Harlequin Dreams_A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy

by Tansey Morgan

  Go back, little one—you’ve missed a spot.

  “Go back where?” I asked the mask. “The tunnel?”

  Brishan, or whatever that thing pretending to be him had been, couldn’t have meant that. There was nothing for me to find in that tunnel except darkness and death, which left only one other possible place where I could have missed something. Trevor’s apartment. Problem was, it was the middle of the night, the apartment was on the other side of town, and I was sure I didn’t have the keys to get into the place. I also wanted to go back alone, if I was going to go back at all, to prove to myself that I could handle this life I had been brought into.

  That settled it; I was going to sneak out of here and break into the apartment on Canal Street, and luck, hopefully, would be on my side.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I had gone insane. There was no other way to justify to myself the reason why I had decided to sneak out of Eli’s house in the middle of the night and go, on my own, all the way to Tulane - Gravier to break into a dead man’s house. I had told myself the reason why I was doing this was to prove that I could handle this world on my own, but pride was a stupid reason to do it. This meant the only possible reason was fear that Damon wouldn’t allow another trip to Trevor’s house, he’d ask me to wait until the morning, until he could get permission, but my instincts told me I had to be at that house right now, or I would miss it.

  Only, what I would miss was a question that plagued me as I sat silently in the back of the Uber on the way to the apartment. The trip seemed longer now that I wasn’t in the driver’s seat, and that only enabled my mind to run circles around the question Brishan, or whatever that was, had left me with.

  That was something I’d have to fix, maybe the DPA had more information on Harlequins in a vault somewhere, but it was a problem that would have to wait until later, because the Uber was pulling up to the curb out the front of the apartment building. The driver gave me a look as if to say, are you sure you’re alright here on your own? But I didn’t make a fuss out of it and instead just stepped out of the car, thanking him as I went.

  The streets were quiet at this early hour of the morning. The teenagers I had seen loitering around the area were gone. Oddly, so was the bum, even though his things were still there.

  I headed for the red door to the apartment building and was able to open it without needing a key. I suspected there was some kind of lock on the door, but it had probably been busted some time ago. Once I was through, I headed into the elevator, taking care to take a breath before entering, and holding it until it took me to the correct floor. The elevator dinged, the door opened, and as I got a little closer to Trevor’s house, I noticed something that made my blood run cold. The door was open. Not exactly to its fullest arc, but ajar just enough for me to notice even from half-way down the hall.

  It was the sweatiness of my palms I noticed before the steadily rising quickness with which my heart was beating. Had Damon, or the coroner, or maybe one of the police officers on the scene left the door ajar when they left earlier on? It was possible, sure, but entirely unlikely. My hand moved to my pocket, where my phone was, the thought of calling Damon, Logan, and Eli pulsing in my mind like the beating of my heart. But if I called them right now, what did that make me? If I relied on them to help me at the first sign of trouble, what did that mean for my prospects as an agent of the DPA?

  Also, what if whoever was inside the apartment, because as the moments passed the idea that there was someone in there became more and more real, decided to suddenly split and run right into me in the hallway while I waited for the guys to turn up? No, I had come here alone, so I would investigate alone; it was the only thing to do.

  I approached, sticking to the wall on the opposite side of the hall to try and get a better look into the apartment as I moved closer to it. As I closed in, I thought I could see movement on the other side, shadows passing hurriedly, momentarily dimming the light coming through the gap in the door. My heart picked up the pace, slamming hard against the inside of my chest. What the fuck am I doing? A question with no real answer, but I had luck on my side, and that was something at least.

  I heard a bump, and from inside the apartment someone made a shushing sound. My heart leapt into my throat, for a moment I froze, but I was determined to see this through, so I inched the final few paces to the door, crossed the hall, and pressed my fingertips against it. Slowly, deliberately, I applied pressure to the door and watched it start to swing. I caught sight of a shadow zipping from one side of the living room directly on the other side of the door to the other and stopped, but not because of what I had seen—because of what I heard.

  “Are you sure someone’s taken it?” a woman said, her voice a whisper.

  “I’m sure, a second woman replied, “He was here when he died, where else would it have been if not with him?”

  Lucia.

  My body turned to ice while my brain matched the voice I had just heard with the same voice I had heard every single day for the multiple years Lucia and I had been friends. It was a match, alright, but… how?

  “We shouldn’t have waited so long,” the first woman said.

  “We didn’t have a choice,” Lucia said, “Brishan told us to wait until it was clear. How did we know someone was going to come in and take it?”

  “Fuck. We should get the hell out of here, then. What if someone sees us?”

  “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To make sure we aren’t seen when we leave.”

  “You know exactly who I’m talking about.”

  “Fine, but what are the odds?”

  “Look, we came, we looked, it isn’t here. We should go.”

  “Wait… wait.” More bumps, more knocks. Someone, Lucia, I thought, grabbed a chair and dragged it across the room. The chair creaked, then I heard a light shuffling until, finally, “Oh my God… here it is.”

  “Holy fuck, you found it?”

  My heart was beating so hard now I thought it would explode if I didn’t calm down, but I couldn’t calm down. Any second now, Lucia—someone I had thought was well and truly dead—was going to come out of the front door to the apartment and find me standing in the corridor, and then I’d have to react, rather than act. I reached into my backpack, now empty except for my mask which I had stuffed inside before leaving the house, and drew it out.

  Quickly, but carefully, I wrapped the mask around my face, securing the strap around the back of my head, noting the familiar coolness against my skin and also the way it almost seemed to vibrate with power. Holding a deep breath in my lungs, I stepped away from the hall, pressed my palm against the door, and I shoved it open so hard the door smacked against the wall-guard with a hard thud.

  Lucia, who had gotten down from the chair, spun around and stared at me. Beside her was the young girl, the teenager—the Shade who wore only black. For a moment she looked startled, caught off guard, but she steeled herself pretty quick, scowling at me from where she stood, her hands clenching to create fists.

  “A-Andi…” Lucia said, her voice cracked and shaken, “What are you doing—”

  “—why aren’t you dead?” I asked, also fighting my own emotions.

  “I, Andi wait, you don’t understand.”

  “What I understand is, my best friend went insane one night and died as a result. I heard what happened! I heard it come out of that hole and attack.”

  Lucia shook her head. “I was able to get away.”

  “And you didn’t say anything?!” I yelled, my own voice cracking now. “I cried for you! I’m still not okay, and you’ve been alive this whole time?”

  “Luce, we have what we came for, now let’s go,” the Shade said.

  She was trying to circle around me. I also noticed one of Lucia’s hands was behind her back. “I’m not letting either of you go,” I said, “And whatever you’ve taken from this apartment, you’re going to hand it over.”

  “Andi, it doesn’t have to be this way. I can explai
n.”

  “You can explain all you want, but first I want whatever you’ve taken from this place.”

  “I can’t give that to you.”

  “Luce!” the Shade said, her voice a harsh whisper now, urgency clear in her tone.

  I called her Luce…

  “Shut up, Piper,” Lucia growled. Then she looked at me. “Andi, please. You need to step aside and just let us leave. Neither of us want to hurt you even if you might think we do.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Piper put in, the intent clear in her eyes.

  “Neither of you are leaving,” I said, “And you’re going to give me what you’re holding in your hand.”

  Lucia swallowed, I watched her throat work. “If I tell you something,” she said, “Will you let us pass?”

  “Tell me something? About what?”

  “If I tell you what this is, why I have it, and why I need it, will you let us through?”

  “You don’t get it, do you? We’re on opposite sides now, you’ve made your choice, which means if you want to leave, you’re going to have to go through me.”

  The shade grinned, clasped her hand together, and the entire apartment went dark. It wasn’t that the lights were out; it was more like the apartment had been filled with an impenetrable blackness that I was now standing in the middle of. I turned around, put my hands out in front of myself, but I couldn’t see a thing. I also couldn’t hear anything, and after a moment, I felt like I was floating, suspended.

  Every last one of my senses had been taken away from me. It felt like I didn’t even exist. Just me and my thoughts, floating in utter blackness. Is this what hell feels like? I never imagined the fiery pits people talk about, but something more like this—just darkness, and nothingness, forever. No pain, but also no feeling of any kind. Just your own mind deprived of input. Then I remembered my dreams, how it had been dark once before, and how I had summoned my lantern and been able to see.

  I felt something, then—a kind of vibration gently rippling through me as if I was a pond, and it a rock that had been thrown into it—and then there was a light, only a pinprick, but enough for me to be able to see something. I blinked, and the darkness evaporated as if this light I had summoned inside of myself had dispelled it. My senses returned to me in a dizzying rush, but by the time that had happened, Piper and Lucia had already made a dash for the front door and had blitzed past me.

  I turned and gave chase, moving into the hallway, but they were already stepping into the elevator and I would never catch them before the doors closed. Knowing I needed to beat them to the ground floor, I spun on the spot, headed back into Trevor’s apartment, and moved into the kitchen, remembering I had earlier opened the window to let the plants breathe.

  Without thinking, letting my body and instincts take the wheel, I threw myself at the window, sliding across the counter and rolling onto the gantry just outside. Then, taking the stairs two, and three at a time, I flew down the fire escape, reaching the first floor and gracefully dropping down to ground level just as Lucia and Piper made the turn around the front of the building to head into the parking lot.

  When they saw me, they froze on the spot as if they’d been dipped in liquid nitrogen.

  “Lucia!” I yelled, my voice carrying and echoing in the night, “Give it up.”

  Piper went to grab Lucia’s arm, but some kind of telekinetic force pushed her away and sent her sprawling to the ground. A gust of wind pushed through the area, away from Lucia, tugging at my hair as it went past me. I could sense the vibrations from where I stood and realized they had come from Lucia. Is she a Mage too?

  Piper fought to get to her feet, then stared at Lucia with contempt and frustration in her eyes. “What the hell are you doing?” she yelled.

  “Andi,” Lucia said, “I know you don’t believe me, but I’m on your side.”

  “My side?” I asked, approaching, “You’re going to explain that one.”

  “It’s coming for us, but you know that already, don’t you?”

  “The jester…”

  “Brishan told you that night. He told you it would come for us, for all of us. It’s hungry, Andi, and with every person it kills, it gets stronger. Once it has enough strength, there’s no telling what it’ll do. We can’t control it.”

  “We… that’s pretty laughable. Just last week we meant you and me, not you and them.”

  “I know you’re hurt by what I did, but they’ve given me so much. I can’t turn my back on them now.”

  “You don’t have to turn your back on them, you just have to give me whatever it is that’s in your hand, and then you can let me take you in.”

  “Fuck you,” Piper cursed, “You aren’t taking anyone in, fucking rent-a-cop thinking she’s the top bitch.”

  “I said stop,” Lucia yelled, and it was as if an invisible chord had yanked Piper up and off the ground, then let her go about ten feet away. Piper rolled on the ground and seemed to struggle to get up from the force of the impact, but she was getting up. Logan had been right; Mages were pretty tough.

  I clenched my fist and sent a trickle of my own power into my hand. My chest began to vibrate, then my arm. Soft, prismatic light danced in the space between my fingers, and when the phantasm had become a real object, my fingers clasped around it. The dagger in my hand drank in the ambient light and gleamed in the dark.

  “Are you going to hurt me?” Lucia asked.

  “That all depends on you.”

  “I told you, I don’t want to hurt you—I want to help you. I want you to help us.”

  “And why the fuck would I do that?”

  Lucia’s hand came out from behind her back, and she showed me what she had been hiding. It was a scepter of some kind, a rod about the size of her arm. The rod itself was black but had a checkered black and purple pattern running through it. At the base was a gold ball which glimmered in the night light the same way the dagger in my hand did. The head of the scepter was a white, porcelain mask, with red lips and black eyes. It also had a cap and bells, only it didn’t move and jingle like… like the jester’s cap did; it looked stiff, and solid.

  My instincts told me that thing in her hand was a Talisman, just like my mask; only it was much more powerful, a bonfire compared to a candle.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “This is a scepter,” she said, “It belonged to a Harlequin a long time ago.”

  “You stole it?”

  “I didn’t steal it. We found it, and hid it, just in case we needed to use it—and we need to use it.”

  “For what?”

  “Andi, we want to stop the jester from killing people just as much as you do. Come with me, and you can help us stop it. No one else has to die.”

  “How do I know you aren’t lying to me? You’ve gotten pretty good at doing that lately.”

  Lucia hung her head slightly. “Robert was my friend… and the jester killed him in cold blood. I can still remember feeling his blood spray all over my face, can still hear his screaming. I haven’t slept a full night since.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  She looked up at me again. “You woke it up, Andi. You woke it up, and it used what power it had to become physical and start killing, but then you just ran away, leaving us to fight it. Brishan managed to weaken it enough that it retreated into the Twilight, but we can’t get to it there; it can do what it wants, reach who it wants, kill who it wants.”

  The Twilight? How was it Lucia knew more of this world than I did? Had she been hiding her powers from me too? And for how long?

  “And what’s that supposed to do?” I asked.

  “This… with this we might just be able to stop it.”

  Lucia then did something I was able to catch even from where I was standing, even despite the relative dimness of the parking lot—she swallowed repeatedly. I had seen her do this before, many times, usually while talking to one of her boyfriends. She did it whenever she was lying about something; lying about
why she wasn’t free tonight, or why she couldn’t come into work today, or why she needed the afternoon off.

  She was lying to me right now, about the scepter, and I had caught it.

  “Lucia, I need you to give me that scepter.”

  “I can’t, Andi. But if you come with me—”

  “—I’m not going with you. Those people are bad people, and I just don’t believe a word you’re telling me.”

  “That’s funny; to me, you’re the bad person.”

  Me? I was about to question her, but I sensed a slight vibration in the air. Suddenly I was overcome with the urge to duck and roll, and I did without question, throwing myself into a forward roll just as a bolt of green light whizzed past my ear and struck a car in front of me. Its windows shattered outwards, and the car alarm blared. Without thinking, I twisted my torso around and hurled the dagger in my hand at the spot the light, the magic, had come from, and the dagger struck true, hitting a man square in the shoulder.

  Only it wasn’t any random man, it was him; the Hexer, the same one Damon had hit with his dagger only a week ago.

  The Hexer staggered, stumbled, and went down silently, the scene replaying in much the same way as it had that night in the tunnel underneath the Mississippi river. Piper, the Shade, screamed and hurled herself at me, dragging behind her a massive cloud of inky blackness like a huge, living cloak that blotted out the very world around her.

  From my kneeling position I sprang up and made a run for Lucia, who had started to run back, onto Canal Street. But Piper was catching up, her inky black tendrils were reaching for me, tugging at my hair, my shoulders, my feet. Remembering what I had done to Logan, I made a slight course correction which would take me straight into a parked car, but instead of slamming into it, I jumped onto the trunk using momentum to carry me up, then I leapt again from one car to the other, only as I jumped, I twisted in the air like a cat and flung shards of prismatic light at the Shade. The light dazzled her, and she had to stop her chase or risk stumbling over her own feet.