Consumed (14 page)

I hated personal questions. “Why do you ask?”

“You’re pretty intense with Ava. Demanding. I’m just wondering if she gets as much of you as you demand of her.”

I stiffened. “That’s between me and Ava.”

“Just be careful with her. I’m not saying I think you’d ever hurt her physically. But you could hurt her emotionally, even though it might not be intentional.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“You’re hard, Salem. Self-contained. I’m not much different, though I tend to talk a lot more than you do. Trust me when I say that unless you give instead of just taking, it won’t work between you and Ava. I held things back from Sam, and it came back to bite me on the ass because she found out from other people. That hurt her. But not as much as the fact that I was keeping her out.”

They were good points, but…“My head’s not a place Ava should go poking around in.”

“Maybe not,” he allowed. “But if you want to be with her, you have to let her see what’s there.”

“I told her I would.”

Jared gave me a knowing grin. “Just like I promised Sam I’d tell her, but I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. Hoping she’d drop it. And so are you.”

Perceptive bastard. “Remind me why we’re having this conversation.”

“Sam considers her a friend. And I happen to like Ava. We’ll look out for her.”

Okay, that sure got my back up. “
I’ll
look out for Ava.” She was mine to protect.

“I hope so. Because if you hurt her, Sam will be pissed and she’ll take it out on me – probably with her whip. Then she’ll hunt you down and do the same to you.”

“Ava wouldn’t let her.”

Jared smiled at that. “Believe it or not, I’m trying to help you here. I like you, and I don’t like many people. I trust you to not only watch
my
back but to watch
Sam’s
back – that’s no little thing; she’s everything to me. I don’t want you to screw it up with Ava because I think you make a good couple. You balance each other out. She sometimes doesn’t take things seriously enough, you take everything
too
seriously. She’s loud and dynamic, while you’re quiet and reserved. You’re very work-focused, and she’s always out to have fun. She’s impulsive and has no fear, while you’re cautious and level-headed. She’s good for you because she enjoys life and makes you live it. And you’re good for her because you protect her from herself and everything else without stopping her from being who she is and trying to change her.”

I was about to ask why the fuck I would ever want to change her, but then the infirmary door opened. As I’d anticipated, Ava’s eyes glistened with misery. She walked right into my open arms, and I locked them tight around her.

“The bastards need to die.” Her voice was shaky, but her words were strong.

I nodded. “They will.”

“Each and every one of them,” vowed Sam. She then related everything that Rosa had said, making both Jared and I curse repeatedly. “Stephan’s going to be hunted, just like the clients and suppliers.”

“Do you think it’s possible that the other survivors were sold by their Sires?” I asked.

Sam ground her teeth. “Yes. If so, their Sires die too.”

By the time Ava and I got back to my – no,
our
– apartment, she had pulled herself together. The woman had a spine of steel. But thanks to the frustrating and, to be honest, slightly confusing conversation I’d had with Jared, I wasn’t in the best mood.

Still, after some time with Ava, who never failed to amuse me – which was an achievement in and of itself – my mood had been close to improving, despite that the colour theme of my apartment was now black and pink. And despite that I had weird princess cushions on my sofa, which I naturally had every intention of getting rid of somehow.

Then Will, Blythe, and Gina had to go and fuck up my recovering mood by appearing on the doorstep.

“What do you want?”

The huge smile on Will’s face didn’t falter at my unwelcoming tone, but irritation rippled down our blood-link. “I know things ended badly between us, Salem. But let us mend the rift. After all, we’re going to be neighbours now.”

“Who is it?” Ava appeared, all smiles. Remembering her upset expression at the beach party, I reflexively shifted her ever so slightly behind me but without obstructing her view. Blythe noticed the protective move and quickly turned to Ava. “Do you think we could forget what happened at the party and start afresh?”

Ava, the image of perkiness, nodded. “Well of course.” Her voice sort of…tinkled, like a bell. “We’re practically family.”

What
? But then I saw that her beaming smile hadn’t quite reached her eyes.

The ‘we’re practically family’ comment pulled a low hiss from Gina.

Blythe suggested, “Let’s start over, Ava. I’m Blythe, Will’s mate.”

“I’m Ava. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” And she sounded so sincere, I almost believed it.

“And you remember Gina.”

Ava’s expression softened…like Gina was an injured animal. “I know it must be hard for you to see Salem with someone else. I don’t blame you for being jealous. After all, he’s pretty fabulous.”

I tensed as Gina’s face morphed into a deadly glare. She went to say something but was quickly silenced by a sharp look from Blythe.

Will released a long sigh, looking very pleased with the situation. “Now that that’s all over and done with, maybe we could all go inside and talk.”

We
could
…but I didn’t want to invite them inside mine and Ava’s apartment. I didn’t want them in our personal space, and I didn’t trust them around Ava, especially Gina.

Ava must have sensed my struggle, because she proposed, “How about we all go have dinner together at the new Italian restaurant? Have you guys eaten yet?”

Blythe smiled winningly. “That would be lovely.”

So we edged around the man-made beach as we made our way to the restaurant, passing stores, cafés, bars, other restaurants, the bowling alley and nightclub. Ava, her hand in mine, was practically skipping – a bundle of unlimited energy. She chatted non-stop about absolutely nothing… ‘
That store over there sells the best shoes. I love shoes. Especially stilettos. My favourite pair are red. Isn’t red a great colour? It’s not my favourite colour, though. My favourite’s yellow. Or maybe blue. Hey, isn’t the water a gorgeous blue?’
On and on it went.

When she wasn’t talking, she was humming. Or singing totally off-key, getting the lyrics mixed up. Will, Blythe, and Gina no doubt believed she was kooky and whimsical. But I knew exactly what Ava was doing. Still upset about what happened at the party, she was getting some payback.

Who needed to argue and exchange insults when you could just annoy the hell out of someone by being overly friendly and bubbly? Only Ava could have pulled it off.

Finally inside the restaurant, I sat beside Ava, which placed Will, Blythe, and Gina opposite us. Gina was glaring hard at Ava, playing on every protective instinct I had. I shot her a ‘back the fuck off’ look, which she returned with a self-satisfied smile.

“Ooh, this looks good,” Ava practically purred when the server set her ravioli in front of her. She shot him a grateful look that had him grinning at her like an idiot. So I growled at him. That got him moving. Ava just rolled her eyes at me. Humming, she then picked off what looked to me like little green leaves from her ravioli and put them on a napkin. Realising that Will was looking at her oddly, she said by way of explanation, “They’re green.”

I probably should have found it weird that she refused to eat anything green for no apparent reason, but I strangely found her little quirks kind of endearing.

Blythe took a bite of her pasta before speaking. “You must have impressed your Grand High Pair in the try-outs to earn a spot in the legion, Ava.” It was a prompt for information. Clearly they hadn’t watched the ascension over V-Tube. Sam had announced that she was forming an all-female squad and that Ava – among others – would be given a place.

Ignoring the prompt, Ava gave her a shy smile.

“I’m assuming you have a substantial gift.” It was another prompt. But I knew that Ava wouldn’t reveal her gift to someone she didn’t trust. The knowledge could be used against her; if a vampire ever decided to come at her and knew what her gift was, they would know that she needed bodily contact to harm them. As such, they would know to keep their distance and attack her from afar.

Gina sneered. “Being a Sventé, I can’t see
that
being possible. No offense, child, but vampires of your breed” – said with scorn – “tend to have defensive gifts.”

Ava didn’t seem in the least bit offended, but I knew any slight on her breed would gall her. I was also betting that being referred to as ‘child’ would annoy her. To a vampire as old as Gina, though, that was exactly what Ava was – something young, weak, and vulnerable.

Whatever her true feelings were on the matter, Ava just shrugged. “Even defensive gifts can be substantial.” She held a forkful of ravioli to my mouth, dismissing – and thereby irritating – Gina. “Here, try some. It’s
so
good.”

Stifling a smile at her ability to piss someone off whilst looking the personification of innocence and pleasantness, I indulged her by taking a bite.

Blythe sipped her red wine-flavoured NST. “Where exactly are you from, Ava?”

“Originally, Seattle. But my brother and I did a lot of traveling and eventually ended up in London.”

“Is that where your nest is?”

“Um-hm.”

“Who is your Sire?”

Ava waved a flippant hand. “Oh, Victor’s dead.”

Blythe’s brows flew up. “Dead?”

Ava nodded cheerfully. “Sam killed him when he wouldn’t free her from his hold.”

“Oh, you’re both from the same nest?”

“Now I see how you got a spot in the legion.” Gina snickered. “Doesn’t it bother you that you didn’t earn it, child?”

Ava gave her a fond smile and leaned in, as if about to tell her a secret. “I used to know a woman who’s like you, putting people down a lot because she has low self-esteem. Anyway –”

“I do not have low self-esteem,” growled Gina with a snap of her teeth.

The fond smile turned patronising. “Of course you don’t.” And now Ava was humming again.

“Gina, enough,” Blythe quietly scolded.

If I didn’t know Blythe as well as I did, I’d have thought she’d warmed to Ava and was defending her. That wasn’t it at all. One thing Blythe loved to do was make alliances, become friendly with ‘the right people’; people who could give her something, help her become friendly with more ‘right people’. She’d seen how everyone had gathered supportively behind Ava at the party. She’d seen that Ava was well-liked here; that she would be a good person to have on side. And she was doing her best to win Ava’s trust and friendship.

Sadly for Blythe, that wouldn’t happen. Ava wasn’t the flaky, oblivious girl she was showing them.

Will spoke then. “This is a very beautiful place. The Hollow, I mean. Very peaceful.”

“It is,” agreed Blythe. “The best decision we ever made was coming here. I can see why you didn’t return to us, Salem.”

“How do you find being part of the legion?” Will asked me.

“Good.”

“Was it very long before your squad was sent out on assignments?”

“Ooh, that’s classified information,” said Ava. “We can’t share stuff about assignments with anyone outside the legion.” She rolled her eyes, as if it was pathetically dramatic.

“I see. Are there many trainers within the legion?”

Ah, so Will wanted a spot in the legion. I should have expected that, really. In truth, the legion didn’t have ‘trainers’. Each commander was responsible for the training of their own squad. As Ava had said, though, we didn’t share anything about the legion with outsiders. “That’s something you’d have to speak with the Grand High Pair about.”

“Surely there’s always room for more trainers.”

“Like I said, that’s something you should speak with the Grand High Pair about.” A spark of frustration buzzed down our blood-link.

Blythe smiled. “It would be good for you to find work, Will. You’re not the type to sit around. I’m sure Salem could put in a good word for you.”

“If you want to be employed by Sam and Jared,” began Ava, “you have to prove yourself.”

Gina shot Ava a condescending sneer. “And what could
you
have possibly done to prove yourself? Or maybe you just giggled until their heads hurt.” Her curt, abrasive tone caught the attention of a waiter and some of the other diners.

Ava snorted softly. “Who lit the fuse on your tampon?”

Eyes bulging in anger, Gina went to bark a retort when Will banged his fork to get her attention. He shook his head; making Gina grind her teeth.

Will turned to me with a smile, but I sensed that he was far from happy at that moment. “I’m guessing your interviewers were very impressed by your control at the try-outs.”

“Salem does have very good control,” remarked Blythe. “Thanks to you, Will, of course. You’d make a good trainer for the legion, without a doubt.”