by Dale Mayer
So sad.
“Was she not strong enough?”
“The doctors never had an answer.”
“So she’s been like this since then?” Cody asked incredulously. “That’s a horrible way to live.”
Bart took a step toward him, his fists clenched and his hard voice snapping, “It’s the only life she’s got to live.”
Her father’s voice at her side asked, “Tessa, can you help?”
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. And she didn’t. This wasn’t anything she’d seen before. There was energy, but it wasn’t black. It wasn’t old and gray and used up. It was just so very thin. And almost pure white.
She had no idea what she was seeing.
But she wanted to. She took a step forward. Bart growled at her side. She stopped and shot him a look. “I’ve helped a lot of vampires these last few weeks. I don’t know if I can help your daughter or not.” She deliberately took another step toward the comatose woman. “But I’m going to take a look and see.”
“Like hell you are.” Bart lowered his head and lumbered toward her.
“What if she can save her?” Cody asked quietly. “She’s already not here in so much of the sense that we understand life to be,” Cody continued, emotion threading his own voice as he worked to convince Bart to not try and stop Tessa. “If she can help, what have you got to lose?”
“No one can help. That bitch Deanna did her job well.” Bart glared at Tessa. “I might not have been able to take Deanna out while she was alive, but I’ll be damned if I let her live on through you.”
Without warning, he launched toward her, silver spikes in one hand and some kind of weird gun in the other. There was an odd flash, a pop, and a bolt shot forward so fast no one seemed to recognize what was happening.
“No.” Serus knocked Tessa over at the last moment. She fell slightly. Just enough out of the way.
The bolt zapped into her father’s side, knocking him to the floor.
He roared.
Cody raced to tackle Bart.
Tessa screamed and raced to her father’s aid. The wound ripped into his side.
She shoved her hand into her father’s open wound, pouring as much healing energy as she could and with a weird chant, almost a hum in her head and uncaring of those around, pulled the bolt from his body. There was a mix of color in the wound. His, hers, more than she expected, and a tinge of Bart’s, and then the damaging energy of the silver bullet.
But her father hadn’t gone up in ash – he should have – but he was still here.
Except…was that a hint of smoke?
“No.” She plunged as much bright blue energy as she could manage and shoved it deep into the hole, surrounding the open edges, stopping the burning from getting to the point of blowing up. The bolt had taken a piece of leather from his jacket in with it, protecting his skin. The rest? She could only imagine that some of her energy had been sitting in the space as he jumped into her place. The bolt would have taken a little more inside as well.
She poured more and more energy into him, wrapping the silver in a tightly confined ball before slowly raising it.
Once out, she lowered it to the floor beside him, watching as the blood gushed clean from her father.
She smiled. He’d make it now.
“If you’re smiling, I’d like to think that means I’m going to live,” he growled on a short gasp of pain. “That obviously wasn’t silver.”
“Oh, it was,” she said with a big grin, “but it also took a chunk of your leather jacket in with it. That and my energy appear to have stopped the silver from letting you explode.”
He leaned back and closed his eyes, but she knew. Relief was coursing through him that they’d get to live another day.
She was feeling pretty much the same. Still, he’d need time to heal, and this wasn’t the place for it.
“He has to go back to the Council Hall,” she ordered.
“Like hell,” he snapped. “Give me a minute and I’ll be fine.”
“Like hell,” she snapped right back. Rather than argue with him, she waved her hand and knocked him out.
Looking over at Motre, she nodded down at her father. “Take him and the others out of here. It should be safe now.”
He shook his head. “What about Bart?” he protested. “I’m not leaving you with him here.”
She gave him a smile that had him backing up.
“Don’t worry about Bart,” she said in a low, hard voice. “I’ll take care of him.”
*
Wendy and Jared raced down the hallway toward Ian. With Ian’s instructions, they’d gone deeper into the Council Hall.
There he was. Wendy laughed and waved as she ran the last few feet to his side. He stood outside the doorway, a big grin on his face.
“This is great,” Wendy cried. “I’ve never been down here.”
“Hey, it’s better than sitting there and listening to those crazies talk themselves in circles,” Jared grumbled.
Wendy smirked. “Jared is struggling with the Council.”
“Who isn’t?” Ian snorted. “They are all idiots.” He motioned to the room. “Come look at what I found.”
The three entered the room. Jared made it a few steps inside then stopped and stared at the wall of monitors. From where he stood, he recognized the meeting going on in one of the screens. In another, Sian slept. So not good. Did these people know they were being watched? “Wow, what do they need with all of these?”
There was an odd sound behind him. He twisted around to look at Wendy and Ian.
And damn if the door didn’t snick closed and lock behind all three of them.
Ian spun and took a blow up the side of the head.
Wendy, hissing, lashed out and kicked the man who’d taken out Ian, but another vamp grabbed her from behind, a huge vamp, making the fight short and sweet and before anyone had realized it, she was down and out cold. The fight was over before it ever started.
Jared stared at the two huge vamp males facing him. If Wendy and Ian, both vamps, hadn’t been able to do anything against these guys, what could he do? He held his hands out in front of him. “Hey, this isn’t my fight. I don’t know what you guys want, but I don’t have it.”
“It’s all right, Jared. We’ve got exactly what we want.”
A third man gave a cold raucous laugh. “Yeah. We want you.”
*
Where the hell had he lost that damn Bart? Seriously? He and David had been going around in circles, but the evidence was clear – Bart had booked it again. He stopped and glared down the hallway. “What the hell, David? Where did the bugger go?”
“I don’t know,” David answered, gasping for breath. “He has to know passageways we missed.”
Goran growled. “Where are we?”
David snorted. “Somewhere in the damn hospital.” He pointed to where the wall changed up ahead. “I bet that’s the stairs and elevator.”
They walked toward the area and sure enough, it was the exit. As they walked closer, the elevator doors opened and a large group of vamps exited and turned toward them.
Motre. Relaxing slightly, Goran grinned, happy to see his friend. Until he recognized the burden he carried.
“Serus!” he roared and raced toward him, reaching his side in seconds.
“What happened?” he demanded harshly, his worried gaze going from Motre to Serus and back. That Serus was slowly waking up was reassuring, but that he’d fallen in the first place was too shocking to contemplate.
I’m fine, Goran.
Like hell, he snapped. Who did this to you? Are they still alive?
For the moment, but I don’t give them long. Serus groaned slightly, his body twisting with pain. He gasped out, Tessa saved me, Goran.
How? Goran glared at Motre. He switched to speaking out loud. “Who did this?”
“Bart. He shot him with a silver bolt of some kind.” Motre stopped walking to talk to him. “Tessa snatched the bolt out and
did something to stop the silver from affecting his system.” He shook his head. “I never would have thought such a thing was possible. One minute Serus here was smoking, then next he wasn’t.”
“Tessa did that?” Goran exclaimed. “Really?”
Serus and Motre and the men surrounding him all nodded. Goran shook his head in disbelief.
“And Bart? Where is he now?” He quickly searched the group, but neither Tessa nor his son was there. “Tessa and Cody are up there still?”
Motre answered him. He shifted Serus in his arms, reminding Goran that he’d been adding to the man’s work. Goran stopped forward and collected Serus. “I’ll take him.”
“Good. I don’t want to leave Tessa and Cody alone.”
Goran was already marching down the hallway as the vamps behind him slowed. He turned and pinned Motre in place. “Why not?”
Motre, already walking back toward the elevator, said, “Because there was something odd about that scenario.” He shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’m not sure anyone is safe anymore.”
Serus struggled to gain his footing. “Let me down, Goran.”
“Whoa, you’re not going anywhere.” Goran glared at him and looped him back up into his arms. “Silver is nothing to fool around with.”
“It’s Tessa. If she’s in danger…”
“Ha, there is nothing that girl can’t handle.”
Serus stopped struggling. He stared at Goran. Then with the color bleaching from his skin, his muscles turned lax and he sagged back. I hate to say it, old friend, but I’m not feeling very good.
“Hold on. I’m getting you some help.”
He glared down at Serus, who glared back until his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed.
Shit. He started running. “Motre, grab Tessa. We need her.” He waited, then added to make sure the message got across, “Now.”
All he heard after that were panicked shouts and running feet.
*
Jewel couldn’t resist. She sidled to the open door and gave a long look down the corridor. What if they came back while she was looking?
Really, she should just walk past.
It was none of her business what they were doing.
Except everything was kind of her business now. At least if it was suspicious.
She’d never been to this level of the Hall and she couldn’t stop the worry inside that it was a different area altogether, one that no one knew about.
Still, it was the Council Hall. She should be safe. She needed to be safe.
Resolutely, she dropped her hand.
She could note the door and tell someone else to come check it out. That was the right thing to do. There was enough going on without her getting into more trouble. She looked down the hallway and realized there were no markings anywhere. She had no way to know what door this was.
One step. Two steps. She went to take a third step away…and stopped.
She couldn’t do it. Spinning around, Jewel walked back to the door.
Casting another look around to make sure she was alone, she pushed the door open.
*
Feeling invigorated like she hadn’t felt in a long time, Rhia walked to the locked door. She tried the handle first. No change. She was locked in.
She shrugged, pulled out her a hair clip from her pocket, and in seconds had the door open.
Her daughter should learn that trick. Or maybe she should keep some things to herself. Although why she hadn’t remembered that trick earlier, she had no idea.
Boldly, she walked out of the small room and looked around. There were closed doors all along the hallway. The ones she wanted were down below.
Way down below.
Where no one knew what was going on.
But she did.
Now.
Her gaze narrowed, shifted, assessed. She needed to go right to go where she was needed.
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 the way she wanted her life to be, 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 when you actually have someone who might be able to give you daughter a fighting chance, you try to kill her father.” Cody was roaring by the time he finished.
Tessa was silent at his side, but waves of anger washed off her back. And waves of 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 never did 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.
