A Cat's Chance in Hell (23 page)

Back in the lounge Kyle and Alex were mercilessly teasing Julius about the attack.

“
You better hope those heal before we get back to the Estate,” Alex snickered devilishly. “I would hate to have to explain that a pet cat did that to you.”

“
That,” she heard Julius’s voice rumble in reply, “was no pet cat. That, was a bloody rabid tiger!”

Gabi rushed guiltily back into the kitchen, grabbed another clean tea towel from a drawer and ran cold water onto it before heading into the lounge. She walked over to Julius, who seemed to have regained his composure and was sitting in an armchair inspecting his arms and hands for damage. She cautiously pressed the damp cloth to the deep scratches gouged down the left side of his face, half expecting him to pull away from her, but he sat dead still, allowing her to wipe the blood away.

“
I’m sorry,” she started to babble; “he’s not normally quite that vicious towards guests. Apparently he felt you were some kind of,” she trailed off, embarrassed.

“
Some kind of what?” Julius prompted her, curiosity overpowering annoyance.

“
Wow, these are healing already,” she exclaimed as she finished cleaning the blood away from his face. She reached for his arm, going down on her haunches and peeling away the ripped pieces of his sleeve to examine the damage. The undamaged skin on his arm was smooth and hairless. Though it was pale, it wasn’t unhealthy looking or ashen as she had expected, but seemed to radiate with a faint pearlescence.

“
Vampire healing. Definitely one of the best benefits of undeadhood,” Alexander commented wryly, snapping her out of her scrutiny of Julius’s unusual skin.

She hoped they hadn’t noticed her lapse. She mopped up the worst of the blood from the wounds, trying not to take any more time than was absolutely necessary, before moving to the other arm. She didn’t need to move the remains of his shirt sleeve from that one, most of the sleeve was missing up to the elbow.

“
Oooh, that’s a nasty bite,” Gabi said, grimacing as she saw one particularly vicious wound, flesh and muscle torn and exposed, reminding her of the stitched wound on her own shoulder.

“
Just what that cat needed, a dose of Vampire blood,” Alexander lamented sarcastically. “Like it’s not enough of a terror without the addition of vampire speed and strength.” The English Vampire was clearly enjoying the uncomfortable situation.

”
Do you really think it will affect him?” Gabi asked worriedly, as she carefully began cleaning the blood from the wound. She suddenly realised that his blood had a very unusual scent; not like a human’s but closer to human than animal or Were, it actually smelled vaguely appealing to her, she hoped that was just the exhaustion talking.

“
No, it shouldn’t affect the cat,” Julius growled, glaring warningly at Alexander. Then his attention shifted back to Gabi. “You still haven’t explained why you think the cat attacked me.”

Gabi squirmed uncomfortably as she wiped the last of the blood away from his lacerated arm, amazed that the lacerations had stopped bleeding already.

“
He thought you were some kind of,” she broke off again trying to find the right word, “suitor, I guess. Potential………. mate,” she caught herself just before she used the word lover, but she could feel the blush spreading across her cheeks anyway. “He appears to think I belong to him, and him alone. He saw you as the competition, and reacted like the idiotic alpha male that he is.”

All three of the males in the room were deadly silently for a moment and then Alexander suddenly collapsed back into the couch roaring with laughter. Abruptly Kyle was laughing too. As Gabi glanced up at Julius, she realised by the twinkle of mirth in his eye, that even he was amused by her embarrassment. She quickly stood up, whirling around and stomping off to the kitchen again. She brusquely turned on the coffee maker, throwing the bloodied towel into the sink to soak; if Rose came in and saw all the blood on the towel, she’d have kittens thinking it was Gabi’s.

She became aware of Julius’s presence a millisecond before she bumped into him on her way to the fridge. Her irritation vanished as soon as she looked up and saw the healing, but still vicious, slash marks on his face.

“
I really am sorry,” she started to apologise again.

He raised a hand to cut her off. “It’s fine,” he said soothingly, “really. As you can see, I heal fast. You couldn’t know he’d react that way toward me.”

“
Thank you for not hurting him,” she said softly, busying herself with a milk-jug and teaspoons. She knew that Julius could have broken Raz’s neck in an instant, but as soon as he understood it wasn’t a Demon, he’d simply defended himself against the cat’s attack until Gabi could get him under control.

Julius smiled slightly, his features softening and a slight dimple carving the lean lines of the undamaged side of his face as he leaned back against the kitchen counter to watch her prepare the coffee.

Gabi’s heart suddenly did a strange little double beat.

“
I wouldn’t want to find myself on the business end of Nex, and somehow, I imagine hurting one of your pets would put me there pretty quickly.”

Gabi snorted a little laugh. “Yeah, probably. Coffee?” she asked as she reached up for the mugs. She grimaced as she automatically tried to use her right arm and switched surreptitiously to using the left one. She realised she had slipped off the sling sometime during Razor’s spectacular entrance.

“
No. Thank you,” he answered. “It’s not one of the tastes that have returned to either of us.”

He seemed a tad morose about that, and she glanced at him curiously. The sight of him; tall, powerful and sinfully attractive, lounging so casually against her kitchen cabinet, was playing utter havoc with her ability to form coherent thoughts.

She shook herself slightly, dragging her eyes away from the liquid marble ripple of his chest, just visible through the shreds of his shirt, and trying to focus on the conversation.

“
There are a couple of bottles of red in that cupboard,” she indicated one behind him, “but I’m afraid I don’t keep a stock of Bourbon, so Alex is outta luck.”

“
Serves him right for having such extravagant tastes,” Julius said, reaching into the cupboard for a bottle and a glass.

Gabi finished stirring two coffees and pulled out a small tray placing the mugs and a packet of choc-chip cookies on it. Before she could attempt to pick it up Julius moved in, settling his glass of wine on it and whipping it away from her with a graceful flourish. Gabi pulled a face at him, but didn’t comment. She didn’t trust her voice not to betray how much his close proximity was affecting her.

Julius suddenly stiffened as Kyle called out from the lounge, “Watch out. Incoming.”

Gabi instantly scooted in front of Julius, wondering how Razor had escaped from her bedroom, but instead of a large, angry fluff ball charging through, a small masked face poked itself around the corner. Gabi heaved a sigh. “Don’t worry, it’s only Slinky. He’s not dominant.”

Julius didn’t relax his stance immediately, eyeballing the small creature warily. But, true to form, the little critter scampered in, gave Julius a cursory once-over at shoe level, and went to see what was in his food bowl. Julius visibly relaxed and followed Gabi back to the lounge.

After coffee and biscuits she got Kyle settled into the spare bedroom, leaving the door open so she could hear if he needed her. She knew the drill for concussion. Check on him regularly and wake him up every couple of hours to make sure he knew his own name. She sighed; it was going to be a long night, or morning, as was now the case.

The two Vampires had been having a low conversation while she was seeing to Kyle, it was too low even for her to pick out many of the words. She’d only picked up the odd one spoken with more vehemence by Julius. They were words like ‘safety’, ‘responsibility’, ‘madness’ and ‘killed’. She heard the conversation break off as she walked out of the spare room, and by the time she walked back into the lounge they were both pretending to be intrigued with her collection of coffee table books and photographs.

Julius was standing near the fireplace, studying a framed black and white photo of Gabi lying in long grass under a tree with her head on the belly of a lioness while two cubs playfully gambolled about on top of her. It was one of her very favourite photos, and she found it very unsettling to have him looking at it. She thought again about how she liked having her own private space that no one, except for a privileged few, ever dared to invade. She found herself wanting to yank the photo out of his hands and throw the pair of Vampires out the door. But, before her instincts could overpower her, he carefully set the picture back on the mantle and turned to her, his face tense but resigned. The skin on his face was perfect again; all traces of Razor’s attack had completely healed. She suddenly became aware of the throbbing in her shoulder and the aching in her ribs and she was abruptly envious, thinking how much easier life would be if she healed as fast.

Julius’s eyes narrowed then and his expression became hooded, unreadable. “It’s time we left you to get some sleep,” he stated shortly.

Gabi raised one eyebrow. “As much as I would love to agree with you,” she said “we still have a few things to discuss.”

Alexander looked up from the book on African landscapes with an evil twinkle in his eye. “Didn’t really think you were going to get away that easily did you?” he asked Julius, grinning.

Julius threw a narrow-eyed warning glare at the other Vampire. “She is exhausted and in pain. We can discuss things tomorrow.”

“
Yeah, right. And give you enough time to come up with a way to keep us out of the fight. No chance! We’re discussing this now. As you just noted I’m tired and sore, that makes me decidedly irritable, so sit down before I’m forced to let Raz out again!”

“
You’d dare to set that cat on me again?” he demanded, outraged. That did it, her fuse had been lit – and it was never a very long fuse.

“
You dared to set your Vampires on me, and you heal a shitload quicker than I do, so I think I still owe you!” she responded angrily, through gritted teeth, trying to keep her voice down for Kyle’s sake.

Alexander watched the sparks fly for a moment then stood up to get in between them, still grinning. “She’s got you there, mate,” he told Julius in mock seriousness. “I should actually hold you down and let the cat get a bigger piece of you.”

He turned to Gabi. “You want me to hold him down? Or you do you want to do the holding and I’ll let the cat out?”

Gabi stomped over to her favourite overstuffed chair and plonked down, wincing in pain at the over-zealous move. She grumbled something that sounded like “Tempt me!” but the worst of the tension drained from the air.

Julius gave up glaring at Alex, and strode off to the kitchen, coming back with the open bottle of wine, a glass of water and a bottle of painkillers. He put them on the table within Gabi’s reach. She sat forward, quickly swallowing a couple of pills down with the water. Julius poured wine into his empty glass, and was about to take it from the table when Gabi reached out and snatched the glass from his fingertips. She took a deep swallow, and sat back sighing and then found Julius looking at her in utter consternation. She raised one eyebrow at him archly, mischief replacing anger in her emerald eyes.

“
You know where the glasses are. Get yourself another one!”

When the Vampires left an hour later, Julius was still opposed to the SMV becoming involved in the war, but had accepted that their help and knowledge could an invaluable asset to him. Gabi had agreed to call them as soon as a time and place for the meeting with the Council had been arranged. After they’d gone, she secured the house, let Razor out of her room and took a long, hot shower. She checked on Kyle again, and set an alarm for two hours time; setting it far out of reach so she would be forced out of bed to turn it off, she knew her own tendency to slam the mute button and go straight back to sleep. Then she crawled into bed and embraced the temporary oblivion of sleep.

Chapter 12

The phone buzzed annoyingly. Gabi cracked one eye-lid and groaned; she felt like she hadn’t slept in a week. The morning sun was filtering through the cracks in her curtains, and she could hear Rose humming to herself somewhere in the house, that meant it was already after eight thirty. She could also hear the rush of water from the shower in the spare bathroom; Kyle must be up and about. Trust him to be awake and chipper after the night they just had. The buzzing sounded again. Sighing, Gabi picked it up to see who was calling. ‘Byron’ the caller ID flashed. She immediately hit the answer button.

“
Hey,” she greeted him groggily.

“
Morning Sunshine,” he teased her gently, “Rose will be in in a moment with coffee. I called her before I woke you. I hate waking you after the night you’ve had, but I knew you would want the news as soon as possible.”

Gabi sat up in bed, tumbling Razor off to one side and making him grumble at her before yawning hugely and beginning his morning grooming. Before she ask Byron what the news was, Rose tapped at the door and entered carrying a huge, steaming mug of coffee.

Gabi grinned at her gratefully. “Rose, you are an angel. Thanks,” she whispered, tucking the phone between her left shoulder and ear to take the giant mug with both hands and breathe in the heavenly scent of Ethiopian Special Blend.