by Dale Mayer
Serus glanced down at Rhia tucked up tight in his arms. "No, I hadn’t, and honestly, that thought is enough to make me want to pack up my family and run. That means there’s war ahead. For all of us – with humans becoming the discarded, undervalued casualty."
"I don’t understand."
Tessa and David stared at each other. "You’re saying these old enforcers could be behind this factory?"
"Or they could be the beneficiaries of the blood."
Tessa’s eyes widened. "But how many are there? Surely, they couldn’t consume this quantity?"
"Not unless someone is building an army of them."
***
Jared couldn’t stop his legs from trembling. He wouldn't make it out of the room in this condition. His feet had turned to mini glaciers.
There. Noise sounded next door to him. Men approached.
He waited, his fingers tense on the makeshift weapon.
"The next door is open, I’ll check it out."
"I’m coming, too," a female voice said.
Jared closed his eyes and prayed. He didn’t want to die. But he really didn't want to endure this undead existence.
Footsteps sounded. A tall male entered, followed by a shorter one.
Jared swung. Hard.
"Ouch." Both men spun around. The pole bounced harmlessly off the first man's arm. Jared watched in horror as fangs slid down. He kicked out, helpless as he was picked up and tossed onto his bed. His head bounced twice before he slid to the floor. So great was his disappointment, he barely felt the pain. He'd failed.
Jared lay staring up at the ceiling, defeated. He had no more energy for a second attempt. It was all over.
"Wait."
Jared heard a female voice. Almost recognized it. Then everything started to waver before him. The next thing he knew Tessa was bending over him, a huge smile on her face. "Jared," she cried. "We found you."
He smiled at the vision. She’d dyed her hair again. And, damn, did she look good.
Just like an angel should.
He closed his eyes and let unconsciousness take him out.
***
"You hurt him," Tessa accused Cody in outrage. "Why did you do that?"
"Because he beaned me with this." Cody held up the IV pole and shook it at her. "Besides, I hardly touched him. I just threw him onto the bed."
Tessa looked from the pole to him and sighed. "Okay, so you were justified in defending yourself, but look at him. He looks terrible."
Then she stopped and peered closer. "Actually, he doesn’t look all that bad. They must be giving him vitamin injections or something."
Her mother dropped to the floor beside Jared. "This is the boy?" she asked as her hands ran over him quickly looking for injuries.
"Yes, he’s the one." Tessa chewed on her bottom lip. She wished he’d wake up. They weren’t out of danger yet. She'd like to get a long ways away before someone else came into this picture. "Is he going to be okay?"
"I’m sure he will be."
Tessa glanced out the doorway to the macabre laundry line of hanging humans. "They were going to hang Jared up like those other people, weren't they? Put him a plastic bag and turn him into a milking machine?" Anger burned inside, overwhelming the relief at having found Jared safe. They'd almost been too late. Look at what these animals had put him through. Put her through for that matter.
Angry tears filled her eyes. She wiped them away.
quot;It’s all right, honey. We found him in time. You found him. You did good."
Tessa sniffled. She was so tired. And it wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. There were still a few assholes here to find and deal with, and all these poor humans to help. "Mom, will taking these people down kill them? Or do you think Taz might be able to save them? At least some of them?"
Rhia glanced at the rows and rows of suspended blood donors, then looked away quickly. A shudder rippled over her. "I don’t know sweetheart. I hope he can."
"If they’ve been up there for a long time, their muscles won’t work anymore, will they?" Tessa's voice thickened at the thought.
"They’d probably have to recover slowly, like a patient waking up after being in a long coma."
Tessa ran her hand down over her face. "I guess the professionals will have to make that decision. They can't stay like this. It's obscene. They’re the real living dead."
"You think they'd be better off dead?" Rhia studied Tessa’s face. "I can see how most people would believe that." She glanced back at the men, who’d finished checking the other rooms and were slowly returning to the group again. Lowering her voice, she added, "This has been a hard couple of days for you, honey. But as tough as it's been, you've grown…matured. You've really come into yourself. And I, for one, am very proud of you."
Tessa's eyes filled with tears again. Her emotions were so close to the surface now. She smiled as she stared down at Jared still lying on the cold floor. "I couldn't do anything less."
"And that's the change I see. I'm sorry it came through such painful circumstances, but you are better for it."
With a sniffle and a half smile of thanks, Tessa looked around. "He’s really cold. Isn't there anything warm he could wear?"
David piped up. "We found a store room with a bunch of clothing. Any idea of his size?"
Tessa shrugged.
But her mother leaned over with an assessing eye and said, "I wouldn’t worry about size too much. Better to go large anyways. Get something warm with long sleeves. Oh, and make sure to look for socks, too." She busied herself with an extra blanket and tucked it in around him. Placing the back of her hand against his forehead, she frowned again. "Serus. Can you lift this boy back onto the bed? I don’t like his color."
Tessa cried out, "What’s wrong?"
Her mom reached over and pulled her back out of the way. "I don’t know what they’ve been giving him, but he could be going through withdrawal from their drugs."
"Oh no." Too upset to say anything, Tessa watched as her father bent down and scooped up Jared like he was a four-year-old and carried him across the room to a clean bed.
David arrived with an armload of clothes. Rhia pushed Tessa and David out. "Serus, give me a hand getting him dressed, please. This boy is freezing."
Outside, Tessa wandered back and forth, refusing to look at the rows of undead hanging among the crazed network of tubing and piping. A weird pumping suction noise made her bones cold. The sound had something to do with the blood collection system. She didn't want to know any more than that.
"Are you all right?" David walked up and hooked his arm through hers. "We found Mom and him, thanks to you."
A wan smile escaped. "And to all of you. I can’t believe all this." She motioned to the mess around them. "So ugly. Shameful. I hate that our people created this."
He raised an eyebrow at her phrasing. "I know. I’m not feeling very proud either. Just remember, it’s not us. There are bad humans and bad vampires."
She closed her eyes and felt herself sway gently.
"Hey. Stay awake. There’s still a lot to be done."
A sudden thought hit. "We still have to find the other guards too, don't we? Not to mention check on the ones we knocked out earlier. I don't want them to wake up and come after us." She spun around. "What’re the chances that pudgy guy has gone for reinforcements?"
"Calm down. There’re a lot more of us now. We can do this. Goran has gone with Cody, Jewel and Ian to look for other vamps and move the ones we've already captured into a locked room. Mom and Jared can’t take much more. Not sure you can either." He studied her face, frowning. "You’re exhausted. But I have to tell you, you’ve done a fine thing these last two days, and I’m really proud of you."
Tessa stared at him. His words slowly penetrated the fog in her brain. She smiled slowly, brilliantly, some of her fatigue melting away at his words. "Thanks. It’s nice to hear."
"You deserve it. I’m not sure how you knew to kick the doors or how you can see this en
ergy stuff… I’m just glad you had the skills to put into use when we needed them." He shook his head as if remembering her actions.
She grinned. "The kicks were easy. I was just mad. The energy stuff is something I’ve always seen. It never occurred to me that I saw things differently from the way you do. My skills, as you call them, never showed up before because there was no need for them. I haven’t been trying to develop my vampire abilities because, well, I didn’t think I had any to develop."
"Jared owes you a lot. I’d never have believed this…" David waved his arm around, adding, "If you’d just told me. I’m glad I’m here to see it for myself."
"And I wish I’d never seen it. Chances are it will remain in my nightmares for decades."
"Mine too, Tessa. Mine too," he added softly. Wrapping his arms around her he tugged her in for a brotherly hug. "Let’s go check on Jared."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Cody strode down the south side of the warehouse at his father’s side. He couldn’t help but feel a little cocky after helping to rescue his old man. Kinda made him feel like an equal. Ian strode along on the other side of his father, quiet as always. Jewel almost ran at Cody's side to keep up. She was one of the rare shorter vampires. But then Jewel was unique in other ways, too. Like her coloring. Her hair was more charcoal-colored than jet black.
And Jewel had a big heart. She'd accompanied them on this search to give David's family time together. He could understand that. He wanted to put some distance between him and Tessa, too.
He was still pissed off over getting brained by her friend, Jared. At the same time he had to admire a guy willing to fight when he was still so drugged he could hardly stand. Cody frowned. Jared’s health was in question, if he’d read Rhia’s expression correctly. Tessa would be devastated if anything happened to him at this stage.
And Cody wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Tessa was only sixteen…okay, almost seventeen. David had mentioned her upcoming birthday was just a couple weeks away. Was she too young for him? At least right now? With vampires living for centuries, age stopped being a factor once they became adults. Still, Tessa was a long way from being an adult. These last days, he'd had a chance to understand her, gain some insights into her weird I-want-to-be-human thing she'd had going on before. He figured she’d let most of that go now.
In fact, she looked and acted more like a vampire pureblood than most of them did.
She wore it well. And had she suddenly developed overnight? Where had that figure come from? She almost popped out of her shirt or whatever that thing was called. He'd caught himself watching, waiting for just that to happen. He shook his head. Stupid.
"What’s bothering you?" His father nudged his shoulder.
Like he was going to tell the truth. Cody shrugged. "Just this whole mess. We seriously need to find out what’s going on here and who the ringleaders are."
"I know. This has Moltere’s touch. But he can't be working alone. That brings up the possibility of a human accomplice…or many of them. And given the size of the operation, we have to consider that Council members all over the world could also be involved."
"If it’s that high up we’re going to have a lot of trouble ferreting out who is involved."
"I know."
They arrived at yet another series of doors like the ones where they’d left Tessa’s family. With a grin at the other two, Cody opened the first one with a flourish. And wrinkled up his face. This room resembled a storeroom. Steel drawers and cupboards lined two walls and the temperature was even colder than the rest of the warehouse. Thankfully there didn’t appear to be any bodies lying around.
Closing it again, he stepped up to the second door.
"My turn." Goran pushed the door open and frowned. There’d been someone here recently, from the looks of things. It appeared to be some kind of staff living quarters. Furniture, a small kitchenette. Dirty bottles littered the table. Two doors lined the back walls.
Pushing the door wide enough for everyone else to see, he pointed out the two doors down the back. "We need to check out those."
Ian and Cody headed to the left door first. A series of bunk beds suggested the room was designated a sleeping area. Empty, but clothes lay strewn across bedding. Again, someone had been here recently. The two turned and followed Goran and Jewel to the next room.
Entering, Cody was barely in time to see his father bend and lower his dark face over a male asleep on the top bunk. So this was the missing male? Goran’s face darkened. He reached out and bent over the lone sleeper. Cody tried to get closer to see what his father was doing, but before he could shift around his dad’s large frame, Goran straightened, saying, "He’s not going anywhere."
"Did you kill him?" Cody cast a last look at the male in the bed. Not that he really wanted to know.
"No. Used a special hold on him. He'll be out for a good many hours. We'll come back and move him after we do this first sweep."
Smooth. Then, Cody hadn’t expected anything else from his old man.
"That leaves the brute still missing and possibly more."
Leaving the living quarters, they systematically went around the warehouse and checked each room for the missing staff member. An hour later, they ended up back where they started, with David and his family.
Cody slapped a high five at David when they met up. "There's no sign of the other personnel yet. We need to find them before they can warn the outside world."
"I’d say that’s probably too late. We haven’t exactly been quiet in here."
Looking around the small group, Cody frowned, and asked, "Where’s Tessa?"
"She’s with Jared. He's unconscious and Rhia's worried about him." A weird look came over David’s face.
Cody frowned. "What aren’t you telling me?"
With a shrug, David tried to brush him off.
"No. Tell me. Is he going to make it?" Cody asked.
David leaned in. "Tessa says he looks different than a few days ago. Better. As if he’d been given something to improve him."
And how was he supposed to take that? Cody studied David’s eyes. "Improve? How?"
"We don’t know. Mom is wondering if there was something odd in the drugs they were giving him. Like an enhancer of some kind."
"Are you thinking they were doing experiments of some kind? On humans? Oh gross." Not a thought he wanted to dwell on. "Remember when we were in the monitor room and we saw what appeared to be a couple of vampires suspended? Possibly Daren? That doesn’t make any sense, right? It’s not like our blood is hard to come by or special or what they want to drink, so…?"
"Right. Like why are they up there?" David stared up at the rows of suspended bodies. "I wonder if they're being punished? Maybe they found out about this place and threatened to expose it or had invested initially and then wanted out," he said enthusiastically, warming to his ideas. "This could be a way of keeping them from talking."
Cody studied the rows. "As much as I don't want to, maybe we should walk up and down and see if we know any of them." He almost laughed at the look of revulsion on his friend's face.
"Yeah, I guess," David said.
Turning, Cody looked around to get his bearings. "They should be in the corner, according to the monitors we saw. That would make it…" he spun around slowly trying to place the scene from the monitor with the right area in the room. "It would make it over there." He pointed to the corner on his left at the far side. "And the more of us that go and look, the better the chance that we might recognize someone."
"I think our fathers should come take a look. Keep the girls out of this step in this process."
"Good idea."
"What’s a good idea?" Serus came up behind them.
Within minutes he was calling Goran over. The four males headed in the direction Cody pointed out. As they walked, Cody tried not to stare. Every person was distorted by the plastic wrapped around them giving them an unreal, almost un-human aspect. It was more than freaky. It was like a ba
d science fiction movie.
There had to be dozens of people in just one row. His stomach clenched when he did the math. "David, do you realize how many people are hanging here? They couldn’t all have disappeared around the same time."
"I’m sure they’ve been disappearing, a few here and a few there, for a very long time." David glanced up, grimaced and turned his face forward resolutely.
Serus and Goran spoke quietly ahead of them. Cody couldn’t quite hear and he wanted to. Motioning to David, he picked up the pace so the bits of conversation were understandable.