To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (39 page)

“
Stop the truck,” she growled. “Don’t make me hurt
you.”

Mariska answered with another purposeful yank on the steering
wheel. The edge of the window Gabi was leaning in caught her
shoulder, snapping her head back to crack painfully against the
metal frame. More stars. The truck bounced and bucked as it left
the road. Mariska fought to hang onto the steering wheel, but her
panicked yanking only forced the truck further out of control. They
struck a signboard pronouncing the car park ahead, levelling it
into the ground, but the flustered woman still had her foot on the
accelerator. The engine whined, and Gabi braced herself with every
muscle she had.

The truck ploughed into a small copse of trees, nosediving
straight into a large felled tree trunk. The noise of impact was
followed instantly by the whomp of an airbag and accompanied by the
squealing protest of an overstressed engine. The abrupt stop lifted
the rear end of the truck into the air and catapulted Gabi straight
over the front of the vehicle and into the dense foliage of the
edge of the City Forest Reserve. There was no other way to land
except badly.

She must have blacked out for a few seconds, but opened her
eyes to find herself face down in a mound of leaves and twigs a few
feet shy of a large oak tree. The crashed truck was several metres
away, smoke and steam issuing from the crumpled front end, but the
engine had finally stopped whining.

Gabi could hear something crashing through the forest not far
from her. Reacting instantly, she rolled onto her back and sat up,
brushing dirt and wet leaves from her face, and made to stand, but
instead collapsed back onto her butt. There was something wrong
with her left leg. It wouldn’t hold her weight. She ran a hand down
it, checking for damage. It was hard to feel anything through the
tight-fitting leather, but her knee was now radiating agony, and
her ankle was numb. The numbness was more worrying than the agony.
Numb just meant it was working up to worse pain, or it could mean
nerve damage. Either way, she wasn’t going running anywhere. But
she still had to get to the Dark Magus. She was feeling around in
the dark for something to use as a crutch when she heard something
move in the underbrush near her. She stilled, sending out her
senses. Then she smiled. A fair-sized bobcat stood, still as stone,
staring at her intently, only its nostrils moving as it scented her
warily. A few quick mental commands sent the cat off on silent
paws, the scent of its quarry strong in its nose.

As the cat left, Gabi continued to rummage in the undergrowth.
It wasn’t long before she found what she was looking for, a sturdy
branch, one that had recently been torn from a small tree. She
wondered which of her bruises it was responsible for. Well, it
would make it up to her now. She pulled a small dagger from a
sheath on her thigh and quickly divested it of sharp edges and side
shoots. A high-pitched shriek reached her ears, and she grinned
despite her discomfort.

Using the makeshift crutch, she dragged her abused body
upright; then she took a few seconds to catalogue her remaining
arsenal. She was missing a couple of weapons, but Nex was still in
her sheath, and she still had a MacDart and a couple of spare
daggers. The thought of so few weapons set her to grumbling, but as
she began her clumsy hobble in the direction of the shriek, the
moonlight glinted off something metallic on the ground. The
discovery of her MacBow actually brought a hint of a smile to her
lips.

She found Mariska backed up against a large grey rock. The
bobcat was growling low in its throat, several wary feet away. The
Maleficus had a rock in one hand and a small tree branch in the
other. Gabi quickly sent the cat off with a sharp command, not
wanting to see it hurt on her account. Then she limped into
Mariska’s view.

“
Running away as usual,” Gabi sneered at the cornered woman.
“Not this time, Maleficus. You’ve fucked with me and this City for
the last time.” The woman was bleeding from the nose and a cut
above her right eye. Her hair was a mess, and her robe was torn
from her run through the forest. She stared back at Gabi with
vicious, barely human rage.

“
Do it,” the Magus screamed at her. “Try to kill me. I dare
you.” She bared her teeth in an animalistic snarl. Then she
inexplicably dropped to her knees. Letting the rock and branch go,
she dug one hand into the soil in front of her, lifted the other to
the sky, and threw her head back. As Gabi stared, the grass and
weeds around Mariska drooped and withered, even a small tree nearby
began losing leaves. And then lightning arced from the clear night
sky straight into the Dark Magus’s hands, illuminating her entire
body with a pale blue light. When she moved her head back to face
Gabi and opened her eyes, they too were glowing blue and utterly
devoid of sanity.

Gabi knew she had only seconds to act. If Mariska managed to
strike her with it, that much electrical power would fry her brain,
stop her heart, burn her from the inside out. Mariska would be the
conduit for the power, but the woman was so far gone she didn’t
appear to care that she may die in the attempt. She wanted to go
down swinging. Gabi steadied herself on her one good leg, drew the
compact bow from her belt, released the safety, and aimed for the
kneeling woman’s heart.

“
NO!” a female voice screamed to her left, and in the
microsecond before she loosed the bolt, light exploded between Gabi
and Mariska. The bolt shot wide, as though something had physically
knocked it off course, missing Mariska and exploding into a small,
orange fireball against the rock behind her.

Surprised and angry, Gabi swung to her right, automatically
notching a second bolt.

“
Athena!” Gabi roared, staring at the newcomer in disbelief.
“What the Hell?”

“
Duck,” Athena yelled at her, and Gabi reacted instinctively,
throwing herself sideways.

The movement threw her off balance, and she cried out as pain
lanced through her injured leg. She collapsed to the ground, taking
the brunt of the fall on her good knee and hip. An ear-splitting
crash of thunder exploded over her head, blinding and deafening
her. The smell of ozone and burnt things seared her nostrils. She
yanked Nex from her sheath as she pushed herself into a sitting
position, waiting for her night vision to return. When the ringing
in her ears subsided, she could hear Athena yelling an incantation
as an unnatural wind began to swirl around them and the air
thickened with the feel of a coming storm.

Sure Mariska was going to get another blast of lightning
energy to throw at one of them, Gabi desperately patted the ground,
trying to find her crutch. Her hand bumped something metal, the
MacBow. She dragged it towards herself, but before she could get it
into position, it was yanked from her grasp. Gabi reflexively
brought Nex up, but it was only Athena, and she was already walking
over to Mariska. Gabi’s night vision had returned, and she could
see both women clearly. One pale haired, one dark, both their hair
whipping around their faces in the unnatural wind. One standing,
though just barely by the way she swayed on her feet. The other
still on her knees, but defiantly confident, her arms upraised as
she called for more lightning.

Gabi froze, waiting for either of them to strike with Magus
powers, but then Athena lifted the bow and struck the Dark Magus
across the temple with it. The blow had been perfectly weighted,
and Mariska’s eyes reflected shock for just half a second before
her eyes rolled back in her head and she crumpled to the
ground.

Gabi wondered if she’d had a blow to the head and was seeing
things. She shook her head and blinked, but when she looked again,
Athena was leaning down over Mariska’s prone body. The air had
fallen still; the sudden calm was a shock in itself. Distantly, the
sounds of the main battle could now be heard. Gabi finally spotted
her makeshift crutch. Dragging herself over to it, she managed to
get herself upright, swaying slightly as Athena slipped the magical
lariat over Mariska’s head and tightened it. Then she spoke several
quick unintelligible words, and Gabi felt a tingle in the
air.

“
What the fuck?” Gabi burst out when Athena turned to face
her. “I had her. She was mine to take down. You and the Council are
just going to kill her anyway.” She should’ve been too exhausted
for anger, but she wasn’t. She couldn’t understand Athena’s
interference, putting lives at risk just so the Council could do
things their way.

“
I…” Athena drew a deep, deep breath and met Gabi’s eyes. “I
couldn’t let you kill her, but not for the reasons you think.”
Athena walked towards her, away from Mariska, and held out the
MacBow to her.

“
Then what?” Gabi demanded, rudely grabbing back the weapon.
“What would make you put all our lives at risk to save her? After
all she’s done. To you? To us?” Gabi stabbed a finger towards the
noise of fighting. “You know that there are casualties down there
on all sides, including the Magi?” She was half a step shy of
screeching in fury. She made an effort to bring herself under
control before the red mist moved in.

“
Yes, I know all of that,” Athena said calmly enough to rile
Gabi further. “But I couldn’t let you kill a pregnant woman, no
matter what she’d done.”

“
You couldn’t let me…” Gabi’s tirade broke off as Athena’s
words registered. “Wait, what?”

“
Mariska is pregnant,” Athena repeated, her voice
tired.

Gabi gaped at her stupidly for a moment, then glanced at the
woman still unconscious on the ground. “Pregnant?” she finally
asked. “How do you know? She doesn’t look pregnant.”

“
She’s not very far along, probably only a couple of weeks,
but I can sense their life forces,” Athena told her. “She’s
carrying twins.”

A faint movement to Gabi’s right had her bringing Nex up
reflexively.

“
Athena’s right,” Benedict said, coming forward out of the
shadows and staring down at the unconscious woman. “And despite the
nature of their parentage, one of the babies is a pure white
light.” His face held wonder and…something else.

“
And the other?” Gabi asked, befuddled by the discussion of
what could, in reality, be little more than a few cells as though
they were people. With souls. The rapture left Benedict’s face in
an instant, and when Gabi glanced at Athena, she could see the
answer in the other woman’s expression.

“
The other isn’t the same,” Athena said carefully. “But that
doesn’t mean, with the right upbringing and training…” She trailed
off.

Gabi knew the reality. They’d tried with Mariska, and look at
the clusterfuck that had caused. Gabi shifted, trying to relieve
the ache in her ribs and hip, accidentally putting weight on her
bad leg. She gasped in pain, and Benedict was instantly at her
side, reaching out to steady her. Then she felt Julius in her mind,
concerned. Relief flooded her in a happy tsunami. He was exhausted,
but alive. She sent him a flash of reassurance, wondering where he
was. Then her brain got past first gear.

“
What are you doing here?” she asked Benedict, hopping with
his help to a nearby rock and leaning her butt against it. “What’s
going on at the Source?”

“
The worst is over,” he told her. “One Elder is dead. The
other is injured but alive. The remainder of the Dark Magi have
surrendered or run. The last of the demons are being pursued. The
ploy with the Null worked ridiculously well. I wish I’d thought of
it; I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling stupid not to have
considered using him. All we had to do was get him close enough to
the Dark Ones, though it took a while to fight through the sea of
demons and Dark Magi. Athena hid him in a force of Vampires and
Werewolves; the old bastards never even saw him coming. Once their
power was negated, it didn’t take the Vampires long to bring them
down.”

“
Our casualties?” Gabi asked, relieved that Henry had been
able to end the battle quickly, but sure it hadn’t been quite quick
enough.

“
I don’t have a complete list,” he said, “but we have lost
some.” He paused. “I
heard
that Mariska was making a run for it. I knew she
would be coming here. I was in the middle of something, so I sent
Athena ahead. I see you have it all under control, though.” He
smiled at Athena then, a sensual, predatory smile that had no place
on his angelic, teenage face. And something about the idea of him
and Athena being together sparked Gabi’s internal alarm bell. A
memory about the way Mariska had looked at Gemini just before she
fled, and despite the horrors she’d already witnessed that night,
Gabi’s blood ran cold.

CHAPTER 24

Relief at the sight of his Lea in one piece swamped Julius.
She was on the edge of the pathway that led down to the start of
the hiking trail. Athena was beside her, speaking to Benedict, who
was carrying the unconscious Maleficus. Gabi turned his way as
though he’d called her name. The horrors of the night had left
their mark. She was bloodied, bruised, dishevelled, a mess of mud
and twigs, hobbling on one leg with a tree branch as a crutch, but
a smile lit her face as she saw him. It warmed him.

Razor beat him to her side, standing on his hind legs to
gently put his huge paws on her uninjured thigh, inspecting her
worriedly. Gabi bent down and kissed his whiskery face soundly,
ruffling the shaggy fur on his head and neck that the armour didn’t
cover, and checking him for signs of injury. He was covered in
soot, his fur was singed in places, especially his tail, and some
of his whiskers were completely gone. He reeked of smoke and
death.