Tempt (Ava Delaney #3) (14 page)

She
rolled her eyes. “You don’t give up? So you caught the beast,
then?”

“
Don’t act like you know something about it. I’ve offered you
anything you want for Carl, but you’re too greedy and stupid to see
it. Well, guess what? You just spited yourself. And if I find out
you managed to use this to help Becca, I mean, the beast, get away
from me, then I really can do something to you.”

“
Oh, get out, you annoying little pest. And close the door
after you. I’m too full to get up.”

Her
laughter followed me out the door. I couldn’t look at Carl lying
there, and I couldn’t believe I was leaving him behind. But Esther
was right, I kept acting without thinking. I had to do things
right.

I
unlocked my door and looked around my little flat. It didn’t feel
like home anymore. I had never been protected. For years, I had
thought I was cocooned in safety, when really my home contained a
secret trap hole filled with an energy-sucking demon.

I sat
down and tried to think clearly. I had nothing really. A few
contacts, maybe a few favours I could call in. I mostly owed
favours. I needed a stronger position in the supernatural world. I
needed to be untouchable.

I rang
Peter to update him. “Carl’s not looking good. And she’s been
draining me for years. I don’t even know how to react to
that.”

“
Maybe it’s better to let her put Carl out of his misery. You
know he might not recover. As for her, you need to move out. As
soon as possible. She could be taking more than just energy from
you. She’s demonic, so she could have another reason for doing it.
Why would she hate you so much if she didn’t already know about
you?”

I
cleared my throat, embarrassed. “I think it’s kind of a personal
girly thing, to be honest. I think she literally doesn’t like me as
a person. Anything else is just gravy.”

“
You should ask Gabe about her draining you. If there isn’t a
rule against that, then maybe there should be. It doesn’t feel
right, especially when you’re working for the Council. It’s like
she’s taking from them, too.”

When we
ended the call, I tried to think things through, but instead, for
the first time in weeks, I thought about my grandmother. Maybe I
was missing out by not listening to her story. If I was going to do
everything in my power to protect myself, then I had to know the
whole story, as much as it killed me to admit it. I had to reach
out and ask for help. From Gabe, Eddie, my grandmother, the
shifters, and even the vampires. Feeling more like myself than I
had in a long time, I went for a walk and made some phone calls. I
couldn’t get through to Gabe, but I left a message. I tried to set
up an appointment to see Daimhín, but Yvonne told me she’d call me
back. I should have gone straight to my grandmother, but I couldn’t
face her yet, so I went to Eddie instead.

He might
be a million times more evil than my grandmother, but I cared more
about what she did, so I figured it was easier to have it out with
him. I had to be on my guard whenever I confronted him. Knowing
him, he would throw the power of a dozen trapped souls at me, but
he might see the succubus problem on a different slant after some
time to think about it.

He
didn’t seem surprised to see me. He probably already knew I was on
my way. He sent me in to the backroom to make the coffee, while he
closed up the shop. I knew it was a big deal. He rarely locked up
his business.

We
finally sat down together, but it was hard for me to know where to
begin. I had so much I wanted to know, so much I didn’t want to
know.

“
I don’t want this to turn into some kind of battle,” I said.
“I just want to have a conversation.”

“
Of course. We’re on the same side, Ava.”

I cocked
my head. He’d used the kindly father voice again, the one that
lulled me into a false sense of security without fail. “Are we?
Because you keep growing into this Big Bad no matter how I look at
it.”

He
shrugged. “Bad only depends on your point of view. Did you find
Carl?”

“
He’s with Alannah. She’s been feeding on me for years,
apparently. She marked Carl to ramp up my juice. So yes, this is
yet again all my fault on another level.”

“
You need to stop internalising all of this guilt. ’Tisn’t
always about the blame, petal. Things happen, sometimes no matter
what you do.” He stared off into the distance, a sudden wave of
sadness dulling his blue eyes. I knew nothing of his past, but I
had a feeling there were some huge stories there.

“
I’ll stick a pin in the guilt,” I said. “How could it affect
me, the whole energy draining… weirdness?”

“
Depends. It might mean you’re a lot stronger than we thought.
It could mean you’re practically immortal if you’ve survived for
this long. Or none of the above.”

“
I’ve almost died a couple of times,” I reminded
him.

“
Yet you pulled through in the end. The boys seem to think
that you can’t get hurt, you recover so quickly.”

“
I can get hurt.” I held the cup tight, trying to remember
what it felt like before I had moved into the flat, if I had been
faster, stronger, better in some way.

“
I know. Haven’t I helped make you better?” He smiled. “The
thing of it is, the succubus drained you constantly. She’s probably
made your other, ah, problems much worse over the
years.”

“
Isn’t it wrong for a demon who feeds on mortals to use a…
non-human to feed on? Shouldn’t there be some kind of law against
it?”

“
It’s unpleasant.” He nodded. “Foolish, too. As a particular
species, you’re not really protected, though. Strength in numbers,
and well, you’re the only one of your kind who isn’t hidden. People
will shake their heads at the succubus, but they won’t make a move
on her for it.”

“
But Daimhín named me as one of hers. That gives me some kind
of comeback, right?”

He
smiled. “You’re finally getting how we work, Ava. You’ll have to
take it up with Daimhín, but yes, you could use your connection
with her coven to your advantage. Whether she helps you or not is
another thing.”

“
I’ve been cleaning up the vampire mess that’s been plaguing
the city. They kinda owe me.”

“
I hope they see it that way, and at the next conference with
the Council, I’ll make sure I bring up this issue. It’s about time
they dealt with the implications of you going public.” He leaned
forward. “What about Becca? Is there truth in the rumours I’ve been
hearing? The beast is gone?”

“
Gone for now,” I said, hoping she would never reappear. “I’ll
be ready for her when she comes back.”

“
Let’s hope she doesn’t. In the meantime, you need to find a
new place to live.”

“
I don’t know where to start,” I said, still reluctant to
commit to giving up my home. “How could I not know, Eddie? How
could I not feel it, see it, know something was wrong?”

He
stared at me for a couple of seconds, and I realised he was
wondering the same thing. “Maybe it’s because you aren’t used to
the things you can do. You’ve had nobody to teach you. You’re only
working with your instincts. You can’t be expected to know
everything.”

“
It seems like a pretty big thing to miss. I don’t… I don’t
have a clue what I’m doing half the time. If there are others like
me, surely they could help me figure it out.”

“
I’m sure there are others,” he said. “But you’re the only one
out in the open here. I don’t know how much help they would be. Two
mongrels from the same litter might look and act like two different
breeds.”

“
Wow. Thanks for that analogy, Eddie.”

He waved
his hands. “My point is that they all have different skills. It’s
never that simple.”

“
Never is. But I’m ready to learn as much as I can, and I need
you to tell me everything you know about me. If someone had just
been honest with me from the beginning, most of my problems
wouldn’t exist. I can’t stay blind forever.”

The cold
presence blew on my neck, and I could have sworn Eddie stared right
at it.

“
I don’t know how helpful I’ll be,” he said, half to
himself.

The
breeze picked up, swinging my ponytail. I watched Eddie’s face
pale.

“
Any help would be great,” I said quietly, as if nothing
untoward was happening.

“
I… Maeve!
Is leor
sin
! Stop!” He held up his hands, but they
shook violently. The presence stopped instantly.

“
Who’s Maeve?”

He
stuttered for a couple of seconds. “What? I… no, nothing. What were
we…? Help. Yes. Others would be better at explaining, but I’ll try.
It’s time for me to try.”

I gazed
at him, wondering what kind of secrets he hid. Maeve. Was that the
name of the cold presence? Like many things, I would just have to
deal with it later.

“
You want to know about yourself? What I know?”

I was
ignorant about so many things, and with someone finally willing to
speak, I felt ill, as though every emotion pushed upward at once,
struggling to break free. I gave a little whimpering gasp, but he
didn’t seem to notice.

“
I wasn’t there for your birth. Or your childhood. But I knew
you existed. I see and hear plenty, and I knew one of you would one
day come to me. I just had to be patient. When Nancy came, I knew
there was something about her. Something in her eyes. She had seen
things no human should. I could tell. I made her talk to me, and
she told me everything. Every detail. The kind of things she would
never have told another living being.”

I
watched him age ten years in front of me and again I feared the
answers. What could she have told him to make him look so
miserable?

“
When Peter brought you here that day, I tried not to get my
hopes up. You were a mess, really.” He laughed. “Mistakes a child
would make. Accidental binding is practically unheard of. If I
hadn’t been around as long, I could never have helped you. I knew
the outcome. Maybe I got a few details wrong, but I knew Daimhín
would need you alive in the end.”

I opened
my mouth with a question.

“
Don’t ask. You need to understand. There’s a presence about
you. Whether it’s your power, or the protection of another, it
warns everyone off. Most beings won’t even realise it’s there, but
I can feel it plainly and see it for what it is. It’s intimidating,
and that’s what got to Becca, even in her mutated state. That’s
what I need on my side, Ava. That’s partly why I could never harm
you. I’m of the old stock. I find it hard to resist the temptation
to put you in your place. You’re so young, yet I find myself
wanting to lead you. It’s a strange sensation, having children you
want to nurture, but at the same time feel the need to
control.”

The cold
presence went absolutely crazy, and my hair whipped all over the
place.

“
Now, now,” he muttered, and I wasn’t entirely sure who he
addressed. “The thing with you is that you could be the face of
something. You’ll never be the smartest or the prettiest, the
strongest or the most charismatic, but you stand for something.
There are plenty of beings who despise the Council. They would
follow someone like you into a war, if you let them.”

“
Eddie, I’m sorry, but I’ve no idea what we’re talking about.
What’s going on?”

He waved
his hand. “Tangents. Nothing’s happening yet. You want to know why
I didn’t tell you about yourself beforehand, yes?”

I nodded
slowly, feeling more lost than when we had begun. Everything he
threw at me was muddled and confusing. My head began to thud with a
heavy ache.

“
I didn’t think you were ready. And time isn’t to me what it
is to the impatient. It takes years for a plan of mine to come to
fruition. Decades to even formulate a plan. It didn’t seem like
something that should happen yet. And your ignorance protects you
somewhat. Or at least it did at the trial. If they had read you and
saw that you knew exactly what you are… well, it wouldn’t have
looked good, and the outcome might have been a lot
different.”

“
If I had known, I would have done things differently,” I
insisted.

“
Would you? I don’t think so. It was all worded very
dramatically at the trial, I grant you that. But really, your
existence is simple. It’s a very good thing to some of
us.”

“
It’s just another way to make me the odd one out,” I said.
“It’s being lied to that I can’t stand. I risked all of our lives
over a lie.”

“
Ava, can’t you see? You believing that lie kept you safer. If
Maximus had truly known what he had on his hands… I dread to think
what might have occurred. Some things are pre-ordained, and that
particular game was played in the only way it could have been. Your
grandmother protected you from yourself, whether it was her idea or
not.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I’m not here to tell you Nancy’s story. That’s to come from
her lips only. That woman at the trial, Helena, has she been
found?”