“Patrick,” Julius said, “find us a map and set up a war room in one of the buildings. Leave messages for the Guard and Liam and Nathan to join us there as soon as they rise. Get the Blackriver Pack leader and his second in here, too.”
“Yes, Sire.” Patrick marched from the cottage.
Derek and Trish had come back inside and were standing back, watching quietly. Trish moved towards them, an extra mug in her hands. She offered Gabi one of them, and Gabi accepted with a nod of thanks.
“I might be able to narrow the search further with this new information,” Trish said, already aiming for a computer set off to one side. “Let me just network this to the computer I was working on before, and I’ll run the parameters through the information I’ve found on Jason King, something might just pop.” She dragged the typist chair over, sat down, and let her fingers fly over the keyboard.
Gabi glanced back at the three women on the central monitor; the interrogation was still ongoing, but they had moved on to the mysterious woman Jason met with, as well as his other associates. Gabi had the information she wanted. She couldn’t sit still for another moment. She was out of the chair and pacing, sipping on her coffee as her mind whirled with the information.
“Fucking Hell,” Alexander breathed out the exclamation. “Who would’ve believed that all this shit could be caused by one idiotic mortal?” He sounded personally offended by the fact.
“Don’t underestimate this mortal,” Julius cautioned. “He is cold, calculating and manipulative. Not only has he proven himself capable of murder, but he obviously considers himself above anyone’s law. He has an army, an arsenal and unlimited funds at his disposal, and considers everyone else around him dispensable.”
“He’s a narcissistic megalomaniac with a God complex,” Gabi muttered. “I wonder if he’s even fully sane?” Unconsciously her hands went up to probe the wounds on her head. She couldn’t find them, not even a tender spot remained. Her mind suddenly recalled the events immediately following the last time she’d been healed after ingesting a large amount of Julius’s blood, and she had to turn away from the men to hide a faint blush. It was probably a good thing that there was something else to focus on instead of Julius. She forced the erotic memory to the back of her mind and focussed instead on the problem of finding Kyle.
Suddenly the sound of ‘Thunderstruck’ blasted through the cottage, and she winced. She was seriously going to have to do something about that ringtone. She ignored the raise eyebrows and reached for the phone.
“Yeah, Byron?” she said, answering it. She listened to him for a moment, her lips twisting in annoyance. “We don’t have time for this, Byron. We need to go after Kyle. You heard what she said. And that man is insane; he’s capable of just about anything.” She paused as Byron continued, and her jaws locked together as she bit back a curt retort. “But Patrick and Alistair can—” Byron interrupted her. When he finished, she closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath then looked over at Julius. “Hold on. I’ll ask him,” she said into the phone, then addressed Julius, the irritation clear in her tone. “The Council have convened a meeting tonight; they would like us all to attend. They would like to know if you have somewhere safe that we can hold the meeting, as they are worried all their venues have been compromised.”
A slight tightening around his eyes was the only sign of the Master Vampire’s own irritation. He kept his voice smooth and appeared unruffled by the orders and the delay, but Gabi could feel what his controlled demeanour belied. He gave a slight nod. “There is a poolroom in one of my clubs that we can use. It is soundproof and staffed by my own people, so it will be safe.” He gave her the address.
Gabi agreed to a meeting time of 7:30 with Byron, knowing that it would be safe for the Vampires by then, and they’d still have most of the night to pull off a rescue. They had an hour to come up with something concrete on the location of Jason’s lab before they’d have to leave for the meeting. Julius was beside her as she shoved her phone into her back pocket. He didn’t touch her, but she felt his desire to.
“Are you feeling all right?” he asked her. “After the blood? No unusual side effects?”
“I’m fine,” she confirmed. “Better than fine. Ready to take on Dr Evil and all his minions.”
Julius smiled. “Good. Grab yourself some food, and meet me in the war room in twenty minutes,” he said.
“Why, where are you going?” she asked.
“I, uh, also need to feed,” he replied softly, his eyes carefully searching her face.
“Ah,” Gabi said, understanding. She put a warning frown on her face. “Be sure to pick the oldest, ugliest one,” she ordered before giving him a quick but passionate kiss on the lips and striding from the cottage.
Alexander’s chuckle followed her out.
This meeting was a little different from the last one that Gabi had been to with Julius and the SMV at the same table. This time Julius was making no attempt to downplay his own power or to hide the strength and numbers of his Clan. By the time the members and invited guests of the SMV began to arrive, Gabi, Julius, his Guard and his staff were already in place. There were over two dozen of Julius’s clan members in the main area of the pool hall. They were playing pool, chatting, and pretending to drink, while keeping an eye out for trouble of any kind. The group was rough and imposing enough to keep all but the club’s regular patrons from entering. Tabari was on patrol outside, watching the perimeter of the building.
In a side room, several long tables had been pushed together to fashion a makeshift conference table. Chairs had been placed at regular intervals around it. They were of the hard, plastic, community hall variety. Julius was obviously trying to keep this meeting short and to the point. Marcello, Fergus, Charlie and Quentin, as Julius’s personal guard, were standing against one wall, behind the seats Gabi and Julius would take, their expressions alert, their presence menacing. Liam and Nathan would be seated at the meeting table, along with Patrick and Alexander. Nathan was acting host and showing new arrivals to their seats. A map of the City lay open on the table, as well as several photos and some blueprints.
Gabi paced one side of the room, chewing distractedly on her thumbnail. The others arrived in dribs and drabs, as they’d been ordered to take taxis to the club. Though Kimberley had adamantly denied that anyone else’s vehicle was being tracked by Jason, the Council had decided not to take any chances. Further questioning had revealed that there was a lot of Jason’s life that Kimberley was not party to. It became apparent to Irene and Margaret that he didn’t trust the Doppelganger entirely, and they suspected the shadowy woman Kimberley had referred to was not human. They were working on the theory that she was Magus.
By the time all the attendees were finally seated, the tension was thick in the room. Charlie, his Stetson not on his head for once, moved to stand guard at the door. The Pack leaders were speaking amongst themselves in urgent undertones until Byron called the meeting to order. He was flanked by Athena and Irene on one side and Alistair and Margaret on the other. The remaining Hunters took one side of the table, the Pack leaders took the other, while Gabi, Julius and his retinue took up the side facing the door. A few other Werewolves and Magi that Gabi didn’t know filled the handful of other seats.
“Gentlemen, ladies,” Byron began, coming to his feet. “First, we’d like to convey our gratitude to the Master of the City for the use of his facilities tonight.”
Julius inclined his head in acknowledgement of the thanks, but his expression didn’t lighten.
“I believe you all have an idea of why we are here, but not everyone has been filled in on the most recent developments, so please bear with me.” His eyes flicked briefly to Gabi, in an apology of sorts. “I’ll be as brief as I can.”
While he certainly did summarise very efficiently, it was still over half an hour before they could continue with the meeting. Gabi was getting seriously ansty. When she’d begun tapping her fingernails impatiently on the table, Jul
ius had surreptitiously captured the offending hand and trapped it against his thigh. At least tracing his hard muscles through his dark chinos gave her something to do while the rest of them waffled on.
The Werewolf Pack leaders were disturbed by the news that some of their Pack members had been approached by Jason. They were asking endless questions, trying to get details so they could question their own. Finally, Julius took the lead.
“I believe these questions can be answered another time. We need to prioritise the situation right now.” His scowl silenced even the most animated of the Werewolves. “And I think the most important matter to be dealt with now is retrieving Kyle. First, for his own safety, but second, because I don’t think it would be a good thing for the facts of his birth to be known by someone such as Jason King and his pet bio-geneticist. We need to put an end to his plans as well as ensure that no one else gets the idea that they can go around infecting pregnant women with lycanthropy in the hopes of creating another Kyle.”
Gabi could tell by the looks on the faces around the table that no one else had even considered that possibility. She wondered if it had occurred to Julius because of her own precarious heritage and what revealing it might bring down on the human race.
“Yes, yes,” Byron agreed quickly. “That is something we must consider. Irene, we’ll need to have the use of a Mind-bender for this, a strong one. Do you know of one who would be prepared to help us?”
Irene paused thoughtfully and began to nod.
“What do we need a Mind-bender for?” Gabi demanded. “We know what we need to know. Who are we going to be interrogating?”
“It’s not for interrogation purposes, Gabrielle,” Athena corrected with feigned patience. “Once you’ve captured this man and his entourage, we’ll need to erase their memories and implant new ones. That takes a great deal of skill, but we can’t have him running around with this knowledge.” She looked to the other Council members. “If you don’t know someone, I do.”
“Wait,” Gabi said, standing and putting her hands on the table. “What do you mean when you say capture this man and his entourage?”
Chapter 20
“Exactly what I said,” Athena enunciated slowly. “You and the other Hunters will be required to carry out a capture and containment of this group. The Werewolf Pack will decide the fate of the Lycanthropes, and the humans will have their memories altered.” She spoke as though she was giving orders to a slightly slow five-year-old.
Anger seethed through Gabi, and when she next spoke, it was from between clenched teeth. “Jason King has committed the kinds of atrocities that demand nothing less than a kill order. Others have been executed for far less than what this man has done,” she ground out.
“Gabi,” Byron said, as Irene put a cautioning hand on Athena’s arm, “this man is human.”
Gabi’s eyes narrowed as they zeroed in on the man who was father and uncle to her. “You’re in agreement with them on this?” she demanded of him.
“We have no jurisdiction over humans,” Byron told her. “You know that, Gabrielle. The manifesto of the Society has always been to stay out of the affairs of humans except to protect ourselves.”
“We will be protecting ourselves, as well as protecting the humans this idiot is about to unleash lycanthropy hell on,” she almost yelled. “How could you condone allowing this man to get away with what he has done with a mind wipe and being allowed to go on with his merry life? Do you think the loss of a few memories will change this sociopath’s core character, that he won’t try something like this in the future?”
“Gabrielle,” Margaret’s calm voice tried to soothe her, “you know we won’t allow that to happen. We’ll put measures in place so that we’ll be able to keep a close eye on him.”
But as she spoke, a couple of the Pack leaders began to mutter amongst themselves.
One was louder than the others. “Ms Bradford has a good point,” he thundered, bringing his fist down on the table to punctuate his statement. The table groaned. “If one of my Pack had committed these crimes, there would be no hesitation by the Council to issue a kill order. Why should this man get leniency?”
Agreement rumbled through the rest of them, and they joined Gabi in glaring demandingly at the group of five.
“It has been clear from the initial formation of the Council,” Alistair said, speaking loudly to be heard over the melee. “We do not punish humans. If they commit crimes against us, our mandate is to erase all knowledge of other races’ existence. If they’ve committed crimes against other humans, we find a way to bring those crimes to the attention of the human authorities. We have a manifesto for a reason, and we can’t break our own rules just because a human has done something unprecedented.”
“This is ridiculous,” Gabi snarled. She kept expecting Julius to caution her, to encourage her to back down a step, but he sat unmoving, his attention fixed on the Council members. She stood up straighter, looking into the eyes of each of the Council members, stopping at Byron’s. “My father stood against evil, cruelty and brutality. I find it hard to believe he would be in agreement with you tonight.” She tried to keep the deep pain from her voice, but speaking of her father never got any easier.
The other Hunters stirred uneasily.
“Yes, he did stand against all of that, honey,” Byron acknowledged, sadness in his eyes too, “but he also vowed to protect human life at all costs. How can we pass judgement on a human when they are not even represented on the Council anymore?”
“You passed judgement against Vampires without us having representation on your Council,” Julius said without inflection, merely making an observation, but chagrin passed across the faces of all the Council members, except for Athena, Gabi noted.
“Yes, we did.” Byron nodded. “It was not the way we like to do things, but we didn’t feel that we had any choice. We didn’t understand the hierarchy of your society and didn’t have too many choices in dealing with rogues of your kind. If we’d known of the existence of a Master of the City, we would’ve approached you a long time ago.” He passed a hand across his forehead, weariness apparent. “Perhaps this is a matter we need to rethink, but it isn’t a decision we can make without careful thought and consideration. We can’t do that now with Kyle being in this man’s hands.” He looked unhappily at Gabi. “I promise you this man will not go unpunished, he will just not be punished by us.”
Gabi narrowed her eyes, but sat down again without another word. She had been in conflict with the Council several times since she’d become a Hunter, but this was the first time she felt completely and utterly at odds with them. In her heart she knew that her father would’ve stood with her on this one, but if she wanted to operate within the SMV, she had to accept what they decreed. The meeting moved on to what Trish had uncovered about Jason’s holdings and the property that was assumed to be the laboratory and barracks for Jason’s base of operations. As the meeting went on around her, Gabi considered her options. She could simply walk away from the SMV now, take the Vampires and whatever Pack leaders wanted to join them and take down Jason King without the support of the SMV.
She knew that Julius would support her; she’d felt his anger with the Council’s decision. For a few moments she allowed herself the liberty of imagining it, but then reality intruded to veto the idea. If they went vigilante, she and Julius would find themselves in opposition with the Council. If neither side backed down, there was the possibility of a war between the two sides, and that wasn’t an option for Gabi. That would dishonour her father’s memory in the worst way possible. So she would put aside her anger and do her part in the upcoming attack on the human’s compound, and she would deliver the kingpin and his accomplices into the hands of the Council. She sighed as she came to the realisation, and Julius unexpectedly put his hand over hers where it lay on her leg and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He was aware of her decision, he supported her, and he possibly even understood why. It gave her a measure of comfort, when she fe
lt in conflict with Byron, usually her closest connection to her father. She forced her attention back to the meeting.
They were discussing the location. It was an old military airfield to the south of the City. It had been abandoned several years ago when the southern slums began to spill out of their original containment zone and spread to surround the base. The military had by then outgrown the facility and moved to a newly-built airfield on the eastern side of the City. A company purchased the land and buildings for a quarter of its market value, on the agreement that it would develop the land and build low-cost housing to try to shift some of the human slum populace into habitable accommodation. Of course, the development hadn’t yet made it past the planning stage. Jason King had been careful to tie the development up in red tape through his influence on the City Council. What no one on the City Council knew was that Jason King was the controlling partner in the holding company of the subsidiary that had purchased the property.
The airbase was exactly what Kimberley had described. It had military barracks, several large hangars as well as a large, military grade, underground bunker. In another underhanded piece of trickery, Jason had ensured that the no-fly zone, which had been in place during the military’s occupation of the airfield, was still in place. This was problematic. With no recent aerial photos of the place, it was extremely difficult to plan a precision attack. It was Lance who finally spoke up with what most were already thinking.
“I know you’re not going to like this, Hellcat,” he said, glancing her way, “but we can’t mount this attack tonight. It is simply too risky. There just isn’t enough intel for us to go on. We need at least a day to recon the area, try to get some idea of what we’ll be up against.”
Gabi’s expression grew stormy. “So? What?” she demanded. “We just leave Wolf in the hands of a crazy human who might just dissect him to find out what makes him tick?”
All Hell Breaks Loose Page 26
