Our expressions were similar, a mixture of disbelief and excitement from the adrenaline rush.
I giggled. His lips quirked into a smile. My body shook until I couldn’t hold back anymore and broke out into laughter.
“Did that really just happen?” Davies asked.
I nodded, unable to speak. Once I could draw in a breath, I said, “It did. It really did.”
“Damn. Didn’t think we’d get caught.”
I snorted. “Those cameras didn’t pick shit up, and I don’t think they would have seen enough of us.”
“We were butt naked.”
I tucked my head into his neck and laughed. His body shook underneath me.
“We still are,” I said and to prove my point, I moved enough to draw a gasp from him. I slipped my hand between us until I could feel him in my hand, and he moaned, closing his eyes. I stroked him a few times, loving the way his body tensed underneath me.
A knock on the door broke the moment.
“Laila, is everything okay?” Atasha’s voice came through the thick door. “It sounds like you had a bad fall in there, and I felt the shift in the ward. Transportation spell?”
Davies groaned, but this time not in pleasure. His dick softened, and he leaned forward until his forehead rested against my shoulder. “Dammit.”
I chuckled. “I’m fine,” I called out.
“Are you sure? That sounded like a bad tumble.”
“If I didn’t like your aunt, I’d be so mad at her right now.”
I covered his mouth, barely holding in the laughter.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Very well.” We listened as her footsteps retreated.
We went into another laughing fit, and it took a while for us to settle down. “I’d say this was a success,” I said, separating our clothes and giving Davies his.
“It would have been better if your aunt didn’t just cock block me.”
I snickered. “I never thought I’d be in a situation like that. Having a… What is she? Parental figure?” I shook my head. “I never thought I’d be interrupted like that. I kind of feel like a teenager trying to sneak her boyfriend into her room.”
Davies smile softened. “Good. That’s an experience all teens should have.
I raised an eyebrow and asked, “Did Piper do that?”
“She did.” His smile twisted, turning wicked. “They never lasted long. I’m still not sure what did it for the last. The fact that I had my gun pointed at him when I caught him trying to sneak into her window, or it could have been when he opened the fridge and found blood bags in it.”
“Oh, brilliant. How the hell did you get those?”
“I was going to go camping with Rhett and we were leaving from my place, so I stored the bags in the fridge until we left.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “You really are too much sometimes.”
“I know.” He threw his shirt on, and I missed the loss of his naked body.
Getting dressed was slow going as we kept giving each other heated looks. There was some showing off from the both of us. If my aunt hadn’t been in the house, I was sure we would have done more.
“Come on. Time to drop you off,” I said.
“Can’t I stay the night with you?”
I gave him a quick kiss, pulling away before he had a chance to deepen it. “No. My aunt is here, and she already interrupted us once. I don’t want her doing it again.
The date was over all too soon when I dropped Davies off at his home. We made out, not willing to leave each other just yet.
“I need to go,” I said.
“Do you have to?”
“Yes. Because spending the night with you isn’t what this is about.”
“Then what is this for?” Frustration slipped into his voice.
“It’s about seeing what you’re willing to give me.” I kissed him again and then left him standing there as I got into my truck and left.
I was high on our date and our near arrest, so I didn’t notice right away. I was halfway home when my senses told me to pay attention. Something was off, deeply wrong. I glanced into the review, seeing nothing. And yet it still felt like someone should have been behind me.
Not wanting to lead anyone to my home, I took a few side roads, drove around, and then headed toward BMS. The feeling stayed with me until I pulled through the gates of Biomystic.
Shuddering, I locked up, and decided that for the night, I needed to stay there. I just got my home. I wasn’t ready for people to know its location unless I wanted them to. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but I trusted my gut. It kept me out of trouble for a long time, and I wasn’t going to question it now.
Things were fucked up, tensions were high, and not everyone in the city liked me right now. Biomystic was definitely the safer option.
Chapter Fifteen
“Laila?”
“Hmm?” I burrowed my face into the pillow.
“What are you doing here?” Dwight asked.
“Sleeping.” The pillow muffled my voice.
I heard a sigh. “I can see that,” Dwight said. “But why? You have a house now?”
I turned and blinked past the blinding lights. “Why? Don’t want me around?” I asked.
With a scowl, he replied, “You know that isn’t true. Is everything okay?”
“Yes.”
“Liar.”
I shrugged and turned back around so that my head was back in the pillow.
The blanket was yanked off of me. “Hey!”
“Laila, what is going on? Why do my guards tell me you came in last night? You should have been on your date with Davies.”
“I didn’t feel safe.”
“What do you mean?”
Giving up all attempts at sleep, I sat up and gave Dwight my own glare, telling him to fuck off. He ignored it.
“What do you mean?” he asked again through gritted teeth.
“It means,” I said slowly, “that I was going home after my date with Davies and my senses told me something was off.”
“Did you see something? Sense anything?”
I shook my head after taking time to think about it. “I know sometimes it doesn’t seem like it, but I do have great instincts and last night they went off. It didn’t feel right to just go home if I were being followed.”
“What did you sense?”
I ran my hand through my hair and frowned when my fingers got tangled up in my hair. Grunting, I worked my hands away as he did his best to detangle the knots.
“You think someone was following you?”
“I think what set me off was the lack of sensing anything.” I thought more about what I’d felt last night that had put me on edge. After time had passed, I was able to think back with a clearer head. “It was like there was something missing.”
“Like a black hole?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Dwight thought about it as he sat on the bed, the mattress dipping down from his weight. “Okay. Well, let’s get you home. It’s Thursday, and if I remember correctly, a delivery of supplies is coming in later this morning for your lab. You’ll need to make sure everything you need was brought.”
That excited me enough to get me moving. Dwight helped me out of the bed, easily pulling me up without any help.
Once I was home, I slipped inside, waving goodbye to Dwight. He needed to get to a meeting, but promised to stop by later to look at how everything was going to get into my basement.
“Are you okay?” Atasha asked when I walked into the kitchen.
“I’m fine.”
She didn’t say anything, just gave me one of those ‘I know you’re bullshitting’ looks. With her mug steaming with tea, she walked out of the room. I filled a glass with water and took a drink, my eyes drawn to the piece of paper that was on the fridge.
I worked hard to ignore it, but if the guys kept hinting at me to use the service, then maybe I needed to take it into consideration.
But
talking to someone? And about what? About my past? My job? My lack of family? My lack of control over my powers? Or my OCD? Or how I needed control over every aspect of my job? I didn’t need a professional to tell me I needed to learn to let go, that it was impossible to have complete control over everything. I already knew that. That was why I tried harder to have control of things I could have control over, like knowing the people I surrounded myself with or teaching myself about topics I previously knew nothing about: understanding how things worked, what made them tick, and how to fix it.
If the world was going to burn around me, the least I could do is learn what it took to keep those flames away from me.
“What has that paper done to you?” Atasha asked, coming back in. She didn’t have the mug, and she had changed her clothes into something more professional.
“Where are you going?”
“To see this council of yours so I can make it clear they need to back away. I do not hold the power they want access to. I am not the way into my community, but they are stubborn in understanding this.” Atasha stepped close to me, her shoulder pressing against mine. Her eyes were on the paper. “Some days, having a stranger’s perspective clears our own up.”
“You think I should talk to someone?”
“I think you need to realize your mental health is as important as your physical. You have power, amaorah. A lot of power, and if you are not in the right mindset, you will hurt those around you.”
“That’s a yes.”
“That is a do what you must to be healthy. If talking to someone helps, then do it. If tinkering with your truck or working in a lab does it, then do it. I will not tell you how to run your life. It is yours. I only care that you are healthy. All this time, I thought you were gone from us, dead because of a woman who was too selfish to let you live. I am thankful every day to know that you are alive and you have done an amazing job taking care of yourself. You are the only person to know yourself the best, so only you know what you need.”
She patted my shoulder before heading out. Rowan stood in the doorway with a blank expression. Our eyes met briefly, an agreement passing between us.
Atasha was someone special and neither of us was going to let anything happen to her. He’d keep her safe from the council.
They left shortly after, leaving me to think about what Atasha said. I didn’t have long to think about it before a loud banging broke through my thoughts.
Yelling soon followed and my adrenaline spiked at the urgency. I rushed to the front of the house just as the door swung open and Dwight nearly fell in.
I blinked a few times as shock fell over me. It took a moment to realize blood was involved and the man slumped over his shoulder was Venni.
“What happened?” I asked, rushing to them.
“I got it,” Dwight said, carefully maneuvering Venni.
Venni hopped, his face twisted in pain.
“What happened?” I asked again with a bite of anger, trying to figure out why his leg was covered in blood.
“He was on the way to the same meeting as me. They ambushed him.”
“Oh, my Goddess.”
“I’m okay,” Venni said, voice laced with pain.
“No, you aren’t. Come on, into the living room.” I rushed into the living room with Dwight trailing behind. After gathering the pillows, I helped elevate his leg and propped him up.
“It’s already started healing,” Venni said. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. We’ll have to cut the leg open so we can dig the bullet out.” Dwight’s eyes were dark with fury.
“It’s still in there?” I eyed the leg. Dwight had pulled the jeans until they tore, giving us a clearer view of the damage. There was a dark angry hole in his leg, the outside of it looking burnt.
“Isn’t this reversed roles?” I asked.
“Don’t, Laila. If you get me thinking about the time you got shot, I’m going to shift, and I’m going to tear everything apart.” Dwight’s warning shut me up. “Please get a med kit and knife.”
I rushed into the master bathroom, pulling out the huge med kit I kept under the sink. The knife came from the kitchen.
By the time I made it into the living room, Dwight had managed to move Venni around so he was more comfortable and completely removed his jeans, leaving him in his boxers.
As Dwight did his thing, I hovered over them. Venni remained quiet, his eyes closed, sweat dotting his skin.
“I don’t understand. They just shot him? Who? Why?”
Dwight stood up, chucking a bloody cloth at the wall. “The idiot humans, or half-bloods, or whoever the fuck they are.” He growled, eyes nearly black with fury. His hellhound was ready to come out.
Venni was out of it now. His skin was pallid, his breathing a little haggard. His sleeping face was twisted in pain. Anger washed over me.
“Why did they go after Venni? Wouldn’t there be better shifters to go after if they wanted to make a point?”
“They want to prove that they can get to anyone and getting to Venni proves a lot. He’s high ranking in the pack, someone expected to step up and do a lot. And he’s mine, holding a prominent position at Biomystic.”
“This is a warning? Shooting him is a fucking warning?” I snapped out at Dwight and stalked toward the window. If those assholes were there, I’d turn them all to ash.
“They wanted him dead and underestimated him.”
My chest tightened at the thought of how close I came to losing Venni. The window in front of me cracked, and I jumped back.
Dwight’s arms wrapped around me, and he pulled me back into his chest. “Calm, Laila. Be calm. Venni is all right.”
“They almost killed him. They were going to do it.” My breathing shuddered as I tried to draw in a breath.
“Venni would never die because of idiots.”
“They nearly got him.”
“And he’s strong enough to avoid it. That’s why it’s only a leg wound and that’s nothing.” He sighed, brushing his lips against my neck. It wasn’t anything sexual in the touch. More of a reassurance. He needed it too. He drew in a breath, his nose trailing along the vein just underneath the skin. “Please, can he stay here? I don’t want anyone to find him.”
“Of fucking course he can stay here.”
“Thank you. He’s healing, but he won’t be up and moving until tomorrow. The bullet went through muscle and into bone. That takes time.”
“Okay. That’s fine. He’s more than welcome to stay here.”
He pulled away. “Good.” He kissed my temple before pulling away and leaving.
I went to Venni’s side, grabbing his hand and refusing to move from him.
The doorbell rang about an hour later. I moaned and crawled to my feet, not wanting to leave Venni’s side. He was in a deep sleep, not moving. I figured he was sleeping it off so his body could heal.
Elliot was at the door, smiling at me, but it was strained. “Lombardi filled me in.” He had a bookbag in his hand and held it up so I could see. “Since tonight is my date night, I figured game night?”
“Dammit. No, that isn’t fair. We can postpone? Do something else?”
“Nope. You have a strict schedule, so game night.”
I frowned as I stepped back. Elliot came inside, and I gave him a weak smile.
“How is he doing?”
“Sleeping on the couch.”
He nodded. “Move him to your bedroom? He’ll be out for the rest of the night.”
“Will you help me? I think it’ll take the two of us to get his big butt up there.”
A humorless chuckle escaped him. “Yeah.”
Moving Venni up to the third floor where my bedroom was, was not easy. He weighed twice my weight, packed in muscle, and apparently being a shifter meant he was very compact.
“He’s not going to notice the huge bruise on his head, is he?” I asked. We had an unfortunate incident on the stairs and his head took a bit of a bump.
“It’ll heal by the time he wakes up.”
“What if he got a concussion?” I asked.
“I doubt he hit his head that hard. And if he does have one, he’ll heal that too by the time he wakes.”
“If you say so.”
We managed to get Venni’s big butt into my bed. I was almost tempted to crawl in and curl up next to him. I wanted to hear his heartbeat, feel his pulse, check to make sure his eyes weren’t those creepy, blank, dead eyes.
“Are you sure he’ll be okay?” I asked for what had to be the millionth time.
“Yes. All he needs is sleep. That’s it. I promise,” Elliot said. “This isn’t the first time he’s been shot. He’s had worse.”
My eyes widened. “That does not make me feel better.”
“Which is why we are going to stay in and have our date night here, so you can check up on him every hour like you want to do.”
“It’s not every hour.” I tried to sound indignant, but Elliot knew me too well.
Sarcasm dripped in his voice as he said, “Oh, sorry, every half an hour. Anything less, and I’m going to have to draw a line.”
Grabbing my arm, he led me back downstairs into the living room. He dug out one of those old fashioned timers that rang loudly when it ticked down to zero. After twisting the knob for the forty-five-minute mark, he set it on the table.
“So how does this work?” I asked. “A stay-at-home date night?”
“It’s really whatever you want it to be. Couples have meals together. I brought light snacks for us. They watch movies or shows, play board games, just talk.” Elliot shrugged.
I worried at my lip. This was supposed to be about me picking him up, and taking him out, but now it was all wrong. He was the one taking the initiative, and I wasn’t sure where this was going.
“Laila.” He came over and pushed me onto the couch, kneeling in front of me. “Take this night for what it is. Life never goes perfectly, so we have to work around it.”
“But I had a whole plan for you and it’s just… this isn’t what the date was supposed to be about.”
“Oh yeah?” Elliot gave me a crooked smile.
I rolled my eyes. The perv.
Magical Collision Page 14
