by Dale Mayer
"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 about all this."
"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 casualties."
"But necessary ones; 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 and stronger. Who knew what mess they'd be facing 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 who were on our side from the war decades ago? Well, I sicc'ed Gloria on it, remember her?" Goran glanced over at Serus.
"Do you mean Gloria, the dragon admin lady who 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 real 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?"
Goran tapped his cell phone. "Three. The brothers Krimen, remember them?"
Serus turned to Goran in surprise. "They were enforcers. And badass mothers to boot."
"They heard some underground rumblings themselves about the resurgence in human blood sales. They were approached as consumers."
"So we were right about that part." Not good.
"We've been right about a lot. But we've been wrong about even more. She'd be the one to handle the laptop we grabbed from the platform. It was handed over at the end to the council members, wasn't it?"
Serus nodded. "Then I snagged it, took it in the ambulance with Rhia. It's hidden under her bed at the hospital. I didn't want to take any chances. I forgot to tell Sian. We should call her and let her know."
"Not yet. No one will suspect it's there. Let's leave it for now."
Serus stared at the silent blood farm with its grisly offerings. Where the hell was Taz? And if he'd been taken, they had to assume that everyone they'd left in charge here had also been taken. Or were they traitors themselves?
And speaking of traitors, a group of big mother-of-all-vamps suddenly approached.
As fast as Tessa realized she was in imminent danger, she found herself airborne and heading for the spot above the door. Her landing was perfect. Except the rocks under her feet rolled and sent her tumbling down. "Shit."
Male laughter made her cringe. It was a great way to show up for battle, not to mention reminding her of her many failed attempts to glide as a child. She jumped but, still being off balance, she had a horrible takeoff. Arms flailing, her face set, she struggled to pick a better landing. It was better but not by much. She crouched and pivoted, her body wavering as she tried to stabilize on the hillside.
Then she was slammed to the ground. The rocks under her slid, sending them both tumbling over and over again to the bottom. Through it all, her attacker managed to keep a grip on her arm. Desperate to gain her freedom, she extended her nails and slashed his face. As the razor edges dug into his skin and came away with trophies, savage satisfaction ripped through her. She scrambled to her feet.
"Fuck!" he roared, jumping to his feet. He grabbed her arm, spun her around, and slammed his fist into her belly.
Humph! She bent over in pain, afraid he'd broken her ribs. She fell to her knees. He jerked her arm up and back. She took a breath and jumped sideways…badly, only making it a few feet, but the sudden jerk loosened his grip and she was free. She jumped again in a panic, gaining ten feet, and then jumped yet again. She was desperate to put as much distance between them as she could. Her breath came out in hard rasps and her belly was wracked in painful spasms.
The asshole. She'd heal, but she'd pay for it in the meantime. It took a lot to hurt true vamps. She, on the other hand, was of the more delicate variety.
Laboring under the stress, she held a hand to her belly and jumped as far and as fast as she could. She was anxious to see if she was being followed, and in fact she knew she had to be, but she daren't lose her focus in the meantime. Injured, her jumps were lopsided, off in ways she hadn't expected.
She hit the rooftop of the house and prepared to take another jump to the ground, when she was slammed into from behind – again. She groaned, trying to gulp air into her crushed ribs.
"Stupid bitch. Did you really think it would be that easy?" The vamp sitting on her was huge. She could barely breathe under his weight. Her mind raced to explain how he'd managed to catch up with her. She hadn't even gotten one kick off. Black spots filled her gaze. She was losing the battle with consciousness. The need to fight him vanished under the need to fight for air.
Thoughts drifted through her mind of her family, her friends…and…Cody.
And then the fight was over.
She blacked out.
*.*.*
Cody heard his name being called. He spun around. Tessa? Only there was no response. He was sure it was her. Even if they hadn't connected, he knew she was reaching out to him. He could feel her – deep inside.
I'm coming, Tessa. Hold on.
Buoyed, he picked up the pace. The hallway on the other side of the hidden door was empty. Talk about being anticlimactic. Cody stretched his neck, only now realizing how prepped he was for a fight. It was still coming, but at the moment he had no target.
And damn it, he wanted a target. Just then Xana walked up to him, her hand reaching out to stroke his arm. He stiffened. It wasn't the first time she'd done it. He'd hated it then, but figured it had been done in fear, so had accepted it. Now…he glanced at her face, those wide-open eyes, and wondered. She was a sneaky bitch, and he needed to remember that about her – and in more ways than one.
He tugged his arm free.
She smiled up at him. Or was that a smirk? She always seemed to be laughing at him on the inside. It was as if she enjoyed having a secret and it was about him. He hated it. Sometimes he hated her. He'd love for her to be one of the bad vamps but he knew that he couldn't let his personal feelings interfere.
"What's the matter, Cody? Still upset with me? You know I had to break up with you, right? My father didn't want me getting too serious so quickly."
He snorted. "Whatever. And hell no, I'm not upset. Except that I should have dumped you sooner."
Her shocked gasp made him want to smile, but he held back. He'd lied. She had hurt him. He'd been so suckered by her. When she'd turned on him, he hadn't seen it coming. Now, however… He shook his head. Fool him once…and all that.
Ignoring her, he motioned to the others and ran to the first door in the hallway. He flung it open and walked inside. This damn place had more rooms than a school. What was with that? He made a fast circle of the room, realized there were no other doors or hidden spots that he could see, and walked back to the entrance, which was now full of his group. He opened his arms wide. "It looks empty."
David grinned. "Too bad that means nothing these days."
They walked down the hallway to the next door and the next. Each room was checked and left as they found nothing of interest.
After the fourth door, Jewel said, "How big is this place?"
Ian growled, "Too damn big. Like, how can they keep it all straight?"
"GPS and probably trackers within the building. Like some human schools do. Each student has a computer-like thingy that says where each of them is."
Cody stopped and stared at him. "That's just creepy. Do you think they've put trackers on us?"
Jewel slapped her pockets and then the rest of her clothing. "What would something like that look like?"
"It could be super small, even something they inject into our skin. Anyone have a sore spot for no reason?"
Motre rubbed his head. "Hell, who can tell? I ache all over."
Ian nodded. "That's the drugs. I had that after my friends rescued me."
"I'm clear," David said.
"Looks like I am too." Jewel's voice was awash with relief.
"Makes sense," Ian said. "They don't expect us to escape, so why waste trackers on us?"
Reassured, Cody turned around and walked to the next door. As he turned the handle, the door slammed open from the inside. "Shit."
A group of humans barreled into Cody, fists swinging.
"We'll get you motherfuckers," screamed a scrawny teenager.
"Stop! We're not trying to hurt you." Cody grappled to get a handle on the kid without causing any damage. The kid was wild eyed and probably scared out of his wits. Cody barely remembered him standing beside Jared at the blood farm before the authorities moved everyone back and away.
The kid might be small, but damn – he was wiry and tough, at least in talk as he snapped, "Well, we're going to hurt you. Take us prisoners, will you? Plan to hang us up downstairs? I don't think so." He got his right arm free with by twisting and turning, and then he clipped Cody on the jaw.
"Damn it. We were taken prisoner too," Cody roared. The kid wouldn't listen. Cody tried to grab and hold him again, but the kid was as slippery as a snake and mean as badger, kicking and biting anything he could reach. Cody couldn't blame him. The kid thought they were the bad guys.
But he was getting damn tired of being a punching bag.
"Stop it. Damn it."
The kid got off another punch and connected with Cody's jaw. He saw stars. Or maybe it was red fireworks. To hell with not hurting him – Cody grabbed him, slammed him up against the wall, and pinned him there.
Then he yelled out, "We're not the bad guys."
The kid twisted to glare at him. "You're fucking vampires."
"We're Tessa's family," David gasped out, struggling to hold a much taller male.
Jewel had one girl on the ground. Xana held one more squirming in her grip.
Cody, his voice hard, said, "We came to rescue Jared and were taken prisoners after we left. We're not the bad guys."
The fight went out of the humans.
"Really?" asked one of the girls, her tone hopeful yet tinged with fear. "We're trying to escape. We woke up locked up in that room. All of us were tied up."
David released his human and stepped back. "Were any of you drugged or connected to machines with tubes running in or out of your arms?"
The girls got up off the floor, a look of horror on the face of the one who'd spoken. The other pulled her sleeves of her shirt up to check her skin. "God, I hope not."
"Drugged?" another girl said. "That must be how we ended up in that room."
"On our way out of the blood farm we were led into another room." One of the males eyed them suspiciously. "I don't remember much after that. We assumed we were being taken to the surface." He studied Cody's group. His gaze widened and he jumped back several feet. "In fact, the guy that led us into that room looked a whole lot like him."
And he pointed at their newest group member. Motre.
*.*.*
Rhia opened her eyes and studied the white ceiling. It wasn't her room. She looked around. Nor was it her bed. In fact, there was nothing in this space that she recognized. Her gaze landed on the two women snarling at each other in the doorway.
Now they were hers. Gittora and Sian.
Not good. She struggled upward to lean against the headboard, but her muscles wouldn't listen to her. She fell back down, gasping from the effort. What was wrong with her?
Her mind was a fog, as she tried to piece together the bits and pieces of floating, disconnected debris in her mind. It was hard to capture the thoughts long enough to make any sense of them.
She turned her attention back to the women, their voices rising with each sentence.
"Sian?" she called, but her voice was weak, raspy.
It was enough. Sian spun around and saw her. She came running. "Rhia. You're awake. How do you feel?"
"Terrible." She tried for a smile. "What has happened to me?"
"You don't remember?" Sian asked sharply. "That's not good.
"Tell me what you do remember," Gittora said.
Her sharp voice bothered Rhia. She tried to remember something, anything, but nothing came. That worried her even more. "I can't remember anything." She looked over at her sister. "Where are Serus and the kids?"
Gittora exchanged worried glances with Sian.
Rhia's stomach sank. Something was wrong. "Tell me," she snapped, her voice hardening, strengthening. "Where's my family?"
Sian, her hand covering Rhia's, answered, "David, Tessa, and Cody didn't make it back from the blood farm."
Rhia closed her eyes against the words.
"Goran and Serus have gone after them. But so far we haven't heard anything."
"They're probably missing now, too," Gittora snorted. "Serves them right; I told them not to go."
Rhia tried to process the information, but her brain wouldn't cooperate. She could only focus on one thing.
Her family was in danger – possibly even dead.
She had to help them.
Tessa heard groaning, as if someone were lying beside her in agony. She flashed her eyes open, panicked that she'd been taken prisoner yet again and found herself lying on the side of the same hill where she'd fought the second asshole vamp.
A jackhammer was going off in her head. Her ribs hurt. Bile was climbing up her throat, but she wasn't groaning.
In fact, she hadn't made a sound. She twisted around slowly looking for the suffering person.
It was the big-ass vamp. He'd crumpled to the ground not ten feet from her, and the sounds that came out of him were horrible. At least he hadn't collapsed on top of her. But, as she hadn't dealt him a killing blow, she had no idea what his problem was.
She rubbed her eyes. How long had she been out? Everything ached. Just breathing seemed to rip her lungs apart. What had happened? She cast her mind back. Oh, right – he'd choked the life out of her while sitting on her.
She struggled to her feet cautiously. She didn't want to get too close to him. But he didn't appear to be in any shape to grab her. Where was his attacker? And where were his buddies? She spun around to search and grabbed her head. Do not move so fast, damn it.
Taking a deep breath, she shielded her eyes from the breaking sunshine and looked toward the rooftop. The first asshole who had attacked her with the needle was gone, as in gone, really gone, as in only ashes remained. She spun around, this time her movements a hair slower, to gaze at the still groaning vamp. And then she inhaled a horrible, lingering, smoky smell she was starting to hate.
He hadn't burnt. He was just smoldering.
What the hell?
Her mind didn't get it and, as things finally clicked, she gasped in horror. He could walk in the sunshine, like her. No one else that she'd ever heard of could do that.
That meant he either was like her genetically, or the vamps were doing experiments to withstand sunlight.
; She took several cautious steps to stand behind him. She couldn't see his face, but his left hand appeared to be severely charred. He groaned louder. She stepped up and around his head so that she could see his face and shuddered.
"Oh no," she gasped. He was burning up. It was a slow smoldering that she'd never seen and hoped to never again. She didn't think he was dangerous. In fact, she didn't think he could even see her. His eyes appeared to have burnt clean away, and half his face was red and puffy as if severely torched.
Worse still was the side of his face where the sun was shining on him. The sunlight had burnt through his skin, bone, and tissue in a slow, inch-by-painful-inch savage scorch of death.
How awful. Pity welled up. This slow burning away made her sick. How could she help him? Killing him when fighting for her life was one thing; putting an animal out of its misery was another. It was a harder thing to do, but when based on compassionate grounds – doable. But killing another vampire to put him out of his misery… Her stomach and heart balked.
"Help me."
Oh, God – he was conscious. That was not good.
She bent closer. "What can I do?"
"Kill me."
*.*.*
Serus stepped up behind the men crowding Goran. "What's going on here?"
The men spun around to glare at him. "What's it to you, grandpa?"
Their snarly attitude put Serus's back up like nothing else. He didn't even think – his right fist came up and plowed into one of the arrogant faces. He didn't have a few centuries of fighting behind him for nothing.
The vamp dropped where he stood. Serus glared at the others. "Anyone else feel like being disrespectful?"
Goran laughed. "You can diss him about a lot of things, but he's not a grandfather yet."
And while the others were trying to figure out just what had happened, Goran slashed and kicked and grabbed two of them, smashed their heads together and then dropped them to the floor.
Serus laughed as two vamps charged him. "Fine, you don't want to even know my name before we fight. I'm good with that. I'll take you out and not let anyone know who you are, too. Lots of vamps are going to go missing in the next few days."