Page 15 of Love At the Gates of Hell (The Seven Sinners Trilogy #1)

She found herself fascinated by the sheer testament of his will.

Gideon and Luke had explained who Harker was, how much he had helped Luke in his transition in the last year.

A demon hunter vampire who swore off of harming humans!

It was a conundrum, and one that she knew didn’t happen very often.

She wondered if Luke and Harker realized how strange it was that they were so different from the rest of their species.

How special they were. So much of what she thought she knew about vampires was suddenly being turned up on its head.

“Not entirely well in the beginning,” Harker replied. “The first few decades were a blur of blood lust and self-hatred. But I come from a long line of hunters, and to see myself outlive so many of them—I knew I needed to carry on.”

“Lucky us,” Luke quipped.

Benny watched as the younger Crawford plucked a book from the top of the pile, the title etched in gold, some of the letters faded over time in a language she had never been able to master.

But she knew this book. She had cited it as a source in a recent journal publication about ritual and sacrifice, although she had only photos and other academic journals to go off of.

Most professors in the field assumed it had been lost to time, no one able to account for it.

But here it was. Sitting right in front of her.

The Hier?nymos Codex, or the Devil’s Bible.

She was twittering with excitement. And nerves.

And a whole mess of emotions she wasn’t sure she could keep at bay.

This was tangible proof of ancient magics long considered to be left to history.

It was in better condition than it had any right to be considering it was hundreds of years old.

But she assumed there was some magic in that as well.

But beneath her excitement lay a deep uneasiness.

Like her body was calling out to warn her.

“ How do you have this?” she asked. “It’s been missing for more than a century.”

“Missing?” Harker mused, a gleam behind his eye.

“The amount of libraries looking for this,” Benny breathed. “And it’s here.”

“And thank goodness it is, darling,” Harker said. “Because I think this is it.”

“What?” Gideon asked, looking between them both. “What are we missing?”

“Uh, something really fucking ugly by the looks of this,” Luke said, his finger pointing at a page midway through the book, right where Harker had marked the page with a ribbon. “What is this?”

The worn vellum was slightly faded with age and the diagram had lost some of its coloring, but the outline of the beast was still clear.

It looked almost right out of a mythology book, a manticore come to life, though it stood on two legs instead of four.

It had human-like arms instead of that of a lion’s, and the hands curved into long, gnarled talons.

And although so much of its body was lion-like with thick fur, its face resembled a bull with four large horns adorning its head.

A long tail wrapped around its legs while two large wings stemmed from its back.

Harker stepped forward to lift the page carefully, showcasing the image of a human man directly behind it and then back again to the beast.

A transformation.

“There have been many men over the years who crave more power than they were born with,” Harker said.

“And that need can warp the mind. It can turn the desperate into demons. Literally. They think it’s ascension, but the gods don’t tend to agree.

They do their best to mitigate what comes from hell—which is, of course, one of the delightful reasons Lucas and I are confined to the darkness. ”

Benny could feel Gideon tense beside her.

“The gods favor some more than others,” Harker said amiably.

“What’s a gift from a god but a curse anyway,” Benny muttered, thinking of her own power.

“This book in particular is a collection of sorts,” the demon hunter continued. “A compendium of men who have gotten what they wished for—or, well, not quite exactly, but it’s a bit like finding a djinn, isn’t it? You don’t really know what you’re going to get.”

“Great,” Gideon said, stepping back from the table with a flourish. “So we’ve got a guy running around, fuck knows who, planning to what? Kill a bunch of virgins, use her blood, and turn into a fucking dragon?”

“Maybe,” Harker said. “There’s also a possibility he’s preparing a sacrifice for the Devil in order to command a portion of his army here on Earth. A fresh heart from a Strega is a rare find.”

“The Devil ? The actual Devil?” Gideon asked.

“You’re standing in a room with vampires, and you’re skeptical that Lucifer exists?”

“Yeah, well, I’m still wrapping my head around a few things, alright, Harker?”

“Right.” Luke leaned both his palms down on the table, hovering over the Codex as he looked up at everyone. “So, what do we do to stop it—stop… any of it happening?”

Benny looked at Luke with a bemused smile.

Their task had been to keep her safe. Help suss out why she was taken while her father dealt with whoever it was that sold her out.

But by no means did she assume they’d participate in whatever this was— she wasn’t even sure she wanted to, her blood be damned.

“This isn’t your fight, you know,” she said. “This isn’t your responsibility.”

“And it’s yours?” Gideon asked, hitching a brow.

She swallowed. She wanted to tell them that yes, it was. It was her blood, after all. She was the last Strega. But she didn’t say anything. Because if she had to, if she was going to figure out how to stop this from happening, how to keep herself safe— she really didn’t want to do this alone.

“I’ve never encountered a true ascension,” Harker said, somewhat giddy. “It sounds like it could be a good time.”

“So it’s settled,” Luke said, glancing back down at the book. “What’s our first step?”

“Well, I think I’d love it if we could keep my heart where it currently is,” she offered.

“Nothing is going to happen to your heart,” Gideon said firmly.

He was leaning against a bookcase behind them, his arms crossed against his chest, and their eyes caught for a moment. There was a flicker of something there in his. Something angry. He was duty-bound now to protect her if he wanted her father’s payout. And it was hurtling them toward danger.

“Virgins and blood are not the only things the ritual calls for,” Harker said before turning his attention back to Benny.

“There are steps that lead to this transformation. We’re going to have to figure out what’s left on his list before the ritual completes.

Benny, is there anything you can remember that might help? ”

Benny brushed her hair back from her face, shifting to the other foot as she played the last few days back over in her head.

She leaned forward, reaching for the Codex.

She felt a little thrill just having the book in her hands, like it spoke to some base part of her.

Magic worked best with a balance of both light and dark.

But the darkness had a way of sinking its claws into a witch if they weren’t careful.

She sucked in a breath as she pushed the feeling away, turning the pages back to the beginning of this particular section.

“A ritual doesn’t work unless all the pieces are in place,” she said. “The missing kids still feel like a lead. There’s a timing to everything.”

Her eyes scanned the first page, scanning over the entry until she saw the phases of the moon drawn out on the very bottom of the page.

“A blood moon,” Benny breathed. “But that’s—”

“Three weeks from now,” Harker nodded.

“We better get you and Gid in the ring and fast,” Luke said.

The demon hunter raised a brow.

“I might be able to harness my magic in a more… offensive kind of way,” she offered. “We think Gideon might be able to help me figure that out.”

“Interesting,” Harker replied with a look in Gideon’s direction. “I would like to see that.”

“You and me both,” he muttered.