Chapter Sixteen

The next morning, I didn’t get up until I heard the twins moving around. After I washed and dressed, I spotted them sitting on the floor, facing each other, palms together. Things were getting too freaky for my liking. I wasn’t sure if I should say something or not, so I just moved around a little noisier than normal.

Lucia faced me suddenly, staring at me with her disturbingly pale cloudy-green eyes. I stepped back, startled by her unwavering gaze.

“She killed seven last night,” Lorcan said, his voice sad.

“Becca? All in the one place?”

“No. Scattered. The usual.”

“Weird. Not how it worked before. Low numbers, too, compared to the biggies she was pulling back home.”

Lorcan shrugged. “Maybe she isn’t as hungry anymore.”

“That still worries me.” I kept thinking back to Esther’s idea of another mutation. It was a possibility. Anything was possible when it came to Becca. Yet everyone was determined to take her home and tame her. It sounded less like the right idea every single day.

Lorcan had already turned back to Lucia, their palms still pressed together. Lucia’s eyes rapidly flicked from left to right, making me feel slightly dizzy. I cleared my throat, but they acted as though I weren’t there. Lorcan squinted, his heartbeat racing. Lucia’s fingers dug into his hands, and her nails broke the skin.

“Excuse me?” I said, anything to make them stop acting so freaky.

Lucia dropped her brother’s hands. He blinked a couple of times, rubbing his palms together. When he looked up at me, he acted as though nothing had happened. “Are you hungry? We can get you something to eat.”

“How about I take you two to breakfast?” I said, determined to get some actual information out of them. “My treat.”

They looked at each other for a couple of seconds. Lorcan frowned, but they finally agreed. Or at least, Lorcan agreed. Lucia just kept staring at me. She was kind of creepy.

They took me to an ATM at my request—I hadn’t had a chance to exchange my euro into sterling—then we headed to a small café near the docks. It was one of the few relatively empty places to eat in, but it looked clean, and that was all I cared about. I was starving, partly from stress.

I ordered huge breakfasts for all of us, thinking it would give us a while together, but the twins seemed hungrier than I was as they wolfed down their food.

“So do you two work or anything?” I asked, unsure of how to start a conversation with them.

“We’re working right now,” Lorcan said, but he smiled.

“Do they pay you?”

Lorcan shook his head, still digging into his food.

“They didn’t pay me at first, either,” I said. “The scabby little… anyway, they have to now. The Council kind of made them agree to it.”

“You’re lucky, then.” But his eyes had lit up.

“How about you tell me what’s going on?” I said, realising I had to be frank with the twins because they weren’t going to volunteer much information.

“The beast is here, and you have to catch it.”

“I meant with you two and the vampires. It’s weird. I don’t like it, so explain please.”

He shrugged. “Nothing to explain. We’re part fae, and the fae don’t like mixing the blood. It’s forbidden. I don’t know how long we were with our mother, but we ended up on the market at a young age.”

“Market?”

“Potentially useful children get sold. It’s in the blood. The vampires bought us in case we could do something special. We can’t really. Well, Lucia can. She knows things, hears things. That’s how we track the beast. She sees random images, important ones, and hears things sometimes. She tells me. So that’s why I’m useful. The vampires keep us because they don’t want anyone else to have us. And we come in handy every now and then.”

“That’s so screwed up, I don’t even know where to begin. It’s slavery!”

“Life is what it is. You just have to make do with what you have,” he said, seeming not at all upset.

“Why don’t you run away?” I persisted. “Just leave, and be free. You’re living in a hovel, when the vampires have private jets and shit. That’s ridiculous.”

“They would find us. It’s not that they want us. They just don’t want anyone else to have us.”

“I can relate to that one. But isn’t there anyone who can help you?”

“We don’t have friends out there. The fae won’t acknowledge us, and nobody else cares. The vampires take care of us. In their own way. Before them, we were stuck in a place that was much, much worse.”

“There has to be a way to leave. You could come to Ireland with me when I go home. I could hide you or something. Anything’s better than this. Even their pets are treated better.”

“Lucia knew you would think that, but there’s nothing you can do. You’re one person. You can’t change the world.”

“I don’t even get what that means,” I said, grumpy. “You’re kind of like me. Mixed, I mean. Except you work better together. Otherwise, it’s like half a gift or something, right?”

A flicker of amusement almost reached those sad eyes that resembled green-black marbles. “Something like that.”

“Is there a Council here? Guardians? Isn’t there anyone to protect you?”

“Do they protect the Irish?” He gave me a knowing look.

“No,” I whispered. “Not really.”

“We have a Committee here. And Enforcers. There are seven species on the Committee at any given time, and the seats are voted on once in a decade. Whoever has the most power, be that money or loyalty, gains a place. For a decade, those species who don’t have a seat connive to ensure they make it next time. The Committee tends to make decisions in a biased way. It’s hard to break into it, but the vampires have been trying for the last three decades. If they make it, they’ll ally with whoever they feel will help them. What they’re doing now, dealing with the beast, that’ll help them. They’re desperate to trap it.”

“Why? To figure out how it’s done? To make more like her?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. They’ve sent vampires to observe the beast, see what she can do, and bigger numbers would definitely help them out. Although, if you don’t manage it, they’ll be able to lead a war against the Irish, and that would help their reputations. Either way, it’s win-win.”

“For them.” I stared at Lucia. “Does she know anything useful? Like which win-win is less detrimental to everyone else?”

He smiled easily, but his eyes still carried pain. “It’s never that simple.”

We spent a good chunk of the morning discussing politics and how they affected the little people, like us. The twins were pawns as much as I was, but at least I had a little freedom. Granted, I had been forced into leaving my home on Council business, but for the most part, I did what I liked. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for them.

When I called home to check on Carl, Peter didn’t sound enthusiastic.

“Eddie’s had to medicate Carl more than expected, and he’s trying to break free a little. He hasn’t eaten much yet. Not sure how to make him.”

I got Peter to put the phone next to Carl’s ear. I ordered him to eat and to stay put, and I hoped for the best. It might not work over the phone, but Peter told me my voice had calmed Carl a little.

“So, how’s it going over there? Vampires treating you okay?”

“They’re not treating me at all. They basically dropped me off in an empty car park and washed their hands of me. Two of their slaves—I mean that literally, they actually bought them—are hosting me in a derelict building. It’s odd here, Peter. I think the BVA want Becca so they can find out more about the formula, for their own gain.”

“There’s a slave market in Britain?” He sounded surprised, which I thought a little naïve.

“And Ireland. Kids who are mixed breeds, or show signs of a power, get snapped up. What the hell is the Council for if they can’t stop crap like that?”

I waited as the line fell silent. When Peter finally answered, his voice was tight and strained. “Sometimes I wonder the same thing.”

After the phone call, I felt empty and alone. I missed home, and it was weird making decisions without having to listen to Peter trying to talk me out of them. Lorcan was nice enough once he got chatting, but the twins were eerie in a very distinct way that I didn’t think they even realised.

In the afternoon, we visited parts of Merseyside. Following the trail of death surprised me because it seemed as though Becca darted in and out of places to leave a scattering of randomly placed bodies behind her. Back home, she had fed on anyone she saw. In England, she seemed to be oddly selective.

“Have you seen her?” I asked Lorcan.

“The beast?” He sounded shocked. “I’m alive, aren’t I?”

Before dark, we gathered in the twins’ home. I wondered what they did for entertainment without books or a television. The building they lived in was so sparse and lonely, it made me uncomfortable to think that their only company was each other. Did they sit together in silence every evening?

“I’m off to the chippie,” Lorcan said. “I’d like a last meal before we invite the beast to snack on us.”

“You’re not going to die.” I rolled my eyes, but I only half believed it.

“Are you mad? Of course we’re going to die. It’s the beast. Lucia and I can’t battle that monster. And you’re just one little thing. If they wanted us to capture her, they’d have at least provided us with some help. We’re dead. The vampires probably want their building back.”

He left me with that chilling assessment. And Lucia, who was probably just as chilling.

She stared at me with those almost-white eyes, and I felt as if I had to speak or I would drown in the silence.

“Think we’re going to find her tonight, Lucia?” I asked, not expecting an answer.

She ran to me and clasped her hands on my cheeks.

“What are you…?”

I gasped and shut up as a sea of images popped into my head—one after another, too fast for me to cling onto any particular one. One stayed long enough for me to see a woman who looked vaguely familiar, then it passed, only to be replaced by a dozen more. Lucia faded before me, and it was as if I stepped right into one of the images.

A housing estate, late at night. Deathly dark and still, streetlamps flickering. Becca, her face bloodied, her fangs bared.

I saw myself, my expression determined, my stance ready for an attack. When she ran, I ran, too, my dagger gleaming blue in a sudden stream of moonlight. Instead of attacking me, Becca leapt over me, leaving me scrambling to stop. I looked back in horror as she moved for Lorcan. I raced after her, but she gripped him and tore out his throat before I could reach her. I watched myself grab her—Lorcan’s blood spurting over me—and slice her throat. The blood and gurgling stayed with me long after the vision faded.

“Holy fuck.” I spat, feeling as if there was blood in my mouth. Lucia had let go of me, and I wiped my face. My hand came away bloody. A little blood dripped from Lucia’s eyes, too. “Holy fuck.”

I cleaned myself off at the sink, breathing deep, unable to stop shaking. It had been as if I were there. I had felt everything. I’d been sure of the cool night air, the scent of blood, the life leaving Lorcan’s body.

“Can I stop it?” I asked when I joined Lucia again. She stared at me then sat on a mattress, her shoulders drooping in a picture of pure despair.

Waiting for Lorcan to return, I decided I wouldn’t tell him what had happened. I didn’t know how Lucia had shared her vision with me. I could only hope it wasn’t set in stone. I might not have known the twins well, but I didn’t want to watch one of them die. Peter had said catching Becca might ultimately require bait, but I couldn’t do that to anyone.

Hours later, I realised one of the images I had seen had been of Lucia as a child. In the arms of a much younger, very terrified Helena.