Vampire in Conflict

by Dale Mayer

  The humans might think that they had the upper hand in numbers, but they had no idea about the danger they were in. Not one of these humans would walk free if anyone laid a hand on the three of them.

  He heard car doors slam and sounds of running feet.

  Human or Vamp? He could use a few more vamps, but he didn't want his kids involved. If he was going down, he wanted to know that his kids were safe.

  For once.

  The door rattled. He growled. The damn thing was locked.

  Even as he judged the distance he had to cross so he could open it himself, the doors exploded.

  And Goran and Cody rushed in.

  Serus grinned. Perfect.

  Then he saw David. Shit. As the males spread out, damn if his errant daughter didn't stroll in as if she was the queen of the place. Her eyes assessing, she scanned the place, her gaze coming to rest on Sian, her mother, and finally him. Relief filled her face and she beamed a smile his way.

  "Nice to see it was a false alarm, Dad."

  He groaned. Only his daughter could take the knife edge of tension and interject some humor.

  He sighed. "Tessa, why aren't you in school?"

  ***

  Wendy drove fast until she hit the main road to town. The tears had stopped finally and now her mind worked furiously. She was still alone, and as far as she could tell, she was not being followed. She figured she was safe – for the moment. If she could get somewhere in a heavily crowded place and ditch the car, she might stay safe.

  There was only one place to do that right now. The mall. She parked close to the front, and jacket over her head, she bolted for the front door. Inside the entrance, she stood, shaking so hard she wasn't sure she could take another step. She stared around, realizing she'd come to the vamp mall. Was this the right place to be? If she'd gone to the human mall, she'd surely have been safe. Except she stood out as a vamp. And that might have been worse. She envied Tessa for being able to travel wherever she wanted and at whatever time she wanted.

  She was really the future of vamps. Most looked at her as a throwback, but in essence, she was what every vamp wanted to be. No wonder the nasty doctors had wanted her blood.

  And that just brought her to Ian. Why would they want to keep him? He'd been drugged so many times, he was barely able to recover.

  Her eyes closed briefly as the answer hit her. He had had so many drugs and had turned, albeit briefly, before Rhia had knocked him out. What if they were trying to bring that asshole Ian back? He was already on the edge of being there.

  She strolled to a corner of the mall where they had large comfortable seats. With her back to a wall where she could keep an eye on everyone, she pulled out her cell phone and called David.

  His family had to help.

  There was no one else she could trust.

  ***

  Ian managed to get the window open enough to lean out and see what was going on. Thankfully, he was in the shade, but the sunlight was coming out strongly across the courtyard. There was no way fliers should be out now. Not unless they could withstand light like Tessa. Like the ones involved in these nasty experiments.

  Was that what this place was all about? He'd never been here before, but he presumed that Rhia and everyone else had been brought here to the same hospital, too. If not here, then where?

  The sun broke through the clouds and hit the building beside him. He had maybe another half hour before the rays came inside. His old room had black curtains to keep the sun out. This one didn't.

  He couldn't go after Wendy until darkness fell.

  He had no way to get out of this room, either. He stopped at that train of thought. He hadn't actually tried the door handle. Maybe it wasn't locked or maybe it wasn't a crazy secure lock. He'd heard about Tessa opening the locked door in Moltere's mansion with a credit card. He didn't have one of those, but even though he was tired, he still had incredible strength. He frowned, staring down at his bare feet and hairy legs. At least he used to. He had no idea what the drugs had taken from him. He still couldn’t move his wings. He closed his eyes and tried to ruffle them. He strained as hard as he could, felt his wings begin to unfurl, then it stopped. He shuddered. Sweat beaded his skin and his stupid gown was soaked – from just that little bit of effort.

  Yet he'd managed to move his wings. Sure, it was just a little and nowhere near enough to fly away from here. But they were responding. And that was a first.

  He just needed to keep pushing it and gain a little more motion each time. He could do this.

  Then once the darkness fell, he'd squeeze out that damn window and get the hell away from here.

  Chapter 11

  Tessa kept her voice light and calm as she spoke to her father, her gaze lightning fast and assessing. The atmosphere was twisted with tension. No doubt they'd arrived just in time. She cast a slow glance at the group of humans glaring at the new arrivals. The balance of power had shifted, and no one knew what to do.

  A huge crash had her spinning around. Shards of glass filled the air and sunlight beamed into the center of the room.

  Her gaze landed on a large male as he smiled at her and tossed a rock from one hand to the other.

  Tessa snorted. As if. And stepped right into the middle of the pool of the sunlight. "Thanks, this really brightens up the place."

  Shock and anger wiped the jubilant looks off the humans' faces.

  "You don't burn," cried out one of the leaders.

  She turned to face him. And realized something else – there was a black shadow around him. She stalked toward him. He quivered in place but held his ground. She smiled.

  "No, I don't. But maybe you do." She grabbed him by the shoulders and tossed him into the light. And winced as he screamed in terror and his skin started to sizzle and burn.

  He jumped out of the light and stared down at his skin in horror. "What did you do to me?" he shrieked.

  She said, contempt oozing from her voice. "I did nothing. It's the deal you made with the blood farm assholes."

  The man stared at her in horror. He stared around at the others watching and shook his head. "I didn't do anything," he cried out. "Honest."

  "Then why did the light singe your skin?" asked one of the men standing closest to him. "How could that possibly happen? And…" He turned to glare at Tessa, "How did you know?"

  Tessa stared at him. How did she know? It was the darkness in his energy. She stepped back to study the rest of the Human Council.

  So much black oozed around all of them. Surely not? She turned to check on the rest of the humans milling around in fear and confusion.

  She pointed at the guy nursing his burns. "You stand over there." She waved her arm to indicate where he should go. Then pointed to the two men behind him. "And you and you."

  Taking her time, she wandered around the rest of the group, studying their blended energies. The one guy standing off to one side appeared normal. She motioned him to a different corner of the room. By the time she finished the first group, she had an almost even split of humans in the two groups.

  Then she approached the largest group.

  "I am not moving," snapped the first man.

  Tessa shrugged. "Cody, this guy needs to go into that group." And she pointed to the group of humans with dark energy. Then she turned her back on him.

  He screamed. "Get the hell away from m—" only he was flying across the room before he'd finished speaking.

  Goran protested. "Hey, how come Cody gets to have all the fun?"

  Tessa laughed and pointed to the two men beside her. "You can assist these two over to the same group."

  "What do you think you are doi—"

  They sailed through the air to land behind the others.

  Tessa smiled at one man, and he damn near raced to the group. She caught him by the arm and said gently, "You belong over there." She pointed to the smaller group of humans without the black poison in their systems.

  He took off in the right direction. With
Cody and Goran's assistance, she finished separating the last group until she came to the last three men standing close together. She stopped. "Oh, this is interesting."

  "What's interesting?" Goran asked, bending in place as if trying to see what she was seeing.

  "They all have a similarity to each other, but they’re different from either of the other groups."

  She walked around them. Her curiosity was piqued. She hadn't seen anything like this before. Each had a black hole in their energy, but it was like a cylinder at the base of their spine all the way through to their lower belly. As if they had a hollowed-out spot.

  "Very interesting."

  "What? What are you doing?" The man's voice quavered. "Why are you separating us into these groups? What do the groups mean?" And damn it he didn't sound liked he'd crap his pants if she said boo.

  She pulled back. She didn't want to scare them like this. She hadn't thought what her actions would look like from their perspective. The other group without the black energy was the calmest. Angry, but in an affronted way. Then again, they were innocent.

  The group with black energy was a problem. They were either receiving enhancements willingly or unwillingly, possibly being poisoned like Councilman Adamson.

  And then there was the group in front of her. There was something odd about the three men. She stepped back a few more steps so she could see their full energy. The blackness was more a murky gray black. As if they had just started a treatment perhaps.

  One of the Councilmen from the normal group spoke up. "Now we're in the groups you wanted. Tell us what they mean."

  She shrugged. "I can tell you that your group has had no vampire enhancements. And aren't being poisoned – at least not by vampire poison."

  Shocked cries filled the air. When it calmed slightly, she continued, "That makes you the more objective of the humans here."

  The Councilman stared at her. "Of course I'm innocent. Wait…" he stared at the other two groups. "You mean they aren't?"

  "Tessa, what are you doing?" Rhia asked, her tone disbelieving and shocked.

  Tessa spun around in time to see her father grab her mother's arms and tug her closer to him. He bent and whispered into her ear.

  Rhia turned a hard assessing glance at Tessa but stayed quiet.

  Good.

  "This group," Tessa walked toward the men whose energy had filled with blackness. She studied their faces and realized many were going to be like the army soldier. It was possible they had taken something innocently and not known about the enhancements. It was also possibly a scenario like Gloria and Councilman Adamson. Speaking of which…

  She frowned. "How many of you are married?"

  All but two lifted their hands. "Let me clarify a little further, how many of you are happily married?"

  Two more men put their hands down, and the remaining four stood slightly apart. She asked, "Do any of you four have any business dealings with the vampire community?"

  Everyone shook their heads. "Do any of you belong to the military?"

  More head shakes.

  She frowned.

  "Tessa?"

  She looked at Cody. "They are as chock full of poison as the army sergeant was. I’m trying to find out why."

  "Poison? What are you talking about?" The man standing in the front of her asked. "I've been feeling like shit for weeks, but no one has mentioned poison."

  He tugged at his shirt collar. "I've even been to see the doctor, but he couldn't find anything wrong."

  "Me too," said one of the men behind him.

  "And I spoke to one," cried a third.

  Tessa looked at the fourth man. "Did you go, too?"

  He shook his head. "No. Don't like them. But my brother-in-law is one, so I spoke to him." She nodded and asked gently, "And who is your brother-in-law?"

  "Jensen. Dr. Jensen."

  "Hey, that's my doctor."

  "And mine," shouted the other two in unison.

  Tessa turned to the Councilman in the clear energy group. "I highly suggest you pick up Dr. Jensen and question him about running experiments on humans on behalf of the rogue vampire group."

  Cries broke out. And suddenly, everyone wanted Tessa to tell them what was happening to them.

  She bared her fangs and hissed as they surrounded her until a warm hand squeezed her shoulder and Cody stepped up to her side. "Back off. She'll answer questions, but one at a time."

  Thanks, Cody.

  As always. He paused then added, Are you serious, all these men have been poisoned?

  I'm not sure about all. But those four, yes. She turned to look at the four men with black energy who were not related to Dr. Jensen. "Do any of you have anything to do with Dr. Jensen?"

  All four shook their heads. She pointed her question at the two men who weren't happily married. "Have your wives gone to the doctor for you? Said she'd drop by at the drugstore or pharmacy any time recently?"

  One shrugged and one nodded. She smiled sadly at the one who nodded. "I'm sorry, but in your case I'm afraid your wife will need to be looked at closely."

  His jaw twitched. Then he gave a curt nod and stepped off to the side. She looked at the next man. "And you?"

  "I don't know. I'm not happily married, but she wouldn’t kill me. I'm the breadwinner. She has no money at all."

  "And your girlfriend?" Tessa hated to bring up his private issues in a group like this, but the man's energy was covered with more than one female energy. "Does she need you, too?"

  He winced. "No. She's more likely to try and kill me. I broke it off with her a couple of months ago. It went on far too long and wasn't a good scene."

  Tessa frowned as she tried to sort through the old and newer layers of black and gray energy. "The poisoning may have started months ago, but it's still fresh in your system, so if it was her, you're continuing to take the poison since you two split."

  He frowned at her, and then a dawning awareness and a look of horror took over his face. "She's a nurse. I have a skin condition and she refilled the prescription for me. I use it daily."

  "Then that's where your investigation should start. With that cream." And then that bitch, only Tessa didn't add that part. He already knew what to do next.

  There were still two men in the group, but Tessa couldn’t pinpoint the exact cause with them even though she'd tried. Deciding that the humans could figure that out, she turned to the oddball men with the cone of blackness. And realized how deeply ingrained that blackness was. This wasn't superficial in any way.

  She snorted. "This other group was all being poisoned, and yet you three are poisoning yourselves. Every one of you is taking – willingly – vampire enhancements."

  And all three launched themselves at her.

  ***

  Rhia surged forward, only to be tugged back to Serus's side. "Damn it, let me go. Tessa is in trouble."

  Serus laughed. "And this is why you don't see Tessa as she really is now." He grabbed her stubborn chin and turned her around so she could see Tessa. The first man was on the floor, out cold. As she watched in shock, Tessa waved her arms and the two remaining men dropped beside them.

  "What on earth," Rhia whispered. "What is she doing?"

  She knew she sounded dazed and slow, but she didn't understand what her daughter had just done. "And how?

  "See, we've been watching her this week as she grew and figured out what she could do and what she couldn't." He pointed at Tessa. "This stuff, she just learned on the last day. It's got something to do with her slicing through their energy and creating a disruption to their pattern or some stupid thing." He leaned closer as Tessa knelt beside the men and did a reverse kind of motion. "Now watch."

  The first man woke up and bolted backwards. Fear tightened his features even as his Adam's apple bobbed in panic. "Whaaa…t did you do to me?" he cried, his panicked gaze shifting from her to the other men on the ground and back to Tessa.

  "Maybe the better question is what your association with the
vampire clan is." She took a threatening step toward him. "And the truth. We’ve had enough damage from your greediness."

  "They promised we'd be bigger. Stronger. Better," he cried out.

  "Bigger, better than who? Other humans? Do you think you'll ever be bigger or better than vamps? Look what I just did. Do you think getting an enhancement is going to change that?"

  "They said the vampire clans were shifting. Becoming weaker. That we had to be on their side or else we'd become one of the farm animals."

  She paused at that and turned to look at the other two men. She walked closer, bent over, and waved her hand so their energies blended again. Both men groaned, waking slowly. She gave them a moment, then asked, "Were you also in on the procuring process to replenish the blood farms?"

  One man shook his head. "No. I was just trying to stay alive after the vampire war was over. They said we'd be harvested if we didn't join them. We weren't good enough to join right now if we didn't have the enhancements." His voice faded away. He stared up at the ceiling. "I don't feel so good."

  "That's because the enhancements are unstable. They were also built on vampire DNA, not intended for humans specifically. But adapted for humans. Not that they care if you survive or not."

  A wave of depression settled on his face. He sighed. "I didn't see a choice."

  She pursed her lips and stared at him. "Besides being a traitor of your species, what else do you know that can help the humans find the other traitors?"

  "Names and places. I'm one of the accountants." A whisper of hope lit up his eyes.

  "Shut up, Lew," said one of the men. "She doesn’t know anything. Fucking bit—" and he went flying.

  Thanks, Cody.

  Any time.

  She glanced down at Lew, who seemed to be waiting for some pronouncement. "And you'll help them capture the others? Be fully cooperative and help us clean out the poison in both our societies?"