All Hell Breaks Loose (The Hellcat Series)

by Sharon Hannaford

  “How do you manage that without raising suspicion in your hotel staff?” Gabi asked, her tone bland, but she pressed closer to Julius’s body.

  “There are several rooms in the hotel which have access to a secret elevator. This elevator’s last stop is down here. I simply call up to the front desk for room service and have it delivered to one of those rooms, then send someone to wait for it and bring it down here. Easy, really.” His tone was politely informative, his true emotion evident only by the firm bulge pressed against her hip.

  “Hmm,” Gabi mused, “if there’s nothing urgent needing my attention for a little while, I’d kill for a hot shower.”

  “I think that could be arranged,” Julius replied, his voice no longer cool or polite. His hand captured her fingers, and he was soon towing her down the corridor, the ghost of Alexander’s amused catcall drifting after them.

  Several twists and turns later, Julius led her into a room at the end of a shorter passage. Gabi stopped in surprise in the doorway. Julius turned to smirk at her shock.

  “You didn’t really think you’d find rows of coffins or bunk beds for the Master of the City did you?” he teased as she took in the opulent room.

  It was nothing short of a five-star hotel room, complete with enormous king-size bed, dressed in chocolate, burgundy and gold. Her leather boots sank into lush, thick-pile carpet, and subtle mood lighting accentuated the decadent feel of the room. A cream, suede chaise longue dominated one corner, facing a recessed wall unit containing a flat-screen TV and pull-out desk. A stunningly detailed painting of the City at night almost covered one wall, making up for the lack of windows. Her bags, which she last remembered leaving in the borrowed Audi, were standing neatly in front of a large oak cupboard door. It would be nice to get out of her fighting leathers and into something more comfortable for a few hours. Ignoring Julius’s ribbing, she went to investigate the doorway that she guessed led to the en-suite bathroom. She almost groaned in pleasure.

  She’d been preparing herself for a quick rinse in a communal bathroom. This even put her bathroom at home to shame. The colours had been carried through from the bedroom, and a large Jacuzzi tub stood proudly to one side of the surprisingly large space. A huge, glass-fronted shower with multiple shower-heads took up the other side of the room. The far end held large, oval, granite basins, while soft burgundy towels and robes hung on heated towel rails, and a recess under the basins boasted myriad gels, shampoos, lotions and bath oils. Placed inconspicuously in a corner near the door, to her profound relief, was Gabi’s first port of call.

  “Shoo,” she told Julius, who was standing in the doorway enjoying her amazement. “This semi-human needs to be one hundred percent human for a minute.”

  “Don’t be long,” he purred. “Vampires are not known for their patience.”

  It was nearly an hour later that they finally made it back to the war room. The first shower had resulted in the need for a second shower, and a third. It had been typically difficult for Gabi to drag herself away from Julius’s body and presence. It was only concern for Kyle and Derek that finally made her drag comfy track pants and a sweatshirt from her bag and force Julius to follow her from the rumpled bed. Trish was awake and looking a little less exhausted. She and Alexander were seated at the table with a laptop open in front of them, listening intently to the audio feed that was streaming in. The feed was being recorded and translated into text on the monitors on the wall, but neither of the listeners were paying any attention to it. They didn’t need the computerised translation; their eyes had a faraway look as they concentrated on the voices.

  “He’s in?” Gabi asked, walking over to the catering table. After a little concentration, she could pick Derek’s voice out of the feed. It only took her that long because Derek wasn’t sounding much like himself.

  “Yes,” Alexander confirmed. “They came in range of the transmitter about five minutes ago. He’s doing a very good job at playing the nervous over-talker. So far, there doesn’t seem to be any suspicion from the other occupants. They are answering some of his questions, but with the vehicle noise, the replies aren’t always clear.”

  “He’s repeating some of what they say,” Trish put in, “so we’re assuming that’s the important stuff.”

  “Anything unexpected yet?” Julius asked. He stayed Gabi’s hand from reaching the jar of instant coffee, as he waved a phone at her. “Room service,” he reminded her with a wink.

  “Not really,” Alexander shook his head. “So far he’s just confirming our assumptions and establishing his own backstory.”

  Julius hit a speed-dial number and ordered food, coffee and a bottle of wine, and Gabi felt a pointed dart of power emanate from him once he disconnected. She wondered who was being sent upstairs to collect the order. They both took seats at the table and settled in to listen to the audio feed.

  Two hours later, Gabi and Trish stood up to stretch muscles cramped from disuse. Derek had bid them a goodnight as he settled into his bunk to catch a few hours sleep. Several things had become clear. The first was that Derek was a great actor; his overly chatty, mildly neurotic, borderline unhinged persona was driving Gabi nuts but allowing him to feed them information. The second was that Kyle was perfectly safe, but not being housed with the rest of the Werewolves. The last, and possibly most important, was that there were far more Werewolves and human personnel on the airbase than anyone had anticipated. Derek had tried hard to establish exactly what building the laboratory was housed in, as well as when Jason was typically in residence, but that info wasn’t common knowledge amongst the people Derek had so far come into contact with. Reading between the lines of what Derek said in his last few minutes before audio silence, he was going to try to contact Kyle in the morning and hoped that he could get more information from him.

  The Clan members who were down in the ‘lair’ with them had taken to their beds shortly after sunrise, only Julius and Alexander were still awake. It took some convincing on Gabi’s part to get them to submit to the day sleep. Both assured her they could go without for one day, but she pointed out that the following night was going to be a tough one, and she wanted them at their best. The Werewolves and Hunters were still at a distinct disadvantage with the opposition packing firepower. Vampires were imperative to this mission. Just as the Vampires gave in to her words of wisdom, Trish turned the tables on Gabi and insisted she get some rest too, for the same reasons she’d just given the Vampires. The younger woman pointed out that she was the only one of them not going on the raid, and she’d already grabbed a few hours of sleep, so she would stay awake and wait for Derek to come back online.

  Gabi relented only when Trish promised to wake her if anything even remotely exciting happened. Getting back to the luxury suite, Gabi set the alarm on her cellphone for mid morning and then collapsed into the huge welcoming bed with Julius. He gave her a lingering kiss and then turned her and fitted her body snugly against his own, her back to his chest, his arm wrapped around her waist.

  “If you need to wake me, Lea” he murmured in a drowsy voice, “prick your thumb and smear a little blood on my lips. I’ll come around.”

  Gabi was about to protest, saying it wouldn’t be necessary, but she thought about how hard he was trying to treat her as an equal, to respect her decision-making, to allow her to be Gabi the Hunter instead of Gabi the Master Vampire’s lover, and realised that she’d be doing him a huge disservice by not waking him if she needed him. So she nodded.

  “I’ll wake you if anything important happens, I promise,” she vowed.

  “Hey,” Trish said with a surprised smile, a portable phone in her hand, as Gabi wandered into the war room several hours later. “I was just about to phone you. Did you get some sleep?”

  Gabi yawned hugely; she wasn’t truly awake yet. “Yeah,” she said, rubbing her face and aiming for the catering table. “I slept like a Vampire, I think.” She grinned at her own joke. “I need caffeine in a big way, though.”

 
“Order from room service,” Trish advised. “It’s much better than the instant stuff. Patrick got here a little while ago. He said he’ll go upstairs if we need anything. Just hit speed-dial two.” Trish offered her the portable phone.

  Gabi spoke to the hotel desk while Trish went back to the audio feed.

  “What’s happening?” Gabi asked.

  “Derek just made contact with Kyle,” Trish said, relief and excitement clear in her voice. “They’re both fine. Kyle is playing along. Somehow Derek has made him aware that we can hear them. I’ve been making notes as they feed me information.” She indicated the smaller laptop next to her, where rows of notes appeared in bold type.

  Gabi began to read the notes while listening to the current conversation between Kyle, Derek and at least two others. It took her a while to make sense of it.

  A weight lifted off of Gabi’s chest once she realised that Kyle really was fine. He was highly pissed and concerned by the sheer number of Werewolves at the base, but he hadn’t been harmed. Another concern was eased when Derek and Kyle cornered one of the lab assistants. The man was so excited that he let slip there’d been some kind of breakthrough in the lab the night before and Jason and the geneticist were holed up with no indication of leaving until the breakthrough was confirmed. Jason came and went via helicopter, so it would be easy to track if he called for transport. If that did happen, Gabi knew that Kyle or Derek would find a way to sabotage the chopper before take-off.

  Bit by bit, the men fed them information about the layout of the airbase. Jason was off in the old medical wing, which had been converted into a lab. Kyle had come around inside the lab and so had a basic visual of the layout. He gave out the information in small pieces in the middle of apparently random conversations. There were several locked doors in the lab, and one in particular had worried Kyle. The scents coming from the room had put him on edge, and he hadn’t been able to identify them.

  Around mid-morning Patrick brought Vincent, the Shape-shifter who’d done the aerial recon early that morning, down to the war room. Trish continued to monitor the audio feed while the other three quickly drew up a large map of the base, pinpointing all relevant information. Having the map and layout made it much easier to understand what Kyle and Derek were referring to. Vincent was able to point out the main back-up generator, which was useful, as they intended to cut all power to the place before the raid, having the generator down as well was vital. The biggest concern in terms of civilians with this operation was the slums. The main one bordered the airbase to the north. Luckily, there was a dense stretch of natural bush, nearly half a kilometre deep, stretching between the slum and the edge of the nearest airbase buildings. There was the beginnings of a second slum on the other side of the main road that ran past the base, but that was less of a concern, as the SMV would be able to control that situation more easily. The southern border backed onto open farmland, and the long western edge, where the runways lay, was adjacent to an area of natural bush and marshland.

  A short consultation with Trish and they’d soon combined the info from Kyle and Derek with the layout from Vincent and were able to confidently label the buildings appropriately. The lab as well as the living quarters and training area for the soldiers and Werewolves all lay to the north. The hangars and storage bunkers to the south were currently unused. This made the area of attack much smaller, making the operation a little easier. The basic framework of the operation would work even better than they’d anticipated. They’d left a lot of room for changes, but the plan would only require a few minor tweaks.

  There were several places that made excellent infiltration points, including a copse of large pine trees between the main road and the old medical wing, which now housed the laboratory. The entire perimeter of the place was heavily fenced and electrified; rolls of razor wire added an extra line of defence at the top of the chain-link fencing. Of course, none of that would slow a Vampire down. Tabari and Quentin would go in first to disable the generators and knock out the main power. Once the power was down, blow torches would give the rest quick, easy access.

  One Werewolf contingent would patrol the outer perimeters to the south and west, while another Pack patrolled inside to the north, making sure no one from the slum came looking to see what was going on. Both were also responsible for catching any Werewolves trying to evade containment. A smaller Pack would team up with the SMV back-up crews near the front gate, to take care of anyone trying to come or go through the main entrance, as well as for crowd control should any civilians get overly curious about the goings-on inside. Byron was, as usual, in charge of coordinating the emergency responses, should civilians call in. He would ensure that SMV staff were on duty in all the lead response teams and that other teams were relocated elsewhere.

  The main attack force would come in from the western border, as this was closest to the accommodation blocks. This team would consist of members of the Blackriver pack, Matt, Lance and several Vampires. Another smaller team would infiltrate from the east, slipping through the trees and directly to the lab. This team would consist of Gabi, Julius, Alexander and few extra Vampires, as well as the Hunters, Tim and James. Their entire objective was to secure the lab and its occupants, in particular one Jason King. Alive.

  After lunch Gabi sent Trish and Patrick to get some sleep while she kept tabs on the audio feed. Kyle was working some ploy to get everyone together in one of the accommodation areas just after nightfall, making it easier to round up the whole lot at once. It was mid-afternoon, and Gabi was just about to get up and start walking to keep her eyes from drifting shut when he ghosted into the room. She smiled. She couldn’t feel any air movement, she couldn’t scent him, she hadn’t used her Vamp-sense, but she knew he was there all the same.

  “You can’t fool me, Master of the City,” she quipped without turning to look at him.

  “Hmm,” he mused in a sultry purr, “it seems not. I must be losing my touch.”

  “Maybe I’m just that good,” she teased.

  “Yes, you are definitely that good,” Julius agreed. “Now be even better and go and get some sleep before it’s time to head out.”

  Gabi turned to glare at him. “There’s no chance I’m going to sleep now. I had a solid five hours earlier,” she groused.

  “Tonight is going to be an all-nighter, as you so accurately pointed out to Alexander and me early this morning,” he replied. “Make me a happy man, and try to grab a few more hours sleep. Please.”

  The sincerity in his tone was what undid her. She growled and rolled her eyes, but finally agreed. She filled him in on the latest information from Derek and Kyle and showed him the labelled map that Vincent had helped them create. Trish had already scanned and e-mailed the map to all the Pack leaders and Hunters, Julius’s only job was to touch base with the Pack leaders again to make sure there was no confusion over who was doing what. Once that was settled, Julius pushed her firmly from the room with a kiss and a vow to wake her if anything changed.

  She truly didn’t think she would be able to sleep with the details of the raid swirling through her brain. But once she snuggled into the large comfortable bed and pulled the covers over her, she was in dreamland before she knew it.

  Sadly, dreamland was not a restful place. She was woken by a feather-light touch of skin against her cheek. She sat bolt upright, ready for anything, still caught in the wisps of a tenebrous dream. A dream that she was pursuing something down a long, dark corridor, but the corridor was lined on both sides with misshapen, semi-human forms in cages reaching out to grab and hold her.

  “Gabrielle,” Julius’s voice cut through the sleepy mist, “it’s all right, you were dreaming. You’re safe.”

  She released the arm she was about to try and break and blinked, trying to orientate herself.

  “Sorry,” she said as reality finally swept away the last vestiges of the strange, unsettling dream. “Is it time to get ready?”

  Julius leant in a kissed her; there was conce
rn on his face. “Sunset is in half an hour,” he told her. He sat on the bed next to her as she sat up and stretched. “Do you want to tell me about the dream?”

  “It was nothing serious,” she said honestly. “I think my fertile imagination was just getting away from me with the thought that we’re going into a laboratory where experiments are being done on living beings.” She shuddered a little. Killing outright in battle was one thing, but medical experiments on people or animals appalled her. Maybe she really did need to see a shrink.

  “And if you don’t go and change in the bathroom, we might end up being late to the party,” she told him. Her more light-hearted mood seemed to appease him, but she figured he would just file the dream away for discussion another time.

  He purposefully stripped naked right in front of her before sauntering to the cupboard to pull out a worn-looking pair of leather pants and a black, muscle-hugging, combat shirt. The bastard was torturing her, and he knew it.

  It was nothing short of a miracle that the two of them made it to the cars at the same time as everyone else. Gabi was still strapping on extra knives and finding somewhere to tuck the dart gun, and Julius’s bootlaces weren’t tied. Patrick had already left to coordinate with the Packs and the SMV crews, so it was only Vampires waiting to go out with them. The Clan manfully kept any hint of amusement at their lack of readiness carefully hidden, but the sidelong glances were enough to have Gabi fighting a blush.

  “In the cars, let’s go,” Julius growled.

  Minutes later they were speeding out of the City centre in a convoy of three BMW SUVs. In less than an hour, they’d be inside the secret laboratory of the madman known as Jason King. Gabi sent a silent prayer to the Lord and Lady that they would all make it out in one piece and that there were no horrific discoveries awaiting them.

  Chapter 23

  The security measures were state of the art, every gizmo, lock and security device known to man had been utilised to protect the lab. Of course, none of the builders of the place had designed it with the thought of keeping Vampires and Dhampirs out…if they even had any idea that Vampires existed and what they were capable of. Werewolves were strong, fast and agile, but if you’ve ever seen a Vampire at their finest, you know that a Werewolf barely makes it into the same category. Add their supernatural senses and reflexes, a cunning intelligence, unearthly calm battle demeanour and, in many cases, centuries of fighting experience and Vampires are simply in a different class. It almost seemed like overkill to throw in a power like Julius’s to the mix.