To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4)

by Sharon Hannaford

  “Who do you mean?” Athena asked.

  “Gemini, of course,” Benedict told her almost pityingly.

  Gabi flinched, the impact of the name making her spine go rigid.

  “The other Princeps are under the impression that Gemini work for them, but in truth they’ve been the Dark Ones’ underlings for several decades now. Adepts, to use the correct terminology. Learning all they can of the Dark Arts and Blood Magic. They’ve learnt much, but not quite enough to challenge their Elders yet, so for now they travel the world being the eyes, ears and hands of their masters.”

  “Gemini are here? In the City?” Gabi reiterated, not quite suppressing a shudder. If they were mere underlings of the Elders, the reality of the danger surrounding them had become crystal clear.

  Benedict tilted his head in a semblance of a nod, but didn’t reply.

  “Do you know what their next move is?” Julius asked. At least one of them had some wits about him.

  “Now that they have the location of the Source, they’ll take a step back, taking time to put together a plan of action, hoping you haven’t noticed the intrusion,” Benedict answered without hesitation. “It will be the calm before the storm. When they come back at you, it will be with everything and everyone they can bring together at one time. They know this is their one and only chance. They’re running out of time.”

  “Who else can they call together?” a Pack Leader asked. “What kind of an army can they bring against us?”

  “There is an underground network of Dark Magi. Some of those will work with them, some won’t. They have Vampire and Werewolf slaves, and will expend the energy to enslave more now that they can virtually taste the power of the Source. And they have your Maleficus. With her they can bring over as many demons as they can control. I guess you can count yourself lucky that Dantè is no longer walking the earth.” He glanced towards Julius, his expression unreadable.

  “But surely they couldn’t control more than one demon each,” one of the other Magi spoke up from the shadows.

  “That is only true if they stick to Castus Magic,” Benedict said pityingly. “The Dark Ones are using Blood Magic, not only in their rites, but consuming it to magnify their own powers and extend their lives.” When there were no gasps of shock and outrage, he raised an intrigued eyebrow.

  “The Magi informed all of us of that little deception just a few minutes ago,” Gabi filled him in.

  His grin returned.

  “How do you know so much about Blood Magic?” another of the Magi ventured, in a small but steady voice.

  “Because,” Benedict sighed, like a teacher who was tired of trying to explain a basic concept to a particularly ignorant student, “I have the blood of a Magi running through my veins. I am as powerful as a Magi who consumes Vampire blood all day, every day. My magical abilities have been feeding on Vampire blood for over nine hundred years.” He only barely kept the smugness from his face as he paused to let the room digest that bombshell.

  “What exactly are your abilities?” Irene had finally recovered enough to begin her own interrogation and, by the look on her face, was preparing to do just that.

  “He’s an Enhancer,” Athena said before Benedict could answer. She held her hand up when others made sounds of protest, cutting off any disagreement. “Trust me.”

  “Among other talents,” he agreed with a cryptic smile.

  “And those would be?” Irene asked.

  “It would be quicker if I simply told you what I couldn’t do.” Coming from anyone else, Gabi would’ve called his statement arrogance, but in Benedict’s case, he was merely voicing a fact. He’d told Athena about his power of Enhancement, but Gabi had glimpsed the full extent of his power the very first time they met, and she knew, without a doubt, that he was capable of far more than he let on. But then a tiny twitch of his left eye before he dropped his gaze to the floor for a moment made Gabi pause. She was almost certain the twitch was a tell of some kind. Not a lie, Irene would pick up on that, but…something. She stowed the thought for later consideration.

  “So we are to believe that you’ve arrived to help us out of the goodness of your heart? Why should we trust you?” Irene asked. “What is to stop you claiming the Source for yourself once you find out where it is?”

  “I already know where it is. I could feel its pull the moment I entered the City. And I’m here, in front of you, not claiming it for myself. You know the truth when you hear it, Priestess. I can see it,” he said, his gaze boring into hers. “Can you see any deception in me? Have you sensed any evil intent in my words, any dishonesty?”

  Irene paused. “No, I haven’t,” she finally admitted. “But if you’re as powerful as you claim, you could be strong enough to blind me. We know nothing of you or your skills. You are one of a kind. We have no idea what you’re capable of.”

  Benedict suddenly and unexpectedly began to laugh out loud. “No, Lady Priestess, I’m not one of a kind. In fact, I’m not even the only Vampire Magus in this room.” His darkly humorous gaze shifted to settle on Julius.

  Gabi’s heart stuttered, raw intuition slamming into her hard enough to stun her. Her mouth popped open, but the rest of her body froze as she looked up at the man she loved, the man she thought she knew.

  CHAPTER 13

  “What do you mean, Benedict?” Gabi heard Athena’s voice demand, but she couldn’t move, didn’t hear if Benedict responded. Then others were talking, but she couldn’t make out any of the individual words. Her mind was racing through all the moments she’d spent with Julius over the past months, picking out tiny details, small events, previously insignificant facts. It all fitted perfectly. How had she not made the connection before? Did he know? Had he been keeping it from her? There was an uncomfortable sensation in her chest, and she realised she needed to breathe. She concentrated and made her lungs work, air in, pause, air out. Repeat. Somehow she still wasn’t getting quite enough oxygen. The ring on her left hand felt like it was burning her. Then a soft growl in her ear.

  “Lea.” A pause, then again, more urgently. “Lea, breathe, slowly.”

  “Gabi, are you all right?” Kyle’s voice muttered in her other ear. “What’s Benedict talking about?”

  With a huge effort Gabi subdued the storm in her mind. Avoiding Julius’s and Benedict’s eyes, she sought and found Byron’s gaze across the table. She stared pointedly at him, and he nodded, understanding.

  “Ladies, gentlemen.” Byron stood up from his seat, catching everyone’s attention. “I think it’s time for a short recess. Take a few minutes to digest and regroup. There are refreshments in the next room.” He glanced at his watch and at Irene. “We’ll reconvene in forty-five minutes.”

  There were no words of disagreement, though more than a few suspicious gazes were fixed on Julius and Benedict as the rest of them stood and began to file out to an adjoining room.

  Gabi mouthed a word of thanks to Byron and saw his face cloud over with concern. She sent him a reassuring ghost of a smile, and he nodded, leaving the room with the others.

  In a few moments only Julius’s retinue, Athena, Kyle, Mac and Benedict remained. Gabi stood, hoping her legs would hold her; she felt off kilter, as though the world had shifted underneath her and she hadn’t moved with it.

  “You and you,” she said, pointing at Julius and Benedict. “We need to talk somewhere private.”

  Julius was close to her, but she was still avoiding his gaze, and she had blocked their mental connection while she tried to make sense of this new reality. She pushed away from the table and strode for the door, anger flooding in to replace the confusion and shock. Alexander, Kyle and Athena all made to follow the trio as well, but she turned back and glared at them. Something in her gaze made all three falter and stop. She didn’t bother with words; she didn’t know what would come out when she opened her mouth. Better to limit the extent of the blast when it happened.

  She marched down the wood-panelled corridor, the two men making barely a
ny noise in her wake, until she found a small, deserted sitting room. A gas fire warmed the room, and book-filled shelves lined two walls.

  “Seal it,” she commanded Benedict.

  His eyes narrowed at her tone, all hint of amusement gone, but she felt the familiar pressure against her ears as he did as she told him.

  “Did you know?” Her words were flat as she finally rounded on Julius, her eyes searching his. The gold in them was all but gone, the sapphire bleeding to black. They made for a sinister look, and Gabi resisted swallowing as some part of her psyche reminded her that she was in the presence of two beings who could kill her as easily as look at her.

  “Don’t fear me, Lea,” he said, his voice a husky whisper. He was fighting hard to control whatever emotions were running through him at that moment.

  Benedict moved away from them towards the fire, giving them what privacy he could in the small room. Julius reached out a hand towards her, leaving it to her to make contact. She didn’t move.

  “I didn’t…know,” he finally said, his words hesitant. “I swear I’m as stunned as you are. Probably more so. I…” He trailed off and raised his eyes to the ceiling. “It seems so obvious now, but I never connected the dots. I just explained it all away with the Vampirism. I’ve just always been different.”

  Gabi could understand the sentiment. She hadn’t connected the dots either despite him telling her about his occasional flashes of clairvoyance; he’d seen a vision of her bleeding to death at Dantè’s hand. Then he’d saved her life when the car bomb exploded in the underground garage, collapsing the mansion and sending both of them plummeting several floors downward; he’d used his telekinesis to limit her impact with the concrete floor. Then there was their inexplicable mental link. Lord and Lady, how could she not have known? How could he not have known?

  “Touch me, Lea. Open your mind,” he whispered. “You’ll see the truth. I wasn’t trying to mislead you, I swear it.”

  In her anger and confusion she didn’t want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Didn’t want to be reasonable.

  “I didn’t come here to cause strife between the two of you.” Benedict’s voice broke in as he moved closer to them again. “Julius, my apologies, I know I have a propensity for making mischief when I can, but I didn’t come here with that in mind. I truly assumed you knew of your heritage. It’s so clear to me; I’ve known since the first time I saw you. I assumed your Consort would know too, though suspected you’d have kept it secret from the others.” He turned to Gabi, his face almost as serious as it had been at the Princeps’ vote. “Gabrielle, I ask you to do as Julius suggests. We need to move forward here. The threat against the City is genuine and imminent. If you need to set your mind at ease over this, and you have a way to do it, please proceed.”

  “I assume you don’t often beg,” Gabi said dryly, Benedict’s words stealing the anger and annoyance from her. She knew her anger wasn’t justified; it was just a quick, easy coping mechanism. Benedict’s self-deprecating smile answered her question. She took a deep breath.

  “Actually, it doesn’t matter. Even if you did know, there was no obligation for you to tell me,” she said to Julius.

  His eyebrows drew together in a frown. “It matters to me, Gabrielle,” he said, reaching over and taking her hand. “I wouldn’t keep something like that from you, and I don’t want you to believe that I would.” He pulled her fingers to his lips, kissing the ring he’d given her, and opened the gates to his mental defences. It was the first time he’d ever truly let her inside his mind, and he didn’t only open the gates, he yanked her inside.

  It could’ve been seconds or hours later that Gabi became aware of the feel of Julius’s shirt against her forehead. She was breathing heavily, and he was holding her, supporting her as she withdrew from his mind, pulling away from his whirling emotions, his confusion, self-recrimination and sense of amazement at what this revelation meant. To him, it meant he had more power to protect her and his Clan.

  “That wasn’t very subtle, Julius,” Benedict admonished. “You could do with some training.”

  “Until ten minutes ago I didn’t know I had anything that could be trained,” Julius replied. “Besides, I seem to remember you sending her to her knees the first time she met you.”

  Benedict chuckled, unrepentant. “I was just showing off,” he countered. “And testing her.” He threw himself into one of the wing-back chairs, sprawling gracefully across it, apparently satisfied that the tension between Gabi and Julius was over. “She’s very sensitive to all supernatural power. It’s an unusual talent, and not one I’ve ever seen attributed to Dhampirs.”

  “What are you thinking? Is there something else we should know?” Julius asked him.

  Gabi pulled away from him, looking sharply between the two men.

  “I’m just musing, Julius,” Benedict said. “If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in my years on earth, it’s that things aren’t always as cut and dried as we think. Rules we assume to be written in stone are more like general guidelines, and there’s almost always an exception.”

  “Like you,” Julius said, “and me, apparently.” He kept Gabi’s hand in his as he moved to a double-seater couch and pulled Gabi down next to him. “You’ve always said you managed to survive the Turning because you were so young, young enough that your powers hadn’t fully manifested yet.” He cocked his head at the other Vampire. “I was a lot older than you when Simone Turned me. How come I survived? And the biggest puzzle in all of this is how I became a Magus after I was Turned. I wasn’t born a Magus, Benedict, my parents weren’t Magi. I didn’t go through any kind of rite to accept Magi powers. Are you absolutely sure?”

  “I just told you there are exceptions to every rule,” Benedict pointed out. “I know of cases where Magi are born to couples where just one of them is Magus, so perhaps only one of your parents were, or perhaps you were a foundling. Is that not also a possibility? If you didn’t know of your heritage and didn’t make a formal choice of whether or not to accept your powers, they would lay dormant until you made up your mind. Did you never have anything unusual happen to you as a human? Get a sense of impending doom before a disaster happened, know what others were thinking, turn people to your way of thinking even if they didn’t like you?”

  Julius was quiet, giving the questions some serious thought. Gabi knew without a doubt that Julius was a Vampire Magus, the how of it wasn’t important, but something else was bugging her.

  “Benedict, why did you bring this up in front of everyone?” she asked him. “You could’ve just ruined the tentative alliance Julius has worked to establish. You already said that you figured Julius hadn’t told everyone else. Were you just stirring trouble, or did you have a reason?”

  “While stirring mischief is its own reward, I did need to deflect some of the attention off of myself, and Julius’s little secret seemed a good way to do it at the time.” Benedict pulled a sour face. “If I’d known you hadn’t accepted the truth yourself yet, I’d have tried something else. But we do need the Council to stop focussing on me and start worrying about the Dark Ones.” His lip curled again as he referred to the Elders. He had a serious grudge against them, which Gabi was going to hear about, but not right now. Those details could wait a few hours. “We’ve thrown their attention off me. They already know and trust Julius; they’ll get over the revelation soon enough. Now we can redirect their minds back to the matter at hand. Trust me.” He smiled sarcastically. “I have some experience manipulating a group of high-ranking, self-important bureaucrats.”

  This time Julius snorted.

  “So what’s your plan of action?” Gabi asked, willing to give him the reins when it came to things she couldn’t beat up or kill. “What are we going to tell the rest of the conference hall when we go back? How much are we going to tell them? And how do we get them back on track?”

  “I think we need to get some of the others here. It’ll be good to have some extra opinions,” Julius said.
>
  Gabi suddenly felt a twinge of guilt at how she’d sent them away in a fit of childish temper.

  Julius snorted a small chuckle. “Consorts are expected to have moments of pique,” he assured her. “The Clan won’t hold it against you. Athena and Kyle may be a different story, though.”

  She sighed. “I’ll go and get them.”

  Julius held her in place with one hand. “I’ll call them.”

  She felt the brush of his power against her skin as he sent out the call, and the slight pop as Benedict disengaged his spell of protection around the room. Gabi wondered if either of them realised how naturally they’d just fallen into working in unison. Less than two minutes later several pairs of footsteps approached the sitting room.

  “Well, that went better than I expected,” Gabi mused on the drive back to the Estate.

  Benedict’s ploy had done the trick. When the meeting resumed, the focus had shifted away from Benedict’s presence and back to the problem of the Dark Elders. Athena had more than a little to do with the smooth acceptance of Vampire Magi in their midst. Gabi had to give her credit for that. She’d done some fast talking during the recess and convinced the rest of the Magi Council that both Benedict and Julius could be trusted as allies. Gabi was going to be keeping her eye on Benedict, though. While she trusted him to be helpful against the Elders, her gut told her that there were ulterior motives at play here, and that Benedict shouldn’t be blindly trusted in all things. She could sense similar feelings coming from Julius. He was still reeling in shock from Benedict’s revelation, though his outward demeanour was calm and in control. His mind was whirling with possibilities, and he didn’t for a second believe that Benedict had revealed the knowledge of his heritage purely to get the Magi Council to move on with their discussion.