Tempt (Ava Delaney #3) (27 page)

“
You had to try.” His tone was gentle but not exactly
encouraging. “The blessing might be worth trying, too. Do you think
you could persuade Gabe?”

“
Me? No! He hates me. Why would he help?”

“
Perhaps you can make a trade.”

“
I don’t have anything.” I stared at Carl. Deep down, I knew I
would try anything. Anything at all. Or I would always live with
the guilt.

“
I can stay with him,” Eddie said.

“
I’ll go to the club then. Gabe wanted to see me.”

I waited
to say goodbye to Carl in private. I didn’t believe for a second
that Gabe would ever help us.

The club
buzzed with energy, and I realised everyone was celebrating the end
of Becca. I pushed my way through the crowds and found a seat at
the bar. A couple of people were on duty behind the bar, but I
waited until Finn spied me.

“
Little Miss Red,” he said, smirking. I stared at the moving
dragon tattoo with a great deal of fascination. “Why so down?” he
asked. “Haven’t you noticed it’s party time?”

“
Is he here?” I looked up at Finn, and the twins popped into
my head.

“
He is. He’ll be on the floor shortly if you want to
wait.”

I
nodded, not knowing what else to do.

“
Can I get you anything while you’re here? Something potent
and sparkling, perhaps?” He laughed loudly at the reference to my
passing out the last time I had taken a fae drink, but I couldn’t
smile.

“
Do you know any half-fae?” I asked.

The
smile dropped from his face. “There are no half-fae. There’s no
such thing.”

“
Sure there is, I saw—”

“
There are fae. There are non-fae. There is no in-between,” he
said coldly, and I saw a whole other side to him. “I’ll get Gabe to
hurry up.”

I sat
mulling over his response for a few minutes until I smelled
something wonderful, and someone tipped my arm.

“
Follow me.” Gabe led the way to the darkest corner of the
club, shooing a group of people out of the seats. He sat facing
me.

“
I’m glad you came,” he said. “Becca’s gone. Everyone’s happy.
Or at least satisfied. Except for the British vampires, which is
exactly how I like them. Now, about that other thing—”

“
I need you to perform a blessing. A miracle,” I interrupted.
“Like now.”

His
forehead creased, and he sat back in his seat, searching my
face.

“
No.”

“
Why not?”

“
It’s not that simple. And it isn’t something you should ask
for. It isn’t something anyone should ask for.”

“
What kind of fecking angel are you, anyway?” I stood to
leave, but he pulled me back into my seat.

“
I told you I can’t interfere with the succubus,” he said
steadily.

“
I’m not asking you to do anything with any succubus. He’s
mine. He’s sick. He needs a blessing. He needs anything that might
help him. I dealt with Becca, I’m owed something in
return.”

Gabe’s
eyes seemed to soften a little, but it could have been my
imagination. “He’s just a human. Not even an important
one.”

“
He’s
my
human. He’s
my
friend.”

“
Ownership isn’t friendship.”

I made a
weird, exasperated noise. “I don’t want to own him. I just want him
to live.”

“
Why do you care about him? What has he ever done apart from
cause you trouble? He’s just a human, Ava. They breed constantly.
Another will come along.”

I
slapped my hands on the table in frustration. “Why can’t you
understand this? He’s a friend. More than a friend. He’s family. I
care about family. You can’t replace family, and he won’t survive
me breaking the bond right now. I need him to be stronger so I can
let him go.”

“
You’ve replaced your grandmother with Eddie. What’s the
difference?”

I sputtered my indignation. “I haven’t replaced her! And
especially not with
him
. Look, even if you don’t understand what it means to have a
heart, at least help me out. I’ll owe you for it. I’ll do anything.
We’re desperate.”

“
I don’t interfere with humans like that. I very, very rarely
perform any kind of a blessing.”

I
drummed my fingers on the table, trying to figure him out. “What
was my mother like?” I asked, knowing the change of subject, and
the question, would surprise him.

“
That’s not fair, Ava. Not very angelic of you either.” But he
smiled.

“
I’m serious. My grandmother hated her, very rarely spoke of
her. What was she like?”

“
Loving. She was made to feel. When she was chosen to stay on
Earth, it made her very happy. She envied humans, cared for them in
a way most of us can’t.”

“
Would she have helped me?”

“
I don’t know. Probably. Somehow she managed to love the man
who fathered you, and he was human. In that way, you’re a constant
reminder of her, of how little I understood her. So I won’t help.
Not for a human. A blessing is valuable. It costs me severely. I
can’t give them away to a sub-species.”

“
Very judgemental for some kind of holy being,” I said with a
snort. “What will it cost for you to give Carl a
blessing?”

“
A lot,” he said firmly.

“
Like what?”

He
thought for a few minutes. “I need you to stop interfering with
Coyle.”

“
Are you kidding me?”

“
I mean it,” he said, suddenly insistent. “Don’t get in the
way.”

“
So you know about them? The shadows?”

“
I know some things, but I need to know more. I won’t find out
what I need to know if you warn every suspect that you’re
suspicious of them. Leave the thinking to the brains, little
one.”

I made a
face. “I’m keeping away from the Council. I can’t hack this
crap.”

“
Then Carl won’t get his blessing. I need these things from
you, your loyalty and trust so that I can deal with this situation
in my own way. And, as you’re so obsessed with it, I want you to
deal with the child markets. A… prisoner went missing from our
cells. I imagine she was taken to be sold. Dig into that and keep
yourself busy for a while.” He tapped his chin, looking thoughtful.
“Yes, do that. I could use the credit should anything good come of
it.”

“
Anything else?” I asked, feeling a little tremor of
excitement for my next job. I had a feeling he was talking about
Leah. The way she acted before she disappeared from the cell next
to me before my trial made me think she was in on her own
escape.

“
Two more things. I need information on the rebels, if they
even exist. I’ve heard they plan an uprising. They want to get rid
of the Council and inspire anarchy. I need to know what plans
exist, and if there’s anything to worry about.”

“
Um, okay.” I hoped my cheeks didn’t flush too much. It seemed
as though my goals and Gabe’s were the same, but for very different
reasons. The word ‘anarchy’ sparked my interest in a whole new way.
“And the last thing?”

He
leaned forward, a new spark in his eyes. His excitement infected me
until he spoke two words.

“
Eddie Brogan.”

***

I waited
nervously for Gabe to arrive, tapping on Carl’s hand as I counted
in my head. Eddie had commented on the heavy price I must have paid
to wrangle a miracle out of Gabe. I firmly reminded him it had been
his idea in the first place and secretly wondered what outcome he
had expected.

Peter
paced and fidgeted incessantly. He still hadn’t spoken to me about
the blood, and there was no way on the planet I would bring it up
first. I tried to ignore how close I felt to him since I had drunk
his blood. What drew me closer only served to push him
away.

I hadn’t
been able to stop thinking about Gabe’s requests. His suspicion of
Eddie was overwhelming. He wanted me to spy on the man whose house
I was in, the man who had helped me and my friends multiple times.
The man who had lied to me. The man I couldn’t trust. The man I
kept turning to, depending on. I still didn’t know what to tell
Peter, if anything, and my nerves were shot at the idea of
spying.

I tried
to distract myself with Carl. He looked a little better, and he
could sit up if I ordered him to, but he was still gravely ill. I
just hoped the blessing, whatever the hell it was, worked—and
fast.

Peter
took my hand away from Carl’s, surprising me. “You’re going to put
a dent in his hand doing that,” he chided before dropping my arm as
if it stung him. He turned his back and returned to the
all-important job of pacing the room.

The
tense atmosphere only tightened further when Gabe arrived. All four
of us stood around Carl, distrust thick in the air.

We
watched Gabe inspect Carl. He placed his hand on Carl’s forehead
and closed his eyes. His eyeballs moved under his lids as if he
searched for something. When he opened them, he looked
surprised.

“
What did you do to him?” he asked.

“
What do you mean?” That frightened me. Had I made him
worse?

“
There’s something… never mind. I can help him. The effect
won’t last long, but long enough for you to break your bond and
allow him to heal naturally. It’ll hurt him. True pain that he
won’t survive without help.”

“
We know,” I said, disliking the reminder. As if I could
forget. As if I wasn’t already dreading it.

“
Fine. Stay back, and you should probably keep your eyes
closed.”

I
couldn’t close mine. I had to see what happened. Gabe knelt by
Carl, his hands on Carl’s bare arm. He whispered, and his skin lit
up. At first, it was a barely noticeable glow, but the light grew
brighter until my eyes burned from it. I became used to the glare
and could see Gabe clearly. Similar to the shadows clutching to a
soul, except silvery white, they danced around him, streaming
lights that dove in and out of Carl’s body. Not at all malevolent,
the scene was breathtaking.

Gabe
noticed me staring. He beckoned me over and told me to hold Carl’s
other arm. With his free hand, he entwined his fingers with mine,
and white-hot heat spread up my arm. He kept whispering, and
slowly, the light passed into me, too. My skin lit up, just like
Gabe’s. It felt perfect, like one single harmonious moment in my
life, never to be had again. A kind of serenity flooded my mind,
and I gazed at Gabe in awe.

“
Give it to him,” Gabe told me. “Yours will be more potent for
him now.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I tried. Just as when I
had fed Carl my blood, I sensed something leaving me, as if I gave
him a part of me. When the light flowed into Carl, his skin looked
a little brighter, and his eyes opened. I caught a glimpse of a
particular look, a
have I died and gone to
heaven
sort of look, then he closed his
eyes again, and a smile creased his lips.

By the
time the light faded, my eyes were wet, because it was obvious the
blessing had worked, and I felt clean, purer. Carl looked so much
healthier, it was amazing.

“
Give him a day, then try to release him,” Gabe said, rubbing
his temples and looking absolutely drained. I felt a little shaky,
too.

I gazed
at Gabe in wonder, for the first time feeling something positive
toward him. Then, he ruined it. “Don’t forget you have work to do,”
he whispered.

“
You can open your eyes now,” he told Eddie and Peter before
he left, saying he needed rest. He looked so pleased with himself
at their thanks, but he hadn’t done it out of goodness. I knew he
had done it for personal gain. He wasn’t any better than most of
the beings in our world, even if he liked to think so.

Carl
awoke later that evening, and he seemed almost back to the way he
had been the first time I had made him mine. He no longer had to
lie in bed, and he got straight back into that annoying habit of
offering himself to me. Peter stuck around and helped with Carl,
but we still didn’t discuss the blood drinking. In fact, we didn’t
talk at all. Perhaps that was for the best.

In
preparation for the bond breaking, Eddie left us to buy some
“special” items that would help Carl deal with the pain. Carl fell
asleep, and Peter watched the shop, so I was soon restless. A
draft—or maybe a helpful spirit—opened the bedroom door, and I felt
drawn to the landing. Or perhaps I just tried to convince myself it
was an invitation.

I moved
down the hall and jumped when Eddie’s bedroom door burst open. A
breeze blew around my neck, and I could have sworn I felt a little
push on my back. Hesitantly, because Eddie would probably strike me
down if he caught me, I crept into his room, surprised by the small
size. The spare bedroom was much bigger.