[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.” I tried not to wince when she gave me a fanged smile in return.We seemed to be moving in the wrong direction, but I figured we were heading to neutral territory.Perhaps other entities weren’t supposed to enter the Council’s domain or some such nonsense.I didn’t care.I just wanted the trip over and done with so I could get back to dealing with Carl.I was soon bored and agitated.The lack of heartbeats and breathing was positively irritating, an unusual side effect of being stuck in a car with a group of vampires.“Have you ever heard of something infecting people, like gripping onto their souls, and making them do bad things?” I asked, trying to sound matter-of-fact.“De-mons,” Eloise sang.“Haven’t I told you?” Daimhín chided before slapping Jules’s hand away from mine.I rolled my eyes and inched away from the dysfunctional vampire family.I tried to ask more questions about demons, but Daimhín refused to let Eloise answer.“What about someone using a soul, like trapping it to them?” I attempted to sound like a curious neophyte searching for the strangest occurrences possible.Daimhín tutted.“That’s just one step away from necromancy.”I settled back into my seat and watched Eloise sing lullabies to Jules.Every time I saw him, he acted even stranger than the previous time.Eloise treated him like a doll or a puppy, and I wondered how much of her was as childlike as the day she was turned.We stopped shortly before I lost my mind.The meeting place was in a closed restaurant.A sleepy-looking shifter was opening the doors when we arrived.We all gathered inside and waited for the Council to appear, the British vampires frequently checking the time in disgust.By the time the Council traipsed in, the vampires were muttering complaints and throwing dirty glances at each other.I was shocked to see how frail Koda looked in comparison to how he had at the trial.The transparency thing tended to make him look ancient, but the opaque lapses showed tired eyes and a serious amount of wrinkling.Fionnuala and Erossi appeared as haughty as ever, and Gabe just looked pissed.“What’s this about?” Gabe snapped.“This is about you driving your mistakes onto our territory,” Victor shouted, surprising everyone.“I’m sure you can deal with it,” Gabe said sullenly.“No.We demand you send troops to take care of this,” the vampire continued.“Troops?” Erossi laughed without humour.“We don’t need troops.Look what we have.” He mockingly pointed at me.I knew there was a reason I couldn’t stand him.Victor flexed his fingers as if in agitation, but when he spoke, his voice was calm.“This mutation needs to be captured and tested.The strain is warped.She drinks blood of her kind… that couldn’t have been the plan.The Spanish deny knowledge.She’s the only real link we have.As discussed with Daimhín, if we can study her, we can figure out what exactly they’ve been doing.We’re in a much better position for this.”“We can do the testing, once we retrieve the beast,” Gabe saidWinston smiled, and it was probably one of the most terrifying things I had ever seen.“Oh, no.If she’s on our soil, we decide what happens to her.As you sent her to us, you can help us capture her.But we’re keeping her.”I had a bad, bad feeling about that.“We don’t have Guardians to spare,” Fionnuala said.“Too many were taken out in the hunt for the mutation.It’s too much to ask.”“This has to stop,” Winston warned.“If you don’t deal with this, we’ll take it further.Do you feel like a war in these times? You have until tomorrow night.We’ll be leaving then.”“You dare threaten us?” Erossi scoffed.“There are many more of us.And the higher Councils will take our side.War will come your way, you arrogant fool.Some of us are more than willing to take the fight to you.Remember that.This is not a choice.”“We’ll send the girl,” Koda said.“She can handle the creature.”“Alone? When our warriors couldn’t?” Cass sounded as if her head might pop off her shoulders with shock.“She knows its movements.She has experience,” Koda said tiredly.“Are you quite mad?” Gabe managed to sound even more irritated than I felt.Koda rose to his feet.“No more of this.We send the girl.That’s all.If you think she can’t handle it, assign her some help yourself.”“We can discuss it tonight and give you our final demand tomorrow,” Cass said, but there was hatred in her eyes.I looked directly at Gabe.“I don’t want to go to Liverpool.” He shook his head slightly, but I really couldn’t leave.“I have things to deal with here, things that are urgent.A succubus is killing my friend, I have to—”“Our final demand will be delivered tomorrow,” Winston insisted.He acted as if I hadn’t spoken at all.“Fine,” Gabe snapped.“I’m sure Daimhín will accommodate you past dawn.We’ll meet again.”The vampires all left, but Gabe grabbed my arm and held me there.“I’ll take you home,” he said under his breath.“Are they gone?” he asked a nearby Guardian.The Guardian headed outside, leaving the room full of tense supernaturals.I shifted uncomfortably, and Gabe’s grip on my arm tightened.“They’ve left,” the Guardian said from the doorway.“Good.Koda, what are you thinking?”The Dryad shrugged.“I’m tired, Gabe.We can’t afford a fight.Let the girl deal with it.They can’t bring a war if we comply.”“We can protect our land,” Erossi said, the veins in his neck straining against his skin.“Now is not the time,” Fionnuala said, siding with Koda.“It will happen, but not now.Not over this.We can’t afford to lose any more Guardians to this.The girl is no loss to us.”“Great, thanks,” I muttered.Gabe said goodbye to the others and dragged me to his car.He turned the key so violently, I was sure it would break.The wheels squealed as he pulled away and sped dangerously along twisting country lanes to get back into the city.“Don’t ever speak up like that again.Not in front of others and certainly not if you’re going to act like you have a choice.”“You can’t make me go,” I said.“I don’t have time for this, Ava.Do you want to fight in a war? Do you want everyone you know to die, everything you know to be destroyed? Because that will happen.This is an excuse.They’re already fishing for a battle for some reason.Problem is, Becca has given a reason for every other supernatural over there to back them up on this.None of us have a choice.We have to be seen to take action.”“But the succubus—”“I don’t care about the damn succubus.I don’t care about your human friend, either.All I care about right now is avoiding a war.You’re leaving tomorrow.Get your head in gear and deal with Becca once and for all
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]