A Cat's Chance in Hell

by Sharon Hannaford

  When she noticed the large oak barrels piled on top of one another in a corner, she realised that this wasn’t just the kind of wine cellar that you found in the basement of a house or a restaurant, this was the kind of wine cellar that you found on a vineyard. It was the kind of wine cellar that was used to age wine before it was bottled and shipped off for sale. She was being held on a winery. She gave a small snort, no wonder they hadn’t been able to find any trace of Danté, Mariska or his cronies in the City. He wasn’t hanging out in the City; he was hiding out in the countryside – the last place any of them would’ve thought to look.

  ***************

  Kyle met Julius and Alexander at the underground security door and led them to a small elevator, pressing the button for the top floor. No one spoke as they left the elevator, there was a tense, agitated air surrounding them. If a full human had walked past the trio, they would have found themselves inexplicably moving well out of their way. Julius was the only one of them who knew what Gabi was likely being subjected to, and he wasn’t about to enlighten the others. He’d let his anger rise when he was taking blood from a feeder earlier, and Alexander had had to pull him off the poor man before he took too much. As it was, the man was being looked after by Jonathon in the medic wing at the Estate. He would have to keep a throttle hold on his rage today; he knew that calm, clear thought was what was needed until they found her. Then he could unleash the fury. He wasn’t fool enough to think that his own surrender would make the slightest difference to Gabi’s life or stop Danté and Mariska from trying to open a permanent gateway to the Etherworld. That was one ace they had up their sleeves; Danté would have no idea that they knew his true intentions for Solstice night. Gregory had run before he found out about that.

  As the three of them entered the small conference room, there was a quiet hubbub going on. Anxious excitement tainted the air as about a dozen people sat around the dark wood table. Julius recognised all of the faces except for two younger males and one older one. All the other Hunters were present, as well as all the members of the MV Council and a Magus who’d been with them at the fight in the train station; Julius couldn’t recall his name. As they entered, the conversations and discussions cut off abruptly.

  “Julius.” Byron stood to greet the late-comers. “You remember the Council members; Irene, Margaret and Alistair?”

  Julius nodded a curt greeting to them.

  “And you of course know Athena, Lance, Douglas and Matthew.”

  “Yes,” Julius acknowledged shortly.

  “The two young men next to Douglas are our Hunter Trainees, James and Timothy. They have been fast-tracked in order for us to have a few extra weapons specialists with us. The gentleman on the left of Margaret is Stewart, he is the best Magus Tracker that we have, and the one on his left is Neil, one of our most experienced defensive Magi.”

  Julius barely afforded them a nod. “Is there anything to work with yet?”

  “Yes,” replied Byron with the faintest trace of hope in his tone.

  His reply brought Kyle up short from his beeline to the catering table. He turned back to the table, his fists still clenched with the unfamiliar tension humming through his body.

  “What?” Kyle and Julius demanded at the same moment, in the same don’t-mess-with-me tone of voice.

  ***************

  She was mentally keeping track of the vile, turbulent presence that she knew to be Danté and realised he was moving closer to her. “Seconds later, she heard a key turn in a rusty lock and his dark aura swept into the room. He was followed up by a slightly built woman with shoulder-length, mouse brown hair and dark, pitiless eyes. Mariska, Gabi guessed. Her appearance was so plain, so nondescript as to be quite disconcerting. She was dressed in a worn looking beige skirt with an equally well used cream blouse and dark brown cardigan. In a crowd, no one would give this woman a second glance. She would simply fade into the background. Exactly what a Maleficus on the run needed, Gabi thought sourly.

  “Ahh,” Danté sighed dramatically, “Julius’s little vixen is awake.”

  He walked towards the table that was between the door and where she lay on the floor, laid several items on it, and almost lovingly positioned them in a neat row. Gabi couldn’t see what the items were, but the evil pleasure on his face was enough to send a thrill of fear though her.

  “Now, don’t worry too much,” he said, turning his calmly deranged gaze on her, “I promised Julius I wouldn’t kill you if he surrendered himself to me tonight. So I do have to keep you alive, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun in the meantime.” He paused and took a few more steps towards to her, cocking his head and studying her. “Gregory told me some interesting things about you. I’m very interested to know if they’re true.”

  Gabi felt ice course through her veins; she knew pain was coming. She began deep breathing and imagined pulling her mind into a small tight sphere of protection as her meditation coach had been trying to teach her for years.

  ***************

  Byron made a calming, placating gesture with his hands. “Take a seat and we’ll fill you in on what we know,” he told the trio, “it’s not all good news, I’m afraid.”

  Kyle completed his trip to the catering table and returned with a cup of coffee and two donuts, taking one of the remaining empty seats and wrapping his long-fingered hands around the cup. Julius could see they were trembling against the Styrofoam. Julius and Alexander took seats as well, once Julius realised that their presence was making most of the room nervous and that sitting would make them look less frightening. He knew that by calming the situation the previous free flow of ideas and information would restart, hopefully resulting in something positive on Gabi’s location, but both Vampires (and Kyle apparently) were finding it hard to rein in the need to be doing something violently physical.

  “Yesterday, a number of objects were found at the warehouse that Werewolf noses assured us had been touched by Vampires or Demons,” Byron said once they had taken seats. “Magi spent the entire night trying to track the owners of the objects or the source of the magical power they could feel in the wards on the warehouse. Some of the stronger trackers could get a general direction but nothing else. The creatures that touched them or owned them are being magically protected, obviously by Mariska. This morning, Stewart tried tracking Gabi from personal items that I brought him from her home. He had a small measure of success.” He indicated that Stewart could tell the newcomers what he’d discovered.

  Stewart cleared his throat nervously under the intense stare of the two Vampires. “I, uh, felt a pull. A definite draw to the north east and a feeling of distance. I’d swear to the fact that she isn’t in the City anymore, and at this stage she’s stationary. But, beyond that, I can’t tell you much more. The clothing that Byron brought just wasn’t quite a strong enough bond for me to close on her essence through the layers of magical protection.” He sighed and shook his head, looking slightly dejected. “It was like trying to catch little wisps of mist in my hands; it kept slipping through my fingers.”

  “The good news,” Irene spoke up now, “is that the pull Stewart felt is in the same direction the others who tried tracking the objects from the warehouse felt. So we are confident that they are somewhere to the north east of the City, probably in the countryside.”

  Stewart sat forward, putting his head in his hands. “Maybe if I had something of Gabi’s that she’d touched while fighting them, or something that one of the,” he shuddered, “one of the Demons or Vampires who took her touched at the same time she did, it could give me a better connection to her.”

  “If we can get a better idea of the where to look, narrow down the search area,” Irene said, “then Athena would be able to track the source of the protective Magic.”

  Athena, silent until now, nodded and then added, “I’ve tried scanning for Dark Magic, but my range for picking up traces is no more than nine or ten kilometres. Further than that I can’t sense it, an
d there’s nothing that close to us.”

  A quick movement by Julius and the glint of metal made everyone jump and drew a few gasps of shock from those around the table. Julius held out a calming hand as he turned the hilt of the short sword towards Stewart and pushed it lightly in the Magus’ direction across the table. Nex stopped just short of the man’s elbow.

  “That is Gabrielle’s Kris. She would have been wielding it against her attackers this morning. It was found in her garden shortly after she was taken. Will that help?” he asked the disconcerted man.

  Stewart’s eyes went wide with disbelief, and then a spark of hope seemed to ignite in them. He jumped up, carefully picking up the sword in two hands and holding it almost reverently. “Excuse me,” he whispered, “I need a quiet space.” And with that he rushed from the room.

  ***************

  Danté seemed particularly intrigued by her rate of recovery; she didn’t bother trying to tell him it was only as a result of Julius’s blood that she was healing so fast. But as the morning dragged on and the punishment continued, her rate of recovery became slower and slower, as if the effect of Julius’s blood was being drained away with the healing of each new round of abuse. She’d fought when Danté had pulled the bars free, she’d flown for his throat with her bare hands. When he caught and held her arms, crushing the bones until she heard them snap, she’d screamed but then had tried to use her legs and feet and teeth to hurt him back. Eventually, he’d commanded Mariska to ‘do something to hold her still’. The Maleficus had begun to chant and in a few moments Gabi had felt her mind lose control of her body.

  As she lay, unable to stop what was being done to her body but still able to experience every exquisite pain, still able to smell the blood and the burnt flesh, her mind took flight, trying to find relief from the relentless agony. As it fluttered helplessly, seeking some kind of distraction, she linked into the psyche of a flock of ducks in the sky outside, flying in a loose V formation and heading for a nearby lake. Through their minds, she could see a holiday resort along the edge of the lake. Holiday-makers were making the most of the warm, sunny day. A small, detached part of her mind latched onto a new and exciting thought, and if she could have, she would’ve smiled.

  ***************

  The wait for Stewart to return with news seemed interminable. The others gradually fell back into the tense conversations they’d been having before the Vampires had joined them, much of it arguing over what the best way was to scan the whole of the north east area with just one Magus who was strong enough to sense Dark Magic from any kind of distance. It was close to an hour later when Stewart finally returned carrying a map of the City and its outlying agricultural land. He was tense and excited.

  He laid the map on the table, smoothing it out with shaking hands. “I still can’t penetrate the protection to get an exact location for her,” he warned them, sensing their rising hope and expectations. “I have a much better general direction and distance though.”

  He pulled a red marker and a ruler from his jacket pocket and began taking measurements on the map. In a few minutes, he’d drawn a curved block around an area of agricultural land to the north east of the City. She is more than 20 kilometres from us as the bird flies, but less than 30 kilometres. I know it’s not perfect, but if we get Athena out to that area, she should be able to track down the source of the protective ward. Gabi is definitely in the middle of that ward.”

  “Well, it’s better than I nothing I suppose,” grumbled Athena peevishly, “but you’ve still left me a lot of ground to cover.”

  A moment later, one of the internal phones beeped. Byron stood up and answered it. He listened for a moment, his face showing surprise and then a hopeful gleam as he thanked the caller and disconnected.

  “Turn on the TV to local news coverage,” he directed Kyle. “It sounds like our search area has just been narrowed.”

  Everyone turned with interest to the TV as Kyle flicked it on. A roving reporter was standing on a grassed area next to a lake surrounded by a throng of people who were dressed casually, as though on holiday.

  “I’m standing here at the Pine Lake Marina where a flock of ducks have been exhibiting some bizarre behaviour this morning,” the reporter was saying into his microphone. “We’ve been filming for at least ten minutes, and the ducks have been flying in this formation for the entire time the cameras have been rolling. It seems that ducks are trying to learn their ABCs. Holiday-makers at the Marina say the ducks got people’s attention at around mid-morning by dive-bombing a group of water-skiers and then flying high into the sky, not in their usual V formation, but in another letter entirely.” At that point, the camera panned up into the sky where a flock of large ducks was lazily flapping around beneath a light smear of cloud in the very distinctive shape of the letter H.

  Julius felt a wry smile twist up the corner of his mouth, and when he glanced around the rest of the room, there were a few full grins on the faces of those watching the report. The reporter was now droning on about duck experts and their theories, but nobody in the conference room was listening anymore. Kyle actually whooped.

  “Forget the Bat-Signal,” he yelled with delight. “Our Gabs has got the Hellcat-Signal!”

  Alexander snorted next to him. “Go Hellcat,” he said, shaking his head with reluctant admiration.

  All heads turned to Athena. “Alright, alright,” she said. “I’m going. Do I have to drive or can I use the helicopter?”

  The Council members looked at each other in indecision, so Julius spoke up, “If I may make a suggestion,” he asked, when they waited for him he continued. “The sound of a helicopter will be very audible to any supernatural. If Alexander and I can keep ourselves from sleep during the day then Danté can too. If they realise their hideout has been discovered, they may try something desperate. There is time to do it by car so it would be safer to do the recon as inconspicuously as possible.”

  There were lots of nods of agreement, but Athena just looked annoyed.

  “I would also suggest that at least some of the team leaders go with her, so that once Athena pinpoints Gabi’s exact location they can do a proper survey of the area, aerial shots are helpful, but eyes on the ground will enable us to isolate the best points of attack.” Julius’s military training may have taken place over two centuries before, but certain things didn’t change much over the years.

  “Yes, that’s an excellent point,” said Doug. “Athena, I’ll join you. Kyle, you want to come along?”

  Kyle gave him a ‘was that a trick question’ look and went to raid the catering table before they left.

  “Neil,” Byron said to the older Magi standing quietly out of the fray. “I think you would be an asset on the trip in case Athena needs to call on extra power.”

  The man nodded and hurried to join the small group getting ready to leave.

  “Keep in contact and let us know your every move,” Byron said to the departing team, “and Kyle?” he waited until the Wolf looked back at him, “don’t try anything stupid. We do this as a clean, strong, united attack. Gabi can hold out until the full contingent arrives.”

  Kyle nodded, a little reluctantly, and turned back to follow the others out, gripping Julius’s shoulder briefly on his way past, an ocean of unsaid things flowing between them.

  Elements of the remaining group left to take care of their own specific tasks; Irene and Margaret were going to prepare a team of offensive Magi as well as a team of Medics and Banishers; Matt and Lance went off with the rookies to organise the weapons and gear needed for the attack; and Stewart was sent off to get some rest — he was looking grey and haggard after the last session tracking Gabi. As Alistair started to leave on his assignment of gathering the Werewolf contingent, Julius called to him.

  “Patrick will be here in a few minutes,” he said, referring to the Werewolf who headed up his daytime security. “He’s also a dominant Wolf, but he’s had the kind of military training which will prove invalua
ble tonight. Do you think the two of you can work together in this?”

  Alistair thought for a moment before replying. “Yes, I know Patrick’s reputation,” he nodded, “His input will be very useful. I’m sure we can find a way to work together. I’m assuming you’re bringing in a team of Weres of your own to assist in the rescue?”

  “Yes,” Julius nodded, “Patrick was just rounding them up and getting them organised. What we need tonight will be a co-ordinated, precision attack, so we need to have everyone on the same page. I’ll make it clear to mine that other rivalries are to put aside for tonight.”

  “I can do that, too,” Alistair agreed. “Though it may be safer to keep the two teams on opposite sides of the fray.”

  Julius gave a wry smile of agreement. “I’ll leave the details to you and Patrick to sort out.” Alistair took his leave, agreeing to meet back in the conference room in an hour. That left Byron, Julius and Alexander in the room.