Read Taken (Ava Delaney #4) for Free Online Page A

do? It’s not his fault. None of it is. But he’s so weak
right now that I can’t risk him hurting himself even more.”
    She stared at
me as if considering my words. “You can’t treat him like he’s a
child, though. I’ve seen it before. Shifters… Guardians… they fall
in combat, can’t get back on their feet, try to trick themselves
into thinking they’re the same as before, but they aren’t. They
can’t be. He’ll get over it, but it takes time. And I don’t think
he can do it himself. I mean, he’s been through so much that I’m
surprised he hasn’t lost his mind.”
    I shook my
head. I knew that already. He was stronger than any of us had ever
anticipated. He had to be to have survived everything he had gone
through. But I didn’t know how to handle Carl when he was acting as
though he had been neutered or something.
    “I’ll get
started on this.” Esther got in her car and fastened her seatbelt.
“Stay safe. Both of you. We need to keep this as down-low as
possible. Keep an eye on Peter. He might crack before Carl.”
    She sped away
before I could think of an answer. When had I become the stable one
of the group? Both of the humans keeping me human were
teetering on the edge of something. I wasn’t equipped to deal with
my own problems, never mind anyone else’s.
    I still felt
guilty about Carl. My suspicions of Eddie’s motives had been
simmering for a while. The first time I had bonded Carl to me had
been an accident, but I should never have trusted Eddie’s advice. I
had become certain that Eddie knew the bond hadn’t broken fully the
first time. I should have known. After all, he was Eddie
Brogan, the one person who always seemed to know what was going to
happen next. It was too late for Carl either way because the
effects had lingered in our systems for so long they might never
fade.
    I had tied him
to me in a way that was dangerous for both of us. It hadn’t
protected him from the succubus I had basically dangled him in
front of. Saving him from her, and from myself, had hurt him beyond
repair. Even a healing miracle from an angel hadn’t quite done the
trick. And now that he was in control of his own mind fully, for
the first time in months, he was intent on pushing me away. It
hurt.
    When I went
back inside, his mood had turned again as he looked over the
newspaper articles with excitement.
    “There has to
be somebody left,” he said. “Somebody who remembers what happened.
I think Peter was right about Illeana finding a witness.”
    “Maybe. Maybe
you could help me track them down. If I could just get a couple of
phone numbers, we could ring them.”
    He brightened.
“Of course. There have to be some old articles online. Maybe
something with a little more information. Finding them should be
easy. Getting them to talk will be another thing.”
    “I’ll go and
see any we find. If we find any. I have a bad feeling that
Peter surviving the attack on his family was a fluke. These
creatures have no qualms about killing anyone who gets in their
way.”
    “All we need is
one,” he said. “We just need the right one to see if we’re on the
right track.”
    “Think we’ll
ever find the truth?”
    He dropped the
paper on the coffee table. “We have to. Between the lot of us, we
can do it. And while I’m checking out the records at the shop, I’ll
take a look at some of the more obscure books to see if there’s an
image or description matching Peter’s demon.”
    “Don’t call it
that!” I took a deep breath. “Sorry, it just weirds me out a
little.”
    “He’ll be
fine.” Carl patted my hand, seeing through my anger as always. “But
maybe we should deal with this stuff without him. There’s no point
rubbing his nose in it, especially if we don’t come up with
something. And if we do, he’ll need to have it broken to him
gently. Trust me.”
    “I’m worried
for her, too.”
    Carl shrugged.
“Esther needs to keep her mind off things. I’m not