Raising Hell_A Hellcat World Novel

by Sharon Hannaford

  “It’s Trish,” he said, setting the phone on the table and tapping the speakerphone icon. “Hey, angel,” he greeted her, “what news have you got for us?”

  “Lots of small things, but nothing concrete enough to move on yet,” she said. “Riley’s phone backs up her story and her wolf; there’s nothing to suggest she’s involved in any way.” She took an audible breath. “All three of the suspect flights have turned out to be decoys. Flora definitely wasn’t on any of them. We’ve searched all the traffic cam feeds again and haven’t been able to find the convoy of three vehicles that Jade described, so we’re now running the assumption that they split up, or possibly switched vehicles. Without licence plates, it’s almost impossible to find the right single vehicles. They were smart enough to use three of the most common cars on the road.” She sounded disgusted. “We’ve turned up nothing anywhere on the web about the Patrium or any kind of dark energy wellspring.” Another breath. “And there’s another issue.”

  “What is it, Trish?” Gabi asked for all of them.

  “It’s Riley’s uncle,” she answered. “We’ve been trying to track his whereabouts since this morning. He didn’t make it into work, didn’t call in sick, and hasn’t answered his phone, even when we tried from Riley’s phone.”

  “You think he’s made a run for it?” Derek asked.

  There was a second of silence. “Could be,” Trish conceded at last, “but he hasn’t taken any money from his bank accounts, hasn’t used a credit card all day, there’s no obvious sign of him booking a flight out, and his car GPS says it’s at his home location.”

  Kyle ran a hand over his face. “Yeah, that’s something we need to investigate further, but I’m not sure now is the right time.”

  Trish cleared her throat. “There’s more,” she said, and Kyle knew her well enough to know this was the kicker. “I just sent Steve to go and get some sleep, but before he left, he gained access to the bank records for Deshane’s account that paid money over to Chase’s business account. This account of Deshane’s made payments to several other bank accounts. We haven’t tracked all of them yet, it has been ridiculously difficult to unravel the web of false accounts, but he’s traced the end users of two of the funds so far. One is a small group of biophysicists, headed by a woman called Sarah Montblanc. Sarah goes by the name Wolf Slayer on the dark web and is evidently trying to rid the world of Werewolves by finding a way to quickly and cleanly kill the Lycanthropy virus.” Icy fingers trickled down Kyle’s spine. “The other account belongs to a British corporation that ostensibly trains private security personnel and hires out bodyguards. Beneath the surface, however, it seems they are a vigilante group specialising in eliminating Werewolves.”

  Silence reigned for five full heartbeats as everyone digested this news.

  “So,” Alexander recovered first, “that means that whomever Deshane is working for, and at this point we have to assume it’s the Decuria, they want the Werewolves out of the picture? They want to eradicate wolves globally?”

  “But then why approach Riley’s uncle?” Butch put in. “According to her, Chase never intended to destroy Werewolves.”

  “But she also said that he set out to cure Lycanthropy,” Gabi pointed out. “Perhaps they were in contact with him in the early days of his experiments. Maybe they agreed to fund him before they found out he couldn’t kill the virus without killing the person?”

  “This changes things. We need to go and check on the man,” Kyle said, already trying to work out how many people they could spare. “He could be in serious danger if they think he’s stiffed them.” He couldn’t entrust this to the other Packs, not while they still hadn’t explained the offer Riley had come to them with.

  “Or they could take him and force him to reveal what he understands about the virus.” Tabari spoke up at last. “If they know he figured out how to kill it as well as the host, they may use that to develop their own weapon against the wolves.”

  Trish’s audible little gasp echoed the sudden churning in Kyle’s gut.

  “I’ll go.” Mac’s deep rumble echoed around the room.

  Gabi frowned. “I’m not sure—” she began.

  “It’s my old stomping grounds,” he said, stepping forward to face her. Kyle hadn’t thought of it before; Mac had come from the same city as Riley. He’d been a supernatural investigator in his human days, helping those whose loved ones had been taken, Turned or Changed to find closure. He’d also been in a very complicated relationship with the city’s Master Vampire at the time. Daniela had been several centuries old and had grown increasingly depressed, finally walking into the sun to give herself true death. The new Master had not exactly welcomed Mac’s presence in the same way as Daniela, and when he travelled to the City on a case and fallen in with Gabi and Kyle, he’d just never returned to his own city.

  Mac was still speaking, trying to convince Gabi that he was right for the job. “If you send a Werewolf, they will have to make contact with the local Packs before arriving. That could take days to arrange. The same goes for any other Vampire you send. They won’t be exactly happy to see me, but it won’t cause an inter-Clan war. I’ll just be an old inhabitant coming to see friends. I can be there in two hours. You know this makes the most sense.” He looked from Kyle to Gabi, his grizzled eyebrows raised.

  “Going on your own is very dangerous,” Gabi said at last, unable to come up with any lucid argument to his plan. “We have no way of knowing what you’ll be walking into.”

  “I’m a big boy, Consort.” His moustache twitched as his mouth rearranged into a hint of a smile. “And I survived for forty years as a human against all manner of supernatural critters.” A full smile showed his crooked teeth. “And yes, I know,” he drawled, “if I get myself killed, you’ll bring me back and kill me all over again.”

  Gabi tried to keep the stern scowl on her face, but failed, ever so slightly.

  “Can you lend me a truck?” Mac asked Kyle.

  “One with sun protection,” Gabi interjected like a concerned mother.

  Kyle inclined his head in Butch’s direction; his Enforcer oversaw transportation. “Keep us posted,” he told the Vampire as the pair left the room.

  Gabi paced to the whiteboard on the far side of the room, her boots making little sound on the heavy carpet. The board was covered with handwritten notes, hesitant arrows, red circles and question marks.

  “You said something about investigation, Alex,” Kyle prodded the Vampire. He knew Alexander wasn’t just here on a courtesy call; the man had something to share with them.

  Alexander relaxed a little, removing his coat and draping it over the back of a chair. “Athena and I scoured the small, but eclectic, library that Julius and I have collected over the years. Something began niggling at me as soon as I heard of the Patrium Nocte; I knew I had read something that was similar to that name. We found a scroll by a prophet who lived in the second century. Julius and I can read several versions of Hebrew, but this scroll seems to have been written in Mishnaic Hebrew, which neither of us has studied. There were a few words that I recognised, some that I could loosely translate, and one of the things that is repeatedly mentioned in this scroll is a place referred to as the pool of deepest and most eternal night.”

  “That sounds suspiciously like the Patrium Nocte,” Gabi said, perking up from her glum appraisal of the whiteboard.

  “That’s what Athena and I thought,” Alexander replied.

  “And did the scroll tell you where to find it?” Derek demanded.

  Alexander grimaced. “As I said, it’s written in a rare form of Hebrew. Athena has taken the scroll back to the High Council. She thinks one of their scholars will be able to translate it further.”

  “If the guy wrote this prophesy in Hebrew in the second century,” Trish’s voice came from the phone, “that could mean the Patrium is somewhere in the Middle East. It would narrow down our search parameters.”

  Gabi added a new note to the board.
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br />   “Was there anything else you could glean from the scroll? Anything at all?” Trish asked.

  “There was something else, but I’m not sure that the connection I made is correct,” Alexander replied. “I would rather have it confirmed by someone who knows more than I do.”

  “Spit it out,” Gabi threw over her shoulder.

  Alexander hesitated, debating.

  “Now,” she grumbled, turning to glare at him.

  “It also named the place of light and purity,” he told them.

  “The Source,” Gabi said.

  “Could be,” he conceded. “It seemed to refer to them as being alongside each other, as two different trees growing from the same roots.”

  Silence met his revelation.

  “So, if you read it right, the Patrium is close to the Source?” Kyle asked, trying to tamp down his growing sense of hope.

  “Or it just means they are both born of the leylines,” Tabari interjected, the bitter voice of reason. “The lines, they are all connected. These two could be on opposite ends of the world and still draw energy from the same leylines.”

  “You know, something’s been bugging me since we heard of the Patrium.” Derek spoke up again. “Why did Mariska and the Dark Elders risk everything trying to get to the Source if they had their own version of a magical energy source? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Kyle frowned, he hadn’t made that connection, but Derek had a very good point.

  “It would make perfect sense though if the two were near each other. Could it be that they weren’t, in fact, after the Source, but searching for the Patrium?”

  Too many questions, not enough answers—Kyle was ready to tear his hair out.

  CHAPTER 16

  Kyle’s phone rang in his pocket, making him start. The last two hours spent in Haven’s war room had been an exercise in frustration. Convoluted inscriptions had been drawn on the whiteboard, and remnants of coffee and dinner adorned the conference table where Gabi lay with her head resting on her arms, Razor curled up next to her. Her eyes were closed, but she wasn’t asleep. Tabari and Alexander paced either side of the room while Derek sat tapping his right foot against his prosthesis. Kyle pulled the phone out, relieved when he saw it was Ben.

  “Yes?” he answered.

  “The Lady Athena is outside. She would like to meet with you,” his Sentinel said.

  “Yes, of course, let her in, and send someone to escort her to us,” he replied. “Oh, and mind your manners if you know what’s good for you.”

  A nervous half-laugh came from the other side of the phone before Ben disconnected. Kyle looked up to see Alexander regarding him with amusement.

  “She wouldn’t really turn them into earthworms, you know,” the Vampire told him with a smirk.

  “I know,” Kyle returned the smirk, “but it’s good to keep them on their toes, make them exercise decorum. They’ve come to see Gabi as a friend and comrade, so I need a new boogieman to scare them with.”

  “She would like that idea.” Alexander chuckled.

  “What idea?” the woman in question demanded, striding into the room, followed by Butch at a discreet distance. The Magus looked less tired than the last time Kyle had seen her, but it was possible the exhaustion was simply masked by the aura of fury that whirled around her. Her rage bit at him, calling to his wolf, as it would be to Derek’s and Butch’s as well. Gabi rose to her feet with a frown creasing her forehead, and Tabari stopped pacing, automatically moving closer to Gabi.

  “The one that you are big and scary and should be feared, my love.” Alexander smoothly placed himself in front of Athena, effectively blocking her from the rest as Butch prudently hung back in uneasy silence.

  “Tell that to the rest of the old fossils that make up the High Council,” she seethed, venom dripping from her voice. “They clearly think I am too much of a child to bother sharing everything with me.”

  “Take a breath,” Alexander said in a calm but warning tone. “You are in a room with three Werewolves who can taste and feel your anger. You are in a building full of other, less-controlled Werewolves who are on edge and ready for battle. If they are not the ones you are directing your annoyance at, you need to take a step back, for all our sakes.”

  Athena leaned to her right, looking around Alexander at the rest of them, her gaze finally stopping on Gabi.

  “Is he right?” she asked Gabi, annoyance now tainting the flavour of her fury.

  Silently Gabi nodded, her tension clear in the way she stood and the way her eyes kept flicking towards the door, as though waiting for someone to burst through. Kyle didn’t think any of his Pack were quite that uncontrolled, but this was an anxious time. Few of them had experienced this level of uneasy alertness. It would be better if Athena calmed down.

  Athena closed her eyes and visibly took a deep breath, the furore whirling around her beginning to abate, like a storm passing overhead, and moving away.

  “My apologies, Alpha,” Athena addressed Kyle a minute later when the air had become less thick and her anger had been dialled back to a simmer. Alexander moved to her side, no longer blocking her way. “I never meant to cause you or your Pack distress.”

  “Thank you for understanding, High Magus,” Kyle returned formally. His wolf whuffed in irritation but settled back to observe.

  “Oh, get over it, you two.” Gabi sounded so exasperated by their formality he could practically hear her eyes rolling. “What in the blazes has you so riled up, Athena?”

  “The Elders,” she spat the words, clearly differentiating herself from the other four members of the High Council. When Athena had been given a seat on the most prestigious Magus Council in the country, she’d been the youngest High Councillor in history, but she’d been backed by her mentor Irene, a powerful, no-nonsense Magus who had probably bullied the others into allowing Athena her seat. Irene had been a casualty in the battle for the Source, when Mariska, the Dark Magus and Breanna’s biological mother, had tried to breach the protective zone around the Source using an army of Dark Magi. Since Irene’s demise, Athena had been the lone voice of modern-world reason on the Council and was often overruled by the others, who were still largely governed by tradition and prejudice.

  “What have they done this time?” Gabi asked, keeping her tone mild and her expression bland.

  “They’ve been hiding information,” Athena snarled. “I’ve been a part of the Council for over five years, I’ve done as much as any of them to stabilise the ranks, recruit more Magi to our cause, keep everything running smoothly, and they still keep things from me.” Her voice had risen at least an octave, and her annoyance flared once again.

  Kyle and Gabi exchanged a look. “What kind of information?” Gabi dared to ask, leading her away from her personal grievances.

  “Information about the prophesy,” she hissed. “They know there are at least three different versions of the prophesy. Besides our own, known as the Castius Prophesy, there is also the Dark Prophesy, which we had begun to suspect, but now I find out there’s a third, the Demon Prophesy.”

  Kyle jerked in shock. “Did you just say the Demon Prophesy?” Kyle was sure he hadn’t heard correctly.

  “Yes.” Athena exhaled loudly. “There is apparently a version of the prophesy on the other side of the Veil. There is no copy of it on this side of the Veil, but there are mentions of it in several of our books and scrolls.”

  A strong sense of déjà vu washed over him. “The Seeker,” he said, as the memories solidified in his mind. He looked over at Gabi, at the dawning look of understanding crossing her features. A wraith-like demon that was able to track anything anywhere, it could kill or blind with a violent blast of energy. Seekers were the reason they had the strongest magical wards known to the Magi race protecting the main House at Haven. A Seeker had threatened to find and kill the Light one on the day that Breanna was born.

  Gabi’s eyes narrowed in thought as she nodded. “The Seeker was always talking about a pro
phesy. Mariska and Dantè and the Dark one were all part of it; even Julius, Kyle and myself were supposed to be involved. It sounded as though they were following directions based on this prophesy.”

  Athena nodded. “They always spoke in riddles, never seeming to make much sense, but if this information is correct…it has to be the Demon Prophesy the Seeker was referring to.” Kyle could almost see the wheels beginning to spin in the Magus’s mind. “You see, each prophesy boils down to a list of instructions for how each side can affect the final outcome in their own favour. If you understand your own instructions, obviously that’s a great start, but if you know the details of the other prophesies, you can predict what the others will do to try to claim the win for themselves.”

  Gabi had moved away from the table and begun to pace. “I fully understand the Castius Prophesy and the Dark Prophesy. There are two children, two Sources; one will win.” Gabi was frowning. “But how in Hell’s teeth does a third prophesy, involving demons, come into this? Is there another child that we don’t know about? Do they have their own champion? Does their prophesy involve the deaths of both children?”

  “It’s impossible to say for sure without an actual copy of the prophesy.” Athena shook her head.

  “Think of it like this.” Alexander was still standing near Athena, but his expression had turned thoughtful, his gaze unseeing. “The Decuria and the Dark Magi may like disorder and unrest, but what chance would they have of controlling a demon army the size of what resides on the other side of the Veil? Given free rein to our dimension, the demons could easily overthrow not just us, but them as well. The only way to prevent that would be to erect their own version of the Veil if they were to win. But the demons would need the Veil to stay down in order to prevail.”