To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (17 page)

They hit the solid wall hard enough that Gabi was surprised it
didn’t shatter. Her breath evacuated her chest, and black spots
erupted in front of her eyes as her head connected.

“
Gabi,” Julius barked.

His warning suddenly clear in her mind, she gathered the
remains of her addled wits and shoved her bleeding arm in between
Alexander and her throat. He latched onto the offering with the
ferocity of a hyena, and pain exploded as Gabi felt his fangs hit
bone. The world swam in front of her eyes, and it was only her
suddenly rock-steady connection to Julius that kept her from the
precipice of unconsciousness.

“
Stay with me,” he ordered from above, giving her the strength
to fight the pain, the nausea and the encroaching blackness that
swamped her. “He just needs a little more; then I’ll stop
him.”

Gabi forced herself to breathe, drawing in air through her
mouth and concentrating on expelling it again. Through the
distortion in her vision she could already see Alexander’s face
begin to heal, the withered flesh plumping up and changing from
crispy black to a dark, angry red and then to a harsh
sunburn.

“
Alexander, stop,” Julius’s voice resonated from above. The
sharp bite of his power nipped at Gabi’s skin and raised the hairs
on her neck.

Alexander’s eyes finally opened, and he stared at Gabi in
horror and confusion as he quickly released his ravenous grip on
her wrist.

“
Gabi,” he rasped, “I’m sorry. What the fuck?”

“
Never mind that, explain later,” she told him, cradling her
wrist against her chest and grimacing. “You have to get out of the
sun. Can you climb up on your own?”

Alexander blinked, backing away from her and glancing around
the narrow confines of the pit and then up towards where the others
waited. He was looking infinitely better than he had just minutes
before, but still not the picture of Vampire health.

He looked back to Gabi and nodded. “I think so.” Then he
reached for her arm. “Let me heal you a little first. I’m…I’m
sorry. Whatever happened.”

“
Don’t be an idiot,” she groused. “I didn’t bring you back so
you can die out here. Get moving. Julius can heal me later.” She
turned him and pushed him towards the dangling rope.

He gave her one more searching look, then grabbed hold and
nimbly, though not at his usual speed, pulled himself
upward.

“
Julius, take him straight to your car and get back to the
Estate. I’ll follow with Kyle,” she ordered, hoping that
Alexander’s plight was obvious enough for him to do as she
said.

A strong wave of unhappiness clouded their connection, and she
knew he’d accepted the reality of the situation. In the full
onslaught of the midday sun, even a great Master Vampire had to
know when to concede defeat.

The blanket disappeared, and the sun beat down on her head as
Gabi used her one functioning hand to create a clumsy loop in the
rope so the Werewolves could pull her up. She heard Julius bark out
something to Kyle, and then he was gone.

By the time Gabi made it to the top of the pit, the blood loss
was making her light-headed. Combined with the blow to her head and
her savaged wrist, she was feeling pretty damn awful. Kyle caught
her by the arms and hauled her up onto the sparsely grassed ground,
forcing her to sit with her head between her knees while he opened
a bottle of water.

“
Butch,” he growled to one of the other Werewolves, “there’s
an emergency kit under the passenger seat of my van.”

Gabi remembered once doing a patrol with Butch. In fact, Butch
had been driving when they chased some rogue Werewolves and his
beloved car had been shot full of holes that night. She wondered if
he’d forgiven her yet. Kyle passed the water bottle to her, and she
lifted her head long enough to take a drink.

“
Bloody Hell,” Kyle finally exploded, plonking down next to
her, and what else could Gabi add?

She nodded in mute but heartfelt agreement. Butch returned
moments later and hunkered down next to them in the
grass.

“
Give me your arm,” he said to Gabi, already scrabbling
through the kit and pulling out swabs, antiseptic and bandages.
Gabi raised her head again and eyed him suspiciously.

“
He’s okay, Hellcat,” Kyle assured her. “He was a medic in the
special forces back in his heyday.”

“
Hmph,” Butch snorted, “I’m still in my heyday.”

With the pain in her arm growing worse as the adrenalin wore
off, Gabi capitulated without any further argument; she gingerly
placed her mangled limb in Butch’s care. She was beginning to shake
in reaction. Butch tossed Kyle a bottle of pills before setting to
work. Kyle shook several tablets into his palm and handed them to
Gabi, who swallowed them along with another long swig from the
water bottle.

“
Can you even hazard a guess as to who or what would do that
to Alex, or why?” Kyle asked her.

“
Not the slightest clue to the who or the why,” Gabi admitted,
turning to look at Kyle rather than watch Butch’s ministrations.
“But I have my suspicions about what. This has a strange feel to
it, and I seriously doubt another Vampire would’ve been able to
make this pit.” She bit back a hiss of pain as Butch began flushing
the wounds.

“
Geez, I thought only Werewolves did this kind of damage,”
Butch muttered, a tinge of grudging respect in his
voice.

Gabi flashed him a withering look. “It certainly wasn’t
Werewolves,” Gabi continued to Kyle. “Shifters and humans don’t
have the powers required to do this, which leaves only the
Magi.”

“
Why would the Magi do this?” Kyle sounded
outraged.

“
Not our Magi, but the Dark ones,” she clarified.

Kyle paused, thinking. “What would killing Alex accomplish?”
He wore a puzzled expression. “Or why didn’t they just kill him
outright? Why go to this much trouble and leave him here to
die?”

Gabi didn’t have the answers. Her brain was fuzzy with pain
and blood loss.

“
Sounds to me like they’re trying to distract you,” Butch put
in as he placed a dressing pad on Gabi’s arm and began to bandage
it in place. “Keep you looking one place while they get up to
mischief somewhere else.”

“
Shit,” Gabi swore as Butch’s words set her intuitive alarm
bell ringing in agreement.

CHAPTER 11

Gabi was hungry, sore and cranky as Hell on the trip back to
the Estate. She’d barely registered where or how far they’d
travelled to find Alexander earlier, she’d been so focused on
finding him and in what state. The trap had been set in an
abandoned quarry on the south-eastern side of the City, at least
thirty miles from the outskirts of the urban border and, at normal
car speed, more than half an hour’s drive from the Estate. Julius
had covered the distance in a little over ten minutes. But Kyle was
driving his van at closer to the speed limit. He didn’t have
Julius’s ability to mind-wipe any police who stopped them, and his
van didn’t have the Aston Martin’s ability to outpace any police
car in the City. The other Werewolves were going back to SMV HQ for
a quick debriefing, and Gabi knew that she and Kyle should be doing
the same, but first she needed to make sure Alexander was all right
with her own eyes.

Her phone rang, and she muttered a curse when Athena’s name
flashed on the screen.

Kyle glanced over to see who it was. “Be nice,” he said as
Gabi pulled a face. “She was really worried about Alex and pulled
all kinds of strings to get that Tracker to find him.”

Gabi took a deep breath. Kyle was right; she had no reason to
be irritable with the Magus, but Magi weren’t high on her list of
‘people I like right now’. Even if she was certain the City Magi
weren’t directly involved in Alexander’s near demise, she was
beginning to think that Magi politics was the root cause of all the
current unpleasantness.

“
Fine,” she groused, hitting the answer icon. “Athena?” she
said, putting as much polite query in her tone as she could
muster.

When she ended the call, she’d somehow been talked into
letting Athena join them at the Estate. Perhaps it was the catch in
the Magus’s tone, the discernible angst when Gabi had described
Alexander’s condition. Gabi was fairly sure Athena had been close
to tears, a fact that astounded her. Having seen the Magus and
Alexander together several times in the past few weeks, she’d
assumed the relationship was one of sexual gratification rather
than affection or love. She hadn’t thought it possible for anyone,
let alone a Vampire, to have gotten that deep under the ice-witch’s
skin, but it seemed she’d been wrong.

Athena was waiting for them outside the gates to the Estate in
her Toyota Prius. Gabi sighed at the woman’s boring predictability.
The Prius started up and followed them through the gates. Gabi
okayed her with the Werewolf guards on duty, checking to make sure
Julius and Alexander had made it back okay. She was assured they
were at the mansion. Kyle drove to the front of the main house and
cut the van’s engine. Gabi got out rather gingerly, her savaged arm
secured to her chest in a makeshift sling, blood beginning to seep
through the bandages. The lump on the back of her head was the size
of a tennis ball, and Roger Federer was batting that tennis ball
against the inside of her skull. Repeatedly. Gods, how had she
managed before Julius came along, she wondered. It was a good thing
they hadn’t been called to any other emergencies; right now she was
about as dangerous as a three-day-old kitten.

Athena gasped when she took in Gabi’s appearance.

“
Lord and Lady, what happened?” Athena asked, genuine concern
in her voice. Their trip to the Princep’s Court had certainly
changed Athena’s attitude; it was as though she’d become more, for
lack of a better word, human. Three months ago Gabi would’ve laid a
heavy bet against Athena ever losing her pathological dislike of
other races.

“
Alex,” Gabi said shortly.

Athena looked slightly sick.

“
Don’t worry; he’s fine now. We’ll explain inside,” Kyle
interjected, one arm behind Gabi’s back as though he expected her
to fall over at any moment.

She scowled and led the way inside. The interior of the
mansion was devoid of natural light; specialised shutters covered
every window. She could already sense Julius. He was downstairs,
probably in the entertainment room, his anxiety at a much more
normal level; Alexander must be okay.

“
Lea,” he breathed as she found him, at first relieved to see
her, and then, as he took in her state of health, annoyance flashed
through him.

Gabi wondered if it was directed at her or the situation in
general. An instant later she was in his arms, held close, his arms
a protective cage around her as he mentally assessed the damage.
The independent part of her psyche snarled, rejecting his cosseting
attitude, but a more reasonable part overpowered the first
instinct, the part that understood Julius had just watched her put
herself directly in harm’s way. Again. That part knew he was
perfectly justified in showing his concern, reassuring himself she
was still alive and kicking. Another, much tinier, generally
ignored part of her soul actually rejoiced in the feeling of his
strength bolstering hers, of his worry for her and his obvious
protectiveness. It would never be the dominant part of her
personality, but she was trying to nurture the little spark,
encouraging it to grow into a tiny, heartwarming flame. Allowing
herself to take comfort and solace from Julius made both of them a
little more content.

“
Hellcat, I’m so sorry.” Alexander was suddenly near them,
Gabi hadn’t seen his approach at all, and concern was etched across
his features. His skin was still red, with a dark, painful-looking
sunburn, and his head was almost bald, just a faint shadow of new
hair coming through. Dark black crescents marked the skin beneath
his eyes. He was alive, but it had been a very near thing. Seeing
him reminded Gabi that there was a good chance Mariska, and
whatever new friends she’d recently acquired, were creating some
kind of mischief somewhere in the City right now.

“
I think we’re even for grey hairs, Lex Boy, but I owe you
some pain,” she commented wryly, pulling away from Julius slightly.
“There’s someone else to see you,” she told him, nodding back
towards the doorway where Athena was hovering
uncertainly.

In less than a blink Alexander was in front of her, taking her
hands in his and pulling her towards him. Gabi squeezed her eyes
shut. She must be more tired than she thought; she truly hadn’t
seen Alexander move. He disappeared from one spot and appeared in
the next. He pressed a kiss to each of Athena’s hands in turn, no
words passed, but the Magus blushed a pretty, rose pink.

“
Wolf,” Julius said to Kyle, who was behind the bar and
rummaging in the fridge. “There’s food on the way; it shouldn’t be
long. Gabrielle and I will be back with you shortly.”

Kyle nodded, coming away from the fridge with a soda in his
hand.

Julius took her up to his bedroom and sat her carefully on the
bed. His emotions were a mixture of frustration, concern and lust.
If Gabi didn’t feel like she’d just gone ten rounds with a
Werewolf, she would’ve played on the lust. As it was, all she felt
like doing was curling into the blankets and pillows and sleeping
for about a week. Julius finally smiled, sensing her desire to
snuggle up and sleep.