“Uh, Wolf,” she said to Kyle in a low voice, the nickname seemed somewhat incongruous under the circumstances. “What the fuck’s going on?” She was speaking with her teeth clenched together, her eyes not leaving Derek’s.
“I, uh, think that we’ve just discovered another use for your legendary talents with animals,” he replied cautiously.
“You mean, you’re not controlling him?” She sounded perplexed.
“Nope, not me,” Kyle answered. “Can’t you feel your own power? I can feel it crawling all over me. You should be able to feel his mind if you try.”
“Well, that’s kind of what it felt like,” she admitted, “but it seemed ridiculous. I mean, he’s not really an animal.”
“Well, maybe he’s more animal than human right now. You’ve never exactly experimented on a Werewolf before. See if you can get him to transform back,” Kyle suggested.
“Okay.” She sounded doubtful. “But you’re going to have to run me through how the reverse transformation works; I’ll have to find a way to demonstrate it to him.”
“Think of meditation. You’ll need to calm and reassure the wolf, then convince him there is no threat or danger, get him to back down and retreat into the background, so the human side can come to fore. He should be able to do the rest by himself,” Kyle explained.
Gabi nodded, her gaze still locked with the wolf’s grey eyes. She still had the dustbin lid in her left hand, shielding her torso, and her right hand was clenching and unclenching, as though itching for the familiar comfort of Nex’s hilt. And then the nipping ants became stinging fire-ants. Kyle found himself grimacing as her power filled the relatively small space and prickled against his exposed skin. He forced himself to hold still as the great wolf slowly sank to the floor and dropped his head onto his giant paws. In a few moments, the eerie silver eyes closed, and a deep breath whooshed from his dark brown snout. Seconds later Derek’s naked human form lay face-down on the concrete. Gabi drew in a deep, unsteady breath and turned to stare at Kyle, shock and incredulity clear on her face.
Chapter 4
They left Derek in the garage with a fresh set of clothes and orders to stay put until Gabi came to get him. Then Kyle carefully moved Trish to the bed in the back of his modified van. Luckily the van had blacked out windows, but he was still going to have to drive carefully. He didn’t need to be pulled over by police. Explaining why he had a seriously injured woman in the back of his van would be tricky to say the least.
It didn’t seem right to place Derek in the holding cells at SMV HQ if they didn’t have to. So they’d decided the safest place for him (and society in general) in the meanwhile was at Gabi’s place. At least until they found a Pack who could take him in. It was always more difficult with a very dominant wolf. They were a lot more trouble, and not all Pack leaders were willing to take on the challenge. Gabi would trust Kyle and Alistair to sort out the Werewolf politics. She was more concerned with contacting Irene to include Derek on the safe list for the ward on her house. It was going to become tiresome fast if she had to reset the ward every hour on the hour while Derek was there.
Once Kyle left with Trish, she called Derek out of the garage and instructed him to pack a bag with enough clothes for a week, concentrating on clothes he didn’t mind being ruined. She knew they’d probably have to go clothes shopping before the week was up anyway, but this would give them a few days to work on control before they ventured into a store. She made a call to Irene and arranged to meet her at the house in a couple of hours. She checked on Derek, who was swaying with exhaustion but doing as told, and then went through to the room Trish had been in. She began to strip the blood-soaked sheets off the bed and put them in a bag for disposal.
There was a knock on Derek’s front door. She froze. It had been a loud, authoritative sound, not the timid rap of a Girl Scout or concerned neighbour. Automatically she expanded her senses, allowing her extra sense to flow out and explore the visitor. Visitors, she corrected when she came into contact with the multiple presences at the door. Her sixth sense worked best for Vampires, but she could usually get some idea of who or what was nearby, and she knew immediately that they weren’t human. At a guess, she’d say Werewolf.
She heard Derek move in the next bedroom. “Stop,” she growled in a low voice. She dropped the bloody sheets in a heap and moved on quick, silent feet to join him.
“You’re not expecting anyone, are you?” she asked in a low whisper.
He shook his head.
“Fine. We’ll go with the ‘you’re ill’ story. I’ll get rid of them. You stay out of sight.”
He nodded agreement. She didn’t think he would’ve been so accepting if she’d told him it was a bunch of Werewolves waiting outside. Another demanding knock rattled the door. “Just a second,” she called out. She flexed her shoulders and reached back to adjust Nex’s hilt where it was tucked into the auburn curls at the back of her neck. The weight of the custom-made sheath nestled comfortably against her spine. Touching the short sword reassured her, and she strode to the front door, making no attempt to keep her footsteps quiet. She loosened a button at the top of her blouse and put an airy smile on her face before she opened the door.
Four men were on the doorstep. All were dressed in what appeared to be government-issue, black business suits, with matching black leather shoes and matching supercilious expressions.
“Well, good morning, gentlemen,” Gabi drawled, raising her eyebrows and deliberately looking each one of them up and down appraisingly. “What brings such a fine looking bunch of men to my doorstep so early in the morning?” She casually leaned one hip against the door frame and watched their expressions in amusement. It took them a few moments to regroup. The tallest one finally cleared his throat and swallowed, then stepped forward a pace.
“Good morning, ma’am,” he said. “We’re, uh, looking for someone, and this is listed as his home address.”
“Really?” she purred the word. “Isn’t that fascinating?” As she toyed with the men in front of her, she cast out her senses again. There were two black sedans parked on the curb behind Trish’s car, and that made her suspicious. “Shit,” she thought as she found another two non-humans around the back of the house.
A second man finally conquered his hormones and stepped forward. He was stockily built, possibly a gym bunny, if his straining suit jacket was anything to go by. “Ma’am, does a Mr Derek Collins live here?”
Gabi knew this bunch weren’t going to be deterred by a denial. They were definitely Werewolves; they’d be able to scent Derek as easily as she had.
“Derek?” she asked in feigned surprise. “What would you gentlemen want with Derek?”
“Ma’am, this is a matter of civil defence, and we really need to speak with Mr Collins urgently,” Mr Stocky announced. He was trying very hard to avoid looking at her.
“Civil defence?” she repeated, almost losing her defenceless, oh-so-feminine façade in her surprise. She recovered quickly, but her mind was whirling. She didn’t know these Werewolves; she didn’t recognise their faces or their scents. Not knowing them personally wasn’t too unusual; there were hundreds of Werewolves in the City, and she only knew a select few, mostly the Alphas and the troublemakers. The strange thing was in their Pack scent. When a Werewolf was part of a Pack, they always carried the unique Pack scent interwoven into their own personal scent. Even if she didn’t know individual Pack members, she knew all the Pack scents. These guys shared a scent, but it wasn’t from any Pack she knew. This little situation was about to get complicated. She needed to stall them while she came up with a plan that wouldn’t involve her taking on six Werewolves in broad daylight in the middle of a quiet, residential neighbourhood. “Does that mean you all work for a government agency?” she asked in an awed, husky whisper. “Like James Bond?”
Three of the men shifted uncomfortably, starting to get edgy and glancing nervously around the small garden. Mr Stocky continued to avoid her gaze, looking at a
point on the doorframe, or was he trying to see inside? It was him who answered her.
“Yes, ma’am, something like that, and it is imperative that we speak with Mr Collins. Can you call him for us?”
Gabi thought she caught a hint of pleading in his voice. She put a naughty little smile on her face and scratched provocatively at a pretend itch just above her left breast. She didn’t want his gaze wandering down her legs where he might just notice the outline of one of the knives strapped to her calves.
“Well, you’ll have to give me a few minutes. Derek isn’t awake yet,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper. “He had kind of a long, tiring night, you see?” She left the rest of the details up to their apparently fertile imaginations.
The group stirred restlessly again, and the scent of Werewolf grew stronger. These guys hadn’t been Werewolves long, Gabi realised as she watched them fighting for control. Better and better, she thought sarcastically, just what she needed this morning, more juvenile Lycanthropes.
“Are you going to show me some ID before I go to all the trouble of waking Derek up?” she asked. Making them rifle through their suits might show her if they were armed with anything besides their usual Werewolf extras. As two of them started digging in internal suit pockets, an impatient masculine voice came from the side of the house.
“What’s taking so long?” The voice was followed by the appearance of a fifth man. One of the two who’d been covering the rear of the house.
Gabi sighed in resignation, she really didn’t want to take on half a dozen Werewolves right here, but this one meant business and wasn’t going to fall for her sexy, feminine act. This one was all dominant male, and he wore his air of power around him like a thick, black cloak. This was their Alpha, and he definitely wasn’t one of the City’s recognised Pack leaders. Gabi suddenly wondered if there’d been a coup of one of the Packs and the info hadn’t filtered through to the SMV yet.
Mr Stocky straightened to attention and dropped his eyes. “This, uh, young lady was just about to call him for us, sir,” he announced to the ground.
The Alpha stalked up to the group and looked Gabi up and down speculatively. The other men backed up a few steps to give him room. His gaze finally landed on her face.
“She was?” he asked the other man, but didn’t take his eyes from hers. “Then why isn’t she moving?”
“She,” Gabi said, dropping the cutesy act, “is waiting to see some identification.”
The man’s nostrils flared slightly. “And who exactly are you?” he asked her in a deadly voice; the kind of tone that probably sent most people running for cover. She knew her innocent act had been blown. Well, in for penny as they say.
“My name is Gabrielle Bradford,” she said in a deceptively friendly tone. She didn’t hold back her smile as the four new Werewolves sucked in a collective hiss of breath.
The Alpha went absolutely still, his expression frozen. Apparently they’d heard of her.
“Angeli Morte,” one of them whispered.
“You must be consorting with a very bad element to know that nickname,” she said. “Now tell me what you really want with Derek.”
She groaned inwardly as Derek chose that moment to come up behind her to see what was going on. He hissed in a breath.
“It’s them,” he shouted hoarsely. “From the alley, the ones who attacked me.”
Gabi’s suspicions were officially confirmed. As soon as she knew they were Werewolves, she figured they’d come to claim their Pack mate. She didn’t turn to check on Derek, she had to trust that he’d stay out of her way. Nex was in her hand before the Alpha had done more than blink. When his eyes flicked back to her after Derek’s brief distraction, Nex was levelled at his chest. The black suits, who’d begun to spread out in an offensive fan, froze as one. Mr Alpha’s face contorted in rage, but he didn’t twitch a muscle.
“This is none of your business, Ms Bradford,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “I have come to claim one of mine. It would be better for all concerned if you stood aside and let Mr Collins come with me.”
Gabi’s eyes narrowed even as an unpleasant smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “Au contraire, my dear Alpha,” she drawled. “I think if you know anything about me, you’ll know that this is very much my business.”
She heard Derek fall to his knees behind her and knew he was fighting another transformation. She wasn’t sure he had the strength for a third shift, but if he did, she couldn’t be sure his wolf wouldn’t mistake her for the enemy. She needed to get the situation under control fast.
“I know a few people who would be very interested to meet you and your Pack.” Nex’s blade touched his suit jacket directly over his heart. “You do know the penalty for intentionally spreading the lycanthropy virus, don’t you?” she asked in an ice-filled tone.
The Alpha’s eyes narrowed, as his Pack stirred nervously.
“Leave me a business card, and I’ll have my superiors contact you to discuss your recent transgressions. They may spare some of your Pack members if you decide to co-operate.” She let the cold certainty of his death fill her eyes.
She watched the appraisal running through his mind. Wondering if she truly was as good as the stories said she was. Her intuition kicked in, and she knew a second before he did that he was going to call, what he assumed was, her bluff. Not for the first time, she cursed the fact that she couldn’t simply kill a rogue without a kill order from the SMV. Not without an enquiry and paperwork and the chance of suspension, anyway. As the thought hit his consciousness, Gabi dropped Nex’s tip from his heart and powered a knee strike into his chest, sending him careening backwards into his compatriots. The move took him by surprise and annoyed the shit out of him.
He regained his balance instantly and yelled, “Get her,” at his lackeys. He stepped back to watch the show, allowing his minions to do the dirty work. She’d already picked out the weak links in the pack. They were big and muscular, but they were new Lycanthropes, and they didn’t move like fighters. They’d probably never even been in a decent street brawl. She was praying this would tip the balance in her favour; otherwise she was up the proverbial creek.
Their first rush was almost comical in its chaos, they charged her in a tight V formation, Mr Stocky at the front. A powerful flying kick directly into his chest sent the entire squad tumbling several feet backwards and gave her enough time to dive to her right and grab the garden rake leaning next to the garage door. She made it back to her post at the door and slammed it shut just as a couple of them made it back to their feet. Mr Alpha was roaring at them, spittle flying from the corner of his mouth. With a quick stamp of her foot, Gabi snapped the bottom section off the rake and spun back to face them. Suddenly she was looking forward to the fight. It had been a while since she had a good four-on-one fight, the adrenaline obliterated the pain in her arm, and her world narrowed down to the small, fenced, suburban garden and five Werewolves. She’d spent enough time fighting Kyle, and a long list of rogues, to know a Werewolf’s weak spots. She decided first blood would be hers.
She took the one on her left first, with a stabbing blow to the solar plexus from one end of the staff. She heard the air whoosh from his lungs as she spun the stick and delivered a brutal uppercut to the jaw of the man on her right. A distinct crack preceded a gasp of pain, she wasn’t sure if it was the stick or the guy’s jaw that had broken. The third man received the gift of her boot solidly in his tender nether regions and dropped like a downed deer. Mr Solar Plexus was the only one of the three still standing, so she spun the staff back in his direction and caught him across the side of the head, carefully aiming for his temple. The force of the blow snapped his head around, and he stumbled backwards a few steps before crumpling to the grass. Gabi hoped she’d cracked his skull; that would take a couple of days to heal.
An arm went around her neck as Mr Stocky rushed in, Gabi noticed with satisfaction that Mr Alpha’s expression had changed from arrogant confidence to angry s
hock. She held his gaze as she calmly twisted her body sideways, not bothering to remove Mr Stocky’s arm from her throat, and brought the stick down across the back of the man’s knees. He grunted in pain, and his grip on her throat loosened. A fatal mistake in other circumstances. Gabi’s eyes narrowed as she whirled to the Werewolf, who was grimacing in pain but trying to grab her again, this time a little desperately. She ducked his wild grasp and spun the staff one more time, flicking it into a vicious strike across his throat. He collapsed to the ground, choking and gagging, his eyes wide with panic. Gabi turned slowly back to face the Alpha. She dropped the rake handle and drew Nex again, openly challenging him. One of the men had managed to pick himself up off the ground, but he was swaying alarmingly. The man from the back of the house came charging around the corner; apparently he’d heard the commotion. Gabi hoped none of the neighbours had. The Alpha held up a hand to freeze him in his tracks.
“This isn’t over,” he snarled at Gabi.
“You’re damn right about that,” she agreed. “But a quick word of advice; by this afternoon there’ll be a kill order on your head. Next time we meet, I won’t be so gentle.”
The Alpha was so incensed that he seemed to be struggling to keep his own wolf at bay. He made a sharp gesture at the standing men, and they quickly began dragging the groaning and unconscious Werewolves towards the cars. The Pack leader’s gaze never left hers as he backed away several steps and then with a deliberate sneer turned his back on her and strode to the front car.
Gabi made a mental note of the licence plates as the cars roared off down the street and out of sight. Then she sheathed Nex and blew out a breath, trying to calm the adrenaline high before opening the door cautiously. With relief, she saw that it wasn’t a wolf waiting for her, but Derek, still in human form, curled on the floor breathing hoarsely.
All Hell Breaks Loose Page 5