by Dale Mayer
"How do you think we stayed at the top of the food chain for so long?"
"Great." She grimaced. "Let’s check this level out."
Ten minutes later, they’d circled once, looking for obvious rooms, hallways, or any way forward. Nothing.
"They’re not here."
"Maybe and maybe not." Tessa focused, or maybe defocused was a better way to describe the blending of her two types of visions, to discern the energy patterns on the floor. Five minutes of searching high and low and …nothing. "You're right. There's nothing here."
"Let’s go tell Mom and Dad."
Tessa looked up the long set of stairs and sighed. "I’m going to jump if it’s all right with you."
"Go for it. I’ll run."
Tessa snorted. "Now that sounds like work." She took a jump and then another and another, going up more steps each time. She stopped on the landing where she’d waited for David earlier. She was gathering her energy for the next jump when something caught her eye. She spun around and crouched at the bottom of the back wall.
Energy. Pale, misty energy pooled at the bottom edge. From that position, she searched the stairs in both directions. Cody's energy had gone this far, but no further. "Someone was here."
David raced up to her. "What did you find?"
"Cody stopped here. There's another energy line mixed with his. Probably Jewel's."
"Here? Then where is he?"
Tessa ran her hands over the stone walls, searching for that telltale crevasse. Yes. The door ran the full length of the landing. "There’s a door here."
"What? Where?"
She grabbed David’s hand and showed him the cracks delineating the break in the stone pattern. "Somehow, this must move."
"You think Cody is behind it?"
"Someone is – or was, at least."
"Let’s get it open then."
They bent their heads, searching for any mechanism that could open the door.
"David? Tessa?" her father’s voice drifted down the long stairwell.
Tessa lifted her head. "Dad, we’re down here on the landing. Looks like another hidden door."
"We’re coming down."
"No, don’t do that. If we’re all stuck down here, we won’t be able to get out."
"Your mother is going to stay up here." A heavy whoosh and Serus landed beside them. "So what did you find?" he asked.
Tessa frowned. "Not sure. The energy is at the bottom. We found a break in the walls as if there's a door, but again, there's no visible latch to open it."
*.*.*
Cody sat with his head bent over his knees. He hated any sensation of weakness – he was male after all. His dad said it was from all the growth spurts and getting his wings. He’d told Cody that his strength would come back bigger, better, and stronger. He hoped so. Felt like he sucked at everything right now.
Jewel lounged beside him. She'd probably dropped off to sleep. He wished he could. Worry wouldn't let him though. He could only hope David had gotten the text message. Otherwise, he had no idea how to get out of here. He closed his eyes and rested. A weird sound caught his attention.
What was that? He bolted to his feet and spun around. The stone room was empty, the same as it had been when they'd first entered. How could they have known that the door would shut behind them like that?
Was he hearing voices?
He nudged Jewel awake. "I think someone's here."
She shuddered. "Good guys or bad guys?"
He grinned at the joke they'd been tossing back and forth to keep themselves entertained. To keep the panic at bay. "No idea. Maybe we should be ready for either."
"Yeah." They stood side by side, both tense and aware of the stakes. With their eyes on the wall, they waited for the door to open.
"Tessa, can't you open this door?" Her father pounded on the stone under his fist.
"I'd love to. But I haven’t found the mechanism yet. It's not the same as the one at the last house, and there's no knob or anything similar." Tessa glared at the wall. Her exhaustion dragged at her – she really wanted to be soaking in a hot bath with bubbles up to her chin.
Pissed, she lashed out and kicked the wall. Hard.
"Shit!" She hopped around on one foot while the two males watched her in amazement. The wall groaned and creaked before swinging open.
"Wow!" David shot her an odd look before racing inside. "Hello? Anyone here?"
"David? Oh thank heavens." Jewel ran up to him, gave him a quick hug, then tugged on his arm to drag him back out of the room.
Cody joined them, pushing everyone out of the room. "We have to get out of here. The door shuts on its own. Thank God you got my message." Cody smacked David's shoulder.
David grinned and flexed his biceps. "Yeah, you're not kidding."
"Hey, Tessa. Didn't think I'd see you here." Jewel smiled tentatively at Tessa.
David laughed and said proudly, "She's the one who figured out how to open the door."
"Yeah," Tessa snorted. "That took brains. I kicked it because I was angry that I couldn’t figure it out."
They all grinned at her.
"Where are Goran and Ian?" Serus looked at the empty room behind them. "Aren't they with you?"
Cody quickly filled them in. He told them the two men had not shown up at the arranged time. He and Jewel had gone into this room off the stairs while searching for his dad, only to have the door close behind them.
Uneasiness crept over Tessa. This place was bad news. And they'd left her mom upstairs. Alone. She turned to the dark stairwell. "Let’s go. Mom's waiting."
She jumped effortlessly, maybe driven by apprehension. Before she'd really understood how, she stood at the top of the stairs. She beamed. So cool. Though she might not have the techniques down pat yet, she would with a little practice. She strode into the kitchen. "Mom…?"
"Where is she?" Serus stepped into the kitchen behind Tessa. "Rhia?"
No answer.
They looked at each other in horror.
"Oh, no!" In unison, they raced to the front door and stopped outside. Her car was there.
"Mom?" Tessa cried out. "Where are you?"
"Rhia?"
David, Cody, and Jewel arrived a few minutes later. Tessa had already searched the area around the front door.
Jewel shook her head. "She could be anywhere inside the house. We shouldn't panic yet."
"Right." David raced back inside.
"Wait. David, don't go alone. We need to stay paired up." Tessa hated the thought of anyone else going missing.
He paused at the entrance, nodded once, then motioned to Cody. "Let's go."
"We'll take the outside." Tessa motioned to Jewel and her dad. "Sorry, I know you're tired, Jewel, but..."
Jewel shook her head, already heading to the outbuildings. "Forget about that. Let’s find your mom."
The other three fanned out across the yard and methodically went through each of the outbuildings. It brought back a horrible reminder of the previous property. "There's no sign of her."
They raced back to the front of the house. At the entrance, Tessa called out at the top of her lungs, "David? Cody?"
David answered. "We're here."
The two teens raced down the wide staircase toward Tessa. "She's not upstairs."
"Let's check out the main floor." As a large group, they swept through the house for a second time. Nothing.
Back at the car, Tessa’s stomach heaved. If there was any food in there, it would have come back out a long time ago. As it was, a sense of hopelessness and loss slammed into her. Where could her mother have gone?
"Her purse is missing and so is her jacket. Whoever took her might have taken those items as well. Or let her grab them?" Serus frowned as he studied the empty car.
"I suppose." David looked doubtful but strode over to the car to look for anything else that might be helpful.
"Dad, they can't be far
ahead of us. They haven't had time."
"She's right. We came straight up here. If they've taken Rhia, they could also have Goran and Ian. We were supposed to meet them at the front door, but they never showed up." Jewel wrapped her arms around her chest tightly. "What if the same person or group kidnapped everyone?"
Everyone stopped to stare at her.
"I was just thinking that same thing, only why would they?" Tessa couldn't get that question out of her mind. "It's one thing to kidnap a few hapless humans that people may or may not miss. But to kidnap vampires, particularly high profile ones like mom and Goran? That's suicide."
David butted in. "In fact, this whole mess is starting to look like a bad comedy film. We save someone only to find one of our group taken when we weren't looking. We all came to look for Jared, and now four of our original group are missing."
"Four?" Jewel turned to look at Cody. "Who else is missing?"
"My dad, Rhia, Ian and Jacob."
Tessa frowned. "Except Jacob didn't disappear. He was on the wrong side to begin with."
"Don't jump to conclusions." Her father’s voice was sharp as he walked around her mom's car.
"Then form your own opinions." Quickly, she told the others what she'd seen, gratified to see their faces darken with fury. "Exactly."
"There's no sign another vehicle came through this road." Serus studied the tracks on the ground leading up to the house.
"Then either she's still here – which is very possible given the timeframe – or they are all fliers and took her with them," David suggested logically.
"Except Dad and Ian are fliers themselves and would be hard to take away like that." Cody shook his head at the others.
"They could have forced them to fly on their own. Any kind of leverage – like threatening to harm you – and your dad would have gone easily," David pointed out.
Cody winced.
Tessa nodded. "It's possible, but I don't think that’s what happened. I can't see the energy, which would be floating around here if they had. My guess is everyone is still here somewhere."
"Then find them. Look for the energy. Surely if you can find Cody behind a secret door, you can track your own mother." Serus glared at Tessa.
Tessa's cheeks flushed at his words. "I'm working on it. If they're here, there has to be an energy trail showing what direction they went."
She walked a good thirty feet away from the group that stood watching her. But no pressure, of course. A blanket of midnight covered the stars. There was a refreshing stillness to the air, the coolness easing the mugginess from the day's heat. That might help her get a clearer picture. She turned around to face the others. Switching on both visions, she studied the bright lights of the group. Energy flashed and pulsed in a big ball because they stood so close together.
Because everyone had already wandered across the yard in search of her mother, energy sat low and wide, with new trails layered over older ones. She backed up further, looking for a heavy concentration of energy leading off in one direction. She walked around looking at the various pathways from different angles.
Damn it. They didn't have time for this. Jared had been missing for way too long already. Who knew how much longer he could survive? Had he even survived this long? She couldn’t let herself think about it. And where were Cody's dad and her own mother? Just the thought of them captive somewhere made her stomach heave.
She walked toward the others. The bulk of the glowing mass appeared to be white light. It took precious moments to see the different personalities. She could separate Cody's and Jewel's energy easily, as theirs looked slightly different, darker. Something about being fliers, she supposed, which meant if she saw Goran's energy then she might be able to find out where he'd gone.
Her dad's was heavier, thicker. David's was faster moving and resembled slim ribbon-looking waves. She stopped about ten feet away from them and studied the ground and the energy paths. The last outbuilding in the row had a heavy track of mixed energies. But everyone here had been looking for her mom.
A flier had gone in there. That energy had a more masculine look. There was also a feminine energy.
Her mother’s.
She crouched lower to the ground and changed the angle so she could see the mist better. And then she knew. She bolted upright and raced to the outbuilding. "She’s gone in here."
Pounding footsteps followed her. She barely heard them over the thudding of her heart. What she hadn’t said was that her mother hadn’t been alone.
Arriving at the entrance first, her father wrenched open the double barn doors. The vacant space appeared larger, still empty like the first time she'd checked it.
Tessa was no longer fooled.
She stood at the entrance and studied the energy patterns as the others searched the area. Her mother had passed this way and stopped. From the look of the energy trail, she’d have to say her mother went down.
Where and how?
"Tessa?" Serus walked up to stand beside her.
"It looks like the floor again."
"Really." Her dad crouched down to stare at the plank floor, as if it would give up its answers that way. "Any idea where?"
Tessa walked forward a few steps. "It's almost like the whole floor moves. I don't get it."
There was energy everywhere. Yet all of it sat just above the planks. She walked back over to the doorway and searched the walls on either side. There had to be a lever or something here. A weird spot glowed on the left side. She placed the palm of her hand flat on the wall like she had the last time. Nothing. She pushed. Still nothing. Moving her hand slowly, her fingers spread apart, she searched the small area, certain there was something there.
"What are you looking for?" David spoke by her ear. She started, surprised to find everyone crowding around her.
"A way to open the floor."
"Open?"
"Raise and lower it then. Somehow, the floor moves."
Cody reached above her and placed his hand flat where hers had been. He pushed hard. Instantly, the sound of gears had them all spinning around. The entire floor descended – with them on it.
David backed up, only there was no place to go. "Okay, this is beyond weird. Shouldn't someone stay above in case we get locked in down here?"
Tessa suggested, "I think this time we should all stay together. Every time we split up, we lose someone."
"Besides," said Cody. "It may take all of us to get everyone out of here safely."
The floor moved at an incredibly slow pace.
"I presume this was used to move heavy equipment. That gear system is seriously engineered." Cody studied the large pulley system as the floor descended. "I mean this thing is old."
"Not that old." Serus crouched down to try to see where they were going. "Makes me realize how damn lucky we've been to not run afoul of more of his inventions." He turned and counted heads, as if reassuring himself that they hadn't lost someone else. "When Moltere was under fire from the rest of the vampire clans, he was rumored to have built a lot of self-defense systems and getaway chambers. I thought the gossip was all rumors."
The floor came to a gentle rest so slowly that it took a moment for everyone to realize they'd stopped moving.
Another empty room.
Tessa headed for the door on the far side, not bothering to explain. She could see the energy wisps, proving she was on the right track. "This way."
A flat steel door with a short handle faced them.
"Damn." Tessa fished in her pocket for her dad's credit card again and slid it down the seam to find the locking mechanism. After a few frustrating minutes, she realized she couldn't open this door. "This isn’t working. I can't get it open."
"Step aside. Maybe I can rip it off its hinges." Her father grasped both sides of the steel door and pulled. The steel didn’t budge. He refused to give up.
Finally, Tessa tapped him on the shoulder. "It’s not doing anything."
He glared at her. "Then what do you suggest?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "It has to open somehow."
David leaned closer. "Sure, with a special key like sound, electricity, pressure...the options are endless." David studied the lever.
"Well, we have to figure it out. Mom's behind this door." Tessa's frustration was mounting. Rescue was so close and yet so far.
"And just how do you suggest we do that?" David’s sarcasm was getting to be a pain in the ass.
She’d had enough. "I don’t know, David. Feel free to step up to the plate anytime."
"That’s enough," Serus snapped at them. "Worse case is we have to wait until someone else comes in or out."
Cody frowned at the steel door in front of them. "Yep, I considered that but was hoping we'd find another way."
Too tired and confused to make any more decisions, Tessa sat down on the floor and waited for the others to decide. She’d gotten them this far. Someone else would have to get them inside.
*.*.*
Jared waited until the nurse left before sitting up. A young, incredibly skinny male somewhere around Jared's age slept in the bed beside him. Jared waited until he saw signs of movement from the kid. "Hey, are you awake?"
"Yeah, for a little bit, then the drugs will take over." The male yawned. "I’m Bryce."
"I’m Jared. How long have you been here? Isn’t there any way to get out? Like I don’t want to just be a milking machine for the rest of my life."
"No one’s ever gotten out of here. Except for the last guy."
"Who?" Jared could hardly keep his voice down. "How'd he get out? Do you know if he made it?"
"Nah, he died."
"What the hell?" Anger surged through Jared. "How can you be so complacent? Don’t you want to escape?" He glared at the open door. "This is brutal. I’m too young to end up like this."
"Maybe." Bryce was silent for a long moment. "I bet you don’t have much in the way of family and no one is going to care if you don’t come home." He suddenly looked at Jared in the eye. "Am I wrong?"
Shit. Jared’s uncle would be happy if he never saw him again. He slowly shook his head. "No, you’re probably right. They might wonder when I’ll walk through the door again, but less and less as time goes on."