Read Online Taste (Ava Delaney #5) by Claire Farrell - Free Book Online
Authors: Claire Farrell
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My blood?”
She laughed harshly. “Hardly. I need your essence. Your power. Did you never find out what I am?”
“What are you?”
“Short answer would be a hag. Traditionally found on your chest, sucking the life out of you as you sleep.” She grinned, as if remembering. “Of course, I only take a taste these days, just enough to carry on for a little while longer. But you… you could give me enough to take care of all of your refugees.”
I stared at my feet, rapidly thinking it over. Was that what she’d wanted me for all along? Would she take too much? Kill me? Sweat trickled down my back as thoughts of a certain succubus jumped into my head. Would my landlady control me? Poison me with her own essence?
“Oh, don’t be shy,” she said. “I’ll only take a little. You still need to be able to fight, after all.”
“I don’t think—”
“Do you want my protection or not?”
“Fine,” I said sullenly. “But take too much, and I’ll have to kill you.”
She sniggered, a secretive little laugh that said I knew nothing. “Of course, my dear.” She got up and came over to sit beside me. “It won’t hurt much.”
I closed my eyes and felt her gnarled hand touch my chest then run up to my neck. She clenched her nails into my neck, and my eyes shot open. Her mouth gaped wide as if her jaw had come unhinged. Her skin sagged, unable to contain her large rotting teeth any longer.
My lips fell apart automatically, and a pale wispy light flew out of my mouth and straight into hers. My pores opened, leaking light, and I wanted to vomit, wanted to flee, but I was paralysed by her touch. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. My mind turned inward in blind nightmarish panic, and I was convinced I was dying. I felt life leave me. Felt my soul ripping away. Felt my body sag with every spark of light that left it.
Her eyes brightened, the brown gleaming and shimmering. She made sounds of pleasure that turned my stomach. Then she was gone, moving away from me, and the strange sensations ended.
I choked a little, struggling to catch my breath. My lungs were on fire. I tried to speak, but only emitted a croak.
“You won’t be able to speak for a few minutes,” she said from the corner.
I found her in the shadows. She was licking fingers that seemed impossibly long. I couldn’t make out her face, but I saw her eyes, electric and white in the dark.
“Thank you, Ava. That was revitalising . I’ll get started on the preparations. Give me two days, and then you can bring them here. You may leave.”
I got to my feet and almost fell back onto the couch.
She apologised. “Perhaps I took a little too much. You should rest for a couple of hours.”
I stumbled out of her house and found my way home, feeling as though I were high, floating with a weightless body. By the time I reached my cottage, the light-headedness had passed, but my knees struggled to hold me up. Inside my home, I came close to collapsing. I tried to crawl up the stairs on my hands and knees, gave up, and lay on the couch instead. The last thing I did was touch my neck, but there were no wounds from her nails.
Chapter Six
After waking early, I rang Gabe, still unsettled by the way I had practically died in my sleep. “Any chance the funeral can be arranged today or tomorrow?”
“Why?” he asked with a suspicious tone.
“Because I’m moving them all.Soon. Someone got in the sanctuary.”
“What!”
I held the phone away from my ear at his yell. “Okay, Shouty, settle down. Peter dealt with it before I got there. They thought the intruder might have been a half-breed. Esther sensed some shifter in him, and the twins felt fae magic, but…”
“But?” He sounded impatient.
“But he had tattoos on his scalp, under his hair, and Val reckons the tattoos were imbued with fae magic, something that can be done by a kid who used to be in the slave market.” I sighed. “Esther thinks a couple of people who work for the
She laughed harshly. “Hardly. I need your essence. Your power. Did you never find out what I am?”
“What are you?”
“Short answer would be a hag. Traditionally found on your chest, sucking the life out of you as you sleep.” She grinned, as if remembering. “Of course, I only take a taste these days, just enough to carry on for a little while longer. But you… you could give me enough to take care of all of your refugees.”
I stared at my feet, rapidly thinking it over. Was that what she’d wanted me for all along? Would she take too much? Kill me? Sweat trickled down my back as thoughts of a certain succubus jumped into my head. Would my landlady control me? Poison me with her own essence?
“Oh, don’t be shy,” she said. “I’ll only take a little. You still need to be able to fight, after all.”
“I don’t think—”
“Do you want my protection or not?”
“Fine,” I said sullenly. “But take too much, and I’ll have to kill you.”
She sniggered, a secretive little laugh that said I knew nothing. “Of course, my dear.” She got up and came over to sit beside me. “It won’t hurt much.”
I closed my eyes and felt her gnarled hand touch my chest then run up to my neck. She clenched her nails into my neck, and my eyes shot open. Her mouth gaped wide as if her jaw had come unhinged. Her skin sagged, unable to contain her large rotting teeth any longer.
My lips fell apart automatically, and a pale wispy light flew out of my mouth and straight into hers. My pores opened, leaking light, and I wanted to vomit, wanted to flee, but I was paralysed by her touch. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. My mind turned inward in blind nightmarish panic, and I was convinced I was dying. I felt life leave me. Felt my soul ripping away. Felt my body sag with every spark of light that left it.
Her eyes brightened, the brown gleaming and shimmering. She made sounds of pleasure that turned my stomach. Then she was gone, moving away from me, and the strange sensations ended.
I choked a little, struggling to catch my breath. My lungs were on fire. I tried to speak, but only emitted a croak.
“You won’t be able to speak for a few minutes,” she said from the corner.
I found her in the shadows. She was licking fingers that seemed impossibly long. I couldn’t make out her face, but I saw her eyes, electric and white in the dark.
“Thank you, Ava. That was revitalising . I’ll get started on the preparations. Give me two days, and then you can bring them here. You may leave.”
I got to my feet and almost fell back onto the couch.
She apologised. “Perhaps I took a little too much. You should rest for a couple of hours.”
I stumbled out of her house and found my way home, feeling as though I were high, floating with a weightless body. By the time I reached my cottage, the light-headedness had passed, but my knees struggled to hold me up. Inside my home, I came close to collapsing. I tried to crawl up the stairs on my hands and knees, gave up, and lay on the couch instead. The last thing I did was touch my neck, but there were no wounds from her nails.
Chapter Six
After waking early, I rang Gabe, still unsettled by the way I had practically died in my sleep. “Any chance the funeral can be arranged today or tomorrow?”
“Why?” he asked with a suspicious tone.
“Because I’m moving them all.Soon. Someone got in the sanctuary.”
“What!”
I held the phone away from my ear at his yell. “Okay, Shouty, settle down. Peter dealt with it before I got there. They thought the intruder might have been a half-breed. Esther sensed some shifter in him, and the twins felt fae magic, but…”
“But?” He sounded impatient.
“But he had tattoos on his scalp, under his hair, and Val reckons the tattoos were imbued with fae magic, something that can be done by a kid who used to be in the slave market.” I sighed. “Esther thinks a couple of people who work for the
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