There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) (23 page)

Eka shrugged
slightly and answered, unaware of her distraction. “I can’t give
you a definitive answer to that, though if both were needed, it
would explain the genuine rarity of the species, but that is pure
speculation. I also have no idea if the mother would need to be
full Magus, or if diluted Magus heritage would be enough.
Information on this was scarce at best, even back then.”

“
What’s wrong?” Julius was alert to her unease.

“
I don’t know.” She shook her head, trying to concentrate.
“Something isn’t right.” She turned fierce eyes on Eka. “What are
you playing at?” She pointed Nex at him. “I will kill
you.”

“
I swear, on Flora’s life,” he held up his hands in a calming
gesture, “I have followed our agreement to the letter. The only
people I have here are those you’ve seen. I want us to all leave as
we arrived.”

“
Sire,” Fergus’s voice boomed. Gabi and Julius were both out of
their chairs instantly. “Sicarius is here; he insists on seein’ ye
all now.”

Razor charged
into the cave, straight to Gabi, his fur fluffed in anger, alarm
vibrating off him in waves. The assassin appeared in the entrance,
one hand on the rough doorway. He was gasping for breath as though
he’d been sprinting. Gabi could make out cuts and bruises on his
face and hands; he’d torn through the forest undergrowth with
little heed for himself. Adrenalin flooded her as Julius’s ward of
silence popped.

“
They’ve…found us…” Sicarius managed between rasping
breaths.

“
Who?” Gabi demanded as Eka said, “The others?”

Sicarius nodded
before doubling over and dry-retching.

“
It’s the other Decuria,” Eka told them, urgency hardening his
tone. “I don’t know how they’ve found us. They’re getting bolder by
the week.”

“
So now what?” Gabi hissed.

“
Take your people and get away from here as quickly as
possible,” he said, appearing calm, but the tension was back in his
shoulders. “They can’t know we spent time swapping information.
I’ll send Sicarius back to you as security for Tabari’s safe
return. If you need to get word to me, make use of Astrid;
otherwise I shall be in contact in two months.”

Gabi and Julius
both hesitated. Neither wanted to let Tabari go with the
Decurian.

“
Sire, I can hear them; they’re close,” Fergus
warned.

“
Sicarius will only slow you down,” Eka warned. “If you believe
nothing else about me, believe that I won’t do anything to risk
Flora’s long-term protection.” He was right about the assassin
slowing them down. Reluctant agreement merged in her mind along
with Julius’s. She took a precious moment to check Razor’s armour,
making sure he knew to stay close, and then ran for the cave
entrance, Julius a step behind her.

“
One last thing,” Eka called. “Ask Cassandra about the Mole. He
is your key to finding the Dark Magus and the thief.”

Gabi stopped in
her tracks as Julius sailed past her, the cryptic sentence
reminding her they hadn’t got everything from Eka that they
wanted.

“
Go,” Eka snapped, and Julius grabbed her elbow, dragging her
after him.

They flew
through the forest, careening downhill at twice the speed they’d
climbed up the mountain. Fergus in the lead, following their
previous trail by scent, Razor on his heels, Gabi behind him,
Julius and Mac bringing up the rear. It had been hard leaving
Tabari behind. She had hesitated again once out of the cave, and
only Tabari’s hand, protective around Flora’s shoulder, had finally
convinced her to go. Moments after they’d begun the headlong dash
down the mountain, they’d heard the low hum of a helicopter, its
pitch different from the one Butch had been piloting for them.
Either Eka was escaping the easy way, or there was a fight brewing
at the ruins. Gabi had very nearly turned back, but Julius had put
a hand on her shoulder and thrust her forward again.

She knew he was
right. They were vulnerable with just four of them and Butch
somewhere near the base of the mountain. Eka had more fighters with
him and the upper hand as Decuria Number One, but it still left her
uneasy. And then all her attention was on not tripping and breaking
her neck or dislocating her knee again.

She’d
underestimated the amount of concentration needed to run down a
mountain in the pitch dark. She found it impossible to scan ahead
for supernaturals while dodging fallen trees, hanging vines and
slippery mud puddles. She slowed every few minutes at first to run
a quick mental sweep, but half an hour into their mad dash she’d
become complacent. Julius had edged ahead of her, using his body to
open a pathway for her. Her more-human lungs were burning, her leg
muscles screaming in protest, and her face and hands stinging from
a hundred minor cuts and bruises. It was taking everything she had
to keep putting one foot in front of the other in a steady rhythm.
Gradually she fell back until she could only hear Julius ahead of
her, not see him. Razor had slowed as well, staying just ahead of
her while Mac still held his position a few feet behind her.

“
Lea,” Julius barked a warning several metres ahead of her, but
his warning came too late.

In the instant
that she ground to a halt she threw her Vamp sense out in a
desperately wide net.

“
Fuck,” she whispered through gasping breaths and walked the
final few steps into the clearing where the helicopter
waited.

At least three
dozen people filled the small glade: Vampires of varying strength
and maturity and Werewolves, lots of Werewolves, male and female,
their eyes hard and triumphant in the gloom of night. A large black
wolf with silver-tipped ears and tail hunched on the damp ground
near the chopper, growling softly. A dagger protruded from between
his shoulder blades, buried to the hilt. By the simple fact that he
wasn’t able to remove it, Gabi knew the dagger was silver. Butch
was being poisoned. Worse than that, Fergus was lying prone on the
ground, several plain-handled daggers protruding from his chest,
and Julius was on his knees. A man stood over him, his hand on the
ivory hilt of a dagger, the tip of the blade buried in Julius’s
chest, exactly where Nex had been in Eka’s chest less than an hour
before. Both men’s eyes were on her. Julius’s face was calm, his
thoughts to her reassuring.

Anger,
confusion and guilt sliced through Gabi; the anger won out. “What
is the meaning of this?” she roared. “Who dares to touch what is
mine?” She advanced into the clearing, stalking closer to Julius
and his attacker, Nex a cold comfort in her right hand. Mac flanked
her left, a MacDartgun in one hand and a MacSpike in the other.
Razor was a warm, dark presence at her right ankle.

The male
Vampire holding the dagger in Julius’s chest bared his teeth
warningly, bringing her to a halt before she reached striking
range. He was lean, not much taller than Gabi, with dark,
close-cropped hair and dark, designer stubble. He could’ve been any
age between twenty and forty. His bearing was self-assured and his
eyes held a cruel edge.

“
A local Pack contacted us for assistance when they received
reports of invaders in their area.” Dark brown eyes ran an
assessing eye over her and Mac; they never lowered to Razor.
Condescending amusement lifted the corners of his full
mouth.

Gabi’s mind
raced. How had Julius and Fergus not sensed them waiting? It was
impossible they’d run into this trap so easily. A chuckle echoed
through her mind.

Several swear
words popped into her head, but none of them were strong enough to
encapsulate her sentiments at that moment; she’d have to learn some
new ones. Julius would pay for this, but at least she could drop
the sense of guilt.

“
My Consort asked you to explain yourself.” Julius’s voice was
so low and so menacing it drew a shiver down Gabi’s spine. “You
have exactly five seconds to do that.”

“
Or what?” the shorter man threw at Julius, looking at him with
disdain. “I get to kill you quicker?”

“
Three seconds.”

“
Just because it is your dying wish.” The man sighed
dramatically. His accent sounded Middle Eastern, but Gabi couldn’t
pinpoint it exactly. “I am Zayden. I am here to clean up the mess
Eka is leaving behind. And you,” he inclined his head towards Gabi,
“can decide whether your lover dies quick and easy or slow and
tortuously.” Enmity dripped from each word. “You can come with us
meekly, or you can come with a fight. But now you are
ours.”

“
Zayden?” Gabi asked, the name registering. “Decuria Number
Seven?”

“
Ah, you have heard of me.” He lowered his head in a faint bow.
“I am honoured. I hate to kill and abduct people who don’t know my
true identity.” The power swirling around Julius had become a
vortex so strong Gabi was finding it hard not to take a step
backwards. The Decurian had to be the child of a Null not to sense
it.

“
Tell me, Zayden,” she began, then lowered her voice to a husky
whisper, “what did you do to draw the short straw?”

Confusion
briefly softened his features, and then his sneer regained control.
“This is no short straw, as you call it, I am merely on clean-up
duty. It’s an unpleasant job, but somebody has to do it.”

Gabi actually
snorted, it wasn’t very ladylike, but this guy was so deluded it
was laughable. His sneer turned to a glare.

“
Have you paid
any
attention to the rumours of what my Consort is capable of?”
she asked, but it was rhetoric. If he had any idea, he would’ve
tried to twist the dagger and remove Julius’s head
already.

“
He can control Vampires,” Zayden said with a sarcastic edge to
his voice. “Only weak, young Vampires, it would seem. I brought
only strong, mature Vampires, and then, of course, there are the
Werewolves. Make up your mind: quick or slow.” He shifted the
dagger slightly, and a dark patch blossomed on Julius’s
shirt.

Gabi shook her
head, playing along as she had a slightly surreal telepathic
conversation with Julius.

Gabi:
Nearly twenty Werewolves?
There’s no chance I can control them all.

Julius:
Yes, you can. You are
stronger than you believe.

Gabi:
But what if I can’t?

Julius:
You can. But there is always
Fergus, Mac and Razor to back you up.

Gabi:
This is going to be a royal
fuck-up. If you die on me…

Julius:
In three…two…

“
Don’t say I
didn’t warn you,” Gabi said aloud to Zayden, and then she flung
open every box filled with the anger, worry and guilt from the past
three days and gathered them into a roiling ball of fury.
One
, Julius whispered in
her mind.

CHAPTER
13

To an outside
observer very little happened in the clearing at the bottom of a
rugged Mauritanian mountain filled with Vampires, Werewolves and
one pissed-off Dhampir, but beneath the surface all hell broke
loose.

Behind a
kneeling Julius, Zayden stiffened, his sardonic sneer turning to
open-mouthed horror. The sensation of biting ants marching over
Gabi’s skin was distracting, but she ignored it as she poured her
furious ball of emotional energy into the delicate connections she
could sense attached to each Werewolf in her immediate vicinity.
She quickly and carefully singled out the enraged and pain-ridden
wolf that was Butch and calmed him, compartmentalised his presence
off to a safe zone, and then she released the torrent of
emotion-driven will into the others.

“
Submit,” she yelled aloud, and half the army around her
dropped whatever weapons they were holding and howled. Some arched
backwards, some collapsed forward, and others fell to their knees.
She’d never experienced such an insane amount of power over another
creature. Until a few months ago she didn’t even know she could
take control of a Werewolf. Her first attempt had been pure
instinct driven by a desperate situation, and it had taken every
ounce of strength she had to hold Derek stationery and convince his
wolf to back down. Now she was controlling nineteen fully mature
werewolves, binding them to her will, and she was still standing.
Her teeth gritted against the strain, and she spared a sliver of
concentration to check the clearing.

Julius was back
on his feet, the ivory-hilted dagger held loosely in his right
hand, blood darkening the blade as Zayden knelt in the damp grass,
his head bowed. The other Vampires stood still as death, their
hands hung loose at their sides, and their expressions were vacant.
Mac was standing a few feet from Butch, Razor beside him and the
silver knife in his hand. Both were keeping a wary but protective
watch over the black wolf that now lay on his side, panting and
growling. Fergus was getting to his feet. The pale light from the
sickle moon glinted off the collection of knives and daggers lying
in the bloodstained grass near him.

The low
position of the moon reminded Gabi that they didn’t have very much
time before sunrise.

“
So now what, Sherlock?” she threw at Julius, her voice coming
out hoarse and growly as renewed sweat broke out on her forehead.
“I can’t hold them for long.”

“
Just keep them human,” Julius said, and the telltale prickle
of his power teased her exposed skin again. Each of Zayden’s
Vampires suddenly started walking. Moving like sleepwalkers, they
formed a loose circle around the contorting Werewolves; slowly but
inexorably they began to prod and poke the wolves until they
gathered them into a small knot in the centre of the glen. The
Vampires had closed ranks and stared at the wolves, their
intentions clear. Fergus approached the circle. He’d retrieved the
silver knife from Mac and was tossing it end over end in his left
hand.