Taste (Ava Delaney #5) (4 page)

“An hour would be enough,” Val said. “We’ve enough fighters to protect ourselves for that long.”

I nodded, swallowing past the lump in my throat. “I’ll try to organise something. We need to go, but I’ll be back. Try not to worry.”

“I’ll keep them calm,” Esther promised.

When Carl and I got back upstairs, my phone rang. Gabe.

“I couldn’t make contact with the Guardians on Peter and Emmett, so I went to find them. They had already come for the boy,” he said breathlessly. “We fought them off, but more could come. We’re on our way to you. Peter says it’s the only safe place.”

“Do you need me to meet you? Is everyone okay?”

“We’ll find you there.” He disconnected.

I retched again. “They were attacked. They’re coming here. He didn’t say anything else. I don’t know if they’re okay. We need to cover the body if Emmett’s coming here. We need to—”

“Calm down.” Carl laid his hand on my arm. “Sit. I’ll deal with it. I’ll speak to Gabe about the funeral, okay? You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Go back down when you’re done. I’ll follow you when they get here. I need some air,” I mumbled, stumbling outside. Everything was falling apart, and I had no control over any of it.

I waited by the gate, desperately counting, needing something to make sense. Peter’s car pulled up, and he parked at an angle. I ran to open the doors, and I almost fell over when I saw the bruise on Emmett’s cheek. I had to stay strong for him, but a violent rage brewed within me. I couldn’t allow my enemies to pick off the people in my life. I had to fight back. I had to fight first. We had to stop being victims to higher powers.

“Inside,” Gabe said.

I lifted Emmett and ran with him. I heard the others following, but I hurried down the stairs, not pausing for anything. The four of us made it down the stairs, but I couldn’t take any chances. We hurried into the sanctuary; I kept checking behind us. There was nothing, and nothing made sense.

Esther ran to greet us. “What happened?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“Let them sit,” Carl said.

We all moved to take seats around the long table in the common area. Peter and Gabe had been injured, too. Nothing serious, but my heart hardened. Emmett sat next to me, and I held his hand as tight as I could without hurting him.

“Two humans tried to take Emmett,” Peter said.

“
Humans
?” I asked. Then my heart fell. “You mean shadows, right?” Had they been the figures from Lucia’s flash of a vision?

Gabe nodded. “I saw it. They were cloaked with darkness. I arrived as these two were trying to fight them off. They were as strong as any of our Guardians. Very disturbing.”

I gritted my teeth. “Coyle.”

“Possibly,” Gabe admitted. “I’m certain both were controlled by demonic entities. Neither man survived the attack, but we hurried here.”

“Couldn’t risk anything else,” Peter said. “I knew this place would be more secure than home.”

“Mrs. Yaga—”

“This is more secure,” he insisted.

I knew he was right. “Why now? Why not me? I mean, it would make the most sense to take me out first.”

“You’ve made it clear that doesn’t work,” Peter reminded.

“Well, this has to end,” I said. “Where’s Coyle? I’m going to remove his head from his body.”

Gabe made a frustrated sound. “He’s supposed to have left with Reuben. Fionnuala made a last-minute change. We still haven’t heard from either of them.”

“Let me guess, Gideon’s gone off the radar, too.” I could tell by his expression that I had guessed correctly. “Shi… sugar.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “So he’s stuck here. Emmett’s stuck here until we find Coyle.”

“You’re
both
stuck here until
I
find Coyle,” I corrected.

“Don’t even start,” he said. “There’s no chance of me sitting in here hiding when people are out there trying to take my son.”

“I doubt they want your son,” Gabe said. “Not that he isn’t… pleasant, but it seems more like a distraction. That’s what worries me. Distraction from what? Perhaps someone watched you in order to find Folsom and sent the humans after the boy to cause mayhem and confusion.”

“Does that make Folsom a distraction?” I asked. “Or a punishment?”

“Maybe both,” Val said. “But who would have anything against him? I mean aside from whoever wants to find out what he’s been hiding. They could only know if they were spying on us. They could only know if they were involved in the slave market because that’s when everything came to light.”

Gabe ran his hands through his hair as if he wanted to yank it out. “We shut that down.”

“We all know that somebody powerful was involved,” Carl said. “It couldn’t have been so easy.”

Val replied, “He’s right. They gave us what they didn’t particularly want. Not enough children, not enough guards, and then the death of anyone in the Council’s cells waiting to be questioned. Pretty clear messages.”

Esther nodded, tapping her fingers on the table. “This is important. Maybe the distraction is because they’re setting up the slave market again.”

“Or taking the children back,” Carl said.

I nodded. “You said it yourself, Gabe. Some of the kids are vicious, and you haven’t even dipped into what they can actually do. Maybe somebody wants to take them back.”

“Or steal them for themselves,” he said pointedly.

I ran my finger along the brand around my wrist. “Maybe this means we’re getting too close to something. To the truth maybe.”

“Enough speculation,” Peter said. “We need to do something.”

“Like what?” Cam said as he strolled into the room. “Hello, cousin.”

Gabe all but fell out of his chair.“
You
!”

“Small world.”Cam took a seat. “You can’t do anything until you have an answer to at least one of your questions. Speculation can get you killed.”

“Do
you
have answers?” Gabe leaned across the table, his eyes fierce. “Or are you here to cause problems?”

“I’m atoning,” Cam said pleasantly. “Something we have in common. I’m sad that Folsom’s time has ended, but there’s always something larger afoot.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Esther snapped. “He enjoys the sound of his own voice. Ignore him.”

“Are you okay?” I asked Emmett when I felt him shiver.

He nodded, but his eyes turned cold. “I wasn’t going to let them take me, Ava. I wasn’t going to leave you.”

I hesitated, unsure of his mood, but I patted his hand. “Of course not. It’s over now. You’re safe here.”

“I need to fight,” he said. “What if they come to the house? Dad’s right. We need to fight them.”

“Hold on a second,” Peter said when I glared at him. “I definitely did not mean
you
. You’re staying here, where I know you’ll be safe.”

Esther sighed. “I’ll watch over him if we’re both going to be stuck here.”

“You both should stay here.” I gestured at Peter and Carl. “Gabe can’t watch all of you.”

“That’s the problem.” Gabe cleared his throat. “There were Guardians watching over Emmett, but nobody was around when the attack happened. That concerns me.”

“Who has control over the Guardians?” Peter demanded. “
Specifically
?”

“Koda and Fionnuala have the ultimate say, but—”

I interrupted Gabe to ask, “So one of them called off the Guardians?”

“Not necessarily,” Gabe said. “They could be dead. They could have been slacking. They could—”

“Stop making excuses for them,” Esther said. “The whole thing stinks. Oh!” Her eyes lit up. “Robbie might be able to find out.”

“The tech guy?” Gabe asked.

“Yeah,” Esther said. “He’s, um, been doing me some favours.”

Gabe rubbed his palms against his eyes as he sucked in a breath. “Do you have any idea of how dangerous that is? Who could be watching?”

“Like Peter keeps saying, we have to do something,” she protested. “Robbie’s not in danger, right?”

Gabe shrugged. “Probably not. He’s just a human.” He caught my glare. “Ahem, no offence,” he muttered. It kind of tickled me that he was on his best behaviour all of a sudden, but in a way, that proved how seriously he took the latest situation.

“If something’s up with the Guardians, does that mean we can’t attend Folsom’s funeral?” Carl asked.

“His funeral?” Gabe sounded confused, as if we were going to ditch poor Folsom in the nearest dump.

“Yes, his funeral.” I frowned at the angel, daring him to argue. “He wanted to be buried behind his house. We’re all going, so you have to make sure nothing bad happens.”

Gabe rubbed the bridge of his nose before nodding. “Fine. We can do that.”

“What next?” Peter asked. “What exactly are we aiming for here? I mean, we can’t stay down here forever. There has to be an end. So when is it?”

I looked at Gabe. “You need to find out where Coyle is. Remember, if one of my people gets hurt, so do you.”

“I’m fully aware of that,” he said, a sardonic smile on his face. “But I can’t summon people who don’t want to be found. There’s not a lot I can do when someone goes to ground.”

“You can look,” I said. “Where’s Lucia?”

Val called over the twins. Kate followed Lorcan as closely as Lucia. Cam tensed at Kate’s presence.

“Any useful visions?” I asked Lorcan.

Lorcan shook his head. “Nothing new. It’s getting a little suspicious. We’ve been wondering about it for a while, but it’s as if someone, or some
thing
, is blocking her. She sees a little, but nothing particularly useful.”

Except the hooded figures. If someone could block images, perhaps they could project them, too. That person could give Lucia the one vision that could have revealed everyone if she had let Lorcan know, the one vision that could have led to more deaths. My heart rate quickened.

“Who could do that?” I wondered aloud.

“They’re out of the ordinary,” Cam said. “It’s impossible to say.”

“Fae?” Carl asked. “Is that a fae thing?”

“The fae have a million and one uses, depending on their pedigree,” Cam explained. “No useful answers there either.”

“Do you have to be so negative?” A growl erupted from Esther’s throat. Her patience had already worn thin.

Cam shook his head. “Not negative. Realistic. No point wasting your time thinking about something that doesn’t have a concrete answer.”

Gabe stood abruptly, his eyes still on Cam. “Your sense of justice has changed dramatically, cousin. Much like your appearance.”

Cam laughed as if genuinely amused. “Change attacks even the most virtuous, or so it would seem.”

“This is getting us nowhere,” Gabe said, turning to me. “If I have to protect your humans, I need to figure out what’s going on. I’m leaving.”

“I’m going, too.” I frowned as almost all of my friends got to their feet. “
Alone
.”

“It’s too risky,” Peter began.

I held up my hands. “I need to check on people. The cul-de-sac, my grandmother.” I swallowed. “Oh, crap.”

“What?” Peter asked warily.

“Shay called me before. Said he was in a bit of trouble at work for asking questions. You don’t think…”

“The other Guardians are still in place,” Gabe said.

I looked at him. “Yeah, but for how long?”

“Come,” he said. “We’ll deal with it.”

I glanced back at my friends and Emmett, hoping they would be okay. Most of them looked sullen at being left behind, but Peter’s eyes flashed with anger.

I nodded at Gabe. “Let’s go.”

When we reached the top of the stairs and were safely in the centre of the garage, Gabe held my arm and refused to let go.

“This is important,” he said, answering the question in my eyes. “Stay away from Cami’el.”

“Cam? It’s not like we’re best buddies. What’s your deal?”

“Have faith in me on this one, Ava. You cannot trust him under any circumstances.”

“He told me the truth when nobody else would.”

“About yourself? That will always be guesswork. You’re a hybrid. A mongrel. You have bits and pieces, so you’ll always be unpredictable. He told you something important, yes. Something possible, yes. But ask yourself why.” His grip tightened. “I can’t explain. I physically cannot give you a reason. That should make you worry. That should tell you there are bigger things going on.”

“There’s always something bigger going on,” I hissed. “What about my grandmother? She was told to punish me to make me hate evil. Or did he really mean for me to hate humans? And Peter…” I shook my head, unable to continue.

“What about Peter?” he asked urgently.

“Look at you, getting me to argue over Folsom’s body like this.” I bit my lip to stop the sob that desperately wanted to jump out of my mouth.

“You’re upset.” He sounded astonished.

“Of course I’m upset. I have a heart!”

“Well, yes. But Folsom died a hero. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Nobody even knows his name,” I protested. “He died for nothing! He wasted his life.”

“You’re trying to change things. You now have yourself a martyr.”

I slapped him across the face and left the garage, but he caught up with me.

“I won’t let you strike me a third time,” he warned.

I flipped him off, unable to speak.

“Ava!” He gripped my shoulders to stop me from walking away. “You have to be stronger than this. You can’t let something like this ruin everything.”

“As if you care. You don’t want us to win.”

He stared at me through that impenetrable mask of his. I hadn’t a clue what was running through his mind.

“If I’m forced to be on your side, it had better be the winning one,” he said. “Come to me when you want to talk tactics. When you’re ready to be an adult about it. A warrior. A leader.”

“I’m not a leader. I’m just a person who’s sick of what’s going on. We’re trying to survive, Gabe. That’s all. We’re holding on by our fingertips. I can’t let them come after these people again. If that had happened to Emmett, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now.”

“If it was the boy’s body in that garage, you’d be too busy trying to stop Peter from setting fire to the world,” he said. “What were you going to say about Peter before?”