To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

risen to the surface,” the other continued, with
a more pacifying tone. “It has been in the control of the Casti for
centuries, but now it is ours for the taking.”
    “ You don’t want to be on the wrong side of this war,” Phobos
warned with an ominous finality.
    The woman’s expression grew shrewd. “You need me.” She smiled,
but it wasn’t an expression of joy or mirth. “Without me you have
no hope of winning this war. Do you?”
    Both men narrowed
their eyes, the grandfatherly act abolished. “And without us you
have no hope of achieving your full potential,” Deimos hissed. “You
will live the rest of your life in the shadows, scrounging for
scraps of power, inflicting as much damage on the Casti as a bee
inflicts on a buffalo. Never knowing the full glory of your power,
never achieving the acme of your capabilities. You need us to teach
you the Dark ways. And the Blood Magic.”
    “ Make your offer, Old Ones,” she demanded after a short
contemplative silence. “And make it a good one.”

CHAPTER 3
     
     
    All thoughts of exsanguinated Werewolves were abolished as
twilight settled over the City, and Gabi’s house suddenly seemed
claustrophobically small. She was doing her best not to pace the
length of her lounge, a difficult endeavour in her satin evening
dress anyway. The midnight blue fabric clung to every curve of her
body all the way down to her ankles, severely limiting her range of
movement. Julius had promised her that Trish, his newest employee
and Gabi’s close friend, had helped choose her dress for the
special evening, but on seeing herself in the full-length mirror a
few minutes ago, Gabi was convinced that Julius had had more say in
the choice than Trish did. It was a good thing she’d spent a bit of
extra time working out recently. While the dress fit to perfection,
it would show the tiniest flaw in her body and was only half a step
shy of being downright immodest in places.
    She fidgeted with the locket around her neck. She wasn’t used
to wearing a necklace, but it seemed fitting to wear this
particular one tonight. It had belonged to her friend Marcello, one
of Julius’s personal guards, who’d been killed by the insane human
Jason King. Touching it brought back memories of the Italian
Vampire’s quick, easy laugh and his mischievous sense of humour.
Gabi still missed him; she would’ve loved to have had him at her
side tonight.
    Razor, her oversized, long-haired tabby cat, watched her from
one of the sofas, his glare baleful now he knew he wasn’t allowed
to join her this evening. He’d taken to accompanying her more often
than not when she went out since their trip to the Princeps’ Court.
As though one trip away with her had created an ongoing habit.
Slinky the ferret had long since abandoned the idea of trying to
climb up her dress to settle in his usual spot curled around her
neck like a living scarf, and was instead folded into the fruit
bowl on the kitchen counter, hoping that he was out of the path of
the russet, furry, half-pound speed demon with a bottle-brush tail.
Rocky, the tiny squirrel that Alexander had renamed Rocket, was
dashing recklessly around the house at breakneck speed, chirping
anxiously from the top of the curtains as Gabi’s nervousness grew
strong enough for the tiny animal to sense it.
    Gabi reached up her hand towards Rocky, calling the little
squirrel. She leapt from the curtain rail into Gabi’s outstretched
hand without hesitation and chattered excitedly, immediately trying
to clamber onto Gabi’s head.
    “ No, sweetie.” She sighed, pulling the squirrel away from her
hair. It’d taken the hairdresser nearly two hours to style it;
fixing it herself was way beyond Gabi’s feminine abilities. She
held the little creature cupped in two hands and breathed
tranquillity towards her, using her supernatural Dhampir gift to
push aside the nervous energy and replace it with subtle waves of
reassurance.
    Rocky subsided with a tiny whoosh of