The Council had made it their mission to train me in accepted methods of fighting. That required a partner to spar against. Finding anyone willing to fight me, even sparring, had been surprisingly hard. Scaring anyone who tried to take on the job into giving up had been surprisingly amusing. Eddie had warned me to be docile, but in some ways, the idea I might be unpredictable kept me as safe as Peter. I was slowly earning myself a reputation, whether I liked it or not. People thought I could do something. What that was exactly, I didn’t have a clue.
“Stop making excuses. You’re training with me until we can figure out other arrangements. End of discussion.” He wouldn’t look at me, and I saw him taking on that stubborn streak of his, the one that made my life awkward whenever it showed itself. Spending so much time with him lately had been enlightening.
“I can’t train with you. You’re human. I’ll bite.” I flashed my fangs, but he ignored me. Getting a rise out of him was harder than it used to be. He was a lot less freaked out by my lack of humanity since we found out my mother had been an angel, of sorts.
“Did you at least learn anything new?”
I tried to think. Even my mistakes sometimes helped. “Her bite did something to me. Sort of paralysed me while she was biting. The pain was worse than a vampire bite but didn’t last as long.” I rubbed the still-tender scar on my hand.
“At least that’s something.” He didn’t sound impressed.
“And you were right. The cross still hurts her. Won’t kill her but could come in handy.”
“I’ll pass it on.” I glanced at him. Exactly how tied in with the Council was he? He had been our go-between most of the time, and I couldn’t tell if the Council wanted to keep their distance, or if Peter kept me away from them himself. I wasn’t sure if he was my babysitter or their spy. Either way, I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the setup. Still, working with him had proved far better than working with the Guardians the Council had tried to lumber me with in the first few nights.
“Something else,” I said, remembering. “Don’t spread this around, but the dagger doesn’t work on her.”
He almost swerved, and I steadied the steering wheel, rolling my eyes at his overly-dramatic reaction.
“What do you mean, it doesn’t work on her?” He had been counting on the dagger keeping me out of trouble. I could see it in his eyes. He thought I was screwed without it. Maybe I was.
“It hurts her, but not like the vampires. It doesn’t burn her; she’s not afraid of it. Keep it to yourself.”
“You know I will, Ava. But we need to figure this out.”
I didn’t bother answering, and he tutted his disapproval. I closed my eyes and let the movement of the car buoy me into a relaxed state until we got to my place.
Peter pulled in right outside my building. I stepped out of the car, but he followed and made me face him. I couldn’t look him in the eye anymore. We’d had too many intense moments together for me to be totally comfortable with him. His ordinary hazel eyes seemed capable of reading my soul. I wasn’t sure he’d see anything good.
He laid a hand on my shoulder. “You can’t push us all away. Not when you’re like this. Even Carl can sneak up on you. We’re worried about you. You’re making too many mistakes, and if you don’t want to talk to us, we can’t make you. But training might help you focus. Help you forget about everything.”
I stared at the scar on his chin, wondering for the millionth time what had caused it. Peter’s solid presence comforted me, but I couldn’t forget how Esther had warned me about him. I could never truly trust him because, in some ways, I was his enemy. Peter made sure I knew he would sacrifice me if it meant getting to the demon who had taken his son and murdered his family. I understood his bitterness, especially now that I had more than my fair share of things to be bitter about.
I had so much I wanted to say, but my weaknesses were my own to shield. I couldn’t find the words, so I simply nodded and turned my back on him. He didn’t follow, and I was glad.
Although it was dark, no vampires lurked outside my home. The Council had put an end to that drama. I wasn’t exactly grateful because, like the vampires, they could turn on me at any time. As soon as I stopped being useful. And I hadn’t been particularly useful so far. Becca had been murdering people for close to a month. The papers screamed, “Serial killer,” the Gardaí remained baffled, and the members of the Guardian Circles who came across Becca ended up dead, mostly.
I was the one Becca feared, the one who had the least trouble finding her trail. I was the only one who had fought her more than once.
I had no idea why I kept surviving, why I kept finding her, why I was able to do what trained Guardians couldn’t. Even the vampires hadn’t been able to track her down. I shouldn’t have been surprised when the Council called me in to help.
Hunting Becca gave me a purpose, but all of the things I had learned about myself still tormented me. The presence that followed me around had disappeared weeks prior, and I spent too much time alone in my own head. I’d let my business fall apart, but I didn’t urgently need the money because the Council’s payment had been more than enough to cover my rent for a few months. A whispering voice kept calling me a sell-out.
Opening the door to my flat, I caught a noxious whiff of my slutty next-door neighbour’s perfume and hurried inside before I inhaled too much of it. I cleaned my wounds quickly, wincing at the sting of Eddie’s special ointment. It worked fast, so I wouldn’t need to wear a bandage for more than a couple of days. Swallowing two of his disgusting, but effective, green homemade painkillers, I felt better within minutes.
Changing into a pair of fleece pyjamas and disposing of yet another pair of ruined jeans, I cursed the ridiculous chill of Irish spring. My flat had to be in the coldest, darkest pocket of the city.
Husky noises filtered through the thin walls of the flat. I knew my neighbour was having one of those nights, so I sat by the window and used my other sense to search the nearby world. Touching the supernatural domain with an ability I couldn’t explain bordered on addictive. I reached out further every time. I had no idea if the things I could do came from a vampire or an angel. Or if they were my own special brand of strange.
I didn’t know who I was anymore.
Miles away, I found Becca alongside a rapidly fading human. I couldn’t bring myself to care.
Chapter Two
I experienced a fit of nerves on the way to Folsom’s place to pick up the money he owed Daimhín. Her day assistant, Yvonne, had sent me a particularly snippy text at the last minute about the pick-up. Though I knew Peter and Yvonne’s story, and even felt sorry for them both, I didn’t think I could ever quite trust the woman. Something about her rang my alarm bells. Lots of things about Peter should have done the same but never seemed to make it.
I hadn’t come face to face with Daimhín since the trial and didn’t know if she still held a grudge. It wasn’t my fault that she was exposed and betrayed in a matter of hours. If anything, I should have held a grudge against her, the way she had connived with her vampire progeny, Gideon, to set me up. The fact that he had betrayed her, too, just seemed like sweet, sweet justice.
I didn’t think Daimhín would hurt me, not while the Council’s light shone on me, but once the Becca situation was sorted, I was pretty sure I became fair game again. I didn’t know why Daimhín didn’t publicly get rid of me. Maybe it was the dodgy Nephilim thing. Maybe she knew all along what I was, and there was some rule about her disposing of me. Maybe she had other plans for me. Whatever it was, she obviously thought it better to have me working for her than against her.
Folsom’s place was shrouded in darkness, except for a tiny flickering light in the cottage next to the garage. Rapping hard on the front door, I waited for some grumpy goblin attitude.
Folsom inched the door open after a few minutes, seemingly surprised to see me.
“You,” he said, his breath coming out in a gasp. “Thought you were dead by now.”
“Still breathing.” I laid my hands on my hips. “Money?”
“Aye, aye, that bitch would send you along again. After last time, I thought for sure I was done with her.” He sighed loudly as he struggled to open a locked desk drawer in the dark hallway. His gnarled fingers shook as he finally managed to turn the key. He pulled out a bag and handed it to me, staring right in my face. “Don’t worry, ‘tis all there.”
His prolonged stare freaked me out. “What?”
“Ah, ‘tis just you’re not what we expected, after all. I take it you’re the one taking care of the new beast then?”
His accent was suddenly stronger, more defined. I wondered at that.
“The new beast?” Was there an old beast? “Suppose I am. Have to find her first, though.” I played dumb, not revealing that I’d missed my chance at taking care of Becca more than once.
“Not ‘round here,” he said, his tone abrupt.
I narrowed my eyes. “What’s that about? What are you hiding?”
“Nowt, don’t start getting on at me now. Go on, I know you’ve to get back to that bitch. Run along before she thinks I didn’t pay up.”
I couldn’t shake the feeling in my gut that I needed to do something, look around or figure out something, but he was right, I had to deliver the payment. I turned around at the gate and looked back at Folsom, who still stood in his doorway, watching me.
“I’ll be back, Folsom. Remember that.”
He nodded and closed the door. Hesitating, I gave a quick glance with my other sense and saw… nothing. Folsom’s place was a big black ball of nothing. No energy, no life, nothing. Very few people knew about my other sense, so someone having a way of hiding themselves from it interested me.
A bit of dread ate at me because the darkness had a familiar feel to it, one I couldn’t place, but I left more intrigued than worried. I was pretty sure Folsom held secrets in his garage—I highly doubted he could actually hold a wrench with those crooked, rheumatoid fingers—but I doubted any of them pertained to Becca. Folsom was probably on edge because he reckoned I worked for the Council.
I hurried to Daimhín’s place, eager to get the job over and done. Rose, the loyal human pet, let me in, but she stared at me with pure hatred in her eyes. I didn’t get why the vampires attracted so many insanely devoted humans. Rose wasn’t enthralled. She served Daimhín by choice. I would never understand it.
She led the way into Daimhín’s living room, and I found myself surrounded by vampires. They stared at me, some in awe, others with more anger than anything else. The hairs on my arms stood at the sensation their emotions invoked. The vampires began whispering, and I whipped my head around to make sure none had slipped up behind me.
To my left, Zion nodded at me, his wild hair drawing my attention. If any of the coven were ever sent to attack me, I guessed he would be Daimhín’s assassin of choice.
Daimhín stood by the mantelpiece, so still she resembled a statue.
“Ms. Delaney.” She cocked her head and gave a little hiss that silenced the entire room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jules creep toward me.
“Jules!” Daimhín’s voice was harsh enough to send the warped vampire hurtling backward, where he hid behind the legs of a little girl. Or what had once been a little girl. Eloise stroked Jules’s hair and eyed me carefully. I wondered what her pink-tinged eyes saw in me.
I’d learned she was the Seer, the one who first saw me coming. I looked back on her words in a different light since then. I would have treasured a long conversation with her, but she was rarely alone. Someone had once paid a lot of money for a child psychic they could turn into a vampire, so letting her tell the future for free probably wasn’t one of Daimhín’s favourite things to do.
“I apologise. The children can never behave,” Daimhín said, referring to the fact that Jules was merely a century old and one of the last vampires to be turned. He wasn’t quite the same quality as the rest of the coven.
I took a deep breath and strode straight over to Daimhín, surprised by the gasps of alarm from some of the vampires I passed. As if I could ever be a match against her. I handed her the bag of money, but she didn’t bother counting it. She, in turn, handed me a crisp white envelope.
“Payment… for your services.”
“Oh. Thanks.” Her change of heart surprised me. I hadn’t thought that even the Council’s warning would force her to pay me. I turned to leave, but Daimhín stopped me.
“I would like to reassure you, Ms. Delaney. You are not in danger from any of my coven. We respect your attempts at capturing the… creature my child created. I’m only thankful that Eloise persuaded me you were meant to survive. If I had known…” She shook her head. “If you need any assistance, it’s here for you. I’m sure my coven will be a better match than that human.” She spat out the last word as if it tasted bad in her mouth.
“Well, your coven hasn’t managed to catch her yet, so I think that human will do fine.”
If Daimhín had been human, her face would probably have turned purple with rage. As it was, her eyes narrowed, and her glare sent shivers running up my spine. Her burgundy eyes were filmy, I realised, probably due to her age. Streaks of blue tried to shine through the murky red, something I had noticed with very few vampires. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Daimhín's, then surprisingly, she pulled back, inclining her head in agreement.
“Vampires created this problem, yet we’re unable to solve it. The creature is loyal to no one and pauses for nothing. It’s strong, fast, and wild with thirst. The only positive note is that this creature is alone, a solitary accident.”
“The only one so far,” I reminded her. In Ireland, there had been two other candidates. One had been captured on the very same night Becca had mutated. The other hadn’t been seen since. Besides that, batches of formula had probably been sent to other covens around the world. They still hadn’t been accounted for, and I dreaded the possible consequences. Becca was enough monster for me.
“We haven’t come across any others, and Europe is on watch. It will be near impossible for that formula to change hands. I’ve been in touch with other elder vampires around the world. We’re all of the opinion that this was a foolish mistake by an over-eager power hunter. Nothing more. The situation’s contained.”
I didn’t respond, but as I left the coven’s home, I couldn’t help thinking that her words meant she wasn’t taking the possible threat seriously. There could be an army of creatures—beasts—just like Becca. If the vampires themselves didn’t investigate the effects of the formula, then we had no chance of preparing ourselves for the repercussions. The vampires were too busy trying to exchange blame and wash their hands of Becca. The elder vampires were simply too arrogant to believe that other vampires might be willing to use creatures like Becca in an effort to usurp the controlling covens. Elder vampires like Daimhín dictated how much blood each coven was allocated; rogue vampires wanting that control back didn’t surprise me.
The only reason Gideon hadn’t been imprisoned or staked was because the Council needed his help with capturing Becca and providing information on the formula. The Council members weren’t exactly forthcoming with new information, and that bothered me a great deal. I didn’t even know if the captured candidate was dead or alive. Or the subject of experiments.
Flashes of memories came to mind—a supernatural being in the Council’s underground cells, willing to die a horrible death rather than face the Council. My instincts hummed, and I felt a spark of life I hadn’t in a while, not since I’d found out my true heritage. Impure nephal. Tainted offspring of an angelic being. The rare earthbound seraphim like my mother could bear warriors whom angels would command on Earth. The tainted could be used as a weapon by light or dark, which was exactly what the ancient vampires didn’t want. And exactly what others wanted desperately.
Like others, my mother had been targeted and bitten during her pregnancy. After her death, my grandmother had somehow managed t
o raise me without drawing attention from the vampires who would have killed or kidnapped me. I had become an unpredictable being universally perceived to be a threat because I hadn’t yet matured, therefore, I could still pick a side. Whatever that really meant.
All I had focused on were the lies I’d been told and the mistakes I’d unwittingly made. The task of hunting down Becca had been pushed on me before I could deal with the consequences of my trial. I still hadn’t sorted through my feelings.
I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I almost missed Carl leaving my building. I was still at the other end of the street and assumed he’d come to visit me, so I rang his mobile and watched as he took it out of his pocket then ignored the call.
“What the hell?” I had no idea what that was about. It was definitely Carl. He had been my minion for a time, had healed me with his blood, and even tried to help during my trial. I knew the man by heart.
He had been inside my building. Of that, I was certain. As I let myself into my flat, I inhaled deeply and was sure his scent lingered in the air. If he had come to see me, why wouldn’t he answer the phone?
I rang Peter. I wasn’t sure why. Something bugged me. Then again, a lot of things were unsettling me of late, and I hadn’t been giving anything my full attention. I had a sick feeling that life had been passing me by while I was busy feeling sorry for myself. That had to change.
“Is Carl with you?” I asked when he answered, just to see what he would say.
“No, I think he said he was going to see his parents tonight. Why?”
I hesitated and decided not to make anything of it. Peter seemed to think I had serious ownership issues with Carl, but my overblown concern was part of the remnants of our previous bond. Still, I didn’t want another lecture about boundaries. “Nothing, doesn’t matter. Do you know a goblin called Folsom? Owns a garage.”
“I’m not sure. All of those goblins look the same to me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Nice, Peter. I better go.”