average human’s Reviews > Magical Intentions > Status Update

He climbed through. I sighed and relied on a little magic to help me glide to the window.
When I crawled inside, he was by the door on the third floor, listening. He grinned at me, and I just smiled and shook my head.
He reached for the doorknob and my trap activated this time. He grunted and fell to his knees before disappearing. I checked the cameras and frowned.
He wasn’t where he should have been. I checked the other cameras, but he wasn’t showing up anywhere.
Shit.
A roaring sound filled my ears as I grappled with what happened.
I lost Davies.
How the hell did I lose him? I flipped through the cameras, thinking I might have missed something. Where in hell’s gates did he go? My stomach churned as a million and one possibilities flickered through my mind.
I bit my lip and pulled out my phone to report Davies missing. I needed them to find him as soon as possible. For all I knew, he could be passed out on top of a volcano, about to burn to death.
Crap. Double crap.
When one of the men in security room answered the phone, I swallowed my pride and admitted to fucking up. “I lost Davies,” I said. “Find him, please. Track token number two. That’s the one he has.”
“Got it,” the man grunted and hung up. Well then.
I closed my eyes and calmed my beating heart. Davies would be fine. He was a resourceful man.
I nodded to myself and headed back outside to Lombardi. The entire time, my limbs felt heavy and my skin prickled with fear. I shook away my thoughts, trying hard to focus. They’d find him. They had to.
Sarina talked with Lombardi with a serious expression on her face. She looked fine, maybe a little pale.
“They cleared you?” I asked.
She nodded. “No problems when I woke up. Not even a concussion.”
“So,” I began. I shouldn’t have lost Davies. “I lost Davies.”
They both stared at me before Sarina broke out in a grin and began laughing hard.
“What do you mean you lost him?” Lombardi asked, his expression serious.
“He got into the building, but not out of the room. He activated the trap. And then disappeared. Security is trying to track him now through the token I gave each of you. I’m hoping for a positive response soon.”
“Oh, Goddess, this is priceless!” Sarina laughed hard, holding onto her stomach. Her hair fell into her face as she bent over. “You, Dr. Porter, are my new best friend.”
Lombardi sighed. “Come on, let’s get this over with,” he said and strolled away.
Sarina stayed behind, laughing as she pulled out her phone, probably to leave a voicemail to tease him.
Lombardi was definitely one of the badasses in the city who could get through anything. He didn’t set off any of my traps and before I knew it, we were in his office. I wasn’t even sure what he did. One trap he counteracted with his own energy, blowing it away. Another didn’t even sense him. For just a moment, all his energy completely disappeared and he must have extended it to the token I gave him.
“Damn,” I said, impressed. I stretched out on one of his chairs and appreciated the view as he sat down. “That took less than fifteen minutes to do. I hope you don’t plan to storm your own company to slay the dragon.”
“That isn’t even remotely funny,” Lombardi said with a blank face.
Shoot. Did I just anger the Black Dog? I didn’t realize he was so easily riled up.
“Eating clients is bad for business,” he said. His lips twitched when he finished, and I narrowed my eyes.
“Har, har,” I said.
He responded with a soft chuckle as he grabbed his small computer and hit some buttons.
“Now, what are you going to do about losing Davies? I kind of need him. Despite his limitations, he’s one of my best men.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Davies? The same man who likes to capture himself with my prototypes?”
He nodded.
“The same man who asked me, me of all people, to open a jar for him?” Granted, Venni had given him one of those tricky jars that were impossible to open without a little extra oomph from magic. But he didn’t know that at the time. He thought I was Hercules for a week before Venni broke the news to him.
“Yes, him. He’s smarter than he looks.”
“Oh, I know that. I also know he doesn’t like to put his brain to work.”
Lombardi leaned back. “I can’t disagree with that. He does have his moments.”
Something on the computer screen beeped, grabbing Lombardi’s attention.
He scowled.
“This is enough,” he said, getting to his feet.
“What?” I asked.
“Another lab has been broken into and this time something was stolen. I’ve waited long enough. I’m ending this.”
I sighed. “You know, I thought about it. This doesn’t make sense.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“The first one, my lab, I don’t know. I don’t think they were looking for anything in particular. They just rifled through my stuff, moved everything around a little in way that if it was in anyone else’s lab, they wouldn’t even have noticed. And the second one escalated more, and now, full out thievery. Notes can be reproduced but taking something, why are they escalating?”
“That’ll be something you’ll have to ask when we find them,” he growled. The energy around him snapped out with his anger. His muscles bulged and expanded, skin rippling.
Before me stood Black Dog, a creature who loved a good hunt and was extremely territorial. The most basic information people knew about Black Dog was his enjoyment in hunting down baddies and giving them what they deserved. Someone was making him feel like a fool, and he had reached his limit. He wouldn’t wait any more.
“I have an idea,” I said.
He focused those dark deadly eyes on me, his lip curling in a snarl, warning me to tell him before he lost all his patience.
“I know a way to recreate the scene. We can go down to the lab, and I’ll throw some magic around, and we’ll be able to see what happened in there.”
His eyes bled back to their normal dark brown. The fierceness of his emotions shone in the harshness of his energy. He had nearly lost control.
“Why are you mentioning this now?” he asked.
“Because I don’t want you going around tearing into everyone just to hunt down one little idiot. And because I don’t have everything I’ll need to do the spell. Some of it is hard to come by, even outside the city.”
“What do you need?”
“A phoenix’s feather.”
His eyes widened slightly.
“Exactly. Not exactly something you see lying around on the ground.”
“Wait outside,” he replied.
I raised an eyebrow.
He glared at me, his eyes flashing darker with his heightened emotions.
“Okay,” I said, throwing my arms up in surrender. “Okay, I’ll wait outside.”
I did as he said and waited outside, giving his executive assistant a friendly smile. She returned it before answering the phone and continuing with her work—like I probably should be doing. I spent the time thinking about Davies, if he was safe, if they were able to track him yet. I glanced at my phone.
No messages. I had to stop myself from calling and asking them what was taking them so long. That would be counterproductive.
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long until Lombardi came out, a long red feather in his hand. He lifted it, the light reflecting off the feather, making it look like a small flickering flame.
“How?”
“I like a challenge,” he replied before handing it over. The feather was as soft as it looked, and it captivated me.
I was holding a real fricken’ phoenix feather. They were the rarest items in the world, and Lombardi had just handed it over to me without a second thought. I knew where to borrow one, but it would cost me an arm, a leg, and all my organs.
“I promise to take care of this,” I said in a low tone, recognizing the fact that I had something very precious in my hands.
“I know you will.”
I sent him a smile. “So, I guess we’re doing it?”
“Of course. Let’s find this bastard. He’s done enough damage, and I won’t keep playing his games.”