Magical Collision

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  “So you have me for the next few hours,” Shanton said. “What do you plan on doing to me?”

  I laughed as I picked up the menu. We were sitting outside, but they had a ward set up to keep the cold away. It almost felt like summer with the way the sun shone through and the barrier kept us warm.

  “I’m just here for the comfort of your company,” I replied. “And to people watch.”

  “People watch?”

  “Yeah, you know, where we stare creepily at nearby people and get an insight into their lives.”

  Shanton didn’t look impressed. “Why would I want to do that?”

  “Why not?” I challenged. “Life isn’t always about us. There are hundreds of thousands of people in this city. It’s always good to expand our view, see how one person can so easily affect another. We don’t know each other all that well, and this would be a good way to see how your mind works. What can you come up with? What do you see with those sharp eyes of yours?”

  Shanton grinned. “Okay, I’m game.”

  After putting our drink order in, we shifted our chairs to get a better view of our surroundings.

  “Do you do this often?” Shanton asked after spending a few minutes watching. There wasn’t much going on right now, but I was hopeful. We were in a huge shopping district with a mixture of high and low-end shops.

  “I do, when I want to get my mind off my life, I like seeing other people’s.”

  “Without talking to them, how would you know?”

  I smiled and pointed at a woman and her little girl. “That’s where the fun comes in. Look, her name is Pierce, thirty-two in human years, but she’s really an eighty-five-year-old witch. The little girl with her is Sady. But get this, while she looks like she’s eight, she’s really a hundred and fifty-two years old and the witch is her daughter.”

  Shanton guffawed. “No way that’s true.”

  I nodded solemnly. “It is though. She was cursed about twenty years ago by her older sister out of jealousy. Look at her. Think about what she’d look like as an adult. She’d be gorgeous. Her older sister had been jealous and set a curse on her. She’s stuck like that for another thirty years.”

  “How the hell would you know that?”

  “I pay attention.”

  He contemplated my words as he watched the woman and her daughter pass by. I couldn’t hold it in any longer and snickered.

  Shanton whipped his head around to look at me. His eyes narrowed as I fought to hold in my laughter. My body shook and my sides ached from the strain.

  “You’re full of shit.”

  I released the laughter and nodded. “Yes, but you believed me. You really believed that story.”

  “You made it believable.” He glowered at me. I smiled big, giving him an innocent look. I even added the extra touch of fluttering my eyelashes. Finally, he broke out into a small smile, shaking his head as his anger dissipated. “You’re unbelievable.”

  “Thank you. But you saw what I did there, right? I made up a fun story about them and added in some gossip. You try.”

  “I’ll pass.”

  “Come on, party pooper, give it a try. It’s fun and exercises the mind. You don’t want to become some boring old dragon with a boring old imagination, do you?”

  He glanced around briefly before focusing on an older man with a cane crossing the road slowly. “Okay.” He nodded toward the man. “Meet Javis. He’s eighty-one, boring really. No one would look at him twice. But he’s really a vampire servant, spying for Ceva. When he wants to, he can look frail and old like now, but he’s more than capable of running a marathon twice over. But no one ever thinks of that when they look at an old man. So they put their guard down around him and tell him all their secrets.”

  I smiled. “This is good. Keep going.”

  Shanton’s smile was warm as he said, “He has five grandchildren. One was turned into a vampire about ten years ago, another moved to Asia, and the other three are scattered throughout America, with one in the city still, looking to get his dear old grandfather out of the vampire’s clutches. But Javis loves what he does, loves how people are willing to tell him all their dirty secrets, all because he listens. He’s Ceva’s ears and no one knows it.”

  I shuddered when he finished up. “That’s creepy as hell.” The older man made it across the street and went into the coffee shop. “I almost want to believe you.”

  Our food came out and we kept up with the game. We even began adding in dialogue to the narration.

  With a low cultured voice, pretending to be a male spy, I said, “Are you sure he’s in there? If I’m to end him, I don’t want him tipped off and out the back door before I’m even through the front.”

  Shanton replied with a weird accent meant to be a female’s. “He’s in there. Ain’t no other place to be, really. He likes them clothes, and they like his money. They don’t talk.”

  “If he’s not, then I’m eating your face off.”

  Shanton laughed and couldn’t stop, ending that dialogue since the woman and man walked away from the display of women’s lingerie.

  Lunch passed way too quickly as we relaxed and people watched. A woman caught my attention. I didn’t need to make anything up, I knew that sadness on her face as she stared at her phone.

  She had news, not good news, and she didn’t know who to tell. It wasn’t because she had a lot of people to tell, but because she had no one. The wariness was there in the way her shoulders sloped and she tried to make herself small. She did her best to not draw attention to herself.

  And it mostly worked. People brushed by her, not even aware that something in her life had devastated her.

  “What took that smile away?” Shanton asked.

  I nodded toward the woman. “She reminds me of myself, that’s all.”

  “You’re far prettier.

  “Shanton.” I kicked him underneath the table, and he winced when I got his shin good.

  “Okay. I see what you mean. She looks like she has something important she needs to share but has no one to tell.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Is it really like that for you? You didn’t have a single person?”

  I shook my head. “Not until I started working at Biomystic.”

  “Then the guys shoved their way into your life.”

  I would have taken Shanton’s words as playful, but something bitter had slipped in. It drew my attention away from the woman and to his expression. His eyes had cooled.

  “Now it’s my turn to ask. What took that smile away?”

  He sighed and took a drink. He placed the drink back down slowly with too much focus.

  “Shanton?”

  “I can’t help but think that you’re waiting, that you’re going along with us and this type of relationship because you think that while you have all of us now, later on, you won’t have anyone. You never even batted an eyelash when I crashed your weekly dinner with the guys.”

  “That’s not true.”

  His expression said it all, that he saw through my bullshit. “You want assurance, that’s why you’re planning all these dates suddenly. I get that. You’re trying to determine if we really are all in. I wish I understood why so suddenly.” He held his hand up to stop me from talking. “No judgment. I’d want the same thing. But you need to remember that this goes both ways. How are you reassuring us that you want this? That you won’t cut and run when reality finally catches up to you?”

  “I would never do that to anyone.”

  “No? Are you sure about that? When your emotions are high, when you get furious enough—or maybe not furious, you love arguing—but if you were to get hurt enough, you wouldn’t run? You wouldn’t shut us out?”

  “No.”

  “As you said, we don’t know each other all that well. I know I’m probably the person you least know. I’m at a bit of a disadvantage. I didn’t have months of pining after you like the others had. That doesn’t change my feelings, but I’m working on a l
earning curve here.” Vulnerability slipped into his expression and his words. “And the past that you don’t know about me is that being a dragon isn’t easy either. I had to spend a lot of time learning to understand people’s intentions, what they wanted out of me. The answer to that has not been all that great. In my experience, women want me for my position, for what I can offer to them as a dragon, never as Cyril Shanton.” His eyes hardened, and he leaned forward. “While we alleviate your fears, how do you alleviate ours? How do I know that when you realize I won’t let you use me, that you won’t leave me?”

  “I’m not sure if I should feel offended or to feel sad for you,” I whispered. “There isn’t an easy answer. I could come up with a whole step by step plan, but your fears are mine, Shanton. I still have nightmares of waking up and finding everyone gone from my life.” I shrugged. “But I can say this: I’m here now, and maybe tomorrow, at my birthday party, you’ll realize I plan to be here for a while. I’m building a home. I’m surrounding myself with people I trust and care for. And I’m a greedy bitch. I have no intention of letting anyone go, and I’m making the necessary steps needed to ensure it doesn’t happen. Springer City is my home, not because I grew up here but because of the people here.” I tilted my head to the side as I carefully watch Shanton. “And I think you get that because you moved here. You subconsciously know that this place, with Dwight, with me, can be a real home, and if you settle here, then you don’t have to go from city to city anymore. You came here looking for a home, Shanton. I dare you to deny it.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Neither can I.”

  We shared a mutual understanding as we stared at each other, showing our vulnerabilities. We both feared the same thing and after this talk, we understood each other so much better.

  Shanton broke out into a huge grin, and I got a taste of what whiplash would feel like.

  “You hinted at tomorrow. What do you have planned, Dr. Porter?”

  “If you go to my birthday party, you’ll know.”

  “Oh, I’ll be there. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

  I took a drink of my water to hide the blush his simple response created. Half the time, I didn’t know what to do with Shanton.

  Shanton leaned back, looking all too proud of himself. He teetered on the two back legs of his chair, and I briefly contemplated using a little magic to tip him over. It was all too tempting, and he was asking for it.

  “Did you get your answer?”

  “What answer?” I asked.

  “The question you were hoping to get an answer to by taking me out on this date.”

  I leaned forward. “And what question do you think I had?”

  He pretended to think about it and I enjoyed the way his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes lit with humor. “Maybe if there was a limit to my awesomeness. You have to admit, I came up with good stories.”

  Chuckling, I said, “That you did, but that wasn’t it.”

  He tapped his lip with his finger, and I followed the movement. “How about your search for my weakness. I doubt you found any.”

  “There really is no end to your cockiness, is there?”

  “No. Cockiness is only the byproduct of my awesomeness. I know how to get shit done, and I do it too. I don’t talk it up.

  I snorted. “That I know.”

  “Tell me, Laila. What was it that you searched for in our date?”

  He lowered his voice and leaned closer to me, the table not doing much to keep us separate. I took in a harsh breath as his energy brushed against my cheek and then trailed down my neck. It made it so easy to imagine him using his lips instead.

  I narrowed my eyes. Two could play at that game. I sent out my magic and gave it little juice. He jumped in his seat, his energy receding. Clearing his throat, he shifted, and I smirked. I bet he regretted wearing those tight slacks right about now.

  “Fair enough,” he said and shifted again, wincing. “I won’t do that again.”

  “Oh you can. But not in public.”

  His pupils dilated, and I swore for a brief moment a flame had flickered in their black depths. “Tempting,” he said in a low voice.

  “Agreed,” I replied. “And to answer your question, I simply wanted to know if we could have fun together. A lot of our time was spent together during missions and dinner dates, you’re too busy antagonizing Dwight. I wanted to see who you could be when it was just the two of us.”

  “Did I pass?” he asked.

  “With flying colors.”

  His smile widened, and for once, it was boyish, transforming his face into something younger and more carefree. My breath was stolen with such an innocent look coming from Shanton. “Good.”

  Damn. What was I going to do with him?

  Chapter Nineteen

  I took extra care getting ready for my dinner date with the guys. I was still feeling like I was on cloud nine for one, not just because of my date with Shanton, but with all the guys. It didn’t help that I kept stopping to stare at the drawer that hid the rings in my dresser. My promise to them, if they decided to accept.

  My stomach twisted at the thought of one of them saying no. Was I greedy for wanting seven guys? Shanton’s words about me going along with their plans to all date me came back to mind. He wasn’t right, but I could see how he got there.

  I’d been working with them for less than a year. Humans would say we were moving too fast, others like the shifters would say I was being greedy. Maybe even put a spell over them. I knew what I wanted though, and it was them.

  And tomorrow, I was going to be twenty. There was nothing special about the age itself. I became an adult in society’s eyes when I began living on my own. I wasn’t going to come into any more powers at the stroke of midnight. Nothing special was happening. I was just going to turn twenty. But I wouldn’t have that ‘teen’ attached to my age anymore. As soon as people heard those dreaded four letters, their thoughts about me always shifted.

  For this date, my dress had sparkles and sequins. Definitely not something I’d wear often, but it was fun, and with everything happening, I wanted fun.

  “Knock, knock,” Elliot said, knocking at my bedroom door softly. I turned to him, and his eyes roamed down my dress. The short-sleeved dress was an array of gold, shifting colors as the light hit it.

  “Wow, you look gorgeous in that, like you’re ready to have some fun.”

  I smirked and twirled around, making sure he saw that much of my back was exposed. “Of course. It’s my birthday weekend.”

  “Oh? It changed from birthday day to birthday weekend?”

  “Definitely.” I walked up to him with a little extra sway in my hips, enjoying the way he watched me move closer. He looked absolutely spellbound.

  When I was within reach, he pulled me into his chest and kissed me. I hummed as I returned the kiss, all my stresses disappearing. Tonight wasn’t going to be about all the drama surrounding us. It was just going to be about them and me.

  Elliot pulled away, his lips swollen from mine. It was a hot sight to see. “Shall we go?”

  I nodded.

  The drive to dinner was short, filled with idle chatter. Elliot was an absolute gentleman as he helped me out of his car and then escorted me inside. The hostess blinded us with a smile, her blonde hair pulled back in a fashionable ponytail. “Great, Dr. Porter. Your party is waiting for you already.”

  “Thank you.” I smiled politely and followed as she led us through the restaurant, to our room in the back.

  “There are a lot of shifters here tonight,” I said, glancing around.

  Elliot did the same, noting all the people. They were full tonight, and I’d say about seventy percent of them were shifters. The waves of energy emanating from them was trying to choke me.

  “They’re stressed, and they’re using tonight as an opportunity to relax.”

  “Safety in numbers?”

  “Exactly.” He nudged me forward so we walked a little faster as we wea
ved through the tables. I felt eyes on me and my skin itched from it. “The full moon is on Monday.”

  My eyes widened. That could not be good, not with all this animosity. I worked extra hard to be sure I didn’t meet anyone’s eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was start a challenge.

  Everyone made it to dinner, and I smiled big as I looked at them all. The room felt small with their presence, and they were a sight to look at. Like me, that had similar thoughts, going that little bit extra to dress nice. They all wore white under black dinner jackets and matched it with black bow ties.

  “Laila,” Shanton said with a smile. He came over and kissed my cheek before pulling out the seat next to him. Elliot sat on my other side as we settled down.

  “You look wonderful,” Rhett said.

  “Thank you.” I was beaming as I kept looking from one man to another. They knew how to make a girl feel special. I thought eventually, these weekly dates would get repetitive, but they continued to surprise me.

  “Happy birthday, birthday girl,” Davies said, lifting his glass up. We all followed the toast. “To the end of a successful year as Dr. Laila Porter, and to another year of your awesomeness only getting better.”

  Everyone tossed in their agreement before glasses were clinked together and we took a drink of the water. I winced when I realized it was sparkling water. I was not a fan. Made my stomach feel like it was putting on its own scientific experiments.

  “What’s wrong?” Shanton asked.

  “Sparkling water.” I placed the cup down and pushed it away. There wasn’t normal water here. I frowned.

  The door opened and a tall blue-eyed, pale-skinned lanky human walked in. He went to Dwight first, who began placing his order. It took me a moment to realize he was our server tonight.

  “Who are you? Where is Talver?” I asked. Talver was our usual server, and it felt weird not having him moving around us. There were small things that were off, things we had gotten used to as Talver became aware of our habits. Like, he knew to keep my silverware simple with a fork and knife instead of the twenty silverware. Or the fact that I didn’t like sparkling water, while the guys couldn’t care less what they guzzled down, though Shanton and Alijah didn’t like lemon in their water. All the waters on the table had lemon.