Taken (Ava Delaney #4) (32 page)

Leaving Emmett
and a frustrated Peter in the safety of the cul de sac, I escorted
Esther to the Féinics to hold a meeting with the people Folsom
protected. We talked about what happened with the children, and
Esther told her story. The sad part was that, although people
looked saddened, they didn’t seem surprised by the news. I didn’t
know most of their names, but we all had the same cause. We were
all in some kind of trouble because the protectors weren’t
protecting.

“I need help,”
Esther said. “I need to help. I can’t stand by and watch…”

Val, sitting
next to Lucia, nodded. “I may be safe, but I don’t want any of the
protection those people are offering.”

“Same here,”
Lorcan agreed. “I don’t want to be a friend of that pack if these
are the kind of actions they take.”

That hurt
Esther, I saw it in her face, but she didn’t argue. She knew it was
too late to defend her people.

“What can we
do?” I asked. “Right now, I’m the only one above ground.”

“You should
hide too,” Folsom said. “It isn’t safe up there anymore.”

“I’ve people
who need me. And I don’t want to hide away. I want to fight this,
and it’s better if there’s someone finding out what’s going on.
There’s so much that needs to be done. Besides, I work for Daimhín;
she will be mightily pissed if I disappear. And there’s Emmett. I
need to protect him, and I don’t want him imprisoned down here. No
offence,” I added, looking around apologetically.

“It’s
understandable,” Kate said. “He’s been trapped for so long.” I was
kind of surprised she even remembered who Emmett was. Then I
realised something. These people were waiting around for news,
waiting to hear about the life outside. They were trapped, too.
They needed to be free. It wasn’t a safe haven; it was a prison, at
least while the Council existed.

“Whether you
like it or not, the world considers you to be rebels,” I told them.
“Maybe it’s time to rebel.”

“Now? Are you a
complete idiot?” Cam let loose, startling everyone. He acted as
though he didn’t care, but I saw through the act.

“How so?” I
asked calmly.

“You said
yourself there’s a war coming. A country without real leadership is
screwed. Screwed even more than before. Your stupidity is
astounding.”

“Who says the
war is coming today? Anyway, do you think the Council will actually
protect anyone?”

“It’s better
than nobody protecting us,” he said.

“We should
wait,” Folsom said after a few minutes. “No, hear me out. We should
let the British vampires do our work for us, and all the while, we
build the cause in secret. No more hiding and hoping for the best.
We make our own future.”

“What if the
war wipes out everything?” Lorcan asked. “The vampires are serious
about this. Do not underestimate the lengths they’ll go to.”

“We’ll have to
stand side by side for a time, and in their moment of weakness, we
attack.
We
turn traitor.” I moved closer to Lucia, and she
held my hand, giving me exactly what I needed, an image of a
possible future we could play on. “We need more power. We need
someone who will think we’re helping him, but really, we’re using
him. If I’m like a conduit, then someone with a lot of power could
come in handy. Changes are coming. And we’re running out of
choices.”

“What is it you
people really want to accomplish here?” Cam asked, and I heard the
worry in his voice. “Kill them all?”

“Of course
not,” I said. “We aren’t like them. We need a new order. New rules,
modern ideals. No more archaic bullshit. We need new leaders. There
will be death, but there are probably others who will be on our
side. We need to find them.”

“I don’t like
this,” Cam said. “I won’t be a part of this.”

“Then you
should go sit with the Council,” I said harshly.

Everyone
stared, but nobody said a word. If I had to be a monster, then so
be it, but nobody was standing in our way.
Nobody
would get
a chance to stop me.

It had been a
while since I entered the bookshop, but it smelled the same as
always.

“You,” Eddie
said under his breath.

“Thought I was
overdue for a visit,” I said. “How’s business?”

“Terrible.
Where’s my employee?”

“He needed a
break. Life at a bookshop can be really stressful. Can we
talk?”

“Isn’t that
what we’re doing?”

I smiled
sweetly. “Koda’s going to die soon.”

“There is
that,” Eddie said, but his eyes spelled out his interest.

“The Council
will need a new member.”

“Truth. A
shifter, perhaps. Maybe something a little… darker.”

“You have
experience, right? Why not you?”

His smile was
devoid of amusement. “Because it won’t be me. Why don’t we skip the
chatter and get straight to the part where you tell me what you
want?”

“I want change.
Don’t you?”

“Change is
always a great thing,” he said reverently.

“Allies are
great, too.”

He nodded,
never letting his eyes drop from mine. “’Tis true enough. But as
they say, change tends to happen when the majority rule.”

“But how to get
the majority,” I said, wandering around the book stacks. “Did I
ever tell you what Gabe wanted in exchange for healing Carl?”

“You did not,”
he said in a clipped voice.

“Ah. There were
two things, really. I had to find the slave market. That’s ticked
off now. Although, it didn’t really work out the way I planned
it.”

“And the
other?”

“Oh, that. I
was supposed to find the rebels. What’s the word Fionnuala used?
Oh, yeah, the Féinics.” I didn’t tell him the third part of the
deal, finding out what Eddie was up to, nor my own personal
mission, figuring out more about the magical book hidden in his
home.

He
straightened. “And you did. You did, of course. Are they many?”

I shrugged.
“It’s not the numbers really. It’s more what they can do. And those
children, they’re the special ones, and that’s why the Council kept
them for themselves.”

He nodded. “A
nasty turn of events.”

“You heard me
at the meeting. You know of the ones who helped me bring the
Guardians to the market?”

He nodded
enthusiastically. “I’ve heard rumours that one is a hell hound. And
I heard you say you have a seer. I can only imagine…”

I went to the
counter and leaned over it. “You can’t even imagine what’s down
there. Who’s hiding with the rebels,” I said breathlessly.

He rolled along
with my enthusiasm. “Enough… enough to change it all?”

“There’s power
there. A lot of it. But nobody to lead it. Nobody to
wield
it.”

“Not even
you?”

I grinned.
Clever Eddie. “I’ve never been a leader. More like a lone wolf. But
they trust me. Said I could be… the face of something. Reminds me
of something you would say.”

“There’s a lot
I need to do.”

“There is. But
there’s time. Nobody will think of making a move until we deal with
the threat of war. And war is certainly coming. The only question
is how hard. How soon. But the good thing about a war is the
opportunity to help, to impress. And war takes time to organise, so
there’s plenty of time to… make friends.”

He nodded
again, his eyes dreamy. He could already taste the power. He needed
power. Whatever he was trying to do required a lot of power. Yeah,
well, ditto.

“The children,”
he said abruptly. “I’ll need the children.”

I faltered, and
he saw it, so I didn’t bother lying. “Nobody can hurt them,” I said
at last.

“Of
course.”

He lied, and we
both knew it.

***

I strode into
Gabe’s bar with my hands in my pockets, humming a tune. Aiden was
there, speaking in hushed tones with the angel.

“Oh, look who
it is!” I said mockingly. “Kill any mothers lately?”

He ground his
teeth, making an ugly noise.

“I hear you’re
an only child these days,” I taunted, unable to help myself. I
wanted him to show regret. Guilt. Something. Anything. I needed to
know for sure that he was gone into the shadows. One way or
another.

“What are you
talking about?” he snapped.

“You betrayed
your own sister, right? So she’s not hanging around here, is she?”
I looked around in an exaggerated fashion. “Looks like she’s
disowned you and your pack.” I made a faux sad face.

“Where is she?”
he snarled.

“None of your
fucking business,” I said slowly, making sure he heard every word.
“You gave up that right when you killed an innocent woman in front
of her and a baby, and ordered her to clean up the mess. You
sick—”

“It wasn’t me!”
he roared, and Gabe put his arm in front of him.

“No, you just
stood there and watched. You just let her sit there in the blood
like a traumatised little girl. You just let them take a baby who
may never get over being covered in her mother’s blood. You
fuck!”

“Aiden, get out
of here,” Gabe said. “You’re losing control.”

“Run along,
Aiden,” I said. “Sharpen those claws for your next victim. Should I
line up a virgin for you? Or a newborn, perhaps?”

It took a while
to get Aiden out of the bar after that. I sat on the bar and
laughed as he struggled to get at me. It took everything in me not
to rip off his head. Or at least try. But I had bigger plans. I
needed to play everyone at their own game. And making Aiden lose
his mind and control was just part of it.

Maybe then I
could see why someone with such strong morals could fall into such
a deep downward spiral so quickly. Of everyone, no matter how
frustrated he made me, Aiden was the one person I thought Esther
could trust. I thought she was more important to him than the
Council. I couldn’t believe I had been so far off the mark, so I
studied him for any hint of the dark shadows as the bouncers
dragged him outside.

Nothing. But I
couldn’t give up on him yet, at least not completely. There had to
be an explanation, some magic at work… but no, that was the old Ava
talking. New Ava had to be harder, had to make tough decisions, and
that was exactly who the new plan needed.

“What are you
doing here?” Gabe asked in a tired voice when the drama finally
ended.

I stared at him
for a couple of seconds, wondering if he was the mysterious “uncle”
who had visited Peter all of those years ago, if he’d had any
involvement in the way our lives had turned out. My eyes narrowed,
and he inched away from me as if he could tell what I was
thinking.

“Why don’t you
go home, Ava?”

“We have deals
to sort out,” I said snippily.

He frowned
before finally nodding. “Back room.”

The last time I
had been there was when Finn knocked me out with his ridiculously
potent fae drink. Not the best memories.

“People have
been looking for you,” he said.

“You know where
I live.”

“We do, and
yet, nobody can find it. Your landlady is formidable.”

“That she is,”
I said, mentally praising and thanking Mrs. Yaga in my head. I had
to repay her for that one.

“Do you want
him to kill you?” he asked, handing me a bottle of water.

“He could try,”
I replied with a grin. “And he deserves every bit of it after what
happened.”

He nodded. “He
had orders.”

“Whose orders?
What kind of person follows orders without even giving it a second
thought? Without even considering if they’re doing the right
thing?”

“Good
soldiers,” he said without hesitation.

“Like you?” I
asked innocently. “Angels are soldiers, right? They follow their
commands without asking questions. So, why is it that you’re fallen
again?”

The look he
gave me left me shaken, but I couldn’t back down. He was the one to
break the silence.

“What do you
have for me?” he asked.

“Updates. Your
Council keeps alienating useful people. I can persuade some of them
to deal with you through me, but I need guarantees. I need to be
safe. The humans in my life need to be safe. If you can’t guarantee
that, then we need to end this now.”

“We don’t need
you,” he scoffed.

“No, but you
need a seer, and you can’t trust Eloise. You can count on mine. You
saw her; she’s pure innocence. And she’ll only speak to me. In
fact, she already has spoken to me.”

He stared at me
and seemed to realise I was telling the truth. “Tell me then, you
pest.”

“After we shake
on a deal,” I insisted.

“Fine, if you
tell me what you know, I’ll ensure your human friends and family
all remain safe.”

“All of them,”
I repeated.

He echoed my
words, and I shook his hand, gripping it tightly as a jolt of
electricity shot from my hand to his.

He jerked
backward, horrified. “What was that?”

“A little
borrowed magic,” I said, smiling again. “It’s weird that it took a
complete stranger to let me know what I can really do, but wow,
it’s nice to know that it worked. It’s nothing personal, though.
Just something to make sure you stick to your end of the bargain.
Those fae deals are a kicker.”

“A fae deal?”
he said, horror growing in his eyes.

“Yeah. Those
vampires really didn’t have a clue what they had in those twins.
They’re pretty amazing. Anyway, there’s no need to worry. You won’t
be hurt, unless my humans are, of course.”

He stared at
me, speechless with shock, and I couldn’t help grinning again.

“Get out,” he
hissed.

“Don’t you want
to hear what I learned?” I asked. “Isn’t that why we made the
deal?”

“I regret the
day I ever stood for you,” he said, full of emotion for the first
time.