Tainted

by Claire Farrell

  “He’s just one man, Ava. He’s not the army you’ve led us against before. He’s not the leader you’ve helped us rise up against. He’s one being followed around by a few stragglers.”

  “He’s the first vampire. He’s kind of more than a man.”

  “What do we need to beat him?”

  “A chance,” I said. “One clear shot at the fucker. But we don’t even know how to kill him yet. What if we think he’s dead and he comes back to life or something fucked up like that? What if that’s how he’s lived this long?”

  “Then we keep killing him and do it as many times as it takes.” He leaned in closer and rested his forehead against mine. “It doesn’t matter what he does. We still do what we do, and eventually, it’ll click.”

  I breathed in his scent, comforted by his presence. If I didn’t have my friends around me, I would be nothing. They gave me strength when I ran out of my own.

  Inside, Anka fussed over me. The rib was cracked, but it wasn’t too bad. The whole almost-choked-to-death thing had been the worst of it. I sat on her sofa, holding a cold compress against my neck.

  When Shay came in, I told him, “We need Daimhín. We need her to make a stand, along with her vampires.”

  “We might need more than that,” Shay said. “Word is coming in of riots in the city centre, instigated by Seth’s people, most likely. Lots of emergency calls.” He sat in the chair facing the couch. “We’re taking his actions as a threat against the country, Ava. We have to fight back now.”

  I nodded. “I get it. Any word on where he might be hiding out?”

  “Everyone is on it,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m grand. As soon as you have a direction to point me in, just wind me up, and I’ll go.”

  “You want another try? That was terrifying back there.” He shook his head. “Do you realise how scared everyone was? You didn’t tell us that part of your plan, Ava.”

  “I didn’t even have a plan.” I closed my eyes. “I just had me and Parker. He’s a handy kid to have around. Is Lucia okay?”

  “Looks fine to me. I’m surprised the others haven’t given you a tongue-lashing yet. They’re all mightily pissed.”

  “Oh, they’re just waiting until the fight is over, then I’ll be in trouble. Anyone in particular I need to watch out for?”

  “Carl’s bitching about you to anyone who’ll listen. He was this close”—he held his forefinger and thumb a centimetre apart—“to running through those flames himself. I have to be honest. I thought you were a goner there.”

  “Maybe I can’t die.” I tried to force out a laugh. “And I can handle Carl. It’s Seth I’m having trouble with.”

  “So I noticed. Are you sure this is the best way to handle him?”

  “So many people have lost everything. I was so late helping the twins in the first place that they only got a few minutes with their mother before she died in front of them. All of that time… wasted. And their father’s memories are gone. If Phoenix and Lorcan lost Lucia… I couldn’t let that happen to them. And because of that, Jess is gone. I’m not letting Seth take her away from her father. Seth is my problem, and I have to deal with him.” Before he realises I’ve probably already screwed away the untouchable status.

  “If he’s in this country, causing mayhem, then he’s everyone’s problem. If we can silence him, perhaps the riots will stop.”

  I opened my eyes. “Is it that bad?”

  He nodded wearily. “We need him gone. We need the riots and looting and bloodshed to end. We need peace.”

  Carl and Val barged in, arguing loudly. I rolled my eyes.

  “She did the right thing,” Val insisted. “I would have done the same in her position.”

  “What are you, crazy?” Carl huffed. “There had to be another way.”

  “Oh, shut up, both of you,” I said. “Go track down Seth and be useful for a change.”

  “We’re always useful,” Carl said. “Quinn, Alanii, and the rest of Esther’s old Circle are working on it right now. There’s a coven of witches trying to do a locater spell, and Daimhín is on her way here. James and Willow are looking at properties that might be suitable, and—”

  “And everyone is doing something to help,” Val interrupted. “The reporters who were trapped in the church that night have agreed to pass on the message about Seth and his followers, whose actions have instigated another war. Moses is running his own efforts to fight back, and Phoenix is considering letting the werewolves out on the streets.”

  “One vampire couldn’t fight against all of those werewolves,” Carl said.

  “The werewolves are spread across the country,” Shay pointed out.

  “And he’s not scared of them,” I added. “Plus, Seth has more beasts. What if he’s trying to turn the assassins into beasts? With those magical tattoos, they could become unbeatable.”

  “Nothing’s unbeatable,” Phoenix said, entering the room.

  “Seth’s pretty tough,” I said with a wry smile.

  “You stalled,” he said.

  “She did her best,” Carl said, sounding irritated.

  “Thank you,” Phoenix said, ignoring Carl. “I saw how you distracted him from Lucia.”

  “You know, she could have—”

  “You’ve fought him now,” Phoenix said. “So how much of a threat is he really?”

  Carl made a face. “Come on, Val. We need to keep busy. The grownups are talking.”

  Phoenix looked astonished, even as Shay laughed. When Carl and Val left, Phoenix took a seat at the end of the sofa.

  Phoenix nodded at me. “It wasn’t a perfect plan, but my daughter is back safely.”

  “She didn’t have a plan,” Shay scoffed.

  Phoenix’s lips twitched. “I did guess. Do you think Icarus and his pack will help?”

  “Can’t hurt,” I said. “But I’m worried about Seth’s backup plans. I mean, he has Jess, but what next? Does he leave the country or what?”

  “We won’t know,” Shay said. “Not until we find him. And the Council cells are full of assassins who won’t talk under any circumstances.”

  Shay’s phone rang, and he checked the screen. “I have to take this. Give me a minute.” He hurried outside.

  I raised an eyebrow at Phoenix. “Still want to kill me?”

  “Not right now.” He nodded at my neck. “Painful?”

  “Just a tad. He’s definitely stronger than he looks.”

  “But he didn’t kill you.”

  “He thinks he’s my daddy.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Not really. He’s not anything to me. He killed my parents and Jessica’s mother. Neither of us wants anything other than him dead.”

  “Adam’s not convinced of that.”

  I threw down the cold compress. “He’s so scared that he can’t be anything other than pessimistic. Jesus, it’s tiring just listening to him. I don’t know how Jessica has survived this long with him moaning in her ear.”

  “You don’t like him?”

  “I don’t like the way he’s raised her. He’s made her feel like shit. I just hope that isn’t the part she remembers when Seth’s romancing her with his tales of power.”

  “There are too many people here,” he blurted. “Too many connections. Too many ways to hurt one person. I don’t think this place is good for my children. I want to take them with me.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because you can persuade them to leave. I know you care about them. All of this just reinforced the fact we need to live as a family.”

  “I can’t tell them what to do,” I said.

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  “Phoenix, don’t do that. Don’t force people to do your will.”

  “You mean the way I did with your grandmother?”

  My cheeks flushed hotly.

  “I apologise,” he said coolly.

  “But you’re not sorry.”

  He held m
y gaze. “I want my family. It isn’t fair that you get to keep them. Lorcan was angry with me because I was angry at you. Does he… is there something between you two?”

  I choked on my own indignation. “Of course not! The twins are my friends as much as Esther and Carl. They’re important to me. And I brought them here. We’ve been through a lot together. Of course we all care about each other. We’re a family, too, Phoenix. And you can’t destroy that because you’re jealous!”

  “Jealous? They’re my children.”

  “So ask them what they want! Stop trying to manipulate the situation. Moving pieces around the board. I hate that part of you.” I was kind of terrified of his reaction. I winced a little, expecting a backlash.

  “That sounds like my mother. Moving pieces around a board to get what she wants.” He looked at me. “I don’t want to be her.”

  “You’re not her,” I said quickly. “I shouldn’t have said—”

  Shay ran back into the room. “James and Willow came up with something.” He told us about a sprawling estate outside of Dublin with a house a prepper had updated. “It’s not a bomb shelter. It’s more like a place to hide if the shit hits the fan. It sounds perfect for Seth. It’s isolated, and there’s plenty of space, plenty of dark places to hide.”

  “So we go there.” I sat up, wincing as a needling pain ran through me.

  “Daimhín’s on her way,” Shay said. “We should see if she has anything to say first.”

  I caught sight of Leah and Parker hanging around outside the doorway. “Something wrong?” I asked.

  They shook their heads and disappeared. I made a mental note to keep an eye on them.

  “Daimhín won’t fight by our side,” I said. “She’s not going to do it.”

  “If she wants to keep her position in the Senate,” Phoenix said, “she had better do something.”

  By the time Daimhín arrived, my pain had eased, but my worries had only increased as I brooded over Jessica’s fate.

  “We need you,” Phoenix told the vampire queen. “The Senate must stand together on this.”

  Daimhín looked a little ill. “He killed Zion as a warning. I can’t go against him after that.”

  “I get it,” I said impatiently. “Can he be killed? Has anyone ever claimed to kill him only to have him reappear again?”

  “Oh, please,” she scoffed. “Do you know how many vampires claim to have killed you? There’s no certainty in a vampire’s claims of glory. Your little dagger must work against him.”

  My face heated. “Yeah, it hurts him, but I kind of don’t have it right now.”

  She rolled her eyes. They were bright blue, completely clear of the red patches. She had to be hungry.

  Shay jumped in to tell her about the estate that James and Willow had found. “It’s been purchased recently,” he said. “Can’t trace it back to a real person, though. What do you think? Could a vampire hold out there?”

  “I considered buying that property myself,” she said. “I was outbid at the last moment. It’s perfect for the likes of him. But if you go there, be prepared. He’ll use humans as shields, any kind of distraction to get away himself. He’s not interested in a battle. That’s why he’s lived so long.”

  “Did you learn from him then?” Peter snapped.

  She ignored his tone and continued. “I’ll declare myself his enemy, but I won’t trespass on his private property. It’s the height of bad manners for a vampire to encroach on another’s territory, and I have a lot to do to contain this. He’s caused problems for me right down to the lowest of vampires. The story of those teenage girls has done little to calm them. Even Jules…” She shook her head and stood. “I must leave. I don’t want to be here if he returns.”

  After she left, the rest of us continued working on a plan of attack.

  “If the estate is that big, we’ll never have enough people,” I said.

  “The werewolves can cover a lot of territory quickly,” Phoenix said. “They will be useful.”

  “My teams will do what they can to follow the werewolves and remove any humans from the situation,” Shay added.

  “I’m coming with you,” Val told me. “I won’t sit here and wait.”

  “What about Lucia?” I asked pointedly.

  “She doesn’t need a guard dog.” She gave me a hard stare. “The sooner Seth is gone, the safer the rest of the world will be.”

  “I’m coming, too,” Lorcan said. “I owe you, Ava. You brought my sister back. And you lost someone who could be a real part of your family. I’ll help you get her back.”

  I looked at Phoenix to see if he would protest. His jaw was clenched, but he didn’t say anything.

  Leah rushed in, her eyes wide with panic. “Ava! Ava, quickly!”

  Alarmed, I jumped to my feet. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Parker and Adam. I can’t find them anywhere. I think they’ve gone. We heard you talk about the place Seth might be living in, and Parker ran off, and now I can’t find either of them.” She swallowed hard. “I’m pretty sure they’ve gone to find Jessica.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Lightning sparked in the sky, quickly followed by the cracking of thunder. I shivered in the subsequent darkness, recalling the talents of Phoenix’s mother, Fionnuala, weather warden and mega bitch of the millennia. Val and Lorcan stood on either side of me, listening intently for an enemy or a signal for us to move.

  Phoenix had taken his werewolves into the woods surrounding Seth’s property, and Shay’s agents were covering the perimeter. They would all make an attempt to quietly clear our path, but the three of us were still out in the open while we waited.

  We had approached from behind the house, through an old, overgrown forest, a werewolf leading us. Each flash of lightning revealed another vampire patrol along the extended driveway. The grounds were unkempt, and the three-storied manor needed a serious amount of renovation, but it was spacious and remote enough to be worth the ridiculous amount of money Seth had spent on the place. I vaguely wondered how well he had been paid for the beast formula.

  “The blueprint put an outside entrance to the basement at the south side of the building,” I whispered. “If we can just make it there, then…”

  Lorcan and Val looked at me. I felt everything they weren’t saying.

  “Shut up,” I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut. Numbers tumbled unchecked from my lips.

  Another flash of lightning showed a peregrine falcon in flight. I hoped the vampires wouldn’t recognize it as a shifter. As the bird moved overhead, it shrieked a signal for us to move.

  Taking a deep breath, I stepped out of the comfort of the shadows, and we began our approach to the house. If we were in the wrong place, we had given Seth a chance to flee with Jessica. And if we were right, he might just kill us all for shits and giggles. But dawn was approaching, and I was betting that Seth was sticking close to the safety of his underground place.

  We moved close to the low boundary fence that separated the stretch of lawn from the surrounding forestry. Throwing out my other senses, I caught a lot of empty spaces nearby.

  “If Parker sets this place on fire, I’m going to deck him,” Lorcan hissed.

  A twig cracked loudly under my foot. All three of us froze. No other sounds followed, no shouts announcing our presence. My heart pounded so loud, I was sure somebody would hear it. Voices drifted on the wind, but they were tinged with laughter, not wariness. Nobody knew we were there. Nobody knew the werewolves were stalking the estate. Nobody knew Shay’s teams were ready to barge in and make arrests. I hadn’t had the heart to tell Shay that there would be no arrests, only deaths. No matter what we did, our two worlds refused to work together.

  We started moving again. Thunder rumbled, and the rain began to pour. We almost walked right into a patrol. I shoved Lorcan into the trees, but Val and I were caught. Before the two vampires could react, Val grabbed a dagger from her waistband and flung it at one. The blade flew right in the f
emale’s neck. She gurgled and clutched at the knife. Val and I ran toward the pair to finish the job.

  A furry figure flew out of the woods and grabbed the back of the second retreating vampire’s neck before I could reach him. The werewolf shook the vampire like a dog shaking a rat to death. Blood spurted, and a head flew up in the air. I watched it in wonder, trying to pinpoint the very second when that stopped being weird and gross to me. Val had already ended the injured vampire.

  The werewolf trotted toward us, nodding his head as if in greeting. He smelled like wet dog. I fought the urge to laugh hysterically.

  Phoenix stepped out of the trees, scaring the absolute shit out of me. I stifled my yelp just in time. He gave me a long, hard look before disappearing again with Icarus.

  I regrouped with Lorcan and Val. “We don’t have much time,” I whispered.

  “Then let’s run,” Val said. “The path is as clear it will get.”

  We ran between the trees as fast as we dared. A couple of shifters quietly took care of a second patrol that got in our way, giving us the chance to run right around to the back of the house. We easily found the entrance to an old cellar close to the house. A bored vampire stood guard on the path.

  “This is it,” Lorcan whispered. “Are we saying hello?”

  I held up my hands and searched outward again. I found Jessica right away, her essence more confused than ever. I bit my lip, disturbed by Seth’s energy.

  “Shit,” I said, finding two more energies alongside them. “Adam and Parker are in there. We better get inside before Parker sets the whole place on fire.”

  Lorcan rushed at the vampire and quickly killed her. While he took care of that, Val shifted into her hellhound form and easily busted open the doors to the basement. I ran inside, closely followed by the others. The stone steps led down into a large, wide-open space.

  Seth held Adam by the neck. “One step farther, and he’s dead,” he warned. “You don’t dare to come into my home, trespass on my territory. The laws—”

  “The laws have changed,” I stated.

  A werewolf howled in the distance, letting everyone know we were inside.

  “Ah…” Seth smiled. “You brought the wolves. I had hoped. That’s why my trained soldiers are waiting for their arrival.” He cocked his head as a werewolf cried out in obvious pain. “And so it begins. It’s not too late for you, Ava. You can still choose chaos and get rid of those filthy binds. You’re no freer than—”