“The right question is are you ready?” I asked. “I think I perfected the device so if Venni goes through fine, you’re next.”
The smile on his face bled away. “I don’t like you anymore,” he grumbled and I laughed as I gathered everything.
I passed him the device and a walkie-talkie. “The three of you go to the same spot as yesterday. Venni will go through first and if it’s all clear, Davies will go next. Alijah will bring back the device.”
“I don’t like this,” Davies grumbled.
“Come on, let’s get this over with. I’m sure it won’t be as bad as it was Saturday.” Venni tried to keep a blank expression but his eye twitched, giving him away. He was just as nervous as Davies was about this.
“Have fun,” I called out. Someone grumbled something, another someone laughed in reply.
I grabbed the second walkie-talkie and headed toward the room we would be using. When I got there, a man stood by the door, frowning as he looked in.
“What are you doing?” I asked in a hard voice.
He jumped before turning to me. He was vaguely recognizable, but he wasn’t someone I had to deal with. There were a lot of employees, and I didn’t know them all on the spot.
“Are you Laila?” he asked.
“No, I’m just a concerned employee wondering why you’re standing there, looking like you’re up to no good.”
“You are Laila Porter.” He held out his hand. I eyed it before reaching out. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Abram Suttell.”
“Please, call me Dr. Porter.” I smiled at him. His honey colored eyes widened at my correction, and I could see the ugliness in them. He was a handsome man with light brown hair falling around his ears, but something in him was dark and it showed. I probably didn’t want to antagonize him. “You must be one of the meatheads. Davies mentioned you yesterday.”
His smiled hardened, any kindness, if at all, bled away from his expression.
I let his hand go, and he cleared his throat. “Well, I wouldn’t be surprised. He has an opinion about everything.”
I laughed at the truthfulness of that. “That he does. Nothing wrong with that though. He’s just a man who knows what he wants.”
Abram’s eye twitched, and his disapproval practically came off of him in waves. He was not a happy camper. I didn’t know what he expected from our interaction, but I wasn’t meeting his expectations. I was okay with that. I’d learned to enjoy never meeting people’s expectations, kept life interesting.
“What can I help you with?” I asked.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Experiments. Don’t worry, no one will be hurt in the making of my devices. Now if you don’t mind, I need to get back to work.”
“We are all set here,” Davies cackled through the walkie-talkie.
“Great, give me two seconds. Abram dropped by for a visit.” I shifted closer, trying to get positioned between him and the room, wanting him gone. He didn’t seem like he’d be leaving anytime soon.
Suddenly, a rush of air washed over me from behind. There was a low thud, and I turned my head just as a soft light disappeared. A heavily breathing Davies crouched, eyes hard focused on Abram.
“Davies!” I screeched, looking over his body as I ran over to release the simple shield holding him in. “We didn’t test with Venni first.”
He ignored me and stalked by, getting into Abram’s space.
“You better start running,” he growled out.
“Davies!” I snapped. I did not want this to escalate.
He ignored me and shoved Abram away from the room. I followed them out, ignoring the flash of light. Most likely Venni following behind him.
“I just wanted to see what was so special about the young doctor.” Abram leered at me. “I can see the appeal.”
Davies shoved Abram hard until he slammed against the wall, his head snapping back and banging hard against the surface.
“Enough,” I snapped, growing angry. I hated violence. I grew up in it, surrounded by those who thrived on causing pain. I didn’t want to see it at work.
“Run, Abram, because when I’m done here, I’m going to come after you, and I’m going to make you regret approaching Laila. I told you to stay away from her, to not even fucking look at her.”
Davies stepped away to give Abram space, and he used that as his chance to walk away, straightening his clothes. There was no hiding the shaking in his hands though. Davies had succeeded in scaring the man.
“Do not do that again,” Venni growled, coming up next to me. I blinked at him and then into the room.
“How did you get past the shield?” I asked.
“Applied enough energy to break it. It’s not a strong one.”
I nodded. I knew that.
Venni turned back to Davies. “We didn’t know if that was human safe. You could have gotten yourself killed.”
Davies waved his concerns away. “I trust Laila. She wouldn’t have made something that would’ve killed me.”
“Uh, yeah, I would have,” I spoke up. “That’s why Venni was supposed to go through first, to make sure. As a shifter, he can take more damage.”
Davies shrugged our concerns away. “It worked, so no problems.”
“You’re an idiot,” I mumbled.
“Hey! I heard that,” he groused.
I shrugged. “Don’t care.”
Alijah joined us, handing over the device. “How did it go?” he asked.
“I’m surrounded by idiots. No deaths,” I reported.
“You sound almost disappointed,” Davies said.
“Maybe just a little.”
I headed back to the lab with the men in tow. I pulled out the map and rolled it out again.
“These circles are where we are going to lay the traps. They’re weak points in the security. I’m also tweaking the devices so they’ll knock them out and transport them away. That will take time, probably won’t be completed until the week of. It’s more complicated than what I have set now.”
“This isn’t a weak spot,” Alijah pointed to a spot on the map.
“Nope. But it is a spot someone may still try to get through. I want those covered too. I need to go outside the city to find some plants for a couple of spells I need to make. Who wants to go?”
Davies didn’t even bother raising his hand. He didn’t like leaving the city if he didn’t have to and out there, as a human, he wouldn’t be much help. He knew that and stayed still. Venni and Alijah were both willing to come with me. I frowned as I looked between the two of them.
“Okay, Alijah will come,” I said. “I’ll be ready to leave in a couple of hours.”
“You should wait until tomorrow morning,” Venni suggested.
I shook my head. “No, we’ll go this afternoon. It shouldn’t be that hard, we don’t have to go too far into the woods. I know a spot we can go to.”
“I’ll be by after lunch,” Alijah said before disappearing out the door.
“Hey, what does this do?” Davies asked. He held one of my prototypes. I needed to do a couple more tweaks, but for the most part it was completed.
“Press the button and find out,” I said.
He gave me a suspicious stare, but curiosity always won out, and he pushed the button. A cool mist came out and wrapped around him. The magic in the room turned into a whirlwind around Davies, and he was lifted off his feet.
“Holy shit, I can fly,” he cheered as he moved carefully about the room, trying to figure out how to move properly. He grinned widely as he did something he normally wouldn’t be able to do.
Then the mist evaporated, and he fell hard onto the floor with a loud thump. I winced as his leg hit a chair and it tipped over. When he popped up, face twisted with confusion, I laughed. He climbed to his feet, looking down at the prototype.
“It’s not quite there yet,” I said. “The time is too short for those who weigh more than two hundred pounds. Needs an adjustment to account for the
weight.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
“Because you were an idiot earlier.”
“Not cool,” he grumbled, and I just shrugged.
“While I’m gone, can you guys scout out more rooms? I want enough to hold about twenty people. Do you think that’ll be enough?” I looked at Venni.
He nodded. “The type of people after him aren’t the types to work as groups. You might have some groups, but they’ll be small. Maybe three tops. Any more and they risk exposure. I can see a few different hired mercenaries coming for him. They see this as his weakest moment, with easy access to his person. They won’t hold back, but we won’t be overrun with an army.”
“Okay, good. The space I’m aiming for is around seven by seven. Clean out any rooms that will work for us. I should be back this evening, and if not, then tomorrow morning.”
“Stay safe,” Venni said before grabbing Davies and heading out.
I smiled. Of course I would be safe. Alijah would just glare at everyone to get them running in the other direction. He was an intimidating guy when he wanted to be.
I stayed in the lab until it was time to head out. Alijah waited for me outside with a huge, dark gray, two door Jeep waiting. We would have to do some off-roading, so he’d gotten something that could handle the terrain. I really didn’t want to get stuck out there with no overnight supplies. We’d get eaten alive, not just by the bugs, but by some of the beings who would see us stranded as easy prey.
I guessed I could be a dick and teleport out, but even I had my limitations. I couldn’t go over ten miles and the further the distance, the more exhausted I would be. With how far we were going, I could only teleport once, and I wouldn’t be able to bring Alijah with me. He’d be on his own.
I released a breath to relieve the tension building in me. It wasn’t like we were driving into no man’s land. The creatures there were just like when someone spotted a bear or a wolf. They were part of the habitat. And like a bear or a wolf, if provoked, they would attack. We just had to avoid pissing them off.
I gave Alijah the directions. He was semi-familiar with the area, so I let him drive us in silence. I tapped my hand on my knee, not looking forward to our destination. I lost so much control out there. I had to be completely alert to avoid all the dangers. Not only were the animals or other beings dangerous, so were the plants.
And that wasn’t the only issue. There was a lot of wildlife out there, a lot of magic. If my shields weren’t tight, the magic would press down on me and try to overwhelm me, leaving me defenseless. I’d gone out a few times and each time, I came back exhausted. I wasn’t like Davies. I preferred not leaving the city to go hiking through the woods, but I would do it if needed. I didn’t like delegating that kind of work to other people to do for me. If I wanted something, then I should be the one to risk my life to get it. Besides, they might mess it up and not get what I needed, then the trip would have been pointless.
“What are we getting?” Alijah asked.
“I need agrimony and woad,” I said, going through the recipe in my head to determine exactly how much I needed. “I’m going to use it to create a potion that will help boost the range of my spell.”
“That can’t be safe to do.”
“It’ll be fine. I need a little extra boost to wrap the ward around the entire building.”
“Couldn’t you get a coven to do it for you?”
I shook my head. “No. This isn’t something they’ll be able to do. Witches and mages deal with magic, not energy. What I’m doing is dealing with energy. I’m going to have the ward also scan their energy to make sure it matches up. There are ways to cover up your magical fingerprint, along with everything else about you to appear as something else, but to do it with energy is even harder. It won’t stop them all from breaking through, but it’ll stop most of them and leave behind the most powerful to stalk after our dragon visitor.”
“That’s a good idea,” Alijah said, sounding impressed.
“Thank you.”
About twenty minutes later, we pulled to the side of the dirt road and parked the Jeep. I took in a deep breath and released it slowly, centering myself. The next couple of hours were going to be tough.
“You okay?” Alijah asked, giving me a concerned look. I smiled at the way the orange in his eyes went darker with his emotions, making them appear red.
“I’m great,” I replied. His frown deepened, but he didn’t call me out on my bullshit.
He jumped out and went to the back of the Jeep while I pulled myself together. I could already feel the magic knocking against my body. I needed to stay strong.
Unclipping my seatbelt, I jumped out of the Jeep, going to the back. I kept my focus on each step I took, my limbs stiff with tension.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, let’s just get this over with. I’m sensitive to magic and there is a lot of it around here right now.”
He nodded and grabbed a bag, while I grabbed the smaller one. We had minimum supplies, just enough to last us the hike there and back.
The hike took about an hour and led up a sharp incline to the top of the mountain. There was a nice waterfall I wanted to get to.
We kept our eyes open for all types of danger. But even then, I still didn’t see it coming.
The root charged out of nowhere and wrapped around both my legs and tugged hard. I landed with a hard oomph, losing my breath.
Alijah was there in seconds, his expression set in fury as his hand shifted into scary looking kitty claws. He reached down and slashed at the roots that were trying to drag me beneath the ground to become their fertilizer.
I sat up as the roots tightened around me. Dull pain grew as pinpricks dug through the fabric of my cargo pants. I pulled at them, trying to get loose. My fingers tingled with magic, and I sent it into the roots, hoping to give it enough of a shock to let go. Instead, it tightened its hold on me. My teeth ground together as the pain from the pressure increased. If it squeezed any harder, my bones were going to break.
“Relax, Laila,” Alijah said and then gritted his teeth as he continued to slash at the roots.
“Knife,” I gritted out. “There’s a knife in my bag.”
He paused long enough to grab my bag.
“Outer pocket,” I called out, and he ripped it open. A moment later he pulled out a long blade and gave it an appreciative look before running back to me. He slid to his knees and began hacking.
A loud screeching noise threatened to make me deaf, kind of like air leaking out of a tank, but stronger.
He cut the last root, and I kicked it away. Alijah lifted me to my feet and out of the reach of the trees that wanted me for dinner. When we were far enough away, he stopped, bringing me in front of him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, looking over me. He leaned down and patted my legs, making sure to knock away the rest of the roots still clinging to me.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I’ll probably have some bruising on my legs, but they’ll be gone by tomorrow.”
He frowned and lifted up my right pant leg.
“Alijah,” I said, trying to pull away, but his large hand gripped the back of my knee.
“Stay still,” he grunted out. His fingers skimmed my skin, checking the damage.
“They’re just bruises,” I said.
He didn’t say anything as he rolled down the pant leg and stood up. “Maybe so, but I wanted to make sure nothing else had attached to you or that the roots didn’t leave behind some kind of residue that could poison you.”
My eyes widened at that little bit of information. “That could happen?” I asked.
He nodded. “It’s happened once or twice.”
I shivered at the thought and gripped his arm. “Let’s get this over with so we can get out of here. I don’t want to get eaten by a tree.”
He nodded and took lead as we continued. The other times I’d been here I never had to face a tree doing that.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to come back by myself. They would never be able to find my body.
The hike continued. My breath stayed labored as we climbed the steep incline because we moved at a faster pace than I was comfortable with. Normally, it took me two hours to get up there, but at this rate, we would be there in an hour and a half.
There were moments Alijah had us stop as he scented the air and tilted his head to the side, listening to something. No doubt there was danger nearby that he sensed.
“How did you find this place?” Alijah asked as we approached the top.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You don’t come out here often. I can tell. So how did you manage to find this place?”
I refused to look him in the eye. How did you tell someone you came out here in search of death?
“Laila,” Alijah said in a careful voice as if he knew the answer.
“I’m a survivor, Ali. Don’t worry about me,” I whispered.
He didn’t respond, but tension filled the air. We finally made it to the top, and I breathed a sigh of relief then grinned at the view. The hike was worth it every single time. This view reached out, never ending, as waves of trees covered the ground. We were high enough to touch the clouds.
I glanced around until I spotted the familiar woad plant. The plants were nearly three feet tall, with a blue-ish green tint to the leaves. The flower itself was small and yellow.
I lowered my bag and grabbed the tools I needed to harvest the plants.
“Did you know these used to be considered a weed?” I asked Alijah.
“I know nothing of plants,” he replied simply.
I nodded. “Despite their useful medicinal properties, a lot of people saw them as weeds and began killing them. That’s why they’re so rare now, only growing in certain forgotten spots.”
He grunted, but when I glanced at him, he was focused on our surroundings, acting as my very attentive bodyguard.
When I’d gathered enough, I straightened up, stretching out my back.
“Where is the agrimony?” Alijah asked.
“Should be around here somewhere. I need a specific species, and it just so happens to be a species more common in Asia than North America.” I wandered away from the clearing and a little bit into the forest. “Found it!” I called out, spotting the little yellow flowers running along the long stem of the plant.
Magical Intentions Page 10
