by Dale Mayer
Lying quietly, he worked to zero in on any other sounds. Were he and David lucky enough to be alone? Or was the bastard who had kicked him still here? The sound of Cody's own breathing drowned out everything else. That didn't mean much. Surreptitiously, he checked to see if he'd been restrained in any way. He wasn't. Relief coursed through him. As long as he was free, he could inflict his own damage.
All he had to do now was wait for the right time.
David moaned.
Oh, shit. Not yet.
Cody willed his friend to silence. David groaned again. Lying quietly, Cody waited to see if someone would deliver a silencing kick to his friend, too. That would be Cody's best chance. Footsteps pounded across the floor. Four. Five. Six. Seven. The room was about thirty feet across. Good to know.
"Why are these fuckers waking up? Where the hell are those drugs?"
The man lashed out at David.
Cody jumped him.
"What the hell?" the man shouted off balance. His boot barely connected with David's mid-section.
Still, David groaned.
"David. Wake up. Help me!" Cody cried out. He clung to the giant's back. Where the hell were they getting these monster-sized males?
The rush of wings was the only indication of change. Cody's watched his father land on the raised platform, a dark knight to the rescue. Goran's face twisted with ferociousness that said revenge was the only acceptable outcome here. The big man tossed Cody to the ground like a discarded toy as he turned to fight a greater foe.
Inexplicably, Cody was pissed. This asshole couldn't discard Cody as if he were nothing. Like he didn't count. "Don't you turn your back on me like that."
He clambered to his feet, surprised to meet his father's gaze. Goran snapped the big man's head backwards with a hefty blow. The big man slammed into Cody. Cody tripped him, but had nowhere to go. He fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. His father was on the large vamp in an instant.
"Cody, take care of David." His dad's teeth gleamed in the darkness. "I'll finish off this asshole."
Cody crawled out of the way.
Fighting his way to awareness, David shifted uneasily. "Cody?"
"Yeah. Take it easy. We got our heads cracked."
David blinked several times.
Cody paused until understanding settled into his friend's gaze. "The elders have come to our rescue." Cody turned just as his father lifted the big man, like he was a child, and tossed him over the half wall. "Holy shit."
Goran spun around, the dark look on his face making even Cody back up. "He attacked you."
Cody gulped. "Yes. But I'm okay, you know."
He grinned darkly. "You'd better be."
"Goran." Serus's voice crossed the divide. "Come here."
David struggled to his feet. Even Cody recognized the odd note in the elder's voice. He hadn't known Serus was up here, too. Giving David a hand up, he helped him make his way over to where Serus stood beside a desk.
Goran strode up behind them. "What did you find?"
"I don't know. It's incredibly damaging."
Goran snatched the sheet of paper Serus held out. "Are these ledgers?"
"I think so. If Rhia were here, she might understand them better. Her accounting skills are second to none."
"Payments? Or payouts?"
"Can't be sure at this point." Serus turned to look at Cody. "But I'm thinking it's blood money. Literally. As in a listing of who's buying the blood. These pages could tell us who's caught up in this mess."
David collapsed heavily on the wooden chair behind the desk. A computer monitor, its blue light pulsed. So the system was on. David clicked a couple of keys.
A log in screen came up.
"That's no help." Cody edged closer as David tried a couple of other combinations without success. "Check the drawers for anything useful."
"That's where I found the ledgers," Serus said.
He and Goran crowded around the desk.
Cody studied the surprising large suspended space. "This is an amazing idea. The person in charge of this place is obviously a flier. I don't know about the goons. They aren't winged. Whether he brings them up or they make it up on their own, I don't know. Does anyone see another way out of here?"
"I saw a ladder." Goran motioned over the side. "So the boss is a flier, but needs his minions to have access."
"I suggest we gather up whatever we can and get back to the others. There's safety in numbers and right now, we're spread all over the place." David set about disconnecting the laptop. "We need this. It might be connected to their servers, but I'm betting this particular machine contains a lot of incriminating information." He stood and picked up the computer.
"Let me take it," Goran said. "Your dad can help you get down."
Serus rolled up the ledgers and tucked them into his inside pocket. Goran grabbed the computer and jumped over. Cody waited to make sure that Serus and David were fine, then tumbled down himself.
David landed heavily. Cody winced for him. David was neither a flier nor a glider. Still, all vampires could jump incredible heights. "Now, let's get back to Jewel and Rhia."
"One more stop first." Serus walked over to the far corner of the hallway.
Cody watched curiously. "What's he doing?"
"Getting Tessa."
"Tessa?" David and Cody spoke in unison. "She's here?"
A whoosh made them spin around. Tessa landed gently in front of them, a huge grin on her face. "You weren't looking for me, were you?" She grinned unrepentantly at them. "Damn, it's good to see you two."
David opened his arms. She ran into them and hung on tight. As his arms closed around her, he whispered hoarsely, "Don't you ever do that again."
"Don't do what?" she asked, pulling back slightly.
He gave her a squeeze. "Get yourself kidnapped."
"Me? What about you? Who just saved your ass?" Tessa up and smacked him on the shoulder. "The way I see it, Dad had to rescue you. I, on the other hand, rescued myself."
Cody laughed. A sound so full of joy, Tessa and David both stopped their wrangling and stared at him. Tessa grinned. "Wow. Look who else is feeling fine."
"That I am." His grin widened. He walked over and wrapped an arm around them both. He hugged Tessa tightly, leaning his head on the top of hers. "What's not to feel good about?"
She beamed up at him. He squeezed her shoulders, and his smile turned into something...tender? Intimate? He didn't know. It just happened naturally.
"Let's go." David urged.
With Tessa walking between them, her arms hooked through theirs, the three of them followed the elders back to the other room. Halfway there Tessa slowed her steps. "Where's Jared?"
Cody and David's steps faltered. They exchanged looks.
Tessa closed her eyes and groaned. "What don't I know?"
"We don't know," David said. "We were talking about what we were going to do, and he was behind us."
Cody squeezed her arm and tucked her closer. Then he picked up the story. "We think he's gone to check out a tunnel we found."
"What tunnel?" Tessa was beyond confused. "I know if was mentioned before by someone, but I didn't see anything like that."
"No. We found it while you were working your way down the mountain." Cody grinned that lopsided smile at her. "A really long stairway ends at this endless white tunnel that has tracks running down the center of it."
"Did you guys check it out?"
"Partially, but we didn't find anything. We went back upstairs to decide what to do, and then Mom came in. She was so obviously different..." With a shrug, David let the words trail away. He took a deep breath and continued, "She was like a lookalike mom, and I so want the real one back."
"We found her." Tessa nodded. "Locked up."
"Yeah, I did that," Cody admitted softly. "David carried her over, but we needed to make sure we kept her away from them and whatever they were doing to her."
"What about the old vampire with her?" Tess
a's curiosity about Bart reminded Cody of all that had happened while she'd been gone.
"That's Bart. He's not one of them. In fact, he's a bit of a coward. He didn't want to get involved in the hunt."
David snorted. "He didn't want to get involved at all."
The elders stopped at the corner and turned to look behind them. Goran asked, "Are you three planning to come with us today, or are you going to wait even little longer to catch up? Remember, we haven't found all of the assholes yet. You might want to pick up the pace."
Chastised, the three walked faster. The room was right up ahead.
"About time," Tessa muttered.
"I hear you." David squeezed her arm. "I just hope everyone we left is still here."
"We brought Ian and left him with Jewel, who was awake, and Bart, who was quickly dropping off to sleep."
"You found Ian." Cody brightened. "That's awesome."
"Yeah, he was still fighting off the drugs. That's why we left him behind."
Serus knocked on the door then entered without waiting for an answer.
Goran followed him in.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Tessa stayed back. She couldn't explain her hesitation. Please let everything be okay now.
No noise emanated from the room, and no one had come back out.
Something was so wrong.
Her feet refused to budge.
David and Cody came to a stop and tried to tug her forward. She refused to move.
David shot her a curious look. "What's the matter?"
"Something's wrong. We should hear people inside that room."
Both males stared at her curiously, with no comprehension on their faces.
"I'm afraid it's a trap."
David and Cody stared at her, and then at each other before spinning to stare at the open doorway.
"Shit," Cody whispered. "She's right. We should hear someone. Or something."
David groaned. "Will this never end?"
The three separated and spread out along the hallway.
"How do we play this?" Cody whispered.
Tessa shook her head. She didn't have any ideas. Then again... "We need to surprise them."
"We know that, but..." He frowned.
She pondered for another minute. "What about if I stop in the doorway and refuse to go any further? Then when they come after me, you can take them out."
"No." David shook his head frantically. "No way. We should wait out here for them to come looking for us, and then catch them."
"That could take a long time."
"I'm going to go up there." Cody pointed up to where several heavy pipes and pieces of machinery crisscrossed the area. "I might be able to see something."
"You won't be able to see anything." David shook his head, his whisper adamant. "It's the wrong angle."
Cody took several steps back and jumped upward. Gliding slowly, he made one long pull with his wings, and then floated upward.
"He's so damned graceful."
David nodded, his gaze never leaving his friend.
Tessa on the other hand, after the initial glance, kept her eyes on the doorway. Surely, they'd come looking for the rest of them soon. What could they be doing in there?
David nudged her and pointed up at Cody. She glanced upward as he positioned himself at such an angle that he could see inside but not be seen. At least, she presumed he couldn't be seen.
Until a panicked look passed over Cody's face. He flapped his wings and took off higher, circling in a mad scramble to get out of the way.
A second flier came out of nowhere and headed straight for him.
"Oh, shit." Tessa flattened herself against the wall as the two vampires fought in the air.
"Come on, Tessa," David hissed in her ear. "We have to help the others."
"It's a trap. We have to find another way. That flying asshole can't be alone." Still, Tessa knew they didn't have a choice. Not really. They had to go in. Cody needed Goran's help. "Damn it. Okay, we have to move fast and surprise them. Once I hit the doorway, I'll see if I can find an asshole to come down on."
He met her eyes. "Be careful."
She backed up several feet, and then straightened out her line of approach. "You come in right after I enter, while they're all scattered by my rather unorthodox arrival."
With a nod, he slipped to the edge of the doorway.
Tessa took a deep breath, gave Cody one last worried glance, and then ran. The ceiling in the room couldn't be very high, based on the other rooms she'd been in. That meant she had to go long, not up. Still, the room wasn't all that long, either. She'd didn't want to overshoot her mark and smack into the wall. That she would never live down. From her vantage point, she could tell the front two beds were empty. So everyone was either further back, or off to the right. She was going to vote for off to the right.
That meant she needed to kick out on that side. A surprise attack was the only way.
Four steps from the doorway, she took a deep breath, jumped and sailed into the room, angling for the right side. A quick glance showed a group of people penned in the far back corner. Two oversized goons stood in front of them trying to cover both the prisoners and the open doorway.
Several people cried out, ducking at her wild entrance. The first gunmen turned to face her. Tessa aimed, kicked and slammed the toe of her boot into the throat of the first gunmen as he turned to face her.
He dropped to the floor like the solid wall of asshole he was.
And that's when she saw the wall looming in front of her until her father jumped, caught her in his arms, and helped her land safely.
"Easy, tiger," he said with a squeeze and a big grin.
Still in his arms, she spun to face the remaining threat - the other gunman. Then relaxed. A grinning David slapped high fives with Goran. The second gunman lay in a crumpled heap at their feet.
"I'm sorry I missed that," Tessa said.
Goran's grin widened. "I wish I'd had a video camera to film your entrance. Not bad. Not bad at all."
Heat surged over Tessa's cheeks at the unexpected compliment. Her grin flashed wide. "I wish you had, too. The view was a little different from up here." She looked toward the doorway. "Has Cody made it down yet?"
Her father shook his head.
She turned to Goran. "You need to go help him. He's fighting another flier in the middle of the warehouse."
All humor dropped from Goran's face as he took off from a standstill and soared through the main warehouse. Tessa went to follow him, but her dad pulled her back.
"I'll go. You stay here and look after your mother." He took off after Goran.
Tessa spun and looked for her mother. Rhia sat on the last bed. Her hair hung lank, and her skin resembled parchment paper rather than the beautiful silky skin Tessa knew.
"Mom?" With David by her side, she approached Rhia warily.
Her mother never moved or acknowledged their presence.
Turning to Jewel, who'd walked up beside David, Tessa asked, "What happened?"
"We don't know." Jewel shrugged. "When she woke up, she started laughing like crazy and singing for the longest time, then she suddenly went catatonic."
"That another vampire could do something like this to her is criminal." Anger flared in Tessa's gut.
Ian stumbled over to them. "She's probably going through withdrawal from the drugs. They've got some powerful narcotics here. I'm still trying to get my body to work right."
With a frown, Tessa nodded. She forced herself to turn away from her poor mother and looked to see who else was in the room. Bart, now that the danger had past, lay on his bed with his back to them.
"Is he..."
"Sleeping? Most likely." Ian grinned. "He's the funniest darned vamp I've ever met."
"Speaking of people, what happened to Jared?" Jewel stepped around David and met Tessa's eyes. "I've been scared to look out at those bodies, in case he's up there with them."
"I hope not." Tessa gulpe
d and closed her eyes briefly. The acid in her stomach turned sour. "That would be his worst nightmare."
"Isn't it for all of us?" David said. "We argued about someone going out that damn tunnel for help, and I still think that's what Jared chose to do. But I can't be sure."
