Chapter 2
As attracted as I was to Agent Caldwell, I knew it would be difficult not to show my reaction once he had his hands on me. And he would have to touch me. Bare skin to bare skin. It was the only way for the power to flow from him into me. I stared at my hands for a long moment, watching as the bruises bloomed, a physical side effect to overusing one’s magic. Cells started to break down at the molecular level. For most practitioners, this meant overwhelming fatigue and dark, red-purple bruises. Thank the gods they didn’t hurt. And both the tiredness and the coloration faded completely once a practitioner recharged.
The fact that my skin was already bruising meant I was at my limit. Magic was a finite but renewable source. I didn’t have time to recharge with the usual methods—medi
