Tempt (Ava Delaney #3)

by Claire Farrell

  “It’s time, Becca,” I called. “No more running.”

  She gurgled a few sounds and tried to hit me, but I ducked and lunged at her. A flicker of indecision crossed her face, long enough for me to pound my fist in her mouth, knocking her down. She scurried away on the ground, then leapt to her feet and ran again. At least she ran back toward the city. It would be easier to get transportation when I caught her.

  For the first time, I was able to chase her without feeling winded. She ran for miles without stopping, even through sprawling housing estates, without her getting distracted by the many beating hearts. It was the first time I had ever seen her focus for so long, and I wondered what her thought processes were like, if there was any humanity left in her at all.

  I caught up with her a couple of times, but they just resulted in our tumbling around for a few seconds before she managed to slip out of my grasp again. I didn’t care. I wasn’t tired, and I fully intended on following her until daylight. She couldn’t run forever. Not in the sun.

  Closer to the city centre, a heady yeasty smell filled my nostrils as Becca made a dash toward the Guinness factory. I could never have climbed the flat-surfaced gate without having to use my less than stellar climbing skills on the adjacent walls and buildings, so I sped past the neighbouring church, wishing I could drag Becca in there where there was bound to be at least one gigantic cross.

  I reached Becca as she leapt, grabbing her hair and slamming her down on her back. She pulled out of my grasp with an inhuman shriek, alarming a gang of teenage boys out past the curfew. Their shouts distracted me, forcing me to let her run in the opposite direction so they wouldn’t see what would surely be a bloody fight.

  She raced away, running on the tram tracks and down a long hill toward the train station. Still determined, I followed, slowly gaining ground. She ran along the River Liffey, making weird howling noises all the way, and as I caught up to her, she made as if to jump straight into the murky waters.

  Thankful for the curfew that caused the streets to be uncommonly deserted, I slammed her into the bridge, then pulled back when I saw a homeless man watching us. His eyes widened with surprise as he focused on Becca’s mangled features. She knocked me down as she sped away.

  “Alright there, love?” the man asked, peering after Becca.

  I waved at him and hurried after her. I wasn’t about to lose her. I kept on her tail, albeit from a distance, passing straight through the city centre. From southside to northside, we ran together, and as she ran an almost straight path, I had to wonder if she knew where she was going.

  Finally realising we were heading toward the beach where she had accepted a shipment of the formula, I tried to close the distance. She might have been leading me to more vampires, or straight into the sea, but I wasn’t planning on stopping. I couldn’t let her hurt anyone else I knew. I’d been moping around for long enough. It was time for me to snap out of it.

  My breathing still easy, I pushed harder than before, and Becca kept glancing behind her, looking panicked. She had to know what I was doing, that I was changed. It was the first night I had kept up with her for so long. Baring my fangs, I couldn’t stop grinning at how she reacted. It made me feel powerful, as if nobody could stop me. That was the problem with blood. It gave me a sense of invincibility that took a long time to wear off.

  By the time we got onto the sand, I had a serious amount of bloodlust. My heart pumped loudly, and I felt more alive than ever. I was ready for her.

  Until she jumped into the water.

  She dove under the waves and didn’t rise back up again. I dropped my jacket and boots on the sand to swim after her, but I had to turn back. I wasn’t a strong swimmer, and unlike a vampire, I had to breathe. Never mind the fact the water was absolutely freeing. I swore loudly and sat on the shore, wringing wet, just in case she came back. Then, I realised dawn was about to break. She couldn’t come back.

  “Where the hell are you?” I muttered. The sea puked something small onto the sand, something that caught my attention. Scooping it up with some water and sand, I gazed at Becca’s fang, feeling horrified and fascinated in equal parts. The tooth was at least four times the size of my own fangs, of which I had only two. Becca had a whole mouthful. The fang looked ancient, pocked with decay.

  I rang Gabe to tell him what had happened as I watched streams of pink and purple cross the sky.

  “Stay put until someone gets there.” He hung up before I could say another word.

  I still sat there, shivering, preparing myself for more conversations I simply didn’t want to have. I had learned a long time ago how to fake it, how to get by, or how to be so abrasive that even the chattiest of people stopped trying. Didn’t mean I had to like it. Didn’t mean it ever felt natural or comfortable. And Gabe was definitely on the list of people I didn’t enjoy being around.

  “You’re wet,” he said when he finally turned up.

  I gave him a look that silenced him. “She hasn’t reappeared. I don’t know if she kept going or just moved down the shoreline. Or even if she’s still under there. This is all I have of her.” I handed him the fang and shrugged, feeling painfully inadequate.

  He examined it carefully. “How can this be?” he asked, turning it over in his hand. “I have people coming. They’ll search underwater for her, just in case. If I had to guess, I would say she’s gone. We’ll figure out where when the body count starts racking up again.”

  I nodded, then flinched when he threw his coat around my shoulders.

  “Good job,” he said, still staring out to sea.

  “I lost her,” I said, my teeth chattering.

  “She didn’t feed last night. Not even one person died. You might have driven her out of the country. How did you keep up with her this time?” He sounded innocent enough, but I knew what he was getting at.

  “I went against my religion. So you’re saying she’s someone else’s problem now?”

  His lips twitched. “If she isn’t here, then she isn’t my problem.”

  “What about the tests you wanted to run?”

  He waved his hand. “Not my idea. I didn’t think it was necessary. Here are my people now. Need a lift?”

  “Nah.”

  He acted as though he didn’t hear me. He moved to meet the Guardians who had turned up, some wearing wetsuits. I couldn’t help taking another look for Becca, but I left the sand before any of the Guardians went underwater. The pull of the hunt was over, leaving me shaky with the after-effects of adrenalin. More than a little anti-climatic.

  I left Gabe’s coat on his car and began the long trudge home. At least my boots were dry, but my jacket had gotten wet from lying on the sand. My clothes felt as though they weighed a ton, and I was in the middle of an enormous yawn when Gabe’s car pulled up next to me.

  “Get in,” he said.

  “I’m wet. And sandy.”

  “Just get in.”

  I obeyed, mostly because my adrenalin had peaked and exhaustion had taken its place.

  “Your house?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I need sleep. I’ll take care of… everything else later.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  I looked at him like he was crazy. “Tired. It’s been a long day and night.”

  “Of course.” After a few minutes, he continued, “Eddie tells me he hasn’t seen much of you lately. How’s your grandmother?”

  I gritted my teeth. “I’ve no idea.”

  “Family is important. To people like you, I mean. The people around you keep you on the right path. Have you learned any more about the circumstances of your birth?”

  He just kept on pushing with the reminders of everything that bugged me about my life.

  “No,” I hissed through clenched teeth.

  “Any new skills?”

  I sighed loudly and twisted in my seat to look at him. “This your idea of small talk? You don’t have to make bullshit conversation with me. I’m quite capable of sitting comfortably
in silence.”

  To my surprise, he pulled over and turned off the engine. He didn’t say a word, which was unsettling.

  “Do you… do you want me to get out or something?” I hated how confused I sounded, but the angel/man baffled me. I could read most people by their eyes, but he had no emotions at all in his blank orbs.

  “I thought you were capable of sitting comfortably in silence.” He grinned, and I couldn’t resist smiling back.

  I cocked my head to the side. “Wait. Are you the angel equivalent of my creepy uncle or something?”

  He rolled his eyes and turned the key, then seemed to change his mind. He stared at me for a few seconds as if debating something internally. “Are you loyal to the Council, Ava?”

  “No.”

  He shook his head, smiling again as he started the car. “Next time a Council member asks you that question, say yes.”

  “I’ll try to remember that. So, what now?”

  “You sleep, remember?” He checked the mirrors.

  “I meant with Becca.”

  “Keep an eye out for her. Other than that, it’s a waiting game.”

  “Gabe…” I bit my lip to stop its trembling. “Can you see her? The way I do? Is it… an angel thing or a vampire thing… or something else?”

  “What else could it be?” He sounded bored. “You see her energy, rather than a physical body, yes?”

  “That’s pretty much it.”

  “That’s an angel thing. You’re bypassing the normal planes of existence. I wonder what you would see in Hell.” He brightened at that thought.

  “I hope you’re joking.” My stomach tightened at yet another mention of a place I refused to believe existed. “But you can see her the same way?”

  “Probably not exactly the same, but close. Your range seems to be a lot better than mine right now. And clearer.” He sounded frustrated, and I wondered what kind of power he had lost out on by being on Earth.

  “Can you see what’s wrong with Coyle?” I asked.

  Gabe’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Do I see what’s wrong? Do you?”

  “He makes me sick. I can’t look at him. If he touches me, I want to run away screaming. There’s something dark in him.”

  “You’re from the light. You naturally react to those that are unlike you,” he said, but it sounded as though he was trying to brush me off.

  “It’s more than that. It’s not like with the vampires or anything else I’ve come across. It’s vile, and it’s like the thing that was in the shifter who stabbed Esther that time. The one who killed himself in your bar.”

  “You think something was in that shifter?”

  “No need to sound so condescending,” I said, but I couldn’t stop myself from carrying on with the story. “I saw something, or felt it, I don’t know. But it was in Peter, too, afterward. He was acting weird, and I saw it. Like black shadows trying to get into his soul.”

  “Really. Peter has a soul full of black shadows.” His mocking tone pissed me off.

  “No. I burned them away. But thank you. Now I remember why I can’t bloody well stand you.”

  He looked entirely unconcerned, and I didn’t say another word until he pulled up outside my home. I barely thanked him and hurried inside before he could annoy me further. I could hardly stay awake long enough to shower and ended up falling asleep with wet hair. My last thought was of Gabe’s annoyingly smug face, and that he hadn’t given me back my souvenir fang.

  Chapter Nine

  I awoke to half a dozen missed calls from Peter. At first, I figured they were about Becca, but then I remembered the marks on both him and Carl. The urgency of that situation had paled in comparison to the real danger provided by Becca, and I figured Eddie had sorted it all out with the men.

  When I called Peter back, he picked up on the first ring.

  “Hey,” I said. “Is everything—”

  “You need to meet me at Eddie’s.”

  “Um, okay. I’ll be over in a while.”

  “As soon as possible, Ava. It’s important.”

  “Fine,” I said, barely concealing my impatient sigh. “I’ll be right there.”

  Grumbling to myself, I left as soon as I had finished breakfast. I wasn’t entirely up to seeing Eddie again, but I obviously couldn’t avoid him forever, and Peter had sounded freaked out on the phone.

  Peter was already at Eddie’s bookshop when I got there. Eddie greeted me warily, and I tried to find it in myself to be polite and pleasant. It wasn’t easy.

  “Where’s Carl?” I asked.

  “That’s part of the problem,” Eddie said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s gone,” Peter said, looking as if he had earned a few extra grey hairs during the night. “He snuck out of the house while I slept. I’ve no idea where he is.”

  “Why do I get the feeling this is the calm before the storm?” I asked, looking at the two stern faces in front of me. “What else is wrong?”

  “Eddie knows what the marks are,” Peter said. “Mine’s nearly gone, but Carl’s had gotten worse last night. I wouldn’t let him leave, and the mark kept burning him. It was bizarre. Then when I woke up this morning, he was gone.”

  “Right. So? Don’t keep me in suspense.”

  “It looks as though a succubus has gotten her claws into Carl,” Eddie said. “It’s not too recent, either. Time’s running out for him.”

  I stared at Eddie for a few minutes before glancing at Peter in disbelief. “A succubus? A… demon?”

  “A sex demon,” Peter clarified. As if I needed to know that part.

  “So what does this mean, then?”

  “You might want to sit down,” Peter said, looking a little sheepish.

  “Take a look at this.” Eddie pointed at an open book on the counter. A horrific-looking demon appeared to be sucking the life out of a glazed-eyed human. “A succubus feeds on energy, specifically sexual energy, but other kinds will do. Sometimes they taste, but to survive, they really need the occasional… overdose.” He gave me a pointed look. “You remember what Reuben said about virgins? Most species have their own version of that. The succubi mark a human, which makes him theirs, meaning no other succubus can touch that human. They’re connected to them, see through them, and call them back whenever they need a feeding. They slowly drain them, eventually sucking all life out of them.”

  I had an inappropriate urge to laugh. “And you think this is happening to Carl? I think we might have noticed that.” I pointed at the picture of the demon.

  Eddie tutted with frustration. “Ava, this is serious. A lot of beings hide their true face. You know this. Carl’s more susceptible to this kind of thing since you messed with his mind. Yes, we know. It was an accident. That’s all well and good, but you opened his mind, and now he’s more vulnerable to all sorts of things. The succubus makes the human become obsessed with them, forcing them to keep running back to her. Until the human dies, that is.”

  “What about Peter?” I glanced at his arm, but he wasn’t scratching it anymore, and he seemed calmer.

  “He’s protected. She took a small dose, that’s all. Carl has been taken over by her almost completely now.”

  “Fine. I’ll just kill her, then. Just another freaking day’s work.”

  “That’s the thing, Ava,” Peter said. “We don’t know who the succubus is, for one. And for another, she’s probably well within her rights.”

  “We know who she is, Peter. Wait, what? What rights? How can they just go around… oh, crap. Don’t tell me. They have quotas, too.” I rubbed my temples when I saw Peter nod. How on earth did those demonic creatures have more rights than humans?

  I paced for a few minutes while I let the news sink in. Carl was screwed. Again. “Carl’s been in my building lately,” I said, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. “Not to see me. To see her. I’ve seen him with her before this, before the trial. Yesterday, she brushed against Peter and me. It was only afterward that
Peter started to itch.”

  “Your neighbour?” Peter looked aghast.

  I thought I knew why.

  “I’ve been living next to a demon, and I didn’t notice.” Neither man said a word, and I guessed I had just voiced what they both had been thinking.

  “If it’s been that long… Carl doesn’t have much time left.” Eddie’s voice softened and held a note of closure that I didn’t like. It wasn’t over yet.

  “Okay. I can’t kill her?” I asked.

  Eddie shook his head, his face solemn.

  “So, what are my options?”

  I hated the look in his eyes, the one that clearly said I didn’t have any options.

  “Ava, I know you care about Carl, but this time you might have to let him go. If the succubus wants him, there isn’t much you can do about it,” Eddie said. “I like Carl. He’s been balancing the books here. If I could persuade the succubus to release him, I would.”

  “Balancing the books? That’s the only reason you can think of to make him worth saving? Because of bookkeeping?” I couldn’t keep the tremor out of my voice. They didn’t value life enough. They never had.

  “You’ve risked everything for him before. When comes the point where you say enough is enough, Ava?”

  “He’s my responsibility.” I bit my cheek. What I really wanted to do was throw something at Eddie.

  “No. He’s your friend. There’s a big difference, and he’s an adult. He could have walked away as soon as you let him go. He stuck around, and the consequences are his to live with.”

  I glared back. “This wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for me. I have to fix it.”

  He sighed wearily. “You don’t go around saving rabbits from foxes, Ava. Nature’s way, so it is. There’s a chain, and humans happen to be below quite a few things. Predators need to survive, too. Humans kill animals for food. It’s the same with demons and humans.”

  “And what about Peter? He was marked, too! Would you just ditch him as well?” I shouted.