There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) (34 page)

“
We will not allow you to clossssse the portal,” the Seeker
shrieked as red energy from all three of them pounded into Julius.
Behind them yet more demons lumbered from the mist, turning briefly
to look towards the Seekers before moving off into the
graveyard.

Panting in fear
and pain, Gabi concentrated on closing her left hand around Nex and
climbing to her feet.

Julius was
holding his ground, still standing, but Gabi could sense his
strength waning. She’d once taken on a Seeker. It had instantly
rendered her blind and almost comatose, and it hadn’t been trying
to kill her. What kind of power would three of them wield if they
wanted you dead?

The black-robed
Seeker stretched its cloaked arms out to the other two, and they
responded by each raising an arm to join with it. The assault
against Julius stopped, the red lightning fading away. Julius
swayed slightly and Gabi gritted her teeth, forcing one foot in
front of the other. She was less than two metres from him when the
single bolt of fiery red struck him in the chest. He reeled
backwards, his knees giving way just as Gabi reached him. The smell
of charred flesh caught at the back of her throat.

“
Julius.” Gabi thrust her shoulder under his arm, supporting
him as he swayed drunkenly.

“
Where are they?” he hissed.

“
Magical fire, Julius.” It was a long shot, but her glimpse of
Lance lying far too still on the grass a few feet away had stirred
a memory. “It took down the Dark Ones; it counters all magic. Try
it.”

“
Lea, I can’t see. I’m blind,” he ground out.

Oh.

Fuck.

He was their
only chance. But he needed to be able to see to direct the fire. If
only she had taken the brunt of the attack; she could still
see…

“
Look through me. Link your mind with mine; use my eyes.” Gabi
knew she was grasping at straws, straws that probably didn’t even
exist. They’d never tried anything this crazy before, hadn’t even
considered the possibility, but what did they have to lose? The
three Seekers were still clustered together, red eyes glowing, arms
linked, probably recharging for another blow.

“
What?” Julius asked, his voice strained, as though in
pain.

“
Link with me, deeper than we’ve ever linked before,” she
whispered, already stripping her mind bare of all defences.
“Hurry.” His arm came around her waist, and she bit back a gasp as
he touched her bruised ribs. She felt his mind brush hers, probing
gently. “Drop your defences, Julius,” she urged through gritted
teeth. “It’s our only hope.” She felt his dismay and his sense of
inevitability, and then she felt his pain. It stole the breath from
her lungs and made the world swirl dangerously under her feet. It
took her several precious seconds to come to terms with the
sensation of being on fire, feeling as though lava ran through her
veins, roasting her from the inside out. The Seekers weren’t
preparing to attack again; they’d never stopped attacking. They
were wearing him down, and there was no way he could withstand this
for much longer, the Clan was too far away for him to draw on their
strength.

A roar snapped
her head around, and a wave of relief swamped her at the familiar
sound. Fergus crested the hill and barrelled towards them.

“
Don’t touch them,” Gabi yelled and he skirted the Seekers. A
second later he was at their side, easing Julius’s weight from
her.

“
What the—” he broke off as he touched Julius, and Gabi felt
the Scotsman’s mind join their union. She closed her eyes as she
tried to show him what was wrong and she heard him growl, and then
a torrent of strength and power poured from him, filling Julius’s
almost empty reserve, gushing so fast it poured into Gabi as well.
The last of the fog left her brain, her shoulders straightened and
her knees steadied.

“
Julius, use the fire,” she gasped again. “Use my eyes.” She
opened her eyes and carefully took in the scene. The tornado-like
presence of her Consort locked onto her consciousness and she felt
it as their senses merged. His body stiffened, pulling away from
her support, straightening to his full height as his head fell back
and his arms rose upward. Then his fingers splayed out and flames
as high as a house sprang to life in a large circle around the
Seekers. Instantly the fiery pain inside Julius died. The absence
of pain was like the shock of a cold shower, making Gabi gasp aloud
and leaving her reeling.

The Seekers
broke apart and clustered together in the centre of the ring of
flames, lurching jerkily as the hungry fingers of fire snatched at
them. Julius stood with his eyes closed, his feet apart, no longer
swaying. He brought his hands together slowly, millimetre by
millimetre, and the flames followed his lead, inexorably closing in
on the trio.

In a move so
fast Gabi could barely track it, the dark-robed Seeker grabbed for
the other two, thrusting them headlong into the flames, using them
like some kind of springboard to surge skyward. The inhuman shrieks
of the Seekers pierced Gabi’s eardrums, leaving them buzzing as the
grey cloaks caught fire and were consumed in a flash of dust and
fireworks. Sparks caught the bottom of the other Seeker’s cloak as
it surged up and over the ring of fire and vanished into the
mist.

“
Send the fire towards the portal,” Gabi shouted, grasping
Julius’s arm and turning him with her to face the way the Seeker
had just vanished. “It’ll keep them back until we can shut it
down.” Julius’s arms dropped and the flames died down. When he
raised them again, a thick wall of fire sprang to life in the
centre of the fog.

Shouts erupted
to their left, and Gabi spun, Nex up and ready. Fergus flowed to
her side. But what rushed towards them was a large group of people
in a tight military formation, dressed in dark clothes, with
weapons strapped to every limb. Their grace and fluid movement gave
them away as Vampires. They were being escorted in by two large,
panting, blood-soaked wolves.

CHAPTER
19

The uneven
stones of the wall dug into her back and the ground under her butt
was as hard as concrete, but the discomfort wasn’t enough to make
her move. Utter exhaustion weighed her down, her ribs ached, some
larger lacerations still oozed blood, and her right wrist was all
but useless. Razor sat beside her, miraculously unscathed except
for missing the whiskers on his right side. He had come too close
to fire at some point, and only little black nubs remained. She
would have to pluck them out so that new ones grew back; he wasn’t
going to be happy with her.

Nex lay in her
lap and her thumb worried over the large gem in the centre of the
hilt. It had been the gemstone from her father’s signet ring. Until
very recently it had been a vibrant green stippled with tiny flecks
of red: a bloodstone. A stone of protection and victory and,
according to her one Sensei, able to deflect evil and dark energy.
Now it was a dull, matt black. And Gabi knew the sword would never
again feel the same in her hand. It was as though the very spirit
of the sword had died, and she felt like she’d lost a true and
valued friend. She wanted to grieve, but how could you grieve for
an inanimate object? Especially when there was a very animate
object to grieve over. Her mind shied away from that reality; she
didn’t think she could deal with that just yet. If it wasn’t for
her father’s bloodstone, she too might be…

Suddenly
annoyed with herself, she leaned forward, shoved Nex back into the
sheath down her back and pushed to her feet with a groan. Overused
muscles had grown cold and stiff, and the scratches and cuts pulled
and stung as they began to scab over. Her eyes automatically found
Julius; he was all dark, brooding business. Standing with the
leader of the local Vampire Clan’s security force, he looked grim
as they talked and pointed. Around them Vampires dug shallow holes
in the ground and buried the evidence of deceased demons. There was
one thing to be said for fighting demons in a graveyard; no one was
likely to be questioning freshly turned soil in the morning. She
corrected herself; it was already morning. Dawn was less than an
hour away; they would need to finish things up here soon. The
Vampires were working quickly, but there were so many puddles of
demon goo.

“
Gabs,” Kyle called from her left as he trotted up to her,
“it’s probably time to get back to the vehicles.” He looked none
the worse for wear although his combat trousers were torn in
places, and blood and other things darkened patches of the fabric.
He’d found a blue T-shirt somewhere to replace his combat
jacket.

“
Where are the others?” she asked, her voice as dark as her
mood.

“
Big Dog is just finishing patching Butch up. Looks like he has
a cracked shoulder and stuffed knee. Julius says the seal he put on
the portal will hold for a few hours, long enough for a Magus to
get here and do a proper job. A local Werewolf pack will guard the
graveyard until that Magus turns up.” He paused for the tiniest
moment and his voice changed, pain softening his next words.
“Fergus is taking Lance on ahead to the plane.” In a body bag, Gabi
filled in the words he didn’t say aloud. Her brooding, sarcastic,
easy to annoy friend… She shut the door on the thought, forced back
the tears that threatened to spill, and concentrated on
Kyle.

“
Sasha is waiting at the cars with the baby.” Kyle gave a funny
laugh and Gabi looked at him sharply. A soft, reluctant smile
tugged at one corner of his mouth.

Anger flooded
Gabi. How dare he feel joy right now? They had accomplished what
they’d set out to do here, but this was no kind of victory. There
was no room for happiness in this godforsaken graveyard.

“
Come with me; you have to meet her to understand.” Kyle held
out his hand.

She stared at
it. Every ounce of her wanted to turn and run in the opposite
direction. Run as fast as she could, as far as she could until she
no longer had the capacity to run.

Kyle’s large
hand settled on her shoulder. He shook her a little until she met
his eyes. “Do you trust me?” he asked.

There was no
point denying it. She trusted Kyle more than anyone else in the
world, including Julius. She treated him to a flat stare.

He grinned.
“Then let’s go.”

“
Fergus rescued her,” Kyle explained as they walked down the
length of the stone wall towards the entrance. “The clinic burned
to the ground. I went back to check a little while ago. Nothing
remains; fire crews only just managed to save the buildings on
either side. We don’t know exactly what happened, Fergus thought
Caspian was trying to circle back to grab the babies, but the
doctor and nurses were dead and the place was alight just after
Caspian ran from Julius. So something must have gone wrong.
Christos, Alicante’s Master Vampire, will keep us informed of what
they find and what the official cause of the fire was.”

“
And Caspian?” she asked.

“
He met his true death. Fergus killed him,” Kyle said, without
emotion. “Julius was following him, but left the chase when he
heard we needed him here.” He looked down at Razor with a grin.
“You’re not too bad for a cat, fluffy.” Razor bestowed Kyle a
narrow-eyed glare. “Fergus even took an extra half a minute to
sweep his ashes into a storm water drain.” That eased some of the
onerous weight on Gabi’s shoulders. No more Caspian, no more
Dhampirs.

If Eka was
correct.

They reached
the heavy metal gates and exited to find the two Hummers parked on
the road outside. Two Vampires Gabi didn’t know stood sentry about
a hundred meters on either side. Probably keeping any norms away
from the scene while they cleaned up.

Sasha was
leaning against the side of the lead vehicle, holding a bundle
wrapped in pink and yellow with practiced ease, rocking back and
forth with a gentle bounce. Her face was a picture of contentment
and happiness. Gabi had seen her angry, disdainful and, more
recently, carefully constrained, but never happy. This softer
version of the tough-talking human was disconcerting. The back of
the Hummer stood open, and several shopping bags spilled their
contents to mix with crossbow bolts, dart guns and combat clothing.
Gabi recognised a few items, but most were way beyond her limited
understanding of baby paraphernalia.

“
Come and see her.” Kyle dragged Gabi by one arm, making her
wince. She knew in principle that babies were cute and adorable and
elicited coos from women of all ages, but she’d never had much to
do with them. She’d made faces and wriggled her fingers at a couple
in restaurants and shopping malls when they stared at her with big,
blue eyes, but that was about as far as her interaction with them
went.

Sasha looked up
at their approach and made a half-assed attempt at putting the
scowl back on her face. Gabi guessed it was for her benefit rather
than Kyle’s.

“
I got as much as I could for her at a late night convenience
store,” Sasha explained as if they’d just grilled her on what she
was doing. “I even got them to give me some hot water to make her a
bottle of formula. It’s not ideal, but it was better than nothing.
She’ll be hungry again soon; we need to get to the
plane.”

Close enough to
smell the baby smell, Gabi leaned in to look at the child,
expecting it to be asleep. Sasha leaned her shoulder and dropped
her arm a fraction so Gabi and Kyle could see her. The baby opened
her eyes and looked at Gabi.

And Gabi was
lost.