Taunt

by Claire Farrell

  “Wait!” I shouted and moved through the flames, but it was too late. She was already turning. Her eyes grew wide as she clutched her chest, everyone near her backing away at the guttural sounds emitting from her throat.

  Every single person in the vicinity froze and stared at Becca. She gagged, then opened her mouth wide as her fangs emerged. I watched in morbid fascination as she threw her head back and shrieked like a banshee, saliva dripping from her mouth. She didn’t look like Becca any longer. Nor did she look like a vampire.

  The shrieking stopped, and she snapped her head around to take in the room—faster than a vampire. She hacked out a hoarse sound that sent shivers down my spine. The silence in the room was overpowering. Everyone watched in morbid fascination, waiting to see what would happen next.

  She crouched low, her lips curved back to reveal a full set of fangs. A Guardian broke out of the spell and took a step toward her, but she leapt onto his shoulders and ripped off his head with one twist of her hands. He probably hadn’t even seen her jump; his head was flung across the room into a crowd of people.

  Someone screamed, and everyone moved away from Becca in a single mass. I ran straight for her, reaching out my arm, but she looked me right in the eye, gave a little howl, and ran outside, knocking over half a dozen people in her path to block me from following. Some Guardians pulled me back to the circle of flames I had just passed through without a burn.

  “We have to go after her!” I shouted, but most of the room was too stunned to move.

  “Find her,” Koda demanded at long last, but she was gone; I knew that. They hadn’t acted quickly enough. And she wasn’t like the other vampires. Who knew what kind of destruction she might cause? I gazed at Peter, who looked as horrified as I felt.

  “They’ll take care of it,” Erossi said of the group who had run out of the room after Becca. He ignored the Guardian who had been beheaded, even as a number of workers cleaned up the mess. The body was carried away without ceremony.

  “Now to the last charge,” Koda said, his voice trembling. “The issue of a daywalker in our midst.”

  The others took longer to gather themselves. Finally, Fionnuala nodded. “I would like to inspect her.” She gestured toward me. The magical flames disappeared, not that they could harm me after all, and the Guardians escorted me to Fionnuala. I knelt before her, and she placed one cool hand on my head. I closed my eyes, feeling dizzy, until she finished whatever she was doing.

  “That’s enough,” she said, her voice suddenly hoarse. “She’s blocking me.”

  “I’m not,” I whispered.

  “I would like to inspect her, too,” Gabe said, and curled his finger to call me over. I stepped toward him apprehensively.

  He placed his hands on my shoulders and made me kneel before him. I gazed up at him, but he didn’t meet my eyes. Instead, he lifted the chain around my neck and fingered the cross. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at the other members of the Council. A hushed silence fell over the proceedings.

  Gabe lifted my chin with one fingertip and peered into my eyes. I felt naked before him, like he could see every bit of me, under my skin, into my heart. Eddie wanted me to be vulnerable before them, and now he had his wish. I couldn’t look away from Gabe; I felt trapped in his gaze.

  My skin warmed, and Gabe’s eyes turned white. I exhaled heavily when the light poured out of him. It slid into me, wrapping me in ribbons of heat, and I felt him probing my mind. I panicked and fought back, resistant to the last, pushing him away until the probing stopped. Gabe made a choking noise and stepped back, letting go of my chin. He blinked, and his eyes were back to normal, but loud gasps behind me made me take my eyes from him.

  They all stared, everyone in the room. I looked down at myself; my skin had lit up from within. A question rose to my lips, but Gabe dismissed me back to the ring of flames before I could give it voice.

  “I’d like to hear from everyone, I think.” Fionnuala’s voice wobbled.

  “We claim her as our own, a daywalker,” the vampire consultant said. Fionnuala nodded her acceptance of his claim, but a frown remained on her brows.

  “I disagree,” Gabe said, standing up. I glanced at Eddie, but he didn’t seem surprised at all. “She is no daywalker.”

  Erossi arched a brow. “How can you be so sure?”

  Gabe let out a sigh and kept his eyes on me. “Because my brother attended her birth.”

  I searched his face for an answer to that statement, but he looked away and addressed the rest of the Council. “We claim her as our own.”

  Fionnuala stood and raised her hand. “All spectators must leave. Now.”

  Internally, I was freaking out. How could they carry on so calmly when Becca had turned into a monster in front of their eyes? How could I stand there so calmly when Gabe had said something so huge?

  After a few minutes, where everyone except for my friends, the Council, the Consultants, and the Guardians were ushered out of the room, Fionnuala sat down again. “Speak on, Gabe. What is this about?”

  He stared at me before sighing and rolling his eyes. “I know what she is.”

  “We’re waiting,” Fionnuala snapped, but she twisted her robe in her hands. I held my breath, sensing the gravity of his words.

  “She is an impure nephal. Not yet matured, but a nephal all the same. Or rather, would have been if Seth had left things alone.” He shook his head, his mouth twisting into a grim smile.

  What. The. Hell?

  “Here?” Fionnuala sounded horrified. “That can’t be! What are the odds?”

  “It’s of no matter,” Erossi said. “We need to make a decision. If ever anything upset the balance, it is this creature.”

  “She is the balance.” Gabe’s words were low, but there was a finality to them that I didn’t understand. In fact, I didn’t understand anything they were saying.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Fionnuala glared at me.

  “Tell you what? I’ve no clue what the hell is going on!” I snapped back, impatient at being the last to know something they all seemed familiar with.

  “She is ignorant,” Gabe said, but this time his look was pitying.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered to Eddie.

  “I warned you to prepare yourself for surprises,” he murmured under his breath.

  “We have other issues to deal with,” Gabe said. “It’s time to end this madness.”

  “Madness?” Erossi snorted. “This is worse than we first thought.”

  “No,” Koda said softly. “This is much, much better. Think, Erossi. Think of what this could mean.”

  “I have thought.” Erossi’s haughty tone turned urgent. “I see what you don’t.”

  Koda waved his hand dismissively. “A vote?”

  Fionnuala nodded. “Consultants, what say you?”

  “She is harmless,” Eddie said. Aiden stood and claimed me as friend, not foe. The other consultants said they had no problems with me living. The witch wished me imprisoned instead. It moved onto the Council members themselves.

  “I don’t wish her to live,” Erossi voted.

  “I am keen to see what she brings to our world,” Koda proclaimed.

  “We wish her alive,” Gabe said, and he gave me a sweet, unexpected smile.

  Fionnuala was the decider. “After much thought, I believe she is more useful than dangerous. We will need more numbers soon.”

  Once they made their decision, it was over too quickly. I was left dizzy and flustered, not knowing what was happening. Most of the court cleared out quickly, ready to settle the Becca situation.

  Eddie took my hand and led me over to Gabe. “Speak to her,” he demanded before calling my grandmother to join us.

  “What were you talking about?” I demanded, fidgeting like mad.

  “I don’t have time for the whole saga,” he said. “You should be nephilim, but you’re an impure breed.”

  “I don’t know what that means!” My fingers trembled.
<
br />   “It means you’re not a daywalker, you’re not a vampire, and you’re not even human. Not really. Your father was human. Your mother was not.”

  “What are you on? Of course she was human,” I said. I looked at my grandmother and faltered. “She wasn’t?” I felt so confused. My grandmother shook her head and refused to meet my eyes.

  “What… what was she then?” I was afraid of the answer. “What’s going on?” My voice caught, and it seemed to bring out a softer side to Gabe.

  “When Lucifer abandoned heaven, he took some of his supporters with him. Without heaven, they lost their divinity and became wretches. He decided to punish God by adding a new predator to earth, one the humans couldn’t fight. Seth became the first vampire, and he made followers of his own. To balance it out, Michael rewarded seraphim with a life on Earth. They took human forms and performed the opposite job to vampires. They gave energy and light instead of taking it away.” Gabe looked at my grandmother with a strange gleam in his eyes.

  “When the seraphim bred with humans, they created nephilim—giants, warriors, those who would overthrow the darkness. But Lucifer sent Seth to destroy the seraphim. Their blood called to him, and he swam in it. Then he discovered that he could taint the nephilim… in the womb.”

  I wanted to vomit. I wanted to hear the rest of the story, but what I read between the lines terrified me.

  “His mission sent him all over the world, hunting down seraphim before they reproduced. Seraphim went into hiding because Seth was the dealer of death. He still creeps in the shadows, trying to find the light. He takes the tainted nephilim after their birth and sends them to live in the darkness. There are few seraphim now that the vampires have stopped multiplying, and the numbers of nephilim have dwindled. There were wars, and many were destroyed in the battles.” Gabe’s face darkened. “Your mother was a seraph who chose a female form. Seth came for her, but my brother was on his heels and helped hide you and your grandmother.”

  With a heavy heart, I turned to look at Nancy. She knew it all and had told me nothing. Everything was a lie.

  “So what’s the big deal then?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. “I’m still not one or the other, not much has changed then.”

  Gabe pressed his lips together and shook his head. “The big deal is unpredictability. The nephilim were made for war. Heaven’s soldiers who could walk the earth with their power intact. The impurity changes the extent of the power and who it can be used against. You still haven’t matured; you could be a danger to either side. Or both. Or neither.”

  “Are there more like me?”

  “I’m sure there are,” he said, surprising me. “The seraphim go to ground; they hide. Who knows what’s out there?”

  “My mother was an angel?” I couldn’t quite grasp it.

  “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.

  Epilogue

  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 f
rom 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.