by Dale Mayer
“He’s fine.” She beamed. “I meant all the humans selling their own kin for the blood farm. The Human Council is in a hell of a mess. Between poisoning each other, selling off each other, and generally just being greedy, the human race needs to be culled.”
Such violence from one so gentle was unusual. Goran wasn’t sure what was going on, but with Sian being the liaison between the two Councils, she must have observed a gutful of nasty behaviors. He decided silence was the best avenue. Then she did it.
“The Human Council,” she said, “wants Tessa to go through the human population and sort them out the way she did at the meeting.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” Sian said, shooting him a dark look. “It worked so well there apparently, they want her to tell them who is good and who is bad. So they can destroy the ones involved.”
“Ah hell. They can’t use her like that. Especially if she understands what they plan to do with the bad guys. It’s one thing to kill during war; it’s tougher to be the decision-maker as to who should live and who should die.”
“I know,” Sian said. “Taz and I have both taken that stance. The trouble is the humans aren’t listening.”
Goran nodded. “Don’t worry about it. They’ll have to go through Serus and Rhia before that can happen.” He snorted. “No way is she going to do that. Hell, I’ll tell them myself.”
“I wish someone would,” Sian said, fatigue in her voice. “They call almost every hour.”
“What does Tessa have to say about this?”
And damn if he didn’t see a whisper of something cross Sian’s face. His stomach sank. He groaned. “I forgot. They all left without me.”
Sian gave a shout of laughter. “Well yeah, you were comatose so they had to go without you.”
He glared at her. “I’m never too sick to go hunting.”
“Well.” She glared back at him. “This time you were. And would have stayed that way except for the drugs that brought you back.”
“Then I’m going after them right now.” He strode off in the direction of the front door, his mind churning. Serus? Where the hell are you?
“Wait. Goran?”
He spun to see Sian running to catch up. She was trying to pull something out of her pocket.
“Here.” She held out his cell phone. “You didn’t give me a chance to give you this.”
He groaned. He hadn’t even thought to look for that damned thing. Maybe he wasn’t as well as he thought he was. Sheepish, he accepted the phone, noting the fatigue around her eyes. She should be resting.
He checked for text messages. None. Damn. He’d need to send a few of his own and figure out where everyone was. Good thing Sian had remembered.
“Thanks for this.” He lifted his phone slightly before shoving it into his pocket. “You look tired. Maybe you should go lie down for a bit.”
“I will.” She hesitated. “Goran, have you been able to mindspeak with Serus?”
“No.” He spun around, his long coat swirling around his legs, and stalked to the front door. “Why do you think I’m going up there right now?”
“Don’t go alone,” she cried out from behind. “You have no idea what you’re walking into.”
“I hope it’s a trap,” he snarled, half turning back to look at her. “I’ve had a long rest. Now I’m so ready to start kicking some vamp ass.”
And he slammed the door behind him.
*
Wendy looked up as Sian rushed back inside the room. Oh thank heavens. She’d been sitting here terrified that Rhia would wake up and be the not–nice Rhia. What could Wendy have done then?
The relief must have been obvious as Sian smiled and said, “No worries. I didn’t forget you.”
“I was just afraid she’d wake up crazy-like and I wouldn’t know what to do with her.” She glanced down at the sleeping woman she respected more than any other. She reached over to stroke Rhia’s hand and said, “I wouldn’t want to have to hurt her.”
“None of us do,” Sian said. “Goran has gone to the hospital to help the others.”
“He’s that much better?” At Sian’s nod, Wendy’s eyes filled with tears. Great for Goran, but poor Ian. There’d been no word about him yet. “I thought they’d be back by now. How could this even have happened in the first place?”
“I have no idea. But apparently a lot has been happening under our noses that we didn’t know about.”
“So true.” Wendy nodded. “Tessa had planned to go to the school and talk to the principal. Have him warn the school kids. I wonder if I should instead.” She looked around the small comfortable room and frowned. “I feel useless. Everyone is doing something. I’m not even human, but here I am thinking I should go to the school. Or somewhere. Do something to help.”
“Not alone,” Sian said instantly. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I’m no hero,” Wendy said, “but I don’t want anyone else hurt.”
“No, neither do I.” Sian frowned. “If I got someone else to keep an eye on Rhia, we could both go.”
“What time is it?” Wendy asked. “We’d have to wait until the school was open.”
Sian checked her watch. “It’s evening for the humans. No one will be at the school.”
Wendy sighed. “Unfortunately, that just means the asshole vampires are out hunting.”
“True enough. We’re smart women. Let’s see if we can’t come up with something helpful for you to do in the meantime.”
*
Ian and Motre pushed the door wide open. And stopped. Two vamps slept soundly. Neither woke up at their arrival.
“Drugs.”
“Do you think so?” Both men were lying lax, not a normal relaxed sleep. Ian glanced over at Motre. He shook his head, his hard glance going from face to face. “I don’t recognize either of them.”
Ian studied the room, but it was much like the others. “Do you think they are on our side?”
Motre shrugged, clearly not knowing the answer.
Ian suggested, “We could wake them up. If they are on our side, they could help.”
“And if they aren’t?” Motre opened the door again and stepped back out into the hallway. “Besides, drugged like that, they won’t be any help. And given that I don’t know either of them, I’m not willing to take that chance. Better they stay here and we mark the location of the room somehow. That way we can always come back for them.”
Ian nodded, clicking on the GPS to mark where they were. He added a note about being unsure of the men inside.
“Done?” Motre asked.
Ian nodded.
Back in the hallway, a second door opened several feet down to their left. Two male vamps in lab coats with clipboards in hand were deep in conversation as they walked toward Ian. He shoved his fists in his pockets and murmured to Motre, “Let’s just walk past them.”
“Huh.” Motre said. “I was thinking something along the lines of…this.” And he lunged forward toward the two approaching men.
Ian watched in shock as the vamps tried to defend themselves way too late for Motre, who’d been primed to beat the crap out of the first decent target. When he finally stood, his chest was heaving and his fists bloodied, his grin happy and wide. “Damn, that felt good.”
He reached down and grabbed one man with each hand and said, “Open the door, will you?”
Shaking his head and looking both ways to make sure no one had seen Motre in action, Ian pushed the door open. Motre walked deep enough into the room that he could drop the two unconscious men in the middle. After a moment, he approached the closest bed and lifted a corner of the sheet covering the patient. “Well, that changes things.”
The man was shackled to the bed.
“I guess that means they are prisoners.” Ian walked over to the other male and checked him over. “Same thing here.”
“Can you open them? If so, let’s switch the men around.”
It took a bit of tricky maneuvering, but eventually
they had the two drugged men on the floor and the two medical staff members lying in their place, wearing their shackles. Satisfied, Ian stepped back and laughed. “I’d like to see their faces when they wake up.”
“Speaking of which,” Motre checked out both of the unconscious doctors and removed two cell phones from their pockets. “Let’s delay their rescue for a bit longer.”
He motioned to the hallway. “Let’s go.”
They slipped back out and kept walking toward the next door. The one the medical staff had come out of. Ian pushed it open and walked in as if he belonged there. In his disguise, who’d know?
And he came face to face with Dr. Horander.
The one man who did know Ian.
Shit.
*
Jared snuck up the back stairs to his room, his mind incessantly hearing the manager and cook’s words. What had the cook meant about sticking together? And in that tone of voice as if to say Jared would understand. But the only thing he understood was the creepiness in both the words and tone. Had that been in reference to the vigilante talk – not that he had any way to know that Jared had heard that conversation, or was it in reference to the two dead men Jared had found? But the cook shouldn’t know about that either. And if he did, Jared wanted nothing to do with the sticking together part. That was too damn scary. The manager was too damn scary. There could be no sticking together because as soon as something went wrong, there was going to be someone else dead.
Jared had no intention of being the next dead person.
And what was he supposed to do about a foster home? Like really? He had what, three and a half months left until he turned eighteen. He’d started school late so he was older than the other kids. He’d made up for it by working hard. Now he was graduating with the others his age.
Not that any of that mattered. He still had nowhere else to go. And if that didn’t make him sick inside…he had friends, good friends, but he’d lost track of most of them over this mess. Surely there was a better place for him than with a foster family. He needed someone in a position of authority, human authority, to lend a hand. He snorted. Too bad he didn’t know anyone like that.
He threw himself on the bed and rubbed his hands over his face. He just wanted to finish his schooling and go on to be an engineer.
A commotion out in the hallway was followed by a loud knock on his door. Shit. He sat up slowly and made his way over. “Who is it?”
“Hey, is that Jared? As in Jared who’d been at the crazy blood farm? It’s Aaron and Clarissa.”
Jared opened the door in a rush. Sure enough, there were four or five faces he recognized from the mine rescue. Awesome! He grinned. “Hey, what are you guys doing here?”
“We came to visit Tobias. He’s down at the end of the hallway. He’s the one that told us you were here. Come out and join us.”
Join them? His confusion must have been apparent as Clarissa hooked her arm through his and dragged him down the hallway. “We’re only allowed to be here for two hours, so we can’t waste any of it.”
Outside Tobias’s doorway, she stopped and smiled up at him. But her tone was serious as she said, “Are you okay? I’ve been so worried. We lost touch after that crazy rescue and I didn’t know how to find you. I asked the police, but they said you were getting the care you needed.” She squeezed his hand. “I even went by your school but didn’t recognize anyone.”
She had? Wow. Jared wanted to shout with joy. He hadn’t been forgotten by everyone. He grinned at her, happy to know this charming young woman had cared enough to go looking. Some of his loneliness fell away. He reached into his pocket. “I have a new phone.”
She gasped, pulled out hers, and they quickly exchanged numbers. “What are you doing here at the home? Are you sick?” she asked as they walked into the room, already stuffed with Tobias’s friends.
He winced. “Honestly – I’m not sure.” He quickly brought her up to date on the last few days’ events. The room fell silent as he stopped speaking, all faces turned toward him.
“Man, you are one bad news magnet, dude.”
“Yeah, I know.” Jared shrugged. “I didn’t do anything to bring this on.”
“You didn’t have to obviously, trouble found you.”
“I am sorry about your family,” Clarissa said gently, her fingers squeezing his hand again. He nodded. He didn’t think this was the time to tell anyone what his relatives had been like or that as far as he was concerned, they deserved what they got.
“What about a place to stay, surely you don’t have to stay here?” Clarissa motioned to Tobias, who was connected to an oxygen tank, a pale grin on his face. “He’s here for medical attention. And he’s doing great. Hopefully he can go home soon. But you, your uncle isn’t there anymore, so what’s going to happen to you?”
“Yeah, who knows?” Jared stared down at his feet. “The manager here said something about a foster home.”
The room erupted in loud groans, Jared included. “I know, right. I only need a couple more months and then I’m eighteen and don’t have to worry anymore.”
“Do you get your uncle’s place now that he’s dead? Maybe you could live there alone?” Clarissa asked, her voice low, intimate.
Damn. He swallowed and said, “I hadn’t thought of that. I have no idea who inherits his place.”
It’s not that he wanted to live there, but if it was his, he’d sell it and buy something else. Except this was his uncle he was talking about. He snorted. “But I doubt my uncle left it to me. Most likely to his sister.”
“Except you said she’d been murdered too,” said someone in the back of the group. Jared couldn’t remember his name. “So maybe you are going to inherit both places.”
“Now that would be cool.”
Several others popped up with their opinion about that issue and what he should do. He held up a hand to still the flow. “Remember that trouble magnet part?” he said, raising his eyebrows. “More likely they are going to try and pin both murders on me, and I’ll spend the rest of my life behind bars for something I didn’t do.”
Silence descended.
Jared understood. After all, what could anyone say to that?
Chapter 4
Tessa stared at the retreating figure.
In her mind, Cody murmured. We don’t have much choice. We need to follow him.
I know, but I don’t like it.
She stepped in behind Cody as he cautiously followed in the stranger’s tracks.
Who do you think he is? Tessa whispered.
No idea. I’ve never seen him before.
He looks…old.
Ha, don’t they all?
Yes, but he looks old old, like he has existed for a long time in this desolate space. No fresh air or maybe not even enough sustenance. A meager life. One of lack.
He shot her a sideways look. You can see that from his energy?
She shook her head and answered him in a low voice, “No. Physically, he’s gaunt, crippled almost.”
“He’s moving damn fast for a cripple.”
“Hmm. That’s not quite what I mean. If he were human I’d say anemic, as if he hadn’t been out in the sun for centuries. But as he’s a vamp, that should be a good thing.”
Cody stopped suddenly.
Tessa bumped into him gently. She reached out to grab his arm, her gaze locked on the energy swirling ahead of her. He’s being attacked.
What? Really? Cody launched himself forward.
Tessa followed. She had no idea who was fighting who. Careful. The attacker could be David or Dad.
Cody never slowed down. Closer, Tessa could see the energy firing in all directions. She didn’t recognize the new energy. But it was stronger, more powerful than that of the frail old vamp. He was going down…
Or not.
She grinned. Cody had entered the fray, and damn if the attacker wasn’t beating back a hasty retreat. Only Cody wasn’t having any of it. He went after the retreating male as Tessa
ran up to the injured vamp, who had collapsed on the floor.
“Easy,” she murmured, trying to stop him from jumping to his feet so fast.
“No time,” he choked. “I’ll heal, just slowly. Come. You must come now.”
He struggled to his feet, pushing away her hands. “We have no time.”
“No time for what,” she cried out softly. “Who are you?”
“One of her protectors.”
Her? Tessa cast a quick searching glance around. Who were they running from? Who were they running to? Off to the left, she watched a spark of light glow then blow up. She called out, “Cody? Is that you?”
“Yeah, the asshole pulled out some kind of weapon. I had to take him out.” He walked toward her, holding some kind of small handheld weapon. Bigger than the spikes they’d been using, but smaller than a flashlight. It didn’t look lethal. “This is the weapon he was holding.”
It looked odd.
“What is that thing?”
“I don’t know. It’s weird.” Almost in front of her, he held it out so she could see the button. “It’s like a UV light and silver combined. Maybe it shoots silver droplets with the initial force of light?” He studied the weapon grimly. “Let’s keep moving. We don’t know how many others are down here.”
She picked up the pace to keep up with the frail vamp, who she’d thought would be too injured to move as fast as he was, but he was scuttling along at a pace she was having trouble matching. Like what the heck?
Her astonishment transmitted to Cody. I know. He’s really moving. I wonder what the hell is going on down here.
And where is here? she cried. It seems like we’ve been moving underground forever. We’ve lost track of Dad’s energy too. And David’s.
Do you think this guy is leading us to a trap? Cody asked, reaching out and grabbing her arm. She slowed down slightly.
I don’t know. She hated to lose her father’s energy trail. I don’t know if my father and brother are prisoners down here or if this guy may have contacted them too, she said as frustration rolled over her.
A weird birdcall whistled through the blackness. She cocked her head and whispered out loud. “Was that him?”
