by Dale Mayer
The officer looked hard at him. "Really?"
He nodded. And worked at making it a reality. He would be fine. He'd been through too much to get in trouble at this point. He had some assholes to take down. Somehow. If he left it up to these useless officers, nothing would get solved. By the time they got around to it, the people behind this would have gone back underground. He couldn't let that happen.
And why the hell weren't these two assholes out looking for the missing people?
***
The sun was heating up. The two vamps raced to the garage entrance of the underground blood farm, their coats starting to steam from the heat. Serus motioned to the dark building around them. "Sure wish we knew what we were walking into."
"Betrayal. Death on a massive scale. Chaos." Goran grinned. "Just like old times."
"Great," Serus mumbled under his breath. "Glad you're looking forward to this."
"They've got my boy. Damn right I'm looking forward to this. A little action that lets me punch faces is always good."
They walked silently through the doorway. Goran gave a sharp push on the wall mechanism, sending the floor downward.
Serus felt a stillness take over. A waiting. A sense of watchfulness. This was a war all over again.
"So, how do we tell the good guys from the bad guys again?" Goran asked lightly, but there was a serious overtone to the question.
"Damned if I know."
"So we kill them all?"
"Not a good idea. We need all the ones on our side that we can get."
The door came to rest on the sub floor. The steel door closed in front of them. Taking a deep breath, Serus let it rush out, then, knowing he had to face whatever was down there, he kicked the door in the right spot.
It opened soundlessly.
The hallway in front of them was empty.
"Damn creepy place," Goran muttered. "I was hoping to never return."
Serus led the way down the long white interior corridor, opening the doors as they came to them.
Just before the computer room, he slowed, holding his hand up to warn Goran.
He peered around the window. The room was empty. The monitors were on with work in progress. At least, Serus assumed it was work. It looked like open files on one.
"I wonder if it's good guys or bad that have been working in that room?"
"At one point it was us good guys. Who it is now, well…"
They walked past the empty room and headed to the lower level.
As they came around the long corner, they slowed their approach. On the left, windows opened up to show the same warehouse full of hanging people – exactly the same as before.
Goran sighed. "I'll never get this image out of my mind."
"Hell, I'd hoped they'd have gotten the damn people out of the warehouse by now." Serus sighed as he stared at the disturbing sight. "Only Taz said it could be months – possibly even years."
"Good man, that one."
Serus nodded. "That he is. I hope he's okay. He jumped at the chance to come and help, but I'll never forgive myself if he's killed during this mess."
"There are going to be a lot of casualties. It's not our doing, but I know what you mean."
Their voices dropped to a whisper as they approached the last set of steel doors. Serus pushed them open and walked inside, slipping to the right. Hugging the wall, he moved over so Goran to stand beside him.
"Left or right?" Goran asked in a low voice.
But Serus was looking up, at the high, domed ceiling, remembering the boys had been taken to a suspended platform that looked down on the area.
Goran followed his gaze. "Right. I'll check that first. Stay moving to the right and I'll find you in a few minutes."
With a graceful, powerful surge, Goran took to the air, his wings barely opening in the limited space as he raised himself in a powerful rush. And disappeared from sight.
Serus watched him go. Then he turned his eyes to the mess in front of him. There were no people walking around. No lab technicians working on the people. The place appeared empty.
So where the hell was Taz?
Tessa's friends and family were down there somewhere. She had to trust in herself and in them. They'd be doing what they could to get free and she had to do what she could to help them.
She took a deep breath and jumped back to the rooftop. The unconscious vamp lay where he'd fallen. Good. At least this way she didn't have to worry about his friends sneaking out like ninjas and stealing him away. The way these guys appeared and disappeared made them spooky, as if they had skills she could only imagine.
Like what if they could become invisible? Now, how cool would that be?
Cool or not, it wasn't likely to happen in her lifetime. She laughed. Considering how long vamps lived, that wasn't necessarily true. She walked the length of the roof to where she'd first seen the vamp appear. At first glance, she couldn't see anything resembling a door. But that meant nothing when she considered her experiences with doors, walls, and floors in the last few days. If complete floors shifted, why not roofs? She backed up several steps and checked out the energy. Sure enough, she could see the one vamp's energy sitting on the one spot. But only the one spot.
That meant he'd landed or come out of that one square. She searched for an outline of a moveable portion of the roof. And frowned. She couldn't see anything. He didn't have wings, so he hadn't flown. If he'd arrived, then he'd jumped. She raised her gaze to the hillside in front of her. And shifted her position. There was a small energy trail directly in front of where she'd been standing. But thin, narrow. She didn't understand why it was so wispy. He was a big vamp. He should generate a lot of energy. There was something odd with the energy. Oh… She narrowed her gaze.
The easily seen energy was thin, but it appeared to be surrounded by clouds of darker thin energy. Hard to see in the night.
So the amount of energy was normal from what she could see but the color…so not.
He had to be one of the designer vamps, or at least a modified one.
Why? Why wouldn't they be happy with who they were?
She stopped, startled at her own thoughts. Hadn't she been the same? Thinking she wasn't good enough. Dying to be 'normal' like the other vamps. As she was quickly learning, no one was 'normal,' and those that she'd once considered normal had their own differences and insecurities, too.
She gathered her strength to jump, then stopped at the last minute as she remembered her father's advice. She sighed. When would this become instinctive? She closed her eyes and jumped upward, instinctively seeing the spot she wanted to land.
The wind rippled her hair as she soared upward and over, landing beautifully, gently in the right spot. Effortless.
"Perfect."
She watched the energy around her, picked her next spot, and jumped again. Three more jumps and she'd retraced the vamp's trail to the hillside. He'd come from here. Somewhere.
She surveyed the area. The moon had been drifting in and out of the cloud cover all evening. Now it came out bright and strong to twinkle off to the left. She scrambled across the loose rocks coming down above the spot she was looking for and realized there was a hollow, easily camouflaged in the rock. A hollow deep enough for a door. She jumped down so she was facing it. And saw a flash. She peered closer. A camera. Really? One camera wouldn't give them much viewing area. So maybe it was a part of a security system more than a tracker for her. And, oh shit, that brought up another whole freaky concept.
A tracker meant she could be wearing a tracking device. She hadn't considered that. They could have put one on her at the SUV. But…she'd changed her shirt. She didn't dare dwell on the thought they'd watched her while she'd changed. That was so not on her list of things she wanted to experience. So it couldn't be still on her…unless it hadn't been put in her clothing. She checked her black pants to make sure, but couldn't find anything. She had the same boots. Instantly she plunked down on her butt and examined first one, then the oth
er. Nothing.
So that wasn't it. Her hands slapped to her head and her long hair. She'd pulled her hair back into a braid. If she'd been fitted with something in her hair then it should have fallen out. She breathed a sigh of relief. If it was too complex to have been done quickly, she was pretty sure they couldn't have done it. Therefore the easy answer was she hadn't been fitted with a tracking device.
Thank God for that.
So, back to her next problem. Given the dying vamp's last words, she had to assume they knew she was here outside the door.
What if they had a second entrance? She gave a slow perusal of the hillside, searching for anything that might indicate another door, a window. Just when she was ready to give up, she heard a scraping noise. She spun around.
A door, camouflaged to look like a large rock, was opening.
And she was standing right in front of it.
***
Cody finally managed to get the group back on track to find Tessa. The other vamps were in various stages of waking up. They'd explained the situation to the ones awake enough to comprehend and had left them in charge of the still waking members.
He led the way. With one more added. Motre. The big guy who'd woken up first.
At the double bed frames, Cody pointed out the mess of tied-up vamps to their new group member. All three of the bad guys were awake and pissed. Motre walked over and his fist shot out three times. Just like that, all three tied-up vamps were unconscious again. Cody grinned. Perfect.
Of like mind, they picked up the pace and ran from room to room.
Nothing. They kept going until they arrived back at the same damn place. They were in the room with the recuperating vamps. They'd gone in a complete circle. A honking huge one, but still just a circle. And hadn't found a way out. What the hell.
"This is so wrong," David said. "We have to have missed a door. They got us in here somehow."
Jewel nodded. "But I have to admit I wish Tessa was here to work her magic. She'd be able to tell us where the entrances are."
"So we have to think like her," Ian said. He spun around. "We can't see the energy pathways, but we can still check to see if the walls open or if the floors shift."
"And," Cody walked over to the biggest smoothest wall with no beds in front of it, "it would most likely be in this room so as to not have to move all these victims more than possible."
"I don't understand." Motre spoke up. "What's this about energy pathways and moving walls?"
David grinned. "Just some fancy stuff my sister can see."
Motre tilted his head. "Tessa, right? I heard some interesting things about her."
At that David laughed. "Chances are they're all true."
Cody walked to the wall and tapped it.
Sure enough, it was hollow. "Hey, this sounds promising."
The others crowded around. Cody tapped again. "See?"
"Kick it like Tessa does."
Cody kicked the wall. Nothing. He kicked it again. Still nothing. He glanced at the others. "Any suggestions?"
"Move over and try a little lower. She's not as tall as you are."
That made sense. Cody moved over and, in a series of successive motions, he kicked his way along the wall. He was almost to the end of the space he'd pegged as possible and, sure enough, there was a loud click.
Yes.
He glanced at the others, excitement surging through him.
"Are you ready? There could be a dozen waiting on the other side."
Motre growled, "Good. Let me at them."
Cody grinned. Good thing this vamp was their side.
With a quick glance at the others, he tugged the door open.
***
Jared was escorted into the doctor's office two hours after his nasty interrogation session with the two police officers. Since then, he hadn't been left alone. He didn't know if they thought he was suicidal or aggressive. Probably the latter. He did feel like killing something. That asshole cop would be his second choice. First would the vampires who'd hung him up.
Even now, the remembered look on the cop's face made Jared's stomach sour.
He sat down on the sheet-covered table and stared out the window. He wasn't even sure why he was here. Surely enough had been done to him already.
"Jared." The doctor walked in smiling, a tablet in his hand. "That's one way to avoid long line-ups at the doctor's – just bring your own bodyguard."
Jared couldn't even dredge up a laugh for that one. He'd prefer not to be here in the first place.
"And how are you feeling?"
Jared stared at him. He hated this new suspicion, this sense of something off or unsaid. "I'm fine," he mumbled.
The next ten minutes were painful on many levels as the doctor checked him over. Finally they were done. The doctor clicked a few times on his tablet, then said, "As you know, some drugs were administered to you while you were a prisoner."
Jared waited. Maybe now he'd get to the truth. "What kind of drugs?"
"We don't know yet. Most have washed through your system, and those that we could find and test aren't ones that we know of." He waved the tablet around. "The individual elements we know, but what they were doing together we can only guess at."
Jared's breath whooshed out. Of course they didn't. Who knew what the vampires had done to him? And what long-term effect might the drugs have over the years? "They would've had something to keep me calm, because I noticed a difference as the drugs started to leave my system."
The doctor nodded. "Definitely had a sedative in there. From what I'm seeing here, basically they gave you enough chemicals to make you go to sleep and be happy about it."
"Nice."
The doctor chuckled. "At least they made you feel good about it. As for whatever else they might have done, the results will take time." He walked over to the door.
"What about the anomaly in my blood?" Jared asked.
The doctor stopped and turned back to him. He frowned. "Nothing has shown up in the results I have so far." He looked down at his tablet. "Did they say what the anomaly was?"
"No. They did mention that there was a little bit of vampire blood in my history, but a long time ago."
The doctor nodded. "That in itself isn't unusual. But for them to have run deeper tests and found this 'anomaly' means they could have more sophisticated tests than we have."
"Like their more sophisticated drugs. They gave Rhia something very odd."
"Rhia?"
Jared explained the little bit he knew.
"I don't understand why they would be doing experiments on their own people." The doctor stared off into the distance. "I have to admit, I'd like to know a lot more."
"Chances are you'll get your chance," Jared said with a snort. "It's not like we're going to be short of specimens to examine soon."
"No, but only humans will come my way." He turned and walked back to the door. "And the key here isn't in the food source, but in what they need the food source for. And why they feel the need to run any experiments on vampires in the first place."
"Because one faction has to be taking over the other." Jared followed behind the doctor, more than ready to leave as soon as he got the chance. "In this case, humans are just the casualty."
"But a necessary one. Without the blood flowing, vampires can't survive."
***
Goran came in low and fast, the color and strength back in his face. Serus was glad his old friend was feeling better, stronger. Who knew what mess they'd face again? They both needed to be at their best. Serus was likely to be the weaker given that he was powered by concern for three family members. Goran had managed to channel his concern into anger.
Serus needed to do the same thing.
"The platform is empty."
"Good. We have to find Taz. That he's in danger after rushing here to help is unacceptable."
"I know." A funny beep had Goran pulling out his cell phone. "Remember we were trying to locate the old guard? Those on ou
r side from the war decades ago? Well, I sicc'ed Gloria on it, remember her?" Goran glanced over at Serus.
"Gloria, the dragon admin lady that runs the council with a whip?"
"Yeah, that's her." Goran grinned, a faraway look in his eyes. "She does like whips." He shook his head as if to clear a memory and said, "Anyway, she lost a son and a husband back then. She's eager, I mean eager, to help us out."
"Good." Serus grinned, letting his fangs show. It was more than good. They needed people they could count on. And dragon lady Gloria had an invested stake in payback. "Has she contacted anyone yet?"