Taunt (17 page)

I stepped back,
shock widening my eyes. He lowered his head immediately, his temper
over. “Look, I’m sorry. But I’m a grown man. I make my own
decisions, right or wrong. Don’t try and take that away from me.
Not again.”

I held up my
hands, signalling defeat. Things had been so much easier when Carl
didn’t have a mind of his own. “I don’t want to fight. Just promise
me you won’t trust Eddie.”

“
I
already promised you that once. I’ve kept that promise, don’t
worry,” he said, his eyes steely and determined; all of a sudden,
he reminded me of Peter. That made me sadder than I could have
imagined.

“
You
sure? I mean you took a job here.”

“
Yeah,
of course I did. Look at all of these books. It’s a treasure trove
of knowledge. I’ve already picked up a couple of things that might
help you out, just trust me on that one.”

I couldn’t hide
my smile. Staying mad at Carl was impossible when he was so eager.
“What did you find out then?”

“
I
need to read up a bit more but, I swear, I’ll be of some help this
time.”

“
You
helped me last time, remember?” I said, referring to his cutting
himself open in a room of vampires to give me blood. I still hadn’t
forgiven him. It was pure luck that tasting his blood had satisfied
my craving rather than provoking the addiction further. I could
stand close to him now, but it might have turned out very
differently. Every day, I waited for that to change, as I knew it
would eventually.

“
I
might have helped a little,” he said, picking up some books and
stacking them on the shelves. I helped him with the books, mumbling
thanks, and exchanging a look with him that said more than words
ever could. We were connected in a way that couldn’t be achieved
through hours of talking; even though the bond had been cut, some
of the threads still held tight.

As Carl had told
me, the books in Eddie’s shop were extremely informative. Whenever
Eddie spent time in the shop, I ignored him and picked up a book
instead. I still wasn’t sure how to deal with the new knowledge; I
wasn’t even sure if there was anything I could or should do about
it. My best bet was avoidance, and my ignoring tool of choice was a
book on hell spawn and demons. Pretty interesting reading, though
the images were a little disturbing. I picked up bits and pieces of
information and wondered how much was fact and how much
fiction.

Peter dropped in
while Carl and I were in fits laughing about something silly.
Peter’s stern expression sort of dampened the mood. A wave of
nausea hit me, milder than before. Maybe I was coming down with
something, and the dead shifter had nothing to do with the
black-eyed Guardian named Coyle after all.

“
How
are you today?” Peter asked, still looking like a rain cloud hung
over his head.

“
Fine.
Stuck here, of course.”

“
You
ready to make a plan yet?”

I exchanged looks
with Carl. Peter could suck the fun out of every day with
ease.

“
I’ve
no idea where to start,” I muttered, and fingered the book I’d been
reading, while I contemplated ignoring Peter as well. I didn’t want
to think about the trial. I didn’t want to think about what the
outcome might be. As if to hint at me, Carl took the book away and
put it under the counter.

“
I
do,” Peter said. Big surprise there. “Esther seems pretty smitten
with you, Ava. She’s said a couple of times that she wants to help,
and I think you should let her.”

“
Shouldn’t she be busy trying to figure out why one of her own
tried to kill her?” I said, annoyed at Peter’s insistence that
everybody drop everything to join our cause. I also found it
strange how little impact the incident had on everyone around me.
It was like they had all forgotten how to react to something awful.
Even Carl seemed to be oblivious to near-death experiences; he
hadn’t even asked me how I was feeling after being shot. The wound
had already healed, but still, it felt oddly inhuman of them not to
be more concerned.

“
There
are plenty of others willing to take on that job,” Peter said. He
might have been talking about cleaning up spilled milk. “I reckon
Esther needs a distraction from that. Eddie’s all about dealing
with the trial. I figure we can deal with Gideon in the meantime.
Let’s not make it easy for him.”

“
So
what do we do?” Carl asked.

Peter’s eyes
gleamed. “Aiden won’t help, but I get it. He has to be seen as
neutral. But Esther’s only a Guardian. She has access to
information we don’t, and she can easily keep an eye on Gideon’s
coven without raising suspicion. We just have to persuade her to
help out.”

“
Oh,
is that all?” I couldn’t see Aiden allowing Esther to help,
especially if it risked her job.

“
If I
can give her a reason to help, then all she has to do is warn us of
any deliveries or suspiciously secret transactions going on. Then
we intercept one and take the goods to the Council.”

I gaped,
realising he was serious. “Okay, what if there are no deliveries
before the trial starts? What if we intercept a delivery, and it
isn’t the formula? How do we even know if it’s the formula? And how
can we even prove that it was headed toward Gideon? Never mind the
obvious problem with
secret
transactions.”

Peter stared
back, his jaw twitching. “Good questions,” he said, although it
looked like it killed him to say it. “I’m going to work on Becca,
see if she can be persuaded to rat on the vampires. It won’t be
easy, but I’ll keep at her. Maybe I’ll find a way inside the
building, and try to track down concrete evidence.”

“
You
can’t break into the home of an entire vampire coven. You won’t
make it out alive!” Carl’s impressed face belied his
words.

“
Daytime. Human guards. No problem.” Peter’s mouth twisted into
a cruel smile.

I closed my eyes.
Peter would hurt humans. He wouldn’t think twice. I couldn’t let
him do that. “I could go with you, maybe distract the humans while
you sneak around. Or the other way around.”

“
You
can’t get involved in any of this, Ava. You’re in enough trouble.
We can’t risk it. You stay here, and keep out of
trouble.”

I opened my mouth
to protest, but he carried on as if I didn’t exist. I knew with
certainty then that he planned on going in fighting.

“
Esther wouldn’t ignore any evidence I find, and I’m pretty
sure she, or one of her team, could keep an eye on Gideon’s bank
accounts. That kind of information would have to be hacked, but
that wouldn’t be a problem. If money is being sent to Spain, then
we’ll know there’s a loose link that we can play on.”

I waited, praying
he would say he was joking. Peter looked so optimistic all of a
sudden that I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was completely
stupid. Carl decided to gently imply it instead. “You know, that’s
going to take a
lot
of refining.”

Peter glared at
him. “Do you two have anything better to do?”

Carl and I
exchanged glances. Actually, we didn’t have anything better to do
and, if I was going down, I didn’t want enough time to worry about
it.

“
What
about Eddie?” Carl said.

Peter lowered his
voice. “We don’t tell him anything. We’re going to give Ava a
fighting chance, no matter what he says. Worst comes to the worst,
Ava could try and influence Becca’s mind, or maybe one of the
live-in pets, to force them to help us.

“
No
way,” I said, straight away. I was not messing about with anyone’s
mind. Never again.

“
Get
over it. It’s not a big deal,” he said, surprising me because he
hated that part of me.

I glared at him,
unwilling to back down. Peter stared back at me for a few seconds
with a disturbingly cold look in his eyes. Finally, he relaxed, but
not before a bead of sweat rolled down my spine. Something wasn’t
right.

Peter waved a
hand. “Fair enough. I’m going to pay Becca a visit. See if I can
get her to talk to me.”

“
She’s
not going to help us,” I warned.

“
I
won’t know if I don’t take the chance. I’d take you with me, but
you kind of bring out the worst in her.” I made a face. I hated
being stuck with Eddie.

“
Maybe
you could call Esther,” Carl said. “Ask her if there’s anything she
can do to help with Becca.”

“
Worth
a try, but Becca’s still human, so it’s not exactly her
jurisdiction. I’ll let you both know if I have any news.

I thought about
Peter’s plans when he left, and soon realised what I had to
do.

“
Carl,” I said before he left that evening. “Can I trust
you?”

“
You
know you can.”

I took a deep
breath. “I can’t let Peter go near Gideon’s coven. Most of the
people there are innocent, but he’ll hurt them anyway.”

Carl looked taken
aback. “He wouldn’t.”

“
Carl.
He wants to get a job done, and he doesn’t care who gets in the
way.”

“
He’s
being a friend, Ava.”

“
Just
trust that I know what I’m talking about. I need your help. I’m
going to the coven to see if I can find out anything. They won’t
expect me. I can sneak in, have a quick look around, and be gone
before anything can go wrong.”

“
But
Ava, what exactly are you looking for?” He sounded concerned, so I
took a moment to think about it.

“
I’m
not sure. I just want to go in there so Peter doesn’t have to,” I
admitted.

Carl frowned.
“Ava, Peter’s idea is stupid. He’ll see that himself when he gets a
chance to think it through. You can’t go over there. You don’t even
know what you’re looking for.”

“
I
don’t know what else to do,” I admitted. “We have to do
something
. This is bigger than the trial; Gideon shouldn’t
get away with any of this. Imagine what would happen if all of the
vampires got their hands on that formula, the amount of people who
would die.” I shook my head. Gideon had dragged me into his mess,
and I wanted out of it. Nobody seemed willing to go after him, and
somebody needed to.

“
Hey,
I get it. I want to stop him, too. Maybe if Esther speaks to Becca
herself, she might help. If she saw her, she’d know there was
something very wrong there. Maybe that would be enough, and nobody
would have to break in,” Carl suggested.

“
Peter
probably will anyway, and end up locked away himself. Could you
maybe call Peter and see if he can persuade Esther to tag along, as
a favour to me?”

Carl made the
call, and Peter arranged to visit Becca with Esther the following
day. It was a small relief. I hoped the visit to Becca would go
well enough, and Peter would drop the idea of breaking into
Gideon’s home.

That night, I
asked Eddie if I could take some of his books to the spare room I
was using. He said it was okay, but he handpicked them himself
without a word. He turned off all the lights and pushed me toward
the stairs before I could choose a book on my own. I knew being
around him was going to be difficult, but I hadn’t expected there
to be quite so much tension in the air.

That evening, I
sat in Eddie’s spare room and tried to read the books, but they
seemed more of the fairy tale variety than the genuine kind. I
debated ringing my grandmother, but I remembered what Eddie had
said about me being told the whole truth. My phone shook in my
palm, and I put it down. I decided the whole truth could wait for a
few days.

The next morning,
I awoke early. I dressed quickly and went downstairs before Eddie
got up so I could get a chance to read one of the more authentic
books that he kept steering me away from. When Eddie finally showed
his face, I slid the book back under the counter and pretended I
hadn’t been doing anything. He narrowed his eyes but didn’t say
anything about it, although he stayed very close to me for the next
few hours.

“
You
can help out today, Ava,” he told me. “Give you something to
do.”

I shrugged,
pretending I didn’t care, but inside I was swearing. I wanted to be
free to think about the trial and Gideon without Eddie breathing
down my neck. Eddie was so against us trying to do things another
way that it kicked off a brand new wave of suspicion. I knew he
needed me for something, but he wanted the trial to go his way for
reasons I hadn’t figured out yet.

“
Why
don’t you get some breakfast upstairs?” he asked, at
last.

“
Not
hungry,” I told him, although my stomach was rumbling pretty
loudly.

“
You
could always make yourself a cup of tea or something. The air in
here is so drying.” As soon as he said it, the moisture was ripped
from the air; my throat dried up instantly. The more he tried to
get rid of me, the more obstinate I felt.

“
I’m
okay, Eddie,” I said with a bland smile. “It’s fine in
here.”

He frowned and
was about to speak again when Carl breezed into the shop carrying a
bag.