Taste (Ava Delaney #5) (19 page)

“Accidents happen,” she said primly.

I took that as a yes. “But what for? I mean, why keep them here like this?”

“They’re wild,” Aiden said. “Uncontrollable. They’re a threat to everyone, even themselves.”

“Then why breed them? The vampires haven’t been able to multiply in a century. What’s this in aid of?”

“Oh.” Fionnuala waved her hand. “You can never know what will come along.” But her cruel eyes found mine, and I saw a threat hidden in their depths.

“If they’re uncontrollable, then how can we use them?” Eddie asked.

“Their keeper can control them enough to use. They need guidance in a battle, to ensure they know which side they’re on, but I’m sure we can figure something out.”

She pulled the Lorcan-lookalike aside and whispered to him. He glanced at me, his green eyes widening in horror. A platinum streak of hair glowed under a flaming torch, reminding me of Lucia.

Everyone spoke amongst themselves, so I wandered around, glancing into the cages. A couple of the werewolves stepped back as I approached; others went crazy at my presence.

“They could be useful,” Aiden said.

“Slaves,” I whispered back, feeling terribly sad.

“Better these than the children.”

I wasn’t even sure anymore. Slavery was wrong, no matter who was enslaved.

The fae male approached us, running his long, slim fingers across the bars of the cages. All of the werewolves stepped back, eyeing him carefully, some with more respect than others.

“You are to assist me,” he said in a smooth voice. “But know who is in charge.”

I made a face. The snobby fae couldn’t possibly be related to the twins.

“How am I supposed to help with this?” I asked loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Her?” Erossi demanded. “How can she possibly help?”

“She’s strong,” Fionnuala said. “And she can bring some chained ones into battle. She’ll be at the heart of the battle, so we wouldn’t want them to suddenly come across her, and oh, I don’t know, mistakenly think she’s an enemy.”

I glared at Fionnuala. “I can handle it.”

“Ava, no,” Eddie and Gabe said in unison.

Those two in agreement was unsettling. I raised an eyebrow at them.

“They’re natural enemies of vampires, Ava. Think about the danger,” Eddie said.

I gazed at the nearest werewolf and stepped closer to the cage. I put my hands on the bars and studied the male. He looked strong. He held up his chin, and underneath the scruff and dirty facial hair, I saw good eyes that watched me with more than a little intelligence.

“Hi,” I whispered.

He regarded me for a couple of seconds before launching himself at the bars. Fur sprouted from his face, and claws slid through the slits as I stepped out of his reach.

“Wow,” I said, fascinated by the change.

His blue eyes had blackened except for a ring of yellow around the pupil. I had thought he looked wild before, but the change made him positively feral. There was no humanity in those eyes. His body was covered in fur, but he could walk on two legs or four, a little like Becca had in the end. His claws were vicious, but the brawny strength and breadth of his chest were what would scare me in a fight.

“Don’t tease them,” the fae yelled at me.

“I’m not. I just needed to see.” I moved closer to the cage again. The werewolf had calmed. “I want him, I think. To go with me.”

A whimper came from a few cages down, and the werewolf’s head jerked in that direction. I hurried to the cage and saw a female with a baby in her arms. She glared when I got close, keeping her baby as far away from me as possible.

“This is awful,” I said. “They aren’t
just
wild. They shouldn’t be in cages. Not separated like this.”

“They’ll kill each other when it’s a full moon,” the fae said, following me. “A male will fight another male to the death at any time of the month, but when the moon is full, a male will even destroy a female. He’ll mourn her afterward, but when the control is lost, there is nothing that can be done.”

“So lock the males away during the full moon, then,” I said.

He hesitated, glancing at Fionnuala. “It’s not my decision,” he said under his breath before walking away.

“If you’ve quite finished playing with the puppies…” Gabe murmured. He led me away, gripping my arm so tightly I had no choice but to follow.

But when I looked back at the werewolf, he was still trying to catch a glimpse of the female, and I had to wonder what was really going on in that dungeon.

“When will they be ready?” Fionnuala was asking as we joined the group again.

“A couple of days,” the fae replied. “It might take a while for them to adjust above ground.”

“They’ll be fine,” she said briskly. “Get them ready as quickly as possible.”

“It will still take a day,” he insisted.

She held in a sigh. “Fine. Delaney, can you hold the vampires and their pets off for one night?”

I shrugged. “With enough help, yeah. That depends on you lot.”

“As Gabe keeps telling us, working together will win the war.”

I narrowed my eyes. “As long as there won’t be any so-called rebel arrests, we should be fine.”

Her lips pressed together tightly, and I could see it absolutely killed her to agree.

“You able to fight tonight?” I asked Gabe on the way out.

“I don’t suppose I have much choice,” he said, smiling.

I could almost imagine his smiles were genuine, that he actually cared about what was right. “Maybe you should stay at home. My home, I mean. Help keep an eye on things.”

“I’d rather keep an eye on you. The Council will never forgive me if I let you run riot around the country.”

“Shut up.”

When we finally came up into white hallways again, I was desperate to leave. The Council always made me feel grimy, as if being around them tainted me even more than I already was.

“We need to make some kind of a statement,” I announced when we gathered around the table again. “Like, hold a press conference or something. Tell people about the kinds of places that might be attacked. Let them have the chance to defend their own territories.”

Fionnuala rolled her eyes, but Erossi said, “Of course. I should be in charge of this.”

“Try not to sound so full of yourself if it’s you,” I said.

Eddie and Gabe muffled their laughter.

“Is there time?” Koda asked. “Darkness is coming earlier and earlier, it seems.”

“There’s always time to warn people,” I insisted.

While Erossi organised the conference, the rest of us discussed where we should place fighters.

“We need to protect the coastlines,” Gabe said.

“Yeah, but what if they’re already here?” Aiden said. “We could be separating our defences in the wrong ways.”

“No matter what we do, we’re taking chances,” Eddie said. “It will fall down to the little people in the end. The tides only turn if enough stand together.”

I nodded at his words. “As long as the Guardians are out there defending and not standing around waiting for something to happen. Communication is key. We need to know where the attacks are coming from as quickly as possible. That’s a huge point. Some of us can cover a lot of ground. If we can keep moving, keep backing up the weak spots, we can make it hard for the BVA to come at us in strength.”

“I can’t imagine they will scatter their own troops,” Fionnuala said. “It would make more sense to send an army and force their way across the country.”

Gabe frowned. “But then where do they start? In less defended areas so they can pick off people on the way, or will they force their way into the main cities, ensuring everyone else bows down?”

“Have they ever done anything like this before?” I asked. “And how did they actually take down Britain again?”

“By slaughtering those in charge,” Koda said grimly.

“Which is why you all are hiding out here,” I said, finally understanding. “Surely, if you fell, someone else would pick up the slack. It wouldn’t all fall apart, right?”

They looked so confused, I wanted to laugh. They thought of themselves as indispensable. If they only knew my plans for them…

“They took over the main centre,” Aiden explained. “Esther said they hit at the heart, and the rest of the country didn’t know what was happening. They used force and surprise, and they won easily.”

“This time, they don’t have surprise, but they have force,” I said. “My best guess is they’ll head for this place then. So you all shouldn’t be here.”

“We can’t abandon the headquarters,” Fionnuala said sharply. “It’s too important.”

“Then what? Wait for them to come to you?”

“We’ll defend this place as best we can if they do,” she said. “But it’s your job to make sure they don’t get this far.”

I groaned. “We’re going around in circles here. If they attack, last resort is the werewolves, right? So don’t bother defending. Protect the city itself. Make this place unattainable.”

“She knows nothing of tactics,” Fionnuala said.

“In case you’ve forgotten, she led a force that controlled the attack last night,” Elathan pointed out. “I have more faith in her than you.”

She scowled at him. “I will remain here, no matter what happens. I care not for the city.”

Bitch
. “Right,” I said. “Looks like I’m off to fight your battles again. If any of you want to man up and join me, feel free. Eddie, if you have any spare mojo, I have a lot of people who could use it.”

He glanced at Marina, who shrugged. She had been strangely quiet. “We can probably help just a little,” he said.

“I’ll come,” Elathan said, sounding interested all of a sudden.

“And I’ll keep in touch with you,” Aiden added. “I can contact most of the Guardians within minutes. It’ll be easier if you all communicate through me. I can have Circles heading your way any time.”

“Great,” I said brightly. “That’s a start.” We headed out to the car.

I ended up in Gabe’s backseat, squashed between Marina and Elathan. Eddie sat in the passenger seat, looking absolutely delighted with himself.

“Of course I can help,” he told me. “The effects will only last a couple of days, but I’m sure your home will be protected long enough.”

“The entire cul-de-sac,” I reminded him. “And the property the children the Council stole from the slave markets are staying in. And the flats I told you about. I told Erossi to tell people to set up evacuation centres in churches or schools, but preferably places that are a bit more secure. If we could get anyone with magic to throw up a few spells that might dissuade some vampires,that could really make a difference.”

“My coven can assist,” Marina said.

Eddie frowned. “We’ll take care of as many places as we can, but there is no possible way we can secure the entire city in two hours. There’s little we can do for anyone further out. The rest of the country will have to take care of itself.”

“I know,” I said. “But we can at least try. And Elathan? Don’t even look at anyone crooked. I don’t trust you. At all.”

He laughed, a lovely sound that almost helped me forget he had once been thrown out of Hell. “Not to worry. I have no interest wasting my time on petty matters the Council seem so concerned about. No offence, Gabe.”

Gabe made a noncommittal humming noise, but his knuckles turned white.

“Arrests and that sort of thing?” Elathan continued. “Not my bag. I’m happy to jump into this scrap though.”

I shook my head, completely confused by the fair-haired, dark-eyed Elathan. People didn’t make enough sense anymore.

Gabe drove all of us to the cul-de-sac so the witch and Eddie could throw a little protection over the area. I wasn’t comfortable with them having free rein there, but without Mrs. Yaga’s protection, I didn’t know what else to do.

Esther was extremely pleased to see Elathan. “Um, Ava? I think he would be an excellent teammate for me. His skills sort of back up my own. You know? Right? You know?”

“Oh, for the love of… he is
not
boyfriend material. You know? Right? You know?”

She stuck her tongue out at me, and I pulled her into a tight hug.

“Be good,” I said. “Organise the people because I need to speak to Peter.”

“Sure thing, boss lady,” she teased.

I strode into my home before I chickened out. Peter was sitting on the sofa. Carl had already gone outside to see what was going on, and Emmett was in Dita’s home, so it was just me and Peter, a rarity of late.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. They wanted to use the children, but now they’re using werewolves instead. Not tonight, maybe tomorrow though.”

He whistled. “Werewolves? If the stories are true, you need to keep away from that.”

“Um, they kind of… I’m going to be in the middle of the werewolves, actually.”

He rubbed his eyes and swore. “Are you serious? This is what I’m talking about, Ava! You get yourself in the most impossible of situations, and you look at me like I’m a bad person when I warn you.”

“Stop,” I whispered. “Just say it already.”

“I’m leaving tomorrow,” he said bluntly, then he let out a breath. “It’s good for me, and it’s good for Emmett.”

I shook my head a little, not wanting it to be true.

He reached out a hand. “You keep telling me to put Emmett first. Well, here I am, putting him first. It’s too dangerous here right now. And the way he acted earlier… maybe his relationship with you isn’t so healthy anymore. Maybe this, watching you, all of the madness combined is not helping him deal with what’s happened to him.”

He got up and paced the room. “I think this is the only way.”

My lips trembled, but I forced the words out. “Where are you going?”

“To see the last resort. I called my dad, and he seems fine with us coming over there. I’m not sure he understands what’s going on, but I have to get out of here. I need Emmett as far away from this stuff as possible.”

I licked my lips, feeling as though all of the moisture in my body had been leeched away. “Are you ever coming back?”

“I hope so. But we might not. I’m sorry, Ava. I can’t even ask you to come with us. Not with the way things are.”

“I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to,” I whispered. I tried to think of life without the two of them. Of waking up every day on my own, and I felt sick again.