“He’s more than just an acquaintance then?” He pushed for more information.
Gabi blinked, dragging herself back to reality. She forced her brain to concentrate on his question instead of his effect on her. She pursed her lips speculatively, gathering her addled thoughts. “I answer yours, then you answer mine,” she finally challenged.
“Fair enough,” he conceded after a moment’s consideration.
“Byron was my father’s best friend,” she began, watching closely for Julius’s reaction to what she had just disclosed. “He was a member of parliament in his younger days, and he still consults for the City Council. His parents are both Magi, and he is one of the founders of the SMV.”
Julius’s eyebrows rose abruptly, in what appeared to be astonishment. “So he is the famous Byron Reeves? The man you regularly accompany to social events in the City?” he asked, genuinely surprised.
Gabi grinned archly. “You mean you really didn’t know? Our all powerful Master Vampire had no idea who ran the Malus Venatori?”
“That information is an exceptionally well kept secret.” “Yeah, and it needs to stay that way,” Gabi’s tone suddenly changed to one of warning.
Julius nodded. “I will keep the secret, I promise,” he vowed, looking steadily into her eyes as he said it.
“Uh, the road?” Gabi said pointedly, not sure she would be able to drag her gaze away from his again. They were travelling at high speed on a dark highway and Julius didn’t seem too concerned with keeping his eyes on the tar in front of them. “You crash my car and I’ll be forced to hunt you down and kill you.” She hoped the threat didn’t sound as hollow as it felt.
“Don’t worry. Modern men may have a problem doing two things at once, but those of us who’ve been around a while do eventually learn to multi-task,” he replied dryly, finally blinking and switching his gaze back to the road. “Nice car, by the way. It suits you.”
Gabi decided to ignore that comment and avoid the dangerous places it could take the conversation.
“My turn now,” she said, firmly changing the course of the discussion. She was silent for a moment while she went through the hundreds of questions that she had stored up to ask him.
Julius waited patiently, still paying more attention to her than the road.
“Why did you seem so shocked at the train station?” she finally asked.
He glanced at her looked slightly confused.
“After the Wraith said its piece,” she clarified.
“Ah,” he said, understanding. He looked back at the road, as they turned off the highway and began to navigate through street lit suburbia. His face became a tightly controlled mask; as though he was straining to erase any trace of emotion from his expression. “I guess it was that the truth of situation had finally become reality. What I told you the other night was the truth, but I don’t think that I had actually accepted it.”
The mask started to slip, and frustration and anger tightened the muscles of his jaw, narrowed his eyes, and etched his cheek bones even more prominently across his face. “I was holding out the hope that some sanity remained somewhere in Danté’s mind, and that he would come to his senses. That he would make some threats, and throw his weight around but back off once he was faced with a strong challenge. That was the main reason for the unity between us and you; a show of force. It was meant to make him back down.”
“And now?” she prompted.
Julius’s pale hands clenched the steering wheel so hard Gabi wondered if he was leaving permanent finger impressions in it.
“Now, I know that he will not back down for anything,” he said with savage certainty. “What he’s put in motion is impossible to stop. He has gone further than I ever thought him capable of. He has become truly evil.”
Julius paused for a moment, calming himself before continuing. “I think that’s what shocked me the most; that someone I once trusted with my life, someone I thought I knew inside and out, one of my own bloodline, can have become such a mindless, power-hungry monster.” He turned to look at her again, his eyes flashing, now dark and angry; the colour of deepest ocean on a moonless night. “The plan has changed. I no longer need help from the Society. You can call Byron back and cancel the meeting”
“What?” she exclaimed in bewilderment. “You were there when the Wraith threatened to take us all out. You’ve just acknowledged that the threat is worse than you expected. How can you now decide you don’t need our help?” She was utterly confused.
“Yes, I was there when the Wraith threatened your and Kyle’s lives,” he growled, his voice low and dangerous. “The creature made it clear that you were targets, and you would be taken out. I want you to pack up and leave the City until we can take care of Danté.”
“You’re insane!” she almost shouted, irritation replacing confusion in an instant. “You need every ounce of help you can get. And, Hunters do not run from a fight, especially one that threatens the whole city and all its citizens!”
“Gabrielle,” he said, now in a frustratingly reasonable tone. “This is not your fight. I’m sorry I got you involved, it was never meant to go this far. I don’t need your death on my conscience. I brought this here; I will deal with the consequences.”
Gabi snorted derisively. “You underestimate us. This is our city and we will not go down without a fight. I can’t speak for every member of the SMV, but I’m not leaving. So deal with it!”
Julius let his head roll back onto the headrest, closing his eyes and exhaling deeply. “You don’t understand,” he growled, all pretence of calm reasoning gone again.
“Then explain it,” she challenged furiously.
He opened his eyes and took a deep breath, still not looking directly at her. “There is another reason I looked shocked, though I think perhaps you misread anxiety for shock,” he continued quickly before she could interrupt. “I have very occasional flashes of clairvoyance, and before you ask, no, I don’t know why. While listening to the Wraith I had a very clear vision.” He paused, steering the car into her driveway and bringing it to a sharp halt outside her front door, then he turned to look at her with a brutal, almost tortured look on his face. “It was a vision of you lying dead at my feet, my hands covered in your blood.”
They were still arguing when Alexander came into the house a few minutes later, half supporting Kyle.
“It was probably a vision put there by the Wraith to get exactly this reaction,” Gabi growled in exasperation.
“The Wraith was contained by magic; it wouldn’t have been able to project a vision.”
”How do you know? It was obviously able to project its voice, why not a vision?”
“I know my own visions when I get them,” he threw back, his voice rising savagely. “You need to get out of the City and stay away from this fight.”
“The future is not set in stone. If it was a genuine clairvoyant vision then we’ve had fair warning, and we’ll know to be more careful. I’m. Not. Leaving.”
“Hey, guys,” Kyle groaned. “Can you keep it down? Man with a titanic headache over here!”
Gabi stamped over to the fridge and hauled an ice pack out, wrapping it in a clean tea towel.
Julius followed her into the kitchen. “And what did the Wraith mean when it spoke about your last encounter? Did you fight that thing” he asked, horror tingeing his voice.
“How am I supposed to know what it was talking about?” she grumbled defensively. “It was at the Old Stadium a few nights ago when we fought off a whole horde of those things, the Magi took care of it that night too.” She stalked out of the kitchen back to Kyle. She pushed him down on the long couch and pressed the ice pack to his head.
“Hold this while I put on the coffee,” she ordered almost tripping over Julius on her way back to the kitchen. He reached out quickly to steady her, strong, cool hands on her waist. It was in that moment that Razor made his appearance, and all hell broke loose.
It took Gabi several minutes to calm
Razor down, even once she got him into her bedroom and closed the door. With all his hair standing on end he looked massive, taking on the proportions of a snow leopard. He had still been hissing and spitting when Gabi hauled him in and shut the door. Once he had finally allowed Gabi to soothe him back to normal size and even managed to give her a few apologetic head butts, she left him on the bed and quickly slipped from the room, closing the door securely behind her.
Back in the lounge Kyle and Alex were mercilessly teasing Julius about the attack.
“You better hope those heal before we get back to the Estate,” Alex snickered devilishly. “I would hate to have to explain that a pet cat did that to you.”
“That,” she heard Julius’s voice rumble in reply, “was no pet cat. That, was a bloody rabid tiger!”
Gabi rushed guiltily back into the kitchen, grabbed another clean tea towel from a drawer and ran cold water onto it before heading into the lounge. She walked over to Julius, who seemed to have regained his composure and was sitting in an armchair inspecting his arms and hands for damage. She cautiously pressed the damp cloth to the deep scratches gouged down the left side of his face, half expecting him to pull away from her, but he sat dead still, allowing her to wipe the blood away.
“I’m sorry,” she started to babble; “he’s not normally quite that vicious towards guests. Apparently he felt you were some kind of,” she trailed off, embarrassed.
“Some kind of what?” Julius prompted her, curiosity overpowering annoyance.
“Wow, these are healing already,” she exclaimed as she finished cleaning the blood away from his face. She reached for his arm, going down on her haunches and peeling away the ripped pieces of his sleeve to examine the damage. The undamaged skin on his arm was smooth and hairless. Though it was pale, it wasn’t unhealthy looking or ashen as she had expected, but seemed to radiate with a faint pearlescence.
“Vampire healing. Definitely one of the best benefits of undeadhood,” Alexander commented wryly, snapping her out of her scrutiny of Julius’s unusual skin.
She hoped they hadn’t noticed her lapse. She mopped up the worst of the blood from the wounds, trying not to take any more time than was absolutely necessary, before moving to the other arm. She didn’t need to move the remains of his shirt sleeve from that one, most of the sleeve was missing up to the elbow.
“Oooh, that’s a nasty bite,” Gabi said, grimacing as she saw one particularly vicious wound, flesh and muscle torn and exposed, reminding her of the stitched wound on her own shoulder.
“Just what that cat needed, a dose of Vampire blood,” Alexander lamented sarcastically. “Like it’s not enough of a terror without the addition of vampire speed and strength.” The English Vampire was clearly enjoying the uncomfortable situation.
”Do you really think it will affect him?” Gabi asked worriedly, as she carefully began cleaning the blood from the wound. She suddenly realised that his blood had a very unusual scent; not like a human’s but closer to human than animal or Were, it actually smelled vaguely appealing to her, she hoped that was just the exhaustion talking.
“No, it shouldn’t affect the cat,” Julius growled, glaring warningly at Alexander. Then his attention shifted back to Gabi. “You still haven’t explained why you think the cat attacked me.”
Gabi squirmed uncomfortably as she wiped the last of the blood away from his lacerated arm, amazed that the lacerations had stopped bleeding already.
“He thought you were some kind of,” she broke off again trying to find the right word, “suitor, I guess. Potential………. mate,” she caught herself just before she used the word lover, but she could feel the blush spreading across her cheeks anyway. “He appears to think I belong to him, and him alone. He saw you as the competition, and reacted like the idiotic alpha male that he is.”
All three of the males in the room were deadly silently for a moment and then Alexander suddenly collapsed back into the couch roaring with laughter. Abruptly Kyle was laughing too. As Gabi glanced up at Julius, she realised by the twinkle of mirth in his eye, that even he was amused by her embarrassment. She quickly stood up, whirling around and stomping off to the kitchen again. She brusquely turned on the coffee maker, throwing the bloodied towel into the sink to soak; if Rose came in and saw all the blood on the towel, she’d have kittens thinking it was Gabi’s.
She became aware of Julius’s presence a millisecond before she bumped into him on her way to the fridge. Her irritation vanished as soon as she looked up and saw the healing, but still vicious, slash marks on his face.
“I really am sorry,” she started to apologise again.
He raised a hand to cut her off. “It’s fine,” he said soothingly, “really. As you can see, I heal fast. You couldn’t know he’d react that way toward me.”
“Thank you for not hurting him,” she said softly, busying herself with a milk-jug and teaspoons. She knew that Julius could have broken Raz’s neck in an instant, but as soon as he understood it wasn’t a Demon, he’d simply defended himself against the cat’s attack until Gabi could get him under control.
Julius smiled slightly, his features softening and a slight dimple carving the lean lines of the undamaged side of his face as he leaned back against the kitchen counter to watch her prepare the coffee.
Gabi’s heart suddenly did a strange little double beat.
“I wouldn’t want to find myself on the business end of Nex, and somehow, I imagine hurting one of your pets would put me there pretty quickly.”
Gabi snorted a little laugh. “Yeah, probably. Coffee?” she asked as she reached up for the mugs. She grimaced as she automatically tried to use her right arm and switched surreptitiously to using the left one. She realised she had slipped off the sling sometime during Razor’s spectacular entrance.
“No. Thank you,” he answered. “It’s not one of the tastes that have returned to either of us.”
He seemed a tad morose about that, and she glanced at him curiously. The sight of him; tall, powerful and sinfully attractive, lounging so casually against her kitchen cabinet, was playing utter havoc with her ability to form coherent thoughts.
She shook herself slightly, dragging her eyes away from the liquid marble ripple of his chest, just visible through the shreds of his shirt, and trying to focus on the conversation.
“There are a couple of bottles of red in that cupboard,” she indicated one behind him, “but I’m afraid I don’t keep a stock of Bourbon, so Alex is outta luck.”
“Serves him right for having such extravagant tastes,” Julius said, reaching into the cupboard for a bottle and a glass.
Gabi finished stirring two coffees and pulled out a small tray placing the mugs and a packet of choc-chip cookies on it. Before she could attempt to pick it up Julius moved in, settling his glass of wine on it and whipping it away from her with a graceful flourish. Gabi pulled a face at him, but didn’t comment. She didn’t trust her voice not to betray how much his close proximity was affecting her.
Julius suddenly stiffened as Kyle called out from the lounge, “Watch out. Incoming.”
Gabi instantly scooted in front of Julius, wondering how Razor had escaped from her bedroom, but instead of a large, angry fluff ball charging through, a small masked face poked itself around the corner. Gabi heaved a sigh. “Don’t worry, it’s only Slinky. He’s not dominant.”
Julius didn’t relax his stance immediately, eyeballing the small creature warily. But, true to form, the little critter scampered in, gave Julius a cursory once-over at shoe level, and went to see what was in his food bowl. Julius visibly relaxed and followed Gabi back to the lounge.
After coffee and biscuits she got Kyle settled into the spare bedroom, leaving the door open so she could hear if he needed her. She knew the drill for concussion. Check on him regularly and wake him up every couple of hours to make sure he knew his own name. She sighed; it was going to be a long night, or morning, as was now the case.
The two Vampires had been having
a low conversation while she was seeing to Kyle, it was too low even for her to pick out many of the words. She’d only picked up the odd one spoken with more vehemence by Julius. They were words like ‘safety’, ‘responsibility’, ‘madness’ and ‘killed’. She heard the conversation break off as she walked out of the spare room, and by the time she walked back into the lounge they were both pretending to be intrigued with her collection of coffee table books and photographs.
Julius was standing near the fireplace, studying a framed black and white photo of Gabi lying in long grass under a tree with her head on the belly of a lioness while two cubs playfully gambolled about on top of her. It was one of her very favourite photos, and she found it very unsettling to have him looking at it. She thought again about how she liked having her own private space that no one, except for a privileged few, ever dared to invade. She found herself wanting to yank the photo out of his hands and throw the pair of Vampires out the door. But, before her instincts could overpower her, he carefully set the picture back on the mantle and turned to her, his face tense but resigned. The skin on his face was perfect again; all traces of Razor’s attack had completely healed. She suddenly became aware of the throbbing in her shoulder and the aching in her ribs and she was abruptly envious, thinking how much easier life would be if she healed as fast.
Julius’s eyes narrowed then and his expression became hooded, unreadable. “It’s time we left you to get some sleep,” he stated shortly.
Gabi raised one eyebrow. “As much as I would love to agree with you,” she said “we still have a few things to discuss.”
Alexander looked up from the book on African landscapes with an evil twinkle in his eye. “Didn’t really think you were going to get away that easily did you?” he asked Julius, grinning.
Julius threw a narrow-eyed warning glare at the other Vampire. “She is exhausted and in pain. We can discuss things tomorrow.”
“Yeah, right. And give you enough time to come up with a way to keep us out of the fight. No chance! We’re discussing this now. As you just noted I’m tired and sore, that makes me decidedly irritable, so sit down before I’m forced to let Raz out again!”
A Cat's Chance in Hell Page 17
