“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.”