A Cold Day in Hell (The Hellcat Series)

by Hannaford, Sharon

  "By the way," Kyle said with deceptive casualness, "are you going to show me what Razor gave you earlier, or is it a secret from me too?"

  Gabi grinned ruefully. She may’ve been able to fool Caspian, but Kyle knew her too well. She reached into her pocket as they began to make their weary way back to the apartment.

  Kyle raised an eyebrow and whistled. "Way to go, Razor," he enthused.

  The cat gave him a baleful glare from Gabi's other side, his expression haughty despite his fur being matted with drying Werewolf and Vampire blood.

  Gabi sent Caspian to rest once he joined them back in the suite. Xavier had helped him place the gunman in a cell in the dungeon of the castle. Gabi liked the sound of that. The Spaniard had argued going to sleep. He seemed unnecessarily agitated, but Gabi knew that there was absolutely no chance Helene would try anything else after her failed attempt earlier. She'd be both exhausted and figuring out how to protect herself at the meeting tonight. The bitch had more than enough to keep her out of mischief for a few hours.

  She asked Kyle to find Sally and ask her if there was someone good with a needle and thread in the castle, or by some miracle, a non-Vampire doctor who could stitch her lacerated arm. She was adamant that it would be as unhealed as possible for the meeting with the Princeps. She wanted to shock them with the evidence, to throw them off balance. She wanted there to be no doubt as to the seriousness of the attempt to harm her. Not wanting to bring their relationship with Xavier to anyone's attention, she knew that if anyone else would know someone who could help them, it would be the indomitable mistress of the court kitchens.

  She'd been right; Kyle arrived back twenty minutes later with an elderly man swinging an old-fashioned, black doctor's bag in his right hand. Gabi squinted at him as she tried to figure out what he was. He didn't seem purely human, but he also didn't feel like any of the supernaturals she commonly came across. Though he did have a strangely familiar feel to him.

  "Magus-born," he said, smiling at her intense stare. "But I never took up the mantle. Quite rare these days, I know," his voice had the slightly higher pitch of an older person. "In my day it was much more common."

  Of course, now it made perfect sense. He felt like Byron. Gabi was just so used to having Byron around that she never thought about how he felt to her extra senses anymore. The doctor's comment about 'his day' made Gabi smile wryly. If he'd been a normal human, he'd be talking about sixty or seventy years ago, but as a Magus-born, his slower ageing would make 'his day' more likely to be over a hundred years ago. Even if they didn't take up their Magus mantle, Magus-born still enjoyed unusually long and healthy lives.

  "I'm Doctor Abe," he said cheerfully. "Who is my patient?" he asked, looking between Gabi and Athena as they both stood assessing him. "The powerful Magus or the Dhampir?"

  Gabi's smile widened. Doctor Abe was certainly an interesting character.

  "I am," she said, stepping forward. "Forgive me for not shaking hands, but my arm is a little stiff." She gingerly pulled her arm out of the sling under the warm coat she'd thrown on to ward off the chill of shock when she'd got back to the apartment.

  "Ah, what a story to be able to tell." The doctor's eyes positively sparkled with excitement. "Me treating the only Dhampir known to Vampire-kind. Never thought I'd see the day." He placed his bag on the table near Gabi and drew her to the chair next to it. "Now let me see, it is this arm you are concerned about?"

  As he worked to close the wound, first injecting her with a local anaesthetic, then nimbly threading a suture needle, he bombarded her with questions about her healing abilities and any special requirements. Gabi answered as briefly as she could without being outwardly rude. Not that he seemed to take any offense when she sidestepped any too-probing questions.

  He was also surprised she didn't just take Vampire blood to accelerate the healing, telling her it was quite okay to take blood from a sleeping Vampire. But at her pointed stare and silence, he quickly left the topic alone. He chattered on unperturbed, asking Athena about her position and talents, explaining that he didn't often get to speak to others outside the castle.

  When Gabi turned the tables on him and asked why he was at the castle, he cheerfully told them that he was indebted to the Princeps. He owed them a lifetime of servitude for saving one of his granddaughter's lives. He seemed perfectly happy to pay the price they demanded, though Gabi was shocked by it. He treated all the human staff and the occasional Werewolf and Magus as well. He also dabbled in creating better drugs and treatments for Werewolves. Gabi thought that he and Jonathon would get along famously.

  Gabi was impressed with his tiny, neat stitches. Though there would be a scar, it wouldn't be as bad as she'd first anticipated. That was if she didn't ask Julius to heal it later tonight.

  She thanked the doctor, after accepting a bottle of strong painkillers, and Kyle saw him to the door. Kyle hadn't even made it back to the fire when there was a knock on the door. They all stiffened, including Razor.

  "Who is it?" Kyle demanded, reaching for the handgun that was stilled tucked in the waistband of his jeans.

  "Uh, I'm bringing the food," a heavily accented female voice squeaked.

  Kyle went to the door and sniffed. "Human."

  "Who ordered food?" Gabi asked, wondering if Kyle had ordered when he went to find the doctor.

  "Not me," Kyle and Athena said in unison.

  "Uh, Miss Sally, she sends me," the voice from the other side of the door answered. "She says to bring food to you. She hopes you like. She even send food for katzen."

  Gabi grinned. She nodded to Kyle, but didn't entirely relax. They could all smell the delicious scent of roast pork and mint sauce wafting under the door. Gabi's stomach responded with a low rumble, and Razor began to purr.

  Julius checked his mental defences again. Since he'd met Gabi, they had a disturbing tendency to crumble at the slightest hint of emotion from him. He didn't want to subject her to the riot of emotions sweeping through him now. Anger, disbelief, guilt. Guilt. Guilt. That was his overriding emotion. So many things to feel guilty about. The guilt so strong he was beginning to doubt himself. Doubt his decisions. Had he convinced her to become his consort for the right reasons? Or had he forced her into it to satisfy something deep inside himself? No matter how justified his reasoning, if he'd done it simply for himself, it was wrong. Everything had seemed so clear a few days ago, but now he had the feeling he'd not only been fooling her, but himself as well.

  He was holding her cradled in his arms as she slept. After he'd woken to find out what had happened while he was in daysleep, he'd reined in his temper, his rage, his need to rip Helene's head from her shoulders, and calmly told Gabi that she needed rest. He'd respected her desire not to heal the ugly laceration to her arm…yet. It would be healed after the vote tonight, no matter how much she argued with him. Not healing her arm meant that the myriad of other less serious but still painful injuries were also unhealed, and he could feel how much they hurt, even though outwardly she didn't show it.

  She'd asked him to lie with her until she fell asleep. It was no hardship, though he would've preferred to discuss their tactics for that night. They had to be very careful how they approached the accusations against Helene. He hoped Caspian had some ideas, though he'd sensed Gabi's new mistrust of the Spaniard as they recounted the story of the day, and it only strengthened his own distrust of the man. The main obstacle was that they weren't supposed to be allowed to address the Princeps at tonight's meeting. It had been their turn last night, and now they were supposed to be there only to witness the vote, hear the verdict, and accept their punishment if the verdict was guilty.

  Caspian had to find them a way around the issue. He'd still been a little taciturn about what they were trying to accomplish, that was until Gabi produced her irrefutable evidence that Helene had been involved in the attack on Gabi. When Gabi had shown them all what lay in her pocket, something snapped in Caspian; what had been indignation at the attack on Gabi s
uddenly turned to rage. This further heightened Julius's mistrust, but it’d resulted in Caspian making some miraculous discoveries about Vampire Law that could just be exactly what they needed.

  Gabi had fallen into an exhausted sleep not long after they lay down, but he hadn't been able to make himself leave her just yet. He told himself he didn't want to wake her by jostling something that hurt, but the truth was that he just needed to hear her breathing and her strong, steady heartbeat long enough to banish the thought of her lying dead at his feet. He'd had a vision of that exact event shortly after he met her and had known it was a foreseeing; not something he'd experienced very often in his lifetime. It had meant that he was the only one who could change the course of events. And he had, by finally killing his own brother. He hadn't had a foreseeing of these attempts on Gabi's life, so either they were never truly life-threatening or they were not events he could alter. She'd had to save herself. Still, he knew how close she'd come to dying in the past few days, and the vision he’d had of her dead kept flashing through his mind.

  "You're not the one who tried to kill me." Gabi suddenly spoke in the dark. He'd been so preoccupied with his own internal musings he hadn't heard the change in her breathing.

  "Perhaps not," he finally admitted, "but have you thought about what your life would be like if I hadn't approached you for help with Dantè?" He forced himself not to tighten his grip on her. "You wouldn't be here now. In a castle of Vampires who may or may not want to kill you and all you love."

  "You know as well as I do that eventually I'd have come across the wrong Vampire," she reasoned. "Word would have got back to the Princeps eventually, and they could've snatched me and done whatever they liked with me if I didn't have your protection."

  The guilt surged through him again. "Ah," she said, "hmmm."

  He had the unsettling feeling that she understood far too well. He remained silent, awaiting her judgment.

  "You're doubting your decision to make me your consort?"

  "I'm doubting my reasons for making you my consort," he corrected. He didn't want her thinking he was regretting publicly laying claim to her. "When it comes to you, I find it hard to be altruistic and far too easy to be selfish."

  "I'd be lying if I said I had no doubts of my own," she whispered. "I feel a bit like a teenager who's run off to Vegas for quickie wedding without telling her parents. Only this wedding can't be annulled next week."

  "I'm sorry," he whispered back, certain of his own guilt now. She hadn't been ready. He’d known it; he'd just chosen to ignore it.

  "Don't be," she said in a stronger voice. "You don't think I know my own mind? You don't think I would've been strong enough to tell you no if I thought it was the wrong thing to do?" She was beginning to sound insulted.

  "No, that's not it," he said quietly. "I just think we could've…we should've waited until there wasn't this threat hanging over us. A time that you didn't feel vulnerable and that your loved ones were relying on you to save them all. I pushed you into it, when I'm not sure it was strictly necessary."

  "Julius, your guilt is clouding your vision now. I may’ve had doubts before, but I saw the change of expression on the faces of the Princeps when you announced me as your consort. If your eyes were open, you also saw the relief on the faces of those who support us and the annoyance on the faces of those who prefer me under their control or dead. We all know that making me your consort was the best thing you could've done."

  "That still doesn't make it right," he whispered.

  "Well, you're stuck with me now," she sing-songed as she wriggled around to face him.

  He didn't hold back the snort of amusement.

  "Just give it a few more weeks; you'll regret your decision for other reasons. I am my own revenge. You know I attract trouble wherever I go."

  He carefully tucked the guilt away for now. He'd pull it out and study it another time, right now they had too many other things to worry about.

  She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. "Three hours to go," she said. "We’d better get some food and see if Caspian’s come through for us."

  CHAPTER 19

  The atmosphere in the Princeps' Hall tonight was vastly different to their two previous visits. Every one of Julius's entourage was required to be in attendance for the verdict, though only she and Julius stood before the Princeps' table. Except for Razor, who sat quietly next to her left foot, the rest were aligned along one wall. A huge complement of Vampire and Werewolf guards surrounded the group. Watchful and predatory. The tension in the room was as thick as bog mud, and the scent of Werewolf was strong enough to sting the nostrils.

  Gabi made a conscious effort to slow her breathing and did a final scan of the room, feigning boredom as they waited for the Princeps to make their appearance, but her eyes missed nothing. She was replaying the carefully orchestrated escape plan over in her mind, fine-tuning details now that she knew how many guards they had to overcome. Julius touched her mind, telling her to be calm. Yes, yes, she knew that was a last resort, but one thing she'd learned fairly recently was that being prepared could swing a fight in your favour.

  The element of surprise was always a crowd favourite, and they had both surprise and planning on their side. The fact that they were heavily outnumbered wasn't the huge negative it first appeared when you took in account Julius's strength and ability to control Vampires, and Gabi and Caspian's ability to control Werewolves. The trick was getting out of the castle without an entire army on their tails. There was no sign of Gemini yet, and Gabi hoped they were still chasing down Mariska, as their presence might complicate the escape plan.

  Gabi's reverie was broken by the opening of the door behind the table. Once the guards were in place, the Princeps filed in in the same order as before, only this time there was no chatting or camaraderie among them. They were silent, their mood sombre. Helene took her seat a little slower than the others. She was wearing a cloak, a fashionable one, probably bearing a top notch design label, but it concealed her hands and arms.

  Gabi had been surprised to learn that not even a Vampire as old and powerful as Helene would be able to completely heal the kind of damage she'd sustained in the few hours since the ambush. She had to keep evidence of the fight covered up. Helene made herself comfortable but kept her arms concealed under the cloak. Then she looked up and stared straight at Gabi. Pure venom and hatred speared from her gaze. Gabi glared back, undaunted, and Razor gave a low, almost inaudible growl.

  Oleksandra finally broke the silence, clearing her throat before speaking. "Before we proceed with our agenda for tonight, I would first like to extend our thanks to some of your retinue, Julius," she said. "It has come to our attention that the Dark Magus, Mariska, called forth Demons into our sanctuary during the daylight hours, and they were only contained by the quick actions of members of your group."

  Julius's expression was rigid. "Perhaps the Princeps now understand the threat this particular Magus poses to our secrecy and security."

  Many eyes flicked to Gabi, who still wore her injured arm in a sling, more for effect than for any other reason.

  "Yes, Master Julius," Oleksandra agreed. "We are disappointed that the Magus managed to escape the castle today. We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to apprehend her and deal with her appropriately when we do."

  "We apologise for any injury your people may have suffered in the fight." Helene spoke up, sugary sweetness cascading from her voice, while her eyes glittered, hard as diamonds. "Please be assured that we have medical staff who can help in any way you need."

  Gabi couldn't believe the gall of the woman. She only just caught the growl of outrage before it bubbled out of her mouth.

  "Steady," Julius whispered in her head.

  "That will not be necessary," he said aloud, not bothering to thank Helene for the offer.

  "Yes, yes," Klara broke in, "their actions today do not negate the reason for our meeting tonight. We should proceed with the vote."

&nb
sp; In a hurry to hang them, Gabi thought darkly, perhaps they had a game of bingo planned afterwards. She dragged her attention back to the table as Cassandra stood. She was as pale and thin as ever, and her expression seemed even sadder than normal. Perhaps she expected to have to use her talent tonight.

  "You’ve had your chance to speak in front of us. We have all put significant thought and consideration into what you’ve said," she declared, indicating the whole table with one of her delicate hands. "Tonight we will vote on this matter." She looked to each of the Princeps, and each of them nodded their affirmation.

  Gabi realised that she hadn't actually asked how they would go about their voting procedure. All she knew was that the outcome would be decided in front of the accused.

  "We will vote for not guilty with a show of a white ball, and for guilty with a show of red." Cassandra was addressing the Princeps now, and they nodded.

  Gabi blew a sharp, little breath out of her mouth as anxiety squeezed her chest and adrenalin flooded her veins. This was their biggest gamble of the trip. If they'd misjudged the way the Princeps would vote, or if they’d misinterpreted the obscure rule Caspian had found in the Princeps scrolls, there was no chance of getting out of the castle on peaceful terms.

  "We are all prepared?" Cassandra asked, looking around. Each of those at the table nodded solemnly. Cassandra sat, and each of them put a hand on the marble table in front of them, something small concealed in each one. Helene made sure to keep the cloak covering her hand as she emulated the others.

  Gabi took the time to study each face as they looked at her and Julius, their decisions made.

  Benedict wasn't wearing his usual expression of bored nonchalance; he actually looked a little worried. Fianna looked even more fierce than usual. She gave Gabi an almost imperceptible nod. Thibault's expression was unreadable, frustrating Gabi, as his vote could well be the most crucial. Helene's poisonous glare hadn't changed, except to get haughtier. She was supremely confident that there was nothing they could do about her treasonous actions. Oleksandra looked a little tired, as though the events were wearing on her. Klara looked satisfied about something, and Eliasz's expression was bland, as though he'd already distanced himself from the whole affair. Santiago still wore his smarmy, taunting smile, openly daring her to say something about his…pets.