Page 24 of Love At the Gates of Hell (The Seven Sinners Trilogy #1)

fourteen

Benny

Benny was crying.

Full snot, red faced crying.

She hadn’t expected the burst of emotion when Olivia Hsu and Imani Egan arrived at the loft but it was there all the same and she was wiping at her face as her sisters wrapped their arms around her in a tight squeeze.

So tight she could hardly breathe but what did it matter when she was with her coven again?

Maybe she had compartmentalized too hard, so focused on trying to solve the equation of her abduction that she hadn’t processed what had actually happened.

The people she had almost lost.

“Oh my God, are you kidding me?” Olivia exclaimed, wiping at her face. They were all crying it seems. “I thought you died, Benny. I thought you were abducted and brutally murdered and about to become the topic of some horrible true crime podcast—”

“We would have known,” Imani reminded her gently, using the pads of her fingers to brush back her own tears. “When a coven loses a witch—”

“We lose a part of ourselves,” Olivia sniffled. “I know, Imani. I know.”

The blood pact.

When covens come together, each witch bonds themselves to the rest. A ritual of blood magic that weaves their power together, strengthens each of their abilities, bolsters the magic of the group as a whole. It’s incredibly special. It also becomes its own living, breathing thing.

If Benny had died, Olivia and Imani would have felt it.

“Jesus, Benny, what the hell happened?” Olivia asked, her eyes widening as she seemed to take in her less than stellar appearance.

Although her injuries were nearly healed, there was still enough evidence of what had happened to her.

Pinkish-red lines on her wrists, cuts on her knuckles, the yellow-tinged bruise on her jaw.

She pressed her lips together in a thin line as she stepped back, trying to curve in her elbow where the bruising was still much more obvious from the blood transfusions.

She suddenly felt so self-conscious of how much her body was marked. Of what had been done to her.

“You look like shit,” Imani said, her honey colored eyes tracing every inch of her. “It’s been almost two weeks since we’ve last seen you and you call us out of the blue to some fancy loft in Fishtown?”

“I know, I’m so sorry,” Benny said, not nearly as graceful as her friend as she ran the back of her hand across her nose. “I wanted to tell you both but it’s been— I don’t know, confusing and my phone is gone and if I didn’t have Liv’s extension at school— It’s been a chaotic few days.”

“You could say that again,” Cleo said from the kitchen as she flipped through the pages of the Codex, making notes on a legal pad.

Imani turned, looking past Benny to see the others lingering in the kitchen, the four of them all trying very hard not to blatantly stare while they pretended to continue researching.

As if they hadn’t just been watching her in horror as she hiccuped her sobs away.

She really hated crying in front of other people.

That was a level of vulnerability she had reserved for only a few after her mother died.

“Okay, yeah, we’re gonna need a full run down,” Olivia said, crossing her arms against her chest. “What happened to you, where we are—”

“Why there are vampires here—”

Benny did not miss the disdain in Imani’s voice even as Olivia’s face lit up.

“Okay, okay,” Benny said, maneuvering them both away from the front door and toward the living room. “We have to talk.”

“We sure do,” Olivia replied as she sank down on the sofa. “What is going on? Are you alright?”

“I’m alright.” For all intents and purposes that was mostly true. “But I was—well, I was actually abducted.”

“Oh, for God’s sake!”

“Hold on, hold on,” Benny said, reaching for Imani’s hand. “There’s something I have to tell you both.”

“Benny, if this is about your father, we already know,” Imani said.

Benny perched herself on the edge of the coffee table, “You do?”

“Come on.” Olivia rolled her eyes. “You told us he works in the antiquing business. Except every single time I’ve ever met him he’s wearing thousand-dollar suits and he pays for everything in cash and no offense… but you’re Italian so I just put the pieces together…”

“I wasn’t actually lying about the antiques,” Benny said, running her hand over her face. “It’s just…they’re not normal antiques. I mean, you know, they’re not smuggling Stonehill sideboards. They’re a lot more like…”

She gestured toward the kitchen island.

“Thousand-year-old artifacts that I thought were essentially lost to time until this very moment?” Olivia finished with a curious tilt of her head.

“Something like that,” Benny said.

“Well, that does explain a few things,” Imani said thoughtfully, before sitting down beside Olivia, her long leg crossing over the other. “Would you care to fill in the rest?”

“Imani,” Olivia whispered with an elbow nudge.

“Well, we’ve been worried sick,” Imani snapped.

“Yeah, so the thing is,” Benny started, her fingers pulling at her braid absently. “My dad isn’t why I was taken. I mean he might know who did it. We think someone he knows is responsible but…”

She blew out a breath. It’s now or never, Benny.

“I was taken because I’m a Strega. One could say the… last Strega.”

Olivia blinked.

Imani’s back straightened, her eyes widening.

“Stregas aren’t real,” Olivia said slowly.

“They’re mythology,” Imani insisted. “Folktales.”

Benny pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes.

“Not quite,” she muttered. “Not yet.”

“What does that mean?” Olivia asked, stricken.

Benny shook her head.

There was so much to explain, she wasn’t sure where to start. How to start. Benny, Olivia, and Imani had been practicing together since they were eighteen years old. Undergrads. Baby witches. They were inseparable. Even now, twelve years later, Benny considered them both family.

She had lied to them the entire time.

“Someone wants my blood,” she said. “For some ritualistic bullshit. They took me with the intention of keeping me locked up until it was time and if it weren’t for them--”

She tilted her head in the direction of the others, her eyes falling to Gideon.

She was surprised to find that he was watching her, a quiet intensity behind his eyes.

She found herself comforted by it, almost. Maybe a little frazzled, too.

Especially when she thought about how just a few hours ago, the two of them had been standing in that same spot, bodies close, poor decisions lingering on the tip of her tongue.

Friends.

The corner of his mouth twitched, the barest hint of a smile, and he gave her a small nod of encouragement. As if he somehow knew how much she was struggling. She felt her cheeks flush.

“If Gideon and Luke hadn’t found me when they did, I’d be one big vampire blood bank,” she finished, turning back to her friends. “I know it’s a lot. I know I should have told you but I’ve been keeping this secret my whole life and talking about it is new for me.”

“Are you kidding me?” Olivia exclaimed. “I can’t believe you just called me out of the blue, from some random phone number to tell me you were kidnapped and now you’re telling me that you’ve been lying to us this whole time?”

Benny jerked back.

“Liv,” Imani said, voice firm. “It’s alright.”

“Like hell it is,” Olivia said, her pale skin growing flush with pink. Her skin always turned a little splotchy when she was upset. “This is huge, this is—”

“A very big secret to share,” Imani said softly.

She tilted her head as she considered Benny, her mouth curving into a slight smile, as if she was suddenly seeing her up close for the very first time.

Imani was her most cynical and most difficult friend.

The one who never shied away from telling Benny what she needed to hear, no matter how hard.

She was the one Benny had been most worried about.

“I wish you would have told us sooner,” Imani continued. “But I understand.”

Olivia’s brow furrowed, her hands twitching in her lap.

“Fine,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I suppose in light of recent events, I can give you a bit of a break. But no more secrets, okay?”

Benny sighed, the relief coursing through her.

“I’ve wanted to tell you both for so long. Believe me, hiding so much of myself sucks,” she said. “Practicing at all is a constant fight with my dad. If he had it his way, I don’t think I’d have any power at all.”

“That is only something a person without magic would ever think,” Imani sighed. “As if it’s that easy.”

A beat passed and then Olivia poked at Benny’s knee.

“Okay, so now that the secret’s out,” she said. “Can you explain to us what’s going on with the Codex? And the hot Scooby Doo gang over there?”

Luke’s burst of laughter devolved into a poorly disguised coughing fit and Benny watched as Gideon whacked him on the shoulder with a roll of his eyes.

She couldn’t help but find something endearing about those Crawford brothers.

The personas they put on while they’re working versus the way they were in the comfort of their own home.

The way she might have liked both versions.

“Well, the Codex is helping us parse out the steps of the ritual,” she said. “We’re sort of on a race against the clock to stop some guy we don’t know before he turns into a demon from hell.”

A snort of laughter passed through Olivia’s lips.

But when Benny’s brows merely furrowed in response, Olivia’s eyes grew wide.

“Wait, for real?” she asked, soft features lighting up. “We’re trying to stop a legitimate demon transformation from taking place?”

“We?” Benny repeated, trying to stuff her hope back into her throat.

“Darling, if you think for even one second we wouldn’t help,” Imani sighed.

“It’s just—” Benny paused. “This is really dangerous.”

“And you don’t do dangerous shit without your coven,” Olivia argued. “We have always worked best as a team. And that’s not going to stop just because—” She gestured with her hand. “Strega or not. We do this together.”

Benny didn’t know what to say.

“Besides, if you think I’m not gonna want to get my little fingers on that Codex, you are out of your mind, Benedetta Russo,” Olivia exclaimed.