Harry got more conversational and leaned over the bar. "At Twisted, apparently a demon came in and trashed the place the other night, killed a few vampires and scared the humans shitless. Nasty mess to clean up, from what I hear," he added, his voice lowered. "The word is, Satine's out for revenge on the demon, and the girl he snatched from her. Wants them both for playmates."
Gabriel snarled. "What about the girl?" He reached across the bar and grabbed Harry's shirt. Shook him. "What have you heard about the girl?"
"Ease off, Gabriel," cautioned Justin. "As much as I'm enjoying watching Harry turn blue, let him go."
Gabriel eased his hand open. Harry slapped at Gabriel's arms, his round face contorted with fear and rage.
"Why do you want to know? Planning on killing her?" he hissed. "I’ve heard talk." Kellan and Justin turned to look at Gabriel and they both froze.
Gabriel’s demon snapped free. His eyes whirled electric-green and his hands had begun to change shape. With a roar, he leaned over, picked Harry up, and threw him against the back wall, a masterpiece of bottles of booze. Harry landed face down behind the bar, showered in alcohol and glass.
"Great. Just great," Justin said as Gabriel jumped over the bar and swung, catching Harry right on the chin. Harry retaliated by throwing a bottle of gin at him. Gabriel dodged the bottle, heard it shatter behind him.
A woman screamed. As though her scream had flipped a switch, fists started flying all over the bar, with four stocky young men heading toward the Caines. Justin turned to meet two of them, leaving the other two for Gabriel and Kellan. He didn’t have a clue how to restrain Gabriel, to beat his demon back. As he fought, Justin thought just as furiously.
He could send more rednecks toward Gabriel. Justin blocked a blow and with his other fist, dropped the guy with a punch to the upper chest. His buddy veered away, his eyes wide.
Justin turned and saw Gabriel, his skin darkened, his hands changed and his eyes whirling electric green. Great. Justin stepped in front of a leather-clad punk that kept swinging at Gabriel and dispatched him with a well-placed kick. Gabriel didn’t seem to notice, just plowed across the room, his fists swinging indiscriminately.
"Behind you, Justin!"
Turning from the leatherhead in front of him, Justin plowed his fists—one into the stomach, the other at the throat—into a guy who'd reached for something - knife, gun, he didn't know but didn't wait to find out. The guy dropped like a stone.
Justin knew they needed to wrap this up before someone called the cops. He’d never get Gabriel under control once the authorities showed up. He swung into the rhythm of the fight. His blood sang as he hit, jabbed, and kicked his way to the front door where Kellan deflected blows easily, making the two men trying to pound on him angrier. A flurry of blows later and the two men had fallen on top of each other scrambling to get away. They fled out the door and Kellan grinned at Justin.
Someone threw a chair into the big screen TV, but it just bounced off and fell on the floor with a clatter. A couple that had huddled up against the wall, watching the fight, chose that moment to run.
Justin kept an eye on them as the two scurried out through the billiards room to the patio beyond and saw them veering away to give someone else room to come into the bar. Weres. His senses went on full alert as a group of them headed their way.
Shit. He reached mentally for Kellan, then Gabriel.
Guys. Weres at ten o'clock.
Both men turned to look in that direction while holding off an attack.
Justin dodged a fist, grabbed it and pushed the brawler to the front door.
I'll try to get this lot on their way, so we can get this handled. Gabriel, shake off your demon,
now
!
Kellan frowned.
You sure we should work with them? It’s not like we need the manpower.
I’m sure. We need allies, trust me. Watch it, Kel!
Kellan ducked a blow, clamped his hand on his attacker's neck, and frog-marched the guy out of the bar.
Justin worked the room. A touch, a look in the eye, and the human was disoriented and apologizing. Within five minutes the place was empty of all except the Caines, the Wolf Pack, and Little Harry.
Gabriel pulled out of his bloodlust enough to realize just what kind of danger they were in. If this weren't the right pack, there would be hell to pay. Weres and demons weren't normally allies in any sense of the word.
The weres sauntered in, eyed the mess with no more than raised eyebrows. The first one looked solid. Pure muscle. His long chestnut hair was pulled into a plait down his back. His big yellow-gold eyes were watchful.
Gabriel looked from him to the other two. The one on the left was taller, a bleached-blond with hair maybe an inch long and standing straight up. He was bigger than the other men, bulkier. The one on the right held very still. Younger, Gabriel thought. Not as sure of himself, but definitely strong. None of these guys were ones he'd want to fight without going demon. Still, he tensed up, ready to do what he had to do. Two more weres came in and kept watch at the back door.
Harry struggled to his feet, still shaking glass out of his hair. "No more fighting, guys, please," he said, but the words lacked authority.
"No fighting," agreed the one with the plait down his back. “Gabriel Caine?”
Gabriel stepped in ahead of the others and took the hand the other man held out.
"I’m Danny Roush of the Wolf Pack in this area. That's Sig, and Favor is over there. Josh and Garrett are by the door. You rescued my mate."
Gabriel felt the signature energy rush from the were. "Justin Caine, and Kellan Caine. Demon and Fae kin."
Danny raised an eyebrow. "Brothers?"
"Family. Kellan’s a first cousin.”
"We need some information."
"About?"
"Twisted. Vlad and Satine. Trouble’s growing. But you know that."
At a glance from Gabriel, Justin straightened a table and motioned to Harry. "Stone Ale, Harry. Two pitchers. Lock the front door, if you will. And a clean rag for Gabriel's knuckles."
Harry bristled. Gabriel strode to the bar and dropped a couple Ben Franklins onto the wood. "Please." He sent Harry a narrow smile and accepted the damp cloth from the now docile Harry. Amazing what money could do. Gabriel went back to the table, pressing the cloth against his hand. He'd enjoyed the fight, but his skin had split and both hands were bleeding.
Sig watched as Gabriel cleaned off his knuckles, his tongue coming out to lick the corner of his mouth.
Gabriel realized the scent of blood drew them, and he hurriedly finished. Justin took his hand, concentrated, and the bleeding stopped. A thin layer of new skin lay over the wounds. Sig sighed and sat back to watch as Harry brought two full pitchers of ale.
Justin and Danny poured, and they all drank together. Gabriel wiped his mouth. “From what I could tell from my visit, Twisted is a sex club for deviants of all stripes."
Gabriel continued, "Satine or Vlad has gathered J'aadt demons, an uncounted number of weres as well as the vampires. They're all a part of the club."
Kellan spoke up. "She's put the word out, is recruiting across all fifty states. And not just vamps, either. She'll take anyone with a hint of power. Kendall Sorbis has been working with her, from what I've heard."
Justin stared. “Thanks for mentioning that.”
“It hadn’t come up yet.” Kellan drank down his beer.
"The weres – at least, the wolves – aren't there voluntarily." Danny frowned down into his beer.
“Aside from the fact the club is a piece of depravity, apparently Vlad's got something big in the works. Satine is skittish about it.” Gabriel met Danny’s skeptical gaze.
Sig grunted. "That is not a good thing."
Gabriel leaned forward, intent on Danny. "I'm looking to take them all out. I want to wipe out Satine, Vlad, the club, the vamps, everything. Wanna play?"
Danny’s eyes narrowed. "You can't do it alone. You're compromised."
Gabriel frowned. "She's taken a little of my blood. Fortunately, tribreds are no one's playthings, and she can't put me in thrall, but neither can I completely ignore her. So, yeah. Compromised. How did you know?"
"I can smell her on you." Danny shrugged.
"You could have freed the rest of the weres," blurted out the young one.
“Favor.” Danny's voice went cold. “You were not to speak.”
Gabriel turned to Favor. "Yeah. We could have. We made a hard choice this morning, to rescue only Chandra. But we didn’t know enough about the system there. One was better than none. All of them could have gotten all of us killed.” Gabriel took a breath. “But freeing the others is in our plan."
Sig hissed. Danny put a hand out as if to hold him back, and looked deep into Gabriel's eyes. "You are not lying."
"No. We'd appreciate your help."
"You’ve got it. Do you have any other information?"
"She also has a were tiger called Chazz. Apparently he disposes of the bodies. That information is courtesy of our host, Little Harry." The weres looked to the bar, where Harry was polishing the top and pretending not to listen.
Gabriel continued. "There were at least four more weres that I could sense the last time I was there. I don't know if they were there voluntarily or not."
Favor stiffened. Danny put his hand on Favor's arm, clamped down tight. "Two others of my wolf pack are there that we know of. They are not there voluntarily.” Danny’s voice tightened. “This Vlad. He has caused our pack much harm. He threatens the balance in the city, threatens us all with exposure." He hesitated. "A moment, please."
Withdrawing from the table, Sig and Favor followed Danny to the two weres by the door. They talked amongst themselves while Gabriel, Justin and Kellan finished off their beer.
"What do you think?" Justin murmured low at Gabriel's shoulder.
Gabriel looked thoughtfully at the group in the corner. "I think we'll make an alliance."
"There's a first time for everything," Kellan drawled.
Danny came back to the table, leaving the others waiting by the back door. "Thank you for the information. In return, we will give you this; Kendall Sorbis is planning on opening a portal to the Chaos Plane here in Los Angeles. He hasn't done too much so far; our snitch believes he needs a power boost. Perhaps through Satine?" Danny shrugged. "At any rate. We will be in touch. I need to discuss the best way to go about this with my pack. But you have my word. We will help." He stuck his hand out, and Gabriel took it.
"Good. Caine Investigations, Third Street Promenade."
"I'll be in touch within twenty-four hours. Again. Thank you. My debt to you is personal, and pack. We honor you." With a nod, and a ferocious gleam in his golden eyes, Danny left, taking his men with him.
Harry approached the trio at the table, all the fight drained out of him. "You guys done yet?"
"Yeah. Thanks, Harry." Gabriel dug in his pocket, peeled off a few more hundreds. He dropped them on the table and the three Caines stood. "Have a good night." They went out the front door, Gabriel the last to leave. He ducked his head back in, caught Harry greedily counting the bills.
"Harry. I better not hear about this meeting on the street. You know what I mean?"
Clutching the bills to his chest with one hand, Harry wiped the sweat from his forehead with the other. "Yeah, sure, Gabriel. Anything you want. You be careful out there, now."