To Hell and Back (Hellcat Series Book 4) (25 page)

She cut Savannah off. “I’m a techno dunce, Savannah,” she
explained with a snort. “I’ll get my friend Trish to call you one
evening, and you can explain it to her, okay?”

“
Yes, of course.” Savannah smiled. “I’m so glad you are brave
enough to say when something is beyond your understanding. So many
will try to bluff their way through.” She turned away from the car
and started towards her own lab. “Come, I have some more things for
you, and for gorgeous Razor.” There was a twinkle in her eye as she
looked back, gesturing for them to follow. “And then we can get on
with the exciting part of the evening.”

At the doorway to the lab lay a pile of black leather clothes:
jackets, coats, pants and gloves in several sizes. “This is the
first batch of demon-blood-impervious fighting leathers. The demon
blood arrived for final testing yesterday,” she said, sweeping the
pile up and thrusting it into Kyle’s hands. “Put that in the BMW,
dear lad.”

Then she swept to the far side of the room and returned just
as quickly with a smaller, multi-scaled piece. Razor’s own armour.
The cat jumped onto the nearest counter without any prodding, and
held his head in a snooty pose as Savannah fitted it over him. It
draped perfectly over his shoulders and down across his back,
stopping exactly at the end of his rump. Savannah showed Gabi how
to fasten it across his chest and under his tummy and through his
hind legs. The way the straps fitted together reminded Gabi of a
horse blanket, which made sense as a horse blanket was designed to
stay in place even when a horse rolled in the grass. Razor was just
about as proud as a child on their first day of big school, and
wouldn’t let Gabi take it off right away. Gabi smiled a genuinely
happy grin for the first time in days watching him. Savannah looked
about ready to burst with excitement.

Gabi was just on her way to move the BMW outside to make room
for Mac’s truck when her phone rang. She blew out a breath when the
call ended.

“
Sorry, Savannah, but Kyle and I have to go,” she said
regretfully. “Is it all right to leave the others with you? Nathan
will escort them back to the City when you’re finished for the
night.” She hoped Savannah didn’t think Mac was available as
dinner, but wasn’t sure how to bring up the subject delicately.
Obviously some of her thoughts slipped past her musical barrier,
though.

“
Yes, of course, Gabrielle,” Savannah said. “I promise to take
good care of them and return them without lacking anything they
arrived with.” Her expression was suddenly serious, but her eyes
danced with merriment.

“
Thanks,” Gabi said simply, glad Savannah hadn’t made any more
of the issue.

“
What’s happened?” Mac asked.

“
We’re needed back at the City Morgue.” She sighed. She didn’t
need to say anymore.

Mac nodded his understanding. “Watch your six,” he rumbled.
“If they somehow got to Alexander, they may try with another of
you.”

“
We will,” she promised. Then she, Razor and Kyle climbed into
the BMW and sped back towards the City.

Deciding they needed some Vampire backup in case they needed
help altering memories of the humans on duty at the morgue, they
stopped at the Estate, intending to collect a handy
Vampire.

Benedict was downstairs when they arrived, but was on his way
to oversee Julius’s Magi training. Gabi swallowed the bitterness of
being excluded from his training. This was apparently secret Magi
stuff; no non-Magi allowed. She reminded herself that she had more
than enough to deal with, and a few hours’ sleep wouldn’t go amiss
if she found any spare time before dawn. Alexander wasn’t to be
found, and one of the Werewolf guards informed her that Alexander
had attended the meeting with Julius and was only expected back
much later. Gabi hoped he wasn’t travelling alone
anywhere.

A quick trip to the staff gymnasium netted Fergus, exactly the
Vampire she needed. It was a slightly more complicated mission to
the morgue than the last trip. There were three bodies to view, and
none of them had any connection to the others, so their backstory
was, by necessity, more sophisticated and hence more prone to human
suspicion. Luckily for them, Fergus was particularly talented at
manipulating human minds.

When Gabi held up her driver’s licence to the man at the
morgue admin desk, he studied it carefully and then nodded the
three ‘National Security Agents’ through to the waiting room while
getting on the phone to arrange their viewing of the three bodies.
Fergus was a true wonder.

The place smelled as thoroughly unpleasant as it had a few
nights ago, but the morgue attendant, a middle-aged woman this
time, wasn’t quite as cordial as the man they’d dealt with the last
time they were here, but then the last time they’d been playing
grieving family, not hard-nosed government agents. The woman
wheeled the gurneys into the same small viewing room and yanked
back the sheets without preamble, brusquely reading off the initial
assessment of the bodies from the clipboard attached to each. Two
males and one female, all with dark bruising and purple scarring
showing up starkly against their pale, blue-tinged flesh.
Contrarily, with them playing roles that required cool detachment
this time, two of the bodies actually made the breath hitch in
Gabi’s throat, and Kyle closed his eyes, his jaw muscles
tightening. These two they knew. Gabi didn’t know them personally,
but she’d seen them around. They were both Werewolves from the
Blackriver Pack. The third, one of the males, was unknown to them,
but the wound patterns and loss of blood were consistent with the
other two. This had to also have been a Werewolf.

It was the wee hours of the morning before they’d finally
sorted all the arrangements to get the bodies to SMV HQ. It had
taken a lot of negotiating to get the Blackriver Pack Leader to
agree to allow the SMV to take charge of the bodies for full
autopsies. Gabi knew that delivering the news had been hard for
Kyle. Not allowing the Pack to immediately bury their dead was even
more traumatising.

Julius had been conspicuously absent from her mind the entire
evening, and it was making her anxious. She tried to call his
phone, but only got his non-existent voicemail message. A bland
beep. Weariness was weighing her down. It had been a long night,
and nothing else could be done, so she returned to her house with
Razor. A pair of Werewolves in a nondescript car followed her and
positioned themselves outside her gates; Julius might have been
busy, but he hadn’t forgotten her protection. He did call her just
before she fell asleep as he was driving back to the Estate. His
voice reflected her own weariness. She didn’t push him for details
and told him to stay at the Estate. It was too close to sunrise to
risk the drive to her house. He agreed after a little convincing on
her part, but Gabi knew she was going to desperately miss the solid
coolness of his body next to and around her while she
slept.

Razor seemed to sense her unhappiness and moved up from the
end of the bed to curl into her chest, purring. Soon Slinky and
Rocky were also snuggled in, Slinky curled around her head on the
pillow and Rocky at the back of her neck in her hair, and within
moments they were all fast asleep.

The full light of morning was something of a shock. Waking to
complete darkness had become the norm for her since Julius began
sharing her bed. It was also a novelty to not be woken by the
ringing of a telephone. She squinted at her nightstand. The absence
of ringing might have something to do with the fact that she’d
forgotten to plug her phone in to charge. Turning her head a little
more, she eyed the bedside clock blearily. Eleven twenty-nine.
Sheez! That made her sit up, rubbing sleep from her eyes and
stretching. She hadn’t slept this late in months. She was surprised
no one had sent a rescue team to look for her already. The pets
yawned and stretched too. Rocky set to grooming, and Razor hopped
to the floor to see to his morning ablutions. She’d just stepped in
a stinging hot shower when she heard the front door open and Kyle’s
voice call her name.

The rest of the day consisted of a meeting with Byron and
Teddy, the ex-coroner, who confirmed their suspicions about the
manner of death, then seeing the bodies of the two Blackriver Pack
members returned to their packs while Byron arranged an
investigation into who the third victim could be.

It was late afternoon before Gabi managed to catch up with Mac
and find out how things had gone with Savannah. Mac was returning
to the lab after dinner to continue working with the Vamp inventor.
He seemed quite enchanted with the lady, impressed with her lab,
and was visibly excited about the progress they’d made on
replicating the weapons. The two of them grabbed dinner and then
parted ways, Mac to collect Doug and a Werewolf escort, and Gabi to
the Estate. She wasn’t in a hurry. Julius had already left for
another Magi training session and wouldn’t be back until late.
She’d thrown a swimsuit in the back of the BMW and had every
intention of easing some stiff muscles in the comfort of one of the
Estate’s hot tubs for a couple of hours.

When Julius returned, he was tired. Gabi hadn’t often seen
Julius truly tired, but tonight he was. And ill-tempered. That was
something she’d never seen before. She knew he’d lost control with
what little remained of Dantè’s House after Dantè had tried to Turn
her, but she hadn’t been conscious enough to experience that. His
Clan and the other staff were giving him a Strait of
Gibraltar-sized berth tonight. Even Alexander was being unusually
quiet, though it looked as though he’d bitten his tongue to
bleeding doing it.

The Magi training had taken a toll. It bit again that she
hadn’t been allowed to accompany him, but she quickly forgot her
own pique the moment she saw him. His skin was paler than usual,
and dark half circles marred the skin under his eyes.

There hadn’t been time to try to coax him out of his bad mood;
as soon as he’d arrived back at the Estate, he’d called a meeting
in the entertainment room. He wanted to talk tactics and strategy,
and he wasn’t taking no for an answer. Gabi didn’t think Benedict’s
insistence that Julius cast the shielding spell over the room had
helped his disposition.

Kyle and Alexander were sprawled across more than half of the
six-seater sofa, Patrick sat less casually on the opposite end of
it, and Julius had taken one of the single-seater chairs, as had
Benedict. Fergus was looking out of place sitting in the window
seat, the dancing light of the fire throwing strange shadows over
his scarred face, while Nathan paced the floor behind the long
sofa. Gabi perched on the marble shelf to one side of the
fireplace, one foot up on the shelf so she could rest her chin on
her knee, her mind zoned out as the men discussed defence strategy.
The bottle of wine Alexander had brought her was empty, as was her
glass. She didn’t have much to contribute; she didn’t know much
about defence. She was much better at offence. The double entendre
of that thought made her snort. Yes, she could offend just about
anybody given the time and the inclination.

“
Something is funny?” Benedict asked her, his voice bland.
Conversation broke off, and the rest turned to look at her as
well.

“
Not funny, frustrating,” Gabi replied. “The fact that we’re
sitting here planning what to do when the Dark Ones come bursting
through our door, instead of taking the fight to them.”

The silence in the room stretched out.

Yeah, she was great at offence. Her discomfort made her
tetchy. “What?” she demanded. “Benedict says he can locate them no
matter where they’re hiding. Why not strike pre-emptively? Why are
we acting like the proverbial sitting ducks?”

The previously hostile silence turned to more of a
contemplative one.

“
She has a point,” Benedict finally conceded, one eyebrow
raised. “We have been concentrating on how to counter the Dark
Ones’ moves. We could just as easily use my
sight
to
give us the upper hand in a coup de main.”

“
If we have enough time,” Patrick put in, his tone grave with
misgivings. As an ex-marine field officer, his input was highly
valued tonight. “It would be stupid to rush in there ill-prepared.
It would be better to consolidate our forces here and make sure we
have a solid defence.”

“
Can’t we do both?” Gabi asked. “Surely a stealthy strike with
a small force would be a better idea? That would leave the bulk of
our manpower here in case it all went to shit.”

Silence again. At least they were considering her idea. The
thought of sitting here just waiting for the bad guys to arrive was
becoming more unpalatable by the minute.

“
When will the first batch of Mac’s weapons be ready?” Kyle
asked.

“
The first working prototypes have already been produced.”
Julius spoke up, a little less annoyance in his tone. “They’re
being tested as we speak. If those are good, full production will
start in the morning.”

“
It would make me feel better to have a couple of those in my
hands if we’re going to attack the dragon in its den,” Kyle
said.

And just like that, the conversation turned to attack rather
than defence. Gabi waved her empty wine bottle at Nathan. He took
the hint and moved towards the wine cellar.