Vampire in Conflict

by Dale Mayer

  She motioned to the unconscious males on the ground. "Do you know these two?"

  "Nope." Goran bent down and rolled the men over so both faces were visible in the light of the elevator. "Do you?"

  Tessa shook her head. Cody said, "No."

  David echoed the same response. Wendy stepped forward. And swayed in place. "He was at the hospital. He's one of the men who chased me."

  "Yeah?" Goran looked down at the man slowly regaining consciousness and kicked him. "Asshole."

  Sounds of a heavy truck approaching drew Tessa's gaze. The lights shone bright in the heavy darkness. The glare landed on the waiting group. Tessa instinctively stepped back out of the light. She couldn't explain the need but if she'd learned anything this last week, it was to listen to her instincts. David stepped behind her.

  "What's up, sis?"

  "Not sure. I just didn't want all of us to be sitting ducks in case they decided to sacrifice the truck if that meant running over all of us."

  Tessa heard Wendy's shocked gasp, and she skittered further into the shadows on the other side of Tessa.

  Goran growled as he studied the truck and the occupants barely discernible behind the special windshield. "Anyone know them?"

  "We're hoping it's a Council truck. Now who's actually driving it remains to be seen," Cody murmured quietly as he studied the surrounding area.

  Tessa watched as the light pinned the group in the glare. The rest of the underground parking lot was basically open. They couldn't see with the light in their eyes. There could be a dozen people about to jump their group. Tessa slipped further off to one side. David raised an eyebrow in question. She smiled. "Just making sure we're not all at one place. A little backup so to speak."

  He nodded and stayed where he was.

  The truck came to a screeching stop.

  Tessa shifted so she could see the faces of the three punks they'd caught upstairs. If they knew something, it would show on their faces. Sullen and fearful, the three huddled together, but there was no recognition on their faces.

  She took yet another step back and prepared for anything.

  ***

  Serus had had enough. They'd done nothing but talk, set up plans, and talk some more. The biggest issue was who they could bring in to help out. Who could they trust? Who was available to help? And who would keep their mouth shut?

  Serus didn't understand all the distinctions. Why not just ask who they could trust? Sian understood his point, but she said humans were different. As if they operated on a points system and certain values were worth a certain amount of points. Other characteristics were worth a different amount of points. When added up together, each person had some kind of dependability level.

  It was bullshit as far as he was concerned. People were people. They could only be trusted to do whatever suited their needs at the time. There was nothing else to it. He rolled his eyes.

  Goran, where are you at?

  In the underground parking lot. I caught two bogeys and the kids brought three down from the mall level. So five of us and five bad guys. A Council truck has just arrived. Should be on our way back to the Council Hall soon.

  Just be careful.

  Maybe a little more than careful. Your daughter just slipped into the shadows. Cagey girl, that one.

  Yeah. And good instincts. She obviously doesn't like who's driving the truck.

  Not sure if that's it or not. With the truck driving toward us, we can't see the rest of the darkness. A perfect blind for an attack. I'm moving back, too but don't want to get too far away from the others. Several are out and I want to keep them that way. Uh oh, Gotta go.

  Damn. Goran was getting all the action. Serus almost grinned at how different that saying meant now versus life before Rhia. His grin wiped off at the idea of Cody using that in relation to his own daughter. Not so funny now.

  He growled.

  "Serus? What's up?" He glanced over at Rhia. No way was he sharing. "Just fed up. Goran's having fun beating up bad guys and I'm stuck here."

  "Leave then. We'll be fine. Sian and I are going to be a couple of hours yet."

  "Hell no. I'm not leaving you. Just give me something to do."

  "Wait – did you say Goran is fighting?" she asked, her voice incredulous.

  "No. Not at all. The fighting is over," he groused. "He caught them both. Even the kids captured three." His glare deepened and his lip curled. "While I'm in meetings."

  "Go," she said. "Our kids shouldn’t be fighting. This is supposed to be over. They are supposed to be safe."

  "Well, it didn't happen. Wendy is safe, though. But now the Council is there to collect all the bad guys so they can interrogate them."

  "You have to go. Get whatever information is available," she said immediately. "We need this over."

  "I'm not leaving you," he said, letting just enough anger leak from his voice to let her know he was serious.

  "You have to. We'll be fine."

  He just gave her a look. He wasn't going to move one step without her. "I'm not leaving you."

  She glared at him. "Serus, don't be difficult. You are needed at the Council Hall."

  He smiled. "I'm not leaving you."

  She growled and threw up her hands. "You have to."

  "Not without you." He was implacable. He wasn't leaving Rhia's side. Sian either. That woman was pregnant. Neither of them were going to be alone again. Not until all talk of human-style vigilante justice stopped. And so what if he was missing out on the action? He'd lost out before and survived. This was no different.

  "Go, please."

  "No."

  Sian started to laugh. "Rhia, we can do our stuff from the Council Hall. It's just mostly phone calls from here on out."

  Rhia stopped, uncertain.

  She studied Serus's face then turned to look at Sian. He turned to study Sian's worn face himself. If Rhia couldn't see that Sian needed to go back, she wasn't looking very closely.

  "Fine." Rhia threw up her hands. "We'll all go back."

  Serus couldn't help it. His grin shone. "Now we're talking."

  "You better not have manipulated me into this." Rhia peered into his gaze closely.

  He gave her an injured look of innocence. "Me? How could I do that? I want what's best for you."

  She glared at him, then gave in gracefully. "Fine."

  Serus waited while they gathered their stuff. With any luck, he could still get in on the ground floor of the interrogation.

  Finally he'd get to have some fun, too. If they got back before Goran hogged it all.

  Chapter 14

  Tessa watched from the shadows as several men hopped out of the truck and walked toward Goran. "Are you the one that called for assistance?"

  Goran nodded toward David. "He did. But these are the men that need to be taken back to Council headquarters."

  One of the men kicked the man closest to them. "What did they do?"

  "Attacked me," Goran growled.

  The two men looked up at Goran, frowned, then looked down at the two unconscious males in their prime. "You beat them both up?"

  Tessa wanted to giggle. They'd be making a big mistake if they judged Goran as old and nothing to worry about. Others had made the same mistake about her in the past. They wouldn't a second time. She hadn't eased up her guard. These two could be from the Council, but she wasn't so sure.

  "Let's load them up." The driver walked to the back of the big truck and opened the big double doors. He lifted up the first unconscious vamp and tossed him into the back. The second vamp tried to lift the other unconscious vamp, but he didn't have the strength. "Give me a hand with this one, Reilly," he said. "I can't lift him."

  Goran snorted, scooped up the prone man, and threw him up and into the back of the truck like he was a bag of garbage. Goran stepped back and glared at the weak vamp. Muttering to himself, he motioned to the three other vamps. "Have you got room in there for these three?"

  Tessa watched as the driver nodded. "Ye
ah, I presume they are going to the same place?"

  Goran nodded. While Tessa watched, the men hopped up one at a time to sit on the benches. The back of the truck had no windows so once they were in, the men were going to stay in. Tessa watched as the driver locked the back and walked around to the front of the truck. She'd been looking for an opportunity to study their energy, but in the parking lot with dim lights, the place was dark. Too dark. She couldn't tell if he had black in his system or not. Even the energy of her group, which was lighter in color, was hard to see down here. She didn't understand why.

  And because she didn't understand, it made her suspicious.

  Then again, everything did that lately.

  "Goran, are you going to travel in the front of the truck?"

  He turned to look at her then checked his watch and realized he couldn't fly yet. He nodded. "Good idea. I'll meet you at the Hall."

  Goran walked up to the front of the truck where the driver and the second man were waiting. They looked a little nervous. He grinned. "I'll be riding with you. I want to make sure these guys get there safely."

  The driver laughed. "Old man, you're welcome to come along for the ride. It won't make any difference. These guys are going straight to the Council."

  "Good. Call me old man again, and you're going to be riding in the back of the truck with the others."

  That wiped the smirk off the driver's face. He rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever."

  He hopped up to the driver's side and turned on the truck. Goran waited for the second man to hop up, then with a wave to Tessa and the others, he got in.

  "We'll be right behind you," David called out leading the way to the car. They hopped in, and waited until the truck drove away.

  Inside the car, Tessa sat in the back with Cody. Wendy sat in front with David.

  "Tessa," David said, "Did you see anything odd?"

  She sighed. "What was odd is that I couldn't see anything. It was so black and murky I had a hard time seeing your bright healthy energy. Maybe I'll be able to see something more at the Hall."

  The truck rumbled forward. The car followed behind.

  They pulled out onto traffic and bright daylight. Tessa watched as the truck turned left onto the busy highway and picked up speed. Just as David completed the same corner, a big semi slammed into the Council truck.

  Tessa cried out, her gaze locked on the truck carrying Goran and seven others as it flipped completely in the air before landing on its roof and sliding across the highway. Other vehicles crashed into it, and even more slammed into them.

  It was chaos.

  David slammed on the brakes. The car spun wildly out of control. Wendy cried out while Tessa clutched Cody. He wrapped his arms around her as the world spiraled out of control. And suddenly the car came to a rocking stop. Wendy sobbed in the front seat, her hand holding her head.

  "Jesus," David whispered. He turned to look around. "Is everyone all right?"

  Tessa cried out when she saw David's face. He must have hit the windshield. A cut split his forehead, and blood dripped down his cheeks.

  "I'm okay, Tessa." He turned back to check on Wendy.

  Beside her, Tessa watched as the semi backed up awkwardly from where it had landed on the shoulder and eased past the mess it had created on the road before driving away.

  Tessa twisted as it drove past them, trying to see the license place. She couldn't catch a clear glimpse.

  Then it was gone.

  David started the car engine and pulled the big car off to one side and out of the way. For a long moment no one moved. It was daytime outside. The car sat under the bright hot sun.

  As soon as her mind cleared as to what had happened, Tessa bolted out of the car and ran to the cab of the Council truck. She had to climb over debris to get to the passenger side. The door had been ripped open and hung in a crumpled mess of steel. Goran had tumbled out but was hidden in the shade of the vehicle. But not for long. He looked bad. Unconscious, he was bleeding from the side of his head, with one arm bent at a weird angle. She reached in to grab his hand and felt for his pulse. Vamps were notoriously difficult to kill, but as it had been proven many times, they could die.

  Tessa, grateful he was unconscious, threw her jacket over him, picked him up, and struggled to get him to the car. Humans were racing over to help until they realized the vehicle was full of vampires. Then they stopped and milled around helplessly, not knowing what to do.

  Or what they wanted to do.

  By the time she'd reached the car, Cody was outside, his coat over his head to protect him from the sun. With his help, they got Goran into the car.

  She raced back to the others.

  Where she smelled smoke. Cody, the vehicle is going to explode.

  Ah shit.

  She grabbed the closest vamp. She had a bit of shade on the one side, but she couldn't get all the vamps out. The sun would burn them to a crisp.

  "Help," she cried out to the crowd. "I need blankets, coats, something to cover these guys from the sun."

  "Why bother," cried one man. "Let the bastards die."

  She shot him a bitter look. "Is that how we should help your son if I find him in an accident?"

  The man glanced at the ground. One man raced toward her. He had several blankets in his arms. "Here, use these."

  With a grateful smile, she ran back to the van. While wrapping the first man, she realized the blanket was big enough for two. With some difficulty, and hating that the second man had regained consciousness and was crying out for help, she dragged him out, too. She gasped for breath as the smoke filled the interior. Her muscles screamed with her efforts.

  Her instincts screamed at her to run.

  She straightened. And there was Cody. He'd found a human truck with a canopy cover and was carrying both men to the pickup box where they'd be out of the sun. Thank heavens for that. Tessa worked her way around to the back of the truck. And saw the first sign of flames.

  Crap. This day was just getting better and better.

  "Are there people in the back of the van," called out one woman.

  "Yes, five." She looked up. "I need more blankets. Covers. Something for them."

  The door had been locked. She looked at it, realizing that it was stronger than it looked and was going to give her nothing but hell. And once again Cody was there.

  Wearing a motorcycle helmet and gloves.

  She grinned.

  Love the outfit.

  Ha. Move over. We're losing precious time.

  He ripped the door off the hinges, raising a cry of surprise from the humans watching. Sunlight shone into the back of the van.

  Tessa jumped inside with a blanket. The top three in the pile were the young punks from the mall. The top man was conscious but groggy. She covered him with a blanket and passed him up to Cody.

  She turned to the next one and repeated the same movements.

  "Tessa, hurry up," Cody called. "The flames are getting higher."

  "I'm trying. Here's Vince." She passed the unconscious male over and turned to the third man. She didn't have anything to cover this one with, so she lifted him up to Cody, who wrapped the man up in another blanket. He disappeared from sight with his burden. Tessa turned to the remaining men. And she could see the two males Goran had knocked out. Damn. The first one was smoking. The smell inside the vehicle was putrid. Smoke filled the small space. But was it smoke from the gasoline around the van or from the vampire? The second vamp looked to be still alive. And he was huge. And she was tired.

  "Tessa, you have to get out now. We can't wait any longer. I can fly, but not in the sunlight. We have to get away now. This thing is going to blow."

  "This is the last one." She groaned as she tried to lift him. "The other one is smoking."

  "Smoking?" Cody scrambled in beside her and cast a horrified look at the dying vamp before grabbing the big male and crawling back out the van. Tessa struggled to get out behind him. Just as she reached the top, she heard
a weird sizzling sound.

  Panicky, she jumped from the back of the van, as far and as high as she could

  The van exploded below her, sending her tumbling into the rocks on the nearby hillside.

  ***

  Cody wanted to scream from the scorching sensation in his lungs. The heat as he jumped free, one big-assed vamp in his arms, was intolerable. He gasped for air, terrified Tessa wasn't behind him. "Tessa," he roared. "Get your ass out here."

  He didn't know if she heard him. He raced over to dump the injured vamp with the others in the back of the truck then turned to look for Tessa. There she was. Her head was just popping outside the back of the truck. Oh thank God. He ran toward her as she took one of the biggest jumps he'd ever seen her do.

  And the vehicle exploded. A ball of flame rippled in widening waves, lifting him off his feet and slamming him back against several vehicles. He bounced several times then lay still. He groaned, waiting for his head to stop ringing.

  "Hey, dude. Are you okay? That was a wild landing, man."

  Cody rolled onto his side before trying to stand. He made it upright, but he was weaving on his feet. He could barely see, and the blurred vision and the ringing in his ears made everything more difficult. He tried to focus on the people surrounding him, their hands out to help if he fell over. He took one unsteady step, then another.

  "Tessa," he croaked.

  "Well, if your landing was crazy, hers was epic. She can like jump!" The admiration in the young human's voice had Cody straightening, barely holding a cry back as pain lanced through his back. Crap. Not his wings again. He didn't dare check. He had an oversized jacket on, which protected his wings from the sun. He didn't remember where he got the motorcycle gear from, but he was wearing it. And that's what had allowed him to go help Tessa. He looked toward David and found him guarding Goran and Wendy.

  What a bloody mess.

  His gaze turned to search for Tessa. "Where is she?"

  "Halfway up the hillside. Man, I wish I could jump like her."

  Cody's gaze searched as his mind called out to her. But he wasn't getting any answer. And that scared the hell out of him.