Taste

by Claire Farrell

  “Suppose. You?”

  “I’m going before dark.”

  “Are you… really, Peter?”

  “Can’t wait until after dark. What happened to you last night? That pissed me off, and I can’t watch it happen again.”

  “Gabe helped me.”

  “Gabe should be one of our suspects! The Council will be the death of you, Ava. I’m not waiting around for that to happen. I need to get Emmett out now.”

  “You think he’ll be happy in Spain?”

  “He’ll get some sun. And he’ll get to know his grandfather.” He made a face. “Still not sure if that’s a good thing or not.” He cleared his throat, rubbing the tattooed cross on his inner wrist.

  “What?”

  “Yvonne’s coming with us.” He squinted a little as if he expected me to throw something at him.

  “What? I mean… why would she be going?”

  “She wants to spend more time with Emmett, and he needs a woman around. He likes women better than men. She can help get his mind off you.”

  I scowled at him.

  “She’s coming on one condition,” he said, looking away again.

  “And that is?” My mind came up with a million reasons I didn’t like.

  “Nothing that affects us,” he said firmly, and I stared at him in surprise. “Leave it, Ava.”

  “Fine,” I practically shouted. “Everyone keep telling me what they want me to do, and I’ll do it.”

  “Relax.” He came over and plonked down next to me. “So tell me about last night. Before the bit where you were a raving lunatic, I mean.”

  I thumped his stomach, and he laughed.

  “It was a long night. I deserve an off moment.”

  “Gabe said you were in a bad way. That your nose was bleeding, and your ears… sounded nasty. He didn’t think you were going to make it.”

  “I can’t remember much about it.” So I had reacted as the beasts did. Was that because my body couldn’t handle using Gabe’s power so forcefully, or because I was the kind of thing Gabe’s light was meant to destroy?

  “You look a lot better today,” he said, and I rolled my eyes. “What?” he asked. “You’re always complaining we act like you haven’t been hurt. I’m saying you look like you’re not.”

  “It hurt,” I mumbled. “And I was scared. I can’t do everything by myself.”

  He took my hand, stroking it with calloused fingers. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

  “I’m not. You might have fallen into the pit of hungry beasts with me.”

  He smiled. “I wouldn’t have chickened out and needed to be saved by an angel, of all things.”

  I kicked him and groaned. “How am I supposed to fight when I’m so sore?”

  “You suck it up,” he said. “Should I bring Emmett up to say goodbye?”

  It was really happening. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I had been holding them in for a while, but he seemed shocked.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. He wrapped his arms around me, but when I moved to kiss him, he pulled away. “I’ll be right back.”

  He returned a few minutes later with Emmett. He checked my face. I had dried the tears. Peter left us alone together.

  “I don’t want to go,” Emmett said as soon as his father was gone. “You’re hurt. You need us to protect you.”

  “I’ll be fine in a little while,” I said. “Listen, Emmett, your dad’s right. It’s not safe here, and if anything happened to you, it would kill me. My heart would break.”

  He glared at me sullenly, but when I pulled him to me for a hug, he let out a sob that ripped my heart in two.

  “I don’t want you to go,” I whispered. “But I need you to be safe. And I need you to be happy. Can you at least try?”

  He nodded, wiping away tears with his sleeves. “I want to hate everyone,” he said, hiccupping another sob. “But I’ll try. Only for you.”

  We hugged again; I didn’t want to let him go, but I had no choice. Who would be next to leave me? But maybe it was time for me to push them to safety.

  A while later in the kitchen, I asked Carl, “Any chance at all of you going with them?”

  He seemed startled. “What?”

  “Would you go with them? To be safe? To not get yourself killed here because of me.”

  “Shut up, you headcase.” He squeezed my shoulder and left the room.

  I couldn’t stay easy, but it was a good distraction from the pain I was in. Between needing much more sleep than usual and the whole getting bitten thing, I wasn’t exactly on top of my game, and I really needed to be.

  Too soon, it was time for Peter and Emmett to leave. They were going to meet Yvonne at the airport and fly to Spain together. One happy little family. The one thing I had always wanted for Emmett. The one thing I wanted to destroy as I watched them walk away.

  I kept swallowing, hoping to keep down the bile. It felt so wrong to see them leave, so wrong for them to not be with me anymore. Carl kept a firm arm around my shoulder as we waved both Brannigans off. They had driven out of sight before he let me fall apart.

  “You have about an hour to be a girl,” he teased. “Then you have to get ready to meet the werewolf king.”

  “That’s not funny,” I said. “Everyone is leaving me, and I just can’t… I can’t…”

  “I’m here,” he said, looking at me funny. “But if that’s not good enough…”

  “Shut up.” I wrapped my arms around him. “Thanks for being here, but like you said, I don’t have time to act like a normal human being. For fuck’s sake.”

  He kissed the top of my head. “Go. Distract yourself. But I’ll keep a hidden supply of chocolate, just in case.”

  I smiled as I walked away, but the heartache hurt worse than my shredded side. I went to Anka to see if everyone was okay, and Dita flung herself at me, sobbing her little heart out.

  “I’m going to miss him,” she cried.

  “You’ll see him again,” I said.

  “Promise?”

  “You think I won’t see him again? Don’t even think about that being an option, because it is so not.”

  She smiled and wiped her eyes. “He was a stupid, bossy boy anyway. I don’t even care if he’s gone.”

  “Well, that’s the spirit, I suppose.”

  “He seemed upset,” Anka said, drying her hands as she came into the hall.

  “He’ll get over it. Right?” Anka was the only real mother I knew, so I took a lot of cues from her at times.

  “He’ll adjust, but this might always be the place he thinks of as home.”

  Home. I’d had a home once. I still had a family member who needed me. “If anyone’s looking for me, tell them I’ll be back before dark,” I said. “I need to do some things.”

  I left Anka’s house and made my way to my grandmother’s home. Nancy’s place was empty, and I actually forgot until I walked up to the gate. I had to turn back, go around the corner, and find my ex-boyfriend’s house.

  His mother answered the door, her face falling when she saw me. She plastered on a fake smile, but it was too late.

  “I just wanted to see if Nancy’s okay,” I said, suddenly embarrassed.

  That very human family didn’t want much to do with the likes of me. I had known it even before I knocked on the door.

  “She’s in the living room,” she said abruptly. “Go on in to her.”

  I hobbled in to see Nancy, but she seemed terrified when she saw me, mumbling about monsters and vampires and blood and angels. I didn’t stay long. I was making her suffer, even if I didn’t want to anymore.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Gabe and Eddie were waiting impatiently when I returned to the cul-de-sac.

  “What’s with the welcome party?” I asked.

  “We need to pair you up with the werewolves,” Gabe said. “One of our vampires-turned-traitor informed us there’s a huge battle planned for tonight.”

  “You expect me to help the Council after las
t night?”

  “This is bigger than the Council,” he said.

  “And if it’s just another trap for me?”

  “It’s not,” he said firmly. “And even if it were, the werewolves could turn the tide for us. It’s worth it.”

  “Thanks a bunch,” I snapped. “Save a chick’s life, and you think you can throw it away then?”

  “You talk to her,” he told Eddie. “She’s impossible!” He jumped in his car and slammed the door, sitting there like a stroppy teen.

  “What on earth is going on with you two?” Eddie asked in an amused voice. He was always happy when I had nobody but him to turn to. “Come inside and let me check your bandage. It’s due a change.”

  I brought him into my living room. Emmett was gone, so it didn’t make much of a difference.

  I winced as Eddie lifted the bandage, then bit down on a yell when he cleaned the wound.

  “It’s, well, I wouldn’t say healing nicely, but it’s not as nasty as before,” Eddie said, screwing up his nose.

  “Right. Got anything that will stop the pain for a night?”

  “It hurts already?”

  “Extremely.”

  “I can try to numb the area some more, but there’s not a lot more I can do for you. I’m not a miracle worker, and the wound is seeping. You haven’t been taking care of yourself lately. You’re run down, and you refuse the one thing your body needs to repair itself quickly.”

  “But can I fight?”

  “Tonight?Probably. But expect to crawl home afterward.”

  “Peter’s gone,” I said to change the subject.

  He rummaged in his bag and took out a jar of ointment. “I did hear a rumour. You seem to be dealing with it well.”

  I glared at him, feeling an unusual urge to pout. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “No reason. I wondered. That’s all. I have something for you. Something for you to wear in case the werewolves become a little too interested in you.”

  “What?”

  “Wolfsbane. It’s a repellent, basically.”

  “I’ll be okay. I don’t think a repellent would quite cut it. So who tried to kill me last night?”

  “Are you asking if it was me?” he said sharply.

  “Is that what I should be asking?”

  He taped on a fresh bandage with a smirk. “Of course not. We’re partners, are we not? Have you heard from your boss recently?”

  “Who, Daimhín? No, she’s hiding. Or holidaying. One or the other.”

  “I wondered which side she would stand on.”

  “She went neutral. Figured it was safer. Which it probably was.”

  “For her,” he said in a stern voice. “Not a wise choice for the rest of us. We could have used her vampires.”

  “We have werewolves,” I said in a little girl’s voice.

  He smiled. “Who knows if they even fight? We haven’t heard much of these werewolves.”

  “Why are they caged up like that? It’s creepy. And who is their trainer? Does he live there? With the werewolves?”

  “He’s Fionnuala’s son,” he said. “He embarrassed her years back, and he was sent away. Turned out he was training werewolves all along. I wonder how long he’s been locked away with them. He must be very… loyal.”

  I frowned. The more I learned, the more questions I had. Our world frequently unsettled me.

  “Are you ready to leave?” he asked softly, almost affectionately.

  “Suppose. Not much choice.”

  He stroked my hair, and I froze to the spot.

  “Stay alive,” he said. “I’ll need you.”

  I hurried out to Gabe’s car and let myself in. “Thanks a bunch for leaving me with Creepy Eddie.”

  He made a dismissive sound. “Don’t you mean Evil Eddie?”

  “That, too. What’s the freaking plan then?”

  He shook his head. “The plan was to bring you to the werewolves. I don’t know anything else. I don’t want to know anything else. I don’t want to be involved in any of this.”

  “What’s up your nose?”

  He waved me off. “Shouldn’t you be giving orders to people?”

  “I dunno. I have no idea what’s going on. Where did the vampire say the fight was going to be?”

  “At the headquarters,” he said. “They’ve given up what they’ve tried so far, and now they’re going straight to the source.”

  “As if the Council had anything to do with keeping them at bay. I never get credit for anything.”

  “Not today, Ava,” he said wearily. “I don’t have the energy for this.”

  “So what should I tell everyone then?”

  “Tell them to meet us there if you want. We’ll need the backup. Make sure they’re ready to leave before it’s over in case the Council get their act together and start to make arrests.”

  “What about the humans?”

  “Let them defend their own tonight,” he said. “No sense in them being slaughtered for a group of people who don’t care about them.”

  “They’re coming after you, too,” I said, suddenly realising. “Is that what’s wrong with you? That you’re on their shit list?”

  “Does it feel like a good night to die, Ava?”

  I shrugged. “Last night felt like my night, Gabe. What do I know?”

  “I thought you were going to give up for a moment there. I thought you were about to let go of my hand.”

  “I couldn’t do that.”

  “It might have been easier. The pain would have stopped soon.”

  “You helped me,” I said. “You didn’t have to. You could have saved yourself a lot of hassle if you didn’t.”

  He stared out the window. “Go tell your friends to meet us at the headquarters if they’re interested in joining the fight. I can’t imagine they will.”

  “Elathan has to be there, right? I think Esther will go, too. Maybe Val.”

  “But not the twins,” he said, the corner of his mouth curving upward.

  “Definitely not the twins. Not on this night.”

  “If tonight is the night. If it is the night to die, I want to say it’s been interesting knowing you.”

  “Likewise. Hold on, and I’ll go talk to everyone.”

  “Hurry.”

  I left his car and ran around the houses, asking everyone to gather together on the street so I could give them all an update at once. They took the news as grimly as I expected.

  “So if anyone wants to fight, they can, but don’t feel like it’s a requirement. This place needs fighters, too.”

  “I’ll come,” Lorcan said immediately.

  “I’m sorry,” I told him. “I need you here.” He looked impatient, but I had an extra reason for keeping him at home. I didn’t want him near the fae until I figured out more about Fionnuala and her son. “Esther, you up for it?”

  She nodded, but she seemed low.

  “Hey,” I said. “We’re all alive. Let’s keep it that way. Don’t get distracted. Elathan might need you later.” I winked at her, but her smile was weak.

  “I can come with you,” Carl said, despite knowing how I would answer.

  “No,” I said anyway.

  “I don’t know,” Val said. “I don’t know if it will be safe to leave Leah. Or my hosts.”

  “It’s totally up to you,” I said. “But maybe I’ll feel better if you stay here. There’ll be other fights. We don’t want the Council to learn all of your tricks.”

  In the end, only Esther came with Gabe and me. I was kind of relieved, but I did fear that things would get awkward between Aiden and Esther if they crossed paths. Or between Aiden and me when I tried to pay him back for almost getting me killed.

  The Guardians seemed surprised to see me when I arrived, and Gabe gave me a secret smile.

  “I didn’t discuss last night’s events with anyone,” he said. “Rumours of your demise have been repeatedly exaggerated.” Gabe led me straight into a meeting room just below ground.
<
br />   Fionnuala almost fell off her chair when she saw me. “You’re alive?”

  “Oh, didn’t you know?” I said as I took a seat. “I come back to life. Resurrection is one of my superpowers.”

  Esther smothered a giggle and sat next to me. Coyle stood by the far wall, and I ignored the nausea he provoked. He left the room abruptly, and I wondered if he was going to warn Aiden to keep out of my way. Lucky Aiden, if so, but I made a mental note to ask Gabe when Coyle had resurfaced.

  “We were told you died last night,” Koda said. “I’m glad to see those whispers were false.”

  I stared back at him, wondering if he was being truthful; I thought he just might have been. “Thanks,” I said. “So where are my werewolves?”

  “Can’t believe you get a pet,” Esther whispered, and I elbowed her in the ribs.

  Gabe took a seat on the other side of me. “Yes, where are her werewolves?” He raised his voice, drawing attention from the entire room.

  “Well, we didn’t think—” Fionnuala began in a prim voice.

  “But you said,” Gabe interjected. “And now you know.”

  They exchanged icy glares. It was nice to be around someone Fionnuala approved of even less than she did me.

  “We’re running out of time.” For once, Erossi didn’t sound cocky, and I wondered if that was because the BVA were after him, or because I was alive when he thought he had killed me already.

  Gabe had been right a long time ago. There were too many possibilities when it came to the Council. They were too unpredictable for me to work out without more evidence. For the billionth time, I wondered how I had come to be involved in so much crap. And I tried my very best not to think about Peter or Emmett.

  “How can we be sure she won’t join the rest of her kind?” Fionnuala asked in a snooty voice.

  “There are very few trustworthy people in this room, but I happen to be one of them,” I replied, trying to sound just as snooty. “And they are not my kind.”

  “I’m having second thoughts about this,” she said as if I hadn’t spoken. “I don’t trust her with our weapons.”

  “It was your idea,” Gabe said. “May I remind you of that?”

  “Yes,” Koda added. “It was your idea, Fionnuala. Why the change of heart?”