All Hell Breaks Loose (33 page)

The other three backed away from the Shape-shifter a couple of steps now that she was secured to the chair.  Athena was panting a little, and a couple of hairs were out of place.  Under other circumstances, Gabi would’ve enjoyed the sight.

“Where is Kyle?” Gabi ground out, stopping less than two feet from the other woman.

Razor leapt nimbly onto the dining room table just to the woman’s left.  His stance was pure aggression, and the low growl issuing from his chest left the group in no doubt that he would rip the woman apart if she made one wrong move.

“I’m not saying anything,” the woman hissed.  Her eyes flickered nervously from Razor to Gabi and then to the side of Gabi as Byron walked into the room.

“Kimberley,” he said, aghast.  “Kimberley, what is going on?”

Gabi spun on him.  “Kimberley?  You know this woman?” she demanded.

“Yes,” Byron replied.  “This is Kimberley Adams. 
One of the few Doppelganger Shape-shifters in existence.
  A couple of years ago, I offered her a job with the SMV, but she turned me down.  Apparently we didn’t
pay
well enough for her.”  The chime from the gate sounded again, interrupting him.  “That’s probably the team.  Athena, would you be kind enough to check and let them in?”

The Magus nodded and left without a word.

Gabi’s eyes hadn’t left the captive’s face.  A flicker of shame had crossed her features when Byron had spoken.  Gabi dove in.  “So, you’ve turned on your own kind for profit?” Gabi guessed, watching the bullet strike home.

The woman flinched, but then resolution flared.  “Not for profit, for love. 
True love.
  Not the whoring around with
Werewolves
and Vampires kind of love you’re famous for,” she spat, glaring spitefully at Gabi.

Gabi smiled.  It wasn’t a nice smile.  Kimberley suddenly sat back in the chair, as though trying to push right through it.

“I’m going to ask you nicely one more time.  After that I’m going to ask the rest of them to leave the house while you,
me
and Razor talk…privately.”  Gabi switched her grip on
Nex
and slammed the tip of the blade into the wooden arm of the chair, right between Kimberley’s right thumb and forefinger.  Kimberley squealed, and the scent of adrenaline and urine drenched the air.  Gods be damned, a small part of her brain wished they hadn’t had to use her house for the interrogation.

“Where is Kyle?” she demanded in a voice one step short of shouting.

Kimberley’s eyes were still staring fixedly at the sword sticking out of the wood between her fingers.  She was breathing so hard she sounded like she was panting.  Gabi felt Byron shift uneasily behind her.

“He’s…he’s…Jason has him,” Kimberley finally choked out.

“What?” Gabi asked.
“Jason who?”
  But she already knew the answer.

“Jason King.  He’s
gonna
come for me,” Kimberley shouted, glaring around the room, her bravado streaming back.  “You’ll see.  He won’t let you torture me.”

“What does he want with Kyle,” Gabi asked her, shifting
Nex
a little to bring the woman’s attention back to the razor-sharp blade.

The Doppelganger’s eyes narrowed, anger suddenly flaring.  “It’s
all your
fault,” she hissed.  “You couldn’t keep your nose out of our business.  You couldn’t let one of your harem get away, could you?  Whore.  All you had to do was let Jason collect what was rightfully his.”  Her gaze flicked to Derek with a sneer.  “If you’d just died in that explosion like you were supposed to, along with your disgusting Vampire lovers, he,” she tossed her head at Derek, “would be where he belonged and I wouldn’t be here.”

“You’re claiming responsibility for the bomb last night?” Gabi’s mind was spinning.  Just how much of this was tied to Jason King and the
Werewolves
?  “And this is all about Derek?”

“I’m not saying another word,” Kimberley declared.  “Jason will be here to rescue me soon.  I don’t care what you do to me; I don’t betray people who love me.”

Gabi shook her head.  Kimberley was starting to sound a little unhinged.  When people started to lose it, you couldn’t trust what came out of their mouths.  She yanked
Nex
out of the chair and spun to Byron.  Athena and a couple of other team members stood in the doorway.  The newcomers’ eyes were as round as saucers.

“I need someone who can tell if she’s sane and if she’s telling the truth.  Do we have a Mind-bender we can call on?”  She directed her question at Athena.  The witch would know if there was one in the City.  They were another closely guarded secret; the
Magi
who could literally pull
thoughts from the minds of humans, make them relive past experiences.  Not even the deepest, darkest secret was safe from them once they broke into your memories.

The Doppelganger tensed, and another flood of adrenaline and fear filled the room.

“Don’t worry,” Gabi reassured her in a mild voice. “It won’t hurt.  Much.”

Athena
swallowed,
an unusually nervous gesture for her.  “Um, I think we can get one from—
”  She
didn’t finish her sentence.  There was a soft moan from Kimberley, and as Gabi spun back to her, the Doppelganger fainted.

“Fuck,” Gabi spat.  “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

“Gabi,” Byron spoke in a calming voice, “we’ll find him.  Now that we know he’s been taken, we’ll get the best Tracker we have to find him.”

The thought of Kyle being kidnapped brought back memories of
her own
abduction.  She’d been tortured. 
For hours.
  She had to force away those thoughts.  Only the knowledge that keeping calm now would get him back faster kept her together.  He’d done it for her, now she would do it for him.  And heaven help Jason King when she found him.  Her grip on
Nex
tightened.

“I’ll call in Stewart,” Athena said into the tense silence.

“Who’s Stewart?” Gabi demanded.

“He’s the Magi Tracker who located you when you were missing,” Byron explained.  “He’s the best.  He’ll find Kyle.”

“And what about Ms Kimberley Adams?” she ground out.  “What are we going to do with her?  Is there really a Mind-bender in the City?”

“Leave her to us,” Byron said.  “We’ll get her back to HQ, and I’ll call Irene and Margaret in to talk to her first.  If they get nowhere, we’ll find a Mind-bender.  I have a feeling this story is more interconnected with recent ructions in the City than we have any idea.  I want to know the full extent of it.”

Gabi knew by the tone of his voice that he was a rare shade of angry.  Kimberley wasn’t going to be a happy camper when she came around.

“You’ll need to increase security at HQ.  If she really is close to Jason King and if he really is responsible for the car bomb, he could be capable of just about anything,” she warned Byron.

“Now that we know the specific threat,” Athena interjected, “our clairvoyants will be able to warn us of any potentially lethal attacks.”

“What if she’s not the only Doppelganger working for him?” Gabi asked.  “We need to counteract that possibility.”

“It’s highly unlikely, Gabi,” Byron said.  “There are so few Doppelgangers in the world, but to be safe, either Athena or I will be with her until Margaret can tell us how to be sure.”  Then his eyebrows suddenly knit together.  “How did you figure this out?”

A grim smile touched Gabi’s lips.  As the team dragged Kimberley off to the waiting van, she explained how the animals hadn’t been fooled by the Doppelganger’s façade.

“That’s fascinating,” Byron exclaimed.  “I wonder if the Shape-shifter Elders know that.  I’ll mention it to Margaret.  Can you stop by Kyle’s and collect something of his for the Tracker to use?  After you drop that at HQ, you need to go and see Ian.”

Gabi nodded, not telling him that a trip to Ian would be unnecessary.  A glance at the kitchen clock told her that Julius would be awake in an hour or two, and risk
be
damned, she’d be taking some of his blood.

As the rest left, Gabi turned back to where Derek and Trish were standing quietly in a corner of the room.  Trish’s eyes were wide and dark, the scent of
Werewolf
was strong.

“Sorry,” Gabi said shortly.  “I didn’t mean to make you nervous, I know it’s not what you need right now,” she told them.  “Derek, do you feel up to driving the two of you back to Julius’s?”  She was putting effort into trying to project less anger and frustration, but holding it back was a strain.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Derek assured her.  “Are you sure you don’t need us to help with anything else?”

“Please let us help,” Trish said in a small voice. 
“Whatever we can do.”

Gabi realised that it wasn’t fear in Trish’s eyes, more like admiration mixed with determination.  She had a feeling that Trish would fit into the SMV far easier than Derek.

“If you can do your ‘computer magic’ thing and turn up as much info as you can find on Mr Jason King aka Jason Sweeney, you will be helping. 
Anything that isn’t public knowledge, his
property holdings, his business interests, international contacts.
  I’ll tell Byron to feed you anything useful that Kimberley gives up. Okay?”

Trish nodded fervently.  “I’ll send you anything of interest the moment I find it,” she assured Gabi.  “Keep an eye on your phone, I’ll send it direct to you.”

“Get going,” she told them, tossing Derek the keys to Kyle’s van.  “Track Patrick down when you get to the Estate, and tell him what’s happened, he needs to be kept in the loop.  I’ll be at the Estate before nightfall.”

Derek nodded, and they hurried away.

Gabi returned to her room to clean the blood away, brush her teeth, and change into yet another set of clothes, choosing a button-up short instead of pulling a shirt over her abused head.  Then she packed a bag with work clothes, extra weapons and some casual clothes.  Razor watched her pack with a disgruntled look on his face.  He was intelligent enough to know what a packed bag meant, and he wasn’t happy about it.  She grabbed his fluffy face with both hands and planted an apologetic kiss on his nose before making a dash into her office to grab her
iPad
and her spare phone—Kyle’s spare was a little too basic for her liking.

On her way out the door, she reset the ward and called Rose.  Word of the bomb had already reached the Community grapevine, so she was more than happy to help out by feeding the animals for the next few days.  Gabi could hear the concern in the older woman’s voice, both for Kyle and for her, but Rose knew better than to try and talk her into staying out of the thick of it.  She told Gabi not to worry about a thing at home; it would all be well taken care of.  Then she begged Gabi to take care of herself.

As she
nudg
ed the Audi into the cra
mped parking space outside Kyle’s condo, suddenly AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ blasted through the confines of the car, making her stamp on the brake a little harder than necessary.  Her head pounded warningly, threatening revolt if there was any further abuse.  The noise could only be her phone.  The ringtone had to be Kyle’s idea of funny, and the anxious band around her chest squeezed tighter.  She dug the phone out of her bag and found Julius’s number flashing.  She also noticed the ‘missed call’ icon flashing in the background.

“You’re awake early,” she said in greeting, as she checked her watch.  It was a little after three, several hours earlier than she expected to hear from him.

“A jolt of shock and pain woke me up about an hour ago, only it wasn’t my shock or pain.”  His voice carried an edge of admonishment.  “I’ve been trying to reach you ever since, but just got the low-down from your stuntman friend.”

“So you know about Kyle, the Doppelganger and Jason King?” she asked, not bothering to address his rebuke.  There was a slight pause; Byron also took those pauses when she ignored his concern.  Gabi climbed out of the car and started up the outside stairs to Kyle’s first-floor apartment.

“Yes, and I understand your concern for Wolf,” he said finally.  “I’m concerned about the Doppelganger being taken to the
Venatori’s
HQ.  If what the Doppelganger has told you is true, we already know what this man is capable of and that he knows the location of HQ.  It’s not safe to keep her there; not if you want to hold onto her.  Mr King may or may not love this woman, but she may well be party to at least some of his secrets, and that would be enough for him to try and either rescue or kill her before she is questioned.”

Gabi chewed on her bottom lip as she used her spare key to unlock Kyle’s front door.  Julius made a good point.

“So where do you think—
”  She
broke off as she smelled a familiar scent and heard a faint click.  “Oh shit.”  She literally dived over the waist-high balustrade behind her as the explosion hit, desperately twisting to position her body before impact with whatever was underneath her.  Which, as it turn out, was some brand of
coupe.