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I was in the middle of a hot, steamy dream about a certain Black Dog when it suddenly felt like someone shoved an ice pick through my right eye. I screamed and popped up in bed, gripping my face, hoping to squash the pain with the palm of my hand.
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I staggered to my feet, black spots making it impossible to see straight. Trying to blink past the pain, I focused on breathing, nearly falling into the wall. I blindly felt around until my hands found the security monitor. Blinking past the tears didn’t do anything as my heart thudded hard in my chest. Realization fully settled in my confused mind. Someone had torn into my wards.
Sweat dotted my skin as I squinted, the light on the monitor nearly blinding me in the darkness of my bedroom. My hands shook as I hit the buttons to alert the building’s security and the city’s enforcers. Once that was done, I changed camera views until I found what I wanted. They had broken into the floor above my condo. I had bought the entire space above me and converted it into my personal lab. Assholes were now trying to get into the space. When the ward at the entrance was destroyed, it activated my others. They could try all they want. Short of a nuclear bomb, that baby was staying up.
Three figures dressed in black stood in the foyer of my lab, glaring at the unexpected ward blocking them from getting into the main part of the room. I couldn’t make out much about their features. From the blurred and skewed image on the camera, they had some kind of magic up to hide their facial expression from cameras. By the bulk of two of the beings, they had to be men. The other could be male or female, their figure slim. The long-sleeved black shirt they wore was loose enough to hide any discernible features. Nothing other than their height and shape was distinguishable from the camera.
I clamped down on the anger swirling inside me and stayed right where I was, flinching every time they did something to the ward. They were fast, probably working with their own self-imposed time limit if they were to succeed before help arrived. As the seconds ticked by, the anger and frustration in their movements turned desperate and jerky. They were getting sloppy as they tossed whatever they could at my ward.
The monitor crackled, and I jumped as a smooth male voice spoke through it. Roman. “Are you okay, Dr. Porter?”
I hit the button. “I’m fine. I have three idiots trying to get in my lab on floor twenty.”
“Are you in your condo?”
“Yes.”
“Please stay where you are until help arrives,” Roman replied, his voice crackled through. I rolled my eyes. Where did he expect me to go? I wasn’t a fighter. No way was I going to go up there to have a showdown with them. Anger seethed inside of me. If they weren’t gone soon, I might do something stupid. And my kind of stupidity meant this whole building collapsing.
“No duh,” I snapped back and went back to watching, trying to determine what the hell was going on, why it was going on, and how. Thinking was difficult. The wards around the condo were tied to me personally, a risk I needed to take to ensure no one could tear them down. The downfall was, if one was destroyed, my brain would feel like sludge. It wasn’t completely debilitating, but I would struggle if I needed to defend myself. It was a risk I didn’t mind taking because those assholes couldn’t get into my lab, and I knew I was safe in my room.
I glanced at the clock on the screen. They’d been there for one minute and forty seconds. If they pushed it, they were going to get caught. The moment I hit the button to notify others of the breach, the timer started. Help generally took two to three minutes to get here.
One of the big guys made a movement similar to roaring like an animal before charging at the ward. I basked in the dark humor as the man slammed into it. His body locked up as electricity thrummed through him, and then he was thrown back, slamming against the wall next to the elevator. Anyone weak would have stayed down.
This man hopped back up, muscles bulging as he tried to stalk to the ward again. Powerful. The leaner person reached out and grabbed his arm, halting him. They exchanged words I wouldn’t be able to hear until I got my hands on the security office’s footage—they had the better technology. Settling on an agreement, the three gathered together.
I recognized the stance as they grabbed hands, and then a dark blue light spun around them as the magic went to work. Just before they disappeared, Roman appeared on the screen, slamming into the group before getting back to his feet and charging after them. My mouth popped open as I watched the scene, not sure what I was looking at.
Roman’s short hair had grown longer, and two wings protruded from his back. They were bone wings, all angles and sharp edges. They looked like they’d break against any pressure. Somehow, they worked as he soared toward them and smashed into one of the bigger guys and the two of them slammed into my ward. My head pulsed, my brain feeling the attack.
The two bodies bounced off and rolled on the ground. Blood splattered on the white floor, and I wasn’t sure whose it was. I held my breath as Roman got back up, and then he flew backward, the slim intruder holding out their hand. Roman tried to move, and I was just about to go help him when the slim person lowered their arm and Roman slumped to the ground. The three of them gathered, the dark blue light surrounding them again.
A moment later they were gone, no doubt leaving the room to smell like their failure.
Two seconds later, new people popped into the space. I recognized the uniform.
“Dr. Porter, the enforcers should be there now,” a different male voice said through the speaker.
I pressed the button. “They’re two seconds too late,” I said. “They left.”
Leaning my head against the wall, I closed my eyes, trying to gather my thoughts. The pulsing pain from the destruction of my ward slowly receded from my head as the seconds ticked away, allowing me to actually hold onto my thoughts now. I’d need to completely rebuild that ward. They had managed to strip every layer of it away.
Once I felt like my brain wasn’t going through a blender, I straightened from the wall. Not wanting to give the enforcers an eyeful of my bare skin, I pulled on my dark purple silk robe to hide the barely-there shorts and the tank top that flashed enough of my boobs to make men uncomfortable.
By the time I made it up the stairs that came out by the elevator, the small space was packed full of enforcers, the air charged with violent magic and wary energy.
When they realized I was there, the room fell silent as all their focus shifted to me. Some of them simulated a relaxed posed, but I had no doubt if I did anything they didn’t like, I’d find myself with my heart torn out. Others had their hands ready to pull their varying weapons.
“Where is he?” I asked and looked around until I spotted Roman. He was back on his feet again, expression blank, blood drying, though there was no sign of the head wound. He had already healed it.
He stood next to another man. The man was barely taller than me, with a lean frame, dark hair, and tamed beard. As he approached, his eyes flickered over my person as he weighed the risks. When he determined I wasn’t a danger, he sent me a disarming smile, his dark eyes softening. “Are you Dr. Porter?” he asked.
I nodded. “I am.”
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head and instantly regretted that decision when pain stabbed through my brain and my eyesight went temporarily blurry. “Do you mind?” I asked through the pain. “I can take down my ward so your men don’t stand on top of each other.”
He moved so I could pass him. I held Roman’s eyes as the others managed to clear a path to the ward. Once I passed him, I eyed each person, reached out to each of them with my magic. A couple of them stiffened at my probing, but didn’t try to take my head off.
I committed each face and magical signature to memory before reaching up and placing my hand on the ward. My shaking hand tingled as it slipped through and with a small pulse of magic, the ward settled and disappeared, knowing it was safe to open up.
The enforcers fell into the open space, spreading out. I held in a smile when one burly guy drew in a deep breath, enjoying the fact that he could move his tree trunk size arms again.
“Are you okay?” I asked Roman.
“I am fine,” he said simply. “I’m glad you’re unhurt. If you will excuse me, I need to put in a report.” With that, he left me standing there, gaping at him, and wondering what the heck he was to have bone wings.
Getting my head out of my whirling thoughts, I moved further into my lab, eyeing everything and noting nothing had been disturbed. I had two current projects in the work, nothing dangerous. Just basic detainment traps catered to my client’s needs.
“Sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Captain Hanan Tautman. Can you tell us what happened?” the man asked. He’d been shadowing me as I walked around and took stock of my lab.
“Not much to tell. I was asleep when they destroyed the first ward.” Just to step onto this floor, they’d need to break through the ward. They had been prepared. “They tried to get through the second ward, but they couldn’t. Roman appeared and held them off as long as he could. Just before your men showed up, they teleported out through a spell.”
“What do you know of them?”
“Three of them, two big guys, one smaller and leaner, demeanor suggested a female. They must have had a spell on, because the cameras couldn’t make out their features, though I doubt it mattered because they were wearing black masks, with black clothes. No skin or hair was revealed.”
“Even with masks, with the technology, we would have been able to determine some of their features like eye color, skin color, and if everything wasn’t hidden properly, their hair color. The spells are used often enough, but they’re costly. They came here prepared.” Captain Tautman inputted notes on a small handheld device, almost like a tablet, except it was thicker and with more ports to attach other devices. “Roman can verify that it was two males and one female, but not much else.”
He glanced around the room, his brown eyes missing nothing. The magic in the air slowed, paying attention to the man before me. He kept it well hidden, but I could feel the attraction the magic had for this man.
“Mage,” I said.
He nodded. “I am. What do you have going on here? Why would they want to get into your lab?”
“I’m not doing anything dangerous here. Just basic weapons or traps. Anyone with half a mind could probably do it too.”
“They were here for something.”
Captain Tautman stared at me like I was hiding the key to the secrets of the world. I gritted my teeth. I was too tired for this, and despite sleeping half the day away, I hadn’t gotten nearly enough.
I forced a smile, trying to convey innocence. His eyes hardened, not falling for my bullshit.
“Let me give you a tour, Captain, and then you can see for yourself that nothing here is of worth.”
He held his arm out. “Lead the way, Doctor.”
My lab was the same size as my apartment. The only difference was that I’d had it gutted so the only other room down here was the bathroom, for safety reasons. One side of the room had an air filtration system set up so that when I mixed reactive chemicals, it’d suck the air out for me. Normally, I would’ve used magic to do that, but some chemicals didn’t mix well with magic. Stations were set up around the room laid out for whatever I may need to do: cook something up, mix chemicals, or build equipment. Metal cabinets lined the walls wherever there was free space, and bookshelves overwhelmed with thick textbooks took up another wall.
I gave the captain a quick rundown of the lab as others poked around. I wanted to snap at them all to not touch my shit, but I had good relations with the enforcers, and I wanted to keep it that way. Being surly was not in my best interests.
The elevator announced someone arriving and when the doors opened, a tall man stepped out. He was lanky, with long limbs, penetrating eyes, and a bald head.
“What is he doing here?” Captain Tautman muttered. “Excuse me, Dr. Porter.” Without another word, he stepped away and strolled toward the man, his shoulders taut enough to tell me he did not like the man who’d walked in.
I probably was expected to stay where I was, but I was never good with directions, so I followed behind. The man had pallid skin with a blueish hue to it, and I vaguely recognized him. I worked through all the faces in my memory, trying to place him as the captain whispered something to him.
The man replied before meeting my eyes and gave me a toothy smile.
“Dr. Porter, a pleasure finally meeting you, considering we’ve been neighbors for a while now. It seems our schedules just never aligned.”
“Mr. Von,” I said, finally placing him as the avian shifter who lived on the seventeenth floor. I’d never met him since he was always traveling, and I only knew of him what I did because of the little I was able to get from my research of the tenants in the building. “It’s good to see that you do exist.”
He chuckled as he shook my hand. “Mr. Shanton didn’t do you justice.”
“You know the dragon?” I asked.
“I communicate with the dragons in Europe for him. The dragons over there are a little too conceited for him, and he leaves me to keep them happy.” He leaned forward and whispered, “The last thing we need is them deciding to come to America for a visit. I’m afraid even a city as diverse as Springer won’t survive that catastrophe.”
“They would destroy a city?”
He pulled away. “Not intentionally, but dragons have short fuses, and like any family reunion, there is always that one relative who’s all about the drama. Mr. Shanton has no patience for that kind of attitude. It’s why he came to America in the first place. There are only two others here. One spends most of their time as a dragon beyond the Mississippi and the other is somewhere up north, enjoying the freezing temperatures.”
“When the hell did you get so chatty?” Captain Tautman said, frowning hard at the avian shifter.
Von’s attention switched to the captain, a flash of irritation crossing his expression. “This is Laila. She’s very important to Mr. Shanton. Of course, I’ll want to talk to the person who has managed to motivate my employer these last couple of weeks.”
Heat warmed my face as he went on about Shanton and his interest in me. I hadn’t even thought of that. I figured I’d have minimum contact with him now that I wasn’t needed, but by the reverence in Von’s expression, that wasn’t going to be the case. I had a feeling Shanton was going to find a way to butt into my life once again. I wasn’t even sure if all the boyfriends I seem to have obtained would even deter him. He’d probably make it a challenge to steal me from them.
“You still haven’t explained why you’re here,” Captain Tautman said.
“I was meeting with Director Lisbon when the alarm went off. When I heard it was Dr. Porter’s apartment, she allowed me to come in case I was needed.”
“You’re not needed,” Captain Tautman gritted out.
“So you say. Dr. Porter, do you think I’m not needed?” Von tilted his head as he stared at me. I shifted on my feet, not sure why there was so much tension between the two men.
“I’m not sure what’s going on or why they were here. What exactly would you be able to do?” I asked.
“I have mimicry. As a bird, I can copy sounds made by anything. It’s useful when I need to pass on messages. As a human, with a being’s DNA, I can change into them. It doesn’t last long, only five minutes max, but at least we’ll have a face to go with the owner of the DNA. I help the enforcers when they’re stumped on a case, and they have a sample of DNA.”
I gaped at him. I’d never heard of that before. “Yes, please help.” I wanted, no, I needed to see this. The scientist part of me was practically jumping around impatiently to see how this worked.
Von smirked at the captain. “See, I am needed. Now we just need to find some DNA. Can be anything, sweat, hair, skin, blood.”
“I’m sure we’ll find something,” I said and led them over to where the three intruders had stood.
We spent some time trying to find DNA when I finally found something. “Got spit,” I said and pointed to the small wet glob by the wall.
“How’d that get here? Are you sure it belongs to one of the intruders? It could belong to your doorman,” Captain Tautman said.
My eyes narrowed. “Roman isn’t a doorman, he’s a security guard.”
He raised his hands up. “I didn’t mean to belittle him.”
“Then choose your words more carefully. And yes. When one of the big guys charged the ward, he was thrown back and smashed into the wall here. This is probably from that moment.”
“Good enough for me,” Von said. “Let’s hope I don’t turn into a female. That’s always awkward for me.”
Tautman stiffened and glanced away, refusing to look Von in the eye.
My lip twitched as I put it all together. “Yes, I imagine that has to be uncomfortable for you.”
Von sent me a wink before kneeling and swiping his finger through the spit.
“Step back please,” he said as he got back to his feet. We gave him space, the other enforcers gathering around to watch the show.
His eyes closed and then the grossest thing happened. His skin boiled and expanded, his muscles twisting as he grew taller. I wanted to look away and at the same time didn’t want to miss a thing as the energy in the air crackled and gravitated toward the avian shifter. His muscle mass expanded, features twisting. I winced with each pop of a joint. Bones snapped and then realigned themselves, and then in less than a minute, someone completely different stood before us.
The man was black, with broad features all around. Skin stretched over the plains and valleys of his muscles. He stood nearly a foot taller than me, with sharp black eyes leading into an endless depth of destruction. His coarse hair was tight to his skull.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“How do you get tattoos from DNA?” I asked, pointing to the tribal markings going up his neck.
“I found that if a tattoo is created with the means of magic, then the DNA of the person remembers it.” He glanced at the captain. “This big guy is a bear shifter.” He looks down at his skin. “Black bear to be exact. Over three hundred years old. Experienced. Does anyone recognize him?”
No one responded. Captain Tautman took pictures of the man, along with the tattoo that, when Von took his shirt off, stretched over the right shoulder, down to the man’s nipple in sharp angles.
“How do the clothes stay on?” I asked. “He’s almost twice your size.”
“The clothes are spelled to reshape themselves over any new body I may have,” he answered.
“That is so cool.” I managed to get my hands on the shirt and feel it up. It was soft and stretchy, but not that stretchy. My magic did pick up on a spell that had been embedded into every fiber.
“We’ll circulate the photos. If the man is still around, we’ll find him,” Captain Tautman said, passing the camera off to another enforcer.
I sighed and reluctantly gave the shirt back so Von so he could shift back. The process was much of the same, his skin boiling and expanding before reforming back into his original form. It was a gross process to watch, but not one I was able to look away from.
“How is Roman?” I asked.
“He’s fine, a little dizzy. One of my men is debriefing him, but even without the spell to block the cameras, they did well to hide who they were with the getup, and they had another spell in place so his memory is a little hazy.”
“You aren’t going to get much out of him?” I asked.
“Unfortunately not,” Captain Tautman said. “If you’ll excuse me. I need to check in with my men.”
“Thank you,” I said.
I settled in, knowing what was left of this night was going to be spent keeping a keen eye on everyone as they went through my shit. It took all my willpower to just stay still and not bark at people for touching everything. They were doing their job.
Too bad, no matter how many times I told myself that, I still wanted to go after them.
While I got comfortable, Von went back to his apartment to get some liquid in him before he crashed. Apparently shifting like that took a lot of his energy. Most of the enforcers left since there was no danger anymore, only leaving a handful to go over the scene. I used the wall as support, leaning against it as I watched everyone. My eyes were just beginning to droop, exhaustion settling in, when the elevator doors opened, and the energy in the air shifted. I didn’t need to look to know Lombardi had shown up.
“Why are you here?” I asked, still not looking at him as he came to my side. I couldn’t even focus on anything right now, having gone beyond my limits. I’d been pushing myself with the MBG toy and then having my mind put through the grinder when my ward was destroyed. I was raw now, barely holding on. If they didn’t leave soon so I could get some sleep, I was going to pass out right here and no doubt end up waking up in a damn hospital.
“Word got to me that your lab was broken into. I’m here to check on you,” Lombardi said.
“My lab is fine. They couldn’t get past my ward.”
“I can see that. I can also see you passing out. You need to get to bed.”
“I’m fine. As soon as they leave, I’ll go back to sleep.”
“You’re not staying here.”
I finally looked at him, giving him my best scowl at the moment, which wasn’t a very good one. I wasn’t even sure if I was scowling at all.
“Where do you suggest I stay then?” I asked.
“At Biomystic. You can stay in one of the guest rooms. You’ll be safe there.”
“I’m not running from my own home,” I snapped out.
He was quiet for a moment. “Laila, please. I know you’re probably safe here, but from what I was able to learn, no one knows anything. They came here prepared. They blew through your first ward in moments. They weren’t expecting the other ward to fall in place once they got through the first one. Otherwise, they would have broken through that one too.
“No, they wouldn’t have.”
“Do you really believe that?” Lombardi asked. When I didn’t answer, he kept talking. “Exactly. They would have gotten through. They were fast, they had a plan. You surprised them. Once they recoup, they’ll come back ready to take down your second ward. I don’t want you around when they have that much power ready to be thrown around. Please. Stay in one of the guest rooms at Biomystic.”
Damn. How did Lombardi know all the right things to say?
“Fine,” I replied. “But only because I can’t stand on my feet any longer and it looks like they’ll be here for a couple more hours to only find nothing.”
Lombardi flashed me a smile and my heart melted. “Thank you, Laila. I’ll have someone stay here until they leave to take care of everything.”
I grunted, too tired to give him a response. Besides, I only caved because that meant I could work more, and he couldn’t kick me out. I held back a smirk and let Lombardi lead the way from my lab.
