Harley Merlin 2: Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins

by Bella Forrest

  I saw the phone light up on his bedside table, but he didn’t react. He was going to wake up to it in the morning, along with the previous text, six missed calls, and two voicemails.

  My fear subsided, at least temporarily, as I’d seen he was okay with my own eyes. The fact that I could feel his emotions was also downright soothing, given what I’d just learned back at the restaurant.

  I climbed off the roof and checked the backyard. It didn’t take long for me to find the protective charms. Isadora had most likely left them. She’d hidden one in every potted plant, and she’d painted small symbols on the corners of the house, too. I went around the property and checked the decorative ferns by the front door. She’d left tiny leather pouches in there as well.

  I slipped back in Dicky’s cab and asked him to take me back to the coven.

  The ride back was quiet. Not because I didn’t have more questions for him. I totally did. But I was too busy racking my brains and trying to remember everyone whose emotions I’d been unable to sense. The conclusion was the same. They all had to be Shapeshifters. There was just no other reasonable explanation.

  Jacob could sense magicals, but he wouldn’t have been able to tell me what kind of magicals they were. This was as close as I was going to get to a “natural” magical detection method—at least until Krieger finished his prototype, based on Adley’s research.

  Dicky dropped me off in the parking lot outside Fleet Science Center and drove off into the night. I watched the red taillights shrink in the distance, lost in the late-night traffic leading back into the city—a river of twinkling crimson eyes.

  As soon as I turned around to go in, I yelped and leapt back a couple of yards, startled by the tall, dark figure standing between two cars. It took me a second to realize it was Wade.

  “Whoa! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!” I snapped, catching my ragged breath.

  My heart had nearly jumped out through my throat. Wade didn’t say anything, keeping his hands behind his back. Only then did I notice that one of the cars he was standing between was his Jeep, the other covered by a black tarp.

  “I was waiting for you to come back,” Wade finally replied.

  “You could’ve texted,” I said.

  “Where’s the fun in that, when I get to scare the daylights out of you?” he retorted, slightly amused. My heart was still thumping—but this time, it was because of Wade. He was nervous… excited, even.

  “Ah. So, you are a sadist. Just like I’ve been saying,” I retorted.

  He gave me a half-smile, then let out a deep sigh. “I wanted to thank you for tonight,” he said. “It was eye-opening, to say the least.”

  “Don’t mention it,” I replied. “It’s not like I did much. Someone just had to sit you and Garrett down for an hour.”

  “Well, you were the first to see past his… difficult nature. Others usually tend to walk away when Garrett lets his inner jerk out.”

  “Which is every five minutes. Yup. I get it.” I chuckled.

  “Point is, thank you. I mean it, Harley,” he said. “You made an effort, and you helped me see things from the outside. Garrett and I aren’t exactly on speaking terms yet, but I think we’re getting there. At least we got the bulk of our discord out of the way.”

  “About that. I’m sorry,” I replied. “I get that what he did was terrible. It’s actually kind of funny, but—” I giggled, then stopped myself when I noticed his sullen expression. “Terrible. Just a terrible gesture, on his part,” I said, putting on a serious face, even though I was laughing on the inside. “It’s in the past, though. He said he was sorry. It’s time to move on.”

  “I agree.”

  Silence fell between us for a while. He was working up the courage to say something else, I could feel it. A minute went by as I waited patiently, until my gaze settled absently on the covered car. As soon as he saw me looking at it, he was plugged back in.

  “I wanted to… um, I wanted to do something special,” he said. “As a… Well, as a ‘Welcome to the San Diego Coven’ kind of… gift.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him.

  He lowered his head, then pulled the cover off the car in one, swift move.

  I squealed with joy as soon as I saw her. My Daisy. My Daisy! My beloved ’67 Ford Mustang was whole again. She’d been given a full makeover, painted in a luscious, shimmering black with sterling detail work. There was no sign of Murray’s fiendish aggression anywhere. My baby looked brand new!

  My eyes were filled with tears as I covered my mouth and kept staring at Daisy.

  “You were so broken up about this car, I figured it would make you happy to be able to drive it again,” Wade added. Warmth filled me up, and I wasn’t sure if that was me or him. “I found a good mechanic. We had to do a lot of digging online to find some of the parts, but…” He tossed me the keys, complete with a small porcelain globe keychain. “We found them all. Your car is fully functional again.”

  “Holy moly,” I croaked, staring at the keys, then back at Daisy. I walked around her a couple of times, running my fingers against her smooth lines. “Your mechanic did an incredible job.”

  “He’s actually a specialist in vintage cars. Anything before the seventies is his area of expertise,” Wade replied.

  I dashed forward and threw myself in his arms. I held him tight, resting my head on his shoulder. Wade responded, and I felt his embrace tighten around my waist. His heart was on a rampage, as was mine. Touching him like this had an incredible effect on me.

  “Thank you, Wade. I… I don’t know what… or how to repay you,” I said.

  “You don’t have to. You deserve it.”

  His voice was low and smooth, like balm for my rickety little soul.

  A twinkle caught my eye as I relished the feel of him against me. My Esprit had lit up—each of the gemstones sparkling in a way that made me smile. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was just my sheer happiness, manifesting through raw Chaos. It certainly felt like that. After all, the Esprit was supposed to be an extension of my soul, and my soul was way up there, thrilled and brimming with joy.

  “Thank you,” I whispered again.

  Feeling Wade without touching him suddenly felt bland. I could get used to letting him hold me like this. My senses were on fire, each sensation amplified. I had a hard time letting go.

  I moved to gently pull myself back, but he firmly kept me in place, making my heart skip a beat. My breath left me, lost in his embrace. He didn’t want to let go…

  “I’m hoping this will make you stay,” Wade said, his lips dangerously close to my ear. His breath brushed against it, making my skin tingle all over.

  “Stay?” I asked.

  “With us, here, in the San Diego Coven.”

  “Pledge my allegiance, you mean,” I replied.

  He pulled his head back to look me in the eyes. That was such a dangerous thing for him to do, since I instantly melted inside those deep green pools.

  “The coven needs you, Harley. It’s not so much about your abilities as it is about your character and strength. We could use people like you in the long run,” he said.

  “Well, once we get this Suppressor off, surely my abilities will count, too,” I replied, grinning.

  Wade frowned, then gently let go. For a moment, I felt cold. Oh, how quickly I’d adjusted to his embrace.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked. “It might put your life in danger. That thing was made to stay there. Forever.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t live a life of Mediocrity when I have so much potential bubbling beneath the surface,” I said. “I’d rather risk it and get it out of me than settle with limits. I can’t even consider that.”

  He nodded, processing my response. Adrenaline was still pumping through me, the result of his touch. The effect that Wade had on me was undeniable at this point. But what really got me curious was the effect that I had on him. How much of what I was feeling was mine, and how much was his?


  “Do you want to get behind the wheel?” he asked, his lips stretching into a satisfied smirk.

  He was clearly content with himself—and for good reason. Despite our head-butting and his sometimes-insufferable attitude, Wade meant well. He’d made that much clear with Daisy, though it came as quite a surprise after he’d told me to get over her, that she was just a pile of metal. An object of no significance.

  Well, it turned out he did, in fact, understand what Daisy meant to me.

  I nodded enthusiastically, then got in the driver’s seat. I breathed in deeply. The scent of leather and pine flooded my brain. I looked at him standing by the car door and let out a devilish cackle. With a trembling hand, I put the keys in the ignition and twisted them.

  “She’s alive!” I exclaimed, sounding like Dr. Frankenstein, as Daisy’s engine roared to life. “Good grief, I missed your purrs, baby! Momma loves the sound of your voice! Yes, she does!” I addressed Daisy as if she were a golden retriever—such a good girl.

  Wade chuckled, rejoicing at the sight of me as I wiggled in my seat.

  “This is amazing,” I said to him. “Thank you, Wade. I will never forget this.”

  “Oh, I don’t plan on letting you forget,” he replied with a smile.

  His phone rang. He checked the screen, his brow furrowed. “Santana,” he muttered, then answered the call. “Yeah… What?!”

  The color drained from his face as he hung up and looked at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “We’re needed in the dragon garden. Something’s wrong with Tatyana,” he said.

  He rushed inside the center through the service door. I quickly took my keys out and locked my beloved Daisy, then ran in after him. I cared about my teammates, and the thought of any of them getting hurt made me feel worse than my car getting smashed by a gargoyle.

  In hindsight, Wade did have a point. The car could be replaced. One of us, however… never.

  Thirty-One

  Harley

  “I don’t get why everyone is so fussed about this,” Tatyana said, her voice emerging from the garden inside the coven.

  Wade and I arrived just in time to find her standing by the dragon fountain, keeping her distance from Santana, Raffe, and Astrid, who looked on edge. They were all worried and scared for Tatyana, but none of them dared to approach her.

  “What’s going on here?” Wade asked.

  Santana exhaled. “I told you! She’s possessed!”

  Astrid was frantically looking for something on her Smartie tablet, flipping through folders and files with shaky fingers, while Raffe kept his dark blue-gray eyes on Tatyana. She looked fine to me, until I got a whiff of her emotions. Most of them were doubled in intensity, and not in a way that felt natural. I could feel two people in her body, for sure.

  “Oh, damn,” I said. “She’s right. There’s someone in there.”

  “How did that happen?” Wade replied, equally outraged and confused as he glared at Tatyana. “I thought we talked about this! You know what happens when you let a spirit in for too long!”

  “I’ve got this under control!” Tatyana fired back. “Oberon is helping me, okay? You guys are blowing this out of proportion. Take a chill pill!”

  “Yeah, no!” Santana snapped. “Not taking a chill pill! Not after the last time you got your skinny ass overthrown by a spirit! You almost killed Preceptor Redmont, remember?!”

  “Ooooh, that bad, huh?” I asked, pursing my lips.

  “Yup!” Wade said, his Esprit rings lighting up white. He was getting ready to intervene. “Tatyana is a phenomenal Kolduny, or, better said, Ghost-Whisperer, but she’s yet to learn to fully control her body while a foreign spirit is in there. That takes time and practice, and it needs to be done in a controlled environment. Not behind our backs!” he added, raising his voice at the end.

  “She used Oberon Marx’s spirit to save Dylan during the Kenneth Willow incident,” Santana replied. “But the wonder jock is still hitching a ride, and I’m not sure Tatyana had much of a say in it. Right now, I’m not even sure that’s Tatyana we’re talking to.”

  “Of course it’s me,” Tatyana exclaimed, laughing nervously. I couldn’t feel her usual cool and curiosity. There was anger and longing—the toxic kind that burned holes through my stomach. This all felt different.

  I put my hand out, the white pearl on my Esprit lighting up like a miniature star. I’d recently learned that if I aimed my Esprit at someone, while focusing on my Empathy, I could dig deeper and get an even better read on a person. I hadn’t used it often because my instinct was good enough on its own for most circumstances, and it took a toll on my energy—but right now it was worth it, and I was able to instantly identify two independent strands of emotions.

  One was strained and fearful, desperate to get back to the surface. The other was furious and missing someone… I could almost see her face before me. Long, flowing hair. Wild green eyes. A smile that made my heart flutter. I gasped, realizing that I’d tapped into a string of emotions that carried powerful images with them. That was something I’d never seen or experienced before. It scared and enticed me, all at once. It also confirmed a most dreadful fact.

  “Tatyana’s not in control anymore,” I said.

  Wade noticed my Esprit and the look on my face and frowned. “You can feel Oberon?”

  “Oh, yeah. Absolutely. He’s behind the wheel,” I replied.

  “Tatyana, you have to push him out!” Santana shouted. “Push the bastard out! He’s controlling you!”

  Tatyana smirked, crossing her arms. “You’re way too loud, you know that?” she replied dryly. “I told you to chill out. I’ve got this under control.”

  “Oberon Marx. You don’t belong here,” Wade hissed. “Leave now or you’ll regret it.”

  “What part of ‘I’ve got this under control’ didn’t you understand?” Tatyana spat.

  “I have a hard time believing that,” Raffe said. Rage was boiling inside him, tainted with malice and a thirst for blood… violence. At that point, I wasn’t sure whether I should be more scared of him than of a possessed Tatyana. “Unless you’re speaking as Oberon, in which case, yes, you have control. Over a body that’s not yours. Release her!”

  “Don’t you have anything better to do than butt into my business?” Tatyana asked, her Esprit bracelet twinkling blue.

  “That’s it. I’m pulling your ghostly ass out of there!” Santana said, darting toward her.

  Tatyana smirked, then used her Telekinesis to swat Santana away like a fly. She gripped Raffe by his throat, trying to suffocate him. Wade cursed under his breath and launched a fireball at her—he didn’t aim to hurt her. The purpose was to distract her.

  It worked. Tatyana let go of Raffe, dodged the blaze, and jumped back a couple of steps. She grinned, her eyes glimmering yellow. That wasn’t a good sign, since it probably meant that the spirit was sinking his teeth into her flesh, determined to never let go.

  I took a step forward, ready to use my Telekinesis on her, but Wade motioned for me to stand back.

  “Hold on,” he said. “Don’t. There’s a mighty Herculean in there. Force clearly isn’t an option here. It’ll take more than a tackle to stop him.”

  “We can’t just let him—”

  “Just listen to me, for once, and wait!” Wade cut me off.

  “Well, at least you kids aren’t as stupid as I thought,” Tatyana announced, her voice doubled—both female and male, as if she and Oberon were speaking at the same time. It was freaky, to say the least.

  “Let go of her, Oberon,” Wade warned. “You know there’s a soul in there already. And you know what happens when you possess someone in the long term, right?”

  “It doesn’t matter!” Tatyana-Oberon snarled. “I have a body now, and I’ll use it to do what I have to do. Once I get my own body back, this one can burn for all I care!”

  Santana managed to get up, panting and holding her side. “You’re loco if you think I’m g
oing to let you destroy my friend!”

  She charged Tatyana—this time, however, her Orishas came out to help. A dozen bluish wisps of raw energy swirled around Santana, before dissolving into her body and lighting her up from the inside. Glowing and seething with anger, Santana rammed into Tatyana.

  Tatyana grabbed Santana by the throat, delivered a series of crippling punches into her ribcage, and tossed her aside. Santana rolled on the ground, limp. Raffe leapt to his feet and let out a bloodcurdling roar. I’d never heard or seen him like this. Judging by the looks on Astrid’s and Wade’s faces, however, they had, and it seemed to spell serious trouble for all of us.

  “Raffe, stand down!” Wade commanded.

  Raffe shot him a glance over the shoulder. Only then did I spot the change—the fiery red in his eyes, as if volcanoes were erupting in there. Raffe bared his teeth, seemingly feral and raring to tear into Tatyana. He panted, his chest swelling with every breath. The malice and viciousness I’d sensed coming out of him earlier was now blaring at full volume, as if his otherwise calm and composed nature had been literally trampled, making way for… the beast.

  “Raffe! I said stand down!” Wade raised his voice.

  “Raffe, don’t… You’ll kill her,” Santana croaked, propping herself up on one side. Blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth.

  The sight of her seemed to be enough to make Raffe’s inner storm subside. Tatyana-Oberon grinned, watching as Raffe exhaled heavily, before rushing to help Santana.

  “You’re in over your heads,” Tatyana-Oberon said. Then she darted toward Wade, but his instincts were fast, and he managed to beat her back with a bright blaze. She stilled several feet away from him and carefully eyed each of us, probably looking for the weakest spot. Santana was off limits, it seemed, since Tatyana-Oberon gave Raffe a nervous grin. She preferred not to cross him.

  “And you’re about to get your ass thrown back into the veil!” Astrid shouted. She looked at Wade. “Use the Krinkman-Sadler exorcism. This area is secured for that.”