Hellcat: To Hell And Back Part 11

"And I did," he agreed, regret a dark note in his voice. "It took a long, long time to finally see the truth. Understand the reality. I'll never know how many died at my hand that didn't deserve death, but each one of them stains my soul. I'll answer for every one of them one day, I know that, and I've accepted that."

Razor walked into the room, pacing solemnly over to Mac and sitting down in front of him. Gabi knew he was aware of the seriousness of the conversation; cats were quite sensitive to strong emotions. Almost unthinkingly Mac reached down and put his hand out to Razor. The great cat leaned into his hand and encouraged a head rub, which Mac gave, staring down sightlessly. He cleared his throat a little.

"What changed?" Gabi asked. "The Master Vampire you spoke of?"

A sad smile lifted his features a little. "Yes," he agreed. "Daniela." His smile deepened. "It wasn't her original name, but it was the one she liked. She could so easily have just had me killed. It would've solved the problem I'd become in her city without much effort on her part. But that wasn't her way. No, my Daniela often chose the difficult path simply because it was the difficult path. But with me, I like to think there was a little more to it. I think I intrigued her as much as I annoyed her." A wry smile lifted his mouth. "She was a short-tempered, little thing on the outside. Her build was tiny, even smaller than you," he told Gabi. "And a delicate-looking woman, fine-boned with huge brown eyes. But inside...inside she had a heart as big as her city."

"How did you meet her?" Gabi was enthralled, her coffee gone cold. Razor had hopped up on the sofa next to her and was wrapped around her feet, purring.

"She kidnapped me," Mac said with a snort. "She sent some of her lieutenants to ambush me. They grabbed me, trussed me up, and delivered me to her like a birthday present. I figured I was a goner, dinner on the hoof, and was in peace talks with my maker. She knew what I'd been doing; I'd taken out several of her Clan members. She had every right to be seriously p.i.s.sed with me, and would've been justified in wanting me dead."

Just then a tiny, red-brown streak came flying into the room, chirping and chattering, bounding up Gabi's leg and onto her head. Gabi sighed and reached up to catch the tiny animal.

"Mac, meet Rocky," she said, plucking the squirrel from her hair and holding it out in front of her. Rocky sat in her outstretched hand and inspected their visitor quizzically, her head tilted slightly to one side.

"Pleased to meet you, Rocky," Mac said with a gracious nod. "You have interesting house pets," he noted to Gabi.

She grinned as Rose came bustling in.

"Sorry, sweetling," she said to Gabi. "She was in the laundry with me two seconds ago. She moves too fast for an old lady like me."

"Old lady, my a.s.s." Gabi laughed. "Don't worry, Rose. Razor can keep her entertained for a while. She'll have a sleep after that, and we'll all get some peace."

Rose went back to her work after a few more a.s.surances and after collecting their coffee mugs. Gabi stroked Razor and sent him a mental nudge to go and play with Rocky while she and Mac finished their conversation. Razor sat up, stretched, and gave her an unfriendly look before hopping to the floor and plucking the squirrel from Gabi's hand.

"Hey, you brought her home," Gabi told him, with a shooing motion. He shot her one more miffed glance and then dropped the furball on the floor, batting at her playfully until she shot off out the door in a game of tag. "And stay out of here," Gabi called as Razor darted after her. When she looked back at Mac, he was watching her with shrewd eyes.

"Another time," she told him. "Your story first."

"Well, Daniela obviously didn't kill me. She didn't even use me as dinner. At least not then." His tone and inability to look her in the eye told Gabi all she needed to know. "She held me captive in her household, no chains or torture, just forcing me to see what happened on a daily basis, allowing me to get to know her Clan and her staff, teaching me the intricacies of Vampire life. She fed me, clothed me, and left newspapers lying around with stories of the atrocities humans commit on each other." He drew a deep breath. "It took me longer than I like to admit to finally remove the stupid-gla.s.ses from my eyes. To see the reality of the supernatural races, the one your father was lucky enough to witness before he made the same errors I did."

"It's an easy mistake to make," Gabi said, injecting earnestness into her voice. "You're not alone in it, and it isn't only made by humans."

"It might not have been so bad if I hadn't been quite so good at what I did." He sighed.

Gabi made another round of coffee and found a stray packet of cookies that Kyle hadn't sniffed out yet, while Mac reclaimed his seat at the kitchen counter and described his life with Daniela. His words were matter of fact, but the pain in his voice gave away the profoundness of his feelings for the Vampire. It was clear she'd entranced him with her charm, integrity and inner strength; her experience of the world through four centuries of life had never ceased to amaze him. He'd spent nearly a decade in her household, becoming her security adviser and occasionally her enforcer.

"I resisted her offer to Turn me," he told her, accepting the fresh cup of coffee. "I'm not even sure why, what it was about my humanity that I clung so desperately to. Never a day goes by that I don't wonder if things would've turned out differently if I'd just agreed to be Turned, become her Consort."

Gabi didn't fill the silence, quietly sipping her own coffee and allowing him to speak when he was ready.

"One morning she just walked outside and kissed the sun," he finally said, his voice so gruff it was hard to make out the words. "She told me often that she was tired, world-weary she called it, but I never realised the depth of her weariness." He cleared his throat self-consciously, and Gabi busied herself finding her owl-shaped cookie jar and tipping the cookies into it, allowing Mac to collect himself. "Her Second took control of the Clan. I got on well enough with him, he's a fair man and a good leader, but it wasn't the same without her. I packed my bags and left the next day."

Seeing that the retelling of his story was taking something of a toll on Mac, Gabi changed tack and decided to explain the uncomfortable situation she was in with the SMV Council. It took longer than she expected to walk Mac through the events culminating in the death of Jason, the norm who'd tried to use Werewolves as mercenary soldiers. Once she'd told him of her actions in killing the man and her disagreement with the Council, Mac quickly realised what her request was going to be. He was nothing if not astute.

Gabi found chatting to Mac so easy that the hours just slipped away, and she almost didn't make the third ward delay in time, only Razor's reappearance after his mid-morning nap reminded her. Several topics later, Rose made lunch for the two of them, tactfully suggesting they eat on the veranda in the sun while she watched her favourite soapie on the kitchen TV. Gabi was grateful for Rose on a daily basis. She remembered to reset the ward once again and took a bottle of wine and a c.o.ke outside to the huge outdoor table while Mac brought the food. As they ate, the two of them left all the serious topics and instead swapped funny anecdotes to lighten the mood. The sun and food and conversation combined to make Gabi feel relaxed and a little lethargic.

Mac caught her yawn as she began to clear the lunch plates. "Well, you honestly look like I should leave you to catch up on some sleep," he said. "I'm sure there's going to be little enough time for it in the coming days. I'll give your proposal some serious thought this afternoon. How about we meet this evening? I have something I'd like to show you and Kyle, and Julius if he has time." The twinkle was back in his eye, and Gabi was glad to see it, but wondered what mischief he had planned. "Don't worry," he told her, noting her frown. "You'll like it, I promise."

She considered beating the surprise out of him, but figured she could wait a few hours. The thought of some more sleep was making her eyelids heavy.

"Fine," she groused. She saw him off and reinstated the ward, then bade Rose goodbye before curling up next to Julius on the bed and sinking into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The three of them met Mac in the parking area of a small lake reserve a few kilometres from Gabi's. At this time of night it was deserted. Mac had asked for somewhere deserted and outdoors; this was the best she could come up with on short notice.

"There's only one reason I sat out of the last fight," Mac said, an altogether too vicious grin on his face. "Because I didn't have my kit with me." He finished unlocking the heavy-duty padlock on the steel lid covering the rear of his truck bed and gave the lid a good shove. It rolled smoothly open like a roller door on a garage, parallel to the truck bed. Gabi couldn't quite bite back her gasp of surprise, and shocked mutters next to her told her she wasn't alone. The bed of the truck was home to possibly dozens of weapons: swords, battleaxes, one that looked like a hybrid of a scimitar and a battleaxe. And then some the like of which Gabi had never seen before. The kinds of weapons you might expect to see in a steampunk graphic novel. She couldn't take her eyes off the collection, leaning into the truck and reaching out to touch them. Suddenly realising they were someone else's weapons, she quickly pulled her hand back and glanced at Mac. His grin was smug.

"Go ahead. That one isn't loaded," he offered, inclining his head towards one that looked much like a miniature version of a compound bow, about as wide as her forearm. She reached for the sort-of-bow and tentatively lifted it from its precisely moulded resting place. Each item was meticulously clean and nestled snugly in a hard foam casing matching each weapon's shape exactly. There were a few empty s.p.a.ces in handgun-shaped casings; Mac must know the strict policy on firearms in the City. Gabi held the small bow up to the pale moonlight to get a better look; instead of a simple string action running through a basic pulley system, this one sported a maze of tiny cogs and gears linking the c.o.c.king mechanism to the bowstring. A small barrel, like that of a revolver, hung from a hinge at the base of the bow. The weapon was simply but beautifully made, and, if she knew anything about weapon construction, she'd guess by the weight that it was constructed largely of carbon fibre. A small, sleek dart with tiny, tufted feathers at the back end appeared in front of her.

"It's really a dart gun of sorts, though a little more powerful than the ones you use," Mac explained as he showed her how to fit the small almost bullet-shaped dart into the revolving chamber and snap it into place. "Of course, I haven't ever filled mine with Werewolf saliva, as I've never taken on demons before, but I reckon we should be able to do that with these. I usually reserve these for Werewolves." He didn't elaborate as to what he filled them with, but glanced surrept.i.tiously at Kyle. When there was no backlash, he continued. "You see the gears tension the string, providing a much harder punch than a crossbow or even a normal compound bow, with very little effort from the wielder. This has a fair bit more oomph than your dart guns, which are based on air-gun technology. These darts travel at close to a thousand feet per second, just a bit less than the speed of a bullet from a .22 calibre rifle." The pride was clear in his voice, as though he were speaking of a favourite child.

He pointed to a tree about three hundred feet away; it was a solid chestnut tree, its trunk at least a foot thick. Gabi glanced at him, checking. He nodded and took a step back. The trigger mechanism looked simple enough, so she carefully c.o.c.ked it, making sure she had the others' attention and no one would get in her line of fire. The gears shifted in virtual silence, each cog expertly fitted together, the entire mechanism oiled and primed for immediate use. The dart shunted from the revolving chamber into a narrow rut in the centre of the weapon and then settled backward, almost disappearing, its tiny feathers resting against the bowstring. Gabi set her forefinger on the trigger and aimed towards the tree, sighting by lining up the small, white marks on the front and rear of the bow. The weapon was lightweight and easy to balance, and the trigger moved smoothly. The crossbow made a tiny phutt of noise, and the dart whistled crisply as it exploded forward. Almost simultaneously the noise of the impact with the tree trunk caught their ears. As one, they moved towards the tree to inspect the damage.

"s.h.i.t," Kyle exclaimed, leaning down to squint into the neatly drilled hole in the tough bark. "That's darn near gone the whole way through."

Gabi turned the small bow over in her hands, marvelling at its inventiveness and efficiency. "Do you have any more of these?" she asked Mac, her mind already racing.

"Unfortunately they are all currently one-of-a-kind items. Made especially to my specifications by a friend who prefers to remain very anonymous," Mac said regretfully. "But I haven't exactly had the time to take out patents on the design yet..." He left the sentence hanging suggestively.

"So if our technicians were to accidentally see these, you wouldn't be able to stop us reproducing them?" Gabi played along.

"Savannah would be able to duplicate these quicker than anyone else I know," Julius put in. "She'd probably be able to make improvements as well."

Gabi knew he was right. With Savannah's lab and staff combined with her unique flair for innovation, they might just have the kinds of weapons they needed to hold their own in the coming war.

"What else have you got?" Julius asked, following Mac, who was heading back to the truck.

"Well, this is my go-to weapon for Vampires," he said, lifting a larger crossbow-style weapon out and showing it to Julius. It didn't have the design modifications of the compound bow, and Gabi wondered what made it special. Mac reached back into the truck and pulled out a handful of long crossbow bolts, each one as thick as a man's finger and as long as a forearm. Four razor-thin, triangular blades graced each tip, gleaming viciously in the dim light, and the end of the shaft where the blades were attached was about twice as thick as the rest of the bolt, the tip itself was hollowed out.

"Exploding tip bolts," Mac explained, handing one to each of them and showing them small red capsules that were stowed separately. "Primed with a tiny charge of C4, one of these to the head or the heart and there's not much chance of recovery."

Gabi glanced from the bolt to Mac with a raised eyebrow.

He shrugged, a little apologetically. "I'm human. I had to find ways to even the playing field," he was speaking to her and avoiding eye contact with Julius and Kyle.

Gabi nodded. It made sense, and as deadly as his weapons were, she doubted Kyle or Julius would hold their purpose against Mac. They all knew the destruction a rogue supernatural could bring about in a human population.

"That would work against many of the demons too," Kyle said, reaching to take the bow from Mac and inspecting it. "Hunters will need to work on their crossbow accuracy, though. I wouldn't want one of us taken out by friendly fire with one of these."

"Those are my two preferred weapons. I generally try to avoid getting too up close and personal with my target," Mac continued, reaching back into the truck, "but if I do end up in close-quarters fighting, this is always a good backup." He lifted out what Gabi could only think of as a ray gun. Except it wasn't. It was a bit bigger than the average handgun, with a much larger barrel. He handed it to her, taking back the crossbow bolts and stowing them meticulously back in their places. "Face it away from you and pull the trigger," he suggested.

Gabi hesitated for a moment, not sure what to expect from the strange-looking gun. Mac's smirk told her she'd be surprised but not in a bad way, so she turned the gun away from all of them, aiming for the tree again and depressed the trigger. A thick, metal spike exploded out the front of the barrel, but didn't actually detach from the weapon itself. She froze, uncertain if it had misfired.

"Now double-tap the trigger," Mac said, his smirk growing wider.

She obediently pulled the trigger twice in quick succession. Immediately the spike began to spin. At the same time tiny metal teeth splayed out from near the tip in two neat rows, turning the already deadly weapon into a macabre miniature version of a tunnel-digging machine.

"Holy s.h.i.t," Kyle exclaimed, walking forward to get a closer look, as though he couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing.

Gabi touched the trigger again, and the whirling spikes slowed to a stop. She handed the thing over to Kyle. The thought of what that would do to living flesh... Now Gabi understood how Mac, as a human, had lived so many years as a Slayer.

"Inventive," Julius commented dryly. "You and Savannah will get along very well."

"Do you think she can replicate all of these in a couple of days?" Gabi asked, unable to keep the excitement from her tone. She was feeling a little lift in her spirits for the first time since the meeting with the Magi Council.

"With Mac's guidance and perhaps some extra staff." Julius nodded.

"Mac, will you work with Savannah for us?" she asked, turning to the older man. "This could be the advantage we need. These weapons could make all the difference in what we're about to face."

"You don't need to hard sell it to me, h.e.l.lcat," he drawled with a rueful sigh. "I've had a taste of what's coming. I'd be happy to help. Even if it means I have to stay away from the action for a couple of days."

Gabi tried to hide a grin.

"You can't keep me out of it forever, but for now you get your way," he conceded, not fooled by her excuses.

"I'll contact Savannah," Julius said, "to make arrangements. Lea, can you get Nathan on the phone? Tell him he's to escort Mac to the lab; tell him its priority one."

"You know," Kyle said, chewing his lip thoughtfully, "there isn't much about weapons that Doug doesn't know."

"You're right," Gabi said. The Shape-shifting Hunter was the most knowledgeable weapons expert she knew. "And if we get him involved on the design and manufacture side of things, he won't feel like he's not contributing."

"Yep, two birds with one exploding arrow," Kyle quipped. "I'll get hold of Byron and update him, run the Doug thing by him, and suggest he gets Derek to start bowmanship training immediately." Kyle gingerly gave the spike gun back to Mac and loped off to his van as Gabi and Julius pulled out their phones.

CHAPTER 15.

"Food first," Gabi told Nathan as she climbed into the pa.s.senger seat of the Range Rover. "I'm starving."

She'd decided to go with Mac and Nathan on the trip to the lab after Julius relayed a message from Savannah that her new BMW was ready for collection. As much as she loved the McLaren-what was there not to love?-it did draw attention, and she had the feeling they would be trying to keep things on the down-low in the coming days. Nosey human bystanders were likely to end up dead, maimed or seeing something they shouldn't, a nuisance no matter which way it went. She was at a loose end anyway; Julius had a business meeting that he insisted had to be sorted tonight. Gabi's intuition told her he was making succession plans, putting things in order in case something happened to him in the coming days. She couldn't blame him, but the thought sucked the warmth out of the tiny spark of hope she'd only just nurtured to life. After that, he had his first training session with the Magi, something she knew he wasn't looking forward to.

Mac was following behind them in his truck, Razor ensconced in his pa.s.senger seat. Much to Gabi's surprise, Razor had made the choice himself, and Mac had seemed both startled and pleased.

"Of course, my Lady," Nathan said. As one of Julius's most senior Clan members, he held the official t.i.tle of Head of Security, though he relinquished this role to Patrick, the Werewolf, during the day. He was one of the first of Julius's Clan that she'd met; he'd been part of the elite group sent to kidnap her when Julius wanted to meet her. When two of the group had tried to kill rather than kidnap her, Nathan had been the one to try to stop them. His brother, Liam, was also one of the Clan and was Julius's business manager as well as the Clan representative on the SMV Council. There was no doubt that the two of them were brothers; they were alike enough to be twins: both heavyset men who moved with quiet grace. Nathan had a deep voice and a mild manner, until he had reason not to be mild-mannered anymore, and then he was an entirely different animal. He never failed to treat her with deep respect, and he was one of the few people she didn't tease. It made him intensely uncomfortable, and she liked him well enough not to want to make him unhappy.

"Where would you like to stop? Sit in or drive-through?" Almost every Vampire she knew had a bizarre fascination with watching humans eat. She was getting used to it, but still found it unnerving at times. If they were driving, Nathan would have to keep his gaze on the road.

"There's a chicken place with a drive-through not far, just hang a left at the lights," she told him, glancing in the side mirror to check that Mac was following close enough to see their change of direction.

The food took the edge off Gabi's irritable mood, and she was discussing the pros and cons of the BMW with Nathan when they turned onto the narrow, country lane leading to the lab. When they arrived, Savannah was still the bubbly, sanguine, slightly eccentric woman Gabi now knew to be the real Savannah, not the cool, collected, elegant personae she apparently donned for special occasions and large gatherings. She welcomed them all into her workplace. Kyle and Doug had beaten them there by a few minutes. She didn't so much as blink when Gabi introduced her to a Werewolf, a Shape-shifter and a human, but Gabi couldn't help but notice that she a.s.sessed Mac just a little longer than she a.s.sessed Kyle and Doug. And not in the way that a hunter sized up prey, but more in the way a woman sized up a man. She was glad she'd remembered to explain Savannah's mind-reading skills to the rest of them before they arrived. Hopefully they'd practised the art of singing mindless songs in their heads on the way here.

Gabi's second car stood near the front of the open works.p.a.ce. It was far more understated than the McLaren, but by no means sedate or boring. Savannah proudly showed off a specially modified harness safety belt for Razor, which could be attached to any of the existing human seatbelts, as well as an additional one in the rear of the car for a large dog or wolf. There was also a mesh screen that could be fitted to separate the rear section from the seats; it was imbued with just enough silver to keep Werewolves from touching it. Kyle raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Razor hopped inside to investigate, but the look he gave the safety harness led Gabi to believe it may take some convincing to make him wear it. Secret compartments had also been installed in the rearmost s.p.a.ce for concealing her weapons and other combat gear, and the state-of-the-art computer and GPS console would take Gabi weeks to learn how to fully operate. Savannah lost Gabi entirely when she tried to explain the diagnostic software.

She cut Savannah off. "I'm a techno dunce, Savannah," she explained with a snort. "I'll get my friend Trish to call you one evening, and you can explain it to her, okay?"

"Yes, of course." Savannah smiled. "I'm so glad you are brave enough to say when something is beyond your understanding. So many will try to bluff their way through." She turned away from the car and started towards her own lab. "Come, I have some more things for you, and for gorgeous Razor." There was a twinkle in her eye as she looked back, gesturing for them to follow. "And then we can get on with the exciting part of the evening."

At the doorway to the lab lay a pile of black leather clothes: jackets, coats, pants and gloves in several sizes. "This is the first batch of demon-blood-impervious fighting leathers. The demon blood arrived for final testing yesterday," she said, sweeping the pile up and thrusting it into Kyle's hands. "Put that in the BMW, dear lad."

Then she swept to the far side of the room and returned just as quickly with a smaller, multi-scaled piece. Razor's own armour. The cat jumped onto the nearest counter without any prodding, and held his head in a snooty pose as Savannah fitted it over him. It draped perfectly over his shoulders and down across his back, stopping exactly at the end of his rump. Savannah showed Gabi how to fasten it across his chest and under his tummy and through his hind legs. The way the straps fitted together reminded Gabi of a horse blanket, which made sense as a horse blanket was designed to stay in place even when a horse rolled in the gra.s.s. Razor was just about as proud as a child on their first day of big school, and wouldn't let Gabi take it off right away. Gabi smiled a genuinely happy grin for the first time in days watching him. Savannah looked about ready to burst with excitement.

Gabi was just on her way to move the BMW outside to make room for Mac's truck when her phone rang. She blew out a breath when the call ended.

"Sorry, Savannah, but Kyle and I have to go," she said regretfully. "Is it all right to leave the others with you? Nathan will escort them back to the City when you're finished for the night." She hoped Savannah didn't think Mac was available as dinner, but wasn't sure how to bring up the subject delicately. Obviously some of her thoughts slipped past her musical barrier, though.

"Yes, of course, Gabrielle," Savannah said. "I promise to take good care of them and return them without lacking anything they arrived with." Her expression was suddenly serious, but her eyes danced with merriment.

"Thanks," Gabi said simply, glad Savannah hadn't made any more of the issue.

"What's happened?" Mac asked.

"We're needed back at the City Morgue." She sighed. She didn't need to say anymore.

Mac nodded his understanding. "Watch your six," he rumbled. "If they somehow got to Alexander, they may try with another of you."

"We will," she promised. Then she, Razor and Kyle climbed into the BMW and sped back towards the City.

Deciding they needed some Vampire backup in case they needed help altering memories of the humans on duty at the morgue, they stopped at the Estate, intending to collect a handy Vampire.

Benedict was downstairs when they arrived, but was on his way to oversee Julius's Magi training. Gabi swallowed the bitterness of being excluded from his training. This was apparently secret Magi stuff; no non-Magi allowed. She reminded herself that she had more than enough to deal with, and a few hours' sleep wouldn't go amiss if she found any spare time before dawn. Alexander wasn't to be found, and one of the Werewolf guards informed her that Alexander had attended the meeting with Julius and was only expected back much later. Gabi hoped he wasn't travelling alone anywhere.

A quick trip to the staff gymnasium netted Fergus, exactly the Vampire she needed. It was a slightly more complicated mission to the morgue than the last trip. There were three bodies to view, and none of them had any connection to the others, so their backstory was, by necessity, more sophisticated and hence more p.r.o.ne to human suspicion. Luckily for them, Fergus was particularly talented at manipulating human minds.

When Gabi held up her driver's licence to the man at the morgue admin desk, he studied it carefully and then nodded the three 'National Security Agents' through to the waiting room while getting on the phone to arrange their viewing of the three bodies. Fergus was a true wonder.

The place smelled as thoroughly unpleasant as it had a few nights ago, but the morgue attendant, a middle-aged woman this time, wasn't quite as cordial as the man they'd dealt with the last time they were here, but then the last time they'd been playing grieving family, not hard-nosed government agents. The woman wheeled the gurneys into the same small viewing room and yanked back the sheets without preamble, brusquely reading off the initial a.s.sessment of the bodies from the clipboard attached to each. Two males and one female, all with dark bruising and purple scarring showing up starkly against their pale, blue-tinged flesh. Contrarily, with them playing roles that required cool detachment this time, two of the bodies actually made the breath hitch in Gabi's throat, and Kyle closed his eyes, his jaw muscles tightening. These two they knew. Gabi didn't know them personally, but she'd seen them around. They were both Werewolves from the Blackriver Pack. The third, one of the males, was unknown to them, but the wound patterns and loss of blood were consistent with the other two. This had to also have been a Werewolf.

It was the wee hours of the morning before they'd finally sorted all the arrangements to get the bodies to SMV HQ. It had taken a lot of negotiating to get the Blackriver Pack Leader to agree to allow the SMV to take charge of the bodies for full autopsies. Gabi knew that delivering the news had been hard for Kyle. Not allowing the Pack to immediately bury their dead was even more traumatising.

Julius had been conspicuously absent from her mind the entire evening, and it was making her anxious. She tried to call his phone, but only got his non-existent voicemail message. A bland beep. Weariness was weighing her down. It had been a long night, and nothing else could be done, so she returned to her house with Razor. A pair of Werewolves in a nondescript car followed her and positioned themselves outside her gates; Julius might have been busy, but he hadn't forgotten her protection. He did call her just before she fell asleep as he was driving back to the Estate. His voice reflected her own weariness. She didn't push him for details and told him to stay at the Estate. It was too close to sunrise to risk the drive to her house. He agreed after a little convincing on her part, but Gabi knew she was going to desperately miss the solid coolness of his body next to and around her while she slept.

Razor seemed to sense her unhappiness and moved up from the end of the bed to curl into her chest, purring. Soon Slinky and Rocky were also snuggled in, Slinky curled around her head on the pillow and Rocky at the back of her neck in her hair, and within moments they were all fast asleep.

The full light of morning was something of a shock. Waking to complete darkness had become the norm for her since Julius began sharing her bed. It was also a novelty to not be woken by the ringing of a telephone. She squinted at her nightstand. The absence of ringing might have something to do with the fact that she'd forgotten to plug her phone in to charge. Turning her head a little more, she eyed the bedside clock blearily. Eleven twenty-nine. Sheez! That made her sit up, rubbing sleep from her eyes and stretching. She hadn't slept this late in months. She was surprised no one had sent a rescue team to look for her already. The pets yawned and stretched too. Rocky set to grooming, and Razor hopped to the floor to see to his morning ablutions. She'd just stepped in a stinging hot shower when she heard the front door open and Kyle's voice call her name.

The rest of the day consisted of a meeting with Byron and Teddy, the ex-coroner, who confirmed their suspicions about the manner of death, then seeing the bodies of the two Blackriver Pack members returned to their packs while Byron arranged an investigation into who the third victim could be.

It was late afternoon before Gabi managed to catch up with Mac and find out how things had gone with Savannah. Mac was returning to the lab after dinner to continue working with the Vamp inventor. He seemed quite enchanted with the lady, impressed with her lab, and was visibly excited about the progress they'd made on replicating the weapons. The two of them grabbed dinner and then parted ways, Mac to collect Doug and a Werewolf escort, and Gabi to the Estate. She wasn't in a hurry. Julius had already left for another Magi training session and wouldn't be back until late. She'd thrown a swimsuit in the back of the BMW and had every intention of easing some stiff muscles in the comfort of one of the Estate's hot tubs for a couple of hours.

When Julius returned, he was tired. Gabi hadn't often seen Julius truly tired, but tonight he was. And ill-tempered. That was something she'd never seen before. She knew he'd lost control with what little remained of Dante's House after Dante had tried to Turn her, but she hadn't been conscious enough to experience that. His Clan and the other staff were giving him a Strait of Gibraltar-sized berth tonight. Even Alexander was being unusually quiet, though it looked as though he'd bitten his tongue to bleeding doing it.

The Magi training had taken a toll. It bit again that she hadn't been allowed to accompany him, but she quickly forgot her own pique the moment she saw him. His skin was paler than usual, and dark half circles marred the skin under his eyes.

There hadn't been time to try to coax him out of his bad mood; as soon as he'd arrived back at the Estate, he'd called a meeting in the entertainment room. He wanted to talk tactics and strategy, and he wasn't taking no for an answer. Gabi didn't think Benedict's insistence that Julius cast the shielding spell over the room had helped his disposition.