A Cat's Chance in Hell

by Sharon Hannaford

  “And the place you were staked, it’s completely healed?” he asked, “You don’t seem to be stiff or sore when you move.”

  She stood up and pulled the edge of her T-shirt up to show him her ribs. There was only a faint, pinker patch of skin where the terrible wound had been. He leaned forward to run his fingers over it.

  “Wow, that’s amazing,” he breathed. “I’m not sure I would believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. That’s faster than I heal.”

  Gabi flashed him an impudent grin as she sat down again and resolutely finished off the croissant in front of her.

  “And something more happened between you and Julius?” He made it more of a statement than a question.

  Gabi flashed back to half an hour ago when she’d emerged from the shower, clean and awake, but no less confused by what had happened between her and Julius. She’d gone back to the bed, brushed his tousled blonde hair back from his angelic face and resisted the urge to place a kiss on his slightly parted lips, then had pulled the blanket up to cover him before she gave in to the compulsion to climb back into the bed with him and go back to sleep.

  “I’m not ready to talk about it yet,” she said flatly.

  Kyle’s eyes flashed darkly, and his expression became grim. “If he tried something that you weren’t ready for —” he started to say.

  Gabi cut him off with an annoyed glare. “I’m a big girl, Wolf, I can take care of myself. Whatever happened between us was by mutual consent. I wasn’t forced into anything.”

  Kyle backed down a little at her fierce glower, but not entirely. “It didn’t have anything to do with you taking his blood?” he asked, still a harsh edge to his tone.

  “I don’t know, alright?” Gabi almost shouted in irritation. She stood up abruptly and paced out into the garden. “I don’t know if it was the blood, or just a natural animal-based reaction to adrenalin, or some weird chemical connection we have. I haven’t figured it out yet.”

  Gabi wanted to be her normal angry self, anger was a good way to deal with stuff she couldn’t figure out. It made people leave her alone and stop poking at her. But today she couldn’t get true anger to flair up, irritation was as good as it got. “So just leave it alone. I’m not in the mood for discussing it!”

  Kyle studied her with a pensive frown, as though watching a car fire; not quite sure if it was going to peter out by itself or explode any second.

  “Ok,” he finally said. “But when you want to talk….” He left the sentence hanging.

  Gabi drove home, chafing at having to drive at the speed limits. She wanted to put her foot down and feel the engine roar under her. When she finally made it home, Razor was waiting out on the porch for her. Apparently, he’d heard her car turn up the driveway. He watched her walk up the stairs and then pointedly turned his back on her and stalked off into the garden without any kind of greeting.

  “Oh, dear,” she sighed and went inside to find Rose busy in the kitchen.

  “What’s the matter,” Rose asked, hearing her.

  “Razor has the sulks,” she explained.

  “Ahh, yes, he’s been throwing temper tantrums all over the house this morning,” Rose agreed. “He’s worse than having a jealous boyfriend waiting at home, hey?”

  Gabi snorted in amusement. “It’d be far easier to break up with a jealous boyfriend than to re-home Razor. Guess I’ll have to find something special to tempt him with before he tears my whole house apart.” She wandered into the kitchen, giving Rose a quick hug and putting on the coffee pot, more out of habit than real desire for coffee.

  “Are you hungry?” Rose asked. “I can whip up something quickly.”

  “No, I’m fine, thanks. Kyle brought food when he brought my clothes.”

  “Are you alright after last night?” Rose asked, worry colouring her tone. “The rumours are flying like locusts in the ‘Community’ this morning. Kyle filled me in on a few of the details: Demons and Ghouls on the loose in the city. I wish you weren’t caught up in the middle of all this my sweetling, it worries me so.”

  Gabi gave her another reassuring hug. “I’m fine, honestly. I have a lot of people watching my back.” Then she backed away to look into Rose’s eyes, still keeping her hands on Rose’s shoulders. “I can’t back away when the City needs me, I’m my Father’s daughter, and I have special gifts that will help keep the people of the City safe. We’ll get through this nasty war, and we’ll send those Demons back to where they came from.”

  Rose patted Gabi’s hands. “I know. If anyone can do it, you and Kyle can. I’ve heard the way the Community talks about your Father. He’s spoken so highly of, he was so respected. I know he would be so proud of you.”

  Gabi silently gave Rose a fierce hug. “Now I could do with a good workout, but best I make up with Razor first.”

  Gabi pulled up outside SMV HQ a couple of hours later, having done sufficient grovelling to get Razor to quit sulking and having dealt with any urgent business e-mails and phone calls. She’d meant to go straight through to see Byron but his secretary told her he was busy in a meeting, so she headed instead to the practice hall — a specially laid out area the size of football field, partly undercover and partly open to the elements, which the Hunters used for training. It was extremely well equipped with a full gym, an area for weapons practice and, Gabi’s favourite, a brutal obstacle course. Gabi quickly changed into spandex leggings and a tight-fitting crop top and went to warm up. The hall was empty; just the way she liked it. She spent a few minutes warming up in the gym and then headed for the obstacle course. The course was interactive; it had pop-up dummy enemies, hidden booby traps and was redesigned on a daily basis to keep the trainees on their toes. She was looking forward to seeing what it had to throw at her today.

  It felt amazing to let rip after days of taking it easy, of freedom from the constant companions: pain and stiffness. It was incredible to experience her enhanced abilities and capabilities. Julius’s blood had done more than just heal her and curb her appetite; it had made her faster, stronger and more agile. Her reaction time was infinitely quicker, and she blew through the obstacle course like a bottled hurricane — destroying the dummies set out to catch her, leaping the climbing walls almost without touching them, barely registering the blunt darts shot at her at irregular intervals and nimbly leaping over the floors that fell away from her feet. She swung herself onto an overhead cat walk with one hand and worked her way into the rafters, only to leap down from the height of two stories to instantly decapitate two dummies waiting for her on the ground. She was laughing with sheer pleasure and barely breathing hard when she rounded the last corner and nearly crashed in Byron who was waiting for her to finish.

  “Gabi,” he said in delighted greeting, catching her around the waist before she knocked him over. “That was quite a display.”

  There was a smattering of applause from the viewing deck above where she and Byron stood. Normally, it was where tutors and assessors stood to review performances of the Trainees, but today Lance, Doug and Athena were standing on it watching her. Lance and Doug were giving her a reluctant round of applause, Athena was simply standing with a disdainful look on her face.

  “I think you’ve just blown your previous best time away completely,” Byron said in proud amazement. “I guess there’s no reason to send you to Ian for a check-up after all.”

  Gabi threw a challenging wink at the other two Hunters and gave Byron a quick hug, trying not to get sweat all over him.

  “I told you I was fine,” she said in mock exasperation. She didn’t really expect Byron not to worry about her, she knew better. “In fact, as you can see, I’m a bit better than fine.” She grabbed a towel from a pile on a nearby bench and used it to wipe the sweat from her face and neck. “I take it you’re not all here just to watch me do the course.”

  A chuckle erupted from Lance. “Well, we weren’t gathered at HQ to watch you,” he drawled, “but once Melinda saw you heading for the hall she came to
call us. She’d heard about you being staked from Harry and didn’t put much stock in his story of your miraculous healing. They wouldn’t believe me either, so we came to check that you weren’t overdoing things.” He had an enigmatic smirk on his face which Gabi was sure had something to do with Athena, if the sidelong glance Lance gave her was anything to go by.

  Gabi bowed dramatically. “It’s good to know I have so many people watching out for my best interests,” she pretended to smile sweetly at them. Then her smile disappeared and a long-suffering look took its place. “Now, if you will all just go back to what you were doing and leave me to my exercise for the day, I’ll be a happy person.”

  Lance and Doug took the hint and left with mock salutes. Athena stubbornly stayed where she was, arms crossed and staring haughtily down at her, until Byron cleared his throat. She finally broke eye contact with Gabi, pursed her lips and flounced off the platform. Gabi turned back to Byron. “I was coming to see you once I finished here,” she said.

  “Yes, Hazel told me you’d stopped by at my office,” he replied. “I was in a meeting with Irene.”

  The mention of the Senior Magus’ name snapped Gabi to attention. The members of the Council didn’t often meet outside of Council sessions, unless it was a matter of extreme delicacy or dire emergency.

  Byron nodded, seeing the dawning comprehension on Gabi’s face. “She had some urgent news for us. Athena, Doug and Lance were already here to discuss going in to clean out the Ghoul Hole later. Kyle and Matthew are on their way here so I can tell you all together. Get finished here and join us in the small conference room, okay?”

  Gabi nodded; she knew Byron’s moods, so she knew he wouldn’t discuss this with her until everyone was together. She leant forward putting a hand on his shoulder and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

  “Ok, see you in fifteen,” she said and headed for the showers.

  Chapter 20

  She poured herself a cup of coffee and took the empty seat next to Kyle at the large oval conference table.

  He gave her a quick, assessing grin. “I hear you tore up the obstacle course today,” he whispered. “Fastest time on record.” He nudged her with his elbow teasingly.

  “I didn’t know anyone was watching or timing it,” she hissed back in annoyance.

  Byron cleared his throat, preventing further discussion. “As you all know, Irene came to us with some urgent information from the Magi Council this morning,” he said without preamble. He steepled his hands in front of him on the mahogany table.

  Gabi thought he looked troubled but determined; whatever was coming was bad but not unsurmountable. Athena was watching the rest of them rather than Byron, so apparently she knew what the news was already. Gabi supposed that, as one of the High Councillors for the Magi Council, she’d been privy to the information before Byron was. She wondered why Athena hadn’t been the one to bring them the news. It seemed odd that the older Magus had come into the offices to tell Byron.

  Byron continued, “One of the Oracles had a vision this morning, and it seems to relate directly to our current situation.”

  There was a collective intake of surprised breathes. The Oracles were two of the Magi Council’s most powerful Clairvoyants. Their true identities were a closely guarded secret, more closely guarded than Byron’s was. When they had a clairvoyant vision, it was invariably accurate, as long as it had been interpreted correctly. They also had an uncanny knack of knowing what to do in order to alter the outcome of a vision. Of course, it was frequently impossible to interpret their visions; many of them were hopelessly obscure and often, by the time the meaning of the visions became clear, it was too late to do anything about them. To the Oracles credit, they did manage to help prevent dozens of catastrophes, both minor and major, each year. Neither of them had any control over what they saw and couldn’t be asked to look for something specific. It was theorised that if they meditated over a particular subject they would get some kind of insight on the subject, but there was no way to ensure it was the insight they wanted. Many of their visions were not about bad or dangerous events; many were not warnings at all, just glimpses of the future, sometimes happy and bright. There was a team of Magi who spent their days trying to work out what the visions actually meant and if they required any action to be taken.

  “They have ‘seen’ what Danté and Mariska are planning, and when they plan to do it,” Byron continued. “Athena, you can probably explain this better than I can, why don’t you continue?”

  She nodded curtly and stood up to address the rest of them. “The visions were unusually clear, so we have been able to decipher them relatively easily. From what the visions have shown us, Mariska has been declared Maleficus.”

  Gabi felt her eyebrows shoot up in astonishment and saw confusion on the faces of the others; it seemed she was the only one of the Hunters who knew what this meant.

  Athena seemed to realise she’d lost most of them, so she impatiently explained, “Maleficus essentially means criminal Magus. It is extremely rare for one of us to be so labelled, it is not done lightly. Even those who are Dark Magi are not often branded as such. It means instant death on capture; the trial has already been held, and the Magus has already been found guilty of evil deeds. It is now only a matter of catching up with her to mete out the punishment.” She paused to allow this news to sink in and for the murmurs of surprise to die down.

  “Summer solstice is almost upon us,” she continued, “and this year it will be a particularly powerful day and night as it coincides with a full lunar eclipse. The ley lines will be overflowing with power, almost any magic would be possible on a night like this. Mariska and Danté are going to be harnessing this unusually potent force to try to open a permanent gateway through the Void, allowing Demons an unobstructed pathway into our City.” Athena’s eyes were brimming with suppressed fury, she jabbed a finger into the table. “The Oracles say they will get it right, that Mariska has enough ability and has found the right spells to do it. Unless we can find a way to stop them.” She almost growled the last sentence, then her voice dropped to a whisper. “We have to find a way to stop them.” She dropped back into her chair, seeming exhausted by the prospect.

  Gabi found she had no patience with the annoying woman; they had work to do, things to plan out, information to find, sitting in a sorry-for-yourself heap wasn’t going to get them anywhere. “So when exactly is the summer solstice this year?” she asked the Magus irritably. “And did the Oracles have any idea where to find Mariska or Danté, or how we can stop them?”

  At Gabi’s sharp words, Athena tried to pull herself together, sitting up straighter and flicking back her hair. “Four days time, and no they didn’t get any clues as to where the Vampire and the Maleficus are hiding out,” Athena answered tonelessly. “The best way to stop them is to capture Mariska or kill the Demon Master. Mariska cannot control Demons, so she wouldn’t open the gateway if he wasn’t there to control them.”

  “I’m assuming the Demon Master is Danté?”

  Athena nodded curtly.

  “So the long and the short of it is that we have less than a hundred hours to find them and put a stop to all this,” Gabi summarized when no one else seemed capable of speech.

  “Where do we even start?” Matt asked in a voice that spoke of the sheer enormity of the task.

  “We start with the only direct link we have to them,” Lance spoke up, steely determination in his tone. “The warehouse and the humans left behind in the Ghoul Hole. There has to be a clue somewhere in that place.”

  “You’re right,” Doug spoke up now, “it’s the only lead we have.”

  “I agree,” Byron said, nodding. “We need to get everyone we can spare out there.” He turned to Athena. “Magi would be particularly helpful there, especially Diviners or Clairvoyants, anyone who can pick up on psychic energy or life-force. Maybe we can pick up some idea of where they’ve set up base.”

  Athena’s natural business-like attitude kicked
in. “Yes, of course,” she replied. “I will contact Irene and coordinate to have everyone we have available join us at the warehouse. I’ll be there myself as well, as soon as I’ve made arrangements.” She stood up and briskly left the room.

  “Doug, will you collect one of the trainees and head to the warehouse as well?’ Byron asked. “We may need your expertise in case any of the humans have turned. Take a couple of flame throwers with you.” Though he sounded brisk and detached, Gabi could see how much the thought of having to take human lives was affecting Byron. He took a deep breath to steady himself. “I’ll contact the Weres and ask if they can spare us some additional muscle.”

  Doug nodded agreement and left to round up a trainee.

  “Lance, Matt, I need you two to go home and get some rest.” Byron put up a hand at their immediate protests. “We’ll need you tonight. We’ve seen what can come at us in the dark, we’ll use the daylight to do our investigations, gather information, and at night we need to have as many as possible fresh and ready to take down whatever is sent our way. So go home, rest, recharge and report back here before sunset.”

  They reluctantly agreed and headed home, after Byron assured them he’d call if anything happened during the day.

  “Are we going to head out there, too?” Kyle asked when just the three of them remained in the room.

  Byron ignored the question. “I would prefer you two also went home to rest, but I know better,” Byron said with a rueful attempt at a smile. “You can go and help for a while at the warehouse if you both promise me that you’ll take time off for a few hours this afternoon. I need you both at your best tonight.”

  As it turned out, Gabi found it easier than she’d anticipated to go home for a catnap after lunch. She’d felt relatively useless at the warehouse, the Magi were doing the most good; Healers trying to help the humans, Mediums trying to reach the spirits of the dead, Clairvoyants trying to pick up traces of energy and Athena concentrating on tracing the source of the impressive wards that had hidden the place from psychic sight. Another two humans had turned into Ghouls, and Gabi was secretly relieved that they had already been dispatched by Doug when they arrived. It looked as though the rest of the humans would pull through without turning, as least that’s what they were telling themselves.