Taken (Ava Delaney #4) (7 page)

“Pretty much.
Need company?”

We agreed to
meet at the bar that evening. I was killing plenty of birds with
one stone lately, but time was running out. The sun was high, but
the vampires wouldn’t stay gone forever. Although, I could hope the
traitorous scumbag Gideon would disappear and never come back.

Living in a
mostly vampire-free Ireland had been wonderful, particularly since
I no longer lived next door to a greedy succubus who had revelled
in feeding on my energy. Of course, not all of the vampires left.
Not all of the covens could afford the summer move, but without
Daimhín to “contain” me, they kept out of my way, and I stayed out
of theirs.

I was no longer
living on edge, wondering what the Irish vampire queen’s next job
for me would be. I wasn’t as well paid with her departure, but Gabe
was still slipping some cash into my account every now and then to
keep me going on his jobs. Council money, but I wasn’t too proud to
use it for a while. I had been making inroads on repairing my
online business that the Council had essentially destroyed, and
some days, I felt as though my life might actually be in my own
hands. Of course, that generally only lasted until Gabe called
again.

So going to his
bar wasn’t exactly my favourite thing to do, but I would do it
anyway. I needed more information about Illeana’s undercover work,
and then there was Peter.

I should have
known better. He had probably already drunk himself into trouble,
so our aim was to remind him of the job. Only the work, and
sometimes the promise of violence against supernatural beings,
brought him out of his self-pitying, drunken stupors. And I could
give him both. What were friends for?

I called Esther
to give her an update, and she decided we needed a night off to
regroup. If Callista was working, we would talk to her. If not, we
would get twisted. Okay,
I
wouldn’t, but the others could do
what they wanted. I still felt the hangover from the fae drink Finn
and Peter had dared me to drink. Never again.

Carl and I met
up outside the club and waited for Esther.

“Think he’s
here?” I asked.

He shrugged.
“He isn’t at home. I dropped in on my way. The place creeps me out
in the dark. I don’t get why he still lives there.”

“He has to have
some memories. I mean, from before they died. Maybe he feels close
to them there.”

“Or maybe he
needs to stop obsessing.” Carl ran his hand through his hair,
regret deepening the lines on his face. “I didn’t mean for it to
sound that way. But it can’t be good for him to live like
this.”

My laughter
drew all eyes in our direction. “Remember when we said that about
you, Carl? Remember when you listened to us and took all of our
advice? Oh, no, wait. You didn’t. You didn’t listen, and you didn’t
want to know. Kettle, meet pot.”

“That was
different. I was under the influence then.” But he grinned, and I
was reminded of the old Carl. Then he nodded over my shoulder.
“Here she comes.”

Esther strode
toward us, crowds of cigarette-smoking supernaturals dispersing to
let her pass. Any human would have seen a dark-skinned goddess
walking toward them; the supernatural world saw the younger sister
of the alpha of all the shifters in Ireland. They saw the head of a
Guardian Circle. They saw a close relative of a consultant to the
Council. They saw a warrior in pretty clothing.

I saw a girl.
At twenty-one years of age, Esther was an infant in a world of
ancients. She strove to prove herself, to prove she earned her
position, but slowly, she had become disillusioned with the people
she worked for. I had observed a change in her, and I saw her as an
ally, despite how her older brother felt about me. I had pushed my
luck around him, but he was still being hailed a hero because he
got the credit for my kill, so I figured he should cut me some
slack. The weird thing was that I couldn’t help respecting him. He
was fierce and strong, things I liked in a person. He was also
dedicated and loyal, even if I thought his loyalty misplaced.

As she
approached, Esther smiled, her entire face lighting up. She was
beautiful, but any envy I might have once felt had all but
disappeared. I wasn’t meant to be beautiful, but I could control
other aspects of my destiny.

“We ready?” she
asked, appreciation in her eyes as she took in Carl’s appearance.
That surprised me. She was into power, and Carl was weak by her
standards. Shifters tended to crave someone more powerful than
themselves. Peter had once told me that was why the alpha tended to
remain single, and as Esther was the alpha’s younger sister, she
probably had particularly high standards. Carl was still pretty,
even though he had aged so quickly. On second thought, maybe the
whole looking older thing was what got her going. Peter, on the
other hand, scared her a little, although they had grown friendlier
since first impressions were made. I had no problem with the
healthy distance between them.

The club wasn’t
nearly at capacity, but a decent energy thrummed under the surface.
I often wondered if the magic I felt there was from Gabe or someone
else, but whatever it was, it was great for business. Enemies drank
together in Gabe’s bar, and fights of any kind were rare.

Although Esther
had been stabbed by one of her own in the club, the first time we
met properly, but that had been the fault of what I thought were
demonic shadows. Since I threatened Coyle, the Guardian I suspected
of being responsible, I hadn’t come across any other instances of
the shadows taking over a person’s soul. I would always watch,
though. And one day, Coyle would pay the blood price for sending a
shadow-shrouded human to silence me, for sending a human to his
death. Perhaps Peter had influenced me after all.

In a table in
the corner, under cover of natural shadow, Peter sat alone except
for the evidence of his drinking binge.

Carl nudged me.
“You go first.”

“Great, thanks.
Distract him with me so you don’t get killed.”

“You can handle
it. Seriously, just have a word. He might listen to you. We’ll get
some drinks in, see if Callista is around, and join you in a few
minutes.” He squeezed my hand and led Esther to the bar. I knew
they would sit there joking with Finn until it became clear I
wasn’t about to be pulverised by a drunk Peter.

But he wasn’t
drunk. He stank of alcohol, but he was perfectly sober. I saw that
as soon as I took a seat across from him.

“The cavalry
has arrived,” he mumbled, but when he looked at me, his hazel eyes
were clear, except for the red rims under them.

“Heard you
moved in here. Gabe would like some rent.”

A lazy smile
raised the corner of his mouth. “Tell him to put it on my tab.” He
leaned back and glanced at the bar. “Ah, the whole gang is here to
ruin my buzz.”

I lifted one of
the empty bottles and sniffed it. “I heard these all-liquid diets
are really bad for humans. Of course, you left your humanity behind
a while back, so maybe you’ll be okay.”

“Ruining my
buzz was correct. Take your best shot, oh tainted one.”

I ignored the
jibe. There were two Peters: the focused one who couldn’t be
stopped and would do anything to protect the people he cared about,
and the one who sometimes crept into the light and swallowed up
my
Peter.

“Buzz? Oh, you
mean this is you being happy? My bad. I thought you were busy
sitting here feeling sorry for yourself when you have work to
do.”

He wagged his
chin. “I was just minding my own business, Ava. No need for the
melodrama.”

“We’re getting
closer to finding answers when you bail out to drink yourself
stupid, and I’m the one doling out the dramatics? Come on now.
Don’t lie to yourself as well.”

He took a sip
of his drink and grimaced before slamming the glass down. I was
proud of myself for holding in my flinch.

“Something new
come up?” he asked at last.

I smiled
sweetly. “You might know if you didn’t give up before we got
started.”

He glared at
me.

“All right, no
need for the evil eyes. We reckon that book was stolen from Eddie’s
shop, and we think Illeana had another hiding place because Carl
found other stories that might be supernatural, and there are bits
and pieces that don’t make sense. Like they have a few pieces of
the puzzle missing. We were going to talk to Callista again to see
if there’s anything she might have missed.”

“Something
electronic maybe? I didn’t see a phone or a laptop in those boxes.
Maybe she even had a couple of flash drives hidden around the
place. We’ll never find them.” He frowned and leaned forward. “That
book. It would be pretty hard to steal from Eddie. He keeps that
place locked tight.”

“He’s upped the
ante recently. I can feel the change when I walk in there. Lots of
extra padding. So maybe he knows someone stole something.”

“Maybe he
thinks it was you.”

I hadn’t
thought of that. “Why wouldn’t he say something?”

He snorted and
lifted his drink again. “You know what these old things are like;
they live on secrets and lies. You track down any witnesses
yet?”

I shook my
head. “That’s the biggest reason we think we’re missing some info.
I mean, she got that image from somewhere. You can’t be the only
survivor. But the worst thing is how far back some of these
articles go. There are legends in certain villages about these
things. That’s how many families were targeted.”

“But why?” he
muttered. “Maybe we need to go visiting these places then, Ava. The
myth might tell us more than anything recent. People just don’t
believe what they see anymore.”

“Go where?”
Carl asked as he sat heavily next to Peter.

Esther took the
seat next to me and placed a suspiciously blue drink in front of
me. I cast a glance at Finn, who waved.

“Does he think
I’m stupid?” I asked, eyeing the glass warily.

“Don’t worry,
it’s blue food dye. He thought it would be funny,” Esther said.
“Nothing fae about it.”

I sniffed the
drink to be sure. “Fine. But I wouldn’t put it past him to slip me
another one. He enjoys tormenting me.”

“Where are we
going?” Carl repeated.

“Anywhere
there’s been a sighting of those monsters in the last century,”
Peter said confidently. “You’d be surprised how many old wives’
tales are scarily accurate.”

“Esther, were
there any other things in Illeana’s belongings? A personal
computer, flash drives, anything up to date, basically?” I
asked.

She shook her
head. “Sirens are pretty old fashioned. I don’t think she would
have kept stuff like that in her house, although, she
was
keen on her gadgets. I’ll check the headquarters and see if I can
find anything, but I’m pretty sure someone cleared everything out.
Maybe they left something behind.”

“Or maybe they
took it,” Carl said. We all turned to him. “Think about it. Someone
put her on to this stuff. Someone high up. Someone was actually
able to steal from Eddie, and he hasn’t retaliated. Why not?
Because he suspects it’s someone with more power than he. But if
they’re that powerful, they wouldn’t want any evidence lying
around.”

We all absorbed
the idea, and it made a whole lot of sense to me. “Who then?
Fionnuala?” The starkly terrifying head of the council was fae, so
in theory, she would know the right thief. Fae magic was the most
powerful.

“Maybe. She’s
the highest you can go here, and it can’t be Erossi. He would want
everyone to know what he was doing, the cocky git,” Peter said.

“What about
Koda?” Esther asked.

“He’s not
exactly on top form,” Peter said.

“What about…
another consultant,” I said, mulling it over. “Someone Eddie owes a
favour to, maybe.”

“The witch?”
Carl suggested. “She’s always in the shop, so she had the
opportunity.”

“And he seemed
pretty agitated the other day when I saw her there.” I sipped the
drink, made a face, and put it back down in a hurry. Damn Finn.

“What about the
other consultants?” Peter said. “It’s hardly Aiden, unless he
specifically wanted to keep Esther out of this to protect her.”

“If he did,
I’ll kill him,” she hissed. “But that leaves us with the hottie and
the ancient vampire.”

I raised a
brow. “The hottie?”

“Elathan. He’s
fiercely hot.” She made a face at Peter’s look of disgust. “Demons
can be attractive, too.”

“Demon, as in
from Hell?” I asked.

She fidgeted at
a beermat. “He was kicked out of Hell.”

I stared at
her, wondering what on earth someone had to do to get kicked out of
Hell.

“I doubt it’s
him anyway,” she said.

I shrugged.
“But you don’t know for sure. This is getting too complicated. Too
many possible players, and no way of us knowing who’s in on it. No
matter where we step, it’s likely to be on somebody’s toes. Gabe
didn’t have a clue what Illeana was doing, and Eddie seems to be a
victim of theft, so we can probably rule them out. But both could
be covering their tracks, so we’re stuck at square one.”

“We could ask
them,” Esther said, but her heart wasn’t in the suggestion.

“And risk all
of us getting killed?” Peter asked. “Isn’t worth it.”

“All we can do
is keep working on it,” Carl said. “And watching out, because as
soon as anyone has an inkling of what we’re doing, they might want
to shut us up.”

We discussed
our options for a while longer. Callista wasn’t working that night,
so Esther figured it would be better for me and her to confront
Callista in her own home. Esther would dig a little deeper into the
mystery of Illeana’s potentially missing belongings, and Carl and
Peter would keep trying to come up with leads on possible
witnesses, or any kind of information that might help. Esther was
still working on the hacker in the Council headquarters, and she
seemed confident that he would come up with something.
Eventually.