Tempt (Ava Delaney #3) (23 page)

I just
didn’t know what she wanted me to do.

A sudden
scream, swiftly silenced into a quiet whimper, came from about a
street away. I quickly delved into the other planes and figured out
Becca’s exact location. Lucia’s directions had been right on
target.

“
She’s close by. Both of you leave, right now. Just
run.”

I set
off into a sprint, hoping that leaving the twins behind would
circumvent the vision. I didn’t dare look back at Lucia to see if I
was doing the right thing. I couldn’t afford to doubt
myself.

My feet
pounding the pavement, I tried to block the images of a murdered
Lorcan and focus on Becca instead. It didn’t matter that I was in a
strange place. All I had to do was get the better of Becca, chain
her up, and drag her arse back to the vampires. I probably should
have drunk some blood first, but I figured being away from the
succubus would automatically give me a boost.

In some
ways, that was a fair assumption. The further away I made it from
the succubus, the better I felt, more energetic, less weighed down
by a heavy heart. Carl’s condition pricked at my conscience, but I
could tell he was still alive. The thread between us was stretched
very thinly, but I could still sense him out there. I dreaded
cutting that thread because I knew it would hurt me as well as
him.

I
scented the blood before I saw the body—an elderly lady in her
hallway, the front door wide open from when Becca burst in. An old
woman, maybe somebody’s grandmother. Suppressing a twinge of guilt,
I backed away, hearing footsteps behind me.

Lorcan.
“I can help,” he insisted.

“
No! Go home! Protect your sister, you idiot!”

“
She’s fine. I…” His gaze flickered toward to the house again.
“Oh.”

With
dread in the pit of my stomach, I gripped the dagger, slowly
turning to face Becca as she stepped over the old woman’s body to
approach us. This was it. This was the moment. A couple of
streetlights flickered. Lorcan gasped as Becca bared her bloody
fangs. Steadying myself, I held my breath as Becca lowered her head
and ran at me like a bull.

Exactly
like the vision, I sprinted for her, except I leapt in the air a
split second before she did, aiming my dagger’s curved tip at her
gut. Our bodies collided, the blade pierced her skin as I twisted
it, and her fangs managed to gash my arm, but the pain was
fleeting.

Fumbling, I grabbed her hair as we crashed to the ground, but
she ripped herself out of my grasp, leaving me with a clump of
straw-like hair in my hand. She made a strange howling sound, then
got on all fours and leapt away.

“
What. The hell.” I was too surprised to even follow her,
especially when she pretty much crawled over a wall to get away,
leaving a trail of too-dark blood in her wake. I had to follow her
path to find a patch of grass to clean the dagger. Pulling the
remaining hair from my fingers, I turned back to Lorcan. He was
paler than usual, and his heartbeat had rocketed.

“
It really is a beast,” he whispered.

“
Looks that way. We better get back to your
sister.”

“
Can’t you track it from here?”

I
hesitated. “Yeah, but your sister’s alone. She needs to see you’re
okay.”

He
stared at me as I passed but followed in silence until we got back
to Lucia. She sat alone on a bench, rocking herself with jerky
motions. I sat next to her.

“
She’s gone. Any chance of a heads up?”

Her head
shot up, and when she saw her brother, she ran to him and gripped
his hand, acting as though nothing were wrong. He didn’t even
notice how concerned she had been, and I wondered how much she
really told him, and how much she blocked off to protect him.
Seeing her visions had been a horribly trippy experience, but it
had definitely helped.

The
three of us were shaken for different reasons—Lorcan for catching
his first glimpse of the beast, Lucia for seeing her brother’s
death narrowly avoided, and me for a whole host of reasons. Lucia
could help me save people, legitimately help me avoid bloodshed.
But I couldn’t even take her with me. Then, there was Becca, like
an animal on all fours, worse than anything I had ever seen in a
horror film.

“
What will they do when I capture her?” I asked Lorcan, but
really, I was talking to Lucia. “I mean, really. You saw her.
There’s no taming her. So what exactly are we talking
here?”

Lorcan
opened his mouth to speak, but Lucia’s fingers tightened on his,
and he looked at her with surprise in his eyes. When he finally
spoke, his voice was an urgent whisper.

“
We think they’ll use her to get ahead. They’ll run tests on
her first, maybe try to replicate her in a more controlled way,
then set her loose on their enemies and let her kill as many as
possible. They have the money to invest in her. But there are too
many outcomes, none of them good.”

“
So she needs to die. That’s the only way?”

He
hesitated, but Lucia nodded fervently. I fidgeted with the cross
around my neck while I thought. It didn’t feel wrong to me. It felt
as though I would be putting her out of her misery and protecting
humans at the same time.

“
Then, that’s what I’ll do.”

He
stepped toward me. “They’ll kill you. They’ll use this as an excuse
to spark something bigger. They’ll call it a betrayal.”

“
Kill me. Probably. Unless they don’t find out what really
happened.”

His eyes
widened. “You want us to lie to them?”

“
It’s the only way. I kill her, but you tell them she crossed
the water again. I go home and persuade the Council to claim she
gets killed over there the following night. It’s the only thing I
can think of.”

“
You don’t understand! They won’t allow disobedience. They
won’t kill us. They’ll torture us. We can’t defy them. They own
us!” I expected him to carry on, but he snapped his head around to
stare at his sister. They both gazed at each other for a few
minutes, and by the way he clenched his jaw, it didn’t look like
they were in agreement.

I waited
for them to decide, hoping they could be brave, even though it
might cost them much.

“
She says… she says we can help you if you help
us.”

“
How?”

“
She says you have to find the Phoenix, that we were never
supposed to be here. She thinks the Phoenix can help us, can
protect us. The Phoenix hides the slaves and the wanted. If we do
this thing for you, then you’re indebted to us. We might be
part-fae, but we can still hold onto a favour. If you don’t help
us, you’ll suffer. That’s how a deal with fae works. Do you
understand what I’m saying to you?”

“
Yes, but… do you mean the Féinics?”

He
glanced at Lucia again and nodded. “That sounds better. Right,
that’s it.”

“
Wait. Is the Féinics a person? I heard the term before,
referring to rebels or something.”

“
I don’t know. It has no face. There isn’t a clear image.
Lucia’s seen bits and pieces over the years, though. All I know is,
we’re supposed to go to Ireland to be protected. Or we’ll die as
slaves.”

We shook
hands on it, and a thrill of energy shot up my arm. Seeing my
expression, Lorcan laughed. “Told you.”

“
Does Lucia see anything else? Is tonight a good night?
Because I
really
need to get home.”

“
It hides. It fed, so it can afford to. Tomorrow, if we’re on
time. How will you… kill it?”

We
strolled out of the estate, and the atmosphere between us was
better than it had been since we first met. Hearing their story
made me desperate to help them, and I wasn’t sure if it had to do
with the fae deal, or just my own fight for the underdog. The twins
were undeniably weird, but they were a weapon of sorts, and they
had been rejected by their own kind, too. My inconvenient
protective instinct reared its head again.

Lucia
kept looking at me as though she wanted to tell me something, but
she didn’t touch me, and I wasn’t sure if that was because she
didn’t want Lorcan to know I saw her visions. Maybe she wanted him
to believe she needed him. Either way, I wasn’t going to
interfere.

“
I’m not sure,” I said. “My dagger is like weaponry kryptonite
to vampires, but you saw what it did to Becca. It made her bleed,
but didn’t stop her from moving.”

“
I have a sword,” Lorcan blurted, then flushed, sending little
pink dots onto the apples of his cheeks, marring his
porcelain-white complexion.

“
They let you have a weapon?” I asked.

“
No. I mean, I don’t know. Years ago, we found it in our
hallway, like someone came in the night and left it there. It
looked old and a bit rusty, but when I touched it, writing lit up
on the blade, and I felt… different.”

“
I think that means it’s yours, like it only works properly
for you,” I said slowly, recalling how I felt when I touched my own
dagger. “Maybe the fae didn’t completely desert you.”

He
shrugged. “Who knows what it means. I’m not so sure that I care to
find out. We’re going to be walking for a long time. I hope your
feet are up for it.” He looked at my boots doubtfully. They did
look a little heavy and bulky, but they were the most comfortable
things I owned. Plus, they gave my kicks a little extra
oomph.

“
You’re just changing the subject,” I said with a
smile.

“
Not at all.” But there was a ghost of a grin on his
lips.

“
So, this deal, then. Does it work like that with all fae?” I
was curious, but also needed to make sure I didn’t unwittingly
engage myself in deals with mischievous fae like Finn, the
bartender in Gabe’s bar.

“
From what I’ve heard, it’s similar. Of course, pure fae are
stronger. Much stronger.”

“
What can fae do? I’ve met a couple, but I haven’t actually
seen any in action.”

Lorcan
shrugged. “There are different kinds. Most fae are long-lived, and
they all have some kind of natural magic, but it differs after
that. They’re the main faction in Europe, the ones the vampires are
most afraid of because they command the werewolves.”

“
Werewolves? You mean the shifters?” I screwed up my face in
confusion. Esther hadn’t mentioned being under the thumb of the
fae.

“
No, no.” He shook his head, and his face lit up. Whether he
admitted to caring or not, he was definitely interested in all
things fae. “The shifters change into animals, yes. But the
werewolves are different. They shift, but they’re infected with a
madness. Years ago, the fae managed to… domesticate them somewhat
and use them as protection against the vampires.”

“
They don’t still do that, do they?”

“
There are rumours. Either way, the vampires are more likely
to align with the fae because they fear the wolves. People say the
werewolves are hidden by the fae, ready for the day the vampires
step out of line.”

I
recalled Becca going on all fours. “Think an army of beasts would
be a good match for the werewolves?”

He
stared at me, his face paling. “Let’s hope we never find
out.”

“
How do you know all of this stuff? If you haven’t grown up
with the fae?”

His dark
eyes seemed to twinkle. “I ask a lot of questions, make a lot of
deals. We learned a bit about other species while we were on the
market. There were a lot of children there.”

“
Did they hurt you?” I bit my lip, regretting the
question.

“
Not really. They needed us healthy, just in case. There were
women there—some had grown up in the market—and they looked after
us. Only the children who lose their value are allowed to be
harmed.”

“
Where is this market? Who runs it?”

He shook
his head wearily. “It was a long time ago. All I remember is that
it was underground. Always dark. We didn’t see anyone but the women
who took care of us. I can’t even remember being handed to the
vampires. I can’t remember getting to the market, or leaving.
There’re empty spots in my head.” He rubbed his forehead, looking
stressed. “But we were there longer than most, I remember
that.”

“
How long ago was it?”

“
At least three decades. I think they may have taken our
memories from us.”

My mouth
dropped open. “No way are you that old!”

He
laughed. “I did tell you the fae age well. We won’t live as long as
them, but we’ll do a lot better than a human. As long as you keep
your end of the deal before the vampires get tired of us.” I sensed
the fear in his voice and wondered what life was really like for
them. If maybe they already knew how it ended for them with the
vampires.

“
I would have helped you anyway,” I said.

He gave
me a long, hard look before speaking again. “We know. But the deal
makes us allies. None of us can back out, no matter how scared we
are.”

He gave
me a meaningful look, and my heart seemed to soften and melt away.
They made the deal to trap themselves into performing, not me. A
lump in my throat stopped me from talking, and I looked away from
the twins. No matter what happened, there were still people willing
to put themselves out there to help others. Part of me felt as
though helping the twins would give me my humanity back, maybe
clear away the darkness I felt hovering over me all of the time. I
wouldn’t let them down if I could help it.