There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) (28 page)

“
My employer doesn’t share that kind of information with me,”
he began.

“
I’m not asking what you were told,” Gabi interrupted. “I’m
asking what you know. You’re an intelligent guy, one trained to
observe everyone, to read into everything, to anticipate anything.
You understand human and Vampire behaviour because you’re immersed
in our world. Give me something to work with.”

Sicarius pursed
his lips, his eyes never leaving hers. He crushed the drink can in
his left hand before setting it on the table.

“
Fine,” he said at last. “But I wasn’t lying earlier; Eka
didn’t tell me anything. I’m pretty good at…overhearing
conversations. I don’t have Vampire hearing, but, being human, I
often get overlooked when they discuss things. They don’t see me as
any kind of threat, even those who know what I am.” A tiny,
self-mocking smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I’m also
good at sneaking into places and remaining unobserved, even by
Vampires and Werewolves.”

Gabi was
suddenly struck by the thought that if this man was Turned, he
might end up being like the Lieutenant: a chameleon, a vampire who
could virtually disappear while standing right next to you. “Part
of my job is investigating people and places. I’m good at that. You
have your experts,” he nodded towards Murphy, “with their version
of expertise, but much of what I need to find isn’t recorded on any
computer database. It’s documented in journals and tomes and
registers, in libraries, council offices, archives and military
bases. I have many friends in places like these.”

“
Get to the point,” Gabi growled.

“
While a few people on the run will flee to a completely
unfamiliar and unexpected place, the vast majority will go
somewhere familiar, somewhere that they feel they have the upper
hand. If you are searching for a Spaniard…” He left the sentence
hanging.

Gabi chewed the
inside of her lip while she assessed his words, reading his
expression. Finally, she turned to Murphy with a nod. He tossed his
food container in the nearest bin and sat back down in front of the
computer.

“
You know more than that.” She returned Sicarius’s gaze. “Spit
it out.”

“
There is a shipping company that bears the man’s surname; it
is supposedly owned by a distant relative of the original merchant
who founded the company in the mid-eighteenth century. This
relative holds shares and receives dividends from a large portfolio
in the Valencia region of Spain.”

The clicking of
keys on Murphy’s keyboard sped up.

********************

Caspian pulled
the cap a little lower over his face as he passed under a street
camera. None of those dratted things had existed the last time he’d
walked these streets. Little else had changed here in his village,
except for the amount of clothing the females wore. The one he
followed now wore next to nothing. A tiny scrap of black faux
leather posing as a skirt and an even smaller blue sequined tank
top that exposed more than it covered. Her jewellery probably
weighed more than her clothing. She teetered a little on the
three-inch heels she wore, but her stride was sure and confident.
Caspian had initially thought tourist season would make for easy
pickings when he needed to feed. He’d envisioned single youngsters
heading out to nightclubs and restaurants, drunk females meandering
back to their apartments after several drinks, the odd local
heading home after finishing a late shift, but it hadn’t been as
easy as he’d anticipated. The tourists rarely travelled alone,
especially the women, and locals used cars or mopeds. Times had
changed and people had become more alert to possible danger,
keeping out of back alleys and dark streets and going around in
groups of three and four, if not more.

This one,
wafting strong perfume, sex and hairspray, must have missed her
group and was hurrying to catch up. Caspian would redirect her into
a dark nook that was coming up in about half a block. He lengthened
his stride, beginning to close the distance between them, when his
pocket began to vibrate. He suppressed the growl that surged from
his chest; he had already been prowling the streets for hours,
looking for a likely feeder, he didn’t want to resort to desperate
measures. He pulled the phone out of his denim jacket and checked
the screen. No name, just a number, one he recognised well enough.
He couldn’t ignore it.

“
Yes,” he said after pressing the answer icon. A familiar rasp
came from the phone, but he had already changed direction and was
hurrying towards the apartment. It was difficult to make out what
Molok said, but he understood enough. Excitement welled in his
chest. He just barely managed to keep to human speed, as the need
to get back immediately burned through him. Calming himself, he
found the number for the médico. It was time. Soon…so soon he could
taste it, they would be his.

********************

Cool hands
slipped over Gabi’s shoulders, sure fingers massaging gently as the
reassuring scent that was uniquely Julius wrapped around her. She
leaned her head back to touch him and stretched; her muscles were
tight from sitting hunched in the chair. Her eyes felt dry and
crusty, and a glance at the time in the corner of her monitor told
her she’d been painstakingly searching surveillance footage
alongside Murphy and Sicarius for almost two hours. Trish was
working on the money trail.

“
I’ve brought reinforcements,” he said quietly into her ear.
“Time for a break.” She’d brought him up to speed with their new
search area before they began watching the hours of airport video
footage on fast forward. He’d promised to be back at the Estate
shortly after sunrise. She glanced around to see who Julius had
brought with him and broke into a wide grin.

“
Surprise,” all three female Werewolves chorused in sync.
Clustered close together near the door stood three of Gabi’s
friends, young Werewolves collectively known as the Unholy Trio,
especially when pulling off mischief and causing shenanigans. Casey
was in the front, her goth make-up less pronounced than usual, and
she’d broken up her usual black-on-black ensemble with a chunky red
necklace and a red bow in her ebony hair. Tall, willowy,
white-blonde Jade was openly checking out Julius’s ass with a
wicked glint in her eye, and cute, naughty-but-nice Adriana shook
her head in mock exasperation.

Gabi jumped up
from her chair, the stiffness and exhaustion temporarily forgotten.
Giving each girl a hug, she dragged them closer to the action.
Murphy turned to see what the excitement was. He began to smile,
seeing the girls, but then his smile froze in place as he noticed
Adriana, and the room went still.

Oh shit, Gabi hadn’t given any thought to the fact that
Adriana might not yet be up to meeting Murphy after her ordeal at
the hands of the Kresniks. It was only a couple of months since
she’d been kidnapped and tortured by Dark Stalker and Lady Helsing
on the orders of the Lieutenant. The young Werewolf probably knew
that Murphy now worked for them, but she might not have expected to
come face to face with him. Gabi also froze, entirely out of her
depth in the situation. Give her demons, rogue Vampires and newly
made Werewolves over this kind of thing any day.
Relax
, Julius whispered
into her mind.

Adriana took a
step forward away from the other two, her eyes locked on Murphy.
Casey gave her hand a final reassuring squeeze and then let her go.
She approached Murphy, who stood awkwardly glancing from Adriana to
the floor and back.

“
I’m…” His voice broke, his face a picture of remorse and
embarrassment. “I’m really, really sorry…” He had hunched his
shoulders a little, jamming his large hands in his jeans pockets,
subconsciously trying to make himself smaller and less
threatening.

Adriana held
out her hand, interrupting his stammered apology. “Hi, I’m Adriana.
There’s no need to apologise, though I do appreciate the sentiment.
I know you were coerced into what you did. I don’t hold any
grudge.” Her voice was quiet and sincere.

The tattooed
man hesitated for a moment, just staring at her hand, and then he
slowly took his hands from his pockets and reached out to shake
hers.

“
It’s very nice to meet you under different circumstances,
Adriana,” he finally said. “I’m David Murphy, but everyone here
calls me Murphy.”

Jade walked up
and joined Adriana, closely followed by Casey. “We’re here to
help,” Adriana told Murphy. “Put us to work.”

Julius drew
Gabi against his side, wrapping an arm around her waist. “I think
they have this under control. Time for bed, Lady Consort,” he
purred. Mmmm, she wanted to rub herself all over him, like a cat
who just found a fresh patch of catnip, but he wasn’t going to get
what he wanted that easily.

She forced a
huge yawn. “Sleep sounds like a wonderful plan,” she said, hamming
it up by knuckling her eyes and stretching again. The gold in his
eyes grew liquid, drowning out the blue.

“
Later,” he growled, sweeping her from the war room and
slamming the door behind them with one foot.

“
Are you finally going to tell me what you pulled from Zayden’s
mind?” Gabi asked Julius as the lower half of his body covered
hers, pressing her hips into the bed. Their room was dark, the
special-order shutters firmly sealed over the windows. His hair was
still damp after their long, cool shower. She slid one hand into
his hair and gripped it so he couldn’t look away from her. His face
went still, all emotion erased. “You’ve had time and I can sense
that there’s something you’re not telling me,” she pressed. “Good
or bad. We can tackle it together.” She’d been preparing herself
for this for hours now, bracing herself for whatever terrible
truths Julius had learned.

A half smile
pulled one side of Julius’s face, surprising her. “It’s not bad
news.” His sapphire eyes caught and held hers, and it felt as
though he could see to the very edges of her soul. “Is that what’s
been making you anxious tonight?”

She glared at
him. “You’re hiding something from me. That can’t be anything but
bad news,” she retorted. He pulled against her grip on his hair to
plant a kiss on her nose.

“
I’m not holding out on you deliberately.” He rolled off her as
she released his hair, lying on his back, looking up at the
ceiling. “It’s just been a lot to sort through. To try to make
sense of. When you…plunder someone’s mind like that… It’s hard to
explain. It’s thousands of memories sucked into your own mind
without time stamps or frames of reference. It’s very difficult to
sift out the mundane from the important. If you know what questions
to ask, those memories come to the surface quicker, but there are
always questions you don’t know to ask, and those take longer to
bubble up.” He took a breath. “There was so much. So many small
details, and big ones. How Zayden got to his position, how the
Decuria works, who the Ten are, how much they know of each other,
the origins of the Decuria and the Lucis…” Gabi was beginning to
get the picture. “And then I saw Benedict. I hadn’t thought to
apply Benedict’s name to Zayden’s memories, but his presence
stirred something.”

“
What?” Gabi pushed up onto her elbow and turned to look down
at Julius.

“
I know enough to free us of the Lucis noose.” There was a
smile on his face, but his voice was hard. “We don’t have to dance
whenever they play the music anymore, my Lea. I know the one thing
that Benedict has been hiding from everyone. The one thing he
doesn’t want the Princep Council or the rest of the Lucis to
know.”

Gabi was half a
second away from punching him. “Tell me,” she growled. His sapphire
eyes sparkled with cold pleasure.

“
Benedict was the original Number One. He is the Patriarch of
the Decuria.”

Gabi woke with
her stomach growling hungrily. The chocolates and strawberries
Julius had fed her while they made love, before Julius’s
unbelievable revelation about Benedict, couldn’t exactly be classed
as a meal. She was amazed she’d been able to get any sleep after
Julius’s earth-shattering news. So much to think about. So much to
consider. She wriggled out of Julius’s protective arms and checked
her phone; it was a little after midday. Razor stretched, arching
his back and yawning at the end of the bed. He was hungry too. Four
hours’ sleep wasn’t really enough, but she could probably catch up
later. She kissed Julius’s cool cheek and dragged herself from the
bed. She filled Razor’s bowl with some cat treats from a box on her
dresser, enough to tide him over for a few minutes. Once she was
clean and dressed, they could raid the kitchen together.

A tiny chill
ran down her spine as she returned the box of cat treats to the
dresser drawer. She stilled for a moment before shaking it off, the
air-con was on high, trying to keep the heat of summer at bay in
the darkened room. But even as she stepped into the steaming
embrace of the shower, goosebumps prickled across the back of her
neck and down her arms.

She cut her
shower short, unable to shake the feeling that something was amiss.
She dressed quickly, twisting her damp hair up into a messy bun and
settling Nex into her sheath before jogging downstairs. Razor
followed and she made a quick stop in the kitchen to feed him
something substantial enough to fill his belly. For herself she
poured a cup of filter coffee and grabbed a handful of cookies from
the eternally full jar, gods bless Claudia, before hurrying down
the corridor towards the war room.