Gabi’s expression grew stormy. “So? What?” she demanded. “We just leave Wolf in the hands of a crazy human who might just dissect him to find out what makes him tick?”
“Gabi, you know Wolf means as much to us as he does to you,” Matt said. “He’s like a brother to us, too. The suffering of a Hunter is pain to us all. You know that.” His words brought home again the loss of her father and the other senior Hunter who’d been killed on duty shortly after she joined the Society. The deaths had truly been felt through the entire organisation and the Community as well. “But if we go at this half-cocked, we could lose not only Wolf but many others. Wolf wouldn’t want that on his conscience. He will hold out until we get there.”
It was the longest speech she’d ever heard Matt make, and the most sincere. He wasn’t one given to verboseness or seriousness. Before she could reply, Alexander surprised her by speaking as well.
“The Hunter is right, Hellcat,” he said, his usual teasing and cynicism markedly absent. “If what the Doppelganger said is true, then it’s unlikely this human will do anything fatal to Wolf yet. He may use him as a guinea pig, but he won’t kill him. Not tonight.”
The Council kept quiet but watched with interest; they weren’t inclined to get involved in the details of an operation of this scale. That, they entrusted to their experts.
“What do the rest of you think?” Gabi finally asked, looking around at the Pack leaders and the other Vampires.
One by one the Pack leaders nodded, and after a brief glance at their Sire, Nathan and Liam murmured their agreement as well. Her gaze then met Julius’s. His expression was schooled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and Gabi knew he was leaving the decision to her. She could now back down gracefully or continue to argue her point. After a moment of careful thought she knew she needed to follow her head on this one, even though her heart was screaming for immediate action. The room seemed to sense her capitulation. The tight air of tension eased slightly, and frowns disappeared from a few foreheads.
“You know we have the perfect mole,” Alexander said suddenly. He looked at Gabi speculatively, as though gauging her mood.
“What are you talking about, Alex?” she asked. “We can’t send Kimberley back in there. He didn’t trust her before, he sure as hell won’t trust her now. And we don’t know if we can trust her.”
“I wasn’t referring to the Doppelganger,” he interrupted her.
A ripple of interest went around the table, but Julius, as usual, was on exactly the same page as his second in command. Gabi felt him tense, his thoughts going wary.
Alexander continued. “There is someone else that the human is after. In fact, he went to great lengths to capture him.”
Gabi’s gaze went flat, annoyance flaring for the millionth time today. “You mean Derek?” she stated more than asked.
Alexander’s eyebrow rose innocently. “He’s the perfect opportunity to get eyes into the compound. Hasn’t he been hounding you to get involved and help out?” Alexander leaned forward now, struggling to contain his excitement. “All we have to do is find a way for him to communicate with us. Come on, you know he won’t be in serious danger. The human wants him as part of his mercenary army. The worst that will happen is he gets to do some military training.”
“And be in the middle of a compound full of Werewolves and humans, while he’s still trying to learn to control his wolf. If he goes wolf before or during our infiltration, I’m not even sure he’ll know who the good guys are,” she growled.
“Perhaps we should let him make his own decision,” Byron spoke up. “It wouldn’t be fair to thrust this kind of mission on someone who wasn’t willing.”
Gabi knew then that she’d lost yet another argument. She knew Derek would jump at the chance to prove himself, as well as to possibly avenge what was done to him. Gabi stood up from her seat again. She didn’t have the energy to argue further.
“Fine, contact Derek. But you might want to read the SMV manifesto to him and remind him that he will not be allowed to kill the man who ruined his life.” She stepped away from the table. “If you’ll excuse me, I need some air.” The room was silent as she walked around to the door. Before she opened it, she turned to the Council. “One other thing,” she said to them, “once Kyle is free and Doug is back on duty, I will officially be taking a leave of absence from my duties as a Hunter. For an indefinite period of time.” She gave Byron a brief, cheerless smile and left the room.
The door should have swung shut behind her, but it didn’t. As she turned to secure it, she collided with a solid wall of chest covered in black T-shirt.
“Oooph,” she said, stepping back and rubbing her nose. “You’re like walking into an elephant,” she groused up at the hulking shape of Fergus.
“Sorry, lass,” he apologised without any true sympathy.
“Your night on babysitting duty, huh?” she asked.
He gave her his macabre grin. “Come on, Iet’s go grab a tipple from the bar,” he said, leading the way through the sparse crowd.
“Scotch, on the rocks,” she told the Vampire behind the bar.
In very short order he placed her drink, along with a glass tankard of thick, black beer topped with heavy white foam. Fergus claimed the barstool next to hers and lifted the tankard in silent salute.
Wry humour lifted one corner of Gabi’s mouth. “A Scot drinking Guinness?” she asked incredulously.
“Aye, it be a sad turn of events fer me,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “Don’t be spreadin’ the story around now, lass, I’d never live it down.”
She clinked her glass against his and took a mouthful of the golden liquor, allowing the alcohol to warm in her mouth and suffuse her taste buds before swallowing.
“I’m not going to be very good company,” she told Fergus, turning to rest her elbows on the bar counter, looking at her glass rather than him. “You don’t have to babysit me in a room full of Clan Vampires.”
The hulking Vampire took a long slow sip of his beer and then set down his half-empty tankard. “I dinnae expect no cheery conversation, lass. I ken the look in someone’s eye when they feel they’re letting down those they luv,” he said. “’Tis a harder thing, too, when the person you feel ye’ve let down isnae here for ye te apologise to.”
An ancient sadness coloured his voice, making Gabi glance sideways at him. Julius had once hinted that the Scotsman had deep emotional wounds, but he hadn’t told her Fergus’s story. Somehow it was tied to the vicious scar across his face. Fergus had gone out of his way to ensure that the wound would scar.
“The silliest thing is that if yer Da were to appear before ye right now, he widnae want yer apology, he’d only want to hold and comfort ye.” He lifted his glass to down the remains of the dark beer.
Gabi didn’t speak. She knew if she did, her voice would crack.
“If it means anything coming from ain such as me, I think yer Da would be mighty proud of ye for standing up fer what ye see as right and just. It be not the dead who hold the blame te us, it be ourselves.”
Gabi gulped her whiskey to clear the tightness in her throat. “Was it a wife or a daughter who you feel so responsible for?” she asked him in barely a whisper.
He was silent a long moment, nodding to the barman for a refill.
“Aye, lass, not one or the other, but both.” His voice was the softest she’d ever heard it. “I couldnae protect either of them from the evils of the world.” He shut his eyes a moment, and the age-old grief was etched into every line of his face; then just as suddenly, it was gone. A rueful smile tugged one corner of his mouth. “But that be nae a story for tonight. I just be tryin’ to impart a little wisdom that took me nearly two hundred years te learn.”
“We should probably be getting back inside.” Gabi sighed, reluctance keeping her ass on the stool.
“Nae,” Fergus said firmly, nodding to the barman to refill Gabi’s glass, “they’ll ’ave it all under control. We’ll just take orders an
d do as we’re told.”
Gabi didn’t have the inclination to argue with him, so nodded her thanks to the barman when he brought her refill. “This must all feel like déjà vu for you. Off to rescue another Hunter of the SMV,” she said ruefully.
The Vampire gave a loud guffaw. “Aye, it does a little at that. But there be one major difference this time,” he told her, wiping the beer foam from his top lip. “This time my Sire isnae almost insane with guilt and rage. We might all like yer Wolf friend, but ’tis nae quite te same. And I ken ye find this hard to believe, but yer Wolf truly isnae in real danger right yet. We won’t be finding him in the same condition as we found ye. Oh, and there be none of them Demons and Ghouls to contend with neither.”
Gabi tried to take his words to heart, to really believe them, but she knew she wouldn’t be getting much sleep until Kyle was out of the megalomaniac’s clutches. Fergus’s words about Julius brought a different kind of clench in her heart. She was reminded of how she’d felt when she’d found him lying still and inert in the rubble of his house. The panic, the terror, the sense of loss. Another thought suddenly struck her, and guilt stabbed deep.
“Lord and Lady,” she whispered, “I can be such a selfish bitch. I haven’t even considered that Julius just lost his home and everything inside it. His books and weapons and artworks.” She felt truly appalled at her lack of compassion and her sheer thoughtlessness. Worry over Kyle had overridden everything else. He must think his losses meant nothing to her.
“Lass, dinnae being getting yerself so upset aboot that,” Fergus reassured her. “I’m sure he’d be appreciatin’ the thought, but there’s another lesson that ye be learning after aboot two hundred years,” he paused and looked at her, making sure she was paying attention. “It be nae the things that matter in this life, it be the people. Now I’ve ken Julius a fair long time, and I can tell ye with absolute certainty that he would rather have lost the entire Estate than have lost one of his Clan.”
Gabi knew that what Fergus said was true, but it didn’t ease her sense of guilt much.
“Ye see that bunch of ragamuffins sitting over there?” he asked her, indicating with his miraculously empty tankard to a group of Vamps and Werewolves gathered around a pool table in a dingy corner of the pub.
She nodded. She’d been aware of the group since she walked out of the meeting; they were exactly the kind she instinctively kept a wary eye on.
“’Tween the seven o’ them, they’ll be getting the clean-up and rebuild going.”
Gabi raised a sceptical eyebrow, not one of them looked like any kind of master builder or architect.
Fergus chuckled. “Ye’ll see. Ye havnae seen what can be done when ye have two teams working around the clock. And be keepin’ in mind the one team be Weres and the other team be Vamps.”
This made Gabi pause and rethink. “Hmm,” she mused, “that would probably be the fastest build team on the planet.”
“Aye,” Fergus agreed. “And it would seem our drinkin’ time is oop.”
Gabi glanced in the direction of his gaze and watched the door to the private room open. The Hunters and Pack leaders filed out first. Most sent a nod or subtle salute her way as they manoeuvred through the room towards the outside door. Lance and Matt came over to join them at the bar. Lance ordered a Virgin Bloody Mary, and Matt asked for a beer.
“You sure know how to shake up a room, Hellcat,” Lance told her.
Matt snorted. “Yep, you really made the Council go quiet,” he chipped in. “At least those who knew your father. Athena doesn’t suffer from the same ethical dilemmas, of course.”
Lance suppressed a grin. It was common knowledge that Athena wasn’t terribly fond of non-Magi.
The barman brought over the drinks, including refills for Gabi and Fergus.
“To a successful raid tomorrow night,” Matt said, holding up his glass.
The others clinked glasses and drank deeply.
Gabi knew before he touched her that he was close. Julius. He was still annoyed, but he was tightly controlling the irritation. He slid a hand under her hair to softly massage a tense knot in her neck. She leaned into his touch, some of her anxiety and guilt easing.
“I think Byron would like to talk to you, Lea,” he murmured in her ear.
She glanced around to see the Council making their way towards the exit. Byron was standing to one side, scanning the room. Gabi bit her bottom lip.
“I’m not sure it would be helpful for me to speak to him right now,” she said in a low voice. “I’ll probably just say something I’ll regret later.” She knew this whole saga must be very hard on Byron, and she knew it wasn’t fair to hold the Council’s decisions against him alone. She was aware that to some she probably seemed like a petulant child by walking out of the meeting when she didn’t get her own way, but Byron knew her well enough to realise that she sometimes had to get away from situation in order to prevent losing her temper. He would understand her retreat, but he must be feeling hurt to some degree by what she’d said.
Julius’s lips touched her hair, just above her ear. “You’re stronger than you think,” he purred. “And I think Byron just needs to know that you don’t hate him. He is very worried about disappointing you, about losing your love and respect.”
Gabi drew in a resigned breath and tossed back the shot of whiskey. She spun on the barstool to face Julius, caught his lips with her own for a brief second, and then hopped off to wind her way through the club to where Byron stood waiting for her.
Chapter 21
Julius watched her wind through the crowd towards Byron. The older man looked at her with sad eyes. Julius could tell that Gabi’s accusations of what her father would have wanted had struck deep within the man. He still missed his old friend, and he carried with him a burden of grief and guilt over his friend’s death. As Gabi reached him, she put a finger over his lips, silencing whatever apology he’d been trying to make. Then she hugged him. Some of the tension left Byron’s stance, and he patted her back. As she released him and stepped back, Byron smiled, a smile filled with regret. He nodded at something she said, and then she walked him to the exit. She gave him a final peck on the cheek at the door and then watched him go. He could clearly sense the internal war raging through her. Not wanting to be the source of Byron’s unhappiness, worry for Kyle, concern that she should have fought harder to rescue him tonight, guilt that she hadn’t acknowledged Julius’s loss. He smiled grimly. That one, at least, he could assuage. He left the bar and went to her. He pulled her into his arms, drawing the delicious scent of her deep into his lungs.
“You’ve made my life a whole lot simpler tonight,” he murmured as she rested her forehead on his chest, letting his strength comfort her.
She looked up at him, a slightly incredulous look on her face. “What?” she asked, confused.
“Well, I’ve spent the last several hours wondering how to get you to take a vacation and fly to Europe with me,” he explained. “You see, I will soon have a beautifully rebuilt mansion that needs decorating. I have an art collection I need to replenish, and I know a man in Germany who is unrivalled in restoring damaged weapons. I think most of my collection is salvageable, but many need attention.” There was another reason he needed to get to Europe, but she didn’t need to know about that yet.
Guilt flashed across Gabi’s face, and she dropped her eyes from his. “I’m sorry, I feel like a right—”
He cut her off by lifting her chin and capturing her warm, irresistible mouth with his own. “You can make it up to me later,” he whispered, finally dragging his mouth from hers, suddenly aware that they were the centre of attention in the club. Good, he thought. It would save him having to spell out to the males in the City that they were to keep a wide berth from her. Something in his expression must have given him away, or perhaps she was picking up as much through their psychic link as he was because she suddenly stepped back from him, shaking her head.
“Males,” she muttered di
sgustedly, striding back to the bar, but something in the seductive sway of her hips told him he wasn’t in serious trouble.
The others were deep in a discussion of strategy when Gabi joined them, closely followed by Julius. They quickly filled her and Fergus in on the plans for the night. Liam, Nathan and Charlie were going to collect Trish and Derek, and then they would meet at Julius’s secure underground facility. This would be the base of operations for the next two nights, or until they had Kyle back and Jason under SMV control. Lance and Matt were tracking down a Shape-shifter friend who had some military training and was one of the few Shifters who shared Doug’s ability to Shift into a large bird of prey. They were going to send him to do an aerial recon of the airbase at first light. Alistair had a friend who’d been stationed at the base many years ago; he was going to try to make contact with the man to see if he could glean any useful information from him. Gabi, Julius and the rest of the crew would go straight to the underground base and co-ordinate the incoming data as well as begin planning the assault and Derek’s insertion into the base.
Once in Julius’s rental car, he finally revealed the location of his facility. Gabi was astounded to find out that it was underneath one of the less extravagant, inner City hotels. The hotel, while nothing remarkable, was not exactly small or inconspicuous. It was, in fact, one of the longest-standing hotels in the City and had a reputation for being an excellent place to stay if you weren’t expecting the Ritz Carlton experience. Not even Gabi would’ve guessed the clandestine events it harboured. Her impromptu interrogation revealed that, as with most of Julius’s businesses, the hotel catered largely to humans, but also to Vampires and Werewolves. They entered the underground parking garage, having bypassed the parking attendant with a curt nod from Julius. Julius flashed a security tag at the pad placed strategically near the lowered boom, and the boom raised smoothly out of the way.
Gabi glanced back to see that Alexander and Fergus’s vehicle was in the traffic not far behind them. The plan was to arrive in dribs and drabs so as not to attract attention. Julius eased the car through the upper-level car park and down a short ramp. Then he drove the car directly towards an enclosed parking bay and stopped, right over very clear yellow ‘No Parking’ markings. A click from another security tag and a garage-style door closed down behind them. As the door concealed the car from general view, the car began a sudden descent. Gabi gave a startled, very un-Hunterlike yelp as the sensation of falling made her grab for the armrest. She could feel Julius’s amusement, but he manfully kept back a chuckle. The downward motion cut off as abruptly as it started, and there was an opening in front of them. Julius smoothly pulled the car out of the giant lift and parked it in one of about a dozen parking bays near a solid metal door set into an unpainted wall.
All Hell Breaks Loose (The Hellcat Series) Page 27
