To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4)

by Sharon Hannaford

  “She is the prettiest little thing,” Savannah stage-whispered to Julius. “I’d stick to her side like superglue if I were you, with the sharks patrolling around here tonight.”

  Julius simply laughed out loud. “Don’t let appearances fool you, Sve—Savannah. My Lea is more than capable of looking after herself.”

  “Against outright attack, yes, but against the subtle charm offensive that someone like Angelo will launch?” she enquired.

  “He’s welcome to try. It might even be fun to watch the match,” Julius countered. “I might just need to disarm her first, however, to give him a fighting chance.”

  Savannah laughed, a thoroughly uninhibited chortle.

  “You certainly chose a worthy Consort, Julius,” she proclaimed.

  Gabi smiled weakly. She didn’t feel like a worthy Vampire Consort; she felt like a nervous schoolgirl suddenly thrust into the middle of a political rally and expected to know how to charm and entertain a large, unfriendly crowd. Then she remembered Savannah’s extra talent and quickly cleared her mind, concentrating on thoughts of the paperwork she needed to deliver to her accountant’s office.

  Savannah smiled again, nodding approvingly. “She truly is a quick study, Julius,” she said. “I’ll leave you to mingle, but do bring her over for a visit to my lab one of these days. I’m sure she’d find it interesting.” Then she turned to Gabi. “And you must bring the cat,” she said fervently. “I love cats.”

  Before Gabi could form words of farewell, the woman was gone.

  “She reads minds?” Gabi demanded in a clipped but hushed voice as soon as Savannah had joined another group of guests.

  Julius nodded, a faint smile playing at the edges of his lips. “Well, not mine, and not the minds of other stronger Vampires, but weaker Vampires and humans, as well as most Shifters and Werewolves. She has a problem reading most Magi, however. Something about the skill they’re all taught to keep others out of their mental space. The tricks you use when you want to keep your emotions from me will probably keep your thoughts safe from her as well.” That little fact made Gabi feel infinitely better.

  “She’s not one of your Clan members, is she?” Savannah hadn’t been wearing Julius’s colours on her anywhere that Gabi could see.

  “No, she’s Nomas Solitarius, and happily so. She lives outside a small rural village about an hour’s drive from here. She’s quite reclusive, staying on a large country estate, making a steady income from several of her inventions. I invited her tonight as she’s someone I consider a friend. Someone I know I can trust in a pinch, and she has some brilliant ideas, some that may well prove to be very useful to us in the future.” Julius suddenly pulled her close and tipped her face, his expression concerned. “Are you all right?”

  She knew intuitively that he was referring to her argument with Derek rather than her encounter with Savannah the mind-reader.

  “Upset with myself,” she said ruefully, “but thank you for letting me deal with it.”

  Julius smiled, but before he could say anything more, another small group of Vampires approached them.

  CHAPTER 5

  Gabi lay with her back nestled into the protective curve of his body, sated and physically exhausted after the mental strain of the evening, but unable to quiet her mind enough to sleep. It was a couple of hours to dawn, so Julius wouldn’t need to sleep yet, but he would lie with her so she could get some rest. Having met several Master Vampires tonight, her thoughts turned to the Master she’d killed at the Court of the Princeps and the conversation she’d had with Alexander on their way to the Estate.

  “What happens to a Clan if the Master dies the true death?” she asked into the silence. She’d detested everything about the Princep Santiago. Stunningly beautiful on the outside, stunningly ugly on the inside; he’d been the worst kind of pervert, a paedophile and a sadist, powerful enough to do as he pleased and drunk on his own self-importance. The world was an infinitely better place without him in it, but for the first time, Gabi wondered what ripples his death may have caused. Those ripples would’ve had the biggest impact on his Clan, and she was suddenly worried about what happened to them all.

  Julius breathed in, stalling a little, perhaps trying to decide what prompted her question. “It depends largely on the hierarchy within the Clan itself.” She didn’t interrupt as he paused, allowing him to order his thoughts. “If there’s a strong second in command or even another Clan member who’s capable of becoming a Master, the Clan can appeal to the Princeps to declare the second their new Master. The majority of the Clan needs to be in agreement, though, and the second must be at Master level. If there isn’t one strong enough to lead or the majority don’t agree with the appointment, then the Clan is dissolved, the members dispersed to other Clans or to become Nomades Solitarii: lone walkers, the Clanless.”

  “Like you were?” she said softly.

  “Yes, for a time.” There was a heaviness in his voice.

  “Until you found Lex?” She needed to pull him back from the precipice of gloominess; she was too close to it herself.

  “Yes, Alexander was my first.”

  She could hear the smile in his voice and turned so she could make out his features in the dark, wondering what the joke was.

  “I came across him in a forest in the dead of night. My horse actually stood on him. He’d been attacked by robbers. They’d taken everything he had—his horse, his belongings, his shoes and clothes—and then they’d stabbed him and dragged him into the forest, leaving him to the wolves or whatever else found him. He was naked, alone and dying, but he still had the strength to swear at me for a full two minutes before his breath left him.”

  Gabi snorted; she could hear the cussing in her mind. Alex could cuss like he’d been born on a pirate ship, and the centuries had only added to his repertoire.

  “Did you…” It was her turn to pause as she thought how to phrase her question.

  “Ask if he wanted to be a Vampire?” Julius supplied helpfully.

  “Yes,” Gabi said.

  “Of course.” His tone was mild, but there was an edge to it.

  Then Gabi remembered that Julius had been Turned without his permission or even the knowledge of what his maker had been. Julius wouldn’t do that to another person without very good cause.

  “Sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean—”

  He kissed her into silence. “I know you didn’t,” he breathed when he released her mouth. “I’m just rather grateful he was conscious enough to understand me. I don’t know what I would’ve done if he’d passed out. I was quite desperate for a companion by that point. I may well have done it anyway.” He gave her lower lip another quick biting kiss before lifting away from her and rising from the bed. “He still bargained with me over it, though. He would only let me Turn him if we could go after the ones who robbed him and get his stuff back. How I marvelled at his arrogance, his sheer audacity.”

  “Well, nothing has changed there,” Gabi muttered.

  Julius wandered to the bay window looking out over the Estate lit only by pale moonlight.

  “So did you? Go after them?” she prompted.

  “A bargain is a bargain,” he said. “Once he’d settled into his new…state of being, we did track them down. To their den in a nearby village. They’d just robbed another man and were bragging about how many times they’d stabbed him and how he’d screamed before he died. My intention had been simply to scare them off and retrieve what was left of Alexander’s things, but…” His voice trailed off.

  “The world was better off without them in it,” Gabi finished quietly.

  “Hmm.” The gloom was back.

  Gabi climbed out of bed and wrapped a silk robe around herself before going to him. She put her arms around his waist, resting her face against his back. She loved the feel of his smooth skin under her cheek and his clean, male scent.

  “You don’t really think you should’ve let the murderous thieves live, do you?” she aske
d.

  “No, they deserved what they got. It was only a matter of time before they turned on each other in any case. Men like that don’t cooperate for long,” he replied.

  “Then what is it?” Gabi was puzzled. The conversation had taken a wide circle; Julius was skirting something.

  “It’s…” He shook his head.

  “Don’t say it’s nothing.” Gabi’s voice carried a thread of steel.

  “I still forget how much you can feel.” He wasn’t really talking to her, but she answered him anyway.

  “Yes, it can be quite intrusive,” she commented dryly. “Now spill what’s on your mind before I’m forced to torture it out of you.”

  “It’s the thought of Clan succession,” he said finally. “I keep hoping that Alexander will come into his full abilities soon. I know he has it in him to be a Master, but until he does, the whole Clan is at risk.”

  “Because of the succession thing?” she asked.

  He turned and put his arms around her, drawing her close and burying his nose in her hair, as though needing her strength. She liked that thought.

  “If I were to die the true death, who would lead?” he asked. “Fergus is currently the only one with the potential to be a Master, and he won’t accept the role. He knows as well as I do that he doesn’t have the heart for it, nor the charisma or patience to lead a large Clan.”

  “How long do you think it will be before Alex reaches that point?” Gabi had no idea what the standard was for achieving Master-level Vampirehood.

  “For the most part, Masters rarely get there before three centuries,” Julius supplied.

  “So, just another hundred years to keep you alive and kicking, then,” she mused. “I think between me, Alex and your guard, we can make sure that happens.”

  He pulled back and tipped her face up to his, his fingers tangled in her curls. “It is such a strange thing for me to be able to share these concerns with someone. You have to forgive me if it takes a while before it comes naturally.”

  They both knew there was nothing to be done about Alexander’s powers or lack thereof, but sometimes a shared burden was a lightened burden. Gabi hugged him a little tighter.

  “Don’t worry. I promise to keep wheedling things out of you,” she assured him. “I can be quite charming when I want to be.”

  “Really?” he asked in mock astonishment. “That I have to see.”

  In a lightning-fast move, she had him prone on the floor beneath her with a knee to his chest. “I have a charm all my own,” she countered with a devilish smile, dropping the robe from her shoulders.

  Gabi stifled a yawn as Trish opened the door and entered the bustling coffee shop. It had been a long morning helping a celebrity couple with their pack of spoilt, overfed, undertrained and never exercised miniature poodles. Exhausted after the Consort ceremony and subsequent bedroom antics with Julius, she’d found her new clients particularly trying. Celebrities and the super wealthy were often the most troublesome of clients, expecting miracles without any effort on their own part, and this morning Gabi had been hard-pressed to keep her temper reined in. Only dangling the threat of having the dogs removed from their care had finally broken through their little fantasy world and made them focus.

  Every time she treated a case like that, she vowed never to do it again, but her name was now being thrown around by some highly influential people, and in the end it was the animals she felt sorry for, and it was for them that she kept accepting the jobs. They may not thank her once she’d forced their owners to take responsibility for healthy feeding routines and robust exercise regimes, but they would lead far happier, healthier lives in the end. If their owners stuck to the programme, of course.

  Trish’s happy smile immediately lightened Gabi’s mood. At least the argument with Derek hadn’t ruined her and Trish’s friendship. She stood up to hug her friend and beckoned to a waiter, who arrived promptly with a couple of menus and took drinks orders. Trish took the seat opposite Gabi and looked at her with a serious expression for a few seconds.

  “What?” Gabi asked, wondering if she’d developed a boil on her nose or sprouted a third ear.

  “You look tired,” Trish admonished. “That husband of yours is keeping you awake too late.”

  Gabi snorted, Julius wasn’t technically her husband, not in human terms at least, but the gorgeous new ring on her left hand certainly made their commitment feel more real. Husband certainly sounded better than boyfriend and was less likely to attract unwanted attention than Consort.

  “I’m sure Kyle isn’t allowing you your full night’s beauty sleep either,” Gabi shot back, enjoying the faint blush that immediately rouged Trish’s cheeks. “It’s just the damn virus that keeps you looking fresh as a daisy while I look like death warmed up.”

  Trish turned her embarrassment into a smirk; she was still in the early days of adapting to the effects of the Lycanthropy virus, but she was coping remarkably well.

  “I’ll spill if you spill,” she challenged Gabi cheekily.

  “Lah lah lah lah lah,” Gabi responded, pretending to block her ears. “It’d be like hearing about my brother’s sexual exploits, which is almost as bad as hearing about your parents having sex.” She shuddered theatrically. That wasn’t strictly true; she and Kyle had often swapped notes on their sexual partners in the past, but she had no intention of discussing exactly what went on in the bedroom with Julius. She’d never been a wilting violet in the bedroom before, but Julius, and the addition of blood-taking as part of the fun, had taken her places she’d never dreamed of.

  Trish giggled. “Chicken,” she accused, but dropped the subject. “So?” She put a questioning inflection into the word as she dropped her voice to a low rumble. “How did you cope with all the introductions last night? Some of those Vampires are just creepy. And the females…some of them looked like real pieces of work.” There was a brief lull in conversation as a waitress brought over their iced coffees and took their meal orders.

  Gabi pulled a face. “It was a long night, that’s for sure.” She paused, not wanting to bring up the unpleasantness, but knowing she had to. “How is Derek? I’m sorry about what I said.”

  True to form, Trish waved her concerns away, but sighed. “He’s fine,” she said, pulling an exasperated face, “and he deserved what he got for the things he said about Julius. He was trying to rile you in a very stressful situation. He’ll get over himself.”

  “I still should have handled things better.” Gabi pulled a face. “You’ll have to teach me how you do it. You keep such an even temper, even with the Change.”

  Trish chuckled wryly. “Someone has to be the adult in the family, and right now Derek isn’t doing a very good job of that.”

  “Do you think we can find him a Werewolf shrink?” Gabi asked, only half joking; it was getting to the point that she might just start asking around.

  “Maybe we just need to find him another sexy female to pine over instead of you,” Trish suggested. “Speaking of females…some of those Vampire females were dressed seriously OTT. Talk about dressing to impress.”

  Gabi rolled her eyes. “And you should’ve seen the poisonous stares I got from some of them when Julius wasn’t looking; if looks could fry, I’d have been a spit roast before the evening was over. I’ll be watching my back for the next while.”

  “But surely they wouldn’t dare, not with the reputation that follows you around or with that overprotective, super-powerful Master Vampire doting over you?” Trish looked aghast at the thought.

  “You never know.” Gabi shrugged. “They might be Vampires, but that doesn’t necessarily make them intelligent. I hope I don’t have to kill too many to make my point.” Both women grinned evilly.

  “So, how do you feel about being his Consort, aside from all the Vampire politics?” Trish pressed cautiously.

  A small smile tugged up one corner of Gabi’s mouth. “Well, it all happened a lot sooner than I was comfortable with, but I don’t regret th
e decision.” She looked down into her tall glass. “I know it’s early days and that we’re cocooned in the bliss of love and passion, that it all might wear off in a few years or few months, but I guess it’s got as much chance of lasting as anyone else’s relationship. It’s something we’ll have to work at, and there’ll be times that it’s difficult, but we’ve had bad things thrown at us, we’ve both made bad decisions, and we’ve found ways to deal, so that’s gotta be good, right?”

  Trish smiled as though she’d said something as obvious as sunrise. “Of course you’ll have to work at it, but the way the two of you have dealt with the shit that’s come your way in the last few months really is a testament to an incredible partnership. You two were made for each other; there’s no question about that. And he is madly, deeply, insanely in love with you. I’m so happy for the two of you.”

  And Gabi knew that Trish was truly happy; the happiness spilled from her in waves. She was one of the most genuine people Gabi knew, and though she’d lost parts of her relationship with Kyle when he fell in love with Trish, what she’d gained in her friendship with Trish more than made up for those losses.

  “And you’ve managed not to strangle Kyle in the last two weeks, despite his annoying tendency to be a neat freak?” Gabi asked Trish. Moving in together had been a big step for the two of them, as Kyle had been trying to avoid tying her down too early in her Werewolf life. It had taken some persuasion on both Trish’s and Gabi’s parts to get him to cave in.

  Trish laughed. “Luckily I’m a bit of a neat freak myself, so that isn’t too much of an issue. I’m still not sure I’ll ever be able to compete with his van, though.” She looked mournful.

  Gabi nearly snorted iced coffee out her nose. “Yes, sadly you’ll always only be the second great love of his life after that damned van,” Gabi agreed. “Fortunately the van can’t cook or bake like you do.” Their casual chatter and exchange of gossip continued through their meal, Gabi happy to be in the company of a woman who could match her for appetite. As the lunchtime rush passed and the café emptied, conversation turned to other issues.