Tempt (Ava Delaney #3) Read Online Free

the
Council.
    I
hurried to Daimhín’s place, eager to get the job over and done.
Rose, the loyal human pet, let me in, but she stared at me with
pure hatred in her eyes. I didn’t get why the vampires attracted so
many insanely devoted humans. Rose wasn’t enthralled. She served
Daimhín by choice. I would never understand it.
    She led
the way into Daimhín’s living room, and I found myself surrounded
by vampires. They stared at me, some in awe, others with more anger
than anything else. The hairs on my arms stood at the sensation
their emotions invoked. The vampires began whispering, and I
whipped my head around to make sure none had slipped up behind
me.
    To my
left, Zion nodded at me, his wild hair drawing my attention. If any
of the coven were ever sent to attack me, I guessed he would be
Daimhín’s assassin of choice.
    Daimhín
stood by the mantelpiece, so still she resembled a
statue.
    “ Ms. Delaney.” She cocked her head and gave a little hiss that
silenced the entire room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jules
creep toward me.
    “ Jules!” Daimhín’s voice was harsh enough to send the warped
vampire hurtling backward, where he hid behind the legs of a little
girl. Or what had once been a little girl. Eloise stroked Jules’s
hair and eyed me carefully. I wondered what her pink-tinged eyes
saw in me.
    I’d
learned she was the Seer, the one who first saw me coming. I looked
back on her words in a different light since then. I would have
treasured a long conversation with her, but she was rarely alone.
Someone had once paid a lot of money for a child psychic they could
turn into a vampire, so letting her tell the future for free
probably wasn’t one of Daimhín’s favourite things to do.
    “ I apologise. The children can never behave,” Daimhín said,
referring to the fact that Jules was merely a century old and one
of the last vampires to be turned. He wasn’t quite the same quality
as the rest of the coven.
    I took a
deep breath and strode straight over to Daimhín, surprised by the
gasps of alarm from some of the vampires I passed. As if I could
ever be a match against her. I handed her the bag of money, but she
didn’t bother counting it. She, in turn, handed me a crisp white
envelope.
    “ Payment… for your services.”
    “ Oh. Thanks.” Her change of heart surprised me. I hadn’t
thought that even the Council’s warning would force her to pay me.
I turned to leave, but Daimhín stopped me.
    “ I would like to reassure you, Ms. Delaney. You are not in
danger from any of my coven. We respect your attempts at capturing
the… creature my child created. I’m only thankful that Eloise
persuaded me you were meant to survive. If I had known…” She shook
her head. “If you need any assistance, it’s here for you. I’m sure
my coven will be a better match than that human .” She spat out the last word
as if it tasted bad in her mouth.
    “ Well, your coven hasn’t managed to catch her yet, so I think
that human will
do fine.”
    If
Daimhín had been human, her face would probably have turned purple
with rage. As it was, her eyes narrowed, and her glare sent shivers
running up my spine. Her burgundy eyes were filmy, I realised,
probably due to her age. Streaks of blue tried to shine through the
murky red, something I had noticed with very few vampires. I
couldn’t tear my eyes away from Daimhín's, then surprisingly, she
pulled back, inclining her head in agreement.
    “ Vampires created this problem, yet we’re unable to solve it.
The creature is loyal to no one and pauses for nothing. It’s
strong, fast, and wild with thirst. The only positive note is that
this creature is alone, a solitary accident.”
    “ The only one so far,” I reminded her. In Ireland, there had
been two other candidates. One had been captured on the very same
night Becca had mutated. The other hadn’t been seen since. Besides
that, batches of formula had probably been sent to other covens
around the