by Dale Mayer
*.*.*
Cody sank into the water to just past his ankles. He bent and tugged his jeans into his boot tops.
"Now that's just wrong," Ian said from the bottom stair.
"Wrong or not, we need to see what we're up against. Tessa is tall, but not heavy. A male vampire could carry her down here easily. But he wouldn't have come this way if the place was heavily flooded." He glanced back at his friend. "Stay here. I'll be back soon."
"Don't worry. I'm not getting wet." Ian smirked as Cody rolled his eyes at him, and then headed to the far side.
The bottom dipped slightly, but the water always remained below the top of his boots. Cody eyed the water. "What's the chance of my getting out of this with dry feet?"
"Not bloody likely. Better you than me." Ian laughed. "I know she's David's sister, but water and I don't mix."
Cody grimaced. If Ian only knew how rarely Tessa was just David's little sister in his mind. Thank God David didn't know. Although now that David's relationship with Jewel was out in the open, he might be more open to Cody's feelings. Then again, maybe not. Tessa was young and different. Her whole family protected her. After what he'd seen, maybe they should be protecting the world from Tessa. She was hot and deadly.
Several careful steps brought him to the low ceiling at the far side. To the left, it was pitch black forever. His vampire eyes told him the wall continued around for a long while. The right side told him a different story. He moved in the direction of the light streaming in. Maybe it was an exit.
"Hey, what did you find?"
"I'm not sure," Cody called back. "I’m going to check out that light-it could be just another room on the other side."
"Careful. If they came this way, they may have left a guard to watch the entrance."
"True."
"Let me know if you want me to join you. I've only got shoes on, but if that's what I have to do..." Ian's disgusted voice made Cody laugh.
"Hold up. I'll check it out and let you know." Cody splashed his way toward the end, trying to ignore his wet jeans. If they'd carried Tessa, they could have gone out this way. He doubted that they would have forced her to walk through here unless she was tied up. The light grew brighter. He reached the opening and peered out.
Daylight reached for him.
*.*.*
Jared opened his eyes, then closed them again. Nothing had changed. He was still in a sterile, white room filled with empty beds. He was the captive of a nightmare no one would understand; much less believe, including him.
His one pathetic escape attempt had failed.
"Hi there, how are you feeling?"
Opening his eyes, Jared locked gazes with one of the most beautiful females he'd ever seen. A vampire female – although she didn't wear the same lab coat as the others did. Studying her more closely, he realized that although she didn't resemble the others, she looked vaguely familiar.
"Hello." Was that his voice? It sounded like someone had taken a sander to his throat. "Do I know you?"
"Not yet," she said with a smile that rocked his world. His gaze widened as he took in her beauty. Dynamite! He drummed up a smile, knowing it was probably only a caricature of his normal friendly smile. He hadn't had a good day in a long time. Not since the day he'd gone to the movie with Tessa in fact. Who knew how long ago that had been?
"Did you get the test results?"
She frowned, reaching down to straighten his blankets. "What test results?"
"I'm still here, aren't I?" Jared studied her, and then glanced around the room. "At the blood farm?"
She smiled gently. "Yes, you are. But don't worry. We've come to rescue you."
He brightened. Relief mixed with disbelief coursed through him. Was this really over? "Really? I'm safe now? Will these other people be rescued too?"
"Yes. A team is coming to determine what can be done for everyone else here. You attacked one of your rescuers, and he knocked you out. Sorry. We didn't mean to hurt you."
"I remember." He vaguely recalled hearing voices and standing behind an open doorway with a weapon of some kind, then…everything went fuzzy. "I was trying to escape."
"That's what we figured." The woman placed a hand on his forehead and checked his temperature. "Not to worry. You didn't know we'd come to help."
Jared remember thinking he'd heard Tessa's voice. Surely that had been the drugs speaking. He didn't want to ask and sound as if he was mentally incompetent.
"You're a very lucky man that you weren't strung up like the others."
"I was," Jared answered softly. He risked a look out the open door into the cavernous warehouse still filled with hanging bodies. He couldn’t stop the shudder rippling down his frame. "But there was something wrong. They found something odd in my blood and wanted to run a few more tests."
"Interesting." The woman's eyes sharpened. "Have you any idea what they found?"
"No." Jared didn't know, and he wasn't sure he'd tell her even if he did. Could he trust her? She'd said she'd come to rescue him, but he only had her word for that. Did he believe her?
"How are you feeling? Do you want to try sitting up?"
"I'd really like to stand up and walk around. Make sure I'm no longer held down." He glanced around. All of the other empty beds, except for one, were in pristine condition. He pointed out that particular bed. "I know another guy was in that bed for a while. I don't know if they strung him back up or not. I hope not. He wasn't much older than me."
The woman nodded and he saw concern and care in her gaze as she viewed the hanging horror through the doorway. "We're going to do what we can. Some of them we may not be able to be save. It depends on their muscles and bones." She stood up and pulled back his blankets.
Jared tried to stop her, and then realized he was fully dressed. "Oh. Somewhere along the line, I acquired some normal clothing."
"My husband found those clothes. They were piled in one of the other rooms."
Jared hid his face as heat rose up his neck. He wasn't going to ask who'd dressed him. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up slowly. His head swam a little, and a pulsing headache had settled into the back of his skull, but otherwise he felt normal. Hopping to his feet, he found he was able to stand on his own. He blinked several times as he swayed slightly. Releasing a huge breath, he glanced over and grinned at her. "I feel better already."
"You don't appear to have suffered any lasting effects from your kidnapping."
"Thanks for rescuing me." Moving slowly to the doorway, Jared looked back at her. "But how did you know I was here?"
A smile lit up her face. "For that, you owe my daughter."
Her daughter? First, he couldn't believe she was old enough to have a daughter; and second, he didn't know any vampire females and actually had never met any, to the best of his knowledge.
He walked out into the warehouse. "Who's your daughter?"
"I believe you go to school with her. Her name is Tessa."
Jared spun around in shock. The room swam at the sudden movement.
He collapsed to the ground.
*.*.*
Ignoring the locked front door for the moment, David stood aside as the two elders with him wrangled good naturedly over which one would open each of the doors they came across. Their competitive natures were legendary. He didn't mind their games. He knew it was their way of coping with the fear and anger. They were nothing, if not in control, Goran especially. He was famous for his temper.
David's own father, on the other hand, was calmer, sterner and probably the deadlier of the two. At least, David had always thought so. Cody would probably laugh at him and say he didn't know what he was talking about. Tessa was the only girl in both families, and although she was an odd duck, she was well loved by both him and Cody. He frowned. "No sign of her."
"How are we going to find her, when she's the one who found everyone else?" Serus grumbled.
They came back out
into the hallway. Having searched the top two stories of the house, they moved down to the main floor. "What's the chance she's locked inside that secret room on the way down to the basement?" David asked.
"It's possible." Serus nodded. "We must stay logical in our search, and then we'll know we haven't missed anything."
Everyone agreed, and the three of them tripped from room to room, checking closets and tapping walls.
Nothing.
Finally, dispirited, they reached the basement door.
David opened it. "I'll go in first."
"And why's that?" his Dad growled.
"I want to see if I can find what Tessa was trying to point out when we found Cody and Jewel locked down here."
"Found Cody where?" Goran's roar echoed around the long stairwell.
"We found him in a secret room while searching for Jared. Tessa is the only reason we found them."
"Where were they?" Goran's face was carved from stone, and his expression grew harder the deeper they went.
At the landing, David said, "They were behind this wall."
"Open it."
David backed up and kicked the approximate spot where Tessa had kicked it last time, hitting a secret mechanism that had opened the full-sized stone door. The door didn't move. He tried again, slightly higher this time.
After he had kicked yet again, and then for a fourth time, the door finally swung open.
Tessa's hands slipped free of the ropes. She groaned, and a shudder rippled down her spine as her shoulders were released from the painful position they'd been locked into for hours. She closed her eyes for a moment, and painful, aching waves slid down her back. Checking her wrists, she realized they'd bled and crusted over, but the scabs had ripped off as she'd strained to get free.
Tough. So what if she was bleeding. It's not like she could do anything about it right now.
She turned her attention to the bindings around her ankles. Within minutes, she'd untied her legs. Swinging them over the side of the bed, she stood up slowly. Her feet felt like they'd been replaced by wooden blocks. Stumbling around the room, she tried to get the blood to circulate back through her body. Somehow, she had to escape. She could only guess at what or whom she might find outside of this room.
If the big guy, Bydron, came back before she got away, her punishment would be severe.
And she so did not want to know what that meant.
She grabbed up the loose ropes and stuffed them into her back pockets. She might need them later for her captors. She smirked at the thought. At the door, she listened for sounds from outside.
Nothing.
With luck, she was still in the same vampire lair where they'd snatched her. This room had a similar clinical, antiseptic look. She turned the knob gently in her hand.
It was unlocked.
She pulled the door open slightly. So far, so good. Peering through the crack, she saw nothing. The place appeared to be deserted. So she opened the door a little wider and peered out into another long, white hospital corridor. There were the same endless miles of white corridor she'd seen before. She still had to be at the blood farm.
Not knowing which way to go, she frowned. The sooner she found a way out of this place, the better. Opening both her human and vampire vision, she studied the energy trail left by the two guards. The men had turned left after walking out the door.
She turned right.
*.*.*
"Jared, wake up. You’ve fainted again."
Jared stared up at her, uncomprehending, before struggling to sit up. He flushed. "Sorry. I moved too fast. Everything blacked out... You also shocked me." He gulped. "Are...are you a vampire?"
"Yes, I am." Rhia grimaced. "I don't mean you any harm, though. I'm not like the others who kidnapped you."
Jared swallowed. "But you said you're Tessa's mother."
"Yes, that's correct." She smiled brightly. "I'm Rhia."
"I see." Closing his eyes briefly, Jared wished he didn't have to ask this question. He really didn't want to know the answer. Neither could he stand not knowing the truth. He took a deep breath. "Does that mean...Tessa is a vampire, too?"
Staring up at her, he could read the truth in her face. "She is, isn't she?"
"Yes, she is." Rhia studied his face intently. "You didn't know, did you?"
In a soft, shocked whisper, he stared up at her and said, "No."
She rocked back onto her heels. "How is it that you knew I was a vampire, but didn't recognize Tessa as one?"
He'd like to know the answer to that question, too. Was it because of the context in which he'd met each of them? Here he was in a warehouse run by vampires, and all of them looked similar to Rhia. But he'd only known Tessa in a school filled with humans. That was the best answer he could think of.
"I don't know. I guess it never crossed my mind with her." He paused. "I've known Tessa for years. She's great."
"You mean she was great?"
"No." He protested, struggling with his confusion. "I-I didn't say that."
"You didn't really have to. I can see it on your face." Rhia frowned. "I understand vampires might not be your favorite people after what you've endured at their hands, but you shouldn't judge all of us all in the same way."
Jared swallowed, the rest of the words caught in his throat. Tessa was a vampire? Surely not! He couldn't reconcile that with his image of her. Vampires had taken him captive. Not able to help himself, he looked upon the rows of humans strung up like automatic pumps supplying the world with their blood – unconscious, in a limbo state, caught between life and death.
"We did not do this to you." Rhia's voice held an edge. "Tessa is the one who made us come and look for you."
Jared shot her a shuttered look. Did that mean, if not for Tessa, no one would have come looking?
Rhia stood. "Let's get you over to the chair. The team should be here any minute, and we don't want you to get any sicker before they arrive."
She reached under his shoulders and pulled him to his feet as if he were an oversized doll. Jared couldn't help being impressed with her inherent strength. With her help, he hobbled over to the chair and collapsed into it, hating his weakened state more every second.
"Thanks," he muttered, belatedly remembering his manners.
With a gentle smile, she nodded and walked back over the bed to retrieve a blanket. Returning, she wrapped it around his shoulders. "The others should be back soon."
"What others?" he asked cautiously.
"Tessa's brother and father are here, along with several family friends. We all searched until we found you. Tessa wouldn't have it any other way."
He gulped. More vampires. "Where's Tessa?"
He needed to see her, to see for himself that she was a vampire. Thoughts of her had kept him sane throughout this long ordeal. Now he wondered if maybe he'd crossed a line and become mentally unstable. Rhia didn't look so much like a vampire, but she didn't look quite human. Sure, vampires coexisted with humans now, but he'd never had anything to do with them. They didn't hang around in his circles. At least, he didn’t think so. No, Tessa was different. She'd never seemed to be anything other than human.
Besides that, he really liked her. The uncomfortable silence that had fallen between him and Rhia finally penetrated his thick brain.
"What are you not telling me?" Worry filled him, and he met her eyes. "Where is Tessa?"
"She's missing." Rhia, swallowing hard, said. "We think she's been kidnapped."
*.*.*
David stood at the entrance to the room. Empty. He'd been secretly hoping Tessa would be here – had counted on it, actually. All of their better options had now run out.
"How many other rooms like this do you think we've missed?" he asked.
His father placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. "We'll find her, David."
"Yes, we will, but will that be this year or in a decade or two? Will she end up like those poor peopl
e suspended in there? Will we find her when she's old and gray, and her muscles have been laid to waste from lack of use?"
"Don't." His father squeezed his shoulder, and then shook him roughly. His voice hardened. "We found Jared; we'll find her. And the asshole who took her is mine."
"So he should be." David welcomed the jolt and his father's words. At least it meant he had muscles, bones, and a heart that still worked.
"I want the one who's running this factory."
Goran's bitterness washed over them both, reminding David that they weren't alone. He glared into the empty room as the elders started their usual wrangling. Tessa would know what to do next.
Where the hell was she?
"Come on," Goren finally said. "There's no one here. Let's return to the women. The team might have arrived by now."
David nodded and led the way up the stairs again. They should have left someone on guard outside the house to wait for them. The team would need to be shown how to get down to the warehouse. They should have brought Jewel for that reason. Instead, Jewel had elected to stay below with his mom and rest. Not that she was weak or anything. Jewel was... He smiled, his heart warming. Jewel was his.
Cody knew about their relationship, of course. He'd known for a while. Now David's dad, who'd just found out, had yet to mention it. Maybe he wouldn't. It was David's business, after all. Tessa had noticed too, duh! Of course she had. Being female and all, she hadn't missed much about Jewel's behavior.
But like Cody, she hadn't said anything.
And speaking of his sister – what was up with her and Cody? Tessa was almost seventeen, but that was a hell of a long way from Cody's worldly age of eighteen – and not just in years. Then again, two years, when you could live for centuries, was only a blip in the measure of life. Still…charismatic Cody and David's kid sister?
He frowned. He'd have to think that one through.
*.*.*