“As a Guardian?” I brightened; that was a purpose.
“I’m sorry, Ava,” he said, his voice softer than before. “Your kind doesn’t have a place with our Guardians. We’d like to hire you, but off the books.”
“Like Peter?” I asked, my chest tightening.
“Similar to Peter,” Gabe confirmed.
“I’m not a killer,” I said. Well, only when I had to be.
“We want you to bring Becca in. The Spanish leaders would like us to run tests on Becca, to figure out this formula and its potential. However, she’s dangerous; it’s understandable that an incident leading to her death might occur.” Koda laid his hands on the table. I didn’t like the look in his eye.
I frowned. “So what you’re saying is, you want me to find a human who’s been experimented on and turned into the equivalent of a vampire on steroids so you can cage her and test her further?”
“We need to figure out how many there could be out there, how many vampires are using this same formula. Maybe we can reverse the effects. We won’t know until we take a look at her DNA.” Gabe sounded sincere, but something in his tone, the way he held his body, sent me on alert.
“Where you gonna keep her? One of your cells? She’s a victim. Why are the victims always the losers around here?” I hated Becca, but I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. Vampires and demons ruined people’s lives all the time, yet they never suffered for it. They were never truly punished.
Gabe’s lips twitched. “If you want to change things, then you’ll have to get involved around here. So, do you think you can handle that?”
I glared at him, sick of people trying to play me. “If all of your trained dogs can’t take her down, what makes you think I can?”
Koda looked surprised. “You’re part nephilim,” he said. “You are a warrior.”
I laughed. “Really? Because I wasn’t a warrior before he used that word on me. What’s changed?”
Peter inched closer to me. “Just listen to them, Ava. Look at how many vampires you’ve killed without any training. Imagine what you could do if you tried.” He sounded excited, as if he didn’t remember how much I had struggled to gain the upper hand in a fight.
“I fluked out on most of them! I drank blood. I can’t go there again.” My chin shook; he knew better.
“We’ll send you blood donations,” Koda said. “We can offer you humans, bagged blood, anything you like.”
“No!” I shouted, and jumped to my feet. It was back to the same thing. To outdo a bad thing, I had to be bad.
“Please, Ava,” Gabe pleaded. He held my gaze and, for the first time, sounded trustworthy. “She’s murdered dozens of people, more every day.”
“Why can’t you do it?” If they wanted me for being part angel, then surely a full angel would do the trick.
Gabe bowed his head. “I’m not a god. On Earth, I’m not fully functioning. I wasn’t created here; you were. We can’t find her, and we can’t trust the vampires to bring her in. For all we know, she’s holed up in one of their buildings. We’ll send you the blood, but you don’t have to take it. It’ll be your choice. It isn’t just Becca, although that’s particularly urgent. In future, we’d like you to work in an undercover capacity, finding people, picking up traitors, using your special talents to pinpoint problems, that sort of thing. The money’s good, and we’d like a chance to see what you can do.”
Gabe looked very pleased with himself. When I arched my eyebrow, he changed his tack and laid my dagger on the table before him with no discomfort. “You can hold a weapon created for a nephal warrior in the first Holy War. That’s proof enough for me that you’re one of Heaven’s soldiers. When the time comes for you to make a choice, we need you to be on the right side.”
I thought about it. I didn’t want to work for the Council. I had enough trouble working for Daimhín. Then I glanced at Peter and remembered his son. If I was out there, working, I could pick up information for him. Peter needed closure, and I had my own theories about his son, especially after hearing Eloise’s story. I’d been just getting by for long enough; I needed a purpose to keep going. I needed to feel something again. I wanted to prove to myself I could be less like the vampires and more like my mother, given the chance.
For now, I would be willing to take on the job. Becca was running around murdering people, most of them innocent bystanders. She acted like she still feared me, so maybe the job was right for me. I wasn’t afraid anymore.
For a long time, I had felt like I couldn’t trust my own body. Now I knew a thing or two, and I had plenty of opportunity to learn more. Ignoring my heritage, ignoring the supernatural world, none of that had worked, and dipping my feet in had only led to trouble. No, I had to get involved, learn everything I could about them and myself, and make a better life. For me.
If I worked from the inside, there was a chance I could find out more. So many things were bothering me—Eddie, the souls, the cold presence following me, the shadow that stuck to Peter and the were-fox, the mystery of Leah and the victims, so many victims of this world. This was my chance for answers, my chance for change. My chance to find myself.
“I’ll take the job,” I said. “For now.”
Gabe handed me the dagger and, as my fingers clasped the handle, I felt whole again.
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For more information on Claire Farrell’s books, please visit her author blog at Doing It Write Now.
Claire Farrell, Taunt
(Series: Ava Delaney # 2)
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