To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4)

by Sharon Hannaford

  “This time they have some justification for calling me in.” Julius shrugged into an ivory button-up shirt and began doing up the buttons. “This wolf was found drained of blood.”

  “What?” Gabi’s voice was half an inch shy of a shriek. “That’s insane. I’ve never heard of a Vamp draining a Werewolf. Can one of you even do that?” His statement had caught her so far off guard that she was standing with one leg in her panties and one in mid-air trying to find the hole. It was enough to make Julius grin despite the seriousness of their conversation. She scowled and finished pulling on the underwear.

  “No, it’s highly unlikely it was a Vampire. We gain little nourishment from their blood; the taint of the Lycanthropy virus actually weakens us,” Julius confirmed as he buckled his belt and reached for socks. “That’s why I’m not too concerned about the tantrum the Alliance is throwing. It certainly wouldn’t have been one of ours.”

  Gabi got a tiny little thrill down her spine when he called his Clan ‘ours’. She wasn’t sure if it was a chill of anxiety or exhilaration. With the Consort ceremony due the following night, it was probably anxiety. They’d ‘tied the knot’ Vampire style officially a few weeks ago, giving Gabi Julius’s ultimate protection when they had to face the Princep Court, the governing body of vampires, over some trumped-up charges levelled by a Dark Magus with a grudge, but that had been a hasty affair with few witnesses, and now Julius wanted to officially introduce her to the Clan and his friends.

  “What I’m more concerned about is who, or what, else would’ve done it,” he continued as he slipped on shoes and grabbed a black Melton jacket off a hanger. She was still pulling on a blouse, strapping on a sword sheath took time. “The SMV has a lead on the case and has already retrieved the body. Can you head over to HQ and see what their take is on it while I join the meeting of the Alliance? We can cover more ground before daylight like that.”

  “Of course,” Gabi agreed. Though she didn’t officially work for the Societas Malus Venatori as a Hunter anymore, she still consulted for them and would be welcome to any information that concerned Werewolves and Vampires. As a co-founding council member and day-to-day operations person for the organisation, Byron would probably appreciate her input on the case. “Where’s Kyle?” she asked, knowing it was probably him who’d contacted Alexander when she didn’t answer her phone.

  “He went to HQ with the body after checking the area where it was discovered,” Julius told her, already back in the bedroom. “But now he’s on his way to the meeting to fill them in on what he knows so far.”

  Gabi followed him, plonking onto the bed to pull on her boots and slip her Indonesian short sword, Nex, into the sheath already fastened down her back. She ran a comb through her unruly chestnut mane before grabbing her phone from the bed stand; a quick check revealed several missed calls from Kyle and Byron. She sighed. She’d known it was a bad idea to switch it to silent.

  “Take Alexander with you,” Julius said as he strode from the bedroom. “He’s waiting for you.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter,” Gabi yelled after him, even though he would’ve heard a whisper.

  His chuckle floated back to her; he didn’t even bother making excuses for sending a Vamp with her everywhere she went lately. At least it would be more fun to have Alexander with her than her usual tail of guards in a second car. She hadn’t had enough time to torment Alexander lately anyway.

  She didn’t bother to call for him as she ran lightly down the stairs and grabbed the keys for the spare Audi, but before she made it to the door, Alexander was in front of her. Even for a Vampire, Alexander moved insanely fast, and he loved making her jump in surprise; she was training herself not to flinch every time he caught her unawares. This time she was ready for him; in a lightning-fast move of her own she kicked his legs out from under him and planted a boot in his chest to prove her victory. He was dressed in dark chinos, a midnight blue pullover and a biker-style black leather jacket. A wry grin cracked his model-perfect face; his was the kind of face that could grace the pages of GQ magazine or a sultry paperback romance, the kind of face that was called beautiful rather than handsome.

  “You got me, Hellcat.” He laughed, putting his hands up in surrender before she pulled Nex on him. “Now be nice, or I won’t let you drive my car.” He was suddenly dangling his Ferrari’s trademark red and black key, complete with rearing horse, in front of her face.

  Gabi chewed on her bottom lip. “You’re really gonna let me drive it?” she checked, suspicious. She hadn’t had a chance to drive his new wheels yet. She’d never driven a Ferrari before, and his was the latest Ferrari 458 Spider, a hardtop, which she would never buy for herself but sounded like fun to drive. She still hadn’t gotten around to replacing her car after the Lamborghini SUV Julius bought her had been totalled in an attempt on her life several weeks ago. Her insurance was due to pay out on her original car, her beloved Mustang Shelby, in a couple of weeks, and then she could look for something. In the meanwhile she’d been driving one of Julius’s ‘spare’ cars, an Audi. Not that there was anything wrong with the Audi, but it wasn’t exactly exciting by her standards. She’d never admit it out loud, but she loved cars, especially muscle and sports cars.

  “If you play nice,” Alexander challenged, “and don’t try to give me the slip tonight.”

  Gabi grinned. “What’s wrong, Lex Boy? Don’t think you can keep up?” she taunted.

  He rolled his eyes. “I have some other matters I need to sort out while we’re at HQ, and I can’t do that and keep track of you at the same time. And you know the boss will flay me and put me out in the midday sun if something happens to you on my watch.” He groused like a reluctant big brother left in charge of a younger sibling, but Gabi got the feeling he wasn’t nearly as reluctant as he was pretending to be.

  “Fine,” she agreed, “hand it over.” She snatched the key from him. “So who is it that you’re wanting to see at HQ?” she asked with feigned innocence as they walked towards the stairwell leading to the underground garage. “It wouldn’t perchance be a certain lady Magus, now would it?” And so the torture began.

  CHAPTER 2

  “Could he have bled out somewhere else?” Gabi asked, frowning as she studied the pale body of the man on the cold, steel gurney. His torso attested to a lifetime of fighting, scars showing up purple and blue against the pale white flesh of his chest. “Maybe been dumped after the fact?”

  “It certainly is a possibility,” the Shape-shifter medical examiner agreed. He was a tall, thin man who’d been the city coroner for many years until his retirement a few months ago; in his heyday he’d been a forensic pathologist. Byron counted him a friend and still called on him on the odd occasion when they needed advice from a person with his particular skill set. Gabi didn’t know him well, but she did know his favourite form was that of a bear and, though his name was Donald, everyone called him Teddy. “Kyle told me there was no blood at the scene, which means the blood was either removed in an extremely efficient, clinical manner at the scene, or it was done elsewhere and he was cleaned up before being dumped.”

  “And these wounds?” Gabi asked, pointing out several sets of what appeared to be dual puncture marks along the Werewolf’s vital arteries. “Are those what they look like?”

  “Well, it’s hard to be sure,” Teddy said, pulling a magnifying glass with a light attachment on a retractable arm over to one of the more prominent marks so that Gabi could take a better look. Gabi didn’t tell him that she could probably see the marks better without the magnifier than he did with it; she just leaned over and peered at them obligingly. “At first glance they do look a lot like Vampire fang marks, but on closer examination it seems they’ve been made post-mortem,” he elucidated, “and by something a little too perfectly formed to be fangs. You see, fangs, like any other teeth, are shaped very individually, each with pits and grooves, and are generally unevenly formed. These,” he pointed out the rim of one particular puncture mark, “are ju
st a little too precise to my mind. I guess it’s not impossible for it to be fangs, but if it is, these are some of the most perfectly formed teeth I’ve ever come across.”

  Gabi could see what the doctor meant. It strengthened the case that it hadn’t been a Vampire who’d done this.

  “Anything else, Teddy?” she asked. “Any idea which was the fatal wound?”

  The coroner pulled the magnifier down to the small, discreetly placed towel over the Werewolf’s hips. He moved the edge of the towel away from the dead man’s upper thigh and singled out one of the puncture wounds along the femoral artery.

  “This is the one that looks like it may have been the fatal wound. It’s the only one that appears to have been made peri-mortem.” He glanced up at Gabi as she processed the news.

  “One fatal wound, not a pair?” she checked.

  The doctor nodded.

  “Thanks, Teddy. You’re the bomb,” she told him, giving him a resounding kiss on the cheek before reaching for her phone and typing a quick text to Julius. They had their confirmation; unless there was a single-fanged Vampire out there somewhere, this Lone Wolf’s death was not due to exsanguination by Vampire. Not that this solved the mystery of exactly how or why he died, but at least it cleared the Vampires, and that should ease tensions between Julius and the Werewolf Alliance.

  Before heading back to the estate, Gabi stopped in at Byron’s office, knowing he’d still be there under the circumstances. Sunrise was just under an hour away, so Alexander needed to get back to the safety of the Estate, but she had just enough time to check in. She texted Alexander to meet her at the Ferrari.

  “Hey,” she greeted the man she considered her second father, before plonking down in one of the guest chairs in front of his large desk. He was a lean, handsome man, one of those men who just aged well. Grey touched his temples, and laugh lines creased his face, but he still turned the ladies’ heads wherever he went. “Busy night,” she noted.

  “Hello, honey,” he said, quickly finishing a scrawled note before looking up at her. A smile lit his face at the sight of her. She felt an immediate stab of guilt that she hadn’t made enough time to see him lately. He must feel like they needed an emergency to see her. “You spoke to Teddy?”

  “Yes,” she assured him. “I let Julius know so he could bring the Alliance up to speed. Now that they can stop focusing on Vampire involvement, maybe they’ll get somewhere trying to find the real culprit.”

  “It’s still an unusual case,” Byron mused.

  “Very,” Gabi agreed. “How did it come to your attention in the first place?”

  “By sheer luck, actually,” he said. “One of the new Hunters stumbled across him on patrol this evening. The scent of Lycanthropy was still fresh. If he hadn’t found him when he did, we may never have known.” It didn’t take long for the essence of Werewolf to dissipate after death; the Lycanthropy virus was parasitic and protected its host fiercely because without a live host it died within minutes. If the Hunter hadn’t found the body before the scent vanished, the body would’ve simply been viewed as a dead human, nothing for the SMV to get involved in. The Societus Malus Venatori only got involved in cases that concerned the supernatural community, ones the human police weren’t equipped, either mentally or physically, to deal with.

  “Hmm,” Gabi mused, “it’s possible that’s exactly what the killer had planned all along.”

  “I don’t know about that, Gabi.” Byron was thoughtful. “Why then make it look like a Vampire kill? I think the killer, or killers, wanted it to come to our attention. Possibly with the intention of creating trouble between the Werewolves and the Vampires.”

  “You could be right,” she conceded, “when you put it like that. But it might still be worth checking with any contacts you have in the coroner’s office if anything else similar has come through there recently. This might not be the first case.”

  “It’s on my list for tomorrow morning,” Byron said with a smile, tapping the note he’d been writing when she arrived. She grinned back wryly; she should’ve known he’d be one step ahead of her in details like that.

  “How are things otherwise?” she asked before realising that with so much going on, it was a broad question. “Are you getting used to the extra security measures?” She narrowed the range of her question. Since her return from the Princeps Court, it wasn’t only Gabi who had to be extra vigilant against Vampires wanting the secret of Dhampir creation; anyone who knew the details of her birth was at risk, and that list included Byron, Ian and Gabi’s mother. Though the Princeps had passed an edict sentencing anyone trying to obtain this information to an immediate death, none of them were naive enough to think that would stop all attempts against them. Security details had been placed on all of them; Byron’s and Ian’s with their knowledge, but her mother’s was being done covertly, which made things even more difficult. While Gabi agreed with the others having round-the-clock security, she didn’t feel she needed the same protection.

  Byron’s smile turned rueful. “It’s taking some getting used to,” he admitted. “At least I get peace at home. Irene’s magical barrier has been an enormous help, as I’m sure you know.”

  Gabi nodded knowingly. Irene’s barrier, actually a magical ward, was the only thing that had kept her sane after a crazy Vampire invaded her house with a small army of demons. Not too long ago the ward had saved her and some friends from a plot by a shape-shifting Doppelganger working for a deranged human, and it was still the only thing that allowed her to sleep peacefully at night. It was a difficult spell to cast, but the Senior Magus had been only too happy to help protect Byron, whom she considered a close personal friend.

  “But honestly, I’m not complaining. Julius’s staff are utter professionals; I forget they’re there half the time.”

  In truth there was only a very slim chance that any outsider would know about Byron and Gabi’s close relationship, but both the SMV and Julius’s Clan had been betrayed by insiders in the past few months, so no one was taking any chances.

  “And the new Hunters?” Gabi asked. She had more than a passing interest in the new crop of Hunters who’d been fast-tracked into their positions. With her resignation from Hunter duties and the recent increase in threats to the City, it had been imperative to bolster the numbers of those SMV members who went out and did the dirty work of eliminating or capturing supernatural threats to the City and its people. Julius had encouraged Clan members to make applications, as it made sense to have Vampires on the team when there was the possibility of rogue Vampires at large. Also, her close but emotionally unstable friend Derek was helping in the training of the new recruits.

  “They’ve settled in well,” Byron said, steepling his fingers in front of his lips as he considered her question. “We’re up to eight full-duty Hunters now, an additional Werewolf and two Vampires, with several more in training. It’s been a good thing to have the Vampires on board; it’s helping bridge the gap between the races. Now that the Hunters are at ease with them, the rest should soon follow suit.”

  “I’m glad,” Gabi said. “It’s good to hear that.” She’d been concerned about the personal dynamics that may develop if the other races refused to warm to the Vampires, but it seemed her fears were unfounded. “And Derek is handling the training?” A fairly recent addition to the Werewolf ranks but a highly experienced stuntman, he was well suited to the job, but the loss of part of one of his legs had knocked him hard. Gabi felt that Derek’s mental recovery hinged largely on his new role; it was his chance to redefine himself, find his new place in the world.

  “He’s doing fine, Gabi,” Byron reassured her, reading into her question. “He’s thrown himself into the work and has a true knack for the physical training aspect. He could probably do with a little more personal time, but I expect that will happen in due course. He’s still working on re-creating himself; you know that won’t happen overnight.”

  Gabi sighed, she did know that, but that didn’t absolve her f
rom the responsibility she felt for his well-being. The horror of recent events had led him down a dark path; his drugs of choice were self-pity and antisocial behaviour. They were working on those particular addictions. What had happened to him wasn’t her fault, but he was her friend; she refused to let him fall off the wagon.

  “And the Council?” she prodded. She knew she shouldn’t nag Byron, he already had so much on his plate, but there was an issue she felt strongly needed to be resolved. It was the main reason she no longer worked actively for the SMV, and they’d agreed to address it as soon as they could. She could tell by Byron’s expression that they hadn’t made any headway yet.

  “It’s a tough ask, Gabi,” he said. “I promise we haven’t forgotten. It is high on the agenda. We’ve just welcomed Julius’s man Liam onto the Council officially, and as soon as we find the right person, we’ll incorporate a human onto the Council as well. But you know as well as I do that finding a Conscius who can also fit in on the Council is a very tricky thing.” Byron had fallen into the habit of using the Magi term for a full human who was aware of the supernatural community, and he was right; they were quite rare.

  She hated putting pressure on Byron, but having a human on the SMV Council was important to her and, she felt, the security of the City. As one who straddled both the human and the supernatural worlds, seeing the good and bad on both sides, she was better equipped than most to see the big picture. And the big picture required input from all races. Giving leeway to a human because they didn’t have anyone to speak for humans on the SMV Council had cost lives. Both human and supernatural. Without a Conscius representative on the Council, they would never see fit to deal with human threats to the City when it was beyond the domain and understanding of human police.