Read Online Tempt (Ava Delaney #3) by Claire Farrell - Free Book Online Page A

him. A warm
feeling soothed the ache, and the wheezing soon stopped.
    “ You should hand this over to Daimhín,” he said, his eyes full
of pity. I hated that I couldn’t hate him when he looked at me like
that.
    The
drop-off was pleasantly uneventful, and I spent the rest of the
night running the streets looking for Becca. The chase lasted until
sunrise. Nobody died.
     

Chapter
Six
     
    For two
weeks straight, I hunted, even when it wasn’t my shift. I chased
Becca, followed her around, kept her kills to the bare minimum. I
worked alone because being around others seemed to hold me back. I
avoided Peter’s calls, knowing he would only give me bad news from
the Council. I didn’t want to believe I was working with the kinds
of creatures who would allow people to be sacrificed to keep an
incredibly creepy old vampire satisfied.
    I kept
getting the urge to call Carl, but every time I broke down and
dialled, he either didn’t answer or ended the call as quickly as
possible. A sense of foreboding kept drawing over me as I realised
I hadn’t spoken to him properly in a fortnight. The self-pitying
haze had shifted a little, letting me see clearly. He had been so
eager to talk to me, then suddenly switched to avoiding me. It made
no sense, unless he suspected I knew about his little
secret.
    Still,
it wasn’t like Carl to be secretive. The more I thought about it,
the less sense it made. He might have made some stupid decisions,
but he tended to be pretty open about them, even when he knew he
would be hassled.
    I tried
calling him again, but it went straight to voicemail. Deciding to
bite the bullet, I rang Peter instead.
    “ Have you seen Carl?” I asked.
    He
hesitated. “Not exactly. He sleeps during the day a lot
nowadays.”
    “ Is he with you now? Wait, sleeps during the day? Doesn’t he
work for Eddie anymore?”
    “ I thought so. He’s at his parents today, I think.” I heard
some things fall. “Yep, he left a note. Is something
wrong?”
    I let
out a loud sigh, thinking of Carl’s lies. Peter would only say it
was none of my business. Maybe he was right. “I don’t know.
Probably not. Never mind. I’ll see you.”
    “ Wait! You coming over today for a training
session?”
    I bit
the inside of my cheek. Not a chance. “I’m a bit busy today. I’ll
call you when I’m free.”
    I hung
up before he could say anything else. Flipping through the
phonebook, I found Carl’s parents’ number. I had no real reason to
call them, except to prove my own point to myself. I rang, had a
particularly awkward call, and discovered Carl’s parents hadn’t
seen him in a month.
    I mulled
it over. Carl was lying to everyone. It worried me because he still
had blank moments. They were rare, but there were times when he
looked like he had while I accidentally mind-warped him. The pain
of the broken bond had been bad enough, but the lingering effects
scared me into thinking that maybe little pieces of his mind would
never be the same again.
    Mentally
exhausted, I took a break from the hunt that night, but I was still
thinking about Carl the following day when a sharp rap on my door
made me flinch. At least I had money if it was the landlord. Still,
I never lost that shivery feeling whenever he knocked.
    I
regretted opening the door as soon as I saw Peter.
    “ Still busy?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at my unbrushed
hair.
    “ Yes.” I stood aside to let him enter. “What’s
wrong?”
    “ Nothing much. Just a supernatural serial killer running the
streets. Oh, and I keep having to waste time watching you have
catfights with Guardians, then put up with you ignoring me for
weeks.”
    I rolled
my eyes. “I wouldn’t call that a catfight. And like I said, I’ve
been busy.”
    “ You punched Esther! And you know the Council is on my back
about helping you.”
    “ She swiped me first with her stupidly big bear claw. Besides,
I couldn’t care less what the Council or their Guardians
think.”
    He
grinned