by Dale Mayer
"True enough, but I still wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Better to take him out to the sunlight and kill him off. Cleaner that way. This 'hanging around for eternity' stuff…so not my thing."
"It has to be one of his cohorts to have gotten that close to him. Moltere was always a cagey bastard."
"And no one else would know about the blood farm or get away with hanging him up."
"But why hang him up? As an example to the others? It's not like he has any useable blood."
"He must have something they want, but what?" Goran held out his open hands questioningly.
"One of the kids said something about creating vampires and needing the blood of the ancients to do experiments with. Moltere is an ancient. So maybe it's his blood that is turning out these new vamps. They aren't bad for a first copy, but nowhere near as good as real ones."
"And what's the point of creating more stupid vampires? Don't we have enough already?" Goran said with a small smile. "At least improve the model."
"Actually," Serus said quietly, "I think that's what the plan is. Imagine if they have your blood, my blood, Moltere's blood, and any number of others with different genetic abilities, and now pull them all together into one vamp. We'd have that whole super vamp concept again."
"That wasn't Moltere's thing. He wasn't into experiments. He was into controlling the human population as a long-term feeding ground."
"But this isn't Moltere anymore. Moltere might have done all the hard work getting this organization set up and profitable but, with the infrastructure in place, any number of other, more devious plans can be carried out. The labs, the DNA testing, the blood cleansing, the hospital facilities. Perfect for that super race bullshit again."
"And who the hell would want that crap? We're perfect just the way we are." The disgust in Goran's tone made Serus grin at his old friend. Goran's ego had always been healthy.
"Cody proved himself out there these last few days."
Goran puffed up with pride. "Damn right. He's a good kid."
"He is that. All the kids did well. Too bad about Jacob."
"Damn traitor," Goran said, anger spiking his voice.
"And we need to find out who Jacob hung out with. Start tracking these bastards back to the source. We have several of the top henchmen in custody, but…I doubt they'll talk. Being long lived, they know they'll get found out and taken out eventually."
"I want a few minutes with that damn flier Cody was doing battle with. He's the one that's going to know something. Those guys were supposed to be taken to the council lockup for questioning."
Serus turned to him. "You didn't recognize him, did you?"
Goran shook his head. "No, and that's not good. I swore I knew every flier out there. So that's where I'm heading next."
"As I said, it's a whole new game now."
Goran's face hardened. "And we've got a whole new team this time around."
He was referring to the kids instead of the trained fighters they had last time. Serus knew it, but hated the reminder…and the comparison.
"The kids did beautifully, but…"
"But they're still kids," Goran finished.
"Exactly. Speaking of which, have you heard from any of them yet? They should be at home asleep." Serus pulled out his cell phone and called home. "I'm glad Sian is staying with them. But there's a part of me that would prefer an armed guard. Just to make sure."
"Yeah, Cody hasn't checked in either. I told him to call as soon as he got home."
"Sounds like the orders I gave David. Poor Tessa, she needs to sleep for a week at least."
"She's something. Never thought she'd turn out like she has."
Serus didn't answer. The phone was ringing, but no one was answering. "They aren't answering the house phone."
"Course not." Goran shrugged. "They probably all crashed."
"They should have called first."
He'd hung up and gone to redial when the phone went off in his hand. "Sian, I just tried to call the house."
Sian's musical voice came through clear. "Sorry, I didn't manage to catch it before you hung up. I just woke up from a nap. You have to remember that I don't move quite as fast these days."
Serus grinned. "You haven't even begun showing yet. You should be running marathons."
"Sleep marathons, maybe. So, what's the update?" she complained. "I was expecting the kids hours ago."
Goran and Serus stared at each other. "You left before the kids – right, Sian?"
"I came home right after Taz got busy. Figured I was in the way and could do more here on the computer. I've been working at your house with a couple of the council members, waiting until the kids got here. Shouldn't they be here by now?"
They should have been. But now Serus knew they weren't going to be. Not any longer.
"Sian, they should have been there hours ago."
Tessa refused to let her aching legs or pounding head stop her from finding the others. She stretched her jumps out as far as she could go, landing and taking off in one smooth motion. The jet stream was almost gone, but she could still see the faint impression in the sky. Fliers could move so much faster than she could. And they had a head start. A big one.
She couldn't help but worry about her parents. Had the ambulance made it to the hospital, or had it been hijacked as well? Just how big was this conspiracy? Had they created enough bad vamps to take everyone out? If so, that was beyond crazy.
Her people would need to find and destroy the source of these creations…and the creations. That anyone could design a vampire or create an improved version…unbelievable. That they'd done a piss poor job of it made her happy, but those guys weren't far off the real thing. It definitely gave her concern. She'd taken out a half dozen herself. Possibly two or three times as many. She hadn't exactly stopped to count.
Then again, her legs were turning into rubberized stumps. An improvement in strength and speed would be a big help. What if they'd improved the design with the next batch?
She stopped for a short break and bent over to catch her breath. Why was this so hard today? When she and her father were trying to find Moltere's hideaway, she'd gone from treetop to treetop easier than this. Maybe the drugs were slowing her down. What had her father said? Something about 'stop trying so hard? Breathe and relax.' She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and repeated both actions. As she exhaled, she lifted and glided – this time going twice the distance of her other jumps.
Cool. She did it again, and again. She laughed, the joy of accomplishment rushing through her. This was so much better. Easier on her, too. In that lighthearted space, the first since she'd woken up alone, the world shifted much faster. She crossed miles. And hardly noticed.
In the distance stood a bluff of some kind. Black and imposing against the horizon. She needed to get to the top of it, where she could look around. By the time she reached it her legs were killing her. The height of the bluff appeared daunting. Standing with her hands fisted on her hips, she assessed the problem. Damn. It was almost a mountain in itself. Figured. She took a deep breath, then jumped upward to the closest landing spot. Then jumped crisscross a little higher, slowly zigzagging her way to the top.
Finally, she reached the highest point and had a chance to rest.
As far as she could see, the terrain continued with a hard, rocky surface – similar to a mesa, except not volcanic rock. Nothing much appeared to grow here. A single desperate bush, bits of grass poking up through the caked ground in the odd spot, but little else. Except a second bluff further along. And beyond that…the ground showed a strong line against the horizon. A drop-off, maybe? She had to get there to find out. At least it was in the direction of the fading vampire jet stream.
The second bluff was closer than she'd first realized. It only took her another ten minutes of steady gliding to reach. Of course, she'd started with the advantage of jumping off the top of the first. And what a rush that had been.
She climbed the shorter b
luff in two jumps and stopped to survey the new vista. The bluff perched on a cliff edge. Down below – a long way below – she could see a small village.
Finally, signs of life. But was it human or vamp? And was it good vamp, bad vamp, or designer model vamp? She grinned at the term. That's what the idiots were. Fake. Seasonal. Fashionable? So not.
The jet stream appeared to come down in the same area. That was good enough for her. Her friends were close by. She could almost feel them.
Cody, I'm coming!
She laughed. Boy, was he going to be pissed if she rescued him.
With a deep breath, she backed up several feet, then took a running jump and soared off the cliff. She opened her arms, Cody's long black coat floating behind her. She tilted her face to the sun and let herself fly.
The glide went on forever.
She loved it.
Until she realized the ground was coming up a little too fast. The closer she got to the ground, the more she realized this wasn't working out quite the way she'd figured. She was actually flying…or 'falling' was a better word.
Shit.
The angle was all wrong. She wasn't going to be able to glide down, she was going to hit…hard.
The village was still a ways off in front of her. She angled her body off to the left, where a meadow sprawled in the distance. Maybe she could come down there.
How? She tried to stretch out, hoping to extend the angle of descent. Damn, she could use a set of brakes. Cody made it look so easy. But then, he had wings for brakes. She was the idiot. She'd thrown herself off the cliff and never even considered what kind of landing that would create.
Now her father could probably pull this off. But her… Irritation and frustration warred with her lack of confidence. She'd done so much this last week. Accomplished so much. She'd be damned if a super-long jump would knock her out…or down.
She could do this. She wasn't a motorized vehicle with an engine, she was a vamp, and she could do…stuff.
She almost laughed.
Almost. Instead, she pulled her legs forward and instinctively straightened up.
That slowed her descent – a little, but not enough.
She hit the ground running, literally.
***
Cody slipped out the hallway and down the corner. He had no idea where they were, outside of the fact that the building appeared identical to the old blood farm. It had a similar long white hallway, with doors leading to who knows what. But that place should be crawling with people right now. It didn't make sense. Unless this was the mountain place Tessa had been held captive before escaping.
That she could be in a different room gave him hope. She had to be close by. He could almost sense her, and swore he'd heard her voice in his head earlier.
The others followed behind him. So far, they'd seen nothing and no one. Maybe that was a good thing.
Jewel's voice stopped him. "Do you think we're in the same blood farm?"
David wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. "It's possible."
Cody shook his head. "Possible, but not likely. Think about it. That place was crawling with people by the time we left. I'm actually wondering if we've been taken to the same place that Tessa was held captive."
"Up the mountainside? That actually makes sense," Ian said. "I wonder if we're the only ones taken. Many of us left at the same time. Why'd we get singled out?"
"Maybe we weren't." David said. "If they've got the manpower, they could have swooped down and taken us all out. They were making those oddball vamps. For all we know they have this huge army and we don't know anything about it. We thought everything had been solved."
"This really sucks." Jewel stepped a little away from David, wrapping her arms around her chest so tightly that her fingers turned white.
Cody watched her carefully. She was taking this hard – even her eyes had turned to huge liquid pools of fear. "Given that, I think we need to check every room and free every prisoner we find."
The others nodded.
"I hope Tessa is here. I hate to think of her off alone again," Cody said.
David frowned, as if remembering what his kid sister had already been through. "You and me both."
Cody led the way to the first door. With Ian flanking him on the other side, he pushed it open and stepped inside. Empty. But the beds had been disturbed, as if they'd been full and people had gotten up and left in a rush. He didn't like the sound of that. There were poles and tubing all over. The room was a mess. Damn.
"That doesn't look good."
Ian's voice was faint and indistinct. "Oh, boy. I hope this doesn't mean there are a lot more people in here."
"I think it does," Jewel muttered. "I'm really starting to hate these vamps."
"They could have been moved first, with us next on their list to deal with as soon as they could get to us," Ian said. "If they snatched a lot of people at once, they could have a space issue."
"If so, they are likely to be injecting their new captives with the mind-altering drugs like they gave Rhia. That appears to turn the vamps into instant allies."
Ian paled. "That's not good."
"There's a door in the back." David headed toward the door. "Let's check it out. Doing something constructive is better than voicing worse-case scenarios."
Cody was closest. Jewel stayed behind David, with Ian bringing up the rear. They'd almost reached the second door when the first door slammed shut.
Shit.
***
Jared's eyes flashed open and he froze. A normal-looking ceiling stared down at him; normal-looking blankets covered him. A normal-looking room surrounded him. His shoulders sagged. Thank God.
He wasn't at the blood farm. He'd fought going to a hospital last night in the worst way. He couldn't stand to be in the same environment. Needles and white coats. Ugh. This had been the compromise. A group home for kids with medical issues. The doctors had taken blood and were running tests to determine what drugs he'd been given, and why.
He'd mentioned the abnormality in his blood. Outside of noting it in his chart, the doctor had said nothing. Jared just hoped these doctors would tell him what they'd found. He didn't understand the drop of vampire blood in his genetics, but wasn't bothered by it any longer. Not after realizing that it gave him something in common with Tessa.
And what the hell was with her?
She was freakin' unbelievable. He'd thought her mother had been hot until he'd realized who she was, but the younger, perfect version, Tessa, was jaw dropping. He'd been stunned when she'd run into his arms. Barely recognizing who she was…no matter what she was. Only with the other vamps surrounding her, there was no way to not know what she was. In school, he'd had no idea. She did that whole sunshine thing so well, she'd fit in like the other girls. He'd seen what he was supposed to see.
Did he feel a little taken in? Yes, maybe. Did he feel happy that she'd gone out with him before this mess? Yes, a little. And did he feel special to know her as she really was? Hell yeah!
"Hey, Jared. There's someone here to see you," called the voice from down the hallway.
Jared's insides froze. Who? No one knew he was here. He searched the room, wondering if he could hide.
Footsteps approached. He had no time. Knuckles rapped hard on the door. "Hey, Jared. Wake up. There's someone to see you. And boy, is she a looker!"
Jared sat up and grinned.
Tessa? Maybe? Hopefully?
***
Serus finally closed his phone, weary beyond belief. Goran stood at his side, still making calls.
He stared down at his wife and wondered if he should try to tell her the latest development. He didn't want to slow her healing. She'd been slowly waking up after the doctor's purification stuff and cleansed her blood. Everyone expected her to be back to normal when she came to.
Everyone but him. Nothing had turned out as expected in this mess yet. Why would it turn in his favor now?
"Serus. We've got big problems. Cou
ncilman Tondjent hasn't been heard from since leaving the blood farm, and neither has his driver."
"He had the kids." Serus's fingers stretched out, then curled up tightly. He glared at his friend. "Damn it. Their car must have been hijacked. And if it was, how many of the others have been taken, too?"
"I have the council staff calling every member to locate their whereabouts. If this has gone south to the extent we're assuming, we need to know who's missing and who isn't."
"Contact Taz," Serus said. "He's still at the blood farm. There're a dozen of them working up there. He'll be able to give us a list of those still there with him – humans and vamps."