a new partner, so poor Page was working crazy hours to make all her appointments. I appreciated the playfulness she had once brought out in Justus, but his personal affairs were none of mine. You can’t decide what’s best for someone else—we each have our own path to follow.

  Justus faced the wall, gripping the dagger tightly in his right hand. I became apprehensive of his motives. With lightning speed, he twisted around and threw the dagger at Simon. I raised my hand and knocked the weapon away with a sharp pulse of energy.

  “Bloody hell!” Simon exclaimed, watching the blade skid across the floor. “I swear, Justus, you haven’t been able to take a joke since 1905 when I put glue in your hat.”

  “What was that about?” I shrieked.

  A smile spread across Justus’s face and he absently stroked his Creator’s mark located above his navel. It resembled a Chinese symbol, much different than the one I had on my ass. Lucky me.

  “You have other skills we should be working on in here,” he suggested in a baritone voice. “I know nothing about telekinesis, but my observations indicate you have more control when acting on instinct. Do you rec
all the knife fight with Adam and Samil? Your emotions and split-second decisions show you have the potential to master your gift, but it is conviction you lack.”

  “I told you I’m still working on it.”

  One of my gifts as a Mage allowed me to move certain metals recently touched by another Mage. This was a rare gift, one I couldn’t talk about because the only ones capable of this feat were Uniques. Page knew about Uniques because her ancestors had specialized in working for them. I was still a Mage—the only difference being that my light was stronger. Uniques had become an urban legend, and with good reason. In ancient times, they were feared and massacred. So if any still remained, then like me, they were in hiding. Page didn’t think Uniques were a fluke; she believed a Creator could make a Unique if the first spark occurred during an electrical storm. No one but her ancestors had ever connected the dots. She’d never shared that information with anyone because in the wrong hands, a Creator could make an army and start a war.

  Justus knew I was a Unique, but he didn’t know the details Page had revealed to me about the kind of Unique I was. Maybe she believed he was duty-bound to HALO and the secret would leak. Page knew of four types of Uniques and, based on my specific traits, revealed I was a Shiner. She’d been able to tell from the silvering that sometimes occurred in my pupils and my ability to move metals.

  Justus wiped his nose, checking for blood. “You don’t work enough on refining your skills. Opening locks and grabbing the keys off the table is not sufficient practice.”

  I pinched my damp shirt between my fingers and circulated some cool air by tugging at it. “I don’t really know what else I can do, Ghuardian. Novis had me break a lock and I can move knives around. Seems more like a carnival trick than a gift.”

  Simon swiped the knife off the floor and twirled it between his fingers like a pro.

  Justus stepped forward and regarded me with a stern gaze. “All gifts are nothing more than a sideshow act unless you learn how to properly use them.”

  “Tossing daggers at Simon’s head is not the way I want to learn.”

  “Perhaps it is the only way to make you react,” he countered.

  I crossed my arms and felt a sting of annoyance. “So why not throw it at me?”

  Justus dropped his hand on my shoulder and tilted his head to the side. “Because, Learner, you would have taken the blade. I’m impressed you chose to use your gift to save your friend instead of stupidly jumping in front of him. That’s what I had expected you to do.” His mouth quirked and he lowered his eyes. “You astound me more with each passing day. It’s a sign that you’re maturing into the Mage you have the potential to become. Self-sacrifice is a human trait.”

  “It’s a noble one,” I pointed out.

  His hand slid away. “Perhaps. But in the end, you leave the person you saved alone with your enemy. Then who wins? It may be noble to die for another, but it’s not always the best move.”

  “Sometimes it’s the only move.”

  “And those are the choices you will face,” he said quietly. After a deep breath, Justus turned away. “You may have the shower first. I’m going upstairs to put ice on my nose.”

  Justus triggered the button that lowered the lift, and I watched him ascend through the ceiling and into the upper level of our home.

  “Well, buttercup, looks like it’s just you and me.”

  I glared at Simon’s white T-shirt which said I Perform All My Own Stunts.

  What Justus didn’t know was that Simon had been secretly teaching me a few things on the side. He not only had a reputation for being a skilled strategist, consulted by the Mageri in high-profile investigations, but also as a skilled trainer in fighting techniques and weaponry. Justus trained me because that was his job as my Ghuardian, but his tactics differed from how Simon taught me, which was no-holds-barred.

  Where Justus held back, Simon let me have it.

  I wasn’t naïve enough to believe I’d become one of the most lethal warriors in Mage history. I had weaknesses. I wasn’t as physically strong as a man, so letting him get too close exposed my vulnerability. Every situation differed and the real thing never played out like in the training room.

  “Bring it,” I dared, curling my fingers inward.

  With a jerk of his head, Simon shook his tousled brown hair away from his eyes. His kissable lips turned up in a fiendish smile, deepening the dimple in his cheek. When he stripped off his shirt, I belted out a laugh.

  Which deflated his ego. “For pity’s sake, what now?”

  “Sorry. Your nipple ring threw me off.”

  “Now I know why it never worked out between us.”

  I turned up my nose at him. “Maybe it’s because you tossed me off the bed.”

  “Love, I only seduced you to taste your light.”

  My face heated. “What did you just say?”

  He scratched his smooth jaw pensively. “The truth would have come out eventually. If you want to know, you’ll have to take this knife from my hand.” He spun it once between his fingers.

  Well, that just pissed me off. Simon smiled wickedly and gripped the sharp blade. I flashed across the room and he crouched low, keeping a watchful eye on me.

  “Are we dancing?” His question dissolved into laughter.

  Simon was a smidge taller than Justus, but not as built. I felt more confident taking him on physically, but disarming him was impossible. I’d only done it once and that’s because he’d been drinking.

  I stopped behind him and before he could turn around, I twisted his arm around his back.

  Simon leaned to the left and fell, forcing me to let go. In a move too fast to track, his right leg swung around and swept my legs from behind, causing my knees to buckle and sending me to the ground. As soon as I hit the mat, I rolled away and leapt to my feet before he could grab me.

  “Simon, you better tell me what you’re talking about,” I threatened, wiping a strand of dark hair away from my face. My ponytail had come loose three fights ago.

  Simon hopped to a squatting position and gave me a cheeky grin. “If you really want to know, then come and take it,” he sang.

  “I hate you. We both know I can’t take the knife from your hand.”

  “You’re a clever girl; figure it out.”

  Just then, it hit me. All those stupid training sessions on disarming my enemy and it had never clicked.

  Not once, because I’d been fighting him the way Justus had taught me.

  I could see in his eyes that he sensed my moment of epiphany, and he tightened his grip on the handle.

  With my right arm extended, I pulled the knife clean out of his hand using my power. As the blade sliced toward me, I swung my arm and altered its direction. A muffled crack sounded when it punctured the wall behind me.

  “Spectacular!” He panted, folding his arms as he stood up. “I’ve been wondering when you would figure it out. You still need to find a way to gain control of the knife and put it in your hand.”

  I flashed forward and knocked him onto his back, then seized his throat. “What were you saying about our time in the bedroom?”

  “Oh, that.”

  “Yeah, that.”

  Around the time when we first met, Simon and I had engaged in some lascivious kissing in my bed. We were drunk and once he initiated the binding of our light, it became hard to stop. In my defense, Simon’s a handsome man and I’d never felt sexual energy from another Mage.

  “Em,” he began, his brown eyes skating off to the side. Simon was too pretty for his own good and tried to use it to his advantage.

  “You were saying?”

  “About that,” he began, his British accent becoming thicker. “The only reason I came on to you in the bedroom is so I could taste your light.”

  “What?”

  I sat up, straddling him.

  “I’m a curious chap. This should come as no surprise. When you hurt your ankle, it gave me an opportunity to start something up and drink your energ
y without getting slapped. Sharing a little light can give you an idea of how powerful a Mage is. I didn’t know you were a Unique. That came as a surprise.”

  “So you just made out with me to sample my light?” I stared at him incredulously.

  God, no wonder he’d jumped off so fast and never started it up again. He’d gotten the answer he wanted.

  Nosy bastard.

  “What made you think I was different?”

  He sat up and leaned back on his palms. “Didn’t say that.”

  I rested my hands on his shoulders and squeezed. “You’re not telling me something.”

  “And that’s news? Your energy on the dance floor was oozing out of you.”

  “I don’t ooze.” I twisted my mouth, growing impatient.

  Simon snorted. “A Learner lacks the control to keep it contained and the skills to shut it off. That’s what makes you so attractive to all these manky bastards who would like nothing more than to make you one of their pets. Your energy made me thick in the pants.”

  “A light breeze makes you thick in the pants.”

  “When Samil had custody of you, I fought with Justus. Your Creator would have never let you go once he discovered what you were. I knew this, but Justus was naïve. He’s also a man who upholds the law and abides by it. I have my own thoughts on all these sodding laws. Maybe I could relate to your situation and that’s why it was harder for me to accept.” He bit his lip and averted his gaze.

  I reached around and caressed beneath his hair, smoothing my fingers over the tattoo on the nape of his neck. “Someday I hope you open up about what happened to you, Simon. You can’t hold it in forever. Pain like that becomes a black hole that’ll consume you with fear and hate.”

  “Now you’re starting to sound like Justus.”

  He leaned away and my hands slid back to his shoulders. The silence was cut short when a throat cleared.

  The lift had returned and Logan stood to my right with his arms folded, golden eyes watching us. I was sweaty, Simon was shirtless, and we were in a position that could have been splashed on the cover of any adult magazine.

  Simon winked at Logan. “Just showing your girl a few moves.”