All Hell Breaks Loose

by Sharon Hannaford

  He wasn’t in his office, as she’d expected. He was still in his bedroom. She doubted he was still ‘asleep’, he usually rose long before his Clan members and often even before the sun had set. She was so distracted by what she was going to say to him that she didn’t even notice the steady, human heartbeat in the room before she flung open the door and walked in proclaiming, “Sorry, Julius, no more hiding from…”

  It was then that she noticed the human heartbeat, and the human it belonged to—the very petite, very pretty, female human sitting on Julius’s lap as his face nuzzled into the side of her neck. Julius was naked from the waist up, his glorious, muscle-sculpted shoulders and chest gleaming with a pale luminescence in the dim lighting. The shock on his beautiful face mirrored the shock on her own as his head whipped up to find her standing in his doorway. She realised what she’d walked in on when she took in his elongated canines, the smear of red at his lip and the girl’s passive, vacant expression. She took a quick breath as she tried to figure out if this was better or worse than her first assumption. The streak of jealousy that had flashed through her like a firebolt at her first glimpse of the scene had nearly sent her to her knees. She whirled back towards the door, but his voice caught her before she could leave.

  “Gabrielle.” It was hardly a whisper.

  She heard him move, a little moan of protest coming from the blonde woman, but she didn’t look back at him.

  “Gabrielle, I’m sorry.”

  His voice did all kinds of unfair things to her. She bit her lip and forced herself to continue her path to the door, her back to him. “No, the fault is mine. Finish your…breakfast. I’ll wait for you in the office,” she said, leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

  She would’ve collapsed against the wall outside if it wasn’t for the fact that he’d hear her. She couldn’t show any weakness. Not now. Instead, she strode down the corridor to his recently refurbished office, praying she didn’t meet Maximilian again; she wasn’t sure she could stop herself from putting the gloating bastard down like the rabid dog he was. Julius’s office had been wrecked twice since he’d met her, once by Gabi herself, and the second time when Gregory killed another Clan member who’d uncovered his treachery. It was a wonder Julius hadn’t decided to move it to a secret location. For all that, it hadn’t changed much from the first time she’d seen it. Though the glass case containing his collection of rare knives and swords hadn’t been in its usual spot when he’d brought her here the first time. That was the time he’d drugged and kidnapped her in order to convince her to speak on his behalf to the SMV about Danté.

  She knew he kept a stock of red wine in there somewhere and set about finding it. She needed something to steady her nerves. She found the stash in the third cupboard she opened, along with some stylish, crystal stemware, which she hoped she wouldn’t feel the need to throw against a wall. She pulled out two glasses and a bottle. She didn’t bother checking what the bottle was; Julius only drank top-quality red wine. He was an old enough Vampire to have developed a taste for certain liquids again, and red wine was his favourite. She placed the glasses on his desk and turned back to the cupboards with the bottle in her hand, to look for a bottle opener. A slight movement of the air around her was the only warning she had that he was right behind her.

  “Allow me,” he said as a long, slender hand gently rescued the bottle before she dropped it. He uncorked the wine with quick, sure fingers as she took a deep breath to calm her heartbeat and force the adrenalin rush to subside. He expertly poured the two glasses without saying a word and set the bottle on the desk as she finally turned to face him. His face was so familiar to her that she almost didn’t see the heart-stopping attractiveness anymore. Almost. He’d forgotten (or perhaps just not bothered) to pull a shirt on and stood in only his silk pyjama bottoms. She couldn’t imagine any woman turning him down. Ever. She could feel his caution, his uncertainty and his decision to pull away from her once again. In that instant she knew she couldn’t let him. She would let him love her or hate her, but she wouldn’t let him ignore her.

  In a move as fast as any Vampire he knew, she was pressed up against him, her toned curves and firm breasts pressed against his naked chest, her hands twisted ruthlessly into his hair before he could do more than blink. He wasn’t even aware of bending down enough for her to get her lips to his when she kissed him. As her warm, demanding lips clashed with his and her hot, little tongue swept into his mouth, every thought, every argument, every reason against doing this, every twinge of guilt he felt over what Danté had done to her was swept from his mind. All that existed in that moment was the feeling of rightness, as though a missing puzzle piece had slotted into place in his soul.

  After she’d fled his bedroom, he’d sent the dazed and confused little human donor on her way without finishing his feeding. He’d been desperate to try and soothe Gabi’s feelings. Her flash of temper as well as the shock had been clear on her face. He didn’t want a repeat of the last Red Rage incident that had left his office demolished. He’d known she would only wait so long before forcing the issue between them. If he hadn’t been feeding, he would’ve realised she was in the house, but hungry and half asleep, he’d slipped up. As he’d walked to his office, he’d reminded himself of all the reasons it would be better for him not to continue their relationship. He’d been prepared for anything from hurt irritation to full-blown Red Rage. But not this. He hadn’t prepared himself for an erotic onslaught.

  In a small back corner of his mind, a voice reminded him that he was bad for her. She would be safer outside his world than inside. She’d been so close to dead when they’d found her at Danté’s hideout that he’d almost lost his mind. It had been so bad in the days afterwards that he’d feared he was going to descend into Red Rage himself. But that voice of reason was weak and distant, and getting more so with each sweep of her tongue as she deepened their kiss. She felt so right in his arms that it made him ache. The wine and the world forgotten, he wound his arms around her and pulled her closer, lifting her slightly off the ground as he drew her scent and the touch of her body into his very soul. His mouth ached as his canines lengthened involuntarily, and he tried to draw back slightly to save Gabi from their razor-sharp points. But she defiantly flicked her tongue across one tip, slicing the tender flesh. As the first drop hit his taste buds, the world tipped and spun. He couldn’t focus on anything except the exquisite taste of her, her lithe body and her warm hands tracing over his shoulders and down his chest. Finally, she broke away to look up at him with dark challenge in her emerald green eyes.

  “Now that,” he rasped, breathing hard, “was unexpected.”

  “Not just for you,” she replied, a wicked grin quirking one corner of her sinful mouth.

  “And utterly unfair.” He managed to steady his voice back to normal. Mostly. As he brought his hands up to cup her face, letting a thumb trace over her full lower lip, he knew he’d lost. And won. He couldn’t stop himself from reacting to her; he couldn’t hold himself back from her anymore. For the first time in over six weeks, he felt complete. The mindless fugue had broken. He was wholly hers, and he wondered if she realised what she’d done.

  It was amazing. All her doubts and fears had vanished like the morning mist under the sun’s onslaught. The moment he responded to her, she knew this was right; they were good together. She could feel the rightness all the way down to her toes. She wasn’t lying when she said she hadn’t expected to tackle him like that. It was as though her body had known what to do while her mind had been suspended in a whirl of confusion. Or maybe it was her heart and soul in the driving seat. That’s what it felt like at least.

  His mouth reclaimed hers as his hard body crowded her up against the wood of a cupboard door. Her hands continued to rove over his body, tracing the ridges of hard muscle down his back, exploring the dips between the muscles and then heading south towards the firm flesh of his buttocks. As her fingers slipped under the waistband of his silk pyjam
a pants, he gave a hoarse groan and grabbed her hands, halting their wicked exploration. He grabbed her delicate wrists and forced them up above her head with a less than gentle touch, pinning them to the cupboard door as he bent to run his fangs down her neck, his breathing hoarse.

  In a blinding flash, Gabi was back in the underground cellar with a psychotic Vampire and a Dark Magus torturing her. Her mind froze, and she couldn’t hold back the scream.

  Gabi’s body went rigid against his, and suddenly she screamed. He reacted instantly, spinning and shielding her body with his own, frantically searching for the danger, gathering his power, ready to attack. It was only when she collapsed behind him and he heard the words she was whispering over and over again that he realised the threat wasn’t in the room with them.

  “No more, please. No more, please…”

  The desperation in her voice tore at him as he crouched down in front of her shaking body. She was curled into a protective ball, rocking back and forth as tears ran unheeded down her face. Her heart was pounding like a herd of stampeding horses, and she was gasping for breath. Her eyes were wide and unfocussed as she revisited a scene he could remember only too well. Danté had pinned her to the floorboards of an old wine cellar with bent metal rods while he tortured her.

  “Gabrielle,” he crooned desperately, “it’s all right, sweetheart. It’s all right.”

  He could have screamed in rage himself, he didn’t know whether to try and touch her to comfort her or if that would just make the situation worse. Seeing her like this, vulnerable, panic-stricken and fearful, made him wish that Danté was still alive, just so he could kill the monster all over again. No one had the right to turn his beautiful, strong, dangerous, confident Lea into a shaking, defenceless ball. He couldn’t help himself any longer. He picked her up in his arms, still shaking and rigid. He took her to a chaise longue and sat with her, holding her tight and murmuring softly as he stroked her hair. Gradually her breathing and heart rate calmed, and she stopped the whispered pleading. It was long minutes before her muscles finally relaxed and she was able to lift her head from his chest.

  “Julius?” she said, looking dazed and confused as she wiped at the wetness on her cheeks. “What the hell just happened?”

  Julius wordlessly kissed her forehead and lifted her off his lap to settle her on the chaise longue. He returned to his desk to grab the forgotten glasses of wine. He set one on a nearby side table and pressed the other into her hand, holding it steady as she took a shaky sip. Then he pulled a chair close and sat down facing her, leaving a little space between them as though he wasn’t sure he should be touching her. As she took another fortifying gulp, he looked down at the floor, suddenly as tense as a hunting tiger.

  “Did he…” he started and then broke off, blowing a breath through his nose like a diver preparing to plunge into water. “Did Danté…” He still couldn’t get his sentence out, and Gabi suddenly realised what he was trying to ask.

  “No,” she said firmly. “No, Julius, he didn’t rape me.” She leaned forward, putting a hand on his arm until he looked up into her eyes. The pain in them tore at her, and suddenly it was her supporting him. “I promise you. He didn’t try anything like that. He considered me human, and to him, humans were nothing more than animals. He was just a nasty child tormenting a neighbour’s pet. It wasn’t your touch that set me off into…I don’t even know what that was,” she admitted. She couldn’t quite still the shaking of her hands, and she had to concentrate not to spill the wine.

  “That was a full-blown panic attack, Gabrielle. What else would have set you off except for my touch? I look like him, I’m a Vampire like him, and I’m powerful like him. I can’t believe I didn’t consider how it might affect you.”

  Gabi scowled at him. “Fine, a panic attack. It was being held down by my wrists, feeling trapped, like I had no escape that triggered it, not you.” She met his eyes squarely, allowing him to read the truth of her statement in them. “You are nothing like Danté, you don’t look like him, you don’t smell like him, and your power has a clean, energising feel to it. His was dark and insidious, like walking into a dank, mouldy cave and finding yourself coated in spider webs.” She shuddered. “I could never confuse you with Danté.” She watched him as her honesty struck home, and some of the tension drained from him.

  “Jonathon and Ian said they didn’t think he’d done anything like that to you, but in my mind it was always a possibility. If I could still dream, I would’ve been having nightmares for the last six weeks.” He brought his glass to his lips and drained it, waiting for her to finish hers before rising to refill them.

  “It’s just so strange how that is what finally triggered it,” Gabi said, burying her nose in the refilled glass.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Everyone has been tiptoeing around me, waiting for it to happen. I think they all expected it to be in a fight or in a dark underground room. I’ve been waiting for it myself. Driving myself insane wondering what would set me off.” She gave a soft half-amused snort. “I was really expecting to just suddenly freeze in the middle of a battle. Instead I freeze while trying to seduce a sexy Vampire.”

  Julius’s eyes glittered for another moment, and then he allowed her attempt at humour to rub off on him. A smile tugged at one side of his mouth. “I think you could leave the word trying out of that statement.” The velvet purr was back in his voice. Her hands had finally stopped trembling. “So tell me,” he asked, “did Maximilian give in, or do I need to advertise for a new Chief Steward?”

  Gabi’s lips narrowed into a thin line. “No, he’s still around. Nex barely nicked him. He was being a pretentious prat,” she huffed.

  Julius couldn’t quite suppress his amusement. “He was only following orders, Gabrielle,” Julius chided teasingly.

  “You ordered him to be a pretentious prat?” Gabi asked in surprise.

  Julius actually burst into laughter. “You surprise me at every turn, Miss Bradford,” he announced, pulling her back onto his lap. Her smaller frame fitted snugly into his body, and her arm went around his back as she laid her head on his chest, accepting his comfort. “I guess I should thank you for not killing him, then. Shall I move him back to his previous post and find someone less pretentious?” he asked as he wrapped his arms firmly around her.

  She thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. “Nah, you can keep him around. I think I’ll enjoy rattling his cage.”

  His chest shook in a silent chuckle under her cheek. “Oh, I’m sure you will, my Lea,” he agreed, kissing the top of her head. “I’m sure you will.”

  Gabi was just contemplating how much more over-protective her little panic attack was going to make him when a firm knock sounded at the office door.

  “Julius,” Alexander’s voice called.

  Julius sighed but held onto her as she moved to get off his lap. She relented and settled back against him.

  “Come in, Alexander,” he called.

  “We had a call from…Uh…Oh! Hellcat!” he stuttered in surprise as his gaze landed on the two of them. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise.” A profound relief settled over the handsome Vampire’s face, and he tried unsuccessfully to keep a smile from his face.

  Alexander was cursed with extremely good looks. The sort of male attractiveness that could only be described as beautiful. He was only a few inches taller than Gabi and was less muscular than Julius, but that wouldn’t have deterred any heterosexual woman she knew. He’d recently had his hair cut very short; Gabi wondered if it was an attempt to lose the ‘Harlequin cover shot’ look. It didn’t detract from his looks in the slightest. Gabi knew that a razor-sharp mind and rapier-edged wit hid behind the movie-star looks. It wasn’t hard to see that he’d been extremely worried about his Sire. “Was that Maximilian’s ghost I saw wandering around in the kitchen, then?” he asked with feigned confusion.

  “It’s going to be your ghost wandering around if you don’t have a very good re
ason for disturbing us,” Julius growled, though Gabi could hear there was no real anger in the retort.

  Alexander’s smirk grew wider even as his voice turned serious. “I had a call from Patrick,” he stated, referring to the Werewolf in charge of daytime security for Julius’s rather extensive business empire. Gabi had met him once; he was an ex-military man with a cool, calm, capable demeanour. “He had an interesting visit this afternoon from a group of men claiming to be from Civil Defence.”

  Gabi stiffened in shock.

  Chapter 6

  Derek looked as bushed as she felt when they finally pulled up outside her house. The thought of a hot shower and a warm bed was the only thing keeping her upright at that point. Dawn was only an hour or so away. After Gabi had filled Julius and Alexander in on her recent exploits with Werewolves and the fake government agents, she’d taken them to meet Derek. He’d managed to keep it together admirably well, though his stress levels had been so high that they’d kept the meeting short and to the point. They’d left him with Trish and Jonathon while she’d gone with the Vampires to get the story from Patrick. Kyle had joined them at Julius’s downtown head office. What they’d learned from the security man made the whole situation seem even more sinister than before. Kyle was going to speak to the SMV Council in the morning. Gabi was sure they’d all be summoned to a meeting very shortly.

  “You can grab the first shower if you like,” she told Derek as she dragged herself out of the car. “I’ll go and check on Roman.” She was so tired she didn’t at first register that Razor hadn’t arrived at the door to give her his traditional welcome home greeting. It was only when she was halfway to the run around the back of the house when it occurred to her. She sighed. Apparently she still hadn’t been forgiven for bringing Roman home. She’d have to do some grovelling before she went to bed tonight, or she might wake up to a ruined house. Unless it was already too late. “Damn,” she cursed into the darkness. The last time Razor had been pissed at her he’d destroyed most of the furniture in her lounge, the time before that had been her bed. What was he going to prove his point on tonight, she wondered.