A Cat's Chance in Hell

by Sharon Hannaford

  Gabi’s breath hitched in her throat at his statement, and Julius was perplexed by the jolt of fear he detected washing from her as he held up the blindfold, but as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished, and was replaced by a much more enticing fragrance, as though some other course of events had suddenly occurred to her. He filed the confusing snippet away in his mind, determined to discover its meaning eventually. He moved unhurriedly towards her again with the blindfold. She held out her hand imperiously as he closed the gap between them.

  “Give me the damn blindfold,” she groused, but as she said it he saw the realisation that there was no way she could tie it herself with one arm strapped in a sling.

  He saw the weary capitulation in her eyes and wordlessly moved closer to blindfold her. He leant over her and tied the binding firmly, but gently behind her head; tilting her chin upwards and touching her face to pull the fabric into place over her eyes, careful to avoid the healing burn mark on her cheek. Then he casually brushed a small dusting of icing sugar from the corner of her luscious mouth, which was currently fixed in a stern, annoyed line.

  She jumped back from him as though scalded, haughty disdain on her face. “If you’re quite finished,” she huffed, “I’d like to get home for some sleep.”

  Julius held his tongue as he took her hand in his to lead her out of the office; she deliberately pulled out of his grasp and put her hand on his arm instead, muttering unintelligibly. Julius smiled enigmatically; the answer to his question drifting tantalisingly off her body. The poetic words ‘Will you walk into my parlour, said the spider to the fly’ flashed through his mind as he led her down the corridor to the waiting car, and his smile grew wolfish.

  Chapter 8

  The drive to the drop-off point was a largely silent one. Nathan asked her where she would like to be taken, and after about ten minutes of driving informed her that she could remove the blindfold. She did so immediately. She was being chauffeured in a BMW SUV, apparently being a Master Vampire was a lucrative business. Looking out the darkened windows of the large car, nothing appeared familiar at first, but then she started to pick out few recognisable landmarks and got her bearings. She pulled out her phone and called Kyle, telling him she would be at the pick-up point in a few minutes.

  The quiet time in the car had given her a chance to digest what Julius had told her. She had sifted through all the information he had given her and tried to figure out how she was going to put the proposal forward to the Council. She knew there was going to be instant distrust of Julius and his motives. They were going to want some kind of proof that it wasn’t him summoning the demons himself, or that this wasn’t just a personal vendetta against a rival. Gabi thought the key to finding out the truth may well lie with what the Magi High Council could tell them about the Dark Mage, who Julius had claimed was working with Dante. Julius had only known her first name, Mariska, but that may be enough to obtain some information.

  The Magi Council governed all Magi-born and was what Gabi considered a ‘busy-body’ organisation, they kept records of all Magi born, those they knew of anyway, and tended to keep tabs on those with pure Magi blood throughout their lives, whether they practiced the art or not. The High Council oversaw all the city and town based councils and kept a central records department in a highly secret location, protected by numerous spells and wards. They had been keeping information on Magi for over three hundred years; if information about this Mariska existed, they would have it. Now all Gabi needed to do was convince the high and mighty Athena to request the information. Maybe she should take Raz with to the meeting, she mused with a malicious grin.

  Her musings came to a halt as they rounded a bend and came within sight of Kyle’s van parked outside their current gym. There were no other vehicles in the parking lot yet; it was still a couple of hours before opening time, so Nathan stopped the car a few metres away.

  “Miss Bradford,” he rumbled in a slightly lighter bass voice than his brother’s, turning in his seat to face her. “I would like to apologize again for the way things turned out tonight. You were never supposed to come to any harm, and I was taken completely by surprise by Genevieve’s attack.”

  Gabi paused in her reach for the door handle. “Alright,” she said evenly. “Why have you found it so important to tell me that?”

  Nathan pursed his lips, “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression about Julius. I know this looks bad, perhaps like he set the whole thing up, but he genuinely did give us the order to bring you to him unharmed, and also to make sure the Wolf was left alone and unharmed.” He paused for a moment chewing on his lower lip and then seemed to come to a decision. “You see. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this. But I think you may need to look at the situation from another perspective. Julius has only been our Master for a little over a year. In that time he has made many changes and not all Vampires in the clan are happy with the new regime. I’m afraid there are those who don’t agree with his decision to try and join forces with you.”

  Gabi suddenly tensed, ready to fling herself out of the car.

  Nathan just smiled apologetically. “No, no. You’ve got nothing to worry about from me, I’m with him on this. I trust Julius with my life, and I think the changes he has made are for the betterment of all of us.” He shook his head. “Even if I didn’t agree with him, I would never go against his orders. But you should know that there are others who think less of him for asking for your assistance. In Vampire society asking for assistance is seen as showing weakness. If he’s asking for your help he’s serious about the threat that’s heading our way.”

  “Ok,” Gabi said nodding slightly, “I’ll try to take that into account.”

  Kyle had lost patience waiting for her and strode over to rip the car door open and poke his head inside.

  “You coming?” he asked brusquely, glaring darkly at the Vamp in the driver’s seat.

  Gabi reached over and picked up the bundle containing her swords and thrust them at Kyle.

  “Take these,” she ordered, pushing them into his hands and pushing him backwards so she could get out. As she eased out of the car Kyle took in the fact that she was only using one arm and his lips twisted in an angry snarl. She sighed tiredly. Leaning towards the car she said “Thanks for the ride, Nate,” and slammed the door closed, turning back to face Kyle as the car pulled smoothly away.

  The expression on Kyle’s face was caught somewhere between concern and anger.

  “What’s wrong with your arm?” he demanded. “You didn’t tell me you’d been hurt.”

  “Because I knew how you’d react,” Gabi’s temper flared instantly. “I’m a big girl. I can look after myself. And we have much bigger concerns than my arm,” she finished darkly.

  “What? I’m not allowed to worry about you now?” he demanded, but she saw the slightly hurt look in his eyes.

  She sighed heavily and her ribs protested. “Sorry. It’s been a long night. I’m tired and sore and confused. Let’s just get in the van and head home. I’ll fill you in on the way.”

  Kyle grumbled but moved to the van, opened the door and helped her in, dumping the bundle of weapons on the floor at her feet. He got in, started the van, checked for potential tails, and then headed out of the City towards Gabi’s house. He was silent for the most part as Gabi filled him in; first on the fight with the Vamps and then the meeting with Julius, only asking the odd question when she didn’t give him enough detail. His expression went from tight-lipped fury at the kidnapping, to incredulous disbelief over the reason for the meeting, and finally to deep thoughtfulness coupled with vague suspicion as he tried to work out what other motives could lie behind the proposal from Julius.

  At home, Gabi side-stepped the assault by Raz when she walked in the door and left him to walk, stiff-legged in haughty disgust, to the kitchen on his own four legs, tail twitching. He seemed to forgive her though when he jumped on the counter and allowed her to give him a rough, one-handed petting. She switched on the coffee
maker and took down some mugs as Kyle took a stool at the counter and they continued their discussion. Slinky galloped into the kitchen and patted imperiously at Kyle’s leg until he lifted the squirming animal up and onto his lap. The little critter promptly curled up, contented, and went to sleep.

  “The most obvious possibility,” Gabi said, “is that he needs our help to get rid of this Danté, but Danté is not actually as dangerous to the rest of us as Julius is making him out to be. Julius could well be using a Dark Mage himself to bring the Demons into the City to scare us into helping him.” She leaned back against the kitchen counter and unwrapped a lollipop using her teeth, sticking it in her mouth as she looked to Kyle for input.

  Kyle raised his eyebrow speculatively. “Or it could be some kind of trap for the SMV. Get us to trust him, expose our numbers to him and then he wipes us out as soon as he sees where our vulnerabilities are.”

  He was obviously finding it very difficult to trust the word of a Vampire. Gabi couldn’t really blame him, after all they knew so little about the Vampire race, and she knew that the same prejudice would probably be shown by the Council at tomorrow’s meeting. She personally had enough reasons to hate them.

  “I honestly don’t think we’re that much of a threat to him,” she disagreed, talking around the lollipop. “He is the single most powerful Vamp I’ve ever been anywhere near. What would he have to fear from our little organisation, which takes care of the dregs of supernatural society anyway? He didn’t come across as the type with such a fragile ego that he would need to eliminate us simply to prove he can. He was very self-assured, very self-confident, but not in the way that it felt like he needed to prove anything. Not like one of those who is so insecure that they have to do powerful things to prove to everyone that they are the strongest, the most ruthless, the most powerful.” She paused to pour the coffee into the mugs and took them, one at a time, over to where Kyle sat. “You know, something that Nate, the driver, said to me also makes sense now,” she continued. “He told me that Julius has been their Master for little over a year now, and that he’s made some unpopular changes. Think back to the number of violent crimes we’ve had that’ve been Vampire related in the past year, as opposed to the previous three or four years.”

  Kyle sipped his coffee, looking studious as he gave that some serious thought. “Hmm. That is a point,” he conceded. “There’ve been very few Vampire incidents that we’ve had to clean up recently. A few years ago there would have been several a month, but now we’re mostly dealing with Weres and the recent increase in Demons and Ghouls. So you think he’s been keeping a tight rein on them, and that proves his power.”

  “I think it proves even more pointedly that we’re not really a threat to him,” she replied. “Why would he go to such extremes to wipe out the SMV when we’re no danger to him and his?”

  “Maybe he has something big planned, and doesn’t want us around to interfere once he implements his nefarious scheme,” he suggested.

  Gabi smiled tiredly at Kyle’s attempt at drama and realised that they were just talking themselves in circles. She looked at the clock on the microwave, it was after 4am, no wonder they weren’t making sense anymore. “How about we sleep on it for now. We can tackle it in the morning with the Council, maybe some fresh minds will help make sense of it.”

  Kyle got up and took the now empty mugs to the sink while Gabi dished out food for Razor and Slinky.

  “Do you want to crash here again?” she asked him. “It’ll save you having to come and collect me in the morning.”

  Kyle agreed; he had fresh clothing in the van. He went out and grabbed his overnight bag and Gabi’s weapons from the van and locked up the house before heading for the shower and bed.

  Gabi didn’t bother to do more than brush her tangled hair and clean her teeth before stripping off and heading to bed as well. She decided the strapping could just stay where it was, she would worry about it in the morning. She collapsed gratefully into her warm covers – Raz made a great hotwater bottle - and was asleep in minutes.

  An incessant knocking roused her, if she’d had a gun under her pillow she probably would have shot whoever was making the damned noise. She groggily lifted her head to peer at the bedside clock. Eight thirty. Lord and Lady, what would make the noise go away so she could go back to sleep?

  “Gabs,” called Kyle’s voice loudly. “You alive in there?”

  “Go away Wolf,” she growled threateningly.

  “I’m coming in with coffee,” he warned. “No attacking on sight, and keep that monster cat of yours under control.” The door clunked open, as he used his elbow to manipulate the handle; he had a steaming mug in each hand. “Rise and shine, sleeping beauty, we have a meeting in an hour and a half.” He plunked a mug down on the table next to her nose and sat on the edge of the bed blowing on his own mug. Raz awoke under the covers and issued a warning growl, Gabi patted him quiet.

  Gabi pulled a face. ”Damn. Council meeting. Did you have to make it so early?” she groused, stiffly pushing herself into a sitting position. She felt like she’d been run over by a truck. A large truck. The whole right side of her body was one big ache; she was going to be black and blue. The bite on her shoulder was an acute ache, and she could feel the pull of the stitches. The coffee made warm, comforting trails down her throat and the groggy, hung-over feeling began to recede.

  “Ten am is not early in most people’s books,” he said in mild rebuke.

  “Most people don’t get to bed after four am,” she muttered, “Why do you look so damned chipper this morning.” She hated the fact that Kyle could get away with a few hours sleep and still function normally, while if she got less than her obligatory eight hours she was like a zombie until at least her third cup of coffee.

  Kyle just let her grumble away until they had both finished their coffee.

  “Do you want some help getting the strapping off before you shower?” he asked.

  “No, I’ll manage,” she replied quickly. He’d just be more concerned once he saw the extent of the bruising, and she hadn’t come clean about the bite yet. “I’ll call you if I need help. Just make sure there’s some breakfast ready, or I’ll be forced to snack on you when I get out.”

  Kyle chuckled wryly as he left with the empty mugs and Slinky draped over his shoulder.

  Getting the sling and the strapping off was a slow, painful process. One look in the bathroom mirror was enough; she closed her eyes and climbed in under the steaming flow of water, wincing as it hit the waterproof film covering the stitches. She could move her right arm a little, but it was weak and slow to respond. She guessed that meant Julius’s doctor was right about the fractured collarbone. She clumsily managed to get clean, dry and dressed, not bothering to put the strapping back around her ribs. She’d go and see Ian later at the hospital if it was still bothering her; he was a lot calmer about seeing her battered and bruised than Kyle, Rose and Byron. She put the sling back on, over her long-sleeved shirt, and slipped her right arm into it. She felt almost ready to face the world now.

  Kyle was busy making pancakes when she came through, Rose wasn’t coming in today with it being Saturday, but she’d left pancake batter in the fridge. Gabi couldn’t remember how she’d coped before Rose came along. They quickly glutted themselves on pancakes drowned in maple syrup, washing them down with a second mug of coffee, and Gabi popped some painkillers before they headed off to the meeting with the Council.

  The Council didn’t have one set place that they convened at; they moved between several locations at random, depending on who was calling the meeting. Today they were gathering at Byron’s house, no one in the neighbourhood would think it unusual that he had a few friends over for an early lunch on a Saturday. After all, he often had “Book Club” meetings with the same group of people who were arriving today. His housekeeper, Meryl, was Rose’s sister-in-law and completely trustworthy. Gabi knew she would have a light lunch prepared for them all, as well as snacks for morning te
a; Meryl was nearly as good at feeding people as Rose.

  Kyle found a spot to squeeze the van into in the large, paved parking area and Byron’s four dogs came charging out to greet them. As usual they lavished licks all over Gabi, and whined in frenzied delight when she patted and rubbed each one in turn. Three of them were enormous Rottweiller crosses and the last was a small pavement special, which could have been a mixture of four or five different terriers and toy poodles. Kyle only got wary glances and general avoidance. All dogs saw Kyle for what he truly was – Wolf. And no ordinary dog with its head screwed on right challenged a wolf the size of Kyle, but they also didn’t seem to feel the need to grovel before him either, perhaps because they felt he was cheating by using his human form. So Kyle ignored them and made his way to the front door, going in without knocking. Byron would know they’d arrived; he had surveillance cameras linked up to the parking area, installed at the Council and Gabi’s insistence. Gabi disentangled herself from the mob of canines and followed him into the spacious house. Byron met them in the hall, giving Kyle a warm handshake and stopping himself mid-way into the act of hugging Gabi, as he noticed the sling, settling instead for kissing her forehead.

  “Gabrielle, Honey. You were supposed to be resting and recovering, and now you come in with your arm in a sling.” He was in instant worry mode. “Kyle didn’t tell me you’d been hurt.” He looked questioningly at Kyle.

  “Don’t blame Kyle,” Gabi sighed, wondering if Byron would ever stop fussing over her. “When he contacted you he didn’t know I was injured. I didn’t tell him I’d been hurt because I didn’t want anybody trying anything stupid in an already volatile situation. That’s all. Besides it’s not that serious. I’ve had worse.”

  “You’ll go straight to Ian once the meeting is over, he’ll be on duty from midday today,” Byron’s tone brooked no argument.