To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4)

by Sharon Hannaford

  She rechecked her weapons as the Hunters began forming a loose line of defence. She had a dart gun in a small holster at her hip; it looked a little ridiculous to be fighting demons with, but a shot of Werewolf saliva was known to incapacitate, if not kill, most demons. She also wore a pair of butterfly swords in a double sheath on each thigh, and the smaller throwing daggers she had strapped to each arm were from the assortment that Savannah had sent back with her and Julius, each was treated with the protective compound, and Gabi was eager to see how they stood up to the corrosive qualities of demon blood. Of course Nex, her magically protected sword, would always be her primary weapon, but if they could provide others with demon-proof weapons without the need for the exhaustive Magi spell of protection, it would be a good thing. In a back pocket she had a few of the leather offcuts Savannah had sent from her work on Razor’s armour. If she had the chance, she’d be putting those to the test as well before the night was over.

  A familiar, nose-burning stench began filling the air, and a shimmering distortion of the night air became noticeable in a clearing just to the north of the graveyard under the wide-spread arms of an ancient oak tree.

  “There,” one of the Magi called unnecessarily, and the Hunters moved as one towards the portal, gathering close, shoulder to shoulder, as the backup crew and other witnesses scrambled to their assigned defensive positions. The entire area needed to be covered in case any of the demons had ideas of escaping into the City. They all knew their jobs, and Gabi was trusting Doug to keep Mac and Razor out of the way.

  Shoving all other concerns from her mind, she breathed in deep of Julius’s solid presence on one side of her, Kyle’s on the other, knowing Alexander was covering Julius’s other flank, and focused on the billowing cloud of acrid smoke that had begun rising from the ground before them. Gabi waited for the crushing, depressive miasma that normally preceded the demons’ crossing of the Veil.

  It never came, but the demons did.

  In a terrific rush and without pause. There was no time to assess what tumbled out of the portal or how many. There wasn’t even enough time to spread out. For several manic seconds Gabi was too scared to swing Nex in case she took Kyle or Julius down by accident. Frustrated, she thrust Nex back into her sheath and yanked out a dagger and the dart gun. Thick, oily smoke burned her eyes and seared her nostrils, making it hard to pinpoint any enemy. She began firing darts at anything that looked like an eye or ear or armpit, the soft parts she knew to be the most susceptible to darts. The defenders desperately needed to slow down the frantic pace of the assault, give them time to regroup and organise.

  Limbs and tentacles armed with cudgels, flails, maces and spears laid into the Hunters and Vampires alike. Helmeted heads—some with horns or tusks, protective scales or grotesque rotting flesh—spewed fire, toxic gases or putrid drool.

  Gabi ducked and spun, aiming to get out of the central fight to reassess the situation. Narrowly avoiding a spiked flail, she threw herself into a dive, tucked and rolled, coming up and sprinting for the far side of the big oak tree. Out of the central throng of demons and Hunters, she quickly wiped her streaming eyes, trying to push back the shouts, screams, grunts and yells as she concentrated on what was around her. The ground shook beneath her, and she dropped into a crouch to steady herself. That was when she realised the tree trunks a short distance from her weren’t tree trunks at all. Bearing down on her was a demon several feet taller than Julius and Kyle; its legs as thick as a full-grown elephant’s; its arms thick, slimy tentacles each gripping a vicious-looking weapon; and its tiny red eyes intent with murderous rage.

  “Holy Lord and Lady,” she swore, frozen for an instant as she tried to make sense of the thing. She’d never heard of a demon this size. It was monstrous. Then it was on her, plunging a spiked mace down towards her. She leapt out of the way, diving into a left roundoff, then a backward handspring, landing ready just behind the giant demon. She threw the empty dart gun to one side and drew Nex, desperately searching for a weak spot. She lashed at the back of the demon’s legs, hoping to find some kind of hamstring to cut, but Nex barely managed to scratch the tough hide. The giant moved deceptively fast for its size, lashing out sideways with a foot, aiming for Gabi. Her world narrowed, the sounds of the struggle disappearing, the toxic air no longer worrying her as she danced the age-old dance of defender and foe.

  Frustrated at not being able to hit her with the mace or club in its grasp, the giant made another attempt to kick her. As she ducked the massive clodhopper, she noticed the creature was barefoot. The tough grey leathery hide covered the top of its feet, but not the soles. She vowed to pack a second dart gun next time as she pivoted to stay just out of its direct line of sight. A quick look around and she found Kyle back to back with Julius, surrounded by at least five Godzilla-like demons. Fuck, they couldn’t spare her a dart gun. Another flash of motion and she wasn’t quick enough. A well-placed kick from a foot the size of a car tyre caught her left hip and sent her crashing to the ground with a groan.

  “Lass, watch out,” a deep male voice yelled.

  Gabi had never been more elated to hear the booming Scottish voice as she instinctively rolled out of the way of the stomping foot, narrowly missing being pancaked. She shook off the throbbing of her hip and leapt to her feet, backing up as Fergus and Charlie materialised out of the dark a few feet from her.

  “Charlie,” she barked, “Julius needs help over there.” She indicated to her right, where the mass of lizard things could still be seen, though there appeared to only be four of them left. A wall of flames erupted somewhere in the centre of the fracas, and Gabi hoped it was Lance.

  “’Ere, lass,” Fergus rumbled, tossing her another dart gun before rushing the giant, swinging his massive broadsword at the demon’s tentacle arms. The two of them roared in battle fury as they struck at each other; then there was a resounding thud, and a grey, hand-like appendage tumbled to the ground, still holding a spiked mace. The demon’s roar was deafening as it turned its full attention to Fergus, forgetting about the tiny annoyance that was Gabi.

  “Get close enough to make him kick at you,” Gabi screamed at Fergus, leaping to his side, trying to avoid the demon blood raining down from the arm that had lost its hand.

  Fergus grunted in surprise but didn’t ask questions. There were many reasons Gabi loved the stoutly built Scot with a huge scar across his face; his trust in her was most certainly one of them.

  They both rushed back towards the demon, Gabi staying in Fergus’s shadow. She hissed in pain as a glob of demon blood landed on her shoulder and instantly ate through her toughened leather jacket and into her skin. There was no time to wipe the corrosive gunk from her as the creature’s massive foot lashed out towards them. Gabi aimed the dart gun and fired into the sole. She was intensely glad that the tech geeks had spent time working on the darts and had found a way to add a small mechanical to the darts, giving them a bigger punch than before. That combined with a tungsten-based, super-sharp point drove the darts straight into even the toughest Kevlar. Though the skin on the giant’s sole wasn’t as tough as the rest of it, it was still tougher than anything the average human was likely to come across. Her darts found their mark but barely penetrated. The giant bellowed its rage and stomped downward, driving the darts directly into its body, Werewolf saliva and all.

  Without pause, Fergus engaged it again, swinging his huge broadsword at its massive torso. Gabi took a second to pull one of the scraps of leather from a pocket and use it to scrape the remnants of the demon blood off her left arm and shoulder; it felt like she was being eaten alive by fire ants. She gritted her teeth and checked on Fergus. The giant was already slowing, its movements more clumsy, its intensity diminished. Fergus caught her eye and gave a nod; he’d finish this one. She hurried back to the main fight.

  With Charlie’s help, Kyle and Julius were still trying to dispatch the lizard creatures. Their alligator-like hides were making it a tough job, and two smaller winged demons
were harassing them from the air. Then Gabi remembered that Lance had done a superb job of slow roasting the last Godzilla demon they’d encountered. She quickly scanned the melee. Lance’s blond head was just visible in the thick smog. He was standing stationary with his hands raised, pointing at a large demon with a shaggy doglike head, several smoking piles of black goo were dotted around his position. Flinging a dagger at a small batlike demon with unimaginably large fangs and what appeared to be a dislocatable jaw, Gabi plunged back into the fight, aiming for Lance. The bat demon dropped to the ground behind her, and she already had Nex in her hand.

  She hacked at a putrid-looking brown arm that reached for her in the dark, and then stumbled as she stood on something large and soft on the ground. She hit the ground hard, the jarring setting her shoulder on fire again, and rolled, expecting whatever she fell over to attack; demons didn’t stop coming until they were puddles of goo. But the lump on the ground just groaned. She leaned in cautiously and realised with a start that it was Callum, the new Werewolf Hunter. He was still in human form, which meant he was knocked mostly senseless, far enough to unconscious that even his wolf couldn’t assume control and force his Change.

  Shit, she had too many things she was trying to do at once. Prioritise, she screamed at herself, praying for a moment’s clarity in the mayhem. Her intuition kicked in, and she knew Callum had to be her first concern. The others were holding their own; she would sense if Julius was in trouble. Quickly she leaned over Callum, trying to assess his condition. His eyes were open but not focusing on her face. A vicious trio of gashes marred the entire left side of his head. Gabi grimaced. It looked like he’d caught a spiked flail to the face.

  “Come on,” she hissed, putting her burning left shoulder under his and hefting him to his feet. She gritted her teeth, bracing against her own pain, but kept Nex tight and steady in her right hand as they began a stumbling shuffle towards the parking area. She was grateful that Callum at least wasn’t too many inches taller than her, carrying someone the height of Julius or Kyle like this would’ve been close to impossible.

  Another look around and Gabi saw that Lance was moving towards them. She shook her head and pointed with Nex in the direction of the lizard demons. He nodded his understanding and changed course.

  A skinny winged demon flew at them from the right, knife-sharp talons and clawed wing tips raking at Gabi’s face. She batted it away with Nex, watching it collapse in a crumpled heap on the ground as she kept putting one foot in front of the other in the direction of the backup crew. But the demon hadn’t given up; it shook itself, realigning its wings, and relaunched its attack, propelled like a rocket. Gabi hunched her shoulder and threw up her arm, taking the brunt of the assault on her right forearm. Shit, she was caught with Callum on one arm and the demon on the other. The vicious creature dug its talons through the protective leather and into her flesh and then began trying to gnaw on her with its vulturine beaked mouth. She had no choice but to drop Callum; if she didn’t, they’d both be eaten alive. But as she began to tug her shoulder out from under the Werewolf, his weight suddenly vanished. She grabbed blindly for him, unable to spare a glance to see what had him, but then a voice reached her.

  “We’ve got him, girl. Let go.”

  Gabi almost sagged in relief at Mac’s order. With her left arm free, she pulled a butterfly sword from her thigh and shish-kebabbed the flying demon. As it flopped into deadweight, she gingerly pried its beak from her flesh and flung it to the ground before finishing it off with an angry stroke of Nex’s blade.

  The tight knot in Julius’s chest eased as he saw that Mac and the clean-up crew had taken the new Werewolf off Gabi’s hands and she could defend herself unencumbered now. He’d been a hair’s breadth from going to help her, and he knew that would’ve caused tension between them. It still took a monumental effort on his part to leave her to fight monsters on her own terms. He knew it would never work any other way, but no one else, especially Gabi, could understand the depth and intensity of his need to protect her. How he felt every wound on her body as if it were his own; how it offended his innate masculine compulsion to never let anything harm what he loved. How Fate must be laughing at the irony of him, Julius, the big, bad Master Vampire, falling in love with a mortal woman who would never let him protect her, and would always be putting herself directly in danger’s very maw.

  He continued to hack at the tough leathery plates covering the demon’s throat. Each blow was chipping away at the protection; layer by tiny layer it was giving way. Just a few more blows and Julius would be able to get at the creature’s soft inner core. He launched back into the attack, blow after blow on exactly the same place, even as the creature spewed poisonous froth at him, snapping at him with a jaw full of shark-like teeth and swinging its thick armour-plated tail at him hard enough to break every bone in his body. The demon next to the one he was focused on suddenly began careening around, its useless little arms waving almost comically. Julius could smell it burning, the stench enough to overpower the rest of the stink layering the gardens. He stopped breathing, the smell too much for his senses.

  “Julius,” Kyle yelled, “leave that one for Lance. We need to check the perimeter.”

  He gave Kyle a sharp nod, but instead of breaking away, hacked one more time at the chink he’d made in the demon’s neck. He was finally rewarded with the sensation of his sword finding soft, vulnerable flesh. Changing his grip on the sword in an instant, he drove the tip of it into the gaping wound and plunged the blade downward. The demon collapsed forward, thick, black ooze pouring from its mangled chest. Julius jumped back, grimacing in pain and disgust as the revolting ooze coated his right hand and the hilt of the sword. He dropped the sword and quickly wiped his hand on the grass as he took in the rest of the scene.

  Charlie and Fergus were dealing with a couple of smaller horned demons, and Lance was standing not far from him, still concentrating on the one remaining lizard demon; he was looking tired, though. Kyle was running for the far side of the garden, Simon on his heels, and Alexander was ghosting to the south side of the garden. Finally he spotted Gabi; she was yelling at one of the groups of Magi and pointing at something in a huge elm in the centre of the graveyard.

  He left his sword where it was on the ground, the blade was still intact but the hilt had begun to dissolve, and ran towards her.

  “Some of the winged ones are in a tree over there,” she told him as he reached her. She was sweaty and dishevelled, her hair falling out of the tight braid she’d tied it back in. There was a bloody smear down the side of her face, though it wasn’t her blood, several nasty scratches marred one cheek, and more than half of her left shoulder was exposed, showing a serious acid burn. But her eyes were alight, her whole being alive, and she was glorious.

  “Leave the Magi to send them back,” he told her, pulling her to him for a quick, fierce kiss. “Kyle wants us to check the perimeter. With so many of them, who knows how many have tried to escape into the City.”

  She returned his kiss with a savage one of her own, and he quickly pierced his tongue with a fang, gifting her a few drops of blood. She pulled back, licking her lip and grinning.

  “Let’s go,” she said, quickly scanning where everyone else was before choosing the east boundary.

  Gabi surveyed the scene; it was one you’d expect to see on a movie set, maybe one where aliens attacked earth, almost cataclysmic. The foul-smelling fog was finally beginning to dissipate, and the pale grey of coming dawn was just beginning to light the garden, further highlighting the havoc. The clean-up crew was moving through the garden, sucking up the disgusting puddles of goo into special containers. Gabi had no idea what the containers were lined with, and right now she was too exhausted to care. She was perched on a piece of wall that had collapsed sometime during the fight, while Harry, the SMV human medic, tended to the worst of her injuries. Next to her on the ground were a small pile of weapons and the remnants of the leather patches Savannah had asked her
to test against demon blood. They’d fared surprisingly well, not perfect, but far better than Gabi had expected.

  Julius was striding back towards her; he’d just overseen the evacuation of the other Vampires back to the Estate before the sun rose. He’d have to leave soon too. He’d called Patrick, the Werewolf in charge of his daytime security, to bring reinforcements to assist in the clean-up and escort exhausted Magi back to HQ. The rest of the clean-up crews and Hunters who’d been stationed at the stadium had arrived a few minutes ago, so Gabi finally allowed herself a breather.

  They’d chased escaped demons for more than two hours after the main battle had been won. The Magi had done all they could to send back the escapees, but there were simply too many. Luckily Byron had been able to send them a Tracker Magus who was able to focus on demons; he’d helped the Hunters find every one of the five escapees. It was a miracle no humans had been bitten, and only a handful had needed to have their memories wiped.

  A sharp sting brought her back to the present with a hiss of pain.

  “Geesh, Harry,” she snapped at the medic as he began to clean the deep laceration on her right arm. Julius folded himself elegantly onto a rock near hers and took her other hand.

  “Sorry, Hellcat,” Harry apologised, “but it’s deep, and I don’t want to leave anything toxic in there.”

  She gritted her teeth. It wasn’t Harry’s fault she was tired and grumpy now that the adrenalin had worn off. “Just do what you have to,” she said, trying to sound less testy. “Just warn me next time.”

  Julius didn’t move, but a sense of warm amusement trickled through their mental link. Movement caught her eye, and she looked up to find Mac and Razor picking their way through charred demon remains and blackened patches of grass. Mac had a takeaway cup of coffee in each hand.