Taunt (25 page)

“
Yes.
She was a special entity. We have always regretted letting her go.”
He really did look sad. I remembered the cold presence. Could it
be?

“
Is
she…? I mean, she’s dead, but she’s an angel. So can she
communicate with me? Like a ghost, or a spirit, or something?” I
asked, hope blooming.

“
No,
Ava. She’s gone. I promise you she’s well, but she can’t come back
here. But you have her light, I saw that plainly.”

I hiccupped. For
an instant, I had had her back, only for her to be taken away
again. So the presence following me wasn’t my mother. Maybe I was
glad; that spirit had witnessed my lowest moments. The story
tumbled around in my brain until I recalled one idea. The angels
stopped interfering when the vampires became impotent.

“
Um,
in case you haven’t noticed, the vampires just started reproducing
again.”

He nodded. “We’ll
have to take measures, of course. Ava, we will speak again, I
promise, but right now I need to deal with whatever that
monstrosity is.”

He touched my
chin like before and stared into my eyes. He nodded and swept away,
leaving me standing there with Nancy and Eddie.

I turned on my
grandmother straight away. “How could you not tell me?”

“
I’m
sorry, Ava. But I told you what you needed to know,” she
said.

“
You
didn’t think I needed to know about my own mother? That I might not
be the only one? You told me all about the bad stuff, Nancy. Why
not any of the good?” My voice became shrill and hurt my ears, but
I couldn’t calm down.

“
You’ll understand, if you would just listen, let me
explain.”

“
Ava,
listen to her. Now is your chance to learn.” Eddie put his hand on
my shoulder, but I slapped it away. If I started on him, then the
fire would truly start.

“
I
doubt it,” I spat, and left.

I might be free,
and my enemies might be punished, but those closest to me had hurt
me most of all, and I had no idea how to begin dealing with the
knowledge of my true heritage. Only one spark of hope remained. I
had my mother’s light all along.

I sat in my
armchair and twisted a silver bracelet around my wrist. Sometimes I
considered getting tattoos like Peter, but I figured a bracelet was
as much protection, without the pain. Jules enjoyed the taste of my
blood enough to make protection necessary; I didn’t want to get
bitten again. If what Gabe had said was true, then enough of my
mother was in my DNA to make me appealing to vampires. I didn’t
believe anything I was told anymore, so it was good I had learned
that lesson the hard way.

I rubbed the scar
Jules had caused until Peter turned up to get me.
“Ready?”

I nodded and
walked past him before he could ask me any more questions. I’d been
numb for a fortnight. Lost.

Peter and Carl
had turned up on my doorstep to talk to me the night before. Carl
brought me the book Eddie hadn’t wanted me to read. He said I might
find it interesting, but I knew I couldn’t look at it
yet.

Both men had
seemed concerned. I hadn’t answered my phone for days, hadn’t done
much of anything for days. I didn’t quite know where to
begin.

They claimed they
had come to warn me about Becca. Still on the loose, she’d managed
to go on a bloody killing spree. The Gardaí called her a serial
killer; apparently, the whole country was on high alert. The
Council had requested my appearance again, so Peter said, and he
offered to drive me there.

“
Have
you spoken to Nancy?” he asked when we got in his car.

“
Nope.”

He hesitated.
“You should.”

“
No.”
My voice stayed firm, no trace of the quivering in my heart. I had
let her get away with a lot of things, but this was one too
far.

“
This
will be fine,” he said when the silence between us became too much
for him to bear. Peter only knew how to handle aggressive Ava.
“You’re not in trouble, or they would have sent the Guardians to
collect you.”

I shrugged. I
didn’t know what my purpose was, and I felt so lost I didn’t know
what to figure out first. I’d spent my life making allowances for
my misdeeds because of the badness born into me, but the good had
been there all along. Now I had answers to my questions, yet I
wasn’t ready to hear them. I wasn’t anxious or thirsty, so counting
didn’t help soothe the aching in my chest. Maybe time
would.

“
Are
you okay?” He laid his hand on mine. I pulled it out from under his
and wrapped my arms around myself, ignoring his question. I didn’t
know what kind of answer I could possibly give. Maybe feeling numb
was okay.

Peter knew the
way to the Council’s meeting place, I noted. It was far from the
cells or where court was held. He led me underground to a place
that smelled refreshingly earthy, despite being encased in white
plaster walls. Yet again I wondered just how much of the country
was being used for otherworldly purposes.

We passed
scatterings of Guardians, all expressionless, yet the scent of
their fear assaulted my nostrils. A number of them flanked us until
we reached the room where Koda and Gabe waited. They sat together
at a table with a number of obviously non-human beings behind them.
Not Guardians, yet they guarded the pair.

“
Take
a seat,” Koda said. “Both of you.”

I sat as far away
from the others as possible. I felt as though the proximity would
taint me further, as if I could become any more of a
mongrel.

Koda and Peter
exchanged glances, and I realised Peter already knew why we were
here. I braced myself for something I probably wouldn’t want to
hear.

“
It’s
good to see you again, Ava,” Koda said, his voice gentle and his
appearance dizzyingly translucent. “It’s just a pity it isn’t under
better circumstances.” When I didn’t answer, he cleared his throat.
“Let’s jump straight in, shall we? We’ve searched for Becca but
haven’t been able to bring her in yet. A number of Guardian
Circles, the vampires, and the shifters have been seeking her out.
There have been casualties.”

He bowed his
head, and Gabe took over. “The problem is, we don’t know what she
is or what she can do. We’ve already witnessed her bring death
during a trial that’s been blessed by Fionnuala. That’s unheard
of.” Gabe shook his head, looking weary and tense. “She’s gone
beyond vampire; this is something we’ve never seen before. The
formula the vampires have been using creates a mutation, an
unstable one. We ran tests on the formula and are working in
conjunction with Spain’s leaders to shut down the dealers. The
vampires are dealing with it amongst themselves, but we don’t know
how many disasters like Becca are running around.” He shook his
head in disgust. I stared at him, wondering how many disasters like
me
might be running around.

“
Maybe
you all should have acted quicker then,” I said, keeping my chin
high. “You were warned. You’ve only yourselves to
blame.”

“
We
have laws and rules we must follow, child. You know nothing of our
world.” Koda sounded insulted, but I didn’t care.

“
And
you know nothing of doing the right thing. Why the hell am I here?”
I scratched my arms, feeling suffocated by my own skin.

“
She’s
strong and fast, and her blood thirst appears to be insatiable,”
Koda carried on, ignoring my worsening mood.

“
But
what’s that got to do with me?” I asked, resisting the urge to
scream to the heavens.

“
Ava,
we realise you’ve had a difficult experience with us, but we’d like
to hire you,” Koda said, and for a second he appeared to be
completely solid.

“
As a
Guardian?” I brightened; that was a purpose.

“
I’m
sorry, Ava,” he said, his voice softer than before. “Your kind
doesn’t have a place with our Guardians. We’d like to hire you, but
off the books.”

“
Like
Peter?” I asked, my chest tightening.

“
Similar to Peter,” Gabe confirmed.

“
I’m
not a killer,” I said. Well, only when I had to be.

“
We
want you to bring Becca in. The Spanish leaders would like us to
run tests on Becca, to figure out this formula and its potential.
However, she’s dangerous; it’s understandable that an incident
leading to her death might occur.” Koda laid his hands on the
table. I didn’t like the look in his eye.

I frowned. “So
what you’re saying is, you want me to find a human who’s been
experimented on and turned into the equivalent of a vampire on
steroids so you can cage her and test her further?”

“
We
need to figure out how many there could be out there, how many
vampires are using this same formula. Maybe we can reverse the
effects. We won’t know until we take a look at her DNA.” Gabe
sounded sincere, but something in his tone, the way he held his
body, sent me on alert.

“
Where
you gonna keep her? One of your cells? She’s a victim. Why are the
victims always the losers around here?” I hated Becca, but I
couldn’t get the thought out of my head. Vampires and demons ruined
people’s lives all the time, yet they never suffered for it. They
were never truly punished.

Gabe’s lips
twitched. “If you want to change things, then you’ll have to get
involved
around here
. So, do you think you can handle
that?”

I glared at him,
sick of people trying to play me. “If all of your trained dogs
can’t take her down, what makes you think I can?”

Koda looked
surprised. “You’re part nephilim,” he said. “You are a
warrior.”

I laughed.
“Really? Because I wasn’t a warrior before he used that word on me.
What’s changed?”

Peter inched
closer to me. “Just listen to them, Ava. Look at how many vampires
you’ve killed without any training. Imagine what you could do if
you tried.” He sounded excited, as if he didn’t remember how much I
had struggled to gain the upper hand in a fight.

“
I
fluked out on most of them! I drank blood. I can’t go there again.”
My chin shook; he knew better.

“
We’ll
send you blood donations,” Koda said. “We can offer you humans,
bagged blood, anything you like.”

“
No!”
I shouted, and jumped to my feet. It was back to the same thing. To
outdo a bad thing, I had to be bad.

“
Please, Ava,” Gabe pleaded. He held my gaze and, for the first
time, sounded trustworthy. “She’s murdered dozens of people, more
every day.”

“
Why
can’t you do it?” If they wanted me for being part angel, then
surely a full angel would do the trick.

Gabe bowed his
head. “I’m not a god. On Earth, I’m not fully functioning. I wasn’t
created here; you were. We can’t find her, and we can’t trust the
vampires to bring her in. For all we know, she’s holed up in one of
their buildings. We’ll send you the blood, but you don’t have to
take it. It’ll be your choice. It isn’t just Becca, although that’s
particularly urgent. In future, we’d like you to work in an
undercover capacity, finding people, picking up traitors, using
your special talents to pinpoint problems, that sort of thing. The
money’s good, and we’d like a chance to see what you can
do.”

Gabe looked very
pleased with himself. When I arched my eyebrow, he changed his tack
and laid my dagger on the table before him with no discomfort. “You
can hold a weapon created for a nephal warrior in the first Holy
War. That’s proof enough for me that you’re one of Heaven’s
soldiers. When the time comes for you to make a choice, we need you
to be on the right side.”

I thought about
it. I didn’t want to work for the Council. I had enough trouble
working for Daimhín. Then I glanced at Peter and remembered his
son. If I was out there, working, I could pick up information for
him. Peter needed closure, and I had my own theories about his son,
especially after hearing Eloise’s story. I’d been just getting by
for long enough; I needed a purpose to keep going. I needed to
feel
something again. I wanted to prove to myself I could be
less like the vampires and more like my mother, given the
chance.

For now, I would
be willing to take on the job. Becca was running around murdering
people, most of them innocent bystanders. She acted like she still
feared me, so maybe the job was right for me. I wasn’t afraid
anymore.

For a long time,
I had felt like I couldn’t trust my own body. Now I knew a thing or
two, and I had plenty of opportunity to learn more. Ignoring my
heritage, ignoring the supernatural world, none of that had worked,
and dipping my feet in had only led to trouble. No, I had to get
involved, learn everything I could about them and myself, and make
a better life. For me.

If I worked from
the inside, there was a chance I could find out more. So many
things were bothering me—Eddie, the souls, the cold presence
following me, the shadow that stuck to Peter and the were-fox, the
mystery of Leah and the victims, so many victims of this world.
This was my chance for answers, my chance for change. My chance to
find myself.