A Cat's Chance in Hell (10 page)

“
Let’s go,” Kyle agreed, figuring that they could at least scare the Vamps off, if necessary. The Hunters could clean up properly another night; Gabi and Kyle knew them by sight and scent now, they wouldn’t avoid the Hunters for long. They put up their cues, leaving their drinks on the table, and hurriedly stalked out after the trio.

As they exited the pool bar they heard the girl scream from the alley behind the bar and took off at a dead run, Gabi drawing Nex and Kyle unsheathing a dagger for each hand. As they rounded the corner into the alley the two Vamps whipped around, their eyes completely black and their fangs fully extended. The girl held between them was still screaming in terror. The Vampires faced the Hunters for a second, then looked at each other, and with matching growls shoved the screaming girl right at them and took off down the alley at Vampire speed. Kyle caught the girl and held her against him stifling her screams. Gabi took off at full throttle after the escaping Vampires.

”
Gabi. No,” he shouted, cursing when she didn’t even slow. He pushed the girl down onto an overturned crate, and pulled a phone from his pocket as he took off after Gabi and the fleeing Vamps. As he got to the end of the alley where it split onto a main road he could see Gabi running to his right, the Vamps a short distance in front of her.

“
Gabi,” he yelled again, trying to get her to quit the chase. The next second one of the Vamps split off the main road heading down another alley while the other continued straight. Gabi sent him a hand signal telling him to follow the one who had split off, weaving between late night party goers. Kyle sighed in exasperation and took off after the blonde Vamp, as he explained to the Magi who answered his call, where to find the girl.

Gabi kept up her pursuit of the darker Vampire without actually engaging him; they were jogging now, keeping to an acceptable human speed. She didn’t want to start anything with him while there were potential spectators, and he seemed to be counting on that; staying in the main streets and heading deeper into the city centre. Abruptly he disappeared down a side street, Gabi checked around briefly before following him; they were kilometres from the pool bar already, and Gabi wondered how Kyle was fairing with Blondie, or if he’d gone back to take care of the girl. She tracked her target to the end of the side street, he was moving quicker again, there were no pedestrians on these streets, and not a vehicle in sight. She lost the Vamp for a few seconds, but picked him up flitting down a dark side alley; he was obviously hoping to give her the slip in the darkened streets. She sped up heading for the entrance to the alley; this would be as good a place as any to take out a Rogue, she figured as she rounded the corner.

“
Oh. Shit!” she thought, coming to a dead halt in the grimy alley. “I knew there was something odd about that fucking Vampire’s behaviour” she muttered to herself, while sizing up the six Vampires who were steadily moving in on her.

The two from the pool bar now stood calmly in front of her, another two moved out of the shadows behind her, and two more from dark entranceway to her left. She fell into a defensive stance and cast out her senses, searching for more, but that seemed to be all of them. More than she’d like to take on alone.

Damn, there were disadvantages to a city, not even a stray owl that she could use as a distraction. Nex was still in her right hand, but with a twitch of her left arm she hooked a butterfly sword from her boot. Then she took a deep breath, “Well, what do you know,” she sneered at the two closest Vampires, “the Rogues have friends!” She casually moved to position her back against the right side of the alley, now she had all six in her immediate view. The two coming up from the entrance to the alley were the closest to her now, less than twenty metres away, they were both male and heavyset and muscular, one was slightly taller than the other, but besides that they could have been twins.

The taller one spoke “There is no need for bloodshed tonight,” he said in a deep rumble. His voice had an odd formal cast to it, which seemed wholly out of place in this reeking alley. “Our Master would like to meet with you, and he sent us to extend his invitation,” Deep Voice continued in a slow measured way.

Gabi blinked, mentally thrown sideways. This was a first in her books. “If this is supposed to be friendly, then I suggest you ask your friends to stop crowding me,” she suggested evenly, eyeing the other four Vampires moving closer.

T
wo of them were the males from the bar, another was a shorter, skinnier male with a darker complexion. The last was a female. She was inordinately beautiful; tall, graceful and platinum blonde, but there was a cruel set to her crimson mouth and emerald green eyes, and her whole body spoke volumes of disdain for the Hunter in front of her.

Deep Voice gave a miniscule toss of his head towards them and they stopped, standing dead still, only the female appearing unhappy about it.

Gabi was feeling decidedly outnumbered, and was trying desperately to calm her racing heart; a bright beacon of her anxiety level to the Vamps’ sensitive hearing.

“
I’m still feeling rather crowded,” Gabi stated flatly. “If we’re going to have a civilised conversation we can do it one-on-one, no need for a conference.”

There was slight movement from the group of four, as the female took another step forward.

“
I don’t think you’re precisely in a position to give orders,” the female spat in Gabi’s direction. Her accent seemed to have a touch of French in it, well that explained a few things.

“
Genevieve!” Deep Voice cautioned with an increased rumble in his voice. “We are not here to intimidate her.”

“
Angeli Morte – Phuh!” spat the female, with a sneer thrown in Gabi’s direction. “She is just a pitiful scrap of semi-humanity, what good can she do anybody?”

Deep Voice drew himself up to his full height and turned towards the female with exasperation on his face, but Gab
i simply ignored the female.

“
If you are not here to intimidate me then why did he send six of you?” She directed her question at Deep Voice and his brother, acting as though the female did not exist.

Deep Voice threw one more threatening glance Genevieve’s way, and then visibly calmed himself before replying. “The Master simply wanted to get your attention without any bloodshed. He felt extra numbers would make you less likely to attack us on sight.”

“
Six against one?” she asked incredulously.

Deep Voice inclined his head slightly, almost respectfully. “Your reputation precedes you, Miss Bradford.”

Gabi
raised one eyebrow. These Vampires were well informed. Members of the SMV tended to keep their identities as secret as possible. She was no longer holding a fighting crouch, but she hadn’t relaxed her defences; she still held swords in both hands, her wrists crossed loosely in front of her.

“
Perhaps it would be more civilised to introduce ourselves first.” Deep Voice used that odd formal cadence again. “I am Liam, and this is Nathan.” He inclined his head towards the Vampire next to him. He was purposefully making very few movements, Gabi noted, obviously trying not to startle her. “You have met Genevieve….”

“
Well, I heard a dog bark anyway!” Gabi interrupted.

Genevieve shrieked and launched herself straight at Gabi in a fury of fangs and nails.

When was she ever going to learn to keep her big mouth shut?

“
NO!” Liam growled, leaping forward. “Stop!”

He was too late, by a fraction of a second. Genevieve blew past him and l
aunched herself directly at Gabi. Gabi’s arms raised and her swords flashed outwards in a single fluid motion. The two of them flew backwards as Genevieve collided with Gabi and they landed in a tumbled heap against the far brick wall. The fight was over in seconds, both of them using every ounce of strength and speed to rip into the other. When they suddenly broke apart Genevieve was still shrieking, but this time in disbelief. She reared away from Gabi, her eyes wide and her hand clutching at the blade sunk deep into her chest. She stumbled several metres backwards, for once completely ungraceful. Her body suddenly stiffened as a single drop of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and she collapsed to the ground. Gabi was already picking herself up off the street, leaning on the wall assessing her own body, but there was no time to do more than make sure she could stand. The other Vamps, shocked into stillness for the briefest second, leapt into action. The blonde one from the bar broke from the pack and streaked towards Genevieve. Inhumanly fast.

“
No!” He
roared hoarsely as he reached her. He watched in stark disbelief as her corpse began to mummify in front of him. Gaby hadn’t been formally introduced to this male yet, but he obviously cared about the very beautiful, but now very dead, Genevieve. Then he looked up at Gabi with rage twisting his pale features.

“
You bitch!”
he screamed, baring his pale, glistening fangs viciously. He began to stalk towards her.

Liam and Nathan threw themselves into the small space between
the pissed off Vampire and Gabi, while the other two hung back, seeming bemused by the turn of events.

Gabi pulled in a ragged breath and switched Nex to her left hand, her right arm wasn’t following orders and the butterfly sword was still sticking out of Genevieve’s decayed corpse. She could feel blood seeping down her right arm, not a good thing when surrounded by excited Vampires. Time for Elvis to leave the building she decided.

“
Stephan, No!” Liam ordered in a stern voice. “The Master has offered her his protection. To attack her means death.”

“
She hasn’t accepted his offer yet, has she?” Stephan bellowed back. “Get out of my way. I will avenge Genevieve’s death.”

“
Genevieve attacked first. There is nothing to avenge. Angeli Morte had the right to defend herself.” Liam moved towards Stephan, apparently trying to force him to step back. Stephan suddenly cowered down slightly, appearing to acquiesce. Liam relaxed minutely, and then Stephan leapt into the air and soared over their heads, somersaulting before landing inches from Gabi in an aggressive crouch. He didn’t pause for so much as half a second before diving straight towards her. Time almost stood still as Gabi took one quick step to the right, spinning herself away from the enraged Vampire like a matador, changing the grip on her sword so that she held it pointed downward in her fist in the same instant. She noticed the other Vampires rushing forward, but they would be an instant too late. She continued her spin like a dancer, and brought the short sword up in a backwards thrust. She used all the force of her weight and spin to drive the sword deep into Stephan’s back.

She didn’t wait to check that she had hit his heart, she yanked Nex out of his body, hissing as pain lanced through her right side, and took off in a dead sprint back down the alley.

She could sense them following as she raced through the dark, empty streets. Only four, so Stephan was either dead or severely injured. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps and the pain in her arm and chest was sharpening with every stride. Two of them suddenly streaked ahead slightly to the right of her. So they thought they could ambush her again, fortunately she knew this part of the city well. She made an abrupt left turn into another side street, there was a well hidden fire escape just a few hundred metres down, this would get her onto the rooftops. Hopefully it would take the Vampires a couple of minutes to realise she was no longer on street level.

She stopped at the ladder to catch her breath, and to steel herself for the climb up the ladder. Her right arm still wasn’t
working right, she was guessing at dislocation, and she had definitely heard something crack when she had been crushed between Genevieve and the brick wall. Arm? Collar bone? Probably a few ribs too. She took one more shallow breath, slipped Nex back into her sheath and grabbed hold of the ladder, hoping she’d have time to pull her phone and call Kyle once she got to the top. She scanned for the Vampires, and felt a huge surge of adrenaline as she realised two of them were at the entrance to the side street, she didn’t bother trying to find the other two, she just threw all her concentration into the cumbersome task of climbing the ladder one handed.

She reached the top and rolled onto the flat roof, biting back a groan as she stood up. She could now
sense the other two Vampires coming from the right at roof level, the first two almost at the ladder. Gabi crouched down and ran for the nearest shadows, there was another building with a flat roof about three metres jump from this one, she angled for a spot that she knew was the easiest to jump from. Normally this would be an easy jump for her, but she wasn’t feeling particularly confident right now. She was out of options, however, so she left the shadows and started towards the edge of the roof, resisting the urge to let out a groan. She stopped dead in her tracks as she became aware of two Vampires appearing on the roof of the adjoining building. Then, a very masculine voice spoke from the dark behind her.

“
Good evening
Miss Bradford,” the husky male voice said, strangely polite. “Or may I call you Gabrielle?”

She turned around very slowly, realising she was once again surrounded. A tall man stepped out of the shadows and walked with
noiseless grace towards her.

“
Oh, shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!” Gaby thought desperately. Her
inbuilt ‘Vamp-meter’ was telling her this Vampire was enormously powerful.