Vampire in Chaos

by Dale Mayer

  “Who said he wasn’t doing well?” Shit. Should he tell her? If so – tell her what?

  She frowned and shrugged. “A different man than I saw there before, but I didn’t know him.” She grabbed his arm and tugged him to turn and face her. “Why?”

  Worriedly, he stared at her. “I don’t know what it means.”

  “What is it?”

  He searched around the area, making sure no one was close enough to hear them. He lowered his voice. “They took him out of the home early this morning by ambulance.”

  “What? Really?” She spun around to stare back the way she’d come. “Are you sure it was him?”

  “Yes.”

  “You saw him on the gurney? Close enough to make sure.”

  “Yes. It was him. I know it.”

  “Why wouldn’t they say something?”

  Jared shrugged. “I don’t know? It’s possible they brought him back this morning, but I doubt it.”

  “Why would they not tell me?”

  He winced. “I just know I saw him taken away.”

  “Okay then, I want to go to the hospital and find him.” She glanced down at her watch. “This really worries me. I think I’m going to go there now and see what I can find.” She turned around as if to reorient herself and figure out what direction she was trying to go. “I’ll be late for school again, but if he’s in trouble…” her voice trailed off as she took several steps in the direction of the hospital. “Look, I’ll see you later.” And she gave a half wave and walked away.

  “Wait,” Jared called out.

  Clarissa turned to look at him, but she continued to walk backwards. “What?”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  Chapter 15

  Tessa struggled against Cody’s embrace, afraid they’d be seen.

  Shh. They’re gone.

  She stilled. Breaking contact, she snuck a look around behind her then over Cody’s shoulder. They were alone.

  “I told you so.” Cody hauled her back into his arms. And laid his lips against her temple.

  She peered up at him under her lashes. “I can’t believe they’re giving us a moment to ourselves. My dad has been watching us constantly. If he isn’t, someone else is.”

  “To be expected. Besides, your father is handling us much better,” Cody said with a smile. “He’s worried about you.”

  “True.” She twinkled up at him, “But he’s more worried about you.”

  Cody chuckled. “And so he should be.”

  She gasped, laughing.

  And he couldn’t resist. He tugged her close, pinning her from thigh to shoulder and lowering his head once again. This time, knowing that she was alone with him for just a few moments, she returned his lighthearted passion with a fervor of her own.

  She slid her hands up his chest to wrap around his neck and pressed herself closer. He coaxed her lips open, sliding his tongue into her mouth to tease and dance with hers. She lost herself in this world of heat, touch, sensations. Her blood pulsed, her heart swelled.

  He deepened his kiss.

  She moaned softly against his lips.

  At the almost imperceptible sound, he eased his embrace, his lips no longer so demanding. They soothed as they stroked across hers, now swollen from his touch. Finally, he withdrew altogether to drop tiny kisses on her cheeks and closed eyelids. He buried his face in her hair and just held her close.

  She shivered in the aftermath. “That was magic,” she murmured.

  “No,” he murmured, a gentle laugh rumbling through him. “That was the merest of fairy dust. The true magic is yet to come.”

  She tilted her head back so she could look up into his dark eyes and smiled. “In that case, I can’t wait.”

  Heat flared in his eyes. As he went to lower his head again, she stepped back with a regretful smile. “I know you could make me forget where we are and what we are here for, but we shouldn’t…”

  He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and dropped his arms. “True. And since I can’t have you where I want you, I suggest we catch up with the others.”

  “You mean before they come looking?” she asked dryly.

  Chagrin washed over his face. “Definitely before then.”

  She hooked her arm through his, and giggling like kids, they raced to catch up with the others.

  *

  The men stood up to attention.

  The aggressive look on their faces had Goran’s muscles bunching, and he could feel his jaw locking. “Looks like we’re going to have some fun.”

  “Good,” Serus snarled. “I could use a good fight right now.”

  “Hold up.” Motre said from behind them. “We let those guys off the tubing.”

  Serus sighed. “Really? That’s no fun.”

  “Damn,” Goran said. “We could use a good fight.”

  “Then again,” Motre said, “Have you forgotten the size of that last group we tangled with? We got our butts kicked.”

  “Hey, they weren’t that big.” Goran snorted. “I was fine.”

  “Flat on your ass, you were fine.” Motre grinned at the glee on Serus’s face. “Especially once Ian landed beside you.”

  “Harrumph.”

  With the casual conversation keeping the other men confused as to why they were there, they reached the men before they had time to react.

  “You guys look much better on your feet instead in that bed hooked up to a mess of tubes.”

  The first man looked confused.

  “That’s okay, you can still say thanks,” Serus said, a big grin on his face.

  The first man smiled and nodded. “If you are the guys that woke us up, then thanks.”

  “The real question is why you were there at all.” Goran asked. “Followed by the next question – why are you still here?”

  The two men exchanged glances before looking back at Goran. “We weren’t sure if there was a reason why we were here. We can’t remember anything about how we got here. We aren’t injured as far as we can tell.”

  “Besides,” the second man said, coming over to stand beside the first one. “Some of our friends are in there still. They are waking up, but slowly.” Lines of worry filled his features. “Maybe too slowly.” He spun around to look down the empty hallways. “Where are all the doctors? What kind of hospital is this?”

  “A nasty one,” Goran said. “Now tell us what happened to you.”

  “I don’t remember much.” The first man shrugged. “We were at a school pub having a drink or two. Just relaxing and having some downtime.”

  The second man picked up the story. “Some other vamps joined us. We’d seen them around the campus, but like I said, we didn’t know them.”

  “We had a couple of drinks,” the first man said, “And then it’s like a big blank in my mind.”

  “Would you recognize the men again?”

  “Sure.” They both nodded. “We’ve seen them around.” He frowned. “Why? Do you think they slipped something into our drinks?”

  Goran nodded. “It would have been so easy.”

  The two men looked at each other then over at their friends. “What are they doing to us here?”

  “You were probably getting an injection of drugs.”

  “Drugs?” The two men looked shocked and horrified. One of the other men, who’d been listening in, walked closer. “We don’t do drugs of any kind.”

  “You wouldn’t have had much choice in this case. You’d have been given drugs that you’d have quickly become addicted to, and that would have changed your basic physiology.”

  “Whoa, is that the weird enhancements we’ve been hearing about?”

  “What have you heard?”

  “That for a price, you can get bigger and better and smarter.”

  The first guy said, “Actually, it’s more like they are trying to sell the program to us. I think some of the guys at the university were recruiters.”

  “Were they the guys you met at the bar?” Serus asked.


  The two men looked at each other in surprise. Then looked back at Goran and Serus. Both shook their heads.

  “Will you help us find the ones who you knew as recruiters?”

  The second man took a step back. Goran nodded. “Yeah, see, you aren’t in any way pissed enough. You haven’t seen your friends murdered or transformed into something they don’t want to be without their permission.”

  The young man in front frowned, his gaze going from one to the other. Then his gaze locked on someone behind him. “Cody? Man, is that you?”

  Goran turned to see Cody and Tessa standing behind them. At least they’d finally managed to join the rest of them. His son’s face lit up. “Malcolm.”

  “Yeah,” Malcolm’s face brightened. “Cody, what are you doing here?”

  *

  Cody snorted and made his way forward. “Maybe I should be asking you that question.” He turned to his father and said, “This is my father, Councilman Goran, and our friend, Councilman Serus. And that’s another friend, Motre.” He grinned at Malcolm. “I believe they unplugged you guys from the tubing.”

  “Are they serious about the drugs, Cody?” Malcolm asked, his troubled gaze searching Cody’s face.

  Cody nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. Have you heard about the blood farm mess?”

  The second guy winced. “Heard horror stories. Surely they can’t be right?”

  “They are, and there are worse ones, too.” Cody’s face lightened as he recognized the two men standing behind Malcolm. He grinned. “Hey Charlie, Eric. Good to see you on your feet.”

  “Yeah, but Andrew isn’t moving well and Harry is worse.” Charlie motioned back to the room they’d been guarding. “Any idea what to do to help them?”

  Cody led the group into the room where two other vamps lay stretched out on the bed. Tessa said from behind him, “Oh no.”

  He turned and shot her a hard look. “Oh no, what?”

  “This is what we just saw downstairs.”

  “But these ones are alive.”

  She walked over to the first one and laid two fingers on his neck then shook her head. “Not this one.”

  “Really? Harry’s dead?” The shocked question came from Eric, who was standing by the doorway. Goran walked over and checked the young male over himself. “She’s right. He’s dead.”

  Cody stood at the end of the bed where the second male was. His chest rose and fell in a heavy labored motion. “This one is still alive.”

  “But dying.” Tessa murmured. She stood beside Cody, trying to study something. Cody watched her as she shifted slightly, probably to see the energy layers. “Can you help him?”

  “I don’t know, he’s pretty far gone.”

  Eric stepped forward. “He’s my brother. Please, if there is anything you can do…”

  Tessa nodded and walked to the side of the bed. Cody knew that to the others she might look odd and slightly looney, but he knew what she was trying to do. When she sat down and started scooping in the air, he glanced over at his friends to see the shock and dismay on their faces. They thought she was nuts.

  “I’ll go get a doctor,” Eric said hurriedly, his voice hard.

  “No, you won’t.” Serus stepped in front of him.

  “He’s my brother,” Eric said tightly. “If he’s dying, I need to find someone who can help him.”

  “He’s getting the best help he can have right now. Whether you understand what she’s doing or not. Besides, haven’t you realized that the only doctors in this place are the ones that hooked you all up to the drugs in the first place?”

  “That makes no sense,” Eric cried. “Why inject us with something that can kill us?”

  Cody snorted. “Because if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger.”

  He turned to partially block his friend’s view. He knew Eric couldn’t possibly understand what Tessa was doing but as the young man was already seriously ill, he might very well blame her if he died.

  There was a tense silence in the room as they all waited for Tessa to do whatever she was doing.

  Cody just hoped her method worked. Like she said, he was already dying. She might be able to help someone in trouble, but she couldn’t bring them back to life.

  Or could she? He paused, remembering the number of times she had knocked men out – killing them – then brought them back.

  He turned. “Tessa, can you bring them back to life again?”

  “Again?” Malcolm said in shock. “What the hell, Cody?”

  “You have no idea what we’ve seen and done these last few days.”

  “Why are they picking on us?” Charlie asked. “We didn’t do anything. We aren’t part of this war.”

  “No, you didn’t used to be part of this.” Cody snapped. “You are now.”

  Goran reached out a hand and squeezed Cody’s shoulder. “Easy.” He turned to the other men. “They are after new recruits for their soldier program. They make you bigger, better, and hook you on their drugs.” He took a deep breath, “Then they send you out to fight the rest of us.”

  The men stared at Goran. “Seriously. Why is this happening?”

  “Because they are trying to take over, to lock up the humans and bring back the old way of life.”

  “And in case you don’t know what that means, school becomes only for the privileged – if at all, and your friends and family are divided into two separate camps. Those in and those out.”

  “Not possible. These are like seriously ancient issues.” Malcolm groaned and threw up his hands. “I don’t know any humans personally, but my friends do. We deal with them on a business level all the time. We have partnerships and business arrangements. Why would we turn them into blood factories?”

  Cody grinned ferociously. “Because these vamps want the real stuff and not the synthetic blood.”

  “I like the synthetic blood.”

  “I don’t care either way, but I’m not interested in the human’s blood if they aren’t willing to give it. Why can’t people get it that way?” Charlie said, “Hell, they used to sell it to us.”

  “And then the vampires decided that they shouldn’t have to pay anyone.” Serus said in a hard voice. “They want what they want and they want to have it easy.”

  “So they decided to take it.” Goran smiled at them, the viciousness in his face making the others take a step back. “And we’re stopping them.”

  “So will we,” snapped Eric. “They attacked us, drugged us, and killed my friends.”

  The other men crowded around. “Our friends. We want to fight too.”

  Cody appreciated the sentiment. “We’ve released a lot of men from this floor already, but I only see you standing outside. Have you seen others?”

  When he didn’t get an answer, he turned his attention to one of the other men. But he quickly realized they were all staring at something going on behind him. He spun around to see Tessa helping the one young man to sit up.

  “Andrew?” Eric rushed to his brother’s side. “Andrew, are you okay?”

  “Oh, I don’t know man. I feel so…odd.” Andrew looked around. “What the hell happened?”

  “We were knocked out and drugged, brought here, and hooked up to some crazy drugs,” Eric said.

  Cody watched as Tessa, a frown on her face, walked back over to the dead man. She studied him and then cleaved her hand down at an odd angle as if seeing something in a specific spot that no one else could see. He half expected the guy to gasp and wake up, but he didn’t. She stirred the air around in front of his chest.

  “Cody,” Malcolm asked in a heavy whisper. “What is she doing, man?”

  “And who the fuck is she?” Charlie snapped, confused fear warring on the young man’s face.

  “She’s Tessa,” Serus growled protectively. “And she’s my daughter.”

  Cody walked over to Tessa. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure he’s dead. Well he is, but there is energy flowing through his syst
em. His body is still churning up the black stuff. Oh…” and she started madly wiping the air about the man, scooping huge armfuls of something away from his chest. Then she stood up and did the same all down his trunk. The guys whispered behind her.

  “Weird.”

  “What the fuck…”

  “I don’t know man, but look at Andrew; he was a goner for sure.”

  Tessa walked back over to the man’s chest and laid her hand directly over this heart.

  Cody knew what was going to come next – if she could.

  There was a spark in the air.

  And the guy gasped, his chest rising massively as his lungs fully expanded and he took in much needed air. Then his eyes opened and he groaned, a long slowly agonizing moan.

  “What the hell,” cried Charlie. “How did she do that?”

  It was Goran who answered so aptly. “I have no freaking idea.”

  *

  Serus, not believing what he’d seen with his own eyes, walked to stand beside his daughter, staring at the man lying on the bed. “Did you really just bring back a man back from the dead?”

  Tessa laughed, her voice light and beautiful. “No, I think the energy was about to finish him off, but it was such a heavy black cloud that I couldn’t see underneath. Once I saw a twinkle of light under there, I thought he might be still alive. Dying definitely, but with a few bare threads of life.” She grinned. “Left for me to pull.”

  “Threads that you could actually stimulate back to life,” he asked in bemusement, studying the not–so–dead man. Tessa returned to the young man, busy pulling and twisting and brushing over the man’s body. “I guess. I pushed some more energy into his system, and he responded to it. I figured this might work.”

  The man lay on his back, his eyes searching. They landed on Tessa’s face, and Serus watched the panic in them calm.

  “Hey, nice to have you back,” she said gently. “Take a moment to come to.”

  “Harry?” Malcolm asked, rushing forward to stare at his friend in disbelief. “Are you okay, man?”

  Harry switched his gaze to the men now circling him. “Hey Charlie, Eric, Malcolm. What the hell happened? I feel really odd.”