Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (172 page)

Somewhere there was a shirt with the
laces starting at her belly button and going upward, just barely
covering the swell of her breasts. She'd had the thing for years.
Struggling into it was no easy feat, and doing up the laces kinda
hurt. Looking down, she had to laugh. She resembled those buxom
German girls slinging beer – she popped out above the top. Until
now, she hadn't realized she had anything there to pop.

She walked to the back of her bedroom
and studied the whole effect in the mirror. She didn't look like
herself anymore, yet didn't quite look like someone else either.
Heavy makeup might finish the transition. She headed to her mom's
makeup drawer. Tessa emphasized her vampire eyes, extending the
eyeliner down and back the way her mom had shown her. But instead
of black lipstick, she put on blood red. She didn't need mascara as
her lashes were already thick and full. She pondered the effect,
then decided it worked. She tried on a silver necklace with a blood
opal that had a matching bracelet. Perfect.

Except vampires couldn't wear
silver.

She wasn't a true vampire. She left
it on.

"And now
my boots." She tugged on her black boots with the killer heels and
zipped them up her calves. She studied her reflection.
I look like a dominatrix. All I need is a
whip.
As an afterthought, she changed her
nail polish to the same blood red she'd removed earlier. It matched
now.

She was out for blood.

She also looked every inch a female
vampire – dangerous and deadly.

Perfect.

Now to kick some vampire
butt.

***

Slipping into the mansion where the
Council meeting would take place was no big deal. Hundreds of
people milled about in full vampire black. The odd daring female
had on a contrasting color. Other than that, the room swarmed with
darkness. Tessa moved through the crowd with purpose. It was the
only way to avoid looking insecure – which she wasn't. She was
determined. Big difference. Someone should tell that to the
butterflies in her stomach!

She counted – as a person, as a
vampire. She dared them to prove otherwise. Straightening her
shoulders, she sauntered toward the Council room. Several members
were gathered outside.

Her outfit attracted attention. Her
self-confidence loved the boost. She preened a little; at least
felt safe here. There was something to be said about wearing
clothes to show off her figure. She sensed male assessment – and
their approval.

She wanted a boyfriend but not just
anyone. She wanted Jared. Still, the obviously appreciative male
glances were fun.

So that's what being popular and sexy
felt like. Who knew? No wonder the girls angled for it. She just
might try it out on her human friends after this.

"Hi there."

Tessa turned, startled when a young
male grabbed her arm to stop her headlong rush toward the back of
the room. She looked at his grip, raised a haughty eyebrow and
stared him down.

He flushed and stepped back,
apologizing. "Sorry. Didn't mean to grab you like that. I just
wanted to say 'hi' before you raced away."

"I'm looking for someone," she
replied coolly. Giving him a small smile, she turned to check out
what was happening. Damn. The Council members had entered the
Council chambers and the heavy doors were sealed behind them. Two
guards held positions on either side of the door.

Moving casually past the guards, she
quickly realized the room must be soundproofed because she couldn't
hear anything through the doors. Council business was serious
stuff. She walked down the hallway, searched for a second door.
There wasn't one.

A sense of heavy expectation hung in
the air as people gossiped to fill their time until the meeting
adjourned. Both her parents were on Council and her brothers served
as apprentices.

So what benefit could she get from
being here? Mingling, she listened in as the conversations flowed
and ebbed around her, searching for tidbits that would help her
find her next direction.

"They took a human,
apparently."

"Don't need another uprising like we
had before."

"It's been close to fifty years since
the last incident."

"Wonder who's involved. Bet it's
those Trent boys. Mark my words, those two are trouble."

Trent
boys?
Tessa remember overhearing David
gossiping about the lifestyle the two men preferred. Could they be
the ones holding Jared? How to find them? And where could they have
stashed Jared without fear of being found out?

"No, it wouldn't be them. They've
gotten married."

Tessa frowned. What did that
mean?

"The Trent boys? Now I know you're
joking."

"No, honest. They married twin
sisters and have settled down. Human sisters."

Raucous laughter broke
out.

Tessa winced. As humans were still
regarded as only one step above cattle by many of the vampire
nation, relationships between the two were often crudely joked
about. She could just imagine what both species would say about her
and Jared if they knew.

Her parents were more accepting. Then
Sian and Taz were family friends, and Taz was a human doctor. Tessa
had gone to him a couple of times, just because he knew her unique
physiology. Then his genetic makeup must be different too as he
aged more slowly than most humans. Of course he was a teenage
girl's dream man, too. And Sian was a perfect match. They'd been
together for decades, and had taken a lot of shit from both sides.
Their love had survived.

It gave Tessa hope.

A door slammed behind her, followed
by raised voices. Two of the Council members exited the bathroom
and headed back inside the chambers. She barely heard snippets of
the conversations between them.

"We can't just go charging off to
save this human. We'd be setting the scene for an even bigger riot.
This requires a diplomatic approach."

"It does not. The time for diplomacy
is past. Someone is mocking our authority and our treaty. We can't
have that."

Great. That meant the Council members
likely couldn't agree on what to do, either. As she sat there
mulling over the problem, a shadow crossed the window beside her.
Hundreds of vampires milled outside. No big deal. Except…something
didn't feel right. She pondered what bugged her.

She stiffened. That shadow felt
familiar.

Her eyes opened wide. That's it. One
of the vampires who'd attacked her earlier tonight was outside the
house right now. Not giving herself a chance to question her
actions, she hurried to the closest exit, ignoring the looks she
received from everyone as she bolted through the crowd.

Once
outside, she stopped to survey the area. How could she find her
attacker in this crowd? She closed her eyes, seeking the same sense
of familiarity.
There.
She tracked it to the back of the house. The area was
deserted. What did she expect? These were vampires. They didn't
just sit and wait to be caught. Especially those who'd broken an
honored treaty. They'd probably shown up here to see how much the
Council knew and where it had gotten its
information.

A brush of cloth startled her. She
spun around. Cody stood beside her, a questioning smile on his
face. Of course he would show up now.

Shit.

"Tessa?" he whispered.

"Sorry, who?" she replied in a
haughty, confident manner. Inside her nerves were screaming. She
might not be a real vampire, but she'd certainly met many and the
women were always something else. So confidant, so beautiful and
often so cold. She could emulate the best of them. She raised a
snooty eyebrow at him in the eerie darkness.

Confusion settled onto his face and
he backed up a step. "Sorry. I mistook you for someone else." He
turned to walk away but glanced back once. She saw the frown
creasing his forehead.

Her initial elation subsided quickly.
He wouldn't be fooled for long, and if he mentioned her to Mom or
Dad…or they saw her…they'd recognize her. The darkness was their
world. They reveled in it. It was their playground.

She needed to move before Cody
returned. And he would – she had no doubt about that.

Circling the large mansion, she
searched for the same sensation she'd recognized earlier.
Approaching the parking lot, she caught it again. She paused and
actually sniffed the air. How very vampire-ish of her. She laughed
inwardly. This whole mess would be a great joke – if there were
anything to laugh about.

Poor Jared. How was he
faring?

***

The drums beat a heavy rhythm inside
his skull, reminding Jared he was alive. He didn't remember much of
what happened. His attackers had snatched him up then everything
had gone black. He'd awakened here. And wished he hadn't. The one
image that had burned into his mind was of Tessa, before his
capture, crumpled on the ground.

She didn't appear to be here with
him. Hopefully, these assholes had left her behind and weren't
holding her captive in a different area. He wished he knew if she'd
gotten home safely.

Jared studied the chains on his
ankles, heavy rusted iron that he had no hopes of breaking and an
old padlock he swore was turn of the century technology. He assumed
his captors were vampires. He didn't know for sure since he hadn't
seen them – he hadn't been bitten, or seen them feed.

He also wasn't alone. Two other
people stretched out next to him, sporting matching chains. One of
them didn't look so good. An older man whose face had bleached of
all color struggled to breathe. Sweat poured off his face. He
looked bad, like he might be having a heart attack or something.
The other guy's chest rose and fell in a steady motion.
Thankfully.

Glancing around, he shivered at the
old stone-walled cell. He had no idea where he was. This place
looked deserted and unloved.

He whispered to the older man. "Hey,
are you all right?"

The man shuddered, blinking his eyes
several times. His words were slurred when he answered. "Don't feel
so good. Need a doctor."

Alarmed, Jared searched the large
empty room, hoping for a way out. "You have to stay strong. Someone
is going to be looking for us."

"Too late." The man
coughed several times then his head rolled to one side and he went
still. A gush of air, like a balloon with a hole, escaped. The man
went silent.

Jared strained to hear the man's
breathing as he watched in vain for his chest to rise and fall with
the effort of breathing. Nothing. The man was dead.

He shuddered and closed his eyes. His
life had gone from bad to seriously freaky. How long had that poor
guy been here? Tonight only, or weeks – maybe months?

Fear slithered through Jared. He
didn't want to die here. He was young with a whole lifetime ahead
of him. Shifting on the cold stone floor, he inched as far from the
dead man as he could.

Thank God, Tessa wasn't lying on the
cold stone floor beside him. It burned him that she'd been hurt
while with him. He'd done a piss poor job of protecting her. Not
exactly the manly image he'd like to project. He couldn't help
worrying that she'd been hurt badly. Head wounds were tricky. That
she wasn't beside him could mean several things. He'd stay positive
and try to believe these assholes had left her behind.

She had family. She'd said something
about a brother before. At least there was someone to keep her
safe. Someone who'd grieve if she'd died.

Unlike him. No one would give a damn
if he stayed missing. He'd been living with his uncle for as long
as he could remember, and he couldn't wait for the day he could
leave. Finishing school came first though.

Such was his life.

Even that kind of life was better
than dying like this poor guy beside him. He glanced over at the
third man who appeared to be out cold or drugged. He was
considerably younger than the dead guy. Mid-thirties maybe? And in
good shape. Not fat with a beer gut like Jared's uncle. Good thing.
When he woke up, this guy could help him get out of here. Although,
if their captors were vampires he knew there'd be no fight. They
were stronger and meaner…with inherent skills and strengths that
humans lacked.

According to what he knew, vampires
and humans had coexisted for a long time. That's what he'd been
taught in school. Apparently not everyone had been doing that so
peacefully.

He'd heard the rumors the
same as everyone. The stories were the stuff of legends. Ancient
legends. Some of those older vampires had been set to wipe out
humans…or keep them as cattle. He vaguely remembered the name
Moltere. He was the badass behind that mess, according to his
history teacher.

Vampires didn't age like humans and
centuries-old tales were the norm for such long-lived creatures.
Animals. That's what they were. This just proved it.