Forever Night (Darkness Falls Book 3)

Chapter Eleven

As soon as they learned what had happened, Ava and Clara came straight over. There was a moment of awkwardness when I opened the door and Ava sort of moved in like she wanted to hug me but still wasn't sure if I was receptive to that kind of affection from her. I ended it by quickly turning and leading them into the kitchen.

Guilt was a poisonous little voice at the back of my mind, reminding me that I was living in the house that Ava had paid for. Therefore, if she wanted to hug me I should let her, and if she wanted me to call her Mum instead of Ava, I should do that too. But I couldn't. I'd called her that when she first gave me the key to this house, but prior to that she'd spent sixteen years insisting that I call her Ava. It was what I was used to now and, in spite of her generosity, I was having a tough time turning that off.

I just hoped Ava understood that relationships like this took time to build. We were getting there, but the road ahead still had some bumps in it.

As we went into the kitchen and the light from the overhead bulb illuminated Clara and Ava's faces, I realised how tired they both looked. There were dark circles under Ava's eyes and the lines at either side of her mouth looked deeper than the last time I'd seen her. The signs of Clara's tiredness were more subtle. There were no shadows under her eyes or lines on her face; she looked much the same as always – dressed all in black, her blonde bob neatly combed. But anyone who knew her would have noticed there was something...off about her posture. Her shoulders slumped slightly and her hands seemed oddly slack. Usually they were playing with a knife.

This wasn't just down to Clara's continued failure to find and kill Rachel.

"What's happened?" I asked.

"Marc left," Clara said without preamble.

I was stunned. Aside from immediate family, Marc was the longest-serving member of the team. He'd been around for as long as I could remember, probably the only friend Noah had ever really had. He'd never been as cold or unpleasant as Noah, but I'd been fairly sure that he still supported my father once I defected to the vampires' side. In the couple of times I'd seen him since, he hadn't given any indication that he thought I might be right, although I had to admit that he also hadn't given me the cold shoulder the way my father had.

"Where did he go?" I asked.

Clara shrugged. "No idea. He didn't even say he was going, we just came home a few days ago and all his stuff was cleared out. No one's seen him since."

I didn't know what to make of that. Quitting the team implied that Marc wasn't sure he believed in vampire hunting any more, but I couldn't be sure it was that simple. Ava had told me before that the team was fractured because they blamed Noah, at least in part, for Ethan and I leaving, and Caleb's murder of Sophie. Noah's blindness and inaction when he was needed the most had caused all that. Marc's leaving might simply be because circumstance had crushed whatever friendship he used to feel for Noah, and he'd left so he could start again with a new team.

With a sigh, I put Marc out of my mind. He wasn't part of this anymore.

"The team's over," said Ava, and I detected a hint of sadness in her voice. Whatever had gone wrong with them, the team had been her family for a long time. Watching the whole thing fall apart must still hurt on some level.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked.

Ava couldn't afford to move out, not now she'd given me all her money. She and Noah would have to sell the house and split the money between them and Clara. Marc clearly didn't care about his share, and there was no way Ethan or I would see a penny of it. Not that I cared.

If Ava had nowhere else to go, I'd have to offer her a place here. The selfish part of me didn't want to. Luke and I hadn't lived here for long and we still hadn't found the time to be truly intimate with each other. Having Ava move in with us would definitely put a damper on that aspect of our relationship, but if she had nowhere else to go, I couldn't leave her out in the cold.