Taste

  “What if you’re ambushed by ten or twenty of them?” Gabe asked.

  “If ten arrive, I’ll be out looking for them anyway. We can’t let them run riot around the city. Seriously, don’t you remember how much destruction Becca caused?”

  “I remember it clearly,” Gabe said. “She was uncontrollable. No use as the weapon Maximus or Gideon intended.”

  “So maybe they’ve learned something since Becca,” Peter said. “Ava’s right. This is different. I just don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing.”

  I rubbed my temples. I was getting a headache from all of the possibilities. “Either way, I’ll have to be out there. Let’s hope Becca’s fears haven’t been bred out of these things.”

  “If you want to stay in the city, I will go with you,” Val said, and everyone turned to look at her. She gave a wicked smile. “If anyone’s equipped to deal with a beast, surely it’s me.”

  “I’d definitely rather have you on my side,” I said, and we exchanged knowing grins.

  “I’m up for it, too,” Esther said, cracking her knuckles. “I’m bored with sitting around.”

  “You could come across Aiden,” Peter said, staring her down. “Think you can handle that?”

  She made a scornful sound. “I can handle anything.” But her voice wasn’t completely steady.

  “I’m prepared to go, too,” Lorcan said.

  I shook my head. “I’d rather you stayed with Lucia. That way, if there’s news, you’ll be able to pass the word on.”

  “Her visions haven’t been reliable,” he protested.

  “She’s all we have. Besides, we need people capable of defending the cul-de-sac, too.”

  Peter’s eyes narrowed. “You think something will come here?”

  “I’m thinking the beasts are going to scatter. The power here could attract them. I don’t know for sure, and I don’t want to take the chance. We’ve no idea what kind of info the BVA have, thanks to Gideon and Reuben.”

  “I’m going,” Peter said.

  “Emmett,” I replied, ignoring the look on his face.

  “I’m going,” he repeated more vehemently.

  “Cam’s here. Lorcan’s here. I’m here. Emmett will be fine,” Carl said. “You might need Peter. You’re a good team.”

  I closed my eyes and exhaled loudly.

  “I can stay or be out on the streets,” Gabe said, “but I’ll have to send the last member of my Guard back to headquarters.”

  “Shit. We need more fighters.” I glanced around the room. “We need to arm everyone in the cul-de-sac. And I mean everyone, even the children. I’m not leaving anyone completely defenceless. Mrs. Yaga will be here, so hopefully…”

  “There are a couple of people who are good enough with a bow,” Val said. “They don’t have practice on moving targets, but if they keep watch from the upper floors of some of the homes, then maybe we’ll stand a chance.”

  “Too few of them to cover enough ground,” Peter said. “And a still target is a completely different story than a beast running for someone. Ry’s the only one who knows what he’s doing, and he didn’t get much practice underground.”

  Everyone looked so solemn that it left an ache in my chest. Some of us would likely die, and all of us knew it. The more people we left behind, the less chance we had of surviving out in the dark.

  “The Council want to bring you in, Ava,” Gabe said softly, and everyone’s attention turned back to him.

  “To arrest her?” Esther exclaimed, looking shocked.

  He shook his head. “To ask her to fight for us again.”

  “Idiots,” I said. “As if I need to be asked to fight for my own survival.”

  He shrugged. “You know how it is. They want to be kept in the loop. They would prefer it if you went to the places they want you to go.”

  “And what did you tell them?”

  A ghost of a smile teased his lips. “I told them they could find you out in the field.” He cocked his head. “But we should regroup there if more beasts come. To best coordinate an attack. We could use the Guardians.”

  “They didn’t do much good last time,” I muttered. “No offence, Esther.”

  She waved a hand. “It’s fine. I know it. We didn’t take it as seriously as we should until it was too late. It was all a competition. Gabe, can I contact my Circle?”

  “You’re not a Guardian anymore, Esther,” he said. “Technically, they should take you in. This is why I can’t force my Guard to remain here. Too risky. They should really arrest you on sight, too.”

  “So should you,” Peter said sharply.

  “I’m too afraid of Ava to do that,” he said with a smirk.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “That’ll be the day. Think they’d speak to you, Esther?”

  She shrugged. “We were a family once.”

  Her words hung in the air, and I knew she had to be thinking about her brother. Still a Guardian, still a Consultant to the Council, he had hung her out to dry, and she had no idea why.

  “It might be worth a try,” Carl said. “Reaching out when the country is in danger is kind of the time to re-evaluate what’s going on in your life.” He gazed at me, and I glared back.

  “I’m getting out of here,” I said, jumping to my feet. “Someone call me if there’s any news. I need to get out there. I need to be ready.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Val said.

  I nodded. “We’ll patrol the city to see if maybe we can figure out weak spots. It’s getting late, so I don’t think anything is going to happen. We’ll contact you if we spot anything out there. Lucia, keep an eye out for me.”

  Lucia reached for Val. Val’s big hand squeezed Lucia’s tiny one, and we left.

  “You’re getting close,” I noted. “With Lucia, I mean.”

  “You’ve met her,” Val said. “She’s special. She needs as much protection as any of them.”

  “I know.” I met her eyes.

  Val was protective rather than destructive. She had sworn to protect Leah, but I knew she would do anything to protect Lucia, too.

  “I need her silence,” she said after a moment. “Is that strange? She calms me. I need that more than I like. We communicate, but sitting with her helps sometimes.”

  “Not strange,” I said, although I had once thought of Lucia’s silence as creepy rather than calming. “There’s no darkness in her at all. Sometimes I need that. She calmed me when I might have lost myself. I’ll always be grateful to her.”

  “I’m thankful to know her. I only hope this world doesn’t corrupt her.”

  “It won’t. She and Lorcan aren’t like the rest of us. In a good way.”

  After a few moments, she said, “I’m keen to see more of the city. It’s been a while since I’ve had free rein.”

  “I’m so sorry. I forgot you’ve been a prisoner as much as anyone.”

  “I wasn’t unhappy,” she said, sounding surprised. “As long as I have a job to do, I’m fine. But I would like to see the day when all of them are free to come and go. Leah’s young; she deserves the chance to have a real life. The twins have never known freedom. These are things I would like to change.”

  “We’re getting there. I just don’t know if life will ever be safe.” I sighed. “It feels as though once this world touches you, you can never escape. I was doing okay before… well, maybe not okay, but at least I felt safe some of the time. Last year, I didn’t know any of you. I didn’t know any of what was wrong. I collided with this stuff, and now everything keeps escalating. I can’t see where it stops, where I can get off.”

  She glanced at me, and I realised it was the most truth I had spoken over the last couple of days.

  “The only end is death,” she said, frowning. “There will always be something coming. There will always be anger and pain. Only you can choose what you deal with. You could have walked away at any time. You’ve told me your story, Ava. Your choices brought you here.”

  “So I only have
myself to blame?”

  “No, you’ve made choices, and you decided to be a voice. You chose to help, to make a difference. The world is made up of small choices, small voices. Each one counts.”

  I stared at her, surprised. “That was… thanks, Val.”

  She smiled but kept her eyes on the road. “Where do you suggest we go first?”

  “Maybe the main shopping streets.Lots of pubs and clubs and drunken life to pick off. If I was the BVA, I would cause mayhem in places like that. I would send beasts in all different directions to cause distractions. And when everyone was busy struggling to figure out what was going on, I would attack hard and swift at the centre of control.”

  “You mean the Council?”

  I nodded. “They have to take down the Council to win. That’s just it. As long as the Council survives, so does their power. I’ve been thinking about this a lot because the vampires want to do what we want to do—take down the Council and assert themselves—except we aren’t going to risk innocent lives to do it. We can help people, make them respect us and want to join us.”

  “So if we clear out the beasts, people won’t react as badly when we destroy the system?”

  My heart hurt again. “Change the system for the better, I think.”

  “Are there leaders amongst us?” she asked. “Ones who can run all of these creatures in an unbiased way? Even you have priorities. You would always side with the humans.”

  I stopped walking. “Shit. There’s no neutrality, is there? I wish there was a way to give the humans a voice of their own.”

  “Involve them?”

  I fell in step with her again. “They won’t survive an army of beasts without knowing they need to defend themselves.”

  “That could cause mayhem, Ava, hysteria, panic. Vengeful humans convinced a shifter or vampire murdered one of their loved ones, whether it’s true or not.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. “Then the new Council would take care of that. Look, we’re a long way away from the details, but that’s my dream.”

  “You’ve seemed different this week. Worn out.”

  “I am. I’m fed up of the constant fighting. Emmett’s watching me do this, thinking killing is okay. What happens when the war is over? When there’s no need to fight? Will he be like Peter is right now?”

  “It would be easier for you if you didn’t care,” she noted.

  “Ha. No shit. But who wants easy?”

  She grinned. “Most people.”

  I showed her all of the places I reckoned might be at risk, mostly ones with a good deal of active nightlife. They could be the disaster spots.

  She pointed at an apartment block. “What about those places? Lots of humans packed together.”

  “There aren’t tenement buildings anymore. I mean, it’s not twenty people to a room. But, yeah, some places like that house a lot of people, and I know Becca liked housing areas the best. They’re the easiest, the least protected.”

  “A lot of people are going to die,” she said, her voice tight.

  She didn’t have to tell me. I already knew.

  Chapter Eleven

  Three beasts came the following night. As I expected, they turned up in different locations. I went after the first beast with Val, Esther, Gabe, and Peter. Annoyingly, she fled from us, leading us further away from my home.

  Gabe got news of the second one near the Council’s headquarters while we were on the chase. “The Guardians are going to deal with it,” he said. “Let’s concentrate on this one. If we get the job done in time, we move on to the second.”

  “Fine,” I said. “I’ll cut her off, try to lead her back here.”

  I was off before anyone could disagree, but Val followed me, calling her plans out to me as she ran. We worked together to push the running beast in the direction we needed.

  Peter, Esther, and Gabe cut her off, and when she turned back, she had to face Val and me. The beast froze to the spot, and when I took a step in her direction, she suddenly leaped toward a building. I was on her before she could get away, dragging her to the ground.

  Most of the fight was me keeping out of the way of her fangs while Esther batted at the beast with massive claws, but the beast’s returning strikes weren’t violent enough, and I wondered if she was a decoy or a reject. She had managed to slaughter five people before we found her, but perhaps the blood wasn’t enough to help her recover after whatever journey she had been on to get that far.

  Peter gutted her with a sword, and the beast whirled around, dragging him with her. She went into a mini-frenzy, getting too close to biting Esther. Gabe pulled his bright light trick, and the beast whimpered, trying to bury her head in the ground.

  “Neat,” I said as Val lopped off the head of the beast. “Do that light thing again.”

  Gabe glared at me, fatigue showing in the creases outlining his eyes.

  “Right. Next,” Esther said, wrapping the shirt Gabe handed to her around her shoulders.

  Gabe stepped away and made a phone call, and his face paled as he spoke rapidly under his breath. Esther had fully dressed by the time he returned to us.

  “The Council are still dealing with the second. Apparently, it’s on the run now, but there have been human reports of a third.”

  “Where?” I demanded.

  “No exact location. Inner city.”

  “North or South?” Peter asked.

  “I don’t know. They didn’t think it was as important as the one near the headquarters.” Gabe sounded as frustrated as I felt.

  “Can the Council handle the second?” Esther asked.

  “They’ve sent everything out to it. Everything that isn’t guarding the rest of the Council, that is,” he said grimly.

  “Fuckers,” Peter said.

  I sniffed the air. “It’s almost dawn. It’s too late now. They’ll all disappear. Is it possible there were more than three?”

  Gabe shrugged. “It’s possible there were no survivors to alert us.”

  I hunkered down, breathing hard. “I need a location, Gabe. An exact one, in case it comes back tomorrow night. If it survives, it’ll want more. It makes the most sense to return to places that haven’t posed a challenge.” Something tingled along my skin as the first signs of dawn brightened the horizon. I knew the beasts were sleeping, but it would be night again, and they would reappear.

  “We should go,” Gabe said. “There’s nothing we can do here. Not now. Not yet.”

  We headed back to the cul-de-sac in silence. Once home, I went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

  Peter woke me early the next morning. “You need to see the news.”

  I ran downstairs and collapsed onto the sofa as a news report came on. Bodies, lots of bodies, filled the screen as a familiar place flashed into view.

  “Those are the flats where Moses lives,” I cried, wincing at the sight of the bodies being carried out and the solemn-faced people lining up to guard the fallen. I recognised the brethni, the hive-minded race of males who lived in a warehouse near the drug dealer, and I realised they must have helped the humans. The drug dealer had called them good lads. Maybe he had been right. The reporter spoke of criminal activity as if that could explain the massacre, as if average criminals drained bodies of blood.

  “I don’t understand this,” I whispered. “Peter, Moses told me that the people are under the thumb there. That someone high up is keeping him dealing. If he makes money, the flats are left alone. Why didn’t whoever’s in charge protect the people who work for them?”

  “Because nobody gives a shit about humans,” he said bitterly, wrapping his arm around his son. “Those people didn’t stand a chance.”

  “It could come back,” I said. “There are a lot of people living there, lots of blocks, lots of flats, lots of families. It’s packed. That place would be the perfect feeding ground. How many flats just like those are in Dublin? How many people sitting there waiting to be killed? We can’t leave them with nothing.”


  “They’re calling it a gangland crime,” he said, nodding at the television. “Nobody will sympathise. They’ll say all of the scum are killing each other off.”

  “I’m going,” I said.

  “To do what? It’s daytime. The beasts won’t be back until after dark, and they may not show up there again.”

  “Peter, I need to talk to the people, tell them how to protect themselves.”

  “Are you serious?”

  I stared at him in shock. “Of course I’m serious. You heard Gabe last night. They didn’t even tell us about that third beast because they knew it was in a human area. Because it wasn’t in an important area. Those fu… fools only care about themselves, about what they can get out of this. They aren’t going to protect anyone. They’ve made that clear.”

  He smiled, and his entire face lit up. “This is why I… this is why we’re all here with you, Ava. But the Council might try to stop you.”

  I made a face. “Let them. But maybe don’t tell Gabe what I’m doing until it’s too late to stop me.”

  “Want me to come with?” he asked hopefully.

  “Nah, get some rest. I’ll need you tonight. Call me if you hear anything new.” I looked at the television again, remembering all of the bodies. “You know where I’ll be.”

  I dressed then walked to the flats, feeling a sense of déjà vu so strong, I wobbled. The flats were dark and dank, but the occupants didn’t deserve to be picked off. Nobody did.

  As I approached, I felt the commotion before I heard or saw it. A lot of people gathered together: camera operators, news reporters, police. A young garda tried to stop me from going into the flats, so I stared at him, my will taking over his. I hated to do it, but it was a special circumstance. He let me pass without any further fuss, and I looked around for Moses.

  The flats were a mess. The playground was destroyed, completely torn apart. Blood streaked the wall of the left block. Old women wept, young men bellowed their outrage, and in the middle of it all, there he was: Benny, aka Moses.

  The drug dealer stood apart, smoking a joint in full few of the gardaí. When he caught sight of me, his face turned purple. He strode toward me as all eyes watched. He gripped my shoulders and shook me, but I let him, keeping my gaze steady on his.