Taken (Ava Delaney #4) (5 page)

Esther turned
over the page. “Another one for the list. But maybe it’s important.
I’ll try to check out some of the names of the victims on the
system back at Headquarters, see if there are any connections to
supernaturals. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth a try.”

“Exactly how
high-tech are these headquarters of yours?” Carl asked with a great
deal of interest.

She grinned.
“Not very, but Aiden’s been working on overhauling the plain old
magic with some good old hacking. He set up a system, but it’ll be
years before it’s finished, so the records aren’t complete. I mean,
they have to put millennia of info into the database.”

“Will anyone
pick up on the searches?” Carl asked.

“I don’t know.
But there’s a human guy working there that’s kind of sweet on me. I
could probably persuade him to cover my tracks. Maybe he could even
help with the other stuff, like the numbers we can’t figure out.
He’s super smart, and Aiden said he’s pretty much changed
everything for the better over there, so he should have a handle on
secrecy. Actually, they found him when he hacked into the original
system. They were going to kill him, but Aiden figured he needed
him on his team instead. He’s shy, but I think I could flirt my way
into his good books.”

“Only you could
work a date into this,” I teased.

“Nah, he’s in
his twenties. Way too young for me.”

Carl laughed
loudly. “You’re barely an adult.”

She tossed her
hair in an exaggerated movement. “I’m surrounded by centuries-old
creatures most of the time. I tend to steer toward older men.”

“Some human boy
your own age would be good for you.” I was only half-teasing that
time. Sometimes Esther forgot about the other side of her heritage.
She was always so busy trying to live up to her role, her brother’s
reputation, and the expectations of the ancient beings around her
that she forgot she was a twenty-one-year-old who still had a
chance at something normal.

“Whatever. I’ll
check on any phone numbers and see if my hacker boy can tell me
anything about breaking a siren’s code. I’ll get him to run that
name, but it might be unrelated.”

“I’ll try to
dig up something on the victims and survivors from the newspaper
articles,” Carl offered.

“I can do
that,” I said automatically.

He grimaced.
“I’m capable of helping.”

“I just
thought, well, you’d be busy in the shop. Especially with trying to
find out if Illeana bought that book there.”

He closed his
eyes and took a deep breath. Esther and I exchanged glances.

“Fine. I’ll
check the inventory for that book,” he said at last.

“Carl, I wasn’t
trying to─”

“Forget it.
It’ll be faster if you do the legwork, right?” His half-smile was
full of bitterness.

Esther got to
her feet. “Listen, I should head on. I’ll take what I need and
leave you two to sort the details.”

Esther gathered
most of Illeana’s things. When she asked me to help her carry some
of it to her car, I knew she wanted to talk in private. Bear
shifters tended to be stronger than they looked; Esther rarely
needed help carrying anything. I picked up a box and followed her
out to the car.

She opened the
boot of her car. “He’s not dealing.”

“What am I
supposed to do? It’s not his fault. None of it is. But he’s so weak
right now that I can’t risk him hurting himself even more.”

She stared at
me as if considering my words. “You can’t treat him like he’s a
child, though. I’ve seen it before. Shifters… Guardians… they fall
in combat, can’t get back on their feet, try to trick themselves
into thinking they’re the same as before, but they aren’t. They
can’t be. He’ll get over it, but it takes time. And I don’t think
he can do it himself. I mean, he’s been through so much that I’m
surprised he hasn’t lost his mind.”

I shook my
head. I knew that already. He was stronger than any of us had ever
anticipated. He had to be to have survived everything he had gone
through. But I didn’t know how to handle Carl when he was acting as
though he had been neutered or something.

“I’ll get
started on this.” Esther got in her car and fastened her seatbelt.
“Stay safe. Both of you. We need to keep this as down-low as
possible. Keep an eye on Peter. He might crack before Carl.”

She sped away
before I could think of an answer. When had I become the stable one
of the group? Both of the humans keeping
me
human were
teetering on the edge of something. I wasn’t equipped to deal with
my own problems, never mind anyone else’s.

I still felt
guilty about Carl. My suspicions of Eddie’s motives had been
simmering for a while. The first time I had bonded Carl to me had
been an accident, but I should never have trusted Eddie’s advice. I
had become certain that Eddie knew the bond hadn’t broken fully the
first time.
I
should have known. After all, he was Eddie
Brogan, the one person who always seemed to know what was going to
happen next. It was too late for Carl either way because the
effects had lingered in our systems for so long they might never
fade.

I had tied him
to me in a way that was dangerous for both of us. It hadn’t
protected him from the succubus I had basically dangled him in
front of. Saving him from her, and from myself, had hurt him beyond
repair. Even a healing miracle from an angel hadn’t quite done the
trick. And now that he was in control of his own mind fully, for
the first time in months, he was intent on pushing me away. It
hurt.

When I went
back inside, his mood had turned again as he looked over the
newspaper articles with excitement.

“There has to
be somebody left,” he said. “Somebody who remembers what happened.
I think Peter was right about Illeana finding a witness.”

“Maybe. Maybe
you could help me track them down. If I could just get a couple of
phone numbers, we could ring them.”

He brightened.
“Of course. There have to be some old articles online. Maybe
something with a little more information. Finding them should be
easy. Getting them to talk will be another thing.”

“I’ll go and
see any we find.
If
we find any. I have a bad feeling that
Peter surviving the attack on his family was a fluke. These
creatures have no qualms about killing anyone who gets in their
way.”

“All we need is
one,” he said. “We just need the right one to see if we’re on the
right track.”

“Think we’ll
ever find the truth?”

He dropped the
paper on the coffee table. “We have to. Between the lot of us, we
can do it. And while I’m checking out the records at the shop, I’ll
take a look at some of the more obscure books to see if there’s an
image or description matching Peter’s demon.”

“Don’t call it
that!” I took a deep breath. “Sorry, it just weirds me out a
little.”

“He’ll be
fine.” Carl patted my hand, seeing through my anger as always. “But
maybe we should deal with this stuff without him. There’s no point
rubbing his nose in it, especially if we don’t come up with
something. And if we do, he’ll need to have it broken to him
gently. Trust me.”

“I’m worried
for her, too.”

Carl shrugged.
“Esther needs to keep her mind off things. I’m not surprised.
Something’s got to give.”

“She’s hiding
it from Aiden. I wonder how well that one will work out.” I found
it funny how all of us were so concerned with each other’s
problems, yet so hesitant to deal with our own inner demons.

“Probably not
well at all, but she isn’t ready to talk, so we have to wait it
out.”

“I suppose.” I
made a face. I wasn’t good at waiting. “But what I can’t figure out
is what that book has to do with anything. It’s bugging me why she
would steal that specific book.”

Carl rubbed the
tawny stubble on his jaw. “That book was mostly about your kind,
Ava. About the things nephilim could do.”

“Like open
gates,” I whispered.

We exchanged a
glance that said we were both thinking the same things.

“It might mean
nothing,” he said. “It might have been the wrong book, or there’s
something we’re missing here.”

“Or it might
make perfect sense.”

He rose to his
feet slowly, clearly in pain. “Don’t go assuming anything. We’ve
plenty of work to keep us going, remember?”

“You should be
using your walking stick on days like this,” I scolded.

He waved me
away. “I’m not depending on a piece of wood to get around. I can
walk. It isn’t going to kill me.”

But it hurt
him. I could see it in the limp, the tightening of the lines around
his eyes, and the controlled gasp as the aching reached its
peak.

“Eddie will
give you something for the pain if you ask.”

“I don’t need
help,” he insisted. “I should get home. Maria will worry.”

“How is she?” I
wasn’t being polite. I really wanted to know how she was treating
him.

“She’s good,
mostly. Getting over everything. She’s started at me about
returning to work. Her dad’s forgiven me now. Pitying the poor
invalid.” He grinned, but the lightness was gone.

How I wished I
could turn back time and fix Carl. “Would that make you happy? To
work there again?”

He tried to
laugh, but his breath caught, and he coughed instead. “Definitely
not. I would rather suffer in Eddie’s shop than be perfectly
healthy at her father’s business. I might not be any use at
defending myself anymore, but I’m good at this stuff.” He gestured
at the book. “This stuff comes easy for me, and if I can make a
difference, even like this, then it’s worth it.”

I knew he meant
it, and I was happy to have him in my life.

C
hapter Five

Loud banging at
my door and someone desperately shouting my name woke me from a
particularly restless sleep. “Ava! Ava! Help me! Please! Someone
help me!”

In a panic, I
jumped out of bed and fell over myself trying to get to the door.
Someone needed me. I heard the fear in their voice, and I had to
run to help them.

To my surprise,
I found Dita on my doorstep, in her pajamas, the beginning of a
bruise swelling her cheek. She threw herself at me, wrapping her
arms around my waist.

“What
happened?” I asked. “Are you okay?”

“It’s Daddy.
He’s mad. I think he’s going to kill her. Please, help me.”

“Your
house?”

“Yes!”

I kneeled in
front of her and gripped her shoulders. “Get inside and lock the
door after me. Let nobody in unless I tell you to. Put on the radio
or the television and turn up the volume. I’ll be back in a
minute.”

I moved to
leave, but she pulled at my arm. “No! Don’t go in there. He’ll hurt
you, too. I just… I didn’t know…”

“I’ll be fine,
Dita. Get inside.”

I pushed her in
and closed the door. I had no idea what kind of being her father
was, and I didn’t have my dagger, but I had to take my chances.

I heard the
sounds then, and I knew someone would call the Guardians, or the
police, or at the very least, Mrs. Yaga. The noise of things being
smashed by either being thrown on the floor or against the walls
assaulted my ears, but there was no screaming, and that terrified
me.

I ran through
the open front door toward the source of the noise. In the kitchen,
a human man, red-faced and obviously drunk, towered over Anka,
Dita’s mother. She was curled up into a ball on the floor. I could
smell blood, but I could also hear two strong heartbeats, so she
was alive. He had a small microwave in his hands, the cord ripped
off, and he was about to slam it on top of Anka.

“Put that
down,” I snapped.

He turned,
comically slowly, the microwave still in his large palms. “Who the
fuck are you?”

“I’m the person
who’s going to kick your head in if you don’t get the hell out of
here. Right now, you cowardly fuck.” Years of bad memories flew in
front of my eyes as if they had been waiting to show themselves.
Anka was defenceless on the ground, and still he didn’t care.

I remembered
curling on the floor, hoping a man would stop kicking me, hoping
someone would come and rescue me. I couldn’t watch it happen, and I
wished the drunk would try to hit me. I had since learned to hit
back.

He threw the
microwave at me, but missed badly, and it flew into a chair at
least two feet to my left. I lurched toward him and slammed my palm
into his nose, wishing I had closed my fist, wishing I could hit
him over and over again, wishing I could make
him
curl up
into a terrified ball.

I grabbed his
collar and led him out of the house before he could take the time
to react, holding my breath against the smell of the blood seeping
from his nose.

He was
absolutely stunned, stumbling after me obediently, and it wasn’t
until the fresh air hit him that he truly fought back. I avoided
his punches and finally forced him into a choke hold that soon sent
him into a snorting, slobbering mess.

“Is he dead?”
Anka stood in the doorway, staring at me coldly.

I shook my
head. “I need to get him out of here, though.”

“My
daughter?”

“She’s in my
house, safe.”

“I keep quiet,
so she won’t hear. But he’s loud, and she wakes. She comes to save
me. Like a superhero. But he slaps her away.” She stared at his
prone body. “I almost wish you had killed him.”

“Yeah, I wish I
had, too.”

“I called Mrs.
Yaga. I need to clean up before Dita sees me.”

“Go ahead. I’ll
wait for the landlady.”

She was so
bloody calm and dignified. My blood was steaming. Her tank top
clearly displayed deep bruises, but her face was unmarked. As she
turned, I saw a long slash across her back, with plenty of old
scarring, too.