Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (181 page)

"Dad, we're past that now. I know you
want to put me back into a little-girl box, but it's too late.
Besides I'm just a few years younger than the rest of the group.
Let's just do this." She planted her hands on her hips and stared
at him. She didn't want to fight him. Her energy would only go so
far. "I'll learn from all of you."

"You're too damn young – you don't
know what you're getting into."

"And you're too old – you don't
believe the young can do anything."

The two of them stood nose to nose
glaring at each other.

Then, just as abruptly, they both
laughed, understanding the humorous take on their
standoff.

Returning to the issue at hand, Serus
said, "North. We're going north to the outskirts of Vampire City in
the mountains."

A shiver slid down Tessa's back. The
mountains had always been out of bounds. For a brief moment she
couldn't help but wonder if her dad might be right about this not
being the trip for her. No. She couldn't let him be. Jared, and who
knew how many captives were more important than her childish fears
of going into the mountains.

"Let's go." Serus took one last look
at the three young vampires in his group and leapt into the air.
Even though Tessa had seen him in action before, the precision of
his beautiful movements still moved her. They were full of grace,
and his landings…well, she could only hope she didn't have to be as
old as he was before she learned to control her jumps half as
well.

Jacob and Wendy followed. Both were
friends of her brother, David. Tessa took a deep breath and tried
to imitate their smoother, more practiced glides, but she ended up
feeling even more awkward and inept.

Three jumps later, she reverted to
her normal crab style. Hey, it worked.

They didn't stop moving for close to
an hour. That's when she really wondered if she'd made a major
mistake when she'd insisted on coming. Most of her body ached one
way or another. Getting out of bed tomorrow could be fun.
Not.

At least her headache had
disappeared. Her last jump brought her to within a few yards of her
father. She even landed on her feet.

He nodded and turned his attention to
the group as a whole.

"We've got a little further to go
before we're deep in enemy territory. However, we could be watched
even now. Don't do anything stupid. If anyone approaches us, I'll
talk to them." He cast a stern warning glance at them all. "This is
only a fact-finding mission. We want to know what's here and who's
here – that's it. Got it?"

"Got it." Their voices blended into
one chorus.

He took off once again. Tessa hated
to admit it, but her legs were feeling more like marshmallows than
ever before. Still, she pulled on her inner strength and headed out
after them.

She'd lost track of time.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she realized everything
that had happened so far had spanned only one evening and night.
From the theater with Jared, to the Council meeting, to taking off
and being attacked and now down to this wild chase in the
dark.

Worry immediately set in. The others
would need cover soon. But not right away; they were in the
mountains, and the morning sun would reach them later than it would
have if they were home.

She jumped again and again, going
from tree branch to rock to cliff edge. She used muscles she'd
never realized she owned, and she completed jumps that she'd never
have considered possible.

On the next jump she had a terrible
takeoff, and nearly fell off the tree. Her arms were almost too
tired to hold her grip. Feeling definitely shaky, she leaned
against the trunk to rest her legs.

"Come on Tessa. We're almost there."
Her father called up to her.

She
groaned. At this point,
almost
wasn't good enough. Still, she'd insisted on
accompanying them and she refused to let her dad be right. She'd
damn well finish it. Gathering her energy, she jumped to an
adjoining tree and then another and another. If she could avoid
jumping down and then up again, it would save her a ton of energy
and effort.

Eyeing her next potential landing
spot, she tried a more horizontal jump. Happy with that attempt,
she chose an even more horizontal line the next time. Picking a
path through the trees, she moved faster than the others. Her jumps
had to be done carefully, to land properly in the tree, but even
that seemed to get easier and easier. Pretty soon she was just
coasting along. It felt good. Right.

"Tessa?" her dad called out to her,
an odd note in his voice.

"What?"

"What are you doing?"

"Jumping," she said in exasperation.
"What does it look like?"

"Flying."

She landed hard, her surprise made
her misjudge her landing. Her knees buckled. Straightening up, she
gasped, "What?"

"It looks like you're flying. Or
something similar. I can't quite tell. It looks very
odd."

"Yeah, so what else is
new?"

"No. I mean it's unusual but you're
doing it very well." Her father stood on the ground a little ahead
of her. "I just can't see how you're doing it."

"I don't know either. I've been
trying to conserve energy." She gave a self-conscious shrug. "This
is the solution I came up with. Not having to go up and down all
the time saves power and time." She jumped down to land heavily by
her father.

He studied her face. "How's the
head."

She shook her head. "Fine. The pain's
gone."

"But you're tired."

"Sure. I didn't know I owned half the
muscles I'm using." The other two in the group arrived as she
spoke. Tessa smiled at them, relieved in a way, to see fatigue on
their faces as well.

"How you'd do that glide thing?"
Wendy asked, a curious look on her face.

Tessa frowned.

"That tree-to-tree thing you did. It
looked really cool."

"Oh." Tessa couldn't help but feel
flustered at all the attention. She wasn't accustomed to having
others admire her skills. "I'm not exactly sure. I just started
doing it to conserve energy."

"I wish I could do that. I'm
exhausted." Jacob wiped his brow before turning to Serus. "Sir, are
we here now?"

"Yes. Stay close. We're close to his
lair." Serus led the way again, this time slipping through the
trees to the deeper shadowed area of the woods. Within minutes they
came to a series of mansions dotting the countryside. All the
lights were off and silence permeated the air. Was anyone home?
Could they have gone to bed? There was still at least an hour of
darkness left.

Serus frowned. "I don't like the look
of this."

Tessa slipped up to his side and
opened both eyes. There were no sign anywhere of the weird energy
signatures she'd started seeing. Not human or vampire…at least that
she could see. "I think the place is deserted. I can't see
anything."

"Maybe," he growled. "Or they could
be hiding."

"How would they know they needed to
hide?"

"I'm not sure that they
do."

Tessa continued to move forward,
keeping her shadow with the trees. She circled around the house, to
the right, looking for vehicles. Found nothing so she did the same
on the next two properties and continued searching, followed by her
father and the others. The first two had nothing. The third also
showed no signs of a vehicle. At the fourth – by far the largest
mansion – she got lucky. She motioned to her father and waited for
him to join her. "There's an Escalade up there."

"So?"

"I followed an Escalade to the house
where Cody and I found the dead man. I can't tell from here if it's
the same one, though."

"Will you know if we get
closer?"

Tessa considered the problem.
"Possibly, I remember part of the license plate number. Also, if
they've been driven recently by the one of those two men, then I
might recognize remnants of the energy. I just don't
know."

"Then let's find out."

Vampires are stealthy to begin with.
When they try to hide, they blend into their surroundings, almost
disappearing altogether.

Moving quietly, Tessa and her group
approached the last house from the back. A few more feet brought
her almost close enough to touch the back bumper of the vehicle.
The license plate looked right. Opening both types of vision, she
studied the interior of the vehicle. There. Wispy vestiges of
energy. The same man…no both men. The energy had blended as it had
dispersed.

"This is it. The same two men are
here – somewhere."

***

Cody couldn't quite explain the
feeling of flying to the rescue at his dad's side. He'd never been
bothered by any familial feelings before. He'd been happy and
content to live in his father's shadow. Not a big deal. Pride
wasn't his thing. His dad, on the other hand, loved the limelight.
Cody was good with that. He rarely saw his brother and that was
cool, too.

Yet this warmth inside, this new
sense of wanting to straighten up and walk tall beside his father,
was interesting. He could get used to this partnership.

"Cody, can you tell us the general
direction from here?"

Startled, Cody glanced from his
father to the roads below. There was the same mansion on his right.
"They went down that road there." He pointed to the left. "I saw
their dust plumes as I flew home. They appeared to go
straight.

"Good enough. I want to go lower so I
can see if there are other tracks. We don't want to be following
the wrong vehicles. Not that there would have been many here
overnight."

Overnight?
How had so much happened
in such a short time?

If someone had told him yesterday
that Tessa would instigate a revolt of vampire against vampire to
rescue her human friend, he'd have laughed so hard he probably
would have made himself sick.

And what kind of friend was this
Jared? What did he mean to her? Cody's stomach clenched. When he
heard her snap at her aunt Rosha, he saw another side to Tessa. He
had to admit he'd admired her for standing up to her miserable aunt
like that. And what the hell was with that?

Cody didn't currently have a
girlfriend. And although his friends were always bugging him, he
hadn't felt the need to go out and search for one like they all
did. Could Tessa have caught his eye a bit, earlier? And had he
been unwilling to take a closer look because of who she was? If so,
was it even okay to covet his best friend's sister?

"These tracks are so clear that I
think we can safety assume they were made by the kidnappers. Let's
pick up the pace, otherwise we'll be caught outside when dawn
breaks." Goran swooped low, keeping to a straight line above the
trees.

"Yeah, I think that's why Tessa
wanted to get going hours ago," Cody called out as he caught up.
Jewel and Ian swooped down to take up positions on either side of
Cody.

Goran glanced over at his son. "Smart
girl. Her father's old school. Vampires are nothing if not
clannish. Takes a lot to get them to go after each
other."

"What happened with this Moltere
person?"

"He's been a headache for centuries.
He goes under for decades and usually comes up to cause a hell of a
mess. It's about time for him to surface again.
Unfortunately."

"Yeah. Is Rhia correct? Is he into
hunting humans?"

"Definitely. He's as old school as
Serus. We were all younglings together. I came into the picture a
little later, when they were already friends. They were both
passionate – but about opposite things."

"So Serus wanted to protect the
humans?"

His father nodded. "Moltere wanted to
set them up in farms. He's always looked down on them as
animals."

"Yet we've seen time and time again,
that in some areas they really are superior."

"Absolutely. Moltere doesn't want to accept that. He thinks
vampires are the rightful rulers and one can't rule if there is
nothing to rule over, so he figures that job of being ruled falls
to humans. Then there is the blood issue. Sure, we need it to
survive. It's just we don't need
human
blood. Animal or synthetic
works just as well. But to Moltere, having synthetic, was like
having water when wine is available. He wouldn't do
it."

The other two vampires flying beside
them listened quietly.

"Is a blood farm what we're expecting
to find tonight? Really? You mean Rhia wasn't joking?" Jewel asked
Goran.

"Rhia is usually serious. And she's
right. He could be operating another blood center. We've certainly
caught him with them before. He keeps setting them up because
there's a huge black market for human blood."

Cody frowned. "That's disgusting to
think of humans like Taz being farmed for their blood. He's a great
guy." In fact, the thought made his stomach roil.