by Dale Mayer
With one last glance to the left, she turned right and strode quickly to the staircase.
*
Cody hadn’t seen that look in Tessa’s eyes before. Then again, this was a new improved super version and he wasn’t sure what she was capable of. He’d seen so much that each step pushed her abilities a little further, but this…
He needed to know that she wasn’t going so far and do something she couldn’t come back from.
Having someone attack and injure her father was bad enough; to know she’d been the target had him wanting to rip apart Bart’s throat.
But Tessa had been the one to say that killing in war was one thing. To kill cold-bloodedly was something the ancients could do without a qualm, but Cody wasn’t so sure that Tessa could.
Or should.
That might take her someplace dark – and would she return to the light afterward?
“Tessa?” he said quietly. “Think about what you’re doing.”
She smiled, but there was nothing reassuring about that smile.
“I’m thinking about what I’m going to do,” she answered calmly. Too calmly.
“Your father is going to be okay, remember that.” Cody couldn’t help trying to talk her down. He knew Bart was living his last moments, but he didn’t want Tessa to be living her last moments, too.
“Let her come,” snapped Bart. “There’s nothing good left in my life. Why would I want to live like this for hundreds of years more?”
“Because your daughter isn’t dead,” snarled Cody, trying to stay focused on Tessa. “And how is she going to feel when she wakes up to find out what you did?”
“What?” Bart exclaimed, then scoffed. “Wake up? Right. Do you think I’m stupid?” He hitched his pants up over his belly. “There’s nothing to be done for her. They’ve tried for decades.”
“Except no one had Tessa. And no, she might not be able to help, but you can bet she no longer wants to try.”
Bart stared uncertainly at Tessa and then Cody. “She’s just a kid.”
“And has some very serious skills that no one else has ever seen. She’s been saving everyone around you for days, just like she saved Serus from a silver bolt right before your eyes. Now that you actually have someone who might be able to give your daughter a fighting chance, you tried to kill her father.” Cody was roaring by the time he finished.
Tessa was silent at his side, but the waves of anger washed off her back, replaced by something else.
Anticipation?
He studied her closely. “Tessa?”
“I’m fine,” she said calmly. “But Bart won’t be.”
“Maybe take a look at his daughter while there is still time.” He looked for a softening of her countenance. When there was none, he added, “There might not be anything you can do but…maybe there is. You should find out first.”
“Why?” Her tone was so reasonable and cold, he was at a loss for words.
“In case you can help her.”
“Matters not to Bart’s future.”
Then he got cagey. “Maybe it will. You want him to suffer? Well, what if you save her but kill him, knowing that he’d lost his future with her?”
She shrugged, her hooded, unblinking gaze locked on Bart. A nervous, suddenly worried Bart.
“Can you really help her?” he asked in a low voice.
Cody shrugged. “She won’t know until she tries, and as you can see, she’s not leaning toward trying anything.”
It was painful to watch Bart look for a reverse gear. Now that the possibility had arisen, that his daughter might actually have a chance, he didn’t know how to make it happen.
“Then do it for her sake and not mine,” he said in a deep voice, having dropped all the hatred from his tone. “It was Deanna that did this.”
Silence.
Bart slowly disintegrated. Cody hated to watch it. He understood Tessa’s stance and knew he’d be the same way if it had been his father. The fact that she hadn’t taken Bart out already gave him hope that she could be reached.
The big man, now visibly shaken from being on the verge of being destroyed from the inside out, finally burst out with, “Please. I don’t care what you do to me, but help her.”
Suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown, Tessa walked over to the bed where the young woman lay in a stasis state. She had an IV connected with blood running into one arm, keeping her sustained. From a blood farm most likely. Cody still hated to see it. To see one of his own people like this – it hurt. To know that Deanna had caused this – that was even worse.
He still didn’t trust that bitch but as she wasn’t here to face her actions, he could only hope one of her victims could help the other.
Tessa didn’t do anything for a long moment. Bart shifted uneasily at her side.
“Deanna put her hands on either side of her face and said, ‘You are the One. You are the vessel I need right now.’ And she started doing something to my Lacy. Lacy cried out and told her to stop. She was in such pain and crying out that it hurt too much and to stop. Only Deanna wouldn’t. She said it’s the way it had to be. She’d left it too long. There was stuff that needed to be done. Rulers needed to rule.”
Bart frowned when he finished quoting Deanna, and the anger had returned to his voice. “What ruler? Deanna was no ruler then, and my Lacy is no ruler now. What does any of this have to do with ruling?”
Tessa sighed. In front of them, she reached out and placed a hand on Lacy’s abdomen and lowered her head.
Cody stepped up, wondering what she was doing. Bart crouched beside her.
After a long moment, Bart asked, “Can you help her?”
Tessa slowly shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is exactly how Deanna expected her to be.”
Cody started.
“What?”
Bart stepped closer to Lacy’s head. “What do you mean?” he cried. “It was an accident, she said.”
Tessa shook her head. “No, this was no accident. This was a setup right from the start.”
“A setup?” Cody felt stupid, but he didn’t get it. “What are you talking about, Tessa?”
She shook her head and reached out a second hand, which she placed on Lacy’s forehead.
There was a weird static in the air. Enough that the tiny strands of hair around Tessa’s face actually lifted up.
“What’s happening?” Bart cried out behind her as he leaned closer.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” Tessa said. She tilted her head back, her face to the ceiling, and closed her eyes.
Cody could see something happening, but he was lost as to an explanation.
Lacy suddenly arched her back as if a string was pulling her up from her belly.
“Lacy!” Bart reached out to touch her when the invisible cord attached to her snapped and she dropped back to the bed.
She gave a great gulping sound that rattled all the way up her chest then her chest sank down, down, and down.
It never rose again.
“No.” Bart dropped to the floor, sobbing. “Lacy.”
Still shocked at seeing Tessa fail at something – if she’d failed – Cody didn’t know what to say.
Bart looked up, anger and hate back in his eyes.
“You killed her,” he cried. A meaty fist reached out to hit her and came up against something she held in her hand.
The silver bolt she’d pulled from her father’s body.
Bart blew to ash right in front of him.
“What the hell, Tessa?” snapped Cody, stepping back and waving his arms from the explosion in front of him. “What happened?”
Tessa looked up, her gaze going from Bart’s floating remains then back to Cody.
“See, that’s your first misunderstanding.”
“What?” Lord, he felt like something major had just happened, but he didn’t know what. And damn it, he wanted to. He needed to understand.
What the hell was going on
here?
“I’m not Tessa.”
Chapter 1
Cody stared at Tessa/Deanna in horror.
She sniggered. “Yes, it’s me, Cody. Surprise!”
No, not a surprise. Getting an unexpected visitor at your front door was a surprise. Finding an ex-lover unexpectedly in the mall was a surprise. Having a test come back with a perfect score – those were all surprises. This…this was a nightmare of gigantic proportions.
“I guess you figured your little girl could handle anything, right?” Deanna’s voice, half-modified into Tessa’s voice, rolled over Cody in a wave of sickly sweetness.
He couldn’t answer. There was no answer to this. He wanted to leave. Hell, he wanted to puke.
“Well, she can’t. She might be strong, powerful in her own way, but she is not me. And she never will be as strong or as cunning as I am.” And Deanna laughed, that same horrific sound he remembered from before.
Dear God. Where the hell was Tessa? She couldn’t be gone. No, it wasn’t possible. She was too…too what? Innocent? Trusting? Naive? Yes, she’d been all of those things, and look where that got her.
He wasn’t any of those things. And he’d be damned if he let Deanna live while Tessa died.
While Deanna’s laughter mocked him, he reached for the spike he carried in his back pocket.
If it wasn’t his Tessa, it wasn’t going to be anyone.
“Oh, I don’t think so, lover boy.” Deanna lifted her hand and flicked her fingers.
Cody was lifted off his feet and flung back against the wall and held there for a second before being released to do a long slow slide to the floor.
“In case you get any ideas, I suggest you remember that Tessa is still in here. So if you kill me – you kill her.”
Stunned by what had happened, overwhelmed by the ease of how she did it, he could only stare as the door burst open and men raced in, Motre leading the pack.
“Tessa, we need you. Now. Your father…something’s wrong.”
Shit. “Everyone out,” he roared. Motre stood his ground. The others backed away. Cody bolted to his feet and raced in front of Deanna. “Stop. This isn’t Tessa. It’s Deanna.”
The men milled around uncertainly. Motre stepped forward. “What? How can you be sure? We need Tessa. Her father needs her.”
“I hear you, but it’s not that easy.” Cody spun to glare at Deanna. “Give us Tessa back.”
She snorted. “Like he—”
Only to freeze, her eyes going wild, her face twisting into a mad contortion. She tried to move and couldn’t. She tried to move her mouth to say something, but her lips shifted, stopped, wrinkled, and froze.
Cody’s heart flared to life in panic – then in hope.
“Tessa!” he cried. “Yes, fight it. Fight her. Come back to me.”
And not knowing how or why, but understanding she needed something from him, he stepped forward and placed his hand on her forehead and called out to her, “Grab onto me. Use me. Take my hand and come back.”
A weird rent ripped through the air and as if unseen balls were bouncing through the small space into the confines of the room, the air shifted, bounced, turned dark – as if a war was being fought on the inside.
A war he couldn’t see.
But a war he could feel.
Motre whispered at his side. “What the hell…”
“Yeah, my life with Tessa. It gets weirder by the moment.” But he was grinning because he knew Tessa was fighting back. “Come on, Tessa, beat that bitch,” he urged. “Come back to me.”
*
That bitch!
Tessa struggled to move but couldn’t… She struggled to force the walls of her sudden prison back and couldn’t… She tried to talk to her jailer…and couldn’t.
Shocked, she slumped in place, her mind reeling over what just happened.
Deanna happened.
Yeah, she understood that. But why? How? And what the hell was Tessa going to do about it?
A tiny fearful part of her mind snaked through her consciousness asking, What can you do about it? She’d been imprisoned by an older, more powerful vampire who’d played a game where she was the only one who knew the rules.
No, Tessa corrected. She’s older, yes. Stronger? Hell no. And neither was she the only one who knew the rules. Sure, she’d created this game, perfected it even. Made the rules up to suit her, but she wasn’t the only one in the know.
Hortran, I need you.
Silence.
Tessa shook her head. No. He wasn’t going to do this to her.
Hortran. Where are you? You promised you’d be here. And I need your help right now.
“I wouldn’t worry about Hortran, child,” Deanna said in a mocking voice. “He is not going to help you.”
Tessa stumbled over hearing Deanna’s voice. She’d heard Tessa calling for Hortran? How did that work? Hortran had said he was there for Tessa. In what way was he actually here? And for who? Tessa or Deanna? Surely, as a ghost, his alliance shouldn’t be just for the person who was doing wrong. That Deanna had been plotting to take over someone younger and prettier in order to live for another thousand years was something Tessa couldn’t quite comprehend yet. She understood wanting to live forever, but what about Lacy then? Why had she needed her? Or had that been part of the smoke hiding Deanna’s true purpose? Or did she need the younger Lacy’s energy for this transfer?
Lacy had been consumed by Deanna’s actions. Had Deanna no compassion, no heart?
Or was she all about revenge? Was this to get revenge on her husband’s killer and everyone else connected to it?
In which case Seth, Tessa’s brother, was in danger. Still, no one knew where he was. If Deanna did…Tessa needed to know what she knew before Tessa shut her up. How, she didn’t know, but she wasn’t going to live like this. Although if this was going to come down to a last man standing type of fight, killing Deanna might very well kill Tessa herself.
Or by killing Deanna, Tessa could end up in control of everything. And if she lost…well. No, it had to end in a good way. Tessa couldn’t live like this. And neither would Cody.
Cody would kill Deanna if Tessa didn’t return.
So not going to happen.
Tessa ignored Deanna’s warning. But how to stop her?
You might as well give it up. I’m in control.
And Deanna laughed.
In fact, I always have been.
Like a chess game, Deanna had been moving the pieces of Tessa’s life in order to win the prize, Tessa’s body.
Tessa sat silent as her mind worked furiously on the problem. Except she was still thinking about all the moves that had put her in this position. Looking for a pattern. A weakness.
Her mind reflected on everything that had happened since meeting Deanna. She’d always believed in Deanna’s good side. Cody hadn’t believed the woman had one. It had been Tessa who’d so staunchly defended the older vamp.
Where did that leave Tessa now, a prisoner? Until when? Till Deanna extracted her revenge? Forever? What was Deanna’s end game? Was it something dynamic or static? Was she out for blood or for the fountain of youth?
And now that she sat in the power position, how likely was she to step down?
Instinctively, Tessa figured that anything Deanna gained, she’d fight to keep. So the first step was to knock this bitch off the perch she sat on and lock her back into place.
Tessa had no idea how to get rid of her permanently at this point. She could hardly kill her. Tessa would have to kill herself for that to be permanent—right? Except Tessa had existed fine without Deanna. And returning to that state sounded perfect right now.
Dying wasn’t in the cards.
Tessa hadn’t worked so hard to live that she was ready to be blindsided by this bitch. No, Deanna might have looked long and hard to find a victim she thought would be perfect for her to take over, but she hadn’t seen who Tessa really was inside. Because she was not the same as anyone else, and she’d
be damned if she’d become Deanna’s little pet.
This was her body, her mind, her soul, or whatever the hell people called this consciousness. And she was not going to lose all she’d gained.
She tilted her head back, feeling a rage she’d never experienced before roll through her.
It started at her toes and rolled up in a continuous wave of dark emotion. Her parents had often warned her to not lose her temper, and she’d laughed at them. She didn’t have one. Everyone knew that. She was the mildest-mannered person in the family.
Until now. She could feel the power inside her. She could feel the emotions as it rolled upward in a tsunami of red. Red like she’d never seen before.
It was the anger of righteousness. The anger of injustice. The anger of knowing she’d been shafted even though she’d done everything right.
A rage that once started, unleashed a powerful backlog of emotion from her lifetime…and knowing she could, she tapped the same indignation and injustice in Deanna’s life. As soon as she unlocked that pain, that fear, that hatred of being treated badly, the tsunami increased tenfold to the point she didn’t know where she was or who she was anymore. Images and sounds raged through her as she built up the force. A force she was struggling to contain…and she needed to. She needed to control this. She needed to wield this fury…this energy…that she had such an affinity for and wield it like the pro to take out her opponent and regain what was rightfully hers.
The herculean wash of energy built and built and built as the thousand years of Deanna’s memories poured into Tessa’s psyche. There was no way to resist the pull of this power, more power than she’d ever imagined. There was no way to stop what she’d started.
All she could do was ride the bullish rage and direct it at the one target in her mind.
Deanna.
But where was Deanna?
Inside Tessa. Inside Tessa’s own psyche. But outside of whatever barrier Deanna had erected to keep her inside. Only the barrier no longer existed, the building energy having dissolved that minuscule defense system without even noticing the blip on the screen. Like the tsunami it was, it picked up all things in its path as it moved ever forward.
Relentless.
