Magical Intentions

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  This one had to be very good for Lombardi to trust him near a bleeding patient. From what I’d been told, the injured smelled like the perfect prey to a vampire, or to any predator.

  “My name is Dr. Mathias Shaffer,” he introduced himself.

  “Laila Porter,” I said, mentally matching him to the file I had with that name. Definitely an older vampire, older than Rhett.

  He smiled back at me as we walked down another hallway. People could get lost up there. Staying true to hospitals, there were a lot of twists and turns on the floor, the layout different from the rest of the building.

  “Nice to meet you, Dr. Porter. I’ve heard great things about you.”

  My face grew a little heated with his praise.

  “Thanks,” I replied as he motioned me into a room.

  “Have a seat and let’s get you fixed up. Would you like to report the person who interrupted you? I assume you had your light on?”

  I nodded. “I did. Didn’t seem to matter to her though. I want to hold off for now on the report, just because it’s understandable why she interrupted me. If I were in her position and thought the same way, I’m sure I would have done the same thing. We labbies tend to be right to the point sometimes. Used to facing problems head on to get them solved so we can move on.”

  The doctor chuckled, and I found I liked the sound. It was a genuine one. Deep, a little smooth, and alluring, though I knew that was because he was a vampire. They were one of the species designed to attract their prey.

  “Hand,” he said, holding his out.

  I allowed him to take a closer look at the damage. While he looked it over, Manda came back in with supplies in her hands. She laid everything on a tray, opening them and pulling out the different tools. I didn’t know what I was looking at, but some of them looked more like torture devices than anything needed to help me.

  The next few minutes passed as Dr. Shaffer poked at the wound and Manda passed him the tools he needed.

  “I’m just cleaning the wound out and taking off the old skin. Your healing ability is good. After I finish, I’ll call in the other doctor and she’ll help speed up the healing. I’d say in two days your’ hands will be back to normal.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I said. “Thank you.”

  “It’s what we’re here for,” he said, leaning closer to the wound, eyes focused as he grabbed tweezers and pulled at something. I couldn’t feel anything, my hands numbed from the cream Manda rubbed into it.

  The doctor worked as I reorganized my thoughts into something that made sense. I prioritized the traps and shields I needed to create before Shanton came to visit. I tried to narrow down who thought they could get away with breaking into labs and taking notes.

  I must have lucked out because nothing in my lab was taken. Then again, when I locked up for the night, I always put everything away, leaving nothing important out—a habit I had formed going from home to home. Being organized had always been important. I needed to know where everything was so I knew when another foster kid dug through my things. It also made packing easier.

  “You’re quiet,” Dr. Shaffer remarked.

  “I’m thinking.”

  He grunted as he put down his tools. “I’m going to let in Dr. Ferald so she can finish healing you. None of the tissue was damaged underneath, everything is superficial so you shouldn’t have any scars.”

  He stood and smiled at me, taking care not to show off his fangs. The way his lips curled wasn’t genuine enough, and I knew he’d had to teach himself that so he didn’t put others on edge. Many saw the flashing of fangs as a challenge and even more so if they were hurt. He would have gotten into a lot of fights with those fangs.

  “You’re a good one,” I whispered.

  He paused. “Hmm?”

  I knew he heard me. Vampire hearing was superior—only shifter hearing was on par with them.

  “Nothing,” I said simply, and he walked away, closing the door softly behind him.

  I used the quiet to look over my wound. My hands were red, the top layer peeled away, showing layers underneath. There were a couple of blisters on the back of my hands and some of the skin was black.

  A soft knock drew me from my morbid looking hands.

  “Come in.”

  The door opened and a plump woman with soft blonde hair and green eyes came in. She stood near my height of five foot eight.

  “Dr. Ferald?” I asked.

  She smiled. “Yes, and you must be Laila. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  I could feel the magic within her, but her human side added a feeling of muteness to it, as if her magic was right there, but just out of reach. A witch.

  Witches were humans with inherent magic. Unlike mages, who had to draw on their surroundings to use magic, witches had a fountain inside of them to use. I only knew I wasn’t a mage or a witch because I could do both, use the magic inside of me and around me.

  “I’m going to take a look at your burns and then do a spell to finish the healing process. Dr. Shaffer mentioned that your body already began to heal itself?”

  I nodded. “Good, I’ll just give you a nice magical boost then to speed up the process, that way we don’t overtax your body.”

  She settled on the chair in front of me and reached out. I held out my hands, and she grabbed then gently.

  Her body froze as her eyes widened and her mouth popped open. Her head lifted to look at me, her green eyes paling, the color leaching out in the telltale sign of a witch using her magic. I didn’t move as her magic probed at me, trying to get through my layers of protection, going beyond what she needed to do. She wasn’t going to get far. I wouldn’t let her. But I wasn’t going to outright attack her for invading my space. I didn’t want to hurt her. Something about the young doctor made me want to protect her instead.

  I gave her magic a gentle nudge to warn her because if push came to shove, I would slam her down if she tried to force her way through, even though I didn’t want to hurt her. But my fears were unfounded because the warning was enough and she withdrew, blinking her green eyes as she came back to our reality.

  “I’m so sorry,” she gasped, red tinting her cheeks as she grew flustered. She pulled away from me, looking ready to cry.

  Shoot.

  I didn’t want to make her cry. Guilt threatened to rise inside my stomach and I hadn’t even done anything. This woman screamed innocence.

  “You’re fine,” I said, trying to stop her from having what looked like a full-fledged panic attack. Her co-workers would think I was some kind of bully if she had one of those. “You didn’t hurt me, you’re fine.”

  She nodded and paced a couple of times. She released a breath before sitting down in front of me.

  “What level are you?” she asked, now looking more curious rather than guilty. “You sucked me right in when I touched you.”

  “Level A1,” I replied, watching her reaction. I got two kinds of reactions, those who were amazed, and those who were scared and shied away. Level A1 was the strongest level a magic-user could fall into.

  Her eyes widened and her body shivered with the news. Then she broke out in a huge grin, her face lighting up with excitement. She fell into the amazed category.

  “That’s incredible,” she said, leaning toward me. I stilled as she got into my personal space. She didn’t even notice she was doing that. “When did you learn you were Level A1?”

  My body tensed at her question. It was one I didn’t like. The answer was innocent enough but it represented years of foster homes, of rejection, of being seen as some kind of uncontrollable freak. No one wants to take care of a child who couldn’t control her magic properly. The moment I slipped, I was in a new home.

  “When I was four,” I said. “But it wasn’t official until I was older.”

  Her mouth popped open in disbelief. A lot of magic-users didn’t really know they had magic until they were a preteen. That wasn’t the case for me. I had one lady tell me that I used magic t
he moment I came out of the womb. Children said it was the reason my birth mother abandoned me.

  My heart agreed with them.

  Dr. Ferald’s head tilted to the side, and her smile slipped into a frown, her eyes dimming.

  “That must have been hard,” she whispered.

  I clenched my teeth, not wanting her pity. I fought too hard and long for a person’s pity.

  She reached over and rested her hand on my head, and I froze at her gentle touch. She patted my head a couple of times.

  “You did good, Dr. Porter. You should be proud of who you are.”

  I blinked furiously at her kind words. When was the last time someone had said that to me? Had anyone ever said anything like that to me?

  I couldn’t remember.

  “Now, let’s get you healed.” She moved her hand from my head and grabbed my hands again, this time staying focused as she did her thing.

  My hands grew warmer than they already were with her touch and light tingles grazed my skin as her magic felt the damage done.

  Time passed slowly as I tried to keep my hands still. I wanted to jerk away from her touch, away from her magic, but I could be a big girl. I needed to be.

  When she finished, she sighed and leaned back, sweat dotting her forehead. Dark circles had formed underneath her eyes to show how much healing me had taken out of her. She would have to rest and recharge for the next day or so in order to be back to normal.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  She smiled. “No, thank you, Dr. Porter. It was a pleasure meeting you.” She flashed a smile before leaving the room. I stared at her work. The skin had a light pink tinge to it and looked healthy. No scars. No signs of the burns that had covered them an hour before. She did a great job. I felt tired but nothing I couldn’t live with.

  I got up and stretched out my limbs as I walked out the door. The sixteen-year-old nurse spotted me and ducked into a room I was pretty sure was a supply closet. I grinned and went back down to my lab.

  Chapter 8

  A dark-skinned man leaned against the wall by my door, and I grinned at the familiar bulge of his arms, the expanse of his chest, the way he scowled at everything and everyone.

  “Alijah,” I called out. His head turned slightly to let me know he heard me. He didn’t move as I arrived at my lab and went through the process of unlocking the door. I felt his presence at my back the entire time.

  I met Alijah before I began working here. I was at a park, working light magic to entertain some kids, when a guy went out of control. He began throwing magic around dangerously, injuring two adults and a little girl. Alijah was the one who was able to finally stop the guy and detain him without getting anyone else hurt. I didn’t meet him again until after I got my job, but I made it a point to bug him as much as I could. He liked to keep himself busy.

  “Lombardi said I’m helping you.”

  I nodded as I took in the room. No signs of another break-in.

  “I need to set some traps for when Shanton visits and brings his assassins with him. You, Elliot, and Venni are going to help me with this side project. For now, I want you to help me with the rooms. We’re going to lock down a space to hold the baddies. No way in, no way out, until we need them out.”

  “Which rooms?” Alijah asked.

  “Let me grab some things. Maybe we can get one of them set up today.”

  I grabbed my purple shoulder bag and tossed in one of the devices I’d managed to complete before my big magic explosion.

  I told Alijah where to go and followed behind as we made our way to Floor B3.

  The floor was a mixture of labs and security offices, but there was also a small conference room table that would fit six people comfortably.

  “I want to seal this room. I just need to hardwire the trap to transport them to this location. I’m still tweaking the devices to knock them out before depositing them.”

  He nodded along with what I said and we spent a few minutes going back and forth on ideas to improve my idea.

  I was right, Alijah’s expertise was priceless. His strategic mind easily followed what I wanted, and he even came up with a couple of ideas to help increase security around the building.

  We spent the rest of the day going over strategies and preparing for the dragon’s arrival. I grew confident with my plans thanks to Alijah. Despite his appearance and personality, he was considerate too, and constant, always helping in silence, never complaining. He conveyed his opinions in a gentle way, without becoming an overbearing consultant. He was a nice contradiction of nice and mean, sweet and sour. He made suggestions without pushing himself onto me. Because of that, I took what he had to say into serious consideration.

  “Babe, you started the party without us,” Davies’s familiar voice called out, and I turned to see him and Venni strolling toward us. We were still on B3, looking at the other rooms on the floors, going over possible points of entries and rooms I could use.

  The hard part was that we didn’t know who or what was coming. The plans needed to account for all possible beings. I tried to not let that weigh me down, but I didn’t want to mess this up. Lombardi trusted me, and a small part of me didn’t want to let him down. The little girl I used to be was trying to crawl out of the small space I’d locked her in. She needed approval, she lived on it. I didn’t like her.

  I blew out a small breath and ignored the glance Alijah sent my way as I tried to focus on the problem before us.

  Pure humans, like Elliot, had just the smallest trace of energy, enough to fill a coffee cup. The humans with otherness in their family tree, like Davies, had a little bit more. He had enough energy to fill up a small bathtub. It made him strong enough to sense others, but that was about it.

  But the rest of us, we screamed energy, we screamed magic. We stood on top of mountains and hollered with otherness. My traps and wards had to account for both ends of the spectrum, to be sensitive enough to sense a pure human and strong enough to hold up against a being who was at the top of the food chain.

  So the room had to be able to absorb everything thrown into it. We just had to find the right restraints.

  “I told Lombardi that we’d start on Monday,” I said, eyeing the two mountains coming at me.

  “Why wait when we’re free now,” Davies said, shrugging. He rubbed his hands together. “So what do you got for me?”

  I thought about it for a moment and then grinned. “I only managed to get one created earlier today, but I wanted to test it out before I finished the rest.”

  “What happened to your hands?” Venni spoke up, his voice quiet, a little growly.

  I paused from speaking and looked down at them. They were still pink and freshly healed. I looked at Venni as he focused on my hands, a frown marring his face. His nostrils flared, his mouth partially opened as he took in my scent.

  “You smell like magic gone wrong.”

  “I didn’t realize that had a smell,” I said.

  He nodded. “Magic usually has a natural smell to it, like the ozone, or maybe rain, but when it goes wrong, there’s a burnt smell.”

  “Rain can burn?” I asked.

  Venni growled, reminding me not to taunt him. He usually did a good job of making people forget he was a shifter. Hanging around Davies helped since Davies was human.

  “What happened to your hands?” Davies asked. He reached over and grabbed them, rubbing his calloused thumb over the sensitive skin. It didn’t hurt, but there was still some tightness as the new layers adjusted to existing earlier than they were meant to.

  “Magic mishap, nothing you need to worry about.”

  “You don’t do magic mishaps,” Alijah pointed out, and I sent a glare his way. He wasn’t helping, despite being right. When it came to magic, I didn’t mess up. At least not like this.

  “I was interrupted. Someone wanted to express their concerns about me breaking into her lab. An idiot with a death wish is going around taking peeks into labs, taking notes, and who knows what
else. They were in my lab too.”

  “Shit, we need to find the asshole,” Davies said, growing angry.

  I shook my head. “I’ll handle it.”

  “No, you won’t,” Venni said. “It isn’t your job to ‘handle’ it.”

  “Lombardi already said I could,” I snapped. “And I want to. They broke into my lab. It’s my hunt.”

  I glared at Venni, and he glared right back, unwilling to give. I narrowed my eyes, my fingers twitching to use magic.

  “I have issues. I know I do. And someone breaking into my lab, moving shit, and thinking they can get away with it plays on those issues. I’m going to handle it. Do not take my prey away from me.”

  If I were a shifter, I would be snarling at this point, but I wasn’t and had to settle with filling my words up with confidence, leaving no room to argue—something I’d learned to do to get other kids to back off. All I needed to do was tell a kid I would turn them into a bug and not blink while saying it and they tended to believe me. Didn’t win me any brownie points, but they believed me.

  Venni backed off, his shoulders slumping; as a predator, he understood where I was coming from. Shifters held territory, they enjoyed marking it as theirs a little too much, and if someone crossed into their territory without consent, they had the right to attack without provocation. Crossing into their territory was already considered an act of aggression, and they would do anything to protect what was theirs.

  “Okay,” he huffed out. “If you need anything, let us know.”

  I smiled at the victory. “Thank you.”

  “That’s it?” Davies asked, looking confused. “Just an okay? You’re going to let her go chasing after some unknown asshole who could potentially hurt her?”

  “I think she’s capable of taking care of herself,” Venni said, a warning in his voice.

  Davies stilled, glaring at Venni before running a hand through his shaggy blond hair. “Fine. Note—I don’t fucking like this, but fine. But if you get hurt, I’m going to beat your ass.”