Free There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) by Sharon Hannaford

change that.
Julius’s hand gently tightened on her arm, reminding her that he
was there.
    “ We cannae ignore that th’ Decuria hae bin quiet.” Fergus spoke
up from his position near the door. “It isnae beyond reason that
they ur behind this.”
    The warning
bell in the back of Gabi’s mind awoke at the mention of the
Decuria, and she sat up straighter, pulling away from Julius to
turn and lock eyes with him, gauging his reaction. They’d pushed
their concerns over the Decuria to the back of their minds while
they focused on SID assignments and Caspian. The Decuria—the
Ten—and their sidekicks the Centuria had taken a back seat on their
list of priorities. The antithesis to the Lucis. In Gabi’s mind
they were the evil working against the good, but to each other they
were merely factions with differing agendas. The Decuria had a
simple vision: Vampire supremacy, a world where Vampires ruled,
where humans were puppets and slaves and other supernatural races
bowed to their commands. The Lucis fought to keep the status quo,
allowing the races to intermingle on their own terms and keeping
other supernatural races from domination.
    Julius had been
approached by both sides, indirectly by the Decuria, who had tested
them to see if their reactions were in alignment with the
intentions of the Ten, and directly by the Lucis, who had explained
some of the background machinations of the two opposing forces.
With Julius’s burgeoning strength and abilities and his alignment
with the only living Dhampir in the world, he’d been given no
choice about being drawn into the power struggle. He, Gabi and the
Clan had been forced to pick a side.
    As much as they
would’ve preferred to stay neutral, they’d chosen the Lucis and,
through their current work as SID, were fulfilling their assignment
both to the Princeps and the Lucis. While the Princeps never were
fully on either side, currently the Lucis had the upper hand, and,
unless someone began offing Princeps, it would remain that way for
the foreseeable future. Gabi liked that outcome. Having the Princep
Council working against you was an uncomfortable position to be
in.
    So far there
had been no repercussions from their decision to spurn the advances
of the Decuria, but that didn’t mean there never would be. While
Princep Benedict, a member of the Lucis Higher Order and their
direct contact with the Lucis, assured them that the two factions
had a tacit agreement not to assassinate each other’s ranking
members, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t make an exception.
And having the only Dhampir on their side might well be the kind of
advantage that provoked the Decuria into action. Benedict had
warned them it was a possibility, but as there had been no signs of
revenge or retribution since they’d made their affiliations clear,
they’d gradually relaxed about that particular threat.
    Fergus was
right though, it was just as likely to be them as anyone else, if
not more so.
    “ Yes,” Julius said at last, his gaze still locked with Gabi’s,
“this feels more like something they would do, like something they
have the manpower to achieve.”
    Gabi felt her
breathing quicken as a clammy chill spread through her. “What will
they do to her?” she whispered as a barrage of sickening
possibilities flashed through her brain.
    “ Wait, we’re being stupid,” Kyle suddenly said, jumping up from
his seat. “We’re forgetting the Magi. They can track her, like they
tracked you.” Gabi didn’t like to be reminded of her stint of
torture under the brutal ministrations of Mariska and Dantè,
Julius’s demon-controlling younger brother, in what, they’d since
discovered, was Dantè’s attempt to gain entry into the upper
echelons of the Centuria. She’d survived long enough for a talented
Magi Tracker to find her and for Kyle and Julius to arrive with the
supernatural cavalry. “We need to get hold of Athena.”
    Holy shit, why
the hell hadn’t she already thought of