Chapter 32

Fight Club

Author's note: It's time for Gabrielle to step up…

Intro Song: All Along The Watchtower, Afterhere

The pre-dawn sky was a sickly gray tinged with yellow, as if it were a terminal cancer patient waiting for the release of death. The light pollution, so common to large cities, rendered the stars invisible and threatening thunderclouds gathering overhead did nothing to lighten the gloom. Lightning was just beginning to lace across them as the group emerged from the high-rise.

Gabrielle could tell that Durin was pleased with the results of this latest late-night round of meetings with Wall Street heavy hitters. She had no intention of letting him follow through with his plan to cut Victoria away from her fortune, but she had to admire the deft skill with which Scanlin was putting the plan in motion. Watching him work was an education, in and of itself. Too bad you won't get to see it through, Durin.

She lifted her face skyward, frowning. She was not a finicky person by nature, but walking blocks in a driving rainstorm was still not her idea of a good time. Besides, her leather stiletto boots were new – and expensive.

Turning to the group behind her, the vampire gestured skyward where the first hint of thunder was clearing its throat. "Cabs for everyone." Her tone brooked no argument. The doorman nodded and went inside to make the call.

The wind picked up suddenly, whipping Gabby's long, glossy hair around her face, and sending debris rolling along the sidewalk like urban tumbleweeds. The combined effect of light, thunder, and wind was gloomy, even eerie. She didn't like it.

You've watched too many episodes of Supernatural, she chided herself, thinking of the marathon viewing she had treated herself to the previous week. Trying to lighten her mood, she told herself, one of these days, I'm going to meet Jensen Ackles, referring to the handsome actor who had portrayed the elder of the two brothers who had battled demons and other evil forces each week on their popular television program. So hooked was she on the show, she had joined an on-line fan club and, like most of the site members, she had frequently engaged in spirited discussions about which of the 'brothers' was sexier. The fact that the series had ended hadn't diminished the intensity of those chats; if anything, they had grown more heated. Gabby was firmly entrenched in the Dean Winchester camp.

The first of the cabs arrived and Durin waved the rest of his underlings into it, leaving only Gabrielle and him on the sidewalk, waiting for their ride. The almost gothic atmosphere generated by the approaching storm was suddenly cut by the sound of laughter, as surely as if a deadly knife blade had been wielded by a diabolical hand. The effect was jarring.

Gabby spun toward the sound, her body tensed, her hand reaching for the hidden weapon in her bag. Her shoulders relaxed as she saw a group of young men staggering up the street toward them, arms around one another's shoulders, laughing and shouting as they came.

Her shoulders relaxed. No threat, just five guys blowing off steam. She turned back toward the group waiting on the sidewalk for their cabs. Still... She frowned as her brain processed what she had seen - a group of young men seemingly drunk in a dimly-lit area with the nearest bars many blocks away, walking on what could only be described as 'a dark and stormy night'... Dammit, Gabby!

She whirled around again, her long hair tickling her neck, one hand scrabbling blindly in her bag, searching for the handle of her knife. A flash of lightning revealed the five almost upon them, their gaits no longer uncertain, their hands now holding a variety of weapons...and syringes. As they pounced on the isolated vampires, the heavens opened up, flogging them with stinging rain.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Her knife finally out, she jumped between the startled Durin and the first of the assailants, slashing his throat with one quick movement. He gurgled, a horrible wet sound, as he grabbed for his neck, the blood flowing in an angry river over his hands, his life running out with it. The panic flaring in his eyes showed that he knew he was dying. As Gabby vaulted over him, she looked down into those fear-filled eyes and felt a fleeting moment of remorse, then...Fuck it! They brought this fight to us! Let the last thing he sees on this earth be the face of a vampire! She landed lightly on her feet directly over him, then opened her mouth to snarl and bare her fangs. "Look into my eyes, you bastard!" she screamed into the wind. Those eyes, almond-shaped and icy now with the stare of an enraged vampire, watched coldly as he took his last, terrified breath.

She jerked her head up at the sound of a vampire's growl. Durin! Wildly, she scanned the scene, finding Scanlin as he ripped the throat out of another of their assailants. Good for you! Now, where's the rest of these ass wipes?

A fleeting second after the thought crossed her mind, a gun went off right next to her head, temporarily deafening her. She screamed and clapped her hand to her ear, her shattered eardrum leaking blood and fluid out between her fingers.

Her ear ringing even as her extraordinary powers of healing began to mend her hearing, Gabby looked around wild-eyed, spotting Scanlin just as he clutched his chest and dropped to the ground, writhing in pain. Motherfuckers! Silver - I should have known!

Gabrielle spun around just in time to see the same gun that had felled Durin, leveled at her face from point-blank range, the face behind the weapon cold and hard. He thinks he's fucking Dirty Harry. She had time only for that inane thought before his finger tightened on the trigger.

Timing it perfectly, she dropped prone just as the gun discharged, the deadly silver flying harmlessly over her head. Now, with the element of surprise gone, the fight was hers. Before the gunman even realized that he had missed, she had jumped up and let fly with her knife, too fast for the human eye to track. With unerring accuracy, the weapon found its target, the mother of pearl handle appearing, as if by magic, protruding from the shooter's left eye. The six inch blade was buried in his brain.

With an agonized scream, the doomed man dropped his gun and collapsed, futilely pawing at the scrimshaw knife handle for a brief moment before falling silent.

Gabby was on him in a heartbeat, reaching down to recover her knife. It resisted for a moment, then, with a sound like that of a shoe pulling free from thick mud, it came away, the punctured orb dangling from the blade, accompanied by bits of gray matter.

Keeping one eye on the retreating back of the remaining - and thoroughly terrified - raider, she paused to wipe the blade clean on the dead man's jacket. "Here, you can have your eyeball back, ass wipe," she raged, "and your brains too, although you sure as hell didn't bother to use them!"

Skirting the dead man, she focused on the lone gunman, running for his life down the deserted street in the driving rainstorm, all thought of attack left behind with his fallen companions. Gabby was in no hurry - he would not escape. She turned to Durin, who was still lying on the pavement, moaning. The driving rain pelted the helpless man. Gabby reached down to snag his lapel and dragged him into the relative shelter of the vestibule.

The cowering doorman caught her eye and she sighed heavily. The entire fight had lasted just a few minutes, and he had remained frozen in fear just inside the front door to the building. I hate it when innocents get caught up in this. She abhorred it - but putting it off would only increase the terrified man's suffering.

Walking up to the middle-aged, balding man where he crouched behind his desk, Gabby extended her hand and smiled, her fangs and vampire eyes once again hidden behind a very human face. "I'm Gabrielle. I'm so sorry you had to see that. You must be terrified. What's your name?"

The doorman ignored her outstretched hand as he slowly raised to a standing position, fumbling with the telephone on his desk, his hand shaking like that of a man with severe Parkinson's disease.

Gabrielle read his name tag. "Paul, is it? Paul, look at me please." She reached over to gently touch the quaking hand that had finally managed to hold onto the phone receiver.

He dragged his gaze up, his whole body trembling, eyes widening as he took in the drenched, but normal-appearing, Asian woman. She could read the look on his face. He's trying to convince himself that he somehow imagined it all, that he's just going crazy... She'd seen that look many times over the years. It never worked – inevitably, they talked about what they'd seen. They couldn't help themselves. Durin groaned from the floor in front of them, and the spell was broken.

Gabby smiled at Paul and reached up to put her free hand on his shoulder reassuringly. Then, thinking of that look and what it meant for their secrecy, she broke his neck with a blur of movement. Dammit... I'm going to burn in hell for this one. His limp body melted toward the floor, but she caught him and eased him down behind his desk, pausing long enough to close his eyes respectfully.

Stepping to the door, she glanced down at the suffering Durin. "I'll be back. Just stay put." The thunderstorm showed no sign of letting up; with a regretful sigh for the damage she was about to inflict on her new boots, Gabby took off after their would-be assailant. With her preternatural speed and senses, it took her only a few minutes to locate – and catch up to – the fleeing man. Reaching out, she snagged the back of his jacket, jerking him to the ground.

"You are so dead, you motherfucker!" Gabrielle leaned forward to scream in his face, rain smearing her mascara and streaking her face with what looked like black tears. She hauled him up by the coat collar, shaking him like a rag doll, her fury exacerbated by the murder of the innocent doorman that their actions had forced her to commit. I'm going to take my time with him - he's going to suffer.

Glancing around to ensure that the street, dark and ominous in the driving rainstorm, was still deserted, Gabby hauled him into a nearby alley. She made sure he had his eyes fixed on her as she leaned in close, her fangs elongating as she hissed at him. He shrank back from her, palpably repelled by the sight. "That's right... I'm going to drink your blood, and then I'm going to rip your heart out while it's still beating – because you are the monster!"

He tried to scream, his eyes wild, but she had a hand firmly over his mouth, allowing no sound to escape save an agonized squeak as she bit down on his neck. Gabrielle made no effort to be gentle, tearing at the flesh as she began to drink. The young man started to sag against her as she pulled the life-giving fluid from his body, caught up in her anger and blood lust...

Abruptly, she pulled back, retracting her fangs and pressing her hand to the wound to staunch the flow of blood from the now-unconscious man's neck... Fuck! The whole purpose of this charade with Durin was to get proof of Crucis involvement. Live proof. Yet here she was, sucking dry the one surviving member of the attack squad as if she were a newly-turned vamp with no control over her blood lust. If he dies, you are in a world of hurt with Victoria...

She focused in on the young man, listening intently. His heartbeat was weak, but steady. If she could keep him from losing any more blood, he should live – at least long enough for Victoria to get at him. And I wouldn't want to be you when that happens… She wrapped her scarf around his neck, applying sufficient pressure to staunch the flow of blood - hopefully without causing any brain damage from compression of the artery. "Goddamit, this is my favorite cashmere scarf!" she complained out loud. "Victoria, you can just buy me a new one. And new boots!" she added, glancing down at her ruined footwear.

Determinedly, she half-carried, half-dragged the unconscious man back to where she had left Durin, praying that the still-vicious storm had covered up the sounds of the fight and kept any would-be onlookers inside. She wanted no more innocent victims tonight.

Entering the vestibule, Gabby unceremoniously dumped the assailant on the floor next to the moaning Scanlin, who protested the water that sprayed everywhere as a result.

"Oh, for god's sake, Durin. A little water isn't going to kill you...and neither is a little silver." Bending over to inspect his gunshot wound, she smiled to herself at his profanity over the additional soaking this caused as her long hair dripped down on him. "You'll be fine as soon as we get that silver out. This is nothing compared to what happened to Victoria." And, in the meantime, it'll hurt like a sonofabitch, you prick.

Durin pushed himself up on his elbows with difficulty and looked over at the unconscious human. He croaked, "Why the hell didn't you just kill him?"

The beautiful vampire pulled out - and discarded - her soaked and now-dead cell phone. "Shit!" OK, you owe me a new iPhone too, Victoria! "Give me your cell phone, Durin. I need to call for a car – and the Cleaner – before someone decides to take a ride in this fucking storm and walk in on us. I need to get you to Dr. Spector."

Scanlin struggled to free his cell phone from the holster on his belt, groaning in pain as he twisted to reach it. Wincing, he held it up with a shaking hand. As Gabby reached for it, he pulled it back, just out of her reach. "Gabrielle? Answer me. Why didn't you kill him!?" His dark eyes held hers for a long moment.

What the hell...okay, you asked for it... She shrugged her shoulders. "Because, Durin. This was all a set-up to draw them out and capture them so that Victoria could prove once and for all that Crucis was behind this. So I couldn't very well kill all of them, now could I? That would sort of defeat the purpose." Even though I almost did…With a quick move, she snatched the phone from the injured man.

"Wha-...?" Scanlin's face betrayed his confusion.

"You. Were. A. Decoy." Gabby enunciated slowly, enjoying the look of dawning comprehension – and fury – in his eyes. There was a long silence as the injured vampire processed what she'd just told him.

"Gabrielle?" he forced out from between clenched teeth, his handsome face strained.

"Yes, Durin?" she replied sweetly.

"Because of what we once were to one another, I'll give you this one warning...Don't ever turn your back on me again." With great effort, he pulled himself up to a sitting position and pushed away from her, leaning back against the wall, his face impassively staring out into the dark night beyond the glass windows.

Gabby felt a brief pang as she felt the door close on their relationship, but quickly pushed the feeling away. This was war - and Durin had better get used to it. Besides, what was he to her anyway? Just your- She shut down that thought and punched a number into the phone. "Yes, this is Gabrielle Sinclair. I need the Cleaner, a car, and a doctor for a human immediately – oh, and let Dr. Spector know I have another silver exposure patient for him..."

End Song: This Night, Black Lab