Magical Seclusion

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  Alijah ignored the carnage, stepping right over it and heading to the stairs to go down. Just as we reached the door, Dwight was at our side and when the door was open, he went first to clear the path.

  “We got you,” Alijah said as we went into the stairwell.

  I closed my eyes, just trying to breathe through the pain, trusting that they’d keep me alive. Otherwise, I’d have to haunt them. I’d be able to pull it off, and I’d make an awesome ghost.

  “Laila,” Alijah said, squeezing me.

  “Hm?”

  “Stop thinking like that. You are not going to become a ghost. You aren’t there.”

  “Stay out of my thoughts.”

  “Don’t talk out loud.”

  Darn. I pressed my lips together and tried to stay conscious as we descended.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “What happened?” Henzie asked, drawing me out of my misery. I opened my eyes to see him rushing over. When Dwight growled, he backed off.

  “She’s been shot in the thigh. There’s a lot of blood and I think the bullet is still in there,” Alijah said.

  “Find me a medical kit,” Dwight growled out, now in human form, naked, muscles bulging as he stalked over and took me from Alijah.

  I whimpered as the pain flared to life again. He went over to the sofa and gently put me down before going to my leg to look at the damage.

  I still refused to look at it. Denial was my friend right now. I’d never been shot, and I wasn’t up for being shot ever again

  “We’ll need to pull it out,” Dwight said and touched the wound. “And I think we have a problem.”

  “If you say,” I breathed out, “that you need to cut off my leg, I’m going to murder you.”

  “I think the bullet is spelled. The surrounding skin is already turning black.”

  “Oh fuck, you’re going to have to cut it off.” I briefly contemplated what it’d be like to have one leg. Or would I grow one back? Could I do that? I knew some could, given time. Did elementalists have that ability?

  “No, we should be fine,” Dwight answered, drawing me out of my spiraling thoughts. “Is there a healer in here?”

  “No,” Elliot said, hovering behind him with some clothes in his hands. He nudged Dwight and shoved the clothes at him. After a glare, Dwight got dress quickly, done in seconds, before he was back at my side.

  “Laila, you’ll have to help me. Your body naturally fights back, and it’s doing it now. Can you give your body a boost?”

  “A boost?”

  “You need to push out the poison.”

  I groaned. I really didn’t have it in me to do that.

  “Laila, I know you’re tired. You must be exhausted by now, but you need to do this. No else here has the capabilities to heal.”

  I moaned as my leg jerked and a searing fire took over most of my thigh. I scrunched my eyes closed and focused on the one thing a body needed to do to survive: Air. Breathing.

  “Dr. Laila Porter!”

  My eyes snapped open and focused on Dwight’s stony expression.

  When he knew he had my attention, he spoke again, his voice hard and commanding, drawing out the part of me that could only listen to what he had to say. “You need to push out the poison before it spreads. Only you can do this.”

  “Okay. Help me up.” I wasn’t sure they heard me, but then Dwight wrapped his arms around my shoulders and the back of my knees, and shifted me until I was sitting.

  I closed my eyes briefly before looking down at my leg. At some point, in all the pain, someone had cut my jeans open and I could see my thigh. Thick, inky black lines stretched out underneath the skin and expanded by the second. In the center of all that inkiness was a bloody hole.

  “Holy Goddess,” I whispered. My leg was so going to need to be amputated. This kind of damage, it was too much.

  “Don’t focus on that. Focus on what your body is telling you. It knows what it needs, it just needs your help to do it,” Dwight said, voice soft. His hand rubbed my calf as he talked, his energy running along my skin to give me some comfort.

  I stared at the wound for the imagery and then felt for my leg. The magic inside streamed toward my leg, and I bit back a scream as the fire around the wound turned into an inferno thanks to the addition of magic. Magic always felt like an electric current to me, and added electricity to a burning bullet wound was not a good idea. Maybe cutting it off would have been better.

  “You’re doing good,” Dwight said. Elliot wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into him, my chest heaving, skin soaked in sweat. “It’s working. Look.”

  I forced myself away from Elliot and looked at my leg. The poison was retreating toward the hole and black pus was seeping out of the wound. The air smelled of rotten eggs and my nose curled in disgust. I gave my magic another push toward my leg, asking for it to heal. It was more than happy to help, knowing that if I died, its existence ended too.

  The pain went deep down to the bone, and I cried out as the skin tried to stitch itself together, pulling and tugging, stretching out what was already there and supplementing it with new skin.

  “You’re almost done,” Elliot said into my ear, pushing my damp hair back away from my flushed face.

  Alijah came back into the room with a big box in his hand. He passed it to Dwight before standing just behind Elliot, getting as close as he could, crowding me.

  I focused on his eyes and pushed my magic again. Lethargy pulled down on my body and my head felt like it was in a wind tunnel, sounds unable to fully get through as my sight narrowed.

  “She’s going to pass out.”

  “Stay with us,” Dwight said. “You’re doing good. I can see the bullet pushed to the entrance wound. I’m going to pull it out and then you can finish healing it.”

  Pressure was put on my thigh, and they went to work, doing what they could for my leg.

  “I got the bullet out,” Dwight said. “Now that it’s out, you can finish. It isn’t too bad, the muscle and bone are fine. I’m sure you’ll be up and walking in a couple of days.”

  “Don’t have that long,” I reminded him and watched as he carefully bandaged and wrapped the wound.

  “You will.” He didn’t say anything else as he straightened up and turned to the room. That was when I realized we had a full room, everyone gathered together.

  “The admins?” I asked.

  Ami came forward, staring at a tablet. “We got them. You guys distracted them right when we needed it and taking out the sniper helped. They’re downstairs. One of them is helping Nisha. She’s not doing too good and needs real medical help. The baby needs to come out, but they mentioned something about the umbilical cord being wrapped around the baby and it being turned the wrong way.”

  “She’s in labor?” Dwight asked.

  Ami nodded. “And not doing so well. We need to resolve this quickly.”

  “Fill me in on everything.”

  While Ami did that, Elliot and Alijah helped me to a sitting position and Henzie came over with a screen for me.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. When Elliot passed me some wipes, I gave him a thankful smile before trying to get rid of the blood coating my hands.

  “They’re breaking into Lombardi’s office now. We really did get everyone out on time.” Henzie tapped at the screen and then handed it to me. The group was now outside the double doors that led into the suite. The old man was doing something with the mage and the guy who could send liquid out of his hands. The witch with the jewelry was also there now. She had run away.

  “What do you think they want?” I asked, but Dwight was still distracted with Ami as they went over more security protocols and what their options were.

  Dwight bulged with energy, and he looked ready for a hunt. I wasn’t so sure he’d be staying here for much longer.

  “They’re in,” Ishaan called out.

  “What are they looking for?” Logan asked.

  Henzie leaned over to look a
t the tablet in my hand. I looked down too and watched as they tore the suite apart, looking for something. Reese was by the walls and when he came to a spot he was happy with, he nodded at the witch. She came over and threw some magic at it. The air grew hazy.

  “They don’t even care,” I said.

  “What?” Elliot asked.

  “They don’t care that we can watch. They haven’t tried to take out all the cameras. Just the couple on the first floor.”

  “They’re going to kill us anyways. No reason to hide anything,” Dwight said. “Or at least they think so.”

  “They’re cocky and that gives us better odds,” Alijah said.

  A few moments later, a safe was revealed and the witch continued to work on it.

  “Was that a hidden charm?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Dwight said. “Better than a painting or hidden panel.”

  “But not good enough.”

  “Not for her. Has she been identified yet?” he asked.

  “Rachel Lisera,” Ami said. “A witch from the west. I wasn’t sure until I got close to her earlier. We had to go right by her to get outside. Her magic says it all.”

  “The west? Like from the mountains?” I asked.

  “Further. Think no-man’s land. Seems like more than half this crew is from out there.”

  I stared at the woman, the hardness in her expression. She’d been through shit in her life and now she had an ‘I’ll fuck you up’ look about her. The leather pants backed up her attitude.

  “She survived out there?” Logan asked.

  “Plenty of people survive out there,” Schifrin said and the room went quiet. He never spoke, and now he was offering an opinion. Even Ami was surprised to hear his scratchy voice.

  Dwight broke the silence by saying, “He’s right. About sixty percent of the population are nice enough. They won’t go out of their way to help you, but they aren’t there to hurt you either. They just want to be left alone. Unfortunately, the land also allows for those who don’t want to be found to stay under the radar. A lot of the criminals have a base out there somewhere.”

  “And Lisera is one of them. She’s big game.” Ami shook her head, her jaw tight as she glared at the tablet in her hand.

  “Plan?”

  “I kill them all,” Dwight growled out, his voice dangerously deep. All the security experts went into a discussion on how to do just that. Dwight was all for going at them, but the others wanted to be cautious. Sure, he could probably take them all out without much difficulty, but there were too many unknowns and each person was on my level, or even better. They had an edge I didn’t. Violence. They didn’t blink or cringe from it.

  “They didn’t find what they’re looking for,” I said and that drew everyone’s attention. “They look pissed.” I looked up at Dwight. “What are they looking for?”

  “They’re bypassing a lot of information. That leaves only one thing.” He sighed.

  “And that would be?” Henzie asked.

  “I have a key.” He pulled back the collar of his sweater to show his dark skin underneath. I tried my best to not get distracted with how muscular and smooth his chest looked.

  “What are we looking at?” Henzie asked.

  I leaned closer, noting the way the light caught his skin. It was barely noticeable and I only saw it because he moved closer, and it created a reflection. It was on his collarbone and the size of a large coin.

  “A tattoo?” I asked. He came closer and knelt in front of me so I could get a better look. I reached out and touched the skin, feeling the small rise of the skin.

  “Yes. Rumors are I have something more physical, like a key, not a tattoo.” Dwight moved away from me and I missed the feel of his skin.

  Sneaky. Smart.

  “So they do want to get into the labs,” Logan said.

  “But they aren’t going to try to force their way through,” added Ami.

  “Well, that was their original goal. Probably knock off two goals. Clear the floors and get easy access to the labs,” Alijah said. “Their only challenge would be to get through the doors that went down when we went into lockdown.”

  “Well, if they’re clearing floors, they’ll hit the security floor before they get to the labs,” Logan said.

  “Not that easy. They’d need to get to that floor to be able to open the doors. The controls aren’t in this room. Once we lowered the doors, we lost access to them, just to ensure that if we did lose the security room, the labs still held a chance,” Ami said. “Each floor has its own access panel tucked away.”

  “Can they hack into it?” I asked.

  Henzie shook his head. “Different system.”

  “They’d be able to get through the doors. With the speed they’re moving, each door would only take them a couple of minutes. We will need to kill them all before they make it down here.” Dwight removed his shirt.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “They’re already coming back down. I’m not letting them past the first floor.”

  “Will you be able to fight in closed corridors?” I asked. “And as Black Dog?”

  Dwight smirked. “I’m a hunter, Laila. This is nothing. They thought they won when they kept me out, but you got me back in.”

  “We still have an issue. We’re missing one of the guys,” Ami said.

  “I’ll find him too.”

  “You’ll get yourself killed,” Alijah said.

  “Dammit,” Ami said. “I’m coming with you, Boss.”

  “Whose lab are they going to go for?” Logan asked. He turned to us. “What are you guys working on?”

  I shrugged. “Nothing anyone should know about.” Henzie nodded his agreement. Being the top three labbies meant our biggest projects were a secret until we were done.

  “Let’s assume they got wind of it and found out. That’s why they’re here. What are you working on?” Logan asked.

  Henzie glanced at Dwight and the Black Dog nodded.

  “I’m finishing up a project that steals secrets from the brain. They go in and read the synapses, access memories, and read thoughts. It’ll be useful for interrogations and information gathering.”

  That raised a few eyebrows, including my own. I had no idea he was working on something so big. To have direct access to a person’s brain, to all their thoughts, memories, and knowledge. That was definitely dangerous.

  “Dr. Porter?” Logan asked.

  “I’m working on a device that can drain magic to a certain extent on a magic-user. It’ll be attuned to humans so only they would be able to use it.”

  “Both dangerous,” Ishaan said. “The other technicians?”

  “Nothing to their extent,” Dwight said. “If they want in the labs, it’s going to be for either one of theirs.”

  “We need to stop them,” Ami said.

  “We will,” Dwight said. “Laila, Dr. Bertini, put your heads together and find a way to get that ward down. Enforcers are already waiting to get inside.”

  “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  “Kill them.”

  “Or stall them as best as we can,” Ami said. “I’m sure we want some of them alive.”

  Dwight didn’t look too impressed with her idea. After a moment, his lips curled into a dark smile. “Fine. We will stall them so we can detain them. I have some questions for them anyway and I believe Henzie’s project needs some test subjects.”

  “If you do kill someone, be sure to kill the right person. It’ll weaken the ward,” I reminded them.

  “Will do,” Dwight answered. Leaving them to their planning. I turned to Henzie.

  “Thoughts? Have anything that can get rid of that ward?” I asked him as he settled down next to me on the couch. I flicked the tablet to a video feed to see the ward again.

  “Dwight, how many men did you kill?” I asked, staring at the ward.

  The talking went silent. Dwight leaned away from where the group had huddled together. “Two. Plus the snipe
r Alijah got.”

  “Damn.”

  “What?” Elliot asked.

  “The ward is still up. I was hoping the ones he killed helped build it.”

  “What does that mean?”

  I shrugged. “Could still be any of the others. I was just hoping but that was dumb of me. Nothing is ever that easy. This would be so much easier if we knew who created the ward. Take them out and we’d be free.”

  “Killing everyone would be easiest,” Dwight said with a grin. I rolled my eyes. He really wanted blood. I didn’t blame him—everyone wanted blood.

  “No, it wouldn’t,” Ami said. “And killing them isn’t a guarantee, not if it’s at this level.”

  Frowning, I asked, “What do you mean?”

  “Just last week, a witch down south discovered a way to ground a ward using an item.”

  I straightened in my seat and winced. “I didn’t read about this. Explain.” My focus had been too much on my project that I’d forgotten to keep up with the news. Something in my life had to give and apparently, that ended up being current events.

  Ami’s expression was grim. “She found a way to create a ward and tie it to an item. The item doesn’t matter, it could even be a necklace. After research, she discovered that if she did that, the only way to get rid of the ward was to destroy that item.”

  “Dammit!” The wall nearby tempted me to bang my head against it. This was ridiculous.

  “Do you think that’s the case?” Dwight asked.

  I bit my lip. I didn’t know. I had no idea at all. Ami seemed to sense my frustration and gave me knowing look, understanding how much this information really bothered me.

  “It could be.”

  “Then what does that mean for us?”

  “It means,” I spoke up, “That we will need to break the ward on our own.” I turned to Ami. “How can we tell that it’s tied to an item and not a person?”

  She shrugged. “Kill everyone?”

  Yeah, Dwight would love to do that. A few of the others snorted at the answer.