Page 14 of Love At the Gates of Hell (The Seven Sinners Trilogy #1)

eight

Benny

“This doesn’t look like a library to me.”

Benny climbed out of the backseat of the car, her eyes taking in their new location with interest. It was a small Italianate style building nestled in between a few other shops in a quieter part of Philly’s Northern Liberties, no more than a couple of blocks from Imani’s bakery.

She had likely walked by a dozen times and had never really noticed the tea shop before.

The sun had begun to set, the sky darkening to hues of deep purple and magenta, and Benny could feel a pleasant chill start to creep into the air.

It had been an achingly hot day, the August air humid and sticky.

Which hadn’t helped with the dull hangover she’d been nursing since she woke up, her marathon of martinis hitting her pretty hard.

The aspirin left on the bedside table had helped, but she was regretting her obvious quest to Blackout City.

The allure of drowning out everything that had happened in the last few days with gin had seemed incredibly appealing at the time.

But parts of the night felt a little hazy in her memory.

She was worried she might have said something stupid when she was alone with Gideon.

Or worse, something flirtatious. Choosing to engage in anything with the man hired to protect you did not seem like a very smart life choice.

But it was starting to feel frenetic sharing the same square footage with him, catching sight of him wherever she was, living in his bedroom, sleeping in his sheets.

This field trip was a good distraction.

An appeal to the academic side of her.

Though she was still hung up on her life just somehow pausing, as if she could be plucked from her day to day with no consequences. No phone, no work, no teaching. She wasn’t sure what the rules were on contacting her friends, on trying to somehow grasp at some facet of her life.

Benny felt like she was suspended in some kind of stasis.

“That’s the beauty of Mathilde’s,” Luke said.

Her eyes flickered to the sign hanging above the entrance, the black metal with neat gold script, as she followed the two brothers across the quiet street.

There was only a dim light coming from the inside, and she could see that the shop had closed about an hour ago from the sign on the front door.

That didn’t stop Gideon from rapping his knuckles against the window as he checked the watch on his wrist.

“Is Cleo on her way?” he asked.

“Should be here soon,” Luke replied.

“How do you know this guy again?” Benny asked.

Luke and Gideon exchanged a glance that left her extra curious.

“He tried to kill me once,” Luke said. “It was just a misunderstanding.”

“I seem to remember it being very clear why,” Gideon replied.

“We were all working off of missing information at the time,” Luke countered.

Benny’s nose wrinkled as she looked back and forth between the two brothers. She had a million questions she wanted to ask. But the light brightened inside the shop, and suddenly the front door swung open.

“I didn’t realize you were bringing me a gift!”

Standing in the open door, illuminated by the lamp light behind him, was a tall, black man with long locs down his back.

He looked forty, maybe, with a lopsided grin and piercing dark eyes.

He had a lovely Irish brogue with a warm tone.

He did not immediately scream four hundred-and fifty-year-old demon-hunting vampire, but Benny wasn’t exactly sure what she’d expected.

Maybe more leather?

Certainly not a knit sweater vest and pleated trousers.

Still, she knew he was dangerous. All vampires were. How she’d become entwined with so many in such a short amount of time, she had no idea. What could you call a person knowingly entering in to a lion’s den?

“Harker,” Gideon warned.

“Kidding, kidding,” Harker replied, waving his hand, his smile bright and infectious. “You know I’ve gone veggie.”

“Pig’s blood,” Luke said to Benny with a wink.

“Semantics,” Harker said as he ushered them inside.

The interior of Mathilde’s Tea House smelled faintly of peppermint and vanilla.

The wallpaper had an intricately designed floral stripe that matched nicely with the vintage hexagon tile and marble-topped bistro tables.

Floor-to-ceiling shelves behind the cash wrap held hundreds of flavors of tea, all neatly tucked away in their own squares.

“Wow,” she found herself saying, her eyes catching sight of the ceramic teapot collection in another corner of the room. “This place is really cute.”

Harker beamed and something in Benny’s nerves settled.

“It’s a fun little thing to do during the day,” he said.

“You know what would be fun? Getting to work,” Gideon said as he leveled them all with a look, his hands resting on his hips. “Russo here thinks she might have an insight into the prick who kidnapped her, and the sooner we figure this shit out, the sooner it’s over with.”

The sooner he wouldn’t have to deal with playing bodyguard felt like the unspoken sentence, and Benny tried to not let that bother her. What did Gideon say last night? “A job is a job.” She would be smart to remember that.

“That’s right,” Harker said, taking a step toward Benny. “Do you know I’ve never once stumbled across a little day bringer in all my years?”

Thirty years of secrecy, and now suddenly everyone knew.

“Well, today’s your lucky day,” she offered.

“Quite,” the demon hunter replied. “Now follow me.”

Harker approached the wall on the far side of the counter, and with a short sequence of taps, a hidden door gently swung open.

Benny’s eyes widened as the door opened to reveal a wood-paneled hallway.

Luke followed Harker inside, and Benny eagerly stepped in after him with Gideon close behind her.

That warm, soft scent that lingered in the sheets of her new bed hit her and she realized stupidly it was the scent of the shampoo. Gideon’s shampoo.

She pressed her lips together, her teeth digging into the skin.

It was like she was wrapped up in his scent.

She had a brief vision of a flurry of light and getting tucked into bed.

“Mind your step, love,” Harker called back as he jiggled a skeleton key in the lock. “It can feel a bit cramped going down.”

Harker pulled a thin metal cord once the door opened, and a dim light turned on.

As Harker and Luke descended down the staircase, Benny was hit with thick, heavy energy in the air.

A blanket of magic surrounding the entrance of the basement.

She almost took a step back but strong hands curved around her shoulders, keeping her steady.

And then she remembered what she said the night before, the knight in shining armor line and briefly wanted to die.

“Whoa,” Gideon said. “You good?”

He was close enough that she could feel his breath at the nape of her neck.

Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment.

“Hm?” Benny felt her skin warm. “Oh, yeah. There’s just a lot of magic down there.”

He stepped back, his hands quickly dropping from her shoulders.

“You can feel magic?”

She turned, a smile working its way across her face. He could, too, if he opened himself up to it. “It’s like this faint pressure,” she told him, leaning her head as if she was telling him a secret. Maybe she was. “Like the air is just a little bit thicker. Does that make sense?”

He stared at her for a moment, his eyes considering her carefully. This close, she could see the depth of his hazel eyes, the little flecks of green that seemed to shine even in the dim light of the corridor. The corner of his mouth twitched.

“Yeah, I think it does.”

The basement was larger than she expected.

The ceilings were higher. Each and every available service was covered in books, talismans, and antique boxes that surely held items she’d be eager to sit with if she had the time.

Walls of built-in shelving were crammed full of books she knew her thesis advisor would lose his mind over if he had the chance to see them.

A floor-to-ceiling glass cabinet held weapons Benny had only really read about in fantasy novels.

There was a mace , for crying out loud.

Rosemary lingered in the air, no doubt part of a warding spell that Benny was sure came in handy.

She found herself drawn to an altar set up on a long wooden table, an intricate black lace cloth setting the stage for crystals and candles.

She loved knowing that a tea shop was just above, the customers likely having no idea what happened beneath the floorboards.

It was the beauty of the magic.

She immediately felt as if she could spend hours here, digging through whatever it was Harker had to offer.

It made her long for her grimoire, to run her fingers along the pages, to feel a connection to the witches in her life she’d lost, their written words.

So many gone because of what they were. It was strange how the emotion swelled through her as she followed Harker and Luke toward the center of the room.

It was why she was so hell bent on practicing with her coven. Why she constantly put herself at risk of being outed. She couldn’t imagine her life without her magic. It was all she had left of her mother.

“I did a little digging before you lot arrived,” Harker said, standing across from Benny, his hands splayed across the table by a stack of books, gold rings stacked on nearly every finger, the color shining against his dark skin.

“There are a few rituals that call for Strega blood. And frankly, I’m not sure what I’d rather we be up against.”

“We?” Gideon asked.

“Oh, so I do all the research and then can’t join in on any of the fun?”

“Our ideas of fun are very different.”

“I was a hunter long before I was a vampire, love. I can’t help it.”

“How did you manage?” Benny asked.