They were surviving, and I could respect that, even if it wasn’t something I agreed with. Did that mean I was a monster too?
Chapter 25
The rest of the night went by quickly and in the early morning, Davies and Venni forced me to get a few hours of sleep, promising to wake me if anything happened. Nothing else as big happened, not after leaving Lombardi and Shanton to torture the captive, not while I slept, and not for most of the day.
Everything was quiet as the two of them talked in Lombardi’s office. They talked a lot from what I’d seen. A few times they had met with other people from our company, including meatheads, labbies, doctors, and administrators.
I spent the day watching as people approached the wards and were easily turned away.
“Why do we get such a mix of people coming?” Ami asked. She was getting ready to do a shift.
“My best guess, we have more than one person who really wants Shanton dead. And they put a massive bounty on his head. This means we’re going to get everyone coming after him, pushing and shoving to get their hands on him despite his being a dragon who can swallow them whole,” I replied.
“Fucking idiots.”
I nodded. “That they are.”
We watched as a young teenager approached the ward and lifted his hand, stopping inches away from the ward. His lips moved but nothing happened. He frowned and whispered something else.
“What is he doing?” someone asked.
“Trying to trick the ward into accepting him,” I said. I knew exactly what he was doing and smirked. Wasn’t going to work.
He swore before storming off. Probably needing to come up with a plan B.
“He was a cocky one, wasn’t he,” Ami said.
I nodded. “Did he really think we would make it that easy?”
“If it were any other company, it probably would have been,” Henzie said. “But we have you, and for someone who hasn’t had to do something like this before, you really did think of most everything.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling a little lame about my simple response. I didn’t know how to reply to Henzie’s compliment. Getting a compliment from someone like him was kind of a big deal.
We were so focused on the screen that it took a moment for the smell of food to register in our brains. I straightened, ignoring the slight ache in my lower back. At the entrance to the room, set up along the wall, was a small buffet. Davies shook hands with a man before nodding and patting his back. The man left and Davies turned to us with a big grin.
“Courtesy of Mr. Lombardi. He said we needed to fuel up before we ran ourselves into the ground,” Davies said.
People mumbled their appreciation as they swarmed the buffet. It wasn’t even what you would have expected, like a continental breakfast. No, it had everything. From the smell, there was bacon, potatoes, and other meats I would never eat but some of the people here would appreciate.
Coffee warmed the air, and I nearly moaned. I liked coffee, but then again, if anyone said they didn’t, they were lying. Coffee was what ran this planet, kept everyone going. We practically worshipped coffee.
I let the swarm claim their food as I kept an eye on the screens. The last thing I wanted was for there to be an attack while we were all distracted with food.
Venni approached with a huge plate of food and frowned when he noticed I was still empty handed.
“Where’s yours?” he asked.
“I’m just waiting until the others get fed.”
His frown deepened. “When was the last time you ate?”
“Yesterday. I don’t need three meals a day, Venni. Once a day is fine. I can even go longer than that.”
He placed his plate on a cabinet and turned to face me with a curious look in his dark brown eyes. He stared, and I just waited him out. As a shifter, he probably didn’t understand how a person could survive without eating at least three times a day. If I burned through my magic too quickly, I just needed a good night’s rest. Food didn’t really help.
“I’ve been wondering but didn’t want to ask in case it was too personal, but what are you?” he asked.
I understood his question. People knew I was a magic-user but that label covered anyone with the ability to use any magic. Witches, mages, dragons, leprechauns, fae, demons, mermaids, even some humans fell under that title, along with hundreds of other species.
“I’m an orphan,” I replied and he nodded, understanding what I wasn’t saying.
A lot of orphans didn’t know who they were, not if they were a newborn or infant when they were abandoned. Me, I was found in a dumpster, only a few days old. No birth mother or father around to tell them who and what I was. Everyone came to the conclusion that whatever I was, wasn’t something common or well known. They couldn’t match me up with beings because I would only have one or two abilities similar but something else that belonged to a different type. I was all over the spectrum.
The questions in Venni’s eyes put me on edge. My shoulders tightened as I waited for him to question me, to take on the challenge of figuring me out. I didn’t want him to do that. I had too many people thinking they knew what I could be, too many times my hope crashed because they were wrong. I didn’t want that here, not from any of my co-workers. I understood well enough who I was and what I was capable of doing. I didn’t want others to think they could give me answers where answers didn’t exist.
Venni proved me wrong. He didn’t question or make promises he couldn’t uphold. Instead, as if understanding my emotions, he nodded and grabbed his plate, taking in a mouth full of pasta.
When he swallowed, he finally spoke. “Just make sure you get food. Mr. Lombardi won’t be happy to learn his employees aren’t eating, especially when we’re in a high stress situation. Your body may not feel hungry, but it’ll need all the energy it can get. Don’t deny yourself when you don’t need to.”
With that, he turned and went over to another set of screens, taking his plate with him. He said something to one of the guards who replied back, pointing to the screen.
I sighed and went back to staring at the screens before me. Venni was right. I should at least eat a little bit now. Anything could happen at this point, and I didn’t want to not eat now and be unable to do so until the next day when Shanton finally left.
When everyone got their fill of food, I went over and grabbed a small plate, filling it with half a sandwich and a spoonful pasta salad. I grabbed a water bottle and went back to my station to nibble on the food.
Everything was delicious. I kept picking at the food as someone managed to slip through the wards. I chewed as I directed guards to go after the intruder and swallowed when they caught the baddie, detaining him.
The rest of the day went by peacefully. The baddies were probably realizing they were trying to break into a fortress and it wasn’t going to be that easy. They weren’t going to be able to just waltz in like they hoped. Some of them should have done their homework before even thinking about approaching us.
Lombardi made sure we had food available to us all day. This week really was all hands on deck, the only people out were for essential assignments while everyone else helped out. A dragon’s life was no joke.
Everything stayed smooth sailing until late Saturday night, when a big baddie slipped through, and we lost her.
Chapter 26
“Dr. Porter, none of our sensors or guards can find her,” Henzie said with a deep frown. We were failing, and he didn’t take failure well.
Neither did I.
The woman slipped in about half an hour before and disappeared. We didn’t even notice her. The only reason we knew she was in the building was because of a moment of magic malfunction after she slipped through. The camera caught a flash of her as she fought with her magic to make in. She had used too much juice to get through the wards and the spell she wrapped around herself to hide from us had stuttered out for just a moment before she got a grip on it.
Now we were scrambling to f
ind her, but we couldn’t. We knew she was there, skulking around, making her way to Shanton and Lombardi.
My instincts told me we were up against the biggest baddest baddie yet. A true professional assassin.
“What do you want to do?” Ami asked, standing next to me, her shoulder brushing against mine.
I narrowed my eyes as I flipped through scenarios and possibilities in my head. I thought about the capabilities of magic. There was a way to find her, I just needed to figure it out.
“Dr. Porter,” a guard said, coming into the room. “We finished checking out the ward where she came through. Looks like it had disappeared just briefly, not even for a second.” He lifted the tablet in his hand and hit the screen before swiping so what he had on the screen went to a bigger one. He zoomed in a spot a few yards away from where the woman had briefly made her appearance. “Watch carefully.”
The video began moving, frame by frame, acting like a time lapse on a photographic camera. Then I saw what we missed the first time. A moment where there wasn’t anything in the ward. The next frame, the ward was back in place. Whatever she did to get through, it acted fast enough that even the ward didn’t know what had happened.
“That had to be, what? Not even a quarter of a second?” Henzie said, eyes wide as he stared at the footage. He rewound the tape and played it again, over and over.
“How did she get through there so fast?” Ami asked.
I shrugged. “Some kind of spell to speed her up for just half a second.”
“Shit, no wonder her magic briefly malfunctioned,” Ami said, and I nodded in agreement.
In the span of thirty seconds, the woman had to have used no less than four spells simultaneously. She had to keep up the two spells needed to keep her invisible in every aspect. She had use a spell to move quickly and another to break through the ward in the way that she did.
My eyes widened, and I felt so stupid.
I moved the picture we had of the woman to the big screen and zoomed in on her. Short pixie cut the color of darkness at its scariest. Pale skin. Sparkling blue eyes filled with magic. We knew she was a she because she wore skin tight leathers covering her body, displaying all her attractive curves. The men in the room couldn’t even pull their eyes away from her. She drew them to her.
“Shit,” I said, taking note of something in her hand. Small, almost missed because it was blocked by the small runner’s pack slipping down the same arm. I zoomed in further. The device was at least three times the size of the one I made, but I had no doubt what we were looking at. “I think we found who ultimately ended up with the device the pixie sold.”
“But that stripped the wards away. Our wards are back in place.”
“Someone good enough could tweak the device to temporarily intercept the ward,” I began mumbling, thinking of the possibilities. “Maybe reroute it so the ward thinks nothing is wrong. Would just need to create a brief hole for half a second, big enough to slip through. It would be tricky, but she had the device for a couple of days. Doable. She could have come up with a way to do it, especially if she’s able to use different magic at the same time. She’s powerful.”
“Damn, she’s mumbling to herself,” Davies said, coming next to me with a concerned frown. “Do you think she’s broken?” he asked.
I jabbed my elbow into his stomach, and he took in a sharp breath, pretending to hurt when I’d barely even touched him. I had normal human strength, unlike the other beings in the room. I wouldn’t be able to hurt Davies in a million years, especially since I had an aversion to anything doing with fitness and weights and he practically lived and breathed fitness.
“Not broken, but I’m going solve this mystery.” I pulled my eyes from the screen and focused on the room. Everyone was watching me, waiting for me to give them direction. “This is it, meatheads,” I began. “This is why we trained so hard all week, because we knew we were going to come across someone like her.” I pointed at the screen. “She’s going to be a cunning one, our job is to capture her before she can get to Shanton. This isn’t one of our drills, we don’t have time for mistakes.”
Everyone nodded their affirmations, gearing up for battle. “Elliot, Ami, and Alijah, you guys are with me. Venni, take another team. Same with you, Rhett. Davies, stay here, you’ll be back-up for whichever team needs it.”
Everyone nodded, and we got to work. I grabbed a bag filled with some of my toys and then headed outside to the point where we found her. Everyone kept up the constant communication as we turned this place upside down. I wouldn’t let her win. While we weren’t the real challenge, the real one being actually killing the dragon, we were still a challenge enough, and I didn’t appreciate her making it through so easily.
Alijah stayed at my back, keeping his senses working as he looked around the area. We were on the side of the building where the garden stopped and cleared into a strip of field.
“Ami, I need you to think like her. You have better experience than I do with trying to sneak into places.”
Ami smirked. “My pleasure,” she purred. I had no blinders on when it came to Ami. As a female meathead, some of her jobs weren’t always honorable. I’d seen her cleaning blood off her blades a couple of times. I never asked.
When we got to the location, I paused and stared at the very spot where we got a glimpse of her. I kept her image in my head as I stood where she stood. I knelt down, felt the damp grass with my fingers, the little bit of magic nipping at my skin, wanting to play. I closed my eyes.
“Laila?” Elliot asked.
“Shush,” Ami said, barely above a whisper, but my momentarily sharpened senses heard her. “Let her feel the magic.”
“Feel it?”
“Only Laila can do this. I’ve seen her do it a couple of times. She feels the magic, listens to it. Let her work.”
They fell silent after that and my focus sharpened even more as I opened myself to my surroundings. I didn’t like doing this often; it put me into a vulnerable state. Yes, I could do so much more with the magic, sense more, but I put myself at high risk of being overwhelmed.
The magic filled me up, stretched me, pushed my body’s limits. I knew I could hold more, but I also knew that if I crossed that line, it would destroy my body. My body was my limit.
I opened my eyes and could see the currents. Magic really was ever moving, all around, getting into everything. I looked down, taking a step back, opening myself further, pushing myself. My skin tingled, the little hairs on my body standing up strong. The magic sent little waves of electricity through me as my body began to shake. I needed to last just a little bit longer.
“Laila?” someone called out, but I ignored them as I stared at the ground until the magic turned into shades of color, as the spectrum of color that I could see widened, and I saw more, more than anyone ever could see or should be able to.
“Shit,” someone said, and the magic shifted as someone moved closer. I looked up, focusing on Alijah’s orange eyes, now a deeper color. The energy around him expanded outward in a transparent wall of silver before settling back around him. He kept tight control over himself.
I briefly wondered what he saw, what Elliot saw, what made the two of them gape at me with wide eyes. They weren’t scared of me, but were in awe.
“One minute,” Ami warned. I had one more minute to finish what I was doing. I only ever did this with Ami present just because of how dangerous it was. Once the minute mark was reached, she’d yank me back into our realm, because right now, I teetered between two different ones. One wrong step and I would be lost in the other realm, where magic was a tangible existence. There, I would perish as the magic ripped me apart, overwhelming me.
Taking Ami’s warning into consideration, I crouched, focusing on the colors.
People’s magic had a color when I was this deep into focus. Even the wild magic, the unused one surrounding us, had a color. Ami’s magic was a beautiful royal blue, and my own was pale lavender. Alijah was surrounded with
silver due to his energy, and Elliot had nothing surrounding him because he was a pure human.
The surrounding magic wavered between shades of green and browns, the colors of nature. Where the woman had had her little magic mishap, there were wavering footprints in a pumpkin color, slowly dispersing as time passed by. By tomorrow, no traces would be left. I reached down and touched the magic, getting a taste of what she felt like, how her magic tasted, how my own magic reacted to hers.
“Time!” Ami called out, and I took in a deep breath as I closed my eyes, shoving the magic away, breaking my focus.
Hands gripped my shoulder, and I leaned into a hot body, my chest heaving. I didn’t do anything but stand there, but I felt like I’d just ran a marathon.
“Laila?”
I rubbed against the massive chest, drawing comfort as Alijah’s energy nipped at me and my magic tried to nip back.
“Just need a moment,” I mumbled, keeping my eyes closed.
I took a few more moments to gather myself, to ground myself in the realm that I truly belonged in. I pushed away from Alijah, missing his warmth as coldness seeped into my body despite the warm temperatures. We were in late summer, but we still had a couple more weeks before fall hit.
“I got her,” I said, grinning at Ami. Elliot gawked at me while Alijah held a guarded look as he reassessed me. In his eyes, I probably went up a couple of levels on his threat meter.
I sent Elliot a knowing smile. I had always been more than a labbie. I liked working with my hands, getting into the middle of things. He now realized how far I would go to have that kind of control.
“Where’d she go?” Ami asked.
I looked around the small clearing until I found her trail. I followed the path. It didn’t go directly toward the building but around it and into the garden. We had to boost security back here because while the area was pretty, there were a lot of places to hide and more entry points into the building.
Our baddie apparently walked right through the back door.
“Get the footage for this doorway,” I said into a walkie.
Magical Intentions Page 21