Tempt (Ava Delaney #3) (24 page)

I was
about to thank them when a shout startled all three of us. I
glanced around to see a group of drunken men following us. I
shrugged and carried on, well used to it, but then I looked over at
Lucia. Her eyes were wide with fright, and I got the feeling that
we weren’t going to walk home without trouble.

“
Lorcan,” I said under my breath. “Start walking ahead of me
with Lucia. If you see a taxi, flag it down. Don’t turn back. Don’t
look around. Just get yourselves home.”

“
But—”

“
Don’t argue. Move. Take care of your sister.” I glared at
him, and he inched away from me, keeping a tight hold on Lucia. I
slowed and nodded at Lucia when she looked back at me. She was so
child-like, it was a shame that she had to see awful images in her
head. If that was how it worked.

As I
expected, the men kept following, shouting the entire time. I
widened the distance between myself and the twins, hoping to
distract the men from them. I could sense their moods. Dark and
lustful. I knew they would target the petite, delicate Lucia before
me. The shouts rose, and one of the men ran ahead of me.

With two
quick strides, I had caught his arm and twisted it behind his back,
my foot on the back of his already weakening calf.

“
Go home,” I hissed at him, feeling my own darkness rage
inside me. I checked for the shadows, but there were none. It was
just pure human horror. Some of the humans we tried to protect were
worse than the things we protected them from. The men were a group
of idiots with bad intentions wandering the streets until they
found a way to have their idea of fun. They could think
again.

The
other men guffawed at their friend’s predicament, and it gave the
twins time to turn a corner and make it out of sight. Breathing a
sigh of relief, I let go of the man, who howled dramatically and
rolled on the ground as if I had hurt him. I had been very careful
with him, despite my anger.

I walked
away slowly, hoping they would see sense and go home, but the group
were a special brand of idiot. The shouts picked up in volume. I
saw a number of curtains twitch in the homes I passed, but all
doors stayed closed, and nobody interfered when they saw one woman
accosted by five men.

“
You people suck,” I muttered, hearing footsteps right behind
me. I swung around as one of the men lunged. No longer lusty, they
wanted a fight. Somehow, they seemed to know I could take it. I
launched my fist in the man’s face before he could get a hold on
me. The shock in his eyes when I broke his nose was pretty
satisfying.

He fell
on his backside. The man I had already put my hands on limped over
as the rest of the group surrounded me.

“
She’s a paddy and all,” he hissed. “A fucking paddy bitch,
she is.”

I rolled
my eyes. “Seriously?” My heart rate shot up, and I felt my control
slipping. I didn’t want to hurt humans, but that gang was asking
for it. And by the way the neighbourhood didn’t interfere, I got
the impression I wasn’t the first person they had attacked. Maybe I
could give them a fright, or get rid of my own
aggression.

“
Don’t think she knows who you are, son,” one of the men said.
He was the quietest, the one who walked behind the others, the one
I had known to watch from the first second I laid eyes on them.
“She will after tonight, though.”

They
laughed, but their laughter was more excited than amused. They were
vultures, preying on the weak, but they had picked the wrong
person.

I stayed
still as they circled, but I watched that one man, the leader, the
one who didn’t need to scream or shout to be heard or feared. He
was the one without a conscience. I could see it in his energy. It
was easy to see him as a monster. Sometimes it was hard to forget
that humans had hurt me as much as anything else in my life. The
man eyeing me reminded me of the worst kind of human I’d met. Made
thinking clearly that much more difficult to achieve.

“
You keep looking at me, girly,” he said. “Something to
say?”

“
Yeah. Have a go,” I replied, my sweetest smile plastered on
my face.

He
glanced at the others, a smirk on his lips. He ran a hand through
his dirty blond hair. The others jeered in a quietened sort of way.
They felt something in the air, whether they knew it or not.
Something big was about to happen.

The man
walked over to me and threw a lazy punch that caught me in the
jaw.

I showed
my bloody grin. “Oh… I mean, ouch.”

His
features flashed with anger, and I knew he was on his way to losing
control. But I didn’t have time for a fight, I tried to remind
myself. Making sure they were all watching, I opened my mouth and
let my fangs show.

“
The fuck!” The leader zoomed backward in fright, disgust
obvious on his face. Some of the others backed away with him. One
or two peered at me with interest, too drunk to
understand.

The
leader got himself together. “Fucking emo watching too many vampire
flicks,” he said, making them all laugh. His hands still shook. He
might have thought my fangs weren’t real, or that I had filed my
teeth, but he was still shaken. Yet he didn’t go away, whether he
thought I was helpless or not. He was a bully. An ego who thought
he could push around the world. I was getting pretty sick of that
kind of attitude.

So I
decided to scare them all. Growling, I leapt at one and kicked him
in the stomach. A beautifully joyful sensation enveloped my body at
his horrified gasp. I spun around and elbowed another in the
stomach, leaving him winded. One struck me, catching me slightly on
the shoulder. Hissing like a cat, I threw myself at him, and two of
the men jumped after me, trying to get hold of me. Their anger and
aggression only increased my own. I wriggled and punched, but one
refused to let go, somehow managing to heave his weight on top of
me. I had let myself get pinned again. But I wasn’t
afraid.

I was
too busy setting the darkness free.

He was
heavy, and I couldn’t seem to balance myself enough to push him off
of me. I made a scary vampire face, and he loosened his grip. I
leapt to my feet, enraged. Maybe I was absorbing their anger and
aggression, maybe the darkness inside me had come to the fore, or
maybe I had finally reached my breaking point. Whatever it was, I
was at the point of no return. I convinced myself I was facing a
monster. A monster I needed to destroy.

I
punched his face, and he stumbled. Advancing on him, I struck
again, and he landed on his backside. I kicked him, enjoyed the
grunt of pain. I leaned over and forced him to look at me. My
fingers digging into his chin, I smiled at him, and he urinated
right there on the ground. Licking my fangs, I smelled his fear,
tasted his hate, and was readying myself to really hurt him, when I
heard footsteps behind me. I whirled around, ready to attack, but
at the last second backed off when I scented her.

Lucia.
Without fear, despite what had to be a wildly angry look on my
face, she touched me. And I saw.

Me.
Covered in blood, surrounded by the broken bodies of the men. My
eyes as scarlet as Becca’s. The image faded, leaving me shaking my
head in horror and confusion. That wasn’t me. I wasn’t that
monster. But my fangs were out, and I had been fully prepared to
teach the men a lesson. Lucia’s touch had been the light in the red
rage, a calming presence when I had already gone out of my head
with anger.

I looked
back at the men before retracting my fangs. “Go home.” I used the
force of my will in the hope that I could somehow make them all
obey. “Stay away from each other, and learn some manners.” I barked
out the last bit.

They
didn’t follow us, and I didn’t look around in case I was tempted to
run back. Lorcan stood in the middle of the road, looking baffled,
but I just kept walking, still clinging to Lucia’s hand for dear
life.

I
couldn’t speak. I was too close to the other side. I felt as though
opening my mouth would release something evil, something I hid,
something that kept trying to find a way out.

“
We got you some coffee.”

Lorcan
left a steaming foam cup on the floor a few feet away from me as if
coaxing out an animal. Perhaps he was.

They had
been gone all morning, and I figured it was because they feared me.
I couldn’t exactly blame them. Once again, I didn’t understand my
own actions. Yet their eyes revealed no fear at all.

“
Thanks.” I reached for the coffee, and as I did, Lucia bent
down and squeezed my hand. I waited for the images, but none came.
I gazed up at her quizzically, but she let go and moved back over
to Lorcan’s side. Sighing, I picked up the coffee and tried to look
a little less like a psycho killer.

“
We were wondering what you needed for tonight. You said your
dagger doesn’t work well enough on Becca. What else could you
use?”

I took a
sip of coffee, letting it scald my tongue, a petty punishment. “I’m
not sure. Silver and crosses hurt her. I’ll just have to be
imaginative. It’ll be easier than catching her. You two need to
stay home tonight.”

Lorcan
glanced at Lucia. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“
I won’t hurt anyone,” I said in a low voice.

“
Are you upset with us?”

I gaped at him in surprise. “No, of course not. I’m upset
with
me
.”

“
We’re sorry about last night. Those men… I mean, we aren’t
all like that over here.” He shifted uncomfortably.

“
I know that. Arseholes live everywhere. Years ago, back home,
I tried to stop an idiot beating up his girlfriend. Both of them
turned on me. Takes all kinds.” I shrugged. “But last night. That
was my fault. I managed to push the whole situation out of control,
and I was fully ready to hurt those men. I
wanted
to teach them a
lesson.”

“
I don’t understand. The vampires called you the Irish
Council’s assassin. Is it not your job to cause pain?”

He said
it so simply, but tears filled my eyes at his words.

“
I’m sorry,” he said, horrified. “I didn’t mean—”

“
I had never killed anything until a few months ago, really,
when the vampires decided to make my life hell. And now the
Council. It’s like I’m marked, like I can never be clean again.” I
shook my head. Letting the words spill out was a strange sort of
relief. “Up until a week ago, I had only killed a couple of
vampires who really deserved it. Then, there was a human. He was
possessed by a demon or something. I took care of the demon, but
the man died. I didn’t mean it. This isn’t the life I
wanted.”

“
You really are like us,” he said, but I looked straight at
Lucia. For the very first time, I saw her smile, and I knew I would
remember it forever. Her face lit up into something beautifully
ethereal. She was full of light, full of something pure and
good.

“
I’m glad I met you,” I told her. “And thank you.”

Her
smile died away, and she grabbed my phone, urging me to take it.
The urgency in her eyes made my stomach drop. Carl. I turned on the
phone and called home with a heavy heart.

“
He’s not going to make it.” Peter’s voice was gruff, but I
could tell he was unhappy.

“
What’s happening?”

“
He’s sick, feverish. Eddie said it’s a reaction to being away
from you for this long. He needs contact.”

“
I can’t leave yet.”

“
Ava, I know. I’m just telling you to be ready for the worst
when you come back.”

Tears
filled my eyes, and I hurried outside with the phone. I’d already
let the twins see way too much of the real Ava.

“
Can’t Eddie do something?” I let the tears fall. Carl didn’t
deserve to die.

“
He’s trying, but he wants you to know that there isn’t much
hope left. Maybe a day, two tops. Last night, Carl freaked out,
tried to leave. His body isn’t strong enough, but he kept fighting
me. He ended up hurting himself. Eddie had to sedate him in the
end.”

“
Oh, my God.” I hiccupped a sob. “That was my fault. I’m so
sorry.”

“
How? What happened?”

I bit my
lip, wishing I could hide the previous night forever, but I
couldn’t, so I relayed the story to Peter as quickly as
possible.

“
Ah. So he sensed trouble, even with you over there. The bond
must be really strong.” Peter sounded almost relieved.

“
I wasn’t in trouble, Peter. Those men were.”

“
Don’t start guilt-tripping yourself, Ava. Snap out of
it.”

I
stuttered something incomprehensible.

“
I mean it. They had it coming, if you did hurt them. Besides,
it’s the empathy thing, right? You keep taking in what everyone
else is feeling. Those scumbags just screwed with your emotions a
bit. Like the succubus did with us.”

I wasn’t
so sure that was what had happened in either case. I quickly ended
the embarrassingly weepy phone call, then sat on the steps of the
house, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do next, and
trying to ignore how homesick I felt. Carl needed me. The Council
needed me. Everyone seemed to need me for something. And I wasn’t
getting anything done. There had to be a way to fix all of my
problems.