To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4)

by Sharon Hannaford

  “I need to ask you something,” Gabi told the Magus. “Walk with me.” She looked around at the rest of them. “Sorry, boys, girl talk,” she told them, steering Athena away down the corridor and making shooing motions at them. “We’ll catch up with you in a few minutes.”

  The men all looked uncertain, but no one tried to follow. Damn, they were well trained, she smirked to herself.

  “Shield us,” Gabi ordered the moment she’d ushered Athena into a ladies’ bathroom and locked the door behind them.

  Athena narrowed her eyes, searching Gabi’s face. Something in her expression must have convinced her that Gabi was on to something. Gabi was sure she hadn’t kept all the hope off her face, hard as she tried. Gabi felt it as the shield popped into place.

  “No one can intrude?” Gabi checked.

  Athena raised an eyebrow.

  “Okay, okay. You remember the man we brought out of the caves with us? He’s some kind of anti-Magus, isn’t he? He deadens magic around him, right?”

  “What are you thinking, Gabrielle?” Athena asked, but Gabi could see the wheels turning in her head already. “Nulls deaden all magic, not just Dark Magic, though.”

  “Yes, but while they may be almost entirely reliant on magic for power, we aren’t,” Gabi pointed out. “The Magi aren’t alone in this war.”

  Athena’s mouth suddenly popped open, and her eyes grew wide. “It will be complicated. I’ll need to check some facts, test his strength, but any advantage…” She trailed off.

  Gabi nodded silently; the less said and the fewer people involved, the better. Athena returned her nod with intensity. Henry was about to land himself a pivotal role in the defence of the Source. As Athena broke the shield, Gabi wondered if they’d need to duct tape the man’s mouth shut.

  ********************

  It took Caspian a frustratingly long time to find a stray Werewolf to take control of. He was camped out in a motel on the very edge of the City, hoping to get a better feel for what was happening before allowing the Clan to call him in. And, to his immense satisfaction, there definitely was something happening in the City. Something serious enough to keep Julius from sending guards to find him. Something that dire could only count in Caspian’s favour. Right now, as more often than not, conflict was his friend. When something large and calamitous was drawing people’s attention, they forgot to worry about what a single, unassuming Vampire was possibly getting up to.

  The news his tame Werewolf brought back to him was exactly what he wanted to hear. His timing was perfect.

  ********************

  “Hey, Mom,” Gabi injected as much light and cheerful as she could into her voice. Any lack shouldn’t be noticed, as her mother didn’t really expect bubbly and happy from her daughter. She knew better.

  Julius had gone to the bathroom and turned on the shower, giving her as much privacy as he could. The sun had already risen, and they were just getting ready to turn in to get as much rest as they could before gathering at the Estate just before sunset.

  She hadn’t wanted to make the call, didn’t want to alert her mother to something being dreadfully wrong, but also needed to hear her mother’s voice and find a way to say the thousand things she hadn’t had the chance to yet. They chatted about mundane life for a while: her mother’s dishwasher that kept breaking down despite it being almost brand new, her stepfather’s big idea to buy a motorbike and take her mother touring the country on it, the earthquake that had shaken the City a few days ago. Her mother waited until she was over her fit of ‘coughing’ before changing tack completely.

  “Are you happy, honey?” her mother asked. “I know it can’t have been easy giving up doing what you did for your dad’s group.”

  Gabi could hear the tiniest thread of sadness in her mother’s tone as she spoke of her late husband. They say you never got over your first love. Gabi realised that she wasn’t going to get away with fobbing her mother off with banalities this time. Her mother had always hated her putting herself in harm’s way for the SMV, but now she sounded as though she understood what it would cost Gabi to give it up.

  “Mom, I haven’t walked away,” she said. “I’m still there when they need me. I’ll be Dad’s daughter as long as I breathe—you know that, right?”

  “Yes, dearest.” Her mother gave a sad chuckle. “I know that, but I also want to know that you’re happy. You’re my daughter too, and if I gave you anything, I hope it’s that you deserve to be happy.”

  Oh gods, Gabi felt tears prickling behind her eyes. She swallowed, blinking them back.

  “I am happy, Mom,” she said quietly, looking down at the beautiful ring on her finger and regretting that she hadn’t had the guts to tell her mother about Julius yet. “I have some things to work out, you know my life can be complicated sometimes, but I promise you I’m happy.” She dabbed at her nose with her sleeve. She wasn’t going to let her mother hear her sniff; she could be scarily intuitive at times. “And I think maybe you should let Sam get that motorbike. You deserve your happiness too; a tour around the country would be a blast.”

  Julius took the phone from her fingers. She’d ended the call to her mother, but sat unmoving on the bed, staring at her ring. Happy. She’d told her mother she was happy, saying the words her mother wanted to hear, but as she spoke them she knew that they were the truth. She was happy. She smiled with a tiny snort, looking up at her very first love. Yes, she was her mother’s daughter in one respect at least; she’d never get over her first love.

  She pulled him down towards her and wrapped her arms around his neck, breathing him in, pressing close to the coolness of his naked body.

  “I’m happy too,” he whispered into her ear. And they made love. Not hot, sweaty, panting sex, but slow, sensuous love.

  CHAPTER 22

  Half an hour after full sunset Julius waited with Gabi, Kyle, Razor and their small group of assorted supernaturals in the shadows of the main grandstand at the abandoned sports stadium. He was maintaining the shield over them and praying it was good enough to keep the defenders of the Demon Gate from sensing them too soon.

  Trish, Derek and an apprentice Healer were outside in one of the SMV vans, waiting to pass information on from the battle at the Source. Getting all the information from the main battle would be too distracting; Trish and Derek would be filtering it and feeding them the vital bits, trying to keep the commlink as quiet as possible. Derek wasn’t happy, but that was nothing new. The man hated being left out of the action almost as much as he hated seeing Julius and Gabrielle together. He put the other man’s problem firmly out of his mind; they were a minor problem at the moment.

  He rechecked the structure of the shield; this particular one was a combined effort between himself and another Magus. While a shield was something anyone with magical ability could do, with varying degrees of success, usually the learning part took weeks, if not months, of hard work. His apprenticeship hadn’t just been fast-tracked, it had been speed-trained. He was sustaining this shield more as a final lesson than because the other Magus needed his help. Once they got the call to move from Trish, he’d have to build a separate shield around himself, Gabi, Charlie, Razor and Butch, the Werewolf. He was also under strict instructions not to overuse his power until the real fight went down. The last few days had given him an even greater understanding of Gabi’s dislike of being ordered around; it had been a long time since anyone besides the Princeps had told him what he could and couldn’t do.

  Gabi shifted impatiently beside him, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet, her adrenalin level so high he could taste it in the air. She already had Nex drawn, and the blade was making a barely perceptible tapping against her leather-clad thigh. She was Angeli Morte once more, so different to the passionate, energetic, impetuous woman he thought of as his Lea. This side of her was still alien to him.

  Razor lifted his head to stare at Julius. He was sitting calmly in his fitted armour, but his gaze conveyed readiness, and something mo
re. Julius couldn’t help but think, for the hundredth time, that there was something different about the cat since he’d brought him back from the brink of death with a dose of his own blood. Or perhaps the cat always had been different, more intelligent, more aware, something on the very far side of ordinary.

  Another restless movement drew his eye. Kyle blew out breath; his wolf was very near the surface, close enough that Julius could sense him. Kyle and Trish had argued briefly before he left the van. Kyle didn’t want to wear the protective clothing Savannah had sent, maintaining it would be too hard to shrug off if he needed to Change to wolf form; Trish didn’t want him going in unprotected. Gabi had provided the compromise; Kyle wore his own dark, standard SMV-issue pants, which would rip at the seams if necessary, along with a Kevlar-reinforced shirt and one of Savannah’s treated jackets, unzipped. Fergus and the rest all wore variants of Gabi’s combat gear. All of them, except the Magi, were armed to the teeth, and even the Magi carried MacDarts.

  “The Oracles better know what they’re talking about,” Gabi growled under her breath.

  Julius couldn’t help but agree; if the Oracles were wrong and the Dark Ones had concealed how many would be left behind to guard the Demon Gate, they could be in serious trouble. Help was at least fifteen minutes away, if they could spare any at all. The commlink at his ear hissed to life.

  “It’s a go,” Trish’s voice said in a rough whisper. “Good luck.” The last word didn’t come out clearly, her voice lost to emotion.

  “Hang in there for us, babe,” Kyle said, his voice calm and confident despite the anxious proximity of his wolf.

  Julius slid one hand around the back of Gabi’s neck and drew her face up to his. He kissed her, quick and hard, tasting her, revelling in the scent of her, drawing on her strength and determination. A smile lifted the corner of her mouth.

  “Let’s go kick some bad-guy butt,” she growled as he and the other Magus collapsed the first shield. She and Kyle knocked fists, a million unsaid things passing between them in a split-second glance.

  With no more fuss they split into three groups. Kyle’s group was tasked with creating a diversion and covering the most obvious escape route while Patrick and Tabari’s team, which included a multi-skilled Magus, would be their safeguard, protecting the way back out for the rest of them and watching their backs for assault from outside the stadium. Julius paused before building the second shield around his small force: Gabi, Razor, Fergus, Charlie and Butch. The remaining Dark ones would already know they were here; the shield from now on would be to keep them safe from magic assault. But first he wanted to see if he could get a read on exactly where the Demon Gate itself was located; the Oracles had only been able to give a vague description, which matched what Kyle knew of the underground training gymnasium. As soon as he pushed out his senses, he felt it. The Demon Gate. Like he was a bloodhound and it was a putrefying corpse, the scent of it strong enough to turn his stomach. It was underground, and he knew he could find it now, with or without the shield in place. Now just to destroy it.

  He centred himself with a deep breath and closed his eyes as he quickly built the magical bubble of protection. It was easy once he pushed his barely controllable need to protect Gabi towards it. It rose and solidified, clear in his mind’s eye even though it would be invisible to human sight. It was strong and unwavering; it was a good one.

  “Let’s go,” Julius said. His voice was low and steady, but the power around him whipped Gabi’s skin like a tornado of thumbtacks, prickling painfully. She barely suppressed an involuntary flinch away from him.

  They broke into a steady jog across the weedy, unkempt playing field lit only by the nearly full moon in the sky above, the weight of Julius’s shield settling around them as they ran. Julius took the lead, clearly knowing the way. Swift as he was, Gabi stayed one step behind him, Razor on her heels, Butch and the Vampires bringing up the rear. As they moved, she scanned the rest of the field, the dark, empty seating and the yawning maws of crumbling corporate boxes. She felt very exposed. This place had just too many places an enemy could be lurking. She’d barely thought the words when she heard the first sounds of a fight. Kyle’s group had run into something. She had to remind herself that it was all part of the plan. Kyle’s job was to draw the defenders out; theirs was to get inside and bring down the Gate. She hated trusting a plan; way too many things could go wrong with a plan.

  They reached the far side of the field and followed Julius down the cement ramp into the underground level, to the players’ areas, where the public rarely got the chance to visit. Leaves and other debris covered the ground, crunching underfoot. At a T-junction Julius unerringly turned right. The passageway was wide enough for four people to walk abreast, graffiti covered the walls, grime caked the once-tiled floor, and rats and mice scurried away from their hurried footfalls. They passed doors to change rooms, toilets and catering facilities. Then saunas and a medical centre. Her boots and Butch’s made soft thuds on the old tiles; Razor and the Vampires were utterly silent. They came to another split in the passage, and Julius again kept right.

  When the attack came, it too was silent. Things fell from the ceiling. Creepy things with hard exoskeletons and far too many legs. The size of large turtles with flat, multifaceted eyes and pincered jaws dripping clear acidic ooze. Nex speared the first one as it fell towards Gabi’s unprotected head. Julius’s shield protected against magical attack, but not the physical. If the cockroach creatures could breach it, then they weren’t magical constructs, they were from the Etherworld.

  Dark goop dripped from the thrashing creature on the end of Nex’s blade, and Gabi jerked her head aside to avoid the splash. Some fell on her right shoulder, sizzling as it made contact with the leather, but she felt no pain. She sent Savannah a mental high five. She slammed the demonic insect towards the floor. It hit with a sharp crack, and more of the carapace shattered as she tugged Nex free. She flipped it over with one boot as its legs waved wildly, trying to grab hold of her, its vicious mouth parts ejecting outward snapping at her. She shoved Nex back into its body between two hard plates and into the vulnerable innards. Razor growled, and she whirled as another one lunged towards her, latching onto her leg, the pincers crushing, but not penetrating through the pants. She howled in fury and brought Nex’s hilt down onto its head, right between the insect-like eyes, again and again. The pincers bit down harder; Gabi didn’t think it would be long before it snapped the bone. Razor leapt on the creature’s back, but his teeth and claws were having no effect on the tough outer shell. She reached into her weapons belt and pulled out the MacSpike.

  The creature never knew what hit it. It took her just half a second to press the weapon between its eyes and pull the trigger. The thing collapsed instantly, its weight sagging downward. Unfortunately its grip on her lower leg hadn’t relaxed at all; if anything, the pincers were tightening in its death throes.

  “Use the MacSpike between the eyes,” she yelled at the others, hissing in pain as she fought to loosen the dying creature’s mouth parts. Then Julius was beside her; he bent and grasped one pincer, crushing it in his hand. Another creature detached from the ceiling and launched itself towards Julius’s exposed back. Gabi swung her arm, knocking it aside to crunch into one wall before thudding to the floor. Butch put a foot on it before administering a dose of MacSpike to its tiny brain.

  Several more applications of the MacSpike and the passageway fell eerily silent once more. The small group took stock. They were all standing. Gabi had some bruises on her leg and arm; Butch had a bleeding ear, which was already healing; Charlie was repositioning his Stetson on his head. Julius and Fergus looked nonplussed. Eleven of the bug-like things lay dead; any others had fled.

  By silent agreement they continued onward. A large double doorway loomed in front of them. The faded sign beside it read ‘Workout Room—team members only’. Julius paused at the door. Gabi stepped up next to him, Nex in her right hand, a MacDart in the left. They looked at ea
ch other briefly, he gave her a grim smile, she nodded, and they shoved the door open together.

  Gabi couldn’t possibly have prepared herself for the sight that met them. Or the smell. Death lingered in the air like a physical miasma. None of them had any words for the horror that lay before them. The gym equipment had been pushed up against the walls. Black and red candles dotted the large room, set on the floor; a few of them were lit. The tiny flames did little to illuminate the room, but it was enough to show the blood splatters on the walls, the puddles of gore on the floor, the leather straps that had been used along with the gym equipment to form makeshift torture frames.

  Gabi swallowed, trying to make her stomach stop climbing out of her throat; the sound of Butch’s dry-retching wasn’t helping. She concentrated on scanning the shadows, breathing through her mouth. Unmoving heaps lay stacked up against the walls; ragged bits of clothing and a few limbs pronounced them human bodies. There were no signs of life, and nothing in the room was moving. She glanced at Julius. He too was surveying the mess, but he was searching for something beyond the physical. He closed his eyes and turned his head. When he opened his eyes, he pointed a finger towards the far side of the left wall.

  “There,” he said, in a low voice.

  Gabi squinted into the gloom and finally made out an opening in the far wall. It wasn’t a doorway; it was a hole in the wall. It looked like it had been knocked through by a wrecking ball. Grimly they started across the gore-strewn floor, but before they could reach the other side, three dark forms stepped through to meet them. The centre form was that of the Seeker. Its ghostly form with glowing eyes and dark, hooded cape still haunted her nightmares. To either side of it stood a large demon, both vaguely human-looking. The one on the left had thick, curling horns on either side of its head and a solid bony ridge across its forehead. Oh, and Satanesque cloven hooves peeking out at the bottom of its coarsely made, hide pants. Its chest was bare of clothing, muscular and thickly furred with dark hair; it was also flat, leading Gabi to assume it was a male. Unlike the demon on the other side of the Wraith. This one was most assuredly female, and quite shapely, if you like your women curvy, nude and delicately scaled with the slitted eyes of a snake and a tongue long enough to strangle you. And her hair…well, could anyone say Medusa? Apparently the authors of Greek mythology had some kind of window into the Etherworld.