Devil Inside (27 page)

“Harley, you should come with me, sweetie.  OK?”  She held her hand out to her and she regretted how badly it shook.  Still smiling and not blinking, Little Harley reached out to take her hand.  Her grip was strong—stronger than a child’s should have been and Harley could feel the bones of her hand grinding together painfully.  She tried to pull her hand free and when that didn’t work she tried to pull Little Harley from underneath the table.  If she could get the little girl out from underneath the table she could have a better chance at getting her hand free.  She tugged at the little girl as hard as she dared without hurting her. 
This is absurd
, Harley thought to herself.  No matter how hard she pulled at the girl, she wouldn’t budge.  It felt like she was pulling at a solid stone statue bolted to the floor.

“Let-let go,” she her panic was beginning to grow into hysteria.  Maybe she wasn’t meant to get the girl out after all.  Her heart was beating in her throat and she used the table as leverage to try to pry herself free.  She was less concerned with getting the little girl out now than she was with not burning to death herself.  Dream or not, the heat from the flames grew stronger as they began to creep closer and closer.  Suddenly, the little girl yanked Harley forward, pulling her partially under the table with her.  The little girl was impossibly strong and Harley couldn’t stop herself from falling to her knees in front of the little girl.  When she was face to face with the younger version of herself she could see her own reflection in the bottomless pit of the girl’s deep black eyes.  She could see the terrified expression on her own face as she struggled to break the little girl’s hold.

When the girl spoke it was with the same voice that Harley had heard from the darkness during the beginning of the bond.  “Miami,” she whispered and began laughing.  It wasn’t a little girl’s laugh.  It was hoarse and feminine yet not quite human.  At the same time Harley caught sight of her own reflection in the little girl’s eyes again.  Her blood turned to ice when she realized that her eyes were as black and lifeless as the little girl’s eyes.  She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out.  Instead, the little girl flung her away as if she were a doll she was tired of playing with and continued to laugh in her strange rasping way.

Harley jerked awake with Levi holding onto her hand with a vice-like grip.  The bed bounced beneath them as he leaned over her.  The look on his face caused Harley’s already pounding heart to race even harder.  He looked shocked, suspicious and maybe even a little scared.  Harley froze in response, unsure as to what had just happened but waited for Levi to speak while she worked to calm herself.

“You were floating,” he said simply.

“Huh?” Harley asked stupidly.

Levi’s shoulders relaxed a little now that he knew she was awake and seemed in control again.  “You were floating and making weird sounds.”  His body might have relaxed, but his voice was still tense and worried.

Harley sat up and rubbed the last bits of sleep from her eyes.  “What do you mean I was floating?”

“I mean you were floating above the bed—just—just kind of hanging there like you were floating in water or something.”

“Is that normal?”

“No.  No, it’s not.”

“I was having an awful dream,” Harley tried to remember the details.

“What was it about?”

“I think it was about the fire that killed my parents.  And—” Harley broke off with a gasp as the memory of the dream came rushing back to her.

“What?” Levi asked tensing again.

“Miami.”

“What?”

“My Nocte wants me to go to Miami.”

Levi studied her with skepticism marring his features.  “How do you know that?  You dreamed it?”

Harley realized how dumb that sounded and any explanation she offered would only sound worse.  “Yes!” she hissed defensively refusing to meet his eyes.  “She spoke through a child version of myself.”

“Harley—” he began softly, “The Noctes don’t talk to us.  Maybe it was just an impression that you got and your brain built it up in the dream.”

“No,” Harley sighed, “I’m sure that it was her.”

“What makes you think your Nocte is female?” Harley could tell that Levi’s skepticism was growing but he was trying to not show it.

“I just know.  Can’t you tell if yours is male or female?  Or would yours automatically be male?  Is that how it works?”

“I have no idea,” Levi considered.  Levi was showing his usual self composure.  He might have his doubts about her words, but he respected Harley enough to give her the benefit of the doubt.  A fact that Harley was grateful for.

“I was pretty sure at the bonding that she was female.  After that dream I’m sure of it.”

“Tell me what happened.  Start at the beginning.”

Harley recounted the dream.  Describing the events that took place took some of the creepiness away.  She was able to remove herself from it somewhat and become more of an observer.  Levi listened patiently without interrupting.  When she got to the part where her younger self had spoken the Nocte’s words, Harley felt the hairs rise on her arms.  Her Nocte may not be completely awake in the daylight, but she was definitely not fully asleep.

“So that’s why you said you wanted to go with me to Miami earlier?” Levi asked.

“Apparently.  At the time I wasn’t even sure where that came from.”  Levi raised an eyebrow in response.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Harley’s defenses came up.

“Next time how about just explaining what you mean instead of being hateful?”

Guilt nibbled at Harley.  “Sorry,” she said sheepishly.

Levi nodded his acceptance of her apology and let it go.  “Why does your Nocte want to go to Miami?” he asked reasonably.

Harley rubbed her face and shrugged.  “I don’t know.”  She felt frustrated and annoyed.  “I feel I need to go there—and I think it is because SHE feels she needs to go there.”

“Well…” Levi began.  “We already discussed this.  It’s not a good idea.  There is no way that can happen right now.  You understand that, right?”

“Of course,” Harley responded.  She tried to keep the irritation out of her voice.  Harley studied Levi’s face.  He looked tired and faded.  He looked like it was the morning after an all-night party.  Harley couldn’t be sure without looking in a mirror, but she was pretty confident that she didn’t look that tired.  She definitely didn’t feel tired or weak.  If need be, she could be up, ready and functional.  Levi looked like he needed to sleep for a week.  When she thought about it she realized that any time she had seen Levi awake during the day he looked like this.  He always looked disoriented with dark circles under his bloodshot, blue eyes.

“Do I look as tired as you do?”

“Um, thanks,” Levi answered sarcastically.

“Sorry!” she laughed.  “But you LOOK like you are tired—weaker.  I don’t feel any different than I did when I went to sleep.”

Levi studied her face.  “No…you actually look normal.”  His brow wrinkled with curiosity and suspicion again.

“Is THIS normal?”

“Not that I have heard of,” Levi answered after careful consideration.   “We will have to add floating and not being tired during the day to the list of things to asked Nya about.  Maybe it’s just because the bond isn’t complete.”  Levi settled back into the mattress and pulled her closer.  She let him, too lost in her own thoughts to care all that much.

Harley knew that her Nocte wanted to go to Miami.  For some reason she—the Nocte—wanted to find the creature responsible for the murders that had been happening there.  Harley knew this for sure even though she couldn’t explain why.  She knew that it wasn’t possible though.  She felt stronger already, but she knew that she wasn’t ready to fight yet.  Just because someone could swing their fist through the air didn’t mean they knew how to fight.  Her heart still burned for revenge and subconsciously her Nocte urged her toward Miami, but Harley knew she wasn’t ready.  As much as she wanted to chase her own demons, she had to be patient.  She knew she would have her chance for revenge eventually.

Harley looked at Levi.  He had already fallen back to sleep and was breathing deeply and seemed at peace.  Since the bond, she felt differently about everything.  She had two layers of emotions.  One was animalistic—it was the base need to eat, have sex, to fight, to own and possess.  But on the other side of that primal instinct was a strong rational sense of control.  So far, she seemed to be able to control them separately when she needed to—but she didn’t know if that ability would last.  Levi had warned her that some people weren’t able to handle the bond. 
What if that is what is happening to me?
  Harley’s heart picked up pace at the thought.  But Harley knew that it just took a while for some people to adjust to the bond—maybe that is what was wrong with her.  Maybe this was just her body’s way of adjusting to the bond.

______________________

Eventually, Harley got tired of lying in bed trying not to move and wake Levi.  She itched to get out of bed even though she knew that the sun hadn’t gone down yet.   Some base instinct that now resided in Harley told her that she had about an hour before the sun set.  Moving slowly Harley slipped from the bed; Levi was in such a deep sleep that he didn’t even stir.  She carried some clothes with her to the bathroom and showered quickly.  She realized that since she and Levi had arrived at the “farmhouse” they had spent most of their time in the bedroom or the kitchen.  While she wasn’t going to complain about either, she did want to see the rest of the house.

The only remarkable thing about the house, other than its size, was its boringness.  There were no personal touches.  The décor that Harley had noticed early on, the decorating for the sake of decorating, was carried on throughout the rest of the house.  She was cautious in her exploring, hesitating before opening most doors.  Surely, there were people sleeping behind at least some of them.  If she heard or sensed anyone on the other side of the door, she left it closed and moved silently away from it.  During her and Levi’s shut in she had heard people moving throughout the house even though she hadn’t met them yet.  At some point she was sure that she heard the arrogant, British-sounding Rafe yelling down the hall—oblivious to whom he may be disturbing.

The sun still hadn’t set fully when Harley found herself at a door that opened outside on the east side of the house.  She unlocked it and stepped into the dying sunlight.  Even though it was chilly fall weather, the sunlight warmed her skin like a gentle caress.  She had a feeling the only reason that she was so aware of the sunlight on her skin was because her Nocte didn’t like it.  She could feel her grumble from somewhere deep inside as the sun rolled across her arms and shoulders and face.  She felt like it had been ages since she had been in the sun.  The feeling of being outside was glorious.  She found a calm freedom that lifted a weight from her heart and soul.  There was an old stone bench sitting on the small concrete porch and Harley sat, closed her eyes and opened the rest of her senses—eager to hear and smell the world around her.

When she breathed deep enough, Harley could smell the dewy earth and the wildflowers blooming near the trees about thirty feet away from where she sat.  She could also smell some sort of animal scrambling to collect more food before the night fell and predators came out.  She could hear it scurry through the grass and the brush near the tree line that sat to the side of the farmhouse.  Listening to the sound of the world around her, she had never felt so close to, or so apart from nature before.  She was more aware of how full and busy her surroundings were in a way that she only taken for granted before.  Now she could hear the crickets beginning to wake up in the bushes that had been planted alongside the house.  She opened her eyes and she could see the birds nesting for the night, watching her warily from the branches of the closest trees.  Seeing these details that she had never noticed before brought with them an intimate knowledge of the realness of nature—of being surrounded by it and immersed in it.

On the other hand, Harley knew she wasn’t just an observer of nature any longer.  Now she was an apex predator.  She felt sure that if she chose to do so, she could catch the scurrying creature.  It seemed aware of as well because it had caught her scent and stopped its foraging to make sure she wasn’t coming closer.  If she wanted to, she could jump high enough to reach the nest that the birds had carefully built out of normal human reach.  She didn’t belong to this natural world any longer.  That knowledge saddened her a bit.  The world had not always made sense, and humans went against nature every day.  But Harley hadn’t realized how lost she would feel when she was no longer a part of the world that she had always known.  Harley didn’t belong in the natural order of nature any longer.  That knowledge created a sadness that pulled at her breath and made her eyes glisten.

“You get used to it after a while.”

Harley jumped at the sound of Nya’s voice.  She had been so lost in thought and the world beyond the house; she hadn’t even heard Nya approach.  Now she stood in the darkness behind the screen door.

“Which part,” she asked softly, not bothering to clarify what she meant.  She blinked away the unshed tears.  As usual, Nya didn’t need Harley to explain.

“All of it,” she said, softening her normally playful tone.  Nya pushed the screen door open and joined Harley on the bench.  “How long have you been out here?”  Her voice was curious but not suspicious.