Taken (Ava Delaney #4) (23 page)

I pulled my
knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs for some kind of
security. “Better than hiding in here forever and being burned
alive by magical brands.”

“I forgot,
sorry.” He reached for me. “Everything’s gotten weird all of a
sudden. It’s all changing too fast. I should be going with
you.”

I stared at his
hand, afraid to take it. “You don’t have a choice this time.”

“It’s always
your way.”

“No, it’s
always the right way. My deal, my job. You got what you wanted. I
haven’t. And some of us don’t have the time to act ridiculous when
a Garda who worked on a missing child case is actually interested
in said child.”

He dropped his
hand and crawled up to lie next to me, leaning his head on his arm.
“You care about him, don’t you?”

“Shay?”

He laughed.
“No, Emmett. But now that you mention it…” He brushed his hand
across my stomach.

“Of course I
care about the kid,” I said, completely ignoring his remark about
Shay.

“Yvonne keeps
calling me, asking to see him. The kid has more ladies fawning over
him than I do.”

I grinned.
“Dita likes him.”

“Is that why
she keeps telling him how stupid he is?”

I burst out
laughing. “Exactly why.”

He caressed my
cheek, turning my head gently so I faced him. He leaned over to
give me the softest kiss he had ever pressed against my lips. His
gaze held mine, and he ran his thumb across my cheek
affectionately. “I’m sorry I haven’t been acting the way you need
me to.”

My stomach
curled up with pleasure, despite my constant anxiety. “I’m glad
you’re here now.” I drew him in for a deeper kiss, relishing the
feeling that he was with me, really with me, for the first
time.

“I don’t know
how to take care of him,” he admitted when he pulled back, his mood
changing dramatically. “He prefers you to me.”

“And who could
blame him?” I teased, but he didn’t smile. “Oh, come on. It’s just
because I was here first. It’s in his head that I was the first one
he saw. I took care of him when he was scared and alone. That’s
all.”

He gave a
shuddering sigh. “And who took care of him all of the times he was
scared and alone in the market?”

I leaned
against him as if I could push his guilt away. “Helena took care of
him in the dark. She told me she made him hide how much power he
had.”

“Which brings
us back to the question, how does he have power in the first
place?”

“I told you my
theory.” I shrugged. “You or his mother probably have some
non-human ancestors. That story we heard in Kerry about the god
water and special children and stuff, it makes some kind of sense.
He’s not a normal human child.”

“That would
serve me right,” he said with a grin, pulling me closer.

“We have work
to do,” I said, but I let him wrap his arms around me. I snuggled
against his warmth, the solid figure who would protect me, but he
couldn’t come with me anymore. Neither could Carl. Esther was gone.
I was alone, except for Val, who was probably as likely to murder
me as help me.

“Think we’ll
ever know everything?” I asked. “I mean, all of the answers. Do you
think we’ll ever have explanations for everything that
happens?”

“No. But we’ll
keep doing whatever we have to do anyway, right?”

I traced the
cross on his wrist with my fingertip and felt him tremble. I had no
idea what I was going to do, or even what I wanted to do. I had a
list of things I had to do, but after that, then what? After
getting the twins and Esther home, I was going after the slave
markets. Maybe after that I would figure out what Eddie was doing,
or perhaps I would make it my mission to topple the Council. Maybe
one day all of the wrongs would be righted, and what would I be
left with? Where would I go from there? Mrs. Yaga’s words had
imprinted on me, and I realised there had to be some long-term
plan. At some stage, I would have to choose to give up or go on,
and if I gave up, I had to decide what would come next.

“Where will you
be in ten years?” I asked.

“Last month, I
would have said dead.”

I giggled.
“Morbid git.”

“Now I say…
hopefully, I’ll have a grownup son.”

“Ever think
about having more?”

“No. The world
we’re in isn’t for children.”

I smiled.
“Maybe one day it will be.”

Carl called us,
and we both headed downstairs reluctantly. We still had a lot of
work to do.

We came up with
pretty much nothing. Emmett had gone to bed by the time we gave up
on books and the internet. Not for the first time, I desperately
wished I was in contact with others like me, just so I could ask
them questions, a million questions that nobody seemed willing to
answer. Most of them began with the word why.

“Maybe it’s
something simple,” Carl said as we brainstormed futilely.

“Like what?”
Peter asked. “She stands in the middle of the street shouting,
‘Open sesame’?”

“No need to
snap at him,” I said, scribbling on a piece of paper. “I went
through a gate of sorts today. Maybe I just need to use that place
to create another space. I need to use my other sense somehow. Use
it for what it was meant to do.”

“But how can
you guarantee you’ll get to Esther? What if you wander around
forever trying to find the right path?” Peter sounded as frustrated
as I felt.

“I don’t know.
There have never been any guarantees here. I asked Gabe for help.
Maybe there’s something he can find out.”

Peter stood
suddenly, startling Carl and me. “Stop asking him for help. He’s
going to own every hair on your head by the time you’re finished
with him.”

“What else am I
supposed to do?” I practically shouted, only reining myself in at
the thought of Emmett hearing me. “We can’t go to England. We have
to take a shortcut. I’m the only one who can do it.”

“There have to
be others,” Carl said.

“Of course
there are, but I’m the only one here right now.” I lay my head on
my hands, leaning on the table. Peter sat back down and rubbed my
shoulders. “I can do it. I know I can. I just need to figure out
how.”

“How did you
find Becca?” Carl asked after a strained silence.

“I just… found
her. I knew her, and if I pushed past the boundaries, it was like…
some part of me was able to follow her and find her. One time, I
kept pushing, and it was like a part of me moved around, and it was
here
, but not really here.”

“Astral
projection?” he asked. “Or just something you do? Either way, why
can’t it work that way for Esther? You know her as well as Becca,
right?”

“Yeah, but
Becca was connected to me somehow. I can’t explain it, but she was
already on my radar. It was like I was supposed to find her, as
though that was my job.”

“So make
finding Esther and the twins your job,” Carl said.

Peter sat up
straight. “What do you mean?”

“She’s
connected to the twins, too. Just look at those brands if you doubt
it, but we both know how attached she gets to people. Why wouldn’t
she be able to find them, too? And Helena should have some kind of
connection with her own children, so maybe being close to her and
her memories will help.”

“I don’t know,”
I said. “The last time I pushed too hard, I got stuck.”

Carl looked
doubtful. “Stuck?”

“Yeah.” I
scratched my head, trying to think of a way to explain it. “The
night Esther, Peter, and I looked for Becca, I pushed harder than
ever before, and I was on some new level, a different plane. It’s
hard to explain, but everything was different, and I was able to
move for miles by just looking in a direction. I tried to get back
once I found Becca’s path, but I was stuck. I couldn’t move, and a
figure came to me and just… pushed me back out.” I mimicked by
pressing my palm against my forehead.

“The bruise,”
Peter said. “That handprint. That’s what it was?”

“This could be
it,” Carl said excitedly.

“Except for the
getting stuck part,” I reminded him.

“It might be
your only option,” Peter said.

“What if I get
stuck? What if I don’t, and only get stuck on my way home? What
if—”

“What if you do
it right?” Carl asked gently.

I thought about
it all night, sitting up in the kitchen alone. Peter was asleep in
my room with Emmett, and Carl had taken the spare bed. I couldn’t
sleep, not with the idea everything might depend on something I
wasn’t good at running through my brain.

I paced up and
down, trying to figure out some way of making sure it would all
work out for the best.

“You need some
sleep,” Peter said, sneaking into the room and making me jump.

“I can’t. Too
much thinking going on.”

He came up
behind me and surrounded me with his arms. I wasn’t sure if he was
comforting me or himself. I didn’t care. I spun around and pulled
him closer, pressing my mouth against his, taking everything he
could give me. He lifted me onto the counter, reminding me of the
succubus mark, but I shoved it all out of my head. His kisses were
almost violent; he managed to push every emotion possible into
them. Every kiss with him was a last kiss. I was okay with
that.

“You can do
it.” He pulled away, breathing heavily.

I nuzzled his
throat with bruised lips and fangs that itched to sink into skin. I
held him close, able to resist the temptation, but it was the fact
he could let me so close that surprised me. “And if I can’t do it,
Peter? What then?”

His answer was
another kiss. I was okay with that, too.

“You can do
anything,” he whispered against my lips, and my tongue erased all
trace of his words. My fingers gripped his hair, and he carried me
into the living room, his mouth never leaving mine.

We lay on the
sofa, and he gave me everything he could, but when I awoke early
the next morning, shivering, I was alone. I had to get used to
that.

I checked in on
Emmett, finding him asleep in his father’s arms. I let out a breath
I hadn’t realised I was holding, feeling more relieved than I could
say at the idea that Peter was finally putting his son first. One
less thing for me to worry about.

Of course I had
plenty more concerns. Gabe had no answers. Maeve wasn’t around, and
time was ticking. So I took my dagger and headed back to Folsom’s
home, hoping nobody was watching. If they were, they couldn’t do
much, but the less suspicion to fall on Folsom’s place, the
better.

Something grimy
was in the air, as though the earth was preparing for battle. I was
hoping for less of the battle and more of the lucky breaks.

I rang Gabe on
the way, deciding I couldn’t wait for him to call me. He sounded
flustered when he answered, but after I said hello, he seemed
relieved. Not exactly typical.

“I’m glad you
rang,” he said. “What you need is a hotspot, a place where the
connection between the two worlds is at its strongest. It can be at
a source of great magic, or the place of a magical battle even, but
there aren’t many of them. Finding one is the biggest problem.”

“I need less
problems, Gabe.”

He laughed
softly. “I realise that. Your only options are to find places that
have already been accessed. Once there, you need to concentrate on
using your will. It’s in your nature to force your way through. Use
your energy, whatever comes naturally to you. But be careful. You
don’t want to let anything out.”

“Uh, okay,
thanks.”

I hung up
quickly, thinking hard. By the time I reached Folsom’s place, I
wasn’t sure if Gabe had actually been helpful or only confused me
even more.

Silence
surrounded the garage, but I knew where I was going, and the stairs
seemed less spooky since I knew what was hidden below them. I
passed through the wall easily, this time prepared for the
unsettling feeling of watching my body move by itself. Or whatever
it was.

Folsom was
waiting for me, his skin looking greyer than usual. “They didn’t
think you would come back,” he said. “But I had a feeling you would
surprise us.”

“What else do I
have to do? I’ve been busy trying to figure out how to make this
plan… go according to plan. I have an idea, but I can’t guarantee
it will work. Val doesn’t have to come with me because I can’t tell
her it’s safe, but I’m going today. I can’t wait any longer.”

“I’m coming,”
Val said, stepping out of one of the seemingly endless number of
bedrooms. “Is that your only weapon?”

I held up the
dagger. “It’s pretty good. What are you taking?”

She smiled. A
horrible, dangerous smile. “As much as I can carry.”

I blinked
rapidly, suddenly unnerved. “Well, goody for you. How’s Helena
today?”

“Fading fast,”
Folsom said.

“She has to see
the twins first,” I said. “It wouldn’t be fair if she lost out this
close to the end.”

“Go as quick as
you can,” he advised. “But don’t make mistakes. How will you open a
gate?”

“I’ll figure
something out.” I didn’t want anyone watching me mess up, so I was
glad it was early and everyone else seemed to still be in bed.
“I’ll just say goodbye to Helena.”

I went to
Helena’s room, sat by her bed, and took her hand. I whispered her
name. She opened her eyes slowly, and I could plainly see she was
fading.

“I’m going to
find them,” I told her. “I’m going to bring them home. Can you help
me?”

She mouthed,
“How?”

“Think about
them. Your connection to them might help me find them faster.”

Her skeletal
fingers gripped mine harder, and I hoped it would work. I tried to
soak up her emotion while I remembered my own experiences with the
twins, and as Esther was a good friend of mine anyway, I felt
slightly more confident that a door would open for me.