Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (184 page)

Tessa groaned and settled
down.

It was going to be a long
wait.

***

"Jared?"

"Wake up, Jared."

A harsh slap helped pull Jared out
from his drug induced dreams. He swam through swaths of cotton
batting to the surface way above him. Opening his eyes a few
minutes later, he groaned and slammed them shut again. "The light,"
he gasped. "It hurts."

The lights dimmed.

Jared tried to open his eyes again.
"Thanks, that’s better." He studied the face in front of him. "What
happened?" Two other people moved around the room, both in white
lab coats. "Am I in the hospital?"

"Not really. But you weren't
absorbing the drugs as you should have been. We had to bring you
down to run some more tests."

A small prick in his arm had him
glancing down.

"There. Nothing to worry about. We’ll
do the tests in the morning when some of the drugs clear your
system. Just try to rest and have a good night’s sleep."

With that the room
emptied. Jared took a quick glance around his half of the room.
Empty beds lined both walls. In the windowless room, he struggled
to get his bearings. Fluorescent lights flooded the room. It
resembled a hospital ward, but not quite. He tried to sit
up.

And stopped.

He was strapped down. His hand went
to the buckles and tried to loosen them.

"Don’t even bother."

Startled, he turned slightly to face
his neighbor. Another young male, strapped into a bed similar to
his, stared at him.

"Where are we?" Jared
asked.

"In the infirmary – at the blood
farm."

***

Tessa woke to heavy
snoring.

Yawning, she sat up and groaned
softly. Her back screeched in outrage. Sleeping under a tree did
nothing for her spine. Looking around, she studied the other two
sleeping vamps. Hard to imagine anyone would be afraid of her
species if they could see these two. Her dad was curled up in fetal
position that mocked his large frame and height. On the other side,
still curled under Tessa’s jacket, Wendy slumbered like a baby.
They were all tired from having powered through those miles last
night. They had a right to be tired. Tessa didn’t feel too lively
this afternoon, herself.

She peered through the heavy boughs.
They were missing a lot of the basic amenities, like a toilet, but
as a hiding place, the dense branches had done the job.

Both vehicles had left. She’d never
even heard them start up. She’d been so tired it would have taken a
bomb going off at her side to wake her.

With one last look around, she nudged
her father’s shoulder. "Dad, wake up. It’s almost evening
again."

"Whaaat?" Groggy, and rubbing his
eyes, Serus sat up and banged his head on the low branches. "Ouch,"
he bellowed.

"
Shh
. I think
we’re alone, but I wouldn’t want to find out the hard way that we
aren’t."

Now that he was finally awake and
aware, understanding filtered into his eyes. "Have you seen
anyone?"

"No. The vehicles are gone,
too."

He shot her a quick look. "You didn’t
hear them?"

"No. And no, I don’t know where Jacob
is either."

He pursed his lips as he studied the
layout of the place. "He’s probably worried he lost us and has gone
for help."

"I highly doubt it," Tessa muttered.
She scrambled to her feet and slipped out from under the boughs.
Straightening her back, she couldn’t stop moaning. What a relief to
be able to stretch all the way up again. They’d only been under
there for half a day, yet her spine felt like it had been
compressed into a Slinky.

The afternoon heat still lingered,
making pine and spruce the flavor of the day. She sniffed
appreciatively. It reminded her of her childhood and the one time
they’d gone camping. That was during her mom’s attempts to help her
get in touch with her human side. Camping, was apparently a common
activity for humans.

She could see the fresh air and open
skies might make it appealing, but sleeping on the ground sucked.
She glanced down at Wendy. "We should wake her up and get
moving."

Her dad nodded. "Yeah, I want to go
home and fill up."

Tessa frowned. Yet another
difference. She was starving too, but she'd eaten before leaving
and had a granola bar stuffed in her pocket. They'd had smoothies
earlier and usually could longer than her but this amount of
expended energy must have drained them quickly.

"I’m fine. Don’t give me that look.
I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time now. Don’t need my
daughter to fuss over me like I’m in my dotage."

Tessa hid her grin. At least he
didn’t sound like he’d pass out on her.

Wendy sat up and yawned. "Is it safe
to leave now? I could use a shower."

"I think so." Tessa strode toward the
house and tested the front door. "It’s locked."

The two had walked up behind her.
Serus said, "Good. Let’s head home."

The return journey was faster than
she’d expected, and they were home in just under two
hours.

The house was full.

Her mother came running. "There you
are. We were worrying about you."

Serus gave her a warm hug. "Time ran
out and we had to hide out."

Rhia cast a long look at Tessa’s
face, the worry easing from her features. "That’s what we figured.
Goran isn’t back yet, either."

"Really?" Tessa frowned. The flyers
should have made it home in half the time. "That’s not good. They
should have been home a long time ago."

"We were just organizing a search
party. None of our teams are answering their phones, and we haven’t
heard from them since dawn."

Serus straightened. "Let’s go.
There’s no time to lose."

She nodded. "Tessa, you need to eat
and rest. There’s a whole group of people here who are going to be
waiting with you."

"That’s nice. They can wait without
me."

"Don’t you start," bellowed Serus.
"Haven't you had enough excitement for one night?"

"Absolutely. However, as Jared may
not get a second night, I’m not going to bail on him because I
might be tired. Cody could also need help. For all we know the
flying group found something. Or worse, someone found them. I’ll
grab something to go, thank you very much."

Father and daughter glared at each
other.

Rhia stepped between them. "No.
You’re not going this time. This could be dangerous."

Tessa snorted. "Like it hasn’t been
already? Jacob has likely betrayed us. You did notice he didn’t
return with us, didn’t you?"

At the shocked look on her mother’s
face, Tessa shrugged. "I saw him standing with several men after
Dad and Wendy were locked in a basement. I’d left the three of them
together while I scouted the outbuildings in the daylight. When I
came back after doing a search, Jacob stood outside with two other
men. They searched the outbuildings, presumably for me." She glared
at her father. "So I’m coming. Don’t talk to me about
danger."

Her mother gasped and turned on
Serus. "Is she right?"

"I don’t know. I didn’t see Jacob
with anyone. All I know is after he went to look for another way
out, we never saw him again. Then Tessa showed and told me this."
Serus held up his hand to forestall both women from speaking. "We
can’t assume anything at this point." He patted Rhia’s shoulder.
"Maybe the house belongs to friends of his and he headed them off
to protect us."

"Did you consider that he might have
been captured? That maybe he’s in danger right now?" Rhia spun
around at the gathered crowd. "What am I going to say to his
father?"

"I haven’t seen Bret in weeks – if
not months. Matter of fact, Marie hasn’t been around much
either."

Her parent’s gazes locked.

Tessa hated that. They always seemed
in perfect communication. Telepathy wasn’t something vampires were
known for, but long-time unions tended to develop the skill over
the years. Not only was it freaky to those on the outside, but it
made her envious. What she wouldn’t give to have someone who knew
her so well that speech wasn’t required.

David walked over to them, studied
the intent look on his parents' faces and sighed. "Whenever you’re
done? Hello?"

His mom blinked. "Oh, I’m sorry.
We’re just discussing some things."

"Yeah, we know. Can we get this show
on the road? Cody is in trouble," David snapped.

"How do you know that?" Tessa grabbed
his arm. "Did you hear from him?"

"Just got a text in. He's locked
inside some weird mausoleum of a house with self-locking doors up
in the hills."

Serus's face darkened. "I might know
the place. Let's go." He turned to Rhia. "You and David drive. I
don’t want all of us arriving from the same direction. Just in
case."

"I'm coming. You can’t go alone. Mom
and David can drive. And we’ll probably still beat them. What about
Seth? Can he come? He’s a great glider."

"He's been called out on an emergency
at work. At the time there was no reason to keep him home. Tessa,
honey, you can't jump again. You have to be exhausted!"

At the reminder, Tessa could feel her
muscles screaming, especially her upper thighs. "I'm sore, but I'm
not injured." She tapped her foot impatiently. "Alright already.
Let's go."

She raced inside the house for a
quick visit to the bathroom. At the last moment she folded a swatch
of toilet paper and stuffed in her pocket. Better to be prepared
and all that. Exiting via the kitchen, she stuffed her pockets full
of granola bars and hooked an apple and banana from the fruit bowl
on the counter. The banana she peeled and scarfed down as she
walked back outside. The apple she stuffed into another
pocket.

"Your father just suggested that we
all drive."

Tessa shook her head. "If we drive,
Goran might miss us. He can track us much better if we're
airborne."

Serus paused in the act of getting
into the front seat of the family Land Cruiser. "Damn. She's right,
Rhia. We're going to have to jump to make sure we don't miss
them."

"Serus, no. She can't go out again.
You know she doesn't have the strength or endurance for
this..."

Tessa never heard the rest of the
complaint. Instead she took a running jump to the top of the fir at
the back of the property. "Coming, Dad?"

"Serus?" Rhia wailed.

Tessa watched her father land
gracefully a few branches down from her. "Think you're so smart do
you? Well, I've still got a few tricks to teach you. Let's go." He
hopped to the top of a large telephone pole and gracefully ran on
the wires to the next one. Within seconds he'd reached the middle
of the next block.

"Well, are you coming or not? You
don't want them to beat us, do you?" he called back
softly.

"Hell, no." But Tessa still had her
work cut out for her – to keep her mouth shut as she watched her
father glide ahead of her. Damn it. How did he do that? By the end
of the fourth block she realized she'd forgotten to switch her
vampire vision on. With that open and functioning, her ability to
judge the distances smoothed out and she landed easier and could
take off faster. A giggle escaped. Two nights ago, she'd have sworn
that she'd never be pole hopping with dear ole dad. Yet here she
was.

Her
giggle turned to laughter as she managed the next three horizontal
jumps more smoothly yet again. Now she felt like she
was
flying.

"Hey, that's not bad. Maybe you just
needed to get in some practice."

She stopped to catch her breath one
pole away from him. "And I needed to switch to vampire vision."
Their voices carried easily in the evening air.

"You really have to turn it off and
on? Why not just leave it on all the time?"

"Because I can't see in daylight with
my vampire vision and human vision gives me a longer viewing
distance."

"It's better?" He reared back,
obviously shocked at the concept.

"Not better – different." She took a
bite of her apple while she thought about that. "The colors are
stronger with vampire eyes and I have better peripheral vision with
my human sight." She shrugged. "When I open them both at the same
time, I see so much more."

"There's your answer then." He
floated to the next pole. "Keep them both on all the
time."

For the next while, it took all of
Tessa's energy to keep up with her father. He'd picked up the pace
as they came to the end of the poles and moved cross country toward
the mountains. Treetops to roofs to sheds to high voltage stations.
That last one had made her gulp. Still, after watching him barely
touch before floating onward, she decided to not think about it and
just followed his lead.