Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (177 page)

Rhia stopped stroking a white streak
of Tessa's hair to glance up him. She looked surprised. "What do
you mean?"

"I spent
more time alone with her tonight than I think I ever have, and I
know she surprised me. Maybe I've been as guilty as everyone else
of assuming her genetics made her
less
of a vampire." He shook his
head. "I have to tell you, I think it's made her a better one."
With that cryptic comment, he cast one final look at Tessa and
walked out to face the gathering of angry vampires
below.

There was only one way to handle this
and that was to give the truth. Tessa wouldn't appreciate it. It
could mean she might never be allowed free on her own again, at
least for a good long time. That didn't change the fact that
something ugly brewed in their vampire world, and everyone needed
to know what was going on. Cody, for one, wanted the others to help
him find out what that was. The best he could do would be to
minimize Tessa's involvement.

Or better yet, accent the strengths
she'd showed tonight. Foolish and impulsive actions, maybe…except
her heart had been in the right place.

Then again, as he thought about it,
he didn't need to embellish anything. Tessa had done just fine
tonight – all on her own.

CHAPTER SIX

Tessa woke to a darkened room. She
surged upright, wincing at the pounding in her head, as memories of
last night crowded into her awareness. Her panicked glance showed
the same curtains on the window of her childhood room and the cozy
blanket David had bought for her birthday last year. Home. Sighing,
she relaxed into the pillows.

Not wanting to face the day and not
yet truly rested, she pulled the blanket up to her neck and tried
to snuggle deeper.

Loud noises from below disturbed her
peace. She didn't know what they were arguing about, but it had
gone beyond normal family fighting. That's probably what had
awakened her. She lifted her hand to her head and gently explored
her skull, wincing as her fingers caught on the dried blood matting
her hair. A shower would be wonderful. Just the thought of putting
out that much effort made the rest of her body scream in protest.
The events from last night were still shady, still sapped her
energy.

Images and feelings mixed with odd
impressions and partial memories, leaving her unsure of what had
actually happened. And then there was Cody. Even as she thought his
name, a gentle sense of connection swept through her. She sighed.
She needed to get a grip before Cody got wind of that. He'd laugh
her into tomorrow.

Speaking
of Cody. Was that his voice?
Shit.
She glanced at the clock and groaned. She'd hardly
slept. Less than an hour had gone by since her return. As her
father's blustery voice whipped through the house, Tessa cringed.
Cody had saved her. She'd been the one who hadn't wanted to go back
and get help. Please don’t let him get ripped by her
father.

Cody had been the hero. She'd been
the idiot.

They could blame her if they wanted.
They would anyway, to a certain extent. But they shouldn't be
treating Cody badly. Knowing she'd never rest if she didn't do her
part to right the injustice, she slowly sat up and swung her legs
over the side of the bed.

The room spun around for a few
seconds, then calmed down. Using her night table for support, she
stood up and carefully made her way to the doorway. She didn't want
to face her father's wrath. In truth, no vampire in the world
would. But she couldn't let Cody take the blame for her
actions.

Good intentions were fine, in theory,
navigating the stairs to make good on them was a different
matter.

She accidentally stepped down on the
last stair hard and gasped as spikes drove into her temple. Biting
her bottom lip, she forged ahead into the living room. The room
swelled with vampires.

Great, there'd be an audience to hear
her admit her stupidity. Bitterness washed over her in waves.
Surely, for once in her life, some things could be private? Not
this, apparently. Then again, of all her actions, this one would
have the most widespread repercussions.

"I don't want to hear it," snapped
her father, his barely leashed temper adding a cutting edge to his
voice.

Tessa couldn't suppress the moan that
slipped out. His voice… Could he please remove the spike now deeply
embedded in her brain by his raised voice? She massaged her temple
and fell back against the doorway.

"Tessa?"

The room erupted into
chaos.

Her mother rushed to her side. Cody
beat her.

"Why the hell aren't you sleeping?"
he snapped.

"Uh, gee, maybe because of all the
yelling going on," she snapped back. She didn't argue as he slipped
a hand under her elbow and led her to the closest chair. Sinking in
deep, she closed her eyes briefly. Opened them to see her mother
glaring at her father.

"I told you to keep your voice down,"
Rhia said.

His glare swiveled from Rhia to Tessa
and back again. "Maybe it's better this way."

Tessa watched her mother
draw herself up to her full height, in no way prepared to give an
inch. "You will not question her right now. She's injured. Twice
now, I might add."

"I know that. I'm not going to beat
her, for Christ's sake," he muttered. "I just want to ask her some
questions. Get some answers we need."

Any other time, Tessa would have
grinned at her father backing down in the face of her mother's
wrath. Those two had been together for centuries. They knew just
what boundaries they could cross and which ones they couldn't. Then
the sooner everyone knew what had happened then maybe something
could be done to save Jared. "Mom, it's okay. I'm fine."

Her mother spun on her heels,
frustration firing her voice with heat "No, you are not fine. I
want you to march upstairs and get yourself back into bed. And stay
there. Do you hear me?"

Tessa heard the words, and when she
looked in her mother's eyes she recognized real fear behind the
tone. Tessa smiled gently. "I love you, too, Mom."

Her mother's eyes filled with tears
and she rushed over to hug her only daughter. "Tessa, you could
have been killed. Do you understand that?"

"Yes," Tessa whispered against her
mother's blue-black locks.

Her mother wiped away her tears and
pulled back a little to look down at Tessa. "Please, wait until
you're feeling better. I don't know much about the kinds of
injuries you have. Maybe I should call a human doctor…? Taz." She
brightened at the idea. "Yes, that's what I'll do. Let's go back
upstairs. Taz will be happy to come."

Tessa glanced over at David and Seth,
who both rolled their eyes at her. "Mom. I'm not human, remember.
And Taz isn't going to want to come into the house with this
gathering going on." She motioned to the room full of black-clad
vampires. "Though I might get injured a little more than the rest
of you, and I might take longer to recuperate, that doesn't mean I
don't have any vampire traits."

Cody stepped closer. "And I'd be the
first one to say I've seen more than a few of them in action over
the last few hours."

Her father glared in Tessa's general
direction, effectively including the entire family and
Cody.

Tessa glared back, and then winced.
The tempo in her head clashed with the movement, and a fine tremor
ran through down her spine.

"Tessa?" Her mother crouched down in
front of her. "Honey, please go back up and lie down."

But Cody placed a hand on her
shoulder. Heat crept up her face. Maybe she hadn't imagined those
solicitous touches earlier. Did he really care, or was she just the
little sister he didn't have in his life? What a depressing
thought.

"She can go back up in a few minutes.
She's my daughter, not some weak lily-livered human." Serus's tone
brooked no argument.

Straightening her spine, Tessa stared
at her father. Showing weakness hadn't gotten her anywhere with him
before. Maybe showing some backbone would. "What do you want to
know?"

"I want to know what the hell you
were doing ignoring my orders."

Her chin jutted out on
its own. Any attempt to force some stiffness into her spine was
forgotten. It slid in on its own now. She wasn't going to put up
with a dressing down for not listening to her father – not in this
instance. Jared was in trouble. And if her father still refused to
help her – well she knew where the front door was. She refused to
consider that the knock on the head might have had something to do
with that answer. "I'm not even going to discuss that with you. Not
here and not now." Tessa's words were quiet, but clear as she
stared her father down.

His jaw dropped.

She'd
have laughed if the subject weren't so important. "I came down here
to make sure you weren't taking chunks out of Cody and to tell you
what happened so you could help. But if you're just planning to
tell me off, to ground me for doing what I felt was right…" she
stood up slowly, her temper putting steel into her rubbery legs,
"And to tell me that
you
wouldn't have done the same, then I'm
leaving."

Silence. Tessa didn't think she'd
ever heard such an absolute absence of sound. She refused to tear
her gaze away from her father, who looked like he'd been struck by
lightning. The rest of the audience held their breaths, waiting for
the explosion.

"Tessa, that's hardly fair. You know
your father needed to speak with the Council first." Her mothered
hovered between them.

"And
second? And third?" Tessa scoffed. "While Cody and I tracked
Jared's kidnapper
and
the men – who attacked me, I might add – to the house where we
found a human, chained and dead."

Soft gasps rippled through the
house.

"I know perfectly well how
incompetent and incapable you believe me to be. I, however, won't
let your opinion stop me from helping someone I care about. Whose
predicament I feel responsible for."

Dimly in the back of her mind, she
felt Cody's withdrawal. She'd have to reason that out later; right
now, in the vampire den, she dared not show weakness. "There are
times when you just have to stand up for what's right. This was one
of them."

Her piece said, the steel morphed
into marshmallows and she collapsed into her chair.

"You care about this…this human?" The
question came from her father's sister. Aunt Rosh was cold, hard,
and a bitch…but all bitches had families and she happened to be
part of Tessa's.

Letting her lip curl in disdain,
Tessa cut through the implication hanging in the air. "Yes, Aunt
Rosh. He's a friend."

"A friend?" she asked delicately. Her
tone implied so much more.

And just like that, Tessa had enough
of it all. Of Aunt Rosh's innuendos, her criticisms, her belief
that Tessa was stupid and naïve – the constant nastiness Tessa had
endured from this relative. "Think whatever you want, Rosh. You
will anyway."

Her mother's soft shocked gasp at her
side would have made the old Tessa cringe in horror at being so
bold. This Tessa, the beaten, chased and now attacked-on-all-sides
Tessa, could no longer afford to be anyone's doormat. "He's a
friend. That means he's someone I go to school with. Someone I went
to the movies with. He's not my lover." More murmurs wafted through
the room. "He's a friend."

"Interesting," Rosh murmured,
studying her long nails, a sneer on her face.

"Yeah, it's a human thing and a
friend thing. Obviously, you wouldn't understand."

David, who came to sit on the armrest
of her chair, gently nudged her shoulder. Tessa half leaned into
his touch, accepting both the comfort and the warning. At least for
the moment.

Her dad knew his sister was being
insulted and, it was obvious he didn't know what to do about it. "I
think it's time Tessa went to lie down."

"No, Dad, it's time for someone to
help me find Jared." She took a deep breath. "Before whoever took
him kills him, like they did the other man."

"That's human business," murmured
someone from the back of the room.

"Who said that?" Tessa snapped,
glaring at the blank looks turned her way. "It's not human
business. It's vampire business. It was vampires who took him,
vampires who killed the other man and vampires who have Jared even
now."

"Of course we only have your word
that this other man is dead." Rosha smirked at Tessa.

Tessa turned to look up as Cody
stepped forward. His temper showed on his lean, dark face. "Not
true. I also saw him."

Then Tessa remembered the evidence
she'd gathered. Standing up again, she reached into her back pocket
for the man's wallet. "Here. His name was Carstairs Wallace." Her
voice gentled as she looked down on the wallet she'd taken. "I
hoped we might help him, too. Someone, somewhere will care what's
happened to him."