by Dale Mayer
"Damn, Rhia. We have to find it."
The words sounded right. The tone of voice didn't. Her sister was getting pissed. How interesting. She eyed her carefully. "And why is that?"
Her sister looked up, narrowed her gaze, and frowned. "So we can help, of course. If you want to have an end to this and get your family home safe…then we have to do our part."
She stared at her sister. The sister she'd had a love/hate relationship with for centuries. For all they'd forgiven and made up these last years, she could never quite trust her. There was always that sense of something sneaky going on. What if her sister was part of the organization behind the blood farm? And if she was, well, Rosha was even meaner than Gittora. And, if they were…
"I doubt Serus took any computer." She smiled, what she hoped was a vague, drugged-looking smile. "He knows nothing about them."
"But David does?" snapped Gittora.
"But David hasn't been to the hospital. Has he?"
Her sister tapped her fingers on the small swing table at the side of Rhia's bed. "No. He hasn't. Damn it."
She spun on her heel and walked to the doorway. "I'm going to make a phone call. Don't try anything."
Rhia's mouth dropped open. Don't try anything? Did her sister really say that?
She'd no sooner gotten the words out of her mouth when Sian walked into the room, a big smile on her face. "Hey, how are you feeling?"
"I've been better." Rhia quickly explained what just happened. "Am I a prisoner, Sian? Are you?"
Sian shot a quick look at the doorway. "I'm not. At least, not yet. We have to get you out of here." Lowering her voice, she added, "And the computer."
Tessa waited. She'd have only seconds to act. In this game of kill or be killed, time was everything.
The other vamp laughed. "You're just a slip of a girl." He puffed out his chest. "Like, what's with that?"
"I've gotten separated from my group," she said in her best feminine voice as she watched his rooster show. Were all male vamps the same? Stupid. Though there was nothing stupid about her brother…or Cody.
He snatched her arm and tugged her forward. "A likely story. Come on, my bosses are going to want to see you."
He walked fast, dragging her along.
She wanted to kill him now, but if the bosses were close by… Then they were the ones she really wanted.
Timing was everything.
She let him drag her along, her eyes darting from side to side, trying to see everything. If they came upon any more vamps, she'd be outnumbered and in even bigger trouble. But so far, so good. He led her around more stacks of boxes and machinery. Still playing dumb, she asked, "What is this place? Some kind of storeroom?"
He snorted. "So not."
"Oh, I get it. It must be like a train station thingy, in between various warehouses or something."
He glanced to the side to shoot her a disgusted look. "Yes. Of course. Do you see a train here?" He shook his head, muttering, "How friggin' female."
"So then it's part of the supply line for the blood farm," she said coolly, her voice cold and thin.
He came to a dead stop, pivoted, and snapped, "What the fuck do you know about a blood farm?"
She raised an eyebrow. "I know that's what's here and you're moving goods of some kind. What?" she snapped at the look on his face. "Can't I see where my food is coming from?"
He reared back slightly. "Oh, shit. Are you part of that quality control group who was supposed to stop by?" He narrowed his gaze. "No way, you're too young."
She summoned the most arrogant of looks and nodded. "I'm with my father." She wondered who was in the quality control group. If she could find out, they'd have more to go on and have a chance of stopping this travesty.
His demeanor changed; he shifted from shock, to fear, and then was apologetic. Absolutely fascinating. "Ah, hell, I'm sorry. I saw you there and figured you had to be an escapee." He looked bashful. "I hope I didn't hurt you."
She didn't dare show any weakness. Keeping to the well-known female vamp characteristics, she sneered. "Good thing. I have my own bosses to report to."
"Aw." He kicked his feet out like a little kid. "I'm sorry. Really. It's just things have been kinda crazy these past couple of days. I don't know who is who anymore."
"Then maybe you should explain further and I won't put any mention of this in my report." She slapped her hand impatiently against the inside pocket.
"Report?" His gulp was audible to her ears. Sweat even appeared on his brow. "Oh, please don't. Vamps have died here for less. Please, I'm sorry. I'm happy to tell you anything you want to know."
She gave him a sly smile. "Good. My superiors are very interested in hearing what the hell has been going on here. So far, we're getting mixed information."
He nodded quickly. "That's because we lost some of the supervisors in the recent snafu, and that has caused a bit of reshuffling. Lots are trying to take advantage to climb up the ladder. See, I'm not like that. I like being one of the workers. I don't do politics."
Whether he was here of his own free will or not, he was obviously terrified of anyone finding out he'd done something wrong. The bosses in this place appeared to run it on the basis of fear. And that wasn't good. Everyone was always out to better their lot and, in the vamp world, that usually meant taking out the competition – one way or the other.
"And do we know yet who caused all the chaos?" She desperately tried to keep her tone neutral and professional. When he didn't answer immediately, she pursed her lips and raised her haughty chin to look down at him in that way her aunt always did to her.
Immediately, he opened his mouth. "No. That's the problem. The bosses think someone was sold to us as a way to slip a spy in. Then, once here, he called in the forces."
She gulped softly. "Interesting method."
He nodded rapidly. "And it worked."
"But that meant they'd have known about the blood farm first to have even attempted such a thing."
"Exactly." He opened his arms wide. "I've been saying for years that it's better to stay small and exclusive than to get so big that others take notice. But will they listen to me? No!"
She nodded. "I'll put a note about that in the report."
He grinned. "Hey, thanks. Appreciate it." He glanced around furtively, "Come on, I've got something I want to show you." He turned and motioned down the hallway. "Back here is where they do the stuff they don't want anyone to find out about."
With that he bolted down the hallway, leaving her no choice but to follow.
*.*.*
"We should have found the others by now," David said, his voice tightly controlled. But the muscle running along the side of his jaw said the control was a thin mirage. He was pissed and worried.
Cody couldn't blame him.
Motre didn't waste time on emotion; he just growled at everything. But a big and older vamp like him had to have seen a lot in his lifetime.
"Motre, do you remember the last war my father was talking about with Moltere?"
"Every vampire alive today remembers it. It was relatively minor, but we don't forget things like that. It divided the species pretty good."
"What about the Enforcers? Did you know any of them?" David piped up. "If we could get their help, our numbers would improve."
Cody snickered. "Not if your dad was correct. He said they were most likely to be the main consumers of this blood."
Motre stopped and turned to stare at Cody. He shook his head in a slow movement that made Cody think he was pondering a weighty subject. "Couldn't be. Most were on the blood side last time. But I doubt they'd be there again. We took out a lot of them back then. The others swore allegiance."
David stilled. "To whom? Maybe they swore allegiance to this." He waved an arm around the room. "If they are sworn to protect the wrong person, or if their leader got in on this mess and dragged them into it, we couldn't trust them. But if they are on the go
od side…well, we could use all the help we can get."
Motre turned back to yet another closed door in front of him. "I don't believe they'd be in on this," he said stubbornly. "They're good guys."
David looked at Cody and raised one eyebrow.
Cody shook his head. He didn't know what Motre's connection to the Enforcers was, but clearly he felt strongly about it. Cody didn't trust anyone anymore. Based on what the ancients had said, there couldn't be much good to be found following that pathway. He followed David into the next room. The door slammed behind him and something heavy jumped on his back.
"Shit."
David spun around in front of Cody and cried out, "Jewel. Stop, it's Cody."
Jewel either wasn't listening or didn't believe him, because those claws dug in.
Cody swore, "Shit. Jewel. Stop it." When she didn't release her grip and, even worse, the claws started to cut, Cody began to get pissed. He reached up and grabbed Jewel, pulling her down and forward over his shoulder so she tumbled to the ground in front of him.
"Don't hurt her," David cried out, running toward her. He had almost made it when Ian came out of nowhere and jumped David. Cody groaned. "Not this shit again." He used his father's hold on Jewel and put her out, then grabbed Ian from behind and knocked him out the same way. "Why did they do that? Our friends are all of a sudden our enemies."
The two looked down at their friends, unconscious on the ground. David crouched over Jewel. "She doesn't look so good. She's been drugged."
Cody turned around, looking for more attackers, but came up empty. Too empty.
"Where did Motre go?" He stood up and did a slow turn. "And where are the rest of this group? We sent back, what, eight people?"
"Yeah, but most were humans. If our friends have been drugged, just imagine what has happened to them." David glared down at Ian. "What the hell do we do now? This is the second time for both of them."
"And that's probably why it worked faster this time. It's like they are getting mini doses. For all we know, if they get another one this state of mind will become permanent."
David stared down at Jewel in his arms. "That's so not going to happen."
"Then no more splitting up. I don't care what the reason is – we stay together. How hard is that to understand?"
Anguish in his voice, David said, "And what do we do now? Motre appears to have gone, and I'm not leaving our friends here. Who the hell knows where they'll be by the time we come back."
"That's easy. Wake them up and snap them back to normal," Cody said. "We can't know how much of the drug the assholes got into them, but we saw how fast it worked. It should snap off just as fast. At least, I hope so." He didn't mention Rhia, who was possibly still dealing with the effects of the drugs they'd given her. He reached down and gave Ian's shoulder a hard shake. "Ian. Wake up."
No response. In fact, the more Cody shook Ian's shoulder, the looser his head wobbled, as if he wasn't even there.
"Damn." Cody sat back on his heels. "How did we wake him up last time?"
David snorted. He walked over to his friend, bent over, reached an arm back and belted Ian across the face – hard.
Ian groaned.
David repeated the heavy-handed motion with his other hand.
The crack resounded around the room.
Ian's eyes popped open.
He blinked. His gaze was wide and unfocused. David shoved his face into Ian's. "Wake up! The vamps got you – again."
Ian blinked, then blinked again. He turned his gaze to Cody, a cloudy question in his eyes.
Cody nodded. "More drugs, Ian. At this rate, they won't have to hang you up in the blood farm – you'll be a walking convert to their side."
Ian blinked yet again, then comprehension hit. He surged to his feet…and scrambled to the far end of the room, where he stumbled and swayed in place. He turned, his gaze frantic, spinning from one person to the next as he tried to orient himself.
Cody approached slowly. "Easy, Ian. It's okay. We're friends."
Ian's gaze landed on him, and hardened. "What?"
Cody sighed, then slowly and patiently explained about how he and Jewel came back with the group of humans to collect the others who had been drugged. By the time he had finished talking, some of the confusion had slipped from Ian's gaze and he looked less like he was ready to run over Cody to get the hell out.
He shook his head slowly and finally said, "This place is the house of horrors. I swear I'm never going to sleep again."
"How do you feel?"
Ian snorted. "Like I've been drugged and had the shit kicked out of me."
Cody grinned. "You almost sound normal."
Ian frowned. "Almost?"
Cody tilted his head, as if considering what it was about Ian that didn't seem quite…right. "Oh yeah, you're looking smarter. That's so not a good look on you."
Ian snickered. "You mean you look dumber than me. That is normal."
Cody slugged his friend in the shoulder. "Let's go see if Jewel is awake."
"Yeah, I remember bits and pieces now." Ian studied Jewel as they approached. "I don't know how she's going to be; she put up a hell of a fight."
David glared at him. "And you didn't?
"Sure, I did. But by the time the others were subdued I ended up under a half dozen of those assholes." He rubbed the back of his head. "Like, what the hell? Those guys are getting bigger and uglier all the time."
"Yeah, they're doing drug testing and some weird genetic stuff on them."
Ian looked horrified. "Shit. They better not have done anything like that to me."
He went to ruffled his wings when a look of shock swept over his face. "I can't move my wings."
Cody frowned. "It's likely the drugs they gave you. They'll wear off in a little bit."
Ian shuddered. "They'd better. Man that feels horrible. Like a part of me is missing.
"They couldn't have had you long. We've only been separated…what? An hour? If that."
"I really don't want any more drugs." Ian ran a hand down his face.
"Not only that, but every time it seems like the effects work faster."
Ian shuddered. He nodded toward Jewel. "What about her? How come she's not coming out of it?"
Cody snickered. "Because David walloped you up the side of the head to help you come back. He doesn't want to hurt Jewel."
David leaned protectively over his girlfriend. "We can't hurt her."
Ian snorted. "So, it's all right to beat the crap out of me, but not her?"
Cody grinned as David shot a lethal glare at Ian. "Absolutely."
"You might want to consider that the drugs are damaging her system more effectively while she's out. Awake she can fight the drugs and," Cody took a deep breath, "any programming they might have tried to do."
Alarm flashed in David's eyes. "Programming?"
With a worried glance at Jewel, Cody said, "Rhia believed Ian was one of the bad guys, remember?"
David gazed down at Jewel still slumped in his arms. "Crap." He closed his eyes, and then stared up at Cody. "You're going to have to do it."
Cody glared right back. "Hell, no. She's going to hate me for it when she wakes up."
"You don't have to hurt her." He shot Cody a dark look. "You just have to wake her up."
Cody snorted. "Like you did to Ian."
Both Cody and David turned to look at Ian. He glared back. "What did you hit me with, a baseball bat?"
David grinned. "My fist."
Ian's gaze widened. "I owe you one."
"Like hell."
David looked up imploringly at Cody. "You do it. It's okay if she hates you. I just can't have her hating me," he said in a reasonable tone of voice. "Right?"
"But it's all right for her to hate me?"
"Sure." David's grin widened. "Absolutely."
Cody knew his friend didn't have what it took to hurt Jewel. Love did that to a per
son. But he'd also be pissed off if Cody hurt her more than was necessary. It was a fine line indeed.
Glaring down at David, in a move so fast neither of his friends saw it, Cody smacked Jewel hard on the side of the head.
"Hey." David shoved him back.
Cody rolled his eyes at him. "What the hell, David."
David shrugged, then studied Jewel's lax face. "It didn't work."
"Of course not," Cody muttered. "I'm not allowed to hurt her. Remember?"
David took a deep breath, and then closed his eyes. "Do it again."
Cody studied his face and bent down to Jewel. With a deep breath, knowing that Jewel was a girl and a friend, and knowing it was what he needed to do, he struck Jewel harder with a solid, flat clip on the side of her head. And then he followed it up with another one right after.
Jewel groaned.
David whispered, "Thank God."
Cody backed off, and watched as David finished waking up Jewel in a much gentler way.
When her eyes opened, Cody was close enough to observe the same reaction Ian had had. Confusion, awareness, disbelief.
"Jewel?" Cody studied her face warily. She could still be on the other side in her head.
She blinked rapidly – then, in a soft, broken voice, said, "David? What's going on?"
David smiled down at her, his face beaming. "You were attacked and drugged, then you tried to beat Cody up."
Her gaze opened wide as she twisted her head to look up at Cody. He grinned at her. "Of course, I let you."
She rolled her eyes and tried to stand. Cody reached out an arm to steady her. "Easy, slugger."
She swayed in place. David wrapped his arms around her. "Take it easy. Ian was drugged again too. In fact his wings are paralysed so chances are yours won't work either. But either they didn't have time to get much into you or you are already starting to fight the effects."
"And while we were drugged," she murmured, "what did we do?"
Ian answered, "I think we fought on the bad guys' side."
Jewel shuddered. "So we became like Rhia?"
Cody laughed. "I don't think you were singing off key like her, but we just got here, so who knows. I know you attacked me. And David here was forced to wrestle with Ian until we could knock you guys out."