Tempt (Ava Delaney #3)

by Claire Farrell

  The limo finally pulled into an empty car park. I stayed in my seat, waiting for something to happen.

  Cass leaned forward. “Take your bag and wait here for your escort. We won’t be dealing with you any longer. Once you capture the beast, you can return home.”

  She sat back and stared out of the window as though I were no longer in the car. I gazed at the vampires in disbelief, but when the driver cleared his throat, I shrugged and got out. I had a little bit of money, a passport, and my dagger. I was sorted, no matter what.

  I heaved my bag away from the car and watched as the only people I knew in the country drove away and left me alone. Straddling a low wall, I rummaged in my bag for a bar of chocolate and waited. At least it wasn’t raining. I was about to give up and find a way home when I sensed something behind me. Yet nothing was there. Or at least, nothing visible.

  I switched to my other sight. A weird greenish energy came toward me, nothing malevolent about it. It almost seemed human but didn’t quite fit. Understandable, considering the invisibility.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “You see me, then?” a surprised voice said in what could only be described as a thick scouser accent.

  “Sort of,” I said. “Show yourself properly.”

  A haze crossed my eyes. I blinked, and to my surprise, two slight figures appeared, holding hands.

  “That’s weird,” I said.

  A male and female stood before me. He had black hair and dark eyes that might have been green, but it was hard to tell. Her snow-white hair was plaited to her waist. Her eyes were the palest colour I had ever seen. They were both pretty light-skinned, with identically sloped noses, heart-shaped faces, and clefts in their chins.

  “Related?” I asked.

  “Twins.” He released his sister’s hand, and I tried to see them on that other plane again. The weird energy had separated into two relatively normal ones.

  I frowned in confusion. “You’re my escorts?”

  He nodded. “I’m Lorcan. This is Lucia. She doesn’t talk. Except to me.”

  They both looked quite young, and obviously not human, but they definitely weren’t vampires.

  “I’m Ava. I don’t have much time, so let’s get on with this, yeah?”

  Lorcan looked surprised by my words. “Not much time? Have you ever met the beast?”

  “Her name’s Becca. And yeah, we’ve crossed paths a couple of times. Many dead?”

  He nodded. “Loads. It’s kept under wraps, but Lucia’s heard a fair bit ‘bout it. Come on. I’ll show you where you’re staying, and then pinpoint a few places of interest on a map.”

  “A map. Right. Fantastic.” That was my help. A walking navigator.

  He gave me a funny look, put his arm around his sister’s shoulders, and led us out of the car park. I tried to take note of where we were going, but was soon overwhelmed by the sheer number of crowds and strange streets. Although it was late, the city still buzzed, and we were soon surrounded by drunken people. I felt my own mood buoyed by the atmosphere. Lorcan never let go of Lucia, and neither twin made a sound.

  We turned down a dark street and were instantly shrouded in eerie silence. It reminded me of that other plane, as though we had stepped into another world. I could no longer hear the shouts and laughter that had filled my ears only seconds before.

  “When you said ‘except to you,’ you meant some kind of telepathy?” I asked, mostly to make a noise.

  “Something like that. We’re over there.” He pointed at what looked like an abandoned building.

  “You live there?”

  “Yeah. It’s where you’re staying as well.”

  “Oh.” I was definitely curious about those two.

  We walked up the stone steps to the door of an old Georgian-style home. As soon as I saw the number on the door, my blood ran cold, and I stopped short.

  “What’s the matter?” Lorcan asked.

  “I… it’s… you live at number 6?”

  He stared at me as if I were insane. “Are you okay? You look a little ill.”

  “I don’t… I don’t like that number.” The last time I had pushed past my number six fear, Becca had taken a chunk out of Peter, and I had almost drained her dry in return. Sixes were never good.

  Lucia jerked at Lorcan’s arm, then turned the six upside down. I saw then that it was an unhinged number nine, but as soon as she let go, it fell back down, swinging to and fro, taunting me with its evil connotations. I stepped back with a little shriek.

  Lorcan covered his laughter well. “Maybe we should get inside, then, eh?”

  Gulping hard, I inched by the evil six. We huddled into the dark hallway together, and I struggled to catch my breath. “I have to… I’ll be right back.”

  Cursing myself, yet incapable of stopping, I went outside and yanked the number off the door. I knew I was acting like a crazy person, but all of the drama had finally gotten to me. Shuddering and muttering to myself, I held the number upright at arm’s length with two fingers, but still felt as though it were a six, mocking me. I ran down the steps and threw it into an old-fashioned-looking bin, before spending at least five minutes shuddering and wiping my hands on my jacket.

  I turned back to the house and saw the shocked pale faces of the twins peering out of the window at me. Ava Delaney, mistress of first impressions.

  Heaving an embarrassed sigh, I headed back up the steps and glanced to my right for no reason at all. The road we’d entered from was covered in a weird cloudy substance, and if I squinted, I could see all of those crowds of people outside. We were in Liverpool, but not really, and I was pretty certain the vampires couldn’t protect an area like that. Lucia and Lorcan had a lot more to them than I first thought.

  Back in their house, both twins kept a straight face when I gave them a sheepish shrug. They lived in a couple of rooms, not much bigger than my own flat. The building was falling apart, but they had made a cosy corner for themselves. Lorcan hurried around lighting candles until a comfortable glow filled the room.

  “Are you squatting here or something?” I asked, baffled by the lack of electricity.

  “No.” Lorcan sat on a mattress on the floor. “The vampires own it.”

  “And they let you live here?” I kept trying to make sense of the relationship.

  “They own us, too. If you need blood, we don’t taste very nice, I’m afraid. There are plenty of people nearby, but it would be great if you could use your will to keep them calm before you bite them. I know some of you get off on the fear, but things are crazy enough over here right now.”

  “Hold on. Back up. I’m not a vampire, so forget all that. But what do you mean, they own you?”

  “Aren’t you in a hurry?” He grinned up at me.

  The conversation moved on to a discussion of the areas where Becca had hunted. She moved around Merseyside, but seemed to return to Liverpool’s city centre even when she left the county. We had a huge territory to cover, but Lorcan reassured me that we would find Becca easily the following night.

  “How do you know?”

  “Someone will tell us,” he said simply.

  “Like who?”

  “It doesn’t matter who. We’ll hear where she is. It’s too late to go after her tonight. You should probably get some rest. You’ll have to sleep on the floor, but I put a curtain up to give you a bit of privacy. Tomorrow, you can explore the city a little.”

  I called home.

  “There’s not much change,” Eddie told me. “I’ve given him something to keep him going through the night. Hopefully, you won’t be long over there.”

  “I’ll try and check back in tomorrow from a payphone. I need to preserve the phone battery, no lecky in the palace I’m staying in.”

  “Picking up the slang already?”

  “Have to fit in. How’s Peter?”

  Eddie laughed. “Like a caged animal. It’s lucky you’re not here. Speaking of which, I’m working on finding an empath to speak
to you. One might help you from being a walking emotional wonderland.”

  “Oh.” I was flustered by the odd turn in conversation. “I suppose that would be good.”

  “Last thing. Nancy showed up today. Said it was important.”

  “Life or death?”

  He hesitated. “More like love or hate.”

  “Then it can wait.” I hung up feeling dissatisfied.

  I thought I would never sleep on the thin mattress, but I only stressed about home, Becca, and the strange twins for a few minutes before conking out. My dreams were troubled. I kept seeing Lucia, but instead of being deathly silent, she kept screaming at me to listen to her.

  My time in Liverpool was definitely working up to be a strange one.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The next morning, I didn’t get up until I heard the twins moving around. After I washed and dressed, I spotted them sitting on the floor, facing each other, palms together. Things were getting too freaky for my liking. I wasn’t sure if I should say something or not, so I just moved around a little noisier than normal.

  Lucia faced me suddenly, staring at me with her disturbingly pale cloudy-green eyes. I stepped back, startled by her unwavering gaze.

  “She killed seven last night,” Lorcan said, his voice sad.

  “Becca? All in the one place?”

  “No. Scattered. The usual.”

  “Weird. Not how it worked before. Low numbers, too, compared to the biggies she was pulling back home.”

  Lorcan shrugged. “Maybe she isn’t as hungry anymore.”

  “That still worries me.” I kept thinking back to Esther’s idea of another mutation. It was a possibility. Anything was possible when it came to Becca. Yet everyone was determined to take her home and tame her. It sounded less like the right idea every single day.

  Lorcan had already turned back to Lucia, their palms still pressed together. Lucia’s eyes rapidly flicked from left to right, making me feel slightly dizzy. I cleared my throat, but they acted as though I weren’t there. Lorcan squinted, his heartbeat racing. Lucia’s fingers dug into his hands, and her nails broke the skin.

  “Excuse me?” I said, anything to make them stop acting so freaky.

  Lucia dropped her brother’s hands. He blinked a couple of times, rubbing his palms together. When he looked up at me, he acted as though nothing had happened. “Are you hungry? We can get you something to eat.”

  “How about I take you two to breakfast?” I said, determined to get some actual information out of them. “My treat.”

  They looked at each other for a couple of seconds. Lorcan frowned, but they finally agreed. Or at least, Lorcan agreed. Lucia just kept staring at me. She was kind of creepy.

  They took me to an ATM at my request—I hadn’t had a chance to exchange my euro into sterling—then we headed to a small café near the docks. It was one of the few relatively empty places to eat in, but it looked clean, and that was all I cared about. I was starving, partly from stress.

  I ordered huge breakfasts for all of us, thinking it would give us a while together, but the twins seemed hungrier than I was as they wolfed down their food.

  “So do you two work or anything?” I asked, unsure of how to start a conversation with them.

  “We’re working right now,” Lorcan said, but he smiled.

  “Do they pay you?”

  Lorcan shook his head, still digging into his food.

  “They didn’t pay me at first, either,” I said. “The scabby little… anyway, they have to now. The Council kind of made them agree to it.”

  “You’re lucky, then.” But his eyes had lit up.

  “How about you tell me what’s going on?” I said, realising I had to be frank with the twins because they weren’t going to volunteer much information.

  “The beast is here, and you have to catch it.”

  “I meant with you two and the vampires. It’s weird. I don’t like it, so explain please.”

  He shrugged. “Nothing to explain. We’re part fae, and the fae don’t like mixing the blood. It’s forbidden. I don’t know how long we were with our mother, but we ended up on the market at a young age.”

  “Market?”

  “Potentially useful children get sold. It’s in the blood. The vampires bought us in case we could do something special. We can’t really. Well, Lucia can. She knows things, hears things. That’s how we track the beast. She sees random images, important ones, and hears things sometimes. She tells me. So that’s why I’m useful. The vampires keep us because they don’t want anyone else to have us. And we come in handy every now and then.”

  “That’s so screwed up, I don’t even know where to begin. It’s slavery!”

  “Life is what it is. You just have to make do with what you have,” he said, seeming not at all upset.

  “Why don’t you run away?” I persisted. “Just leave, and be free. You’re living in a hovel, when the vampires have private jets and shit. That’s ridiculous.”

  “They would find us. It’s not that they want us. They just don’t want anyone else to have us.”

  “I can relate to that one. But isn’t there anyone who can help you?”

  “We don’t have friends out there. The fae won’t acknowledge us, and nobody else cares. The vampires take care of us. In their own way. Before them, we were stuck in a place that was much, much worse.”

  “There has to be a way to leave. You could come to Ireland with me when I go home. I could hide you or something. Anything’s better than this. Even their pets are treated better.”

  “Lucia knew you would think that, but there’s nothing you can do. You’re one person. You can’t change the world.”

  “I don’t even get what that means,” I said, grumpy. “You’re kind of like me. Mixed, I mean. Except you work better together. Otherwise, it’s like half a gift or something, right?”

  A flicker of amusement almost reached those sad eyes that resembled green-black marbles. “Something like that.”

  “Is there a Council here? Guardians? Isn’t there anyone to protect you?”

  “Do they protect the Irish?” He gave me a knowing look.

  “No,” I whispered. “Not really.”

  “We have a Committee here. And Enforcers. There are seven species on the Committee at any given time, and the seats are voted on once in a decade. Whoever has the most power, be that money or loyalty, gains a place. For a decade, those species who don’t have a seat connive to ensure they make it next time. The Committee tends to make decisions in a biased way. It’s hard to break into it, but the vampires have been trying for the last three decades. If they make it, they’ll ally with whoever they feel will help them. What they’re doing now, dealing with the beast, that’ll help them. They’re desperate to trap it.”

  “Why? To figure out how it’s done? To make more like her?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. They’ve sent vampires to observe the beast, see what she can do, and bigger numbers would definitely help them out. Although, if you don’t manage it, they’ll be able to lead a war against the Irish, and that would help their reputations. Either way, it’s win-win.”

  “For them.” I stared at Lucia. “Does she know anything useful? Like which win-win is less detrimental to everyone else?”

  He smiled easily, but his eyes still carried pain. “It’s never that simple.”

  We spent a good chunk of the morning discussing politics and how they affected the little people, like us. The twins were pawns as much as I was, but at least I had a little freedom. Granted, I had been forced into leaving my home on Council business, but for the most part, I did what I liked. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for them.

  When I called home to check on Carl, Peter didn’t sound enthusiastic.

  “Eddie’s had to medicate Carl more than expected, and he’s trying to break free a little. He hasn’t eaten much yet. Not sure how to make him.”

  I got Peter to put the phone next to Carl’s ear. I ordered him t
o eat and to stay put, and I hoped for the best. It might not work over the phone, but Peter told me my voice had calmed Carl a little.

  “So, how’s it going over there? Vampires treating you okay?”

  “They’re not treating me at all. They basically dropped me off in an empty car park and washed their hands of me. Two of their slaves—I mean that literally, they actually bought them—are hosting me in a derelict building. It’s odd here, Peter. I think the BVA want Becca so they can find out more about the formula, for their own gain.”

  “There’s a slave market in Britain?” He sounded surprised, which I thought a little naïve.

  “And Ireland. Kids who are mixed breeds, or show signs of a power, get snapped up. What the hell is the Council for if they can’t stop crap like that?”

  I waited as the line fell silent. When Peter finally answered, his voice was tight and strained. “Sometimes I wonder the same thing.”

  After the phone call, I felt empty and alone. I missed home, and it was weird making decisions without having to listen to Peter trying to talk me out of them. Lorcan was nice enough once he got chatting, but the twins were eerie in a very distinct way that I didn’t think they even realised.

  In the afternoon, we visited parts of Merseyside. Following the trail of death surprised me because it seemed as though Becca darted in and out of places to leave a scattering of randomly placed bodies behind her. Back home, she had fed on anyone she saw. In England, she seemed to be oddly selective.

  “Have you seen her?” I asked Lorcan.

  “The beast?” He sounded shocked. “I’m alive, aren’t I?”

  Before dark, we gathered in the twins’ home. I wondered what they did for entertainment without books or a television. The building they lived in was so sparse and lonely, it made me uncomfortable to think that their only company was each other. Did they sit together in silence every evening?

  “I’m off to the chippie,” Lorcan said. “I’d like a last meal before we invite the beast to snack on us.”

  “You’re not going to die.” I rolled my eyes, but I only half believed it.

  “Are you mad? Of course we’re going to die. It’s the beast. Lucia and I can’t battle that monster. And you’re just one little thing. If they wanted us to capture her, they’d have at least provided us with some help. We’re dead. The vampires probably want their building back.”