All Hell Breaks Loose (6 page)

“You know what’s happening to me?
”
he whispered.

“Yes, I know exactly what’s happening to you,” she replied in a soft voice.

“You can really help?”
T
here was a tiny
thread
of hope in his voice.

“Let me in
,
Derek
.
W
e can’t talk about this with me outside where other people can overhear us.”  She was getting to the point where she was going to smash his door in to get inside, but she didn’t want to draw the attention of the neighbours if she could help it. 
T
here was a sound of movement
,
and the lock clicked.  She breathed in
deeply
,
preparing herself, then opened the door and slipped inside.

The house was in semi-darkness, all the curtains pulled tightly shut.  The smell was overwhelming to her sensitive nose.  Sweat, blood, fear and the overpowering odour of uncontrolled
Werewolf
mixed into a potent miasma.  Derek was slumped on the floor next to the door, dishevelled, unkempt,
barely
recognisable.  His usually luscious chocolate
-
brown hair was tangled and dirty.  Days-old stubble covered his handsome face
,
and
he wore
a bloodstained
T
-shirt and torn jogging pants over his muscular frame.  But it was his eyes that caught and held her attention.  Liquid mercury eyes
filled with horror,
pain
,
fear and despair.  She resisted the urge to go to him
,
hug him, comfo
rt him,
tell
him it would be okay.
T
hat was a really bad idea with a newly infected
Werewolf
, and there was still the woman somewhere in the house.

“Derek, where is the woman?” she asked.  “I need to see if I can help her.”

At her words
,
his face crumpled
.
H
e closed his eyes
and dropped
his head back onto the wall
.
T
ears coursed silently down his cheeks. He lifted one hand to point down the corridor.
 
“It’s Trish, my sister,” he choked out.  “I’m sorry.  I
’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…
” His
voice broke, and he couldn’t continue
.

Gabi felt her heart clench.  Though she’d never met his sister
,
she knew that Trish was the only family Derek had left.  She also knew that Trish had only just finished recovering, physically at least, from being beaten half to death by an abusive boyfriend.

She flew down the corridor in the direction he pointed.  Using her nose to track the scent of blood
,
she
entered
the first bedroom.  The dark
-
haired woman was laid carefully on the double bed, her face turned away from the door.  She was motionless.  Gabi braced herself and hurried to the bed, concentrating all her senses on the woman.  She let out a relieved breath as she detected a faint heartbeat and the slight rise of the woman’s chest.

There was a bandage on her right arm
and shoulder
, but blood was seeping through and soaking into the bedspread.  Gabi reached for the woman carefully, turning her head to assess the damage to her neck and shoulder and lightly probing her wrist for a pulse to confirm what her ears had told her.  The pulse was unsteady and faint, but it was there.  It was a good thing she was unconscious; the wounds were ugly and savage, consistent with the bite marks of a large wolf.
Gabi laid the back of her hand on Trish’s forehead.  The telltale heat had already begun to take hold
.
I
n a few hours she’d be burning up with fever.  If her
body
was strong enough to survive the fever
,
she’d pull through
,
and her wounds would heal in a matter of days.  But when the full moon exerted its irresistible, magnetic pull in a little
under
four weeks
’
t
ime, she’d go through her first C
hange. 
Into a
Werewolf
.
  But first
,
she had to make it through the fever.

Gabi pulled out her phone just as Derek ghosted into the room and collapsed to his knees near the end of the bed, staring despairingly at Trish, heedless of the tears and blood streaking his face and clothes.

“She just came to help me,” he said, an ocean of misery in his whisper.  “I told her I was sick, and I told her to stay away, but she came anyway.  She’s like that. 
A real mother hen.
  You’d think she was the older one.  When I wouldn’t open the door
,
she unlocked it using her own key and came in anyway.  Something inside just exploded out of me.  The next thing I remember is Trish screaming and crying, and the taste of blood in my mouth.”  He stopped talking
to stare
at his hands in disbelief.  “I didn’t have hands, I had paws.  Huge, furred paws with great,
vicious
claws.”

“Derek,” Gabi interrupted him sharply, “I’ll explain everything in a minute.  Go and put on some coffee and clean yourself up
.
I’ll be there in a moment.”  She put an authoritative edge in her voice.  Whether it was her tone or the stuntman just functioning on autopilot she wasn’t sure, but Derek dragged himself upright and left the room. 
S
he heard a shower turn on. 
As s
he looked back at the woman lying on the bed
,
she
wish
ed
there was more she could do to help Trish
.
She knew that, right now,
it was Derek who would benefit
more
from her help.  It was up to Trish’s strength of body and mind to see if she would make it through the next few days. Gabi hit a speed
-
dial number on her phone
,
and it w
as answered almost before it ra
ng through.

“Gabi?”
Kyle’s voice was worried.  “What’s going on?”

She’d filled him in on where she was going and why as she’d sped through the early morning traffic.  He hadn’t thought it was a good idea for her to come here on her own.  She’d promised to call him if things got out of hand.

“I’m at Derek’s place,” she explained.  “Don’t get excited, things here are calm, but the report was true.  Unfortunately
, we were a couple of hours late,
and there’s now a second case.  I’m going to need some help to get the new case somewhere safe while I keep an eye on Derek.  Can you organise with Alex to take her to the Estate and have Jonathon take care of her?”

“Her?”  Kyle excl
aimed.  “Shit!  I’m leaving now.
I’ll call Alex on the way.”

Gabi could hear him picking up his van keys as he spoke. 
They both knew that it was harder for a woman to make it through the fever than for a man—the sooner she had medical help, the better.

“Bring some first aid stuff as well.  Bandages, swabs and dressings would be good,” she told him.

“No problem, I’ve got all of that in the van.”

“Call me when you get close,” Gabi said
,
after giving him the address.  “I’m not sure how he’s going to react to you
.
I’m assuming he’ll be a dominant.  I want time to prepare him before you come in.”

“Good point,” Kyle conceded
.
“
C
all you in a few.”  And he hung up.

Gabi deftly rebound Trish’s right arm and shoulder with the bloody bandage, making it tight enough to slow the blood flow
,
and then went to find the kitchen.

She
’d made the
coffee and a couple of cold meat sandwiches by the time Derek came through
to the small, neat kitchen.  He was
looking cleaner and tidier but no less haunted.

“Sit,” she ordered him
,
pointing to the small kitchen table where a mug of coffee and a sandwich waited.  He started to shake his head, but Gabi interrupted before he could argue.  “Sit and eat,” she reiterated.  “
Hunger is one of
the quickest way
s
to lose control of your wolf in the early days.  You must eat because you must learn to keep control.”

Her words stole any disagreement he might have had.  So he sat
,
picked up a sandwich
,
and took a bite.

“I thought I was going crazy,” he mumbled after
a
mouthful.
“A
pair
of men turning into wolves and attacking me in the middle of the City?
  It sounds like the start of a bad horror movie.”

“And you’ve been in a few of those,” Gabi said
,
taking the other chair at the small table and setting her coffee mug down.  Her comment elicited the ghost of a smile from him, but it vanished quickly.

“
A
m I
…
” he pau
sed, clearing his throat, “am I a…
Werewolf
?” he finally asked.

Gabi held his gaze calmly.
 
“Yes,” she replied steadily, “you are.  And if Trish survives the next few days
,
she will be one
,
too.”  She saw the pain and hopelessness flood his face again.  She leant forward and put a hand over his on the table.  “Derek, this is a life sentence
,
not a death sentence.  There are ways to live with this.  Ways to live a full and productive life.”

His silver eyes suddenly flew up to hers, comprehension lighting them.
 
“Are you
…
?” he began.

Gabi smiled wryly.
 
“No, I’m not a
Werewolf
,” she said, then sensing his confusion
,
went on
,
“I’m not fully human either.”

“If not a
Werewolf
,” he stumbled a little over the unbelievable word,
“
then what?”

Gabi snorted.
 
“
Werewolves
aren’t the only supernatural creatures wandering around out there.”  She gave a little nod towards the window.  “Eat,” she commanded him again
,
seeing his sandwich had hardly been touched.  When he picked up the food again
,
she continued.  “There are also Shape-shifters, Magi and Vampires.”  She realised belatedly that she probably should’ve waited for him to swallow before spouting the ‘V’ word, as he gasped, half-choking himself
,
and
his eyebrows
shot
up.

“Vampires?
”
he spluttered, finally swallowing his mouthful.  “You’ve got to be joking.”

Gabi didn’t bother arguing, she knew it was going to be a while before Derek accepted the whole supernatural thing.  She held off telling him about
Ghouls
and
Demons
, those they could get to another day.
 
“No
,
I’m not joking.  They all live in amongst, or on the fringes of, human society,” she replied calmly.

“But, but
…
” he spluttered
.
“Vampires?
Surely they
kill people, that’s
the definition of a Vampire
,
isn’t it?
A creature who survives by drinking the blood of the living?”

Gabi had to repress a sigh.
 
“Yes, Vampires are
something
like the legends
.
T
hey do drink human blood to survive, but they don’t have to kill to take blood.”  Derek opened his mouth to argue with her,
but
she held up a hand and pointed to his almost finished meal.  “I’m not saying it never happens. 
Same as
humans
,
there is the odd
rotten
apple, but the majority just want to live their lives in relative peace.  The same can be said for
Werewolves
and
the rest
.  Most live in amongst the human population
:
they have jobs, loved ones, hobbies,
friends
.  You’ve even met a few of them.”