Harley Merlin 12 by Bella Forrest (story books to read TXT) 📗

which meaty treats they preferred, or whether they would rather chase a ball over a frisbee. All I could do was sit and try not to die of awkwardness while Ryann touched me.

Nash broke the silence. “I said you talked a good talk, Finch, but Ryann talks a better one. A character reference does a lot.”

“Does that mean—?” I hardly dared to say it.

“That I’ll let you take this curse off me and use my blood to help your friend? Yeah, it does.” He lifted his bottle. “Don’t make me regret this.”

I lifted mine. “I won’t. I swear.”

“Then we’ve got a deal.” He clinked his drink against mine. “Consider this me scratching your back, as long as you promise to scratch mine.”

“Deal.” My gut churned, knowing I had pulled him into this on a lie. But I had no choice. And I’d meant what I said about assisting with his Davin problem, which alleviated a tiny smidgen of the guilt. I wanted that slippery hobgoblin dead as much as anyone, and if I could help a fellow misfit out and set him free, all the better.

“So, when do we start?” Nash shifted in his chair. “Where’s your buddy?”

I took out my phone. “Glad you reminded me.” I dialed Raffe’s number and waited. He hadn’t been answering, but I hoped that had more to do with Canadian phone service than Raffe going AWOL. He picked up on the third ring.

“Finch?”

“Raffe! Thank Chaos!”

“I’ve been trying to call you. Where’ve you been?” He sounded a little miffed.

“Sorry about that. I had to take a little trip up north, and apparently Canada doesn’t have 4G yet.” I flashed a comical eyeroll at Nash.

“Canada? Why were you in Canada?” Raffe replied.

“I found what we were looking for, and we’re ready to take the next step.” I kept it vague, but not so vague that Raffe would think I’d lost my marbles. “The key to unlocking our problem has agreed to help us. He’s waiting as we speak, so where are you?”

Raffe paused. “You found the key?”

“I did indeed.” Man, was I glad I hadn’t put this thing on speaker.

“Well, we’re on our way back to San Diego. Should we meet you there?”

I shook my head, though he couldn’t see me. “No, we’re at the Winchester House, waiting on you. Come here instead.”

“Waiting on me? Why are you waiting on me?” The poor guy sounded confused.

“It’ll all make sense once you’re here, and you’re going to be thrilled. It’ll all be over soon, my friend.” I grinned at Nash, giving it the full Meryl Streep treatment. Aren’t I such a wonderful friend? Nope… I suck. But I sucked out of necessity. Bigger personal fish to fry, and all that. As long as Huntress didn’t maul me if the truth came out, I’d count this as a win.

Raffe sighed. “Okay, we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“See you soon, mi amigo!”

“Yeah… uh, see you soon.” Raffe hung up, but I pretended to stay on the line a minute longer.

“What? You’re breaking up.” I put on a show of straining to hear him. “Yeah, the Sanguine agreed to help you. No, I promise. As soon as you get here, we’ll pluck that djinn right out of you, and the two of you will be free. I know… yeah, I know you’ve gotten your hopes up before, but it’s really going to happen this time. I mean it. Okay? Okay. We’ll see you shortly. Yep, yep, bye… bye… yep, bye.”

“He’s on his way?” Nash ran a hand through his silver hair.

I slipped the phone back into my pocket. “Yeah, he’s coming.”

I’m going to hell for this. Deep down, my doubts ran amok. Nash had helped cure my gremlins, and I was responding by being a class-A douche-hat. Would he really bolt if I mentioned Erebus now? Yeah, probably, if he had any sense. Unfortunately, the thought of disobeying Erebus trumped any qualms I had. I despised lying like this, for sure, but I had no choice. I hated it even more because Ryann had gotten sucked into it. She’d said such lovely things about me, and made Nash believe in me because of it. I mean, maybe she thought I actually had a way to help Raffe with Kadar. Wouldn’t that be the guilty icing on the cake?

One thing was for sure, I couldn’t have Raffe arrive without knowing the details of the deception. Or he’d accidentally blow this thing to smithereens.

“Can you hold the fort for a second?” I got up to excuse myself. “I need the little boys’ room. Cider goes right through me.”

Nash pulled a disgusted face. “TMI, Finch.”

“Apologies. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”

Thirty-Seven

Finch

I hid in the men’s bathroom up the hallway, hunched on top of the closed toilet lid, like some bathroom-dwelling Gollum. I waited a couple seconds to make sure no spooky visitors would appear to sate their curiosity. Mary Foster had been weirdly absent since I’d returned to the Winchester House, and I wasn’t ruling out the chance that she was waiting for the perfect opportunity to get me alone.

Maybe Cecily had a word with her after all. A stern “back off” from the Winchester matriarch. Nash hadn’t gotten so much as a distant swoon from my spectral chum, which wasn’t like her at all. It suggested something had happened in our time away. Poor Mary… I wouldn’t have completed the map without her cheerleading skills. And she’d never been inappropriate with me. I’d been the inappropriate one, mentioning garters and knickers, so rude I could make a ghost blush.

Satisfied that I was truly alone, I dialed Raffe again. He picked up on the second ring.

“Finch? Everything okay?” He sounded on edge.

“Yes and no. I need to get you up to speed before you get here. It’ll make sense in a second… hopefully.” I took a breath and rattled off everything, finishing with, “So Nash thinks we need his blood to separate