Raising Hell_A Hellcat World Novel

by Sharon Hannaford

  “And he really wasn’t scared of Werewolves?” Derek was understandably sceptical, everyone knew dogs and Werewolves didn’t mix well.

  “Nope, not one bit, as far as I could tell,” she said. “It could be that Gabi had a tight hold on him, or maybe it’s because he’s a true wolf, not a dog.” She shook her head, not knowing the answer. “Anyway, I’ll see how she is when she wakes up. If she still wants him around so desperately, we may have to give him a chance.”

  Footsteps made her turn. Kyle strode into the kitchen, and Trish knew immediately that he had more bad news. He wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her neck as she turned to pour him a mug of coffee.

  “Have you tried to get her to go back to bed?” he asked Derek.

  “Had about as much luck as you,” Derek answered.

  Kyle grunted. “We have another thing to add to the ‘what the fuck’ list this morning,” he said, dropping a stack of printed pages on the counter as he gratefully took the cup of coffee from Trish.

  “What now?” Derek echoed Trish’s sentiments.

  “More missing bodies,” he told them. “All recently dead, all vanished without a trace. In fact, the more we look, the more we find.”

  “From the morgue or hospital?” Trish asked.

  “Actually, the newest are from private funeral homes, two that we know of for certain, and another one that could just be a paperwork mix-up.”

  “Aren’t the human police looking into this?” Derek asked. “It doesn’t really sound like our thing.”

  “What if the bodies are related to the Ghouls?” Gabi startled all of them as she strode into the kitchen. The swelling on her face was almost gone; just rosettes of mottled green and yellow marred her skin. She looked remarkably more chipper than Trish felt. “Oh, Lord and Lady, Trish, you look exhausted.”

  “Try telling her to go back to bed like the rest of us,” Kyle said with a tiny trace of humour.

  “She’s a big girl,” Gabi told him. “She knows she needs to look after herself, and she will.”

  Trish heard both the vote of confidence and the very subtle reminder that others depended on her. She gave Gabi a tired smile and promised herself she’d take an afternoon nap.

  “I left demon pup in the car. I couldn’t leave him at the Estate in case he ate our cleaning staff,” she said dryly, “but I have a harness and a soft muzzle for him. He seems a little calmer today.”

  “Do you really think it’s a good idea to let him near Breanna?” Derek asked. He was the only one who hadn’t actually seen her meltdown when the puppy had been taken away.

  “I’m not sure the choice is going to be ours to make,” Gabi replied. “I spoke to Athena this morning. I wanted to ask if she had any clue what was up with the weird Ghoul behaviour and mentioned the pup and Breanna’s reaction to it.”

  Trish liked Athena but found it difficult to relate to her. She had a haughty, superior way about her, though it was more of a mask than most people realised. Trish’s real problem with the powerful Magus was that one day she’d become Breanna’s Magister; she would be the one to teach Breanna how to control her Magic and how to use it. They would become close as teacher and Adept, and it could well be the end of Trish’s time with the child she considered her own.

  “She has a theory about the pup, actually the same theory she has about me and Razor.”

  “She thinks that Raz is your equivalent of a familiar, right?” Kyle asked.

  Gabi nodded. “There are still a few Magi who have familiars, mostly birds, but a few cats and dogs, even a ferret or two. They’re seen as an ‘old school’ vein of Magic though, it’s very rare with the younger set. Familiars are thought to be born near leylines or some kind of magical source.”

  “And she thinks this pup wants to be Breanna’s familiar?”

  “Not wants to be, but is,” Gabi explained. “She thinks the two are likely already connected on some level.”

  “Oh dear, I was afraid of that,” Trish said, as it just somehow made sense. “Well, I guess another layer of protection can’t hurt. As long as you’re sure he won’t harm Breanna, we’ll just have to manage the potential risk to others.”

  Kyle and Derek nodded pragmatically. Potential risk to others was part of their day job; if anyone could handle it, they could.

  “What did she say about the Ghouls?” Kyle asked as Trish went to fill yet another mug from the coffee pot.

  “She seemed as confused as the rest of us,” Gabi said. “She’ll make some enquiries, and she promised to send me as much of the research on the Ghouls from the Dantè army as she’s permitted to share.”

  Trish was fairly sure that Athena herself would just let them have everything on record, but the other elder members of the Magi High Council didn’t share her trust of the Vampires and Werewolves. Athena often had to go to bat for them.

  “And what did you mean about the missing bodies being linked to the Ghouls?” Derek asked, reminding Trish of her friend’s opening statement.

  “I don’t know exactly,” Gabi admitted, with a vague shake of her head. “Maybe they’re feeding the Ghouls; maybe the demon can bring corpses back to life; maybe they’re feeding the demon? Too many possibilities, not enough hard facts.”

  “We need more info,” Kyle muttered. “Did Athena say when she’d get us those files?”

  “She knows it’s urgent; she’ll come through,” Gabi assured him. “Oh, and by the way, I also stopped by to tell you that you’re stuck with me for a couple of weeks. Or at least until this Ghoul thing is sorted and hellpup is settled.”

  “What do you mean?” Derek asked.

  “SID has a new case, but we figured Julius can handle this one without me,” she said. “Mac and I are staying in case you need us here. I know we’ll be losing our best flame-thrower, but I spoke to Athena about that as well, and it turns out they have a new young Fire-bender who is driving them nuts and needs to get out and earn her stripes. She’ll be sent to join us as soon as we need her.”

  “Oh, Gabi,” Trish said, “are you sure? We’d hate to interfere with the work you and Julius do.”

  Gabi snorted. “It’s not like he really needs me, to be honest. It’s mostly investigative work and interviewing witnesses, sometimes interrogating them. When we go in to apprehend someone, they either run or they just surrender without a fight. I’m only useful if they run.”

  “Oh, well, in that case, we’ll have you,” Kyle said, “as long as you behave.”

  Gabi just raised a challenging eyebrow and shot him a smirk.

  Trish yawned. She needed to get dressed and ready for the day, but finding the motivation was hard.

  “Oh, and I was thinking on the way over,” Gabi said, “that maybe you should ask Riley to hang out with us and see what we do here, how the Pack operates. Tell her that you can’t give proper consideration to her proposal until we’ve dealt with this Ghoul nonsense. If we get to spend time with her, get her to drop her guard, we’ll get a much better read on her, find out what she’s really made of. It’ll give us a chance to figure out if she’s hiding anything.”

  “You think we should have her stay with us at Haven?” Scepticism coloured Kyle’s words.

  “No, numbskull,” she retorted without rancour. “We can’t have an unknown quantity that close to Breanna and Flora, but we’ve got room at the Estate. Let her try something under the noses of a dozen Vampires.”

  Before they could decide one way or the other, they were interrupted by a sleepy-eyed little girl in unicorn pyjamas, clutching a stuffed toy pony. She tottered over and buried her face in Trish’s leg. As Trish picked her up for a cuddle, a mournful howl broke the airwaves.

  “Can I has Bear now?” she asked, pleading with sad, tear-filled eyes.

  “Bear?” Trish repeated, confused.

  “Tha’s puppy’s name,” she said. “His name is Bear.”

  A shower, three ham and cheese croissants, and four cups of coffee later, Trish felt almost ready f
or whatever the day would throw at them as she took the stairs down to CenOps. Derek and Kyle had gone to speak to Riley and offer her temporary inclusion with the Pack and accommodation with the Vampires, while Gabi had stayed at Haven to oversee the pup with Breanna and Casey.

  The reunion between Breanna and Bear had had them all shaking their heads, and Derek finally understood what they were all talking about. When Gabi had set the pup on its feet in the kitchen, it was clear that in his mind no one else in the house existed except for Breanna. The little girl had dropped to her knees and opened her arms as the pup raced over and spent five minutes alternating between growling at everyone else and liberally slathering Breanna’s face in wet puppy kisses. Trish had made a mental note to pick up both child and puppy dewormers on her way home today.

  CenOps was devoid of staff for once, though the daytime team would be in soon, and she could already hear the sound of Murphy’s bike a couple of blocks away. She turned on the lights, started up a fresh pot of coffee and flicked on the bank of computers in the small central office. The secondary office space, crammed wall to wall with workstations and affectionately known as the grunt room, was dark and silent. Once the workday began, a handful of staff would be in the comfy gamer-style seats, perusing social media for supernatural phenomena, chatting on forums, trolling the dark web for signs of trouble, checking security feeds and running security analysis. Desks would be decorated with energy drink cans, fandom bobbleheads, and one-of-a-kind gadgets and music would be blaring from funky headsets.

  As soon as her personal computer purred to life, Trish sat down and began to add jobs to the centralised diary. Some projects were assigned to specific staff, and others went into the pool where the rest could pick and choose what they helped with. It was great motivation to get to work on time, so that you weren’t left with the most boring jobs of the day. Trish added the full search history on Deshane to Steve’s list along with the final beta testing of the new software project and some specific notes. Then she pulled the file on the missing corpses out of her bag and set it on the table between her workstation and Murphy’s just as the man himself jogged into the bunker.

  The sun was high and the day was getting uncomfortably warm as Trish drove back to Haven for lunch. The morning had flown by as she and Murphy dug deeper into the number of missing corpses and had found even more evidence of bodies being taken, with a disturbing number of reports of grave robbery over the last several weeks. The whole thing had left an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  Athena’s Tesla was already in the driveway when Trish drove in, adding to her anxiety levels. She pasted a smile on her face, however, and dragged herself and the burgeoning missing corpses file into the house.

  She shouldn’t have been pleased to see Breanna playing in the lounge with Casey and the pup while Gabi stood guard at the door and Athena was relegated to the kitchen with another young woman, both of them flicking apprehensive looks in the pup’s direction.

  “Don’t worry, he’ll settle down in a bit,” Gabi was saying, in an apologetic tone. “There are just too many new people around…oh, hey, Trish.” Gabi looked very relieved to see her. “Athena brought around that file on the Ghouls and Lucy the Fire-bender so that we could meet her. Bear wasn’t too impressed with visitors, and I’ve just managed to settle everyone down.” It was rare to see Gabi flustered, and Trish instantly felt guilty about her previous satisfaction at Athena not being able to go near Breanna.

  “Oh dear.” She hastily dropped the hefty file on the nearest table and rushed to greet Athena and introduce herself to the young woman, who looked even younger than Flora. She seemed shy and only raised her eyes to Trish’s when Trish held out a hand to shake hers. Her hair was as short as a boy’s, and she wore grungy pants and a tank top and Converse sneakers. Her face was devoid of make-up, not that she needed any, and she wore no jewellery. She chewed nervously on her bottom lip, hunched her shoulders and twisted her arms protectively in front of herself. She instantly called to Trish’s maternal side, her waifish slimness making Trish want to sit her down and give her a hearty meal. There was no doubt this child had a traumatic backstory, and unfortunately now was not the time to explore it.

  Lunch was a slightly uncomfortable event, as Gabi and Athena swapped notes on the Ghouls and studied the files the Magus had brought, while digging into a platter of spring rolls and vegetarian savouries that Trish mercifully just had to heat up in the oven. Breanna, Casey and Bear had been relegated to the day room with their food in order to keep the peace, and Lucy ate without adding to the conversation. Once lunch was over, Gabi gave Trish a pointed look and made a motion with her eyes towards the bedroom. She hadn’t even argued, leaving Gabi and the Magi to pore over the files while she gratefully took a much-needed nap.

  It came as no surprise to her that the sound of a code one alert was what woke her.

  CHAPTER 11

  On her way back to CenOps, Murphy relayed over the phone what had been happening while Trish slept. She was caught between being thankful for the two hours of dreamless, restorative sleep and being annoyed that no one had woken her when the first reports of ‘zombie’ sightings began hitting the social media sites.

  When she arrived at the bunker, the grunt room was filled to bursting. One team of staff were concocting media releases alluding to advertising for a new zombie movie to explain the photos and reports of encounters with mindless, pale-skinned humans shambling around the City, while another team scanned hundreds of pieces of surveillance footage, combing the City for any genuine sightings of the Ghouls.

  “The initial sightings were reported as being small groups, two or three.” Murphy didn’t bother with a greeting as Trish grabbed her seat and began to check the videos that had already been flagged for follow-up. “At least three separate groups as far as we can ascertain. They gave us the runaround for a while, but we think we have them all pinned down now.”

  “Where is the hunting team?” she asked, feeling unsettled that she hadn’t been able to touch base with Kyle since this morning. Protocol dictated that she didn’t try to contact the team while on a hunt unless it was an emergency or she had info relevant to their hunt, but she desperately wanted to hear his voice. Her wolf was not helping her mood.

  “Kyle, Gabi and a Vampire crew along with the Fire-bender are going after the largest group, while Derek and Butch are each leading separate teams going after loners and pairs that have split off from the main group.”

  Trish drew in a breath, centred herself and plugged into the commhub, ready for when Kyle activated the link on his side.

  “This is starting to just piss me off,” Gabi growled quietly next to Kyle’s elbow. “I feel like we’re being led around by the nose.” They were stalking the larger group through the heavy industrial area to the north of the City. The place reeked of diesel fumes, rusted metal and industrial-strength chemicals, throwing off Kyle’s sense of smell.

  “It’s not something I say very often, but I agree with you,” Alexander said. “This feels like a game of cat and mouse, where the cat is chasing a damn robotic mouse controlled by an evil madman.”

  “Whoever is creating these…things…” Kyle realised he could no longer think of them as Ghouls, “why? For what purpose?” They were on one of the main thoroughfares through the area, and while there were few humans around, even the most neglected scrapyard had surveillance cameras, and many places had an actual security guard patrolling their perimeter, forcing them to keep to the shadows.

  “Perhaps,” Tabari chimed in, his deep voice grim, “they are simply trying to distract us.” A cold chill ran down Kyle’s spine.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.” Gabi was speaking through clenched teeth. “If these things were mindless, they would’ve ended up in a heavily populated area at some point, but they haven’t. Not once.” Razor trotted slightly ahead of the group, his specialized leather body armour gleaming dully in the yellow street lights.

  “A
nd they’ve been vanishing off the Magi radar every time we close in,” Mac sounded more thoughtful than annoyed, “just to reappear miles away so we have to hunt them down again.”

  “I really, really don’t like this,” Gabi said. “I think Tabari is right. Someone’s trying to keep us busy.”

  “Then let’s go and finish these off so we can figure out what other mischief is going on,” Alexander said. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he was clearly enjoying the rare opportunity to get out on a hunt. They had reached a convergence of secondary streets, high solid brick walls surrounded them, and there were no cameras to be seen, it was as good as they were going to find to make a stand against the creatures. “Tabari, Mac and I will circle around and spread out behind them, flush them towards you.”

  “Don’t be greedy,” Gabi warned him as the three Vampires disappeared into the night, only the echo of Alexander’s ghostly chuckle remaining when Gabi turned to check on Lucy.

  “Stay behind us,” Kyle reminded the Fire-bender as he turned on his commlink, keeping it on a team-only setting, not wanting to disturb Trish, who would be tracking all the other groups across the City. “And remember, just because they’re down doesn’t mean they stop coming at you.”

  “Yeah,” Gabi said, “and try not to set fire to anything until we’re well out of the way. I don’t fancy being barbecued.”

  The girl swallowed nervously, her eyes darting around, scanning the dark roads leading off in several directions. She nodded and took a few steps back, folding her arms in front of her chest. With her hoody pulled up and chewing on her bottom lip, she looked far younger than her age. Kyle bit back a growl. He’d known bringing her was a mistake; she was too young for this.