Magical Collision

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  This server didn’t know any of that and I ended up poking at the three knives on my table. One was obviously a steak knife and butter knife, but the third? Was that my weapon of choice if I needed to stab one of my companions? I glanced at the new guy. His eyes met mine before focusing back on his task.

  “Talver called out sick today,” he said in a really low voice. It took me a moment to realize he had even spoken. He was so soft-spoken. A little spooked. “I will be filling in for him, but if you wish for someone else, I can switch.”

  “No, it’s fine,” I said. “I was just curious.”

  I watched him carefully as he moved around the room, filling our glasses and taking our orders. He avoided all our gazes. After mumbling something, he slipped out of the room.

  “You look like you want to eat him, and not in a good way,” Davies said.

  I blinked and focused back on my guys. “I think having this restaurant full of shifters is making me paranoid for some reason.

  “So, have you heard what Ami has for you on your birthday?” Rhett asked.

  “Hopefully her sanity back?”

  Some of the guys chuckled.

  “I heard there’s going to be fire dancers,” Davies said.

  “I thought it was a magician?” Elliot added after sipping his water.

  I raised an eyebrow. “That poor magician would have to work extra hard to impress me.”

  We continued the banter back and forth as we tried to figure out what Ami could possibly have planned for me. Some of our ideas were worrisome enough by the look of our new server’s expression when he overheard Davies talking about a battle to the death—in reference to a paintball match. Apparently the paintballs these days had a little extra something to make the target react a certain way, depending on where they were hit, so dancing, jumping, clucking around like a chicken. Anything silly was possible.

  The party was going to be at Biomystic, and I was banned from there until it started. I had to admit, not knowing or having control over my party made me paranoid and worried.

  “I’m going to go to the bathroom,” I said. “Don’t trash the place while I’m gone.”

  When I walked into the main area, it was like all the shifters matched my happy mood. They were laughing and cheering about what looked to be a couple’s ninetieth anniversary. They stood at the front, looking young and proud.

  Realization dawned on me when I saw them, and I paused to stare at the happy couple. I was immortal. I’d have celebrations like that in the future. And if Atasha went through with the ceremony, I’d have all the guys to share the moment with me. Fear tried to claw out of me and I closed my eyes, taking a moment to relax. What was I scared of? The rejection that I kept waiting for? Living for that long? Or maybe it was my inability to be able to imagine living that long, especially with others. Or could it be living that long with no one to share it with? Bile rose in my throat, and I rushed to the bathroom. After closing a stall, I managed to calm myself down, using deep breaths to quiet my wayward thoughts.

  The bathroom door swung open enough to smash against the wall. I jumped at the suddenness of it.

  “I don’t feel good,” a woman mumbled and shuffled around. She even moaned, sounding pained. Unless someone raised a zombie, she was in trouble.

  I came out just in time to see a woman stumble into the sink. Wincing, I rushed to her side. That was going to leave a bruise on her side.

  “Are you okay?” I asked and pressed my hand against her burning forehead.

  She moaned and shook her head. “Something’s wrong.”

  She crashed to the floor, almost taking me with her. “Whoa, stay with me. Let me get you help.”

  Her magic crackled in the air, responding to her distress.

  “Fuck.”

  Something had made her magic defensive, got it into fighting mode, which explained why her skin was so hot. Her magic was fighting whatever got into her system. Was she roofied?

  I grabbed her wrist with a light grip, feeling her racing pulse, and rested my hand on her chest, just above her heart.

  “I’m going to help,” I said. “Just enough to alleviate your discomfort. I’m not a healer.”

  She didn’t respond, out cold now. I pushed power into her, using it to soothe her body, and lower her beating heart rate. It worked as the pounding of her heart against my hand slowed. Her body slumped. Her magic calmed too, my power helping to cleanse some of whatever was in her body to put her in this state.

  “I’m going to get help.”

  I moved her into a more comfortable position and then ran out of the bathroom, intent on grabbing the first employee I saw.

  I should have noticed. As soon as that woman came into the bathroom, acting drugged, I should have known. The room was dead silent, and any movements froze the moment I ran out.

  People in black outfits and masks turned to me, some with widening eyes. All the guests who had been lively and celebrating were now slumped over, unconscious. Some of them were on the floor, others over their tables. Women were being carried out by one or two men.

  “How?” someone managed to say, breaking the silence.

  “She’s not a shifter,” another answered in a cold voice. “Knock her out and let’s get out of here.”

  I backed up, intent on locking myself in the bathroom. Arms wrapped around my chest and yanked me back into a hard body. His steel grip on me made it nearly impossible to move. The training I’d been working so hard for months kicked in. I snapped my leg back and connected with a leg. Nothing. I shoved my power out with the intent to shove him off me. He did not move.

  In fact, my magic picked up absolutely nothing about him. No magic, no energy, nothing. He wasn’t a living being.

  “Nice try,” a man said with a snicker as he walked toward me. A black gun pointed at my forehead.

  “Hey! I know her.” A younger man shoved forward and my eyes widened as I took in the youthful face, the big brown eyes, and curly black hair. He was an employee at Biomystic, one of the shifters there. Well, he was more of a half breed. He couldn’t shift, but he hit like a truck and could lift just as much. I’d seen him spar with Venni and Davies a few times.

  “Tim.” The contempt in my voice dropped. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  He winced and looked away from the daggers I was sending his way with my eyes. I needed to learn how to make real daggers come out of my eyes.

  “I have to, Dr. Porter. Things need to change.”

  “Can she work with us?” the man with the gun asked. He eyed me slowly, and I hated that I wore this dress. His sleazy look made me feel exposed.

  Tim shook his head with a regretful look, and I understood right away what he was going to say. This was a war with the shifters after all.

  “She goes around with Venni.”

  That got the man’s attention. The wide, twisted smile on his face nearly sent me into a panic. “Take her.” He turned and walked away. More men converged on me. With my magic refusing to work, I kicked out, trying to keep them away, but they easily overwhelmed me.

  Then I saw nothing, felt nothing, and was surrounded by darkness.

  Chapter Twenty

  Fuzzy head. It almost felt like the time I fried my brain. My thoughts didn’t want to work right, nothing connecting as it should have. I lay there for a while, unable to move, only able to hear the heavy breathing of others around me. The floor was hard, its coldness reaching deep within me, numbing my body.

  Keeping my breathing even became a challenge as pure panic settled in. I wanted to move, to yell, to cry, and scream. I wanted to do something, but the effects of whatever they’d done to me still held me in its thrall. I blinked, the only thing able to escape being tears. All I could do was lie there, defenseless as tears fell down my eyes. My blurry view was of a rough dark ceiling, shadows dancing around as something moved around the light source in the room.

  Move. I needed to move. I needed to do something. I tried to
pull on my powers, but a wall, thick and hard, prevented me. Someone gasped and released a sob, but it didn’t last long. Once again, all I heard was deep breathing.

  My finger moved enough to tap the ground. I gritted my teeth, demanding my limbs to move more. Slowly, my hand began to respond to my mental pleas, and I could lay my palm flat against the ground. Then I could lift my arm, and it was as if that set everything else into motion and my body came online, moving at my demand, albeit slowly.

  Sitting up was slow going, but when I did. It took just as long to process what I was seeing. I was in a room, lit up with wall lamps to show the concrete flooring and walls. The door was on the other side, a huge metal monstrosity that looked like nothing short of a grenade launcher was going to get it open.

  But that wasn’t the issue. If that was all there was, I’d be out of there the moment I could reach my power. If only it were that easy. Between me and the door were about seven unconscious women lying on the floor in a similar fashion as I was. Their dresses fanned out around them, their hair carefully set to the side. Lying on the floor was uncomfortable, but whoever took us had made sure to make us as comfortable as possible instead of just tossing us into the room. Each woman was hooked up to a stand with a bag of something attached to it.

  I looked down at my arm, found the line that had been inserted into my vein, and followed it up to the bag that was feeding me something. “Fuck no.” My voice came out hoarse and scratchy, my mouth too dry to form the words completely.

  Before I could overthink it, I reached over and yanked the tube out of my arm. Pain flared around the area where it had pierced my skin. Blood dripped out, and I applied pressure with my other hand to stop it.

  “Hey!” I called out. “Is anyone awake?”

  No one responded. They all kept sleeping, though none of them looked peaceful. Their expressions were twisted in discomfort, some of them sweating. I used the stand that held the bag as support and pulled myself up onto my wobbly feet. There was small writing on the bag, and I had to stare at it as the blurriness cleared and the letters began to make sense.

  I had found where all the stolen supplies from the hospital had gone. The bags of medicine were what hospitals used when they needed to sedate shifters to keep them under. The drugs had to be three times as effective as their usual amounts.

  I glanced at my arm. They were lucky I didn’t overdose from it. I had a feeling my powers were the reason I was the only one awake. Anyone else non-shifter and they would have been on the ground, foaming at the mouth. My thoughts briefly went to the magic-user in the bathroom. She was pretty sick. Was it the same stuff? Did they dose our food or something?

  My senses were still on the fritz so I wasn’t sure if there were wards in place and I couldn’t sense it or if there weren’t any. There weren’t cameras in the room though, which I thought was completely dumb of the kidnappers. I could plan a breakout and get away with it.

  It would have been so much easier if I had access to my powers. I needed to figure out what was blocking me. Then I could transport out. Maybe. I glanced at all the sleeping women and groaned. Or maybe not. I didn’t know where we were. For all I knew, we weren’t even in Springer City any longer and my transportation spell was too limiting. I could only go where I’d seen before, and I could only go up to ten miles.

  I could get out of there, but then I’d be leaving all these women to their fates and that did not sit well with me. Especially since, I wouldn’t be able to pop in at Biomystic and say, “They’re at this exact location.”

  Plus, my disappearance could have dangerous consequences to the women. Like being moved. Or killed. I shuddered at that.

  The first woman was pale skinned, beads of sweat dripping down from her hairline. Her red hair was in a loose braid, some of the strands having escaped.

  “Hey?” I whispered.

  She didn’t move. I went to the IV, and this time worked carefully in removing the line. She still didn’t rouse, and I didn’t think she would until the drugs made it out of her system. Shifters were fast at healing, so maybe in an hour. My fear was that our kidnappers would come by before I could get them to wake up.

  But I also hoped because they thought we were all supposed to be out cold that they’d leave us alone for a few more hours, just long enough for me to come up with a plan.

  I worked through the room, my slow movements quickening as I loosened up my stiff muscles and the drugs continued to wear off. Goddess, please let the drugs wear off and that I got access back to my powers. Without it, we were going to be truly fucked and not in a good way.

  By the time I finished unhooking everyone, I was exhausted. I stumbled to the wall and slid down, letting it support my weight. No one stirred, and it left me to my thoughts since all I had left to do was wait.

  Would they wake up first or would our kidnappers come back?

  ~*~

  The first woman stirred an hour later. It was a small change at first, her breathing quickened. I only heard it because she was the closest one to me. I watched carefully as her head twitched and her eyelids moved. She was fighting to wake up.

  A few minutes later, she snapped her eyes open. Whimpering noises came from her, but she couldn’t move. I went to her side, grabbing her hand, hoping to give her some support.

  “Sh. You’re okay. I’m here. Breathe. Focus on breathing.” I continued rambling, hoping to keep her calm. The last thing I wanted was for her to have a panic attack, maybe start screaming and drawing too much attention to us. I reached for my power, wanting to use just a little bit. The wall was thinner, but it wasn’t letting me through. As I talked, I kept trying to reach for it. With every attempt, I felt like I was getting closer and closer.

  Soon, I’d be able to use my power.

  “What is going on?” she asked on a wheeze, her dark green eyes turning to look at me, her head only moving slightly. She was an attractive woman with sharp features, long black hair, and a simply silver dress over a thin, but lean frame. Her energy was just underneath her skin, but I had a feeling she struggled as much as I did with accessing it.

  “We’ve been taken. They raided The Lunar Oxen and took all the females.” I gave her hand a squeeze.

  Her eyes closed briefly. “How many others here?”

  “Including you, seven women.”

  She didn’t say anything for a moment.

  “That number doesn’t include you.”

  I shook my head. “I’m the only non-shifter here. I think everyone else is a shifter.”

  “Damn.” She lifted her head up briefly before it dropped back down. I winced as it hit the floor with a thud. “Dammit. Those motherfuckers are dead.”

  Her teeth gritted as she tried to move again.

  “Take your time,” I said. “It’ll take a while to get moving again.”

  She turned her head away from me, giving her a view of everyone else in the room. “So this is what they planned all along when they robbed the hospital. To hold us here as hostages.”

  “They’re well organized.”

  “That means the pregnant females have to be around here.” A growl rumbled from her chest. “They’re all dead. All of them. Every last mutt is dead.” Her growl grew the longer she spoke. Her anger was sharp and deadly, her energy reacting as best as it could by snapping out at me. It only felt like a small tickle.

  I sighed and glanced at the main door. “I’d be careful with what you say,” I said deliberately. The last thing I wanted to do was piss her off. She seemed powerful. “Words have power.”

  “And I can use all the power I can get to shred them all apart.”

  I moved closer so I could lean over her head. She turned her head so our eyes met. I pulled on all my confidence and said, “If you go after all the mutts, that means we are going to stand on opposite sides. You do not want to go against me. I will pull apart every molecule in your body so there is no chance of you ever healing.”

  Her lip curled into a sneer. “Do
you know who you’re talking to?”

  I leaned forward. “Do you? Remember, I woke up before you, and I can move before you. That says more about who has the power here. Do not push me.”

  She didn’t reply, a muscle in her jaw flexing with her fury. I pulled away, threat given to her. I had a feeling I’d need to do it again. She needed to understand that this incident couldn’t be the one to tip the scales over to an eradication of the shifters who aren’t fully shifters.

  Soon after she woke up, the others followed. I repeated the same thing with each of them. I went to them, held their hand, and worked to keep them calm. By the time the last one woke, the first woman was doing the same, helping her through it.

  “Fuck!” One of the women yelled out, her face red with anger. She punched a wall, creating a dent.

  “Dammit. You need to shut up before you call them to us,” I snapped at her.

  She glared back at me.

  “Nashi, calm. You need to be calm,” the first woman said.

  “Fuck that. I said we needed to attack, we needed to be proactive. Now we are all here while our mates don’t know shit about what is going on. How do we even know if they are okay? Luna, what if he’s dead.” Her expression fell and a weird keening noise escaped her. The other women in the room began shifting around.

  I met the first woman’s eyes. She was their Luna. I didn’t know much about shifters, but the first thing anyone learned was that the Alpha and Luna are the leaders of the pack. That meant she was mated to the Alpha, and not the council Alpha. Our kidnappers had hit the jackpot.

  “Everyone calm down. Before we go on a killing spree, we need to escape,” she said.

  That didn’t help. They were angry and scared, and ready to tear this room apart. Problem was they were still weak, so we were screwed if they attracted attention. One woman went for the door and yanked hard on the handle.

  “Back off,” I said. “Before you call them to us.”