All Hell Breaks Loose

by Sharon Hannaford

  They ended the training session mid afternoon and called to check on Trish. Her condition was stable, and they expected her to regain consciousness in a day or two, Jonathon was sounding confident that she’d pull through the fever. Gabi was intrigued by the level of concern Kyle displayed over the woman. He offered to go in and sit with her for a few hours before the meeting while the other two caught up on some sleep. Even more intriguingly, Derek agreed without rancour, only asking if they would take him to her after the meeting. There was still a deep air of sadness surrounding him when he spoke of his sister.

  Gabi called Russell with the hopes that he could babysit Rocky the squirrel while she was in the meeting. It was rare for her to get home before the early hours of the morning when something this major was going down, and the squirrel needed a couple of feeds in that time. Unfortunately, Russell was busy on a set and couldn’t help out. Gabi sighed. Well, she’d done it before. She’d hand-raised Razor from just over a week old while on Hunter duty. She had a custom-designed jacket with a large, fur-lined internal pocket that had fitted Razor until he was six weeks old, the squirrel would have more than enough room and would be warm and safe. If she had to go into a situation that might be dangerous she had a special fur-lined pouch that fitted into her car’s glove compartment, and Razor had spent many hours snuggled up in it fast asleep. She hauled the jacket and car pouch out of her storage cupboard and mixed up a good-sized batch of formula. With that all ready, she fell gratefully into her bed for a nap, surrounded by a cat, a ferret and a tiny squirrel.

  Chapter 7

  The meeting place was the conference room at the Riverview Hotel, a small, boutique hotel on the edges of the City centre. It was owned and run by the local Magi Council and catered mostly to non-humans. They’d used the venue often for this kind of conference, as it was well protected from prying eyes, both human and non-human. Even the streets outside were surrounded by wards, which encouraged humans to take other routes or turn a blind eye to anything unusual. The staff were all part of the Community, mostly Magi and Shape-shifters.

  Byron called Gabi on the way over to tell her they had arranged a suite on another level for Derek to relax in until they were ready to hear from him. They all knew how hard it would be for him to be in the same room with all the other Werewolves and didn’t expect him be in the conference room for the entire meeting. Gabi thanked him and, on arriving at the hotel, took Derek through the rear entrance to avoid unnecessarily meeting any Werewolves on the way in. Kyle joined them in the suite soon after they’d arrived, and he was followed by Julius and Alexander.

  “Hellcat,” Alexander greeted her brightly and then suddenly wrinkled his nose. “Why do you smell like a rodent?”

  “Well, hello to you too, Lex Boy,” she drawled. “Why do you smell like A positive?”

  Amusement glinted in the Vampire’s eyes. “Well, now. That would be telling, wouldn’t it?” he answered, pointedly running his tongue over his slightly elongated canines.

  Julius sighed, shaking his head, and strode forward to lay a gentle finger under her chin and tilt her head up for him to place a chaste kiss on her lips.

  “Good evening, Gabrielle,” he said. His gaze locked with hers.

  She smiled a little secret smile and went up on her tiptoes to give him a slightly less chaste kiss back. As he’d swept into the room in his floor-length leather coat, dark pants and crisp cotton shirt, with his power coiled tightly around him like a well-trained tornado, she’d felt her heart do little flip-flops inside her chest. She’d almost rolled her eyes at herself. Since when did she feel like a hormone-fuelled teenager in love?

  “No offense, Lea,” he suddenly said with a tiny frown on his face, “but Alexander is correct, you do smell like a rodent.”

  Gabi laughed out loud and unbuttoned her jacket to pull open the special pocket. A tiny, furry face popped out immediately, surveyed the incredulous faces staring at it, and popped straight back down into the safe depths of its hideaway.

  “Razor brought a new pet home,” she explained. “Apparently he thought if I got to have a new pet, so did he.” As she closed up the jacket again, she noticed the Vampires both glance at Derek.

  “I didn’t mean Derek,” she muttered with an exasperated shake of her head. “I’m looking after Trish’s dog until we can find him somewhere else to go. You know how dogs react to Weres.” But her glance at the stuntman had told her he was not coping well with the Vampires in the suite. His face had gone blank and hard. She quickly suggested that the Vampires go down to join the meeting.

  Once the Vampires and Kyle had left for the conference room, she asked Derek again if he was going to be all right on his own while she joined the meeting. She’d arranged to have her say at the meeting before Derek came in so that she could be with him afterwards if he needed her. She still didn’t like leaving him alone. Misery and depression seemed to have settled over him in an oppressive cloud once again.

  “I’ll be fine, Gabi,” he snapped. “Just go to the meeting.” He seemed to realise he’d sounded unusually harsh, as he suddenly looked away from her and said in a softer voice, “I’ll just practise my meditating until you come and get me.” He tried for a smile, but it wasn’t convincing.

  In a spark of hindsight, she realised that Derek hadn’t known of her relationship with Julius. She bit her lip; she should’ve prepared him. A glance at her watch told her the meeting was about to get underway.

  “Damn,” she muttered under her breath. “We’ll talk when this is finished,” she told him on her way out the door. “See you in a few.”

  She put a protective hand over little Rocky as she sped down the hallway and, ignoring the elevator, took the stairs instead. As she neared the double doors to the conference room, she was surprised to see Byron pacing the corridor outside and talking on the phone. He seemed agitated as he spoke, which was very unusual for Byron. Her father’s best friend and her surrogate dad since her own had died taking down a rogue Vampire, she knew Byron as well as she knew her own mother. He was Magi-born, but was one of those who’d chosen not to take up his mantle of power. He’d never discussed his decision with her, but she knew he had a wonderful and fulfilling life, even though he’d lost his wife a few years ago in a tragic car accident. He was one of the calmest people she knew, virtually unflappable and rarely excitable. The fact that his heart rate was up and his eyes flashed with annoyance tweaked Gabi’s curiosity and awoke her protective side.

  Instead of entering the meeting room, she waited for Byron to finish his conversation. Seconds later he disconnected and turned towards the doors. He noticed Gabi standing nearby, and immediately a warm smile replaced the agitation on his face. He was dressed, as always, in a well-cut suit, with a button-down shirt, and though he no longer wore a tie, Gabi knew he would’ve had one on earlier in the day. He was handsome in a Paul Newman kind of way and appeared years younger than he truly was.

  “Gabi, I didn’t know you were standing there.” He came forward and pulled her into a quick hug. Gabi turned slightly to prevent Rocky from being squished between them. “How are you, sweetheart?”

  “What was that conversation about?” She went on the offensive immediately. “It had you rattled. What’s going on?” She didn’t feel any reluctance to pry into his life.

  “Ah,” he sighed, shaking his head, as though to throw off something annoying. “Just Council stuff. Someone’s trying to throw a spanner into some gears of mine.” He gave her a more relaxed smile. “Nothing to worry about, love.” Byron had retired from his official position as a City Councillor last year, but he still kept his eye on things and consulted for them on a regular basis. He always tried to make sure that life wasn’t made more difficult for the Community, and his access to city departments and resources made the SMV’s work much easier. He was in the process of grooming a young Magus to take his place. “What’s in your pocket that you’re protecting?”

  Gabi got the distinct impression he was changing
the subject on purpose, but opened up the jacket to show him the now sleeping squirrel.

  “Trust Razor,” Byron sighed. “Well, best we get in to this meeting before we’re in trouble.” He reached out and opened the doors, ushering her inside.

  With Byron in his place among the SMV Council members, who were acting as officiators for the evening’s meeting, and Hazel, Byron’s secretary, ready with her fingers poised over a laptop, the murmured hush quietened. Alistair, a wiry, blond man in his mid-forties, rose to call the meeting to order. Gabi slid into the open seat between Julius and Kyle, Patrick was on Julius’s other side. Alistair began with introductions, starting on one side of the large oblong table, and working his way around. Gabi knew everyone except for two of the Pack seconds who’d accompanied Pack leaders. They, like Alexander and the other seconds, stood to attention behind their Pack leader’s chairs. All five of the City’s Pack leaders were here; a sign that the situation was considered serious. The Pack leaders didn’t like to be in each other’s company. They were all holding tightly onto their self-control, and no one was making sudden movements.

  Gabi had spoken on the phone earlier to Irene and asked if she’d be able to protect Derek from the worst of the raging Werewolf pheromones and latent dominant power. The Magus had agreed to do her best. She gave Gabi a little nod from the other end of the table. Athena, the young, gifted Magus who had pulled Gabi out of the spell Danté’s Dark Magus had woven around her, sat next to Irene. Gabi and Athena had never seen eye to eye before, but an uneasy truce had settled between them after the Danté incident. They still weren’t exactly friends, but the outright sniping had simmered down to cool politeness. Athena seemed to be finally getting over her aversion to other supernatural species, in particular Vampires. The Danté affair seemed to have given Athena a new understanding of what the Hunters went through on a weekly basis, and it had changed something in the woman. Gabi noted with amusement that Athena’s gaze kept drifting to find Alexander and then skittering away. Interesting.

  She settled back to watch what developed, but as Alistair began outlining the reasons for the meeting, she suddenly felt a disturbingly familiar prickle at the back of her neck. She stiffened involuntarily, and Julius reacted to her movement, glancing at her with a question in his eyes. She gave an almost imperceptible shrug, but allowed her Vamp sense to envelop the room, trying to pinpoint the disturbance. There were simply too many supernatural presences around for her to make any sense of which one in particular was making her edgy.

  She glanced surreptitiously at Julius and shook her head, telling him she couldn’t work it out. She sensed Alexander go on alert. She nudged Kyle with her elbow as though by accident, gave him a half-apologetic smile, and rubbed at the back of her neck. He cleared his throat softly in acknowledgement; he knew her well enough to interpret the signs. At least if something went down, they’d be watching for it.

  The first to address the meeting was Douglas, a Shape-shifter and the most senior of the SMV Hunters. He and one of the new Hunters, a Werewolf named Tim, had been called to deal with a disturbance a couple of weeks ago. It turned out they’d come across a recent Werewolf bite victim, but they didn’t have much information. The victim hadn’t survived the fever, and the scene was a mess of conflicting scents. The only thing the two Hunters were sure of was that more than one Werewolf was involved in the attack. The victim was a young male, who they later found out had been a bouncer at a City club. He was attacked in the parking area of an all-night gym.

  Kyle and Gabi were next on the agenda. They described the capture of the Werewolf in the warehouse district. Again, there wasn’t much to go on. The man was being held at SMV HQ, but he was refusing to talk to them, and he spent more time in wolf form than human, which wasn’t a good sign. No one knew exactly where or when the attack took place, but again, the victim was young, male, and though they hadn’t been able to identify him yet, he was physically strong and muscular, the kind of person who worked out regularly.

  Kyle sat down, but Gabi remained standing to give them her account of what had happened with Derek. She concentrated on the incident with the rogue Werewolves posing as government agents, wanting Derek to tell his own story of the attack. She described the rogues in detail and agreed to sit with a Magus artist to compile sketches of the men. As the discussion turned to which Pack wanted to try to incorporate the newbies, Gabi rose to go and fetch Derek for his turn to address the group. As she stood up, she must have jostled her sleeping passenger. The little critter wriggled, and she placed a reassuring hand over it, but just as she reached the door, the squirrel became more agitated and suddenly scampered out of her pocket and dropped to the floor.

  “Shit,” she cursed, making a grab for the animal. Rocky was quicker than she expected and took off in a mad scamper down the corridor. She heard a couple of chuckles as the door to the meeting closed, and she rushed off in pursuit of the little deviant. Gabi saw her dart into an open room off the corridor and followed. If she could get Rocky to stop running, she could calm her and coax her back into her warm pocket.

  The room was some kind of dining room, with tables set against the windows, laid out ready for breakfast. Heavy curtains fell gracefully to the floor and called invitingly to a mischievous little squirrel. Rocky shot up the nearest curtain, burying herself in the deep folds. Gabi skidded to a halt and quickly threw a blanket of reassuring calm towards Rocky. She felt the little squirrel respond to the soothing, but she still remained hidden in the folds of the curtain. Gabi could sense a feeling of playfulness emanating from her; she’d had enough of sleep and wanted to have some fun.

  Gabi sighed and squeezed between the tables to begin searching through the fabric for the runaway. As she pulled the first curtain aside, the prickling at the back of her neck increased inordinately. Something made her look out into the night. The view was down onto one of the quieter City streets, mostly because of the Magical ward. Many of the residents in the apartment blocks on the street were wealthy members of the Community. Being on the third floor, Gabi could see a good portion of the road. She was about to continue her search for Rocky when a car caught her attention. Not because it was anything unusual, but more because it was so nondescript as to be unusual on this high-end street. As she narrowed her eyes and forced her night vision to kick in, she realised the number plate was familiar.

  “Well, fuck me,” she said quietly, quickly drawing the curtain back into place and making a grab for the naughty runaway just as she noticed a bushy little tail peeking out of a fold. She caught the squirming little body, making the creature chatter at her in annoyance. “Sorry, little Rocky, but you’re going to have to go to sleep for a bit. Adoptive Mommy has work to do.”

  A cold, hard glint entered her eyes as she flew back to the meeting room. She stopped outside, forcing herself to think before opening the doors. If she went in all guns blazing, they’d have five Pack leaders plus Seconds, all the Hunters and two Vampires tripping over each other trying to apprehend the Werewolves in the car. The Pack leaders would end up fighting each other or getting into it with Julius and Alexander, and the targets would just get away. Best to try to do this quietly, with a minimum of fuss.

  “Uh, sorry to interrupt,” she said, walking calmly back into the room. “I just need to steal the Vampires and the Hunters for a few minutes.”

  The table erupted, and all the dominant males stood up.

  “Simmer down, it’s nothing serious. Continue the meeting, you don’t really need us right now,” she ordered. “Alistair, if you wouldn’t mind, I could do with your expertise for just a moment, too.” She glanced meaningfully at Byron, who immediately picked up her signal and called the room to order.

  “Those Gabi requires are excused from the meeting temporarily, the rest of us can continue with the agenda. We’ll skip the new Werewolf for now and come back to him later.”

  The air of authority rang in his voice, and though grumbling, the rest settled back into their seats,
except for Patrick, who seemed to count himself with the Vampires. Gabi didn’t protest his inclusion; he’d follow Julius’s orders. She swept quickly to Byron’s side, giving him a grateful wink and pressing her jacket containing the once again sleeping squirrel onto his lap. “Look after this for me for a moment,” she told him.

  “Be careful,” he mouthed and turned back to the meeting.

  “They’re outside,” she said without preamble as she led the group back to the dining room. “Some of the guys who tried to take Derek. They’re in a car out on the street.”

  Surprise decorated every face around her, but without hesitation, they began pulling out weapons.

  “Alistair, I don’t need you to go with us, but I wanted you to understand what was going on. You know what will happen if the Pack leaders find out and want in on the action. We don’t need that kind of disaster on our hands. I’m trusting you to keep them under control and away from the action until we’re done.”

  Technically, Alistair heavily outranked her, and she had no business giving him orders, but the man simply nodded in understanding and told them to get the bastards, before returning to the meeting. She turned to the rest of them.

  “They’re seven cars down on the right side of the road,” she told them. “I’m not sure if the second car is out there as well. I didn’t want them to know they’ve been made.”

  “If we turn out the lights in here, there’ll be less chance of them spotting us while we check,” Kyle commented. He’d barely spoken when the lights went off.

  “Gabi, check and see if you can spot the other car,” Douglas ordered, taking charge as he usually did when all the Hunters were together. “The rest of you get downstairs, split up and find the side and rear exits, we need to hem them in. Don’t move until I give the signal.”