Magical Intentions

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  “On it,” Henzie replied, his normally smooth voice broken by the cackle of the radio.

  We went inside and continued as he followed my directions. The woman had gone right through the back door and continued into the stairwell. I paused in surprise. She went down. Not up.

  Why?

  Where was she going?

  Henzie’s voice cracked through the radio. “You have the footage now.”

  I pulled out the tablet and pressed play. About fifteen minutes after being spotted, she had slipped through when someone exited the building. They didn’t wait for the door to close before stepping away, and she used that opportunity to get inside. We only knew because for just a moment, there was distortion in the air, like a shimmer of a heat wave on a hot day.

  “She’s getting tired,” I said to my group and then used the walkie. “Keep an eye out. She won’t be able to hold the spells much longer. She went into the staircase, going down. We need to know why.”

  I got staticky affirmatives as my group made their way to level B4.

  “This is a little embarrassing,” I said as we came out into the long hallway. “She practically walked right by all of us and no one noticed a damn thing.”

  “She’s good,” Ami admitted with a tinge of jealousy in her voice.

  The path stopped at a lab. I stared at it, trying to put the puzzle together. “Henzie, send Davies and a group upstairs to where Lombardi and Shanton are meeting. Update Lombardi on what’s going on, we have a traitor.”

  “Ha,” Henzie replied. “I won the pot.”

  I shook my head. If he didn’t stay quiet, the men were going to tear him apart.

  “How do you know?” Ami asked as she eyed the door, the magic in progress light flipped on.

  “This is Dr. Rogen’s lab. He specializes in gadgets that hide people. His stuff is used for a lot of undercover work and spying. How else would she know to come here directly? Our lab floors are mazes, designed so any outsider would get lost. She knew exactly where to go and how to get here. She has inside knowledge of the setup of our building, not even the blueprints map this out correctly.”

  “What’s the point of blueprints if they aren’t right?” Ami asked.

  I smiled. “They’re designed to get people lost if they were to get their hands on them.”

  I reached over and rested my hand on the door. I wanted to pull away as the magic attacked my hand, but I gritted my teeth and pushed my own magic into it, fighting the wards. At this point, Rogen knew I was out here, but he didn’t have anywhere to go now. He was trapped, and his only hope was that I wouldn’t be able to break his wards.

  “Careful,” Elliot warned, knowing I was pushing myself too hard.

  I gritted my teeth, my hand tingling, on the verge of going numb. I closed my eyes, grunted, and shoved enough magic into the ward to force it to fall apart. The magic shattered, and I winced as it tried one last time to take me down with it. Arms grabbed my shoulders and yanked me back hard, away from the magic’s reach. When I could focus again, I was staring into orange eyes with more flecks of red in them as his tiger fought to get out.

  “I’m okay,” I said.

  His eyes went back and forth as they looked into my own. He finally nodded and stepped back. I shook out my limbs and turned to the door.

  Ami already stood there, her blades out, ready to storm inside. I prepared too, bringing my magic to just underneath my skin, waiting to be used. Elliot stood next to me and Alijah stood in front of the door.

  When he looked at me, I nodded. He lifted his leg and used all his strength to kick in the door.

  His shifter strength worked beautifully as the entire door broke off its hinges with a loud bang and little resistance. It flew across the room, smashing into a workbench and toppling over some glassware that shattered on the floor. Ami went in first, throwing out a spell to stun anyone in the room. The room flashed bright, and I turned my head before following behind her with the two men at our backs, ready to take on any surprises.

  The only person in the room was Rogen, standing at his bench in complete shock. Wide gray eyes stared at us as we surrounded him. No sign of the baddie. She was already gone. Her magical trail ended in this room. Or I lost her scent.

  Crap.

  I stepped back, leaving it to the experts to detain Rogen. The moment the stun spell wore off, Alijah had the labbie up against the wall; his arm pressed against Rogen’s throat as the tiger shifter released a snarl.

  “Where is she?” he asked, leaning close to him, his eyes flaring with his fury.

  The man stuttered, unable to respond. I walked up to Alijah, my instincts telling me to touch him. I ran my hand up Alijah’s back and then over his bulging shoulders before resting on his biceps.

  “He can’t talk if you choke him,” I said, keeping my voice calm so as to not get his tiger worked up even more. Alijah had to work hard to tear his eyes away from Rogen to focus on me. “Let up a little. We need answers from him. You can do whatever you want to him afterward.”

  That seemed to work because he let Rogen go and took a step away. The labbie slumped to the floor, completely defeated. He knew this was the end of him. This was the ultimate betrayal and there was no coming back from it.

  “Where is she?” I asked.

  “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “The woman you helped.”

  “I didn’t help anyone. I’m just working here.” He really was desperate to lie to us.

  “Bullshit,” Alijah said with Ami nodding in agreement. “I can smell her all over you. You fucked her recently.”

  I cocked an eyebrow at that. All a woman needed was good tits and she could get anything she wanted. She just needed to find some poor bastard to take control of. Unfortunately for Rogen, he was that poor bastard.

  I sent him a look, and he finally deflated completely.

  “She approached me a couple weeks ago. She was real nice, did things for me, allowed me to try things.”

  “And all she asked as payment was information,” I said.

  Rogen pressed his lips together as his skin turned ashen.

  “What did you give her?” I asked.

  He licked his chapped lips. “Just a couple of devices so she could hide easier without having to use magic. One of them is still in its testing phase but so far the results had been good.

  “So she can hide herself without having to keep her spell going,” I said.

  This changed things. And probably explained why I tracked her into this room but I couldn’t find where she went afterward. She could save up the rest of her magic for the final showdown.

  “Venni, send some men down here to detain Dr. Rogen. We need to keep going.”

  “Be there in one,” Venni replied.

  We waited, but just barely. Every second spent here was one more second the woman had to get back upstairs to attack the dragon.

  “Ideas,” I asked. I needed ideas on how to find her now. “Since she isn’t using magic, she isn’t leaving behind a signature. I can’t track her that way anymore.”

  “I don’t know much about technology and magic, but won’t the device have to pull in the magic?” Ami asked.

  I turned to her and gaped.

  “What?” She frowned.

  I stepped to her and pulled her face toward me so I could give her a kiss on the cheek. “Brilliant,” I said.

  I grabbed the walkie. “Henzie, find blank spots of magic.”

  “I’ll need a moment,” he said.

  I tapped my toes as I waited. A couple minutes went by before Henzie responded. “There’s one just outside the lab door but then it disappears again.”

  “It’s on a timer,” Rogen admitted. “It’ll pull in the magic every one minute or so. Use it up, pull in more magic.”

  “Another one going left, inside an old closet room,” Henzie reported shortly after.

  We headed that way. The room was small, barely used. Boxes were piled high a
nd there was a metal shelf burdened with more boxes and other old junk.

  “Remind me to talk to Lombardi about spring cleaning,” I said as I looked around the room. I couldn’t figure out what she did after this.

  “I smell a draft of stale air,” Alijah said, taking in deep breaths as he pulled us out of the room and moved in further. He went up to the metal shelf and leaned in. After a moment, he swore and stepped back before grabbing the metal shelving unit and pulling. It scraped against the tiled floor, and I could feel the draft too.

  “What the—?” Ami said, trying to see around Alijah, his massive frame making it harder. He knelt and leaned forward, part of his body going into a dark room. He came back up and looked up at us.

  “An old elevator shaft.” He frowned as he eyed the space.

  “We have an old elevator shaft?” I asked. Since when?

  Alijah nodded.

  “Henzie, old elevator shaft,” I snapped out through the walkie. “How far up does it go?”

  “Shit,” he replied back. “Give me a few. I didn’t know about it.”

  “Neither did we.”

  Stupid older buildings. I turned to Ami and Alijah and nodded for us to get out of the small space and into the hallway where Elliot stood guard.

  “The three of you need to go up to provide Davies with back up now.”

  “We aren’t leaving you,” Elliot said.

  “Yeah, you will. Because right now she has an express way to them. My only hope is she goes for the suites and not to Lombardi’s conference room. But I doubt that. I’m going to follow behind, put pressure on her. We don’t need to give her time to set up her attack. She’s planned this out perfectly. I don’t know how she knows about the elevator shaft when we weren’t even aware of it. So go up there, stay alert, and intercept her before this becomes dangerous and very embarrassing.”

  They nodded, none of them looking happy. I glared at them, challenging them to say I couldn’t handle this. Their lips pressed together but they eventually headed toward the elevator to shoot upstairs.

  Henzie finally reported back as I tried to determine the quickest but safest way up. “The elevator goes to the top floor.”

  Shit. That was where they were.

  “I sent my team to backup Davies. Davies was wide-eyed, senses on high alert. Find where this elevator shaft comes out and wait for her there. I’ll make my way up. I don’t need her to try to use this as an escape route if things go sour.”

  “Stay alive,” Davies replied.

  “You too.”

  With those wonderful words of support, I began climbing, using some magic to aid me so my muscles didn’t tire out. I couldn’t do much magic since I used a lot just to track her, and I wanted to keep the rest in reserve for when I inevitably faced the woman.

  I calculated that I was about twenty minutes behind her. She had slowed down when she waited to slip in and then when she stopped at Rogen’s lab. I had a small chance of catching up. I hoped.

  Chapter 27

  Climbing ten floors was hard and a slow process. I was just grateful of the maintenance ladder built into the shaft. I only had to climb a really long ladder.

  It wasn’t until I reached the third floor that I felt her presence. I’d managed to catch up to her. She didn’t feel like she was in the shaft, but she was nearby. Knowing I was close kept me going until her magic brushed against my skin. My heart thudded as realization dawned on me.

  She still had a lot of juice in her. How? How did she recover? There were medicines and drinks that could do this, most temporary. They were expensive solutions though and hard to come by. This woman had thought of everything possible.

  I didn’t like that.

  She went right to the top floor. There was another small closet that she’d slipped into. She had stayed here for a bit and slipped out not even five minutes before.

  “Everyone on high alert. Confirmed she has made it to the top floor.”

  I slipped my bag off and left it in the closet, only grabbing the most important gadget, the one that would help me capture her.

  I slipped out of the closet and into the end of a small, dim hallway. I expected her to have gone down the hall and toward where everyone was on guard, but instead, she went into the door across from me. I pressed my ear against the door and listened.

  Nothing.

  I tried the handle, and it was locked. I focused a small amount of magic onto the lock and it clicked as it disengaged, allowing me to open the door. The room was another small closet.

  I could feel her so close. She was excited. That put urgency into my step as I went further into the shadowy room, looking around to find where she went. A small draft caught my attention, and I looked up to see one of the ceiling tiles slightly off. The woman was getting too excited, which had her making mistakes.

  I shook my head. Sloppy. She originally came off as a professional, but now I was wondering if she was a mixture of luck and power, and not really experience. If so, if she succeeded, this job would give her all the business she would ever need. I couldn’t let her get that kind of experience. Not when I was involved.

  I climbed up on the shelving unit, hoping it held my weight. The boards creaked but stayed put as I reached up and moved the tile to the side then hoisted myself into the ceiling. There was about four feet of space from top to bottom, making crawling around easier. I followed her magical scent, picking up the pace. She was heading toward the conference room.

  Right where they were currently meeting. How did she know every little detail to get so far? Who sold us out? I doubt it was the labbie. That didn’t feel right. There had to be someone else, someone closer to Lombardi, making him or her privy to the details. And how was she breezing through all my traps? Questions bombarded my mind and my scientific side wanted to investigate.

  I shook my head. I couldn’t be bothered with that yet. I needed to hunt her down and take her out. She wasn’t going to get within a hair’s length of the dragon. I’d get my answers once she was detained.

  I pictured the blueprints for this floor. Lombardi’s office was here, along with a set of bathrooms, a small kitchenette, and his private conference room. The conference room was nearby.

  I contemplated contacting the team, but at this point, she would hear me, and I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to push her to act sooner. I still didn’t know how she expected to get out of here after taking out a dragon, but she seemed confident. She had a plan in place.

  I slowed my movements, imagining a bubble around me and anything in that bubble was muted so no one would hear. It was a hard trick to pull off. If I did talk, she would hear me, but at least she couldn’t hear as I crawled after her. I couldn’t be quiet without a little magical boost. I wasn’t Elliot. That man was good. I probably would have sent him after her if I wasn’t afraid of the fact that she was a powerful magic user and his lack of magic was a huge hindrance.

  I came to a part where the space veered around a bend. I pressed myself against the slab blocking the view and peeked around the corner. I froze. She was there, focused on something before her, but I couldn’t see what by the way she’d positioned herself. Whatever she stared at held her attention. There was a soft glow around her, showcasing her beautiful features. I could see why the labbie fell for her tricks.

  I carefully shifted, moving forward. She wasn’t paying attention. She should have set up wards or traps around her, alarms to go off if someone approached. Cocky. She had cocky written all over. I could only hope it would be her downfall. I moved closer and still she didn’t notice. I wrapped my magic around me, using it to feed the shadows to help keep me hidden.

  I made it to within five feet of her before she finally noticed. I lifted my hand as she jerked, ready to throw her magic at me.

  She was slightly faster, not caring about the space we were in. Her magic smashed into me, and I bit my lip to hold in my scream. I shoved an image of my magic binding her, coiling around her and squeezing. She
tensed and squirmed.

  Then my magic disappeared. I blinked, trying to figure out what happened. Magic didn’t just disappear. And she didn’t have that device out.

  What the hell had just happened?

  The woman smirked and threw magic at me again. Her magic hit me hard and seeped into my pores. Once it was inside of me, the real attack began as my body grew hot. I screamed, my mind convinced I was on fire. Panic tried to settle into the beating of my heart.

  Reflex had my magic lashing out to shove hers off of me. I wanted to make her pay so I snapped out at her. Her body jerked and then again, my magic disappeared. How?

  She laughed, the sound smoky, seductive. For a second, I thought she was a succubus, but that wasn’t right.

  “You’ll lose,” she purred and threw magic at me again. I pressed my head against the floor and pushed out a shield. Her magic slammed into it, and I winced at the feeling. She pushed harder, I pushed harder. She made a grunting noise and then we were both falling.

  I landed hard on the conference table, the woman landed on some of the chairs. The room was empty.

  I smirked. They must have moved to his office. It would be even harder to get in there.

  “Bitch,” she seethed and attacked me. Not just with magic but with her fists too. I didn’t have a lot of experience with fists.

  She got in a few shots but I was fast and avoided a good amount, trying to keep the damage to a minimum. The door flew open, and I could see everyone trying to pile in. The woman’s hand flew up and the air shimmered all around. I was distracted by the fact the door was full of people who couldn’t get in.

  My mind screamed ‘sealed.’ We were sealed in.

  They’d distracted me enough to give her an in. She grabbed my arm. And then I was flying, smashing into a wall. I groaned, my vision blurring as she approached slowly, a little sway in her hips.

  “You won’t win,” she said.

  “I can try.” I tossed my hand up and smashed magic into her. She fell back, but then she shifted and the magic disappeared. Again.

  “What?”

  She laughed at my dumbfounded expression. Magic didn’t just disappear.