A Cold Day in Hell (The Hellcat Series)

by Hannaford, Sharon

  Gabi found she had to concentrate to understand the other woman as she tended to run her words together, rolling her 'r's and leaving her 'h's out almost entirely.

  "Ye're just to let me know if ye 'ave any special dietary needs. We're well equipped to cater to just about anybody. Including you," she said, looking down at Razor.

  Gabi stiffened, expecting someone in charge of kitchens to have a problem with a cat near the food preparation areas. Instead the woman bent slightly and extended her hand for Razor to sniff. His immediate response was to puff himself up slightly and show her a little fang. Before Gabi could respond and try to calm him, Sally clucked.

  "Pish, you silly thing, I mean ye no 'arm," she told him sternly. "No need to get hissy with me." With that she reached into a large pocket in the front of her apron and pulled out a small piece of dried something, Gabi wasn't quite sure what. She held it out to Razor, who, to Gabi's surprise, cocked his head at her before gently accepting the morsel from the woman's fingers and chewing on it. It seemed to require a lot of chewing.

  Sally grinned as she straightened. "A bit of cured beef," she explained. "Not many carnivores can resist."

  Gabi could smell it then, a strong red meat with some heavy curing spices. Razor obviously approved, as he finished chewing and looked expectantly at the woman. She chuckled before reaching for another piece and holding it out for him. This time he actually purred as he chewed.

  "Amazing," Athena breathed. "You have no idea how vicious that cat can be."

  Sally looked at the Magus with a glint in her eye. "Cats are just the same as anyone else. Show no fear, order them about like it's yer right and then soften them up with a treat. Works every time." She darted a purposeful look across the room to where Gemini sat at a table eating, of all things, ice cream sundaes.

  Gabi bit back a laugh, lately too many days it felt like she was Alice on the wrong side of the looking glass.

  "Now ye know who I am, don't hesitate to let me know if I can 'elp with something. The wait staff usually know where I am." Then she looked down at Razor. "And you, fine fellow," she told him, "ye stay away from those Dark Magus boys and come to find me when yer guardian comes for a meal." She reached her hand back towards him, and this time he bestowed a regal rub of his head against it. "Now, I must go and check on those idiots I call cook staff." And with that, she bustled off back to the kitchen.

  Gabi and Athena returned to apartment 403, pushing a food-laden cart. The meeting with the twins had doused Gabi's appetite, but once Kyle began taking lids off platters and the heavenly scent of bacon and eggs assailed her nostrils, her hunger roared back to life. They sat at one of the tables and ate in relative silence, each mulling things over in their minds. Gabi's omelette was perfectly done, filled with cheese and bacon and sweet piquant peppers. Kyle's plate of bacon, eggs and sausages was enough to fill even a hungry Werewolf. Athena had a more modest breakfast of bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon, and there was a pile of warm, thickly sliced toast, made from dense, handmade bread, a dish of what looked to be homemade butter and a variety of fruit preserves. A plunger of dark, strong coffee and a smaller one of a delicately scented tea waited for the end of the meal. If nothing else, the Princeps' Court sure had some good catering staff.

  With her stomach full and the caffeine kicking in, Gabi could no longer sit still. She stalked to the only window of the room and moved the heavy curtains aside. Their apartment overlooked the courtyard they’d been delivered to the previous night. It was surrounded on three sides by castle walls, but the far side was open, and Gabi could just glimpse a cobbled road flanked by green fields. The day was cold and drab, with thick clouds hovering oppressively across the sky. It wasn't long before she knew being cooped up in the suite all day was going to be a form of torture. Kyle came to join her at the window. He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side in a hug of solidarity.

  “Forgiven me yet?” she asked him. She knew he was justified in his disapproval of her joining with Julius, but it was still important to her that he understand why she’d done it.

  He let out a rumble: half growl, half exasperation. “I still think you’ve done it for the wrong reasons,” he told her, “but it’s your life, and you have to live with the consequences. I would expect you to understand if I made Trish my mate the day we got back from here, so I can’t be a hypocrite. And,” he looked down at her with a grin, “you know I can’t stay mad at you.”

  His words eased something inside her. She always hated to be at loggerheads with Kyle. As she pulled away from him, she caught him wrinkling his nose and realised she hadn't taken a shower the previous evening.

  "Fine," she huffed, "I'll go take a shower."

  Kyle looked bemused for a moment, and then laughed. "It's not that you stink," he said, figuring out that she'd seen him sniffing the air. "There was just a strange scent around you. I was trying to figure out what it was."

  "Yeah, right. I'm going." She turned and stomped off to the bedroom and its luxurious en-suite bathroom.

  The hot shower and clean clothes should’ve made Gabi feel better, but somehow she just felt worse. She pulled on a sweater before leaving the room; the cold was seeping into her bones and making her feel chilled and jittery. Kyle had found a pack of cards and was playing some form of solitaire, and Athena was sitting upright in a chair with her eyes closed. Meditating, Gabi assumed. She went to the fireplace and added some wood, hoping the added warmth would chase off the shivers beginning to wrack her body. She picked a double sofa near Kyle and sank into it, wrapping her arms around Razor as he hopped up to purr in her face worriedly.

  "Hey, hand me that blanket," she asked Kyle, pointing to a throw rug neatly folded on a small footstool. Oddly the word 'blanket' didn't come out of her mouth right. It was as though she had a mouthful of fluff.

  Kyle looked up at her, surprise on his face. "Gabs, are you okay?" he asked, out of his chair and bending over her before she noticed him move.

  "I'm…I'm…I'm just cold and tired." Forming words was ridiculously difficult.

  Razor nudged at her face, worry for her clear in his mind.

  "Is she sick?" Athena's voice floated to her.

  "I'm not sure." Kyle's voice was muffled and a little distorted. "Gabi." His voice was suddenly sharp, his fingers under her chin tipping her head up to look at him.

  The light pierced her eyes, and she groaned, yanking her head away and putting a hand up, trying to hide from the blinding light.

  "Gabi." Kyle's voice again. "Tell me what's wrong. Are you sick?"

  "Don't know," she mumbled. "Bright light. Light hurting my eyes." The bright light dimmed, and Gabi squinted her eyes open.

  Kyle was standing in front of her, shielding her from the light. He grabbed her chin again and tipped her face up. "Your pupils are huge, Gabi," he said, his concern almost palpable. "This isn't just exhaustion."

  She tried to make sense of what was going on, but her mind was as sluggish to respond as her body.

  "Do you think she's caught some kind of illness?" Athena asked, her voice closer now. Not as concerned as Kyle's, but not her usual blasé either.

  "I don't know. Gabi's never been sick a day in her life as far as I know," Kyle told her.

  He gripped Gabi's shoulder as she felt the room sway a little; then he gently guided her head to rest on the arm of the sofa. The light hit her face again, and this time her groan was louder, sharper, as the pain speared into her skull.

  "Athena, turn off the main light, and bring me some water," Kyle ordered as he moved to block the light again.

  A few seconds later the room was plunged into near darkness. She sighed in relief at the cessation of the stabbing pain, but the shivering was getting worse, and she was suddenly hot, too hot.

  "W-w-what's wrong with me?" Gabi stammered as Athena poured a glass of water at the food trolley.

  Athena knew a little of Gabi's internal strength, as well as her capacity to withstand pain. S
he'd been in Gabi's mind after Dantè and Mariska had tortured her. Gabi had let her in to unravel a complicated spell that the Maleficus had used to paralyse her. For a few seconds Athena had shared her agony. She never wanted to experience that pain ever again. She hadn't wanted to like the brash, outspoken Vampire half-breed, hadn't wanted to think about the things she did and experienced as a Hunter for the SMV. She still wasn't sure she actually liked the other woman, but, after the brief touch of their minds during Gabi's worst hour, she certainly had respect for her.

  As she reached for a napkin on the far side of the trolley, something caught her attention, and she paused. It wasn't something on the physical plane that grabbed her; it was something else. Something familiar. A spell, possibly more than one.

  "Athena," Kyle's voice was urgent, "the water."

  She held up an imperative hand as she allowed her innate sense of Magic to spread out around her.

  "What?" Kyle demanded.

  "A spell," she told him impatiently. "Shush, I need a minute."

  He tore his worried gaze from Gabi's face to look at her sharply. For just a split second Athena was envious, wondering if she would ever have someone look as desperately worried about her as Kyle did about Gabi. She shoved the stupid feelings aside and concentrated on the pull of the Magic. It didn't take her long to identify the source. It was Gabi's plate. It seemed so unlikely that she doubted herself and began the trace again. No, now there was no doubt the spell was woven around the plate Gabi had eaten from. She pulled the plate from the trolley and placed it back on the table. The Magic made her skin crawl; there was something dark and insidious about it. She yanked her hands back, clenching them against the horrid feeling.

  "Dark Magic," she heard herself whisper, but didn't take her attention from the plate. Unravelling spells was her forte. She was good at it, but this wasn't something she'd come across before. It took her long moments to find the bindings and then even longer to break them. Once she broke the bindings, she realised that there was more than one spell. When she became aware of her surroundings again, Kyle was holding one of her arms and shoving a chair under her backside. She collapsed into it.

  "Kyle, the spell." Her throat was dry, and she swallowed. "The first one was designed to conceal anything out of the ordinary. It was made so that anything that looked, smelled or tasted unusual wouldn't be noticed. The second one was a spell of amplification." She bit her lip and looked to where Gabi was huddled in a miserable ball on the sofa. "I…I think she's been…poisoned." She watched the shock and fear cross Kyle's face and knew she had to make it worse. "Whatever the poison was, it's been spelled to many times its usual strength. If it's a deadly poison, she might not have much time."

  CHAPTER 14

  Icy fingers of dread shot through Kyle's chest at Athena's words. Poison was the only one that registered. Shit. Gabi. The two of them dealt with danger all the time. Hundreds of times over the years. Werewolves, Vampires, Demons, a crazy Doppelganger. She'd been beaten, slashed, stabbed, staked, blinded and burned, and with her better-than-human healing abilities she'd pulled through it all. But poison? How did you fight poison?

  "Kyle," Athena's voice was a crack, "you need to focus." She sounded angry, and she pounded her fist against his arm as she said it, but when his eyes met hers, he could see the panic there. "We have to find out what poison it is. Once we know that, we can find out how to help her. If there's an antidote, we need to get it. Fast."

  He took a deep breath. His wolf was so close to the surface. Only their unique understanding of the other's strengths kept it from trying to wrest control from him. Still, its natural instinct to protect the Pack, as Gabi was to both of them, was making it hard for the wolf to settle. Kyle remembered Gabi telling him how she sometimes dealt with emotions that were too hard to cope with in the moment. She took all the angst and fear and what-ifs and shoved them in a box inside her mind, locking them away to be dealt with another time. He visualised doing the same thing now. A deadly, dangerous calm settled over him, and he knew that once she was okay, he was going to kill whoever did this to her.

  "Use the internal phone, and get Julius’s friend here," he told her. "I'm going to try and get Jonathon on the phone. I just hope to the gods that it's daylight at home."

  Athena rush to the apartment telephone and punched in the number Xavier had left for them. She waited a breath and hung up, then dialled again. Once was to ask him to come to them at his leisure, twice was urgent. Kyle wanted to tell her to dial a third time.

  Kyle had to go into Gabi and Julius's room to get Julius's mobile phone; his was the only one with international roaming. As he passed the bed and saw Julius lying in a comalike state, he wondered if there was any way to bring the Vampire out of it. He knew that Julius would want to be awake now, and quite frankly, Kyle would prefer it if the Master was around to help them deal with what was happening to Gabi. He didn't know who to trust, whether to keep the poisoning quiet or to rouse the whole place. Gabi cried out, and Kyle heard her moving around. He quickly found Jonathon's number and hit 'call' as he rushed back to her side. Razor was hovering on the back of the couch, as anxious as Kyle was, not even bothering to slash or growl at Kyle.

  The relief when Jonathon answered was indescribable.

  "Doc," he didn't bother with a greeting, "Gabi's been poisoned. Gods, I don't know what to do for her."

  There was a split second of silence on the other side of the line, and Kyle wasn't sure if it was Jonathon or the lag due to the distance of the call, but Jonathon's voice came back quickly.

  "Kyle?" he checked.

  "Yes," Kyle almost shouted.

  Just then Gabi began to thrash around, moaning and crying out. Athena ran to try to keep her from falling off the sofa, but Gabi was too strong for the petite Magus.

  "Here, you talk to Jonathon." He thrust the phone at Athena and grabbed hold of Gabi, pinning her back to the sofa. He had to nudge Razor out of the way; the cat was also trying to find a way to calm her.

  Athena quickly explained about the spells and her suspicion that the poison was far more potent than normal. "Light sensitivity, dilated pupils, first shivering and then flushing, she's struggling to speak…" Athena was rattling off Gabi's symptoms. She looked over to where Kyle was trying to be gentle but keep her still. "I think she's convulsing now."

  Gabi's body was shuddering under his, her teeth clenched and her head thrown back, muscles in her neck and back arching. The fear and panic threatened to burst out of the box he'd stowed them in.

  "Deadly nightshade?" Athena asked as though for confirmation. "Yes, yes, okay."

  The slide of well-oiled hinges and Xavier was in the room with them. "Dʲɪrʲˈmo!" he said, in a voice that made the foreign word a clear curse, as he saw Kyle trying to hold Gabi still. "What is happening to her?" His eyes had gone wide in shock. “She is a Dhampir; I thought they didn't get sick?"

  "She's been poisoned," Kyle ground out.

  "Julius's doctor suspects it's belladonna poisoning," Athena put in curtly. When Xavier looked confused, she added, "It's also known as deadly nightshade."

  His eyes went even rounder, recognising that name. "I know it grows around here. I didn't realise it was so potent," he stammered.

  "It's not usually. This has been magically amplified."

  "How can this be? You should be safe. This is too much." He was shaking his head in denial.

  "We don't have time to argue the point now," Athena interrupted him. "Jonathon says there is an antidote. It will be available at a pharmacy or a hospital." She held up a piece of paper that she'd written a word on. "Can you get us this?"

  He took the piece of paper. "Yes, yes, of course," he said, staring at it. "I'll leave immediately, but it will still take me at least an hour." His eyes flicked to Gabi, his concern apparent. He was wondering if he'd make it in time to help her.

  Kyle was wondering the same thing. "Go now," he snapped at the human.

  Xavier turned and hurried back
to the secret door. A second later he was gone.

  Athena was still holding the phone. "Kyle, Jonathon says there is a way to wake Julius."

  He could tell by her tone he wasn't going to like it.

  "He needs to be given some of Gabi's blood."

  He tamped back the agitation and tried to be practical. They really needed Julius right now. "Will the poison not affect him?" he asked Athena.

  She relayed the question into the phone. "No," she said back to Kyle, "his body will break it down immediately." She listened for another minute and then nodded. "He says it may help Gabi to have some of Julius's blood. It should help to purge the poison from her bloodstream. As much as Julius dares to give her. He says a couple of teaspoons of Gabi's blood should be enough to wake Julius."

  The convulsions which had been wracking her body had stopped, and Gabi sagged against the cushions of the sofa, gasping as she tried to draw in air. Her hands clutching at her head, she was biting her bottom lip to bleeding while trying not to cry out.

  "Fine," Kyle decided quickly. "Bring me an empty glass and the knife from the pack in my room." He caressed the back of Gabi's head as she curled into a foetal ball. She whimpered at his touch.

  Athena returned with the knife, a clean glass, a towel and a damp washcloth.

  "Gabs, honey," he said to her, hoping she was lucid enough to understand him, "I don't want to do this, but I have to." He pried one of her hands away from her face as gently as he could.

  Athena laid the washcloth against her flushed forehead and held it in place.

  Gabi opened her eyes. They were glazed, and her pupils were almost completely dilated, but she looked straight at him. "Do it," she whispered.

  He held her wrist steady and nicked the vein cleanly with his pocketknife, holding her tight as she flinched. The blood welled immediately, and he quickly caught the drops in the glass. He stowed the knife as he watched the blood trickle, and when the glass held what he hoped was enough, he took the towel Athena had brought and pressed it to the wound. Wrapping it tightly around the small injury, he stood, making way for Athena to take over holding the towel around Gabi's wrist, and went to rouse a Master Vampire.