Vespertine

Chapter 5:

Ninth Circle

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Gwen POV:

There was no relief I'd ever felt in my entire life that matched the feeling when I stepped through the tinted glass doors of Goss Incorporated in the middle of the night, followed by an anxious and dangerous stranger. Something in my chest snapped and eased when I took that first step onto the plush maroon carpet, the same color of my eyes. The color reminded me that a dead man's blood coursed through my body. Guilt weighed down my stomach almost painfully and I felt nauseous.

The lush lobby was familiar in the way of a place not visited for a time – exactly the same, but with a slight feeling of oddness to it. The smell brought back happier memories of a time when I didn't struggle as much with myself, if only because I had someone who hunted for me and brought me my meals virtually guilt free. I shed the bittersweet thoughts as I walked up to Alexander, the only familiar face. Two women flanked him, both of whom I'd never met, each with the faintly strained look of a rehabber and I pointedly ignored them like I remember Garet doing.

Alexander was exactly the same, an unchanging rock in the turmoil of my life. He was young and stocky, his once swarthy skin a sickly pale yellow and hard yellow eyes glaring at my companion, sizing him up. I didn't know his story, but Garet once told me he was with Mora and Cort when they first came to Denver to start what would eventually become Goss Inc. He nodded an acknowledgement to me, confirming that he recognized me and led Abel and I to the elevator I knew was restricted for visitors of our variety. We were going to the Suites, a set of offices and pseudo bedrooms set on the upper floors of the tall building. I had expected this; Mora had never met Garet and me anywhere else. Humans were not allowed up to these rooms and they accepted that. Anyone who attempted to challenge that unspoken rule never came back down; at least not in one piece.

The meeting with Emmeline went as I had expected. She was an old vampire, born to a wealthy, influential family in the 1700's, and often spoke and acted with the imperiousness of her noble birth. Abel didn't seem to like her, but then most people did not and she was fine with that. Mora arriving made the world seem a little more solid and I breathed a sigh of relief because if I knew anything it was that Mora had a solution for almost anything. She was a resourceful woman with contacts and connections, a vast web of information that stretched out into places that I knew nothing of, and it didn't hurt that she was also backed by one of the most powerful of our kind that I knew of - her mate, Cort.

I knew this and I shouldn't have been surprised when Mora knew who was chasing us and how well connected they were, but I was. How could they be working with the Volturi? From the way Mora told it, humans were collecting us, and the Italian bastards would never allow that. The bleak information she laid out for us made my head spin and I was barely aware of Cort joining us. His words to Abel I didn't even register.

Before I could blink, Abel sprang at Cort, snarling like a rabid wolf as he tried to dismember the taller man.

"On the floor!" Cort said, quietly but with an odd echo in his voice and I knew the order was directed at Abel, but I had to fight the urge to slide out of my chair and sit on the floor. This was Cort's talent, and it was a powerful one. Abel fell away from the taller man, hitting the floor with a grunt and the sound of the wooden floor splintering from the force of his fall. I watched anxiously, fighting the double impulses of Cort's command and wanting to help Abel as he struggled.

With a sick feeling in my chest, I watched my companion strain one last time and slump into the depression his fall had made in the floor. I stood, worriedly shifting my eyes between Cort and Abel, ever few seconds glancing appealingly at Mora. I washed my hands together and resisted the urge to whine or squirm or jump forward to defend my friend. It would mean injury or death to challenge their authority in this setting, with no escape. Even Alexander would not dare openly defy this couple.

"You may rise, cousin." Cort said, a laugh dancing at the edge of his voice. Abel rose shakily to his feet, whipping his head sharply to either side to clear the order from his head. He stood, feet planted on the edges of the crater his falling body had made in the gorgeous floor, and glared at the older, taller man.

"I should have known better, you worthless traitor, you son of a whore," Abel growled, vibrating with rage. I trembled in shared tension, a tuning fork to his emotions, although I didn't understand his words. Mora narrowed her eyes and stood as well, a dangerous note entering her body language. She did not want Abel to continue, but I did. I wanted to know what his words meant, why Mora looked so upset.

"Betrayer," my companion hissed, eyes gone black and I whined in confusion and anxiety, sidling around the room to get behind him. Behind him was safe, my instincts whispered, and in front of him was death. "Murderer. Stealer of life and seller of souls." He ignored Mora's shriek of warning. "I understand so much more now that you are involved."

The crunching of the edge of the solid desk echoed in the silence that followed the words and Mora opened her hands, little bits of wood tinkling as they hit the floor. My shaking turned into harsh tremors and I felt like I would tear into pieces as the air thickened with Abel and Mora's anger. Cort made an almost funny figure, leaning casually against the back of an ancient purple wing backed chair, his face serene as he took in the words hurled at him. Mora ground her teeth and glared, and I cowered away.

"And you," Abel said suddenly, turning to her. "You know, I know you do. How could you even stand to be in the same room as him? Are you the same as him? Do you condone his actions?" He spat each word.

She stood up straighter with each sentence. "The young one does not know of what you speak, Constantine, and I would like to keep it that way," she said in a cold, precise tone and I barely noted the name she called him; my mind turned animal, assessing the risks, looking for ways out. "Let her leave and we will discuss your misunderstandings."

"I don't go by that name," he said stiffly, turning his glare to Cort, who shrugged.

I stilled my shaking and widened my eyes. How dare they treat me like a child?! I opened my mouth to protest, but Cort beat me to it.

"Mora, Gwen is as much adult as Alex, and he knows. Don't treat her like a know-nothing fledgling, straight out of the Change." His tone was light, teasing, but there was a warning there too, which made me frown. I felt like a human again, trying to follow the cryptic conversation.

Mora blew out a frustrated breath. Abel snarled. "If you will not say it, then I will. Cortland Roth, you are the lowest of the low, a broker of a death more despicable than anything any other of our kind has or will ever deal. As the Moirae as my witness, I-" He never finished his sentence, because things started to move very fast from that point onward.

Mora roared in anger and sprang. I tackled her out of midair, reacting before my thoughts could talk some sense into my instincts. She will not harm him! a voice in my head howled. We hit the floor hard and struggled, rolling and snapping at each other. She was just faster than I was and I got a mouthful of cloth instead of skin, dusty from the game of baseball Mora had been playing before she came to see us. I spat it out and lunged for her throat. The more experienced Mora quickly gained the upper hand, turning my attack to her advantage and spinning me around. In the blink of an eye, I was on my back on the floor and she was sitting squarely on my chest, pinning me to the floor. I wriggled in her tight grasp, snarling desperately and clawing at the hand that held my throat. Every thought in my mind was focused on one thing, one goal; I had to protect Abel. He was a brother, and she dared to try to hurt him? My rage blinded me, a terrible tide behind my eyes that stained my vision gray and red and twisted my face.

Mora slammed my head into the floor a few times and shouted at me to calm down, but the nature of my mind and self prevented it. I saw a threat to a helpless brother, a very real threat, and every instinct told me to eliminate it. It was some time before I snapped out of it, the anger draining away and leaving me shaken and unnaturally winded. I lay on the floor, Mora's hand still firmly around my neck, and gasped for air I didn't need. The room was silent except for the whistling of the air through my pinched windpipe and I panicked again, struggling to get up and look for Abel. Mora snarled and tightened her grip. I heeded her warning and stilled, and she nodded to my left.

I turned my head slightly to see Cort holding Abel against one of the gorgeously paneled walls, the material splintered and groaning with the force he was exerting to keep the younger man held there.

"Let me down," Abel growled, and his hands were around Cort's wrists much like mine were around Mora's. Cort had both fists pressed to his chest, bunched in the fabric of his t-shirt.

"Will you behave?" Cort looked amused and not at all upset, but I could not relax, the words just a second earlier still hanging in the air.

Murderer.

Traitor.

As the Moirae as my witness, I…

For a moment, Abel glared at him, death and rage in his red eyes and I resisted the urge to once again struggle against Mora's grip. The tuning fork was back and my emotions started to mirror his.

We were in danger here, so much danger.

I could hear the unspoken words in Cort's affable question; Will you let this go? For a second I thought Abel would speak and Mora did too, because her fingers tightened on my throat and I muffled a squeak of surprised pain as her fingernails just barely slid into my skin. But Abel nodded after several tense seconds and was lowered to the ground. Mora gave me an unreadable stare and then released me as well, getting to her feet and pointedly walking back to her seat, every move her body made telling me to not mention why Cort was a traitor, or what had called for the extreme reaction to the words Abel almost said. Cort grinned at Abel and slapped him on the back good-naturedly.

"No hard feelings I hope, cousin."

My companion ignored him, following Mora's example and returning to his previous position. There was an anxious moment in the room, three on-edge killing machines waiting for the trigger to ignite them and a ridiculously relaxed Cort. I got to my feet slowly as Cort snorted a laugh and moved to stand behind his mate's chair, toying with the ends of her short brown hair. She rolled her eyes at him fondly, the previous scene apparently ancient history to them, but I had not forgot it. Mora had not wanted Abel to say those words, the words that tasted faintly of real Power. I stole glances at him, but Abel ignored both the couple and me, glaring at a point on the far wall.

Danger, a voice at the base of my skull murmured. I balled my hands into fists.

I didn't go back to the overly expensive chair I'd sat in earlier. Instead as the two flirted back and forth, I paced the large room. Too much had happened and I was a rat, carefully ushered through a preplanned maze, rushing to an unknown end. These unexpected developments only served to enhance the sense of arrangement, like carefully drawn flaws in a perfectly done painting to make it seem more real. Who was pulling the strings? Mora and Cort were obviously holding something back, which made Garet's separate escape make a little more sense. But he must've known I would head for Mora when our home was destroyed, so why send me into the lion's mouth alone if there was any danger? Did he know nothing would happen to us? Had he gotten a good measure of Abel, a good enough one to rely on his reactions to be the right ones in a situation like this?

I swallow and it burned. I was thirsty again.

I was wary of Cort's ability, a finger of doubt and fear sliding down my spine. If they were to turn us over to whoever was chasing us, we wouldn't be able to resist with his power.

I knew after that scene that if a double cross would be in the making, it would be soon. But I was filthy from cross-country travel and felt like an over stretched rubber band. I would take the gamble that whatever was going to happen would be a little in the future and stay here for the moment. Where else did I have to go after all?

I paused in my circuit of the large study as I pondered this. I had never not had a home. Even when it was just Garet and me we had the little place under an overpass that we came back to during the day. After we moved north and added frail Abby to our group, we had the apartment building to hole up in that she cheerfully made ours. And it wasn't just me in this mess; I glanced up at Abel who had not moved from his spot. He had closed his eyes, but his body was tense and I sighed noiselessly.

I had felt the shift in feelings that had occurred during our trip – I no longer saw him with the same appreciative eyes I had on the street a short time ago. Now he was a brother in arms, an ally, and I smiled wryly as I let go of the idea that we could be more than that. There was a connection, but it was more familial now, like the way I felt around Garet or Abigail. I wondered if he would stay with us when this was over, if we made it out alive.

It would've been nice if he were the one, I wistfully thought. Not that Garet and Abigail didn't keep me company, but at heart I was still a teenaged girl and I still thought of happily every afters and wished, in some deep part of me, for a knight in shining armor. But, I knew that I would never have it that way. The best I could hope for was to live beyond whatever was chasing my friend and, by extension, me.

Emmeline came into the room about an hour later. I was standing across the room from Mora and Cort, who were now going over some of the accounts for the business. Abel was not far away from me, more because I was away from the couple than because he wanted to be near me. I'd had a feeling he was upset with me since we'd left Great Falls and I figured it had more than a little bit to do with my crushing depression at leaving Garet and my home behind. I loved routine and extreme deviations from the comfortable pattern of my day rattled me. Couple that with hunting for myself for the first time in awhile and leaving my family behind, I was a mess of emotions. No one does emo better than a vampire, I suppose.

I was no better now, I reflected. Now I had the added bonus of knowing that we were in the house of people who I was sure would turn us in to whoever Abel wanted to run from so badly. Goss had always represented a safe harbor to me. I had come here a few times at Garet's heels and everyone had been nothing if not welcoming. They gave us news, money and extra blood supplies for when we had to lie low and couldn't hunt for whatever reason. Alex procured clothes for us and Emmeline would give us the best places to hunt away from Mora's territory, which encompassed much of Denver-Aurora. Mora didn't care for those of us who hunted humans, but I wasn't sure why she tolerated Garet and me doing it. She seemed to be fine just ignoring it, so I had never questioned it.

I was pulled from my thoughts by Emmeline, who cleared her throat pointedly and I got the impression she'd done it a few times prior, because she was glaring at me.

"Can it, Ice Queen," Abel growled at her, but she just turned up her nose.

"Down, doggie," she snipped back primly. "Now, if you'll follow me, I'll take you to the usual rooms, Gwen." She pinned me with her stare. "You know the rules, and I hope you'll fill your friend here in on them. I would hate to see him punished."

I nodded and followed her, left with the familiar disconcerted feeling that I should be bone tired. I wasn't, of course, but even 10 years hadn't erased the fact that my brain had spent 16 years learning my body's reactions. It was confusing when my body didn't respond like my brain expected.

We ended up in the section of the restricted building that I was familiar with. Garet and I had often stayed here when he stopped in and we often spent several days. There were two suites, side-by-side and each was equipped with a sitting room, bedroom and large bathroom. I sighed in contentment at the thought of a bath.

If I'm going to be chased across the US, at least I can be clean, I thought wryly. Emmeline left us standing in front of the rooms without a word and I listened to her go, heels clicking purposefully on the marble floor. I scuffed the ragged toe of my shoe on the ground, the pale glint of my skin shoeing through a rather large hole. I was dressed in ragged jeans and a t-shirt four sizes too big for me and I could almost imagine it was Garet next to me and we would be heading back to the overpass in the morning. But Abel wouldn't let me hold onto the soap bubble for long – he huffed and asked, "Which one is mine?"

I sighed. "The one on the right is the one Garet usually takes. You can have that one." He nodded and reached for the door.

Bath, I thought longingly. But no, there was something that needed to be said first. "First," I said, and he paused, "we need to talk about the rules Emmeline mentioned." The dangerously impatient look was back and I steeled myself for his temper. "Mora has only a couple of them, to ensure such a large gathering of us goes unnoticed in such a human part of town. It's more for us than her."

He muttered sarcastically, "I'm sure." I wondered what it was that Cort had done to get such a reaction out of him.

"First, no hunting. Garet had special permissions, but I'm sure that has been taken away and besides he's not here with us. They supply packaged blood culled from the many blood banks the company operates. It may not be fresh, but it's better than going up into the mountains and catching something furry." I'd tried that and it was terrible. "Second, no going out during the day, even on overcast days. The weather had a tendency to be fickle here and a rainy day can quickly become sunny. Usually this is waived during the winter since it snows a lot, but we'll be watched closely, so it's best to obey. Third, don't mess with the rehabbers. They're here to learn to live without hunting humans, and Mora doesn't want them distracted. Besides, they can be nasty to tangle with. We should meet any of them, since they're housed in the basements, but you never know. Last, avoid Cassandra. You'll know her if you meet her."

Mora was very protective of Cassandra, the latest addition to the permanent residents of Goss Inc. The girl had been the plaything of a group of our kind and it was pure luck Mora had been passing by or she probably would've been their toy for the rest of her long, long existence. She remembered little of the time before Mora rescued her, or so Garet told me. I had only met her once and I would always remember the haunted looking girl carefully tending to the sunken flowerbeds Mora had installed specifically for her to work on. I didn't think Abel would do well to cross Mora again and Cassandra was a surefire way to get right to her bad side.

"That's it," I said, turning to my own door and dashing inside before he could ask me any questions.

Bath, bath, bath. My mind chanted. Clean, clean clean.

I passed a mirror in the entrance way and caught sight of my eyes. Suddenly I was disgusted, one hand scrubbing up and down my arm unconsciously.

Oh, to be clean; well and truly clean.

A/N: In part one of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, commonly referred to as Dante's Inferno, the Ninth Circle of Hell is reserved for betrayers.