Harlequin Dreams: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (The Harlequin's Harem Book 2)

by Tansey Morgan

  Now it was just me and Lucia, her running easily thirty feet ahead of me and already crossing Canal Street, and me desperately trying to figure out how I was going to catch up. I caught her looking back for me just as she went to make a turn around a curb, then just as she did so, she slammed headlong into someone making the turn from the other side.

  Lucia went one way and the scepter went the another. The scepter clambered on the floor, and I sprinted for it, seeing my chance and taking it. In my periphery I watched Lucia struggle to right herself and get up, and when she did, she put her hand out toward me and sent a blast of telekinetic energy in my direction, but I threw myself into a barrel roll along the floor, scooped the scepter up, and without breaking the movement continued to run into South Galvez street, slipping into a construction site and running as fast as I could through the obstacle course of inert heavy vehicles, stacks of boxes and tubes, and scattered debris.

  I didn’t stop running for about three blocks, at which point I moved into the darkest alley I could find and took a moment to catch my breath. After a few minutes, when I was convinced I hadn’t been followed, I let myself rest against a wall and sank until I was sitting down. I then untied my mask and set it to rest on my legs along with the scepter I had managed to grab. Curious, I examined the head, the porcelain face, the cap and balls. It was all metallic, I thought, but it—like my mask—was cold to the touch.

  Footfalls.

  My back stiffened, heart went into overdrive. I went to stand, but instead sucked my stomach in and drew my legs close to my chest. I had slipped down next to a dumpster and the alley itself was the darkest I had been able to find, so I was sure I wasn’t going to be spotted, but then, if they had managed to follow me here, would a little darkness and cover fool them?

  I peered around the dumpster, and a long shadow stretched along the sidewalk; the source, a large, hulk of a person who walked up to the mouth of the alley and stopped.

  “You can come out,” Logan said, “It’s safe.”

  Logan? How did he—wait, maybe it was a trick. I said nothing.

  “Andi, they’re gone. It’s me. Did you really think you could sneak out of the house without me knowing?”

  I stood up and emerged from the back of the dumpster. “It’s really you?”

  Logan moved away from the light hitting his back, and I saw his face. “Yes.”

  I came up to him and hugged him. He was sweating, his shirt was stuck to his body, but that wasn’t a bad thing. I looked up at him. “You saw all that?”

  “Everything.”

  “And you just… watched.”

  He shrugged. “You weren’t in need of being rescued.” He pulled my arm up and examined the scepter. “We should get this back to the house.”

  I nodded. “Did Eli and Damon come too?”

  “Yes, they’re on their way but I ran ahead of them. We’ll meet them on the corner and they’ll drive us back.”

  “Sorry for sneaking out.”

  Again, he shrugged. “I would have done the same. It’s good to see you fight, you can take care of yourself.”

  Blood flushed to my cheeks. “I have a good teacher.”

  “I’m not done teaching you yet.”

  Oh, God I hope not.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Damon examined the scepter with the same intensity and concentration of a scientist trying to unlock the secrets of a strange, alien artifact. I had explained to them what had happened in as much detail as possible, but Damon had seemed more interested in the Talisman than the story, and I couldn’t blame him—that thing was weird, but oddly difficult to look away from. It was like your eyes wanted to pull toward it.

  “You couldn’t have known that would happen,” Eli said, “But I still think you should have told us, and not gone alone. Anything could have happened to you out there.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry, but I knew I had to go when I did. If I’d waited, we wouldn’t have the scepter with us right now.”

  “That’s great and everything, but you have partners for a reason, okay? I’m not gonna keep banging on that drum, though. I think we’ve all done it enough.”

  “At least Logan was around to keep watch.”

  “This time,” Logan put in. “But next time?”

  “There won’t be a next time.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  I let my head hang. I had been well and truly scolded for going alone. The words reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous had been used several times throughout the course of each of the individual lectures I had received ever since I stepped into Eli’s BMW, but I guessed I deserved them. Leaving the house when I did had been the right thing to do, none of them had been able to deny that, but going alone was also dangerous. I could have gotten hurt, or worse.

  “Don’t you at least think it’s funny that the Hexer got hit with another dagger, though,” I said.

  I caught Logan’s lips turning up into a grin, but he didn’t say anything.

  “It’s definitely a Talisman,” Damon said, “But you know that, I think we all do. It’s also connected to your bloodline, Andi.”

  “Connected?”

  “All Talismans are connected to some magical bloodline or other, it depends on the Mage who created it.”

  “Or on the magical event that led to its creation,” Eli added.

  “What’s a magical event?” I asked.

  “We call them storms.” Damon set the scepter down on the coffee table. “Imagine there’s a thin film wrapped around our world, our universe. Now imagine outside of that film, there are hundreds, thousands, millions—an infinite number of other worlds, universes, dimensions. We believe there is only one realm, just one, where magic exists in its rawest form, one static universe that touches every single other one out there. Now imagine that realm is a turbulent, nightmare of a place, ripping lightning, impossibly powerful winds. Mages have the ability to call magic from that place, and when we do, we open a tiny pinprick in that film separating our worlds, but sometimes the power held in that realm is too much for the film to hold back, and it pushes its way into ours on its own, creating a magical event.”

  “Okay… but what actually happens during one of those?”

  “Our world doesn’t want to interact with magic, so it resists, and you get a hot air mixing with cold air situation, and an actual storm starts to form. People caught inside it can usually take cover as with any other storm, but Mages caught inside one… there’s nothing but pain and danger for a Mage unlucky enough to be caught in one.”

  “There’s only two ways to deal with a storm; you can either wait for it to pass, or try to contain it,” Eli said, “In both cases, the end result is the creation of a Talisman, either one a Mage has made, or one that just… happened as a result of the storm.”

  “Do you know which the scepter is?”

  “Not without analyzing it further.”

  My fingers unconsciously touched the surface of my mask. Which are you?

  “Alright, I’m in the DPA’s database,” Eli said, “First thing I wanna do is focus on something Lucia had said—she mentioned the Twilight. I’ve heard that word before, but I don’t know exactly what it is.”

  I scooted over to where he was sitting and stared at the screen. It looked like he was remotely accessing one of the computers at the DPA office downtown and using it to go through the files in the archive. That was clever. I wondered if I could do that too, and if I could just run word-searches for things I wanted to know.

  “Twilight,” Eli said, reading from the screen, “Also known as the dreamspace. Little is known about the Twilight realm, since only Harlequins have access to it they aren’t too forthcoming with their secrets. According to those who have spoken, it is the name they gave the place where the human consciousness goes when it dreams, and according to them, this is a living, breathing, shared space.”

  “Shared?” I asked, more to myself than to Eli.

  “It says here many
Mages have attempted to gain access to the realm but they have always failed, lacking the necessary connection only Harlequins seem to have. When a Harlequin dreams, they enter this place and are able to go from there into the minds of others, those they know and sometimes even those they don’t. They are also able to pull a person’s dreaming consciousness into the space the Harlequin inhabits. Usually, if the Harlequin sees someone they know in their dream, that person might also remember the dream itself, regardless of whether the Harlequin is wearing their mask.”

  My cheeks flushed bright red and a wave of warmth filled me, a sensation amplified a hundred-fold when I saw the way the guys were sharing wide-eyed glances. Had I pulled them into my dream earlier on? Did they remember what we did? The way they were looking at each other suggested that, yes, I had, and yes, they did, but none of them spoke about it.

  “Okay,” Damon said, regaining his composure, “So, we know what the Twilight is, which means based on what Lucia has said, the Death Jester has a way of entering it too, and killing people from inside. That still doesn’t explain the scepter, and the DPA database isn’t going to tell us more about the jester than we already know.”

  “Lucia said the scepter can be used to stop the jester from killing people in their dreams,” I said, “But I don’t think she was telling the truth about that.”

  “What do you think it’s for?”

  “I don’t know, but I have a feeling it’s connected to the jester in some way.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  I thought about the connection, formulated the thought in my head. “The first time I saw it… the clothes it was wearing, they were purple and black too, like the scepter.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

  “Maybe not, but I don’t believe in coincidences, especially not after the way Fate itself seems to treat me.”

  “She’s right,” Logan said, “Fate told her to go to that apartment tonight, at exactly the moment she needed to be there.”

  “So, you’re suggesting this belongs to the jester?”

  “I don’t know about belong, but I think it may be connected.”

  “I’ve got a little something on the scepter,” Eli said, tapping away at the keys, “There’s not much, it’s buried deep, and it’s only a rumor, but as far as I can tell, it may have originated in Italy, probably up to five hundred years ago.”

  “Jesus, five hundred?” I said.

  “According to this,” Eli continued, “The scepter comes in and out of history, sometimes disappearing for decades, or even centuries at a time before reappearing again in some obscure note somewhere.”

  “When was the last time it disappeared?”

  “About… sixty year ago in Prague.”

  “And it turns up in New Orleans now,” Damon said, his eyebrows arched up. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Lucia told me the Circus had found the scepter, but she didn’t tell me when. And last week, Brishan said something about decades of work… I think they’ve had it for a long time.”

  “That still doesn’t help us much,” Eli said, “But I did just find something else interesting.”

  I turned my eyes to the screen again. “The Grand Harlequin…” I said.

  “Grand Harlequin?” Logan asked.

  “Don’t get excited—there’s even less here than there is about the scepter. But it looks like there could be more of these Talismans, all part of the Harlequin bloodline, most of them lost to time.”

  “How many?” Damon asked.

  “I don’t know, it doesn’t say. The Grand Harlequin is something that’s been mentioned here and there throughout the ages, but the DPA doesn’t know anything much about it because fresh information stopped coming in way before the DPA was even formed. I’ve got nothing else; the database can’t help us anymore.”

  “And we’re still no closer to figuring out what the scepter does,” Damon said, frustration mounting in his voice.

  I watched Logan walk over to the coffee table where my mask and the scepter sat. He touched one with the fingertips of his left hand, then the other with his other hand, and shut his eyes. We all watched him, waiting to find out what he was doing exactly, then he opened his eyes and looked around the room.

  “They hum the same,” he said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “If they could speak, they’d speak the same language.”

  I walked over to him. “Is that normal for Talismans that come from the same bloodline or whatever?”

  He shook his head. “That’s not what I’m feeling. What I’m feeling is, these two things are related. Like sisters.”

  “Sisters…” I picked the scepter up. “Do you think I can take this into the Twilight with me the same way I can take my mask?”

  Damon shook his head. “Even if you could, we aren’t doing that.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because, Andi. You have no idea what you’re doing with these, none of us do, and the last thing I or any of us want is recklessness.”

  “It was only a question.”

  “A question that’ll lead to a course of action I’m not comfortable with.”

  “She might be right,” Eli said, “Maybe Harlequin Talismans are special like that, maybe she can take them with her when she goes under.”

  “And what if she can? We can follow her if she lets us, but our magic would never work. We’d be useless. So, whether we go or not, she’ll be on her own in another dimension using a Talisman that isn’t hers to perform a function she isn’t prepared for. There are too many variables there, and I’m not comfortable with that idea.”

  “So, what’s the alternative?” I asked, “We do… nothing? We don’t find out what this does, why it was so important to the Circus, and then what?”

  “I haven’t figured that out yet.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Three fifteen in the morning,” Logan said.

  “The other deaths that have taken place have all happened around this time,” I said, “Give or take an hour or so. That means the jester may have already killed someone tonight, or maybe not. If this thing has the power to stop it, then isn’t it worth trying?”

  “Schrodinger’s dead-man,” Eli mused. “But didn’t you say you thought Lucia was lying when she told you the scepter could stop the jester?”

  “She was lying about something, I know she was. Maybe it was about what the scepter could do, or maybe it was the reason why she wanted me to go with them, but she was lying about something. Only thing is, the more I hold this thing, the more we talk about the jester, the more my instincts are telling me that I have in my hand the power to save someone’s life tonight, and it starts with me going into the Twilight.”

  Damon sighed and ran his hands through his sandy brown hair. “You realize what you’re asking us to do, right?” he asked, “You’ll be on your own in there and we now know the jester has the power to kill people from inside the Twilight. What if it kills you?”

  “Then it kills me, but if you want me to sit around here and do nothing while some innocent person potentially dies tonight, you’re gonna have to give me a damn good reason.”

  “Innocent?” Logan said, “I thought you said the jester was going after the Circus.”

  “For now, sure, but it’s also been in contact with me. What if goes for someone I care about, what if it goes for one of your guys the next time you’re asleep?”

  No one spoke, but in that moment, it was clear each and every one of the guys in the room was worried about losing the other, was watching their friends suffer heart attacks in their own beds. I could tell because I was doing the same. I didn’t have much patience for my parents, but they were my parents, and the thought of either of them suffering like that hurt.

  “We have to do something,” Eli said.

  “As true as that is,” Damon said, “We’re talking about risking her life right here, right now. You can’t go and do everythi
ng on your own, Andi.”

  I walked over to Damon and rested a hand on his chest. “You told me to stop second guessing myself,” I said, “You told me to stand up, and do something, believe in my own instincts and my abilities. I’m not saying I think I’ll come out of this unscathed, but I feel like I can do something good here. Let me do it.”

  Damon stared at me, his blue-silver eyes sparkling in the dimness. I thought he looked beautiful then, the intensity of his gaze, his need to protect me oozing off him in warm, comfortable waves. He wanted to keep me safe, he didn’t want me to come to any harm, but I had luck on my side; Luck and fate.

  I needed to try.

  He shook his head. “I don’t like this,” he said, “But you’re right.”

  “I know you don’t like it, I don’t like it either, but what choice do we have? I may already be too late to save someone’s life tonight.”

  Damon nodded, now. “Okay, but I’m going to monitor you, and the moment I feel like something’s happening to you, I’m going to wake you up.”

  “I don’t know if you can wake her up whenever you want to,” Eli said, “Remember what happened last time?”

  “I know, but I have to try.”

  “Make me sleep-talk like you did that night in the car,” I said, “Maybe you’ll be able to keep track of what’s happening to me in there.”

  Logan handed my mask over to me, which I tied around my face. I then set the scepter to rest on my stomach, folding my hands over it. Eli and Logan pulled up chairs next to the sofa, while Damon sat at my feet. I propped my legs up across his lap, and he rested his hand on my knee, smoothing it with his thumb.

  Tingles.

  “Are you ready?” Damon asked.

  “I think so,” I said.

  “I’m going to put you to sleep. Please be careful in there.”

  “I will… but if I don’t wake up…”

  “You will,” Eli said, “I know you will. Just be safe and use your magic; you’re a Harlequin, which means the Twilight is yours to do whatever you want.”