Taste

by Claire Farrell

  The beast swung at me, walloping my face so hard, my head snapped back and blood flew out of my mouth. I released my fangs and bit a chunk out of a hand that got too close to my face on the beast’s attempt at a second swipe. The beast howled, and the shifters kicked at it.

  “Get out of here,” I shouted as the beast stomped on me.

  It leaped over the heads of the shifters. Jumping to my feet, I ran after the beast, but the shifter kids followed. The beast and I tussled again, and the shifters managed to grab her, pulling at her limbs, their eyes bright with adrenalin. Making the most of the situation, I ran the sword Val had loaned me through the beast’s neck. She gurgled for a few seconds, but a second strike straight through the skull finished her off.

  “That was so fucking cool,” a blood-splattered teen cried.

  I whipped out my phone and rang Aiden. “Hey, I need someone to come and pick up a gang of shifter kids. One’s called Tony. Yeah, I’ll hold them here. No worries.” I reached out and yanked back the only one stupid enough to make a move to run. I gave Aiden directions and forced the kids to sit on the curb while we waited. I didn’t have the heart to leave them alone in case another beast found them.

  I decided a good old lecture was in order. “You just made me rat on you to your alpha.” All of their faces paled. “Do you realise how stupidly dangerous that was? You could have been killed. While I’m babysitting you lot, innocent people could be dying because I’m not there to stop it. Have you ever—”

  “We did a good job though,” one of them said, grinning cheekily.

  “Yeah, thanks for the help, children,” I said, unable to keep from grinning back. “Now it’s way past your bedtime.”

  We exchanged banter until a riot van came by a half-hour later. A garda leaned out the window, eyeing the dead beast with disgust. “Heard you needed help with some delinquents.”

  “Ah, they helped kill a beast, so I’d say that gets them off the hook.”

  The gardaí guided the teens into the back of the van. I followed at a distance for a few minutes, just in case they had any trouble with beasts or teenage shifters.

  I called Shay. He had a few reports of attacks, but they were all being handled already.

  “Weird night,” I said. “Too many drips and drabs.”

  “Yeah, I expected more tonight. Aiden’s been telling me stories. Don’t know whether to believe half of them.”

  “I take it the riot van came from you.”

  “For the kids? Yeah, we were closer and—”

  Rapid voices in the background and static interrupted him.

  “You anywhere near the city?” he asked.

  “Not really. I can be soon enough.”

  “Get this. Beasts coming up from the ground in a park of all places. Aiden said you’re needed pronto.”

  “Like, tunnels? Where exactly am I heading?”

  He gave me vague directions, so I thanked him, hung up, and called Gabe to figure out what was going on.

  “Maybe it’s some abandoned tunnels,” he offered. “I’ve had no reports of the Council’s headquarters being breached.”

  “This is weird.”

  “Yeah. I’ll meet you there unless something else pops up.”

  Gabe asked me to meet him at the park, deep in the city centre. I ran there and waited for him outside the entrance. I heard no disturbance and saw no signs of a beast.

  When he arrived, I said, “Thought there was supposed be an attack here?”

  He frowned. “Me, too. Check your info. Mine can’t be trusted.”

  I gave Shay a quick call. “You sure about this place?” I asked him.

  “Aiden was pretty adamant that it’s hot. Something about a playground being the doorway.”

  I hung up and told Gabe what Shay had said.

  “So where’s the action then?” he asked, still frowning.

  “Should we go in?”

  “What? Underground?”

  “If we have to.”

  He swallowed hard. “Not sure that’s the greatest idea. We’ll go to the entrance though and see if anything else is coming through.”

  “Someone had to help them for this to happen,” I whispered as we approached the playground. The sand had been moved aside, revealing a hole in the ground. I could see something coming in my other sight, and I realised the beasts were still underground. That made less sense.

  “Get ready,” I said, feeling something right under me.

  The grass erupted as a clawed hand shot up and clutched my ankle. I tripped, knocking Gabe out of the way. The earth collapsed beneath me. I scrambled at the edges, reaching for Gabe’s outstretched hand as I kicked my way out of the beast’s grip.

  Grassy earth kept tumbling, forcing Gabe back onto solid ground. I slid halfway down, frantically trying to climb back up. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw an old tunnel, but it wasn’t the pristine white surface I had come to expect from the Council’s many passageways.

  The fallen earth blocked the way of most of the beasts, but some were free to clamber over each other to get to me. One yanked me on top of the rubble, and I was forced to fight hand to hand, choking on dirt and earth.

  “Ava!” Gabe called out.

  “Get ready to catch me,” I cried, coughing on soil I kept managing to swallow.

  I fought off one beast only to face two more. The others grew closer to breaking through the obstruction keeping me safe from their fangs. I knew I couldn’t fight them all at once, so my best bet was to hold off the first couple, then haul myself out of there.

  I heard Gabe shouting at somebody and assumed he was on the phone. I slashed out with the dagger and kicked beasts away, but one finally broke through the fallen debris, its arms reaching out as the mob of beasts at its back pressed against it. It grabbed my hair, catching me off-guard. I twisted and sliced with my dagger, cutting off some of my own hair along with a few of the beast’s fingers.

  Before the trapped beasts could free themselves completely, I quickly killed one foe, dodged the next, and scrambled up the side of the tunnel. A hand pulled me back down. I would never reach the top without getting bitten.

  Falling, I narrowly avoided my attacker’s fangs, fighting hard in the small space. The closer quarters were more to my advantage than the beasts’, and I somehow managed to break its neck. I pushed the body against the side of the destroyed tunnel and climbed higher. Hands grabbed at me as the beasts cleared away more of the debris, but I kept kicking and punching, doing whatever I could to get out of there and reach Gabe’s outstretched hands.

  Fangs sank into my side, which immediately went numb, and my eyes widened in shock.

  I hadn’t gotten the chance to say goodbye to Emmett.

  Gabe gripped my hands, and his mask slipped enough for me to see his fear. I was screwed. He got a good hold on me, but the paralysis was already creeping up my chest and shoulders.

  “I can’t hold on,” I whispered, feeling my arms go numb.

  “Close your eyes and use my light, Ava. Use it!”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, but I could still see golden lights shooting out of him. They warmed the parts of my body I could still feel. I knew I was dead weight hanging from Gabe’s fingers, pulling him down, too. I struggled to think, to use the light, control it somehow. I remembered the time Gabe and I had helped Carl, how the light had been part of me, too, and I tried to emulate that emotion. But I needed a weapon.

  With the last bit of my strength, I pushed hard with everything I had. I was on a different plane of existence, using magic that didn’t belong to me, turning what was pure into pain, and it worked.

  I heard screams from below and felt myself being hauled upward. I couldn’t speak, but I could still open my eyes. I saw rays of intense light shooting out of me and into the beasts. Their eyeballs exploded, and blood ran from their ears.

  They never stopped screaming, not even when Gabe let go of my hands and the light faded away. He kicked away the beast that had been hauled
up with me. It fell back down, screaming, screaming in my ear with a sound that never ended.

  I sensed my skin wrinkle from the amount of blood I’d lost, but as soon as the numbing stopped and I began to feel again, I realised I was okay. I hadn’t lost that much after all. My legs had been bitten, and my side was a mess, but I was alive. My face was wet, and when I wiped at it, my hands came away bloody.

  “You saved me,” I whispered.

  Gabe knelt next to me. “I told you I’ve always been one to make bad decisions.”

  Before I could speak again, a couple of gardaí showed up. Detectives, I figured, by the vests they wore. Two of them came over to the hole and shot every single one of the remaining beasts in the head.

  “They were already dying,” Gabe whispered to me, and I glanced at him, trying to say thank you. But then I realised he was pissed.

  “Where were you?” he demanded of the gardaí.

  “We were told to keep away, that this was already taken care of by your crowd,” one of the gardaí said.

  “This was a total fucking setup,” I whispered hoarsely, struggling to find my voice. I spat blood out of my mouth in disgust.

  “I hate to say it, but it looks that way,” Gabe said. “Reports of deaths, yet there was nothing going on when we got here. No signs of any kinds of struggles before we arrived.”

  “Well, it wasn’t our side,” the garda said calmly. “Need any more help? An ambulance maybe?”

  “Nah, I need to get back to it,” I said. But when I tried to sit up, I failed epically. “This is ridiculous.”

  “If you could help me carry her to my car without injuring her, I could take her home,” Gabe said. “She’ll be fine after a few hours.”

  “I don’t have a few hours,” I grumbled.

  “You’re no use to anyone with half your side gone,” Gabe snapped. “And I can’t help you now you’ve stolen all of my juice.”

  “I can’t control it!”

  “Maybe we should get you two out of here,” the garda said, exchanging glances with his colleagues.

  “Fine,” I grumped. “And tell Shay thanks a fucking lot for sending me out here.”

  I wasn’t altogether certain if it had been Shay sending me to my death, and I really didn’t care. With the paralysis fading, I hurt way too much. My side would heal, but I had wanted to stay out all night, just in case.

  “It’s late anyway,” Gabe said when I was deposited into his backseat. “You wouldn’t have missed much.”

  “Pity I couldn’t have missed that fiasco,” I muttered. “I could spit. Literally spit.”

  “Not in my car,” he said. He drove as fast as possible without careening all over the road, and his tension mirrored my own.

  “Thanks, Gabe.”

  He glanced at me in the mirror, worry plain in his eyes. I tried to shrug, but it took too much effort, so I lay as still as possible and concentrated on how good Gabe smelled. I liked to imagine it was the light inside him. But he was fallen. Maybe that made a difference.

  “Gabe?”

  “You shouldn’t speak.”

  “How come you weren’t sent to Hell? I mean because you’re a fallen angel.”

  He sighed. “This doesn’t look like Hell to you?”

  When we arrived at the cul-de-sac, Gabe leapt out of the car and banged on Anka’s door because he still couldn’t carry me. I didn’t know how he had managed to pull me out of that death trap.

  “Ridiculous night,” I mumbled, feeling dizzy.

  Val ran out of the house, closely followed by the twins. When they saw me, they winced, and I knew it had to look bad.

  “Take me anywhere but my place,” I whispered urgently. “I don’t want Emmett to see this.”

  Val nodded, and she and Lorcan carried me to the cottage Cam and Kate were staying in with Margie.

  Margie clucked sympathetically as I was carried onto her sofa. “Did yourself some fierce damage,” she said, shaking her head.

  “I’ll pay for any… stains or whatever,” I said breathily.

  After that, life got dark for a while. I could hear voices buzzing around me, but the whole healing thing was taking a lot out of me. Or at least I hoped that was my problem.

  I heard Peter’s voice and struggled to open my eyes. “You’re not leaving yet, are you?”

  “Not yet,” he said, his voice softening. “Heard you got yourself into a bit of a scrap.”

  “No big deal. You should see how it turned out for the other—” I winced with pain.

  “Do you need—”

  “Nope.Not at all.”

  “Eddie’s on his way to patch you up. Think you can hold on for a while?”

  “Hold on to what? Nothing bothering me. I’m a little tired though. Can I nap?”

  He brushed my hair out of my eyes, and I smiled gratefully.

  “You should definitely sleep,” he said. “Busy day later. Busier night. Need you in top shape.”

  His smile was the last thing I saw.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I awoke to something burrowing its way out of my stomach.

  “Oh, holy crap!”

  “Hold her down!”

  Iron hands pinched my shoulders and legs, keeping me in place while whatever was eating me kept going. I squeezed open an eye and saw some of my friends surrounding me.

  Val gripped my arm. “Stop struggling,” she said firmly.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, and then my head flew off into the distance. “Ooh.” I lay back in a daze.

  “Eddie gave you something for the pain, but it’s made you kind of loopy,” Carl said, and his grin went wide… like beyond his cheeks wide.

  I wriggled my entire body to scratch an itch on my lower back, and everybody seemed to sigh as one, except it echoed until it thundered in my ears. “Ouchy.”

  Carl couldn’t hold in his laughter.

  I frowned at him. “Loud.”

  I looked down and saw Eddie leaning over my midsection, lighting a black candle on the table next to us.

  “It’s Evil Eddie,” I squealed.

  Carl covered his mouth and left the room.

  Eddie sighed impatiently. “Does anyone have the power to silence her for five minutes? Any means possible.”

  As he straightened, I caught sight of the jagged, ugly wound in my side. I leaned over and vomited on the floor.

  Everything got noisy again, and somewhere in between the arguments over who had to clean it up, I fell asleep.

  ***

  The sun streamed through the window the next time I awoke, and I realised I was in my own bed. I tried to sit up, and my side was extremely stiff and sore. Pulling away the covers and lifting a blood-soaked vest, I saw a bandage strapped over much of my side and stomach.

  I lay back down and sighed, feeling uncomfortable. The night before was screwed up in my head, but I felt as though I should be angry at someone. I just couldn’t remember who. Hearing voices downstairs, I decided to investigate. Plus, I was half-starved and intent on ignoring those nasty blood cravings that had haunted me for the last few days.

  It took me a while to get to my feet, but once I began walking around, I felt a lot looser, and the pain eased a little. Something itched under the dressings, and I rubbed at the bandage, but it didn’t help. I put on a dressing gown and shuffled downstairs, feeling extremely grumpy.

  In my kitchen, Carl, Eddie, and Esther had gathered around the table, but I ignored them to scavenge for food. I wasn’t sure what I thought of the fact everyone on the planet had decided letting themselves into my home was acceptable. Peter was conspicuously absent. Carl shoved a delicious-smelling wrapper in front of my face, which led to temporary forgiveness.

  “Got you a breakfast roll earlier,” he said, grinning.

  I whipped the food out of his hand and tried to sit on the counter. I changed my mind at the serious pain the action provoked and leaned against it instead. Carl poured me a cup of coffee while I ate, and I realised people
were staring at me.

  “What?” I asked with my mouth full.

  Eddie shook his head. “Are you feeling better at the very least?”

  “Yeah. What happened again?”

  “You got into a fight with a bunch of beasts,” Esther said, staring hard at me.

  “Yeah, I remember that. Some fucker set me up. I meant after that. What’s this?” I pointed at my side.

  “Had to draw out the poison,” Eddie said. “Cleansing paste, just in case. You were pretty badly hurt.”

  “I was fine,” I insisted. “I just needed to sleep.”

  “You were totally high,” Carl said. “Eddie gave you painkillers, and you were off your head. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  I shrugged. “Must have been some strong stuff.”

  “Fae made,” Eddie said. “It was the only thing I could think of to stop you from ripping at your wound. You kept trying to scratch it, so I feared something was stuck inside you. I still don’t know what was wrong with you.”

  “Where’s Gabe?”

  “He’s trying to find answers,” Esther said.

  “From who?”

  “The humans,” she said. “They’re the ones who passed on the message to you, right?”

  “Yeah, but it was your brother who…” I bit my lip, thinking hard. Shay had mentioned Aiden’s name. Said I was needed badly. But before that, Aiden had made sure I was alone. “He asked if you were with me or if I was alone,” I said.

  “He wouldn’t,” she said, looking scared. “You can’t think he would—”

  My glare silenced her. She shook her head and left.

  “Don’t be hard on her,” Carl said. “Not her fault her brother’s a prick.”

  “So you think it was him?”

  He made a face. “Who else? The problem is the connection between him and the BVA. How can we prove it? What if his orders came from above? And if Reuben is the big bad we’ve been looking for, then why would Aiden follow him?”

  “You’re up,” Peter said from the doorway. “Can we talk?”

  I nodded, grabbed my coffee, and followed him upstairs.

  “You okay?” he asked when I sat on the bed. He stood at the end, looking uptight and annoying.