Tessa

by Gabelman, Teresa

  With a growl, she went to stand, but excruciating pain exploded in her ribs and stomach. “You bitch.” Frank went to kick again, but she rolled, just as Jack Buffer tackled her father. “What in the hell are you doing? Let me go!”

  “In no way did I agree to harm or watch a woman be harmed.” His voice boomed across the parking lot. “I swear, if you make one more move toward her, I will knock you out. Don’t move!”

  Tessa knew something was definitely wrong. She tried to talk and then stand, but the pain was preventing her from doing so.

  “Hey.” The man her father hired helped her up slowly. “Are you okay? Do you need me to call someone? I’m so sorry. I never knew he would do something like this.”

  Tessa tried to straighten up, but couldn’t. “Then you definitely… don’t… know… Frank Pride very… well,” Tessa managed to get out, then tried to bend over to get her papers, which was a huge mistake. Her father was a big man and she knew every ounce of power was behind that kick. How she knew…because he hated her that much.

  “Don’t listen to her. She don’t know shit,” Frank yelled, then took a step toward her, but this time, the man was able to stop him.

  “Do you want me to call the police?” Mr. Buffer asked as he stood between them, holding her father back.

  “She don’t want you to call the cops on her father,” Frank spat, with such sarcasm it made Tessa sick to her stomach, or maybe that was the pain. She wasn’t sure, but what she was definitely sure of was her father was going to pay this time.

  Turning her head, she glared at him and knew, by the look on his face, her eyes were black as night. No longer were they the light golden hue. “Call them,” she managed to growl.

  Tessa was glad this man sided with her because she couldn’t defend herself. Something was definitely wrong. The pain was getting worse. She tried to focus on what was being said, but a roar had started to echo in her ears. She needed to sit down, but couldn’t. She was bent in a funny way that prevented her from standing straight or bending enough to sit down.

  “Girl, I swear if you press charges on me, I’ll make you pay.” Her father was ranting, making her head hurt.

  “If she doesn’t, I will.” Mr. Buffer growled, then forced Frank to the ground. Tessa watched from the corner of her eye so not to get caught off guard, not that she could do anything about it now.

  She felt so stupid for letting her guard down around him. She knew better or at least should know better. In some small part of her brain and heart, she didn’t want to think her own father would do something like this to her. Once again, she had been wrong. Tessa had given him so many chances to be a father and each time she was let down. But this time, he was going to pay.

  “They’re on their way,” Mr. Buffer said, still keeping himself between them. He put his hand on her shoulder. “I think you should sit down.”

  Tessa frowned, not really wanting to move. Instead of sitting down, she tried to straighten again. A loud crack sounded, sending Tessa to her knees, a scream escaping her throat.

  “Dammit, you’re already healing.” Mr. Buffer cursed. “He probably broke ribs and they’re healing. I’m calling an ambulance.”

  Opening her mouth, Tessa tried to say Slade’s name, but nothing came out. She couldn’t even talk. Instead, her mind opened, trying to call out to Adam. She didn’t know if it would work, but with them having the same powers, he may be able to hear her.

  Tessa remained on the ground. Sirens sounded in the distance. She knew she would live, or at least thought she would live. A vampire couldn’t die of broken ribs, could they? Biting her lip against the pain, she stopped trying to reach Adam and instead called out to Jared. Were they connected enough for him to know she needed him? Was that how this mate stuff worked?

  Anger, pain, and a sudden sense of sadness overtook her. She should know this stuff. But since Jared hadn’t even wanted to turn her, she’d kept her questions to herself and hadn’t wanted anyone to look down on Jared for not teaching her these things himself.

  “Ma’am?” A woman’s voice broke her out of her thoughts. “Can you hear me?”

  Tessa barely managed a nod, and even then it caused the pain to triple.

  She heard Mr. Buffer explaining what had happened and what he thought was going on. She also heard her father screaming at the police and her, but that was the least of her worries. She’d deal with him when she survived her latest ordeal. God, she was tired. Sick and fucking tired of the bullshit thrown her way constantly.

  Opening her eyes, she cursed inside her head, and eventually found the woman staring into her gaze. Her mouth moved, but nothing came out. Blocking out the pain, she tried again. “Slade Buchanan,” she croaked, and was surprised when the woman seemed to understand her.

  “The vampire doctor?” the woman asked, but disappeared before Tessa could respond.

  Commotion occurred all around her, but all Tessa could do was stay in this awkwardly helpless position. Anger swarmed her, as did fear.

  “We need to move her,” an unfamiliar male voice said above her.

  “I don’t know,” a woman’s voice said, the same voice that had been speaking to her just a few minutes ago.

  All Tessa could see were their feet and hear voices.

  “I need to talk to her,” a different male voice said, his tone harsh.

  “She is in no position to talk.” The woman’s voice turned angry. “Obviously. What I need you to do is get a hold of that vampire doctor. Slade Buchanan. I think he is going to be the only one who can help her. The man there said her ribs were probably broken and already healing.”

  “Shit!” The man’s voice sounded irritated. “Okay, I’ll go call the VC. Do we even know who she is? Do we have a name?”

  The woman’s face came back into view as she lowered herself onto the ground. “Honey, what’s your name?”

  Tessa tried to say her name, but the pain was intensifying to the point her ears roared, and blackness edged her vision. She opened her mouth, but her mind and voice were not working on the same level.

  “It’s Tessa Pride Kincaid,” Mr. Buffer answered. His voice sounded so far away. Actually, all their voices sounded far away.

  The woman disappeared and Tessa wanted to call her back. She didn’t want to be left alone, even though she was surrounded by feet. The blackness was filling her vision quickly now, her mind foggy. With one last effort, she opened her mind again and screamed Jared’s name.

  Chapter 18

  Jared jogged up the steps to the compound, ready to face his past head-on. This was going to fucking suck, but he was done with the bullshit. It was time. It was actually way past time. Once inside, he heard voices coming from Sloan’s office, making him slow. With a curse, he plunged forward.

  “Well it’s about fucking time,” Sid announced, and he only had one foot in the door.

  Jared glanced at his watch. “Not my fault you’re early.”

  “So what in the hell is so important the man who hates group texts, sends a group text?” Sid leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest.

  Jared glared at him, but it was true. He fucking hated group texts. “I wouldn’t hate group texts if you assholes wouldn’t act like high school girls replying back and forth, making my phone go off constantly,” Jared shot back, actually glad Sid was breaking the ice by giving him shit. He needed a minute before he dropped the bomb he was going to pull out. “Twice it’s almost gotten me killed.”

  “Ah, you can actually turn off the notification sound for group texts,” Steve added, trying to be helpful. “Just sayin’.”

  “You guys done?” Sloan asked, his eyes narrowed from Jared, Sid, and then to Steve.

  “I don’t know.” Jared looked at Sid. “You got anything else stupid to say?”

  “Depends.” Sid grinned, uncrossing his arms and sitting up. “I’ll let you know in a minute. Now, why don’t you tell us what you needed us all here for?”

  “Ah, actually
, we’re not all here,” Steve announced, then glared at Adam who nudged him. “What? He said we’re all here and we’re not. Jill isn’t here, neither is Nicole, Pam, or Katrina.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Jared sighed.

  “Ah, why not?” Steve ventured into dangerous territory by questioning one of the Warriors. “Because I really don’t want to hear Jill go on for an hour about cocks and shit. Can I get an amen?”

  “Amen,” Sid and a few others mumbled under their breath. Even Sloan nodded in agreement, without the amen. “And, Steve, why in the fuck are you starting every sentence with ah? If you’re going to be a fucking writer, you damn well need a better vocabulary than fucking ah,” Sid added.

  “Why weren’t the women included in the text, Jared?” Sloan asked, ignoring the rest of the men.

  “Because what I’m about to say cannot go any further than this room until I talk to Tessa,” Jared replied without hesitation.

  “Are you saying you can’t trust my mate?” Damon growled, clearly indicating he didn’t like the sound of that.

  “Not on this.” Jared looked straight at him. “With my life, yes, but not with the information I’m about to tell you. All of you have taken the Warrior’s oath, they have not. And they are women.”

  “Oh shit. He brought out the woman card,” Steve mumbled, but it was loud enough for all to hear. “Don’t let them hear you say that.”

  Jax snorted with a nod. “He definitely speaks the truth.”

  Jared’s eyes met those of Duncan and then Sloan. “I lied to you both.”

  “Which time?” Sloan cocked his eyebrow.

  Shaking his head, Jared didn’t smile or even smirk at Sloan’s dig. He glanced at Damon, then back to Sloan. “Most of you in this room don’t know that I quit the VC Warriors a long time ago. My family is not all I lost before I was thrown into the gladiator arena. My rage set me on a course for vengeance. I didn’t know who or why my family was killed, but I vowed I would find out before my last dying breath. Rumors circulated about a demon, but I took it just as that… a rumor. Didn’t believe in that shit. It wasn’t until I was approached by Sloan with a chance to leave the gladiator arena that I knew that was the only way I would ever be able to seek the revenge I craved and to find my wife. It wasn’t until I learned of vampires as I was being turned into one to serve the VC that the rumors about demons were more believable to me. I didn’t pledge my life as a human to become a Vampire Council Warrior to save our race and protect humans. I didn’t care about any of that.” Jared watched Sloan closely, but he was a closed book, as always. “I did it only for my own selfish reasons, and that was to exact vengeance on those who killed my family. The only person I was able to save was my pregnant wife.”

  Jared never understood the saying “the silence was deafening,” until this very moment. All eyes were on him, and he looked at each of them before he continued. What surprised him was there was no judgment in any of their eyes… yet.

  “I hid her and told her no matter what happened, to stay where she was until all was clear. I had to choose her or my family. I chose her.” Jared’s eyes narrowed as if he were reliving that moment, and in a way, he was. “I never really knew if she escaped and it wasn’t until many years later that I found out she had survived.”

  “Did you find them?” Steve’s eyes were wide, listening to the story.

  Jared didn’t answer Steve, instead continuing with his story. “While training with the VC, I trained hard, but I also used that to gain information on who was responsible for my family’s death and any intel I could gather about a woman alone with a child. When I wasn’t training, it was the same.” He glanced at Sloan, Duncan, and then Damon. “Do you remember Valic?”

  Damon growled, indicating he did. “What about the son of a bitch?”

  Valic had owned the majority of the gladiators. He had been a rich piece of shit, who’d owned land until he’d discovered owning men was very profitable. The greedy bastard wanted more, so he used men to capitalize on the riches he already had. Jared glanced at Adam and Steve, who were listening intently. “Valic owned me, Damon, Duncan, and Sloan.” His eyes left them to go to Damon. “We were handpicked by Valic, who had made a deal with a demon, Jozzar. If this demon made men he handpicked available, then Valic promised him our souls when he was finished with us.”

  “So this demon killed your families or drove you mad to the point you would make excellent gladiators, right? Each of you turned to a life of crime.” Adam frowned, deep in thought, then saw the surprised look on Jared’s face. “I excelled in ancient history. I know most gladiators, or so the history books say, were criminals. I mean, there was no mention of demons.”

  “Your history books leave out a lot of history, I’m afraid,” Duncan answered, then glared at Jared. “You should have told us about your wife and child as well as Jozzar. Why didn’t you?”

  “Because my child’s life depended on it. I still had family, you did not.” Jared turned to look at him. “At that time, I didn’t know anything about demons. I heard about the Dark Guardians, and that’s when I knew I had to join up with them if I had any hope of finding and saving my wife and child. The fact was that if I was looking for them, then chances were, so was Jozzar.”

  “But how would he have known about your wife and kid?” Steve frowned.

  “Sorry I’m late.” Charger, along with Kane, Val, and Raven, had walked in during the last part of the conversation. He gave Jared a nod, then looked at Steve. “Demons know more than they should. You can believe that Jozzar, an evil bastard, has been around looking for ways to make your lives miserable. When they don’t succeed, they get bored and move on, but they never forget. Hundreds of years can pass and they don’t forget. All of you deprived him of what demons want most. Your souls. Jared, being the asshole that he is, did even worse. He took the life of the man who made the deal with the demon. With the uprise in demon activity, I’m betting Jozzar will be making an appearance sooner rather than later. It seems to rile them up when their comrades are up in arms about something. And unfortunately, Jozzar’s targets are in this room.”

  Jared glanced at Kane and Val, but his gaze met and held Raven’s before finally moving away.

  “Wait a fucking minute.” Sid stood, shaking his head. “You were a Dark Guardian?”

  “Yes, I was,” Jared replied without apology.

  “But what about the oath you took with the VC?” Blaze frowned, his tone tense. “Did that not mean anything to you?”

  “At the time, no, it didn’t. The only thing that mattered to me was my wife and…” Jared glanced at Raven again. “…daughter.”

  No one said a word, but all eyes went to Raven and then back to Jared.

  “I’ll be damned.” Sid was the first to speak.

  “Holy shit.” Steve gasped, finally getting on the same page as everyone else. “I see the resemblance… in the eyes.”

  Adam rolled his as he pushed off the wall and walked toward Raven with a frown. “You’re only a few years younger than Jared.”

  She nodded, glancing at Jared. “It took a while for us to find each other.” She shrugged, looking a bit uncomfortable from everyone’s stares. “And I was human when he found me.”

  Jared knew the story was jumbled, but it was fucking complicated. He really meant that word when he spoke it to Tessa. It was fucked up and complicated.

  “In order to keep her safe, I changed her.” Charger answered the question no one was asking but wanted the answer to. “With her total agreement.”

  “And how did you feel about that?” Sloan asked, his eyes still on Jared.

  “I wanted to kill him, but realized it was for the best and let him live,” Jared replied. The anger of that moment when he’d found out his daughter had been turned without his permission flamed again.

  Charger snorted with a smirk. “Yeah, okay. We’ll go with that.”

  “And your wife?” Sloan asked, then looked at Raven. “What happened to your moth
er?”

  “She died from fever” was all Raven replied, a hint of sadness coloring her tone. “And within a few weeks, he showed up.”

  “So, to make a confusing, long-ass story short, we have demons coming out our asses, and one mean one who’s probably going to make an appearance to collect a debt from many hundreds of years ago. So keep your loved ones close,” Charger said, then glanced around. “Any questions?”

  “So many I don’t know where to start.” Steve looked as confused as he sounded.

  Adam turned toward Jared. “So this is why you’ve been an asshole to my sister?”

  “I’ve known what was coming for a long time and want her as far from it as possible. Being a Warrior is going to put her into the line of fire, which will be aimed toward me,” Jared replied, his frown deepening.

  “Why did you feel that you needed to keep it a secret?” Adam sounded angry. “You’ve put her through hell, man. She deserved to know the truth.”

  And Jared hated himself for the hurt and uncertainty he had inflicted on Tessa. Before he could answer, Charger spoke up.

  “Jared did more for your sister than you know.” Charger nodded at Jared. “One thing people don’t realize is there are demons everywhere. They also work together, but for their own selfish reasons. There are demons that know about each and every single one of you, and when it’s to their advantage, they will use that information against you. They are scary motherfuckers and can get into your thoughts, yes, even vampires’, and find your weakness. Jared’s weakness was his family. They are dead. Jared’s weakness has been his daughter, and now it’s his mate, your sister. Sloan’s mate is his weakness. Damon’s mate is his, and Duncan, not only his mate, but son. Jared’s daughter is alive, and Jared knows what it takes to keep her that way because of the awesome abilities of the Dark Guardians; now he has the challenge of his mate. Being a dick to loved ones is unfortunately one way to keep them safe.”