Taunt (24 page)

I almost did a
little dance. Peter and Esther had sorted out Becca in my absence.
Arresting the vampire was a bonus.

Fionnuala
gestured for the formula to be handed to her. She turned it over in
her hands, but her interest didn’t spark until Becca was led to the
Council. They observed her with worried glances and a rapid
exchange of whispered words. They took a few moments to ask Becca
questions, but the rest of us weren’t permitted to hear. The
secrecy puzzled me.

Daimhín spoke
once more. “This is a complete violation of our rules. Gideon must
be punished.”

The questioning
finished, and Fionnuala nodded her agreement. “This human has
confirmed what has been said. Gideon must be tried. His coven
cannot retaliate. This half-breed is free of all but the last
charge. Daimhín, do you claim her as one of your own?”

She frowned, but
nodded. “She is my employee, therefore I take responsibility. If
she survives.”

“
Then
she should be paid a wage,” Peter demanded, giving me a sneaky
wink.

“
Indeed,” Koda said, barely suppressing a smile. “All employees
must be paid.”

Daimhín gave a
curt nod and sat back down, looking entirely unimpressed. Nothing
had gone the way she had planned, and now she was stuck with me.
However, I knew that if I made it out of the Council’s clutches,
hers would be almost as bad.

“
Take
this human to the cells. She needs to be examined further,”
Fionnuala ordered. Two male Guardians led Becca away but, as she
passed me, I felt something shift. My skin crawled as I listened to
her heartbeat. Thud . . . thud . . . nothing. Yet she still
walked.

“
Wait!” I shouted and moved through the flames, but it was too
late. She was already turning. Her eyes grew wide as she clutched
her chest, everyone near her backing away at the guttural sounds
emitting from her throat.

Every single
person in the vicinity froze and stared at Becca. She gagged, then
opened her mouth wide as her fangs emerged. I watched in morbid
fascination as she threw her head back and shrieked like a banshee,
saliva dripping from her mouth. She didn’t look like Becca any
longer. Nor did she look like a vampire.

The shrieking
stopped, and she snapped her head around to take in the room—faster
than a vampire. She hacked out a hoarse sound that sent shivers
down my spine. The silence in the room was overpowering. Everyone
watched in morbid fascination, waiting to see what would happen
next.

She crouched low,
her lips curved back to reveal a full set of fangs. A Guardian
broke out of the spell and took a step toward her, but she leapt
onto his shoulders and ripped off his head with one twist of her
hands. He probably hadn’t even seen her jump; his head was flung
across the room into a crowd of people.

Someone screamed,
and everyone moved away from Becca in a single mass. I ran straight
for her, reaching out my arm, but she looked me right in the eye,
gave a little howl, and ran outside, knocking over half a dozen
people in her path to block me from following. Some Guardians
pulled me back to the circle of flames I had just passed through
without a burn.

“
We
have to go after her!” I shouted, but most of the room was too
stunned to move.

“
Find
her,” Koda demanded at long last, but she was gone; I knew that.
They hadn’t acted quickly enough. And she wasn’t like the other
vampires. Who knew what kind of destruction she might cause? I
gazed at Peter, who looked as horrified as I felt.

“
They’ll take care of it,” Erossi said of the group who had run
out of the room after Becca. He ignored the Guardian who had been
beheaded, even as a number of workers cleaned up the mess. The body
was carried away without ceremony.

“
Now
to the last charge,” Koda said, his voice trembling. “The issue of
a daywalker in our midst.”

The others took
longer to gather themselves. Finally, Fionnuala nodded. “I would
like to inspect her.” She gestured toward me. The magical flames
disappeared, not that they could harm me after all, and the
Guardians escorted me to Fionnuala. I knelt before her, and she
placed one cool hand on my head. I closed my eyes, feeling dizzy,
until she finished whatever she was doing.

“
That’s enough,” she said, her voice suddenly hoarse. “She’s
blocking me.”

“
I’m
not,” I whispered.

“
I
would like to inspect her, too,” Gabe said, and curled his finger
to call me over. I stepped toward him apprehensively.

He placed his
hands on my shoulders and made me kneel before him. I gazed up at
him, but he didn’t meet my eyes. Instead, he lifted the chain
around my neck and fingered the cross. He raised an eyebrow and
glanced at the other members of the Council. A hushed silence fell
over the proceedings.

Gabe lifted my
chin with one fingertip and peered into my eyes. I felt naked
before him, like he could see every bit of me, under my skin, into
my heart. Eddie wanted me to be vulnerable before them, and now he
had his wish. I couldn’t look away from Gabe; I felt trapped in his
gaze.

My skin warmed,
and Gabe’s eyes turned white. I exhaled heavily when the light
poured out of him. It slid into me, wrapping me in ribbons of heat,
and I felt him probing my mind. I panicked and fought back,
resistant to the last, pushing him away until the probing stopped.
Gabe made a choking noise and stepped back, letting go of my chin.
He blinked, and his eyes were back to normal, but loud gasps behind
me made me take my eyes from him.

They all stared,
everyone in the room. I looked down at myself; my skin had lit up
from within. A question rose to my lips, but Gabe dismissed me back
to the ring of flames before I could give it voice.

“
I’d
like to hear from everyone, I think.” Fionnuala’s voice
wobbled.

“
We
claim her as our own, a daywalker,” the vampire consultant said.
Fionnuala nodded her acceptance of his claim, but a frown remained
on her brows.

“
I
disagree,” Gabe said, standing up. I glanced at Eddie, but he
didn’t seem surprised at all. “She is no daywalker.”

Erossi arched a
brow. “How can you be so sure?”

Gabe let out a
sigh and kept his eyes on me. “Because my brother attended her
birth.”

I searched his
face for an answer to that statement, but he looked away and
addressed the rest of the Council. “
We
claim her as our
own.”

Fionnuala stood
and raised her hand. “All spectators must leave. Now.”

Internally, I was
freaking out. How could they carry on so calmly when Becca had
turned into a monster in front of their eyes? How could I stand
there so calmly when Gabe had said something so huge?

After a few
minutes, where everyone except for my friends, the Council, the
Consultants, and the Guardians were ushered out of the room,
Fionnuala sat down again. “Speak on, Gabe. What is this
about?”

He stared at me
before sighing and rolling his eyes. “I know what she
is.”

“
We’re
waiting,” Fionnuala snapped, but she twisted her robe in her hands.
I held my breath, sensing the gravity of his words.

“
She
is an impure nephal. Not yet matured, but a nephal all the same. Or
rather, would have been if Seth had left things alone.” He shook
his head, his mouth twisting into a grim smile.

What.
The. Hell?

“
Here?” Fionnuala sounded horrified. “That can’t be! What are
the odds?”

“
It’s
of no matter,” Erossi said. “We need to make a decision. If ever
anything upset the balance, it is this creature.”

“
She
is
the balance.” Gabe’s words were low, but there was a
finality to them that I didn’t understand. In fact, I didn’t
understand anything they were saying.

“
Why
didn’t you tell us?” Fionnuala glared at me.

“
Tell
you what? I’ve no clue what the hell is going on!” I snapped back,
impatient at being the last to know something they all seemed
familiar with.

“
She
is ignorant,” Gabe said, but this time his look was
pitying.

“
What’s going on?” I whispered to Eddie.

“
I
warned you to prepare yourself for surprises,” he murmured under
his breath.

“
We
have other issues to deal with,” Gabe said. “It’s time to end this
madness.”

“
Madness?” Erossi snorted. “This is worse than we first
thought.”

“
No,”
Koda said softly. “This is much, much better. Think, Erossi. Think
of what this could mean.”

“
I
have
thought.” Erossi’s haughty tone turned urgent. “I see
what you don’t.”

Koda waved his
hand dismissively. “A vote?”

Fionnuala nodded.
“Consultants, what say you?”

“
She
is harmless,” Eddie said. Aiden stood and claimed me as friend, not
foe. The other consultants said they had no problems with me
living. The witch wished me imprisoned instead. It moved onto the
Council members themselves.

“
I
don’t wish her to live,” Erossi voted.

“
I am
keen to see what she brings to our world,” Koda
proclaimed.

“
We
wish her alive,” Gabe said, and he gave me a sweet, unexpected
smile.

Fionnuala was the
decider. “After much thought, I believe she is more useful than
dangerous. We will need more numbers soon.”

Once they made
their decision, it was over too quickly. I was left dizzy and
flustered, not knowing what was happening. Most of the court
cleared out quickly, ready to settle the Becca
situation.

Eddie took my
hand and led me over to Gabe. “Speak to her,” he demanded before
calling my grandmother to join us.

“
What
were you talking about?” I demanded, fidgeting like mad.

“
I
don’t have time for the whole saga,” he said. “You should be
nephilim, but you’re an impure breed.”

“
I
don’t know what that means!” My fingers trembled.

“
It
means you’re not a daywalker, you’re not a vampire, and you’re not
even human. Not really. Your father was human. Your mother was
not.”

“
What
are you on? Of course she was human,” I said. I looked at my
grandmother and faltered. “She wasn’t?” I felt so confused. My
grandmother shook her head and refused to meet my eyes.

“
What…
what was she then?” I was afraid of the answer. “What’s going on?”
My voice caught, and it seemed to bring out a softer side to
Gabe.

“
When
Lucifer abandoned heaven, he took some of his supporters with him.
Without heaven, they lost their divinity and became wretches. He
decided to punish God by adding a new predator to earth, one the
humans couldn’t fight. Seth became the first vampire, and he made
followers of his own. To balance it out, Michael rewarded seraphim
with a life on Earth. They took human forms and performed the
opposite job to vampires. They gave energy and light instead of
taking it away.” Gabe looked at my grandmother with a strange gleam
in his eyes.

“
When
the seraphim bred with humans, they created nephilim—giants,
warriors, those who would overthrow the darkness. But Lucifer sent
Seth to destroy the seraphim. Their blood called to him, and he
swam in it. Then he discovered that he could taint the nephilim… in
the womb.”

I wanted to
vomit. I wanted to hear the rest of the story, but what I read
between the lines terrified me.

“
His
mission sent him all over the world, hunting down seraphim before
they reproduced. Seraphim went into hiding because Seth was the
dealer of death. He still creeps in the shadows, trying to find the
light. He takes the tainted nephilim after their birth and sends
them to live in the darkness. There are few seraphim now that the
vampires have stopped multiplying, and the numbers of nephilim have
dwindled. There were wars, and many were destroyed in the battles.”
Gabe’s face darkened. “Your mother was a seraph who chose a female
form. Seth came for her, but my brother was on his heels and helped
hide you and your grandmother.”

With a heavy
heart, I turned to look at Nancy. She knew it all and had told me
nothing. Everything was a lie.

“
So
what’s the big deal then?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“I’m still not one or the other, not much has changed
then.”

Gabe pressed his
lips together and shook his head. “The big deal is
unpredictability. The nephilim were made for war. Heaven’s soldiers
who could walk the earth with their power intact. The impurity
changes the extent of the power and who it can be used against. You
still haven’t matured; you could be a danger to either side. Or
both. Or neither.”

“
Are
there more like me?”

“
I’m
sure there are,” he said, surprising me. “The seraphim go to
ground; they hide. Who knows what’s out there?”

“
My
mother was an angel?” I couldn’t quite grasp it.