by Dale Mayer
"That's human business," murmured someone from the back of the room.
"Who said that?" Tessa snapped, glaring at the blank looks turned her way. "It's not human business. It's vampire business. It was vampires who took him, vampires who killed the other man and vampires who have Jared even now."
"Of course we only have your word that this other man is dead." Rosha smirked at Tessa.
Tessa turned to look up as Cody stepped forward. His temper showed on his lean, dark face. "Not true. I also saw him."
Then Tessa remembered the evidence she'd gathered. Standing up again, she reached into her back pocket for the man's wallet. "Here. His name was Carstairs Wallace." Her voice gentled as she looked down on the wallet she'd taken. "I hoped we might help him, too. Someone, somewhere will care what's happened to him."
She wanted to give it to her father, but as there was no give in his face she handed it off to Cody before sitting down again.
As Cody walked forward an oversized vampire stormed into the room. Goran's temper moved ahead of him, automatically clearing a space. "What the hell is going on here?" He spun around in a circle, his gaze taking in everyone in the room in an instant. When his eyes lit on Cody, some of the anger drained from his face. "There you are. What's this all about?"
"It's a long story, sir."
"Then you'd better get at it, hadn't you?"
As succinctly as he could, Cody relayed the evening's events for his father. It made interesting listening for Tessa, who could only vaguely remember some of the details and none at all about the fight or that he'd defended her. Her insides turned to mush at the thought. Tidbits of memories flashed through her mind, some of them heating her insides and making her face flush.
"Are you warm, Tessa? Your face is turning pink," David asked in concern. Tessa rolled her eyes. That was yet one more human trait the others couldn't understand. Maybe that was a good thing. Blushing wasn't something she wanted interrogated or advertised.
"I'm fine," she murmured, keeping an eye on the two most powerful men in this part of the world. Her father and Goran had been friends forever. They held the same beliefs, followed the same code…and generally viewed life from the same vantage point. If Cody's father sided with Tessa's father, then Cody and she could both end up in deep shit.
Goran's heavy brows beetled together. His gaze lit on Tessa once before bouncing to Rhia then off to stare at Tessa's father.
"So, what are we going to do about this, Serus?"
"Hell if I know. I'm trying to get to the bottom of this mess."
"Pssshaw. You and your talking. This is a time for action. If vampires are breaking the treaty we have to stop them. That's all there is to it. We can't go back to the war zone we once lived in."
Serus shook his head. "No, we can't do that. However, we don't know who took the humans."
Goran turned to study his youngest child. "Cody?"
"I can show you the house and the vehicles. I'd definitely recognize the vampires again..." He hesitated. "One called the other Benji, but I've never seen them before."
"Imported?"
Cody nodded. "I think so."
"What?" roared Serus. "You never mentioned that."
"I didn't get a chance, sir."
Goran stomped his feet, a big grin splitting his face. The bones of the house quaked with the movement. "Well, boy, what else did you not get a chance to tell?"
Cody glanced down at Tessa. She frowned. He was holding back something…but what? That it had to do with her was obvious, but what she couldn't imagine.
"What? Just say it," Goran urged.
Cody hesitated. He looked over at his father. "I'm not sure they were normal vampires."
For the second time that night silence overtook the room.
Serus, his voice tempered steel, asked, "What do you mean by that?"
Everyone in the room leaned forward to hear Cody.
"They didn't know anything about my family line, and they didn't know Tessa."
Serus frowned, not understanding.
Goran whistled. "Now that's interesting."
Seth stepped forward, surprising Tessa. She hadn't seen her oldest brother since she'd made her way downstairs. "Why does that matter? Not everyone knows Tessa. Or your line, Cody."
Frowning, Rhia stood up and walked over to stand in front of Cody. She searched his face carefully. "When you say 'normal' are you suggesting they were 'turned' vampires?"
Tessa sat back stunned. The practice of turning victims into vampires had been outlawed centuries ago. That was considered an even worse transgression than kidnapping humans, and if the two went together… She whistled softly.
"Exactly, young lady." Goran nodded, despite the serious anger building on his face.
Cody frowned. "I couldn't be sure, but there was something very odd about them."
"In what way?" Rhia stepped closer to Serus, new worry creasing her face. Serus wrapped an arm around her shoulders, hugging her close.
"They looked wrong." Cody shrugged, not knowing how else to say it.
"Come to think of it, they smelled wrong and they did look different." Tessa pondered just what it was about them that made that way.
Goran pounced on her. "Different? How?"
Closing her eyes, Tessa tried to retrieve the memory of what had bothered her. She'd managed to see the attackers through both her kinds of vision. What had been so different? "Their energy lines."
Silence.
Serus reared back, then scoffed at her, "Energy lines. What are you talking about?"
Rhia spun back to Tessa. "You can see energy lines?" Shock and disbelief couldn't cover the interest running through her voice.
"I think that's what they're called. When I open my vampire vision at the same time as my human vision, I can see the energy pulsating through everyone."
David interrupted. "Everyone?"
She nodded. "Yes, everyone. At least I think so. I haven't tried it all that often, but I see both vampire and human energy, alike."
Goran and Serus exchanged glances. Some silent message moved between them.
"Like that," Tessa said, nodding toward them. "I can see the energy move between you two as you communicate."
Rhia spun around to face the two elders. "You were mind-speaking?" she asked incredulously. "I thought you said you couldn't do that?"
Both men looked uncomfortable, but both looked down their long noses at Rhia. "We've been able to do it since we were kids, but only with each other."
Rhia narrowed her gaze at Serus. "We will speak of this later. But for now…"
All three adults spun around to stare at Tessa. She shrugged and leaned back to close her eyes. Her headache was returning. And so what if she could open both visions at the same time to see energy? It's not like it helped her in any way. In fact, it made her even more 'odd.' Great.
"Could you identify the men by these energy lines?" Rhia stared at Tessa, confusion lighting her dark eyes.
"I think so, and by their smell." Tessa shrugged. She couldn't explain it.
"You can differentiate the smell of human from vampire and from other animals?" Rhia's gaze widened again, making her eyes appear jet black.
"Of course, so can you," Tessa said wearily. "These two smelled more like an unusual animal species. I didn't recognize it, but it wasn't human or vampire. The two men had smells distinct from vampires, but also from each other."
Literally everyone in the room stared at her. She glared from one to the other. "What?"
It was David who filled her in. "Vampire sense of smell isn't very acute, if you remember. It's mostly blood that stirs up our olfactory senses. And, of course, our senses are strongest when we need to drink."
Tessa stared at him in puzzlement. "So?"
"We can recognize an animal from a vampire, but I highly doubt most of us would be able to tell any individual animals apart within one species. For us," he motioned to those in the room and then at her, "and for you, humans ar
e animals. That you can smell the differences between them is very unusual."
It didn't seem unusual to her. "That would be from my human throwback genes then," she murmured quietly.
"No, I'm not so sure about that." Rhia walked over to stand in front of Tessa. She stood there for a long second, her finger tapping her chin thoughtfully. "How long have you known you could do these things?"
"Mom, I never noticed. They are natural to me. I've always done them."
"Hmmm." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Have you tried to fly?"
"Ah, I'm missing something important here, Mom – wings, remember?" Geesh, everyone was looking at her oddly now. Even her father.
"What?" she snapped, hating the attention. "Why are you all staring at me? Don't I get gawked at enough without having to put up with it in my own home?"
"Who gawks at you?" Serus bristled.
"Oh Dad, everyone does. Even you."
Tessa slumped back and stared out the window. What difference did all this make? They'd grab any excuse to stay off topic. Jared might already be dead for all she knew.
Exhaustion settled in on her shoulders. She wanted to weep. How could she be this tired? What good was she to Jared if she didn't have the energy to go out again and rescue him?
"Where's the house, Cody?" Goran asked, all businesslike.
Cody filled them in on the details, adding in the warning he'd been given – that this situation was bigger than it appeared and that he wouldn't get away with interfering in their business.
Goran frowned at the threat.
Though the conversation flowed on around her, she blanked it all out. It's not like anyone would do anything tonight. Everyone would talk about it and then discuss it some more. How could she find those assholes?
They hadn't been able to fly, yet they'd had wheels. She couldn't drive. The rest of her family could though. In the background, she dimly heard Cody ask her mom about the flying stuff. Like what kind of question was that? Cody had wings, thus Cody could fly. Tessa had no wings, thus Tessa couldn't fly.
Easy.
Rhia spoke to her. "My great grandmother on my father's side was a Leant. One of the originals. She couldn't fly, but she jumped like you wouldn't believe."
Jumped? Tessa sat up straighter.
"I never saw her, but apparently she could jump to the tops of trees and rooftops. Something to do with her spine and leg joints. She was hell on wheels, that woman. Serus is classed as a glider, whereas she'd be classed as a jumper – with a style all her own."
"Where is she now?" Vampires were notoriously long-lived, so where was she and why was Tessa just hearing about her now. She desperately wanted to meet this relative.
"She, along with most of her family, was killed during one of the uprisings. The townsfolk administered some kind of sleeping drug during a big celebration, then they went in and sliced off all their heads." Rhia paused, her face pulling at the painful memories. "She was a beautiful woman."
"Tessa jumps." Cody spoke up helpfully.
"What?" Rhia spun around to look down at her. "Do you? Really?"
"No, not really." When her mother's face fell she couldn't help modify her statement, unable to let go of that little bit of pride in her mother's face. "At least not that well. According to Cody here, I kind of crab walk through life." She glared at him and his remembered insult.
He grinned back at her. "It's pretty freaky looking. If I hadn't seen it was Tessa, I'd have thought we had a new breed of vampire out there."
"Maybe it's not a new breed as much as the return of an old breed." Rhia brightened with excitement. "I must speak with someone."
"Mom, wait." But she was already gone.
Tessa watched her scuttle into the next room, before turning her frustration on Cody. "Now look what you've done. She's going to think I have some kind of special talent, and you and I both know how stupid my jumping is. Hardly a talent…more like a handicap."
"Stop knocking yourself. You could have all sorts of talents. You're at the right age for them to show up. Who knows? Maybe being a throwback means you're more like the originals."
"Whatever that means," Tessa muttered. Serus and Goran were arguing. She raised her voice, calling out, "Is anyone going to do anything about Jared? Or do I have to go back out?"
Cody straightened, automatically placing a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Whoa. Hang on there. You're not going anywhere. I didn't bring you home so you could take off again."
"Then you should have left me there. If they'd taken me prisoner, then maybe they'd have kept me with Jared and maybe I could have found a way to get both of us free." She stared down at her long fingernails in disgust. She'd been so concerned earlier about the right color to wear on them. That part of her life seemed so long ago. It all seemed so frivolous now, so useless. "I feel like I'm deserting him."
"Don't talk like that," he snapped. "They'll help."
Tessa stared around the room at the small clutches of people sitting and talking like this was a great social visit. Enough already. She stood up.
"No, they won't. It might put them out somehow. If they don't acknowledge there's a problem, then they don't have to feel guilty about not doing anything about it." She studied the various close and distant family groups. Not one of them was likely to help. She wondered about her human friends. They'd all want to call the police. And what about calling the police? Was that such a bad thing to do? Could they help?
Or would the vampires eat them alive? She wandered in the direction of the kitchen in search of water. That room was full too. Sighing, she stared out the open doors to the large back patio. As expected, the patio was jammed with other people gossiping the time away. No one cared. Jared was only a human, after all.
She poured herself a glass of water and took a long drink. She rinsed the glass and turned to leave––
Dr. Taz stood in her way. Her mother and Sian, Taz's partner, hovered nearby. From everyone's positions, Tessa assumed they thought she'd try to run. Rolling her eyes at the gorgeous hunk of doctor grinning at her, she said, "Honest, I'm fine."
"Then let me check you over and everyone will feel better about it."
Tessa nodded at his words. "Fine. But I'm not going to lie down. You can check my head here in the kitchen." She pulled out a chair and, with a long-suffering sigh she sat down and accepted his ministrations.
While Taz checked her over, her mind spun off in a dozen different tangents. Her own injury reminded her that Jared could be in worse shape.
How could she find the assholes that had taken him? They had to have some help. Surely that house belonged to someone important. It was a huge estate. How could she find out who owned it or who was living in it? Was there a housing registration office for vampires or some such thing? Did they have to report in as to where they lived? Not likely. Humans did, though. Or at least a certain segment of them did, like criminals or half criminals. She didn't really understand how that worked, but didn't think there was a vampire equivalent.
She hated that the entire subject of Jared had become a nonissue. That just might be one of the biggest downsides to the vampires she knew – their lack of willingness to get involved. All vampires lived in a secular world, one that revolved around them.
She couldn't just sit and do nothing. Jared had to be scared out of his mind.
***
Jared drifted in and out of consciousness. He could no longer tell if it was day or night. Or how long he'd been there. Time had become meaningless. Had to be from the drugs. He'd thought he'd heard Tessa's voice earlier, and now her voice wove in and out of his consciousness. His life would end soon – he knew that. He hadn't seen anyone else die, but the prisoners here probably would prefer death.
On his way to this holding cell, he'd been led through the warehouse full of hundreds, maybe thousands of suspended humans. They were in some sort of stasis while their bodies pumped out valuable blood.
Reality hadn't been long in coming. That
was the fate awaiting him.
How sad. He'd planned on going into engineering after graduation. Jared didn't want to spend the rest of his life in this half-alive state like the others.
A few minutes ago he'd been asked a series of medical questions about his health and that of his father and mother. Some sort of selection process, he presumed, to check on his family history. Hooked up in that warehouse, any young human would easily live fifty, sixty or maybe…given the lack of wear, a hundred years. Just the thought of his life being lived out in this blood factory made him want to vomit.
