by Dale Mayer
But she said them herself. Almost human?
*.*.*
Rhia strode down the long white tunnel with a confidence she didn't feel. She had no idea what they were up against, but she knew the balance of power had shifted some way. She'd had a hand in it, going to the humans for help.
Now that they were here in force, it was daunting to think she'd done something that could backfire on her people.
But whatever was going on down here had to stop. Even if they needed to change things up. She needed her family back safe and sound. With young Wendy here...she felt even more responsible.
"There isn't much damage here," Wendy said softly from behind. "I wonder why?"
"Good structure. We also don't know what caused this disaster and that would determine where the worst of the damage happened. Consider that it could have been a blast sealing off one part of the mountain from the other."
"I don't like the sound of that."
"No. Neither do I." Rhia opened the last door and entered the section of the mine where there should have been an office full of computers on the left. Instead, fallen rocks and tiles covered the space. "Oh no!"
Tessa hated that her leg wouldn't heal at the same rate as a full blood vampire would. Hated that it would mark her as different yet again.
And she had to stop focusing on it. Especially when Cody could read her every thought – or almost every thought. So disconcerting.
Told you so.
She rolled her eyes. Cody stood in front of her, a good ten feet between them, a warm caring in his eyes that she'd never get used to. How could she not love the sense of acceptance? It made her realize how much she'd missed in her life.
But no longer.
She smiled as Cody's voice nudged the door open and slipped into her thoughts. He was right. She wasn't alone anymore. And didn’t that thought curl her toes?
Then why don't you make those curling toes heal a little faster with that vampire heritage you're always calling on? Maybe it will help.
She gasped. "Why didn't I think of that?"
Her father squatted down beside her. "Why didn't you think of what?"
She groaned. Cody burst out laughing.
"I suggested she call on her vampire genes to help her heal faster." He stared down at her leg and winced. "How bad is it?"
"It's bad," said Goran. "She can't be moved much. We need to find a safe place to hide."
"And me," protested Ian. "Why does everyone forget about me? Geez." But his grin belied his words.
"Ha," Jewel said. "According to you, you're tough as rocks. According to the girls, you're dumb as rocks."
Cody laughed at Ian's mock gasp of outrage. His peals of joy ringing around inside the tunnel made the two stop to turn and look at him.
"What's his problem," David muttered.
It was Goran who answered. "He's happy. In fact, considering the scenario, he's damn happy. Are we sure there isn't happy gas or something floating in the air?"
Tessa grinned. She knew why Cody was happy and it had nothing to do with chemicals. It was her. And him. And all of them alive. Here and now. "He has a right to be happy. Just think of everything we've been through."
As she sat there, with the others all laughing and joking around her, she realized how much they'd survived. The emotional, physical, and mental trauma. They all belonged in a human shrink ward.
Speak for yourself. Cody said. I am normal.
And I am the new normal.
He chuckled, then laughed lightly only to start bellowing with joy... again.
Serus looked at her. "What did you say to him?"
She smirked. "I said I was the new normal."
Her father shot Goran a questioning look, then they both stared down at her, puzzled. "What does that mean?"
Jewel giggled. "It means she's the wave of the future and the rest of us had better adapt as she leads the way. She is normal – or what normal will be soon."
Goran reared back. He frowned. "Uh, Tessa...you've come a long ways...but..." he stopped helplessly.
Tessa giggled. He looked at her in total confusion.
"They are putting us on, Goran," growled Serus.
With a hoot, Cody said. "We know perfectly well that Tessa will never be considered 'normal', but she's never going to be a second class vamp again. She might very well lead us as she has some serious skills."
The admiration in his voice had Tessa straightening her back. Damn, that felt good.
And it's true.
"Sooo Tessa, any time you want to ditch this big guy," Ian said with a straight face, "you know I'd be happy to take you out to a movie, right?"
Silence.
Everyone turned to stare at Ian. He tried to keep a straight face but couldn't pull it off for more than a few seconds. He bent over howling and slapping his knees. "Oh my God. You should see your faces. Priceless."
Tessa watched Cody. There was no laughter on his face. A storm brewed. Easy. He was only teasing.
There will not be any teasing about that. Ever.
About me going out with anyone else? She couldn't stop herself from asking.
Yes. That was not funny.
No, but he's just trying to get a rise out of you.
Maybe I should get a rise out of him. If he thinks he's—
"Sorry Ian. I'm spoken for." She grinned up at the affable steadfast vamp that had fought by her side so much this past week and added, "Besides. So are you."
His eyes widened in horror. He spun around as if to search for someone behind him, but it was the first thing out of his mouth that gave him away. He swallowed hard and asked, "How did you know?"
The others stared from Ian to Tessa and back to Ian. Cody's face twisted in thought as if trying to figure it out.
Jewel straightened, a look of shock on her face. "What? You are?"
David walked over to stand beside his friend, a huge grin on his face. "Well, well, well."
"Yeah, give over." Cody laughed, walking over to slap Ian on the shoulder. "We want all the details."
Ian hunched his shoulders and stared at Tessa suspiciously. "There aren't any." He narrowed his gaze at her. "Can you read my mind?"
She shook her head, helpless to wipe the wide grin off her face. "I don't have to." She motioned with her hand. "I can see energy, and that includes the bits and pieces of other people's energy we hold close."
Ian bent to look at his legs and arms.
She giggled. "It's mixed with your energy. So I know she's important to you." An impulse had her adding, "It is a female...isn't it?"
He gasped, and a visible shudder rippled down his tall lean frame. "Yes!"
That did it. The others cracked up.
Tessa knew the banter and humor was giving them all a chance to de-stress. It was also giving her a chance to heal. She'd called on her vampire heritage to fix her leg and although she wouldn't want to trust it just yet, it was starting to feel like it was improving.
Really?
I think so.
Cody crossed the last few feet and knelt in front of her.
Serus crowded around them. "What's wrong? Is your leg worse?"
Cody gently ripped the black material away and showed her father the pink flesh where there'd been damaged muscles before. There was still a ways to go, yet now she knew she would heal in decent time. "She's healing beautifully.”
"No way." Goran leaned over and let out a long whistle. "Well, now if that doesn't beat all."
"Tessa, did you do something different?" her father asked, studying her leg.
"Only in that I made a direct request to heal my leg."
"A request" Jewel asked, her brows creasing in confusion. "To whom?"
Tessa chuckled. "I talk to my different genes when I need something from that side of my heritage. In this case, I asked my vamp genes to heal my leg."
She lifted her leg experimentally. It didn't send pain s
creaming through her. "It's much better."
Cody straightened. "But not all better. Let's see if you can put some weight on it."
She used his hand to pull herself upright. She slowly lowered her sore leg to the ground and put some weight on it experimentally. It hurt, yet it showed a hell of an improvement already. She let go of his hand and took a tentative step, then groaned and shifted to her other leg. "It's definitely not all better. My back still hurts too. I guess I was a little too specific with my instructions."
"Then sit back down and tell those genes to fix all of you," her father ordered. He glanced over at Cody. "And you, how is your wing?"
Cody stepped back slightly and worked on gently unfurling his wings. His right one opened with no problem. The left one barely moved outward and he winced. "No flying for me for awhile."
Ian snorted. "Join the club."
Jewel nodded. "I tried earlier, but they won't even open. More drugs haven't helped the ones that paralyzed our wings in the first place."
"Damn tired of it, too," Ian growled. "We could be so much further than we are now."
"Or you could be injured like Cody and Tessa are," David retorted.
Ian stopped, thought about it, then nodded. "True enough. But I have had it with being drugged by these assholes."
Tessa nodded. "We all need to be extra careful since each of us has been drugged at least once."
"Not me. No one has gotten close enough to drug me," Serus growled as he glared at her.
Goran snorted. "How about no more drugs for any of us?" He stood, hands on his hips, staring down the tunnel. "I think I'll go back to that damn cloning room and make sure they are all dead."
"Not alone, you aren't."
Tessa knew there'd be no stopping the two ancients now that she and Cody were on the mend and the truth was, she just wanted to get the hell out of here and go home. Only they weren’t quite strong enough to make that happen.
"Dad, you need to find blood. Enough for everyone would be ideal. Just make sure it's drug free."
Ian groaned. "I really don't want anything from here."
"Neither do I," Jewel added in a small voice. "But I'm really hungry."
“I don’t like it either,” David muttered.
Tessa nodded. "I hear you, but I can see your energy levels and they are dangerously low. We are also in a blood farm. I don't know what will happen to any of you if you don't feed. I don't want you going off the wall and attacking anyone here." She made a face. "Especially me."
Silence.
"Shit. She's right, Serus. The kids haven't had anything in days. We grabbed some at the hospital."
"And that was still a long time ago." Cody straightened. "I think we should stay together. That means we'll all go to the cloning room. It's not far, and if there is any blood we can use, we'll all drink some in order to get out of this place."
"We're assuming that some blood survived the blast," Jewel pointed out.
"If so, then we have to assume some vamps could have survived as well," Tessa straightened up and moaned as her still-healing back shifted. "I vote we all go."
She took several steps back toward the other end of the tunnel.
And that's when she heard it.
*.*.*
Jared hated the darkness. And he really hated this mine. When he'd come this way earlier, there been light. Lots of it. A layer of fine dust filled his eyes and nose. He coughed, then coughed again. Something bad had happened here.
He could barely make his way over the rocks. The tunnel hadn't collapsed, but there was enough debris on the ground that he had to struggle through it in places. The weird smell added to the effect. Musty, dusty, and earthy.
Further along he saw a light still burning from behind a large boulder, giving the area a weird halo. He shivered and walked closer. There was no going back. Not now. With any luck, the soldiers would change their minds and he'd meet up with them as they retreated.
But he didn’t hear a sound or see a soul. He entered the halfway station, which was how he called the wooden platform room connecting the two tunnels It was empty. Canisters sat on their side and shelves had tumbled to the floor, covering the contents that had fallen first. He made his way across the room and opened the door to the other half of the railway.
Empty. But not collapsed. It's as if one side took the hit but not the other. At least it made walking easier. Despite the low level headache bugging him, a sense of urgency was building inside. He didn't know what was wrong, but something was and that was good enough for him.
He might be tired, but he was alive and he wouldn't rest until he found his friends. With that thought uppermost on his mind, he picked up his pace until he was running down the tunnel.
*.*.*
Rhia struggled to keep her emotions in check, but she couldn't stop the small cry from coming forth. If this is what the early rooms in the mine looked like, what would they find below?
Wendy whispered. "Oh, this is not good. I'm sure those computers are important for something."
At that, Rhia took a second glance and realized there was no power in the room. There were no lights on the monitors, nothing showing on the screens. "If the people in the blood farm are connected to this power system, then..."
"—then they are dying right now, if not already gone."
What a mess. Rhia closed her eyes at the enormity of the cleanup they could be facing here. The decomposition of so many bodies, the condition of the blood flowing from the canisters, and the blood in the holding tanks going bad – all of it was a disaster. And a huge biohazard.
Turning resolutely to face the tunnel, Rhia said, "Let's hope the organizers of this nightmare have a good backup power system in place."
"I don't think anything could be good enough," Wendy muttered.
Rhia nodded. "I know. We'll find out soon." As they came around the last curve to where they'd ordinarily be able to see through the glass into the nightmarish hanging dead, Rhia realized all the glass was gone.
So were some of the support beams. The tunnel was still passable, and from what she could see the people were still hanging. That was good news. If they were still alive or not remained to be seen. The large double doors to the blood farm were damaged. She couldn't open it and was forced to knock out the remaining glass from one of the large screening windows. Then she climbed through.
"Watch yourself," she warned Wendy once she was on the other side, but she needn't have worried as Wendy hopped smoothly through. Together, the two walked down the left side of the warehouse, keeping a wary eye on the hanging population and the structural damage that showed in the lopsided supports from which they hung. The rooms on the left were damaged in an irregular fashion.
Some appeared to be fully sealed off behind fallen rock, while in others, the ceilings had come down. Rhia didn't see anyone alive – other than those hanging and their state of life was still in question. She so didn't want to walk any closer and find out. If she even could.
"There’s nothing we can do for them right now, is there?" Wendy had stopped to stare at one man hanging at an odd angle due to the twisted structural beam he was strung up on.
"Not at the moment. Without power, they will die and even with power, we won’t know if they will survive and for how long."
Wendy gave a slight shudder and turned to face Rhia. "Where do we go from here?"
"To the other computer room. Keep an eye out for the others. In fact, let me know if you see anyone."
"Human or vamp?"
"They are both down here." She glanced around, saw nothing moving, and strode toward the computer room. "We need to hurry. There could be more earth tremors at any moment."
"Do you really think this damage was caused by an earthquake?"
Rhia hated to consider that it wasn't. "I hope so. If a blast did this, then we have to consider that there could be more set to go off at any moment."
Wendy's face
scrunched up. "Let's go. I don't want to be here in either case."
"Too bad." A harsh angry voice snapped out behind them. "Cause you aren't going anywhere. Ever again."
*.*.*
Serus stopped. "What was that?"
Everyone froze, ears cocked to listen better.
But nothing was distinguishable. He shook his head and muttered, "I swore I heard something."
"Like what?" asked Goran.
He shrugged. "I don't know. A rumbling? Voices maybe?"
"I didn't hear anything," David said from his left. "Maybe it was just falling rock from the earthquake."
"Maybe," he answered, but didn't voice the worry in his head. It had sounded like voices.
Then we'll go with your gut. It's rarely wrong. Goran's voice whispered in his head.
You're right. My gut says the voices are trouble. Big trouble, but I can't tell you why.
I don't need to know why. Let's just be on guard and get the hell out of here.
Serus glanced around at the sad group behind him. Damn, how had they come to this? They were in tough shape before this last incident, but with both Tessa and Cody injured, holing up until they regained their strength and were fully healed was the only option.
"I'm going to scout ahead to check if that embryo room is safe. We can stay in there if it is."
Tessa looked at him, an oddly mature look in her eyes as she said, her voice whisper soft. "No, Dad. Nowhere is safe. We stay together. It's not far. I can make it."
Damn, she was stubborn. And prideful. And his. He was so crazy proud of his little girl. But he didn't want her hurt any more than she already was and she didn't seem to know when to quit. She needed to listen to him today. But even as he started to protest, he realized she was speaking out of concern for him. He stopped. He'd never considered that she might be worried about him for his sake, but more that she was still a child worried about losing her father for her sake.
She'd changed.