There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) (35 page)

The clear blue
eyes caught hers and held them, and Gabi felt the world shift under
her feet. She was being measured, weighed and assessed.

“
She’s incredible, isn’t she?” Kyle asked, breaking the spell
Gabi was under.

She forced a
smile, drawing breath as though she’d been underwater for minutes.
“She’s…she’s quite something,” Gabi managed at last. The little
girl wriggled a little, turning to nuzzle into Sasha’s chest.

“
Here, take her for a minute,” Sasha said, moving close to Gabi
and holding the baby towards her. “I need to find her something to
suck on until we can prepare another bottle.”

Gabi opened her
mouth to protest, ready to cite her damaged wrist, but Sasha simply
deposited the bundle in her arms. The baby was truly tiny, no more
than five pounds, but the weight of the responsibility of holding
her made her feel like she weighed a hundred.

“
Just support her head and neck,” Sasha warned as she flitted
around to the back of the Hummer.

“
That suits you,” a warm voice purred in her ear and she
jumped, automatically clutching the baby closer to her chest. As
she turned to face him, Julius smiled, but there was sadness in it.
“Christos’s crew will finish here. They’ve tracked down all of the
escapees and will keep us informed of anything important. Let’s get
back to the plane.”

A paediatric
consultation via Skype wasn’t ideal, but it was the best they had
until the plane touched down in the City. It helped to have several
people on the plane who could sense temperature, heart rate and
blood pressure without the need for medical equipment. Ian and
Jonathon were both in on the call, and they were unanimous in their
opinions. She was a miracle. At least four to six weeks premature,
she was breathing well, wasn’t terribly underweight, and showed no
sign of infection or brain haemorrhage, some of the more common
complications of premature birth. She would get a thorough check-up
as soon as they landed; and Jonathon was already arranging delivery
of an incubator and other paediatric medical equipment for the
clinic at the Estate. In the meanwhile, they only needed to feed
her, change her and help regulate her temperature until they
landed. Warming her up was as easy as handing her to Kyle, who ran
a couple of degrees warmer than non-Weres; the doctors had agreed
that skin to skin was best, so they stripped off her overlarge
Babygro and laid her against Kyle’s bare chest and covered them
both with a blanket. She nestled in with content little snorts and
snuffles whenever she touched him. Gabi’s heart made a little
hiccup when she saw the look on her long-time friend’s face;
fatherhood suited him.

Once the baby’s
temperature rose slightly above normal, she did the rounds with
everyone else. Gabi even gamely took her turn. All the men were
instantly entranced, even Julius. The looks he gave Gabi when
either of them were holding her were filled with questions and
heavy with meaning.

She needed to
have a talk with him, but it would have to wait until they were
alone.

The welcoming
committee at the airport was far larger than normal. Alexander,
Ian, most of the Silver Ridge Pack and a large contingent of Magi
were waiting in the private lounge, and a cavalcade of vehicles
were lined up outside the windows. If it hadn’t been mid-morning,
half the Clan probably would’ve been here as well. Neither Fergus
nor Julius were showing any strain being awake this late despite
the energy they’d expended just a few hours ago, and Alexander
looked positively perky. They’d be giving Vampires a bad name
soon.

Trish burst
from the group as they all trudged from the plane. She’d dropped a
pile of bags and a baby car-seat to rush forward. Fergus had the
honour of carrying the baby off the plane. It seemed fitting and
the baby wasn’t complaining; after Kyle, Fergus seemed to be her
second favourite. The few times she’d become slightly unsettled,
Fergus had been quick to take over and she’d calmed within moments.
He had a knack with her for sure, and Gabi had the strangest notion
that he seemed to have lost some of the grim edge he usually
carried with him. Saving a baby had to be good for the soul.

Athena was just
a few steps behind Trish, but had, Gabi noted, been standing next
to Alexander when the plane door opened, and the two had exchanged
a loaded look. The two women zeroed in on Fergus and the baby.

“
You’ve been usurped,” Gabi teased Kyle with a nudge in the
ribs.

“
So it seems,” he agreed, but he had a silly, dopey grin on his
face.

“
I’ve bought special formula and preemie nappies and a baby
capsule with a five-star safety rating and, oh…” Trish’s excited
babble broke off as Fergus stopped and bent for them to see the
precious bundle he held. “Oh my…”

“
May I touch her?” Athena asked quietly as the rest of the
tired travellers crowded around, waiting to see if the ‘baby
magic’, as they’d coined it, worked on everyone else as effectively
as it’d worked on them. Fergus held the baby out towards the High
Magus, but she shook her head. “I just need to touch her forehead.”
She looked up and caught Gabi’s eye as though asking
permission.

Gabi inclined
her head and the Magus lifted her hand, then very slowly reached
towards the baby girl. A smile creased Athena’s face before she
even touched the baby, her shoulders relaxing and the tension in
her spine easing. “This is the baby I saw as a bright white soul,”
she breathed, her gaze locked with bright blue baby eyes. And then
her fingertips met the baby’s forehead. For a moment nothing
happened.

Then Athena
cried out, her spine arching and her head thrown back, her eyes
wide. Her fingers never left the baby’s head though. Gabi, and
everyone around her, reacted instantly, leaping forward to
intervene.

“
Stop,” Alexander roared, halting everyone in their tracks. He
appeared alongside them. “Don’t touch her. She warned me this might
happen. Just wait it out.”

Gabi and Kyle
withdrew their hands, both just millimetres from Athena’s
shoulders. Fergus held his ground, gritting his teeth as though in
some kind of pain. Sasha and Big Dog fell back a few steps as
Julius pulled Gabi back against his chest and Kyle turned to hug
Trish to his side. They all waited in a tight circle around the
trio, tense and unsure.

Athena’s eyes
had closed, and she began a low murmured chant through clenched
teeth. The baby’s eyes were also closed, but her face was serene.
After what felt like an hour, but was probably no more than two or
three minutes, Athena gasped and withdrew her hand. Her knees
buckled and Alexander caught her before she hit the ground.

While Athena
recovered in a chair in the lounge, her head resting on Alexander’s
shoulder, Gabi and Julius sent everyone home. Fergus oversaw the
transfer of Lance’s body and the meagre remains of Mariska to a
small contingent of Magi waiting to receive them. Gabi paused to
watch them go; Lance’s body had been transferred into a plain but
beautifully crafted coffin and loaded into a dark, hearse-length
car, while the other body bag, the one containing what was left of
Mariska, was placed in a crate lined with something dark and
shimmering and loaded into a separate vehicle.

Blinking back
the tears, Gabi turned back to the hustle around her. Trish had
taken over mothering duty, and having changed the baby into
better-fitting clothing and nappy, she, Kyle and Ian loaded
everything, baby included, into a waiting SUV and left for the
Estate.

Once the others
had gone, Athena raised her head from Alexander’s shoulder. Gabi
couldn’t help but notice Alexander’s fiercely protective body
language as he kept one hand on her back. She was even paler than
usual, and the dark rings under her eyes stood out starkly.

“
The magic inside her is vast; she will be a powerful Magus,”
she told them. “There is much to try to understand about her. Can
you tell me the gist of what happened in Alicante?” she asked Gabi
and Julius. “Please, it’s very important to me and possibly to the
City as a whole.”

Julius pulled
some chairs closer and the two of them sat while Fergus took up his
usual alert stance just behind them.

Gabi and Julius
took turns replaying the events of the previous night. Athena was
largely quiet, simply nodding at regular intervals until Gabi began
to speak of the Seekers. At the mention of the frightening demons,
the Magus’s eyes narrowed and she sat forward.

“
There were three of them?” she checked.

“
Only one spoke though, and it was going off about some
prophesy and light and dark,” Gabi told her. “It told us our job
was done, implied we were now expendable. Come to think of it…” A
thought hit her hard enough to make her blink. “The one we
encountered before also went on about a prophesy; it had prophetic
titles for me and Kyle. I don’t remember everything; Kyle might
remember more. It seemed to have some weird mission here on our
side of the Veil.”

“
When the Seekers struck Lance, did they only attack him?”
Athena asked, bringing Gabi back to the painful present.

She opened her
mouth to respond, but the words didn’t make it past the lump in her
throat.

“
They attacked the three of us.” Julius took over the
retelling. “Lance was trying to get me close enough to the portal
to show me how to close it. Gabi was covering me while the others
were chasing down demons.”

Athena’s face
twisted as though trying to work out a complex puzzle. “Was there a
physical manifestation of the attack?” she finally asked.

“
Yes, it looked like red lightning,” Julius told her. Gabi
wondered where Athena was going with this.

“
And they attacked all of you with it?” She was like a dog with
a bone.

“
Yes,” Gabi answered this time, “what are you really trying to
ask?”

“
I’m trying to work out why they only killed Lance. Why not you
two? Did they give you any indication?” The Magus sounded
frustrated.

“
I think they were trying to kill us all,” Julius said quietly.
“I only survived because of my regenerative ability and the
reservoir of power I hold as Master of a Clan.” Then he turned his
gaze to Gabi. “Show her the sword.” After a brief pause, Gabi
complied, pulling Nex from her sheath.

“
I got Nex in between myself and the energy bolt,” she
explained. “It threw me back and stunned me, even fractured my
wrist, but I was alive. Later, when the dust had settled, I noticed
that the bloodstone on the hilt had changed colour. I think it
somehow saved me.” She handed the sword hilt first to Athena,
trying not to cringe as someone else touched her blade; very few
other people ever touched Nex. “I wish I’d thought of attacking
with the magical fire before…” she trailed off, the pain of Lance’s
loss still too raw.

“
After that the Seekers concentrated their effort on me,
pooling their energy into a single attack,” Julius told Athena, but
Gabi didn’t think she was listening.

“
This stone,” she said, rubbing her thumb over the
now-blackened gem. “It had a very powerful protective spell woven
into it. It was woven by a very powerful Magus; I can still sense
its essence. It saved your life. The Seekers
were
trying to kill all of you.” Her
eyes had gone distant, her words whispered as though more for
herself than them. “I can restore the spell for you. Not today, I’m
a bit tired,” she smiled wanly, glancing briefly at Alexander, “but
soon.”

Gabi took the
blade back from her. “Thank you, that would mean a lot,” she said,
hoping Athena sensed her sincere gratitude at the offer. Her sword
just didn’t feel the same and wouldn’t until the bloodstone was
restored. It felt now, more than ever, that her father had been
watching over her.

They’d reached
the end of their retelling. Fergus had confirmed Caspian’s demise,
and Gabi knew that Athena would take care of Mariska’s remains,
probably burning them as they’d done with the other Dark Magi and
consigning the ashes to the sea, where the salt water would finish
the job of neutralising any residual Dark Magic that remained. The
Moleman had vanished into the ground of the cemetery, and no one
knew where he had gone. Christos would let them know if any of his
people came across the man, and his Clan was working to track down
the hospital that the Gemini twin had been taken to. They had
nothing more to impart to the High Magus, but something about her
expression kept any of them from rising to leave. She was preparing
herself to tell them something, something Gabi was pretty fucking
sure they didn’t really want to hear.

“
There is a prophesy,” Athena said at last. “An obscure one
that I found when researching the Source, trying to find out why it
was weakening. It revolves around two reincarnated souls: one born
of the light and one of the dark. According to this prophesy, at
the beginning of every millennium the two souls are reborn into our
world. Once they reach maturity, they will inevitably find each
other and one will attempt to destroy the other. The victor gets to
set the tone of the world for the next millennium.

“
It’s not really your typical battle of good versus evil, but
more about order and chaos. Light loves order and peace; dark loves
disorder and flux. If light wins, we get a thousand years of peace
and stability; if dark wins, well, I’m sure you understand. We’re
currently in a state of flux, with neither side stronger and having
a mix of both light and dark, which explains the knife edge we walk
now to maintain peace and order. The world is waiting for a new
outcome. The prophesy is long and complicated, with encoded verses
for each event, and I’ve been trying to work out which verse would
be applicable to our time, but it’s arduous reading.”