To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (28 page)

The teenage-looking Vampire had dropped his habitual,
nonchalant teen act and looked about as serious as a high-speed
ten-car pile-up. As long as he’d lived and as powerful as he was,
Gabi doubted he’d been in too many real combat situations. He
lacked the battle experience of Julius and his guard, who’d all
seen military action in their human years and beyond. Still,
Benedict had shunned the offer of protective clothing and was
wearing ripped, black denims, a plain black T-shirt and his
well-worn, grungy black boots, so the cocky attitude wasn’t
entirely missing.

She heard Fergus rumble his appreciation about something and
turned to find him picking a MacChopper out of the pile; the weapon
looked like the lovechild of a scimitar and a battleaxe. Mac had
apparently had the design in his head but hadn’t gotten around to
actually making one yet. It was too big to be useful to Gabi in
anything but the most desperate of circumstances, but it looked
perfect in Fergus’s large hands. He gave a few experimental swings
with it, pressing the trigger and watching the piston-powered blade
spring forward from the main shaft with a crisp zing of metal. His
grin was eager and vicious; she should’ve known Fergus would love
that one.

Athena stood at the front of the van. Outwardly calm and
collected as always, but even Gabi could taste the tension
emanating from her. She was wearing a set of combat leathers and
had a black scarf tied over her light blonde hair, so she looked
nothing like the business-suited woman Gabi was accustomed to. She
didn’t carry any weapons other than a crystal-handled athame in a
sheath strapped to her left sleeve, a bracelet of dark gemstones on
her right wrist, and a thin lariat woven of dark, ivory-coloured
silk threads around her neck. Gabi knew the lariat was intended for
Mariska. A magical means of holding her captive without the use of
her powers until the Magi Council could execute her. It was assumed
that the others wouldn’t be taken alive. Gabi had no intention of
allowing Mariska to leave the warehouse alive either, and Athena
probably knew that, but she would go along with the Council’s
orders, on the surface at least. Athena’s main target tonight was
Gemini. Those two would keep her busy enough that Gabi could deal
with Mariska. Julius and Benedict were going after the Dark Elders.
But first they had to get past whatever army the five Dark Ones had
surrounded themselves with.

“
We’re at position two,” Alexander’s voice sounded in her
head. “Shadow is in place. I’m falling back to position
three.”

“
Gotcha,” Gabi said. All the military-style talk was grating
on her nerves, but all the men had picked up Patrick’s lingo, and
now it was an integral part of the mission. She strode to the van,
had a peek inside, and nodded to Mac. He looked her over from head
to toe and gave her a grave nod in return. Trish turned in her seat
to look at Gabi. She sat in front of a console consisting of
several laptop computers and a small bank of monitors attached to a
wall of the van. She looked worried and a little upset, but not the
least bit flustered. She may be a truly sweet, kind person, but she
had a backbone of steel, and she’d cope with whatever was thrown
her way.

“
Be careful,” Trish whispered, a raft of emotions carried in
just those two words.

“
We will,” Gabi assured her. “Just keep the world at bay for
us, and be ready if we come running out hot.” She grinned and
saluted them before jogging to catch up to Julius and the others as
they ghosted through the shadows towards the front of the
warehouse.

As they approached the large, whitewashed building, Gabi
opened her senses, searching for supernatural presences. She got
nothing back besides her own team; the warehouse was like a large
grey cloud of nothingness. When she refocused on the here-and-now,
the others were all looking at her. She shook her head. They’d
hoped her Vamp senses might penetrate the magical shield that
surrounded the warehouse, but it wasn’t working. The Magi could
bring down the shield, but as soon as they did, the Dark Ones would
know they’d arrived. They were going in blind. Not her favourite
way to start an assault. The last time they’d been in a similar
position, they’d been surprised by an army of ghouls, humans who’d
been bitten by demons but not killed. Something akin to a virus
attacked their minds and bodies, altering them intrinsically and
irrevocably. A shiver ran through her at the thought of the men,
women and children who’d been turned into mindless, hungry, raving
creatures. She sent a quick prayer into the cosmos that Mariska
hadn’t had the time or energy to send her demons out into the human
populace yet.

Athena and Benedict moved forward, staying to the shadows but
getting to within a few feet of touching the front wall of the
building. They needed to bring down the shield before the rest of
them could enter the building. Gabi knew that the unremarkable
appearance of the building as she saw it wasn’t reality; a ward hid
the true nature of the place. She could feel the strong inclination
to look away and the urgent sense that she had something else to
do. Even though she knew the feelings were magically induced, they
were hard to ignore. It took more effort than she expected to keep
her eyes on the place and not turn around and run back to the van.
Julius put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. He probably
wasn’t as discomforted by the ward, but he could feel how much it
was affecting her.

Just then the air began to thicken, breathing became an
effort, and pressure made her eardrums ache. Benedict reached out
and grasped Athena’s wrist, over the crystal bracelet. Athena was
using her power to break the ward, and Benedict was using his
Enhancer ability to help her. The pressure built further, forcing
Gabi to flex her jaw, trying to ease what was quickly becoming pain
in her ears and head. Just as she was ready to forget her dignity
and clamp her hands over her ears like a child, the pressure broke.
A crescendo of power engulfed them, exploding outward like a
physical shock wave.

Gabi was knocked backward and would’ve stumbled if it wasn’t
for Julius’s steadying hand. It tightened on her shoulder
questioningly. She nodded, regaining her balance and sending out
her Vamp sense again, and this time getting far more than she’d
bargained for. She was most finely attuned to Vampires, but had a
good sense of Werewolves as well. Demons were more like indistinct
patches of unpleasantness, hard to distinguish exact numbers and
locations. Shape-shifters and Magi didn’t show up on her radar and
neither did ghouls, perhaps because they were all too essentially
human.

So many things hit her at once that her body froze as she
strove to process the mental assault. Too many, but not what she
was expecting. Nothing like what any of them were
expecting.

“
Gabrielle.” Julius’s voice cut into her mental jumble. “What
is it?” Two hands on her shoulders, she couldn’t see him, still
caught in what her Vamp sense was telling her, but she could feel
him give her a small shake.

“
Lots, not demons.” She was trying to count the numbers, get a
sense of where they were, but it was like trying to stocktake an
ant colony. The dropping of the shield had warned them, and they
were rushing around.

“
Dhampir.” Benedict’s hard tone cut through the chaos. “What
do you mean not demons?”

With a wrench, Gabi pulled her wits together and shut down the
avalanche of information.

She blinked rapidly, trying to focus on the faces around her.
“No demons, but lots and lots of Vampires and Werewolves,” she
said, still confused.

There was silence for several heartbeats; then Kyle’s voice
came over the commlink. “Did we hear you right, Hellcat?” he asked
urgently. “Werewolves and Vampires instead of demons?”

“
Are you sure?” another voice checked. She was too distracted
to know who it was.

“
The Elders are here,” Benedict said, his tone emphatic. “I
can sense both of them.”

“
Mariska is here too,” Gabi said, feeling the familiar prickle
of unease at the back of her neck that always heralded the presence
of the Maleficus.

“
Too late to change plan now,” Fergus rumbled. “They know
we’re ’ere.” The sound of pounding footsteps confirmed his
assessment.

“
Do we attack or fall back?” Patrick asked, tension clear in
his tone.

“
How many is lots, Lea?” Julius asked her.

“
Uh, hard to say, forty or fifty at least.” There were several
gasps, groans and hissed breaths over the commlink.

“
Are they ours? Are they being controlled by the Dark Ones?”
someone asked.

“
Pull out.” Alexander’s voice cut through the mutterings. “Cut
and run. We’ll gather and regroup.”

“
No.” Gabi and Kyle spoke at the same time. They’d been
outnumbered before; all they needed was a speedy change of tack and
mindset.

“
We can handle this,” Gabi growled. “Trish, call in Derek and
Simon. Patrick, you can fall in from the rear.” Cold fire burned
through her. “Athena, stay out of the fighting. Figure out if
they’re being controlled by a spell; if they are, break it. Once
you’ve done that, find me and we’ll head for your
targets.”

Athena gave her a sharp nod.

“
The rest of you, the plan goes on as before. Try to minimise
casualties until we know if they’re spelled. Keep them busy; give
the rest of us the space to do what we need to.” And then it was
too late for any more planning; two large bay doors opened to their
right, and a tangle of bodies, some furred, some clothed, rushed
them.

In the semi-dark and the crush of bodies, Gabi didn’t
recognise any of the faces of those fighting against them, but that
didn’t mean they were attacking of their own volition. Trying not
to use killing blows was harder than it sounded. Especially against
Vampires and Werewolves. While none of them were particularly
well-trained fighters, the sheer numbers were overwhelming.
Ducking, spinning and parrying, Gabi kept part of her attention on
the commlink, checking on how the others were doing, waiting for
the safeguard teams to join the fray, and waiting to hear something
more from Athena after she’d told them a compulsion spell was
definitely at play.

Gabi had tossed the MacBow to one side; the exploding bolts
were simply too lethal. The MacSpike was also all but useless to
her, and the MacDart was filled with Werewolf saliva darts, of
absolutely no use against Vampires and Werewolves except in
nuisance value, and she left it in its holster. She was down to Nex
and her daggers.

“
Gabi,” Trish’s voice snapped over the commlink, “the chopper
is collecting silver darts from HQ. I’ll let you know as soon as
they arrive.”

“
Smart lady.” Gabi smiled as she parried a clumsy lunge by a
female Vampire and slid a razor-edged dagger in between the
Vampire’s ribs, carefully avoiding the heart; it would be enough to
slow her for a few minutes. She danced back, slamming into Julius
as he blocked a pair of Werewolves in wolf form lunging for her
back. He grabbed each of them by a throat and shoved. The two furry
bodies flew backwards through the air, slamming into a distant wall
hard enough to leave body-sized impressions in the brick and
plaster. Gabi didn’t watch as they slumped to the floor; they
wouldn’t be rejoining the fight anytime soon.

“
Thanks,” she yelled over the noise of the battle, cringing
when she remembered the commlink, reminding herself she didn’t need
to shout. “Now get going. Benedict is heading downstairs.” She
pointed with Nex towards two open metal doors. “I’ll join you as
soon as I know which way this is going.”

Julius rammed his fist into the face of another Vampire as it
flew towards him, fangs bared. The male crumpled to the floor, the
right side of his face caved in and bloody.

“
Watch your back,” he told her from between gritted teeth as
he began to wade through bodies in the direction she’d indicated.
Fergus appeared on her other side, his gleeful warrior’s face
alight with battle fury.

“
Let’s dance, lass,” he called. With a fierce grin she
manoeuvred her back towards his, and together they faced the throng
of attackers.

It was a sea of attackers, a never-ending tide. Gabi’s sword
arm was tiring, the muscles burning in protest at the prolonged
abuse. She had a cut above one eye, which kept blocking her vision,
and more bruises than she cared to think about, but the protective
clothing had stopped the worst of the damage from Werewolf claws
and teeth and even deflected a number of knife lacerations. She
didn’t think it would stop a direct stab, though, so she couldn’t
get complacent. She used a leather-clad forearm to smear blood
across her face when it threatened to drip into her eye yet again
and wondered how much longer they could hold on without resorting
to killing the attackers. She couldn’t feel anything from Julius,
and that was worrying her more than anything else. She desperately
wanted to get to his side, find out what was happening with the
Dark Ones. If Athena hadn’t broken the spell by the time the
silver-filled darts arrived, Gabi decided they would be used on the
most aggressive of the Weres. They were simply recovering too fast
for the flagging defenders to keep up.