Taunt

TAUNT

Ava Delaney #2

By Claire
Farrell

Edited by
Lynn
O’Dell

All Ava
wants to do is forget about the vampires, but they won’t leave her
alone. Between her failing business, angry landlord, disloyal
friends, and vampire stalkers, life is starting to feel pretty
stressful. When Ava finally deals with her biggest problem, she is
caught up in the chain of events it triggers and taken along a path
she can’t escape from.

Ava has
to figure out what exactly is her biggest threat: the humans, the
vampires, the Council—or her true heritage.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © Claire Farrell 2011

[email protected]

Book cover image provided by
Konradbak
@
Dreamstime.com

Licence Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Thank
you for respecting the hard work of this author.

I knew my
grandmother was speaking to me, but all I could focus on was my old
bedroom, the carpet still stained with the blood and tears of a
child. Bad memories had rushed to the surface as soon as I stepped
into the room; so overwhelming, my breath caught in my
throat.

“
Ava?”

I snapped back to
the present. “Sorry, what?”

My grandmother
frowned, familiar impatience fleeting across her face. “I was
saying we could get a new bed, but the old one would do for now.
You could move in straight away. What do you think?”

She stared at me
with expectant eyes, apparently waiting for me to jump at the
chance to move back in with her. Every cell in my body screamed,
“No way, not ever.” We had come a long way in a short space of
time, mostly out of necessity, but that didn’t mean I wanted to
live with her again.

“
I
don’t know. I’m not sure that’s the best idea right now.” Holding
my breath, I waited for her protests.

“
Of
course it’s a good idea! No point in renting all by yourself when
I’ve an empty room here. You don’t even have a real job, Ava.” She
shook her head, feigning disappointment, as if that was our biggest
worry.

“
Besides,” her voice softened a little as she took a step
toward me. “You were almost tortured to death, Ava. You
need
to be taken care of.” She smiled, and I could see she wasn’t
worried, certain I’d cave. She carefully avoided the fact that I
did have a job, just not a paying one. Being in the employ of the
most powerful vampire in Ireland against my will didn’t have that
kind of perk.

“
Look,
Nancy,” I began, trying to remind her of the serious distance
between us.

“
Stop
calling me Nancy!”

“
Being
back in touch has been nice and all, but I’m not ready to live here
again. Not after… everything. It’s way too soon for me. I mean, we
were meeting up for tea, then suddenly you’re moving on to me
living here again?”

Her eyes
narrowed, sending me back to my childhood for the briefest instant.
She’d never been a patient woman; a lot of her actions had been
questionable, to say the least. My grandmother did her best at the
time, but even now, it took a lot to look the woman in the eye.
After seven years of freedom, I wasn’t ready for her methods of
curing me.

“
Oh,
here we go.” Her mouth tightened into a thin line that made her
look as cruel as I remembered. “Pity me. Poor Ava wasn’t loved. How
about you think of someone else for a change, and stop bringing up
the past? I had to live with a monster! What was I supposed to
do?”

She might as well
have slapped my face. Her apologies meant nothing, after all.
Feeling my chin tremble, I shook my head. “I’m not bringing up the
past, being in this room is. The fact that you think of me as a
monster
is a pretty good reason for me not to
stay.”

“
Wait
a second, let’s just talk about it.” The anger in her eyes turned
to worry. “I thought we were over all of this. I protected you; I
kept quiet when those vampires took me. I thought that would change
things, prove to you that everything’s different now. I’m your only
family, so why can’t you let us have a fresh start? I took care of
you when you needed me, why can’t you give me this?”

“
I’m
sorry I made you think we could skip past it like nothing happened.
But look at you, even now, after
everything
, you still think
I’m bad. You still think I’m wrong. I don’t understand you. Why
would you even want me to live with you?”

“
Can’t
you see what it was like for me?” She clung to my arm. “How scared
I was?”

“
How
scared
you
were?” All of the emotions I’d pushed down
flooded upward as I shrugged her off. I half-turned and lifted my
shirt as a reminder. “Try and remember how scared
I
was, for
a change.” She turned her head, unwilling to look at the scars
she’d allowed a faux-religious conman to inflict before I reached
my tenth birthday.

“
There’s obviously nothing to talk about then. You’ve made it
pretty clear nothing’s changed.” Ignoring the lump in my throat, I
left the room. I’d given her another chance because deep down I was
desperate for family, desperate to belong. I should have known it
wouldn’t work out, it never did.

“
I’m
sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“
It’s
fine,” I said without looking back. “I get it, I do.” I didn’t
enjoy being reminded of the past either. Our secrets weighed
heavily on both of us. My mother giving birth to a child that was
more vampire than human hadn’t been easy for anyone, but I was
almost certain it didn’t automatically make me a monster.
Almost
.

As I left her
house, I realised I had expected too much from my grandmother.
After a seven-year separation, the couple of weeks we’d spent
together had me thinking she’d mellowed with age, that she could be
there for me and provide unconditional love. Some things would
never be true, no matter how much I wished for them. She still
relished the martyr role; I would always be her burden.

Determined to get
the woman out of my head, I trudged through an unexpected rainstorm
and arrived home dripping wet and shivering. My slutty next-door
neighbour stared from her doorway as I opened the door to my flat.
I ignored her and her freakishly strong perfume, and raised the
volume on my television when I heard her male companion arrive. She
went through men like I went through cartons of milk, and she
wasn’t quiet about it.

I couldn’t afford
to heat the flat, so I curled up under my duvet and eventually
dozed off. Nightmares plagued my sleep. Over and over again, I saw
Maximus rise up and strike against me. I woke up shaking, my cheeks
wet with tears. He was dead. I killed him, but I couldn’t let the
whole thing go. The idea that he would somehow come back for me
remained a constant torment.

Agitated, I
counted and multiplied until my heart stopped racing. Once the
blood Eddie Brogan fed me while I had been injured wore off, my
anxiety returned. Although I’d feared feeding an addiction to
blood, my thirst hadn’t overwhelmed me in a while. My nervous
habits had been the problem instead.

The sky darkened,
and I sensed the vampires awakening. I went to my window and
sighed; already they were hanging around outside my home. I had
first noticed them three days before standing in front of my
building in pairs. Every night, they came and stood where I could
see them, watching, waiting, keeping me on edge.

I reached out
with my extra sense and observed the world on another level. A
world full of red pulsing, dotted with something . . .
other
. Even in my own apartment building, I saw a shimmering
presence I couldn’t explain.

Right outside my
building were some conspicuously empty pockets. They had no spark
of life, no flash of energy, no light of soul; they were nothing.
That’s how I knew they were vampires.

Frowning, I
leaned on my windowsill and watched. The pair stood outside, silent
and idle for hours, conspicuous enough to convince me I was
supposed to see them. But why? If they belonged to Daimhín, this
could be her way of reminding me I worked for her. I still hadn’t
come up with a way of getting out of that one. I shivered, unable
to dispel a sudden chill. Next time I saw her, I had to ask, just
in case they didn’t belong to her.

I made a cup of
coffee and, returning to the window, I noticed the vampires had
been replaced with a different pair. I sipped my drink and stared
freely at them, knowing they couldn’t see me
—
and knowing that if they couldn’t see me,
they meant me harm. The magical safeguards around my building
guaranteed that kind of protection from the uninvited who harboured
ill intent.

I thought one
looked familiar, but I couldn’t be sure. Like all vampires, they
had mottled, wrinkled skin that looked as though the blood had been
completely drained. To me, most of them looked alike.

The vampires
shifted uncomfortably, as if they could sense me watching. I knew I
was safe from them for now; there were even more magical forms of
protection on my building than before. Eddie had reassured my
grandmother that he had tightened my defences, but a niggling doubt
made me wonder what else he did. As far as I was concerned, he sold
me out to the vampires in the end, so I could never trust him. I
still didn’t know what kind of supernatural being he was, or even
what he was capable of. In some ways, I feared him more than
Daimhín.

Shortly before
dawn, the vampires sprinted away. I blinked, and they were gone. I
couldn’t begin to figure out what was going on, and I was too
exhausted to try. Sleep claimed me as soon as I lay
down.

Yet again, my
dreams brought to the surface everything I had felt while being
tortured. Lack of control was the one thing that overwhelmed me the
most over the last seven years. Being left helpless by a vampire’s
torture methods went a step beyond my coping limits.

Alone and afraid,
I trembled in the dark. Clutching the cross that had once magically
numbed my thirst, I whispered pointless prayers to whatever entity
was out there messing with me.

A gentle breeze
caressed my cheek, each puff a cold, soothing hand against my skin.
The presence had followed me around for a while and comforted me
every night. I trusted it only because I had to trust
something
or I’d go completely insane. What I really needed
was for life to go back to normal, back to me avoiding humans and
vampires as much as possible. Back to me staying out of
trouble.

That was too much
to ask for.

When a call on my
mobile showed the name Daimhín, I was tempted to ignore it. I
didn’t dare, even though it was daylight, so it couldn’t possibly
be the vampire equivalent of a queen.

“
Miss
Delaney?” said an unfamiliar female voice.

“
Yep.”

“
This
is… the day assistant of Daimhín. I’ve been asked to inform you
that your presence is required on Friday evening. I’ll text you the
location.”

“
Day
assistant. Right. And if I’m busy?”

Her hesitation
vanished, and her voice turned ice-cold. “Then someone will come
and get you. It wouldn’t be pleasant, so I advise you to turn up,
Miss Delaney. Of your own accord.”

“
Fine.
I’ll be there. Hey, wait. Know anything about the vampires hanging
around outside my place?”

She paused; I
held my breath, half-hoping she would say yes. At least then I
would know.

“
I
haven’t heard anything about it.” She hung up and sent me the text
straight away. The assistant bothered me as much as Daimhín. I
couldn’t tell if she was lying about the vampires. I was pretty
sure the woman was in a relationship of some kind with Peter, and
he was the one who had told Daimhín I had agreed to work for her.
More betrayal I didn’t want to think about.