Taunt (2 page)

One of the
non-life-threatening downsides to working for Daimhín was that it
meant less time spent on my own business. Rule one of earning a
reasonable income by buying and selling esoteric relics online
involved maintaining a solid, reliable presence. The supernatural
world had been a major factor in the deterioration of my business
relationships. Feeling weary, I turned on my old laptop with a plan
to make up time for whatever errands Daimhín had planned for
Friday.

A loud knock at
the door soon interrupted a grovelling email. I regretted opening
the door the instant I saw the look on my landlord’s
face.

“
Hello, Mr. McGreavy. How are you?” I gave him my cheeriest
smile despite my expectance of a bad attitude in return.

He glared and
lifted his shoulders, trying to tower over me. When I first came to
view my home, he’d interviewed me in his flat where I’d seen plenty
of old photos of him. He had once been a handsome man but had
apparently eaten his weight in fast food until grease began to seep
out of his pores.

“
Where’s the rent, Delaney?” His squinty eyes almost
disappeared under the enormous frowning brow.

“
I
told you already, you’ll get it in a few weeks. I’m still waiting
to get paid.” Total lie. My business had pretty much gone to hell
while I’d dealt with accidentally enthralling a human and trying to
avoid being picked up by two warring vampire clans. Recovering from
Maximus’s torture, I’d not only lost days, but also money, sales,
and a couple of regulars to boot. Catching up proved a struggle. I
had no chance of making the rent anytime soon.

“
I’m
still waiting, too. You have until tomorrow.” McGreavy sounded
really happy about that, the greasy sod. My slutty next-door
neighbour could always charm her way into an extra couple of week’s
leeway. Wait. Maybe I could too.

I’d been thinking
about what I did to Carl, spent some time concentrating on where
the power came from to stop me from doing it again accidentally.
Instead of shutting off any supernatural ability I might have, I
had begun to explore the possibilities. It was time to find out if
I could use my persuasive side on purpose.

McGreavy turned
to leave, satisfied with his intimidation of me. I grabbed his coat
sleeve, forcing him to stop. He tried to pull away and frowned at
my hand, perhaps wondering why I was so much stronger than him. I
stared right into his eyes and let that other part of me show, not
the fangs or the aggression, but the seductive willpower that had
worked so well on Carl, whether I wanted it to or not.

“
I
need more time,” I said, my voice soft and slow. Different.
Something pulsed on the surface of my skin, but I ignored the
sensation and concentrated, kept thinking about how he should feel
and tried to force the feeling toward him.

McGreavy’s face
contorted with anger then, all of a sudden, let it go. I could hear
his heartbeat slowing down; the rhythm calmed me. His loose jowls
slack, he stared back at me and nodded.

“
Can
you give me an extra month to pay?” I thought about pleasing me and
pushed the notion toward him, willing him to accept it.

“
Yes,”
he said with a fervent nod. “Of course.” He leaned toward me as if
to steal a kiss; I backed off, alarmed.

“
Um,
cool, thanks!” I closed the door on his surprised face. Risking a
look through the peephole, I watched his features screwing up with
confusion. Pleased with the results, I stifled a giggle as he
stumbled away.

Cold air blasted
the back of my neck. Apparently, the spirit wanted to show its
displeasure.

“
I had
no choice, I can’t pay him,” I protested, but the words sounded
dead, as if even I didn’t believe them. The presence blew directly
in my face, making me blink.

“
I’m
sorry,” I amended, hoping it sounded sincere. I hated myself for
forcing Carl to do my bidding by accident. What made my landlord
any different?

I sat, humbled,
and the guilt kicked in, sucking the exhilaration away. I decided
to give Carl a call and check up on him. My reasons were selfish; I
wanted to know he was doing okay, that I had done right by him
after all.

“
Ava?
Is that you?” Carl’s familiar voice was completely absent of the
dull, brainless tone he’d taken on while entranced.

I opened my mouth
to answer when a hysterical-sounding woman screamed at him in the
background.

“
Shut
up
, Maria. I’m on the phone!”

“
Um,
sounds like a bad time, I’ll call you back sometime.” I hurriedly
hung up just as his fiancée, Maria, screamed at him
again.

I hoped they
weren’t still fighting because he had gone missing for a couple of
days. The relief she felt when he returned home had quickly turned
to anger, particularly when he continued to visit me. His visits
had dropped off, and I assumed he had gone back to his own life and
taken my advice to forget about my world.

Not for the first
time, I wished
I
had the luxury of returning to a normal
life.

I spent Friday
afternoon working, but my appointment with Daimhín never left my
mind, pushing everything else out of my head. By the time I got
ready to leave, I was running on nervous energy.

Getting ready
mostly consisted of putting on silver bracelets and the
cross-shaped talisman Eddie had given me. I still had possession of
the special dagger he had pressed on me before a fight. I had no
intention of returning it. I had adjusted my favourite coat so I
could carry the dagger in a number of different ways; I wasn’t
letting it out of my sight if I could help it.

Daimhín’s home
was much more discreet than Maximus’s had been. Her guards were
scattered around the building and well-hidden except for the
obvious emptiness in my other sight. Her tastes were muted,
designed to be forgettable, just like her. I wished
I
could
forget all about Daimhín, but she wasn’t about to let
me.

One of her
followers led me into a cosy living room where Daimhín sat
surrounded by vampires, and even a human or two. Daimhín signalled
for the others to leave. As they all trooped out, I couldn’t help
noting her vampires weren’t exactly starving. Most of Maximus’s
vampires had been gaunt and hungry looking, not to mention less
than loyal.

“
Sit
down, Ms. Delaney.” Daimhín’s low voice was still commanding enough
to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

I sat on the
chair furthest from her and waited. She smoothed her linen
trousers, her outfit as understated as her slow yet precise
movements. The leader of Irish vampires, Daimhín was pretty
ordinary looking, apart from her burgundy eyes; even her skin
wasn’t as sickeningly parched as the other vampires.

Feeling a little
queasy as I wondered what she had in store, I fidgeted under her
stare. I crossed my fingers and hoped it wouldn’t require a murder.
She wasn’t likely to be pleased when I refused.

“
I
have work for you,” she said at last, each measured word a perfect
enunciation. “Nothing problematic. I’d like you to accompany one of
my children. He’s been undergoing a punishment set by the Council
for some time now. Tonight will be his first feed. You are to
accompany him. Ensure he doesn’t lose control.”

I stared, my mind
blank. “What?”

“
Is
this a problem?” Her pleased expression sent my whole body on
alert. I sensed her testing my limits, first with Maximus’s death
and now with a potential vampire feeding frenzy.

“
No
problem,” I said, surprising her.

“
Good.” She glanced at the door and raised her voice. “Rose,
come back in here.” Rose turned out to be a short, chubby human in
her late thirties. She greeted me with a pleasant smile; I wondered
why someone better suited to a school run was hanging around with a
vampire coven.

“
Rose.” The sudden sweetness in Daimhín’s tone was a dramatic
change from the norm. “Tell Zion to release Jules from the cage and
bring him here.”

Cage?

Rose beamed back
at Daimhín then obediently trotted away. I couldn’t think of
anything to say to Daimhín, who proceeded to stare at me
expressionlessly. The more time I spent with the vampire, the more
freaked out I became—it was impossible to read her intentions. I
could have thanked Rose when she returned, followed by two
vampires.

A vampire with
the largest afro I had ever seen led the smaller one into the room
by the hair and shoved him toward. He landed in a ball at her
feet.

“
Good
evening, Jules.” Daimhín’s lips twitched as though she were
covering amusement.

Jules looked up
at her; his long, blond hair covered his eyes, so I couldn’t see
his expression. I stared at his hollow cheeks—so like Arthur’s.
Although I had said yes to accompanying this vampire to his first
meal in who knows how long, I had really intended to do him harm.
Now he reminded me of Arthur, the vampire I had taken Carl from,
and a little of the kindred feeling I had experienced with that
vampire reappeared.

Crap.

“
This
. . .
lady
will be joining you for dinner tonight. See that
you mind your manners.”

Jules turned
toward me and flicked his hair from his eyes with a jerk of his
head. His eyes were free from the scarlet tinge that signalled a
vampire. My own eyes had gained a tint of red once or twice after
ingesting blood. I wondered how long he had gone hungry to have
such pure green eyes.

“
Of
course,
you
may join his meal, Ms. Delaney. The Council
hasn’t set a quota on you,” Daimhín continued. I’d heard a few
things about the Council, and I fully intended to steer clear of
them. The less they knew about my existence, the better.

“
Um,
yeah, that won’t be necessary,” I said, unable to tear my eyes from
Jules. Curiosity spread across his face as he sniffed the
air.

“
Do
what you like,” Daimhín said. “Jules… Jules! Look at me. Go
upstairs, and get cleaned up. We don’t need you running the streets
looking like a castaway. Hurry up. Ms. Delaney, you may wait
outside until he’s ready.”

Dismissed, I
wandered outside the gates. I was unimpressed with my latest
assignment. I couldn’t watch a vampire harm a human and not step
in. On the other hand, a major part of my core didn’t want to see a
vampire go hungry either. It didn’t feel fair, but I knew how
seriously screwed up of me it was to think like that.

I needed to stay
on Daimhín’s good side, particularly when things were on such an
uneven kilter. I didn’t know what to do and, this time, I had no
one to ask.

Jules leapt in
front of me, surprising me. He smelled slightly less repulsive, and
his eyes sparkled with excited energy as he bounced on the balls of
his feet. I felt jittery just looking at him. If his skin hadn’t
been so grey and dried up looking, I might have seen a teenager
standing there.

“
Let’s
go,” he said, and moved on without looking back. I wandered after
him but soon found I had to run to keep up. He jogged for at least
twenty minutes in what seemed like a totally random direction. My
dread built with every step; I didn’t have a clue what to do next.
Jules came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the street and looked
all around, reminding me of a dog following a scent.

This was
it—decision time.

Jules rotated,
one slow step at a time, his fangs already showing. He tensed, then
raced past, knocking me to the ground in his urgency.

“
Shit.” I jumped to my feet and sprinted after him, trying to
catch up. He got out of my line of sight within seconds. I had
messed up already. Closing my eyes, I concentrated hard, using my
other sense to seek out Jules, to find that pocket of emptiness
screaming, “Vampire.”

A scattering of
voids dotted the nearby area. I decided to go after the closest
one, the one moving away. Fast. If I hurried, I might catch him,
but not before he approached a pulsing red source of fresh
blood.

Snapping back to
reality, I sped up until I caught a strong whiff of his odour. I
couldn’t see him anywhere. Puzzled, I paused, then realised he must
be inside a building already.

I spied the open
door just as a woman screamed. I had never heard such terror come
from a human’s mouth. I stormed into the building faster than I
could have imagined and found myself in an ordinary-looking living
room, ordinary apart from the cowering woman in the
corner.

Jules crouched
over her, and I could see why she looked so scared. His fangs
glinted in the light; his eyes were giddy with need. He grabbed a
handful of her hair and smacked her head against the arm of a chair
to knock her out.

Arms
outstretched, I jumped toward him without thinking, catching his
fangs with my hand before he could bite down on her skin. I could
only yelp in pain because he swung his arm around and whacked me
hard in the face even as we both tumbled through the air. Rabid
with hunger and utilising a scary amount of strength, he rolled me
over and dived on top of me. I grabbed his hair to stop him from
biting me again, but he pulled himself out of my grasp with ease.
The blood from my hand distracted his attention from my arteries,
just in time.