by Dale Mayer
And if they’d thought Jared might have been uneasy over this evening’s conversation, maybe he’d figured Jared would bolt.
Struggling to still the unease in his gut, Jared climbed back into bed. He hated this. Hated the uneasiness. Surely there was somewhere else he could stay? He tried to text Tessa again. He didn’t know what to do about food at Tessa’s house, but he’d feel safe there. And didn’t that beat all?
Then another name popped into his head. Someone respectable. Responsible. Position of authority. And human. Dr. Taz.
He grabbed his cell phone and realized he didn’t have the contact number, but Tessa would. He texted her, asking for it. Surely she wouldn’t mind. Just in case, he sent another long text explaining why he needed the number.
Maybe that would do it.
He didn’t know where she was or what she was doing, but he hoped she was getting the rest she deserved.
Chapter 6
Tessa stared at the faded, aged–beyond–belief vampire. She stepped closer. The ghost immediately stepped between the two women in warning.
“Hortran, it’s fine.”
Hortran bowed and retreated.
Tessa watched his smooth movements that made him seem to slide and glide more than walk.
“How does he do that?” she murmured, studying him as he stilled in place.
“How does anyone do anything they are good at?” the old woman answered. “It’s natural for him. It’s who he is.”
“A ghost?” Tessa said, switching her gaze to the woman. “Someone said he was a ghost.”
“Not a ghost…a Ghost.” A dry cackle filled the air followed by a painful fit of coughing. “A big difference. Although soon, I’m afraid they might be one and the same.”
“He’s dying?” Tessa asked hesitantly, wondering what was going on.
“Aren’t we all? Even you, my dear, are dying. Some of us are closer to the end than others.”
“At least you aren’t completely at the end of that road,” Tessa said politely. She heard a half snicker from Cody beside her.
“Yes, I am. Maybe not today or tomorrow or even this year, but it will be this century.”
She stared at Tessa, then motioned with her hand. “Come closer.”
Tessa stepped forward two steps. When the woman repeated her hand motion impatiently, she walked right up to her.
And stopped. The woman’s skin was almost scaly from age, her eyes deeply set into her head, but there were indications that she’d been a beauty at one time. Likely a thousand centuries ago.
“Who are you?” Tessa whispered.
“Ah, I wondered if you knew me.” She shrugged, a slight movement that still made Tessa wince as she heard bones creak and skin scrape across each other.
“Your father knows me. So too does your dear mother.”
At the mention of her parents, Tessa reared back slightly. She studied the old woman as if the face would shake something loose in her mind that had stayed hidden for the last twenty minutes. “Really?”
She turned to see Cody still standing back where he always was. “Cody, do you know her?” She motioned to the Ghost. “Or him?”
Cody frowned and approached slowly. “I have never seen Hortran before, nor yourself, but from old conversations between my father and Councilman Serus that I vaguely remember, you must be Deanna.”
Deanna? Tessa turned to see the old woman beam at Cody. “Indeed I am.”
And all the memories of one of the oldest vampires still alive today surfaced. “You’re on the Council but don’t attend the meetings any longer. In fact, you’re never seen in public anymore either.”
“Bah, Council. Those mealy–mouthed useless imbeciles. The ‘we must keep up tradition and do things the way we’ve always done them garbage.’”
She shook her head. Her hair, long but in a single braid, flung around her shoulders. “As if that logic holds true through centuries where everything else changes except for the Councilmen’s attitude.”
Tessa grinned. She liked the woman already. “Is that why you don’t show up anymore?”
“That’s one of the reasons. The other is much simpler.” She glanced over at the Ghost and smiled. “I can’t. I am a prisoner here.”
“What?” Tessa glanced around. “How is that possible? We came here, so surely you could leave.”
“I can’t. There are special walls designed to keep me here forever. It’s Hortran that makes my life here easy enough. Besides, as my captors can’t find me, I’ve turned the tables on them too. And that suits me just fine.”
While Tessa tried to muddle through that speech, Cody was the one asking for clarification. “So you are someone’s prisoner, but they can’t find you?”
At Deanna’s nod, he motioned to the Ghost. “Hiding you is part of what he does?”
She grinned. “In part, yes.”
Tessa shook her head. “Surely if you can camouflage the appearance of this place to that extent, you could have left?”
“Oh sure. I should have said I was a prisoner. Not now. I can come and go as I please, but I’ve decided as my time is near, this place suits me just fine. Besides,” she said, a crafty look coming over her eyes, “It keeps them guessing.”
Cody said in confusion, “So you aren’t a prisoner?”
“That’s what I just said, didn’t I?” she snapped, glaring at him.
“Actually, you said you were a prisoner then said that you weren’t. Sorry if we’re a little confused,” Tessa said with a gentle smile. “This is all new to us.”
Deanna sniffed then motioned to the Ghost. “He can explain.”
The Ghost stepped forward. “We were prisoners. After we explored the tunnels, we found a way to escape but still had to stay out of sight so our captors didn’t know. But as long as the captors thought we were here, they left us alone, so we made this our headquarters and came and went as we pleased, allowing the captors to think we were still here. However, we also camouflaged the area so they couldn’t find us.” He smiled a small smile. “Knowing I’m a Ghost, they knew that’s what we’d done, so they could believe we were always here but they had no access to us. That suited us too.”
“And the camouflage…how did you do that?” Tessa asked.
“Easy,” Deanna said. “Energy.”
Tessa gasped. “Energy?”
“Yes. Why do you think I hoped to meet you once I heard about all the weird things you were doing up top, my dear?”
“You know about that?” Cody asked. “How?”
“We have eyes and ears all over the place,” the Ghost said. “We know what’s going on everywhere.”
“So you know about the blood farm?” Tessa asked cautiously, unsure of whose side these two were on.
“Of course, I’m thousands of years old. Blood farms aren’t new you know. Synthetic blood is new. I don’t mind it actually. It has a certain ambiguous flavor. After tasting several horrible batches of bad blood from some men carrying nasty diseases that I had no idea beforehand, I’m happy to have the synthetic stuff.”
Tessa exhaled noisily. “So you weren’t part of the group that created the blood farm?”
“Bah, of course not. I’d have had all humans strung up like that if I were. Besides, like I said, humans don’t taste the same anymore. Gross tasting now if you ask me.” Her gaze sharpened. “That doesn’t mean I don’t know who is running it though. Like I said, we keep tabs on everything.”
Cody, his voice hard, asked, “Then who is behind it all?”
*
Cody stared at the ancient crone and wondered what game she was playing at. Who’d stay a prisoner in order to turn the tables on their captor? Then again, as she could come and go and her captor was forced to keep guards here to watch over her, it might just be damn clever. But it was a twisted kind of clever. And said much about her relationship with her captor. “And is it the same person who imprisoned you?”
A smile whispered across her lips. “My husband is
the one who imprisoned me.”
Cody heard Tessa’s gasp of shock. His own mind was scurrying through his memory banks, looking for the name of her husband. And came up empty.
“I hadn’t heard you were married.”
She laughed. “It was a long time ago.”
“Why would he do that?” Tessa asked, anger in her voice.
“For the best of all reasons,” Deanna smirked. “To get back at me for imprisoning him.”
Dead silence.
Tessa said cautiously, “You imprisoned him, he escaped and turned around and imprisoned you, you escaped but he doesn’t know it.” She shook her head. “You do realize that none of this makes any sense, right?”
Deanna chuckled. “Oh, it does to us, child. You just have to understand we’ve been married for over nine centuries. Sometimes games liven things up.”
Amusement whistled through Cody at the thought. How bloody fascinating. And intriguing and yet…sick at the same time. From the look of incomprehension on Tessa’s face, Cody realized she wasn’t understanding at all.
“I don’t suppose you are here…some of the time… are you? As in the odd time when he comes to check up on you personally, perhaps,” Cody asked, humor threading through his words.
Deanna gave him a droll look. “You do understand. How very interesting. It must be Goran’s influence. That man does like a good time.” And she smiled in such a way that Cody was sorry he’d broached the conversation.
Tessa, however, didn’t appear impressed. “And why are we here? You said there was danger and we had to hurry.”
“Ah, right to business. You could do well to spend more playtime with Cody here.”
Tessa, her voice hard, snapped. “Any playtime I have with Cody is my business and not up for discussion.”
Deanna rolled her eyes. “Lord, so young. So vehement. So passionate. You two must have fun.” She gave Cody a single, slow, up–and–down look that actually made him embarrassed. “Ah well…”
Until Tessa stepped in front of him and blocked him from Deanna’s view.
Cody hid his grin. Oh, he did love this girl.
*
Jewel opened her eyes again. Awareness hit faster than the last time, making her alert and almost cognizant of her surroundings. And her situation. She was in a hospital, but the jury was still out as to why she was still here. She got that she’d been drugged. Understood that she’d taken a turn for the worse and knew the doctors were keeping her under observation. But if all the above were true, where the hell was David?
She sat up slowly and paused, realizing something had changed. Her restraints were off.
Or had they been part of her nightmares?
With effort, she made her way to the laundry tub and took a drink of water. When she was done, she stood in the open doorway and surveyed the room. She was only wearing a hospital gown, so where were her clothes? More important than those, where was her cell phone? She went through the cupboards systematically, feeling her strength slowly seep away as she finally opened the last cupboard. And found her clothes. “Of course. I should have started at the other end. Damn fool.”
She straightened with her clothing in her hand and stacked them on the counter. They hadn’t been washed since the mine. Gross. She wrinkled up her nose and wished there were other options. Still, she wasn’t leaving right now. Maybe she could at least hand wash these and lay them on the railing in the bathroom to dry.
Feeling better, she searched her pockets for her cell phone.
Nothing. She turned to the rest of her clothing. Also nothing. She cast her mind back to the mine. Did she have a phone then? Sure. But…the battery died. At least she thought it had. Things were still foggy. The bottom line was, she didn’t have a cell phone. There was no phone in the room, so the only way to contact anyone was to go out in search of another phone to use. That meant clothing. And that meant her old dirty clothes.
Or not. She assessed her own health and sinking energy level. If she could wash her clothes then sleep for a while, her clothes could dry in the meantime. She’d have asked about laundry here if she’d seen anyone, but outside of remembering seeing David, she didn’t think she’d seen anybody else.
A horrible thought struck.
Was she all alone? She knew it was a foolish thought, but it was a hard one to shake. She stumbled to the door, hating the fatigue once again catching hold. She turned the knob to open the door. Only it wouldn’t budge.
It was locked.
She dropped her forehead against the wood in front of her. Please, not again.
*
Serus’s grip tightened convulsively. His DNA? Seriously? This bullshit again? “Who is behind it?”
The man’s eyes bulged. “I don’t know. We don’t know who is really behind this mess. There is almost no one down here. You triggered the alarm, and that’s the only reason the alert went out.”
Serus released the man so he could catch his breath. The man bent over coughing and choking. When he finally straightened, his face no longer looked like a beet, but didn’t look quite normal either.
“Is this place completely uninhabited?” David asked. “It doesn’t feel like it.”
“It’s not supposed to be. But I haven’t been down here in decades.”
“And then there’s the matter of the Ghost,” Serus snapped. “If he’s here, then how can it be empty?”
“He’s a Ghost. They aren’t real.” The man shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know. It always is empty though. That’s why the alarms.” He turned on the charm with a hopeful smile. “You entered and that triggered the alarm. The camera feed picked you up and the security men told the bosses. Your faces were visible and when they saw who you were, they sent us down to get you.” He shrugged and looked around. “There have been odd rumors about this place for decades. I’ve not been here in so long, I’d forgotten how creepy it was.”
“Why was it built? It’s too big to be a hospital.”
“Originally, I think it was supposed to be an end of the world bunker with room for most of us to hibernate here for decades until the humans killed themselves and everything else off.” His face twisted oddly at the idea. “But that never happened. Most vamps have forgotten about the place.”
“I did,” Serus said, nodding. “It’s been more than a few decades.” He frowned as he stared at the cement. “Looks like it’s been refinished somewhere in the last couple of years though.”
The other man nodded. “It wasn’t cement originally, but as new material became available…” He motioned toward the darkness behind him. “This doesn’t go all that far into the mountain before it becomes dirt again.”
“Like a mine tunnel?” David asked, his tone hard.
The man looked at him nervously. “Could be, but the whole area is full of those.”
“Easy, David. There’s not likely a connection.”
“Really?” He looked at Serus. “What about that whole DNA collection thing?”
Serus’s jaw tightened. “Why do they want our DNA?”
“For the database,” he cried. “But I don’t know what that means. They don’t have you or your line’s DNA on file, and they want it.”
“And for the last time, who is the ‘they’ you are talking about?” David cried impatiently.
“I don’t know,” he whimpered. “I only know my immediate bosses, and you just killed them.”
Serus glared down at the two dead men. Or rather the one dead and the one burned in a pile of ash. “Damn it.”
“Yeah, next time ask your questions before you kill people indiscriminately,” the man cried.
Serus slowly raised his gaze. “Right, and now…now that you’ve answered our questions and are of no use to us, what should I do with you?”
“You could let me go.” He gave his most winning smile.
Serus wasn’t fooled. He glanced over at his son. David shrugged. “You can’t kill him for being a weak weasel.”
The weasel shook his head in horror. “No, you can’t. I’m being helpful, I am.”
David turned to study the empty space. “It’s creepy down here. If Tessa is here, she could be anywhere.”
“Tessa?” the weasel asked. “You mean the young girl causing all the trouble?”
Serus spun so quickly, the weasel backed up several steps and cowered.
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” he cried out from his crouching position. “You don’t have to answer that question.”
“Stand up, man.” Serus knew many vamps like this one, but they weren’t usually in his presence. He hated weasels and weaklings like this one. But occasionally they were useful. Like maybe…now.
“What do you know of Tessa?” he asked deliberately, lowering his voice to a calm, even tone. If the man was too scared, he’d never answer.
“I just know she’s a priority for the bosses. They want her DNA very badly.”
*
Rhia sat in solitude, wishing her brains would unscramble. She’d thought she was normal again. Back to normal as Sian would say. She remembered Sian, Wendy, and her children, but there was a blank space in her head where Serus should be. She understood he was her husband. Understood she loved him, had been married to him for centuries, but there was a giant empty darkness she couldn’t fill with memories when she thought about him. Although that was getting better.
That was the first tangible proof she had been drugged.
Her mind shifted through what she knew about drugs. It wasn’t likely that they’d been able to target a particular person in her life to wipe out. No, chances were that part of her brain had been the unlucky area affected. She rubbed her face, feeling old and tired.
Then again, that was likely the drugs, too. She remembered the blood farm and all the horrors held within. Another name popped into her mind. Goran. A good man. A best friend. He’d been such a huge help over the years. She could see him easily, so why not Serus? She struggled to see the man always at his side, her side, but his features stayed just out of reach.
She wished he was here so she could fill in those blank spaces in her mind. As warmth wrapped around her heart, she realized she might not know this Serus, but inside she knew him. The feelings were there, getting stronger, closer. She smiled.