by W. J. May
"Now, quietly." Cody pushed open the door and stepped into the fetid-smelling room.
"Oh, that's gross," she hissed, following him out. She'd thought the air in the tunnel had been bad – this was ten times worse.
"Look." Cody pointed down at the floor where a grey-haired male lay crumpled and still.
"Do you recognize him?" she asked, walking closer to the body. She'd never seen a dead person before. She didn't think she'd ever want to see one again, either.
"No."
Gritting her teeth, Tessa bent down over the dead man to look for identification. He had a wallet in his back pocket. Gross. But necessary.
"What are you doing?" Cody hissed.
"Finding out who he is. Remember, humans carry identification with them all the time."
"Yeah, I'd heard that." He shook his head. "I just don't understand why."
"They have to have it for their monetary and legal system. That's part of their system we haven't taken over – unlike their credit cards that we probably couldn't live without."
The wallet was thick and the pocket narrow. She struggled to pull it out without touching the body. With a final tug, it yanked free. Standing up, she walked toward Cody, flicking through it. "His name is Carstairs Wallace."
"Now that you know, what difference does it make?"
"Now, I can let the police know he's dead."
Cody shook his head. "Don't be naive. You can't go to the police. They're going to think you killed him."
True. She glanced down at the dead man. "Maybe, but we have to do something for him."
"It's too late for that."
Cody hushed her to silence, his head cocked toward the exit.
"Let's go. I hear vehicles."
"Shit." Tessa raced out the same doorway that the men had disappeared through. Cody flew ahead of her, disappearing into an exterior doorway. Tessa burst out in the moonless night seconds later.
The front yard was empty.
The Escalade and the Nitro were gone.
So was Cody. She heard the distant beat of wings as Cody took chase. She studied the night sky, watching as he swooped overhead, intent on the hunt.
Could she catch up?
She wouldn't know unless she tried. And she hated being left behind. Tucking Carstairs's wallet into her back pocket, she pulled together as much of her vampire genetics as she could and took off.
Her loping gait and crab jump smoothed out slightly as she slipped back into the movement.
She wished she'd learned how this skill worked a long time ago. Like a lot of things in her vampire life. She took another jump and winced at her heavy landing. If anyone were awake under these rooftops they were going to wonder what was going on.
She took off again, then again. It did get easier. Flying would be even easier.
Not to mention faster.
Already Cody had vanished from sight. She raced from rooftop to rooftop then hopped to the ground and cut across the back field. She'd seen the vehicle turn off up here. Speeding along on the ground was like running through molasses compared to her weird jumping strategy.
She glanced around. There wasn't much to jump up to or off from here. She ran and took a ballet leap and found that she could easily cover twenty feet. She did it again. Weird.
Maybe, there was something out there for her after all. She'd always felt like the defective ugly duckling of the family, so it had never occurred to her that she could be a hybrid with two sets of skills, human and vampire.
She raced forward, more confident in her leaps and she came down more securely in her landings. This was actually cool. Now, if only she could do this with a touch of class.
She took another leap and then another. Before long, she'd reached the point where the vehicle had turned. Staring up in the sky, she searched for Cody. There was no sign of him. He should have gotten to his destination within minutes. She needed to get higher so she could see where to go next. There was only one tree. She winced at the poor landing spot. Taking a deep breath, she jumped.
And hit Cody broadside.
He nearly fell, and scrambled to grab onto the branches. His wings automatically opened, catching in the branches. Luckily he caught hold and stabilized himself.
"Jesus, watch what you're doing, Tessa."
Tessa was too worried about finding a firm grasping place on the tree branches to worry about him. Once she caught her balance and her breath, she gasped, "Sorry. Didn't mean to hit you."
"If you'd opened your damn eyes, you'd have seen me."
Thank goodness for the dark of night because revealing heat washed over her face. Tessa groaned silently because of course, he was right. For some reason she'd switched back to her human vision, which explained why she hadn't seen him in the sky. She was an idiot. Still, she'd found him and she'd made it to the right spot – accidentally or not.
"What did you find out?"
"That you're not a little kid anymore. You pack a hell of a punch and almost knocked me out of the tree."
Exasperated, she scolded him. "Quit your whining. Geesh, you're acting like a big baby."
He snorted and hunkered back down on his heels. She envied his natural grace. His sense of humor was pretty good, too. Not to mention he was in really good shape. She was still huffing, and damn if she didn't have a stitch in her side.
"They drove into that yard."
"Did they move the humans inside?" She felt his sideways look and sighed. "Humans. That's the correct term. Just because I count several of them as friends, doesn't mean I don't understand the problem between the races."
"Oh. I figured you just didn't like vampires."
"I am vampire, remember?"
"How could I forget, especially with you in that outfit? Even if these last couple of years it seemed like you'd turned your back on us."
Horrified, she could only stare at him in shock. "I have not."
"You have, you know. Everything you did was with humans. Your vampire friends were shoved off to the side."
"No, they weren't," she answered quietly. "They shoved me off to the side – because I'm not like them. That's when I cultivated my human friends. Figured if I couldn't get along with one species, maybe I could with the other."
Silence drifted through the night air, broken only by the occasional whisper of tree branches bending in the wind. His heavy sigh hung for a moment between them. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. Did you explain that to your parents?"
She raised one eyebrow. "No. Why would I? They couldn't do anything about it, and besides, I figured it was common knowledge."
"Your family cares about you, Tessa."
"I know." A comfortable silence narrowed the gap between them. "Thanks for that."
"Anytime."
Tessa studied the building. "We have to get in there. If they move Jared again, we may never find him."
Cody considered her words for a moment. "Just the two of us? That is a seriously bad idea."
"I know." Tessa pondered their next move. "Thanks for sticking around to help me."
"I'm sorry I didn't believe you before," he admitted slowly. The energy around them shifted, warmed with his quick grin. "So are you going to sit up here and wait, or are you coming with me?"
Tessa snorted and jumped, only to find Cody already at ground level. "I hate that you can do that."
"What, fly?"
"No, make me look like an idiot."
He laughed. "Let's go."
They raced around to the back of the house and stopped outside the circle of bright lights.
"What's wrong with this picture?" Tess stood with her hands on her hips, studying the area.
"It looks like they're expecting company."
"That's not good. Anyone connected to this kidnapping is bad news."
Cody's face thinned with distaste. "True. Let's go. As much as it would help to know who's coming, I don't think it's safe to stick around."
A growl erupted behind them. "Too bad, as you're
both going to be our guests for a while."
Tessa spun around ready to bolt.
Pain exploded in the back of her head, and for the second time that night she collapsed to the cold ground, unconscious. The last sound she heard was the beating of heavy wings.
CHAPTER FIVE
Cody knew the power of his wings, even if he had yet to test them in battle. And that was little hard to do since there hadn't been a battle during his lifetime. Energy rushed through him.
From the corner of his eye he could see Tessa crumpled on the floor, blood seeping from her temple. Anger slammed into him.
Rage drove him forward in a mad rush. Both vampires fought back. Suddenly Cody found himself fighting for his life – and Tessa's. Rearing back to recoup, he rushed them again, raining blows on the two men from above, trying to chase them from Tessa. Teeth bared as long claws slashed. He fought with brutal precision, knowing that to lose was to lose Tessa. He could not lose Tessa.
"Hell. What is he?"
"He's a fucking vampire, you idiot." The older of the two rushed him, slashing Cody deeply across the chest. Then he was gone too.
"So what? I am, too, but I don't fucking fly. Why can he?" The two men circled Cody, trying to stay out of reach of wings and claws. "What the hell do we do with him?"
"We take him down."
The younger vampire gazed at Cody in astonishment. "And how do you expect to do that? He's like us. Killing him isn't going to be easy until there's sunlight. He's not likely to run away and hide."
Cody grinned. A deep fanged smirk that made the other men back up. "Even then, I won't be going and hiding anywhere." He swooped down and caught the younger one up in a choke hold. "I'm not like you. I'm better." Squeezing tightly, he backed up, struggling with the man's weight. What the hell had this one been eating? Vampires were rarely fat; they couldn't consume enough to get that way. This one, though, had some serious poundage on him already. Cody tucked that tidbit away in the back of his mind as he squeezed tighter and moved back another couple steps.
And stumbled on uneven ground.
Cody's arm lock barely loosened, yet it was enough that the vampire broke free and bent forward, gasping for air. "Shit, get him, Benj."
"Shut up, you fool."
The young pudgy vampire coughed a couple times before turning back to face Cody. "He's just a fucking kid. We can take him."
"Like you just did?"
Cody came to a graceful landing, one foot on either side of Tessa. "This isn't a game. You attacked this girl."
"Huh. This is my house, and you are trespassing." The older vampire grinned maliciously. "Go ahead and try to explain that one."
Cody tucked back one wing and knelt slowly, one eye on the men. He checked Tessa's pulse. "I won't have to. Do you really think no one saw you snatch the humans?"
Relief bounced through him at Tessa’s strong, steady pulse. Though she was a genetic anomaly, nobody wanted to test out the theory that she'd live forever. Who could say for sure? What if they were wrong?
He also didn't want these assholes to know who she was. She'd be worth a lot in ransom. Then again, they wouldn't live to enjoy it. There were problems between Tessa and her dad, but no one doubted that he adored her. Old vampires like him also didn't take lightly to young upstarts like these two assholes.
Cody's eyes narrowed. He wasn't exactly sure who or what these guys were, but he had his suspicions. They were ignorant in ways that didn't make sense, like not knowing about flying vampires.
From the kidnapping of humans – a crime considered by some as abuse against animals – to attacking one of the elder's daughters. Yeah, that meant a jump right to a death sentence. She'd been hurt once tonight already. He cast a worried glance down at her crumpled form. Was that wound bleeding faster?
"So what are we going to do about this situation? There are two of us and one of you. We can take you out. You can't kill both of us." The older vampire grinned at Cody, his yellowed teeth evidence of a long unhealthy life.
"You're not going to walk away from this unharmed. You've crossed the line attacking her."
"Why? What's she to you? Just another dumb human." The two men looked at each other and grinned before turning back to face him. "You're into humans." They chortled aloud. "Christ, why don't you just do your dog or something else that's much less trouble?"
Icy rage filled his veins. They were going to die. That's all there was to it. That they could look at Tessa and see just an animal was beyond acceptable. It also gave him a small insight into what Tessa went through on a regular basis. Did she have to deal with this kind of talk from her own people? Is that why she'd turned her back on them?
Female vampires weren't known for being homebody 'Martha Stewart' types. They were cold, bitchy toward their own sex and could strip a male bare with their cutting words – if one crossed them.
Tessa's mother fell into a category all her own, having borne three children. Most vampires had none – or if they had any, they stopped at one. That added to the conjecture about Tessa. He'd heard others speak about her as if she were retarded. Not like them. Tessa was better than they were any day. She cared. About her friends, her family, even the human race. She hated the mess the world was in, and she never backed down from a fight.
He straightened his shoulders and slowly drew out his wings. He was from a damn long-lived line of vampires and he could take these assholes. It would take a lot to kill him.
The two men eyed him warily. They backed up at the new look in his eyes. "Now look here. We can't just let you disappear. Who knows what kind of trouble you're likely to pull down on us." They shook their heads. "It ain't happening."
Cody extended his wings, letting his fangs slide down fully. Their eyes widened. They might be vampires. He couldn't be sure. They definitely weren't like him. His lineage went back to the beginning, to one of the ancient ones, the oldest and strongest of the vampire clans. He had inherited skills – some the others could only dream of. That he was young, undeveloped and untested wasn't an issue. They'd pay for what they'd done this night. For what they intended to do…
"Shit. I didn't sign up for this." The chubbier of the two backed up, looked at his partner, who was still trying to hold his ground. Then he glanced behind him at the vehicle beside him. "I ain't going to get into a fight I can't win." He bolted for the driver's door of the black SUV.
"Coward," Cody growled. He never took his eyes of the remaining asshole.
"Whatever. Keep your pet, then. But watch your back. You've walked into something bigger than you can imagine. These vampires aren't going to let you get away with interfering in our business. This isn't the end of it." Calmly, he turned and walked over to the other vehicle where he climbed into the driver's side.
Cody waited a few minutes until the two vehicles drove down the driveway, then he knelt at Tessa's side. He had to get her out of here before anyone else arrived.
"Tessa? Come on, wake up." He studied the gray cast to her skin and frowned. Vampires had pure white skin. Tessa's changed daily from pinkish to peach to soft white. He kinda liked that about her. Not this color though. "Please. I really don't want to have to explain this to your dad. He's going to kill me for not protecting you. Tessa, please. Wake up."
Tessa moaned softly. Her head rolled as if she were trying to control an unwieldy ball from the inside.
"Cody," she whispered.
Relief poured through him. 'Thank God. Hang on, kiddo. I'm taking you home."
"Home?"
"Home," he whispered against her hair as he slid his arms underneath her slight frame, scooping her up into his arms. "Hang tight. We'll be there in a couple of minutes."
"Hurts," she moaned.
Shit. He probably shouldn't have moved her. What choice did he have though? He couldn't exactly leave her alone and injured. Instinct screamed to get her the hell away.
He carried her out into the night.
"Cody?"
"Yes, I'm here."<
br />
"Thank you."
The moonlight half slipped out from behind the clouds to shine down on her ashen face. She looked more vampire now than she ever had. "You're very welcome." He smiled. Then he bent and dropped a kiss on her lips.
He felt her surprise. He'd surprised himself. A kiss on her cheek, her temple, even her hair – all would be normal and quite acceptable coming from her brother's best friend. A soft loving kiss on those plump lips – not quite the same.
And if he couldn't explain it to himself, he certainly wouldn't be able to explain it to her father or her brother. He snuck a glance at her out of the corner of his eye. Concerned relief coursed through him when he realized she'd fallen unconscious again.
With any luck, she wouldn't remember the kiss anyway.
***
Tessa opened her eyes briefly. And she shut them again as wind rushed past her cheeks. Lying warm with a steady beat under her ear, she realized she was being carried. She frowned. Comfort and safety enveloped her.
The one who held her did so carefully, almost lovingly. Peeking beneath her lashes, she studied the all black clothing in front of her face. Great. All vampires wore black. She cast her mind back, trying to remember what could have brought her to this spot. Her head throbbed on the left side. Was she hurt? That couldn't be good. If her injury didn't do it, her mother would kill her…Then it came to her. Jared. She struggled upright, only to have bands of steel tighten around her.
"Don't move. It's hard enough to carry you while I'm flying, but landing with you struggling…not good."
Cody. Her eyes widened. He was the one holding her so carefully? Like a delicate package that could break with the slightest mishandling. No, not possible. She couldn't help tucking this memory away for closer examination later.
Cody had always been the too-familiar extra brother and the not-quite-familiar-enough dashing ancient, the most respected lines of vampires. An allure of mystery surrounded his entire family. Even though their fathers were best friends, Tessa had always felt slightly awed around Goran, Cody's father. There was an older son too, only he was almost a century older.
Tessa had met him only once and he seemed as unapproachable as his father. Cody, on the other hand, had always treated her like an annoying younger sister. Even going so far as calling her various nicknames, like Tizzy, on occasion.
