by Dale Mayer
He finally answered, after working his way through what he remembered of his sister's life. "She has some human friends, and is really tight with two girls. She's never brought them home, though."
"Oh, that's good to hear."
David pursed his lips. Yes, it was good. Maybe his sister's life hadn't been so bad after all. He refocused on the three teens approaching them.
"So what did you find?" he called out to Cody.
His friend motioned behind him. "That this tunnel goes on for miles. We never saw a cart or anything on the tracks, but I figure it must lead to another station of some kind. I think we should find out, though. There could be another human warehouse here somewhere."
"I'll let mom know you're here." David pulled out his cell phone. "I'll tell her about this tunnel. Personally, I think we need more people down here."
"Wait." Cody reached over and grabbed his phone before he could start texting. "There's something I want to talk to you about." He glanced over at Jared, took a deep breath, and said, "Do you really believe the rescue team is made up of just good guys? Because I'm reconsidering that notion."
Icy winds washing down the valley swirled around Tessa, and she huddled into a tight ball.
"Tessa? Honey, talk to me." Hands grabbed her, tried to lift her head. She fought against them as the cold seeped into her neck and chest.
"It's okay. You're safe now. Let me get you warm."
Shivers had taken hold of her and were wracking her body until her teeth chattered. Opening her eyes, Tessa stared into the worried eyes of her father. "Hi, Dad."
"Hi, I'm so glad I found you." His loving smile had never been so welcome. He stripped off his heavy coat and threw it around her shoulders. "This should help."
She moaned as the instant heat wrapped around her like a baby’s blanket of comfort. Tucking herself low, she closed her eyes and willed her body to warm up.
Her father dropped a kiss onto her forehead. "How long have you been sitting here?"
"Not too long," she said, peering up at him through her close-held lapels. "At least, I don't think so. I kept going until I couldn't go on anymore. Then I found this spot and hunkered down. How long have you been looking?"
"We’ve been looking for at least an hour, but probably closer to twice as long. Goran is flying toward us. I'm hoping he can carry you. You're in no shape to walk out of here alone."
"If I can warm up, I might be able to jump. Once my feet had gone numb, I kept slipping on my landings. I almost fell, like really fell, and that made me realize how bad it was."
She inhaled and tried to straighten her sore back, wincing as her stiff muscles screamed in protest. "Did you see any sign of the other search party? The bad guys? I saw two fliers a few hours ago."
"I haven't seen anyone. Maybe Goran has. He'd welcome a fight about now."
"Except these guys were out in daylight so I don't get it." Her mind still moved slowly, and she stared at him for several minutes before registering the repugnance on his face. "They weren't real vampires, were they?"
He rubbed her arms briskly before answering. "I'm not sure. We don't know who or what these people are yet."
The rush of heavy wings stirred the air.
Tessa cried out and crouched lower under the coat.
Her father wrapped her in his strong arms. "It's okay Tessa. It's Goran."
"Goran?" She peered around her father's back. Sure enough, Cody's father stood at the edge of the bluff. Relief and concern highlighted his chiselled face.
"Tessa? Are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they?"
"Not really." She shook her head to clear it. "They injected me with something, only I reacted differently than they had expected. When they left to go find a person to check out why the drugs weren't working, I managed to slip out of my ropes and sneak away."
"Ropes?"
"Yeah, they tied my wrists and feet." Tessa grinned gleefully. "But I got free."
She shoved her wrists out of the warmth of the coat. Even in the dark, her bruises and torn flesh were obvious. Her mouth fell open. "Oh, I hadn't realized."
"Good." Serus tucked the coat around her more tightly. "Don't dwell on it now. Let's get you to your mother. One of the doctors will clean these up."
"The team finally arrived then?" She stood up straight and gasped as pain arrowed through her frozen body.
"Yes, although it's going to take them a long time to figure out how to handle this mess."
"The human doctors will know the best way to proceed." It took a moment for the unnatural silence to make its way through Tessa's brain. She stared from one to the other before grim understanding filtered in. "Of course. Nobody called any human doctors, did they?" She struggled to her feet. "How stupid is that? Can you imagine if the situation were reversed? Would you want hundreds of vampires treated by humans? Our vampire doctors could cause even more damage while trying to save the humans."
Neither of them said anything.
"That figures." Curling her lip, she brushed off her jeans. "The least you could've done is to have brought in Taz. He would be the natural choice here. At least, with him being married to a vampire, he understands both sides." Taz was a human doctor married to Sian, her mother's best friend – and a vampire.
The two men's faces mirrored both surprise and chagrin.
"I never thought of it," her father finally admitted. "We can call him when we get back to the others."
"That makes sense." Goran nodded. "Tessa, we're going to do what's right for those poor people, I promise. No one wants any more harm to come to them. But we can't rush the process. Many of them could need serious long-term care."
"Exactly – human care." She glowered at him. "Not vampire care. Vampires have done horrible things to the human population. Our treaty has been spat upon. They've even tried to cover up this mess – and not bringing the human Council on board right at the beginning was illegal. It was also morally wrong."
In silence, the elders looked at each other, and then back at her.
"There speaks the younger generation." Goran studied her like a curiosity. "Do you think others her age will feel the same way? Or is her reaction a direct result of her integration with the human population?"
Serus frowned and studied Tessa. "I don't know."
She threw up her hands. "Can we return to Mom, please? Before my bones freeze out here?"
Serus looked at Goran. "Can you carry her? Or am I taking her down with me?"
"Heavens, there’s no need for that. I'll take her and meet you there."
Goran didn't give Tessa a chance to argue. He scooped her into his arms as if she were still a newborn babe and lifted off effortlessly. So much for his being injured. Twisting her head, she kept an eye on Serus as he took a smooth, gliding step off the rocks and soared hundreds of feet to his next jumping spot. His movements were graceful and smooth, but much slower than if he had been able to fly. The wind whistled around her face and neck. She tucked lower into her father's jacket and hoped their journey would end soon.
*.*.*
David fell into step with Cody as they climbed the stairwell to his mom. "I've actually been worried about the same thing. Do we really think the team is bad? Or are only some on the team bad?"
Cody lifted his shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. "I don't know. After watching Jared's reaction, I tried to knock his fears down, and then realized I couldn't. I don't know any of these people. Any or all of them could be bad. How do we know the original team – the ones who strung up those people – didn't just slip out somehow, and then walk right back through the front door when we called for help?"
"That's just plain creepy," Jewel muttered behind them. "Who even wants to consider that scenario?"
"Or, what if they had hijacked the real team and taken their place? They'll just string up all of us, and who'll know the difference? No one will find us. No one above ground will know where to even start looking.
Sure, the elders are out there, but they'll be back soon. You've all seen the size of the physical operation inside this place. Do you have any idea how many people have to be involved to run something this big? How many medics, lab techs, computer geeks – and that's just for starters – would be required? I don't know if anyone on the team is involved, but I'm pretty sure at least one is. How can they not be? It's the smart thing to do. It lets them keep tabs on us, see our progress, and find out who knows what we've found out, then report back to the people behind all this."
Jared nodded emphatically. "Exactly. My vote is that creepy doctor with the same bag."
"Is it the same bag?" David turned to look back at Jared. "Or just one that is similar?"
"Looked the same to me."
"That's not proof," Jewel interrupted. "It's a medical bag. How many hundreds of doctors carry them? Surely just having a normal medical bag doesn't make the doctor a bad guy."
"I don't know. It's a glaring thing to miss. If he is bad, I'm surprised he made the mistake of bringing it."
David studied Ian's face. "It would've been easy to miss, since they didn't have much time to prepare. We only called for a team several hours ago."
A thoughtful silence fell over everyone as they continued their upward climb.
"I know this isn't going to be a popular question with the adults, but I gotta ask something," Ian said, his face intent in thought. "If we'd have found a herd of injured wild horses, we'd have brought in a vet. If we'd found a pod of injured dolphins, we'd have brought in a marine biologist or something. So how come, now that we've found a huge number of injured humans, we haven't brought in human doctors? It's not like vampire doctors are going to know what's required for these people in the same way human doctors would."
Jared snorted and motioned toward them all. "He says it, and you listen. I say it, and everyone says I'm overreacting."
Cody stared at his old friend. Sometimes he came up with the damnedest things – things which were often very profound, like now. He hadn't really considered the issue. In fact, he hadn't even noticed. "Did anyone contact any human doctors? Maybe none of them were available at such short notice."
That theory sounded ridiculous, even to him.
"Who knows?" David pursed his lips and kept climbing up the stairs. "I think my mom called in the team. Or maybe it was Dad. Taz would be a natural choice, in my opinion, because he lives in both worlds – but if they called emergency medical services, he wouldn't have been notified because he's human.
"And both of them are elders used to doing things the old way," Ian muttered. "Goran would've done the same thing."
Jewel sighed and tossed her long hair back over her shoulder. "So, what now? Do we trust the team? Or don't we?"
"I vote we don't."
Everyone turned to stare at Jared. Cody had almost forgotten he was there. "Your opinion is obvious."
"You don't like me." Jared stopped on the stairs and turned to study him. "Why is that?"
David widened his gaze. Go Jared. Not many vampires would confront Cody like that. That meant Jared either had hidden depths, or just didn't know danger when he looked it in the face.
Cody scowled at Jared. "You beaned me over the head once, and then ran into me."
Jared raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Get over it."
*.*.*
"I am over it." Cody studied the fragile human in front of him. He wanted to hate Jared. He wanted to be able to dismiss him as ineffective and weak. Yet he couldn't. Jared made life for Tessa bearable, and for that Cody owed him. Tessa was never going to belong to Jared, but he didn't know that yet. So Cody could afford to be generous, at least this time. "Now it's your turn. You hate me – or rather, us."
"I have good reason." Jared narrowed his gaze, red flushing across his cheeks.
"No, you don't." Jewel smiled gently at him. "You have good reason to hate the people who did this to you and your people. But we didn't do it. We rescued you. We're also the ones trying to analyze the supposed medics who came to help – our own people, remember? Hating us isn't fair, and you need to get over that."
Ian's grin flashed before he could hide it. David didn't bother to try to hide his.
A mixture of emotions washed over Jared's face. Cody almost felt sorry for him. He wouldn't find forgiveness so easily, either. But Jewel was right. Jared shouldn't hold him and the others responsible. He decided to give the guy a break and take the spotlight off him. "Now that we've cleared the air, does anyone have a suggestion about how to figure out who's good and who's not?"
"I was thinking we should've put something on that door back there to let us know if someone comes in or goes out that way," Ian said. "Especially if the team is bad, they'll know the layout of the facility. Hell, they could be running circles around us, and we'd never know. We could still end up like those other people."
Everyone stopped and stared at him.
Cody grinned. "Good idea on the door. What can we put down there? It's not like we have tape or something that might be dislodged if someone opens the door."
"No, but we found rocks in the tunnel. We can place some on the inside of the door. We can put ones small enough to go unnoticed by anyone opening or closing the door."
David nodded. "That's a damn good idea."
"Yeah?" Ian looked surprised. "Really?"
"Hell, yeah." David looked at his friend with respect. "Let's do it now. You and I can run down there while the others wait." David didn't give anyone a chance to object before he jumped to the bottom of the landing.
Ian cried foul, but laughed as he raced after him.
Jewel sighed. "I'm glad they've still got some energy. I'm done."
"Let's sit down and take a break." Cody motioned toward the stairs. "Or you can go on up alone, if you want."
"No, I'm good." She sat down with a mock shudder. "I'm not going up there by myself when we don't even know whom to trust."
David and Ian returned quickly, with only Ian puffing for breath.
"Need a little more exercise, huh Ian?" Cody laughed at him.
He groaned in mock distress. "I need to go home and live a normal life."
"Don't we all," Cody muttered. "Come on, let's get up there. We left Rhia alone, if you remember. Maybe she has news of Tessa."
The five trooped their way up the last few flights of stairs. At the top, David studied the door. "Do you think we should put something behind this door, too? You'd almost have to be one of them to know this door was here."
Jewel shrugged, then entered the room and headed for Rhia.
Ian followed slowly. "Are we getting paranoid now?"
"The word is careful." David waited for Cody at the doorway.
Cody turned to study the small room, and then looked back at the door again. "It won't hurt, I guess." He looked around. "But what can we put here?"
Cody walked into one of the patient rooms and opened the supply closet. He found medical tape, but decided it might be too obvious unless... He picked up a wide roll of the thick tape. Ripping off a foot long section, he crumpled it up and walked over to the door.
Jamming it under the bottom of the door, he looked over at the others. "Will that do?"
"It's good enough," David said.
Everyone else shrugged.
Since they all agreed, they headed out. Before they made it through the patients’ room, Jewel came racing back toward them.
"They found Tessa!" She bounced on her heels, excitement blooming across her face. "Isn't that terrific? Goran is flying her back."
Relief swelled inside Cody's chest. He didn't know what to make of the intensity of it, but put it down to the very long and exhausting past couple of days. "That's great."
He grinned and punched David on the shoulder. "See? Everything's going to be fine, just like I told you."
David groaned. "I think you said everything had gone shit-side up, to be more exact."
"Close enough." Whistling, Cody headed for Rhia to await Tessa's arrival. He couldn't wait to see her.
The vampire lair came into view. A silent cry of relief shuddered through her. She'd been miles away. Luckily, they had seen no sign of the other group of fliers on their return journey. That didn't mean the enemy wasn't watching them from a distance, not wanting to engage with the two elders.
In her book, that made them cowards.
Goran landed smoothly on the dirt driveway between the mausoleum house and the many sheds. He lowered her to the ground and kept a hand on her as she steadied herself. "There. Almost back safe with your mom. We just have to go back down the tunnel to find the others."
Thank God. She could barely walk. The outbuildings were on her left, and in front of her were three large black vans. The team's vehicles, she supposed. She really wanted to lie down, although she doubted she'd sleep here ever again, even with her family guarding her.
She looked over the outbuilding with the sinking floor and took one step, and then another. They were stiff, blocky, uneven steps. She stopped and looked at the first van again. Something about it wasn't quite right. The cold pulled at her again. She glanced toward the outbuilding that housed the tunnel. Then back at the vans.
Too much energy surrounded them.
The energy spoke of several people having arrived, but the energy should have dispersed by now.
"How long until my dad arrives, do you think?" she asked, staring fixedly at the energy clustered around the first van.
Goran brushed at his pants and turned to look back the way they'd come. "He should be here in another ten or fifteen minutes. I flew straight here for your sake, and although he's fast, he can't match flying."
Tessa nodded. She desperately needed to go inside, but... She took a tentative step toward the vehicles and stopped. Then she felt compelled to take several more steps. Damn it, she didn't want to look inside.