Taste

by Claire Farrell

  “The beasts were never meant to happen either,” I reminded him. “I think we’re all on equal territory. And, hey, your mother wanted to kill me for being tainted. I’m totally on the side of the furry dudes.”

  Phoenix frowned, as if he were about to say something else, but the werewolves dropped the bodies they were munching on and glanced around, the growling turning into a terrifying snarl.

  “Phoenix?” I said in a small voice as I scanned the surrounding area with my other sight. “I think we might need more werewolves.”

  He took one look at my face and ran, leaving me with the killer werewolves.

  An army was heading our way. There was a great chance we were well and truly screwed.

  Chapter Twenty

  Numbers fell off my tongue as I ran after the werewolves. An army was coming. There were hundreds of beasts, maybe more. The energies kept merging and splitting, leaving me confused.

  It occurred to me that I didn’t want to be in the way if Phoenix was letting the werewolves loose on the world. But I couldn’t run back or forward without getting in the middle of everything. Yet I still had to fight. The werewolves couldn’t possibly take care of all what was headed our way.

  I decided to remove myself from the situation until the first collision was over. Phoenix had maybe fifty werewolves. Probably less could fight. I saw figures in the distance, and I decided to climb a tree.

  “Careful, Icarus!” I called out.

  He paused, glanced back at me, then ran ahead. The four werewolves knew what was coming, but they didn’t fear it. They spread out and waited for the fight to come to them. They stayed so close to me, it was as if they guarded me. A few speedy beasts arrived first, and the werewolves destroyed them, eating the kill with no injuries to our side. But ten beasts at a time came, then twenty, and the werewolves struggled.

  I was about to climb down when the rest of the pack finally appeared, their howls forcing the vampire-made hybrids to a stop. The confusion on the beasts’ faces was almost funny, but the carnage when pack met army wasn’t. Not even a little.

  The werewolves ate their way through the beasts. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have stood any kind of a chance.

  I jumped down, falling to my knees when the last few stragglers passed me. I chased them and heard Phoenix call my name urgently.

  “I’m here,” I cried out, waving my dagger.

  He caught up and ran with me. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I didn’t think about you being in the middle of this. The others are following. Pick off the injured. Let the werewolves do the rest.”

  The ease in which I followed Phoenix’s orders surprised me. Most of the people in my life looked to me for leadership, but there I was, giving it away to Fionnuala’s son of all people.

  Cars and trucks drove up behind us, followed by groups on foot. The vehicles tore up the grass, and all kinds of people bundled out, many of them shifting into animals. I saw a bear down the line and waved. I was pretty sure I saw a panther, too, and I tried not to hope he would be accidentally eaten by a werewolf.

  “Come on,” Phoenix said. “Stay with me. You’re one of the few who can keep up.”

  I couldn’t get over how excited he was to kill and maim. He relished it, delighted in it, and I got worked up alongside him. I forgot about giving up the fight, forgot how tired I was; all I cared about was destroying our enemies.

  Phoenix had a sword, not as pretty as Lorcan’s, and he kept it in his left hand. His right hand stayed on his pocket. A couple of the vehicles kept going, ramming into as many enemies as possible as the passengers fired with crossbows. I wished Val was with me. Peter. Lorcan. Everyone. I wished they could witness it all.

  Phoenix and I got ahead of everyone, and I prayed one of those deadly black arrows didn’t hit either of us. For a second, I wondered if Phoenix kept me to close to him because nobody dared to aim near Fionnuala’s son, but that might have been paranoia. I ran as fast as I could, exhilarated, only pausing to finish off still-moving creatures lying on the ground. The werewolves had made a massive dent in the BVA’s army, but they had only met the first wave, and I was ready to end some vampires.

  Phoenix wove through wounded and dead bodies, stopping occasionally to lop off a head if the beast seemed dangerous. But soon, we began to jump over injured werewolves, and my heart sank. We might still lose.

  Phoenix didn’t stop, leading the way still. We came across tussles and fights, and it was time for us to really get involved, to start making a difference. Phoenix would throw a non-returning boomerang that looked as though it were made of glass, kill or injure a beast, attract a group’s attention, and then it was on us to battle our way out.

  As I stabbed and weaved, bit and clawed, broke bones and stomped on necks, I realised I was enjoying it too much. My pain and stiffness disappeared. Everything I had been going through vanished from my mind. Getting rid of my problems, one monster at a time, was satisfying. I beat out my aggression and anger over Peter leaving with Emmett, over him taking away my one chance of ever living a happy and normal life.

  Way ahead of everyone else, Phoenix and I were the first to come across the vampires.

  “Watch this!” I shouted at Phoenix as I threw my dagger straight into a vampire’s chest. She kept running, burning up even as her limbs moved. I rushed her and pulled out my dagger while avoiding her swiping fingernails in her last desperate effort to maim before falling apart completely. Phoenix laughed, still throwing his glass kylies and swinging his sword. It was a game for us, and we got into a pattern of working together.

  We made it to the end of a line and leaned on each other, panting hard. I gazed around the field, seeing people fighting everywhere.

  “This is carnage,” I whispered.

  “It is.” He frowned. “Where are all of the werewolves?”

  “Scattered.” I pointed. “Look!”

  Our side had separated into groups, but nobody had been paying attention to where we had come from because there was another wave coming straight at us from behind.

  “From the back!”Phoenix roared, and as some heard the call, they passed it on.

  We would never make it back down the field in time, but we at least made sure most of our people knew what was going on. Phoenix blew a high-pitched whistle that had me on my knees, covering my ears. Groups of werewolves came from all directions, obviously having followed retreating beasts.

  Phoenix grabbed my hand and pulled me after him. “It’s not too late.”

  We ran together, holding hands like teenagers. Except our love was a battle, our relationship a war, and our kiss, death. My heart felt like it might explode at any second. We had been fighting for hours. When would it end?

  I was covered in blood. My arms were sore and slathered with scratches and bruises. Phoenix was bitten by a beast, but I decapitated the thing before he could lose all feeling in his arm. One long scratch across his nose marred his features, but other than that, he seemed as fresh as when we started.

  We dove straight into the centre of the battle again. The werewolves circled the battle, ready to catch anyone cowardly enough to run. Many did try to escape, despite the howls of the werewolves.

  I was tripped by two vampires, and a beast stomped on my hand as I reached for my dagger. The whipping sound of two arrows reached my ears, and both vampires fell. I rolled out of the way of the beast as two fae attacked it. Phoenix helped me to my feet and made me see a healing witch. I let her strap up my broken fingers as I downed a bottle of water that a passing Guardian handed me, but I couldn’t wait for anything more. I waded back into the fray.

  Esther appeared and knocked out a vampire who was about to jump on my back.

  “Thanks,” I gasped as I returned the favour.

  She tried to pat me on the back with her paw, but the force caused me to sink to my knees.

  Elathan pulled me back to my feet. “Wouldn’t do to die by being trampled after all of this,” he said, raising his bloo
dy scythe. He pushed away from me and sliced off a vampire’s head with a joyous war cry. Many of us enjoyed ourselves too much.

  Marina stood on the back of a pickup, one of the few vehicles that had not been overrun. She cast black magic all around, her eyes a dark mask, her arms raised to the heavens as if calling for power. Lightning cracked in the sky, and I shivered at the sensations in the air. She chanted in foreign words, her voice sounding masculine somehow. She let out a shriek, and the vampires closest to her burst into flames. Marina’s hair appeared to be made of flame, and blood ran down her arms. She writhed as if in ecstasy before collapsing.

  I kept moving. The largest part of the war was over. The last battles were one on one. Whoever had the best individual fighters, the most determined warriors, would win it all.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Don’t give up on me now,” Phoenix panted.

  “My lungs are about to collapse,” I huffed out.

  “Not much longer,” he urged. “Get down.”

  He flung one of the weapons from his pocket straight at me, barely missing me as I dropped to the ground. Behind me, a beast fell comically slowly, and Phoenix stepped over me to crush its skull with his foot. He took his weapon back and hauled me to my feet.

  He brushed his thumb across my cheek. “You’re covered in blood. It will be unlucky if a werewolf eats you because you smell so strongly of enemy.”

  We fought and defended, slashing and ending the lives of many stragglers. The BVA was rapidly running out of army, but the survivors kept fighting, determined to put us down.

  But we were on our land, our territory, and we would defend it to the last.

  A monstrous-looking beast jumped on Phoenix’s back, forcing him to his knees. I grabbed the creature’s hair and yanked his head back, revealing his chunky throat. Phoenix held on to the beast’s legs, and the thing gave an inhuman shriek as I twisted and ripped the head from the body.

  Phoenix grinned at me, but my face fell as I noticed a bear in the distance battling a vampire while three beasts approached. I ran as fast as I could, sprinting hard, but I didn’t make it in time. The beasts attacked as one, and Esther fell beneath them.

  I screamed her name. A flurry of bodies joined in the fight before I reached them. I barrelled my way into the middle of the battle, determined not to lose yet another friend. The bear’s eyes rolled in her head. I removed a beheaded beast’s fangs from her shoulder as the fight carried on around me.

  She shifted into human form as the last beasts died. The warriors around me yelled their victory, but Esther’s eyes didn’t open. Elathan reached us and ripped up his shirt to stem the bleeding from her various wounds. Gabe reached my side and attempted to aid the demon, but the warriors who had helped Esther surrounded her, refusing to let any of us touch her again.

  A blonde with cool grey eyes glared at us. “We’ll take her back to care for her injuries before it’s too late.”

  “Can we even trust you?” I demanded.

  A sneer curved her lips. “We’re her Circle, her family. We won’t let her die on this field.”

  I had seen them at Gabe’s bar once or twice, but my fear kept me paranoid.

  Gabe touched my arm. “I’ll go with them,” he promised. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to her.”

  I glanced around the field; I was plainly still needed. “Fine. I’m holding you lot responsible for her.”

  The Circle worked quickly, forcing their way onto one of the vehicles and carrying Esther as if she were precious.

  “Come on,” Elathan said as I stared at the retreating vehicle. “We still have work to do.” He heaved his scythe over his shoulder, looking as if he were enjoying himself almost as much as Phoenix.

  I scanned the battlefield, but I couldn’t see Phoenix, couldn’t find him anywhere.

  “Ava!” Eddie called from Marina’s side.

  I ran, narrowly dodging an arrow from my own team. “Fuckers,” I muttered, reaching Eddie.

  “We need someone along the edges,” he said. “Some are escaping from the heart of battle.”

  “Sure I’m not needed in—”

  “The battle’s almost over,” he said with some satisfaction. “We’ve won, Ava. We just need to stamp out the threat completely. It sends a better message.”

  “Think they’ll come at us again?”

  He shook his head. “It would be foolish. But if they did, the outcome might not be the same, so reinforce that message, pet.”

  Shaking my head, I ran as fast as I could along the outer edges of battle, following those who had fled. They were all exhausted, with most of them injured, so despite my own pain kicking in, not many of them caused me any trouble apart from sprinting away.

  I kept going, moving and running and keeping every problem out of my mind. The battle had been the best distraction of my entire life. I made it back onto the field, but people were leaving, taking the injured back to the headquarters and clapping each other on the back for a job well done.

  Elathan waved me over and walked with me toward Eddie. “The Circles who didn’t fight are going to clean up the field,” he said. “They’ll make sure everyone is dead and patrol the surrounding areas for anyone in hiding. We won, little tainted one.” He nudged me multiple times.

  “I will slap you,” I said. “I don’t care if you got kicked out of Hell.”

  He guffawed, light on his feet and appearing as though he could fight for days.

  “Any news about Esther?” I asked Eddie, who sat on the back of a truck.

  “Nothing yet,” he said. “It seems the night was a success. We lost people, of course, but their losses were far greater. We’ll be short on Guardians for a while. Seems like the perfect time for a revolution.”

  I groaned. Not what I wanted to hear while it felt as though my limbs were about to fall off. “I need a rest first.”

  “Take your rest,” he said. “You did well tonight. You and that fae worked well together. Perhaps we can use him to get at Fionnuala.”

  I bit down on my response. “Dawn’s coming. I need to get home.”

  “I’ll find out what happened to Esther,” Elathan said. “I’ll make sure she’s fine.”

  “Thanks.” I started to walk away.

  “Ava!”

  I turned back to look at Eddie.

  “This has been the most important night of your life,” he said, “whether you know it or not. Your actions, the Council’s actions, all of this will change everything.” His eyes shone with his dreams of power and change.

  My deals were catching up with me too fast for my liking.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I felt sick at the idea of Esther being in the hands of the Council, but both Elathan and Gabe had promised me they’d take care of her. I didn’t need to hang around, but I wanted to speak to Phoenix again. I hadn’t been certain at first, thinking he might be exactly like Fionnuala, but he reminded me of Lorcan too much for that. He was a little bloodthirsty, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a good person. After all, he had been trapped as much as those werewolves.

  Phoenix was nowhere to be found, and no one I asked had seen him, so I headed for home before dawn, covered in muck and blood and who knew what else. I hadn’t made it halfway home when a growl stopped me in my tracks. I couldn’t imagine the BVA having more beasts up their sleeves.

  “Oh, holy shit,” I whispered as I turned to face the werewolf behind me.

  The hair on the scruff of his neck stood straight up like a cat’s, and his growl turned into a vicious snarl.

  “Icarus?” I said in a shaky voice, thinking I recognised his eyes. I saw a leash hanging from his neck. “Where’s Phoenix?”

  I moved closer to him, and he bared his fangs. I held my hands behind my back. “It’s me again,” I said. “You remember me, right? Please, for the love of everything, remember me, Icarus.”

  I might have stood a chance against him if my side wasn’t bleeding again. If I could stand up str
aight. If my eyes would stay open. But the way I was, I couldn’t fight my way out of a paper bag. Maybe I should have taken Eddie up on his offer of wolfsbane.

  But Icarus let me come closer, and the baring of those nasty teeth stopped as I whispered his name. He panted, his fur matted with blood. When he moved, I noticed he had a limp. I picked up the end of the leash, flinching in anticipation of him trying to eat me for dessert. The hair on his back flattened, and the snarl died down to a warning growl.

  “Let’s go find your trainer,” I whispered, hoping we wouldn’t see anyone on the streets.

  I took him back the way I had come, and we traversed the battlefield in case Phoenix had died, and I missed it. We finished off a few survivors on the way, mostly other beings who had joined the BVA’s side, some of them Irish.

  We found Phoenix, alive and almost well. He had been looking for Icarus. The relief on his face when he saw the werewolf made me want to cry.

  “You found him,” he said, shaking my hand.

  “He found me actually. Any news?”

  “Nothing yet. No numbers, no official word from anywhere to say if we’ve won or lost or if this is even over.”

  “I’m going to keep thinking we won. It’s kind of nice.”

  He laughed. “Yes, it is. I believe your friend is awake. I wasn’t involved much in what happened after. The werewolves were my responsibility, but I heard people talking.”

  “Will they let her go?” I asked anxiously.

  “Is she a prisoner?”

  “She used to be a Guardian, but they tried to make her do something terrible. She’s been in hiding ever since. It wasn’t good.”

  He took my hand, and a thrill of electricity ran up my arm. “I will ensure she makes it back to you. For your help during the fight. And for bringing my lost boy back to me.”

  I gripped his hand, refusing to let go. “Phoenix, somebody tampered with your memory. I know it’s going to sound fucked up, but you had a wife and kids. You made a sanctuary for them with a goblin called Folsom, but you went missing, and somebody took the kids for the slave market, saying something about a deal. Your wife tried to find them, and they made it back to each other recently, but she passed away and—”