Magical Seclusion

by Jaliza A. Burwell

“Why?” I finally managed to ask.

  “The elementalists contacted them.”

  I sat up in bed and blinked a few times, phone still pressed to my ear as my eyes adjusted to the bright light spilling in from the window. I had forgotten to close the blinds last night and now the afternoon sunlight was mocking me, reminding me that I had to put on my big girl panties and act like a mature adult.

  “I’m guessing I can’t tell them to go fuck themselves?” I asked.

  Lombardi snorted. “No, you can’t.”

  “Okay, I’ll be there soon.”

  “No transporting. Just take your time getting here. I like the fact that they’re forced to wait.” The amusement was clear in his words. No doubt the idea of The Council being forced to wait was amusing his hellhound to no end.

  “Right. Be a sloth. I can be a sloth.”

  I hung up and rubbed at my face. Well, if he wanted to make them wait, I could make them wait.

  ~*~

  Over an hour later, after showering, checking my email, my voicemail, making something to eat, and then walking through the park, I finally reached Biomystic Security. I smiled at the two receptionists and the security guard who always kept them company as I headed to the elevator. I was tempted to stop and talk to them but figured I’d kept The Council waiting long enough.

  By the time I got to the sixth floor, where Lombardi lorded over everyone, I was a balm of nerves and questions. Did the elementalists really go to The Council? Did they seriously resort to the tactics of a six-year-old, running to Mommy and Daddy because they couldn’t get what they wanted?

  I blew out a slow breath and grounded myself as I headed over to Lombardi’s personal conference room. I could hear the rumbling of a deep voice and raised my eyebrows. His room was soundproof, and when activated, blocked against prying ears through magical means. Someone was ticked off.

  The door opened and Lombardi stood there, his expression completely shut down. He wasn’t giving anything away as he stepped back so I could walk by. I didn’t want to. I wanted to turn around and lock myself in my lab. They wouldn’t be able to get to me in there. I stared at Lombardi, searching for some sign, anything, and got nothing. He had shut himself completely down.

  I gritted my teeth before forcing myself to relax and walk into the room.

  Three others were in there with me and two of them crackled with energy. The other was a blank to me.

  “Hello,” a smooth feminine voice said with slight annoyance. I met steel blue eyes, narrowed as her gaze took me in. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, sharpening her features. “So glad you could finally join us, Miss Porter.”

  I pulled out a chair, refusing to let her bully me. I dealt with enough people like her. They thrived off of belittlement, on making others they saw as beneath them as nothing more than leftover crumbs to be swept away and disposed of.

  “Dr. Porter,” I corrected.

  “Excuse me?” Her voice crackled like lightning as a small tinge of red spread out over her pale skin.

  “I have a Ph.D. that deserves the respect I earned. So it’s Dr. Porter.”

  Someone snorted and bells went off in my head, warning me to tread carefully. The air thickened with magic and my own responded, wrapping itself around me, ready to protect. The tension in the air was oppressive, demanding me to back down.

  Wasn’t happening. People tried to look down on me because I was nineteen. They thought I should be naive and stupid. They wanted to break me, send me crying to my mommy. Too bad for them, I never had one. I was forced to grow a backbone at a young age or get eaten alive.

  We glared at each other, neither of us willing to give.

  “Enough, Maev,” a deep voice said, rumbling through the air. I found the owner of the deep tone I’d heard before walking in. He was the same man I couldn’t sense anything from. I met his eyes. They were nearly black, to match his dark skin. He wasn’t as dark as Lombardi, and his skin held a nice glow. It was underneath the surface, as if his skin had to work overtime to contain whatever was burning inside of him.

  “She mocks me.”

  “You showed disrespect. She reminded you that she isn’t merely a little girl. You of all people understand what it means to want recognition of the hard work that you put into getting where you are. If someone did the same to you, you’d have done more than just correct them,” the third person, a small male with reddish skin spoke up.

  That had Maev shutting up.

  I sat down with Lombardi to my right, his chair right up against mine. The tension made him granite hard, and when I rested my hand on his forearm, his coiled muscles felt ready to burst from his skin. He was one wrong word away from turning into Black Dog.

  “Introductions,” the third person said. His voice was soft and smoky, almost wispy. “My name is Necos. I represent the phoenix in the city.” Our eyes met and my breath hitched. Embers burned deep within his eyes, adding to his otherworldliness. With the outer part of his irises starting off as gray and then turning a fiery brown the closer it got to the pupils, he’d never be able to pass as anything but supernatural.

  The other man spoke up next. “Matis Djinn. I represent the djinns.” He sent a glare at the witch, giving me a sense of the politics. They looked like they constantly butted heads.

  The witch scowled, tilting her head to give the impression of looking down her nose at me. “Maev LeRouge. I’m the representative for all the witches. I’ve heard about you. The little magic-user who nearly destroyed this city as a child.”

  “Well, maybe if the system you guys support actually tried to help children, it wouldn’t have happened.”

  “Or maybe you should have never been born. You’re a mistake. It’s clear enough.”

  Pain stabbed through me, and I reacted the only way I knew how, by lashing out. “That sounds awfully like jealousy to me.”

  Her eyes widened as her expression tightened. A light pink mist rose from her skin as her magic gathered. She opened her mouth to give me a lashing when there was a snap in the air and Maev flinched, her chair rolling away from the table with her still in it. I winced at the feeling of a thousand needles attacking my arm.

  “Enough,” Matis snapped, causing the rumble to shake the conference table. He was on his feet now, glaring at Maev. “You have stepped out of line. If you do not control yourself, Maev, then you’ll have to leave. You were only invited because the other members were not able to make it. Do not make us regret this decision.”

  “Very well,” Maev said in a tight voice, and while she forced her expression into something amicable, her eyes were glacial. She moved back to the table. The magic that had formed like condensation on her skin seeped back into her body.

  “Dr. Porter, I suggest you don’t antagonize them and at least hear what they have to say,” Lombardi said as Matis settled back into his seat.

  I released my death grip on his arm and straightened in my seat. “Fine, why are you here?” I asked, wanting to get to the point. I didn’t want to be here just as much as Maev, and I didn’t like feeling cornered. Lombardi shifted in his seat and his hand found mine under the table. He gave it a squeeze, reminding me that he supported me. I squeezed back, using his touch as the extra strength I needed to not turn Maev into a slimy leech.

  “The elementalists have contacted us. Imagine our surprise to learn we have an elementalist living in our city. And she’s ignoring her family. We’re concerned,” Maev said, her voice disgustingly sweet. I could practically taste her greed in the air and my talents didn’t involve heightened senses.

  I wanted to snort. Instead, my grip on Lombardi tightened. He didn’t move away, so I took that as a good sign that he didn’t mind my nails digging into his skin.

  “They brought an interesting proposal to the table,” Necos said. “They want to bring you into their fold, give you the proper training you need to utilize your gifts, and they’re willing to let you stay here and act as a liaison between our city and the element
alists. They’ll give us access to them—their medicines, technology, and resources.”

  “And what’s in it for me?” I asked.

  Necos frowned. “You’ll learn about who you are and what you’re capable of doing. From what they were willing to tell us, you’re working with what amounts to a bucket of power when you have the potential to use an entire lake full of it.”

  “You’re not curious?” Matis asked.

  “Oh, I’m curious. I also know I’ve been doing just fine on my own.”

  “The elementalists aren’t beings you can just turn your back on,” Maev said. “They have access to magic and artifacts we can only dream of. Don’t throw that away because you’re a spoiled brat.”

  “You mean don’t throw it away because you’re too greedy to see the truth,” I said.

  Her eyes flashed as the magic filled the space. Why was she even here? I’d think if they wanted to kiss my ass to get what they wanted, they’d bring someone not so aggressive. Unless they planned to bully me into doing what they wanted. So far I was not impressed with The Council.

  I glanced at Matis and Necos.

  Okay, I was a little impressed. It was nearly suffocating in here with so many powerful beings.

  “You’re willing to deny them? To risk angering them?” Necos asked, trying to be the voice of reason. He didn’t look angry with me, just curious. “They can help us, help this city. Save lives.”

  “They can also destroy it. I’ve seen enough of what they can do that it doesn’t make me so inclined to jump into bed with them. Sure, they can create, but they also destroy enough too. What exactly did you delude yourself into thinking we had retrieved from those caves? It wasn’t a fricken cure-all to help save lives. They don’t care about you or me or this city. They just can’t stand the fact that I am one of them but I don’t belong to them. I don’t want contact with them.”

  The three council members stared at me. I wasn’t going to back down from this. The craziness that was my mind used that moment to remind me of the dreadful dreho. I’d had to unmake him and it was a stark reminder of why I’d refused contact. All that pain and misery, the multiple limbs, the fury. My own anger rose up again, and I had to hide my hands underneath the table so they didn’t see them curl into fists. I was very close to blowing up the conference room.

  “I see.” The deep voice chased away the image, and I glared at Matis. I didn’t know much about djinns, just that they were powerful and if they felt like it, they granted wishes that could potentially bite you in the ass.

  “I doubt you do,” I said, my expression blanking out to hide my emotions while I created a wall around my mind to block out prying djinns. Matis’s lip curled into a smile, amused by my attempt to keep him out of my head.

  “I saw enough.”

  “No, you really didn’t.” I let go of Lombardi and leaned forward. “You can’t grasp the full devastation that the elementalists caused by one simple image that you saw for only a moment. You can’t grasp the violence that the dreho had wrapped around itself to mask the pain it had hidden deep within itself. You can’t grasp being in those tunnels, having something that should never have existed intent on tearing you apart, only because it was lashing out. You can’t understand what it feels like to put such a miserable creature out of its misery while its emotions battered against you until you’re left raw and hurting almost as much as it was. The elementalists are bullies, and I want nothing to do with them.”

  I sent my glare to Maev. “And I do enough for this city. I create the very products used to help capture the baddies. I put my very soul into everything I create. I won’t let you belittle me just because you want me to do more than I’m willing to do. This is the last time I’m saying it. I want nothing to do with them. Nothing.”

  “Dwight, are you going to let her throw this opportunity away?” Maev said, turning to my boss. I gritted my teeth and glanced at Lombardi, who seemed only amused now.

  He smirked as he straightened from his relaxed position. At some point in this meeting, he’d decided he didn’t need to be a stone wall anymore.

  “Well?” Maev asked.

  “I’m still trying to figure out why you’re here,” he said, his eyes flickering to me briefly before focusing back on the three council members. “This is between Dr. Porter and the elementalists and has nothing to do with this city. If she doesn’t want anything to do with them, then I can’t force her. Frankly, I don’t want her doing anything with them.”

  “Why?” Necos asked.

  “Because she’s one of my best, and the elementalists are just as greedy as Maev is. They want Laila. They want to use her. They’ll play nice for now, but the moment they think they have her under their control, they’ll cut you off. I doubt they are willing to come out of the woodwork. They disappeared a long time ago and stayed off everyone’s radar. I don’t see them opening their arms in a warm welcome now.” Lombardi smirked, his eyes hardening. I winced, glad to not have been on the receiving end of that. If the elementalists were in the room, he’d have turned into Black Dog. “Besides, Laila is mine. I’m not handing her over to cowards who can’t even show their own faces.”

  Maev shook her head. “You’re acting just like a dragon. Possessive. You covet that which you shouldn’t.”

  He snorted. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  No one said anything for the longest time until, finally, Necos stood up. “Laila, it has been a pleasure meeting you.” He smiled, and it looked genuine on him.

  “We’re leaving?” Maev asked.

  “Yes,” Matis said, getting to his feet as well. Not wanting to feel like I was being towered over, I rose, with Lombardi following.

  Maev reluctantly got to her feet. She sent me one more glare to finish off the meeting before focusing on Lombardi. “I hope you understand what it is you’re giving up.” Her expression softened briefly before she turned and stalked out of the room, the heels of her shoes clinking against the floor.

  Matis nodded to me before following after her. Necos waited until the two of them were out of the room before speaking again.

  “This meeting was expected, frankly. I’ve had an encounter or two with the elementalists.”

  “Really?” I asked, surprised.

  He nodded. “Phoenix are immortal. We do die, but we rise too. An elementalist thought it’d be fun to kill me for my feathers.” Something dark flashed across his face before his features smoothed into a neutral expression. “I support your need to stay away. If you wanted to be with them, I’d warn you, but it seems we are on the same page. They will try to trap you to get what they want. Tread carefully, because I can see the potential growing inside of you. I don’t want to see that squashed.”

  He nodded to Lombardi before leaving the room. I stared at the door for a few long, silent moments, mulling over what he said.

  “Are you okay?” Lombardi asked, breaking the silence.

  “Never better,” I said and then wrinkled my face with disgust. “Maev? Really? Please tell me you didn’t sleep with her.”

  “I didn’t.”

  I narrowed my eyes, getting nothing from his expression.

  He smirked. “I really didn’t, Laila. She’s thirsty for power and likes to get close to anyone with some. She has the favor of the dragons too.” He shrugged. “We’re in the same social circle, so we run into each other once in a while.”

  “Uh huh. Must be often enough for her to feel like she’s your best friend.”

  Lombardi grabbed my arm and turned me so I faced him. He stepped closer, his hands going to my waist. “Is that jealousy I hear?” he asked.

  I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even meet his eyes because dammit, he was right. I was jealous. There was history there with Maev. If she was a sweet girl, I wouldn’t care, but she was slimy. I contemplated turning her into a leech once again. She needed to reflect exactly what her insides were like. Sneaky, slimy, manipulative, and a true leech. If left alone, she’d s
uck out everything good in a person, twisting them into something disgusting.

  “Laila,” Lombardi murmured in his rich silky voice. “Look at me.”

  I glanced at his chin instead. He had a nice chin, strong, with just a hint of dark stubble growing in. His skin was dark and smooth.

  “My eyes. Look at my eyes.”

  My focus switched to his nose and how refined it was. No bumps, no pointiness. Everything proportionate.

  His hand went to my chin and tilted my head up until our eyes finally met. “There you are.”

  He leaned forward until we were inches away from each other, so close that his body heat seeped into my skin, reaching for my core. His scent put me into a daze. If Lombardi was the creation of Hell, then maybe I should consider visiting.

  “Laila, I promise nothing ever happened between Maev and me. She has never even hit my radar. Yes, I have history, just like you do, but none of that matters. My interest is in you, and only you. I couldn’t care less about other women trying to strut around me. You only matter to me. Even when you’re not in the room, all I think about is you, your touch, your scent, how you’d react to a challenge. You consume my thoughts.”

  His lips were only inches away now, and I sighed as his words reached deep inside my soul and made me feel safe in his care. I stared at the plumpness of his lips. I wanted to taste them again. I hadn’t kissed him since the dance club after Shanton’s visit.

  Lombardi’s lip twisted into a small smile, his thoughts aligned with my own. He leaned forward, and when our lips met, sparks flitted along my skin. My magic greeted his energy like old friends, and I moaned, opening up to him. I grabbed his shirt, pressing myself into him, my breasts squished against his hard chest. His hands went to my waist, and I shivered when his fingers grazed the exposed skin between my jeans and shirt.

  We kissed more, the passion building between us but neither of us going crazy. He was gentle and slow, his tongue caressing mine, as if saying he cared, that he’d take care of me, he’d never hurt me.

  When we pulled away, I rested my forehead against his chest and closed my eyes. My body was on fire. Who knew that a slow kiss could ignite such a reaction from me. Lombardi wasn’t playing fair. None of the guys were. They’d ignite my body, make me want more, and then pull away, leaving me wet and wanting.