hellcat 05 - come hell or high water (7 page)

Once Julius was sure Benedict had left the mansion, he turned and broke into Gabi’s discussion with Alexander on who and what to take on the trip.

“You are not going, Lea,” he said, making each word clear.

Silence fell as she looked at him, dumbfounded.  He’d never spoken to her like that before, so blatant and uncompromising.

“I beg your pardon?” Her words were a low growl.  He didn’t need to repeat himself, she’d heard him well enough.  She was waiting for him to retract his statement.  It showed in every rigid line of her body and the cold, hard nothingness on her side of their mental connection.

“You heard me, Lea.  You are not coming with me this time.  I have my reasons; there are things going on that I’ve kept from you.”  He braced himself, waiting for the explosion, knowing he deserved it.  “Until a couple of days ago it was all assumption on my part, but I’ve been able to confirm my suspicions.  Forces exist in the Vampire world that could be trying to destroy me or harm the Clan.” The cold, deadly calm Gabi was far worse than the passionately furious Gabi Julius had been expecting.

“You’ve been lying to me?” Gabi asked, her voice the warning hiss of a coiled viper.

Before he could form words, attempt to explain and defuse her anger, there were yet more footsteps outside the door.  A short, polite knock and Kyle opened the door, closely followed by Fergus.  Julius was surprised by their arrival until he saw the surreptitious look pass between Kyle and Alexander; his second in command had had something to do with the timely interruption. 

Kyle strode in as though he’d been driving past and popped in for a catch up.  He tweaked Gabi’s hair as she silently retook her seat on the armless chair, anger tensing every line of her body.  “So what’s up?” Kyle asked, smoothly putting himself in a chair midway between Gabi and Julius. 

Fergus shunned his habitual position against the door in favour of one against the glass display stand, which housed Julius’s antique knife and sword collection, just a few feet to Gabi’s left.  They were ready to step in if things got physical. 

Julius forced the flare of annoyance away, common sense said that they were only trying to help in a situation that Julius himself had created.  He should be appreciative; their arrival had certainly defused the explosive atmosphere in the room. 

Gabi figured that Kyle and Fergus were here to ease the tension and to keep her from physical violence.  Someone had called or texted them; her main suspects were Alexander and Benedict. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to hug or hang the culprit.

She knew Julius had been hiding something from her for weeks, if not months.  Trish had been working on stuff she wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone about since she started working for Julius, and Gabi doubted that was the start of it all.  She forced herself to listen as he described what Trish had discovered, read the decoded messages for herself, but she was certain he still knew more than he was letting on, just as she was convinced that it had more to do with her than he was saying.  The anger bubbled like acid in her chest, and her teeth ached with the clenching of her jaw muscles. 

She tried to concentrate on what he was saying to Kyle. 

“I think their game plan is to separate Gabrielle and myself from the Clan,” he explained.  “That would make it easier for them to strike at my people.  They will still be under the assumption that the Clan is my power base.  They will do anything to undermine my power and make me vulnerable.  Once they think I’m at my weakest, they will try to take Gabrielle from me, and incapacitate or destroy me.” 

“It’s highly unlikely they’ll attempt anything in the Court of Princeps,” Gabi pointed out.  “There’s nothing in those messages Trish uncovered to confirm any of this.  It’s all just conjecture at this point.”

“We still have to travel between the airport and the castle; they don’t have to attack us at Court,” Julius disagreed.  “And there also isn’t anything to say I’m wrong.  The simple truth is that the Clan will be stronger if you are here to support Alexander.” 

“If what you assume about them being behind this invitation is true,” Kyle put in, his expression thoughtful, “then it certainly appears they want to split the two of you away from the City.”  He looked at Gabi.  “It would make sense to do the opposite of what they are trying to force you to do, Gabs, you know that.  And if Julius is wrong, then no harm, no foul.  Everyone walks away in one piece.” 

“You’re forgetting that the missive arrived from the Princeps themselves, asking for both of us to attend,” Gabi bit out.  “As everyone was pointing out earlier,” she glanced with narrowed eyes at Julius and Alexander, “we can’t just ignore their demands.” She could see Kyle nodding from the corner of her eye.

“I’ll find a way around it,” Julius declared.  “You don’t officially fall under their governance, so anything you do for them is, in theory, of your own free will and at your own convenience.”  He looked away from her to address Kyle.  “If she has other pressing matters to attend to here in the City, they cannot insist that she attends.” 

Kyle chewed on his bottom lip, a finger tapping rhythmically on the arm of his chair.  Gabi knew that look, he had something in mind.  “Won’t that just delay the inevitable?” he asked finally. 

“What do you mean?” queried Alexander.

“Well, if Julius is right, then you have them at a disadvantage. Right now you have a reasonable idea of what they’re planning to do.  They think they have you exactly where they want you, they have all their pieces in play, and no reason to think you have a clue.  If you change the game now, you’ll probably have them backtracking, only to come at you sometime in the future from a completely different and unexpected angle.  Openly leaving Gabi here will force them to rethink and replan.  Any advantage you may have had will be gone.” 

Julius’s eyes narrowed, his jaw muscles ticking in annoyance.  “So, you think Gabi should go with me and leave the Clan exposed?” he growled.

“No.” Kyle sighed. “That’s not what I’m recommending.  I’m just saying let’s look at this as an opportunity to take the fight to them.  If you can get them to play their hand, maybe you can expose them and deal with them once and for all.” 

“Fucking Hell,” Alexander breathed, “this is the first time ever that I’ve actually wished Gabi was twins.”  He sounded so despondent that Gabi almost cracked a smile. 

Fergus harrumphed. “Ye wouldn’t wish that fer lang, mae auld friend.”  Then he looked to Julius.  “It wid solve th’ problem, though, Sire.  Think aboot it.  If it looked as though she wis at Court wi’ ye, but secretly she’s ’ere, that wid put th’ Shadow group at a real disadvantage if they tried to attack. Ye can be back ’ere in hours, we widn’t haf to hold them off fer lang.”

Kyle shot out of his chair so fast that Gabi flinched.  “Kimberley,” he shouted.  “She’s the answer to this.”

“Holy shit, the Doppelganger,” she whispered, her eyes wide.  But then she made a disgusted noise deep in her throat.  “That’ll never work.”

“Why not?” Kyle demanded.

“Duh…” Gabi drawled.  “Shifters can only hold a shifted shape for a few hours at a time and she barely knows me. She would have to be able to act like me, sound like me and smell enough like me to fool centuries-old Vampires.  And besides, she’s a complete wuss; this would be a highly stressful and volatile situation.  If the Shadow group kidnaps her and finds out she’s not me, she’d be dead faster than you can blink.  If the Princeps uncovered the masquerade, Julius’s life might be forfeit, and she’d be at their mercy.  What on earth would make her agree to it?”  But as she glanced Julius’s way, expecting his acknowledgement that the whole idea was crazy and dangerous, she knew the girl’s fate had already been sealed.  Julius had just found the alternative he’d been desperately hoping for.

Because, no matter what he’d said, how much he’d told Gabi that he needed her at the Estate to protect his Clan, she knew there was more to this than he was letting on.  He knew with utter certainty that she was safer and more protected in the City, and he would do anything, including lie to her and manipulate both her and everyone around him, to keep her safe.  A fine red fog began to mist her vision and Gabi knew she needed air, and space.  Without another word she left the office. 

Kyle watched her leave, and he had a pretty good idea of where she’d go.  Luckily she wasn’t inclined to get in her car when she was this upset.  She preferred to find somewhere no one would dare to bother her.  He glanced back at Julius, wondering if the Master Vampire would follow her now or give her the room she needed.  The tension was apparent in every muscle of the man’s body and the rigid set of his jaw.  Kyle’s wolf was standing at attention, his teeth bared warningly.  Julius always made his wolf uncomfortable, but usually Julius kept his emotions tightly under control.  Tonight was very different. 

“Do you have a way to contact this Doppelganger?” Julius asked him, not looking at Kyle but watching the door that Gabi had just left through, as though he could still see her. 

“I think Trish got her contact details,” Kyle told him. Trish had developed an immediate soft spot for the woman.

“Fer this to wirk, Sire, ye’ll hae tae plan verry carefully. Who else urr ye planning to tae wi’ ye?” Fergus rumbled.  The Scotsman too understood that Gabi needed space and Julius needed a distraction. 

Julius sighed, squeezing his eyes shut for just a moment.  He looked tired, which was rare in a Vampire.

“I want you and Alexander both here, along with Nathan. That should be enough senior Vampires to keep the rest feeling safe.  I’ll take Charlie, Quentin and Rat,” he told Fergus.  Kyle had met Rat a couple of times in recent weeks. He was the newest member of Julius’s elite personal guard, an unassuming-looking man with greying hair and a wiry frame. He was a veteran of the Second World War, a US sniper.  His name was Reginald Arthur Turner, according to Alexander, but he’d introduced himself as Rat to Kyle and that seemed to be the moniker he preferred.  “Perhaps I should take Liam as well, as a show of strength,” Julius continued.  “This time I go as an honoured guest, not a potential criminal.” 

“It’ll look strange if you don’t take someone close to Gabi,” Alexander put in.  “It may raise suspicions.”  He looked meaningfully in Kyle’s direction. 

Kyle realised a half second later what he was implying and his wolf stood up, growling.  “Uh, no,” Kyle said, calm but emphatic.  “I won’t leave Trish or my Pack when there is such a high threat to the City.”  His Pack might be small, but it was growing, and each of them was as precious as blood family, perhaps more so, because each of them had chosen to be part of his and Trish’s Pack.  He also wouldn’t leave Gabi exposed.  The Vampires might be fast and strong, but he and Gabi had faced countless dangers together, they knew how to fight side by side, and he had a doctorate in tempering her rage and calming her tendency to run full tilt into danger without considering the alternatives.  Julius knew this as well as Kyle did. 

“No, not Kyle,” he told his second in command.  “He has too much to take care of here.”  His gaze speared Kyle. 

Kyle gave a tiny nod of understanding, he’d watch Gabi’s back regardless of Julius’s silent command, but he wasn’t one to take offense easily. He understood what caring about Gabi entailed, let alone loving her the way Julius did.  And of that he had absolutely no doubt.  The Master Vampire was as desperately in love as he’d ever seen a man.  Losing Gabi would destroy something inside Julius, quite possibly the very thing that kept him acting human. 

Kyle had been on the Estate when Julius interrogated the Vampires belonging to his brother, Dantè, the Vampire who’d tortured and then tried to Turn Gabi so he could lay claim to her.  None of the captured Vampires had lived, and what Julius had done to them, using his power over Vampire minds, had been horrific.  Kyle would never forget the screams of the dying Vampires.  He was both relieved and disappointed that Gabi hadn’t been conscious enough to see what Julius was capable of.  A healthy dose of reality might have finally tempered her total lack of caution where the Master Vampire was concerned, but she might never have looked at him the same way again.  And despite everything, Julius was probably the only man Kyle would trust to keep Gabi safe and make her happy at the same time.  Life would never be easy being the Consort to such a controversial Master Vampire, but then that Master needed to protect the only known Dhampir in existence.  Not something many would be powerful or resourceful enough to pull off. 

“He’s not going to be much help if it comes down to physical combat,” Kyle mused out loud, “but Derek seemed to take an unusually keen interest in the Shifter.”  His wolf had been the one to point it out, shoving the mental image at him.  After Gabi’s departure from the apology session, Derek’s attraction had become even more apparent.  Kyle hadn’t had time to tell Gabi about it.  She would be relieved to have Derek’s ongoing interest in her sidetracked by another woman. 

Unsurprisingly, Julius looked pleased by the development.  Not that Derek stood any chance with Gabi, but it had to be annoying having a man hanging around the woman you loved with his tongue practically lolling out of his mouth.  Kyle guessed Julius would happily put up with the man’s presence as long as he was on the other side of the world from Gabi, and attracted to another woman to boot.  Intriguingly, attracted to another woman who could make herself look exactly like Gabi if she wanted to. 

********************

Julius had been standing quietly at the base of the tree for quite some time.  Gabi wasn’t leaving him there to punish him, or to be churlish.  She simply wasn’t ready to speak to him yet. 

A year ago she would’ve leapt down and confronted him the moment he appeared, taking her frustration and anger out on him.  Venting, saying things that she would later regret. 

Who knew better than her that old dogs could indeed learn new tricks?  It had taken nearly three decades, but it seemed she was finally achieving some kind of maturity.  And she was surprisingly proud of that.  She would never have considered that something to be proud of twelve months ago.  She would’ve sworn to the Lord and Lady that speaking her mind was the only way to be honest with herself and those around her, but somewhere in the last few months it had dawned on her that throwing a hissy fit was just a way of draining some of the rage. It wasn’t truthful or honest, it was just a childish release of pain and anger.