Taste

by Claire Farrell

  I ran my hands through my hair. “Nothing much. He said he was taking Emmett away, and the kid basically threatened to kill him.” Silence loomed. I made a face. “Yeah, well, the kid has been in Hell most of his life. Whaddya expect?”

  Gabe looked uncomfortable. “The Council want to see you. To regroup.”

  “Who needs regrouping? Pretty sure we’re winning,” I said lightly, but I turned away and pressed my palms against the counter.

  “Ava, last night was them gathering strength. More will come, stronger than ever,” Gabe said, but his voice was kinder than usual.

  In fact, he had been a lot nicer to me lately. Everyone had. No, not nicer. That was the wrong word. Everyone had been deferring to me, as if there was a silent message going around that I was in charge. I didn’t want to be in charge, but somehow, it kept being me coming up with ideas, me putting myself at the front of everything. And that was why Peter was taking Emmett away.

  There was always a price to pay.

  “I don’t think I should be anywhere near the Council,” I said.

  “They’re not angry,” Gabe said. “At least, not all of them. Honestly? The PR on this alone has been amazing. I mean, amazing. We’ve been getting reports of other beasts around the country being defeated by humans and supernaturals. People are actually working together, Ava. You did it.”

  “I did nothing. I can’t believe anyone listened. I mean, I can’t believe they thought I was telling the truth. I assumed it would end up as one of those myths. Some kind of…” I waved my arm, losing the thought.

  “Shay made a statement,” Carl said. “In his uniform.”

  “Which was hot, by the way,” Esther said, winking at me.

  “He made it sound as though he were speaking on behalf of the police force,” Carl continued. “Because he was with the same gardaí who were at the flats with you. They gave exclusive interviews, eyewitness reports, all kinds of legit crap. Wear a uniform, and people believe every word, apparently.”

  “Let me guess, the only interviews were with the people who were at the flats and stuck in the church,” I said, grinning.

  “At first, yeah,” Carl replied. “But then reports started coming in from everywhere, and some Chief Superintendent made a statement, too. Nobody can ignore it now. Everyone’s talking. It’s crazy out there, Ava.”

  “You’re famous,” Esther said.

  “So did I balls up or do a good thing?” I asked, confused.

  “That depends on who you speak to,” Gabe said, glaring at Esther. “Come to the Council with me, Ava. It’s a war. We’re all on the same side in this.”

  “So they can arrest her?” Val asked in her low voice. “Throw her in the cells again, just as they did to Leah?”

  “I won’t allow it,” Gabe said.

  “And what if they want to arrest both of you?” Esther asked. “What if this is a trick?”

  “They can’t let Ava stay underground,” he said simply. “They need her to fight.”

  “I can’t go until Peter comes back,” I said. “In case… I just can’t.”

  “Somebody get that idiot back here,” Gabe said. “We don’t have a lot of time. We’ve heard rumours that even more are coming tonight. Vampires, too. Last night was but a taster.”

  “Where did the rumours come from?” I asked.

  Gabe’s smirk was annoyingly smug. “The BVA aren’t the only ones capable of buying off traitors. We’re confident that we’ll hear plenty in advance.”

  “I think there were more vampires around last night,” I said, remembering. “That’s the only thing I can think of to explain how the beasts ended up where they did.”

  “Are they truly trainable, I wonder?” Gabe said. “Able to follow a master?”

  “They seem in a better state than Becca,” I said. “She was falling apart by the end. Her hair, her skin. She decayed. Most of the new beasts have been male and in good shape. Large, strong. But not as strong as Becca. They’re too contained. Yeah, they have lapses, but they aren’t as uncontrollable as Becca, which is almost better for us. I reckon they were fighters even before the formula. Plenty of them seemed able to concentrate, despite the massive amount of walking blood bags around them. This is a big plan. A well thought out plan.”

  “You don’t take over a country with anything less,” Gabe said. “We need to speak to the Council, Ava. Convince them to cover more areas with Guardian protection. I’ve managed to keep a Guardian near your grandmother and one close to Shay Whelan. He might be important. He’s been heard now. It’ll be harder for those in charge to shut him up. This might have saved his life.”

  Or dragged him further into trouble. “I’ll get ready to leave, but I’m not going until Peter’s back. I need to speak to him.”

  When I finished getting ready, Peter still hadn’t shown up, so I made the rounds around the cul-de-sac, making sure everyone felt safe, but still remained on their guard. Anka had Mrs. Yaga laid out in her bedroom, but the body was going to be burned in the cul-de-sac. A flaming sending-off. Anka said it was tradition. I didn’t want to be there, but I would have to stand strong. That was what Gabe had said, anyway. He became impatient, following me listlessly as I chatted with the people.

  “It gave me chills when I saw it on the news,” Ry said, clasping my hand. “If only you had come along earlier.”

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when the beast attacked,” I said.

  “No, no. That’s not what I mean. I meant came along to us earlier. You’ve helped change our lives. We were lost before.”

  I shook my head in confusion. “Um, yeah. I should keep moving, make sure everyone’s doing okay.”

  He smiled at me. “We knew we wouldn’t all survive, Ava, but you’ve given us a better chance.”

  As Gabe led me away, I felt weird. Lots of different things were happening, but I felt something happening to me, and I wasn’t quite sure what that was.

  “We should get serious about training,” I said. “More practice would go a long way.”

  “Let’s hope they won’t need it. Maybe they won’t if today goes well. This meeting with the Council needs to be friendly,” Gabe said. “Be your usual self by all means, but try to compromise this time. We need them.”

  “And they need us. Is anyone else coming?”

  He hesitated. “I didn’t think it would be safe. Someone involved with the Council still wants the people here to be taught a lesson.”

  “Think it’s Reuben?”

  He frowned. “It looks likely, but why would Guardians be loyal to him? He was tolerated rather than liked. We still don’t know who to trust, and we’re not forgetting that. We’re just getting past this one, rather large, obstacle before we deal with it. But keep an eye out. You’re the one who keeps telling me how everything is connected. Let’s not forget there’s a chance someone in the Council will turn traitor and publicly side with the BVA.”

  “Why would anyone want to side with Winston and his loony crew?”

  “A better offer than they have now. More power, perhaps. Reuben was likely the first, but he may not be the last.”

  “Who is most likely to be unhappy?”

  “Elathan is unhappy to be under a fae. Eddie is obviously unhappy with the Council in general. I no longer trust the witch. Erossi would never say no to more of anything. There’s always the chance that the BVA will leave Ireland alone once they’ve taken us over. They could promise to leave one person in charge in their place.”

  “No more Council. That could suit anyone.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Shit. Why can’t anything be easy?”

  He laughed. “Says the queen of complications. I think you were right to be concerned about your boy. And the other children.”

  “Yeah. This morning was a little unnerving all right.”

  “So he’s leaving then?”

  I nodded, my throat getting annoyingly tight again. “They’re both going.”

  “I’m not tr
ying to anger you, but can you handle it, Ava?”

  I glanced at him and saw he was concerned, so I shrugged. “I’ll keep pushing, if that’s what you mean. No giving up.”

  He sighed, with relief, I thought. “Good. Honestly, I feared that would be a step too far for you. Too much for you to handle. I’m glad you’re not that kind of female.”

  I raised a brow.

  “One who collapses for the sake of their heart. You’re stronger than that. I’m glad of it.”

  I wasn’t so sure. “How come you’ve been so helpful lately?”

  “You have a power over me that nobody else has. How am I to know you wouldn’t harm one of your humans just to punish me?”

  “Are you serious? Goddamnit, Gabe. I would never… you’re an idiot!”

  He grinned, and I shoved him to make my point.

  “Our agendas lead to the same outcome,” he said. “Me coming out of this alive. The humans might be your soft spot, or you might be lulling all of us into a false sense of security. You might be smarter than all of us realised.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was joking or just fucking with me. There was a lot I couldn’t tell about Gabe. My phone rang, and when I answered, I heard my grandmother’s voice calling my name over and over again.

  “Nancy? Are you okay?”

  There were a few muffled sounds, and Wesley came on the phone, apologising profusely.

  “Sorry, she’s been having a bad day. She saw the news and freaked out. She’s confused about keeping secrets.”

  “Oh, shit. I’m so sorry. I should have warned you.”

  “So it’s true? All of it?”

  “Yeah, it’s true.”

  He sucked in a breath. “So you bit me? That’s what happened that night?”

  “I’m sorry, Wes. I can’t deal with this now. I promise you, when this is over, we’ll talk, and I’ll explain more.”

  “Of course. I saw… stay safe. I still care about you.” He hung up.

  My head spun with confusion. Everything was catching up to me, and I didn’t know what problem to deal with first.

  Peter returned soon afterward, that determined look back on his face.

  “We need to talk,” I said, but Gabe interfered.

  “We need to see the Council,” he insisted.

  Peter glanced at him, ready to bark back, but then he deflated and nodded. “Go. We’ll talk later or in the morning.”

  We briefly touched fingers as Gabe led me away. I looked back over my shoulder, but Peter wasn’t watching me leave, and my heart cracked a little.

  I was quiet in Gabe’s car as he drove me to the headquarters. I didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to be near anyone who had even the slightest chance of being the one person we were up against when the BVA went away.

  “No need to be nervous.”

  I glanced at Gabe before realising my knee was jumping up and down. “Not nervous. Annoyed.”

  “That might be worse,” he teased.

  “What the hell do they want with me anyway? We all know we hate each other. Why can’t they leave me out of their stupid meetings?”

  He sighed. “It’s on days like this that I truly realise how young you are, Ava. Stop acting like a sulky teenager for five minutes and tell me what’s really bothering you.”

  “It’d take more than five minutes.” But I grinned at him.

  “He might not leave,” Gabe said. “Whatever he thought this morning, you are the child’s safest option. Who is going to fight harder for him than you? But if he leaves, I can’t protect either of them. You understand? The deal can’t carry on as is.”

  “I know.” I resisted the urge to kick something. “He’s right to leave. I have brought trouble. I don’t see where it ends. As soon as I get close to having room to breathe, something bigger comes along. Everything seems like the worst thing that could happen, and then, whoops, here comes something with even greater potential to be monumentally life-changing.”

  “Nothing continues forever. And really, you’re usually the one saying it’s urgent and a huge deal. Your concerns are mostly petty.”

  I gazed at him in disbelief.

  He cocked his head. “Granted, this war we seem to be in is a pretty big deal.”

  “How are we doing? How did the rest of the country do?”

  “While you were sleeping?” he said. “You seem tired a lot lately.”

  “Not eating enough, probably.”

  “Well, it didn’t go too badly. Given the circumstances, anyway. In fact, it probably went a lot better than either the Council or the BVA expected.” He smirked. “That showed them.”

  “Who’s a teen now? So on a scale of one to ten, how pissed are they that I blabbed to the entire country?”

  “It wasn’t just you,” he said. “You started the ball rolling, of course, so that puts you in their crosshairs. But there’s been a surprising amount of others revealing themselves to the people around them. In fact, a certain brothel of succubi have reportedly been making a fortune since last night, once they began advertising the truth.”

  “Typical.”

  “You’re safe today,” he said, pulling in at last. “But don’t expect that to continue on for too long afterward.”

  We got out, me trailing behind him as we walked up to a barn. Two Guardians stood outside, one of them raising a brow at the sight of me, but they let us pass. Gabe used an old-fashioned key to open the door. We moved in a downward spiral through repetitive white hallways.

  “They’re really hiding out,” I commented as we went through yet another door only to walk down another hallway.

  “Fear,” he replied.

  “You could hide out with them,” I said.

  “And miss everything?”

  Something told me that was the exact thing he would have done if I hadn’t tricked him into a deal with me. But I hadn’t expected so much devotion to the cause, and I wondered if he might be secretly enjoying himself. “I think people will like you better for this,” I said coyly.

  He made a noncommittal sound, but I saw the barest smile curve his lips.

  We finally found the right meeting room, and I hoped Gabe planned on leading me back out of there before dark. Everyone’s eyes trained on me when we entered the room, and I noted the varying reactions.

  Eddie had a small smile on his face, Marina didn’t seem at all affected by the attacks, and Elathan looked curious. Aiden and Erossi appeared angry, Koda calm, and Fionnuala looked even more hateful than usual. I was surprised to see all of the Council members and Consultants—except Reuben. His absence was a reminder that nobody could be trusted.

  Gabe gestured for me to take a seat to his right at the circular table, with Eddie to my right. Fionnuala sat directly across from me, and her eyes bored into me as if she thought they could physically stop my heart.

  Erossi sneered. “So it finally arrived.”

  I couldn’t wait to get rid of him. “Let’s skip the crap and get to the point for a change,” I snapped, ignoring Gabe’s sigh. “What do you want?”

  “Watch your words,” Erossi said.

  “Why? Everyone knows you’re all too cowardly to do anything, hiding away down here while the rest of the country fights for their lives.” I rose to my feet, unable to stop my voice from rising.

  Erossi stood too, leaning over the table to glare at me. “You haven’t seen a thing yet.”

  “I’m terrified. Truly. Is that what you wanted me here for? Can I go now? In case you haven’t heard, I have people to help protect. A war to fight.”

  “Oh, sit down. Both of you,” Koda said wearily. He didn’t look well, but he hadn’t deteriorated so badly that I would think his death was as imminent as Lucia had shown me recently. I tried to work out that puzzle as I took my seat.

  Erossi hesitated for a couple of seconds before sitting down. I tried not to laugh. It probably wouldn’t be appropriate, and Gabe was already nudging me under the table.

  “Ava, we sa
w what you did last night,” Koda said, “or at least some of it. We’re glad you were able to control the beast situation, but did you really have to go to the media in such a way? There are better ways to deal with that sort of thing.” His voice was calm, but his expression didn’t look particularly unhappy.

  “Yes. Yes, I did. You lot weren’t doing anything to help. What was I supposed to do? Walk away and let them all die? Pretend like nothing weird was happening?”

  “That’s exactly what you should have done!” Fionnuala shrieked, and my hair went static. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but I couldn’t let that intimidate me.

  “Okay, Team Stupid, you know that when the beasts are done with the humans you’ll be next, right? The only way, and I really mean the only way, we can protect ourselves from the BVA is if the entire country is prepared to fight back. And guess what? Now they are. And an even bigger guess what? Now we’re winning.” I gazed at their blank faces, then muttered, “Fuckwits,” and sat back down.

  “She’s right. Forget about the words she uses and listen to her point,” Gabe said. “We destroyed a large number of beasts. Humans managed to take down some of the beasts. Do you not recall the destruction a single one of these creatures caused us? If this was allowed to get out of hand, we might never recover.”

  Fionnuala looked disgusted, but Koda nodded enthusiastically. “It has been interesting to see the reaction,” he said. He looked at me. “I can see why you have respect for the humans now. They fought hard, if what I’ve been hearing is true.”

  “It wasn’t just the humans!” Fionnuala lost her temper yet again. The room chilled, and I waited for the real sticking point to come out. “She was with rebels. People we need to either arrest or put in captivity.”

  “Was Esther harmed?” Aiden asked abruptly, surprising me.

  I stared at him, trying to figure out his angle. “She’s fine. She fought hard. She saved a lot of people from death last night.”

  He nodded, his eyes grateful, although that simmering anger still rolled from him. No shadows though, and I couldn’t understand that. How could he and Esther be so very different? The shifter alpha confused me almost as much as Gabe did.

  “They will hit back harder next time,” Elathan said. “They won’t give up after one night of small battles.”