“Crashing? Is there something I need to know?” I asked as I lifted up my water. After taking a drink, I watched the group. Davies and Venni didn’t seem to mind Shanton’s presence. Dwight obviously did.
“Well, I heard about this lovely dinner, and what it means, and I’m making sure I’m not forgotten.”
“F-forgotten?” I stuttered out. “I didn’t realize you were interested.”
“Then I haven’t been doing my job.”
“Enough,” Dwight snapped out, a muscle in his jaw flexing as he restrained himself.
Shanton glanced over at Davies and chuckled. “Someone else is a sourpuss today.”
Davies snorted.
I met Dwight’s gaze and he did a brief shake of his head. Despite not liking that Shanton was here, he wasn’t going to tell the dragon off. That told me two things: that Shanton was genuinely interested in me, and while Dwight was all growly and in Alpha male mode, he trusted Shanton with me. He’d get over his instinct to piss over what he deemed as his property. The two of them had to work through their Alpha instincts and find a balance that worked for them to be in the same room.
“Okay, let’s put our order in,” I said as I stared at the menu and tried not to analyze why Shanton had decided now was the time to show his interest in me. Without looking, I knew more glares were being tossed around. Pretending not to notice it all, I went over the appetizers, despite knowing the menu by heart at this point.
Our server came in. He was about my age, with black skin—pitch black skin—and golden eyes. Two horns curved up from the top his head. He was tall, lean, and fluid as he moved around the room to take our orders. He’d been our waiter each week, and I had no complaints about his service. Our wine glasses were always full, and he was good at clearing dishes when it was time. Then again, he always got a sizeable tip from us that I was sure paid half his rent. I’d be kissing ass too.
“How is the house hunting going?” Dwight asked after we put in our order and the server left.
“Why is everyone asking? It’s not.” I groaned.
“Elliot is taking her to see a couple places tomorrow,” Davies said.
“A house?” Shanton asked. “Is this because of the break-in a few weeks ago?”
I nodded. “Same group who attacked Biomystic tried to break into my apartment.” I fell quiet, not wanting to get into the specifics.
“She’s not safe there anymore,” Dwight said, filling in the rest. “I’m setting up a dummy company to hide Laila and whichever house she chooses. They won’t be able to find her so easily.”
“Oh, I can do that,” Shanton said. “I have great experience in buying property that no one knows about.” He sounded a little too proud.
“I’m capable of doing it,” Dwight growled out.
My eyes widened as I watched the volley between the two.
“I know you are. I just know I’m better.”
“Really? Did you forget I own a security company?”
“And did you forget that there has been a breach in your security?” Shanton asked back.
There was a sharp intake of breath as the room grew thick with their energy forces. They were both impossibly strong on their own, on a normal day. Throw in emotions and put them together and I was pretty sure this restaurant would crumble around us as they battled.
The breach was still a sore spot. No one knew how the intruders learned of my invention or how they were so juiced up to eat away at the elaborate ward I’d helped create. There were a lot of unknowns whirling around the entire incident. Shanton was right, Dwight was being a sourpuss, but he had an excuse. His whole business has been put under question and clients had pulled out. Dwight had been running his employees into the ground to get answers.
“Enough,” I said, not wanting the situation to escalate. I gave Shanton a tight smile. “I’m sure you’re good at it, but I’m taking Dwight up on his offer.”
Shanton held up his hands in mock surrender. “I didn’t mean to step on any toes. I only want to make sure you’re protected.”
“And she will be,” Dwight said, voice impossibly deep. Anyone else would’ve backed off, left it alone.
Unfortunately, Shanton was not anyone else. “Will she?”
Dwight jumped to his feet, growling, his hellhound at the surface. Shanton grinned as he stood. The others in the room looked like they wished they could go through walls to get away. Too bad no one could do that with magic. I’d tried.
I stood, shooting my magic out in anger and frustration. “Enough!” The ground rumbled and people outside the room shouted in surprise as dishes rattled and glass broke. “Sit down and act like adults and not like two animals fighting over a chew toy.”
That seemed to work. Shanton chuckled and sat down, leaving Dwight to glare at him. I took my seat and masked a wince, pain stabbing through my brain.
“Laila, you’re not supposed to use magic like that,” Venni reminded me.
“I know.”
“Then don’t do it.”
“Tell the two five-year-olds to behave and I won’t,” I snapped. When they stared at me in shock, I sighed and ran a hand over my face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” I shook my head. “I hate this.”
“The doctor said it was going to take time,” Dwight said as he finally took a seat. I winced at the sound of pity in his voice.
“Don’t,” I said through gritted teeth. “Please, just don’t. Dr. Ferald doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“Dr. Ferald specializes in magic misuse. And don’t mistake what you did as anything else.” Dwight’s voice was hard. I stared at the table top, my chest aching from the anger coming off of him. “You fried your brain, Dr. Porter. You turned your magic in on yourself. There is going to be damage we cannot begin to properly understand. Until you heal from it, you can’t throw around magic like that. You risk permanent damage.”
“Or killing yourself,” Davies grumbled.
I snorted at that. “Says the adrenaline junkie.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Davies said. “I take risks, but I know those risks, and I take precautions to make sure they don’t happen. I don’t jump out of an airplane without a parachute. I don’t go climbing through caves without a helmet and flashlight. I’m safe. You are not being safe when you use so much magic. The small amounts you use every now and then is fine. I get it, you need to do that for relief, but what you just did not was reckless.”
Snapping my mouth shut, I glared at the table, hating that my eyes burned. Why was everything making me so emotional today? I didn’t do emotions.
“I’m sorry,” I said and looked up, meeting each guy’s gaze. “I’m being a brat, and I’m sorry. I’ll work on it, but please be patient. I’m a magic-user, and being told to not use magic the way I like using it is driving me up a wall.”
“You’re going through withdrawals,” Davies said. “I get that. If I don’t do something stupid once a day, I go through withdrawals.”
Venni shook his head. “Not sure if it’s the same.”
“It’s as close as I can get, and it is similar in a way. I’m a junkie to adrenaline. Laila is a junkie to magic. Not getting our fix makes us sourpusses.”
I chuckled at that. Leave it to Davies to make our conversation less awkward and more bearable.
“So a new place to live,” Shanton said, giving me a supportive smile. I returned it with a shaky one. “What are you looking for?”
“A house this time, not a condo,” I answered as I carefully thought about my needs. “Private, really private. I’m going to add my own wards to it, make sure no one can get within fifty feet of the place without me knowing. Um, I’ll need a full basement, hopefully finished, and I can add the touches I need to build my lab.”
“Is that it?” Dwight asked.
I raised an eyebrow. “That’s a lot to ask of Springer City. Any more and I’m being picky. I need privacy, I need to be able to put my own security measures in place, or at least h
elp in building something I can work with. I don’t want a repeat. I don’t want assholes thinking they can walk into my lab and do what they want. I need those things.”
“Okay. Then we’ll find something,” Shanton said. He pulled out his phone and typed something on it. “You’re meeting to look at a place tomorrow?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. I contacted a man I know. He’s been helping me find my place. He’s good. He’ll get you what you need by tomorrow.” Shanton glanced at Dwight. “I promise it’s only to help her search. All the security is still up to you to handle.”
Dwight nodded, acknowledging the compromise and finding it acceptable.
“Wait, back up. Helping you find your place?” I asked.
Shanton grinned, flashing white teeth. “Yes. I wasn’t kidding. I’m looking at turning this city into my home base.”
“You’re really going to live here?”
His grin widened as he nodded. “I’m not going anywhere. The realtor will meet with you tomorrow to give you more options.”
“That fast?”
“My man is good at his job.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Of course. I’ll be around a lot more, so if you ever need help, I’m there. I do have to fly back out later tonight to finalize some things for the move, but looks like Springer City gets a dragon.”
“Our council members must be ecstatic.” I snickered. The city was going to be under a power play for a few weeks while Shanton claimed his place. I didn’t see Maev LeRouge giving up her power. She was the witch representative, and thinking about her made me want to blow shit up. She was a bully who loved rolling around in power. While the elementalists had stopped sending me invitations for dinner parties, she hadn’t given up, hoping to use me as a connection to the most powerful beings in the world.
“I’ve made my fair share of moves from one city to another. The Council doesn’t scare me.” Shanton’s smile turned feral, his teeth noticeably elongated.
“Laila, one thing you never have to worry about Shanton is his strength. Moving to a new city, taking it over, putting The Council into their place, that’s his favorite pastime,” Dwight said in a dry voice. “They’ll bend to his will.”
Shanton laughed. “They don’t have a choice. None of them can best me anyways, even if they work together.”
Our server came back and handed out the entrees.
“Where are the others?” I asked, feeling their absence.
“Alijah is hunting Padraig still,” Venni filled in. There was a pause of deep silence as we thought about the team that had successfully infiltrated BMS. There was nothing normal about them. They had something extra that even I couldn’t figure out. Padraig and Jaylam Reese had made it out, and Alijah hadn’t stopped hunting for them. “Rhett and Elliot have assignments for tonight.”
“Alijah’s been trying to catch them for weeks now.” I stabbed at the cornbread on my plate and watched it crumble.
When no one said anything, I looked up. Dwight gave me a knowing smile, sadness seeping in at the corners of his mouth. “I’m going to call him home soon. He needs more time and he needs this mission.”
“I want to join him,” I said.
“No.”
I glared at Dwight. “Why not?”
“Because it isn’t your job,” Venni answered instead. “It’s ours. You don’t have the training you need to go on a hunt.” His eyes narrowed at me before I had a chance to open my mouth to retort. “And you’re not allowed to use magic. You can’t cast some spell and find them. You need to rest.”
Damn. How did he know what I was going to say?
“I pay attention,” Venni said.
“And apparently read minds,” I snapped.
Davies chuckled. If I’d known how to growl, I would have. I wasn’t amused. That meant they didn’t have the right to be.
Venni gave me a patient smile. “I can’t read minds. You know that. What I do know are your expressions. I’ve paid attention.”
I deflated at his words. They were kind of sweet, and if I were the mushy type, I would’ve gotten up and given him a hug, and then made out with him. But we were with company, and I wasn’t big on public displays of affection.
“I know,” Venni whispered.
“Dammit,” I said and stabbed hard at my barbeque chicken. None of them were fair.
Conversation stayed light. My thoughts went off into the abyss as I thought about the last few weeks and the loss Biomystic was still feeling. I read somewhere that when people were dead, it was best to say they were dead. Not that they passed away or that they were no longer with us. The terms that were required to be said were “dead” or “died.” There had to be no room for misinterpretation.
“Henzie is dead,” I whispered, testing that theory out for the millionth time. The room went silent, all conversations dying off. Just like Henzie. I blinked and shook my head. “Sorry,” I said and scratched my cheek, clearing my throat of the painful lump that had formed inside of it. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”
“It’s fine,” Dwight said. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Me? How about you?” I asked. “He worked there for a long time. He was one of the best lab technicians. Everyone feels his loss.”
“You were there,” Davies said. “You saw it.” He glanced at the others before speaking again. “We know it haunts you.”
I cleared my throat again and added in a few blinks as an attempt to push the emotions away. “I’m fine. I think I’m more worried about Ami. She’s been distant. Overworking herself. Why hasn’t she had time off?”
“She didn’t request it,” Dwight said.
“Really? She shouldn’t have had to request it. It should be a given.” Anger rose. We all saw how she was when he died. It should have been an automatic time off.
“Laila, they weren’t dating.”
“She loved him.”
“Maybe. But they weren’t dating. They were friends. They weren’t lovers or partners,” Dwight tried to explain. “I can’t tell her what her feelings are or go off speculation.”
“So she gets to work herself into an early grave? I checked. I know how much she’s been working. How often she’s tossed herself into danger. How many times—” I blew out a breath. “How many times she’s been to the medical floor. She’s going to get herself killed. Something needs to change.”
“She’s the type who needs to work,” Venni said, and I turned to him. “That’s what she needs to get past this.”
“But—”
“You do the same thing, Laila,” Davies said. “You toss yourself into work when you’re in turmoil. You use it to distract yourself. Remember what happened before the break-in? You put yourself into a sleep, overworking yourself, trying to create that device.”
I winced because he was right. I’d been stressing, feeling like the guys had tossed me to the side after they promised me dates. To avoid it all, I had overworked myself and my body had forced me into a coma-like sleep to recuperate. That was the first time the guys had seen something like that from me, and they’d hated it. I hated it too, because if I weren’t careful, I’d go to sleep wherever I was. It had scared the shit out of them, but I had only lost a day. What would they have been like if I’d lost a couple of days? That had happened before.
“Exactly.” My answer came out hoarse. “I put myself into a sleep. What are the repercussions for Ami? When she pushes herself too hard? When she takes on something she could normally handle, but she had pushed herself into exhaustion, and so she doesn’t react as quickly as she should? Her body won’t go into a sleep to keep her alive. She’ll be killed. She’ll be sent back to us in a fucking body bag.”
“Enough!” Dwight snapped, and I froze, the little hairs on my body standing up. His expression was dark, eyes blazing with fury.
I bit down hard, grinding my teeth together.
“She’s my friend. She is my important friend
,” I admitted, each word a stab to my heart. “I cannot lose her. I don’t have many people like her in my life.”
“We’re here,” Davies said in a low voice.
“But you all want to fuck me. You all want to be my lovers. You want to be more. And you’re all men. It’s not the same. I cannot lose her and right now, she’s spiraling. I just… I just want to help her.” I met Dwight’s eyes and refused to look away. This was on him as Big Boss.
“I know,” he finally answered, his voice softening. “I know. I’ll meet with her, make it a requirement to be cleared by our therapist. She’s already been cleared, but it won’t hurt to do it again. This time, they’ll talk as if those two were lovers. That’s a bit of a different process.”
“And if she won’t?” I asked.
“She won’t get any more missions. It’s how it works. They have to be cleared before they can be on active duty.”
“You won’t let her run?” I asked.
“No. She won’t be able to run. Not anymore.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “Okay, I like that.”
The rest of the dinner passed in a somber mood, and I felt bad for upsetting the atmosphere. Davies was right, I was a sourpuss. When it ended, Venni stayed with me, being the chosen unfortunate soul to have to deal with my dark attitude on the way home.
Dwight gave me a quick kiss on the lips. Shanton pulled me into a tight hug and kissed my temple, promising to see me soon, and then the two of them left, their voices low and rumbling as they talked. I could already see it turning heated. Something was up both their butts tonight, and I wasn’t sure if it was something I should get into the middle of.
“Don’t worry about those two,” Davies said and pulled me into his chest. “They are the Alphas of all Alphas. They’re going to butt heads and fight for dominance for the rest of their lives. It won’t stop them from laughing it off the next day.”
Magical Redemption Page 2
