by Dale Mayer
While Goran was still talking, Serus stepped around Tessa and slipped through the hole in the wall.
Tessa laughed. "Looks like you're not in the lead."
"Serus, wait up. Damn it, Serus."
And Goran scrambled after him.
The rest of them followed.
*.*.*
Rhia watched as the group stepped off to one side just out of her hearing range to discuss Stan's problem. She wanted to know what was going on, but they were just as determined to keep her from finding out. She understood. But she didn't like it. She and Wendy weren't prisoners exactly, but they weren't free to walk around either. Or were they?
She nudged Wendy. "Let's head to the back where the stairs are."
Wendy's gaze widened. She sent a nervous glance at the men.
Rhia shrugged. "Well, we can't be prisoners. That would be against the treaty." She arched an eyebrow at the one man standing watch over them.
He frowned and looked back at the others talking.
"No. Of course we're not prisoners." She smiled and turned to the long hallway. "We're going to go to the stairs that I know are here somewhere and look for my friends and family."
Walking backwards, she added with a determined look, "I came to find my friends and family. Join me or stay." She gave the soldier a bright smile. "I'll tell the others you're here if you plan on staying."
"And how can you tell them anything when we can't even make a phone call?"
Rhia laughed and turned to catch up to Wendy, who had marched ahead. She called back, "Because some of us are telepathic."
*.*.*
Cody stood in the tunnel and stared in the supposed direction of freedom. He'd walked down the tunnel days ago, but not far enough to find the exit. Now they had to turn their back on a way out to find Seth.
He just didn't think they'd like what they'd find.
Don't say that.
He winced as Tessa snapped in his head. You're the one that reminded me to not jump to any conclusions.
"Tessa, can you really talk to Cody in your head?"
Ooops. She turned to smile at Jared, who'd fallen into step beside her. "Hey, Jared. Sometimes I can."
He eyed her curiously. "And that's what you were just doing, right?"
Her lips twitched. "Yeah."
"And does that mean...something. You know something..." he fumbled, "special?"
Uh oh.
Snort.
Let's see how you handle that question. Cody grinned.
She glared at Cody, slipped her arm through Jared's, and urged him to walk faster ahead of Cody.
"It does mean something special. Cody and I had never been able to do this before we went through this week of hell, though." She shrugged. "It started suddenly. We're still trying to adjust."
"Like a cold? Only one you won't ever get over."
Did he just say that? Did he? I ought to—
Tessa shut him off. Stop. He doesn't understand. He's human, remember? Now let me talk to him.
She tried to figure out how to explain the mindspeak stuff to Jared, but it wasn't something she understood herself. And decided to say so. "I don't know much about it. Neither does Cody. My parents can do it and the two ancients also can. So it's something that develops over time...but in our case it happened fast for some reason."
Jared pursed his lips. "So are you two like together now?"
"Together?" Damn. She was starting to sound like an idiot, but she didn't know what to say. She didn't want to hurt him. But Cody was her other half.
Damn right.
At least for the moment, she added with more than a little snark.
Ha.
Then her mind felt cold, empty as he left.
She tossed him a quick glance to see if she'd really upset him. He strode ahead without looking back.
"Is he upset?" Jared asked.
She'd never have thought anything of it except for the tinge of hope in his tone. "Maybe, but he'll get over it quickly," she answered gently. "You do not want him angry."
His face twisted as he looked at Cody's stiff back speculatively. "So does this mean I shouldn't ask you to the movies again?" he half joked.
Cody spun around, shot him a look of fiery rage, then spun around and damn near raced to catch up to the elders.
Damn it, Cody, he's joking.
No, he's not. He's a guy. He's testing the waters to see what you'd say. To see what his chances are with you.
No, he's not, she gasped.
Like hell he isn't.
How do you know?
He gave a hard laugh. 'Cause it's what I'd do.
No. You'd never have to. Cute Cody could have anyone he wants. You'd never have to even ask, she mocked.
You're wrong, you know.
The sheer starkness in his voice reminded her of his past relationships. I'm sorry.
Don't be. This is nothing compared to what we're going to face once we get the hell out of here. You especially. Let him down gently but firmly. And be prepared to be overrun by vamps once word gets out.
So not likely. She shook her head and winced as she caught Jared's curious look. "Sorry, Jared. I'm talking to Cody."
He winced. "Oh, I got that. It's just so weird to watch."
She wasn't sure she liked that concept either. He'd mentioned it a couple of times. She hoped she didn't look like a lovelorn dumbo or an open-mouthed fish as she did mindspeak. God, how embarrassing would that be?
Cody's laughter rippled through her head. You look gorgeous – all the time.
Says you, she muttered.
Ask Jared. He'll be happy to tell you.
Like hell.
"Hey!"
Up ahead, there were sounds of a scuffle. Tessa looked back at David and Jewel, who were bringing up the rear. "Come on. The elders are in trouble."
She raced forward, surprised to see that the elders had gotten that far ahead of her.
Then she wished she hadn't.
Loud metallic clicks were followed by rushing feet as a group of soldiers raced to surround them. Several vamps had been lined up in front of them. And they had guns to hold Tessa’s group in place.
She studied the vamps. They weren't designer vamps. In fact, they looked normal. And young. These ones were kids like her. Or rather like David and Cody.
Do you know them? She asked Cody.
Hell yes. And so do you.
She didn't get a chance to ask anything else as more soldiers joined the first group – and pushed the vamps into the center.
"Seth."
*.*.*
Jared immediately put his hands up. He recognized the soldiers and the young vamps they were shepherding ahead of them.
"Hi again, guys."
The humans turned to look at him. He gave them a tentative smile. "Uh, remember me?"
He took a couple of steps forward. The guns were raised a little higher.
He cleared his throat, took a glance behind him at Tessa's group, then straightened his back. He faced the army with a boldness he didn't feel. "Remember I came to look for my friends?" He motioned to the group behind him. "Well," he smiled, "I found them."
The leader stepped forward, a hard laugh forming on his lips. "I told you to stay back at the truck."
One of the muscle-headed soldiers standing beside the leader grinned and said, "And I told you the only good vamp is a dead vamp."
Goran hissed.
Serus laid a warning hand on his arm. "Easy." He stepped up beside Jared. "Did you come down here to annihilate all vampires? Do you really think that is the answer to this travesty?" he growled. Even as Jared watched, Serus seemed to grow in size until he completely dwarfed the leader. He quickly switched his gaze to the soldiers, happy to see several of them scatter back a few steps.
The leader shook his head. "No. This is not annihilation. We're only after the ones that created this nightmare."
&nb
sp; "And how are you making that determination?" Serus asked so coldly that Jared swore his own feet turned into blocks of ice. He couldn't imagine the effect on the other men. Jared knew he'd never want to be on the wrong side of the ancient. Damn, that man was scary.
Tessa had a hell of a family. And thinking about Tessa, he almost smiled as he imagined Cody having to face her father.
Then Goran strode forward to stand beside Serus. Between the two of them, they damn near filled the tunnel.
And effectively blocked the humans' exit.
The leader swallowed hard. "We just want justice. We figured that most of the vamps still here would be the ones to have a serious talk with."
Serus, his voice now dripping ice from his voice, pointed toward the young vamps. "And you assumed these kids had something to do with it? They are way too young to be involved."
The leader snorted. "There is no reason for anyone to be here unless they are involved."
"Unless they had other business here. Like we did." Serus walked over and lifted the chin of the first kid in the group. "Keegan. Councilman Mendes's son." He walked to the next one, but the young punk vamp glared at him.
"And Harding, Councilman Stengers’s son. The other one is Warren, also a councilman’s son"
Tessa gasped. Jared twisted slightly to look at her. She'd slipped forward so she could see the other men.
"Jared, are these the guys you came up with?"
He nodded. "Do you know them?"
"They are sons of several councilmen. Some of the bad councilmen," she whispered. In an even softer voice, she added, "We killed them."
"Oh shit."
Tessa walked over to her brother. He straightened and glared down at her. She didn't know what to say. She knew what she wanted to ask him, but didn't know how to do that without making accusations. What she needed was to get him home where they could find out the truth. For that to happen, they had to get him and his buddies away from the soldiers.
"Seth," she asked cautiously, "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"
"I'm fine." Seth snorted. "These guys haven't got the guts to hurt us."
Beside them, Tessa could hear the soldiers muttering angrily. He looked normal. He sounded normal. But the bravado of the words coming out of his mouth were anything but normal.
She studied him for a long moment. The stubborn tilt to his chin. The aggressive stance and the defiant gaze. She didn't know what had happened to him, but he was pissed. She just didn't know at what.
Or why he was even here.
"You know this guy?" asked the leader.
Tessa cast him a bright gaze. "Absolutely. Thank you so much for finding him. He's my brother. We've been looking all over for him."
The leader frowned. "Your brother? But he was in the offices with the rest of these kids."
"Kids is the right word too," Serus said harshly.
"Maybe..." the leader pointed to the group of young males. "But are they also involved in this mess?"
"Oh sure. Like they are going to answer truthfully." The leader's second-in-command stepped forward, his gun firmly gripped in his hand. "These punk ass kids were in the offices trashing paperwork. They were covering up for someone. That makes them involved."
"But we don't know how involved."
"And that doesn't matter. They were part of this human sacrifice bullshit. I say we punish them like we've punished all the rest." He stroked his gun barrel, leaving no doubts about his meaning.
"How many have you punished?" Tessa asked, hoping like hell it wasn't anyone she knew. "And you do know they have vampires hanging here too, right?" She didn't mention the cloning factory. She was thinking more along the lines of Darren and Moltere.
The leader frowned at her. "Why would they do that?"
Serus stepped in. "We don't know. It's one of the things we're trying to figure out."
Goran walked over, grabbed the two vampires closest to him, and damn near threw them in the direction of the exit. "Let's go. You will appear before the Council while we figure this out."
"Get your hands off me," snarled Harding. "My father will have you kicked off the damn Council for this."
Goran snorted and shoved the kid hard in the direction he wanted him to go. "Your father won't be doing anything."
"He'll kill you for this."
Goran shoved him again. The kid snapped back to his feet and turned on him with claws out ready to strike. He actually swiped at him, but Goran cuffed him like the cub in need of a tune-up he was and knocked him to the floor.
The kid bounced to his feet, fury loosening his tongue. "My dad and his friends will kill you for this. Do you hear me? You're finished."
"Shut up, Hardy."
Hardy spun on the second kid. "Easy for you to say. You're not getting slapped around."
Keegan laughed. "I didn't resist either. Keep your ego in check and it will all be fine."
"I'm not going into any cage or standing up in front of any Council. I don't recognize the Council as any authority. I won't be put in front of any kind of monkey tribunal." He straightened and spat.
Right on Goran's coat.
Tessa gasped.
Oh shit. Cody's voice slammed into her mind. He's not going to tak—
Without a sound, Goran pounced.
Harding was lifted off his feet and thrown a good forty feet down the tunnel where he slid another ten into a huge pile of crumbled debris.
Everyone watched as he lay still in place.
"Damn. Why can't we do that?" muttered the second in command. "That looked like fun."
"Hey, he didn't deserve that," Keegan snapped.
Goran, silent, his gaze black with rage, turned ever so slowly to face him. "You think spitting on me is appropriate behavior for a punk ass piece of shit like him?"
Keegan swallowed. "I...I didn't see him spit."
Goran pointed out the slime on his coat. "There. Now do you have something to say?"
The kid shook his head quickly. "No, I'm good."
*.*.*
Serus had frozen at the sight of Seth silent and arrogant surrounded by his friends. What the hell was going on here? Did Seth have any idea about the kind of trouble he was in? Serus didn't dare speak. He'd kill the humans without a thought if it meant saving his boy, but...was his son involved in this mess? And if he was, what was Serus to do?
Goran's boy had been involved and he'd died for his actions. The thought of losing Seth was a pain he couldn't bear. What were his options? If Seth had been involved – none.
If he died here or if he was taken back to the Council, it wouldn't matter...death would be ordered as punishment.
Rhia would die of heartache. How could Seth do this? To his mother? To him? Where had they gone so wrong?
Easy there. Seth could be under the influence of the drugs, remember? These punks are assholes and need to be taken down a peg or two, Goran growled. I doubt they know about their fathers yet, but something is definitely going on. We just don't know what. Until we do...don't jump to conclusions.
Drugs. Right. Those damn drugs. Relief washed through him. His mind latched onto Goran's reminder. That had to be it. Like Rhia. His son had been recruited. Plied with drugs and brainwashed. It was the only reasonable explanation.
And for that, these assholes would pay.
Tessa had been silent through the whole exchange. He watched as she turned her attention to her brother. In front of Serus, Seth reached out and stabbed the group's second-in-command in the chest with a silver spike.
And chaos ensued.
*.*.*
Tessa jumped back out of the fray, instinctively pulling Jared to safety with her.
"What the hell just happened?" Jared asked in shock.
Goran picked up Seth and tossed him into the air. She could imagine Goran would have given the old highlanders a run for it in days gone by. Her brother landed a good thirty feet away. And did not move
again.
She wanted to run to her brother, but Goran was braced in front of the leader and his buddies. If he knocked them out, they'd never get any answers.
In front of him, the humans had surrounded the injured man.
Tessa kept her eyes on the injured soldier. She didn't know what she expected, but it was not this. The man was starting to smoke. To steam.
Like some of the prototype vampires she'd seen.
Not a quick death.
Not a good death.
But a death all the same.
She watched the look on his face as the emotions raced across his twisted features. Awareness, pain, shock...anger.
This wasn't a rescue party...this was a kill party. Or maybe only some of them were bad.
Shit. How could they tell?
Several of the men shifted around. Tessa jumped into the space that opened up and faced the humans and vamps down.
"What the hell are you doing?" asked the leader, rage turning his face to a bright puce color.
"More to the point," she retorted, "Is what the hell is your injured man...and what the hell are you?"
The leader narrowed his eyes. "What did you say?"
"I asked what you are. Because he took a stab from a silver spike. Interesting that the vamps are using them, huh."
Two of his team stepped up on either side of the leader. She studied their build, the huge chests, massive forearms, the thick necks. She knew humans worked out to build muscles through specific activities. But did they get to this size? Or had they been 'enhanced' like so many of the vamps she'd met?
As she stared at the three men, her mind clicked and clicked and clicked, putting the pieces together. They locked in place.
These men, or some of them, might be helping the vamps. They were likely part of the human group that was helping to hide this blood farm.