“They are going to do just fine,” Atasha said in a whisper.
I nodded in agreement as I spotted Siitha inching his way closer, his kitty eyes glowing with the hunt as he tried to sneak up on the pixie. His wagging tale told me he wasn’t serious about eating the pixie. He wanted to play.
And that was exactly what he did as the pixie noticed and took flight, staying low to the ground, but fast enough to stay just out of reach of my kitty. The two of them looked to be having a lot of fun together.
I laughed hard when Siitha thought he had the pixie in his paws, but when he looked, she was gone, only to pop up on top of his head. He growled and rolled, trying to get into reach of his cunning opponent.
Venni chuckled as he joined us. “Looks like you have a new friend?” he asked.
I grinned. “Siitha is amazing like that. He’s such a fluff ball.”
A dark expression crossed Venni’s face, but disappeared too fast for me to pinpoint what it was.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
I raised an eyebrow.
He sighed. “I need to go see my mother and brother.”
“Is everything okay? Do you need me to put a curse on someone? I’m really good at turning people into things. I can turn them into cockroaches if you’d like.”
His smile was purely genuine. “Nothing that drastic. There are some issues in the shifter community and they’re trying to drag me into it. I’ll be fine.”
I reached out and grabbed his hand before he could walk away. “Don’t let them make you do anything you don’t want to do. I know their type. They’re going to play the guilt card. Don’t let them.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
As he scooped me up into his arms, I made a girly squeaking noise, hating that I made that sound. He smiled as he kissed me silly, our lips smashing together, his hands resting along my lower back. I was lightheaded as he pulled away from me. “I’ll see you later.”
“Later, Venni.”
I enjoyed the look of his ass as he walked away, heading out.
Atasha snorted.
“What?” I asked, still refusing to look away from my wolf shifter. For a man his size, he walked so deliciously.
“You are a goner.” She shook her head and went back to helping me with my garden. I did the same, silently working alongside my aunt.
Was this how we built a relationship?
Chapter Eight
As soon as the early morning melted away to a cold afternoon, Atasha dragged me into the yard. She forced my butt onto the freezing ground and then sat across from me.
“You know, I need to go into work at some point,” I said with a smile.
“You would rather be locked up in a lab instead of learning about your powers?” Atasha asked.
“I’d love nothing more than to learn about my powers, but I still have responsibilities.”
She waved her hands in the air. “Does not matter. Your Mr. Lombardi left a message to let me know that you do not need to go in today. That you learning about your powers is priority.” She gave me a confused smile. “He said something about not wanting his lab blown up?”
I glanced away. “He’s being dramatic. I’m not that bad. I just don’t know what to do,” I said. “I’m not gaining any control. At first, I just couldn’t do the bigger spells without losing control. Now? The smallest spell can prove dangerous. I haven’t told the others, but it’s starting to scare me.” Admitting to anyone that I had that kind of loss of control was never going to happen. Ever.
“Amaorah,” Atasha said in a soft voice. “That’s why I am here. To teach you. Now that you have opened yourself up to your full potential, your body and your power are finding their balance. In your case, that means your power level is increasing. In another couple of weeks, you will be settled.”
“So, what are we going to do today?” I asked.
She smiled, and it was a little too patient for my liking. “Today, you are going to focus on just feeling your power, feeling its potential, its depth. Before you can do anything with what you have, you need to understand what you have.”
I gave her a wary look. “Meditation?”
“Yes, meditation.”
She saw my expression and chuckled. “Trust me, you cannot understand what you do not take the time to understand. I am sure a lot came to you easily as you grew up. Elementalists have fast minds and impeccable memories.”
“Fine, let’s get this over with.”
“I promise it won’t be painful.”
“I’m sure.”
She chuckled before instructing me on how to breathe, relax, and empty my mind. The part that always tripped me up was thinking about nothing. According to Atasha, I was trying too hard.
“Fall deep into yourself,” she whispered in a smooth, calming voice, dragging out her words an extra beat. “Find your center, the place inside of you where only you exist. Once you find it, let it wash over you, let it carry your concerns away.”
I did as she said and found that small space inside of me. When times got hard, when people were mean, when I thought I couldn’t go any further, this was the spot I was able to reach. It turned everything around me into white noise and nothing else mattered.
“Good.” Atasha’s voice sounded distant. “Now from there, reach out and feel the brush of your power, how it feels against your skin, how it touches all your senses, the way it flows, taste, smells. Let it envelop you.”
I metaphysically did as she said and reached down into black inky darkness. It was cold and I almost thought it was empty, but that wasn’t right. It wasn’t that there was nothing around. More like everything was there and it was bottomless. A whole reserve of power.
It thrummed through me, welcoming me.
“Good,” Atasha’s voice echoed through me. “Feel it. Do not fear it, do not overthink it. Just feel.”
I reached out to it again, still cautious. Power brushed against my fingers. The moment it recognized me, it pushed inside and moved up my arms, traveling through every vein and cell within my body. I gasped.
“Do not fear it, Laila. Feel it. Let it run its course. Embrace it.”
Doing what Atasha suggested was hard. It felt like I was giving up rein over my power and that was inconceivable to me.
“Do not fight it.”
Easier said than done.
“Laila, you need to let go. Just feel.”
No. No way. That was giving up control. Something warm fell down my face.
“Laila. Amaorah.” Her voice was sad, almost broken sounding. Hands squeezed my shoulders, and I gasped, drawing in cold air and blinking through tears. My eyes met my aunt’s. Her expression was sad. “I see what the problem is. I think it will not be as easy as it should be.” She reached up and wiped away tears. I hadn’t even realized I was crying.
“Why?” I drew away from her, not wanting her touch at that moment. I wasn’t even sure what I was asking. Why was I crying? Why couldn’t I let go like I needed too? Why did I have to do this? Why couldn’t I do it right?
Her smile was twisted with sadness. “Giving up control has not been something you ever did and now that tight grip is becoming your weakness. You have to build a relationship with your powers and having that strong of a leash on it only aggravates it. It needs to feel like it is in an equal relationship with you. Let us take a break, and we will try again later.”
“No, I can go again.”
She shook her head. “You need to cool off and so does your power. The two of you are worked up after that battle of wills.” She reached out but before touching me, dropped her hand, her fingers curling into a fist. “Besides, your phone is buzzing for the third time.”
As she mentioned it, I felt it going off in my pocket. It had been overshadowed by my failed mediation attempt.
Feeling defeated, I answered. “Yeah?” I cleared my throat to wash away the croak in it. “Yes?”
“Laila, is Ve
nni with you?” Rhett asked over the phone. His voice sounded strained.
“No. He left earlier this morning to meet with his mother and brother.”
“Do you know where?”
Concerned swelled up inside of me. “He didn’t say. What’s going on? Why all the worry?”
Rhett didn’t answer right away, and I was about to call him out on it when he finally caved. He knew if he didn’t tell me, I’d hunt him down.
“There’s been an incident with the shifters. They were meeting to talk about some events that have been going on in their community. All the higher ups were there. There was a shooting.”
Cold fear stabbed through me. “And you think Venni was there?”
“You said he went to meet his mother and brother?”
“Yes.”
“Then yes. Because that’s where his family is.”
“Shit. Where?”
“That isn’t a good idea.”
“Rhett. Where? I do not have the patience right now, so just give up the information. You know I’ll still find it.”
“I’m sorry. You need to stay away.”
Before I had a chance to yell at him, he hung up on me. I gaped at the phone.
“What is going on?” Atasha asked. Rowan stood at her side as if to protect Atasha from whatever dreadful news I had.
“Someone made a move against the shifters. I’m sorry, I need to go. Venni was supposed to have been there.” All the while I talked, my body hummed with excess power, reacting to my stress and worry.
“Then go.” Atasha grabbed my hand. Before I could pull away to take off, she threw her power into the air. I gasped.
“Feel it, feel what it is doing.”
I did as she said. Her power stretched out across the city before it came across a boiling ball of rage made purely out of energy.
“Right there is where you will find your shifters. Do what I did to track them.” Atasha let me go and stepped away.
“Thank you.”
“Go.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. Using that small trick she’d just shown me, I cast my own power into the air and found that same energy, using that as my compass as I jumped into my truck and took off into the city.
It didn’t take me long to hunt down the shifters, and fear was a real thing as I drove toward the chaos. They had been meeting at a small restaurant owned by the shifters in their territory. The shifters pretty much owned the south part of Springer City so it wasn’t that surprising to learn that this was where they were meeting.
What made this hard to swallow was the devastation. The building was still smoking from what had to have been a bomb or something that blew out the front wall of the building. I didn’t sense anything magical, but the area was also flooded with so much energy that if magic had been used, it was overwhelmed by the pressure of it.
Enforcers, the city’s protectors, were scurrying around, but they weren’t really getting anywhere. The shifters stood tall and angry, refusing to let the enforcers do their job. Fury didn’t begin to describe what the shifters felt. It went deeper and by their expressions, they were about to snap.
I barely remembered to put the truck into park before I was jumping out and sprinting to join the chaotic scene. Distracted as I desperately searched for Venni in the crowd, I didn’t pick up on the whispers and conversations to learn about what was going on. Thoughts of Venni being hurt again consumed me. My mind kept dredging up the memory of a branch sticking out of his chest, dangerously close to his heart and nearly killing him. All the blood. I needed eyes on him.
It was hard and took concentration I didn’t have, but the moment I found his energy, I began shoving through the crowd. They could curse me all they wanted, I didn’t care. I just wanted to see Venni and make sure he was okay.
“Laila!”
My head whipped around until I met Venni’s blazing golden eyes. He was furious.
“What are you doing here?” he snapped.
“Making sure you’re still fucking alive,” I snapped back.
Venni sat on the curb, his long legs stretched out before him. At some point he had changed from the dark blue t-shirt and jeans he’d had on when he’d left my place and now wore a light blue button up and black slacks. Blood had dripped onto his shirt, but the cut along his forehead was already closed as his shifter healing kicked into gear.
“What happened?” I asked. “And don’t think about lying.”
“Dammit, why can’t you just stay home and away from danger?”
“If that’s the kind of woman you’re looking for, then we will never work.”
“You know that isn’t true.”
I sighed and leaned in front of him, getting a good look at his face. It looked like he should have a bruise, but it would heal long before it had a chance to form. “Venni, please, what happened?”
“We came to meet about the attacks on shifters that’s happening the last couple of days. The humans are picking fights.”
I frowned. “Why?”
He shrugged.
I narrowed my eyes, but he refused to answer me. I knew he knew, he just wasn’t in a sharing mood.
“Venni, what’s going on?”
“I can’t tell you. It’s shifter business, and they don’t like others outside of the community butting their heads into it.”
“Okay.” I nodded, trying to hide my hurt. “That was all you needed to say: that you couldn’t tell me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No reason you need to be.” I kept my words gentle to help settle his wolf. It was still there, just underneath the surface. He needed calm.
Venni rubbed a hand over his face. “We lost three guards.” After shaking his head, he gave me a perplexed look. “I don’t understand why this happened, what they wanted.”
“Are they…?”
“No. They got away in all the chaos.”
I raised an eyebrow. If a shifter wanted to know, they could hunt them down by scent.
“They have access to spells. Used one to cover their scents.”
“Those are costly.” I rubbed my chin. “So they have financial backing.”
“Venni, are you okay?” His mother approached with sharp eyes, her wolf just underneath the surface. She was furious, and I got a good look at the kind of opponent she would be in a fight. She’d be formidable, someone you wanted on your side in a fight.
“I’m fine. How is Ezra?”
Her attention focused on me and cooled into a glacier look. The muscles in her face flexed, tightening the skin around her face, and I knew without her saying anything what was going on. So when she said, “He’s checking on everyone” what she really meant was “he’s on the hunt.”
“He won’t find them.” Venni sounded tired when he said that.
Her smile was feral as she said, “It isn’t them he’s tracking. If you’ll excuse me, I need to check on the Luna. She is just as furious as the Alpha, and I need to make sure she remains calm. It wouldn’t be good if she shifts and gets everyone else worked up again.” She nodded at Venni and then disappeared into the crowd.
It seemed there were always more people than necessary in the area when there was an emergency, especially something as tragic as a shooting. It was like everyone in the area responded to the incident—enforcers, medical personnel, witnesses, and those who just couldn’t walk away because of morbid fascination. Half the people there didn’t need to be, but they’d rally together to show their support to those who were victims and to their families.
My eyes met with black ones. The man’s smile twisted into something wicked, and before I could even respond, he was disappearing into the crowd.
Well, not everyone would be here for support. Others were just twisted enough to find enjoyment out of this. The blood and agony, the misery and pain, it’d attract the darker predators.
Any thoughts of predators circling around the crowd for plump pickings disappeared as a bulky man stomped his wa
y over here. “Reynards,” he snapped out.
Venni’s body stiffened as his expression blanked out. Venni was never an expressive person, but I had gotten good at reading him. I didn’t think it was possible for him to get more expressionless. At least until that man came at us with aggressive intent.
His energy nearly did me in. He had a lot, more than Venni. I wasn’t so sure who’d win if there was ever a fight between these two. I looked between the two of them and slowly the dots connected.
“The Alpha?” I whispered.
Venni winced, but nodded.
“Yes, the Alpha,” the man snapped as he towered over me. “Who the fuck are you?”
The man was taller than Venni, with black eyes, dark skin, and a bald head. He wore earrings throughout his ears, and I wondered how that worked for shifting. There was a thin thread of magic around him, and it came from his earrings. Best guess, when he shifted, the earrings shifted with him or at least stayed attached. I pictured a wolf with earrings and almost laughed. Almost. There was no doubt that if I did laugh, he’d have knocked my head off. He was looking for violence, and I needed to do my best to not give him a reason.
I didn’t think Venni had a chance against this man.
The Alpha’s eyes stayed on Venni as he ignored me. “Maybe this nonsense will end now that you can see we need everyone together. The humans are pushing us, and if it comes to it, we will push back. You will be there.”
“I will be where I am needed,” Venni said carefully. “But I don’t think this is as clear as you think it is.”
The Alpha’s eyes narrowed, and his skin shifted as muscles moved. He was so close to shifting.
“We lost three guards to silver bullets fired by humans. What about that is not clear enough?”
“The humans have no reason to lash out at us.”
“Are you saying my nose is wrong?” The Alpha’s voice went deadly still, and I did something completely silly. I stepped between Venni and the big bad wolf.
“Laila,” Venni warned.
I ignored him, focusing on the Alpha’s nose because I wasn’t completely suicidal, and said, “The magic they used to hide their scent cost more than most can afford in this city. There are two rare components in the spell that drives the price to an amount too expensive to waste on an attack like this.”
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