But if Caius had really bought him, and even spent the money on an actual mage healer, he probably wouldn’t kill Max. He still wasn’t convinced this wasn’t some kind of sex slave thing, but at least he had one advantage here when he finally made his escape: Caius knew absolutely nothing about him or where he’d go when he made a run for it.
“I overheard my father planning an arranged marriage,” he finally said. He expected some kind of ridicule, but Caius tilted his head and kept silent. “To Dr. Rena Schurz. She’s the head scientist atMagierseele.” Magesoul, the largest entity dedicated to all things magical aside from the Order itself. Despite the fact few mages actually worked there, they offered new products several times a year.
“I looked her up, thinking maybe I could convince her to help me get away from here.” Max slid his thumb through the condensation on his glass. “All the rumors I found made her sound like some mad scientist from Nazi Germany. Human experiments, genetics and shit. Her grandmother was supposedly doing it too, during the war. Helga something. There’s no proof, but I’m pretty sure she’s on the government payroll.”
“Wouldn’t be surprised,” Caius murmured.
Max jerked his head up. “You don’t think I’m crazy?”
“I’m undecided. But the government has always been interested in enhancing humans, even before the forties. There’s rumors the military managed to make their own mages, but all the documents are sealed.”
“And you know this how?”
“Up until a few months ago, I was a colonel in the Marines.”
At least his instincts were right about the respectable thing. Unless Caius had been court-martialed or something. “Uh-huh. And what could a colonel possibly want with a mob boss’ son?”
Caius tilted his head, tapping his thumb against his knee as if choosing his words. Max was about to tell him to spit it out when Caius said, “You’re a mage.”
Max laughed. “Okay, Hagrid.” When Caius looked at him in confusion, Max rolled his eyes. “Too old for Harry Potter, got it,” he muttered. “Look, I don’t know who told you I was a mage, but I’m not. I certainly never Sparked as a kid.” He would have burned down his father’s house before making his first escape attempt if he had.
“You Sparked after you passed out.”
Max shook his head. No way in hell had he Sparked. He’d know if he was a mage. He sipped his water again, grimacing at the too warm temperature. Seriously, would it have killed them to give him some ice? He set the glass on the nightstand and tossed back part of the blanket, sighing in relief at the cool air.
“Sorry you wasted your money, but I’m not a mage. But you can make the kidnapping up to me by getting me a one-way ticket to Japan.” He paused as he realized he was dressed in only a pair of boxers and a loose T-shirt that wasn’t his. “Where the fuck are my clothes?”
“They were filthy and covered in blood.”
Max looked up in time to see Caius give him a slow once-over, which should have been a red flag, but there was no leer that usually followed. He started to pull the covers back over himself, but it was too hot for that. “Why is it a hundred degrees in here?” He threw the covers off completely and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Dizziness swept over him, and the next thing he knew, he was pressed against Caius’ chest and floating through the air, only to land in a bathtub with cold water raining down on him.
He slumped with a soft groan of relief, but it was short-lived. The scent of smoke caught his attention enough he looked at his hands and froze. Tiny bright orange flames danced around his fingers, sizzling and hissing as the water hit them before flickering back to life. “What the fuck.” This wasn’t real. He shook his hands out, but the flames clung to him as if glued there.
No. No, no, nonono. This couldn’t be real. He was twenty-two years old. Mages always Sparked by fifteen at the latest. There was no way in hell he was amage.
Before Max could start hyperventilating, Caius gripped the back of his neck and shoved him forward until his head was between his knees.
“Fuck,” Max gasped, coughing as he forced a deep breath into his lungs. “Fuck.”
“Believe it now?”
“No.” If he closed his eyes and pretended really hard, he could wake up from this, right? Because if his father found out he was a mage, even running to Japan wouldn’t save him. “This can’t be happening to me.” As if his life wasn’t enough of a nightmare.
“You need to come to terms with this soon. I can only hide you from the Order for so long.”
Max groaned and squeezed his eyes shut until he saw sparks of color. He had to run before the Order found him. They tracked down every mage within days of their Spark and whisked them off to be trained in their magical army. “Bet you’ll make your money back when they get here.”
Caius removed his hand from Max’s neck and shut off the water. “I don’t intend to let the Order take you. I’d rather bind you to me and my pack.”
Max blinked water out of his eyes and flexed his fingers; the flames had died out for the moment. “Of course you would,” he muttered. That was the biggest pitfall of being a mage. Everyone wanted to bind them.
It took a moment for the rest of that to sink in. “Wait. Your pack?” Fuck. Caius was a shifter? He should have known. How else would Caius have known he’d Sparked? That wasn’t something normal humans could sense unless the magic went out of control. He pressed his hands against his face with a hysterical laugh. This day was a shit sundae, and the ice cream machine had diarrhea.
“Max,” Caius said, “look at me.”
Max ignored him and hunched over his knees again. He couldn’t do this. He might not know much about mages or shifters aside from what he’d seen in the media and the news, but even he knew all mages were wary of shifters. It was a popular trope in movies. A shifter coerced a mage to accept a binding, which forced them to do the shifter’s bidding, and used them until either the mage grew powerful enough to break the bond or the shifter fell in love and released them.
Considering his shit luck in life so far, he doubted either of those werein his future.
