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

that? Renewed hope surged in
Gabi’s chest.
    “ I’ll do it,” Alexander said, rising as well, his phone already
in his hand.
    Gabi was
surprised. Athena, a member of the Magus High Council, and
Alexander had been in an on-off relationship for several months,
but Gabi had thought it was more off than on. The speed with which
Athena answered the call belied Gabi’s assumptions.
    Alexander
didn’t waste time with pleasantries, quickly summarising the events
of the last few hours and rounding out with a
just-slightly-short-of-terse request for help from her best
Tracker. There was no need for speakerphone when everyone in the
room had better than human hearing. Athena had remained quiet while
Alexander spoke, and her silence stretched on after he finished
speaking. Gabi knew it was a lot to take in, and she knew that
there was much going on in the Magi world that they were no longer
privy to, but the lack of an instant offer to help still stung.
Before the battle for the Source, with its terrible repercussions
ripping through the Magi community, she and Athena had been poised
on the brink of a reluctant friendship.
    “ Please tell Gabi I’m truly sorry to hear about her mother’s
abduction,” Athena said, the honesty of her words clear even over
the phone. “Unfortunately Stewart, the Tracker who found Gabi, is
not in the City at the moment. He is tracking a…something…very
important to us in the wilds of Scotland. Right now he isn’t even
contactable.”
    The hope Gabi
had been trying not to allow to life died before it bloomed, but
she still felt its death keenly.
    “ When will he be back?” Alexander asked.
    “ I can’t give you an exact answer.” Athena sighed, and the
weight of the world echoed in her heavy breath. “I wish I could,
but he will be back when he finds what he’s been tasked to track,
and not before. Even if I could contact him, I don’t have the
authority to call him back. I’m sorry.”
    “ Is there anyone else?” Alexander pressed. “Another Tracker who
might be able to help us? Even one from another city or another
country?” There was another pause.
    “ Stewart is without peer as a Tracker of living beings. There
are many who can track objects but only a handful like Stewart. His
closest rival is now retired; she is close to a century and a half
old and no longer travels. The best I could offer is Trinity; she
is one of our strongest Banishers, but she has a lesser gift of
Tracking, though she can only track objects. Perhaps you can give
her enough to work with that she can help narrow your search.” She
gave them a moment to absorb her words. “Would you like me to send
Trinity to you?”
    Alexander
looked at Gabi and Julius. They both nodded before exchanging a
look. Any chance was better than nothing.
     
    They met
Trinity at Julius’s hotel in the City centre. Gabi remembered the
tall, slender woman from her days hunting demons and rogue
Werewolves for the SMV. She was one of those special Magi who had
the ability to banish demons back to the Etherworld, the poisoned
plane that demons existed in. While the best practice was to kill a
demon here in the natural world, if it managed to cross over,
occasionally a Hunter wasn’t available or too many demons crossed
at once. In those dire times Banishers sent them back to their own
plane alive, but unfortunately with the innate knowledge of how and
where to cross the Veil again.
    The Magus was
escorted into the secret elevator behind a high-tech security door
and down into Julius’s Lair, as Gabi had dubbed it. A secure level
of rooms and lockable chambers below ground level that would serve
as a bolt-hole for Julius and his Clan if the shit ever hit the fan
one day. Alexander brought her into the comfortable meeting room,
where Kyle, Gabi and Julius waited around a dark, glass table.
    “ Hello, Trinity.” Gabi was the first to greet her. “Thank you
for agreeing to help us.”
    “ Of course.” Trinity smiled sadly.