“Hello, gorgeous boy,” she greeted the big dog as he came out of the huge kennel, yawning and stretching, to greet her. She meant only to check that he was fine and content, but she couldn’t resist slipping into the cage to give him some love and attention. She promised him a run in the morning and encouraged him to get back to his comfy bed in the lion-sized kennel. Then she retraced her steps to the house.
“Gabi?” Derek’s voice came from inside as she neared the front door. “Um, are you nearby?” He sounded anxious.
Gabi felt the drench of adrenalin hit her veins as she forced herself to freeze, sending out her senses, alert for anything. Nothing unusual registered; her senses only picked up Derek.
“Gabi.” Derek’s voice had a note of pleading in it, but not terror or desperation. “A little help, please?”
She relaxed suddenly and jogged the last few steps to the house, trying to keep the grin off her face.
Razor had him cornered in the kitchen.
“Sorry,” she apologised, already sending out light tendrils of power to envelop the annoyed cat and calm him. “I didn’t think. Kyle and Razor have a reluctant truce, but Razor intimidates anyone with an ounce of self-preservation.”
Derek gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, I can see that. Um, Razor is a male, right?”
“Yes, I know, it makes him more dominant and aggressive. I’m sorry.” She gave up trying to get Razor to back away from the kitchen using her power and resorted to physically picking him up. It took more energy than she thought she had.
“No, that’s not what I was getting at,” Derek said, letting out a relieved breath. “I know you said you also have a ferret, but the little critter I just noticed in the sitting room didn’t look like a ferret to me. For a moment I thought maybe Razor had a kitten, but I must be wrong.”
“What?” Gabi asked around a faceful of cat fur.
“Uh, yeah, there’s a critter of some kind running around the sitting room. My sense of smell is really good now, and I can smell it, but I can’t identify it. Razor was in the room with it when I came through. Maybe he’s caught a rat or something.” He looked and sounded a lot less anxious now that Gabi had Razor under control.
“Oh, Lord and Lady. Will this day never end?” She closed her eyes and prayed for strength. “Stay in the kitchen while I check it out. In fact, you might as well put on the coffee maker before I fall asleep walking,” she told Derek and, still lugging Razor in her arms, went to find her new house guest.
The critter was under the dining table, a little unsure of itself, until Razor began to purr. His purr rivalled a twelve-cylinder engine and vibrated through most of the house. The little animal instantly came out of hiding and tentatively made its way over to them. Gabi set the purring cat on the floor with a small thud, and the tiny animal ran directly up to him and buried itself in his long fur. Razor looked at her archly, as though daring her to object, and set to washing the little tyke with his long pink tongue.
“Raz,” she groused, shaking her head, “what are you doing with a baby squirrel?”
His thoughts came through unusually clearly as he stared at her unblinkingly.
“It’s a squirrel?” Derek asked from a safe distance.
“Yep,” Gabi confirmed, “Raz apparently thinks that if I can get a new pet, so can he.” She left the two of them snuggling in the sitting room and returned to the kitchen to pour two cups of coffee. Derek accepted his with a tired nod and collapsed onto a barstool at the counter.
“Does he do this kind of thing regularly?” he asked.
“He was wonderful with Slinky, though I brought Slinks in,” she mused. “He’s never gone out and brought something home himself. If my identification is right, that’s a red squirrel, no more than three or four weeks old. He showed me a visual of a hawk hovering and the squirrel on the ground by itself, so I’m assuming it’s an orphan.” As though the mention of his name had magical properties, Slinky suddenly poked his pointed little snout around the corner of the kitchen entrance.
“Ah,” Gabi said with a tired smile. “Hello, Slinks, come here and prove that not all my pets are raging monsters.” She gathered the squirming ferret up and set him on the counter.
Derek held quite still as the inquisitive animal shuffled across the counter and gave him a quick once-over before galloping back to Gabi. She picked him up again, and he promptly climbed onto her shoulder, wound his way around her neck, and closed his eyes.
“So it’s not just at work, then,” Derek said. “Animals everywhere worship you like a goddess.”
Gabi’s lips twisted wryly. “Some days I could do without the added responsibility,” she said with a huge yawn. “Go grab your shower. I need to check if the kit needs some fluids. It’ll have to wait a few hours for a feed. Russell is a regular wildlife rehabber,” Derek knew Russell as Gabi’s regular on-set assistant, “hopefully he’ll know what to feed it.”
The third time the annoying scrabbling at her ear roused her, Gabi gave up the fight to get back to sleep and peeled her eyelids open. For a confused minute she tried to work out why Slinky would be trying to wake her up. And then a small, russet tail, somewhat resembling an overused bottlebrush, swooped across her nose, and she felt the tiniest of paws press against her cheek. She sighed. Apparently it was ‘feed the baby squirrel’ time. Razor heard the sigh and padded up from the bottom of the bed to check if she was awake. His vibrato purr started up as soon as he saw her eyes open, and he gently gripped the scruff of the tiny squirrel’s neck and pulled it away from her.
She sat up, rubbing grit from her eyes and wishing, as she so often did, that she was one of those people who only needed a few hours of sleep a night. Dawn had coloured the horizon just as she’d finally tumbled into bed, so a nine a.m. wake-up call was not exactly what she needed. She stretched and grimaced as the stitches in her arm pulled slightly and her shoulder muscles protested. An inspection of her elbow showed that the swelling was almost gone and the bruising had turned a delightful shade of bile green and mustard yellow. At least the bruising was fading, she’d be able to pull the stitches out tonight. A little chittering noise reminded her that she had been woken up for a reason.
“Fine, I’m getting up,” she grumbled, throwing off the duvet. “You’re rather demanding for a tiny snip of a thing,” she groused at it as she made for the bathroom.
She had a cup of coffee in one hand, a telephone in the other, a ferret wrapped around her neck and the baby squirrel perched on her head when Derek shuffled into the kitchen dressed only in a pair of jeans. Apparently he didn’t do well on three hours sleep either, but that didn’t detract from the sight of his sun-bronzed chest, muscled shoulders and oh-so-perfectly defined six-pack. Or was that an eight-pack? Gabi found she’d lost her train of thought as the voice on the other side of the phone rattled off a list of ingredients and quantities.
“Ah, whoa, hang on a sec, Russell,” she stopped him mid flow. “Let me grab something to write this down on.” She dragged her gaze from Derek to search for the notepad and pen that was always in the kitchen somewhere. Derek got to them first and, seeing her hands full, sat at the counter and indicated that he would write for her.
“You sound distracted,” Russell said from the other side of the phone.
Gabi grimaced. With Derek’s new Werewolf senses, he’d be able to hear every word Russell spoke on the phone.
“Uh, Derek just walked in,” she told him, hoping he’d take the hint without her having to spell it out to him.
“Ohhh,” Russell said knowingly, “on two legs or four?”
“Shirtless,” Gabi replied.
Derek looked down at himself and then grinned, quintessential male pride showing through the exhaustion. Gabi rolled her eyes, hoping he hadn’t noticed her wandering gaze.
Russell chuckled. “Well, that would explain the distraction,” he mused.
“The squirrel milk recipe, Russell,” she reminded him. She’d only just made some progress on her r
elationship with Julius; she really didn’t need to be reminded of how strong her physical attraction to the stuntman had been in the past. She held the phone away from her ear so that Derek could hear the list clearly. Once Derek had written it all down, Gabi quickly thanked Russell and cut the call before he could say anything that might give Derek the wrong idea.
“You’ll have to fend for yourself this morning. I have a baby to feed, and Rose only comes in at lunchtime on a Wednesday,” she informed the shirtless male.
“Russell knows about us?” Derek asked, keeping one eye on Razor, who was glaring balefully at him from the counter. He poured coffee and set some bread in the toaster as Gabi bent to scratch through a cupboard for her kitten feeding kit and the rest of what she needed to make up some formula.
“Russell is part of the Community. He’s a Shape-shifter,” she explained with her head mostly inside the cupboard.
“Oh,” Derek said, obviously surprised again. “So that’s different from a Werewolf?”
Gabi smiled to herself, it was easy to forget how much full humans didn’t know about the world they lived in. She began mixing up a small quantity of formula for the squirrel, as Derek buttered his toast.
“Yes. A person becomes a Werewolf as a result of being exposed to the lycanthropy virus. Though there is some speculation that it’s more of a prion than a virus, due to its ability to actually alter DNA, but we’ll call it a virus for simplicity’s sake. That’s why silver is toxic to Weres, it kills the virus, but the virus is so much a part of the body that by killing the virus, you also kill the host.” Gabi could see Derek’s attention pique, but cut him off before he could ask questions. “I’m a little ignorant on the biochemistry side, so I won’t try to make sense of it for you. Jonathon would be able to answer most of your questions in that regard.”
She gently grabbed the little furball off the top of her head, cupped it in one hand, and set a tiny teat to its mouth, allowing it to begin suckling. Derek brought his cup and plate over to join her at the counter as she continued. “Shape-shifters are more like the Magi. They have a form of genetic mutation. It’s a congenital trait passed on from parent to child. Though the Shifter traits are genetically a bit hit and miss. Lord, I need a straw for my coffee,” she said, looking longingly at her coffee mug, but both her hands were occupied with feeding a content baby squirrel.
Derek grinned and reached over to lift her mug and hold it to her lips for a sip. Gabi found her eyes caught by the play of his muscles over his arms and chest. Again. She dragged her attention back to the squirrel, thinking that they were going to have to find a name for the little critter.
“What do you mean by hit and miss?” he asked her, tucking back into his peanut butter toast.
Gabi was relieved to see that, apart from the tiredness, he was looking and sounding more like himself today.
“Well, the rules are pretty straightforward with the Magi. Two Magi parents equals Magi-born children. Those children can become practising Magi when their powers show themselves at puberty, or they can ignore the powers and stay fully human.” She shrugged when she saw Derek’s disbelieving look. “Some kids don’t want to be the odd one out, puberty is a tough enough time without trying to develop and control some strange, inhuman power,” she said by way of explanation.
He helped her take another sip of coffee.
“The type and strength of the talents of Magi parents are usually prominent in the children. But Shifters don’t follow any set patterns. Two strong Shifters can produce children without an iota of ability, while a weak Shifter with a full human partner has, on occasion, produced an amazing Shifter child. Sometimes the ability skips two generations and then kicks back in in the third generation. As I said, very hit and miss.”
The squirrel had drunk its fill, and Gabi gave it a quick inspection and determined that the squirrel was a little female, then she handed it over to Razor for a wash, sure it would curl up with the cat and sleep for a few hours after that. It really was rather cute, and there was finally another girl in the house, she thought with a smile.
“There are different degrees of being a Shifter?” Derek asked as he got up to rinse his plate and mug and stack them in the dishwasher. Gabi downed the last of her coffee and pulled out a cereal bowl.
“I guess you could say that,” she agreed. “Most Shifters have one shape they’re really good at changing to, usually a largish animal, and then one or two others that they can Shift to with a bit more effort. Some of the strongest Shifters can change to almost any animal they can imagine, including some legendary ones. They’re only limited by size. There seems to be a minimum threshold at around the size of a medium-sized dog, and one of my fellow Hunters can shift to a Condor, though an unnaturally large one. On the other side of the scale, the biggest animal I’ve seen someone Shift to is a horse. I guess a really powerful Shifter might be able to do a rhino or even an elephant.”
Derek’s eyes were as round as saucers in his surprise. “Wow, here I was imagining a dog, a wolf, maybe a big cat,” he said in wonder.
Gabi smirked as she sat down with her bowl of cereal. “Then you get the rarest form of Shifter. The Doppelganger,” she said, pouring an air of mystery into her voice.
“Best you not be leading me up the garden path, Ms Bradford,” he warned, suddenly suspicious.
She laughed. “Would I do that?” she asked in mock innocence, but he only cocked a disbelieving eyebrow. “You can check with Russell if you don’t believe me. There are Shifters so powerful they can mimic a living person. There is only one in the City, and I’ve never met her. Apparently she doesn’t want much to do with the SMV. I’ve heard she studied drama.”
His questions came tumbling out, but she waved him away.
“I’m eating breakfast now. Scoot and put some more clothes on. If you’re good, I’ll tell you more later.”
The chime of her cellphone interrupted any objections he may have had, and Gabi grabbed it, answering around a mouthful of muesli.
Kyle arrived a quarter of an hour after he’d called Gabi to warn her he was on his way. They had some serious work to do with Derek. The SMV Council had called a meeting as expected. They’d invited along a few other interested parties, including the local Werewolf Pack leaders and Julius. They particularly wanted to hear the story from someone who was directly involved. As the other Werewolf was still smarting from being captured, by a woman no less, he wasn’t talking to them. That left Derek. It was going to be a difficult meeting for him, but they needed him to stay human long enough to tell everyone what he knew. So to Kyle and Gabi had fallen the unenviable task of teaching a new and dominant Werewolf a high level of control in one day. The meeting was scheduled for eight p.m. to accommodate Julius’s participation.
Gabi didn’t just think this meeting was a bad idea, she knew it was a bad idea. Even if Derek did manage to stay human for any length of time, it was going to be mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting for him. But she also wanted to know why someone was going around infecting others with lycanthropy and wanted in on putting a stop to it. Hopefully the next time she came face to face with the government agent wannabes, it wouldn’t be in broad daylight in the middle of a suburban neighbourhood. They could try taking on someone in their own weight division for a change.
They decided to practice outdoors in a small forest, which was part of Gabi’s land. She didn’t want any more house repairs so soon after the last renovations. When they broke for lunch, Derek had only shifted once. Gabi had been able to control him and get him to shift back in very short order. He was grey with exhaustion; sweat ran freely down his face. Kyle was showing an edge of strain as well; he’d had to continually allow the wolf side to show itself just enough to incite Derek’s wolf. Pulling the wolf back over and over again was the equivalent of spending the day doing weights just a couple of pounds heavier than you were used to. She sent Derek for a shower and went to find Rose in the kitchen.
True to form, Ros
e was fussing over Razor and crooning to their tiny house guest. The baby squirrel was playing coy and hiding herself in Raz’s long fur, just peeking out to keep her eye on Rose. It was clear the housekeeper was already besotted. Gabi grinned as she went to give the older woman a kiss on the cheek.
“I see you’ve met Razor’s new pet,” she said on her way to the fridge for a couple of bottles of water.
“Razor has a pet?” Kyle asked as she threw him a bottle. He caught it easily and went to the other side of the counter to get a better look at the new arrival. Razor growled at him, narrowing his eyes menacingly.
“Oh, quit that,” Gabi groused back at the cat. “Kyle’s not going to harm the baby, and you know it.” The growl trailed off, but the cat didn’t take his eyes off Kyle. “I need to feed the squirrel. She’s still too young to be weaned, why don’t you help Rose bring us some lunch out on the patio,” she told Kyle.
“Fine, just take Bullwinkle with you,” he said, indicating the glaring cat.
Gabi put her hand out and coaxed the little furry creature into it. “Well, I guess that makes you Rocky, then, little one,” she crooned to it as she scooped up a saucer containing the leftover formula and the cleaned feeding syringe. She rubbed her chin softly over its little head and called Razor to join her outside.
Derek made better progress than any of them had expected. Gabi thought that it was due to his years of martial arts and fight training. He was the stuntman for two of the best known action movie stars and was well respected in the industry for his professionalism and consistency. You didn’t get that good without discipline, control and a certain degree of masochism. The ability to handle, absorb and redirect physical pain made the difference between a good fighter and a great fighter.
All Hell Breaks Loose (The Hellcat Series) Page 8