Taken (Ava Delaney #4) (12 page)

On the way
home, Peter’s face was tight. A sudden fear that he somehow knew
what Carl and I had done gripped me, but eventually, he asked,
“What did
you
think?”

I blew out a
sigh of relief. “I think we need to talk to Eddie. He told me Ogham
was one of
his
gods.”

“Maybe. It
sounded to me like she was talking ‘bout the gates of Hell
opening.”

“Stop it. It’s
a story.”

“Only something
like you can do that.”

Some
thing
.

“Daimhín told
me she had someone like me killed before, although that was back
when they were calling me a daywalker. But I’m pretty sure she knew
what I really was, even then. She said her maker owned one, but
they killed him,” I rattled on, unable to stop. The quiet feeling
had disappeared, I realised.

Peter glanced
at me. “You okay?”

I nodded,
pressing my lips together as tight as possible, refusing to allow
even one number an escape.

“I can’t stop
thinking about the water,” he said. “Gods bathing, special
children. What does it all mean?”

I had my
suspicions. I remembered a conversation with Daimhín about how she
didn’t crave Yvonne’s blood and how humans had once been bred for
certain things. Maybe the water had been some kind of protection.
Maybe the after-effects were still showing years later. Anything
was possible. I was scared to see how true that was.

“Where did your
son’s family originally come from?” I asked. “Yvonne and…
everyone?”

He gave me a
funny look. “They lived in Dublin their whole lives.”

“I meant… their
ancestors. Never mind.”

He cleared his
throat. “You’re probably wondering about Shay.”

“Uh, yeah. I
suppose I am.”

“When… the
night I lost my family, he was there. He’s a Garda and was on call
that night. He sort of looked out for me, went a bit easier on me
than the rest. He was good to me when he didn’t have to be. Went
above and beyond, you know?”

I nodded.
“Sounds like a nice person.”

“He is. He’s
decent. I liked him a lot, but when I went off the rails, I kept
away from him. I didn’t want to drag him down with me.” He
shrugged, acting nonchalant, but I could see beyond his words, and
I discovered a newfound respect for Shay.

But all
thoughts of Shay and Peter’s friendship flew out of my head with
one phone call from Esther. “He did it,” she said excitedly.

“Who did
what?”

“Robbie… the
hacker... he made a breakthrough on one of the codes. He’s
this
close to getting a name.”

“That’s great,”
I said, but I found it hard to get excited after hearing from
Shay’s nan. Plenty about the story made me uncomfortable, and I
knew I had to get to the truth, one way or another. But first, we
needed to put a face to the potential name that Esther’s hacker had
come up with. It was beginning to look like the easiest part of the
job.

Shay called me
with an entire lack of news from Kerry. “I heard a couple of
versions of the same story Nan told us. But most didn’t know the
tales. I told you, they’re a quiet people.”

“They’ve been
silenced,” I muttered.

“What?”

“Never mind.
Listen, thanks for asking around. We would have just wasted our
time. How’s your nan?”

“Cold,” he said
sharply. “She’s been deteriorating for a while now, but she refuses
to move out of that cottage. The draught alone should have killed
her by now.”

“She’s strong,”
I said, remembering how she had told the story regardless of
whatever kept people silent in her village.

“Runs in the
family,” he said, and I heard the smile in his voice. “Is Peter
okay?”

“Probably not,
but that’s Peter.”

Silence on the
other end, then, “If you need help with him ever, even if he just
needs a good kick up the arse, let me know.”

I laughed. “I
will. Thanks.”

We exchanged a
few pleasantries that were particularly awkward, at least on my
part, but Shay was so warm and friendly that he could hold the
conversation all by himself. Then, we hung up without further
promises to stay in touch.

The following
evening, Robbie the Hacker finally came up with a name─Ben
O’Halloran. Esther came straight to my house to tell me face to
face, but we couldn’t get in touch with Peter. He was distancing
himself again, and I didn’t know how to stop him.

“Human?” I
asked as I stared at the name.

She shrugged.
“Maybe. ’Cause of the surname. Robbie is still checking our
records, just in case. There are some humans in there.”

“Like Peter and
Carl?”

“That’s
classified.” But her grin confirmed it.

I had already
told Esther about our trip to Kerry, but I wondered if Shay could
be of any help in his official capacity. I hadn’t expected to ask
him for help again, at least not so soon. I texted him with the
name and asked if there was any way to find the person.

He rang me back
almost immediately. “Are you talking about Moses?”

“Moses?
Huh?”

“It’s his
nickname. When he was small-time, he was called Bennie. Then he set
out on his own, and now they call him Moses.”

“Small time
what exactly?”

“Drug dealing,
mostly. Let’s just say he’s well-known in Dublin. I haven’t come
across him in a while, but I can check for you. Is there some
reason I should know about?”

“Just following
a lead.”

“I can’t see
what Moses would have to do with Peter, but I’m intrigued to find
out.”

I laughed. “You
wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

He texted me
again later that night with an address strangely close to the
warehouse Peter and I had pretty much broken into recently. More
circles. He also sent me a warning to be careful.

Shay baffled
me. Why was he helping us so easily? Maybe he had reached the point
where he didn’t care anymore, where he had to feel as though he
were making some kind of difference, no matter how small.

Esther didn’t
care about Shay’s warnings to be careful. She didn’t even ask why a
Garda might be helping me. No surprise at all. That made me wonder
if the police were helping the Guardians. Or at least some of them.
That made a certain kind of sense, especially after Shay’s
frustration over how he had been hindered in his investigations.
But was he blocked to keep the supernatural world a secret or
because powerful people were involved in the incidents?

“We’ll be
fine,” Esther reassured me the following day. “Me and you together.
We’ll go and have a few words. That’s all.”

Something
squirmed in the pit of my stomach. Nothing was ever that
simple.

Late afternoon,
we got to the block of flats that held Ben O’Halloran’s most recent
abode. The place looked different in daylight. When Peter and I had
passed it in the dark, it had seemed dangerous. Sunlight made it
sort of lifeless.

Dead eyes
watched us as we climbed the dark stairwell that smelled of piss
and sex. The flats were compressed together, too many people packed
in one building, and the sounds of their heartbeats overwhelmed me.
My other sense saw a mass of energies as we made our way to our
destination.

We paused
outside the door. Number 66. Perfectly wrong. I tried not to look
at it.

Esther threw
her shoulders back, cleared her throat, and rapped on the door.
Music filtered through an open window, and for a minute, I thought
nobody was coming. After another, more impatient, knock, an old
woman answered the door and eyed us warily when we asked for
Ben.

“Moses,” I
added, and she nodded.

She made us
wait outside for long moments before beckoning us in. We stepped
right into a room where music was blaring. A teenage girl slept off
what were probably the effects of the night before, if the black
smudging around her eyes was any indication, on a tiny sofa also
occupied by two men, while another held court on a leather recliner
as if he were King of the Flats. He was chubby, with light brown
hair, wicked brown eyes, and a dimple that belied the coldness in
his expression.

“Ladies,” he
said, smiling at the man standing next to his chair. The man lit a
joint and handed it over.

“You Moses?”
Esther asked, and he took in her figure with exaggerated
appreciation, smacking his lips around the rollup.

He took the
joint out of his mouth, still eyeing Esther. “I am. And who the
fuck are you?”

Esther glanced
at me, but I shrugged, letting her deal with him.

“Doesn’t
matter. I’m here about Illeana,” she said.

He coughed and
made a shooing motion with his hands. “Everyone out.”

The man who had
fired the joint carried the sleeping girl away, and she didn’t
stir.

“She okay?” I
asked.

“Fuck her.” He
waited until everyone had left, the last one closing the door.

I relaxed
slightly. One chubby git wasn’t too dangerous.

But the look in
his eyes said differently. “What about Illeana?”

“You know her.”
Esther stared at Moses, unflinching.

“Yeah. Fine
thing that she is.” He grinned, but it was all bravado. A line of
sweat rolled down his temple as he took a deep drag of the
joint.

“She’s dead,”
Esther said. “How did you know her?”

“Are you…
like
her?” He peered at both of us curiously.

“We’re
different. Think fangs and claws,” I said.

He closed his
eyes and swore under his breath. “I didn’t kill her.”

“As if you
could,” Esther scoffed.

His eyes grew
colder. “D’ya know who I am, love?”

“We don’t give
a fuck who you are,” I said. “We just want to know how you knew
Illeana.”

“I’m legit
here,” he said, gesturing at the room. “I’m selling for one of your
crowd, all right? Illeana checked up on us every now and then.” He
licked his lips. “Always enjoyed her little visits, if you know
what I mean.”

Esther leaped
at him, her fingers digging into his throat before he could blink.
“No. I don’t know what you mean,” she hissed.

He choked out a
word, but he couldn’t speak with her hands constricting him, so I
pulled her back. She smoothed her hair and waited for his
response.

He glanced at
us warily, seeming to finally understand who had the upper hand.
Swallowing hard a number of times as he adjusted his T-shirt, he
nodded as if agreeing with himself. “Look, I’ll tell you everything
I know, but it’s not a lot. She asked me questions, and she had an
arse on her like a peach, so I gave her the answers. That’s all.
There’s no story here.”

“What
questions? Who are you dealing for?” I was fuming. Supernaturals
even had their fingers in the drugged pies.

“If you don’t
know, then I ain’t saying. Threaten me all you like. Can’t be worse
than what I’d get for telling. People are relying on me here. I
can’t be seen to snitch, or they’re all dead. I liked the chick. So
I gave her a name.”

“What name?
Why?” Esther bared her teeth a little, and I inched away in case
she went grizzly on his arse.

“She was asking
about slave labour, yeah? People trafficking, sex slaves, stuff
like that. I’ve had a few crossover deals, so I got her in touch
with the bloke I knew. If anyone’s moving people, he knows about
it. She said she’d contact him. As far as I know, she did. She
hasn’t been back since. I didn’t know she was dead; I swear
it.”

“Did she ask
you about children?”

“She just
wanted to know about who to go to if you wanted to transport a few
living bodies. I’ve had to do a lot of shit over the years, and
I’ve come across every shade of creep there is. I knew what she was
asking, and I gave her the answers. Not my problem what happened
next.”

“We need names,
too,” I said.

“I’m not giving
you any fucking names. I don’t know you. Either of you. The other
one earned an answer.” He turned and leered at Esther. “But if you
get down on your knees, I might be persuaded.”

I smacked him
across the head. “Give me the name, or I’ll rip out your fucking
throat, you little twat. Filling your own neighbourhood with drugs.
You should be ashamed of yourself.”

He stared at
me, stunned. “You’ve got it wrong. I’m giving them jobs. What else
do they have? Have you even seen this place? There’s nothing here.
Nothing
.” He took a deep breath. “Look, I’m giving them
protection. You don’t understand. Nobody can touch them as long as
we do what we’re told. The people in the flats? Most of them don’t
even know that. They just think I’m your average scumbag. But I’ve
seen some crazy shit, and I know what’s out there. Dealing is
better than letting them be fucking… fucking zombie food or
whatever.”

“So you’re
scared.”

“I’m not
fucking scared!” Spittle flew from his mouth, and he got to his
feet in a rage. “I have no fucking choice, you little cunt. We’re
surrounded by these fuckers. They won’t leave us alone. They know
we’re already fucked. The rest of the world doesn’t give a shit
what happens down here. So we adjust, and we fit in, and we do
whatever the hell we can to survive. I’m doing the best I can with
what I have, and trust me, it’s a lot better than what came before
me.”

“You’re
pathetic,” Esther sneered.

But I felt his
passion and fear. I felt what he wasn’t saying. “We could help you.
She’s got a voice. We could get rid of them.”

“You can’t get
rid of things that have been here since before we were. We’ll never
get rid of them, so we have to live next to them, wherever they say
we can live, and let them push us around.” He sat back down, chest
heaving.

“There’s a
warehouse nearby,” I pointed toward the west. “I was there
recently. Lots of alien-looking creatures in there. Are they the
ones bothering you?”