by Dale Mayer
Tessa grinned and it felt like a light beamed from inside of her heart as she grabbed his hand. "I couldn't ask for a better partner." At the look on his face, she burst out laughing. "Okay, team leader."
Everyone cracked up as Goran punched Serus on the shoulder. "She's good stuff, Serus. Take care of her."
"Don't you dare let her get hurt again." Rhia turned to face the large crowd. "We don't have to tell you where you belong. Line up behind the leaders and let's get moving." With a final glance around, she added, "Everyone stay in close contact with each other. No one goes off alone. Serus and Goran, regular check-ins please."
Cody grinned. "Ian and Jewel, are you coming?"
Both nodded.
With that, the four fliers took to the air.
Tessa just wished she knew what they were in for.
***
Jared opened his eyes. The same stone walls stared back at him. Surely this nightmare had to end soon – or at least his awareness of it. He couldn't have said how long it had been now. People had come and gone. The other captive had been taken away. Only Jared remained in the cell.
The door opened. And yet another new person entered. What was out there, a freakin’ vampire city? He didn't think they were looking after his welfare though, or they'd have given him a bed and blankets, maybe some medicine for the headache threatening to split his skull wide open.
"Hello there. It's nice to see you looking more awake." The newcomer pulled a chair over to where Jared slouched, manacled to his chair. "We have the test results back. Interesting reading. You're a very healthy young man, did you know that?" He opened the file he brought with him. "It also appears that you may have some vampire in your blood."
Jared stared at him in shock.
"Oh, not in any recent generation. The line is very diluted with you. And that's a good thing. Because we need you human. We've finished our tests now, so we can move you onto the next stage of the program. There's been no decision yet as to which program you're going to go into; however, rest assured that your well-being is most important to us." A swarmy smile formed on his mouth.
"Programs? Do I get a choice?
"So you do speak. Very good. Now I can't tell you about our programs just yet and, as much as I'd like to give you a choice, that is being made for you, based on these test results. Not to worry. You're in good hands."
At the nasty smirk on the guy's face, the last bit of hope died. None of the options would be good. He was never going home. He couldn't help wondering at the what-ifs. What if he'd not been kidnapped? What kind of future would he have had? What kind of relationship could he have had with Tessa? Was she even thinking of him?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Apparently a little rebellion was good for a father-daughter relationship. Tessa would never have believed it. Still, she had to admit owning a piece of his admiration had done wonders for her self-confidence. She actually held herself straighter. Like she needed more height. She towered over her human girlfriends. Although, her companions tonight were vampires and they were all tall. It made her reconsider her notion that she didn't belong with them.
And there was the weird stirring in her belly every time she got close to Cody. Like what was with that? Vampires were notoriously faithful – once they'd found their one true love. Until that point however, it was a well-known fact they liked to do a lot of searching.
Tessa, like every other little girl in the world, often tried to picture her perfect prince. One week he appeared as a tall blond Adonis, the next a dark-haired bad boy. She'd never pictured Cody as 'the one.' Now she had to wonder.
"Tessa. We're heading out. Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" David said as he walked toward her.
Serus spoke from behind her. "I think you should go with them, too, Tessa. You are just learning to jump, whereas Wendy and Jacob are experienced gliders. We can't have you slowing us down. And I don't want you to get separated from us out there and get lost."
Tessa glared at her father. "Then you'd better lead off now, before you take this conversation down that road any further. I'm jumping. I may not have much experience, and I know I don't look very pretty doing it…however, I can only get better. So let's go."
Her dad's jaw jutted out – he obviously took offence to her tone. She knew she was overstepping, she knew she was pushing the limit, but damn it, Jared needed help and she wanted to participate in his rescue…if that were possible. So when her father opened his mouth, she cut him off.
"Dad, we're past that now. I know you want to put me back into a little-girl box, but it's too late. Besides I'm just a few years younger than the rest of the group. Let's just do this." She planted her hands on her hips and stared at him. She didn't want to fight him. Her energy would only go so far. "I'll learn from all of you."
"You're too damn young – you don't know what you're getting into."
"And you're too old – you don't believe the young can do anything."
The two of them stood nose to nose glaring at each other.
Then, just as abruptly, they both laughed, understanding the humorous take on their standoff.
Returning to the issue at hand, Serus said, "North. We're going north to the outskirts of Vampire City in the mountains."
A shiver slid down Tessa's back. The mountains had always been out of bounds. For a brief moment she couldn't help but wonder if her dad might be right about this not being the trip for her. No. She couldn't let him be. Jared, and who knew how many captives were more important than her childish fears of going into the mountains.
"Let's go." Serus took one last look at the three young vampires in his group and leapt into the air. Even though Tessa had seen him in action before, the precision of his beautiful movements still moved her. They were full of grace, and his landings…well, she could only hope she didn't have to be as old as he was before she learned to control her jumps half as well.
Jacob and Wendy followed. Both were friends of her brother, David. Tessa took a deep breath and tried to imitate their smoother, more practiced glides, but she ended up feeling even more awkward and inept.
Three jumps later, she reverted to her normal crab style. Hey, it worked.
They didn't stop moving for close to an hour. That's when she really wondered if she'd made a major mistake when she'd insisted on coming. Most of her body ached one way or another. Getting out of bed tomorrow could be fun. Not.
At least her headache had disappeared. Her last jump brought her to within a few yards of her father. She even landed on her feet.
He nodded and turned his attention to the group as a whole.
"We've got a little further to go before we're deep in enemy territory. However, we could be watched even now. Don't do anything stupid. If anyone approaches us, I'll talk to them." He cast a stern warning glance at them all. "This is only a fact-finding mission. We want to know what's here and who's here – that's it. Got it?"
"Got it." Their voices blended into one chorus.
He took off once again. Tessa hated to admit it, but her legs were feeling more like marshmallows than ever before. Still, she pulled on her inner strength and headed out after them.
She'd lost track of time. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she realized everything that had happened so far had spanned only one evening and night. From the theater with Jared, to the Council meeting, to taking off and being attacked and now down to this wild chase in the dark.
Worry immediately set in. The others would need cover soon. But not right away; they were in the mountains, and the morning sun would reach them later than it would have if they were home.
She jumped again and again, going from tree branch to rock to cliff edge. She used muscles she'd never realized she owned, and she completed jumps that she'd never have considered possible.
On the next jump she had a terrible takeoff, and nearly fell off the tree. Her arms were almost too tired to hold her grip. Feeling definitely shaky, she leaned against the trunk to rest h
er legs.
"Come on Tessa. We're almost there." Her father called up to her.
She groaned. At this point, almost wasn't good enough. Still, she'd insisted on accompanying them and she refused to let her dad be right. She'd damn well finish it. Gathering her energy, she jumped to an adjoining tree and then another and another. If she could avoid jumping down and then up again, it would save her a ton of energy and effort.
Eyeing her next potential landing spot, she tried a more horizontal jump. Happy with that attempt, she chose an even more horizontal line the next time. Picking a path through the trees, she moved faster than the others. Her jumps had to be done carefully, to land properly in the tree, but even that seemed to get easier and easier. Pretty soon she was just coasting along. It felt good. Right.
"Tessa?" her dad called out to her, an odd note in his voice.
"What?"
"What are you doing?"
"Jumping," she said in exasperation. "What does it look like?"
"Flying."
She landed hard, her surprise made her misjudge her landing. Her knees buckled. Straightening up, she gasped, "What?"
"It looks like you're flying. Or something similar. I can't quite tell. It looks very odd."
"Yeah, so what else is new?"
"No. I mean it's unusual but you're doing it very well." Her father stood on the ground a little ahead of her. "I just can't see how you're doing it."
"I don't know either. I've been trying to conserve energy." She gave a self-conscious shrug. "This is the solution I came up with. Not having to go up and down all the time saves power and time." She jumped down to land heavily by her father.
He studied her face. "How's the head."
She shook her head. "Fine. The pain's gone."
"But you're tired."
"Sure. I didn't know I owned half the muscles I'm using." The other two in the group arrived as she spoke. Tessa smiled at them, relieved in a way, to see fatigue on their faces as well.
"How you'd do that glide thing?" Wendy asked, a curious look on her face.
Tessa frowned.
"That tree-to-tree thing you did. It looked really cool."
"Oh." Tessa couldn't help but feel flustered at all the attention. She wasn't accustomed to having others admire her skills. "I'm not exactly sure. I just started doing it to conserve energy."
"I wish I could do that. I'm exhausted." Jacob wiped his brow before turning to Serus. "Sir, are we here now?"
"Yes. Stay close. We're close to his lair." Serus led the way again, this time slipping through the trees to the deeper shadowed area of the woods. Within minutes they came to a series of mansions dotting the countryside. All the lights were off and silence permeated the air. Was anyone home? Could they have gone to bed? There was still at least an hour of darkness left.
Serus frowned. "I don't like the look of this."
Tessa slipped up to his side and opened both eyes. There were no sign anywhere of the weird energy signatures she'd started seeing. Not human or vampire…at least that she could see. "I think the place is deserted. I can't see anything."
"Maybe," he growled. "Or they could be hiding."
"How would they know they needed to hide?"
"I'm not sure that they do."
Tessa continued to move forward, keeping her shadow with the trees. She circled around the house, to the right, looking for vehicles. Found nothing so she did the same on the next two properties and continued searching, followed by her father and the others. The first two had nothing. The third also showed no signs of a vehicle. At the fourth – by far the largest mansion – she got lucky. She motioned to her father and waited for him to join her. "There's an Escalade up there."
"So?"
"I followed an Escalade to the house where Cody and I found the dead man. I can't tell from here if it's the same one, though."
"Will you know if we get closer?"
Tessa considered the problem. "Possibly, I remember part of the license plate number. Also, if they've been driven recently by the one of those two men, then I might recognize remnants of the energy. I just don't know."
"Then let's find out."
Vampires are stealthy to begin with. When they try to hide, they blend into their surroundings, almost disappearing altogether.
Moving quietly, Tessa and her group approached the last house from the back. A few more feet brought her almost close enough to touch the back bumper of the vehicle. The license plate looked right. Opening both types of vision, she studied the interior of the vehicle. There. Wispy vestiges of energy. The same man…no both men. The energy had blended as it had dispersed.
"This is it. The same two men are here – somewhere."
***
Cody couldn't quite explain the feeling of flying to the rescue at his dad's side. He'd never been bothered by any familial feelings before. He'd been happy and content to live in his father's shadow. Not a big deal. Pride wasn't his thing. His dad, on the other hand, loved the limelight. Cody was good with that. He rarely saw his brother and that was cool, too.
Yet this warmth inside, this new sense of wanting to straighten up and walk tall beside his father, was interesting. He could get used to this partnership.
"Cody, can you tell us the general direction from here?"
Startled, Cody glanced from his father to the roads below. There was the same mansion on his right. "They went down that road there." He pointed to the left. "I saw their dust plumes as I flew home. They appeared to go straight.
"Good enough. I want to go lower so I can see if there are other tracks. We don't want to be following the wrong vehicles. Not that there would have been many here overnight."
Overnight? How had so much happened in such a short time?
If someone had told him yesterday that Tessa would instigate a revolt of vampire against vampire to rescue her human friend, he'd have laughed so hard he probably would have made himself sick.
And what kind of friend was this Jared? What did he mean to her? Cody's stomach clenched. When he heard her snap at her aunt Rosha, he saw another side to Tessa. He had to admit he'd admired her for standing up to her miserable aunt like that. And what the hell was with that?
Cody didn't currently have a girlfriend. And although his friends were always bugging him, he hadn't felt the need to go out and search for one like they all did. Could Tessa have caught his eye a bit, earlier? And had he been unwilling to take a closer look because of who she was? If so, was it even okay to covet his best friend's sister?
"These tracks are so clear that I think we can safety assume they were made by the kidnappers. Let's pick up the pace, otherwise we'll be caught outside when dawn breaks." Goran swooped low, keeping to a straight line above the trees.
"Yeah, I think that's why Tessa wanted to get going hours ago," Cody called out as he caught up. Jewel and Ian swooped down to take up positions on either side of Cody.
Goran glanced over at his son. "Smart girl. Her father's old school. Vampires are nothing if not clannish. Takes a lot to get them to go after each other."
"What happened with this Moltere person?"
"He's been a headache for centuries. He goes under for decades and usually comes up to cause a hell of a mess. It's about time for him to surface again. Unfortunately."
"Yeah. Is Rhia correct? Is he into hunting humans?"
"Definitely. He's as old school as Serus. We were all younglings together. I came into the picture a little later, when they were already friends. They were both passionate – but about opposite things."
"So Serus wanted to protect the humans?"
His father nodded. "Moltere wanted to set them up in farms. He's always looked down on them as animals."
"Yet we've seen time and time again, that in some areas they really are superior."
"Absolutely. Moltere doesn't want to accept that. He thinks vampires are the rightful rulers and one can't rule if there is nothing to rule over, so he figures that job of being ruled falls t
o humans. Then there is the blood issue. Sure, we need it to survive. It's just we don't need human blood. Animal or synthetic works just as well. But to Moltere, having synthetic, was like having water when wine is available. He wouldn't do it."
The other two vampires flying beside them listened quietly.
"Is a blood farm what we're expecting to find tonight? Really? You mean Rhia wasn't joking?" Jewel asked Goran.
"Rhia is usually serious. And she's right. He could be operating another blood center. We've certainly caught him with them before. He keeps setting them up because there's a huge black market for human blood."
