A Cat's Chance in Hell

by Sharon Hannaford

  As the second clawed hand reached for her out of the dark, she grabbed Razor and pulled him with her as she tumbled backwards out the window, landing in a defensive crouch in a muddle of azalea bushes, soft earth and bark. She grimaced at the sting of dozens of glass and wood splinters embedded in her back. Her cotton pyjamas hadn’t been much protection. She let Razor go, giving him an order to hide, and praying to the Lord and Lady that Slinky stayed hidden in the wash basket. She took a second to pry the Demon hand off her ankle, suppressing a shudder as she unhooked the claws from her flesh.

  Then Gabi and Razor spun as one to face the third Vampire materialising out of the darkness at the edge of the garden. He was tall and muscular and walked with confidence and controlled tension. Although he had nothing of Julius’s easy grace, something about the third Vampire brought Julius to mind. Gabi could just make out a cruel smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Then she realised what the similarity was to Julius; the Vampire’s power was colossal, it radiated around him like a tornado on a leash. She breathed in, allowing her body to flow into a natural, battle-ready position, Nex comfortable in her right hand.

  Razor reacted before she could stop him, hurtling towards the powerful Vampire in a ball of angry, claw and tooth filled rage. To Gabi’s horror, the Vampire took Razor’s attack in stride, allowing him to get just close enough and then flicking out his arm, hurling Razor back against the side of the house with a sickening, bone-snapping crunch. The cat let out a feeble hiss and immediately tried to pick himself up. Gabi sent him a sharp order to lie still and play dead, and he subsided. Her temper, ignited just minutes ago by the assault on her treasured sanctuary, now roared into a howling inferno.

  “Let me guess,” she said in a deadly calm voice, “you would be Danté.”

  Without turning to look, she could hear some of the Demons trying to climb out of the window, she needed to do something fast. If she could take out Danté the whole war would be over, but could she do it before the Demons took her down? Only one way to find out. She sprang at Danté almost before his name had finished passing her lips, rushing him, but instead of going for the obvious kill she flipped herself lightly over his head spinning as she came down to face his back and leaping to drive Nex into his chest as he spun to find her. But he was no longer there; he moved faster than her eyes could track; he’d done one of Julius’s disappearing tricks.

  “Yes,” said a balefully amused voice to her left. “I am indeed Danté. You’ll have to excuse my appalling manners. It has been a long time since I’ve found a need for them, and I am rather rusty.”

  His voice was condescending in that nasal, upper class kind of way but also strangely hypnotic. Gabi realised that he was trying to control her mind, and once again thanked the lucky star she lived under for her immunity to Vamp mind control. She moved to face him where he stood several metres away and sank back into an offensive position. Damn, he was fast. Could she draw this fight out long enough for reinforcements to arrive? Maybe if she kept him talking.

  “Is there a reason you’re disturbing me in the middle of the night, Danté?” she asked in a bored tone, as though she was nothing more than mildly interested. As she spoke, she was searching the garden for other things to use as weapons. Aside from the bird bath and few sun-faded garden gnomes, there wasn’t much to work with. If she survived this, she vowed she would be hiding weapons in the garden from now on She was going to have to take this fight slower than she liked and wait for the right opening.

  “I would have thought it would be obvious, my dear,” Danté replied. “I can’t have Julius getting the upper hand in our little war, now can I? You will make a good little pawn to control him with. He always did have a stupidly soft spot for women and children. Terribly chivalrous is our Julius.” He sniffed disdainfully.

  “What makes you think he gives a shit what happens to me? I kill Vampires after all,” Gabi asked in feigned confusion.

  At that point, Danté swept closer to her again in one of his untrackable moves, coming to an abrupt halt less than three feet away from her. She steeled herself against the natural urge to back away from him. He leaned in towards her, lowering his face to the same height as hers, and she could actually see the insanity swirling in his eyes. He had a chilling, unnatural smile on his face.

  “Because I can smell him on you, and, more importantly, in you, my little beauty,” he breathed rancid breath into her face.

  Gabi nearly gagged.

  “Julius doesn’t share blood readily. Oh, sex he will do casually, but not blood,” he said, dragging the last word out and reminding her disturbingly of Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of The Joker. All he was missing was the absurd make-up.

  Gabi kept all movement from her muscles until the quarter second before she sprang at him, Nex aimed straight at his heart. He leapt back, actually caught by surprise, but still quick enough to deflect Nex from his heart. He had a ragged slice across his left hand and arm, the sleeve of his dress shirt falling open. He didn’t seem to feel any pain as he made a grab for her throat, forcing Gabi to dance back out of reach cursing herself, he wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

  “You’re a vicious little vixen,” he said through gritted teeth, as he inspected his bleeding arm. “You’ll pay for that.” Then, abruptly the rage left his face and an oddly innocent curiosity seemed to fill it. “It’s not like Julius to hook up with a spirited woman. He always liked them quiet and docile. He must be going senile in his old age.” He said this last in a hushed, slightly conspiratorial voice.

  Gabi couldn’t keep up with his mood swings. She knew that Julius was right about Danté being utterly and certifiably insane. There was only one cure for this particular Vampire, and that was healthy dose of death. Gabi risked a quick glance around the garden and realised that she was completely surrounded by what amounted to a small army of Demons, she lost count at twenty; there was no hope of escape. Come on Kyle, she thought anxiously backing away, trying to put her back to the partially crumbled garden shed and wondering if the roof would hold her. A ruction drew her attention to the front of the house. The Vampire that Razor had attacked stumbled out into the night, cursing inventively.

  “Where’s that fucking monster?” he all but screamed.

  “Something wrong, Errol?” Danté asked mildly, his eyes never leaving Gabi.

  “That fucking demonic cat ate my fingers, and look at my face, I think I’ve lost an eye. You didn’t tell me there would be a fucking demon cat in there,” he ranted.

  “Calm down, Errol, I’m sure they’ll grow back. The cat is over there. Perhaps if you cut it open you can retrieve your fingers from its belly,” Danté said, flicking his fingers in the direction of Razor, who was lying panting where he had fallen after hitting the side of the house. The tall Vampire’s eyes gleamed evilly as a satisfied smirk replaced the anger on his ravaged face, and he drew a long knife as he stalked over to the cat.

  “No!” Gabi screamed and darted back towards Razor, ignoring the slowly undulating mass of Demon forms trying to surround her.

  “Sssstop,” ordered a darkly familiar rasp as the Wraith floated into the middle of the melee, placing itself between Gabi and the other Vampire.

  Gabi froze unwillingly.

  “Enough of thiss nonsenssse,” it declared. “The Baron iss coming, with plenty of reinforcementss. Unless you want to meet him on thossse termsss, Massster,” it spat the word, “then we musst leave now.”

  “Fine,” barked Danté with a sulky edge to his voice. “Bring the girl. Errol hurry up with the cat.”

  Gabi unfroze and dived past the Wraith, springing into an aerial flip she came up just short of Errol and used a roundhouse kick to send him flying into a nearby group of Demons, then she placed herself in front of Razor protectively, Nex firm in her hand. Julius was on the way, all she had to do was hold out for a few more minutes. Then the Wraith filled her vision, its ghostly arm extended towards her head. The last thing she saw was Errol, having pi
cked himself up out of the mass of Demons, move around behind her with his knife gripped in his right hand. She heard Razor hiss weakly and then scream in agony, and then pain and darkness swallowed her whole.

  Kyle was out of the van before it came to a complete stop, Julius was one step ahead of him, but they froze as one at the stairway in front of the house. The door stood ajar and there was only deathly silence inside.

  “They’ve gone,” Julius managed in a strained voice. “There are no Demons or Vampires here now.”

  The other twelve Vampires flowed around them, weapons out and battle ready.

  “Search the gardens,” Julius ordered tersely, but he already knew they wouldn’t find anything. He looked at Kyle bleakly and then at the house.

  Kyle nodded and closed his eyes, as if he knew what Julius was thinking, if Gabi was still here, she would be inside and she wouldn’t be alive. In silent agreement, they stepped forward to search the house together. They quickly made their way through the house, noting the destruction that had taken place. Julius felt something tighten inside him; he knew how Gabi felt about her home, her sanctuary. Even if she was still alive, it would never be the same place of solace and comfort to her again.

  They checked her room, taking in the broken window, the Demon blood, the Vampire bones, the gun and spent bullet casings on the floor, signs from the rest of the house indicated a large contingent of Demons, not even Angeli Morte could’ve taken on that many Demons single-handedly. A small noise made them both react instinctively, weapons drawn. The rustle came again, and Julius realised it was coming from Gabi’s laundry basket.

  Kyle sighed and called out, “Slinky?” The rustle came again, and the clothing writhed until a little masked face poked out. Kyle sighed again and walked over to pick up the little creature, draping him around his shoulder. “Hey, Stinks. Where’s your Mama? She’ll be glad that you were clever enough to hide and keep yourself safe.” His voice cracked on the last word.

  Julius felt as though a sharpened stake had just been rammed into his chest. In fact, he would have preferred a stake to the pain that ripped through him. What had he been doing letting her get involved in all this? Only one thing kept him from collapsing to his knees; if they had wanted her dead, they would have killed her and left her here for him to find. The fact that she wasn’t here meant they’d taken her and wanted to use her as leverage, and for that they needed her alive.

  “Stay alive, Lea,” he whispered, “stay alive, and I’ll find you. If it’s the last thing I do.”

  A shout erupted from just outside the small shattered bedroom window.

  “Julius.” It was Alexander calling him with a touch of regret in his voice.

  Julius felt liquid nitrogen pour through his veins as he leapt nimbly out the broken window, not wanting to see what Alexander had found. It wasn’t what he had expected, but it wasn’t much better. Razor lay in the cold soil of a flower bed, a piteous sight. His fur matted with blood, his mouth slightly open and his eyes flat and lacklustre. The normally large, vital body now lay gaunt and limp. A laboured breath rasped through his damaged lungs. It looked as though someone had stabbed him repeatedly with a knife.

  Most of the Vampires had gathered in a sombre semi-circle, and Kyle pushed his way through to fall on his knees next to the dying cat. He threw his head back and howled, long and mournful. Razor focused his eyes for a brief moment on Kyle and then began a painful, stuttered purr. Julius felt himself collapse to his knees beside the cat, he guessed the cat must have been trying to defend Gabi, it just didn’t seem right. He knew if Gabi was here right now, and she had the power to fix one thing in all of this chaos and destruction, it would be Razor. He had to try.

  “Alexander, help me,” he ordered brusquely, trying to lift the cat without damaging him further. “Give us some room,” he barked at the rest of them. “I want to know how many were here, how they got here and how they got in. I want answers, now move.”

  His guard knew enough about his temper not to question anything and to get out of his sight.

  Only Fergus hung back for a moment. “Good luck,” he growled softly, “I hope it works.” Then he disappeared into the darkness.

  Alexander and Kyle helped lift Razor into Julius’s arms, and then they all walked back into the house, Slinky sniffing the air anxiously from Kyle’s shoulder.

  Byron arrived a half hour later. Julius had dispatched most of his guard back to the Estate. Sunrise was only a few minutes away, and while he and Alexander could withstand sunlight through the additional UV protection on the windows in the Aston Martin, the others could not. Just before they left, Fergus came to Julius and pressed something into his hands, when he looked down he realised it was the hilt of Nex.

  “She’ll be wantin this back when we find er, Sire,” he rumbled, his unscarred eye steady on Julius face. ‘And we’ll find er, Sire, doncha be doubting that.” The huge Scotsman bowed his head briefly and was gone.

  Julius had never regretted his inability to go out in the sun more than on this particular day. How could he possibly go back to the Estate and do nothing while Gabrielle was in Danté’s maniacal clutches. He knew better than anyone else what atrocities Danté was capable of. The rage tore at him. When his mobile phone chimed a few minutes later, something made him pause and check the message. What he read caused his anger and anguish to solidify into something cold, hard and terrifying. Wordlessly, he held the phone out to Kyle and Alexander so that they could read the message. It had been sent from Gregory’s personal phone.

  “Your inside man has proved so valuable to me in the past few weeks, it was a great pity that he got himself discovered. It meant I had no further need of him. I’m sure it’ll give you comfort to know that I didn’t make his passing easy. Traitors don’t deserve mercy, do they? Your new lover has real spirit, she’s not your usual choice at all. I think I may have to try and tame her for you. I feel like I no longer know you, Julius. I trust you will still do anything to save those you love, surely that soft-hearted part of you hasn’t changed? If you want her to see another sunrise, you will surrender to me. This is the last time I’ll be so generous. You’ll get details of our meeting at sunset.”

  “Byron,” Kyle said urgently, “get a trace on this phone number,” and he read the mobile number to the older man, who immediately picked up his own phone. “If the phone is still on we’ll be able to trace it.” His voice held an edge of urgency and fear.

  Julius could smell the Wolf on Kyle stronger than it had ever been before. If he’d been any other Werewolf, he’d be on four legs by now, the strain on his face and the sweat beading on his forehead told Julius that it was not an easy thing for him to keep the Wolf at bay, but he was managing it.

  “They’ll call me back in a few minutes,” Byron said. The strain was showing on the older man’s face as well. He took a deep breath as he looked around at the destruction of Gabi’s kitchen and living area. “I’ve called Rose,” his tone said that it had been a difficult call, “She’ll come in at first light to help with,” he paused, “to help with Razor. She’ll know what to do. What Gabi would do.” He swallowed, exhaling and fighting for emotional control.

  “We’ll get her,” Kyle said fiercely, gripping the older man’s shoulder with one hand. “She knows how to survive, she’s tough and she’s smart, she’ll know we’re coming for her.”

  “He’s right,” Alexander put in, “We have no control over what’s happening to her now, but we know he’s not going to kill her while he still thinks there’s a chance Julius will surrender. Let’s focus on what we can do. If we can find where he’s holding her before sunset, then the upper hand is ours.”

  “Yes.” Byron nodded, his eyes had grown hard and the set of his shoulders showed his renewed determination. “We have the backing of one of the biggest networks of Magi, Weres and Shifters in the world. We’ll find her. And then we’ll put an end to this threat. Julius and Alexander are welcome to join us at HQ. Most of our conference roo
ms are in areas without windows for security reasons, and there are sleeping quarters should you need them.”

  Julius nodded curtly. “We’ll collect a few things from the Estate and then meet you there.” He knew that with a day of no sleep and some kind of battle looming tonight, he and Alexander would need to feed. Then he and Alexander and the dark brooding air that surrounded him swept into the Aston Martin and sped off, leaving Kyle and Byron to calm Rose when she first arrived and to show her to where they had put Razor.

  Chapter 23

  Consciousness returned to Gabi in a painful rush. The instant she realised she couldn’t move, a spike of adrenalin shot through her, clearing her mind and bringing back memories of the invasion and attack at her cottage. She stilled her body and opened her senses, checking with both the supernatural and the physical. There were over a dozen Vampires within a few hundred metres of her and at least double that number of Demons. None of them were in the same room as her, in fact, they seemed to be somewhere above her. She could hear water dripping and her nose told her she was underground; the smell of damp earth and decaying wood was strong, but it was overlaid by an old scent of...was that wine?

  She opened her eyes a tiny crack. At least the Wraith hadn’t taken her sight this time. Hard, uneven floor boards pressed uncomfortably into her shoulders and spine. She tried to turn her head and found that it was the only part of her that she could move except for her fingers. She was being held spreadeagled to the floor by U-shaped metal rods driven deep into the wooden floor boards over her wrists, upper arms, ankles, thighs, torso and neck. She was pinned to the ground like an insect in a display case. The bars were just tight enough to ensure she had no free movement while still allowing blood flow. There was no room for her to get enough leverage to pull the bars free. She began trying anyway, as she took in the dim room she was trapped in. She realised that it had once been a wine cellar. Rows of wine racks lined the walls lit by a single candle burning in a crudely made holder on a table in the centre of the room. Dust coated every surface and spider webs adorned every niche and crevice.