Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven

by Bella Forrest

  Besides, it didn’t feel… different.

  It still offered me comfort, along with the notion that I wasn’t really alone in this world, but it didn’t feel like an Esprit—at least not based on how I’d heard others describe its link to the magical. Both Tobe and Alton had said that I would instantly feel my connection to the Esprit. Santana had taken it a step further, describing the sensation like something akin to liquid happiness.

  I moved around the house, touching random objects—from keys to rings and bracelets and even the cutlery I’d bought the other week—but nothing came through. It dawned on me then that I didn’t really know what real happiness felt like.

  Letting a sigh roll out of my chest, I sat on the floor with my legs crossed. I stared at my father’s note for a while, until tears burned their way up and clouded my vision. I’d never experienced happiness, not in the way Santana and the others had described it.

  I’d felt relief and joy, especially when I realized that the Smiths were a decent foster family, and not the dysfunctional maniacs I’d been forced to put up with before. But real happiness… that was out of my reach, somehow.

  Tears fell from my eyes, droplets spreading on the wooden floor, as I finally let go and just cried. I’d been apparently holding that in for a long time, given how relieved I felt at being able to let it all out. There were so many emotions I’d bottled up inside, since I’d always been busy holding it together as an Empath, feeling others more than myself.

  I longed for my real family, the parents that left me at an orphanage. My mother, my father. I couldn’t understand why they’d abandoned me, and that note was barely a Band-Aid on a much bigger wound.

  And the thing that hurt me the most was the fact that the coven sounded like a real family, but I was so terrified of being abandoned again, that I couldn’t bring myself to trust them. I was afraid they might kick me to the curb the moment I did something wrong, and, for someone used to being on her own, that would’ve been devastating.

  Opening myself up and allowing myself to trust others was a huge step. This underlying fear of abandonment was actively sabotaging my thought process. I worried that the coven might reject me, in the end. With all my tough talk about being an independent girl, I secretly longed for someone to throw their arms wide open and say, “Welcome home, Harley.”

  The closest I’d ever gotten to the idea of a real family had been the Smiths, but by then, the emotional damage had been done, thanks to the foster system. I’d been unable to really open up to them, to accept them as a permanent part of my life. There was something awfully wrong with me. I was, by all definitions, damaged goods.

  My heart stopped as a large shadow loomed over me.

  Ice trickled through my veins, goosebumps racing across my skin as I recognized the low growl coming from behind me. I’d heard it before, behind the casino parking lot.

  Claws scratched the floor, and I caught movement at the corner of my eye. There were three of them, I realized, as dread clutched my throat and cut my air off.

  I slowly turned my head, just in time to stare into the horrific face of one of three gargoyles in my apartment. The ashen, leathery skin. The crooked stump of a nose. The sharp, bony limbs, and the skinny wings. I’d learned already that not all gargoyles looked alike, but, from what I could see, they were all the epitome of grotesque.

  Why me?!

  There was no time to figure out an answer to that question, not when a monster was literally crouched behind me, its bat ears flicking, as it bared its humongous fangs with a spine-chilling hiss. Strings of drool stretched from its jaws to the floor. It was hungry, as were the other two beasts circling around me.

  Big, black marble eyes watched me as I moved slowly, ever so slowly, so as not to set the gargoyles off before I could at least put a couple more feet between us. The main one was big and burly. The other two were slightly smaller in size, but just as vicious.

  I managed to switch into a position facing the beast, just as it lowered its head and opened its mouth, a guttural rumble pouring out of its throat. It came at me. I waved it away, using my Telekinetic force to knock it back a couple of feet.

  The others growled and scampered across the floor, their jaws snapping as I pushed them away, then ran into the kitchen. The big one lunged after me, its jaws crashing through one of the kitchen counters as it missed me by inches. The marble tops crumbled and the wood panels splintered, but I managed to turn the water faucets on. The gargoyle tried to bite into me once more, but I had enough water coming through to pull a thick sheet of ice over its head. Apparently, my fear and survival instinct were great at bringing out my Elemental abilities.

  I pushed the frozen gargoyle away with a Telekinetic pulse, then jumped over the remaining counters into the living room area. The big one was busy shaking its head and clawing away at the ice covering its gnarly face, while the other two gargoyles rushed toward me, their wings fanned out as they knocked over everything in their path. Lamps, magazines, and trinket boxes fell to the floor with heartbreaking clanks and screeches as the creatures damaged everything in their path.

  My phone was still on my bed, where I’d dropped it prior to cleaning up the coffee beans, and my father’s note was on the floor. I knew I couldn’t handle all three gargoyles at once. In less than a minute, the big boy was going to get free and come at me again.

  Out of options and desperate to call for help, as well as retrieve the single, precious object my parents had left me, I pushed out another Telekinetic wave, surprisingly stronger than my previous attempts. The gargoyles were slapped to the side like overgrown flies, and I dashed across the living room, jumping over an armchair and grabbing the fire extinguisher I kept in the hallway.

  I grabbed the note and quickly tucked it in my back pocket, but there was no time to get the phone, too, as the two smaller gargoyles attacked again. I flipped the safety loose and shot out a thick white cloud. The foam blinded them, giving me the two seconds I needed to slip past them and run to the door.

  The big one, free of its icy mask, cut in, preventing a clean escape.

  “Dammit,” I cursed under my breath and glided backward, as the gargoyle thumped through the living room toward me, its claws breaking the wooden flooring.

  I froze, my back against the window, my whole body shivering as the beast in front of me shuddered with delight.

  Another second and I would become its dinner.

  Something inside me roared like thunder, unwilling to give in yet. The air around me thickened—I could feel it tickling my fingertips, beckoning me to wield it. I’d done it before, though not with the strength I would’ve needed to disable a fiend as savage as this.

  But I had to try. There was no other choice.

  I summoned all the energy I could muster, and, for the first time ever, I sensed the particles of Chaos flowing through me. My mind went into overdrive, and I thrust my hands out. The winds outside listened, rumbling and whistling as they crashed through the window.

  I ducked as broken glass exploded everywhere. Shards cut through the beast’s face and eyes, and it hissed from the pain.

  With no other route to safety, I braced the winds and leapt onto the windowsill. My breath hitched as I looked down at the sheer drop, and then I closed my eyes, abandoning myself to the air.

  The winds circled around me, and I could feel the cool flow of air brushing against my body as I hovered closer to ground level. I couldn’t hold the current for much longer, and I ended up dropping for another ten feet.

  The gargoyles roared inside my apartment, just as I landed in the middle of the street. People screamed around me. Of course. I was in the city. People were everywhere.

  My shoulder throbbed, as it had absorbed most of the shock of the fall.

  I managed to look up, counting six innocent people about to get introduced to gargoyles, plus more coming in from both ends of the street, along with the ones poking their heads out through the windows of my apartment building. The
y were all drawn to the noises and the sight of me crashing in the middle of the street.

  “All of you, stay back!” I shouted, waving them all away. “Run!”

  Some of them listened, and immediately darted away, while dialing 911. Others weren’t as fast, but at least they couldn’t actually see the gargoyles, from what I could tell. Otherwise, they all would’ve screamed at the sight of three monstrous fiends snarling at me from the fifth-floor window.

  “Oh, no,” I gasped, my eyes wide as I caught sight of the gargoyles jumping out.

  The small ones landed on the pavement, crushing the slabs of concrete beneath. I heard people gasping. Then a scream—that was me, watching the big gargoyle land on my car, and mauling it in the process.

  “My Daisy!” I cried out at the sight of the Mustang’s hood mangled under the weight of that beast. My heart was instantly torn. Rage became my primary fuel as I sprang to my feet. “You son of a—”

  I stilled, noticing the smaller gargoyles set their sights on a couple of humans, who were gawking at my car, unable to understand what invisible force had crashed into it. The big one sneered at me, its hind wiggling as it prepared to pounce and come at me again.

  I was still overwhelmed, but with more space to move. At the same time, there were humans that needed protection. Dammit.

  A flash of fire shot across my field of vision, hitting one of the smaller gargoyles. Wade came through the gathering crowd on my left, whispering a spell. His rings lit up blue and a pulse shot out of his hands, spreading outward into an iridescent globe that swallowed us and the gargoyles, keeping everybody else out.

  Time seemed to stand still on the outside, people wide eyed and frozen as they stared at us.

  Relief washed over me at the sight of Wade, but my troubles weren’t over yet.

  “Keep the big one busy for a minute!” Wade instructed me, then shot fire beams from his fingers at the other two, who were trying to claw their way out of the globe-shaped shield that was keeping us in.

  The flames licked at the two gargoyles, while I temporarily shifted my focus back to the big one. It moved fast, zigzagging across the street as it raced toward me. I managed to latch onto it with a mental lasso, then dragged it to the left with a swing powerful enough to slam it into the energy barrier of the protective shield.

  It shook its head, momentarily dazed, then sprang to its feet and came at me again.

  Wade lashed fire whips at the gargoyles, killing them both with one devastating blow, as the thick rope of fire cut through their chests. They crumbled to the ground, wheezing and hissing as they disintegrated in two puffs of charcoal smoke and dust.

  I pushed out a Telekinetic barrier in an attempt to shove the remaining gargoyle back, but all it did was nudge it. It growled and continued its advance, as I scampered backward and tried to latch onto it with another mental lasso. It was moving too fast, having already learned my move.

  Wade slipped between us, muttering a spell as he put his hands out, rings glowing red. Crimson beams shot out from his fingertips, then softened into fluorescent strings that wrapped themselves around the gargoyle. One by one, the energy ropes tightened around the beast until it could no longer move and fell flat on its face.

  “Open this!” Wade said, then handed me a Mason jar.

  I took it and removed its lid, while Wade rushed around the beast, dropping green entrapment stones along the way. The gargoyle struggled against its magical restraints, which started to pop and vanish, one at a time. Wade spoke the entrapment spell, the sturdier green beams I’d witnessed during our previous gargoyle encounter stretching out and trapping the beast beneath.

  Only then was I able to breathe, the last of the red strings fizzling out. The gargoyle was well secured, this time.

  “What is going on?” I managed, my voice trembling.

  The adrenaline was storming through me, my limbs shaking and my breathing broken and ragged. My heart struggled against its ribcage, as the reality of what had just happened started to sink in.

  “I had to use the red ropes first, just to keep it busy while I laid out the entrapment stones,” Wade replied, then motioned for me to step forward. “Come closer, I need to jar this bastard. It’s bad enough I had to kill the other two.”

  I glanced around, noticing the world was still and quiet beyond the bluish bubble.

  “What’s this?” I asked, my voice trembling.

  “We call it a time lapse. It only holds for about seven, maybe ten minutes, at most,” Wade explained. “It isolates a specific patch of time and space, enough for me to do my job, basically.”

  He then spoke the spell that forced the gargoyle into its smoky form. It got sucked into the jar, and I quickly put the lid on, twisting it tightly as the formless creature tumbled around in its glass receptacle.

  I then remembered Daisy. My car was utterly destroyed, as if a fifty-ton cement ball had been dropped on top of it. I could barely distinguish its original design. My Daisy was a pile of mangled metal and rubber.

  Tears rolled down my cheeks, while I came to terms with the fact that I no longer had a car. It hurt like hell, and Wade didn’t seem to understand.

  “Why are you crying?” he asked.

  There was a pang in my heart that I didn’t recognize. It was his. He didn’t like to see me cry.

  Tough luck, bro. I’m bawling like a little girl right now.

  “That’s… That’s my car!” I cried out, pointing at my Daisy.

  He casually glanced at it, then shrugged and took the jar from my hands. “It’s just a car. Inanimate object. You can buy another one. A better one, for that matter. You should switch to electric, anyway.”

  “Oh, please.” I scowled, rubbing my eyes. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “It’s just a car, Harley. You’re alive, that’s what matters.”

  “It’s not just a car. It’s my car! This was the first thing I bought when I became independent. Daisy meant the world to me. She was my symbol of freedom. Not just a car!”

  Wade stared at me for a few moments, while I tried to regain my composure. My body was reacting to adrenaline withdrawal, my muscles and joints shaking like crazy. He moved closer and put a hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently.

  “It’ll be okay,” he said. “You’re good. You made it. And you held your own against three gargoyles. Not something that a Mediocre can easily pull off, believe me.”

  Was that a compliment?

  I nodded, sniffing as I looked around again. “What do we do now?” I asked, worried about the people outside the protective bubble.

  “They didn’t see or have any direct contact with the gargoyles. I bet they just saw a crazy girl falling out the window,” he replied, reaching for his phone. He dialed a number, then waited for someone to pick up. “Yeah, it’s Crowley. There was an incident at Harley Smith’s apartment. Park West. Yes. Requesting permission to flash witnesses, until we do a thorough cleanup tomorrow. Yes, thank you.”

  He hung up, then gave me a brief smirk.

  “What?” I frowned, too bummed out to enjoy the sliver of satisfaction coming out of him.

  “Let me show you something cool,” he replied, then gave me the jar again. “Actually, you can hold on to this.”

  He put his hands out, the rings on his fingers lighting up blue.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “The upside to using a time lapse in the form of a sphere is that we can add another spell to its surface,” Wade explained. “What happens is that the sphere usually explodes outward in a puff of energy once the time lapse expires, so we can use the force of that explosion to push out another spell—in this case, a memory wiper.”

  He muttered another spell, and the sphere turned from blue to white, then burst outward in a blinding flash. I had to close my eyes for a second. Once I opened them, I saw the people around us blink several times, then walk away, absentmindedly. Time resumed its normal flow, and nobody seemed too bothered about the mangl
ed car or the broken windows on the fifth floor.

  “You made them forget,” I murmured.

  “Not exactly. It’s short-term hypnosis. I’m not capable of performing mass hypnosis, yet. But this will keep them in a haze for about twenty-four hours, which gives us enough time to come back tomorrow and wipe their memories, one by one.”

  “How will we find them tomorrow?” I asked, watching as the crowd dissipated on the left side of the street, as well.

  “The spell leaves traces of my energy behind,” he replied. “I’ll be able to detect it tomorrow.”

  “Like a tracking device,” I concluded, and he nodded. The biggest question finally made its way past my lips. “What the hell were three gargoyles doing in my apartment? Why’d they come after me? Where did they come from?”

  Okay, three questions. Compared to how many I had for follow-up, I figured I’d ease him into it.

  “I honestly have no idea,” Wade replied, and I could feel his befuddlement. “The one you’re holding came from the Bestiary, that I’m sure of. I recognized its tracking number.”

  “Huh?”

  “Remember, we track our monsters. They’re all tagged, right behind the ear.” He instinctively pointed at his ear. “You won’t like this, though… It’s the same gargoyle you and I captured the other night at the casino.”

  “Wait, what?” My jaw dropped, and I stared at the smoky jar for a couple of seconds. “What about the other two? Also from the Bestiary?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “They’re wildlings, and judging by how they behaved, they were freshly made, too. Which means there are more undiscovered magicals in San Diego, and they’ve recently Purged.”

  “I don’t get it, Wade. Why did they come after me? Why me, of all people?” I asked, unable to wrap my head around the concept that I had been the deliberate target of a gargoyle attack.

  “I wish I had an answer, Harley, but I don’t. My first thought was that this bad boy here came looking for revenge, but I can’t explain how he got hold of the other two, or how they found you here. I’ll go over this with Alton later, though. He might have some insights.”