“Kyle,” she shouted into the din of clanging metal, and grunts and roars. She pointed at the retreating figures when he looked away from the huge, two-headed monster he was tangling with. She saw him nod briefly and then duck to avoid a blow from the Demon. She cursed; he had his hands full, after a moment of indecision she took off after the escaping Demons; a butterfly sword in her weak hand, and the crossbow resting on her other shoulder. Putting on a burst of speed she managed to get ahead of the misshapen group, planting herself firmly between them and the exit.
”Where do you think you fuckers are going then?” she challenged, lifting the crossbow into position. “We can’t have you leaving the party yet.” She casually shot a bolt directly into the single eye of the front Demon. It fell over backwards and clumsily took down the other two Demons behind it. She reloaded the crossbow and, as it started to rise, shot it in one of its large, leathery ears. It shook its head like a dog with a fly bugging it, and batted at the bolt, dislodging it. It lumbered to its feet and lunged blindly for Gabi. She leapt backward and drew the dart-gun, firing into the creature’s ear again, now that she knew she could pierce the skin there.
The other two had got to their feet and were heading for the exit again. Annoyed, she shot another dart into big-ears and sprinted to intercept the escapees. Another presence materialised on her right, she knew without checking that it was Alexander, but she had no time to express her surprise as they leapt down onto the train tracks to face the Demons. As he stood shoulder to shoulder with her, sword at the ready, his eyes had a distinctly wild look to them, he had a burn mark down one cheek, and his fashionable leather jacket was in shreds down one arm. She didn’t get a chance to comment, as the two Demons attacked without slowing.
Gabi danced back, pumping the last of the darts towards their faces, a few thudded into soft flesh. Alexander lunged in to slash at them, taking chunks out of their arms where armour didn’t cover them, but that wasn’t even slowing them down. Gabi growled, tossing the spent dartgun aside and drawing Nex with her left hand, awkward but doable she knew from past experience. Alex yelled and flung himself backward as a huge war club suddenly hurtled towards his head. He landed heavily on the metal tracks and was forced to twist out of the way as the club smashed into the ground where his body had been an instant before. Gabi spared a glance his way as she whirled and ducked in front of the other Demon and realised that his sword had begun to disintegrate. She spun around, and flung the sword in her right hand towards Alex, yelling “Heads up,” as she did so. She gritted her teeth against the pain flaring in her shoulder and ribs, but was relieved to see Alex catch the sword as he leapt to his feet. “Hamstrings,” she yelled at him as she neatly avoided the Demon’s wild swing at her with its battle axe. She quickly side-stepped the Demon, darted forward a step and spun again, drawing Nex viciously across the unprotected tendons at the back of the Demon’s legs. The monstrosity swung around wildly, trying to find her, but as it took a step forward it crashed to the ground in a pile of hairy, leathery limbs. Alexander’s one collapsed almost on top of the first, but they both started flailing around and trying to drag themselves towards the exit.
Suddenly the air was full of Vampires as Fergus and Julius arrived in a whoosh of swirling mist. It only took them seconds to finish off the two hamstrung Demons, and they all stepped back to watch the bodies turn to black goo. Gabi leapt onto the nearest platform and started back towards the main fight, pausing for a half-second to make sure the first Demon was a black puddle, the Vampires half a step behind her.
A sharp grunt of pain suddenly emanated from the fog around the main fight. Gabi recognised it instantly. She sprinted forward, searching the mist and shouting, “Kyle, Kyle, where the hell are you?”
She could see Charles in his Stetson still battling with a lizard creature, but holding his own, and Nathan and the tall Vampire tag-teaming a two headed freak with rotting flesh hanging off its humanoid arms. She suppressed a shudder as she ran.
“He’s over there,” Julius called out, and she looked to see where he was pointing. A large trollish creature with four arms was silhouetted in the dissipating mist; it was lifting two of its four arms over its head with a large mace grasped in them. The dark shape crumpled at its feet had to be Kyle.
“NO!” Gabi shrieked and lunged towards them.
Julius and Fergus beat her there, Fergus throwing his mighty long sword in the path of the descending mace, and Julius grabbing Kyle’s limp body and dragging him out of the way, depositing him on the platform at Gabi’s feet before heading back to help Fergus finish off the Demon.
Gabi automatically crouched over Kyle’s body protectively, while surveying the area for other danger. It was then that she noticed the Wraith. She knew deep in her gut that it was the same one she had encountered two nights before. It was some distance away still, as though it were merely a spectator to the battle, but suddenly seemed to notice her huddled over Kyle, and began moving towards them.
“Holy fucking hell, what next?” she cursed looking around quickly to see who was nearby. “Alex, Julius!” she yelled hoarsely. “Get to the Magi, bring them here to deal with that,” she spat tossing her head towards the Wraith that was slowly, but inexorably, floating in their direction. She dragged her attention back to Kyle, trusting Julius to follow her orders. She knew Kyle was still alive, she could hear his heart beating, but his pulse rate was erratic and his breathing uneven. She quickly ran her hands over him, checking for injuries, noticing Fergus unobtrusively standing guard over them from the corner of her eye. She soon found the cause of Kyle’s insensible state. A lump the size of a coconut on the side of his head, the thin skin of his scalp split open and blood pouring into his hair. As she grabbed a piece of linen from one of her pockets to press to the open wound he groaned and opened his eyes.
“Idiot!” Gabi cursed him instantly. “No more four-armed Demons for you, they get you every bloody time.”
“Whaa?” Kyle said blearily, unsuccessfully trying to make his eyes focus on her face.
Gabi sighed. “The fight’s not over. I’m going to put you here out the way.” She’d spotted a thick pillar a few feet away. “Stay there until we come and get you.”
Between Gabi and Fergus they managed to get Kyle sitting upright against the pillar, holding the cloth to his head, as the Magi rushed into view. The Magi were already chanting as they neared the scene.
The Wraith, who had been slowly bearing down on the trio, suddenly stopped and turned its burning yellow gaze on the Magi. Six Vampires suddenly materialised out of the darkness, forming a guard around the Magi. Gabi realised that all the other Demons had been destroyed; only the Wraith remained. The ghostly thing swept its robed arms upward and pointed towards the two groups. Suddenly the air seemed to grow heavy and putrid; breathing became an effort and moving an impossibility. The Magi’s chanting grew louder and Neil stepped forward out of the protection of the Vampires and made a throwing and covering motion with his hands towards the Wraith. The Wraith abruptly stopped its forward motion, and the cloying thickness in the air disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. Everyone, Vampires included, drew in a deep relieved breath. Gabi looked at Neil in amazement; the Magi had somehow managed to magically contain the Wraith while the two women worked the Banishment spell. Thank all the Gods of Olympus for the occasional miracle, she thought.
The Wraith was standing frozen, surrounded by a pale blue, glimmering veil. Neil was sweating profusely, the strain of keeping the containment intact clear on his reddened face. Trinity and Bianca were furiously mouthing words in synchronisation, building the spell as fast as they could. The Wraith’s glowing eyes seemed to bore straight into Gabi’s as she watched the scene, mentally willing extra strength to the three Magi. Suddenly a hollow, inhuman voice echoed around them, rebounding off the walls of the train station.
“The human who isss not human, and the wolf who isss not wolf.” The voice had to be coming from the Wraith, it sounded like the
dry rustling of autumn leaves and hungry crackle of a log fire. “The Dark One wasss right,” the omnipresent voice continued, “we should have killed you both inssstead of toying with you,” it rasped, then focused its attention directly on Gabi. “My new Massster underessstimated you, didn’t believe the Dark One. You thwarted hisss little attempt at asssassination. It was a pity I was under different orderss at our last meeting; perhapsss next time he’ll let me have you insstead of trussting hisss other petss to do the job.”
The glowing orbs then moved within the cowl to fasten on Julius as he stood holding what was left of his long sword. “Ah, The Baron,” it said with apparent satisfaction. “I am pleased to sssee you here; you have sssaved me the trouble of hunting you down to deliver the messsage from my Massster. Though your alliance with the human and the wolf meansss I now have to accept the Dark One’ss predictionsss asss true, and that irkss me.”
All other sounds had ceased; everyone’s attention was on the Wraith. “Danté iss prepared to negotiate the termss of your sssurrender. Of course, he cannot let you live, but he iss willing to ssspare sssome of your Clan if you sssurrender now. If you continue to defy him we will dessstroy every lassst member of your family. I persssonally would prefer it if you didn’t sssurrender, but that isss your decision. I will return sssoon for your anssswer.” The thing’s last words had become an almost inaudible hiss as the voices of the two chanting Magi rose in a rhythmic crescendo, growing louder and stronger, and Gabi could feel the air grow heavy with the Magi’s power.
A sharp female voice suddenly rang out, “Now, Neil!” The shimmering cocoon around the Wraith suddenly disappeared, and the stout male Magus fell to his knees. A shockwave of power burst from the two female Magi and the Wraith shrieked briefly before it disappeared in a flash of blue light. Everyone standing staggered as the force of the Magic hit them on the rebound. A few lost their balance and Kyle, who had been unwisely trying to stand up, collapsed back onto the cold cement.
The ensuing silence was deafening. Gabi had never thought to see Vampires look shell-shocked, but as she looked around trying to figure out exactly what had just gone down, most of the blood-suckers gathered near Julius definitely looked stunned. She ran over to Kyle, putting a hand on his chest to stop him getting up.
“Whoa there Wolf Boy, let the world stop spinning before you try and move. Julius,” she yelled sharply trying to snap him out of his apparent daze. “Send someone for the medics, and tell the clean-up crew they can get started.” Julius blinked and seemed to realise they were all standing around looking like idiots.
“Yes, of course,” he answered snapping to attention. He turned back to his men, but before he could speak Alexander and Marcello took off for the closest exit. Gabi snorted, well would wonders never cease, Alexander doing something without a direct order from Julius; Gabi guessed their meeting with the Demon horde had been a bit of an eye-opener for the stubborn English blood sucker.
Soon the area was awash with people and Vampires, cleaning up, bandaging, collecting damaged weapons and bits of shrapnel. Kyle was declared concussed, and Gabi wearily accepted the responsibility of watching him for the next twelve hours. The bloody wound on his head was already starting to heal, the blood flow had all but stopped, and the medic taped a clean compress over it.
As she sat with him, Gabi surreptitiously took the scarf out of her hair and re-made it into a sling for her arm. She caught Julius glancing her way as she did it, he still looked unnerved, an expression that didn’t sit well on his normally confident face. She wondered if it was the message from the Wraith that had him so off balance. She got up, pulling Kyle with her, and waiting until he stopped swaying and his eyes managed to focus on her. She pulled his arm around her shoulders, making sure she had a good grip on him with her left arm, and together they staggered over to the Vampires.
“We can get outta here now,” she told Julius, “the crew will clean up and re-open the station.” She suddenly felt a hundred years old. Then the big, scarred Scotsman came forward and put a huge, muscular arm under Kyle’s other armpit.
“Aye Lassie, ye look about beat. Let me help the Wolf before ye both fall over,” he said in his loud Scottish brogue, taking all of Kyle’s weight without straining in the slightest. “That was a good fight, that was. I havna had such fun in many a year. We’ll havta hang with your crowd more often,” he said with a huge fang-filled grin. The enormous Scottish Vampire was clearly totally unaffected by the shell-shock cocooning Julius and the others. Gabi gave Kyle over to Fergus with a grateful sigh; Kyle was so out of it he didn’t appear to notice that she had abandoned him to a Vampire. As she started trudging toward the exit she felt a cool, solid hand slip under her left elbow, and she knew without looking that Julius was beside her. She didn’t have the energy to shake him off, and, having heard the words from the Wraith, she now knew for certain that everything Julius had told her was absolute truth.
The unlikely assortment of Hunters and Vampires spilled out onto the road and headed towards their respective vehicles. The extra Vampires had arrived in two identical vehicles, some kind of Range Rover 4x4, Gabi was too tired to bother identifying them further. Julius barked out a couple of orders to Nathan’s group and Alex took over holding Kyle upright. The others each nodded a respectful goodbye to Julius and Gabi, and quickly climbed into their vehicles, speeding off as the sounds of multiple sirens approached the scene.
“Let’s go before the cops get here,” Gabi prodded, pulling away from Julius and starting across the road to their cars. Julius caught up to her silently, leaving Alex to haul Kyle across the road.
“Neither of you is in a state to drive,” Julius said quietly, “would you let us drive you home, or maybe somewhere that other friends could collect you from, if you don’t feel comfortable with that?”
He was being polite, but he still had a strange distance in his expression. Gabi would’ve loved to tell him that she was perfectly capable of getting them both home, but truly she wanted to discuss the message from the Wraith with him, she quickly came to a decision.
“Let’s go to my place,” she said. “I’m sure you know where I live anyway.” A slight grin lifted one side of his mouth, and he had the decency to look moderately guilty. She sighed and rolled her eyes, surprisingly happy to see a glimpse of his usual character.
“Alex,” he ordered, tossing the other Vampire a set of keys, “you take Wolf in my car and follow us, we’re going to Gabrielle’s house.” He caught the set of keys Gabi threw at him, but walked around to the passenger side to open the door for her first.
She raised an eyebrow. “A Vampire with manners, what will life throw at me next?” she muttered sardonically, and climbed in, collapsing into the comfortable bucket seat gratefully.
An instant later he was in the driver’s seat and bringing the Mustang to roaring life.
Chapter 11
As Julius navigated the dark roads in the Mustang, Gabi pulled out her phone and called Byron.
“Gabi!” Byron’s voice was full of relief. “What’s happening on your side? Are you alright? Do you need any help?”
Gabi smiled despite her exhaustion. “Calm down, you’ll give yourself a heart attack one of these days,” she teased him. “The fight is over, we got every last one of them. I’m fine; Kyle has a concussion, but he’s conscious. We’re heading home now, and the clean-up team will probably call you in a few minutes to re-open the station.”
“What happened with the Vampires?”
“Well, that’s a longer story. The short version is that without them we’d have been in deep, deep shit. Julius is driving me home now.”
“Gabi,” Byron said, concern darkening his voice. “Are you sure that’s wise?”
She sighed. “It’s not like he doesn’t already know where I live,” she shot Julius a sidelong glare. “We have a lot to discuss. Something happened at the train station, and I now have no doubts that Julius is telling us the truth about the war with Danté. You
’ll have to call another Council session; you have to meet with Julius.” There was a moment’s pause on the other side of the phone, then a sigh of capitulation.
“Alright, Honey. I trust your instincts. I’ll call them first thing in the morning and arrange it,” Byron agreed.
Gabi was quiet on the other side.
“Gabrielle?” Byron’s voice called softly. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
Gabi bit her lip, and then decided to lay it out for Byron. “There’s a war coming ByBy,” she said tiredly, unconsciously using the nickname she’d given him as a little girl, “and it’s not going to be pretty.”
“Don’t you worry about that, Sweetheart,” a protective steeliness entered Byron’s voice. “We have a lot of allies and plenty of resources. We’ll find a way to protect our city and our loved ones. Now get yourself home, eat something and get some rest. We’ll tackle this all in the morning.”
Gabi managed a weak smile. “Yeah, ok Daddy Fusspants.”
“Call me if you need anything.”
“I will. Bye.” She hit the ‘end call’ button and tossed the phone onto the dashboard.
“That was your contact in the Council?” Julius asked, smoothly guiding the car around slower vehicles on the highway. He was speeding, but not pushing the car to its limits. The calm had returned to his face, though there was still a hint of tension to the set of his jaw.
“Uh huh,” she answered, pulling a chocolate bar out of the glove compartment.
Julius flicked a glance her way, watching her devour the sweet. She studied him in return, wondering if he had shaken off the shock yet. His eyes had returned to their normal exquisite gilded sapphire and she found herself caught in their astounding depths.
A Cat's Chance in Hell Page 16
