Page 16 of Love At the Gates of Hell (The Seven Sinners Trilogy #1)

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Cleo

Cleo was being followed.

She was almost positive that the blacked-out SUV behind her was going to make every single move she did. If she switched lanes, then a few moments later it did too. If she made a left, or a right— oh look at that. There it was.

She wasn’t loving this little surprise in her evening.

Especially considering she was due to meet the others at the tea house.

The secrets Harker kept beneath the floorboards had to remain as they were.

The basement was a crucial meeting spot and an incredible resource as they all adjusted to this new world in the time since Luke’s transition.

Even the most basic of jobs had them all thinking a little bit differently now that they knew what went bump in the night.

Their rules had to shift. Plus, it was Harker’s home.

Which meant something to her. He had become just as much a friend as he was an ally over the course of the last year.

Cleo was going to have to take a detour. She reached her hand out to feel around for her phone on the passenger seat, the device just an inch out of her grasp. She leaned slightly to the right, careful to keep herself steady on the road. She didn’t want them to think she knew.

Not yet.

“Pick up,” she grumbled.

“Where are you?”

There was a slight irritation to Luke’s voice, a petulance that Cleo came to expect from the younger Crawford brother when he didn’t get his way. Cleo was supposed to be at Mathilde’s twenty minutes ago.

Well, she wasn’t exactly thrilled about this change of plans, either.

She let her eyes flicker to the rearview mirror.

There was enough traffic on the road around them, which would buy her some time.

“About to get on 79,” she said.

“What? Out of the city? Cleo, what are you doing?”

She smiled at the new inflection to his tone, the hint of concern.

“I’m being followed,” she said. “Last five miles at least.”

“Fuck—”

She had an idea formulating in her head and enough fire power in the glove compartment to protect herself from most things.

The problem, of course, was that she didn’t know exactly what she was up against. And she hated going into a fight without that kind of knowledge.

Especially when the difference between an alive man and an undead one was so extreme.

Not to mention the leather-bound grimoire she had stashed in the back of the Jeep along with Benny’s laptop.

She couldn’t risk whoever it was behind her getting their hands on either of those things.

“Which mile marker?” Luke asked.

“No.” Cleo shook her head. “You’re not meeting me.”

“Don’t be stupid,” he scoffed. “You’re not handling this alone.”

“You have no idea what could be in the car behind me.”

“Exactly, dumbass,” he said. “This whole thing is bigger than we could have ever expected.”

She heard muffled voices in the background. Noises that sounded a hell of a lot like Gideon and Benny, the two of them bickering over something she couldn’t quite make out.

“Lead them to the quarry. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

She sighed.

This was not the night she had in mind. She was going to make herself some tea in the shop, she was going to curl up in the corner of the basement in one of the more comfortable chairs, and watch as Gideon and Luke bickered over how to manage their Benedetta Russo problem.

She’d get to try out a new brew combination from Harker and maybe sneak a day-old scone or croissant, or both. The bickering was just an added bonus.

Well, the night was still young.

She dropped the phone back onto the passenger seat and turned up the dial on the radio.

An old pop song was playing, and she found herself singing along, using the steering wheel as a drum as she kept driving, navigating to the exact spot Luke had instructed.

Was it weird to be headed to a deserted rock quarry on the outskirts of the city?

Sure was.

But she’d probably done weirder in the last year.

Actually, she’d definitely done weirder.

It came with the job, working with the Crawford brothers.

Cleo hadn’t been lying when she told Benny that the boys were trustworthy. They were stubborn and egotistical and more brilliant than she’d ever admit to their faces but they had their moments of being good, too. Good enough for her to join up with, anyway.

Not that she was so good on her own.

She shouted along to the chorus of the song, her head bopping slightly to the music.

No, she wasn’t exactly what anyone would call “good” but maybe that was why they worked so well together.

They were the unwanted, the abandoned, the ones who were left to figure it out on their own. And they’d done a hell of a job so far.

Surviving a vampire attack had a way of bonding people.

So, they could handle watching over one witch, right?

She actually liked Benny. She liked knowing there was going to be more feminine energy in the loft for however long this whole thing lasted.

Benny’s interactions with the brothers were amusing, especially how quickly she seemed to grate on Gideon’s nerves—always a plus in Cleo’s mind.

He needed someone to put him in his place from time to time.

She even had a bet going with Luke on when things were going to finally come to a head.

Plus, she saw something in the witch that Cleo felt a kinship with.

A longing for something.

She turned on her blinker, prepping for the exit.

Just as she expected, the SUV behind her did the same.

Her fingers tapped against the steering wheel, the song switching into another one.

She hummed, her hands turning with the wheel as she pulled onto the dirt path.

The quarry was empty, a few abandoned cars on the left side, and an old bulldozer down in the partially dug-out valley.

It was dark, only the lights from the nearby highway offering any kind of illumination outside of her own headlights.

It was a hell of a place to pick as a meeting point.

She hated the palpable relief she felt knowing that Luke and Gideon were on their way.

Especially when more SUVs than she expected turned into the quarry behind her.

Three of them altogether, all exact copies.

She cursed under her breath when she realized how stupid she’d been to have missed them.

Maybe the obviousness of tailing her had been on purpose.

Something she fell for easily.

Her mother told her once she was always gunning for a fight.

Well, maybe she was right.

She did her best to channel something resembling calm as she got out of the car, one hand firmly on the gun strapped into the holster underneath her jacket and the other adjusting the smaller pistol she tucked into the waist of her jeans.

It was impossible not to hear her father’s voice in the back of her head during moments like this, his slow Appalachian lilt reminding her how crucial it was to always have backup.

How important it was to always expect the worst.

“What a quaint little meeting spot,” came a scratchy voice.

Half a dozen men were ambling out of their own vehicles, all of them carrying, only some of them human.

She’d gotten better at tracking vampires, learning the tricks and tells, the way some of the older ones tried to mimic modern dress and speak, the way others forgot to pretend to breathe.

Sometimes she got close enough to know their hearts were quiet.

Nothing beating beneath the surface. Though it was still hard for her to wrap her head around.

All that time alongside Luke, and if she placed her hand on his chest, what would she feel? Anything?

She wasn’t sure she could live a life without that sound, that little drumbeat ticking in her ribcage. She liked knowing she was mortal. She wanted to see the end of things. She had earned that.

“Well, if I’d have known about our little date tonight, I might have gone for something with a bit more ambiance,” she said, leaning back against the side of the car, arms crossed against her chest as she dug the heel of her boot in the dirt.

“This will do just fine.”

The man who was speaking was clearly human, an average-sized white guy dressed like he was about to offer to file her taxes.

It was intriguing. Frankly, everything about what happened to Benny seemed like a bizarre little mystery she was dying to understand.

Humans and vampires working together to find a witch?

She’d learned in the last year how rare it was to see humans and vampires working together, period.

Luke living a somewhat similar version of his human life was an apparently unexpected choice.

A choice looked down upon by other vampires.

But she’d never known Luke to give a shit about what anyone else thought.

“What’s this ?” Cleo asked, using air quotes around the word.

“You’re gonna give us back the witch.”

She furrowed her brows.

“Which witch exactly?”

“Don’t do that,” he said before he spit into the dirt. “Don’t play dumb. You think we don’t know who you are, Cleo St. James ? You don’t think we knew the moment you waltzed into Benedetta Russo’s apartment? We know everything there is to know about you, red.”

A breeze whipped through the quarry, her hair batting around her face.

She brushed it back, wondering if he was bluffing or not, and trying to figure out how to know that without taking his bait.

Because that’s what it was, after all. But she knew better than to give a man what he wanted.

She had learned that the hard way more than once.

A tall, brown vampire with long black hair tied back in a low ponytail stepped forward, his eyes darkening into a blood red.

“It’s alright, Mack,” the vampire said. “I’ve got ways of making her talk.”

“You do that,” Cleo said, cocking her gun. “And you’ll get a wooden bullet straight through your heart.”

“You wanna see who’s faster?” the vampire taunted before baring his fangs, a wicked grin flashing across his face. “I bet you I know who wins.”

She was almost willing to take that bet when she heard the crunching of gravel and another car pulling into the quarry. The midnight blue Mustang pulled in at a fast clip and swerved to the side before hitting the breaks. Gideon loved a showy entrance.

The corner of her mouth curved into a smirk as she held her gun steady.

Luke climbed out of the passenger side, amusement flickering across his face.

“Six on one. Wow.”

He approached the group with long and confident strides.

Cleo had always found Luke to be incredibly cocky, a real know-it-all.

His newfound immortality only made it worse.

However when his eyes traveled to her, there was a silent question there.

Was she okay? Her nod was slight but clear enough, and Luke returned the gesture before turning toward the men.

He stopped just in the middle of the standoff, separating Cleo from the rest of them.

Another car door slam found Gideon lining up his shot from the hood of the car while Benny lingered beside him.

“Cleo, I feel like I’d take this as a compliment,” Luke continued.

“Believe me, I’m gonna be bragging about this for weeks.”

“You can laugh, red,” Mack said. “But you did exactly as I asked.”

“Well, would you look at that?” Cleo said, before turning toward Benny. She gave the other woman a little wriggle of her eyebrows. “Hey Benny, these ugly creeps want you to go back with them. What do you think? Do you wanna go?”

“Not a fucking chance,” Benny replied with an attitude Cleo respected.

“Alright, looks like that’s settled,” Luke said with a clap of his hands.

Mack let out a huff of breath.

“We haven’t settled shit,” he replied. “Let’s go.”

He gave a low whistle, and suddenly it was Go time, like she was in a bad Western.

“See, this is why I prefer to shoot first if we’re not going to have a plan ,” Gideon groaned as he reached for Benny, his arm guiding her back. “Get behind me.”

“I am not going to just stand here,” she argued, pushing past him. “Not when I can help.”

Gideon let out an exasperated breath as he followed after her.

“By doing what? Some magic move you have no control over?”

“No, Crawford,” she said smoothly. “By getting my hands on that gun in your waistband.”

A flash of something flickered across her face and Gideon blinked.

“Jesus Christ, what do you have, a death wish?” he asked, though he reached behind him to give her exactly what she asked for.

“Oh, yeah, you got me. Sucks for the guy who signed up to keep me safe, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m beginning to regret that decision,” he said dryly. “You know how to use this thing?”

“I’m Angelo Torretta’s daughter,” Benny said, as if that answered the question.

Cleo supposed it did.

The whole interaction would have made her laugh if she wasn’t suddenly trying to make sure a vampire wasn’t about to bite her head off. Luke had taken on two men, leaving her with this scrawny-looking white guy wearing a hoodie. It was August. Did vampires not sweat?

She staggered back, her body hitting the side of her car as she slammed the butt of her gun into his cheekbone.

It was instinctive but not the best move.

She found a quick kill was the only way with a vampire.

They had far more resilience. At least she had come prepared with a clip of wooden bullets.

Still, she felt no honor in scrambling back to her feet and essentially fleeing to the other side of her car, trying to drive as much space between them as possible.

But she knew her strengths, and one-on-one brawls were not one of them.

The vampire followed after her, a hiss passing through his lips as he lunged across the hood of her car.

She dropped to her knees and pointed her gun at him with both hands.

She was going to have dirt smeared into her jeans.

“Sorry, dude,” she said as she fired a shot directly into the center of his chest.

She watched as his body began to immolate from the inside out, like the edges of a newspaper after being lit with a match. The bullet lodged in his heart lingered there in the air, hovering in the ash before both the bullet and the ash fell to the ground, and subsequently covered her windshield.

“Aw man, I just got a car wash.”