All Hell Breaks Loose (2 page)

Since Kyle, Gabi’s best friend, had brought him to her, the cat had only left her hospital bed to eat and to use the litter box.  Julius lifted one of her hands and placed it on the cat’s purring body.  Her fingers immediately threaded into the long, thick fur, and she sighed.  Stress and pain left her features, and a small smile curled her lips.  The cat settled down close to her and observed Julius through calm, intelligent, citrine eyes.

Seeing her hand
reminded him once more
of his own hands and the blood on them.  Not just his brother’s, but that of his brother’s Clan.  There’d been more than two dozen who’d surrendered during or after the raid on Dantè’s compound.  He’d slowly and systematically killed every last one of them, with his own hands.  His rage had been that deep, that uncontrollable.  He’d been within his rights, but that didn’t make his acts right.  Though he had to play many of the political games that festered within the greater Vampire community, he tried to hold himself above unnecessary violence and cruelty.  He’d tried to prove he was better than the rest of them, but he’d slipped. 
Badly.

With resignation, he once again made up his mind to distance himself from her.  It would be for the best.  She’d heal, and she’d go back to doing what she did best.  Eventually she’d find a man who was strong enough to be her other half, give her a full, joyful life and maybe
even
children; if being a Dhampir allowed that.  It was time for him to bow out of her life.

There was one place he would still be involved, but she would never know about that.  He would protect her true heritage.  To be sure of that, he needed to find the Dark Magus who’d been working with
Dantè. 
Mariska.
  The thought of her brought a growl from deep in his chest.  She was as much responsible for Gabi’s torture as Dantè was.  She was on the run, somehow clever enough to have evaded capture when Julius’s Clan and the SMV descended on Dantè’s hideout.  He would find her, and he would find anyone else who knew Gabi’s secret.  And then he would systematically annihilate every one of them.  He gave Gabi one last look, drinking in her still form before turning and leaving the room.

Chapter 1

The sun hadn’t quite set as Gabi prowled do
wn a narrow lane between two unsightl
y factory buildings.  It was that uncomfortable time of day when her eyes couldn’t quite adjust
, wavering between day
and night vision.  She blinked and then squinted to keep her night vision steady.

Kyle’s footsteps sounded down an adjoining alleyway; he wasn’t trying to be quiet.  They
wanted
to flush their quarry out into the open.  She checked behind a dumpster, frightening a rat straight into the path of a rangy tabby cat, who didn’t hesitate to pounce on the rodent, fastening its fangs into the rat’s vulnerable neck.  The cat eyed Gabi warily
until
she sent it a gentle surge of reassurance that she wouldn’t try to steal its kill. 
I
t settled down to
enjoy its
evening meal a
s
she moved on.

She held a dart gun in one hand and a ta
s
er in the other, but her right hand itched for the familiar comfort of her short sword,
Nex
.  Tonight was a search and recover mission
, not a search and eliminate
mission.  Not her favourite, but
she was grateful to be out in the field at all
.  She’d only been back on duty for three days after her encounter (and near
-
death experience) nearly six weeks ago with an ext
remely nasty,
Demon
-controlling
Vampire named
Dant
é
.  Her recovery had felt frustratingly slow to her, though her doctors
—one
human
, one
Vampire
—
had assured her it was nothing short of miraculous
,
given the extent of her injuries.  She’d started her daytime work two weeks ago already.  The doctors had allowed her that on
the
condition that she gave the Hunter work a break for a couple more weeks.  She’d agreed reluctantly, but getting back to her work with animals
had been
surprising
ly therapeutic.  She’d almost enjoyed living and working like a normal human. 
Almost.

She hadn’t been able to shake
the ominous self-doubt
lurking in the back of her mind
;
it left her feeling impotent
and flawed
.  Everyone around her assumed that her abduction and torture would affect her ability to handle herself in the field.  Their belief
was
so strong that she’d started to
believe it
herself.  She desperately needed to get back into the
action
to prove that she could do it. 
To prove it to herself as much as to everyone else.
  She’d been careful to not show any outward sign of her inner turmoil. That would only have given them more ammunition to keep her in a protective cocoon.  That kind of fuss was the last thing she needed.  She wouldn’t be her father’s daughter if she turned tail and went running the first time she was taken down by an enemy she couldn’t defeat. 
Dant
é
had tried to break her
,
body and mind.  He’d succeeded p
artially on both counts.  She knew she’d
taken care of fixing herself physically
, and she thought she’d done a good job patching up the emotional side.  Now she just needed to test the strength of the mental patches
.

The previous three nights she’d been on normal patrol
duty
for the Societas Malus Venatori, prowling the streets of the City
and
looking for supernatural troublemakers.  The
S
MV was always pro-active
,
keeping a visible presence amongst the
s
upernatural Community.  The aim was to be both reassuring to those who abided by the unwritten laws and a warning to those who didn’t.  Tonight was different.
  T
hey had a
Werewolf
to bring in.

A newly turned
Werewolf
was running loose in the warehouse district.  The story of a wolf wandering the streets and terrorising late-shift factory workers
had already made the newspapers.  I
t was only a matter of time before there would be photographic proof.  Gabi doubted if a single person walking the streets these days did so without some kind of image
-
recording device with them.  It was becoming an increasing problem for the supernatural
Community
.  Clean-up teams had to remember to erase all photographic evidence of supernatural presence as well as human memories.  Keeping those types of images from being seen on the City’s surveillance systems was already a full
-
time job for five gifted Magi, who
’
d been covertly placed in convenient jobs on the City Council and City Police Department.

Tonight
,
Kyle and Gabi’s job was to either capture the
Werewolf
or talk the lycanthropy
-
affected human into coming with them.  Kyle had picked up the new
Werewolf
’s scent in the area,
but it was hard to pinpoint his exact location
.  The reek of chemical by-products in the area was strong enough to obliterate any scent trail.  Gabi could picture the grimace on Kyle’s face as he tried to deal with the intensity of the stench.

Gabi reached the end of the lane and sighed in relief as full darkness finally settled comfortably over the City. 
One of the gifts that went with
her being
a Dhampir (she still wasn’t used to the strange word) was near-perfect night vision
.  She shook herself mentally; she needed to keep her mind on the mission.  It wouldn’t do for her to get in
jured on her first real job out. S
he rolle
d her eyes at the thought of how
Byron, Ian and Jonathon would
react
if she did.

The only warning she had was a low growl
before a
huge, dark form launched itself at her from the roof of a squat
warehouse
.  She instinctively dropped to a crouch and threw herself sideways,
avoiding the razor-sharp fangs that had been aimed at the back of her neck, but taking a heavy paw to the shoulder.  It knocked her to the ground and sent the dart
gun spinning from her hand.
She cursed
,
allowing the momentum to roll her away from the beast
before coming to her feet in a quick, fluid movement.  She stayed crouched low, ignoring the numbness in her shoulder,
the ta
s
er aimed and ready.  The enormous wolf spun as it landed, its speed belying its sheer size,
and rushed her again with jaws open and single-minded rage in its ice
-
blue eyes.  She evaded the brutal charge, leaping over the wolf to land lightly behind it, but the damn thing was fast and was facing her as soon as she had the ta
s
er ready.  They eyed each other warily for a split second, reassessing.  She didn’t think it was going to be possible to get close enough to ta
s
er this one.

Running footsteps told her Kyle had heard the commotion.  She could hear him calling in the support crews, who were waiting a few blocks away in specially equipped
, reinforced
vans.  They all knew the key to this mission was to get the wolf subdued and in
to a
van as quickly as possible
.  O
ne of the drivers was also a
Werewolf
, s
o they could call on him if they needed to
.  The rest would be under orders to remain in the vans until the wolf was under control.  Lycanthropy infection was often fatal to the Magi and Shape-shifters, who
mad
e up the rest of the support crew. 
Gabi figured
the wolf would now realis
e
he was outnumbered and submit quietly.  As Kyle rounded the corner in a dead run
,
the wolf’s attention flicked to the new threat
,
and Gabi cast a quick look around for her missing dart
gun.

The one second loss of concentration cost her
,
as the wolf struck again without warning.  She only barely had enough time to get her arm in between the
saliva-slick
fangs and her throat as four hundred pounds of muscle, fur and sinew ploughed into her, thumping her into the cold tarmac and knocking the breath from her
lungs
.  Not even her Kevlar-reinforced jacket sleeve could keep all the knife-edged fangs from her flesh.  She felt the crushing burn as the
massive
jaws clamped down on her arm and a fang pierced deep into her elbow.
A vicious snarl tore from its chest as it fought to get to her vulnerable throat.
 
If she’d had the breath
,
she’d have screamed in fury at the creature but instead used her free arm to bury the ta
s
er into its neck. 
She needed to
get free of the wolf or risk being
ta
s
ered
herself.  As she prepared to heave the wolf away
,
a second wolf, larger than the first and
eerily
quiet
, crashed the party
.

It rushed in
, clamped
its enormous jaws into the neck of the first wolf
,
and ripp
ed
it bodily from Gabi
,
throwing it against a nearby wall.  Kyle’s wolf was astonishing to see
, e
ven for Gabi
,
who’d seen it hundreds of times
. T
he sheer size and grace of the creature was breathtaking.  As the two wolves faced each other in a stand-off
,
Gabi finally managed to drag a painful breath
of air into her lungs and roll
to her knees.  As she quickly scanned the alley
,
a third, almost black,
Werewolf
charged onto the scene.  Gabi sighed in relief when it came to a stop at Kyle’s shoulder, also facing down the new wolf
.  I
t was the Driver, Rory.  Gabi
’s eyes finally fell on what she was seeking
.  She grabbed the small dart
gun and spun back to the fight just as the
rogue
wolf launched itself at Kyle.