Magical Redemption

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  After that, they continued to talk about my protection, and what they could do to track the baddies. If Alijah had trouble finding them, then I imagined the others weren’t going to get so lucky. Alijah specialized in tracking. These guys were good, managing to send Alijah on goose chases through the wild. And while he was out there, they came back to the city and stayed underneath the radar to use whatever device they created to suck the magic out of people.

  I yawned as I failed to fight off the fatigue.

  “We’ll go and let you get some rest.” Dwight stood up and the others followed. They were ready to head out the door, no doubt leaving someone either in the apartment next to mine or to camp outside my door.

  “Alijah, can you stay?”

  Alijah stopped and turned to me while the others only glanced back before leaving.

  “You want me to stay?”

  I nodded. “I don’t want to be alone tonight, and I missed you. I need some time with you.”

  His expression softened as he came over. “That might be a bad idea tonight.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my tiger is riding me hard.”

  I grabbed his hand and tugged him closer to me until his legs hit the couch. “It isn’t your fault.”

  “I didn’t even know it was possible. I’m well-guarded. I’ve trained to make sure people can’t get into my head.”

  “He got into mine,” I reminded him. “I fried my brain because he did. He has a neat little trick, and he made sure to excel at using it.”

  Reminding him I nearly turned myself into a vegetable wasn’t the right thing to say. He responded with a growl, red flames flickering in his eyes.

  Taking a different approach, I asked, “Do you think all this is my fault?”

  “What? No!” He leaned down and squeezed my hands.

  “The enforcers think so. So does The Council. And the vampire queen.”

  “They don’t know shit. You were trying to do something amazing, and when they came to take it away from you, you defended yourself and kept them away.”

  “Maybe, but I gave them enough information to create whatever that thing is.”

  He groaned and stood up, bringing me with him. As he led me to the bedroom, he said, “There’s no point in talking about this when we’re both worked up. Let’s get some sleep. In the morning, we’ll talk again.”

  I let him take me to bed, giving his tiger the control he needed.

  When he stripped down to his boxers, I eyed him and smirked. He took in my expression.

  “No.”

  I groaned. “Please don’t tell me you guys are still ‘taking it slow.’ I want to feel you tonight.”

  His eyes flashed with the same need I felt.

  “There’s a lot we need to talk about. There’s too much hanging out there right now, and I don’t want it there.”

  I frowned. “Like what?”

  “I may not have brought it up, but I’m still working through your breach in my privacy.”

  My mouth popped open.

  “It may seem like a small thing, and I get that it’s something that you needed to do, but you need to realize that not everyone is okay with that. Where you need to stick your nose into everyone’s business, I need my privacy. You should have just asked me instead of going behind my back to get my personal file.”

  “I didn’t know you,” I said.

  “So? Asking for forgiveness after isn’t the solution. You breached my trust, and I need to get over that before I even consider going further with you.”

  I blinked back tears as my heart ached.

  Alijah sighed. “Come to bed, Laila. You’re exhausted. Everything looks grim when you’re tired.”

  He reached over and tugged me into the bed. After helping me strip out of my jeans and T-shirt, he passed me a massive shirt that I had to swim through to get on. Then he lay down and tugged me on top of him. His arms wrapped tightly around me and Alijah buried his head into my neck, taking in a deep breath. His nose trailed along the vein on my neck.

  “If you do that, I’m going to want more,” I whispered. He stopped moving and just held me close.

  “Close your eyes and sleep,” he said in a gruff voice. I smiled a little. He was struggling just as much as I was to not tear off the rest of our clothes and fuck each other into oblivion. It wouldn’t have been such a bad thing if we did that, but I needed to respect his wishes. I’d already broken his trust. He needed time.

  I could give him that.

  Chapter Eleven

  The best time for an idea to whack me in the face was at three in the morning when even the dead were asleep. It was a standing reservation for my brain to say, “Hey, I have an idea, it’s time to wake up.” So, I wasn’t surprised when that happened to me while I slept in Alijah’s arms. Something I hadn’t considered was that when Padraig tried extracting the information from my brain, he took parts of myself. I may not have had something of his to search for him, but I had plenty of parts of me.

  Could I track the information he took from me? Would that work?

  It had to.

  I didn’t dare move as I came up with plans and listened to Alijah sleep. The guys were so focused on keeping me safe that I didn’t think they’d let me put myself in danger, and if I wanted to try, I’d have to do just that. Plus, this was all on me. No, sleep did not help make it better. The guilt and anger still clawed at me. I was tired, but not the kind where sleep would help. The only thing that would take away this desperate feeling was to destroy the men who made my life hell. I needed to find them, and I needed to make their lives twice as hellish.

  Being an elementalist made that possible. I was powerful enough and had proved it twice: first when that old man tried to take the information from me and the second time when my magic was almost stolen. I was strong enough. Using magic, just a little to not overdo it, I pushed it against Alijah, whispering “sleep” softly into his ear. His breathing deepened. No need to disturb his rest with this. I’d only be gone for a little while. I just had to grab what I needed. Pop in, pop back out. I wasn’t sure why I was trying so hard to reassure myself. I just knew Alijah would stop me. And he was a smart man, he’d figure out what I wanted to do. He’d also be furious.

  As guilt gnawed at me, I slowly slipped out of bed, thinking he’d still wake up at the simplest sound. When he didn’t move at all as my weight shifted the mattress, I tiptoed into the bathroom and changed quickly, throwing on jeans and a sweater. It was December, so the weather was growing steadily colder, with the occasional odd warm day tossed in there to confuse us. It was impossible to step outside without checking the weather, since it ranged between freeze-your-ass off to sweat-your-ass-off temperatures.

  With one last glance at Alijah, I left him sleeping, wrapped my magic around myself, thought of my condo, and felt the telltale signs of teleporting. I hadn’t dared to do it since the break-in, too worried I’d end up out west, a place no one wanted to go. Or worse, I’d finish frying my brain.

  When I landed, there was a small pulse in my brain, and the room only spun a little bit. Okay, it spun a lot as I grew lightheaded. But, good news, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. I was pretty sure if I’d tried doing this last week, I would have knocked myself out. Hope rose in me, I was almost back to myself. My lab was on the top floor of one of the tallest buildings in Springer City with my condo on the floor below. I’d chosen the building because of the amazing view. They’d also let me buy two floors and gut one to convert into a lab space. The condos were on sale and there had been some potential buyers, but for now, the place was still mine, even if I no longer stayed there. Dwight and the others refused to let me sleep there after the attempt to break into my lab, and I didn’t want to either. But now that I had my house, I could pack everything up and send it over.

  The lab felt too empty, and I glanced around nervously. My wards were still in place, and the one they’d torn had reformed, but still. The back of my neck prickled
as I gathered everything I thought I’d needed to help create a tracking potion. There was no way anyone was in the lab with me. My magic didn’t pick anything up, and everything was how it should have been.

  With three factions in the city wanting a piece of me, it was no wonder that I was paranoid. It felt like everyone wanted to hunt me down.

  “I’m okay,” I whispered into the empty space, ignoring the small pulse from my headache. There were still three more hours before the sun came up, and everyone was asleep.

  My skin prickled in warning, and I shuddered. Glancing around, I strapped the bag to my back and not wanting to push myself by teleporting again, I took the elevator down to the ground floor to where our security guard, Roman, sat. He didn’t even bat an eye when I stepped into the foyer. That wasn’t anything new though, not much threw the stoic security guard off.

  Instead of walking out into the early morning, I stopped in front of his desk.

  “Dr. Porter, is there anything you need?” he asked.

  “I was just swinging by for some supplies.” I motioned to my bag. “I hope everything has been quiet since the incident?”

  He nodded. “We upgraded some of our wards and cameras. We’re keeping track of non-residents, but no one suspicious has been around.”

  “That’s great to hear.” I grinned, reassured that everything was as it should be.

  About to turn to leave, Roman called out, “Let me call you a taxi service. It’s late.”

  “Thank you, that would be perfect.”

  While he called a taxi, I stared out the window into the darkness. Even though I couldn’t see them, I felt them. The things that lived in the dark. They always came out to play when the sun went down and disappeared by morning. Nighttime was their domain. Wandering around Springer City wasn’t dangerous. They left everyone alone and as long as we ignored them, they didn’t bother to interact with us. I imagined if we were to enter Nature’s territory, they wouldn’t be as kind and would enjoy a good midnight snack.

  A taxi pulled up and idled in front of the door. Its company logo glowed in the darkness.

  “Taxi is here, thank you.”

  “Have a good night, Dr. Porter,” Roman said.

  “Where to?” the taxi driver asked when I climbed in. He was young, maybe mid-twenties. My senses told me he was completely human, and that explained the dark circles around his eyes. I’d be tired too if I was stuck working as a driver this late at night.

  “Biomystic Security.”

  He didn’t say anything as we drove away. The silent drivers were always my favorite. I stared out into the darkness as he expertly weaved the streets. Biomystic wasn’t that far away, on the other side of the park. While it was only a short walk through the park, driving was double that time to get around. At night, the drive was faster because of the lack of traffic, but I still noticed.

  When he should have turned left, he went straight, bringing us away from my destination.

  “You took a wrong turn,” I said.

  He didn’t respond. In fact, he sped up. My heart matched his speed as I realized something was deeply wrong.

  “Pull over,” I snapped, gathering my magic around me to bitch slap him with it.

  I didn’t think he’d listened to me, but he slammed on his breaks and pulled over. I banged into the back of the driver’s seat, a sharp pain driving up from my nose before warmth dripped down from it.

  “What the fuck?” I dove for the doorknob, but it popped open on its own before I could reach it. A massive body crawled in, pushing me to the middle. I went for the other door, but it opened and someone else climbed in. They had me wedged between them. The front passenger seat opened and a third person got in.

  “Miss Porter, you are a hard woman to get a hold of,” the man in the front seat said, turning to face me.

  The first thing I noticed was his sharp teeth.

  Shit. Vampires.

  “Dr. Porter,” I corrected him out of habit.

  He made a humming noise, the energy in the cab becoming suffocating. “Dr. Porter then. Pleasure meeting you.” He turned back around and said, “Drive.”

  The taxi driver still didn’t say anything as he pulled back onto the road and down the highway, farther and farther away from Biomystic Security. I pulled on my magic, ready to teleport, but before I could finish the thought, the vampire in the back moved. He yanked on my arm and slapped a bracelet on me that clicked into place. Instantly, a wall formed between my magic and me. I tried reaching for it, and while it was there, I couldn’t grasp it.

  “Nice try,” Dr. Porter,” the vampire in the passenger seat said.

  Silence fell around us as I tried to understand what they’d done to me. The bracelet was simple silver, a thin plain band around my wrist. I needed to distract myself before I screamed in terror. “Shouldn’t you guys be sleeping?” I asked. “It’s not even four in the morning.”

  One of the guys next to me snickered, and when I glared at the blond-haired asshole, he turned his head to stare out the window. I wasn’t fooled. All his attention was still on me. If I tried anything, he’d rip my head off with his bare hands, and I wouldn’t know what had happened until it was too late.

  “The Mistress keeps to the dark hours,” the man in the front said. He sent a smile my way, his light green eyes laughing at me. His brown hair was long and pulled back into a ponytail, the tail end falling over his shoulder, giving him a feminine, delicate look.

  “Dark hours. She’s awake during the night. Can I have a tissue? My nose is bleeding.”

  The man didn’t answer. In fact, no one said anything. The dead silence when I gave up trying to get them to answer my questions was suffocating. I had to use my shirt to wipe my face. At least the bleeding stopped. I wiped what I could.

  The rest of the time I spent berating myself. How could I have been so stupid? I’d gotten used to seeing Rhett and the other vampires during the day. Direct sunlight only irritated vampires after a certain age. Baby vampires just had a very annoying allergic reaction, their skin developing into a rash, but nothing too severe. After about a hundred years, they were strong enough to stay out in the sunlight on a sunny day. They normally just threw on a pair of sunglasses to protect their sensitive eyes. Davies had gone on about old myths about vampires, about how they turned into dust in the sunlight or about one particular fiction story that had them sparkling. They were just that, myths and guesswork. The vampires even promoted it so that no one was sure about their weaknesses.

  I didn’t know their weakness either. I wasn’t sure if stabbing them in the heart with a piece of wood would work. Or tossing holy items at them. I was positive holy ground didn’t do shit to them, how else would there be a vampire church in the city. So with the knowledge that they could go out in the sunlight and not melt or burst into ashes, I figured they had normal hours like everyone else and only the younger ones stayed hidden. Again, I was an idiot. I blamed Rhett. He slept at night. So did the other vampires I met.

  But apparently, not their queen.

  Nausea rose in my stomach.

  “I’m going to be sick,” I said.

  “Swallow it,” the boss man of the group said.

  “Or I can throw up on you,” I said.

  He whirled around on me, his eyes flashing pure red. He snarled, his teeth lengthening. “Do it and I’ll bite you. Then remove a finger as punishment after I finish feeding.”

  I swallowed the bile, forcing it to stay in my stomach as we sped through the city. The vampires lived to the north and we headed there now, weaving through traffic. My fear escalated every second they drove away from safety and deeper into enemy territory.

  When we came to an iron gate, it creaked open and the taxi drove through, not stopping to check in with the guard. They were expecting us.

  I wasn’t sure what to anticipate in vampire territory. Maybe a huge mausoleum or a mansion. Instead, we drove down a suburban street with similar houses on both sides, neatly trimmed la
wns, and even vans and cars in the driveways. People played outside and with the way the energy pressed against me, I knew every single one of them were vampires, which made it eerie. They looked like kids, but they felt so much older. Some of them stopped what they were doing to stare at us as we drove. There was a huge turnaround at the end of the street and behind that was another house only slightly bigger than the others. This had to be where the vampire queen lived.

  The taxi emptied, and I sat there, refusing to move. My hands shook. Hadn’t they said if I got into the hands of the vampires, I could easily disappear. I knew nothing about their culture. Someone was going to make me say the wrong thing, and I was going to piss them off, I just knew it. My day wasn’t finished until someone was angry with me, and it was only extra toppings when they wanted me dead. By the time I even said hello, I was sure the queen was going to want me dead, even if I didn’t do anything to deserve it.

  “Get out or I’ll drag you out by your hair,” the boss vampire said.

  I gaped at him, and when he hissed, I scrambled out, diving for the exit. The human taxi driver closed my door, and I took a closer look at him, noticing the scarring around his neck. He was a blood slave.

  They escorted me up the porch and through the open door. The foyer was roomier. The boss vampire grabbed my arm and pushed me to the left and into an empty living room, or maybe they called it a receiving room. The fireplace roared and cast shadows all over the room.

  After they shoved me onto a chair, the two who squished me in the taxi stood on either side of the door like good little guards. The boss vampire didn’t say anything as he took my bag from me and walked back out of the room, probably to get his queen.

  A grandfather clock ticked away the seconds, and I stared at the blond vampire. He stared back and my stubbornness kicked in. I was not going to look away. He had to first. Someone entered the room, and still I stared at him. He shifted on his feet, growing uneasy, for what, I had no clue. He just needed to hurry up and look away.