Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (179 page)

Tessa stared around the room at the
small clutches of people sitting and talking like this was a great
social visit. Enough already. She stood up.

"No, they won't. It might put them
out somehow. If they don't acknowledge there's a problem, then they
don't have to feel guilty about not doing anything about it." She
studied the various close and distant family groups. Not one of
them was likely to help. She wondered about her human friends.
They'd all want to call the police. And what about calling the
police? Was that such a bad thing to do? Could they
help?

Or would the vampires eat them alive?
She wandered in the direction of the kitchen in search of water.
That room was full too. Sighing, she stared out the open doors to
the large back patio. As expected, the patio was jammed with other
people gossiping the time away. No one cared. Jared was only a
human, after all.

She poured herself a glass of water
and took a long drink. She rinsed the glass and turned to
leave––

Dr. Taz stood in her way. Her mother
and Sian, Taz's partner, hovered nearby. From everyone's positions,
Tessa assumed they thought she'd try to run. Rolling her eyes at
the gorgeous hunk of doctor grinning at her, she said, "Honest, I'm
fine."

"Then let me check you over and
everyone will feel better about it."

Tessa nodded at his words. "Fine. But
I'm not going to lie down. You can check my head here in the
kitchen." She pulled out a chair and, with a long-suffering sigh
she sat down and accepted his ministrations.

While Taz checked her over, her mind
spun off in a dozen different tangents. Her own injury reminded her
that Jared could be in worse shape.

How could she find the
assholes that had taken him? They had to have some help. Surely
that house belonged to someone important. It was a huge estate. How
could she find out who owned it or who was living in it? Was there
a housing registration office for vampires or some such thing? Did
they have to report in as to where they lived? Not likely. Humans
did, though. Or at least a certain segment of them did, like
criminals or half criminals. She didn't really understand how that
worked, but didn't think there was a vampire equivalent.

She hated that the entire subject of
Jared had become a nonissue. That just might be one of the biggest
downsides to the vampires she knew – their lack of willingness to
get involved. All vampires lived in a secular world, one that
revolved around them.

She couldn't just sit and do nothing.
Jared had to be scared out of his mind.

***

Jared drifted in and out of
consciousness. He could no longer tell if it was day or night. Or
how long he'd been there. Time had become meaningless. Had to be
from the drugs. He'd thought he'd heard Tessa's voice earlier, and
now her voice wove in and out of his consciousness. His life would
end soon – he knew that now. He hadn't seen anyone else die, but
the prisoners here probably would prefer death.

On his way to this holding cell, he'd
been led through the warehouse full of hundreds, maybe thousands of
suspended humans. They were in some sort of stasis while their
bodies pumped out valuable blood.

Reality hadn't been long in coming.
That was the fate awaiting him.

How sad. He'd planned on going into
engineering after graduation. Jared didn't want to spend the rest
of his life in this half-alive state like the others.

A few minutes ago he'd been asked a
series of medical questions about his health and that of his father
and mother. Some sort of selection process, he presumed, to check
on his family history. Hooked up in that warehouse, any young human
would easily live fifty, sixty or maybe…given the lack of wear, a
hundred years. Just the thought of his life being lived out in this
blood factory made him want to vomit.

He'd rather kill himself first. Only
he didn't think he could anymore. He was no longer chained. That
was one good thing. Then again, restraints were no longer required.
They'd given him drugs, strong ones. Drugs that tugged at him even
now, pulling him back under. His last thoughts were of Tessa. Where
was she? What was she doing right now?

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cody leaned back against the wall and
wondered again how his vampire clan had survived. He felt they
played at the game of living. They had no vengeance left in them,
no fight – and for most of them now, no flight. Few chose to have
children and of those that were interested, fewer than half were
capable. Their ability to reproduce was being bred right out of
them. Maybe they were becoming obsolete. But when you could live
forever why would you choose to overcrowd your living conditions by
reproducing? There were so few youngsters that they tended to stick
together.

He frowned, thinking about what Tessa
had said. It couldn't have been easy on her if she'd been shunned
by the others. Not with such a small group her age. No wonder she'd
turned to humans for companionship.

She had learned
compassion and caring at their hands. Vampires were more selfish –
hence the lack of action tonight. Unless their vampire way of life
was attacked, they'd do nothing. Unlike the old days, when vampires
were the aggressors.

Tessa, on the other hand, appeared to
have more fight in her than all her vampire family put
together.

And where had she gone, anyway? He'd
seen Sian and Taz arrive a while ago. Surely checking Tessa's head
wouldn't have taken that long… Glancing around, he found both
fathers in conference with several other elders. And no sign of
Tessa.

David was joking with Jewel, the girl
he was sweet on, and Ian, another good friend to both of them. He
walked over and spoke to David. "Hey, where's your
sister?"

"I thought she was with
you?"

"Nope." The two spun around,
searching the crowd.

"She might have gone to bed on Taz's
orders."

Cody slid him a sidelong look. David
shrugged. "Okay, so maybe not. Then where the hell is
she?"

"I'm concerned she'll take off
again."

David glanced over at him and shook
his head. "I doubt it. And what's with that, anyways? I've never
known her to be so intense about humans." He looked down at Jewel,
who lifted her shoulders in a shrug.

"They
accepted her when her vampire peers wouldn't
."
Cody
watched as David internalized that. "She feels responsible for what
happened to this one."

David frowned, and said. "That's
dangerous. We have to have the Council on board to accomplish
anything on a large scale. There's little she can do on her
own."

Ian had yet to speak but
at David's comment he nodded in agreement.

"She believes the Council won't do
anything until it's too late and someone else gets killed." Cody
searched the area. He was unable to shake the worry that Tessa
could be planning to take off again.

"The
problem here isn't that no one will do anything, but that they
can't figure out
what
to do. The vehicles have been seen around, although no one
seems to know who owns them," David said. "Some people know of the
house but said it changed hands a couple decades ago, and they
don't know who owns it now."

Cody grinned as Wendy and Jacob
joined them. Wendy was cool. Good in school and didn't have quite
as much attitude as many of their peers. She was a glider. Jacob
was too. He was okay – a bit arrogant, but then weren't they
all.

"Hey, like this is so messed up."
Jacob grinned, his excitement lighting up the place. Jacob could
always be found in the center of any trouble brewing.

Jewel stepped closer to David. "Cody,
did you really see a dead person?"

At Cody's nod, horror filled her
gaze, and she slid closer to David. "That's so
terrible."

David grinned and winked at
Cody.

Cody tried not to smile. David had
been panting after Jewel for a long time now. About time he made
some headway. Jewel was a decent sort. Not critical and harsh like
many of the younger set nowadays. Cody was happy for his friend.
And damn, that brought Tessa right back into his mind.

"What are we going to do about this?"
Soberly, Ian jammed his hands deep into his pockets while he waited
for an answer.

"That's what we're trying to figure
out." Cody turned around, looking for Tessa. "Has anyone seen Tessa
lately?"

"Outside," Jewel answered. "I saw her
go out a moment ago."

"Shit." Cody bolted out the closest
door. "Tessa, where are you?"

David raced out behind him, their
friends spilling out the door in their wake.

"Tessa!"

"I'm here. Stop yelling."

As one, the group followed her voice,
craning their necks to find her in the trees above the
house.

"What are you doing up there?" David
snapped.

Goran, Serus, and Rhia raced outside
to stand beside the younger group. The adults looked up at her,
frowns settling on the men while her mother gasped in
shock.

Rhia stepped closer as if to catch
Tessa if she did fall. "Tessa, no! Get down here right now before
you fall. You've got a head injury, remember?"

"I'm fine, Mom. I just came outside
for a little peace and quiet."

David shifted closer. "Huh…Mom,
ordering her around isn't likely to get her
cooperation."

"Cooperation? She's recovering from two head injuries. She's
liable to fall out of that damn tree any minute." Rhia's voice grew
until she was practically screaming. "Serus,
please
, go up and get
her."

"I can get down on my own you know,"
Tessa called down.

"And you might fall, too, damn
it."

"I'll go." Cody didn't wait for
anyone's approval or discussion. He understood how Tessa must feel.
She'd want to get out of this on her own; however, should anything
go wrong… He couldn't let that happen. There appeared to be a
slight improvement in the adults' mindset, but a mishap at this
point would destroy that.

With a graceful leap, Cody cleared
the heads of those standing close to him before spreading his
wings. He reached Tessa's side in one full stroke.

"Come to rescue me again, Cody? Or
doing their bidding?"

"Neither. I thought I could give you
a graceful exit down. Then, maybe we could get some help to go find
Jared."

Tessa's eyes widened. "Really?" Hope
crept into her voice.

It hurt Cody to see Tessa's doubt and
lack of faith. Vampires were clannish and generally their
decision-making process took time, but once the decision was made
they charged forward. "David and some of our friends have gathered
together. I'm sure the elders will want to join the fray, if for no
other reason than to keep us younglings safe." He couldn't quite
keep the derisive sarcasm from his voice.

He needn't have worried. Tessa
grinned. "Isn't it great when everyone thinks you're too young to
know anything?"

"That's the truth. Come on. Let's get
this show on the road." He held out a hand. She took it and the two
jumped to the ground in a graceful leap.

***

Tessa landed in front of her family's
shocked faces. She laughed as pride and joy rolled through her.
"Not quite the klutz you thought I was, huh?"

Rhia grinned, appreciation of her
daughter shining on her face. "Honey, I never thought that about
you."

"Right."
Tessa turned to her father. "I'm going to find Jared. Maybe with
other vampires and maybe without, depending on if anyone wants to
come." She raised one eyebrow at the bluster starting to build on
her father's face. "And don't bother arguing. It's something
I
have
to
do."

She glanced at the crowd collecting
around her. "Is anyone willing to go with me?" When several people
cried out 'yes,' she nodded and held up her hand. "Just to make
sure you understand. We're going to rescue a human. Possibly more
as we've found one dead one already. And we will be going against
vampires. I don't know who is behind this or why they've taken
humans but there's a good chance these are vampires we might know.
Don't make this decision lightly."

She nodded her head as people did a
rethink. "That's right. There could be some unpleasant surprises at
the end of our journey. I'm not afraid of them." Eyes flashed at
the mention of any of them being afraid. She smiled inwardly. A
vampire's ego was not something to fool around with. "I don't have
any choice. I feel responsible for Jared's kidnapping, and I will
do everything I can to rescue him. But for the rest of you, it's a
choice. Think about it and think about it seriously."

Several people exchanged glances with
their neighbors.

Tessa continued her warning. "The
other issue is someone has already died. He may have died from
natural causes and he may have had help. The truth is that being
kidnapped and chained up like a dog for an unknown number of hours
did not help him to survive. I've been attacked twice. For the rest
of you, injuries or even death are possibilities. These are
vampires who may know just how to do that. You could be giving up
your eternal life."