To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (37 page)

Gabi swallowed, trying to make her stomach stop climbing out
of her throat; the sound of Butch’s dry-retching wasn’t helping.
She concentrated on scanning the shadows, breathing through her
mouth. Unmoving heaps lay stacked up against the walls; ragged bits
of clothing and a few limbs pronounced them human bodies. There
were no signs of life, and nothing in the room was moving. She
glanced at Julius. He too was surveying the mess, but he was
searching for something beyond the physical. He closed his eyes and
turned his head. When he opened his eyes, he pointed a finger
towards the far side of the left wall.

“
There,” he said, in a low voice.

Gabi squinted into the gloom and finally made out an opening
in the far wall. It wasn’t a doorway; it was a hole in the wall. It
looked like it had been knocked through by a wrecking ball. Grimly
they started across the gore-strewn floor, but before they could
reach the other side, three dark forms stepped through to meet
them. The centre form was that of the Seeker. Its ghostly form with
glowing eyes and dark, hooded cape still haunted her nightmares. To
either side of it stood a large demon, both vaguely human-looking.
The one on the left had thick, curling horns on either side of its
head and a solid bony ridge across its forehead. Oh, and Satanesque
cloven hooves peeking out at the bottom of its coarsely made, hide
pants. Its chest was bare of clothing, muscular and thickly furred
with dark hair; it was also flat, leading Gabi to assume it was a
male. Unlike the demon on the other side of the Wraith. This one
was most assuredly female, and quite shapely, if you like your
women curvy, nude and delicately scaled with the slitted eyes of a
snake and a tongue long enough to strangle you. And her hair…well,
could anyone say Medusa? Apparently the authors of Greek mythology
had some kind of window into the Etherworld.

“
The Seeker is mine,” Julius growled. “Stay out of its
reach.”

Gabi wasn’t going to argue with that, but she sincerely hoped
he knew what he was doing.

“
We meet again, Baron,” the Seeker hissed, the orbs floating
in its hood where its eyes should be glowed a little brighter. As
at their previous meeting with the ghostly demon, its words seemed
to fill the air around them rather than issue from the figure
itself. “I ssseeee you have learnt sssomething of your true nature.
I would like to tell you more, but I am currently compelled to
defend my puppet massster.”

“
I’ll be sure to free you of those shackles,” Julius replied,
his implications clear.

A ghostly chuckle vibrated around them, giving Gabi a chill
down her spine.

“
Enough talk,” she spat, “we need to get past you. This is
your first and only warning.”

In reply, the two other demons rushed them. At the same moment
Julius dropped his shield, and Gabi lifted her MacDart. She had no
intention of fighting fair tonight. Four Were-saliva darts struck
the soft facial skin of the male demon, burying so deeply that the
creature would have to dig into his flesh to remove them. Shock
registered on his face, but he kept going forward. Gabi danced
back, keeping his attention focused on her and away from Julius.
She felt Fergus at her side and glanced over to see that Butch and
Charlie had engaged the female, they were dodging her marauding
tongue, but she too had darts embedded in her head and neck. Both
demons were done for; it was now just a matter of wearing them down
and staying out of their way until the darts did their
work.

As Julius faced off with the Seeker, power crackled through
the air, sizzling over Gabi’s exposed skin and raising goosebumps.
She leapt easily out of the path of the horned demon as it charged
her, head down, like a raging bull. As it skimmed by her, she
dropped into a crouch and slashed Nex across the back of its legs,
slicing through skin, muscle and tendon. It roared in fury, trying
to spin back to her, but one leg gave out, and it collapsed to the
ground as Fergus moved in to finish it. A commotion to her left
made her spin. Three more demons spilled from the gaping hole in
the wall.

She spared a quick glance Julius’s way. His jaw was set, his
mouth in a grim line, tendons in his neck straining, his blazing
gaze locked on the Seeker. His hands held out from his body,
fingers splayed as a silent, invisible battle raged. He was holding
his own, and he looked magnificent. Razor’s urgent yowl yanked her
back to her own battle as a thickset, troll-like demon rushed them
swinging a spiked ball on a chain around its head.

Curses streamed through Mariska’s mind as she felt her grip on
the Seeker failing. She reached into herself as the old fools had
shown her, drawing on the well of power she’d fed earlier after
another blood ritual, the well Gemini was supposed to keep filled.
Shock hit her like a physical slap as she realised the well was
nearly dry. There was nothing left to draw on. She needed more
power to strengthen her hold on the Seeker and to call more
servants of dark from the other side of the gate.

“
I need more,” she screamed at the Magi on either side of
her.

“
We have no,”

“
more to give.” The two spoke over the noise of nearby
fighting and the discordant hum of the Demon Gate. Their gazes were
focused on the doorway through which she’d sent the Seeker and its
sidekicks to waylay the bitch Dhampir and her traitorous
lover.

“
What the fuck do you mean, you have no more?” she shrieked.
That was their job; they could draw power from any living thing and
feed on it themselves or pass it to another Magus. “I can’t hold
all of these beasts without more power. Something is trying to
break my control.”

“
You are the PuppetMaster,” one started.

“
you must control them,” the other continued
seamlessly.

“
We must conserve enough power to protect
ourselves.”

“
But if I lose control of them, they’ll kill us all,” she
yelled, wondering if they’d somehow lost what little remained of
their tenuous grasp on reality.

“
No, they will be more likely,”

“
to kill only you and then go hunting for fresh, easy prey,”
Gemini told her emotionlessly.

Wait, what did they just say? Had she heard them right? What
was going on? This wasn’t happening at all like the Elders had said
it would. The old bastards had assured them this was the only way
the war could be won. If the three of them defended the Gate while
the rest attacked the Casti at the Source. As questions overrode
the anger, several things clicked together in her mind, and the
picture that emerged left her reeling.

The Elders never meant for her and Gemini to survive this; the
Elders had figured out they were too strong, too powerful, too
ambitious to be left alive. They’d engineered everything to make
sure that when the dust settled, any rivals to their dominance were
dead. How could she have been so blind? So stupid? To be taken in
by them, to be convinced she’d found her rightful place in the
world. Rage seethed through her. They would not get away with this.
There was one thing the old bastards hadn’t counted on, her innate
ability to escape death and capture. And Gemini? They didn’t care
one iota for her, despite everything. They, too, would pay for
betraying her. If she could just get out of this, she’d make it to
the Source, and once she was close enough to draw on the power
herself, well, they’d all just see what she was capable of after
that. And she wouldn’t leave anything that could aid their
cause.

With one last effort of will, she dredged up the very last
scraps of power from the well and threw a command into the
Etherworld, spreading the net wide, calling, demanding obedience.
There weren’t many demons left in the area near the Gate, but the
six that were, she dragged inexorably towards herself. She could
feel her strength waning, her control fragmenting. As they tumbled
through, she quickly wove the spell compelling them to fight off
the invaders, trusting their lack of complex thinking to keep them
on course even after she ran out of strength to support the spell.
With a painful lash, she felt the chain binding the Seeker to her
shatter, and behind her the air vibrated with energy as her hold on
the Demon Gate faltered. A maniacal laugh burst from her lips as
she broke the spell holding the gate open; then she dived for
cover.

Gabi could hear a woman’s voice shrieking in the other room.
She sounded enraged and demanding. It had to be Mariska. Gabi
dodged a blow from the troll and slammed Nex into its sternum,
kicking its legs out from under it and jamming the MacSpike against
its forehead before pulling the trigger. The fanatical look went
out of its eyes, and its body went limp. Gabi risked a glance
through the gaping hole in the brick wall. Another pair of demons
were running their way, but behind them in a semicircle stood three
people in long, dark robes. Gemini with their pale skin and hair
stood on either side of a plain-looking woman with long, brown hair
and angry eyes. The sight of the woman who’d helped Dantè torture
her brought an unbidden growl from deep in Gabi’s
throat.

Several feet behind them rose a semi-transparent arch
glimmering in the partial light of numerous candles. It touched the
ceiling and spread out wider than the three Dark Magi protecting
it. The Demon Gate was startlingly unimpressive to Gabi’s eyes.
That was until it disgorged another handful of demons. She checked
on her comrades. Butch was holding his own against a hunched-up
demon with a piggy face and long, curling tusks. Charlie had just
finished one off, and Fergus was beheading another with his
MacChopper. Razor had caught a small, flying, batlike demon and was
shaking it viciously. She actually heard its neck snap, and the cat
immediately dropped it, distaste clear on his face.

“
Watch it, more on the way,” she called to them. Just then
Julius swayed forward, almost losing his balance. Gabi reached for
him even though she was metres away. It was a moment before she
realised he wasn’t hurt.

“
We’ll hafff to finishhhh thisss another time, Baron,” the
Seeker hissed. “I am now free. I hafff other mattersss to attend
to.” An instant later it was gone.

“
What the…?” Gabi started, but a sudden change in air pressure
cut her off. Something was going on in the room with the Demon
Gate.

“
Get down,” Julius roared, crossing the distance between them
in a fraction of a second and hitting her like a freight train just
as an explosion ripped through the room. Her head hit the floor,
and pain zinged through her skull, but as the shock wave buckled
the ground under them, she understood his actions.

“
What in Hell’s name was that?” she groaned as Julius rolled
off of her, springing lightly to his feet and dragging her with
him.

“
Hellcat, take the Magi. We’ll handle the demons.” Butch’s
voice rang through the dust and smoke. She turned her head towards
his voice and saw both him and the Vampires picking themselves up
off the ground and facing the already charging demons.

“
You go for Gemini. I’ll take Mariska,” she said to
Julius.

“
You okay?” he checked, reaching for the back of her
head.

“
I’m fine. Let’s go,” she said, a sense of urgency building in
her. Even if her head was bleeding, there wasn’t time to do
anything about it right now. She skirted the demons, jogging
towards the hole in the wall, Razor at her heels. Julius caught up
just as she peered back into the adjoining room.

She heard Julius grunt as they passed through into the larger
room. Gemini were back on their feet, if the explosion had even
taken them by surprise enough to knock them over. And then she saw
it.

“
Holy shit,” she breathed. Where the shimmering arch of the
Demon Gate had been, there was now blackened rubble and another
gaping hole in the wall beyond, only this one bigger than the one
they’d just stepped through. Much bigger.

A growl from Julius snapped her attention to him. He was
gritting his teeth, his eyes, near full black, fixated on the
twins. Mariska was picking herself up off the floor and backing
away, towards ground zero.

“
What’s happening?” she demanded from Julius, but he was
beyond responding to her. Then Razor howled like something
possessed. Gabi spun, and the world suddenly slowed. Each heartbeat
taking an eon, she saw the danger, all too clearly and far too
late. She couldn’t possibly move fast enough to avoid the fatal
blow from the iron cudgel aimed directly at her skull.

CHAPTER 23

The cudgel hit with a sickening crunch. Gabi gasped, expecting
searing agony or the black nothingness of death. But it didn’t
come. No pain, no black, the cudgel hadn’t hit her. Something had
blocked the weapon, something lightning fast.

“
Gabrielle,” an accented male voice breathed. “Are you all
right? Tell me you’re all right.” A cool, muscled body pressed
against hers, sheltering her protectively.

“
Caspian?” she said slowly, disbelief making her question her
sanity. Was she actually already dead? Was this the other side and
Caspian had beaten her there? A nudge at her bruised leg made her
glance down. Razor was head-butting her anxiously, a deep concerned
purr vibrating through her knee.