Gabi was…well, she was Gabi. Larger than life, vibrant, confident, some might say arrogant, though Trish knew better, she exuded a presence that spoke volumes. If size was related to self-assurance and personality, Gabi would be ten feet tall. With a mass of wild auburn hair befitting her fiery temper and an emerald green gaze that could glare a rabid Werewolf to cowering one minute and flash with unadulterated mischief the next, she could draw people in or scare them off with just one look. Trish’s soft sea-green eyes could barely glare a recalcitrant puppy into behaving.
Trish needed to be more like Gabi, she knew that. As mate to an Alpha Pack Leader; arguably the most dominant Pack Leader in the City, she should be strong and authoritative and command respect. Kyle assured her at least once a week that she was absolutely perfect, and no one wanted her to change her compassionate, sweet-tempered personality, but she knew what was expected of a Luna, and soft and maternal didn’t cut it.
Maternal. That word made her smile despite her own misgivings; she could never think of her natural mothering instinct as a bad thing. Especially not when the galloping tornado that was Breanna Emily Robson, having heard Gabi’s car, came careening down the stairs at breakneck speed. Sending a little prayer of thanks to the heavens for her Werewolf speed and strength, Trish caught the small child as she attempted to leap the last five steps in one bound. Before Trish could remind her that she could get hurt, Gabi appeared in the doorway, and the little girl shrieked with excitement, pulling free of Trish’s grasp to hurl herself headfirst at the visitor.
“Aunty Gabi, Aunty Gabi, you comed,” she trilled.
Gabi scooped her up with equal excitement, kissing her soundly and tickling her until the little girl shrieked again, giggling uncontrollably. Trish’s heart ached just a little, though she couldn’t have said exactly why. Perhaps because Gabi’s presence reminded Trish that Breanna was only hers in heart, not in blood. Despite the legal adoption papers, Trish always felt like she might be whisked away at any time, and that thought utterly terrified her.
“You have grown again, Breanna Robson,” Gabi said sternly, setting the little girl back on her feet. “I specifically told you you weren’t allowed to grow any more while I was away.”
Breanna jumped up and down, still giggling, unable to contain her joy. “Mummy says I’s growned a whole inch,” she declared proudly. “And I’s started doing dancing class. Did you bring me anything? Where’s Raz? Is Unca Jools coming today too?”
In the face of the onslaught of questions, Gabi displayed true courage under fire. Her smile was almost as broad as Breanna’s as she pulled the little girl in for another hug.
“I’ve missed you, little munchkin, and so has Uncle Jules, but he’s got to meet some boring people and talk about business today. He will visit soon though. Raz is very tired after our long trip, so he’s asleep in the car. I left the door open, and he’ll come inside as soon as he wakes up. I promise.” But Breanna was already peering around Gabi towards the sleek red and black car.
“No, you can’t go and wake him up, pumpkin. Let him sleep,” Trish said firmly, knowing exactly where the girl’s thoughts were going.
“I brought you this.” Gabi reached for a bag that was slung over one shoulder and handed it over to Breanna. The large gift bag was pink and silver and adorned with unicorns and fairies and was clearly stuffed to bursting. The child whooped with delight, wrapping her arms around Gabi’s neck and kissing her on the cheek before trotting off towards the lounge with her bag of treasures.
“You spoil her,” Trish grumbled as calm descended over the hallway.
“I know.” Gabi grinned, closing in for a hug. “It’s my job as her official aunt.”
As Gabi’s arms enfolded her, somehow an unconscious weight in Trish’s chest eased, and an unexpected sense of calm prevailed. The wolf stopped pacing and lay down as though content to hand over guard duty for a while. Gabi smelled wonderful, as familiar as Pack to Trish, and Pack was always good. Every person, human or otherwise, had a distinct scent, a unique mix of DNA, hormones and sweat along with soap, perfumes, colognes and the other smells collected over the course of the day; smoke, engine fumes and air freshener combined with natural smells like the flowers someone had touched or the ocean they’d put their feet in the day before. A Werewolf nose could pick out the smell of the McNuggets and fries that you ate the day before. But with Gabi there was always that one very distinct scent, that scent that was almost unique to her. Not perfectly unique, however. Trish smelled that very same scent every single day. It also belonged to Breanna. It was the scent of a Dhampir, a human with Vampire blood mixed into their very DNA.
Yes, most mothers thought of their child as special, but very few could rival the child Trish called hers. A Magi Dhampir, one of twins, and destined to fulfil some archaic prophesy and decide the course of history for the next one thousand years. Trish caught the errant thoughts and stashed them back in a box before they could make her hyperventilate.
Gabi finally pulled away, and Trish remembered the early days of their friendship, back when Gabi regularly had to remind Trish not to break her ribs when they hugged. Trish had always forgotten her own strength in those early days of adapting to the effects of the Lycanthropy virus; Gabi was a lot of things, but she was still more human than Trish, and therefore a lot more breakable. Breanna had taught Trish how to be truly gentle, and she no longer needed to be reminded about humanlike fragility.
“Your wolf is anxious,” Gabi said with a little frown as she stepped back and studied Trish’s face. “Is everything alright?”
Trish grimaced, turning to partially close the front door, leaving a gap for Gabi’s cat to enter.
“I don’t know what’s wrong,” she said, knowing better than to try to brush Gabi off. “She has been very restless, but for no reason I can fathom. And I’ve been having disturbing dreams. Kyle thinks she might be trying to warn us about something, but I think it’s just maternal instinct. It’s difficult to know what’s normal for a Werewolf as far as having children are concerned.”
“That’s true,” Gabi conceded. “Parenting a young child is rather a rarity in the Werewolf world.”
“She’s calm now though,” Trish noted. “You have the same effect that Kyle has on her. She relaxes when he’s around too.”
“I can try to communicate with her a bit later once Breanna has gone for a nap,” Gabi offered. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” She reached for Trish’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“I’ll pour some coffee, and then we’d better go and supervise the opening of your presents before they’re all in pieces,” Trish said, heading towards the kitchen. “How did the mission go?” Her friend was part of an elite, international Vampire law enforcement squad who went by the innocuous-sounding acronym SID, which stood for the just as innocuous-sounding Special Investigations Division.
Gabi sighed, following her. “It was a little more complicated than we thought, but we got things sorted out. It just took longer than expected.” She covered a yawn as she leaned against the kitchen counter.
Trish shook her head, a little frustrated with her friend. “You should have caught up on some sleep before coming over,” she chided. “Breanna can wait.”
Gabi smiled tiredly as Trish set a cup of well-sweetened coffee in front of her. “It’s the jet-lag.” She brushed away Trish’s concern, picking up the coffee and breathing in the aroma before taking a sip. “I’ll just toss and turn if I try to sleep now. I’d far rather spend time with my two BFFs.”
Trish resisted the urge to hug her friend again; Gabi only did so much physical contact.
“Come on, let’s go and save the gifts from Captain Destruction,” she said instead, taking her own coffee through to the room where Breanna was ripping into a small mountain of toys, clothes and jewellery.
Breanna had been the most incredibly calm and easy-going baby, charming everyone with her serenity and unusual maturity. But at about nine months she�
�d gone through a remarkable transformation. She went from crawling to walking in less than two weeks, something Trish still worried about, as the baby books all stressed the importance of crawling, and the air of tranquillity that had exuded from her like an aura disappeared almost overnight.
A rough-and-tumble, energetic, inquisitive, demanding toddler had emerged in place of the placid baby, shocking them all. The resultant ball of energy didn’t sit still from the second she opened her eyes until the moment she fell asleep. Trish was unsure how human mothers coped, because she regularly found herself run ragged by the end of the day, and she had heaps of help from many willing babysitters.
Breanna seemed to entirely lack any sense of danger; she climbed anything and ran full tilt at everything. Those tendencies were not at all tempered by her mostly Werewolf babysitters, who thought little of throwing her several feet into the air before catching her or watching her climb the tallest trees knowing they would have no problem going to get her down if she got stuck or catching her if she fell. But one of her most powerful abilities was the capacity to break things. She never actually went about trying to break things, she was just so…enthusiastic.
Case in point, she was already trying to force a beautiful gold necklace with a unicorn charm over her head.
“No, pumpkin, let me help.” Trish quickly deposited her coffee on a table to rescue the necklace as Gabi snickered, kicking off her boots and folding herself into one of the sofas. Trish unhooked the delicate clasp just as a small barrel of brown and white fur trundled into the room.
“Look, Slinksy, it’s Aunty Gabi.” The little girl jumped to her feet, toys tumbling around her, the necklace forgotten, as she charged towards the small animal and grabbed him up.
“Gently with Slinky. Remember, he’s got his own legs,” Trish chided mildly, knowing the words would go unheard as she slid the necklace into her pocket for safe-keeping. The ferret was incredibly tolerant and put up with Breanna’s attention without a hint of annoyance, but Trish knew he was getting on in ferret years and doubted he enjoyed it all.
“Bring him over here,” Gabi said, patting her thigh, and the little girl happily obliged. Slinky calmly let Breanna drag his long, slender body to Gabi and deposit him on her lap. Gabi’s face softened as the ferret scrambled up to her shoulder and nuzzled her ear lovingly.
Slinky was one of Gabi’s rescues and had been a part of her little family for several years before she’d gifted the property to the Pack. At about the time that Kyle finally relinquished his lone wolf status and the Silver Ridge Pack was formed, Gabi was contemplating moving in with Julius for convenience’s sake, but she hadn’t wanted to sell her property. It had been her sanctuary, the first property she owned, and a place she felt a strong connection with. As Gabi’s best friend and co-Hunter, it had also been a second home to Kyle. The fact that the property had several acres of forest and bushland attached made it perfect for a Werewolf Haven.
When she gifted it to them, Gabi had only had one request, that Slinky stay with them. She felt that Slinky would be happier staying in the house that had been his home since he was just a few days old. Gabi’s travels with SID meant that if she moved him to Julius’s estate, the poor ferret would be without companionship much of the year. Kyle already had a soft spot for the lanky critter, so the arrangement worked well, and Slinky did indeed seem happy living with them.
Trish had worried how the ferret would adapt when they first brought Breanna to Haven, never having been around children before, but her fears had been unfounded. The ferret loved the baby girl as much as everyone else who came into contact with her, often sleeping curled at the bottom of her crib, and now her bed. Few other animals tolerated Werewolves. It was impossible to keep dogs as pets, Trish had had to give up her Rottweiler after being Turned, and, with the exception of Razor, cats tended to freak out and run away at full moon when they could sense the Change pulling the wolves. It was nice to have that one pet that Breanna could enjoy, but the ferret was always overjoyed to see Gabi whenever she visited.
“Slinksy misses you too, Aunty Gabi,” Breanna told Gabi with an unusually serious expression on her face. “The day before this day he showeded me your face and told me he was sad. You should come more often.” The girl’s tone had turned a little chiding.
Trish froze in the midst of reaching to tidy a spilled box of crayons and caught Gabi’s gaze. Trish saw her shock echoed in her friend’s face before she covered it with a quick, easy smile.
CHAPTER 4
“I know Slinky misses me, angel, but he’s so very, very happy living with you,” Gabi told Breanna, stroking the back of her hand down the girl’s cheek. “He tells me that every time I visit. He loves you very much, and I know you take very good care of him.”
The child looked at her in silence for just a moment, and then she smiled brightly, all seriousness gone in a blink. “He can sits with you. I’s still got more fings to open.” And then she was back on the floor, tearing at a My Little Pony toy.
Trish made a conscious effort to shut her mouth and put on a calm expression. She didn’t even correct Breanna’s pronunciation of ‘things’, which she was working gently but firmly to change. Weirdly, her wolf wasn’t reacting to her sense of shock at all; it was as though she somehow already understood. Trish took her coffee and went to sit on the sofa beside Gabi.
“Does that mean…what I think it does?” she asked quietly, chewing her lip as she glanced sideways at Gabi. She didn’t want to overreact to this, especially not in front of Gabi. She promised herself she could freak out later.
Gabi’s eyes were narrowed in thought, and then she touched Slinky, pulling him up so she could look at him, her eyebrows drawn together in concentration. Trish waited, her heart beating a little faster. When Gabi looked at an animal, she didn’t just see it, she communicated with it on a level akin to mind-reading. She could even control them if she chose to. She was even able to do it with a Werewolf. It was one of her most formidable gifts, being able to control a fully Changed Werewolf, or even several dozen of them. As the only known living Dhampir in the world, no one was sure if it was a Dhampir ability or a uniquely Gabi ability. The only thing they did know was that Gabi’s ‘Sire’ was probably the same one who had made Breanna a Dhampir as well.
Gabi let Slinky curl back into a ball in her lap and looked over at Trish with a frown.
“I’m not sure,” she said carefully. “It’s certainly possible. Slinky isn’t much help; he can’t understand what I’m asking him. Razor might be the one to ask instead. When he wakes up, I’ll see if I can get to the bottom of it.”
“The bottom of what?” Kyle asked, appearing in the doorway. A white T-shirt strained to contain his shoulders and muscled arms as he peered into the room.
“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” Breanna chanted as she leapt up and ran to him, wrapping her arms around his legs and looking up at him expectantly.
“You just saw me an hour ago, little pup.” Kyle laughed as he scooped her up and threw her into the air, catching her easily before setting her back on her feet.
“More like Hell kitten,” Gabi muttered with a grin.
“Aunty Gabi’s here. Aunty Gabi’s here,” Breanna told him, pulling on his pants leg.
“So I see,” Kyle said seriously, “and it looks like she’s brought half a toy shop for you.” He allowed the girl to tug him by the hand to show him her spoils.
“How old were you when the animal thing first manifested?” Kyle asked Gabi around a mouthful of steak sandwich. The three of them were on the sheltered patio, having a late lunch after Trish had settled Breanna for her afternoon nap. Razor, Gabi’s overly large long-haired tabby cat with disturbing orange eyes, sat on the seat beside Gabi, eating raw beef offcuts from his own plate. The cat was uncannily humanlike in his attitude and mannerisms and was becoming more so with each passing year. He travelled almost everywhere with Gabi and had more than once saved lives in a nasty supernatural fight. And he had always detes
ted Werewolves, though he tolerated Trish, Kyle and the majority of the Silver Ridge Pack.
“I would have to double-check with my mom,” Gabi took a sip of her energy drink, “but I think not too much older than Bree. It was probably brushed off as a vivid imagination to start with.”
“That would make sense,” Trish agreed. She was forcing herself to eat despite a distinct lack of appetite. “If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought exactly the same thing today.” They ate in silence for a few minutes.
Trish sighed. “It’s so easy to just keep her sheltered here at Haven, it doesn’t matter what she says or does here, but at some stage she has to interact with the wider community, which will include norms. What happens then?”
“It’s not ideal,” Gabi agreed, “but we’ll coach her, teach her that some things are family business, the same as with the Werewolf stuff. She’s a bright kid, she’ll work things out for herself, and having the Pack and the safety of Haven will make it easier for her. She won’t have to pretend as much as I did.”
The mood at the table had turned sombre; Gabi had lost the happy air she’d arrived with. Trish knew Gabi’s own abilities had caused a lot of strife in her young life. The Dhampirism had moulded her into the woman she was now and had ultimately introduced her to Julius and a life she thrived on, but Trish knew she wouldn’t wish such a complicated upbringing on anyone, much less a child she loved.
“Well, at least we know what to expect,” Kyle said with a wicked grin, tossing a carrot slice from his salad across the table at Gabi, “an overconfident, little brat with a god complex.”
Gabi caught the carrot effortlessly and flicked it back using her fork as a trebuchet. Kyle almost toppled out of his chair trying to catch it in his mouth. And Trish couldn’t help but laugh as the two of them traded insults like teenage siblings, the tension dispelled. For now at least.
Raising Hell_A Hellcat World Novel Page 5