A Cat's Chance in Hell

by Sharon Hannaford

  “Gabi,” Byron said sternly, also standing up. “You are NOT going on patrol tonight. In fact I’ve called off all patrols tonight, everyone could do with a night off to recharge. Matt and Lance are on stand-by if the Magi sense any signs of trouble. You must go and see Ian; you’re not going back on duty until he clears you. Kyle will be keeping an eye on you for me, and he can drive you in when you’re ready.” He ignored her outraged expression and pulled her into another big hug. “Honey, I’m glad you’re alright, and I want you to rest and recover. You too Kyle,” he said looking over at the younger man.

  “We’d better get back to work,” he said extending his arm to Athena, who was still looking a little shaken. “We have loads of research to do on these new Demon powers and their unity. Gabi, Athena brought your car back this morning, we’ve left the keys in their usual spot.” With that he guided Athena out of the room and left Kyle to deal with the fallout.

  Chapter 5

  Kyle sat calmly through her ranting and raving about the witch being not only allowed in her house, but also allowed behind the wheel of her car. Then, adding insult to injury, she was banned from going out on patrol tonight. His vague amusement only served to annoy her further. Even Rose bringing her a second cup of coffee wasn’t doing much to improve her mood. Kyle tried another angle, trying to mollify her.

  “You’ve been moaning for weeks that all you ever do is work and Hunt, that you’ve forgotten what a normal person does at night. Why don’t we make the most of an official day and night off and do something normal?”

  She scowled at him, the idea actually held some appeal but she wasn’t going to accept defeat gracefully.

  “Come on,” he cajoled. “We’ll do something we haven’t done for ages. Maybe go to a movie or a show, and then hit the city for dinner and drinks. It’ll be fun; we haven’t done anything like that for months.”

  “Fun, huh?” she sounded doubtful. “I’ve probably got work to do anyway.” she said thinking about the fact that she didn’t know what animal work she had booked for today.

  “No you haven’t,” he announced. “I checked your diary and your e-mail already. You have nothing urgent on, just a whole day and night of R and R.”

  “Fine, Smartarse,” she finally capitulated, “if it’ll stop you badgering me. We’ll do a 3D movie or something equally mindless and then we can go out drinking and looking for trouble. Tomorrow morning we’re going to see Ian first thing and we’ll be back on patrol tomorrow night.”

  Suddenly the gentle sizzle and delicious smell of frying bacon wafted in from the kitchen and Gabi saw Kyle react as instantly as her. They both perked up and headed for the kitchen as if tugged by their noses.

  “Oh, Rose, you know how to make a person feel better in the morning,” Gabi sighed, taking a stool at the counter and pulling another one out beside her.

  Kyle pulled the next one out, knowing that the one next to her was reserved for Slinky or Razor, whichever one got there first.

  Rose chuckled cheerfully. “I’ve spent many years feeding Shifters, I know how to fill bottomless pits.” Then she sighed, “if only I had the same metabolism as all of you, then I wouldn’t have to avoid all my favourite desserts and sweets.” She patted her ample hips before whisking up some eggs in a glass bowl.

  Gabi smiled and shook her head. Rose was always going on about her weight, and trying every new exercise machine that came on the market, but she somehow always seemed to stay the same build. Not that she was excessively overweight, just on the voluptuous side, with an ample bosom and curvaceous hips.

  “Rose, you know real men like a bit of ‘junk in the trunk’ and cleavage big enough to hold a beer can. That man of yours is as happy as a drunkard locked in a brewery; he’d go off you if you ever got as skinny as me,” Gabi reassured the older woman.

  Rose giggled girlishly at the mention of her husband’s preference for meat on a woman; although married for over thirty years Gabi knew they still thoroughly enjoyed each others company, and ‘other’ things. Rose covered her blushing cheeks by turning away to pour the egg mixture in a pan. She bustled happily around the kitchen, seeming to enjoy having the two younger people to cater for. She put the mounds of food on the counter and plates in front of each of them, adding a smaller plate next to Gabi for Slinky, who’d arrived for breakfast too. Kyle scooped some scrambled eggs onto the smaller plate, and added a few pieces of lean bacon, the Ferret’s favourite, placing it close to Slinky’s whiskery face. He then snagged Gabi’s plate, piled on food and handed it over to her before doing the same for himself, smilingly appreciatively at Rose as she brought yet more coffee.

  “Thanks Rose, you’re an absolute gem!” he enthused. “Anytime Gabs mistreats you or you get tired of cleaning up after Razor, you know you’re always welcome in my house,” he teased.

  Gabi smacked him on the shoulder with the back of her hand over Slinky’s head.

  “Watch yourself, Mutt,” she warned with a mock growl around a mouthful of hot sausage. “I’ll revoke your breakfast privileges and set Raz on you.”

  “Hey,” he protested, “I just fed Stinky for you. I’m earning my keep,” he said nodding towards Slinky who was happy scoffing his morning treat.

  They bantered until the piles of food were all but gone and their appetites sated, then Kyle got up to help Rose clear away the dishes and pack the dishwasher. They both steered Gabi away when she attempted to help, joking that she was bad enough when she could see clearly, Rose didn’t need any broken crockery to clear up.

  “Fine,” she pretended to fume. “I know when I’m not wanted. I’m going back to bed.” She hefted Razor off the floor as he came wandering in and stalked off down the corridor to catch up on sleep.

  Rose woke her mid afternoon, to say she was on her way home. She had left lunch for Gabi in the fridge, and Kyle had gone home to change and would be back soon. Gabi thanked her sleepily and considered going back to sleep until Kyle got back. Her anxiety about her eyesight overrode the need for more sleep, and she forced her eyes open to assess their current condition. She was pleasantly surprised to find the grey fog almost gone; though things were still a little out of focus, almost like she was wearing a pair of someone else’s prescription glasses. When she got up and went to the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror, she was met with a somewhat blurry, but unclouded view of herself. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Her hair was a jumbled mess of knotted curls and the burn mark on her cheek was an angry red blister with slight puckering around the edges. She grimaced. Shower first, burn cream second, lunch third she decided.

  By the time Kyle got back she was dressed and eating sandwiches at her computer, squinting hugely to try and make out the printing on the screen.

  “The vision that much better?” he asked surprised, plonking down into the spare office chair and kicking his feet up onto her large mahogany desk.

  “Good enough to take you on at some pool after the movie,” she challenged.

  “You’re on, Babe,” he declared, “but don’t cry foul when I whip your ass.”

  “In your dreams, Wolfboy!” she taunted.

  She gave up trying to read the print on the screen, it was giving her a headache. Kyle followed her out of the office and lounged in one of the undamaged armchairs in the now sparsely furnished, but tidy sitting room, while she filled up Razor’s food bowl to over-flowing and slapped some cover-up over the angry red mark on her face. The blisters on her fingers weren’t as serious; they were almost healed but still tender. Then she slid Nex into her sheath down the back of her shirt, rearranging her hair and collar to cover the top of the hilt. Lastly she tucked two butterfly swords into a sheath hidden by her black, leather boots; a discreet slit in the jeans gave her easy access to them in a pinch.

  Kyle shook his head sadly.

  She quirked an eyebrow at him.

  “What?” she demanded. “Can’t a girl go out prepared? You know I feel naked without some protection.”

  He rol
led his eyes, but held his tongue. She knew he would have at least three daggers hidden in various places on his body as well. No Hunter ever went out unarmed. They all still cursed the law banning handguns in the city; it was far easier taking out a Rogue from a distance, than hand-to-hand, but they knew the penalties for using a firearm. The alarms raised by someone reporting gunshots resulted in far too much interest from the police. Then she remembered that guns did little to stop Demons and Ghouls, and to a lesser extent, Vampires, and was grateful for her swords and daggers.

  “Let’s go, Warfare Barbie,” he teased her, laughing wickedly, then ducking as she hurled her cars keys at his head with deadly accuracy.

  She threw a black, knitted wrap over one arm and stalked haughtily out to the car. Her car was a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, the new model, red, of course, with black Le Mans racing stripes. Gabi pretended to have no real interest in cars and machines, not deigning to enter discussions about things like torque and horsepower, but she loved the power and handling of this supercharged muscle car, and she had a friend who was a pro-racing driver who’d made sure she knew how to handle the wild beast. She rarely let anyone else touch it, let alone drive it, which was why she’d been so pissed off at the thought of Athena getting her paws on it. Kyle couldn’t contain his grin at the prospect of getting to drive it.

  It was during their third game of pool that Gabi spotted him the first time. She had felt the tingling presence of a Vampire when she automatically cast out her supernatural sense as they entered the bar. It was one her of special talents, this ability to feel the presence of other non-humans. But with so many people moving around in such a relatively small area it was difficult to pick out the Vamp from the humans, so she couldn’t pinpoint him right in the beginning. She decided to adopt a wait and see approach, not all Vampires were up to no good.

  She sent Kyle to the bar for drinks while she snagged a pool table. Both of them played atrocious pool; between her sore fingers and poor vision, and his not-quite healed injuries they were both at a disadvantage, but as they were fairly evenly matched they continued to play, ragging each other as they progressively played worse and worse.

  Suddenly Gabi glanced up, instantly on the alert, she’d felt the power of a Vampire brush the edge of her senses. That was strange; Vamps normally did their utmost to blend in, rarely using their power so blatantly in a crowded place, in case another supernatural was present. Gabi noticed Kyle had gone on the alert as well. The ability to sense the use of supernatural power wasn’t just a talent of Gabi’s, most other supernaturals could feel when that kind of power was being used, though Gabi seemed to get a better sense of it than most. She followed the tendril of power back to its owner and found him watching her from near the bar.

  He was tall and blonde, appearing to be in his mid twenties, his features a little too boyish to be considered handsome. By the brush of his power as he tried to mind roll her, he was a relatively young Vamp, still a little clumsy in his attempts at rolling humans. He would probably be wondering why the hell she wasn’t already making her way over to him begging for his attention. She hadn’t met a Vampire yet who could mind roll her; it seemed to be another of her talents. She figured that one day she would meet her match, but this Vampire definitely wasn’t it.

  Vamps used the mind control to call humans to them, using a kind of hypnosis to convince their target of their trustworthiness, sexual appeal or harmlessness. This allowed them to feed regularly, while maintaining their cloak of secrecy. Most Vamps took what they needed, and left the human with memories of an erotic encounter with a seductive stranger and an unusual lethargy the following day, but no other negative side-effects. Some Vamps however, were thrilled by the taking of blood involving fear and violence. The theory was that some liked the taste of blood saturated with adrenaline as it gave the Vampire a high of sorts. Once a Vamp decided this was their drug of choice, they would do anything to increase the high, often resorting to more and more brutal methods of creating fear in their victims. These were the Vamps that the SMV took out of circulation permanently.

  She looked away from him, pretending indifference, but fastened her senses onto his ‘scent’, unobtrusively telling Kyle to keep an eye on him. During their next game of pool Kyle and Gabi noticed him heading out of the bar with a cute brunette stumbling along drunkenly beside him. He was met near the door by darker complexioned man, who looked the brunette up and down appraisingly before giving a curt nod to the blonde Vamp and grinning malevolently as they preceded him out through the doors.

  “That second one was a Vamp too,” Gabi told Kyle as they watched them leave. “I have a bad feeling about this. Two Vamps on one girl. That story just doesn’t seem to have a happy ending for the girl.”

  “Let’s go,” Kyle agreed, figuring that they could at least scare the Vamps off, if necessary. The Hunters could clean up properly another night; Gabi and Kyle knew them by sight and scent now, they wouldn’t avoid the Hunters for long. They put up their cues, leaving their drinks on the table, and hurriedly stalked out after the trio.

  As they exited the pool bar they heard the girl scream from the alley behind the bar and took off at a dead run, Gabi drawing Nex and Kyle unsheathing a dagger for each hand. As they rounded the corner into the alley the two Vamps whipped around, their eyes completely black and their fangs fully extended. The girl held between them was still screaming in terror. The Vampires faced the Hunters for a second, then looked at each other, and with matching growls shoved the screaming girl right at them and took off down the alley at Vampire speed. Kyle caught the girl and held her against him stifling her screams. Gabi took off at full throttle after the escaping Vampires.

  ”Gabi. No,” he shouted, cursing when she didn’t even slow. He pushed the girl down onto an overturned crate, and pulled a phone from his pocket as he took off after Gabi and the fleeing Vamps. As he got to the end of the alley where it split onto a main road he could see Gabi running to his right, the Vamps a short distance in front of her.

  “Gabi,” he yelled again, trying to get her to quit the chase. The next second one of the Vamps split off the main road heading down another alley while the other continued straight. Gabi sent him a hand signal telling him to follow the one who had split off, weaving between late night party goers. Kyle sighed in exasperation and took off after the blonde Vamp, as he explained to the Magi who answered his call, where to find the girl.

  Gabi kept up her pursuit of the darker Vampire without actually engaging him; they were jogging now, keeping to an acceptable human speed. She didn’t want to start anything with him while there were potential spectators, and he seemed to be counting on that; staying in the main streets and heading deeper into the city centre. Abruptly he disappeared down a side street, Gabi checked around briefly before following him; they were kilometres from the pool bar already, and Gabi wondered how Kyle was fairing with Blondie, or if he’d gone back to take care of the girl. She tracked her target to the end of the side street, he was moving quicker again, there were no pedestrians on these streets, and not a vehicle in sight. She lost the Vamp for a few seconds, but picked him up flitting down a dark side alley; he was obviously hoping to give her the slip in the darkened streets. She sped up heading for the entrance to the alley; this would be as good a place as any to take out a Rogue, she figured as she rounded the corner.

  “Oh. Shit!” she thought, coming to a dead halt in the grimy alley. “I knew there was something odd about that fucking Vampire’s behaviour” she muttered to herself, while sizing up the six Vampires who were steadily moving in on her.

  The two from the pool bar now stood calmly in front of her, another two moved out of the shadows behind her, and two more from dark entranceway to her left. She fell into a defensive stance and cast out her senses, searching for more, but that seemed to be all of them. More than she’d like to take on alone.

  Damn, there were disadvantages to a city, not even a stray owl that she could use as a distraction. Nex w
as still in her right hand, but with a twitch of her left arm she hooked a butterfly sword from her boot. Then she took a deep breath, “Well, what do you know,” she sneered at the two closest Vampires, “the Rogues have friends!” She casually moved to position her back against the right side of the alley, now she had all six in her immediate view. The two coming up from the entrance to the alley were the closest to her now, less than twenty metres away, they were both male and heavyset and muscular, one was slightly taller than the other, but besides that they could have been twins.

  The taller one spoke “There is no need for bloodshed tonight,” he said in a deep rumble. His voice had an odd formal cast to it, which seemed wholly out of place in this reeking alley. “Our Master would like to meet with you, and he sent us to extend his invitation,” Deep Voice continued in a slow measured way.

  Gabi blinked, mentally thrown sideways. This was a first in her books. “If this is supposed to be friendly, then I suggest you ask your friends to stop crowding me,” she suggested evenly, eyeing the other four Vampires moving closer.

  Two of them were the males from the bar, another was a shorter, skinnier male with a darker complexion. The last was a female. She was inordinately beautiful; tall, graceful and platinum blonde, but there was a cruel set to her crimson mouth and emerald green eyes, and her whole body spoke volumes of disdain for the Hunter in front of her.

  Deep Voice gave a miniscule toss of his head towards them and they stopped, standing dead still, only the female appearing unhappy about it.

  Gabi was feeling decidedly outnumbered, and was trying desperately to calm her racing heart; a bright beacon of her anxiety level to the Vamps’ sensitive hearing.

  “I’m still feeling rather crowded,” Gabi stated flatly. “If we’re going to have a civilised conversation we can do it one-on-one, no need for a conference.”