Magical Collision

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  Magical Collision

  Biomystic Security Book Five

  Jaliza A. Burwell

  Magical Collision

  Copyright © 2019 by Jaliza A. Burwell

  All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copy Edited by Bookends Editing

  Book Cover Design by Jaliza A. Burwell

  Printed in the United States of America

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  From the Author

  Stalker Links

  Chapter One

  Early morning cold air nipped at my skin as I watched Alijah move fast and go in for the kill. The porch heater blasted hard, fighting against the cold, and I probably should have gone inside, but stubbornness kept me outside. I wanted to watch this and needed to see the outcome.

  Alijah reached for Venni, pulled his arm, and flipped him over. A rumble escaped Venni’s chest as he refused to stay down. He was on his feet in moments, moving fast to return the favor. The two of them continued to go back and forth.

  I sat on my porch swing with my trusty behesiff, Siitha, there to keep me company.

  “Do you think he’ll finally win one?” I asked my fluff ball.

  He only snorted, his heavy head squishing my lap. I ran my fingers through his thick fur as I watched my two men. They weren’t hard to look at, not at all, not while they were shirtless and coated with sweat. The mid-December air had no effect on them thanks to the fact that shifter already ran hot. Venni released a growl, and the air intensified as both their energies smashed into each other, having another battle of a different kind. Watching two shifters fight was intense, especially when Alijah was a tiger and Venni was a wolf. Old enemy instincts rose as the two of them went all out, neither willing to give.

  Alijah used the strength of his Sumatran tiger as he went in for a tackle, his orange eyes hard. He was a blur of auburn hair and dark skin.

  Venni grunted, his black hair matted with sweat, but he was one determined man. He got out from underneath Alijah and tried to pin him down. Alijah wasn’t having any of it as they rolled around, trying to get one over the other.

  “Now all we need is a mud pit,” I said with a grin, letting my brain fill in that mouthwatering image. I was almost tempted to reach out with my power and add one in. It would have been easy, too. Ever since I had awakened a few weeks ago, everything had been easy. Too easy. More often than not, I used too much power, and control had become a new frustrating challenge for me.

  They continued to go at it tirelessly before Alijah stepped back with a smile, wiping away the blood from his nose. “Good. Good, I’m going to tell Lombardi that you’re cleared.”

  Venni grunted, too busy breathing heavily as Alijah moved out of reach and ended the sparring match. I clapped my hands. “Encore!” I cheered. “Another round.”

  Venni scowled at me. I grinned big and managed to float over a bottle of water to him. It should have been easy, just a little nudge of power and the water bottle would float peacefully to Venni. Instead the bottle turned into a torpedo and shot right at him. He snatched it out of the air and wasted no time in gulping it down.

  “Shit, sorry,” I called out.

  Alijah shook his head. Venni didn’t bother saying anything, already having emptied half the water and aiming to finish it off in one go. The poor wolf looked like he needed it.

  Damn, that was exactly what I meant. My powers amped all my intentions up by tenfold in everything I did. There were a few holes in my house to prove my point, and the guys probably had a standing order of wood at the local lumber yard to patch them up whenever they came over.

  Alijah patted Venni on the shoulder and then came over, making sure to pay his respects to Siitha by giving him a good rub on the head. The boys didn’t even know it, but Siitha had them wrapped around his paws. Siitha was my behesiff, a magic-loving feline I had run into in the fall, and he’d been following me around since. He was bigger than a lion with a gray coat, spotted with black dots, two barbed tails, and slitted yellow eyes framed by a mane of hair. He also loved showing off his long incisors, all the better to tear into things. He was the best kitty guard dog a person could ask for.

  Once Alijah finished showing Siitha the respect Siitha thought he deserved, my boyfriend came over.

  I held up my hand. “No, nope, stay away.”

  He chuckled as he leaned forward and kissed my cheek. My nose curled into fake disgust as I placed my hands on his hot, sweaty body. “Gross, stay away. You smell, and you’re all gross from rolling around in the dirt.”

  “I’m borrowing your shower. I need to head to work and let Lombardi know Venni can go back on active duty again.”

  “Yes, please go.” I shoved him away from me. He chuckled again before disappearing inside my house. “And clean up the mud you’re tracking all over my floor.”

  He didn’t reply, but I knew he heard me.

  Venni did a few more stretches before coming up onto the back porch.

  “This place is starting to look like a home,” he said.

  I smiled. “It is, isn’t it?” I glanced around the backyard, appreciating the space.

  There was a new shed full of garden supplies off to the side near the edge of the forest. Just behind it was the start of my ward to protect against anyone wanting to hurt me. A stronger ward was wrapped around my house to keep away anyone not invited. Stretching out from the shed and heading toward the house was the beginning makings of my garden. A handful of trees were planted, and so were flowers and bushes, but there were still markers for more plants I wanted to put there. It took time to plan, knowing what some plants needed and couldn’t have. There were some shrubs that couldn’t be next to certain flowers otherwise they killed the flowers. Or trees grew sick next to certain shrubs. It was a challenge, but one I was always up to facing. The elementalist side of me loved gardens and now that I owned a house with a lot of space, I could invest in my own without restriction. My goal was to turn my backyard into a jungle.

  Siitha was going to appreciate it once it was done. There was a huge tree in the backyard worthy of a treehouse. Siitha already claimed it as his own, and I often found him sleeping on its thick branches.

  Next to my garden was the foundation of a small work building so I could create herbs safely away from the house. The last thing I wanted was air toxication depending on which flowers I was working with. My lab itself was being built in the basement. It was going a little slower than I had wanted, but after the guys got it in their heads to b
uild me the perfect lab space, we had to do some rework on the house itself to give me what I’d need. They’d just finished creating an exit from the basement to my backyard and the remodel to insert a ventilation system that was up to code.

  It was tiring work, but I loved every second of it, and it kept the guys around when they were free.

  “You came back yesterday from seeing Shetz, right?” Venni asked.

  “Yeah,” I mumbled. I was still feeling the effects of that trip. At least I wasn’t dead like the shrew thought I’d be. That trip was the only reason I wasn’t at work right now. Dwight had made me take work off until Monday even though I itched to be back in my lab at Biomystic.

  Venni waited me out for more details, and I huffed.

  “He’s a stubborn bastard and nearly tore my head off, saying I was late. I was supposed to be there over a week ago. I think he was about to have some of his friends send a curse my way.”

  “He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Venni asked, voice concerned as he sat down next to me. I leaned into him, and when he wrapped his arm around me, I snuggled in closer. He was just as gross as Alijah was after their match, but I needed to feel his beating heart. The last couple of weeks had been hard. When we went chasing after Padraig, Venni had practically died, and only the charitableness of the primordials had saved him. I never wanted to see another fucking branch sticking out of someone again.

  Unfortunately, being saved by the primordials that close to death had repercussions. He’d been completely exhausted and had to rebuild his muscle strength. Being healed the way he had been had sapped him of all his energy. He had even lost twenty pounds, most of it muscle mass. It had been rough, but he was alive.

  Still. I needed the reassurance that his heart beat.

  I tilted my head up and grinned.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You finally got a clean bill of health to go back to work again.”

  “And?” His eyes lit up because he knew exactly what I was talking about.

  “So, that means date night.”

  “Tonight?”

  I nodded. “Tonight.”

  “I better go get ready then.” He didn’t move though.

  I laughed. “Please do. I’m trying to decide who smells worse, you or Alijah.”

  Chuckling, he got up. He lifted his arms up above his head to stretch, and I didn’t even care as drool formed as I stared at his chest. His naked chest. His naked sweaty chest. Damn. I wanted to lick him.

  “Shower here so you don’t get your car all gross and then head home,” I managed to say. “I’ll pick you up. Just send me your address.”

  “You don’t have it?” he asked, teasing slipping into his tone.

  I made it a bad habit to have a file on anyone I surrounded myself with. Not even a month after working at Biomystic Security, I had gotten a copy of all the employee files. There weren’t any physical files, nothing like that. I had created a mental system, so if I needed it, I could conjure it up in my mind. And when I didn’t, the files stayed safely behind a mental vault I created. No one but me had access to those files.

  Not everyone had been happy about that when they learned about it and it took a while for most of them to get it. For me, it was a compulsion. I needed to have that information or I didn’t function well. Growing up in foster homes had messed with me, taken my trust and twisted it up all wrong.

  “Just send it to me,” I said. I’d been making an effort to ask for their information instead of looking at their files.

  His expression softened. “Will do. It’d be my pleasure to share my home address with you, Laila.” He leaned forward, kissed my cheek, and disappeared inside my house.

  I sighed and leaned back in my chair, staring out at my property, picturing the potential it held and what I would do with it.

  Shortly after, Alijah came out, his auburn hair dark, still wet from his shower. “I’m heading out, Laila.”

  “To fight baddies and save the world?”

  “I don’t know about saving the world, but if I can beat up a couple of baddies along the way, it’s a win in my book. I’ll see you tomorrow at dinner?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  He chuckled because it was a silly question. Of course, I’d be there. It was just a question of which guys would be showing up. He gave me too brief of a kiss before walking through the house to leave.

  Siitha snuggled his massive head into my lap as I eyed two birds poking around my yard. With my eyes on them, I zoned out in moments. My mind was always wandering toward the guys lately, all seven of them. At this point, I was going to need a sign-up sheet for us to find time together. Some days were hard to think about how it was all going to work, other days it was easy because it worked—dating all seven of them, that was.

  They scared me and excited me at the same time, and tonight, my plan was going to go into motion. I couldn’t keep running from them, and Shanton was right, I needed to confide in them. If there was any good that came out of chasing after Padraig, it was that it taught me to trust that the guys would be there. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have chased me through Nature, risking their own butts to make sure mine was fine.

  “A lot happened, didn’t it, Siitha?”

  He purred his agreement, and I barely noticed Venni slipping out as I went around in circles with my own thoughts. It was time to show the guys what a determined Laila could do if she got out of her own way and went after what she wanted.

  Because I knew I wanted them. All of them. And I was going to show them that.

  Chapter Two

  I was determined to wear the pants on this date, so I did the proper thing, drove to Venni’s small home in a cute neighborhood and picked him up. To add some spice, I walked to the door and knocked, and when he opened the door to greet me, gave him a flower, which had him chuckling. I even promised to have him back in his bed by midnight. That had cracked him up, and I was glad I could make him laugh. His laughter was a rare gem, so to hear it always sent my senses into overdrive. He had a lovely laugh: smooth, deep, and had a way of making the person hearing it feel like they were rolling around in smooth melted chocolate. Or that could have just been me feeling like that.

  “So what’s the plan for tonight?” he asked as I drove to our destination.

  Smiling, I glanced over at him. I had refused to give him a hint as to our date so he’d found a good middle ground on his clothes. He wore black jeans with a belt and a dark green t-shirt with a black peacoat. I envied his imperviousness against the cold. I wore black pants with black leather boots and topped it off with a checkered blue and white blouse. Too bad I had to cover it with my long navy-blue utility coat.

  “Laila?” Venni asked again.

  “Relax. I’m going to feed you and then take you for a show.”

  “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

  I laughed. “What did you think I was going to do?” I asked.

  He shrugged.

  “No, don’t be all quiet on me now. What did you think I had planned?”

  “Maybe something involving experiments.”

  “A magic show?” I pursed my lips. “Damn, why didn’t I think of that?”

  He laughed and relaxed into his seat, willing to go along for the ride. It wasn’t like he had that much of a choice, I was the one behind the wheel after all. Not even ten minutes later, I was pulling up to a restaurant.

  “Sora’s?” Venni asked, staring up at the fancy script above the door.

  I grinned big. “The most expensive but best burgers you’ll find in the city. Or if you aren’t feeling that, there are all kinds of fancy steaks and chicken. They also have a lobster bar, where you go to the tank and pick out your lobster.” I shuddered at that. That felt cruel, but customers were more than happy to spend three times the normal price of a lobster, all because they were able to pick it out.

  They had us seated quickly and a server was at our side, ready to offer us special wine to go with our meals. I took a g
lass, Venni didn’t.

  His smile was soft as he stared at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Liar.”

  His smile widened. “I’m still surprised we’re on a date and you’re the one who initiated.”

  “I’m more than capable of initiating a date.”

  “Maybe, but you haven’t, not yet anyway. It didn’t feel real, at least not until now.”

  I tilted my head to the side as I watched him. He hid his emotions so well that some days I wished I had a hammer to break down his walls. “Do you feel like I haven’t spent enough time with you?” I asked in a gentle tone. The last thing I wanted was for him to feel like I didn’t care about him.

  “Not at all, Laila. We’d been busy since approaching you with the idea of dating us all and a lot has happened. The weekly dinners help. I guess I just didn’t think about it too much until now, with just you and me on a date. I’m content. I see you often, but I’m realizing seeing you all the time at work isn’t the same as this.”

  “I agree.” I leaned back and played with the glass of wine.

  “You’re fidgeting. You rarely do that.”

  “Creeper.”

  “Just observant.”

  I snorted. “I’m not good with relationships. Never been in one and then suddenly I’m in seven of them. Some days, I think it’s a dream. It seems impossible. Other days, I’m ready to beat up anyone who looks at any of you funny. You’re mine.”

  “Careful, people might mistake you for a shifter.”

  “You only wish. We all know I’d be a kickass shifter.”

  “If that were so, what kind of shifter would you want to be?”

  I tapped my chin thoughtfully. “Snow leopard.”

  “You’re serious? Why?”

  “They are adorable fluff balls, just like Siitha. Gorgeous creatures. Have you seen their paws?” I made grabby hands. “I want to play with them. I bet they’re as soft as they look.” I sighed, imagining what it’d be like to be such a majestic creature.