There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) (27 page)

“
That will have to wait,” Julius told Benedict. “I have other
urgent matters to attend to first. I will let you know as soon as I
have time to meet and brief you all. What you can take back is that
Eka no longer supports the Decurian agenda. He is quietly working
to undermine their efforts to disrupt the human world. There is an
element who is looking to overthrow him, and when they do, there
will be serious unrest in the Vampire world. The Lucis need to
begin making preparations to mitigate the effects on the human
world when that occurs. In the meanwhile, Gabi and I will do
everything in our power to ensure that the Vodun priestess ends up
safely in our hands rather than theirs. We all need to be on alert
for retribution for the death of one of theirs, though I expect Eka
will have the power to smooth that over.”

Benedict had
lost all pretence at casualness. Tension radiated from every
muscle, and his face held a pinched look. Gabi threw a sidelong
look at Julius. He was definitely no longer acting submissive to
the Princep. She and her Consort were due to have a long, urgent
talk.

Benedict came
to his feet. “I’ll take this information back to Court,” he told
them, his words stilted and formal. “I trust you will tie up your
urgent business expediently and be ready for your debrief as soon
as possible.” With that he collected his glasses and was abruptly
gone from the room.

“
Uh, does that mean the Lucis have secrets too?” Gabi asked
mildly as they all watched the door bang shut.

Julius gave her
a tight smile. “I wasn’t sure before, but I am now,” he replied. “I
need time to sift through the memories I took from Zayden, to try
to make sense of it all. It will take a couple of days, but it
helps to know what I’m looking for. I promise I will tell you
everything once I have it clear in my own mind.”

“
We have something else we need to tell the others though,”
Gabi reminded him.

Alexander
raised his eyebrows as the air pressure in the room increased for a
split second, and then it settled as Julius’s ward fell into place
around them.

“
Eka knew a Dhampir.” Gabi couldn’t hold it in any longer;
Vampire politics be damned.

“
Whoa.” Alexander sat back in the sofa as though someone had
smacked him. Mac and Fergus didn’t seem as surprised. “Truly? There
is another one?”

“
Not anymore,” Julius said, “his Sire had been gifted with one
who was killed centuries ago. But he had information for us, things
we haven’t been privy to, things not recorded on paper.”

“
And…” Alexander looked expectantly from Julius to Gabi and
back again, searching their faces for answers. He was almost as
anxious about Gabi’s fate as they were. Gabi grimaced as Julius
sighed.

“
Some questions he could answer; others just brought up yet
more questions,” Julius told him. “Dhampirs were treated very much
like slaves back then. He didn’t give us an exact date, but by the
way he described certain things, I’d throw a ball at the tenth or
eleventh century.”

“
But surely the way a Dhampir works wouldn’t have changed, even
in that amount of time?”

Julius smiled
enigmatically. “Think of the dogs that roamed the streets of London
two centuries ago. They were skinny creatures, scavengers, weak and
shy unless they were in a large pack. Consider dogs today. Think of
Gabi’s Rottweiler, pit bulls and bull mastiffs. Time changes many
things.”

“
You’re lucky I like dogs. Another woman could’ve taken that
the wrong way,” Gabi commented, but the two men barely heard her.
They were doing their ‘talking without saying everything’ routine.
It still weirded her out.

Alexander
nodded, his eyes flicking to her, narrowing appraisingly. “So they
had curs and we have a wolf?” he asked Julius.

“
I think that sums it up.”

“
Unbelievable.” Alexander was still staring at her; it was
getting uncomfortable. “But that means that we still don’t know
what the future holds for Gabi.”

“
But we have a better idea; though not immortal, even the
Dhampir Eka knew was long-lived. And he wasn’t fed Vampire blood;
in fact, his nutrition was abysmal. We know what Vampire blood does
to humans…” Julius trailed off, and Alexander nodded, again
following Julius silently down his train of thought.

“
How have you lived with these two for so long without knocking
their heads together?” Gabi turned to Fergus.

“
Ye gie used tae it,” Fergus rumbled, “after a century ur
two.”

“
So she’s already different to the others?” Alexander spoke
aloud.

“
In Eka’s day their blood could enhance a Vampire’s abilities,
but their blood was never powerful enough to turn a Vampire into a
Master,” Julius told him.

“
He knew about Alex,” Gabi blurted, suddenly remembering that
snippet of the conversation. “How does he know about
Alex?”

“
Th’ test,” Fergus muttered. “Th’ Vampires at th’ hotel when
Julius was awa’ at Coort. Alexander showed his hand then. Th’
Decurian has worked it out.”

Gabi’s mouth
popped open. It was true; they’d never gotten to the bottom of that
situation. Vampires had taken up residence in the City without
permission, and when Alexander had gone to confront them, the
leader had tried to mind roll him. He’d drawn on Clan strength to
resist, and all six of the visitors had been killed or taken their
own lives during the ensuing melee. They’d figured it was somehow
related to the presence of the Lieutenant, the Vampire who had used
blood and mind control over Murphy and Sasha to cause trouble in
the City. The Lieutenant was one of the Centuria, so he’d been here
on orders from the Decuria. Fergus was right.

“
Well, at least we know what that was all about,” Gabi
muttered. “I guess you can stop hiding your power upgrade
now.”

Alexander had
an unhappy expression on his face.

“
It was bound to come to light eventually,” Julius
said.

“
But now they know Hellcat can create Masters…” Alexander
looked worried; his fingers drummed along the arm of the sofa. “I
don’t like this, Julius. If she wasn’t a target before, she will be
now.”

“
If they start coming after us, I’ll just start making more of
the Clan Masters,” Gabi threatened. “I dare them to throw
themselves at a Clan of two hundred Master Vampires.” Her tone was
ominous, masking the thread of fear that was crawling up her spine.
“We haven’t told you the best part yet,” Gabi said to break the
sudden, uncomfortable silence.

“
It gets worse?” Alexander looked pained.

“
Only certain Vampires can ‘make’ Dhampirs. It’s a skill a
Vampire either has or doesn’t have, and apparently they’re very
rare,” she explained.

Alexander
stared at her for several seconds, but she knew he wasn’t actually
seeing her face, his mind was running this new fact against
everything else they already knew. He blew out his cheeks at last
and went back to his finger tapping.

“
Talk about a double-edged sword. Great news that there’s
little chance of the Vampire realm suddenly being inundated with
Dhampirs, but—”

“
Caspian,” Gabi finished his thought. “Even more reason to find
him fast.”

“
But it means the twins, the babies the Maleficus is carrying,
will only be Magi, not Dhampirs,” Alexander theorised. “The
Vampires that the Dark Magi sacrificed for their rituals wouldn’t
be able to make Dhampirs, so the blood Mariska ingested shouldn’t
have an effect.”

“
If th’ Decurian is correct, ay coorse.” Fergus, the
ever-present voice of reason.

“
Well, once we find them, we’ll know for sure,” Gabi
grumbled.

“
Any news?” Gabi asked as she entered the war room a while
later. She was carrying a tray of Chinese takeaways and a couple of
energy drinks. Sadly, it was still too hot for coffee even in the
early hours of the morning. Julius and Alexander had gone into a
meeting with Liam about some business merger, and she’d promised to
follow up with Murphy. According to Claudia, who’d brought Gabi the
food a few minutes ago, Murphy had been locked in the computer hub
since seven p.m.

Murphy looked
up from his monitor with a scowl, but his expression brightened at
the sight of the food containers. He sighed and stretched his neck,
his leering tattoos winking at Gabi, before springing out of his
chair and attacking the food as soon as she put the tray down.
Watching him move reminded her that his passion had been Parkour
before all the shit with the Lieutenant had gone down. He moved
like a panther, self-assured and acutely aware of every movement.
She hoped he still got time to practice.

“
Well, at least we’re no longer looking for a piece of straw in
a haystack,” he mumbled around a mouthful of sweet and sour
chicken. “Looking for a needle is so much easier.”

She cracked the
tab on one of the energy drinks. “Oooh, Mr Sarcasm has come out to
play,” she drawled before taking a long drink from the can.

He gave her a
sheepish grin. “Sorry,” he said out of the side of his mouth; he
was still shovelling noodles into his mouth.

“
Gods of Atlantis, when did you last eat?” she asked. It was
virtually impossible to eat fast enough to shock her.

“
Um…” He wiped his mouth with the back of one hand and glanced
at the computer monitor to check the time. “I had some breakfast
before I went to bed yesterday morning.”

Gabi suppressed
a sigh and picked up a container of chicken chow mein. They were
all stretched thin with everything going on, but they had to look
after themselves. Humans couldn’t go without food and sleep, and
the Vampires needed to feed; she made a mental note to speak to
Julius about her concerns.

“
Even with the distinctive description, it’s going to take some
time.” Murphy indicated the monitor with his chopsticks. “The world
is a big place. If we could just narrow down the search zone, it
would make it easier. As it is, Trish has two extra people working
on it on her side, and we’ve basically divided the world up into
quarters. It still leaves us with thousands of airports to check,
and we haven’t even begun to consider ports, train stations and car
entry points.”

The sheer scale
of the project was beginning to dawn on Gabi. She hopped onto the
table and tucked into the chow mein, turning the problem over in
her mind as she ate, cursing the fact that they’d been disturbed
before they got all the information they could out of Eka. Maybe if
they sent him a message through Astrid…but that could take days.
Thinking of Astrid brought up a mental picture of Sicarius.

“
The assassin,”
she said, jumping off the table and almost knocking over the
half-full energy drink. “He’s been in the thick of things from the
beginning.”

CHAPTER
15

Pacing the
length of the war room, Gabi pulled her phone out of her pocket and
called up Nathan’s number. If anyone knew where the assassin was
being held, Julius’s head of security would.

Ten minutes
later Sicarius was escorted into the war room by Rat. Though a
member of SID, in the last few weeks Gabi hadn’t seen much of the
unassuming Vampire known more commonly by his initials than his
first name. The non-essential members of the Dhampir Squad were
rotated every month to give them some downtime and give more Clan
members a chance to be part of the action. Rat, who could’ve been
anyone’s favourite grumpy uncle, was currently off roster, and it
was good to see his face.

“
One assassin as ordered,” he said, shoving the man’s butt into
one of the chairs near the main table. “Do you need me to hang
around and take him back?”

“
No, that’s okay, Reg.” Gabi loved the mock scowl his real name
elicited. “I’ll take him from here.” It was almost sunrise; she
didn’t want to keep him from his daysleep. Rat gave her a cheery
salute and shut the door behind him on his way out. She jammed her
hands on her hips and turned to face the assassin. He glared up at
her through bleary, bloodshot eyes. His hair was mussed, stubble
darkened his face, and he was wearing a rumpled white T-shirt and
checked pyjama bottoms. He had several more cuts on his face from
his race through the Mauritanian jungle.

“
This couldn’t have waited until a human hour?” he
grumbled.

“
Bang goes the cool, calm and collected assassin mask. Are you
always this grouchy when you get woken up?” she asked.

He made a
disgruntled noise. “I haven’t got to kill anyone lately, that makes
me tetchy, and this heat doesn’t help.” He yawned widely and rubbed
his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Coffee?” he asked
hopefully.

She picked up
one of the spare energy drinks and tossed it at him. He caught it
three millimetres from his nose. “That’s as good as it gets for
now. If you answer my questions though, maybe we can
renegotiate.”

He inspected
the can and pulled a disgusted face, but cracked the tab, putting
his mouth over the top to catch the eruption of gas and liquid.

“
What do you want to know?” he asked. “I’m not privy to much of
interest.”

“
You know more than you make out.” Gabi watched his face
carefully. “Don’t play dumb with me.” She caught his gaze and
narrowed her eyes warningly. He was in a den of Vampires; each of
whom would be more than willing to torture him if she asked them
to; he needed to understand that. He waited silently, giving
nothing away. “We need to narrow down the search range for the
Spaniard and the Maleficus. Eka knew something, but he only gave us
a tiny scrap to follow. One that will take weeks, if not months, to
fully investigate. We don’t have that kind of time. What do you
know?”