All Hell Breaks Loose (48 page)

The new car was a challenge to drive, but a challenge that she revelled in.  Her mind was so preoccupied with the new car and her personal funk that she never noticed the dark Aston Martin trailing her from a distance through the quiet streets.

It was a twenty-minute drive to her destination.  When she arrived, the gates were still closed—too early for visitors.  She climbed out and found they weren’t locked, so she opened the gates to the Riverside Cemetery and drove inside.  The way to the graveside was a familiar one.  She left the car on the narrow lane, and she and Razor wound their way through the headstones and grave markers just as the sun began to crest the horizon.  His gravestone was simple and elegant.  Daniel Evan Bradford. 
Husband, Father, Guardian.
  Gabi lowered herself into her usual
spot on the neatly clipped grass.  Her back rested against the gravestone, one leg drawn up, the other stretched out.  Many people considered it irreverent to sit on a grave, but Gabi always felt closest to her dad when she did.  It brought back memories of curling up in his lap as a child; it was her place of comfort.

“Hey, Dad,” she whispered into the stillness of the dawn air.  “Sorry I’ve been a bit scarce lately.  Things got a little exciting around here for a while.  I hope you’re not disappointed in me.”  Razor sat quietly next to her, pressing close enough to her that she could feel his warmth through her T-shirt.  “I’ve always thought we were exactly the same, you and me.  But this past week has taught me that isn’t true.  I can’t put blinkers on when it comes to the human race.  I can’t ignore evil no matter what package it comes in.  I hope you can understand that.”  As the words spilled out of her, the tears finally came, blurring her vision as they coursed silently down her cheeks.  Her emotional release was so powerful that she never noticed Razor’s unobtrusive acknowledgement of the dark figure keeping watch over her from the shadows of the cemetery fence.

Julius held his breath when Razor fixed those sharp, citrine eyes on him.  But the cat only blinked, as though to let him know his presence had been noted and approved.  Julius knew he couldn’t stay much longer.  Already the first rays of the sun were spearing deadly fingers across the sky, seeking out the dark and the shadows.  He would be safe inside the specially protected Aston Martin, but he was finding it impossible to drag himself away.  The sight of her tears, her anguish, her sense of desolation, held him captive.  He knew it was probably a good thing that she allowed herself to break down and cry, but found it disquieting that she could only find that release with someone who was long dead and buried.  He stood locked in place as an unseen witness to her pain, until a questing ray of sunshine found a gap in the trees and the skin on Julius’s cheek began to redden and blister.  His last view of her was her turning her face up to the sun as the tears dried on her cheeks, one hand buried in Razor’s fur and the other picking at the grass on her father’s grave, her lips lifted in a sad but resolute smile.

As he eased the sports car back into the early morning traffic, his cellphone rang.  He glanced at the caller ID, very few people had this number, and most of them would be dead to the world right now.  It was a foreign number.  Julius toyed with ignoring it; it was probably just a wrong number, but something made him push the answer button instead.

“Yes,” he
said,
his tone brusque.

“Julius,” a male voice greeted him.

Julius almost dropped the phone.  He hadn’t heard that voice in decades, perhaps for more than a century, but it was unmistakeable.

“Caspian?” he asked.

“The one and same,” the other man acknowledged.

Julius’s mind was racing.  To Julius’s knowledge, Caspian was the only other Vampire who’d been sired by Simone besides himself and his brother.  Caspian had been sired over a decade before Julius met Simone.  The two men had only met on three occasions and certainly didn’t class themselves as friends.  He was a powerful Vampire, though still too young to be a Master.

“How have you been, Julius?” the voice continued.  “You seem to have done very well for yourself since you eradicated our Sire.”  The voice broke off into a light chuckle.  “She never did understand how to play the game, now, did she?  It was all about wish fulfilment with dearest Simone.”

“Caspian, is there something I can do for you?” Julius asked.  He wasn’t in the mood for chitchat.  This wasn’t a social call.

“Hmm,” Caspian mused.  “In
a hurry
, Julius?  Is the day sleep calling to you?”  His tone was paternally amused.

“No,” Julius responded.  “Actually, I’m driving.”

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the line.  Caspian reassessing the time zones perhaps, or was he in the City?  The other Vampire recovered quickly, but his voice wasn’t quite so jovial anymore.

“I’ve heard some interesting rumours recently,” Caspian said meaningfully.  “Did you know that I spent some time visiting with the previous Master of your City?  What, it must be nearly thirty years ago now.  As payment for my lodgings, I helped clean out a few
rogues
that had been
plaguing the area.”  Caspian was silent for a few seconds as he allowed Julius to comprehend what he was saying.  “I believe you have something that belongs to me,” the voice declared in a low, fervent whisper.

In that moment, Julius recalled what Caspian’s strength was, and his blood ran cold. 
Werewolves
, Caspian could control
Werewolves
.

“You’ll never touch her,” he snarled into the phone.  The voice started to reply and then cut off.  The phone trickled from Julius’s clenched fist, reduced to tiny black and silver particles.

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The first book in the
Hellcat Series
; A Cat’
s Chance in Hell
is available
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