To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (38 page)

“
Yes, I’m fine,” she reassured him, giving him a quick
pat.

“
Good.” Caspian’s accented voice sounded relieved.

“
Uh, thanks,” she said, still befuddled, but realising that
somehow the Spanish Vampire was actually here. And had just saved
her life. A roar from Julius made Gabi pull her thoughts together.
One look at him and Gemini and it was clear there was a brutal
unseen battle raging. Fire danced across his open palms, and the
twins had a hand on each other’s shoulders. She looked around for
Mariska and saw the back of a dark robe disappearing through the
enormous hole in the stadium wall. Behind her Caspian was finishing
off the demon who’d almost killed her, and the other two were
entangled with the last of the remaining demon horde. Fire suddenly
leapt up around Gemini, surrounding them in a tight
circle.

“
GO!” Julius roared at her. “I have them.”

Gabi wasn’t sure about that; despite being surrounded by an
eight-foot wall of magical fire, the look on the faces of the twins
wasn’t one of fear. In fact, they looked supremely confident
despite the tinge of mania. They were working up to something. She
was torn; the thought that Mariska was about to escape them yet
again countered by the idea of leaving Julius to take on two of the
most dangerous Dark magi in the world, alone.

“
I’ll go with her.” Caspian spoke up.

“
No, you won’t,” Julius snarled, and the wall of fire flared
higher. “You’ll stay here, well away from her.”

Gabi knew there wasn’t time to argue; she knew she was just
distracting him now.

“
Fergus,” she yelled, and the scarred Vampire immediately
turned her way as he lopped the head off another demon. “Watch
Caspian, and don’t let him get too close to Butch or Julius. Raz,
you too.” She didn’t know what the Spaniard was doing here now, but
despite his just saving her life, she didn’t trust his motives,
especially when Julius’s back was exposed.

“
Go on, lass,” Fergus boomed from across the room.

She turned and closed the distance between her and the
Spaniard. His arm was a bloody mess where the cudgel had struck him
instead of her head, but she raised Nex to his chest. “I don’t know
what game you’re playing, and I don’t have time to work it out, but
touch him and I’ll carve your heart from your chest myself.” She
allowed the truth of her statement to saturate every
word.

Caspian’s eyes flashed in annoyance, and Razor gave an
unmistakable warning growl from his position at her side. She
reaffirmed her command to Razor, blew Julius a mental kiss, and
took off in pursuit of the fleeing Maleficus.

She leapt the ruins of the outer wall recklessly. Mariska had
a couple of minutes head start, and Gabi knew she had a habit of
getting away from dangerous situations and disappearing. Gabi
wasn’t letting her run away from this one. Unfortunately the hole
in the wall opened nowhere near to where Trish and Derek waited in
the van, and Gabi wouldn’t know where to send them, not knowing the
outskirts of the stadium very well. She’d have to follow the Magus
on foot for now. She paused as she hit the cool night air,
listening, breathing, opening all her senses. She heard a quiet
sound to her left and took off in that direction. In the space of a
few heartbeats she could just make out a shadowy figure running
through the dark.

She followed; it was all she had. Soon she was gaining on the
fleeing figure, and she could make out long, tangled hair streaming
out behind the running silhouette, confirming Gabi’s suspicions.
She put on another burst of speed, pushing herself until her lungs
began to burn. When she got within a hundred feet of Mariska, the
Dark Magus glanced back over her shoulder. Her eyes grew first
wide, then narrowed. She slowed from her headlong run, lifted her
arms upward and flung them both down in a dramatic gesture. Gabi
couldn’t stop quickly enough to avoid the sinkhole that appeared in
front of her. The ground simply ceased to exist under her feet, and
she dropped, yelling, into a large crater. Desperately she spun her
body, grabbing for the jagged edge of tarmac and finding purchase
with just the fingertips of one hand as her body slammed into the
compacted earth wall, knocking most of the air from her
lungs.

“
Fuck,” she cursed, though it came out more as a hoarse rasp,
spitting dirt from her mouth. It took precious seconds to swing her
body back up and onto solid ground. She gasped in a ragged breath,
coughing and blinking dust from her eyes. The cloaked figure was
nowhere to be seen. “Double fuck,” she yelled disgustedly. It was
more satisfying when the swear words came out clearly. Then she
heard a vehicle’s tyres squeal. It was a block or two away, but she
set off in that direction, her boots barely touching ground as she
sprinted.

A man stood in the middle of the road, looking both astonished
and pissed off. He was wearing blue overalls unzipped over casual
clothing, and his boots were clearly of the safety-boot variety. He
was either on his way to or from a work shift. He scrubbed a hand
through his hair, cursing.

“
What happened?” Gabi asked, slowing to a walk as she
approached him.

The man gave a startled yelp and turned surprised eyes on her.
“Ah, I just got hijacked,” he said in a disgusted tone. “I probably
shouldn’t even say this aloud, but by a woman too.” It sounded like
the fact it had been a woman was worse than the hijacking
itself.

“
What car?” Gabi demanded.

“
A red Dodge truck,” the man replied.

“
Which way did she go?” Gabi asked.

“
Down the road and left at the lights,” he said.
“Why?”

But it was too late. Gabi was already running down the road in
the direction he’d indicated. She made it to the lights just in
time to see taillights turning another corner onto a long, main
arterial road that led to the freeway. It was a good thing Mariska
wasn’t driving a sports car, but she’d still be faster than Gabi on
foot. It would take too long for Trish and Derek to find her.
Quickly she scanned the parking lots of the factories and
warehouses around her, searching for alternatives. The gods smiled
on her as she spotted a motorbike in one of them. Kyle had taught
her how to hotwire a bike a couple of years ago, though it was only
something you could do quickly to certain bikes, mostly the older
ones. What she’d spotted was a Fireblade, an old model.
Perfect.

It took her two precious minutes to pull the wires she needed
and spark them together, but the motorbike roared to life, sounding
good for its age. She was sorry to be taking it from its owner; it
looked well loved. Not something she could worry about now. She
mounted and revved the engine. Satisfied with the high-pitched
whine, she dropped it into gear and sped off, crouching low over
the fuel tank as her hair was instantly torn from its pins. She
leaned into the corners, quickly getting a feel for the bike’s
handling, wishing she had some glasses as tears whipped from her
eyes in the rushing wind. She hoped to god her intuition was right
about where Mariska was heading. Something about her attitude told
Gabi she wasn’t running away this time; something whispered to Gabi
that Mariska was heading to the main fight. And if the Maleficus
was heading there, it was for no good reason. Gabi would have to
make sure she never reached the Source.

She wove through the light traffic, scanning for police. She
didn’t want to be pulled over for riding without a helmet, but the
cops seemed to be elsewhere tonight. Perhaps Byron had them
otherwise occupied, or perhaps it was because this was so far on
the outskirts of the City that they didn’t bother with patrols.
This time of night very few people were heading out this way. It
was the direction you took to go hiking or cycling in the outdoors
on weekends and holidays. It wasn’t a long drive to the Source from
the stadium; as the crow flew it was even shorter. Athena had told
her that the convergence of ley lines that made the stadium such a
supernatural hot spot was, in fact, one of the main power feeds to
the Source. At least four others existed close by as well, but they
were too far underground to have their effects felt above
ground.

Just before the off-ramp that would take them to the mountain
reserve that hid the Source, she caught up with the red Dodge
pickup.

Caspian cursed silently in every language he knew, and he knew
several. He’d thought he’d timed it perfectly, lying in wait and
following them on their top-secret mission. The high and mighty
Julius had been too preoccupied to bother sending someone to find
him. If he’d even sensed Caspian’s return to the City, but it
seemed unlikely that he hadn’t. Through his enthralled Werewolf,
he’d learnt about the threat to the Magi and the plan to fend off
the Dark Ones, and had known it would be the right time to reinsert
himself into the fold. When everyone was too busy worrying about
other things to worry about him. And he had his backstory ready. It
was so finely tuned he almost believed it himself. But despite his
saving the Dhampir’s life, she seemed to suspect his feelings for
his Sire. It had somehow already driven a wedge between
them.

He glared at the back of his Sire, hatred seething through his
chest. The man had only grown in power since his appearance at the
Princep Court, way beyond what anyone at Court would believe. His
Werewolf spy hadn’t been privy to exactly what was going on with
the Vampire Master, but there was no doubt that something was. If
he didn’t know better, he would say the man was also a Magus, but
that was impossible. There was only one Vampire Magus in the world.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t noticed Benedict at Court while he’d
been eavesdropping. Where was he? Was he the one doing this, aiding
Julius?

He searched the shadows around the room, but turned up nothing
besides the Vampires watching him with suspicious eyes, the
Werewolf finishing off the last of the demons, and the dratted cat.
Julius’s face showed strain as the twin weirdos stood in the circle
of flame with insane grins on their faces. But as he watched, he
could see the strain behind the hideous smiles of the Dark Magi,
the tightness of their knuckles where they gripped each other, and
slowly he realised that the fire surrounding them wasn’t protecting
them; it was closing in on them. The one who had control of the
fire was Julius. The truth hit him harder than the cudgel had, like
a direct blow to the chest. His Sire wasn’t just a powerful
Vampire—he’d sworn unwilling fealty to a Vampire Magus, probably
one of the most powerful beings on the planet. The unfairness of
his life speared him through the heart, further blackening the
already seething, jealous mass that existed in his chest. He would
find a way to destroy this man. “Yes, we will,” the cold hard voice
in his mind whispered. “But we must be patient. We must find a way
to stay close. Until the time is right.” The whisper faded into the
dark, and calm resolution replaced his boiling rage.

As he refocused on the ravaged room, Gemini collapsed as one
to the ground, their eyes rolled back in their heads, staring at
the ceiling, mouths ajar. They didn’t appear to be breathing.
Julius walked forward, a hot, dry breeze whirling around him, and
at a flick of his hands, the fire disappeared as though it had
never existed. He knelt and placed thin woven cords around the
entwined hands of the twins.

Gabi closed in on the truck as they both took the off-ramp. It
wouldn’t take Mariska long to realise she was there. As they
rounded the curve, Gabi pulled even closer to the tailgate, judging
the distance to leap from the bike onto the truck bed. A flash of
red taillights was her only warning; the truck braked sharply, and
Gabi looked up to see Mariska’s narrowed gaze in the truck’s
rear-view mirror. Gabi jammed on her brakes too, veering to the
left, the bike’s front tyre shuddering as it grazed the back bumper
of the pickup. The bike wobbled, and Gabi flung out a leg, throwing
the bike into a quick spin on the smooth tarmac, steadying it and
herself before revving and speeding back down the road after the
truck once more. She needed to get onto the truck soon.

Although she’d never actually driven this road, she’d seen the
reconnaissance photos. She knew the tarmac ran out just a couple of
kilometres after the turn-off; then it was dirt to the car park of
the popular hiking trail. And the cave system that was home to the
Source. The Fireblade wouldn’t do so well on a dirt road; it was a
tar-road kind of bike.

She closed the distance again, staying to one side this time,
but as she neared, Mariska veered the truck towards her once more,
cutting off her line and trying to force her off the road. Gabi
tried the other side, striving to stay in Mariska’s blind spot, but
the truck cut her off a second time. A road sign flashed by warning
Gabi that the tarmac ended in less than two hundred metres. She
gunned the bike directly for the back of the truck one more time.
This time anticipating Mariska’s ploy, as soon as the red of brake
lights flared, she leapt from the bike. The timing was difficult.
She landed cleanly on the open deck, but had no way to stop her
momentum. She tucked her shoulder and tumbled into the back of the
cab with a bone-jarring crunch. She’d been ready for the pain, but
the shock of the impact still left her seeing stars.

The pickup bucked as it ploughed onto the dirt road too fast.
Flicking her tangled hair from her eyes, Gabi steadied herself and
scanned the back of the truck. Nothing, it was cleaner than a bored
cat. Trust that one man to be a neat freak just when she needed
something. She grimaced. There was nothing else for it. She tucked
her right hand into the sleeve of her jacket and punched out the
glass from the small window between her and the Maleficus. The
truck swerved wildly. Mariska apparently hadn’t realised she’d made
it off the bike. Gabi grabbed for the top of the cab, hanging on as
the movement flung her first one way then the other. When Mariska
regained control of the truck, Gabi leaned inside.