There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) (21 page)

“
It has the most wondrous nose, doesn’t it?” Eka
asked.

Now that Gabi
was less than three feet from him, she could see that his hair was
very light, ash blond and not grey as she’d suspected earlier. He
had poured himself a glass as well and was nosing the wine with a
delighted expression. He sipped, closing his eyes as he rolled the
liquid around his mouth and then swallowed slowly, leaning back in
his chair as though thoroughly at ease. Gabi watched Julius lift
his glass to his lips and take a sip.

“
Excellent,” Julius acknowledged with a slight lift of his
glass in Eka’s direction.

The other man’s
return smile reached his eyes, and the maniacal edge was truly
gone. He took another mouthful of wine, savoured it and swallowed
before heaving a huge sigh. To Gabi, he seemed like a man shedding
an overly heavy burden, laying it on the ground in front of them
and taking just a moment to rest.

“
Leadership at its best is an onerous task,” he said at last
into the silence. “At its worst it becomes its own
punishment.”

“
You do not want to lead the Decuria any more than they want
you there.” Julius stated this as fact instead of posing a
question. Gabi finally took a sip from her glass, allowing the warm
tingle to flood every part of her mouth before swallowing the
smoothest wine she’d ever tasted.

Eka’s smile
turned sad. “I cannot admit to that.” He shook his head slowly,
staring into his wine. “Isn’t it just the way of the world? The one
thing that comes along and changes everything, the one thing that
makes everything you’ve worked for worthless, is the one thing you
cannot bear to let go of. The one thing that finally makes you want
to live again?”

“
Flora,” Gabi guessed, idly swirling the wine in her glass and
wondering if it had indeed somehow been poisoned. He lifted his
eyes to her and the pale, ice blue bored into her.

“
Yes,” he agreed. “After so many, many centuries of not caring
how the world worked or what happened to those living in it, now my
eyes have been opened. Such a blessing and such a curse. I would do
anything in my power to make the world the best place for her, but
to do that I need to relinquish my role as Number One.”

“
And you can’t do that,” Julius said. “They won’t let you
leave; with the knowledge and power you possess, they dare not have
you working against them.”

“
My only way out is the true death,” Eka agreed, “and then who
will watch over my Flora?” He drank again. “I think we are kindred
spirits in a way,” he said to Julius. “Though the one you love is a
little better equipped to take care of herself, you still wouldn’t
want to leave her unprotected, would you?”

Indignation
rose in Gabi’s chest, but she quashed it down firmly. Julius didn’t
reply, his silence answer enough.

“
So I walk a razor’s edge and find myself needing to reach out
to those I would never have reached out to before. As you pointed
out, when friends become enemies, sometimes enemies become
friends.”

“
Can you get to the point?” Gabi asked, despite the soothing
warmth of the wine in her stomach, her patience was wearing thin.
Kyle had to be very close to her mother, and all she wanted was to
know that her mother was safe.

“
Of course, I forget myself sometimes, forgive me,” Eka said,
finishing the last mouthful of wine in his glass and sitting
forward a little. “I offer you information; first, a way to locate
Caspian and the Dark Magus. I do not have an exact location, but I
do know a way to find them. And second, I will tell you everything
I know about Dhampirs.” He held up a finger as Gabi opened her
mouth to interrupt. “My Master was one of the last Vampires to have
the services of a Dhampir; I know many things that will interest
you. In exchange for this information, you will agree to allow
Tabari to train Flora, and I want your promise to protect her as
one of your own should something unfortunate happen to
me.”

“
What about my mother?” Gabi ground out. Nothing he said could
deter her from her main focus.

“
She is already in the hands of your team. Check your
phone.”

Gabi reread the
message on her phone for the third time. The tight band that had
squeezed her chest, constricted her lungs and weighed down her
heart for the past fifty-five hours eased, just a little. Her thumb
shook as she tried to tap on the icon to bring up the attached
picture. Julius’s warmth filled her, steadying her from the inside
out. The picture opened to reveal two familiar faces: her mother’s
squashed up against Kyle’s, both smiling. There were dark
semicircles under both of their eyes, and both had hair in utter
disarray, but they were alive and together. Her mother was safe.
The last of the tightness inside her exploded into nothingness, and
she could suddenly breathe again.

She was
astounded to feel tears burning behind her eyes. The anxiety had
swamped her so entirely that she was left reeling from the shock of
its sudden departure. She wanted to wrap her arms around herself
and rock in a corner for the next several hours. Reality intruded
as Eka cleared his throat.

“
I hope you can believe me when I say that I never intended to
hurt her, and I regret that my needs were such that I was forced to
this action,” he said, his tone conciliatory.

It could have
been the tone that did it, maybe the words; later Gabi wouldn’t be
able to say exactly what it was. A half second after he stopped
talking, her knee was in his groin, her left hand around his
throat, and Nex’s deadly tip mere millimetres from his heart. Red
mist filled the edges of her vision, blurring her periphery,
narrowing her world to the ice blue eyes that regarded her, not
with fear or shock, but with calm resignation.

“
Lea.” A strong, gentle voice touched her ears and echoed
through her mind. “Come back to me.”

“
He took my mother.” Her words sounded guttural to her own
ears. “No one threatens what is mine.” It couldn’t be her voice,
but the words were hers. Nex was warm in her hand, the hilt so
comfortingly familiar, the gems pressing into her hand in exactly
the right places, the bloodstone that had been in her father’s
signet ring almost glowing. The man’s suit jacket had fallen open,
and Nex had pierced the fabric of the vest and his shirt and slid
between his ribs; she knew the feel of the blade in flesh. One
small movement from either of them would perforate the man’s heart.
Not even a Vampire as old as this one could survive with his heart
in two pieces.

“
He gave her back. She’s safe. Kyle has her. No one will ever
touch her again.”

Julius.

She knew it had
to be Julius; his voice was the only one that could pierce the fog
that had begun to obscure her view of Nex.

“
But he owes us, Lea.” Julius’s voice took on an edge, perhaps
anger. No, Julius didn’t do anger. Annoyance maybe or
determination. “He must pay for taking her. If you kill him now, he
cannot pay his debt. What your mother has been put through will
have been for nothing. Make him give us what he promised.” The fog
cleared a little more and the man’s eyes once more came into
focus.

“
I have what you need, Gabrielle,” the man said. “Let me tell
you everything.” Something in his eyes made her want to fight the
mist. She pulled a breath deep into her lungs, held it for the
count of five, and blew it out, imagining the air blowing away the
whirling red fog. She closed her eyes. With her hand firmly around
the man’s throat and her knee still in his groin, she’d feel if he
made the slightest movement, but he didn’t. He stayed absolutely
still. She breathed again, blowing away the red mist, letting go of
the pent-up rage, facing the fear and the crippling anxiety that
had been hers for so many hours and vanquishing it.

When the red
cloud had retreated to just the edges of her vision, she opened her
eyes again. Slowly, ever so slowly, she pulled Nex’s blade out of
the Vampire’s chest. A deep red stain instantly blossomed across
the charcoal pinstripe of his waistcoat. She locked eyes with him,
and, for a long second, they stared at each other in utter
stillness. Until she knew they understood each other. She had
spared his life and he owed her.

Slowly, one at
a time, she uncurled the fingers of her left hand from around his
neck and took a single step backwards.

Julius was at
her back, her cool pillar of strength, the crystal clear waterfall
washing away the uncomfortable heat of the fire inside her. As his
arm came around her, pulling her back against him, she sensed his
underlying tension. Nex still securely in her right hand, she dared
to look around, putting her left hand back to touch Julius’s thigh.
The cave hadn’t changed much—the candles still burned, the fire
crackled cheerfully—but the table had been overturned, the wine and
other liqueurs soaking into the carpet, amid shards of broken
crystal and one intact glass.

Then the
wrongness finally hit her. The utter, utter stillness. Outside,
nothing was moving. In the candlelight she could see Annmarie
standing at attention at the mouth of the cave. Gabi had just
attacked the Master of a Clan and the head of the Decuria, and none
of his Clan members were rushing to his defence. They might not be
able to hear what was being said through Julius’s ward, but they
could see everything through the large cave entrance. Had no one
noticed her assault? She didn’t think much of his bodyguards, and
then she heard a tiny sob. Finally, her brain made it out of
neutral and she realised Julius’s tension was actually strain; he
was holding all of Eka’s Vampire guards motionless with his mind.
Their Vampires must be holding the Werewolves back.

“
You can release my guards, Julius.” Eka sounded unaffected.
“They will not rush to my aid. I only ask that you allow me to
reassure Flora. She is upset and I find it very
distracting.”

Gabi glanced
back at the man, suspicious despite their tacit agreement. He
appeared as unruffled as he sounded. He looked down at himself and
straightened his tie before adjusting his jacket to hide the
bloodstain.

“
Do it,” she told Julius.
Trust
me,
she whispered into his mind. The
release of his control prickled over her skin and the more normal
sounds of life outside the cave resumed.

“
Sire?” Annmarie ducked her head and peered into the cave, her
eyebrows knitted together with concern.

Eka raised a
hand and waved her away. Her eyes narrowed even further, as though
doubting what he said, but then her mouth settled into a hard line
and she turned around, resuming her position. A moment later
Flora’s distraught face peered in through the dark opening, Tabari
at her side. Gabi watched as Eka smiled at her and blew her a kiss;
then Tabari pulled her gently away.

Julius righted
Gabi’s overturned chair and touched her arm, encouraging her to
sit. She shook her head. The after-effects of Red Rage still rode
her, like the high after a fight, but a hundred times as potent;
that coupled with the anticlimax of having her mother safe left her
feeling raw and unsettled. Sitting was not an option.

“
Start talking,” she ordered. She didn’t return Nex to her
sheath. The sword made her feel better, and with her mother safe,
there was no need to pussyfoot around Eka any longer.

“
I have a last question for Julius.” He held up a placating
hand towards Gabi. “It relates to the boon I have asked of you. It
is very important to me.”

“
Ask,” Julius said as Gabi tapped Nex against her thigh
impatiently.

“
At what point will you let any of them use her,” Eka’s gaze
flicked briefly to Gabi, “to their advantage.” The question seemed
vague to Gabi, she wasn’t sure what or about whom he was referring,
but Julius understood. His eyes darkened, sapphire turning to
storm-cloud grey, and the lines of his face hardened, giving him a
haunted look.

“
At the point when I, and every one of my Clan, lie as ashes on
the ground.” Julius said every word with cold, deadly sincerity.
Gabi went still, disconcerted by the exchange and a version of
Julius she’d never seen before. Eka smiled, but there was nothing
cheerful about the expression; it was the kind of smile that curved
her own lips when she first discovered an adversary’s greatest
weakness.

“
Excellent,” the Decurian said with a slow nod. “So now I ask
you formally; will you allow Tabari to teach Flora the Vodun ways,
and will you swear to protect her as one of your own if I am no
longer there for her?” Their gazes locked; many things were said
without a single word being uttered.

Finally, when
Gabi was about ready to kick the chair over again, Julius nodded.
“I will allow Tabari to teach her. But you may only have Tabari for
two months, to keep up appearances of the deal your fellow Decuria
think we have been forced into. Beyond that, she will have to come
to us.” Translation: you have two months to get your shit together
and bring the Decuria into line or find a way to leave them. “And
yes, we will protect her and treat her as one of ours should you no
longer have the ability to do that yourself.” Julius’s words were
heavy with meaning.

Eka closed his
eyes and breathed in deeply, the stern line of his shoulders
sagging just slightly. His lips relaxed into a smile, this one
filled with genuine happiness. And then he opened his eyes and
looked at her once more, the ice blue depths alight with wonder and
childlike delight.