To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (19 page)

“
Good ploy,” Alexander noted, looking up from his computer
tablet. “Do you think it’ll work?” His second in command was
looking much like himself again. His skin was back to its usual
pale pearlescence; his hair was cropped a little shorter than
normal, but long enough that no one would know he’d been bald just
a few hours ago.

Julius shrugged. “If no one disturbs her. If she allows
herself to relax for just a few minutes, the exhaustion will win.
I’m trusting the pets to do their part.”

“
As long as she doesn’t decide to take the dog for a run
instead of curling up on the couch,” Alexander muttered, standing
and inspecting his hands once again. He’d done it a hundred times
already.

Julius could understand why. He’d seen Alexander’s condition
when Gabi climbed down into that accursed hole. He’d never seen a
Vampire recover from that level of sun exposure. He’d been
convinced that Alexander was already dead. And if Gabi hadn’t been
there, his oldest, closest friend would’ve died the true death
today. Nothing Julius could’ve done would’ve saved him. They both
knew that.

Alexander drew an unnecessary breath and shook his head. “It’s
incredible, isn’t it?”

Julius knew his friend wasn’t just speaking of the healing
powers of her blood. Alexander was experiencing what he’d
experienced the first time he’d taken blood from her.

He’d told Gabi that Alexander was fine and resting. In truth,
Alexander was hyped, unable to sit still for more than a few
seconds at a time.

“
You told me it was like nothing you’d ever known or heard of,
but this…” Alexander continued. “This is indescribable. No wonder
others would kill for this. If any of them knew the true extent…”
He drifted off. Alexander had been quietly protective of Gabi
before, after they found out what she was, but he was going to be
obsessive after this. He might act the devil-may-care male
chauvinist, but he harboured a secret protective streak a mile
wide. Gabi wasn’t going to understand; it was probably going to
piss her off. She felt she had more than enough men in her life
trying to keep her from harm, though Kyle at least had other things
to worry about, and his Wolf was more interested in keeping Trish
safe than Gabi, but Julius more than made up for that
lack.

“
Do you think it’s made me stronger?” Alexander asked.
“Vampire strong, I mean,” he clarified, though Julius already knew
what he was talking about.

“
You know the answer to that,” he told his friend. “You’re
awake in the middle of the afternoon. You have to be at Master
level for that.”

Alexander paced the length of the room, a ball of nervous
energy. Between him and Gabi, Julius was going to need a new carpet
soon.

“
I’ve always healed quickly, better than most Vampires. Do you
think that will be my strength? Like your Vampire control?” He was
excited, but anxious as well. And distracted, too distracted to
notice that he was moving so fast that even Julius had to
concentrate to see his movements. To other supernaturals he’d seem
like a blur, to humans, probably invisible until he stopped
moving.

“
It’s hard to know for sure just yet,” Julius admitted. “Don’t
forget you also just had an intake of Magi blood. Very few Vampires
ever get that honour, so it’s possible there’ll be side effects
from Athena’s blood too. Any changes as a result of her blood may
not be as long term as those that Gabrielle’s blood brings.
Hopefully we’ll know the full repercussions in a couple of
days.”

Gabi hadn’t only saved his best friend, she’d also solved one
of his most pressing personal worries. By fast-tracking Alexander’s
power level to that of Master, she’d unintentionally taken a weight
off his shoulders. He no longer had to fret over what would happen
to his Clan if he wasn’t around to lead them.

“
I’m tending towards thinking your speed of movement will be
your strongest talent, but we have to keep any changes quiet, my
friend,” Julius warned, watching as the other Vampire finally
stilled, thinking it through.

“
Yes, you’re right,” Alexander agreed after a few seconds. “It
wouldn’t be good if others found out. Those who know she’s Dhampir
will know what’s happened. She’ll be in more danger.”

Julius nodded, glad Alexander understood. “It hasn’t been
terribly difficult to hide the increase in my own power level. It’s
been blown out of proportion by the gossips in the past already, so
any unusual abilities I have don’t require explanation. But it’ll
be more difficult for you. You’re going to have to be extremely
vigilant. No one but those closest to us can know.”

Alexander suddenly looked a little daunted. “I’m going to need
your help.”

“
You know you have it,” Julius assured him. “Now, we must
decide who’s coming with us tonight to the meeting the Magi have
called.” Gabi hadn’t just called to tell him about identifying the
Werewolf corpse, she also had news from the Magi High Council.
“They’ve asked that we keep numbers to a minimum and only those we
trust with our lives and the lives of the entire City. It sounds
ominous.”

CHAPTER 12

The mood in the conference room was sombre to the point of
bleakness. It was the largest gathering of different supernatural
races that Gabi had ever seen: the SMV Council, the Magi High
Council, all the current SMV hunters, Gabi, Julius and a small
entourage of his most trusted guards and employees, including
Patrick; extra representatives from the Shape-shifter Elders, who
rarely met with anyone outside their race, and finally the Werewolf
Alliance in its entirety, including Betas and Alpha females. Gabi
had made an executive decision and invited Mac. Byron hadn’t
contested, and Julius and Kyle had backed up her decision. So Mac
was sitting in their little knot of representatives, outwardly cool
and calm, but his accelerated heartbeat and the tension in his jaw
gave away his uneasiness.

Large as it was, there wasn’t enough room at the conference
table for everyone, so only those considered important enough had
seats directly at the table, the rest were relegated to seats
behind the VIPs, some even left standing. No one complained,
though. Gabi, Julius and Alexander were the only ones from the
Vampire contingent not relegated to the back. Kyle next to them was
representing both the Hunters and the Werewolf Alliance. Athena and
Irene, also representing more than one party, were seated between
the SMV members and the Magi High Council. Athena looked drawn and
tired, and not solely from being a blood donor earlier in the
day.

Once people stopped filing through the doors, a pair of
werewolf guards closed them and took up sentinel positions on
either side. Silence descended as Irene stood and began an
unintelligible chant. Gabi felt a slight pressure against her
eardrums and then a light pop as the spell settled over the room,
sealing the room from prying ears and eyes of the non-physical
variety. Irene glanced down at the rest of the Magi Council, as
though for strength, before beginning to speak.

“
Ladies, gentlemen,” she said, turning her gaze towards the
rest of them. “You are all here under the gravest of circumstances.
We have never called a meeting of this kind before, and that is
both a wonderful and terrible thing. Wonderful in that we have such
a strong alliance between all the races, human and other, something
that would’ve been unheard of just a few decades ago. Terrible,
because what we’ve called you all together for is the most serious
threat we’ve faced in many centuries. The threat we’re here to
discuss has the potential to not only affect the City, but every
town and city across the planet.”

She drew a breath, collecting herself. “Some of you already
know that there is something here in the City that the Magi
protect. To us it is known as the Source. It is the strongest pool
of magical energy on Earth. It is the mainstay of power that feeds
the Veil and keeps demons on their side of the Void. It goes
without saying what would happen if control of this resource fell
into the wrong hands. It has been the responsibility of the Magi
High Council and the most senior of us in the City for over three
hundred years. We’ve spent centuries protecting it, keeping its
whereabouts carefully hidden. A task we had been successful at.
Until today.”

She closed her eyes, weariness etched in every line of her
face. “Today its whereabouts was discovered by some of those we
have been seeking to protect it from. Today the Maleficus Mariska
called forth a demon known to us as a Seeker. Our combined forces
dispatched this very demon in the early hours of the morning during
the infiltration attempt at the City Cathedral; we sent it back to
the Etherworld. We had no idea she would try again so soon.” She
shook her head sadly, self-recrimination clear in her expression.
“Mariska’s second attempt was successful. The Seeker was sent on
its mission and returned to its controller with the precise
whereabouts of the Source.”

Gabi felt dread, cold and dark, fill her chest. This was the
mischief the Maleficus was up to while they were chasing their
tails, trying to find Alexander. They weren’t just up shit creek,
they were up shit river, and they didn’t even have a raft let alone
a paddle.

“
What Mariska has been able to achieve is not possible without
a very specific kind of magic. Reports of bloodless non-human
bodies turning up in the City have confirmed our worst fears.
Mariska is using Blood Magic to magnify her powers. We suspect she
has joined with a particularly dangerous group of Dark Magi led by
two who call themselves the Elders and are individually known as
Deimos and Phobos. No one knows their exact origins, when they were
born, or how they came to their knowledge of the arcane, only that
reports of their activities have been filed for more than a hundred
years. They’ve been experimenting with Blood and other Dark Magic
for decades, finding ways to extend their natural lives and magnify
their arcane powers. Drinking the blood of Vampires and using the
blood of Werewolves for Dark Rites has made them far more powerful
than they have any right to be.”

A slight buzz of low, excited voices travelled around the
room. While Gabi and those who’d travelled to the Princeps Court
had found out the truth of the Dark Magi’s use of Blood Magic, most
others were still under the carefully propagated impression that
Magi couldn’t partake of Vampire or Werewolf blood and live. The
Magi present were all stony faced, obviously either having had that
knowledge prior to tonight or having been recently
informed.

Irene ignored the interruption. “The abilities of these
particular Dark Magi are already quite formidable, but if they were
to gain access to the Source itself, they would become unstoppable.
They would have eternal life, unlimited power and unrestrained
access to the demon world. The Dark Elders have been searching for
the Source with increasing urgency over the last few years, so we
assume their time is running out, that they’ve reached the end of
their unnaturally long lives. They will do anything to seize
control of the Source. Mariska has fallen into their hands at
exactly the right time for them, the wrong time for us.”

“
Why have you had no warning of this? What are the Oracles
doing?” one of the Werewolf Pack leaders demanded, a few others
nodding their support of his question.

“
Elder Deimos is incredibly adept at masking spells; we assume
he’s been keeping their activities and intentions carefully hidden.
The Oracles have known of a threat and had seen Mariska being
approached by other Magi, but there was no indication of what her
path would be, or even what they were offering her. They had no
idea her newest union would be such a dark and powerful one. Either
they have taught her to shield as well as they do, or the Dark
Elders themselves are also in the City.”

“
What do you foresee as the worst-case scenario here, Irene?”
Byron asked. “What do these Elders want?”

“
They want to upset the balance of power. They want to be the
ones in control. With infinite power at their fingertips, they will
start by reinvigorating their own health and increasing their own
personal abilities, and then they will start recruiting
supernatural soldiers and bending humans to their will. If they
have Mariska on their side, they will be able to bring in as many
demons as they need to assume control of all the inhabitants of the
City. We fear they’re not concerned with keeping a low profile,
that they have no worries about human casualties or being uncovered
as non-human. The power would enable them to control the mind of
every person in the City. No one on Earth would be able to stand
against them in a direct attack. Their next objective would be to
execute every Castus Magus they could find, then start on other
defenders of the City, like the SMV, the Werewolves, Julius’s
Clan.” She looked at each of them as she spoke. “Once they’d cowed
the population here, we assume they would move onto other cities,
spreading their malicious tentacles to as many places as possible.
Their loyal followers will be rewarded with power beyond measure
and anyone defying them will be annihilated.”

There were a few seconds of shocked silence.

“
So if these Dark Elders can use the power of the Source to do
all of this, why can’t you use the power to stop them from getting
to it in the first place? With all that power at your fingertips,
why do you need us?” Another of the Werewolf Alphas spoke
up.