All Hell Breaks Loose (39 page)

“You know we have the perfect mole,” Alexander said suddenly.  He looked at Gabi speculatively, as though gauging her mood.

“What are you talking about, Alex?” she asked.  “We can’t send Kimberley back in there.  He didn’t trust her
before,
he sure as hell won’t trust her now.  And we don’t know if we can trust her.”

“I wasn’t referring to the Doppelganger,” he interrupted her.

A ripple of interest went around the table, but Julius, as usual, was on exactly the same page as his second in command.  Gabi felt him tense, his thoughts going wary.

Alexander continued.  “There is someone else that the human is after.  In fact, he went to great lengths to capture him.”

Gabi’s gaze went flat, annoyance flaring for the millionth time today.  “You mean Derek?” she stated more than asked.

Alexander’s eyebrow rose innocently.  “He’s the perfect opportunity to get eyes into the compound.  Hasn’t he been hounding you to get involved and help out?”  Alexander leaned forward now, struggling to contain his excitement.  “All we have to do is find a way for him to communicate with us.  Come on, you know he won’t be in serious danger.  The human wants him as part of his mercenary army.  The worst that will happen is he gets to do some military training.”

“And be in the middle of a compound full of
Werewolves
and humans, while he’s still trying to learn to control his wolf.  If he goes wolf before or during our infiltration, I’m not even sure he’ll know who the good guys are,” she growled.

“Perhaps we should let him make his own decision,” Byron spoke up.  “It wouldn’t be fair to thrust this kind of mission on someone who wasn’t willing.”

Gabi knew then that she’d lost yet another argument.  She knew Derek would jump at the chance to prove himself, as well as to possibly avenge what was done to him.  Gabi stood up from her seat again.  She didn’t have the energy to argue further.

“Fine, contact Derek.  But you might want to read the SMV manifesto to him and remind him that he will not be allowed to kill the man who ruined his life.”  She stepped away from the table.  “If you’ll excuse me, I need some air.”  The room was silent as she walked around to the door.  Before she opened it, she turned to the Council.  “One other thing,” she said to them, “once Kyle is free and Doug is back on duty, I will officially be taking a leave of absence from my duties as a Hunter. 
For an indefinite period of time.”
  She gave Byron a brief, cheerless smile and left the room.

The door should have swung shut behind her, but it didn’t.  As she turned to secure it, she collided with a solid wall of chest covered in black T-shirt.

“
Oooph
,” she said, stepping back and rubbing her nose.  “You’re like walking into an elephant,” she groused up at the hulking shape of Fergus.

“Sorry, lass,” he apologised without any true sympathy.

“Your night on babysitting duty, huh?” she asked.

He gave her his macabre grin.  “Come on,
Iet’s
go grab a tipple from the bar,” he said, leading the way through the sparse crowd.

“Scotch, on the rocks,” she told the Vampire behind the bar.

In very short order he placed her drink, along with a glass tankard of thick, black beer topped with heavy white foam.  Fergus claimed the barstool next to hers and lifted the tankard in silent salute.

Wry humour lifted one corner of Gabi’s mouth.  “A Scot drinking Guinness?” she asked incredulously.

“Aye, it
be
a sad turn of events
fer
me,” he said, shaking his head sadly.  “Don’t be
spreadin
’ the story around now,
lass,
I’d never live it down.”

She
clinked
her glass against his and took a mouthful of the golden liquor, allowing the alcohol to warm in her mouth and suffuse her taste buds before swallowing.

“I’m not going to be very good company,” she told Fergus, turning to rest her elbows on the bar counter, looking at her glass rather than him.  “You don’t have to babysit me in a room full of Clan Vampires.”

The hulking Vampire took a long slow sip of his beer and then set down his half-empty tankard.  “I
dinnae
expect no cheery conversation, lass.  I ken the look in someone’s eye when they feel they’re letting down those
they
luv
,” he said.  “
’Tis
a harder thing, too, when the person you feel
ye’ve
let down
isnae
here for ye
te
apologise to.”

An ancient sadness coloured his voice, making Gabi glance sideways at him.  Julius had once hinted that the Scotsman had deep emotional wounds, but he hadn’t told her Fergus’s story.  Somehow it was tied to the vicious scar across his face.  Fergus had gone out of his way to ensure that the wound would scar.

“The silliest thing is that if
yer
Da
were to appear before
ye
right now, he
widnae
want
yer
apology, he’d only want to hold and comfort ye.”  He lifted his glass to down the remains of the dark beer.

Gabi didn’t speak.  She knew if she did, her voice would crack.

“If it means anything coming from ain such as me, I think
yer
Da
would be mighty proud of ye for standing up
fer
what ye see as right and just.  It be not the dead who hold the blame
te
us, it be ourselves.”

Gabi gulped her whiskey to clear the tightness in her throat.  “Was it a wife or a daughter who you feel so responsible for?” she asked him in barely a whisper.

He was silent a long moment, nodding to the barman for a refill.

“Aye, lass, not one or the other, but both.”
  His voice was the softest she’d ever heard it.  “I
couldnae
protect either of them from the evils of the world.”  He shut his eyes a moment, and the age-old grief was etched into every line of his face; then just as suddenly, it was gone.  A rueful smile tugged one corner of his mouth.  “But that
be
nae
a story for tonight.  I just
be
tryin
’ to impart a little wisdom that took me nearly two hundred years
te
learn.”

“W
e
should probably be getting
ba
ck inside
.
”
Gabi sighed
,
reluctance keeping her ass on the stool.

“
Nae
,” Fergus said firmly, nodding to the barman to refill Gabi’s glass, “they’ll ’
ave
it all under control.  We’ll just take orders and do as we’re told.”

Gabi didn’t have the inclination to argue with him, so nodded her thanks to the barman when he brought her refill.  “This must all feel like déjà vu for you.  Off to rescue another Hunter of the SMV,” she said ruefully.

The Vampire gave a loud guffaw.  “Aye, it does a little at that.  But there be one major difference this time,” he told her, wiping the beer foam from his top lip.  “
This time
my Sire
isnae
almost insane with guilt and rage.  We might all like
yer
Wolf friend, but ’tis
nae
quite
te
same.  And I ken ye find this hard to believe, but
yer
Wolf truly
isnae
in real danger right yet.  We won’t be finding him in the same condition as we found
ye
.  Oh, and there be none of them
Demons
and
Ghouls
to contend with neither.”

Gabi tried to take his words to heart, to really believe them, but she knew she wouldn’t be getting much sleep until Kyle was out of the megalomaniac’s clutches.  Fergus’s words about Julius brought a different kind of clench in her heart.  She was reminded of how she’d felt when she’d found him lying still and inert in the rubble of his house. 
The panic, the terror, the sense of loss.
  Another thought suddenly struck her, and guilt stabbed deep.

“Lord and Lady,” she whispered, “I can be such a selfish bitch.  I haven’t even considered that Julius just lost his home and everything inside it. 
His books and weapons and artworks.”
  She felt
truly appalled at her lack of compassion and her sheer thoughtlessness.  Worry over Kyle had overridden everything else.  He must think his losses meant nothing to her.

“Lass,
dinnae
being getting
yerself
so upset
aboot
that,” Fergus reassured her.  “I’m sure he’d be
appreciatin
’ the thought, but there’s another lesson that ye be learning after
aboot
two hundred years,” he paused and looked at her, making sure she was paying attention.  “It be
nae
the things that matter in this life, it be the people.  Now I’ve ken Julius a fair long time, and I can tell ye with absolute certainty that he would rather have lost the entire Estate than have lost one of his Clan.”

Gabi knew that what Fergus said was true, but it didn’t ease her sense of guilt much.

“Ye see that bunch of ragamuffins sitting over there?” he asked her, indicating with his miraculously empty tankard to a group of Vamps and
Werewolves
gathered around a pool table in a dingy corner of the pub.

She nodded.  She’d been aware of the group since she walked out of the meeting; they were exactly the kind she instinctively kept a wary eye on.

“’
Tween
the seven o’ them, they’ll be getting the clean-up and rebuild going.”

Gabi raised a sceptical eyebrow, not one of them looked like any kind of master builder or architect.

Fergus chuckled.  “
Ye’ll
see.  Ye
havnae
seen what can be done when ye have two teams working around the clock.  And be
keepin
’ in mind the one team be
Weres
and the other team be Vamps.”

This made Gabi pause and rethink.  “Hmm,” she mused, “that would probably be the fastest build team on the planet.”

“Aye,” Fergus agreed.  “And it would seem our
drinkin
’ time is
oop
.”

Gabi glanced in the direction of his gaze and watched the door to the private room open. 
The Hunters and Pack leaders filed out first.
  Most sent a nod or subtle salute her way as they manoeuvred through the room towards the outside door.  Lance and Matt came over to join them at the bar.  Lance ordered a Virgin Bloody Mary, and Matt asked for a beer.

“You sure know how to shake up a room, Hellcat,” Lance told her.

Matt snorted.  “Yep, you really made the Council go quiet,” he chipped in. 
“At least those who knew your father.
  Athena doesn’t suffer from the same ethical dilemmas, of course.”

Lance suppressed a grin.  It was common knowledge that Athena wasn’t terribly fond of non-Magi.

The barman brought over the drinks, including refills for Gabi and Fergus.

“To a successful raid tomorrow night,” Matt said, holding up his glass.

The others clinked glasses and drank deeply.

Gabi knew before he touched her that he was close.  Julius.  He was still annoyed, but he was tightly controlling the irritation.  He slid a hand under her hair to softly massage a tense knot in her neck.  She leaned into his touch, some of her anxiety and guilt easing.

“I think Byron would like to talk to you, Lea,” he murmured in her ear.

She glanced around to see the Council making their way towards the exit.  Byron was standing to one side, scanning the room.  Gabi bit her bottom lip.

“I’m not sure it would be helpful for me to speak to him right now,” she said in a low voice.  “I’ll probably just say something I’ll regret later.”  She knew this whole saga must be very hard on Byron, and she knew it wasn’t fair to hold the Council’s decisions against him alone.  She was aware that to some she probably seemed like a petulant child by walking out of the meeting when she didn’t get her own way, but Byron knew her well enough to realise that she sometimes had to get away from situation in order to prevent losing her temper.  He would understand her retreat, but he must be feeling hurt to some degree by what she’d said.

Julius’s lips touched her hair, just above her ear.  “You’re stronger than you think,” he purred.  “And I think Byron just needs to know that you don’t hate him.  He is very worried about disappointing you, about losing your love and respect.”

Gabi drew in a resigned breath and tossed back the shot of whiskey.  She spun on the barstool to face Julius, caught his lips with her own for a brief second, and then hopped off to wind her way through the club to where Byron stood waiting for her.