All Hell Breaks Loose

by Sharon Hannaford

  “We’re three floors underground now,” he told her as they left the car and walked towards the door. There was no lighting down here, and if Gabi hadn’t had supernatural eyesight, she would’ve been as good as blind. “Let’s get inside, the others will get here soon.” He pressed his thumb to a small scanner pad set to one side of the door, and it clicked open. He captured her hand in his as he guided her down a long undecorated corridor and into a room, turning on lights. It was a spacious room with a large rectangular table in the centre. The blueprints and several other documents that they’d looked over earlier at the Estate lay in a neat pile on the table, along with several other printed sheets of paper Gabi hadn’t seen before. Several laptops were arranged in an orderly fashion on one side, and a large map of the City covered half of one wall. On the wall farthest from the door hung a bank of LCD screens, currently blank. Another table stood in a corner and was laid ready with bottled water, a hot-water urn, tea and coffee supplies and several trays of food. There was something to be said for secret underground lairs connected to hotel kitchens, Gabi thought with wry amusement.

  She didn’t hesitate to tuck into a slice of quiche and a couple of neatly cut pastrami sandwiches. Plate in one hand and bottle of water in the other, she went to join Julius at the table, reading the new documents around his shoulder. The outer door clicked again, and a moment later Alexander, Fergus and Marcello joined them in the room.

  Julius sent Marcello to check that the other rooms had been prepared to his specifications. Gabi learned that this place was essentially the Clan’s bolthole if things went badly pear-shaped for Vampires and Werewolves and they needed somewhere safe from humans. There were enough rooms and beds down here to accommodate all the members of the Clan as well as a large portion of the Werewolves working for them. There were full kitchen, sanitation and communication facilities and enough secret exits that the Vampires could leave to find food sources when they needed to. Gabi suspected the hotel guests would be the initial food sources, but she didn’t ask for details. The best they could hope for was that the facility was never needed for its primary purpose. This was why the facility was treated with the utmost secrecy. Gabi was the only person outside of the top echelon of Clan members who knew its location. All other ‘guests’ had, and would continue, to be blind-folded before being brought here. She itched to go and explore the lair, as she’d silently begun to refer to the place, but she didn’t want to miss anything important, so she went instead to study the map on the wall.

  She turned as she heard the outer door click once again. At least two sets of footsteps that, while quiet, weren’t as quiet as Vampire tread moved down the corridor. Charlie poked his head inside.

  “Sire,” he greeted him, “where do you want the computer lady and her brother?”

  “In here, thank you, Charles,” Julius told him.

  The lanky Vampire moved from the doorway and guided Derek and Trish, both still blindfolded, into the room. He quickly removed the blindfolds, and the siblings blinked in the sudden onslaught of the bright lighting.

  “You can relax in the rec room for now, Charles. I’ll send word if we need you.”

  The Vampire bowed and vanished back out the door. Anxiety was swirling around Trish, but Derek was calm and in control. He had a portable printer tucked under one arm and a ream of paper under the other.

  “Hey, guys,” Gabi greeted them, wanting to make Trish feel more at ease.

  Trish flashed her a quick smile, but worry lines creased her forehead.

  “Where do you want this, sis?” Derek asked, nodding at the printer.

  “Ah,” Trish hedged, clearly still daunted by the presence of so many Vampires.

  “Make yourself comfortable, Trish,” Julius said in a low, calm voice. Gabi could feel a very subtle wash of power seep into the room. “Set up wherever is best for you. We need the laptops linked to the monitors and the printer. There is Wi-Fi down here, so connect us to that as well. Alexander can help you; he has a few computer skills.”

  Alexander directed a baleful glare at his Sire, but then turned and gave Trish an encouraging smile. “At least some old dogs can learn new tricks,” he told her, relieving Derek of the printer and paper. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

  Trish flushed bright pink the second Alexander turned his attention on her. At least her fear ebbed, Gabi thought wryly, realising how quickly she forgot that Alexander was devastatingly handsome. Handsome enough that even ice queen Athena tended to get tongue-tied around him. As the two of them set to work, Gabi turned to Derek.

  “Has anyone filled you in yet?” she asked him.

  “You mean about letting the Werewolf Men-In-Black capture me?” he affirmed.

  “You are under no obligation to do this,” she said. “We can pull off the operation without you going inside alone.” She was being careful how she phrased her thoughts. She knew Trish was listening. The thought of having her brother in mortal danger wouldn’t help her keep control. It wasn’t too many nights to full moon, and too much stress right now could prompt her first Change early.

  “It would be much safer for the rest of you if we have an idea of the set-up and the numbers we’ll be facing,” Derek pointed out. “Gabi, I want to do this.” He glanced surreptitiously at Trish. “I won’t try anything stupid, I promise. No heroics. I swear it. I’ll go in, gather info, reassure Kyle if I can, and then wait for the cavalry.”

  “No matter what we do to get you into their clutches, they’re going to be suspicious,” she said. “Any wrong move or word on your part could alert them to what we’re up to.”

  “Hey, I may not be an actor, but I’ve worked around them long enough that I think I can pull off whatever script you give me,” he pointed out.

  Gabi glared at him. “You need to remember that Werewolves are living, breathing lie detectors,” she reminded him. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, heart rate, sweating, blood pressure changes, minute changes in pupils, these are all detectible.” She ticked items off on her fingers as she listed them. He was being far too cocky and confident about this. “You’ll need to avoid outright lies. Twist the truth, or embellish or play down stuff, but don’t let them catch you in a lie.”

  The more she thought about all the things that could go wrong with this, the more she thought it was a terrible idea. Derek suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her slightly, his face close to hers. She felt Julius and Fergus go still. Dangerously still.

  “Gabi,” he growled, frustration in his voice, and completely ignorant of the danger he was currently in. “I want to do this. I need to do this.” There was a glimmer of desperation in his eyes, but it was overshadowed by the bright flare of excitement.

  If he wasn’t careful, he was going to get more excitement than he’d bargained for. She lifted a warning hand to the silent threat of the Vampires and deftly broke away from Derek’s grasp. Julius and Fergus subsided, and Alexander went back to helping Trish.

  “Fine,” she breathed. “You know the…” she fumbled for some milder terms for Trish’s sake, “risks involved. You know the orders regarding the human?”

  He nodded.

  “You made me some promises here tonight, you best not break them,” she warned with a pointed glance towards Trish.

  Derek followed her gaze, and his expression lost a little of its excitement, but gained something in fervour. “This man must be stopped,” he said to no one in particular, “and I will help stop him.”

  Trish looked up to meet his gaze. She was biting her bottom lip, her eyes bright with tears.

  Derek gave her a small smile. “Then I think I can move forward. Begin to rebuild my life. And hopefully be the brother Trish needs right now.”

  The noise of a throat being cleared broke the dramatic spell. Trish ducked back to her work, wiping surreptitiously at her eyes, the rest turned to Liam.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” he said, “but I have Patrick on the phone. He says it’s urgent.” He held ou
t a phone to Julius.

  The next few hours flew past in a blur. The biggest debate centred around how to get Derek into the enemy camp without raising suspicion. Byron had sent word that he’d a sourced a microchip that could be injected under Derek’s skin. It would transmit audio back to them, so long as they placed a relay transmitter not too far from the airbase. The chip was not detectable by 99% of scanners, but there was still a slim chance of discovery. Marcello was dispatched to collect the microchip while Byron took care of the relay transmitter.

  The breakthrough finally came when a report arrived from some Blackriver Pack members that several suspicious non-Pack males were prowling the clubs in a seedy part of lower downtown. The plan became simple after that. Derek just had to put himself in their path, attract their attention, and then hope they recognised him. The moment Marcello arrived back with the microchip, Gabi followed Byron’s instructions, inserting it into a specialized syringe and injecting the tiny capsule just under Derek’s skin, behind his left ear. Gabi had to bite her lip to keep from rattling off a thousand instructions and words of advice as she worked. Trish was stressed enough without Gabi making the mission seem virtually impossible; she had to at least act like he could pull this off with no problems. She wished Byron had been able to find some way for them to communicate with him, but anything Derek could hear, no matter how quiet, would be loud enough to attract the attention of another Werewolf. She prayed to the Lord and Lady that his control over his wolf was stable enough.

  As Liam prepared to guide him back to the surface through one of the secret escape routes, Gabi suddenly felt a little sympathy for her mother, for all the years of watching first her husband and then her daughter walk knowingly into the jaws of danger. It was a rare thing for Gabi to be on the other end of it. As he prepared to leave, Trish came and silently put her arms around him. He hugged her back fiercely and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

  “I’ll see you soon,” he told her. “Get some rest, okay?” He gently pulled away from her, and Gabi stepped forward to take her shoulders, trying to lend the other woman some strength and reassurance. It wasn’t something that came naturally to her, comforting others, but Trish brought the dormant need out of her.

  “I’ll make sure she rests,” Gabi told Derek. “Remember two things: keep your wolf under control, and keep your promises.”

  “No heroics,” he promised again with a nod and a grim smile. He pulled the blindfold on as well as a nose clip, to prevent him being able to scent the location of the lair’s secret exit, and allowed Liam to lead him from the room.

  With most of the details worked out, Julius called a meeting of the Pack leaders to make sure they knew their positions and to work out any kinks with the plan of attack. The five Werewolves arrived blindfolded and not happy about it. Gabi was still amazed at how far the Pack leaders seemed to have come in the past few months. While they still weren’t exactly BFFs, up until a few months ago they had flatly refused to be in the same room together. They kept strictly to their own Packs, and meetings between Packs frequently resulted in fights. It had been one of the things that kept Hunters busy. Even on the slowest night in the dead of winter, you could rely on Werewolves to pick a fight with each other. Now, while the air was still saturated with dominant Werewolf scents, enough to make Gabi wrinkle her nose, they were being civil to one another and took seats without trying to be on opposite sides of the room. Even taking Julius’s immense presence into account, they were behaving particularly well. Something was definitely brewing, and for once, that could be a good thing.

  Without much preamble, Julius and Alexander launched into the outline of the attack. Even with the new spirit of teamwork between the Packs, they were being careful to give the Packs duties which kept them out of each other’s way as far as possible.

  It was vital to ensure that none of the Werewolves on the base escaped. So it fell to four of the Packs to secure the perimeter of the base, containing anyone trying to flee or any returning to the base once the attack commenced. The Blackriver Pack would be going into the facility with two contingents of Vampires and the Hunter squad. There was the slightest rumble of unhappiness through the four Packs who would not be in the thick of the fight, but a look from Julius quickly quelled any dissent. They all knew it made sense for the Blackriver Pack to go in with the Vampires, as they had already worked together and most knew each other. A few weak points were noted and quickly dealt with. Some of the details could only be finalized once they had a better idea of the internal layout of the place, and those would be worked out shortly before the raid, which was scheduled for an hour after full dark. This gave the Vampires and Hunters enough time to get into the base and into position before the actual assault began.

  Trish had been sent to catch up on some much needed sleep before the Pack leaders arrived. Gabi knew the stress of having five extremely dominant wolves in such a small space would not have been good for her. But her scent was still lingering in the room, and one of the Pack leaders finally couldn’t resist asking about her.

  “The female,” the leader said, his nostrils flaring as though tasting the air. He was a short, stocky man, who could possibly have been Butch’s older brother, Gabi recalled that he was known as Swamp Dog, she didn’t know his real name. “This will be her first Change?”

  “Yes,” Gabi answered, a little wary.

  “If she needs any help, some guidance, my mate would be more than happy to step in,” he said. “Females are always welcome in my Pack.”

  There was a rumble as the rest put their own cases forward and made similar offers.

  “Thank you for the offers, gentlemen,” she said, quietening them with a hand motion. “I will make sure she knows of your generosity, and I will encourage her to make contact with some of your women. Perhaps some of the less feisty ones.” She grinned a little as reluctant nods and smiles came from some of the leaders. “But I have to warn you,” she continued, “that I think Kyle has a prior claim to her. So I wouldn’t be counting on a new female in your Packs just yet.” The looks of shock and surprise amused Gabi. They were used to Kyle staying away from Werewolf females and not showing any interest in Pack affairs.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to go and rescue him then, eh?” one of the other leaders piped up with an evil chuckle. “Leave him to the human’s tender ministrations?”

  There were a few grunts of agreement around the table, but Gabi knew that none of them were serious. The man’s comment seemed to remind them that Gabi had been in a similar situation not long ago, and the amusement suddenly died. One of them cleared his throat. It was the oldest of the leaders, a bear of a man with a shaggy mane of hair and an attitude of barely leashed aggression. He looked directly into her eyes as he spoke.

  “What about you, Angeli Morte?” he said quietly. “Are you recovered enough to be going into a mission like this one?” His eyes flashed for a millisecond to Julius’s face as though wondering if he’d incurred the Vampire’s wrath.

  For the briefest moment the man’s question flung open the lid on the ugly, black box lurking in the dark corner of Gabi’s mind. The one containing the terror, the panic, the memories of pain and the knowledge of her own vulnerability. A sudden surge of warmth and sunshine flooded her mind and slammed shut the lid on the black box. Julius. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t flinched, hadn’t shown any outward sign of his support. But he was there. Chasing back the Demons, the dark, the self-doubt. Pulling that strength towards her, wrapping it around herself, feeding it with determination and her own sense of cold, hard justice, she allowed the result to show on her face. She leant forward, her hands flat on the table in front of her, and stared directly into the Pack leader’s eyes. No words were necessary.

  A grim smile replaced the challenge on the Werewolf’s face, and he actually lowered his gaze with a small nod. Acknowledgement of the greater power. As she backed down and the leaders prepared to leave, Gabi felt the strength and warmth flowing from Julius
become tinged with pride. And lust.

  Chapter 22

  Shortly after the Pack leaders’ departure, a report came in from Patrick to say that Derek had successfully been picked up by a rogue team. They’d staged a perfectly timed chase, as though Derek had escaped the SMV’s clutches and was on the run, and he literally fell over them, trying to run down a side street. Patrick, who’d been following the action from the rooftops, was terribly impressed with Derek’s acting skills; he’d seen nothing but elation and satisfaction from the group of four rogues. They’d quickly reassured Derek that they could help him, had the perfect place for him to hide, and bundled him into one of their cars.

  It would be the better part of an hour before the group got back to the airbase and, hence, in range of the relay transmitter. Gabi knew it would be an anxious wait to find out if they had a clear audio feed and if the microchip would be discovered. She stalked back to the catering table to see if anything was left after the Pack leaders had attacked it.

  “I’ll send up to the kitchen for anything you like,” Julius purred into her ear. A delicious shiver ran down her spine.

  “How do you manage that without raising suspicion in your hotel staff?” Gabi asked, her tone bland, but she pressed closer to Julius’s body.