All Hell Breaks Loose (43 page)

“Gabrielle,” Julius’s voice cut through the sleepy mist, “it’s all right, you were dreaming.  You’re safe.”

She released the arm she was about to try and break and blinked, trying to orientate herself.

“Sorry,” she said as reality finally swept away the last vestiges of the strange, unsettling dream.  “Is it time to get ready?”

Julius leant in a kissed her; there was concern on his face.  “Sunset is in half an hour,” he told her.  He sat on the bed next to her as she sat up and stretched.  “Do you want to tell me about the dream?”

“It was nothing serious,” she said honestly.  “I think my fertile imagination was just getting away from me with the thought that we’re going into a laboratory where experiments are being done on living beings.”  She shuddered a little.  Killing outright in battle was one thing, but medical experiments on people or animals appalled her.  Maybe she really did need to see a shrink.

“And if you don’t go and change in the bathroom, we might end up being late to the party,” she told him.  Her more light-hearted mood seemed to appease him, but she figured he would just file the dream away for discussion another time.

He purposefully stripped naked right in front of her before sauntering to the cupboard to pull out a worn-looking pair of leather pants and a black, muscle-hugging, combat shirt.  The bastard was torturing her, and he knew it.

It was nothing short of a miracle that the two of them made it to the cars at the same time as everyone else.  Gabi was still strapping on extra knives and finding somewhere to tuck the dart gun, and Julius’s bootlaces weren’t tied.  Patrick had already left to coordinate with the Packs and the SMV crews, so it was only Vampires waiting to go out with them.  The Clan manfully kept any hint of amusement at their lack of readiness carefully hidden, but the sidelong glances were enough to have Gabi fighting a blush.

“In the cars, let’s go,” Julius growled.

Minutes later they were speeding out of the City centre in a convoy of three BMW SUVs.  In less than an hour, they’d be inside the secret laboratory of the madman known as Jason King.  Gabi sent a silent prayer to the Lord and Lady that they would all make it out in one piece and that there were no horrific discoveries awaiting them.

Chapter
23

The security measures were state of the art, every gizmo, lock and security device known to man had been utilised to protect the lab.  Of course, none of the builders of the place had designed it with the thought of keeping Vampires and
Dhampirs
out…if they even had any idea that Vampires existed and what they were capable of. 
Werewolves
were strong, fast and agile, but if you’ve ever seen a Vampire at their finest, you know that a
Werewolf
barely makes it into the same category.  Add their supernatural senses and reflexes, a cunning intelligence, unearthly calm battle demeanour and, in many cases, centuries of fighting experience and Vampires are simply in a different class.  It almost seemed like overkill to throw in a power like Julius’s to the mix.

He didn’t even bother to touch the solid metal and armoured glass
doors,
he simply walked towards them and unleashed his power in a sharp, forward spear.  The doors exploded from their moorings, the glass shattering like crystal, the frames crashing into the space beyond with a deafening clatter.

The lab must have had its own back-up generator, as the inside wasn’t entirely dark.  Several multi-coloured LEDs blinked at them from the remnants of the reception desk.

“What do think the chances are that this fucker has rigged this whole place to blow?” Gabi asked quietly.

“Not while he’s inside,” Alexander assured her.  “He’s not the martyr type; he’ll want to get out of this alive. 
No matter what.”

“So, now we just have to hope he doesn’t have a rat run out of here that we don’t know about?” Gabi asked no one in particular.  Despite her concerns about being blown to hell in tiny pieces, she was feeling pretty invincible.  Having a second dose of Julius’s blood just before the raid began had hotwired her reflexes.  The world appeared to be moving in slow motion while she was moving at full tilt.  She felt like Neo once he had control of the Matrix; she literally felt like she could dodge bullets without breaking a sweat.

The Vampires poured into the darkened room, Gabi in amongst them.  Tim and James hung back a little, as ordered.  A quick scan showed the reception area was empty of life.  Gabi’s Vamp sense was picking up something non-human inside, but she couldn’t pinpoint how many or what species.  They turned towards the first set of internal security doors.  These doors blew inward as easily as the first set.  This time something was waiting on the other side.  Several pairs of bright green eyes gleamed sinisterly from the dark.  Nothing more could be seen of the creatures, but scent told Gabi they were wolves of some kind.  There was a cacophony of snarls as the creatures lunged at the team.  The narrow confines of the room made fighting challenging, but the Vampires moved as a seamless entity. Fergus and Charlie moved to the front, giving each other room to swing their weapons. Marcello fell in close behind them—back-up if either faltered.  Alex and Julius took up the rear, Gabi between them.  Without hesitation three huge, hairy forms sailed over the heads of the front rank and ploughed directly into them.

Time almost stood still as Gabi glanced up at the beast flying directly at her.  Shock drenched her as she realised it wasn’t in man form or
Werewolf
form.  It was a grotesque mix of the two, as though the Change had been halted part-way.  Under normal circumstances, this would have rendered the
Werewolf
incapacitated until one form or the other was fully achieved, but obviously Mr King had been doing worse things than developing sedatives.  He’d been creating monsters. 
Nex
flew up in front of her as the wolf-man crashed into her, sending her flying backwards.  As they slid to a stop, she had
Nex
at its throat, pressing hard to keep the spittle-covered fangs, extending grossly out of a semi-formed snout, from ripping off her face.  It roared in frustration.  Human-like hands, fingertips ending in long, vicious talons, clawed at
Nex
, oblivious to the painful lacerations it was inflicting on itself.  Gabi groped for the dart gun at her waist—the bulletproof
vest wasn’t helping matters.  Suddenly the wolf-man flew sideways off of her, slamming into a wall with a bone-jarring crunch.  Julius quickly turned back to his own quarry.  There were more than enough to go around.  Her wolf-man landed on the ground in a crouch, shaking its head, and didn’t hesitate a second before launching at her again.  She was on her feet and spinning out of the way before she remembered that Tim and James were still somewhere behind her.

“Shit,” she spat, halting her spin and launching herself at the wolf-man’s back.  Bizarrely, it still seemed intent on attacking her.  Ignoring the less aggressive targets, it whirled back towards her instead of ploughing into the other Hunters.  She caught it on the shoulder and managed a glancing blow with
Nex
across its mostly human face.  It roared and flung her away, sending her crashing into a wall,
Nex
spinning from her hand.

“Right,” she snarled, leaping up off the floor and dragging a pair of butterfly swords from a sheath.  “No more games.”  Then she raised her voice to be heard over the melee in the room.  “Kill them,” she roared.  She made an executive decision and hoped she wouldn’t live to regret it.  Their orders were only to kill if there was absolutely no other choice, but there was no way they could allow these creatures to live, it would only be putting them out of their misery a little sooner than the Council itself would.  She saw Julius’s gaze flick to her, question in it.  “Do it,” she snapped, then frowned, wondering why her wolf-man hadn’t attacked again.  She cast around in the dark for it and found it standing immobile, but not willingly.  Rage contorted its already misshapen features, and it was clearly fighting to move.  Standing upright on two deformed human legs the wolf-man stood well over eight feet tall.  Gabi then noticed James a few feet away breathing hard, his hands out in front of him.

“Quickly,” he gasped out between clenched teeth.

Tim was standing next to him, motionless, horror frozen on his face as he stared at the wolf-man.  Gabi didn’t hesitate, she charged.  A quick slice with a butterfly sword hamstrung it, bringing it crashing to the floor.  Gabi felt James’s strength give out as the creature suddenly flailed towards her again.  A last vicious downward stroke with the other sword finished the job.  The creature’s head rolled a few feet away, where it’s now dull green eyes glared balefully at her from the dark.  A repulsive shudder ran through her as she turned to check on the bigger battle.

Her order had the desired effect.  The rest of the wolf-men were quickly being dispatched now that the Vampires weren’t trying to keep them alive.  The last one had been dealt a blow to the spine and only had use of its arms and head, but it was still trying to pull itself towards its attackers.

“Finish it,” Julius growled to Fergus, who quickly and efficiently decapitated it with his broadsword.  “You okay?” he asked, making his way back to Gabi.

“Fine,” she assured him.  A couple of bruises from her encounter with the wall
wasn’t
going to slow her down. 
“You?”

He grinned in the dark.  “Just warming up,” he purred.

His energy was infectious.  Gabi couldn’t help grinning back.

“So, Mr King has some surprises in store for us,” she noted, trying to avoid having a good look at the grotesque bodies of what must once have been men lying in pieces around them.

“A real live Doctor Evil,” Julius said, the humour vanishing from his face.

“James, you okay?” Gabi checked, looking over at the Hunter.

He was still upright, but bent over, his hands on his knees, like a marathon runner at the finish post.  “Yeah,” he gasped.  “That thing…” he dragged in another breath, “was huge.”

Alexander sauntered up to them.  “The rest are dead.  There were seven of them, including this one,” he reported.

“The others haven’t changed to human shape either?” Gabi asked him, indicating the corpse of the wolf-man, which still looked exactly like a monstrous amalgamation of man and wolf.

“No,” Alexander confirmed, “they also look the same.”

“So not
Werewolf
, then.”
  Gabi chewed on her lower lip worriedly.  In true
Werewolves
, the lycanthropy virus died moments after the death of the host, and the body always
Changed
back to its original form.

“What’s wrong with him?”  Alexander nodded towards Tim, who still hadn’t moved or changed expression.

“Uh, I’m going to go with shock,” Gabi said, going over to snap her fingers in front of the
Werewolf
’s nose.  “These creatures are quite literally a walking nightmare to a
Werewolf
’s mind.”

Tim blinked and then focussed on her.

“Tim,” she said sharply.  “Are you with us?”

“Yeah,” he gasped.  “Yeah, those things, they…they…” he trailed off.

“Tim, we need you to go and find Kyle and Derek.  Can you do that?” Gabi asked.  “You need to tell them about the wolf-men.  They must get the word out.  If any others are found, they are to be destroyed.”

Tim nodded, but didn’t move.

“Tim,” she said again, “have you got that?”

“Yeah.”
  He nodded, still staring forward.  “Kyle.  Tell him, wolf-men.  Destroy them.”  He turned and practically fled the building.

Gabi took a deep breath and turned back to the rest.  “Ready to see what other horrors await us?”

The team formed back up and cautiously made their way through the doorway into the corridor beyond.

They ghosted down a narrow passage; a few dim, back-up lights illuminated the way.  A door led away to their right.  Charlie and Fergus took up protective positions on the far side of the door, watching the passage ahead while the rest prepared to see what lay behind the door.  This time Julius left Marcello to kick the door in.  As it burst inward, the team charged in, prepared for anything.  It was empty.  A large room filled with heavily reinforced steel cages the size of your average jail cell.  There
was
several feet of space between each cage, enough that the inhabitants wouldn’t have been able to reach each other.  The doors to all of them stood open.  Each cage contained a mattress and very little else.  Open holes in the floor emitted the gag-inducing stench of raw sewage.  This was one of the rooms Kyle had been worried about.  It was apparent that this was where the wolf-men had been housed until they’d been unleashed against the team.

Gabi nodded towards the ceiling.  “I guess he knows we’re coming now,” she said as a surveillance camera rotated silently to focus on them, a red light blinking owlishly. There were half a dozen cameras throughout the room, but only the one was operating at the moment.