A few minutes into the argument Alexander joined them. He too was sitting out of the main fight. Gabi understood now; the Clan couldn"t afford to lose both of them. One of them had to stay in relative safety, and this time it couldn"t be Julius. So it was Alexander who offered the compromise that allowed Derek to be part of the strike force without going into the main battle. He would join the sweeper team with Alexander. Tasked with patrolling the nearby area and keeping both civilians away and mopping up anything that escaped the fray and made a run for it. This was particularly likely to be ghouls, which Gabi was confident Derek could handle so long as he had a flame-thrower.
Derek left an hour later, not exactly happy, but knowing his alternative was to be left out entirely.
Gabi had just ended a call to a pizza delivery place when Maximillian appeared in the room.
"Sire," he said deferentially to Julius, carefully keeping his eyes away from Gabi. "A delivery has arrived. A rather large delivery. What shall I do with it?"
To Gabi"s surprise, Julius"s eyes lit up.
"Excellent," he said. "Bring it here."
The tiniest hint of exasperation tweaked Maximillian"s thin lips, but the skeletal Vampire left without further comment. When Gabi made to ask what was up, Julius held up a hand, signalling patience. He should know she was last in line when the G.o.ds were dishing out patience. But before she could get too annoyed, Maximillian re-entered the room carrying several large boxes. Alexander and Kyle followed the steward into the room, looking expectant.
"The first delivery from Savannah and Mac," Julius said with an extravagant wave of his hand towards the packages, which Maximillian set unceremoniously on the floor before hurrying out of the room, a slight shudder making his thin shoulders tremble.
Gabi felt she was waking up on Christmas morning and Santa had granted all her wishes. The weapons were amazing; replicated in carbon fibre and other compounds Gabi couldn"t name, they were sleeker, lighter and more complex than their predecessors. They were soon joined by other Clan members as well as some of the Werewolves who would be involved in the strike. An excited air vibrated through the room, and Gabi felt her little spark of hope flare back to life.
As the men pa.s.sed the weapons between themselves, it became apparent that they needed names for them. It was Kyle who christened the first one the MacDart, and soon each deadly item had a Mac prefix added to it. A MacSpike, a MacBow and a MacChopper joined the list. Gabi grinned approval; the names seemed very apt.
The arrival of the pizza was all that tore her away from playing with the new toys. Soon after that, Benedict put in an appearance, and Julius took the opportunity to take his leave. He had one final lesson with the Magi. Once he returned, they would go over the final details of the strike, and until then, the rest of them could go and practice with the new weapons.
Gabi spent the night at the Estate. She and Julius made love until the first rays of dawn activated the automatic blinds and shrouded the manor house in cool darkness. Unless something calamitous happened during the course of the day, everyone was under strict instructions from Julius to leave Gabi to rest. No one knew exactly what the following night would bring, only that it wasn"t going to be easy. They all needed to be at their best.
CHAPTER 17.
The trio of dark vehicles travelled in convoy, each one protected by a bubble of concealing magic. Alexander drove the lead car, with Kyle, Patrick and two of Julius"s elite guard, Charlie and Tabari, crammed inside. In the middle of the convoy was a large van, essentially a moving computer and surveillance hub; inside it travelled Trish, Mac and Athena, with Nathan driving. Bringing up the rear, Gabi was at the wheel of her BMW; Julius was in the pa.s.senger seat while Fergus and Benedict took up the back seats. A fourth vehicle was leaving SMV HQ, equipped with medical supplies, a Banisher Magus named Christian, Melinda the Magus Healer, the new Hunter Simon, and Derek. This was the safeguard responsible for mopping up anything that escaped the battle and helping anyone who needed immediate medical attention.
The SMV and the Magi Council knew what they were planning, but hadn"t given their official approval of the mission. Not that it mattered. Byron had arranged to have the cul-de-sac leading to the Dark Ones" den closed for "roadworks". Trish had already secured a back door into the City traffic control centre, giving her access to all the traffic lights as well as the power grid. Between her and Byron, they had complete control over who moved in and out of the area, by vehicle at least. Keeping foot traffic away was another responsibility laid on Derek and Simon and Alexander. Gabi hoped the outer safeguard wasn"t spread too thinly.
"Some of the others call you Angeli Morte," Benedict said suddenly from behind her, his tone musing. "Do you realize that means death of an angel?"
Gabi took her attention off the road long enough to look around at the Princep. "What?" she asked, befuddled.
He shrugged. "No one speaks Latin properly these days; it"s a pet peeve. I just wondered if you knew."
Gabi dragged her gaze back to the road, her grip on the steering wheel tightening. "I"m not the one who came up with it. Take it up with the rogues," she grumbled, inexplicably peeved.
"It works on a certain level, though," Benedict continued, and Gabi felt her jaw muscles clench.
"I"d leave well enough alone, Princep," Fergus warned mildly, and the car returned to silence.
"Yes, we"re in the right place." Benedict"s voice came again a few minutes later as they approached the target area.
"f.u.c.k, what is it with bad guys and warehouses?" Gabi muttered to no one in particular. "Bad things always happen in warehouses." She had the scars to prove it. Julius"s mind brushed against hers, a calm, soothing presence, the cool touch of midnight to her flame of midday heat.
"ETA three minutes," Trish"s voice invaded Gabi"s head. Gabi gritted her teeth, remembering just how much she hated the state-of-the-art commlink systems they were all wearing. Nothing more than a small sticking plaster at the back of her ear and a tiny receiver the size of a credit card tucked in her bra, the problem lay not in the size or design but the efficiency of the system. The transmitted voices sounded like they were coming from inside your own skull. Not too bad now, while only one person at a time was speaking, but a whole different world when everyone was yelling in the heat of battle. Gabi was glad that the system had been redesigned with a mute function since the last time they used it.
"We"re at position one," Trish said as the brake lights on the van in front of her flared.
Gabi steered the SUV smoothly around the slowing van and pulled to a stop alongside it. The front car continued on; Julius"s men and Kyle would be entering the rear of the warehouse, with Patrick shadowing them, providing cover if necessary during the initial attack. Alexander would drop them off close to the targeted warehouse and fall back to another position a few blocks away.
"Is the bird in position?" Gabi asked. Patrick had called in some favours, and a helicopter was on standby in case their coup de main turned into a rout and they needed an emergency evacuation. There was a brief pause.
"Almost," came Trish"s voice. "They"ll be on the pad in less than five minutes." She was referring to the small open s.p.a.ce at a nearby junkyard that had been earmarked as the best place for the helicopter to wait. It was less than two minutes flying time from the warehouse and unlikely to garner any unwanted attention.
Gabi hopped out of the SUV and went to open the back. It was filled with upgraded versions of Mac"s weapons, compact flame-throwers and dark protective clothing. She pulled her new black combat jacket off the top of the pile, shrugging into it. It looked like toughened leather but was supple enough to fit like a second skin. It didn"t hamper her movements in the slightest. Savannah had even designed the collar so that she had easy access to Nex. She quickly strapped several knives and daggers to her thighs and calves over her new leather combat pants; then she twisted her hair into a knot at the back of her head and fastened it securely. She threw the strap of a flame-thrower over her head, positioning the metal cylinder against her back out of her way, and pulled on her fighting gloves. It took a bit of tugging to get the left one into place over her ring; she"d contemplated taking it off, but couldn"t bring herself to part with it just yet. Finally she tucked a MacDart and a MacSpike into a modified gun belt around her waist and shouldered a large MacBow, jamming six blue-tipped bolts into the modified clip. She was ready. She"d never felt more ready to go up against a demon army. The adrenalin was making her edgy and excited.
She concentrated on calm breathing, glancing over at Julius where he stood in the shadows, also armed, though with fewer weapons than her. His primary target was one of the two Dark Elders, and they wouldn"t be fighting on a physical plane. In a full-length, masculine version of her close-fitting leather jacket, he looked confident, dangerous, untouchable and s.e.xy as h.e.l.l. She bit back a smile and kept her thoughts to herself; she didn"t want to distract him tonight. Though he"d been using his magical gifts for centuries, it had always been unconsciously. He"d only been training to use them for specific purposes for a couple of days. He had serious doubts about his abilities, but he was keeping them to himself. Gabi doubted anyone besides herself, and possibly Benedict, knew.
The teenage-looking Vampire had dropped his habitual, nonchalant teen act and looked about as serious as a high-speed ten-car pile-up. As long as he"d lived and as powerful as he was, Gabi doubted he"d been in too many real combat situations. He lacked the battle experience of Julius and his guard, who"d all seen military action in their human years and beyond. Still, Benedict had shunned the offer of protective clothing and was wearing ripped, black denims, a plain black T-shirt and his well-worn, grungy black boots, so the c.o.c.ky att.i.tude wasn"t entirely missing.
She heard Fergus rumble his appreciation about something and turned to find him picking a MacChopper out of the pile; the weapon looked like the lovechild of a scimitar and a battleaxe. Mac had apparently had the design in his head but hadn"t gotten around to actually making one yet. It was too big to be useful to Gabi in anything but the most desperate of circ.u.mstances, but it looked perfect in Fergus"s large hands. He gave a few experimental swings with it, pressing the trigger and watching the piston-powered blade spring forward from the main shaft with a crisp zing of metal. His grin was eager and vicious; she should"ve known Fergus would love that one.
Athena stood at the front of the van. Outwardly calm and collected as always, but even Gabi could taste the tension emanating from her. She was wearing a set of combat leathers and had a black scarf tied over her light blonde hair, so she looked nothing like the business-suited woman Gabi was accustomed to. She didn"t carry any weapons other than a crystal-handled athame in a sheath strapped to her left sleeve, a bracelet of dark gemstones on her right wrist, and a thin lariat woven of dark, ivory-coloured silk threads around her neck. Gabi knew the lariat was intended for Mariska. A magical means of holding her captive without the use of her powers until the Magi Council could execute her. It was a.s.sumed that the others wouldn"t be taken alive. Gabi had no intention of allowing Mariska to leave the warehouse alive either, and Athena probably knew that, but she would go along with the Council"s orders, on the surface at least. Athena"s main target tonight was Gemini. Those two would keep her busy enough that Gabi could deal with Mariska. Julius and Benedict were going after the Dark Elders. But first they had to get past whatever army the five Dark Ones had surrounded themselves with.
"We"re at position two," Alexander"s voice sounded in her head. "Shadow is in place. I"m falling back to position three."
"Gotcha," Gabi said. All the military-style talk was grating on her nerves, but all the men had picked up Patrick"s lingo, and now it was an integral part of the mission. She strode to the van, had a peek inside, and nodded to Mac. He looked her over from head to toe and gave her a grave nod in return. Trish turned in her seat to look at Gabi. She sat in front of a console consisting of several laptop computers and a small bank of monitors attached to a wall of the van. She looked worried and a little upset, but not the least bit fl.u.s.tered. She may be a truly sweet, kind person, but she had a backbone of steel, and she"d cope with whatever was thrown her way.
"Be careful," Trish whispered, a raft of emotions carried in just those two words.
"We will," Gabi a.s.sured her. "Just keep the world at bay for us, and be ready if we come running out hot." She grinned and saluted them before jogging to catch up to Julius and the others as they ghosted through the shadows towards the front of the warehouse.
As they approached the large, whitewashed building, Gabi opened her senses, searching for supernatural presences. She got nothing back besides her own team; the warehouse was like a large grey cloud of nothingness. When she refocused on the here-and-now, the others were all looking at her. She shook her head. They"d hoped her Vamp senses might penetrate the magical shield that surrounded the warehouse, but it wasn"t working. The Magi could bring down the shield, but as soon as they did, the Dark Ones would know they"d arrived. They were going in blind. Not her favourite way to start an a.s.sault. The last time they"d been in a similar position, they"d been surprised by an army of ghouls, humans who"d been bitten by demons but not killed. Something akin to a virus attacked their minds and bodies, altering them intrinsically and irrevocably. A shiver ran through her at the thought of the men, women and children who"d been turned into mindless, hungry, raving creatures. She sent a quick prayer into the cosmos that Mariska hadn"t had the time or energy to send her demons out into the human populace yet.
Athena and Benedict moved forward, staying to the shadows but getting to within a few feet of touching the front wall of the building. They needed to bring down the shield before the rest of them could enter the building. Gabi knew that the unremarkable appearance of the building as she saw it wasn"t reality; a ward hid the true nature of the place. She could feel the strong inclination to look away and the urgent sense that she had something else to do. Even though she knew the feelings were magically induced, they were hard to ignore. It took more effort than she expected to keep her eyes on the place and not turn around and run back to the van. Julius put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. He probably wasn"t as discomforted by the ward, but he could feel how much it was affecting her.
Just then the air began to thicken, breathing became an effort, and pressure made her eardrums ache. Benedict reached out and grasped Athena"s wrist, over the crystal bracelet. Athena was using her power to break the ward, and Benedict was using his Enhancer ability to help her. The pressure built further, forcing Gabi to flex her jaw, trying to ease what was quickly becoming pain in her ears and head. Just as she was ready to forget her dignity and clamp her hands over her ears like a child, the pressure broke. A crescendo of power engulfed them, exploding outward like a physical shock wave.
Gabi was knocked backward and would"ve stumbled if it wasn"t for Julius"s steadying hand. It tightened on her shoulder questioningly. She nodded, regaining her balance and sending out her Vamp sense again, and this time getting far more than she"d bargained for. She was most finely attuned to Vampires, but had a good sense of Werewolves as well. Demons were more like indistinct patches of unpleasantness, hard to distinguish exact numbers and locations. Shape-shifters and Magi didn"t show up on her radar and neither did ghouls, perhaps because they were all too essentially human.
So many things. .h.i.t her at once that her body froze as she strove to process the mental a.s.sault. Too many, but not what she was expecting. Nothing like what any of them were expecting.
"Gabrielle." Julius"s voice cut into her mental jumble. "What is it?" Two hands on her shoulders, she couldn"t see him, still caught in what her Vamp sense was telling her, but she could feel him give her a small shake.
"Lots, not demons." She was trying to count the numbers, get a sense of where they were, but it was like trying to stocktake an ant colony. The dropping of the shield had warned them, and they were rushing around.
"Dhampir." Benedict"s hard tone cut through the chaos. "What do you mean not demons?"
With a wrench, Gabi pulled her wits together and shut down the avalanche of information.
She blinked rapidly, trying to focus on the faces around her. "No demons, but lots and lots of Vampires and Werewolves," she said, still confused.
There was silence for several heartbeats; then Kyle"s voice came over the commlink. "Did we hear you right, h.e.l.lcat?" he asked urgently. "Werewolves and Vampires instead of demons?"
"Are you sure?" another voice checked. She was too distracted to know who it was.
"The Elders are here," Benedict said, his tone emphatic. "I can sense both of them."
"Mariska is here too," Gabi said, feeling the familiar p.r.i.c.kle of unease at the back of her neck that always heralded the presence of the Maleficus.
"Too late to change plan now," Fergus rumbled. "They know we"re "ere." The sound of pounding footsteps confirmed his a.s.sessment.
"Do we attack or fall back?" Patrick asked, tension clear in his tone.
"How many is lots, Lea?" Julius asked her.
"Uh, hard to say, forty or fifty at least." There were several gasps, groans and hissed breaths over the commlink.
"Are they ours? Are they being controlled by the Dark Ones?" someone asked.
"Pull out." Alexander"s voice cut through the mutterings. "Cut and run. We"ll gather and regroup."
"No." Gabi and Kyle spoke at the same time. They"d been outnumbered before; all they needed was a speedy change of tack and mindset.
"We can handle this," Gabi growled. "Trish, call in Derek and Simon. Patrick, you can fall in from the rear." Cold fire burned through her. "Athena, stay out of the fighting. Figure out if they"re being controlled by a spell; if they are, break it. Once you"ve done that, find me and we"ll head for your targets."
Athena gave her a sharp nod.
"The rest of you, the plan goes on as before. Try to minimise casualties until we know if they"re spelled. Keep them busy; give the rest of us the s.p.a.ce to do what we need to." And then it was too late for any more planning; two large bay doors opened to their right, and a tangle of bodies, some furred, some clothed, rushed them.
In the semi-dark and the crush of bodies, Gabi didn"t recognise any of the faces of those fighting against them, but that didn"t mean they were attacking of their own volition. Trying not to use killing blows was harder than it sounded. Especially against Vampires and Werewolves. While none of them were particularly well-trained fighters, the sheer numbers were overwhelming. Ducking, spinning and parrying, Gabi kept part of her attention on the commlink, checking on how the others were doing, waiting for the safeguard teams to join the fray, and waiting to hear something more from Athena after she"d told them a compulsion spell was definitely at play.
Gabi had tossed the MacBow to one side; the exploding bolts were simply too lethal. The MacSpike was also all but useless to her, and the MacDart was filled with Werewolf saliva darts, of absolutely no use against Vampires and Werewolves except in nuisance value, and she left it in its holster. She was down to Nex and her daggers.
"Gabi," Trish"s voice snapped over the commlink, "the chopper is collecting silver darts from HQ. I"ll let you know as soon as they arrive."
"Smart lady." Gabi smiled as she parried a clumsy lunge by a female Vampire and slid a razor-edged dagger in between the Vampire"s ribs, carefully avoiding the heart; it would be enough to slow her for a few minutes. She danced back, slamming into Julius as he blocked a pair of Werewolves in wolf form lunging for her back. He grabbed each of them by a throat and shoved. The two furry bodies flew backwards through the air, slamming into a distant wall hard enough to leave body-sized impressions in the brick and plaster. Gabi didn"t watch as they slumped to the floor; they wouldn"t be rejoining the fight anytime soon.
"Thanks," she yelled over the noise of the battle, cringing when she remembered the commlink, reminding herself she didn"t need to shout. "Now get going. Benedict is heading downstairs." She pointed with Nex towards two open metal doors. "I"ll join you as soon as I know which way this is going."
Julius rammed his fist into the face of another Vampire as it flew towards him, fangs bared. The male crumpled to the floor, the right side of his face caved in and b.l.o.o.d.y.
"Watch your back," he told her from between gritted teeth as he began to wade through bodies in the direction she"d indicated. Fergus appeared on her other side, his gleeful warrior"s face alight with battle fury.
"Let"s dance, la.s.s," he called. With a fierce grin she manoeuvred her back towards his, and together they faced the throng of attackers.
It was a sea of attackers, a never-ending tide. Gabi"s sword arm was tiring, the muscles burning in protest at the prolonged abuse. She had a cut above one eye, which kept blocking her vision, and more bruises than she cared to think about, but the protective clothing had stopped the worst of the damage from Werewolf claws and teeth and even deflected a number of knife lacerations. She didn"t think it would stop a direct stab, though, so she couldn"t get complacent. She used a leather-clad forearm to smear blood across her face when it threatened to drip into her eye yet again and wondered how much longer they could hold on without resorting to killing the attackers. She couldn"t feel anything from Julius, and that was worrying her more than anything else. She desperately wanted to get to his side, find out what was happening with the Dark Ones. If Athena hadn"t broken the spell by the time the silver-filled darts arrived, Gabi decided they would be used on the most aggressive of the Weres. They were simply recovering too fast for the flagging defenders to keep up.
"It"s done." Athena"s voice echoed in her head just as the Vampire Gabi was sparring with stumbled, almost impaling himself on Gabi"s spare dagger. She jerked the knife back, sparing a glance to the outer door of the warehouse, where Alexander stood protecting Athena as she worked. The Magus swayed slightly, and Alexander reached back to grab her as he kicked a dazed-looking Werewolf in the head.
"They"ve stopped." Kyle was breathing hard as he spoke. "They"re confused, but mostly not attacking."
As Gabi dropped her aching sword arm and looked around, lights suddenly flicked on above them, flooding the scene. Her team were all still standing, most bloodied to some degree, but each had limbs and heads intact, so that was something. The floor was littered with bodies, some in human form, some big s.h.a.ggy piles of fur. Those still conscious were looking around in confusion, some staring at the weapons in their hands like they"d never seen them before. A few began backing away from the invaders, hands up in surrender.
"The silver darts are here," Trish said. "Do you still need them?"
"I don"t think so," Gabi replied, "but I"ll send someone for them anyway. I"d rather have them available. Just because this lot were fighting unwillingly doesn"t mean there aren"t others fighting by choice."
"I"ll go," Derek"s voice came over the commlink. Gabi could see him on the far side of the floor, near one of the emergency exits.
"Fine," Gabi agreed. "Fergus, Kyle, Athena, you"re with me. Alexander, you"re not supposed to be in here."
He merely grinned a c.o.c.ky smile in her direction. He was no longer supporting Athena. She seemed to have regained her equilibrium.
"Well, if you"re here, you may as well make yourself useful and oversee the clear up here. Don"t be complacent with this lot," she warned.
"I"ve got this, h.e.l.lcat," Alexander a.s.sured her, with a strange emphasis to his words.
Gabi didn"t have time to work out what he meant, and hoped he could be trusted to do the smart thing; at least Patrick was here too. Gabi gave instructions to Trish to cut her group"s commlink feed from the rest and just to keep a link open to the van; Trish could relay any vital information to them, and they wouldn"t be disturbed by the ongoing chatter of clean-up. Kyle came jogging through a door to the left of Gabi as she divested herself of the flame-thrower and picked up a MacBow off the floor. She tossed it to Kyle and found a replacement MacDart for herself; then the small group started for the door Benedict and Julius had disappeared through an eon earlier.
Beyond the metal doors ran a narrow corridor to a flight of stairs heading downward. The way was pitch dark and the air stifling despite the open doors. A soft yellow light filled the corridor, chasing back the dark. It emanated from a smooth, pale crystal the size and shape of a quail"s egg cupped in Athena"s palm.
"Neat trick," Gabi commented approvingly as they approached the stairway. "Kyle, can you follow their trail?" Gabi asked. Her friend paused on the top step and inhaled, closing his eyes and opening his mouth as though tasting the air.
"I"ve got the scent. Unless there are major air currents or a flood down there, I should be able to follow it," he confirmed.
"Good, lead the way," Gabi said, moving behind him and indicating for Athena to follow her. Fergus automatically fell into line as rearguard. She had a vague sense of which direction Julius was in, but not exactly how to get to him. By the complete lack of communication from either Vampire Magus, Gabi was going on the theory that either they"d turned off their commlinks or they were both unconscious. As she could still sense Julius, the latter was unlikely, so she figured they didn"t want external interference. She wished that her Vamp sense extended to Magi. Not knowing what they were about to walk in on was worrying. She adjusted her grip on Nex, ready for anything.
At the base of the staircase was a small room with rough, unpainted walls and a bare concrete floor. The ceiling wasn"t visible in the pale light thrown by Athena"s Mage-light. All four walls looked solid. The only doorway was the one they"d just come through. They all looked around, confused.
"Wolf?" Gabi made the name a question.
Kyle was running his hands over the far wall. "They were definitely in here, and their scent leads to this wall," he said, beginning to rap on the wall with his knuckles.
"You think there"s some kind of secret doorway?" Gabi asked.
"Has to be," Kyle said, but sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
"Hold on," Athena said, brushing past Gabi, holding the glowing crystal closer to the wall. She closed her eyes in concentration, and Gabi only barely resisted tapping her foot impatiently. "There"s something..." Athena broke off, putting her hands out but not quite touching the wall. "There"s a strong ward here. It"s complicated. I"m not even sure what it"s supposed to do."
"Can you break it?" Kyle asked her.
"It"s going to take me a little while," she replied. "That compulsion spell took a lot of unravelling. I"m not at my peak."
"We have to get to them," Gabi said. "There"s no telling what"s going on behind there. It"s two against five." She wondered if it was the ward keeping her from sensing Julius properly or if he was unconscious. There was only one thing she was certain of right then, that he wasn"t dead. Yet.
Athena drew a deep breath and nodded, but even in the faint light it was obvious that she was an unhealthy shade of exhausted. A movement behind them had Gabi and Fergus whirling, swords ready, but they relaxed in sync when Alexander appeared at the bottom of the staircase.
"What are you doing down here?" Gabi growled at him. "You"re supposed to be upstairs."
"They"ve all surrendered," Alexander said with a shrug. "There"s not much else to do. Patrick has taken charge of trying to figure out where they all came from. Why are we in an empty room?"