Page 5 of Love At the Gates of Hell (The Seven Sinners Trilogy #1)

Gideon gave her a wide clearance as he passed by her, settling the tool chest on the kitchen island’s stone countertop.

With two clicks, he popped the top open and pulled out a screwdriver that he promptly tossed to Luke.

She didn’t even see the vampire turn around, but watched mildly impressed as he caught it in one hand and turned back to half tuck himself into the cabinet.

Like they could communicate without even speaking.

“You mentioned coffee?” she said, then, still watching Luke curiously.

She had lived a blissfully vampire free existence until just recently.

And now she was standing in one’s kitchen.

“Over there,” Gideon said with a jerk of his head. “Mugs in the cabinet.”

“I hope you made enough for me to drown myself in it,” she said, squeezing past them both. “Forty-eight hours of sleep somehow not enough, apparently.”

“You’ve had a hell of a week,” Luke said.

She paused.

“A…week?”

The night she was taken, she was prepping for the last week of summer sessions and the start of her final fall semester. Dozens of papers to grade, her thesis to get in order… If she was really gone a week, she was already behind. And her father wanted her to sequester herself up in Hudson?

Absolutely fucking not.

“Took us a couple of days to track you down,” he told her. “But the last few, those are on you. I’ve never seen someone so knocked out.”

She lingered by the coffee pot, hands gripping at the edge of the counter.

“What happened?” she asked, trying to sound casual.

Gideon huffed an aggravated breath.

“How far back do you wanna go?” he asked. “The nightmare that just busted a fuse in the microwave? Or the vampire brains splattered all over the docks? How much do you remember?”

“I definitely did not forget about the brains,” she said with a grimace. Then, with a jolt of panic, “Wait— what about your microwave?”

He scrubbed a hand over his face.

He looked tired.

She could see a bruise purpling at the line of his jaw and she hoped that it hadn’t been from her.

She didn’t know— she could hardly hear the voices outside of the shipping container, had no idea what was coming for her.

Just the scent of a vampire and well, she’d had enough of those for a lifetime.

Though the one rummaging around in his kitchen cabinet seemed friendly enough.

“Whatever magic you’ve got, princess, it sure as shit doesn’t like electricity,” Gideon said, gesturing to his brother in the cabinet. Right beside the microwave. “You had this whole place flickering the moment you started shouting.”

That explains the burning smell.

“Couldn’t that just be faulty wiring?” she challenged, bristling at the nickname.

“Sure,” he offered her, waving his hand in a tone that felt offensive. “Philly apartments can go either way. But you did this the other night. You popped three lights along with that vampire’s head.”

Benny didn’t know how to respond. Her magic had never manifested itself like that before. It felt protective, innate in a way that surprised her. But it had been a hell of a drain on her energy. Enough to knock her clear out once the adrenaline wore off.

But he didn’t need to know any of that.

“Well, I’m sure my father will buy you a new one,” she said, busying herself with a mug and coffee. Black. No milk or sugar. “I bet he’s paying you both a pretty penny for finding me.”

“Not enough,” he muttered, crossing his arms against his chest.

Good , she thought, her lips curling into a smirk. Let him be annoyed by her. It would make this whole saving her life thing a bit more palatable.

“Well, it’s busted,” Luke sighed. He pulled himself out of the cabinet, wiping his hands on the legs of his suit pants. “Fuse is completely fried.”

Benny took a long sip from her coffee.

“Great,” Gideon said. “That’s great.”

“It is great,” Luke exclaimed with a clap on his brother’s shoulder. “None of the texts talk about a Strega’s powers behaving this way. Feels like we’ve made a discovery, brother.”

She tried not to give him a reaction.

She had known it was likely impossible given everything that happened at the pier, but she had held onto this little wild hope that the truth of what she was would remain a secret.

That the Crawfords wouldn’t be able to figure it out.

She was merely a fairy tale, after all. But her father had damned that all to hell from the moment he hired a vampire to track her down.

“You know.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not an idiot.” Luke rolled his eyes. “The moment you started crying about the sun—”

“Crying? I wasn’t—” She felt the back of her neck warm.

“And your blood,” he continued, his bright blue eyes darkening briefly.

“Lucas,” Gideon warned.

“It was like I could taste it,” he said. “Those marks on your arm, they’re from blood transfusions, right?”

“What is he talking about?”

But Gideon was following the accusation, his eyes lingering on the inside of her elbow, where a deep bruise was forming from irritated veins. She twisted her arm, her hand reaching to cover the spot. He met her eyes with a furrowed brow.

Benny didn’t want to answer.

Because the annoyance behind Gideon’s eyes had turned into something so much worse. Pity. And she didn’t want that from him. She didn’t want that from anyone.

“Benedetta’s blood is big on the black market,” Luke said.

He was only slightly taller than his brother, a fraction of an inch.

But she felt the full measure of his height compared to her own 5’4” stature.

“Strega witches are fucking mythological legend. Blessed by a goddess with the power of the sun. Honestly, I thought you were just some kind of vampire fantasy.”

Gideon leveled her with a look.

“What exactly does that mean?”

Benny sighed.

“Vampires believe that if they drink the blood of a Strega, they can walk in the sun.”

“What?”

“It’s true, isn’t it?” Luke asked, seemingly giddy at the news. It was hard to ignore the gleam behind his eyes, the way they glimmered red.

“Yes,” she said stiffly. Somebody did his homework. “But I—I’m not some kind of blood bank. You even think of making a move, and I will happily blow you up too.”

Maybe.

If she could harness whatever that was from the other night on the docks.

“He’s not going to touch you,” Gideon said sternly, his eyes traveling to his brother.

Something unspoken passed between them, something that settled her nerves.

“Of course not,” Luke scoffed. “I’m not a monster.”

Benny didn’t know whether to laugh at that response or what. Thirty years keeping her abilities a secret, thirty years trying to figure out how to manage her power and keep herself safe, and it only took a couple of days for everything to spiral out of control.

Was she supposed to trust the two of them to keep her safe now?

Were they her only path to answers?

She blew out a frustrated breath.

“So, what now?” she asked.

Gideon stared at her for a moment, his eyes searching hers. They were pretty, his eyes, though it pained her to admit it. Hazel with flecks of green. Long dark lashes. Why were men always blessed with such long lashes?

“We’ve got a phone call to make,” he said. “But we’re gonna need to know everything you remember from the last couple of days. You think you can handle that?”

There was an edge to his tone that made Benny’s skin tingle.

“Sure thing, boss,” she said. “But maybe we can work our way backwards. I’d love to know who had the privilege of getting me dressed and whose clothes I’m wearing.”

Luke chuckled.

“Those are Gideon’s,” he said with a wicked grin. “You’re in his bed, too.”

“Cleo got you cleaned up,” Gideon said quickly. “Luke and I weren’t in the room.”

“And who’s Cleo?” she asked, crossing her arms against her chest.

“Cleo runs our weapons,” he said, his eyes not hiding the trip they were taking up and down her body. Like zeroing in on her arm had triggered something, his eyes darkening when he tracked the bruises down her legs. Still, she felt her stomach flip all the same. “You good?”

“I’m fine,” she replied tersely. “I’m alive.”

That was bullshit. But it would do for now. Until she knew what was ahead of her.

She pushed herself up onto the counter, legs dangling over the side.

“There were five of them, I think,” she began.

She could feel a slight tremor in her hands, but she tried to ignore it, instead wrapping them around the ceramic mug steaming with her coffee.

“They came in the middle of the night. I was asleep. I didn’t even know what was happening until they were already… dragging me from my bed.”

It had been so surreal, to wake up already in a struggle, as if her body was trying to save her before she was even aware. She took a long sip from her coffee, the hot liquid soothing her throat. For all that was hazy, this part wasn’t.

She remembered every painstaking moment.

“Did you recognize any of them?” Luke asked.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “They were all wearing ski masks. And by the time they got me into the van, I was pretty out of it. They used this potion, and it wasn’t like I was paralyzed but my whole body felt heavy. I couldn’t move. I definitely couldn’t use my magic.”

She swallowed, her throat feeling thick.

But neither brother pushed her as the silence wore on.

“I woke up in this little room,” she said after a long moment. “Chained to a radiator.”

Her eyes flickered to her legs, to the cut on the top of her left foot, a scrape from the chain that had begun to scab. She shifted in her seat.

From that point on, they had kept her in the dark. Literally and figuratively. Without direct sunlight, her magic grew weaker and weaker as the days passed. The drugs they’d slipped into her food made her mostly comatose. It made her easy, pliable, defenseless.

“The transfusions started pretty quickly,” she continued.

“They kept me hydrated, made sure I had just enough food in my system, but otherwise they left me alone. I have no idea where I was, or if I was even still in the city. All the windows were boarded, and it was quiet. Like, nothing was beyond those walls. But there was this guy, whoever it was, he was definitely the one in charge. He’d do the transfusions himself sometimes. I never got a good look at him.”

Gideon made a little noise, like a grunt.

“And the shipping container?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. She was still figuring that out herself. “He wanted me moved from where I was. I heard him say something about a truck route—”

“How often were they drugging you?” Luke asked.

She frowned.

“All the time?” she offered as if it was up for debate.

She rubbed at her temples. She was suddenly so tired.

“Except when they moved me to the shipping container. That time they just knocked me out completely. I guess they didn’t want to take the chance of anything happening.

I had only been awake for a couple of hours when you two showed up. ”

“Putting you to sleep like that must’ve given you back at least some of your energy,” Luke said thoughtfully. “For that little fireworks show.”

“I—” Benny paused. She didn’t want to admit to them how unusual that was. She shook her head. Instead she asked, “What day is it?”

“What’s the last date you remember?” Gideon asked.

“The 14h.”

“It’s the 20th,” he replied tersely.

She groaned.

“I am so fucked,” she said. “I owe like sixty kids their finals.”

Gideon and Luke exchanged a long look.

“You should get yourself cleaned up,” Gideon said, filling in the heavy silence that lingered in the room. “Cleo’s on the way with your things. We’ll get in contact with your father and go from there.”

“Great,” she said, letting her heels knock against the cabinet doors. “Anyone got a spare toothbrush?”