Harlequin's Deception (The Naked Truth Series Book 1)

by Candi Fox

  “After midnight, I heard the sound of crunching metal. I wasn’t sure what I would find, so I asked Mike to stay inside.

  “He promised he would stay inside unless he heard me scream. Upon walking out to the lot, I heard the continued sound of crunching metal.

  “Following the sound, I found the creature in the back eating the bumper off a car it had just pulled off. It may have just been chewing it up. I decided not to get that close.

  “I hid behind a truck looking out when I could. I wanted to observe the creature as best I could without it seeing me. I must have been gone too long. Mike came out. He called out to me.

  “The creature was so fast it was on top of Mike in just seconds. There wasn’t time for me to do much. I came up behind it, striking it with daggers.

  “Sadly, a split-second before I struck the beast, it ripped out Mike’s throat. I used a spell to shoot electricity through the blades and struck it again. The creature ran off and I called 911.”

  Officer Rodriguez was taking notes. His face was unreadable during her explanation.

  “Where are the daggers you used on the creature?”

  Harley didn’t remember. She must have dropped them. She looked down surprised to see the daggers back in tattoo form on her arms. Only it looked like there was blood added to the blades of the dagger.

  She pointed to the tattoos on her arms. “They are here.”

  Officer Rodriguez looked like she was a little insane. “You stabbed it with a tattoo?”

  “The tattoos are magic. They bind the weapons to my skin. It’s an ancient magic. A friend of mine is the only one I know that knows how to do it.”

  “Could you bring the dagger out and show me?”

  Harley brought the dagger forth. She adjusted it so that Rodriguez could exam the blade. “Looks like there is blood on the blade from the creature. I am going to have the lab scrape some off.”

  After carefully examining the blade, a tech scraped the blood off and handed the blade back to her.

  “Normally we would tag that for evidence. I have a feeling it would just go back into tattoo form.”

  Harley nodded. “It would.”

  “Do you know what kind of creature it was?”

  “No. I had planned on doing research to find out what we are dealing with.”

  “Do you think you could describe it to a sketch artist?”

  “Sure, that won’t be a problem.”

  “Good,” Rodriguez called a sketch artist forward. Harley spent the next hour working with her to get a correct drawing of the creature.

  They would email a copy of the sketch to her email. The station would also send it to all the local police and fire stations.

  By the time, they were ready to leave, word came in that Mike had died. Harley fought the tears off. She wanted to be alone. They told her they didn’t need the clothes.

  She wanted nothing more than to burn them. One of the officers followed her back to her hotel and even made sure she got inside the door. She stripped, putting the clothes in a plastic bag before stepping into a hot shower.

  She turned the heat on as high as she could stand it and scrubbed. Harley scrubbed until her skin was red and raw. Then she sat down letting the water run over her and cried until the tears ran out.

  It was a hotel shower so she didn’t have to worry about the hot water running out. She had no idea how long she was in the shower, but by the time she got out and dried off the sun was rising.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  She called the police station to see if the hounds had been able to track down the creature. They had caught its trail but were too terrified to follow it. They also informed her that there were two additional paranormal teams looking around the area.

  She had first call on what would happen with the case. Harley ordered breakfast and started researching the creature. Three hours later she found the Nandi Bear. She was certain that’s what she saw last night.

  The only problem was the Nandi Bear was from Africa. The bear was named after the Nandi tribe. The animal is said to be fierce, its paranormal properties unknown.

  There have only been five sightings since the shift. None have ever been tamed in any way. The last one of note killed over three dozen people before it was killed.

  It took several witches to take it down. The Nandi Bear’s favorite feast was the human brain. Perhaps they had watched too many zombie movies as a young cub.

  She read through the reports from the witches that had killed the last one. None of them had tried electricity. She had used it last night with some degree of success. Her only problem was she had not reacted soon enough.

  Harley spent the rest of the morning coming up with an idea. The lot would need to close several hours early and they would need a steel reinforced cage large enough to trap the creature.

  Arriving at around six at night Harley was relieved to find the cage was there and already in place. It was exactly where she wanted it. It took her nearly an hour to convince everyone to leave.

  The last thing Harley wanted was another tragedy. The only way that could be avoided was to make sure she was alone. She’d simply sit in her SUV and wait for the creature.

  She did agree to call Officer Rodriguez as soon as she heard it. She planned on using her blue tooth headset. Rodriguez would be able to hear if she needed help.

  After everyone had gone Harley began by setting a low-level electrical spell on every vehicle in the parking lot. It was exhausting, but she needed to do it.

  Closer to time she took out the large cooler in the back of her SUV. The cooler was full of fresh cow brains. Not human, yet she was sure the Nandi Bear would find it to be a delicious snack. They had been known to eat animal brains when human ones could not be found.

  She had never figured out why it was tearing up the cars. There was nothing in their history to indicate that they liked metal.

  Climbing back into her SUV she had about two hours to kill before midnight. She chugged two energy drinks to make sure she would be awake and made herself eat a protein bar.

  Midnight came and went. There was no sign of the Nandi Bear. Near one in the morning she heard it. It must have been going from car to car to try and damage something, because she could hear small grunts of pain.

  As she rounded the corner of the building she called Rodriquez cell phone. He answered on the first ring.

  “It’s on.”

  Harley tensed, hearing the creature coming closer. When she had the chance to look, she saw it was making its way toward the cage. The smell of fresh brains was drawing it in.

  The Nandi Bear reached the back of the cage. She “flipped” the switch on the spell by intoning the last words. The cage door slid shut and it electrified at the same time.

  “Got it. We got it!”

  She was overjoyed to have caught the creature without anyone else coming to harm. Her overzealous confirmation attracted the creature’s attention.

  It began to bang up against the sides of the cage, howling every time it received a shock. The creature seemed to be ignoring the shocks in an effort to break free of the cage.

  It managed to get its great jaws around the bars and bite into them. Three things happened at once. The Nandi Bear bit through the bars, the spell shorted out sending sparks flying, and Harley screamed.

  She could hear Rodriguez talking to her, but she didn’t have the voice or the time to react. She quickly called the sword from her back and managed to get the point up before it charged her.

  The blow knocked her to the ground. Harley scrambled to get out of the way of its snapping jaws. Though she managed to do that, one of its great front paws sliced down her arm leaving large gashes.

  Another scream tore from Harley’s lips. This one from the pain. She rolled, again and again, dodging the great beast. Finally, she ran up against a truck. The only reason it didn’t shock her was because she cast the spell.

  Harley heard sirens in the distance. Help was on its way. Wo
uld she survive? Would more people get killed? Her thoughts left her open to an attack. The Nandi Bear bit into her arm and may have ripped it off, if not for the bullets that just hit it.

  She heard the gun go off and felt the creature release her. She staggered back, blood pouring everywhere. The arm was nearly useless.

  Help me Freya. Please. Harley struck wildly at the Nandi Bear while the sound of more firearms went off. Someone grabbed her and knocked her to the ground. The sound of automatic fire sounded over her head.

  The rounds of ammo continued to go off for what seemed like hours and Harley realized someone was lying on top of her, shielding her body. The roars from the Nandi Bear became like screams. It was so loud that her ears were beginning to ring.

  It took several moments for Harley to realize that whoever had been covering her had moved off, and someone was trying to talk to her.

  She didn’t understand. The world seemed to be blurred. She couldn’t have lost that much blood.

  “Harley, can you hear me?” It was Lieutenant Meyer’s voice. “Harlowe.”

  Using her full first name seemed to register. She looked up, her eyes barely focusing. “Rick?”

  “It’s me. There is an ambulance on the way. I need you to hold on.”

  “Am I hurt? He just got an arm. I’ll be ok.

  “Of course, you will be okay.” He looked worried. Lieutenant Rick Meyers was never worried. She didn’t understand why he looked worried. It was just an arm, after all.

  Harley was loaded up into the ambulance. They let Lieutenant Meyers ride along. That seemed strange to Harley. It was just an arm. A few stitches and she would be good as new.

  Maybe he got called in on the case. Someone did get murdered after all. Mike was murdered by that beast.

  “What happened to the Nandi Bear?”

  Meyers smiled at her. “It’s gone, Harley. The police managed to kill it. You don’t have to worry about it hurting anyone again. Just lay back and relax. We are almost to the hospital.”

  Harley closed her eyes. She didn’t feel so good.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Harley woke up to the sounds of monitors beeping. She felt groggy. Pain flared from several different points of her body. Both of her arms felt like they were on fire. Her head and neck felt even worse. She didn’t understand.

  She remembered the creature damaging both of her arms, but not her head or neck. One of her eyes felt like it was swollen shut.

  She licked her lips and realized they were cracked and swollen. Harley looked around with her one good eye. IVs were hooked up to her hand. She counted at least four bags.

  Though she couldn’t be sure. She saw a heart monitor and felt a breathing tube around her face going into her nose.

  The shades in her room were drawn. She didn’t know if it was night or day. How long she had been in the hospital. She didn’t even know where anyone was. The room appeared to be empty.

  The smell of dark amber, oak moss and scotch wafted through the air. She thought she heard Luc’s voice, yet she couldn’t see anyone.

  “Luc?”

  “I am here, may I come in?”

  “Yes.”

  Her words were barely a whisper. Her throat felt raw as if she had screamed for hours. Luc came floating into the room. As least through her blurred vision, it looked like he was floating.

  He sat beside her on the bed holding a hand in his. “I was upset to find out you were hurt. I would ask if you were feeling better; however, the machines attached to you would indicate otherwise.”

  “I feel like shit.”

  “You are bruised, but beautiful. Now, I have a plan.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  “You will drink some of my blood. It will heal you.”

  Harley wanted to immediately say no way in hell. She realized he was right. It wasn’t a well-known fact that vampire blood could heal. If it were normal citizens would be bleeding vampires like you milked a cow.

  “Will the blood have any binding or magical effects?”

  “Yes, there will be some. I’m not going to lie. I will be able to know where you are and in general how you feel for several weeks. It will not bind us, in a way that you will be beholden to me in any way.

  “The blood will make you stronger, faster and harder to kill for that time as well.”

  “How connected to my emotions will you be?”

  It was hard for Harley to talk. She formed her words carefully and spoke them with painful slowness.

  “I won’t be able to read you like an empath would. I will know the extremes of your basic emotions. It will be easier for me to tell if you are lying to me. Then again, I have the gift of tasting lies.”

  Harley wet her lips. She didn’t know if she should go through with this or not. She seemed to be hurt. The injuries were much more severe than she thought they were at the car lot.

  “How do we do this Luc?”

  “Just lie there. I will take care of it.”

  Harley watched as Luc opened his mouth. She watched his teeth elongate into sharp fangs. She thought he was going to use them to open a vein. Instead, he used a long nail and slit down his wrist. She hadn’t even seen his nails grow into claws.

  He held his bleeding wrist to her mouth. The taste was metallic. Harley had a tough time wrapping her mind around the fact that she was drinking blood.

  The blood ran down her throat. When enough had pooled, she convulsively swallowed. Her lips began to heal as the blood washed over them, making it easier for her to swallow.

  She drank for what felt like several minutes. Each swallow became easier. Eventually, Luc gently pulled his wrist away from her mouth.

  “The doctors and nurses will be in shortly because these machines will go wild. I am going to go now. I will be back. We have much to talk about.”

  Luc dropped a kiss on her cheek before going out the window.

  Not a minute later the alarm on her monitors started to go off. Nurses and doctors rushed in the room to see what was going on.

  Imagine their surprise to find her completely healed. The head doctor looked at her. “I don’t understand. Every wound on your body is healed. The stitches have dissolved. The staples seemed to have popped out of your skin on their own.

  “There is no bruising. We will run a few tests to check on your cell count. You had previously lost a lot of blood. This is some kind of miracle.”

  The doctors spent the next thirty minutes poking and prodding her and eventually, they left the room. She hoped they didn’t check her blood for anything paranormal.

  She wasn’t sure if the ingested vampire blood would show up, but it was a possibility. Mrs. Reyes and Hector came nearly running in the room. Cash was right behind them.

  Carmella Reyes threw her arms around Harley’s neck and sobbed. Harley put her arms around her second mother and held her tight.

  Mrs. Reyes swallowed the tears so she could speak. “I called your parents. They are in France or they would be here. Your mama wanted to take the first flight back. I told her you would be okay. I knew you would. Oh, mija you had me so worried.”

  “I didn’t mean to worry you, mamita.”

  “I know, darling girl. Just, never ever do that again.” She hugged Harley’s neck again, her face still wet with tears. Harley looked up to find silent tears tracking their way down Hector’s cheeks. She held out her hand to him and he sat on the other side of the bed. Cash sat in the chair waiting patiently to get his chance to hug Harley.

  Once Mrs. Reyes was satisfied Harley would be alright, she moved to stand next to Hector allowing Cash to come to her bedside. He took her free hand and raised it to his mouth brushing the palm of her hand with his lips, before moving to gently kiss her. “You gave us all a scare. I’d tell you to make it the last, yet I think we will find ourselves here again. Your line of work is sometimes dangerous.

  “Not that I like it. I understand, though.”

  His eyes met hers and silent words were e
xchanged. He really liked her. More than he had admitted to her. Perhaps more than he had admitted to himself. He kept her hand in his larger one and sat down on the edge of the bed. Mr. and Mrs. Reyes moved to the nearby couch.

  A tech came in and drew several vials of blood. They planned on rushing the labs to see what had happened. All her IVs were unhooked until the results came back.

  “How long have I been here?”

  Mrs. Reyes answered. “You were out for almost twenty-four hours. It’s about 2 a.m. right now.”

  “Have any of you had any sleep?”

  “No.”

  “You should go get some sleep. I will be fine.”

  None of them looked particularly happy at this suggestion.

  “We are fine.”

  “I’m okay, I promise. Go and get a few hours’ sleep. With any luck, I will be out by late breakfast and we can go home.”

  It took another twenty minutes of convincing them before they agreed to go to the hotel and get some rest. She sent Mr. and Mrs. Reyes to her hotel room. It was after all already paid for. Mrs. Reyes would also pack her things and bring her clean clothes.

  She promised to call them as soon as she woke up in the morning. She hugged and kissed each one of them, thankful to have such amazing people in her life. Sighing, she settled back into the pillows and closed her eyes.

  A soft wind blew into the room gently fluttering the shades. Luc came in through the window. This time she was sure he floated over to her instead of walked.

  “Belleza.”

  He called her beautiful as he took her hand and brushed his lips across the knuckles. The electricity of the touch sent a shiver through her body.

  She seemed to be more aware of his touch now as if she wasn’t before. His touch seemed to carry more spark. He did warn her they would be a bit closer. She just hadn’t understood close meant she wanted to rip his clothes off every time he touched her.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Fantastic. Can you answer some questions for me?”