Taken (Ava Delaney #4) (13 page)

“The brethni?
Nah, they’re no bother. They work for us if we need them to.
Besides, they have even less rights than we do. Those lads are
grand. Good workers. No messing around, no touching up the girls
and causing trouble. Look, this has gone on long enough. If you’re
seen─”

“We’ll go if
you do for us what you did for Illeana. Set us up.” Esther’s voice
had softened.

He rubbed his
bloodshot eyes. “You don’t understand what you’re asking.”

“I work for the
most powerful people out there,” she said. “I can help you if it
comes to that. But you have to help me first.”

He moved to the
window. “I’ll try. I’ll talk to him, but I’m not promising
anything.”

He exchanged
info with Esther, his hands shaking. We left, and all eyes were
once again on us as we headed down the stairwell.

As we walked by
a playground situated between two blocks, Moses leaned over his
balcony and shouted down at us. “Don’t be seen here again,
girls.”

Esther nodded,
and I kept my eyes on the curtains opening and the people coming
out to stand in their doorways. Protecting their own. What had been
really going on there?

As we got to
Esther’s car, I was sure I felt eyes on me still. I glanced around
and saw a car down the road, a familiar figure in the seat.

“Esther, I’ll
make my own way home, okay?”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Ring me
when you hear anything else.”

She drove off,
leaving me free to confront my new stalker. I slunk down behind a
car, ran in the shadows, and rapped on Shay’s passenger window as
he was still craning his neck to try to see where I went. He
jumped, and then with an unabashed grin, he leaned over and opened
the door.

I sat in the
passenger seat and closed the door. “Are you stalking me now?”

“Yes. Just
making sure Moses was a gentleman.”

“Yeah, well, I
can handle people like Moses.”

“Can I give you
a lift?”

I looked back
at the flats, feeling a shiver run down my spine. “Fine. But no
more stalking.”

“I can’t
actually promise that one,” he joked as he started the engine.
“Moses behave?”

“Yeah. It’s an…
odd neighbourhood.”

“Close knit,”
he said. “Everyone taking care of each other. A real
community.”

“Except for all
the drug dealing.”

Shay shrugged.
“Moses deals outside his neighbourhood. That’s his rule. He took
over all of the dealers and sends them working outside his area. No
dealing in the flats.”

“What a pioneer
of morality. So everyone else’s kids are fine to coke up?”

“It could be
worse. But they don’t like outsiders as much as I don’t like
unanswered questions. Hence the stalking.”

“You make it
sound like he’s doing something good,” I said.

“Don’t get me
wrong, Ava. He’s a dangerous man. Never forget that.”

I directed him
to my home, wondering how much crime was connected with the other
world. “Why is he still on the streets?”

“Someone keeps
getting him out of trouble.” Shay frowned. “Haven’t found out how
he manages it, but he seems to have made friends in high
places.”

“Of course he
has,” I murmured.

I was
comfortable around Shay. He didn’t have a clue about me, so there
were no anxious feelings trapping me in a whirlwind of tense
emotion. I hadn’t been in blood-freak mode for a while now, and his
didn’t seem to call out to me, so it was pretty freaking relaxing
in his company.

“Your nan doing
okay?” I asked as he pulled into my cul-de-sac.

“As good as can
be expected. She was asking about you. The girl with fire for
hair.”

“Isn’t she
blind?”

“Pretty much.
Yet she managed to see you.” He grinned. “Let’s hope not all of her
guesses come true.”

I stared at him
for a few seconds in confusion. “I’m down at the end. You can let
me out here though.”

“That’s okay.”
He pulled in right outside my house.

I became
suspicious that he had already known my address. I thanked him
anyway and got out of the car, slamming the door behind me.

“Ava,” he
called out, following me to my gate.

I faced him,
running through every bad scenario in my head. He could be working
for anyone. Anyone at all. But there were no shadows. No anger. No
fear.

He rubbed the
back of his neck. “I was wondering if I could take you out some
time.”

I stared at him
for a couple of seconds, wondering if I heard him right. “What,
like a date?”

“Yeah.”

I burst out
laughing.

The smile
dropped off his face. “Not quite the response I was looking
for.”

“No, it’s not
you. It’s just… I’ve never been asked out on an actual date before,
and the first time is from a Garda who doesn’t even know me.” I bit
down on more hysterical laughter. He thought I was normal, an
ordinary woman. And I didn’t want to be the one to tell him
otherwise. Being normal, even for only a few minutes, felt surreal
in a good way.

“Off-duty,” he
said, grinning again. “And the point of the date was to get to know
you.”

“I can’t. I’m
sorry,” I said, sobering.

“You’re with
Peter.” It wasn’t a question.

I shook my
head. I couldn’t actually claim that.

“But you’re…
waiting for him,” he said softly.

I couldn’t even
attempt to answer that.

“You’ll be good
for him,” he said, touching my arm gently. He turned to leave, but
hesitated, giving me a worried glance. “But I don’t know if he’ll
be good for you.”

He left me
standing there with a strange ache in my throat. I struggled to
control the urge to count. I always hated when people voiced my own
fears.

Esther was
going to England, and I was terrified for her. She seemed happy to
be getting some responsibility, but whenever I remembered the BVA
and how callous they were, it worried me more than I could say.
Esther was on a triple-threat of a mission. She had her Guardian
responsibilities, was tracking down a possible witness, and
hopefully, figuring out a way to make contact with the twins.

I expressed my
worries to Carl, and he seemed to share my concerns. But he
appeared to be more troubled about the marks on my arms. The burns
hurt, and they were definitely a good reminder.

“How many more
scars are they going to give you?” he exclaimed when I rolled up my
sleeves after we had lunch together.

“As many as it
takes.” I gave a harsh laugh. “It’s not like they’re my only scars,
Carl.” I still had vampire bite scars on my hand and chest, not to
mention a raised scar on the back of my neck from Becca’s claws. A
tiny scar from a bullet wound decorated my stomach. Ugly scars ran
around my entire calf from two separate biting incidents.

“Good thing
you’re a tomboy,” he said, ruffling my hair. I shrugged him off
easily, and he threatened me with his walking stick.

“Down, boy, or
I won’t tell you everything that’s been happening.”

I ran through
everything that had occurred in the last few days. Peter, Shay,
Moses… all of the information had been whirling around my brain,
and I desperately needed someone who could sort it out.

“Maybe you
should avoid the copper, Ava.”

“He’s the one
following us around.” I hadn’t told Carl about Shay asking me on a
date, and I wasn’t really sure why. Shay’s interest had unsettled
me more than I could have expected, perhaps because I didn’t see
myself as a real person, and there was someone who didn’t know any
different. I could be anything to him if I let myself. But I
wouldn’t. “I think he’s trying to make sense of the half-truths he
knows.”

“What if he’s
not? What if he’s working for someone else? Trying to see what you
know.”

“It’s possible,
but Peter seemed really happy to see him. And Peter trusts
nobody.”

“I’m just
saying. Be careful. He seemed genuine, but we’re surrounded by
backstabbers. Who can we really trust?”

“I trust you,”
I said without thinking.

“That’s
different. The whole bond thing makes that a given.”

We hadn’t
talked about our old bonds before, and I fidgeted with my sleeve.
“Do you still feel it?”

He shook his
head. “Not like before. You know, after the first time we broke
it.”

“I think it
wasn’t really broken then. I think Eddie knew that, too. But it was
probably really the only way I could take you back from
Alannah.”

“I’ve had my
own mind,” he clarified. “You weren’t telling me what to do.
Actually, you were, but I never listened.” He grinned.

“I don’t mean
the mind control part. I mean… the connection? It’s as if I was so
protective of you because, deep down, I still felt as though you
were mine. That sounds weird, right?”

He held up his
hand. “No, I get it. Everything that happens now sounds weird when
you say it out loud, but it makes sense on some other level.”

“And then there
was the second bond,” I said, watching him carefully. “And my
blood.”

He inhaled
sharply. My feeding him my blood in a desperate attempt to save his
life hadn’t been discussed by any of us, avoided in the same way we
ignored the fact that Peter had offered me his blood to save Carl.
It was a twisted circle, but it might just have been the things
that kept us all so closely knit together.

“It didn’t
change me.” But it sounded like a question.

“No. But Gabe
asked me what I did when he tried to heal you. He knew there was
something different.”

“You helped. I
was asleep, but I was conscious. I felt you inside me. That sounds
creepy, but it’s true. I didn’t remember, though. Not at first.
Sometimes, in my dreams, I see it again. The light. It’s
beautiful.” His eyes watered, and for the first time, I wondered
what exactly we had done to make Carl better. I knew he still had
nightmares, and they were probably my fault, too.

“When’s Esther
leaving?” he asked abruptly. Baby steps.

“Tomorrow
night. The others are following her over by the weekend.”

Carl snorted.
“How did she get Aiden to let her go?”

“She’s an
adult.”

“Tell that to
her brother. Are we having a goodbye drink then?”

“What is it
with you lot and alcohol?” I teased.

Carl arranged
for the four of us to meet up at Gabe’s bar again, and I couldn’t
help wondering if he was maybe avoiding some problems that didn’t
involve us.

“Everything
okay at home?” I asked him gently.

“Fine.” But his
jaw tensed. He had suffered most from meeting us, yet he couldn’t
keep away, and sometimes I wondered if it was down to the bonds I
had created with him, especially the ones meant to help him. We
might never know for sure, but I understood the things he had said
about feeling things on a base level.

I wanted to ask
him more about it, but Eddie stepped onto the shop floor and
interrupted us by clearing his throat in that way of his that meant
my time was up.

“I need to
speak with you,” I said, remembering Shay’s nan.

“Perhaps I can
fit you in next week.” He smiled in a way that didn’t reach his
eyes.

“Now,” I said,
ignoring the books falling from the shelves as he expressed his
anger.

“Ava,” Carl
whispered, sounding worried.

“See you
tonight, Carl.” I brushed past them and went straight into the
backroom. I kept a wary mental eye on Eddie, just in case he sent a
sneaky attack my way, but he settled down, and Maeve brushed
through my hair in welcome. Or warning. I could never tell for
sure.

“What now?”
Eddie asked as he took a seat.

“I heard a
story the other day. A really interesting story.”

He sighed
wearily. “What’s your point, Ava?”

I frowned. I
wasn’t totally sure. “An old woman told me the place where she
lives is cursed because the gods abandoned them as punishment. She
said the water the gods bathed in made special children, and that
darkness came and took the children. One of the gods was Ogham, I
think. Make me understand, please.”

He leaned back
in his seat and closed his eyes. “I suppose this was near an Ogham
stone.”

“A number of
them, actually. In Kerry.”

His body
jolted. “Kerry. What’s to understand, Ava?”

“What happened
there, and what it has to do with what’s happening now. Is this
something to do with your gods? Why Peter’s son was taken? Tell
me!”

“Calm down. You
act like it’s something personal, like the loss of his child was
planned. His child is gone, Ava. He’s gone. Stop trying to give
Peter’s pain a purpose.”

“I’m not. I’m
trying to
help
Peter.”

“Then get him
to live in the present rather than the past. The story you heard,
and I’d love to know how you heard it, is likely true. Gods can be
cruel masters, but they leave gifts behind, and yes, in certain
times, the devoted benefited. But I’ve told you before, people
slowly forgot the old gods, betrayed the old ways, and the gods
left them to sleep. With that sleep, they took away their
protection also, and all manner of things were allowed to prey in
places they never had before.”

“And they stole
the gifts? I mean, literally?”

He nodded.
“Sometimes. Sometimes dark things escape their prisons, and
sometimes those who are supposed to be good are the ones who set
them free. Sometimes they are confused young people who know no
better. Sometimes not.”

“You know then.
Who set them free? What are the dark things?”

“I don’t know
anything you can use. But I’ve told you before, Ava. Times are
changing. We need change. Fresh voices in command. It’s the perfect
opportunity for those in hiding to crawl to the surface and force
their hands.”