To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (5 page)

“
I was invited,” Kyle said dryly, as though she was accusing
him of gate-crashing.

Julius drew her right hand to his lips and kissed her
knuckles, drawing her attention back to him. “Tonight is not just
about me and the Clan, Gabrielle,” he told her as he touched the
locket around her neck with a small, sad smile. “It’s about the two
of us and our union. The people close to you have just as much
right to be here as the Clan and my friends.”

“
Who else is here, then?” she demanded, her curiosity
temporarily overriding her nerves.

“
Let’s go upstairs, and you’ll see,” he said in a soothing
tone, making her flash him an annoyed glare. “You look incredible,
by the way.” The purr was back in his voice, sending warm fingers
of pleasure streaking through her. She barely suppressed a shudder
as his cool hand pressed to her bare back and he began herding her
towards the internal elevator. As the elevator doors slid open with
a gentle whoosh, Gabi drew in a deep breath and steeled herself for
the onslaught.

The entertainment room had been utterly transformed. Gabi only
just kept her mouth from hanging open in astonishment. She’d been
through the ground floor of the newly built mansion several times
in the last few weeks, but had never imagined how cleverly it had
been thought out. The downstairs layout she knew consisted of the
entertainment room, complete with bar, pool tables, flat-screen TVs
and comfortable seating; the formal dining room, with seating for
twenty; the boardroom with all the necessary equipment for business
meetings of up to two dozen; and an additional more formal sitting
room, which, as far as Gabi knew, had not yet been used. What she
hadn’t previously appreciated was the fact that all of these rooms
had retractable walls and were interlocked in such a way that they
could all be opened onto one another.

What she walked into tonight looked more like a formal
ballroom in a hotel. The decor in the various rooms suddenly made
sense to Gabi; what she’d thought of as a lack of decorating flair
was actually an amazingly creative way of pulling together several
smaller rooms to make one stunning formal room. All the usual
furnishings were gone, except for the bar, and the rich velvet
curtains had been drawn back from the windows and French doors to
let in the mild evening air and allow access to the moonlit garden
set with a vine-covered pagoda and filigreed, wrought-iron tables
and chairs. Inside, the guests were gathering in small groups
around cocktail tables or helping themselves to drinks and food
from tables groaning with both.

Wait, food?
Gabi thought in
confusion, and then she was attacked—by a woman slightly shorter
than herself, in a stunning emerald and gold evening dress, her
waist-length, chocolate brown hair pinned up and away from her face
and cascading down her back.

“
Trish,” she gasped, hugging her friend back. “I’m
extraordinarily glad to see you, but you have to remember you’re a
bloody Werewolf.” Her ribs were groaning, and she couldn’t breathe.
Trish had only been a Werewolf for a few months and still tended to
forget how strong that made her.

“
Oh, Gabi, I’m sorry,” she cried, instantly letting go,
apology written all over her face. Before Gabi could reassure her
friend, Julius put an arm around her waist and pulled her back to
his side.

“
I’m afraid further personal greetings will have to wait a few
moments,” he said with a smile to Trish.

As Gabi looked around she realised that Julius’s personal
guard surrounded them: Fergus, Charlie, Quentin and Tabari, all
resplendent in black formal wear, each with Julius’s colours
prominently displayed in their bow ties, cummerbunds and kerchiefs.
Julius put an arm around her and whisked her to the centre of the
room.

Before they came to a halt, a small area had cleared for them,
and the general hubbub of the room went quiet. Alexander hadn’t
been exaggerating when he told her there would be more than two
hundred guests. Luckily for Gabi’s sanity, she could only see a
small portion of the Vampire gazes concentrated on the two of them.
She didn’t dare to allow her Vamp sense out to peruse the crowd; it
would go into overdrive and freak her out even more. She was
ridiculously happy to see some familiar faces lining the crowd
nearest them; Nathan, Liam and Alexander all smiled encouragingly
at her.

“
Clan and friends.” Julius’s voice resonated through the room.
He removed his hand from Gabi’s back and took her hand in his. “We
have invited you here tonight to celebrate with us. Though our
blood ceremony was, by necessity, held in private with just a few
witnesses, we would like to include you all in our happiness. I ask
now for my Clan and friends to witness and welcome my Consort,
Gabrielle, and her House to our family.” He turned to her and, with
an enigmatic smile, pulled something from his pants pocket. “I know
we’ve exchanged blood and colours in the Consort ceremony, but I’d
like to do something to honour your human side as well.” Then he
took her left hand and slid a ring onto her ring finger.

Gabi gasped, truly flabbergasted, as a spontaneous round of
applause broke from the crowd. The ring was stunning: black
crystals set around a large sapphire, the gold band intricately
patterned as it wrapped around her finger. Something about the
pattern struck her as familiar, and it took her a full second to
realise it was the pattern from Nex’s hilt replicated in exquisite
detail. Gabi resisted swallowing to clear the lump that was
suddenly lodged in her throat. Unadulterated pleasure and happiness
flooded through her, and it wasn’t just her own emotions she was
feeling.

Julius lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it just above
the ring. “Its core is made of titanium,” he whispered with a grin.
“Just like you.” Then he turned back to the attentive crowd. “My
Consort,” he announced, and almost every Vampire in the hall went
down on one knee, their heads bowed in respect. Gabi now finally
had a true perspective of the size of Julius’s Clan; less than two
dozen remained standing, half of those friends of hers and the
other half obviously Masters or friends of Julius’s, the rest of
the crowd belonged to Julius. And now her. She’d never felt more
daunted in her life. Now she understood the weight of
responsibility that sat on Julius’s shoulders.

CHAPTER 4

Gabi only got moments to greet her friends; she was surprised
and happy to see that not only Kyle and Trish had made it. Only one
person took a little of the shine off the evening. Derek. Gabi
found his gaze; he was standing at the rear of the small group. She
was grateful that he’d come despite his feelings about her
relationship with Julius, but his unhappiness was a distraction she
didn’t need this evening.

Add sculpted muscles and rare, silver grey eyes to tall, dark
and handsome and you had a man who didn’t want for female
attention. The two of them had worked together on movie sets
several times in the past few years: Gabi as animal handler, her
official, daytime job, and Derek as a stuntman to some of the best
known action movie stars. On and off the job he’d made no effort to
hide his attraction to her. Gabi had resisted starting a
relationship with him largely because he’d been fully human, with
absolutely no knowledge of the supernatural world. She’d found out
the hard way that relationships based on a lie didn’t work out very
well.

By the time he’d been infected with Lycanthropy, Gabi had
already fallen for Julius. After Derek survived the Change to
Werewolf, he’d figured out why she’d been reluctant to date him.
Contrarily this truth had angered him rather than giving him peace,
thinking he may have stood a chance with her if he’d become a
Werewolf just a little bit sooner. Gabi didn’t have the
ruthlessness needed to tell him that it would never have worked out
between them; his mental instability, self-pity and self-doubt
would’ve ruined their relationship if she was anything more than
his friend.

His flint grey eyes bored into hers when she smiled sadly at
him, and he lifted one side of his mouth in return, but the rest of
his face remained an impassive mask.

Hugs and pats on the back broke her reverie over Derek.
Several of the SMV Hunters and staff, her Shape-shifter friends
Russell and Shawn as well as the Unholy Trinity, a trio of Werewolf
females she counted as good friends, had also made it. Of those
closest to her, only Byron and her mother were missing. She knew
the reason for Byron’s absence was a security concern. Few people
outside of her family knew of his and Gabi’s close relationship,
and they liked to keep it that way, for Byron’s protection. Anyone
who knew her as Hellcat or Angeli Morte didn’t need to know that
Byron was important to her. Her mother, while also needing
protection, was absent for another reason; she didn’t really do
supernaturals. She blamed the races for her first husband’s death
and for Gabi’s eccentricities, as she liked to refer to her
daughter’s unusual talents and strange dietary needs. While Gabi
had told her mother that she was in a relationship with the Master
Vampire of the City, she still hadn’t actually told her about their
union. That was a hurdle she’d cross with lots of alcohol inside
her. Lots and lots and lots.

Then a sleek blonde head caught her eye; she barely bit back a
gasp of shock. Athena smiled wryly and tipped her head in greeting.
Gabi immediately glanced about for Alexander. He was several steps
away, but she caught him eyeing her and Athena’s interaction a half
second before he managed to look away and pretend nonchalance. He’d
refused to dish the dirt during their drive the previous night,
zipping his lips and throwing distractions out like left and right
hooks, but Gabi suspected the two of them were doing the horizontal
tango. A fact which may not surprise those who didn’t know Athena,
but those who did know her may well faint at the news. Athena, a
bright, capable woman as well as a singularly talented Defensive
Magus, was also notoriously racist. Not the Ku Klux Clan type of
racist, but in the past she’d made no qualms of the fact that she
didn’t mix with other supernatural races. She was a Magus, and she
mixed only with other Magi unless official business forced her to
do otherwise. Until recently, when she’d been obliged to help the
SMV Vampire coalition overcome some nasty threats to the
City.

How the mighty do fall. Gabi grinned to herself, watching as
Athena unconsciously found Alexander’s gaze. Then Trish bounced up
to Gabi’s side, Kyle in tow, her eyes sparkling in eager joy. Love
for each other positively oozed into the ozone around the two of
them. If it wasn’t between her oldest best friend and her newest
best friend, Gabi might have gagged on it. Despite Kyle’s casual
demeanour and typically easy smile, his wolf was quite close to the
surface of his mind, watching his mate protectively, unsettled by
the proximity of so many unknown Vampires and Werewolves. Gabi
understood his wariness. Trish grabbed Gabi’s hand and admired the
ring with an excited squeal.

“
It does look great, doesn’t it?” She turned it so Kyle could
admire it too. Kyle’s expression was one of feigned interest,
making Gabi grin. Squealing over jewellery was definitely a
girl-only thing, which, until about five minutes ago, even Gabi
hadn’t understood.

“
You had something to do with this?” Gabi guessed from Trish’s
enthusiasm.

Trish grinned triumphantly, and Gabi realised that her face
was thinner than a few weeks ago, making her eyes larger and adding
to her prettiness, but giving her a subtle edge of hardness. Trish
had had much softer feminine curves before the Lycanthropy virus
took hold and moulded her body to suit its own agenda.

“
It took weeks of planning,” Trish crowed. “The hardest part
was finding black diamonds big enough to suit his lordship’s
requirements.” She nodded towards Julius, who was accepting
congratulations, and some ribbing, from Lance and Doug, Gabi’s
former SMV Hunter compadres. Gabi raised an incredulous eyebrow and
then frowned, re-examining her ring.

“
Black diamonds?” she asked, feeling stupid. She’d thought the
ring was set with large semi-precious stones, maybe tourmaline or
quartz. Geez, the diamonds had to be at least a carat each in
size.

Trish’s grin widened. “The blue stone is tanzanite, we
couldn’t find a diamond the right shade of blue, so he compromised
there, but very unhappily I might tell you.” Her eyes were
twinkling mischievously.

Gabi was about to make her spill more beans when Julius’s hand
on her arm distracted her.

“
There are some guests I would like you to meet,” he
interjected smoothly and very pointedly steered her away from her
friend. Gabi made a mental note to interrogate Trish
later.

The list of Clan members and noteworthy guests seemed endless.
Gabi tried in the beginning to make an effort to remember names and
faces, but after half an hour she decided to settle for simply
remembering faces. Gabi noted with interest that many of the
honoured guests had brought with them their own human Feeders, and
that not only the Estate’s usual Feeders were present but a number
of temporary ‘recruits’. It was for the Feeders and Gabi’s guests
that the tables groaned with sumptuous food. Food, Gabi thought,
and her hunger must have been strong enough to filter through the
mental connection to Julius, as he abruptly broke off the
introductions with a brief note that they’d be back soon, and
whisked Gabi towards the nearest buffet.