Taunt (Ava Delaney #2) Read online

  When I raised an eyebrow, he placed his palms on the table. “I know we aren’t always on the best of terms, Ava. But this time, you need me. They trust me; they’ll at least listen to me before making their decision.”

  “Decision on what?” I felt like I had missed something huge.

  “Whatever it is you’re being accused of. I have an idea, but we’ll see at the hearing. You would probably have been charged by now if it wasn’t for me.”

  He looked like I should be jumping for joy. Instead, I felt like I’d been thrown into a cesspit. Every single time I thought I was over the worst, something even worse happened. Eddie was my only link to the outside world and, for that, I supposed I had to be grateful.

  “Um, thanks, I guess. For helping me with whatever the hell is going on. So, what, you people have actual trials?”

  Eddie frowned. “More like ‘us’ people now, Ava. We are civilised. Really. We have laws and courts, different from humans, of course. Our kind could never be tried by humans. It wouldn’t work. We have a system and, if you know how to play that system, you’ll do fine.”

  I sighed. There was never a straight path to the end. “So what now? What happens? What do I do? Should I try running?”

  He shook his head vehemently, his face paling. “Never try to run from the Council, Ava. You’ll never know a moment’s peace again. Let’s just see what happens first. In a few days, you’ll make your first appearance. I’ll try to get some time to figure out how Gideon plans on playing this one. I speak, Ava. I take care of this. If you go running in all guns blazing…”

  “I get it, Eddie. I’m not crazy.”

  “Depends who you ask.” He smiled, looking almost fatherly for a second. “We’ll take care of this, Ava, but you must know something. They’re accusing you of being a daywalker.”

  “So?”

  He caught his breath. “That isn’t a good thing, child. Gideon’s effectively outing you here. There’s no going back now, Ava. This is your world, but not everyone will welcome you. They’re concerned with upsetting the natural balance. I might not be able to convince them that you aren’t a danger.”

  “How could I be a danger? I’m not even as strong as a vampire!”

  He leaned forward and looked me in the eye. “Trust me when I tell you how serious this is, Ava. After this is over, you and Nancy are going to sit down and have a conversation about your family. I’ll make sure everything is explained, I promise. But for now, let’s focus on what’s important here—making sure the Council doesn’t find you guilty.”

  I tried not to panic. The Council was one thing, having an actual conversation with my grandmother was quite another. I decided to take his advice and concentrate on the bigger picture.

  “Fine, it’s a big deal. So if this Council finds me… guilty of stuff, then what happens?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Then, Ava, then they’ll sentence you. They could imprison you for eternity. They could execute you. You have to understand how serious this is.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, when the door opened, and a Guardian demanded Eddie leave. Eddie glared at the Guardian, slowly rose to his feet, then gazed at me for a few seconds before leaving. The door slammed shut, leaving me alone.

  My thoughts spun rapidly, never giving me a chance to relax. I was screwed, royally screwed. Councils, trials, executions—I could disappear, and nobody would know what happened. By the time the Guardians came to return me to my cell, I wanted to throw up. At least when the vampires wanted to kill me, I had been able to fight back in some way. Now I had to sit around and wait and see if the whims of complete strangers would kill me or cage me.

  Two Guardians led me back into the stark white hallways that led downward. They never spoke, but their fingers pinched into my arms as though they hated me. I was lost within minutes; even if I managed to break free of the Guardians, I would probably end up running through white corridors for the rest of my life.

  A loud siren screeched, and it sounded as if all hell had broken loose. The Guardians threw me onto the ground as a loud bang in the distance rocked the walls. My head smacked against the floor; I lay where I fell, weighed down by two large men who pretty much knelt on my back.

  They muttered to each other rapidly in an language I had never heard, but I could sense their fear. They stank of it. I had no idea what was going on, but they seemed to realise the alarms weren’t anything to do with me and finally eased off a bit.

  “Yeah, thanks for that,” I snapped, as they pulled me to my feet. The men pushed me against the wall and kept me pinned there until the lights went out. The dark was claustrophobic, suffocating. There was no light at all, only myself and two strangers in a hallway.

  One of the Guardians had a small torch and managed to provide a tiny light. “Come,” he said. “This way.”

  They led me through a doorway I couldn’t even see and left me alone in the dark. I heard them lock the door behind them. I couldn’t see a thing, so I inched my way around the room as carefully as possible and found a chair.

  The lights stayed out but, in the distance, I heard shouts. After a while, I heard the sound of footsteps running on the other side of the door. I eventually dozed off in the chair. I awoke some time later with a sore neck and a rumbling stomach.

  As soon as the door opened, I jumped to my feet. Some tired-looking Guardians led me back to the cell, passing by white walls that now had cracks running through them.

  “Redecorating?” I quipped, but the group ignored me.

  The floor was covered in dust and plaster. Leah’s cell was conspicuously empty, and her tag lay bent apart on the floor of her cell.

  I laughed out loud. “Wow, did the kid break out? Some Guardians you lot are.”

  One of the Guardians growled in my ear and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck. He threw me onto the bed and stormed off. The remaining three double-checked all of the cells. The rest of the inmates were sleeping as usual; they’d probably slept through everything.

  I lay on the bed and waited, only to laugh again at the idea of Leah managing to not only escape, but to find her way out of the maze. No wonder she had been restless and agitated.

  A part of me was sad. I was totally alone without her, even though we had exchanged few words. The next time food was dropped, I didn’t eat, although I felt half-starved. I banked on Eddie returning with some real food.

  I wondered about Leah. It was better than thinking about my own problems, but I couldn’t avoid them forever. My stomach hurt, and I almost regretted not drinking blood like Eddie had advised. Once again, I was out of my league. I couldn’t see a way out. I didn’t know their laws; I didn’t even know what I was being charged with.

  I sorely regretted not slapping Becca for her part in this. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that I had been set up for something.

  I understood why Gideon would have it in for me, although when I had been at Maximus’s mansion, it hadn’t seemed like his coven members were particularly loyal. Daimhín couldn’t seem to make up her mind about me.

  I could defend myself against a lot of things, but my own heritage wasn’t something I could easily explain away. After all, I knew little about it myself.

  My grandmother had told me the bare minimum, that my mother had been pregnant when she and my father were attacked. He died, but she had managed to make it to my grandmother’s house. She gave birth to me and died soon after explaining to my grandmother that I needed to be hidden, for both our sakes.

  I had no birth certificate, not a real one anyway, and I’d spent most of my life pretending I was normal. I didn’t know exactly what I was, why I was created and what it meant for my future.

  For the first time, I really regretted my grandmother’s relative silence regarding my creation. She told me the same few sentences anytime I asked, but she never went into details. I hadn’t liked to push her on something that obviously gave her pain.

  But I had a lot of questions; l
ike how my mother knew exactly what would happen to me, how she knew I would be different and need protecting. The weirdest part was how my grandmother was persuaded to believe her, to hide me away, stay away from hospitals and, most important of all, take part in illegal activity by procuring a fake birth certificate to get me into school.

  Remembering what Eddie had said about having a conversation with Nancy, I sat up straight on the bed. Now that I had time to think about it, he had sounded like there was something I needed to hear.

  Before I could begin to wrap my head around the possibilities, some Guardians returned, this time with a new prisoner. A small man was carried in, kicking and screaming, his dark curls sticking to his forehead. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but the faces of the Guardians were blank, completely devoid of emotion.

  The man was already tagged, and he tore at it frantically. When the Guardians stopped moving outside an empty cell at the end of the room, the prisoner changed tactics and clung to the nearest Guardian instead. “I won’t!” he screamed. The terror in his voice sent shivers down my spine. One of the Guardians peeled the man off his colleague, carried the prisoner inside the cell, and pinned him to the bed.

  The man stopped squirming and lay there. I could hear his panting clearly. Satisfied, the Guardian turned to leave the cell, but the man beat him to it and tried to run. He was struck over the head by one of the Guardians, and they dragged him by the feet back into the cell. He clawed at the ground, his eyes wide with fear. I stood on my bed trying to see what they would do.

  They gathered around him, punching and kicking as he screamed out in pain. I couldn’t stand it.

  “Stop it!” I yelled, and they all turned around to look at me. The man, his face swollen and bloody, caught my gaze and nodded. Then he ripped open his sleeve with his teeth and put something into his mouth before the Guardians could stop him.

  I watched as his body convulsed, and blood poured from his eyes and ears. He collapsed to the ground, and the Guardians all left the cell. I fell off the bed in shock. As the Circle passed my cell, I heard one of them mutter something about a cleanup crew.

  For the first time, I truly feared the Council.

  Chapter Seven

  I didn’t eat at all on the day of the hearing. I wasn’t just nervous; I had gotten myself into a knot of twisted anger and hate at the unfairness of it all. I had been left to mull things over for too long, and that time had given me an embittered perspective.

  Before the hearing, I was given a cream linen dress and told to wear it with nothing on my feet or in my hair. I had to walk to the hearing barefooted, my hair swinging around my face. In the dark, they led me to an outside structure that resembled a three-sided marquee.

  It was so good to be outside, to feel fresh air on my skin; I almost forgot to be afraid. The wind whipped around my ankles as we crossed the grass but, under the marquis, it was warm, well-lit, and protected—no wind, no cold, nothing except still air and eyes filled with animosity.

  There were few people at the hearing. The Guardians led me to a ring of scorched earth in the centre of the marquis.

  “What’s this about?” I asked, not expecting an answer, which was lucky, because I didn’t get one. The Guardians pushed me into the circle then quickly retreated. I flinched as a ring of flames lit up around me. Eddie had told me not to run, as if he had sensed me mentally preparing for the worst possible outcomes. Now I couldn’t fight my way out without getting burned. Great.

  A number of people entered the structure Once again, I tried to use my other senses, but I couldn’t let myself go; there was still some sort of block. The suffocating frustration made me panic, and I resorted to counting rapidly in my head.

  I watched Eddie arrive and hoped he would stand next to me and tell me what was happening. He stopped to speak with a stocky woman and a tall, muscular, chocolate-skinned man. Two other men appeared to be listening to the conversation, although they stood apart, and I realised I was missing a heartbeat. One of the men looked ancient, older than Daimhín even, his dried-out skin and lack of pulse declaring him a vampire. I couldn’t make myself look at the other man; my skin crawled, but I had no idea why.

  All four strangers sat together in a row of chairs to my right. Eddie approached me briefly, but only to tell me to be quiet and let him talk. I fidgeted with the tag on my arm until a female Guardian standing behind me hissed for me to stop.

  A few minutes later, a group of vampires stormed in like they owned the place. I glared at the blond vampire who had helped torture me along with Maximus, sending seething hatred in his direction. By the way the others fawned over him, I guessed he was Gideon.

  Gideon grinned at me while the others heckled and laughed. Bristling, I stared back at them, daring them to come closer. I badly wanted an excuse to fight.

  “Forget about them, they’re just trying to get a rise out of you.” This time the Guardian’s voice was softer.

  I looked around to see that she was a dark-skinned woman with almond-shaped eyes and corkscrew curls pinned back into a loose bun. “The Council will be here shortly,” she informed me, then looked away. Of all of the Guardians I had come across over the last couple of days, she was the only one who had voluntarily spoken to me.

  Before long, a number of Guardians led four people over to my left.

  “Here’s the Council now,” said the woman behind me. My mouth dropped open as I realised one of them was Gabe. He was part of the Council?

  Gabe glanced at me as he passed, but his eyes were blank and his face was expressionless. He was followed closely by a haughty-looking man with blond hair and bluish lips. I had no idea what he could be.

  “That’s Gabe and Erossi,” the female Guardian whispered. “The other two are the important ones, Fionnuala and Koda. Stay quiet unless they ask you to speak, and you’ll be okay.”

  An old man who looked almost transparent passed by next. He smiled at me, but his eyes faded in and out of colour so much that I felt dizzy. A woman, Fionnuala, I assumed, followed him. Tall and slim, she held the attention of the room. I couldn’t get a read off her either. I was surprised at how dependant I’d grown on that extra sense and how frustrating it was to not be able to use it. Gabe and Erossi sat in huge chairs, while the older man, Koda, knelt before them, and Fionnuala perched on a stool. It didn’t look official to me, but the air was taut with a tense atmosphere. I just knew I would do something wrong.

  Fionnuala stared directly at me for a few moments, and no one spoke. I squirmed, uncomfortable, but she kept looking, finally cocking her head to the side like an inquisitive little sparrow.

  “We are here for the hearing of one Ava Delaney, accused by the vampire coven now led by the one known as Gideon. You are Ava Delaney?”

  I nodded.

  “You use a surname? A human title?” Her eyes narrowed, and her tone was one of accusation.

  “Yes, of course.”

  “The accusations are serious, and include murder and treason. How do you plead?”

  “Uh . . . not guilty?”

  “Indeed. You have only just appeared on the grid, so your word is unworthy. We, the Council, were granted our positions in order to keep peace and balance amongst the otherworldly creatures in this country. We are few enough that the actions of one can upset the whole. The rules are clear; it is a danger and must be disposed of. Immediately.”

  “It?” Christ, I couldn’t help myself. “I’m a person!”

  She wrinkled her nose as if discovering a bad smell. Maybe I did smell bad to others, just like the vampires gave off a noticeable stench to me.

  Eddie stood—about time too, I thought—and spoke in a high, regal sort of voice. It all seemed very dramatic. “I speak for her.”

  Fionnuala sighed. “Of course you do.”

  Gideon let out a scornful laugh that was followed by titters from his followers.

  Eddie ignored them. “The accusations made by that creature are false. Fionnula, I demand a t
rial. This girl has done nothing to warrant execution, or even imprisonment for that matter.”

  She glared at him, like he was daring something she had forbidden. The human woman beside Eddie nodded. The black man did the same.

  Fionnuala glanced at Gabe, who inclined his head slightly. “Fine,” she said. “In a week’s time, the trial will begin. If you speak for her, arrange her testimony. As should the vampires,” she added, narrowing her eyes at Gideon.

  “What do the vampires accuse her of?” the transparent old man asked.

  “Koda, we accuse her of instigating war, deliberately exposing us to humans, murder, treason, and the worst charge of all, being a daywalker.” Gideon waved his arms around.

  A gasp rose around the room. And no wonder, Gideon had made it sound like I was a mass murderer or something. It seemed like Gabe and Eddie were the only ones who didn’t react.

  Koda looked me over with a small smile on his lips. “This little thing managed all of that? Very well. This better be good, Gideon.”

  “This creature betrayed us. She murdered a few of our number while we were busy settling a dispute with another coven. She came into our home under light of day and murdered our leader. A few nights ago, she killed again, publicly. She carries a dagger, one that kills us almost instantly. She is a threat to us; she must die.”

  “A weapon like that is uncommon.” Gabe folded his arms. “Next we’ll hear she’s some sort of ninja assassin.” He rolled his eyes as if bored.

  “Perhaps she has a vendetta,” Gideon said, ignoring the laughter at Gabe’s remark.

  “Why have we not heard of this one?” Fionnuala’s hair sparked around her. “She has hidden in the shadows, perhaps she was underground. Perhaps she is a Féinics.”