Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology)

by Chrissy Peebles

  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 to 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."

  Cody frowned. "That's disgusting to think of humans like Taz being farmed for their blood. He's a great guy." In fact, the thought made his stomach roil.

  The wind gusted, sending them down to toward the ground in a heavy drop. Cody hovered, letting the wind take him where it wanted.

  "Cody, look there." His father pointed to a turn off in the roads below. One set of tracks headed to the right, leading to another large property. A second set of tracks kept straight and headed straight up the mountain.

  "Is that Moltere's area in the mountains?" Cody asked.

  "It's one of them." Goran pointed to the large property on the right. "We'll go check that out, hopefully find a place to hole up until dark."

  He swooped down closer to the old stone mansion, coming to a graceful landing on the roof. Cody followed. He'd never been this far away from home and didn't recognize the area. There were statues or gargoyles on the corners of the roof. The building had to be at least four, maybe five stories high.

  It was also dark. No lights of any kind shone out. Looked like a vampire holding to him. He walked the roof, looking at the outbuildings. Rhia had said to look for any place big enough – like a barn – where a blood bank could be set up. So even the basement of this house might suffice.

  "What do you think, Dad?"

  Goran studied the layout. "It's definitely vampire. Now is it one of us, an import, or one of Moltere's?"

  "How do we find out?" Ian asked.

  Goran looked at him in surprise. "We go in, of course."

  Of course. Cody grinned.

  "In the front door?" asked Ian. Jewel, the only girl in their group, shot him a withering look. "We should check out the outbuildings first. Just in case we're not welcome inside the main house. We may not get a second chance."

  "Good idea." Cody turned to his dad. "Let's split up. Jewel and I'll go check the outbuildings and you and Ian can go inside."

  With a sharp look, Goran nodded. "You have half an hour only. We'll all meet at the front door then." He motioned to Ian and they both turned and floated down from the roof.

  "Let's go." Jewel and Cody went toward the back of the house where they leapt down to the two outbuildings. One appeared to be a garage and the other…well, it probably served as a storage shed. They walked through the garage first and found nothing. No false floor, no hanging bodies, no large walk-in cooler. Nothing suspicious anywhere.

  The second building had no windows to look through, nor did the door yield to their efforts. Cody tried to pick the lock but didn't know how. He could break it down, but didn't want to make any noise that would alert others to their presence.

  "We have to get in."

  "I know. But how? And without making any noise."

  Jewel reached out and struggled with the doorknob for a moment. "The knob is new, but the door is old. Something important is behind here."

  They stared at each other in excitement.

  Cody pressed his head against the door and listened intently. He backed up several feet and rushed forward, popping the door hard at the knob. It snapped open, sending him rushing headlong into the dark interior. It was darker inside than outside.

  Jewel stepped in behind him. They searched the corners and checked the loft. Empty. As they jumped down, Cody noticed a clean spot on the floor. He crouched, his hand tracing the square pattern where something had been. "Something was here."

  "Yes, but no longer." Jewel searched the rest of the room. "Now what?"

  "We meet up with the others."

  CHAPTER NINE

  Tessa couldn't hide her fatigue. Her legs were ready to give out and her stomach had long ago stopped screaming for food. Now her stomach sat like a silent tiger waiting to jump on prey. She could only imagine how the others felt. Of course it was her human genes that made her require food. Her vampire genes could go without for days.

  They'd approached the darkened houses one at a time and searched each building. And had found nothing. Now they were in the basement of the third and last house. So far – nothing. Had all this been a waste of precious time?

  Tessa allowed herself a moment of weakness. She leaned against the wall, her eyes closed, while she rested and the others searched. Her feet were killing her. Why had she thought heeled, fashionable boots were perfect for this occasion?

  Then she sensed it.

  Whatever it was? She opened both types of vision and studied the energy around the basement. Being as tired as she was, she had trouble focusing. That's when she saw them. Energy lines, faded and thin, spread out to the point of no longer being recognizable, individually. All she could tell was that someone had been here recently.

  Studying the pattern, she slowly recognized where the thickest collection of misty clouds sat. Straightening up, she walked into the center of the low lying mist.

  The energy disappeared into the floor.

  With her finger, she traced each stone, looking for missing mortar, loose rocks or a door. She couldn't find anything.

  "What are you looking for, Tess?" The concern in her father's voice made her smile.

  "The energy has pooled on the floor slabs. As if someone went below."

  The others moved to surround her, cautious excitement permeating the air. Every block was checked, every mark was examined until they finally sat back and looked at each other.

  "I don't think there's anything here, Tessa," Wendy said. Jacob nodded in agreement.

  "Yes, there is. I just don't know what or where." She looked around. Energy lingered on the walls. She hadn't thought it meaningful before, had thought of it only as a remnant from the people who had traveled this way. Yet it centered on just one wall – not several.

  She walked closer. Acting on instinct, she placed her hand into the center of the energy cloud and pressed her palm firmly against the wall.

  A groaning creaking sound in front of her mixed with gasps of shock from behind her. She spun around to find a section of the floor sliding down at an angle.

  "Oh, well done, Tessa." Her father strode to the opening and bent down, staring into the black abyss. "Stairs, let's go."

  One by one they filed down the spiraling stairs. Tessa had to admit her nerves were getting the best of her. She didn't want the floor to close and lock them in while they were down there. Just the thought of that gave her the heebie jeebies. So did being left behind alone. Bolting down the stairs, she raced to catch up. As she reached them a horrible grating noise sounded.

  Tessa spun around. The floor was rising – effectively sealing them in.

  ***

  Jared let his head fall back. He closed his eyes, relief coursing through him with the easing of his tense muscles. So much pain. He wouldn't have thought it was possible to live through so much and still be alive.

  Death had to be better than this.

  Nutrients pumped into his body. Blood pulsed out of his body. He was a captive. For the rest of his life. And now the means of doing something about it had gone beyond him.

  Tears collected in his eyes, and he hated that too. Anger stirred – faint at first… Then the beginning of resolve bloomed into determination, washing away the moment of weakness. He was Jared Enderby. He refused to let his life end like this.

  There had to be something he could do. For the other humans who hung here at his side. For himself. For those that hadn't yet been caught.

  He opened his eyes and stared at the rubber piping so close to him. His arms were encased in plastic to stop him from moving around. His legs were similarly suspended. He could bend slightly forward, but that was it.

  Why couldn't he be unconscious like everyone else? Through the wave of pain, he vaguely recognized one of the orderlies standing in front of him, a look of concern on his face. The orderly motioned to someone to come
over.

  Why?

  ***

  Cody stepped inside the mausoleum of a house and listened quietly. His gaze darted from side to side. The time to meet Ian and his father had come and gone. There was no sign of them. The door creaked behind him as Jewel joined him.

  "Where are they?" she hissed against his ear.

  "I don't know." Leaving the door wide open, Cody crept further into the house. Was anyone living here? And if they were, where were they? He was trespassing. For all he knew the owners were waiting to smash him over the head.

  "How do we find them?" she whispered.

  "I have no idea." They hadn't set up a plan B.

  Crap. Cody looked around the cavernous room. Sheets covered the furniture…and nothing indicated that vampires lived here. Of course vampires often didn't inhabit the main areas of the house, as they tended to have too many windows that let in natural light.

  "I don't want to call out – who knows what we'll wake up." Jewel wandered over to the large fireplace mantle, picking up photos before putting them down again. "Do we just wait here?"

  "It's either that or go looking for them."

  Jewel cast a long look around the deserted space and shook her head. "Don't like that idea much."

  "So how long do we wait? And if they still don't show up, then what?"

  Jewel’s lips pursed as she considered it. "Let's give them another fifteen minutes, and then we'll go and look."

  "Sounds fair."

  Slam.

  Cody and Jewel swiveled in shock. The door had closed. Jewel rushed over and tugged on the handle. She spun around in a panic. "It's locked."

  Cody refused to believe her. He tugged on the doorknob himself. "Damn it."

  They were locked inside.

  ***

  "Tessa, wait!" Her father raced behind her as she tried to outrun the floor as it closed. "You can't stop it. You'll end up getting hurt."

  Clank!

  The floor settled into place.

  Tessa's throat started to close.