Magical Redemption

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  He finally did when a female cleared her throat, and I smirked.

  I won.

  In shifter terms, that meant I was better than him, though I didn’t know if that was a vampire custom or not. Maybe not. Either way, I still won.

  “Miss Porter,” a woman said, so I focused on her.

  “Dr. Porter,” I corrected.

  The sultry smile on her lips disappeared and her expression grew cold. “Is that so?”

  See. The first words out of my mouth pissed her off. I didn’t say anything else, thinking she didn’t mean it as a question to be answered.

  The vampire queen was gorgeous. She wore black jeans that hugged her waist and shaped her ass. Her black blouse was sheer, revealing the black bra underneath that her breasts threatened to spill out of. That had to be uncomfortable, but she didn’t seem to care as she sat down and crossed her legs at the ankle in a way that royal women did a long time ago. While she wore modern clothes, everything about her screamed her age. She had history, and by the sharpness of her energy, it went far beyond Rhett’s history. She had to be old. An ancient.

  And yet she looked to be my age. Someone flicked a light on, and I blinked as my eyes adjusted. I figured they’d keep the lights off, and use the fireplace to create ambiance. Glad they weren’t trying to creep me out too much, I leaned back and sat comfortably like the modern woman I was—meaning I tucked a leg underneath me and let the other one dangle. Irritation flickered across the female vampire’s expression briefly, but she didn’t say anything against my position. Especially since my shoes were definitely getting her nice white-cushioned chair dirty.

  “I lost a coven of witches. Would you like to fill in the blanks?” she asked, trying to come off as friendly.

  I wasn’t stupid. She could look sexy all she wanted with her pale white skin, dark blue eyes, and long black hair. It wasn’t going to work on me. Nothing about her was alluring. She scared the crap out of me and that made me not want her as a best friend.

  “You don’t need to pretend for me, it’s creeping me out.”

  She froze again, and I held back a wince. If I wasn’t careful, I really wouldn’t walk out of here alive.

  “Very well,” she said, her words tinged with an accent I didn’t recognize. Before I could draw in my next breath, she was in front of me, her hands on my thighs, long fingernails digging in. Her face was inches from mine. Her breath had a slight metallic scent. Coldness swept through me. She may have just fed before meeting with me, but it wouldn’t stop her from feeding again.

  I was sure the blood on my shirt didn’t help either. “Elementalist,” she said, voice a cold wave against me. “I lost seven witches who worked with me to that blasted device. I’ve been told you have answers. So tell me.”

  Death blazed in her eyes. She would kill me in a nanosecond, even without a legit excuse. My fear turned into a hard rock lodged in my throat. She let me go and stepped back, standing straight, looking down at me.

  “I don’t know anything,” I said. “I didn’t even know anything was happening until today, or well, yesterday.”

  “You created the device.”

  “I didn’t. I destroyed the device I created.”

  She leaned forward again and her nail trailed down my skin, along my cheek. I swallowed the bile as something warm dripped down from my hairline. She’d cut me, but I couldn’t feel it. Terror slammed into me, and she took in a deep breath, her eyes at half-mast. She smirked as she backed off to give me breathing room, settling into her chair. I took in air, my arms trembling. When pain grabbed my attention, I released the strong grip of my hands, realizing I was digging my nails into my skin.

  “You tell the truth. You are in the middle of this so your job is to fix it. I will not lose more people.” Her eyes blazed with fury, and I shuddered at the pressure in the air. If she wanted, she could flatten me with her energy alone. I had never felt this much focused on me before.

  The boss vampire came into the room and knelt before her just like a knight. “Mistress, you have a visitor.”

  “I’m busy, Andaar. They can come back later.”

  Andaar glanced at me before focusing back on his queen. “It is him.”

  She froze for a moment, her eyes widening. Then she was on her feet with a smile. “He may enter.”

  The boss vampire disappeared without a word, and I dumbly watched as the vampire queen primped herself. She patted her already perfect hair, and straightened her wrinkle-free clothes. Then her smile widened as two vampires walked into the room. I choked on my spit at the sight of Rhett. He didn’t spare me a glance, his cold expression on the vampire queen.

  “Ceva, you have something that belongs to me.” His voice was dead, and for a brief moment, I couldn’t believe that this dangerous looking vampire before me was Rhett. Rhett was lively, his expression animated while his body hummed with energy. He was something more than this cold man before me. Even his eyes were duller.

  I almost missed the slight fall of the vampire queen’s expression before she schooled her features into marble to match Rhett’s. “You come to see me after three decades and the first words you say are that?” she asked in a deadly whisper.

  “And if I didn’t have a choice, I wouldn’t be here now. Give her back to me.”

  “Her?” Ceva seethed, her arms pointing at me. Rhett still didn’t look at me. “You’re here for the blood bag?”

  A low rumble expelled from Rhett, and I realized he was growling. His fangs dropped down, and his eyes turned red as he became enraged. Before me stood the real Rhett and in the state that I was currently in, he terrified me.

  “She is mine, and if you do not hand her over, I will tear this place down.”

  Ceva hissed and crouched down. “You forget who you are, Slayer.”

  Rhett hissed back, and I bit back a gasp. Smacking a hand over my mouth, I tried to cover any more noises I might make. I did not want any attention focused on me right now. I felt a vampire at my back and stilled. Risking it, since the two in front were in the middle of the stand-off, I met Andaar’s eyes. He grinned and focused on the face-off before us. I wanted to jump up, grab Rhett, and teleport the fuck out of there. When I leaned forward to do just that, a steel hand clamped on my shoulder and shoved me back into the seat.

  I yelped, pain flaring in my shoulder. Blinking back the tears were hard as I pushed back the pain.

  “Release her or I will remove your hand myself,” Rhett threatened, not even looking away from Ceva. The weight of Andaar’s hand vanished.

  “Why do you care about her?” she asked.

  “Ceva, you are so old that you no longer understand human emotions. You will never understand what it feels to love. I pity you for that.”

  “How dare you?” she screeched. “Get out!” She waved her hand toward the door. “Get out of my territory, Master Slayer. The next time I see you, I will kill you.”

  “You will try.”

  “You only get to leave now because of the small bit of affection I have for you, Slayer. You once served me well and for that, you get to leave freely. But do not think I will allow this again. You have used up the last bit of patience I have for you. Cross me again, and the next time you meet me, it will not be a discussion.

  Rhett ignored her and her threat. He was in front of me and lifting me into his arms. I wrapped my shaking arms around his neck and hugged him. He walked to the door in smooth, deliberate steps when all I wanted him to do was whisk me away. One of the guards at the door held out my bag, and Rhett grabbed it. When we made it to the door, I realized we still needed to get past all the other vampires hanging around outside. That ended up not being an issue because the moment the door closed behind us, Rhett used his speed, and before I could finish my thought, we were outside the iron gates. A car sat there, idling.

  Another vampire got out and opened the back door. Rhett placed me inside and then nudged me over so he could crawl in the back with me. Once we were settled, the other v
ampire drove away.

  “Rhett—”

  “Not now,” he said through clenched teeth. “The others are waiting for us.”

  I winced at that news. No doubt when we got back, there was going to be a lot of yelling going on. Rhett pulled out a handkerchief and passed it to me. I didn’t even know he had those.

  “Put pressure on the wound.”

  I released a slow breath as I realized my Rhett was back. He wasn’t that cold-hearted vampire anymore. The fear that had clenched my stomach released, and I relaxed. Yes, I was in trouble, but at least I had my Rhett again. I hated to admit it, but that vampire side of him scared the crap out of me and I didn’t like that at all.

  “Laila. I need you to clean yourself up.” Rhett’s voice was tight.

  For a moment, I forgot what he was talking about until he reached over and wiped at my cheek and pulled back with blood on his finger. His eyes still on mine, he put his finger into his mouth. I should have been disgusted. He was tasting my blood. Instead, I watched his finger and lips. His eyes went to half-mast as he enjoyed it.

  “Laila, if you don’t put pressure on it, it will keep bleeding. And my control is nearly shot right now.”

  “Okay,” I mumbled.

  Ceva had bled me. Right. It still didn’t hurt, but I applied pressure to the cut along my hairline, where I thought it was. Rhett reached over and moved the cloth slightly and pressed hard.

  Rhett focused on my bracelet. He sighed, bit his finger, and then ran his bloodied thumb along the silver band. It unclicked and dropped into my lap. I glared hard at the device. With it, I had been absolutely powerless to do anything. My magic had been there, I just didn’t have access to it.

  The bracelet disappeared in the blink of an eye. Rhett leaned toward me and added pressure to the wound, trapping my hand underneath his. “It’s still bleeding.”

  We stayed like that until we got back to Biomystic Security.

  My apartment was crowded, and the moment the door opened, the yelling started. They were furious, and no one calmed down for a solid half an hour. I thought by the time they took in their first breath, I lost hearing in both ears. The most vocal had been Dwight and Davies. But the scariest of them all was Alijah and his silence. I probably should have been more scared of Dwight, but my eyes kept being drawn to Alijah’s brewing fury as he stared at me with a carefully placed blank mask. He was definitely the scariest in the room.

  “Laila!” Dwight’s jaw ticked as he stalked over and kneeled down. His hand went to my knee and squeezed to make sure he had my attention.

  “Why did you think it was a good idea to go out in the middle of the night after Rhett finished telling you that the vampires wanted you?” he asked in a slow, deliberate voice.

  “I needed air. I woke up and began feeling crowded. I wanted space.” I glared at him.

  “Where did you go?” he asked.

  “You don’t know? Seems to me you’re having me followed. Who was that vampire? How were you able to find me?”

  “Be glad that vampire saw the others taking you and was smart enough to contact me,” Rhett spoke up. “Otherwise, you would have been gone, and we wouldn’t have known.”

  “Where did you go?” Dwight asked.

  “I just went to my condo. With the new place now mine, I wanted to take my mind off everything, so I took inventory of what I’d need to buy to get everything packed up.” I lied smoothly enough that after staring at me for a moment Dwight backed off and sighed.

  “Fair enough. If you’re going to sneak off against better judgment after we gave you clear advice about what was going on, then you need to be more careful.”

  “How was I supposed to know the taxi driver was a blood slave? Roman ordered a taxi for me. One showed up.”

  Davies pushed off the wall and moved closer. “Do you think he was part of it?” he asked Dwight.

  “No. I know Roman. He’s solid.” Dwight rubbed at his jaw.

  “Ceva has her blood slaves keep a day job and spy for her,” Rhett said. “The human most likely really is a taxi driver and when the call came in to pick up Laila, they jumped at the opportunity.”

  “No more sneaking off, Laila,” Dwight said. “At least until all this shit is taken care of. Too much danger is circling around you right now and you need to keep your head down.”

  “I can’t do that. It’s me on the line for some stupid reason, and I have the right to defend myself.”

  “And how exactly are you going to do that?” Venni asked.

  I bit my lip. “I don’t know yet. I just know I need to. Those people are hurting magic-users using some kind of warped device that took my idea and fucked it over. That burns hard. I can barely sleep. I close my eyes and see all those comatose people. It shouldn’t be like this. People shouldn’t be suffering because of an idea I created. I want to fix this.”

  “We will fix this,” Dwight said. “But we need to be smart about it or other people will get hurt. You’re lucky that vampire went to Rhett and Rhett knew how to get you out. But he burned whatever that bridge was between him and the vampire queen. Next time won’t go so easily. She will kill you. She doesn’t like to be bested.”

  My shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. I really do want to help. I have an idea. I think I can track them.”

  “What do you mean?” Elliot asked.

  “He took some of my memories. Tracking is based on focusing on something. I can go after those memories. They’re mine.”

  “That’s impossible,” Venni said. “Memories are… intangible. They aren’t a piece of clothing or jewelry.”

  “Ami was right. You guys really like to pretend you aren’t ignorant.” I shook my head. “I’m pretty sure I’d know best if it’s something I can or can’t do.”

  “Laila, we’ll figure this out,” Dwight said. “You don’t have to grasp at straws.”

  I ground my teeth together and nodded. It was clear they thought my idea was silly, and I was too tired with them to argue at this point. I’d just have to prove them wrong. “Okay.”

  A few sighs were released around the room and the tension dissipated. “Get some sleep, Laila. Alijah and Venni are going to stay here with you. We’ll regroup in the morning, and hopefully then I won’t feel like removing someone’s head from their body.” Dwight straightened and gave me one last glance before leaving. The others followed him out, shooting me worried or frustrated glances. I smiled sheepishly and waved at them. Davies’ lip quirked into a small smile before he disappeared outside.

  “Come on,” Venni said. “We can at least get a couple more hours of sleep before we need to get up.”

  “Sounds good to me.” I glanced back at Alijah, but he still refused to meet my eyes. He didn’t follow us either.

  Chapter Twelve

  I didn’t sleep, so I felt it when Alijah crawled into bed about an hour after we lay down. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep. His snoring mixed in with Venni’s for the rest of the morning. I used the time to think as my fingers twitched to get to work. I had a game plan, and I was ready to implement it. It had to work.

  Turning toward Venni, I stared at his sleeping face as Alijah’s heat seeped into my back. Dwight was smart to have left these two with me. They wouldn’t make it so easy to slip away. I leaned forward and kissed Venni’s cheek. He stirred and his eyes slitted open.

  “Go back to sleep,” he whispered.

  “Don’t want to.”

  His eyes closed again, and he wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. “Good girls sleep.”

  I snorted. “When have I been good?”

  He grunted his response. To prove my point, I kissed his jaw. Bristles tickled my lips, and I enjoyed feeling them for the moment. As soon as Venni woke up, he’d shave.

  I trailed my lips along his jaw, and a rumbling came from his chest.

  “Don’t do that,” he said.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because Alijah is sleeping beh
ind you.”

  “So? I want to kiss one of my boyfriends. Should I be mindful?”

  “No,” Alijah said in a gruff, sleep-laden voice. “Kiss away. Don’t mind me.” The bed shifted and then Alijah came into view as he headed toward the door in only his boxers. His back rippled with muscles. He disappeared out the door, and I frowned. He had barely looked at me, and I couldn’t really blame him. I had forced his sleep last night when he already had trust issues with me. My stomach turned cold as I stared at the door, wishing he’d come back.

  “Laila?” Venni broke my thoughts.

  Forcing my attention away from the memory of Alijah’s retreating back, I said, “See?”

  Venni moaned and tried to bury his head into the blankets.

  I sighed and sat up. “Just say no,” I grumbled and moved to get off the bed, trying to ignore the sting of rejection. It hurt to see a man I considered my boyfriend moan into a pillow in frustration and not for other delicious reasons.

  His strong arms wrapped around me, and he pulled me back into him.

  “That isn’t what you think,” he said.

  “You don’t want sex, you’ve told me that before. And apparently that means we can’t do anything else. That’s fine. Just say so.”

  He chuckled and moved me so I was in his lap, his hardness poking into my back. “Does this feel like I don’t want sex?”

  Unable to help myself, I pushed back into Venni. He groaned as his hips raised so I could feel more of him against me. He helped me reposition so I straddled him, his face only inches away from mine. He claimed my lips and nothing mattered anymore but him. Just Venni.

  His kisses were kind, gentle as he tasted me. When I opened my mouth, his tongue swept in. He deepened the kiss, promising something primal and real underneath all that control he held onto. I wanted to push him over the edge and to make my point, I pulled back just enough to bite down on his bottom lip.

  He growled in response and flipped us. Hovering over me, he raised my shirt and his fingers left a blazing trail toward my breasts. I sat up far enough for him to pull my shirt off, leaving me in my bra. His lips brushed against my collar bone and back up to my neck where his teeth scraped along the sensitive flesh.