To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (9 page)

Razor allowed Savannah to carefully shift him into a sitting
position facing the wall. Then she lifted a section of the armour
and placed it carefully over his shoulders. It draped over him,
instantly conforming to his shape, but only covering about two
thirds of him. Savannah flitted to a desk in one corner, grabbing a
clipboard and pen and returning to Razor, poking, lifting and
adjusting the armour, taking measurements and making
indecipherable, to Gabi at least, notes on the clipboard. After
several minutes Savannah seemed to realise Gabi and Julius were
still there.

“
You’re welcome to have a look around,” she said with a wave
of her hand. “There are offcuts of the treated hide over there if
you’d like to try to damage it. In fact, I’d be grateful if you
took some pieces and, when you next encounter a demon, see what
demon blood and saliva does to it.” She was talking as she worked
over Razor, removing and altering the armour before re-fitting it
and making further notes. “The info back from your first car was
excellent, by the way. I am most grateful for the
testing.”

Gabi gave Julius another sidelong glare, but smiled politely
at Savannah.

“
You can even have a look at your new cars,” Savannah
continued, absentmindedly nodding towards the vehicles out in the
main part of the lab. “They should be ready before you leave.” Then
she went back to tinkering over a surprisingly patient
Razor.

Seeing that Razor was happy being fussed over, Gabi grabbed
Julius by the arm and dragged him out of the cubicle.

“
Cars?” she demanded, emphasising the ‘s’
indignantly.

Julius’s face was impassive, but a twinkle lit his eyes.
“Well, that way when you wreck one, you still have a spare to fall
back on,” he said, teasing clear in his voice.

“
Very funny,” she grumbled.

“
Besides, I thought you might prefer driving a pure
performance car again, so I’ve arranged a sports car for when
you’re in a hurry and not concerned about being conspicuous, and an
SUV for when you’re working or trying to fly under the radar. Makes
sense to me.”

It made sense to her too, but that didn’t mean she was going
to take his presumption lying down. She muttered under her breath,
swearing revenge.

As they approached the nearest of the vehicles, two male
Vampires appeared like magic from a side door, each one carrying
several car body panels. With a quick, respectful nod of their
heads in Julius’s direction, they immediately set to work
reassembling the less low slung of the two vehicles.

Gabi was relieved to see that the first car was a BMW,
probably top of the line, but at least not as expensive as the
Lamborghini SUV she’d totalled a few weeks ago when a sniper had
pumped more than a dozen bullets into it. The only reason she was
still here to argue with Julius was because he’d had the entire car
treated with Savannah’s special coating, which made the car
virtually bulletproof. Gabi shouldn’t be anything besides grateful,
but the fact that he hadn’t told her about the bulletproofing stuck
in her craw.

She reminded herself that sniping at him was unjustified.
They’d both done things without telling the other one in order to
protect them; she shouldn’t be throwing rocks from her little glass
house. Walking around the BMW as the Vampires deftly fitted the
black panels back into place, she came to a much smaller, lower
slung car, until now mostly hidden behind its larger, more imposing
companion. Julius followed more slowly, as though purposefully
keeping some distance between them. She glanced from the sports car
to her Consort and shook her head with a sigh.

“
You didn’t really buy me a McLaren, did you?”

********************

“
And so we are one step closer.” Deimos’s eyes gleamed as he
turned to his companion. Not even the dim lighting in the library
could hide the excitement radiating from the elderly
man.

“
Yes, my friend,” said Phobos. “But Gemini have failed twice
to uncover the exact location. There has to be a way around the
Casti shields.”

“
Can you think of another spell to try, or shall we consult
the book?” Deimos asked.

“
I think we need to summon a Seeker,” Phobos said slowly. The
other man stilled, his expression going pensive, but his companion
continued. “
She
can call one over,” he reminded his companion. “She’s done it
before; she just didn’t know what she’d managed to summon. She was
extremely lucky the Vampire could help her control it or she
wouldn’t be in our care right now.”

“
You’re right, of course.” Deimos relaxed a little. “Our last
summoning of a Seeker took so much…I’m not sure we could accomplish
it again, not even with all the blood in the world at our disposal.
But the girl…” He let the sentence hang.

“
We will still need to prepare,” Phobos said. “Do you think
Gemini are strong enough to help her control a Seeker?”

“
With the right…nourishment…” Deimos nodded, a cruel smile
playing around the corners of his thin mouth.

Phobos returned the smile. “I’ll prepare the child. You
arrange her travel to the City.”

********************

When they left Savannah’s laboratory nearly two hours later,
Gabi was driving her new, red, armour-treated performance car. The
dark grey BMW would be delivered to her house later in the week,
but she simply couldn’t resist trying out the McLaren 12C. She told
herself that she couldn’t make him send it back; the car was
already coated in Savannah’s impervious-to-just-about-anything
chemical compound. Apparently Julius’s choice of car had lumped the
Vampire inventor with even more work. The McLaren was built of
carbon fibre, so the original compound wouldn’t adhere to the
lightweight surface. Not that Savannah had seemed put out; she’d
shrugged off Gabi’s thanks and thanked Julius for giving her an
interesting new challenge. Though Gabi would never admit it out
loud to Julius, she was in heaven driving the new car. It was a
challenging drive, but she’d been taught to handle muscle cars by
one of the best stunt drivers in the movie business, and she
revelled in the edgy, untamed power.

In the back was a small pile of treated leather offcuts and
several treated daggers and short swords. Razor was curled up
asleep in the passenger seat, unperturbed by Savannah’s fussing.
Savannah had promised delivery of his armour by the end of the
week, and she’d made Gabi swear to bring him back for a visit soon.
Julius followed close behind her in the Aston Martin, toying with
her on the open sections of road, but stopping short of turning
things into a true race as she got to grips with her new mechanical
beast. For the half-hour trip back to the outskirts of the City,
Gabi forgot all the dangers and troubles that nipped at their heels
like persistent hyenas and simply exhilarated in the experience of
driving.

Gabi’s mood was light and carefree when they arrived at the
Estate just around midnight. Alexander, Nathan and Kyle were
waiting for them at the front of the mansion. Kyle gave a low,
protracted whistle when she lifted the vertical car door and
stepped out of the McLaren. Julius’s smile, when he joined them,
was mildly smug.

“
Makes your Ferrari look like the poor cousin now,” Kyle
teased Alexander as he walked admiringly around the car.

“
Mine’s a hardtop,” Alexander replied quellingly.

“
How exactly are you going to fit all your gear in it?” Kyle
asked her, opening the passenger door for a peek inside and
narrowly avoiding Razor’s swat. “Bloody cat,” he swore, quickly
slamming the door closed again.

“
That’s where the other car comes in,” Gabi told him
airily.

“
Other car,” he exploded.

“
I hate to break up the sibling rivalry,” Nathan broke in
quietly, “but we weren’t just hanging around out here waiting to
see your new car.” As Julius’s head of security, Nathan’s words
immediately sent a shot of adrenalin through Gabi.

“
What’s wrong?” Gabi and Julius spoke in unison.

“
A rogue Vampire has been found dead in the City,” Nathan
reported.

“
And…” Gabi asked, knowing there had to be more to it if
Julius’s two most senior Clan members and Kyle were waiting to tell
them about it.

“
And it seems she was drained of blood before she died the
true death,” Nathan reported, his tone perfunctory, but the
twitching of his jaw muscles gave away his unease.

“
Have you ever heard of a Vampire being killed by
exsanguination?” Gabi asked Julius as they sped through the dark
City streets. The atmosphere in the Aston Martin was tense, though
Razor, grooming himself calmly in the back seat, seemed oblivious
to it. Alexander and Nathan followed behind them in the Ferrari,
and Kyle brought up the rear of the convoy in his van. The body of
the Vampire had been taken to the City morgue, and one of the SMV
undercover staff had called it in. Byron would have his work cut
out smoothing things over with the human contingent. The Vampire
had to have been young, as she hadn’t turned to dust, but her
mummified appearance had already garnered unwanted interest at the
morgue.

“
Only once or twice,” Julius replied. “But those were many
years ago, and I only know the reports third or fourth hand, so I
can’t tell you much about them.”

“
But it’s possible it’s something that happens with more
frequency?” Gabi checked.

“
If the Vampire is more than fifty years Turned, they’ll most
likely become dust. There would be no way to know for sure how they
died unless someone witnessed the event,” he confirmed.

“
Who would want to do such a thing?” Gabi asked, thinking
aloud rather than expecting an answer. “Surely a rogue Vampire
hunter would find easier ways to kill.”

“
It’s unlikely it was a human,” Julius said, shaking his head.
“Kyle said there was no blood at the scene where the body was
found.”

“
So if not a human, then who?” Gabi racked her brain for
possible reasons to kill like this. “What supernatural would take
blood from a Vampire?”

“
Not just a Vampire, Lea,” Julius reminded her.

Her mind suddenly flashed a picture of the bloodless body of
the Werewolf at SMV HQ. “Holy shit,” she whispered, wondering how
she could’ve been so slow in putting it together. “You’re right. A
drained Werewolf and a drained Vampire in, what? Three days? Both
unknown to the City and both left at scenes with no sign of the
blood they’ve lost. What the Hell is going on?”

“
That’s what we’re going to find out,” Julius assured her
tightly, pulling up outside the neatly painted, unassuming building
that housed the City Morgue.

Kyle met them at the entrance. He was just sliding his phone
back into his pants pocket. “We’re going in as relatives of a
long-missing woman matching the description of the deceased,” he
told them in a low voice. “As the corpse looks like it’s been dead
at least a decade, and she appears to be in her twenties, Gabi,
you’ll be her sister, and Julius your husband. I’m her boyfriend
from the time she went missing.”

Gabi nodded. That explained why the other two were still in
the Ferrari. Too many friends and relatives would look
suspicious.

“
Once we confirm our suspicions, Byron will arrange someone to
mind-wipe the humans who brought her in and processed her, and our
insider will eliminate the paper trail. The body can be sent to
HQ’s morgue if you approve, Julius.”

“
Let’s go,” Julius said, his mouth a grim line.

The corpse on the cold steel table was a pathetic sight.
Whatever clothing she’d arrived in had been removed, and a crisp
white sheet covered the desiccated body curled in on itself like a
sleeping child. Stray wisps of strawberry blonde hair clung in
uneven clumps to her browning, parchment-like scalp. Gabi was
relieved that it wouldn’t look unusual for her to have tears in her
eyes. The overpowering smell of chemical disinfectants and
unnatural deodorisers was all but singeing off her nose hairs. The
fainter smell of decomposition was almost pleasant in comparison.
She wasn’t sure how Kyle and Julius were keeping such passive faces
through the onslaught; their sense of smell was even sharper than
hers.

The morgue attendant calmly and sympathetically warned them
that the viewing might be difficult, and that positive
identification would require a DNA test. He was a thin, unassuming
man, already slightly balding, but no older than his mid-thirties.
The three of them nodded wordlessly, and the attendant didn’t seem
to expect anything more from them. He pulled the steel gurney over
to a brightly lit area of the cold room, gently tugged the sheet
down to expose the mummified face of the corpse, and left them,
saying he’d give them a few minutes.

Her eye sockets were dark sunken voids, and her lips were
beginning to pull back from her teeth, leaving her with a macabre
kind of grin. If you knew what you were looking for, the fangs were
a dead giveaway, Gabi thought, then grimaced at her own pun. Julius
and Kyle glanced at each other and silently nodded their agreement.
This corpse had, not long before, been a living Vampire.