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I somehow managed to do what I’d promised Dwight and stayed out of the lab. That meant in the morning, Davies and Venni pounded on my door until I answered and then dragged me out for a run. I did four miles and hated every second of it.
The guys had to remind me why I was doing this. Because I didn’t want to be defenseless in another battle. I wanted to be able to contribute. The two of them were the real champs, putting up with all my grumbling as my legs burned, and my lungs forgot how to work. I also never knew sweat burned eyes until mine did.
When we finished, I nearly collapsed onto the grass, but they weren’t done with me. Well, Venni and Davies were since they had something to do, but they traded off. Davies even slapped hands with Elliot when he showed up.
I groaned. “You’re my trainer today?” I asked.
He smiled. “I am. They like using me to train others since that’s all I have going for me and I understand the struggles of being a human.”
“I’m not a human.” I straightened, having finally caught my breath. I was still sweating buckets, but at least it no longer felt like a jackhammer in my chest.
“No, but if your magic is taken away, you don’t have much else going for you.” My lip curled at the thought, and he ignored it, still talking. “You don’t have heightened senses, or extra strength, or speed. You’re also female and smaller than the normal supernatural male. If you go head-to-head with another being without your magic, there is no competition; you’ll lose.”
“You make it sound hopeless. So what should I do? Should I just lie there, bare my stomach, and let them at me?”
“No, Laila, you’ll fight. But you’re not going to fight like you probably think. Even I know better than to try to attack Venni. He’ll have my head clean of my shoulders in the first swing. As weaker beings in the strength department, we have to rely on other means.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Guerilla warfare. You don’t ever try to take a supernatural straight on. You need to learn to move around them, make them work for it. Since they are supes for a reason, we can’t tire them out, and they most likely will heal any damage we give them.”
“Then how do we win?” I asked.
“We don’t.”
I scowled at him, but he just shrugged.
“We distract them, delay them, do what we can until someone strong enough can come help us. I don’t go out in the battlefield for a reason. I wouldn’t last five minutes in it, not when there are vampires too fast to see with the naked eye, and shifters with the strength to punch through metallic walls, or mages and witches who can toss around magic. It sucks to admit it, but I’ll lose. I have to rely on outthinking them, on strategy, on finding their weakness and exploiting it. If I try throwing a punch, it’s the equivalent of a two-year-old trying to punch. They’ll see it coming before I even know I’m going to do a punch, and then they’ll catch my fist and rip my arm off.” His eyes were dark, and I had a feeling he’d seen exactly that happen before. “You’ll have your magic, so you have a chance to survive. My job is to teach you to do that without it. It’s all about the defense. Keep them guessing about what you’re going to do, how you’re going to approach them.”
Elliot put space between us, getting into a similar stance that Rhett had showed me during my first lesson.
“Rhett said you have great instincts in reading people. That’s good, that already puts you ahead. You need to understand how a person will react and how they’ll retaliate, and you need to do that while already being ten steps ahead of them.”
“This sounds like chess,” I said.
He chuckled. “I guess it kind of is, just bloodier and more painful if you mess up. You have to read your opponent, find out how they think and come up with a defense against that. Now, I want you to come at me. Throw a punch, do a kick, anything.”
I eyed him as I circled him slowly. When I came to his side, I attacked, throwing a punch. He stepped back and then his leg moved, knocking mine from underneath me. I fell hard, glad the grass was there to act as a cushion.
“Your attack was too straightforward. You don’t want them knowing what you’re going to do. You need to trick them, draw them out, make them react how you want them to.”
I frowned. “I don’t get it.”
He held his hand out, and I grabbed it, letting him pull me to my feet. I went right into his chest, my hand resting over his pectoral muscle. Elliot was lean, and all of it was muscle. I was tempted to give him a squeeze, feeling him up, but there was a time and place, and I wanted him to know I was taking this seriously. I did want to learn. So I swallowed the drool and stepped back, needing the distance between us so I could focus.
“Example. React naturally to me.”
Elliot came at me, his arm lifting as if to punch me. I moved back, twisting my body, but it was too late. He got a hold of my arm, did something complicated, and I was on my back again. I coughed, not expecting that. He definitely looked like he was going to punch me, not throw me.
“Shit, I didn’t mean for you to land so hard,” Elliot said, at my side, his hand on my arm as he looked me over. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just a bruised ego. What did you do?” I asked.
“I threw you. But to do it, I need you to move into a certain position, so I pretended to throw a punch. When you reacted, you went exactly where I needed you to be, and it gave me the ability to do the real move I wanted.”
I mulled over his explanation for a bit, slowly understanding what he was getting at. “So you psyched me out,” I said.
He nodded. “Beings are cocky.”
His lip twitched as he stared at me, and I rolled my eyes. I knew I was cocky. He didn’t need to remind me. I wasn’t even sorry about it. I liked knowing my magic was better than others, that I could make the same exact ward as others and mine would still be better. I thrived on the feeling of triumph. It reminded me that I was strong enough and had better control over magic.
Elliot continued. “They see me, and they see a human. They look at you and struggle to get past the fact that you’re a small woman. This makes them underestimate us. The goal is to either take them down or get away before they realize that we aren’t just going to let them do as they please.”
“I think I get it,” I said.
He grinned. “Good, because we still have a long way to go.”
The next hour passed by in a blur of movements as Elliot showed me how to do some throws. Elliot wasn’t much bigger than me, not like the rest of the guys, and it made practicing so much easier when I didn’t need to throw someone who weighed the same as a small car. We continued until my muscles screamed, reminding me that they were going to pay me back later tonight.
Elliot finally stopped when he flipped me on the ground again and I moaned, my lungs burning as they tried to breathe. My clothes were soaked with sweat and clung to my skin. Even the chilly air did nothing to cool me off.
“We’ll stop,” Elliot said.
“Thank Goddess!” I stared at the blue sky, wondering when all this work was going to pay off. I knew it wasn’t going to be instant, I just needed an image in my head of when I’d start really noticing results. Then again, did I really want to be in the situation where I found out if my training helped or not?
“Go home and get ready, don’t forget there’s dinner tonight.”
I tilted my head back to look at Elliot, the grass rustling underneath me. “Is that still on?”
“Yes. And it will be every Saturday, so don’t stand us up.”
“Shouldn’t it be me who says don’t stand me up?”
He sat on the ground, his thigh only inches away from my head. He reached down and touched my soaked hair. I winced at the thought of getting my sweat all over him. It wasn’t even the right kind of sweat. If he was going to get me gross like that, I’d like it be because I was riding him and making him lose control, not because he’d beaten me up for the past hour.
“We won’t ever stand you up, Laila. You still don’t believe us, and that’s okay. Just keep showing up for dinner. Someone will always be there to meet you.”
“I will,” I said. “Just understand, to me, this is a dream still. It definitely feels like it. I mean, there’s six of you guys. That’s a lot.”
“And you’ll see tonight why it’ll work for us.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Lombardi and Davies won’t be there tonight. They have some business to take care of.”
“How long are they gone for?”
“They’ll be back in the office tomorrow morning.” He sighed and watched as a little puppy ran by us. Of course, on closer inspection, it was a baby wolf, a child shifter, as it ran after a squirrel, determined to make it its lunch. A wolf easily five times the size of the pup came by, barely sparing us a glance as it trailed after the little one.
“How would you fight a wolf?” I asked, finally pushing myself off the ground and sitting up.
“Climb a tree.” When I just stared at him, he shrugged. “Wolves can’t climb. If you’re ever attacked by a wolf, you need to be where they can’t reach. Climbing a tree does that. If they want to get to you, they’ll have to turn back into a human.”
“What if there are no trees?”
“Keep your back to something solid so they can’t get behind you and grab something that will hurt if you hit them with it. Hit their nose. It’s really sensitive.”
We kept going back and forth. Me coming up with a scenario, and him going over what to do. Afterwards, he walked me back to Biomystic and then left me there to get ready for dinner. There was a clothing bag laid on the couch with a note attached from Ami. She was kind enough to go back to my place and grab some dresses for me per instructions from Venni.
I held back a smile as warmth flooded through me. Everyone was taking care of me. What they were doing for me was something I could never pay back in my lifetime. Kindness really did go a long way.
~*~
I added a touch of makeup, enough to make my green eyes appear smoky and my cheeks fuller. Once I was done, I unclipped my brown hair so it fell around my shoulders in soft waves. I stepped back, fixed my dress, and smirked.
Going braless smoothed out the dress, allowing the dip of my dress to go in between my breasts. The black, lacy fabric might as well had been painted on it was so tight and only a little bit of magic kept it exactly how I wanted. I wanted to get their heartbeats racing while still forcing their imagination to have to work.
I turned so I could see my back, the way my tanned skin had a golden hue to it thanks to the dark fabric and some pampering while I took a bath. My entire back was on display, my dress dipping down low. One question was definitely going to be in their minds tonight when they saw my back. Was I wearing any underwear?
I wasn’t.
I only had one piece of fabric on tonight, not including my shoes. I’d have to be a shark if they decided to play strip poker.
The risqué outfit boosted my confidence as I gathered my purse and slipped on black heels with wraps that went up my calves. Tonight, I would make them cave. They didn’t know what was coming.
A soft knock came from the door and after checking the monitor, I opened it and smiled at Venni.
“So, it’s your turn tonight?” I asked.
His lips were slightly parted as his eyes trailed down my body, pausing briefly on my breasts and then taking in my legs, the hemline stopping high on my thighs. Men liked my legs too. They said they looked long.
All the easier to straddle them with.
While Venni worked to find his words, I used the moment to look him over. He wore a dinner suit, dark gray this time rather than the black he’d worn last time. He looked really good, clean-shaven, sharp eyes, a predatory aura. That very aura sharpened as his eyes met mine and his wolf prowled inside them.
“You’re stunning,” he said, voice deep.
“Thank you. You too.” I held my arm out, and he gently grabbed it, looping it through his as he escorted me to the elevator and down to his vehicle.
Venni drove a luxurious black car with tinted windows and a sunroof. When we got inside, he opened the glass sunroof and let the cool air breeze inside as he drove us to the restaurant.
Once we got there, a woman was waiting for us with a professional smile. “Dr. Porter, your party is waiting for you.” She weaved us through the restaurant to the same room as last time.
The other three men were there, standing, and smiling as I walked in. I took a moment to watch their reactions. It was a shame Davies wasn’t here. He was always the most responsive.
Their heated stares took in my outfit, and I returned the favor, noting they all wore gray dinner suits, but with personal flair. Rhett’s was the most well put together, with everything tailored and a matching tie. Elliot had taken off his jacket and had hung it on one of the chairs. The sleeves of the dark blue button up shirt were rolled up over his forearms. Alijah didn’t bother with wearing a button up shirt, instead wearing a black tee underneath his gray dinner jacket.
Rhett smiled as his gaze met mine, and he came around the table. When he was in front of me, he leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “I know what you’re doing,” he whispered into my ear, and I shivered against the sensation of his energy caressing my skin. “You’re playing a dangerous game tonight, Laila.” He stepped away and was quickly replaced by Alijah.
We stared at each other, neither of us saying anything. His eyes dipped down to my lips briefly, and then he swore under his breath and pulled me into him, pressing his lips against my forehead.
“You’re driving me crazy,” he whispered. “I want to throw a coat around you so no assholes can look at you and at the same time strip this dress off of you and worship your gorgeous body.” He pulled away before I could respond, and Elliot filled the space Alijah had made.
“You’re beautiful, as always,” he said with a smile.
“You too,” I said, grabbing the black silk tie and giving it a playful yank. He chuckled and kissed my temple.
Venni led me to my chair, and we settled down. As soon as we got comfortable, our server was there, ready to take our drink orders. Once he disappeared, I smiled and leaned forward, noting how they fought to keep their eyes from going down to my breasts. Alijah failed, but he was unrepentant about it. Elliot did too, and his cheeks heated as he forced himself to look back at my face.
Oh yeah, tonight was going to be fun. I was going to remind them exactly what it was they were missing. We’d been busy lately, but it seemed things were at least beginning to balance out now and everyone had some breathing room. It was time to put this, whatever this was, into gear. I wanted them, and I knew they wanted me.
I was done with their games.
I went easy on them the first half of dinner, keeping the conversation easy, talking about some of the projects I had put on hold. Once we were halfway through our meals, me picking at pulled pork, I began. I wanted someone tonight, and I was going to do my best to get it.
Dwight gave me some reprieve, but I’d had weeks of buildup. I needed someone in me, fast and hard. I had Venni to my right and Rhett to my left. This was going to be fun.
As I laughed about the time I’d created a rain cloud that followed me around all day, I placed my hand on Rhett’s knee. He stiffened underneath my touch, and instead of removing my hand, like I expected, he weaved his fingers through mine. I stiffened, not anticipating that move. I thought he’d either ignore me or move my hand, not hold it. I glanced at him, noting the slight curl of his lips as he listened to Elliot talk about something.
I couldn’t hear what Elliot was saying. All my focus was Rhett and his touch, something so simple, and yet already my body was responding. When I went to pull my hand away, his grip tightened and he refused to release me. He effectively captured my hand and held it immobile unless I wanted to draw attention to myself.
When I glanced at Alijah, he was smirking as he stared at me. I glowered at him. He knew what was up, and he found it hilarious. Jerk.
“So,” I said, trying to get my mind off the fact that Rhett was holding my hand. That was it. A simple gesture, but for me, the simple touches were still new. They had all been touching me intimately recently, and every graze of their fingers was new to me. I was slowly getting used to it. There was reassurance in having someone do that, a gentle reminder that they were there, and they weren’t going anywhere.
“So?” Elliot asked.
I cleared my throat, getting back on track. “Tell me something I don’t know about you,” I said.
Elliot straightened in his seat. “I’m sure you already know everything,” he challenged.
My teeth clacked together as I realized what he meant. My files. They all didn’t know about them.
“It’s impossible to know everything,” I said, glancing at the others. Their heads turned back and forth as they listened to us.
“It must irk you, right?” he asked.
“What is your problem?” I snapped. Rhett’s hand tightened around mine as a reminder.
He raised his hands. “None. I just think they should know.” His expression softened. “They won’t mind.”
“Mind what?” Alijah asked.
Elliot and I stayed in our staring match.
“Laila,” Alijah growled, and I flinched. I finally broke away from Elliot’s eyes and focused on Alijah. “What is he talking about? What are you hiding from us?” His voice was low and rumbling. Not a good sign. He didn’t like being out of the loop even less than I did.
“They really won’t mind,” Elliot said.
“You don’t know that,” I snapped. Their privacies were broken, and I was the one to do it. How could they not mind? Some of the information in there was never meant for the public.
No one needed to know the dirty details about Rhett’s family being murdered by the vampire who’d turned him, and about how he tore that vampire apart.
Or the time Venni lost control and his wolf nearly killed someone.
Or how Alijah didn’t have a permanent address. I had a theory that he spent far more time as a shifter than he let on. When he wasn’t around us, I pictured him as a tiger, stalking through the woods. It would explain why he’d been so comfortable going into them.
I didn’t want them knowing I knew those things about them without them sharing it with me.
“Tell us,” Alijah said.
I met each pair of eyes before focusing on Elliot.
“I have the Biomystic files about each of you.”
Silence wrapped around me as no one responded, and I waited for their judgment.
“Why do you have those?” Venni asked, voice void of his thoughts. I couldn’t even begin to hint at what he was feeling or thinking. He’d always been one of the best at hiding them.
I licked my lips and managed to extract my hand from Rhett’s. My throat wanted to seize, but now that they knew, I wanted them to understand. The little girl in me was expecting them to turn their backs on me. No one liked being vulnerable, and those files made them vulnerable.
“Laila,” Rhett said, softly. “How’d you get them?”
I closed my eyes briefly, trying to bring up the emotions they’d been building up inside of me for the last week.
“It’s a compulsion,” I finally admitted and opened my eyes, needing to face the consequences. I knew from the beginning I wasn’t supposed to have them. I was breaking everyone’s trust in me. “I need to know who the people I surround myself are. I need to know the kind of people they are. I have the file for every employee in the company. I also have it for everyone in my apartment building, and also on all my foster parents.”
“What the fuck?” Alijah asked, and I flinched.
I switched my focus down onto my plate.
“I need to know. When I fight it, when I let someone around who I don’t know, who I don’t have a file on, I get nightmares. I don’t sleep. Not until I get it. Not until I know they don’t have citations against them, or they aren’t abusers. I just need to know.”
“Where are they?” Alijah asked, his voice turning into a growl. “How did you get them?”
“They aren’t physical files,” I said. “They aren’t electronic either.”
“What does that mean?” Venni asked.
“I created a pocket of space, and it holds the information for me. When I want it, it gives it to me.” I tapped my head. “When I don’t want it, it puts it away.”
Elliot frowned. “Like a cloud server?”
“A what?” I asked.
“Henzie is good at explaining that stuff, but the best I can come up with is that a cloud server acts like a pocket like you said and holds onto whatever a person uploads into it. When the person needs it, they put in their personal credentials and get access to that information. They can be accessed remotely.”
I nodded. “Yeah, like that but with magic.”
“So you know everything about us?” Venni asked.
“Only what BMS has on you.”
Rhett snorted. “We have everything on a person.”
“Not everything. I’ve come across some holes.” I glanced at Elliot. I didn’t know he was in foster homes for a couple of years until he told me. There were a couple other things, like Alijah used to work for the enforcers. That one really surprised me because that was information Dwight would want to know. I was beginning to think what he did for the enforcers wasn’t something they put on the payroll, but under the table.
Elliot said, “It kind of takes the mystery out of dating, doesn’t it,” he joked, smiling.
Alijah scowled hard at me. “Get rid of it.” His body was stiff and he looked like he was holding back.
He was angry. I stared at an angry Alijah with it geared toward me.
Elliot gave him a wary look. “It’s not that bad.”
“The information Lombardi has on us is expected to stay with him. This is a massive breach of privacy, and I don’t like the idea of someone else having that information.”
“So you’re saying you don’t trust Laila to keep it to herself?” Rhett asked. His expression and tone were neutral.
They bickered, growing angrier, and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I never considered how they’d feel if I took the files, and I wanted to regret it. A small part of me did, but the rest of me demanded that I have them.
“Stop,” Elliot snapped and everyone went quiet. Elliot turned to me. “Can you expand more on why you feel this compulsion to take them?”
I flinched at the redness in Alijah’s eyes his tiger rose to the surface. I pressed my lips together hard before forcing myself to talk. This was deeply personal, but it was only fair. I knew some of their intimate information too. Before I could speak, I had to force back down the bile that had risen.
“My last foster family, before I left to go to college, were the most two-faced couple I ever had to deal with. They were the picture of a perfect family, charitable in everything. I thought they were okay for a while too, not the best couple, but definitely better than most places. But behind closed doors, not so much. One night, I met two shadowsmiths they had hired for a job. After that, I needed to know about the people I was living with. When I uncovered what they did, I became physically ill.”
“What did they do?” Alijah asked, still holding onto his anger.
“Everything. Assassinations. Theft. Blackmail. They got to where they were in society by stomping on everyone. I turned everything I collected over to the enforcers and took off. They were arrested soon afterward. But since then, the idea of not knowing became a phobia. It started off with simple checks, just to make sure nothing major jumped out. My second semester of classes, there was a boy who, on paper, was great. He snapped, took a girl, raped and killed her. After that, I began to dig deeper.”
I stared at Alijah, begging him to understand because I really thought it was something I’d never be able to stop doing.
“I wish I can say I’m sorry, but I’m not. I have it on everyone and it’s all up here.” I defended, taping my temple. “There are no hard copies, and I never share with anyone. It’s a personal fulfillment so that I feel safer in my environment.”
Alijah’s jaw clenched, and he jumped to his feet, the chair scraping along the floor. His shoulders were stiff, arms tight at his side, hands fisted. The air grew thick with tension as Rhett and Venni stilled. I could practically taste the violence rolling off everyone. Alijah closed his eyes and rolled his head, his neck cracking. “I don’t agree with what you’re doing.” He moved to leave.
I jumped to my feet, my heart stuttering in my chest. “Alijah—”
“Don’t,” he snarled, eyes snapping open. Wildness danced as orange flames in a sea of red when his eyes met mine. “Not right now. I need space. What you’re doing, it isn’t right, and I can’t just roll over and accept it. We’ll talk about this later. I need to go for a run.” He stormed out of the room, leaving me staring after him with wide eyes and an aching heart.
“He left,” I said dumbly, my brain still trying to catch up.
“He’ll be fine. He just needs space,” Venni said.
Not wanting to think about how angry Alijah was, I licked my dry lips and asked, “What about you guys? Are you mad?”
Rhett shook his head. “The only way to keep information safe is to never have a record of it. I do the same thing for Biomystic that you do for yourself, so I don’t have a leg to stand on.”
Venni sighed and for a moment, I thought he was going to leave to. Numbness crawled through me as I prepared for it. Instead, he said, “Just don’t hide stuff like that from us. I’m not happy about it, but I don’t see a problem either. I want you to know about me. And if having that information makes you feel better, I’m not going to get all twisted about it.”
My eyes burned as I forced the tears to stay. I didn’t need to bawl in the middle of a dinner date.
“Thank you,” I said. Then tension fled from my body and my shoulders slumped. “Thank you,” I whispered.
The rest of the night went by quickly, and I stopped trying to play games with them. I enjoyed their company, and by the looks of it, they enjoyed mine. To pull me out of my anxiety over Alijah, it took Elliot teasing Venni about the time he was in his wolf form and ended up playing fetch for an hour with a little girl. After that, dinner was nice as I learned more about Venni, Elliot, and Rhett.
When it was time to go, it was Venni who escorted me back to BMS. We got to my temporary home, and I turned to him, not wanting to end the night.
“Want to come in?” I asked, hopeful, and wanting company so I wouldn’t think about Alijah. If I was left alone tonight, I was going to talk myself into a panic attack. Or maybe something even crazier, like searching for Alijah.
He hesitated before nodding, and I smiled as I unlocked the door and stepped inside. Venni followed behind, locking the door and chaining it while I turned on a lamp, giving the room a soft glow.
“You never know,” he mumbled as he walked over to the couch and sat. I joined him, leaning back and propping my feet on the coffee table, releasing a content sigh. Venni shifted until his shoulder brushed up against mine.
I turned my head and stared at his profile, taking note of how his nose curved, the squareness of his jaw, the smoothness of his dark skin.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, voice soft.
“I keep thinking this isn’t real, that there’s no way I’m dating six of you guys.” I leaned my head against the back of the couch.
“Why not?” Venni asked.
“I just don’t get it. One day, after months of talking to you guys, you all come out and say you like me. I feel like I’ve been bulldozed and probably in a coma at a hospital, and my mind decided to give me the best dream. I just don’t get it. What about me do you like? I’m stubborn. I’ve been told I’m too cocky. The only thing I care about are my projects. I work. I don’t do anything else. Once in a while I go out and dance and maybe go to some guy’s hotel for a fuck, but dating? I don’t do that.”
“You don’t do it because you haven’t allowed yourself to do it. You’re a lot more considerate than you give yourself credit for. I know this because I pay attention. Sure, you like to chase people around and corner them, forcing them to be part of your experiment of the week, but you never reach that stage until you tested it out on yourself. What is it about you that I like?”
Venni wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into him. I shifted until I leaned against him, my feet dangling off the side of the couch. I still needed to take my heels off and get out of the dress, but in that moment, I didn’t care. I just wanted him to hold me.
Venni finally answered my question, saying, “After the first week, you had created a name for yourself at Biomystic. People knew to run the other way if you were looking for volunteers and you always managed to capture someone.” He chuckled. “Our introduction wasn’t any different.” I smiled, remembering how Davies had said he knew a shifter friend who would be perfect. It had been Venni. The poor guy got locked up in my device. “I caught you one day. You were outside playing hot potato with a gun that wasn’t working how you expected it to. That was when I realized you tested everything out on yourself first before branching out. My wolf did not like that thought at all. You play a dangerous game, Laila, and I just want to be there to make sure you’re okay each day.”
“Wow,” I said.
He chuckled. “When I met you, I never had a chance. I was a goner.”
We kept talking well into the night, and at one point, when I blinked, my eyes didn’t open back up, even when Venni was kind enough to remove my heels for me. I briefly cursed myself because I never got what I wanted. I fell right into their trap.
Rhett got to hold my hand, and Venni got to talk with me late into the night. They were doing such a good job, making me feel like a teenager dating for the first time.
