All Hell Breaks Loose (9 page)

The Alpha’s eyes narrowed, as his
P
ack stirred nervously.

“Leave me a business card, and I’ll have my superiors contact you to discuss your recent transgressions.  They may spare some of your Pack members if you decide to co-operate.”  She let the cold certainty of his death fill her eyes.

She watched the appraisal running through his mind.  Wondering if she truly was as good as the stories said she was.  Her intuition kicked in, and she knew a second before he did that he was going to call, what he assumed was, her bluff.  Not for the first time, she cursed the fact that she couldn’t simply kill a
rogue
without a kill order from the SMV.  Not without an enquiry and paperwork and the chance of suspension, anyway.  As the thought hit his consciousness, Gabi dropped
Nex’s
tip from his heart and powered a knee strike into his chest, sending him careening backwards into his compatriots.  The move took him by surprise and annoyed the shit out of him.

He regained his balance instantly and yelled, “Get her,” at his lackeys.  He stepped back to watch the show, allowing his minions to do the dirty work.  She’d already picked out the weak links in the pack.  They were big and muscular, but they were new Lycanthropes, and they didn’t move like fighters.  They’d probably never even been in a decent street brawl.  She was praying this would tip the balance in her favour; otherwise she was up the proverbial creek.

Their first rush was almost comical in its
chaos,
they charged her in a tight V formation, Mr Stocky at the front.  A powerful flying kick directly into his chest sent the entire squad tumbling several feet backwards and gave her enough time to dive to her right and grab the garden rake leaning next to the garage door.  She made it back to her post at the door and slammed it shut just as a couple of them made it back to their feet.  Mr Alpha was roaring at them, spittle flying from the corner of his mouth.  With a quick stamp of her foot, Gabi snapped the bottom section off
the rake and spun back to face them.  Suddenly she was looking forward to the fight.  It had been a while since she had a good four-on-one fight, the adrenaline obliterated the pain in her arm, and her world narrowed down to the small, fenced, suburban garden and five
Werewolves
.  She’d spent enough time fighting Kyle, and a long list of
rogues
, to know a
Werewolf
’s weak spots.  She decided first blood would be hers.

She took the one on her left first, with a stabbing blow to the solar plexus from one end of the staff.  She heard the air whoosh from his lungs as she spun the stick and delivered a brutal uppercut to the jaw of the man on her right.  A distinct crack preceded a gasp of pain, she wasn’t sure if it was the stick or the guy’s jaw that had broken.  The third man received the gift of her boot solidly in his tender nether regions and dropped like a downed deer.  Mr Solar Plexus was the only one of the three still standing, so she spun the staff back in his direction and caught him across the side of the head, carefully aiming for his temple. The force of the blow snapped his head around, and he stumbled backwards a few steps before crumpling to the grass.  Gabi hoped she’d cracked his skull; that would take a couple of days to heal.

An arm went around her neck as Mr Stocky rushed
in,
Gabi noticed with satisfaction that Mr Alpha’s expression had changed from arrogant confidence to angry shock.  She held his gaze as she calmly twisted her body sideways, not bothering to remove Mr
Stocky’s
arm from her throat, and brought the stick down across the back of the man’s knees.  He grunted in pain, and his grip on her throat loosened. 
A fatal mistake in other circumstances.
  Gabi’s eyes narrowed as she whirled to the
Werewolf
, who was grimacing in pain but trying to grab her again, this time a little desperately.  She ducked his wild grasp and spun the staff one more time, flicking it into a vicious strike across his throat.  He collapsed to the ground, choking and gagging, his eyes wide with panic.  Gabi turned slowly back to face the Alpha.  She dropped the rake handle and drew
Nex
again, openly challenging him.  One of the men had managed to pick himself up off the ground, but he was swaying alarmingly.  The man from the back of the house came charging around the corner; apparently he’d heard the commotion.  Gabi hoped none of the neighbours had.  The Alpha held up a hand to freeze him in his tracks.

“This isn’t over,” he snarled at Gabi.

“You’re damn right about that,” she agreed.  “But a quick word of advice; by this afternoon there’ll be a kill order on your head.  Next time we meet, I won’t be so gentle.”

The Alpha was so incensed that he seemed to be struggling to keep his own wolf at bay.  He made a sharp gesture at the standing men, and they quickly began dragging the groaning and unconscious
Werewolves
towards the cars.  The
Pack l
eader’s gaze never left hers as he backed away several steps and then with a deliberate sneer turned his back on her and strode to the front car.

Gabi made a mental note of the licence plates as the cars roared off down the street and out of sight.  Then she sheathed
Nex
and blew out a breath, trying to calm the adrenaline high before opening the door cautiously.  With relief, she saw that it wasn’t a wolf waiting for her, but Derek, still in human form, curled on the floor breathing hoarsely.

“It was them,” he repeated once again.

Gabi wasn’t sure if he was gaining some control, or if it was sheer exhaustion that had kept him from shifting, but either way he looked terrible.

“Yes, I know,” she tried for a soothing voice.  She crouched to help Derek to a sitting position.  “It’s time to get out of here.  I don’t fancy being around if that bunch decide to come back with reinforcements.”

“Why did they want me?” he asked.  He seemed to be regaining control of his muscles, and he let her help him to his feet.

“I’ll explain as much as I can in the car, but I’m not entirely sure myself.  Grab your bag, we need to go.”

“There’s one more small problem,” Derek said slightly hesitantly as Gabi hit the unlock button for the Mustang.  She groaned inwardly, making an effort to hang onto her temper as she motioned Derek to throw his bag in the trunk of the car.  If she didn’t get another coffee soon, she was going to lose it.

“A small problem?” she asked.

“Yeah, ah, Trish has a dog,” he replied.  “I bought her a dog for protection after, well, you know. 
Mostly to help her feel safe again.
  He hasn’t been fed since yesterday, and he’s probably locked outside.”

Gabi kept back the frustrated growl but allowed a sigh to escape.  It was apparently going to be one of those days.  “Is there anyone you can ask to dog-sit for a few days?” she asked, knowing the answer already.  Everyone knew she couldn’t ignore an animal in need.

“Well, I’ve been wracking my brain, but I don’t really know her friends.  I’m not sure she even has any after Brendan.” The name was ground out through clenched teeth.  “None of my friends live close enough to go and feed him or have enough room in their own places to have a Rottweiler stay over.”

“A Rottweiler?”
Gabi repeated, wishing immediately that she was driving Kyle’s van instead of her beloved Mustang. 
Yep, definitely one of those days.
  “I hope he’s good at being squished into small spaces,” she said in resignation, pointing a thumb at the miniscule excuse for a back seat.  “And he’s going to have to stay in one of the runs at the house. They’re large enough for big cats, so he’ll be comfortable until we can make other arrangements for him.”

“He’s very well trained,” Derek assured her.  “He won’t run off or anything.”

“I have a cat,” she reminded him.  Almost everyone knew about Razor.

“Oh, he’s good with cats, too. Trish sometimes cat-sits for a work colleague, and he’s never tried to hurt that cat.”

“It’s not the cat I’m worried about,” Gabi told him darkly.

As Gabi negotiated the slow-moving, rush-hour traffic, she made phone calls.  First to Kyle, checking if he’d made it to HQ and filling him in on Derek’s visitors and the fight.  He sounded concerned and told her to get to her house and stay put until he talked things over with Alistair.  He hadn’t heard about any change of Pack leader status, and a
rogue
Pack loose in the City was a serious matter.

Next she called Byron to tell him what had happened, she had to tell him about the skirmish with the
Werewolves
in case someone in the neighbourhood had seen and reported it.  Byron was the expert at damage control.

“Trust you to take on six
Werewolves
with a garden rake, Gabrielle.”  He sounded a little exasperated.

“It was that or
Nex
,” she grumbled back.  “I didn’t feel like the paperwork from an unsanctioned kill.”

Byron snorted a laugh.  “I wonder if the Alpha has any idea that he owes his life to paperwork.  Give me the licence numbers, and I’ll see if they lead anywhere.”

By the time she had finished the call to Byron, Derek had fallen into a light doze, and Gabi let him sleep until they arrived at Trish’s house.

Gabi sent Derek to collect the dog food and other dog paraphernalia and find towels to protect her car seats while she went to the rear garden and found the dog.  His name was Roman, which seemed to suit him.  He was a beautiful example of the breed.  If Derek had chosen him, he had a good eye.  A well-bred Rottweiler was a fantastic pet: naturally protective, highly intelligent and with just the right amount of liveliness.  She was relieved to see that not all the playfulness had been trained out of Roman, as was sometimes the case with highly trained big dogs.  He rushed to greet her with enthusiastic, tail-wagging excitement.  She had that effect on dogs.  It was going to be tricky keeping him calm in the car with Derek in the front seat, though.  Dogs have a natural aversion to
Werewolves
; they seem to sense the greater predator.  It made Gabi wonder what their attitude towards Vampires was.

Roman emitted a low, keening whine the entire trip to Gabi’s house, huddling as far on Gabi’s side of the car as he could fit his one-hundred-and-fifty-pound body.  Not even Gabi’s influence could reassure him completely.  It was a relief all around when they pulled up to her security gates.  She left Derek and the unhappy Roman in the car for a moment while she went through the short incantation to cancel the ward around the house, then she slid her seat forward and made room for the large dog to squirm out of the car.  She left Derek with orders to wait for her before entering the house, knowing it wouldn’t be a good idea for him to meet Razor without her to act as referee.

Gabi sincerely hoped to avoid meeting Razor herself while she had Roman in tow.  If she could slip the dog into the big runs at the rear of the house before Razor spotted him, at least the dog would have the protection of the steel cage wire, which even Razor couldn’t get through.  But of course, the day didn’t suddenly turn into sunshine and roses. 
The unusually large cat
hopped out the open front window to greet her before she’d gone five steps with the dog.  All of them froze.  Then Gabi reached out a put a warning hand on Roman’s head.  Luckily he was quick and intelligent, and he immediately recognised the greater predator.  Razor might be smaller than him, but something alerted him to the fact that this cat was not to be trifled with.  Gabi was intensely glad that Trish hadn’t owned a Fox Terrier; they were notoriously stupid when they were outgunned.  Razor puffed himself up to his maximum size and narrowed an angry gaze on the big dog.  With a mental push from Gabi, Roman lowered his eyes and assumed a submissive posture as Gabi moved herself between the two animals.  She crouched, lowering herself to Razor’s height so she could grab his attention.  It took her several minutes of intense concentration to get the great cat to finally condescend to allow them past without a fight.  He turned his back on her in blatant disgust, stalked stiff-legged up the stairs to the front door, and meowed imperiously for Rose to let him inside.

The meeting between Razor and Derek didn’t go as badly as she expected.  Razor was already so annoyed with her about the canine visitor that another
Werewolf
didn’t seem to make much difference to him.  He narrowed his gaze warningly on Derek as he
sized
the man up from the other side of the room.  He didn’t bother to even move from his sunny spot in the lounge, and he ignored Gabi’s attempts to pacify him and set to grooming with a vengeance.  Gabi left him with a sigh and went to introduce Derek to Rose and to show him the spare room where he would be staying.

They’d barely sat down to a cup of much-needed coffee when Irene arrived.  Irene’s naturally calm, unflappable demeanour had a tendency to rub off on everyone around her, and Derek relaxed immediately in her company.  She performed a quick ritual using a couple of Derek’s hairs, declared Derek safe from the protective wards, and then joined them for lunch.  Derek quietly ate his way through three helpings of Rose’s excellent lasagne and salad while Irene regaled them with stories of her grandchildren, a few of whom were just coming into their powers and giving their parents a terrible time trying to keep all the mysterious goings-on in their house secret, while holding sleepovers and birthday parties.