Dark Experiments

by Lana Campbell

  Chapter 22

  Nathan and Dominic worked fast. By the time Christian arrived at the Davenport home a little over an hour after discovering Tiffany missing, Dominic had a good start on a dossier for Katie Nettleson.

  Christian didn’t bother ringing the bell and security gave him no grief when he pulled into the drive, then dashed inside. Everyone was expecting him. He bolted down two adjoining hallways and rushed into Nathan’s home office where the entire clan was gathered, save the kids and nanny.

  “Any news?” Christian was shaking. Tiffany still wouldn’t respond to his repeated mental pushes. Before coming here he’d stopped by the Mexican restaurant to question staff, but got nowhere with that. He enchanted every single employee and came up empty. No one remembered seeing her leave.

  Nathan called him right after he left the restaurant and told him to come over right away. Dominic had scrounged up some information on Katie. He prayed it led them to Tiffany. He also hoped Noah and Asa were making headway with the male life mates to find their missing patients. That avenue might lead him to Tiffany too if Katie had taken all of them.

  Mia who had been sitting on a brown leather sofa, got up and went over to him. Without a word, she slipped her arms around his waist. While they hugged, his gaze scanned the other faces in the room, her sisters Chelsie and Danielle, Julia and Dimitri and of course Dominic and Nathan. All their countenances were entrenched in gloom and worry.

  Tiffany’s abduction was the single worst event of his entire life. As bad if not worse than her turning. At least then she’d been in his care and he’d known what he dealt with. Now having no idea where she was or what had been done to her felt like pure torture.

  Mia pulled back and Christian viewed tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Mia.”

  Christian couldn’t help but feel guilty for leaving Tiffany at the restaurant.

  “It’s going to be okay, Christian. We will find her. I promise.”

  He nodded and hoped those words were not from an optimistic mother, but rather from God who often spoke to her heart. The only good thing in this whole mess was having friends like Nathan, Mia and the others to help find Tiffany and lend support to each other in the midst of crisis.

  “Come sit by Dominic, so you can see the hologram more clearly. He’ll show you what he has so far on Katie Nettleson,” Nathan requested.

  Christian took a seat and stared at the 3D screen projecting Katie’s V clinic application. “What did you find, Dominic? And just cut to the chase.”

  “Per your request, your human resources director sent me every page they had on Katie. Nathan, Dimitri and I have called all personal references. Every single one of them said the exact same thing, “Where is she? We haven’t heard from her in months.” Nor have they heard any word from her family members. Previous employers know nothing of her whereabouts and were never called by your HR for a reference. No offense but whoever checked her references needs to be fired without severance.”

  Christian swiped a shaky hand over his mouth and jaw. “Yeah. I’ll definitely deal with that later.” Starting with Noah who had given both Katie and Blake high recommendations because his mother’d had nothing but praise for the two of them. That fact was probably why HR hadn’t been as thorough with Katie’s reference checks. On second thought, he couldn’t be too hard on Noah. Tiffany hadn’t been background checked or enchanted before he’d hired her. “Tell me what you do know. Not what you don’t.”

  Dominic nodded his expression grim. “She doesn’t live at the most current address on file and never has. Bank accounts, credit cards, utility services are non-existent for our Katie Nettleson anywhere in the New Orleans area. Los Angeles is the last blip on her radar. She closed out a savings and a checking account at a Bank American on September thirtieth of last year to the tune of eight hundred and seventy-six thousand four hundred and twenty two dollars and fifteen cents.”

  “What the hell?” He shared a pop-eyed glare between Dominic and Nathan. “A nurse couldn’t save that much money in a vampire’s lifetime.” How had he discovered that information so quickly? Dominic’s investigative abilities stymied him.

  “It was an inheritance. Apparently, her parents were quite wealthy. In fact, she and two siblings still own the estate left to them located in Hollywood.”

  “Does anyone live there?”

  “I don’t know. I’m still working on family leads. She has a brother and sister and I’m digging into their past, but I haven’t had enough time to find many answers just yet. Chances are they inherited a bundle too.”

  “Wait a minute. She came to work for the V clinic in February. Where was she living from September through January?”

  “That’s the eight hundred-thousand-dollar question.” Dominic raised his hands in a ‘wish to hell I knew’ fashion.

  Nathan who had been silent throughout Dominic’s dissertation said, “Let’s take a moment to breath and back track. Today’s events may lead us to Tiffany quicker than a mystery on the whereabouts of a crazy nurse for the last four months. You told me you left Tiffany at the restaurant to wait for David.”

  Christian could sense a smidgen of condemnation in Nathan’s tone and expression. “I did. Like I told you over the phone, my emergency alarm for the mothers’ retreat sounded. That alarm is only to be used in case of an emergency involving loss of life to patients or staff. I couldn’t take Tiffany with me because I had no idea what I would be walking into. In retrospect, sure Tiffany didn’t need to see that carnage, but I’d rather that than what we’re dealing with now.”

  “Why wasn’t David with Tiffany when you two went to lunch?”

  Christian felt more than a smidgen of guilt over that question. “Tiffany and I wanted privacy and under normal circumstances I would have never left her alone. I made a bad call Nathan and no one feels worse than I do.”

  Mia walked up to Nathan’s large mahogany desk, and placed a hand on Christian’s shoulder, while glaring at Nathan. “I know you’re furious that David wasn’t with Tiffany and Christian left her, but we won’t find Tiffany by playing should of, could of, would of’s.”

  “Mia is right,” Julia said. She got off the couch where she’d been sitting between Dimitri and Danielle and came up to Nathan’s desk. “Christian, you must have faith, Cher. We will find her. My son will track down this miserable Katie woman I assure you, and all of us will not rest until we find our Tiffany.”

  “Yes, we will find her,” Nathan said, his tone staunchly confident. “We have to start at the beginning, though. We need to know everything Katie and Tiffany did before the two of you left for lunch. That may require a good deal of questioning of your employees.”

  “I’ll get on that. David would know Tiffany’s every move this morning. Has anyone called the hospital regarding his condition?” Christian asked Nathan.

  He nodded. “He’s stable. That’s all I could get over the phone. When we’re finished here Dominic and I plan to go question him.”

  Christian inhaled a ragged breath. The man may not have been with Tiffany when he was shot, but he’d taken a bullet for her anyway. He’d wondered a number of times how Katie managed to get over on David. Then he’d thought, why not? She’d gotten over on him and dozens of staff members for months.

  “Dominic and I have worked out an itinerary so that everyone here has a job to do in an effort to locate Tiffany. You have the most important job. You need to mentally reach out to her until she answers.”

  “You know I will.” His heart told him Tiffany was in grave danger. Every possible scenario had raced through his mind, from someone knocking her unconscious, drugging her or worse. But she was alive and that unquestionable fact kept him afloat.

  “My greatest concern is why she doesn’t answer.” Nathan tapped his chin with a pen.

  “I’m loathe to say it, but there’s no brain activity. She’s silent because she’s unconscious. But I know in my gut, my soul she’s alive.” Christian patted his chest. “You kn
ow I’d know if she wasn’t.”

  Several nods went around after that comment. Everyone here understood the blood bond of life mates. Christian’s assurance that Tiffany was alive seemed to bolster the spirits of those in the room a wee bit.

  “Alright. Everyone gather around so I can give you your tasks.” Nathan picked up a pile of papers off his printer tray and began handing them out.

  ***

  Christian sat in Nathan’s office, in the plush leather chair behind his desk staring at piles of papers spread across the shiny wood surface. All regarded Katie, a woman who for all intent purposes ceased to exist last September. He and the other men had been pouring over them repeatedly for days and Dominic and Nathan just kept adding more papers to the piles. The information went back to last fall. Yet they had not one iota of current information. For all their intense work and research they still were no closer to finding Tiffany, Katie or this brother and sister of her’s.

  Dominic felt certain the three siblings had obtained aliases. Christian believed him because none of the three had rented, purchased or put anything in their names like utilities here in the New Orlean’s area. So, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

  He was alone. The time was a little after four a.m. and the entire household slept. He, Nathan and Dominic had only snatches of sleep these last three days, but tonight the two men turned in around two. The coffee just wasn’t working anymore on anyone, particularly himself.

  Sleep was out of the question, though. It courted him and he was close to being seduced, but if he slept, he wouldn’t be able to hear Tiffany when she woke and called to him. She would wake. He’d kept telling himself that over and over for three long days. When a tiny thread of doubt reared its ugly head, it became a reminder to call out to her one more time. He’d lost count of the number, but he must have pushed at her mind over a thousand times. The jackhammer boring through the top of his skull was agonizing proof.

  Expending extreme psychic energy caused migraine headaches and mental exhaustion, which might explain why he could no longer read the words on the papers in front of him. They were just blurry black squiggles, pieces of a puzzle about Katie and a sister and brother, who had also fallen off the face of planet earth. None of the puzzle pieces fit into a sensible explanation or had led them any closer to finding Tiffany or the V clinic’s missing patients.

  Christian closed his eyes and rubbed the lids, an effort to abate the itchy dryness. Eye drops had quit working about a day ago and so had his deodorant. He hadn’t showered, he’d barely eaten and had only one transfusion this week. Bottom line, he was a wretched mess because they were getting nowhere.

  Two conclusions everyone could agree upon were the missing mothers were in the same place as Tiffany. The other conclusion, well more a theory, Katie and whomever she’d conned into helping her execute these kidnappings hated vampires. It stood to reason, but no one could understand how she’d fooled everyone around her into believing she was a Pollyanna in scrubs.

  Katie’s acting skills were the least of Christian’s worries presently. Like him, the other men couldn’t connect to their missing life mates. This fact led him and his partners to the conclusion Katie had all the women under heavy sedation to prevent them from using their God given skills of survival, enchantment and telekinetic manipulation. The danger in that, especially for the pregnant females made him boil.

  Dominic had tried everything imaginable to track the women, GPS coordinates on Nathan’s SUV, which had led them to it alright and Tiffany’s cell and purse. They found both in a Walmart Super Center parking lot, the truck abandoned. Video surveillance had shown Katie dropping off the SUV and getting into a parked black Jeep Cherokee alone. Even though they’d caught the license plate number, she’d been hours ahead of them and disappeared without a trace. Dead ends. Nothing but dead ends. No surprise. They might be dealing with psychotic people, but they were smart psychos.

  Dominic dug deeper still, checking hotels and resorts for four or more women, three very pregnant. Dominic even checked hospitals just in case by some long shot a mother had gone into labor and Katie had a moment of conscious and took them in for medical treatment. Absolutely nothing had panned out. It was as if they actually had left the planet.

  Christian and his partners again enchanted every employee of the V clinic, yet came up empty handed. The people closest to Katie, like Blake were also thoroughly investigated. Dimitri went to his apartment, but found no clues Blake had any connections to Katie other than work.

  Adding insult to injury was the lost lives at the retreat. He and his partners had been dealing with that too. They told the victims’ family members there had been a break in which of course had involved the police. Thankfully, Noah handled the matter but it became a god-awful explanation he’d planted in the minds of the detectives handling the case. Noah told them it had been a murder suicide executed by a man which Noah said had been an ex-lover of a patient. Thankfully, the enchantment had worked and no one including family members were asking difficult questions.

  Noah also spoke to his mother about Katie. She had shed a bit of light about Katie’s siblings because they’d been listed as emergency contacts on her employment application. Dominic investigated further and learned her sister, Charla Nettleson worked for the CDC as a research analyst, but quit about a month after Katie came up missing last September. It was the same story with the brother, who’d been a UPS driver. He’d quit his job the exact same day his sister quit hers. There had to be a mountain of information to uncover in those few clues, but no one couldn’t link a reason to the three sibling’s sudden disappearance.

  None of it made any sense. His mind was fried from exhaustion. No wonder he couldn’t think. He leaned forward and crossed arms on the desk then rested his head on them. Immediately he started to nod off. He lifted his head, shook it and sunk forward once more, then sleep claimed him.

  Chapter 23

  True to her word, Charla released her from the restraints and medical devices, allowing Tiffany to go outside in a caged cell. The time was shortly before daybreak when her brother Terry, packing a pistol in a hip holster, escorted Tiffany through the building into a fenced courtyard. The little space was surrounded by twelve, maybe fifteen-foot-high iron bars. A huge iron grate had been welded to the top. The reason was obvious—to keep in weakling vampires, such as herself. Before Charla drugged her, she could have easily scaled a fifteen-foot fence or maybe even bent the bars enough to squeeze through. The way she felt now she could barely lift a kitten.

  The only thing besides grass in the courtyard was a picnic table. Terry led her to it by the arm, none to gently, then gave her a little shove.

  “Sit down. Someone’s bringing you breakfast.”

  He planted himself about four feet behind her and crossed his arms, glaring at her as if she were some gross looking bug he’d like to stomp on. She’d like to stomp on him, but that wasn’t going to happen.

  Tiffany obliged his edict because she could barely stand, partially from hunger. That HTS drug and the sedatives Charla doped her up with were the real culprits. They had nearly sucked the life-force out of her body, which became abundantly apparent when she got out of bed and started to walk. Until now she hadn’t realized just how hale and hearty she’d been as a vampire. Her strength and vitality had been ten times what it had been as a human.

  Now her sense of smell, hearing, even her night vision seemed seriously warped, no longer vampire sharp, yet a little better than they’d been human. Tiffany could feel the tips of her fangs behind her incisor teeth, but for the life of her couldn’t release them. Days ago she had only to think about them and they would extend and retract at will. Charla had reduced her to a freak hybrid; her blood and body lurking somewhere between vampire and human.

  Everything in her wanted to cry, wail and rage with the indignity of all that Charla women had put her though, but self-pity would get her nowhere. She had a job to do. She had to find out where th
is building was located. For certain it was somewhere deep in bayou country. A moss covered forest of trees and Louisiana native brush surrounded the yard and building which was a machine shed appearing about a hundred-foot-long, maybe fifty feet wide. It had a forest green roof and off white corrugated metal siding that did not look new from the outside. Apparently, they’d bought the barn and turned it into this unholy laboratory.

  The musty, muddy smell of swamp water made her wrinkle her nose, and wonder how far snakes and gators lurked beyond her iron prison. Frogs croaked and katydids did their nighttime calling routine, but she could hear no sounds of humanity. No cars. No voices or music; nothing mankind related. All she could see was murky gray/black wilderness, clues which made her feel like a tiny needle in a big ol’ haystack in retrospect of how much swampland actually surrounded the New Orleans area. If she was in Louisiana. Heck, she could be in a bordering state for all she knew.

  She looked at the building again, but just couldn’t figure it. Somehow, these crazy people had built a lab and makeshift hospital in a matter of months. She supposed with enough money and manpower it could be done. From what she’d viewed on her way out of the building these people had plenty of dough.

  Terry took her down a hallway through an area which reminded her an emergency room. Along the way she passed six or eight cubicles like her own little slice of prison. The hall emerged into a huge laboratory of some sort with all manner of medical equipment. She’d thought she was in the confines of a medical facility similar to the V clinic until she walked outside and realized the building was actually a giant metal barn.

  All this would be information she could relay to Christian once he reached out to her. He’d probably been trying endlessly for the last three days. She couldn’t imagine what he must be going through. But if she were to take a wild guess, he slept. She didn’t resent the fact he did because he probably desperately needed it and Charla still needed her. Hopefully, her twenty percent vampire blood would buy her time.