Taken (Ava Delaney #4) (25 page)

“I found them
because I was linked to them,” I said after a few minutes. “How
will I ever find the slave market?”

“I’ll find it.
It’s a part of me. I was born there, and all paths lead home here.
I can find it. We could go there now if we had more with us.”

“You’re kind of
well able to take care of yourself.”

“You’re not
entirely helpless yourself.”

“Is this girl
bonding?”

She stared at
me. “You’re so strange, Ava.”

“So I’ve been
told. Why did you help Leah? You busted her out of the cells,
right?”

“With a little
help. She needed me. When you spend time with her, you’re just
compelled to protect her. The things she can do scare me. The idea
of them being in the wrong hands terrifies me.”

“What is it
that’s so important to protect?”

She stopped
walking and stared me down. “If you ever tell a soul about Leah,
how to find her, what she can do, anything at all… I’ll tear you
apart with my own two hands. Do you understand me? Nothing will
stop me, I vow to that.”

I swallowed,
but my throat was so dry that it felt like swallowing lumps of
sand. “I get it. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Leah.”

“Even to save
the ones you love?” she asked, her gaze never leaving mine.

“Val, I don’t
give up on people. I can’t. So if it came to that, well, I’d figure
out a way around it.”

“No matter,”
she said abruptly, walking ahead. “I won’t let anyone take her
again. She’s special in that she can see everyone. I don’t know who
her parents were, but I’ve known plenty of those children who come
through the markets. The power in them varies, but Leah… I’ve never
seen anything like her. When Helena told me about her and convinced
me that we needed to get her out of there, I sort of saw it as a
way for me to escape, but then she got older, and I realised she
was even more important than Helena had suspected.”

“Why?”

“She’s
extremely valuable to anyone who owns her. She can find anyone with
special blood, can tell on sight what they can do, if anything. She
can make the entire game much simpler for anyone who traffics these
children. She can see their value when they’re born, so they don’t
have to waste their time waiting to find out what their gifts
are.”

“That’s
troubling,” I admitted.

“She can walk
into a town and tell me if there’s power there. I’m not altogether
sure she’s even come into her own strengths yet. But the point is,
nobody can own her, not even the Council.” She took a couple of
steps before muttering, “Especially not the Council.”

“But how did
Helena know what she could do?”

“Oh, she
didn’t,” Val said. “She saw the mark, though. She had seen it
before, a tattoo on Leah’s back that marked her as belonging to
someone. All of us are branded.”

She swung her
plait over her shoulder and pulled down the back of her top a
little. I saw a sideways S on a circle, just like Emmett’s.

“Leah’s mark is
different, and Helena didn’t have time to explain, but it meant
Leah was strong. Maybe from another slave market, maybe not, but
either way, it marks her as valuable. She can’t remember her old
life, before she was sent to the market. She picked her own name.
But she never worries and is never scared. She knows it will all
work out in the end.”

“A friend of
mine got his son back from the market recently. The boy has the
same mark as you on his back, but he won’t talk about his
past.”

“They’ve given
him something that makes him silent, most likely. Nothing
noticeable, probably a tiny mark on his body, but it’s there. And
he’ll always be reluctant to talk about it.”

“Any idea who’s
in charge?”

She shook her
head.

I grabbed her
arm, stopping her. “Did you hear that?”

A whoosh over
our heads made us duck. A bird made of fire dove toward us, wings
flapping noiselessly. Quick as a flash, Val struck it with her
weapon, and the bird disappeared.

“Someone’s
watching,” she said. “That was a warning. We need to hurry.”

“Besides that,
we don’t want Esther leaving before I can tell her everything.”

“Those other
two, the twins, they’re really Helena’s children?”

“I think so. I
hope they made it back in time to see her.” And I needed to ask her
questions about Leah’s mark.

We sped up, and
I wondered if she was as reluctant as I was to see Esther leave
before I could explain.

There were
footsteps behind us, heavy steps that made my heart race. I
couldn’t concentrate long enough to check it out, so I resorted to
counting loudly, ignoring Val’s astonished looks.

“I can hear
someone,” I said once I had calmed enough to reach out with my
other senses. “But I can’t see them.”

“We should
run.”

She took off
before I could respond, and the footsteps sped up, too. Scared out
of my mind of what could be out there, I raced after her, but a
roar stopped me in my tracks.

I turned slowly
to see a creature behind me. Its head reached the ceiling, and its
shoulders were almost the width of the passageway. It was vile and
ugly, with a ridiculous overbite that dripped with what was, with
my luck, venom, and its clawed hands were bigger than my head. Its
shoulders had bunched up, almost the way a dog hunches its back,
and it came at me faster than it looked. I ducked out of the way of
one of the hammer fists, and it smashed the wall with one strike.
Horrified, I rolled under its legs, jumping up to stab it in the
back, but my blade might as well have been a toothpick.

I had to duck
another blow, then Val came back, swinging her hammer. The creature
roared again, whirling its body around and bashing into the wall in
an attempt to get her. I climbed up onto its back and stabbed my
dagger into its eye socket.

It howled,
thrashing wildly, but I didn’t have to stab the other eye because
Val gutted him with a broad sword she had been carrying on her
back. With a grunt, she released the blade, and the creature
tumbled to the floor, with me still on its back. I jumped out of
the way as it shrank into a human-sized being.

“That,” Val
said, wiping her blade on its clothing, “was an old-blooded hell
hound. Now let’s run before they send another.”

By the time we
heard another set of footsteps, we were at the end of the corridor.
I had the door up, and we were through it before I could catch a
glimpse of whatever was coming for us. I held my breath until the
new doorway vanished behind me. The howl of a hell hound faded
away, but not as quickly as I would have liked. How many beings
could open doors?

Val shook my
hand with her large, somewhat bloody one, a triumphant smile on her
face.

She hollered a
greeting, and figures came from the shadows to meet us. Folsom
scurried over, his face still pale with worry. “We thought you were
gone.”

“Ava?” Lorcan
strode over and pulled me into an embrace. “You’re okay.” It felt
great to hear his Liverpudlian accent once again.

“’Course I am,”
I scoffed, but I was still shaking.

Lucia gripped
my fingers, but she didn’t send any images my way, and for that, I
was grateful. It took me a few minutes to take in the sadness on
Lorcan’s and Lucia’s expressions.

“What
happened?”

“We saw our
mother,” Lorcan said. “But she passed on shortly afterward. You’ve
been gone all night.”

“I’m so
sorry.”

“It was a
peaceful passing,” he said. “But thank you for making sure we met
once more before she let go of this world.”

I glanced
around, missing a face. “Where’s Esther?”

“Gone,” Cam
announced as he swaggered over to us. “She’s gone straight to the
Council to tell them we’re here.”

“Bullshit,” I
said.

“She had to
tell them what she saw in England,” Lorcan insisted.

“What would you
know, mongrel?” Cam said nastily.

The black girl
stepped between them. “That’s enough, Cam.”

Lorcan stared
at her sort of adoringly.

“I should go
find Esther then,” I said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Well, I
think I’ll shower first.”

Lucia wrinkled
her nose at my words.

“You two,
please stay here, okay? You’ll be safe. Don’t listen to angel boy
over there. Esther would never let anyone hurt you.”

“Oh, I agree
with you,” Lorcan said. “She came to get us out of there, but she
was hurt, and they soon surrounded us. It’s madness over there. We
have so much to tell you.”

“I’m sure I’ll
hear all about it. I know I can trust her. I can feel it. I’m kind
of like an empath,” I explained, hoping they would understand.

“You’re no
empath,” Cam said, following me to the exit. “You’re a catalyst.
And that’s what makes you so dangerous. Some day, someone could use
you to end the world. You could never choose to create that much
damage. You echo. You project. You exaggerate what’s already there.
But you are no empath, girl.”

“Why would I
believe you?”

“Leah!” he
called. “Come here for a moment.”

Leah strolled
over, eating an apple. She was thin and weedy, but there was a new
maturity in her eyes.

“I’ve told our
new friend here that she’s a catalyst. Am I lying?”

She looked me
over before shaking her head. “No lie. You’re a medium for power
really.” She frowned. “I wonder what we could do together.”

“Don’t give her
ideas,” Cam said, laughing.

“I don’t even
know what that means,” I said, frustrated.

“It means you
can be used for a lot of fancy tricks, but alone, you’re pretty
useless.”

“I wouldn’t say
useless,” Leah said softly.

He waved a
hand. “I would. Someone’s been filling her head with pretty little
lies.”

“It wouldn’t
surprise me.” I thought about it. “But what does it mean?”

“It means
people can use you to get what they want. It means you’re dangerous
to have around. It means you’re worth a lot of money.” He grinned.
“But still, you’re useless.”

“How can I tell
what they’re feeling then? How do I sense it?”

“Hormones,
pheromones, sweat. You’ve a good sense of smell, so you use it.
There’s nothing magical about that.”

“What about the
healing? After I drink blood, I can heal minor wounds,” I said
eagerly.

He made a face.
“The blood heals you first, sorts out those repairing cells. You
project the process in a bigger way. Simple explanation.”

I thought about
Lucia, how she sent me her images. More projection. And Eddie. Had
I protected myself from his soul-fuelled attacks by stealing a
little of it for myself? The idea made my cheeks burn with shame.
Maybe Cam was right.

“So that’s why
nobody really wants me alive, but they all pitch a fit at the idea
of me working for the other side?”

Cam nodded.
“Creatures like you can be an unfair advantage; put it that
way.”

“Am I ever
going to reach the point where someone doesn’t tell me I’m wrong
about everything I think I know?” I asked.

“Welcome,” he
said, laughing softly. “You’re doing all of these things, but it’s
not happening in the way you think it is, that’s all. It’s not
life-changing.”

“You have your
own strengths,” Leah said, but Cam ignored her.

“What about the
other stuff? Finding people and stuff? I do things on my own all of
the time.”

“You’re a
hunter,” he said after a minute. “Or at least, a mixture of hunter
and warrior. You can sense things better than most, but there has
to be something calling to you in order for you to do it. The
astral projection and opening gates, amongst other things, are
truly gifts, or rather curses, of your blood, but you use them in a
different way than a true nephal or vampire would.” He hesitated.
“You should be more careful who you trust. After all, anyone can
use you to project their own gifts. Anyone can give you their power
temporarily without you even knowing it. That could be
dangerous.”

That would be
interesting, if I could figure out how to work it to my advantage
somehow. “That might actually come in handy. Thanks.”

He shrugged.
“You might as well understand what you can do. It makes me wonder
why you don’t know the truth about everything. It makes me think
that there are people in your life who would use you without your
knowledge.”

“I don’t doubt
that,” I said bitterly, and he nodded as if understanding. Things
that Mrs. Yaga had told me now made more sense. She said I was like
her, that people would use me to get what they needed. Was she a
catalyst, too? What did that really mean, anyway?

“I should go,”
I said, feeling awkward that Cam had suddenly become a huge source
of information. I only believed him because Leah had backed up his
claims. My automatic trust in Leah had me wondering, too.

Cam regarded me
for a couple of seconds. “Stay safe. They’ll need you.”

He walked away,
and Leah touched my arm. “Don’t let anyone take you, Ava. You’re
much more dangerous than me in the wrong hands.”

Outside, it was
dark again, and I was disoriented when I tried to figure out how
long exactly I had been in Hell. That sounded weird, even for
me.

A car was
waiting outside Folsom’s home. Yvonne rolled down the window. “Get
in,” she said, rolling it back up before I could respond. So why
was she still working for Daimhín? We had Emmett back already.

I got into the
car and found myself surrounded. “I don’t have time for work right
now.”

“You stink of
death,” Daimhín said. “Perhaps you aren’t as dull as I have
suspected.”

I glared at
her. “Hilarious. Not to question the boss or anything, but why are
you even here?”

She smoothed
imaginary wrinkles on her trousers with her palms, her way of
keeping herself calm, I had learned. “There’s an urgent meeting
going on as we speak. Our attendance is a necessity. Eloise said we
needed you, that you’d be here, of all places. Have you been making
friends with our creditors?”