To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (36 page)

“
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 more. 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 each 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.