Traitor (22 page)

“What do I do? Should I agree to Mrs. Yaga’s requests?”

“There’s no time,” he said. “The true balance could take months to be restored. Eddie could already have begun, and the Eleven refuse to interfere. What’s started won’t be stopped by them.”

“I’m needed for this then. What is he trying to do?”

“I’m afraid to even guess,” he said solemnly. I blew out a shaky breath, and he rested his hand on my shoulder. “What did you see, Ava?”

“I’m probably going to die,” I said quietly. “So I need you to watch over them for me.”

“I’m not you.”

“You could have just lied to me to make me feel better. I’m dying, you know.”

The corner of his mouth curved upward. “I will protect them for the rest of my life.”

“Thank you.”

“Do you need to say goodbye to your grandmother?”

I squirmed under his stare. “
Phoenix
took her memories of me.”

His mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

“She was stressed out from guilt and the memories of the past. And Wesley couldn’t move on. So I made a deal with
Phoenix
and had him take their memories of me away. They don’t remember knowing me, and he did something to make Wesley avoid conversations about me.”

“You did what?” Carl’s voice felt like a shot in the back.

I squeezed my eyes shut. “Oh, crap.”

“You took their memories of you? What the hell is wrong with you? If you even think about doing that to me, I’ll—”

“That’s enough,” Gabe said. “You heard her. You heard what she said. You have your explanation. We make hard choices to survive.” He glanced at me. “I’ll leave you two alone for a moment.”

I folded my arms and avoided Carl’s eyes. “I wasn’t going to do it to you,” I muttered.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth? You can’t just wipe yourself from everyone’s minds. You have no right.”

“I had to help them while they still had a chance! Wes is my past, and the person he knew is gone. So what’s the difference? And
Nancy
? Her memories of me drove her mad. I took away her suffering. She’s happier now. Content. And I feel bad enough as it is! I don’t need you piling on the guilt as well, okay?”

“I just…” He paced in front of me. “You didn’t have the right to make that choice for them. For
him
.”

“I’m making a lot of choices, Carl. I don’t want to be the one who makes the choices, but everyone’s expecting me to be that person. I just want it to be over. I’m happy for the end to come.”

He stopped and stared at me, his eyes widening. “You saw yourself die, didn’t you? That’s what was so bad about Lucia’s vision.
You
died.”

“I’m okay with it,” I said.

“Well, I’m not. Stop giving up.”

“I won’t. I promise I won’t give up. But if my death could mean something, then…”

He shook his head. “We won’t let you die.”

“And maybe I won’t. Lucia saw lots of possibilities, and Gabe said I’ve been protected for a reason.” I shrugged. “You can’t tell them. You can’t let anyone get hurt for me. You know how I feel about having to be rescued.” I grinned, hoping to lighten his mood a bit.

He tried to return the smile, but I could see how much it hurt him. For me, the news hadn’t really sunk in yet. I knew there had to be a way I could save everyone. If I was going to die, there was nothing anybody could do to stop it. But I could make it mean something. That was the other part of Lucia’s visions. I had died in several different ways, and not all of them counted.

“If something bad happens, you have to help them,” I said. “Anka and Dita especially. If anything happens to Val, then you’re stuck with Leah, too. I mean it.”

“You’re an awful eejit,” he said. “Do you think we’re all going to run if you’re not here to make us stay?”

“I dunno. You’re kind of flaky.”

He ruffled my hair in answer.

“Come back inside. We have a lot to do,” I said, linking arms with him and walking back toward the house. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

“This is the real war, isn’t it?” he asked in a low voice, and all I could do was nod.

Inside, everyone had been gathering information.

“How did you know Daimhín would be back?” Yvonne asked me.

“She needs to consolidate her power before Reuben tries to take over her position. If he doesn’t, somebody else will. The vampires have always fought for power, and she’s been comfortable because of the Council. Now she has to fight for her place. The vampires still need a leader, someone who can control them. She’s smart enough to keep them calm, but she hasn’t been any fairer than the Council were. There are a lot of lesser vampires who will welcome change. They’re going to be the problem for her.”

She grunted in response, but she appeared dissatisfied.

“Should we move to the sanctuary?” Val asked.

“No!” Lorcan and I shouted as one.

I faced everyone. “Right now, there’s death there for us. The safest place for most of you is right here.
Phoenix
, can you spare us some werewolves?”

He nodded, but some of the others protested.

I held up my hand to quiet them. “They have the biggest reputation right now. Nobody is going to face them and win, not without a real plan.”

“What do we do now?” Carl asked.

“We’re going to travel to the Headquarters, get the werewolves, and take back our city for good. We need numbers, we need coverage, and we need people to watch their televisions and know that someone is out there fighting for them. We need to give them hope. And we need to wipe out Fionnuala’s assassins while we’re at it. We’re going to be murderers. But when the dust settles, we’ll make a better place for everyone. We’ll deal with Eddie and televise any meetings we have at Headquarters so that everyone feels involved.” I ran upstairs to get ready.

“Are you sure about this?” Peter asked me, and I looked around to see him leaning in the doorway of my bedroom.

“Not sure of anything. No point trying to be. But I’m not going to sit around and wait for something to happen.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“What happened to being the father Emmett needs?” I snapped, turning back to gather my stuff.

He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Don’t do that,” he murmured, his breath tickling the back of my neck. He turned me to face him, running his hands through my hair. He pulled me toward him, but I panicked and stepped out of his grasp.

“I have to go,” I said, and I locked myself in the bathroom until I heard him go downstairs. I wasn’t ready to deal with how I felt about Peter and Emmett.

I got ready, the same old preparation: silver crucifix, silver chain belt, and the dagger. Eddie had given me two of the three things I was rarely seen without, and that gave me an awful feeling in my stomach.

I found the photograph I had stolen from my grandmother’s house—the only picture I had of my parents. I stared at those strangers, wondering what the hell they would think of their only child.

“Hey,” Emmett said from the doorway. “What’s that?”

I crossed the room and showed him the photo. “My parents.”

He traced his finger across my mother’s face. “Her hair is like yours.”

I sat on the edge of the bed. “Wanna tell me why you didn’t send Maeve away?”

He handed back the photo. “You said it was wrong to make them do what I wanted.”

“Emmett…”

“I wanted to come home. It’s fine over there, but this is where I live. I missed you, Ava.”

“I missed you, too. But this is dangerous.”

“Maeve scared me. I thought you were going to die.”

I felt a pang of guilt. He had already lost so much. “Did Maeve tell you anything else about this book? What it’s for? What it can do?”

“She said it holds the power of the gods. He’s going to sacrifice people to use that power.”

“I’ll stop him. I’ll find him and stop him. Don’t you worry.”

“Maeve looks different.”

“What do you mean?”

He heaved out a sigh. “I don’t know.”

I hugged him. “You’ll be okay here for a while, right?”

“Be careful,” he whispered as I left the room.

Plans were still being made when I went downstairs. Esther practically vibrated with nerves, so I gestured for her to follow me outside.

“You doing okay?” I asked.

“I should be asking you that,” she said as we strolled to the mouth of the cul-de-sac. “I didn’t expect Peter to come back. Not with Emmett.”

“Me, either,” I admitted.

“How are you feeling about that?”

“I don’t know.” I felt numb, mostly.

“I kind of wish Aiden would go away.” She lifted her shoulders into a shrug. “I feel all kinds of pressure when he’s around.”

“Can’t choose your family.”

“You can choose to let them influence you. Or not.” She exhaled loudly. “All of these people, and the happy-go-lucky human is the most reliable one of all.”

“Carl? He’s had his moments, too.”

She grinned. “Probably. So is Peter back for good?”

“We haven’t exactly chatted. I’m not… he left, Esther. I’m glad to see him, but I don’t know what to do about him.”

“This is why I loved my Circle—no men complicating things. People expected us to turn on each other, you know. Said women couldn’t work together. That probably made us work harder.”

“Just be glad they underestimated you all. Are you going to keep it a secret? About Aiden’s tattoos.”

“Nope.” Her voice was harder than I expected. “I’m going to make sure everyone knows the truth about him. He can earn his status the hard way. Just like everyone else.”

“They thought you were the weak one. They were so wrong.” I patted her shoulder and went back inside.

Within an hour, I was ready to go, along with Gabe,
Phoenix
, Esther, Aiden, Val, Peter, and Lorcan. Elathan was already on the streets with loyal Guardians. Moses and the brethni had taken charge of their neighbourhood, and Shay had every Garda he could trust out doing their jobs. It didn’t matter that the world had turned to crap; we all still did what was needed.

“Can we drop by the bookshop?” I asked. “Might be worth checking there.”

We took two cars. When we arrived, I got out of the car, but the windows of the bookshop were smashed. We entered the store anyway.

“Doesn’t look like he’s been around for a while,” Peter said as we checked out the damage. The books were ripped apart, and graffiti had been smeared all over the walls. Also, I was pretty sure somebody had urinated on the counter.

“I’ll check upstairs,” I said, and I ran up to Eddie’s room. It was almost the same as the last time I had seen it. It still had that odd unlived-in vibe, cheap furniture, and empty space, but the feeling of dark magic was gone. I checked the drawers—empty. Eddie had taken the book. I looked up at the wall to see an empty space where the painting had once been.

“It’s all gone,” Peter said from the doorway.

“Looks like it. But why?”

“He isn’t coming back. Maybe he’s out of our hair.”

I frowned at the blank space on the wall. “Maybe.”

He moved closer and kissed my neck. All I could think about was saying goodbye.

“If he isn’t gone, you should take Emmett and run,” I said.

“You could come with us this time.”

I shook my head, turning to face him. “I can’t.” I brushed my lips against his and walked away.

“I don’t think he’s coming back here,” I said when I joined the others outside. “Has anybody seen
Marina
?”

“No,” Gabe said. “She must be with Eddie.”

“We should get out of here,” Esther said, glancing at the broken streetlamps in concern. “The sooner we have some werewolves on our side, the better.”

“Getting to them might prove difficult,” Gabe said. “Elathan tells me the Headquarters are barely better than the streets. We’ll be fighting our way in.”

“Yeah, but we’ll stroll out of there with the werewolves next to us,” I said, trying to smile.

We drove toward the Headquarters, but we hadn’t gone five miles before Peter shouted at Gabe to stop the car. Gabe slowed but didn’t stop.

“Look,” Peter said, pointing.

A gang of humans, both male and female, were busy dragging a young couple from a house. The woman fought fiercely, scratching and biting, then a punch from one of the attackers stunned her.

“We don’t have time for this,” Gabe insisted.

I kicked his seat. “Stop the freaking car.” He pressed on the brake and, as I was in the process of already removing my seatbelt, my forehead smacked against the back of his seat. “Arsehole!”

I jumped out, followed closely by Peter. The second car pulled up behind Gabe, and I was soon joined by all of my companions.

The man was begging for mercy, for help, for pity. The woman had been forced to her knees, and she gazed at her attackers as if memorising their faces.

“There a problem here?” I asked.

Seven faces turned to me.

“No problem,” a man said, his fingers twisting in the female victim’s hair. “Keep on moving.”

“Not gonna happen,” Peter said.

A woman stepped out of the house, holding three pairs of shoes. “Do these look like—” She stopped when she saw us. “
She’s
one of them. Him as well. Probably all of them.”

They came at us as if to attack, the young couple forgotten. Thirty seconds later, they were all face-planted on the ground. I called Shay. He had no problem sending help our way.

“You okay?” I asked the couple. They had watched the short fight in silence, standing against the front door of the house.

The man nodded, his eyes wide with shock. “They said we didn’t look human enough. What the hell has gone wrong in this country?”

The woman stared at
Phoenix
as her partner thanked us. “They didn’t know,” she said. “They didn’t even know my grandmother was fae. They attacked us for something to do.”

“You’re fae?”
Phoenix
asked.

“My grandmother was,” she corrected. “My grandfather was human. She hated her own people. She used to scare my sister and me with stories when we were kids. We grew up terrified. Now I have to be afraid of humans. Is it ever going to be safe?”

“Someday,”
Phoenix
said. “My mother’s dead, so it’s a lot safer for people like us today.”

“It was just an excuse,” Peter said. “They wanted an excuse, and that’s the most believable one right now.”

“We have to go,” Gabe said when we heard police sirens in the distance.

“And as soon as the Gardaí pick up this crowd, we’ll be on our way,” I said.

The Gardaí showed up two minutes later.

“Whelan couldn’t make it,” one of them said as they made arrests. “There’s a massive fire in the middle of the city. Came out of nowhere, so he’s checking out the scene with the fire chief, but he wants to know what he should do with the supernaturals he arrests. Can the Guardians take them off our hands? Cells are getting a little full, and we’ve had one lunatic bust right through the bars already. That’s gonna get old fast.”

“We’ll organise it as soon as we gain some control,” Gabe said. “Tell him to expect my call tonight. As soon as we get access to the cells, the Guardians will organise a pickup. If he needs it, I’ll send a group to guard your cells.”

We loaded back into the cars and got back on the road. We stopped two more times to end some minor skirmishes on the streets. Tempers were flaring, and some people were taking advantage of the confusion. I had expected looters, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, except for the assassins. Shay and some Guardians kept Gabe informed. The assassins had apparently gone wild without leadership.

“Or maybe somebody else has taken over,” I said. “Somebody who likes chaos.”

“Are you thinking of Reuben?” Gabe asked.

“Why not? He left, and he’s pissed. He doesn’t have the same self-control as Daimhín, and he’s an ancient vampire. He feels like the world owes him. If we clean up the assassins, he might come out of hiding.”

“Too many loose ends,” Gabe muttered.

“How are you doing?” Peter asked me under his breath. “Carl told me you were hurt pretty bad.”

“We’ve all been hurt,” I said sharply. “No point feeling sorry for ourselves.”

He reached for my hand, but I pulled it out of his reach and turned away from him. Maybe I was chickening out, but I had enough on my plate.

We finally made it to the Headquarters and were greeted by Elathan and a group of Guardians. The remainder of Esther’s Circle were there, including Quinn and Alanii. Alanii’s cheek was marred by a nasty wound that would likely leave a scar.

“Caught up with an old friend of mine,” she explained when she saw me looking. “He trained me, but decided he liked the look of Fionnuala’s tattoos. I told him that was a deal-breaker, and he didn’t take it so well.” She grinned. “All of the extra training Esther made us do paid off at last.”

“After all of those complaints?” Esther teased. “See? I was good for something, after all.”

Gabe broke in impatiently. “Can we get started now? Clear a path. Make sure
Phoenix
reaches the werewolves. They’re our only hope of maintaining any semblance of order tonight.”

Aiden stepped forward. “We’ll split into three groups. Stay close, but if we get separated, stay with your designated group. Gabe, Peter, and Ava, you’re with
Phoenix
. Elathan’s group will lead the way. Shifters, with me. We’ll stay behind
Phoenix
’s group and make sure nobody gets a chance to sneak up on them. Once the werewolves are free, stay out of their way, shifters in particular. We move quickly and quietly. Once we have the werewolves, everyone head to the main hall. If we get that far, we’ll regroup and discuss our options.”

We all moved into our groups. I was glad to be away from Aiden, but I could have done without Peter complicating things.

“What about the females and the children?” I asked
Phoenix
when Aiden’s group gave us the all-clear to step inside.

“We’re only taking some of the fighters with us,”
Phoenix
said. “I’ll leave two fathers to guard the passageway and hope they don’t tear each other apart. I think the potential danger to their young will keep their needs in check. If we can keep the ones we take calm, we should be okay.”

“We’ve faced worse things, right?” I said. “The werewolves will be okay.”

“I’m not worried about them,” he said. “I’m quite worried about us, though.” He glanced at me, and I caught a glimpse of fear. That didn’t help.

Peter fell in step next to me, and
Phoenix
quickened his pace to match Gabe’s.

“You’ve barely said two words to me,” Peter said quietly.

“Kind of had a lot going on in the five minutes since you decided to come back.”

“I’m glad we came back,” he said. “We all missed the place.”

“You should have stayed away. It’s been hell here.”

“Without me?” he teased.

I glared at him. “Because of all the deaths, you gimp.”

“I was joking!”

“Carl tells me my sense of humour died a few months ago.”

“But you did it,” he said. “You found out who was in charge of the slave markets, and you dealt with them.”

“Leaving the way free for Eddie to do who knows what.”

He smiled. “It’s just Eddie. We’ll talk him out of it.”

“It’s way bigger than Eddie getting some random idea into his head. This involves all of us.”

“What are you on about?”

I hesitated then figured that he wouldn’t get the chance to kill me with so many witnesses. “The thing is, I think we’re all meant to be here at this time, working together.”

“What, like our destiny?” he scoffed.

I winced. “Kinda, yeah. The angels protected me from the vampire who killed my parents for a reason. Gabe said they never interfere with the first vampire, but they kept me hidden somehow, and I think it was so I could someday be here to stop Eddie.”

“Why would you think that?”

“There are way too many coincidences, too many things that led us onto this path. And you… you were saved, too.”

He screwed up his face. “Me? When?”

“Okay, don’t get mad.” I held my breath as his expression changed. “I met Shay before that day in Kerry.”

His silence was terrifying.

“Carl and I figured we needed to know more about what happened when Emmett was taken all those years ago. He tracked down Shay, and get this, Shay reckons you kept bleating on about a white light saving you. That is, until your so-called uncle visited you in the hospital, and you never mentioned it again.”

“I don’t remember any white light. And I don’t have an uncle.”

“Exactly.”

He stopped walking. “Shit.”

“Yeah, I know. I suspect it was
Cam
.”

He started walking again, too fast. “You’ve known this since before we visited Kerry? You and Carl. You’ve kept this from me.”

“We figured you didn’t need to know. It worked out in the end. This was just an extra annoyance.”

“Why the hell would an angel save me? It’s only chance that got me back here.”

“Maybe it had something to do with me being meant to meet Emmett. Or you bringing me to Eddie. I just—”

He held up his hand. “I don’t want to talk right now. I need to think about this.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, a little frantic. “I needed you to know, but there never seemed to be a good time.”

He pushed ahead without responding.

Gabe looked back at me. “Everything all right?”

I nodded glumly. I wasn’t sure what it all meant, but my gut kept screaming at me that it had something to do with Eddie. Why and how, I didn’t know, but something connected us all.

We made it to the corridor that held the secret passageway with only a few minor attacks. We left no survivors to run for help. We had numbers and organisation, so there wasn’t much stopping us. The others stood guard in the hallway while Gabe,
Phoenix
, and I headed in to see the werewolves again.

“I was worried my mother had told Reuben how to free the werewolves,”
Phoenix
admitted as we walked through the tunnel.

“That would have been unfortunate for Reuben,” Gabe said. “I can’t imagine the werewolves following orders from vampires.”

“But they’re in cages,” I said. “The vampires could have done some damage before the werewolves freed themselves.”

The werewolves howled in greeting as we grew closer to the cages, one voice getting louder than the others until they had all fallen silent except for Icarus. His skin was bruised from where he had thrown himself at the bars, as if he had known something was wrong, but the cage still held.

“It’s okay,”
Phoenix
murmured as he opened Icarus’s cage. “We’ll fix this.”

Icarus reared up, shifting into his werewolf form. He looked like something out of my nightmares, and I felt a real sense of relief that he was on our side. He seemed agitated, stretching and making strange sounds, but
Phoenix
kept whispering to him, and eventually, the werewolf calmed down. The other werewolves had been just as edgy in the cages, but once Icarus chilled out, they seemed calmer.

“He’s a major influence on them,”
Phoenix
explained. “I can’t let the others out if he’s stressed. It leads to violence, each and every time.”

“How many can we take?” Gabe asked.

“Six, if you can hold two leads,”
Phoenix
replied. “We don’t want too many of them out at once in case we all die.”

“Nice to see some optimism,” Gabe said drily. “Fine. I’ll help. But if any of them cock their legs near me, I’ll be forced to act.”

Phoenix
looked amused as he organised the werewolves. Gabe and I brought some of them out into the hallway while
Phoenix
set up some guards within the secret passageway.

“Think this will work?” I asked when
Phoenix
finally joined us with the final two werewolves.

“Only one way to find out,” he replied cheerily.

“You seem happy,” I said as we moved toward the main hall.

“My children wished me luck before I left,” he said. “I felt that was a good sign. Thank you.”

“Not down to me. You kind of bond with people once you kill with them. That’s why you and I get along.”

He frowned until I laughed, then he grinned, shaking his head.

“We should take the cells back,” I said. “It’s time to start arresting people rather than murdering everyone. Only the biggest idiots will fight back now that the werewolves are here.”

“She’s right,”
Phoenix
said. “My mother didn’t understand mercy, but it could help us.”