To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (16 page)

He shook his head. He wasn’t picking up anything unusual
either. She knew his sense of smell was better than hers, but she
began walking through the other parked cars, making sure nothing
smelled wrong.

As she approached her own car, looking over the sleek lines,
it struck her.

“
The Ferrari,” she gasped, spinning back to Julius. “Where is
Alex’s Ferrari?”

Julius looked around quickly, confirming her assessment. All
the other vehicles that should be here were, but the red sports car
wasn’t in the garage.

“
Do you think he might have left it above ground?” She knew
the answer before she asked the question, but she couldn’t help
hoping.

“
No,” Julius’s reply was curt, “it was too close to dawn.
Alexander can’t take the sun yet; he wouldn’t have risked it.” She
felt the sudden whip of Julius’s power beat against her as he
thrust it out, searching. “I told him to come straight back here,
but he’s not here. Where the hell is he?” There was anger in his
tone, but Gabi sensed the fear underlying the annoyance.

“
Maybe he’s with Kyle,” Gabi suggested, but the dread inside
her belied her hopes. She pulled out her phone and hurried for the
steps next to the elevator. She needed a signal to make a call, and
the garage was a dead zone. Julius ghosted after her up the stairs.
As she reached the landing, the phone was already dialling Kyle’s
number.

“
Where else could he be?” Gabi demanded, pacing the length of
Julius’s office.

Kyle hadn’t seen Alexander after he’d left the cathedral car
park, but suggested calling Athena. Athena hadn’t picked up
immediately, but had phoned back within moments of Gabi leaving her
a message. She hadn’t seen him either and sounded instantly
worried. She had just cause to be worried; Vampires didn’t just
disappear that close to sunrise without a very good cause, or
without some kind of foul play. And even more worrying was that
Julius couldn’t sense his whereabouts. A Master Vampire could
generally find any of his Clan members as long as they were within
range, and Julius’s range was huge. If Julius couldn’t feel him, it
was likely he was no longer in the City. The only bright spot to
the morning was that Julius would’ve felt if Alexander had died the
true death. No matter how far away, Julius was adamant, all Masters
felt the death of any Clan member.

“
Something has happened,” Julius said. “Perhaps it’s something
as mundane as that the car broke down and he had to take cover
underground. If he was several floors underground and in his
daysleep, it’s possible I wouldn’t be able to sense
him.”

Gabi knew he was grasping at straws, but she needed a few
straws to grasp at herself. The alarm in her head was still ringing
loud enough to give her a headache. She was grateful she’d taken
the blood from Julius when he’d offered. The pain of her injuries
had lessened to a dull throb, and the fatigue had faded. Julius
didn’t look so good, though.

“
I’m going to call Byron and alert him that Alex is MIA. He
can keep his ear to the ground in case you’re right,” she told
Julius, then took his hand and dragged him towards the door of his
office. “While I do that, you’re going to find a
Feeder.”

He opened his mouth, obviously about to protest.

“
You get a bye today, anyone you like, no restrictions,” she
told him with an attempt at a smile. “Hurry up before I change my
mind.” And with that she shoved him out of the room and closed the
door behind her. She waited until she felt him capitulate and head
down the corridor towards the guest wing, and then she pulled out
her phone.

Gabi couldn’t rest. She couldn’t even sit still long enough to
eat; she’d consumed the burger and fries one of Julius’s staff had
brought in as she paced the length of the office. That she could
eat despite the circumstances spoke volumes about the level of her
body’s need for sustenance.

Her own concern for Alexander was exceeded only by Julius’s.
In sharp contrast to her nervous energy, Julius had gone to that
dead still place only Vampires could go. He looked much healthier
after his intake of blood from a Feeder, but his lack of motion as
he sat in front of his computer monitor was unnerving.

She’d spent some time watching the news on TV and marvelling
at Byron’s inventiveness and his ability to source just about
anything. All the regional newscasts were excitedly reporting the
catastrophic accident near the centre of the City. Shortly after
her and Julius’s departure from the cathedral grounds this morning,
a tanker full of dangerous chemicals had lost control and ‘crashed’
through the cathedral parking area and into the well-known gardens,
destroying large areas of the gardens and even portions of the
adjoining graveyard. People were being urged to stay away as the
chemicals were contained and the area decontaminated. If she wasn’t
so worried about Alexander, she’d have been chuckling at Byron’s
audacity. After a while the newscasts moved onto other stories,
leaving Gabi to fret about Alexander again.

About an hour ago Trish called with the news that they’d
tracked Alexander’s car. It had been found abandoned on the street
just a few kilometres from the cathedral; all four tyres had been
badly punctured. Kyle and the other Werewolves who’d gone to check
it hadn’t been able to find any hint of Alexander, though Kyle
tracked his scent for a few metres from the car before the trail
disappeared. It looked as though Alexander had been taken by
someone in another vehicle, but with the myriad of other scents on
the road, it was impossible to figure out who had taken him. Every
available Werewolf was out scouring the City, but there was little
to be done beside wait for nightfall or hope one of the searchers
struck it lucky.

To distract herself as they waited for news, Gabi found a
small pair of scissors in one of Julius’s drawers and slumped into
a window seat to begin pulling the stitches out of the demon-bite
wound on her arm. It was healed enough to be little more than a
thick scab, and she didn’t want the stitches growing into it. Her
shoulder was itching where newly healed skin had already formed.
She flinched as the phone on Julius’s desk suddenly rang, almost
dropping the scissors. Razor pricked up his ears from his spot on
the chaise longue next to her.

“
Athena,” Julius muttered, coming to life and snatching up the
phone. “Yes,” he said tersely into it.

Gabi was too far on the other side of the room to catch what
the Magus had to say, so she hurried closer, straining to hear.
Relief and distress flooded Julius in a confused flood. He didn’t
say another word to Athena but was suddenly standing.

“
The Magi cast a searching spell. There was some kind of
shield spell around his location, but Athena broke it. The
Werewolves have found him,” Julius told her. His voice was tight
with rage. “We have to go to him now.”

“
What?” Gabi demanded. “Where? You can’t go out now; it’s
almost midday. Tell me where, and I’ll go to him.”

“
I have to,” he insisted tightly. “We’ll go in the Aston
Martin, and I have my protective gear from Savannah.”

Gabi remembered the hat, coat and glasses he’d worn to come to
her side after the sniper tried to kill her and Derek. Now she
understood why he’d been able to wear them in the sunlight;
Savannah’s amazing chemical innovations weren’t limited to cars,
apparently. Gabi didn’t waste time arguing. She could feel the
insane urgency in Julius and knew it was a matter of life or death
for Alexander. She ignored Razor’s plaintiff meow as she sent him
an order to stay put. They were in the car in seconds and driving
out the gates, for once already standing open.

Kyle and three other Werewolves were in a small knot around an
opening in the ground. They were holding a thick blanket over the
opening, shielding it from the sun as best they could. A sturdy
rope lay coiled to one side.

None of them said a word as Julius and Gabi rushed to them.
For a moment Gabi couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. The hole
in the ground was almost six feet wide and Gabi would guess at over
twenty feet deep. It was a perfect cylinder inside, smooth as glass
from top to bottom, and it glinted with the telltale flash of
silver.

“
We can’t touch it,” Kyle said tightly. “He’s too far gone to
help himself out, and we can’t get to him.” Kyle’s wolf was
dangerously close to assuming control. Alexander had quickly become
one of Kyle’s closest friends.

Gabi leaned over a little to see the bottom of the pit,
knowing she didn’t want to see what lay inside. With the sun just
nearing its zenith, there would be nowhere to hide from it inside
the pit. A figure lay curled in a foetal position at the bottom, a
metal stake protruding from his ribcage. The sickening stench of
burned skin and flesh assailed Gabi’s nostrils, making her
gag.

An insane roar startled her. Julius could see and smell all
that she could. The coat and hat seemed to be keeping the worst of
the UV rays from him, but the skin on his face was already bright
red, about to blister.

“
Julius,” she said, alarmed. “Get back to the car. You’ll be
no help to us if you end up like him.”

“
I’m going down to get him,” Julius snarled.

“
No,” Gabi said clearly. “I’m going down to get
him.”

Julius ignored her and prepared to jump, but Gabi caught his
shoulder.

“
He needs blood,” she said simply. “I’m the only one here who
can help him.”

“
I can fetch him out.”

“
As bad as it is down there, there is a degree of protection
from the sun,” Gabi pointed out. “Once he comes up, it’ll be much
worse.”

Julius closed his eyes, his jaw muscles rigid, but Gabi knew
she’d made her point. The Werewolves were already lowering the rope
down the side of the hole.

“
He’ll be like a wild animal, Lea,” he growled. “Do you
remember the pain when you gave me blood after the
explosion?”

Yes, she remembered it very well, in fact.

“
It doesn’t matter,” Gabi said firmly. “It’s Alex. It’s one of
ours down there. And you can stop him; you won’t let him rip me
apart.”

“
You can’t let him near your neck,” Julius warned. “He won’t
know it’s you; he won’t have any control of himself for at least
several seconds.”

Before anyone could give her any more advice, Gabi pressed a
kiss onto Julius’s blistering lips and grabbed hold of the
rope.

Her hurried rappel down the rope was crazy. The walls of the
hole were as smooth as glass and made from some kind of crystalline
substance marbled with veins of high-quality silver. There was no
way a Werewolf could withstand touching the surface. She made it to
the bottom without breaking her neck and immediately fell to her
knees beside Alexander.

There were no signs of life, which wasn’t entirely unexpected,
but didn’t help the anxious knot in Gabi’s chest. She clung to the
fact that if he was already dead, he would’ve turned to dust. As
she made a quick assessment of his condition, she recited the fact
like a mantra to herself. “He’s not dust, he’s not dust. Fuck, pull
yourself together,” she commanded.

He was as close to a corpse as she’d ever seen anyone get
without actually dying. His skin was blistered to the point of
turning black, his face entirely unrecognisable, his tendons tight
enough to turn his hands to claws and fix him rigidly in position.
She blew a sharp breath out her nose, trying to clear the
burnt-flesh stench.

“
The stake first,” Gabi whispered to herself, praying that she
could obey her own directions. She got a solid grip on the stake
and gave a hard yank. It slipped from her grasp, and she fell
backwards. It seemed to be made from the same material as the walls
and was slick with Alexander’s blood. She quickly repositioned
herself, one foot on either side of the stake, and this time
gripped the slick spike with both hands. It took several
heart-stopping seconds of tugging, but it finally shifted a little.
She caught her breath and tried again, this time twisting slightly
as she pulled, and it flew free with a sickening squelch. A muted
groan came from Alexander’s blackened lips, and Gabi flung the
crystal shard away, kneeling over him.

“
Open a vein,” she instructed herself. Shit, she didn’t want
to pull Nex out in these close quarters in case Alexander responded
to the scent of the blood before she could resheath. She hadn’t
come down here to save him only to have him die by impaling himself
on her sword. Her teeth would just make a mess of her own flesh.
“Anyone got a pocketknife?” she called up to the anxious faces
looking down on her.

“
Incoming,” warned Kyle a second before a small, multi-tool
Swiss Army knife dropped towards her.

She caught it and flicked open a small blade. She drew in a
deep breath, bracing herself, then jabbed the narrow blade into one
of the veins of her inner wrist. The pain was sharp, and blood
gushed immediately. Gabi quickly pressed the wound to Alexander’s
mouth. There was no response. His rigid body remained motionless,
the blood dribbling from his ruined lips.

Desperate, Gabi used her free hand to shift him, tilting his
body so that his mouth faced upward. His flesh was deteriorating
with each passing second. She managed to get some blood to stay in
his mouth, and she worked his throat muscles, beseeching him to
swallow. Faint movement, a gurgle and then a convulsive swallow.
Gabi sagged in relief, forgetting Julius’s cautioning words.
Without warning, the blistered, charred thing that was Alexander
lunged upward and slammed into her with the force of a speeding
car.