Read Taste (Ava Delaney #5) Online
Authors: Claire Farrell
“Is this actually happening?” I asked Shay.
He grinned. “I can arrest both of them if you like. I’d rather fill out the paperwork than listen to this.”
“I’ll shut up if the dealer does,” Carl snapped.
Moses grinned at me. “Go on. Keep convincing me, woman.”
I raised a brow. “You know deep down that you’ll never really be free if nothing changes. Listen, you’re all human. The twins and I are only part-human, and we’re despised.
Hated
. You’re at the bottom of the pile, even lower than us. The Council don’t rate you highly enough to hate. It’s time to take back our place. To stop being food for older beings.”
“But what can we do?” Shay asked. “How can we possibly change anything?”
“One person can make a difference,” Carl said. “But if we can work at getting support, so that when the time comes, we’re all on the right side…”
Shay inclined his head. “I know a lot of my crowd aren’t happy with the way things are. Everything we’ve ever gone through looks different now we know the real truth of this world. We’ve been talking about the night those monsters came. How few of you helped us. We saw clips on the news, of the so-called major battle. Where did all of those people come from? Why couldn’t they have helped us? And, Ava, we’re all pissed at being used to set you up like that. I swear to God, none of us knew what was happening.”
“I know,” I said. “But that’s what they do. They use people and act like nothing happened. I could easily have blamed you lot, but I know what they’re like. Aiden set me up to get me away from his sister.”
“Who’s his sister?” Moses asked.
“Esther. You remember her, right?”
He grinned sleazily. “How could I forget?”
I thumped his arm, and he laughed loudly. “Ah, come on. Give a man a break.”
“The point is, even his sister is disgusted with how they act on top. She’s witnessed some horrible things. She’s against the people she used to work for. One of them is risking his business and life to help us. And even the main one’s son is acting as though he wants in on our side. They have money, big houses, all kinds of shit, and when the country needed their help, they hid underground and let us all suffer. Except we didn’t. We dealt with it by teaming up.”
“Never back down,” Moses said under his breath. “Where do they get the money?”
“I’d say some of it comes from criminal activity,” Shay said. “Too many big crimes go unpunished for it to be a coincidence. Word comes from above, and it all goes away.”
“Live to scam another day,” Moses added.
“I reckon some of it comes from the people they chase into hiding,” Lorcan said. “A lot of the people with us came from families that were once rich or powerful. Families that were taken down by the Council, one way or another.”
I nodded. “And then there are the deals. The supernaturals deal in favours. If the Council gave out a favour, imagine how much money it would cost to pay them back.”
“It’s not just the money and power,” Carl said. “They hate mixed races like Ava and the twins here. They’re terrified of them. They wanted to kill Ava as soon as she popped up on their radar.”
“But they’re not all bad,” I admitted. “It’s just they’re so old and unwilling to change.”
“We need, like, a backer,” Moses said. “I mean,
if
I get involved.”
I cleared my throat. “Well, we have one. Only problem is that he might be worse than the Council if he got some power.”
“So we double-deal,” Moses said lightly. “Make sure he never gets any of the power.”
“That’s what I’m hoping for,” I said. “But with this one, we need to cover all of the bases. He’s a Keeper of Gods, for starters. He has power from them that he’s refusing to give back. He has a way of trapping souls to him, using their power. I don’t know what for, but we need his support right now.”
“He sounds scarily dodgy,” Shay said.
“Yeah, but it’s easier to shift change when everything’s already in an uproar than it is to change centuries of rules and laws. Don’t forget—those children are still kidnapped. Missing children, just like Emmett.” I knew that would appeal to Shay.
He raised his eyebrows. “So we could take them home to their families?” he asked. “Close the cases?”
“Of course,” I said. “But I should probably mention that these children are special in some way. That’s why the supernaturals want them. We might need to work with them for a while once they get home.”
“Have a support system,” he said. “Community liaisons. Simple.”
“So let me get this straight,” Moses said. “You want us to pretend to work with a scary supernatural so he’ll help us get rid of other scary supernaturals?”
“Pretty much,” Carl said. “That’s the basic plan, anyway.”
“So when the cards fall, who gets the power? Who’s in charge?”
I shrugged. “Whoever wants it enough, I suppose. Maybe a big committee of people. Different races, different backgrounds. The people who have been stood on and disregarded all of these years definitely need a choice. Those in power now can’t keep getting away with bleeding the country dry. We have to fight. We have to stand together. Yeah, I know it won’t be perfect. We kind of have to learn to live with the beings who feed on humans, while enforcing our own rules, too. It could get complicated, but fighting back and standing up for what we all believe in is important. Individually, we’re the smallest pieces on the board. Together, we stand a chance.”
“So if we agree we want in, then what happens?” Moses asked.
I grinned and held out my hand. “Then I’ll say, welcome to our first war council.”
###
Thank you for reading Taste (Ava Delaney #5)—for more information, check out
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Traitor (Ava Delaney #6), the final book in the series is due for release in June 2013.
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