Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (186 page)

"Yeah." They stood side by side, both
tense and aware of the stakes. With their eyes on the wall, they
waited for the door to open.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Tessa, can't you open this door?" Her
father pounded the stone under his fist.

"I'd love to. But I haven’t found the
mechanism yet. It's not the same as the one at the last house, and
there's no knob or anything similar." Tessa glared at the wall. Her
exhaustion dragged at her – she really wanted to be soaking in a
hot bath with bubbles up to her chin.

Pissed, she lashed out and kicked the
wall. Hard.

"Shit!" She hopped around on one foot
while the two males watched her in amazement. The wall groaned and
creaked before swinging open.

"Wow!" David shot her an odd look
before racing inside. "Hello? Anyone here?"

"David? Oh thank heavens." Jewel ran
up to him, gave him a quick hug, then tugged on his arm to drag him
back out of the room.

Cody joined them, pushing everyone
out of the room. "We have to get out of here. The door shuts on its
own. Thank God you got my message." Cody smacked David's
shoulder.

David grinned and flexed his biceps.
"Yeah, you're not kidding."

"Hey, Tessa. Didn't figure to see you
here." Jewel smiled tentatively at Tessa.

David laughed and said proudly,
"She's the one who figured out how to open the door."

"Yeah," Tessa snorted. "That took
brains. I kicked it because I was angry that I couldn’t figure it
out."

They all grinned at her.

"Where're Goran and Ian?" Serus
looked into the empty room behind them. "Aren't they with
you?"

Cody quickly filled them in; told
them the two men had not shown up at the arranged time. He and
Jewel had gone into this room off the stairs while searching for
his dad, only to have the door close behind them.

Uneasiness crept over Tessa. This
place was bad news. And they'd left her mom upstairs. Alone. She
turned to the dark stairwell. "Let’s go. Mom's waiting."

She
jumped effortlessly, maybe driven by apprehension. Before she'd
really understood how, she stood at the top of the stairs. She
beamed.
So cool.
Though she might not have the techniques down pat yet, she
would with a little practice. She strode into the kitchen.
"Mom…?"

"Where is she?" Serus stepped into
the kitchen behind Tessa. "Rhia?"

No answer.

They looked at each other in
horror.

"Oh, no!" In unison, they raced to
the front door and outside. Her vehicle was there.

"Mom?" Tessa cried out. "Where are
you?"

"Rhia?"

David, Cody and Jewel arrived a few
minutes later. Tessa had already searched the area around the front
door.

Jewel shook her head. "She could be
anywhere inside the house. We shouldn't panic yet."

"Right." David raced back
inside.

"Wait. David, don't go alone. We need
to stay paired up." Tessa hated the thought of anyone else going
missing.

He paused at the entrance, nodded
once, then motioned to Cody. "Let's go."

"We'll take the outside." Tessa
motioned to Jewel and her dad. "Sorry, I know you're tired, Jewel,
but..."

Jewel shook her head, already heading
to the outbuildings. "Forget about that. Let’s find your
mom."

The other three fanned out over the
yard and methodically went through each of the outbuildings, one by
one. It brought back horrible reminder of the previous property.
"There's no sign of her."

They raced back to the front of the
house. At the entrance, Tessa called out at the top of her lungs,
"David? Cody?"

David answered. "We're
here."

The two teens raced down the wide
staircase toward Tessa. "She's not upstairs."

"Let's check out the main floor." As
a large group they swept through the house for a second time.
Nothing.

Back out at the car, Tessa’s stomach
heaved. If there was any food in there, it would have jumped out a
long time ago. As it was, the sense of hopelessness, of loss,
slammed into her. Where could her mother have gone?

"Her purse is missing and her jacket.
Whoever took her might have taken those items as well. Or let her
grab them?" Serus frowned as he studied the empty car.

"I suppose." David looked doubtful,
but strode over to the car to look for anything else that might be
helpful.

"Dad, they can't be far ahead of us.
They haven't had time."

"She's right. We came straight up
here. If they've taken Rhia, they could also have Goran and Ian. We
were supposed to meet them at the front door, but they never showed
up." Jewel wrapped her arms around her chest tightly. "What if the
same person or group kidnapped everyone?"

Everyone stopped to stare at
her.

"I was just thinking that same thing,
only why would they?" Tessa couldn't get that question out of her
mind. "It's one thing to kidnap a few hapless humans that people
may or may not miss. But to kidnap vampires, particularly high
profile ones like mom and Goran. That's suicide."

David butted in. "In fact, this whole
mess is starting to look like a bad comedy film. We save someone
only to find one of our group taken when we weren't looking. We all
came to look for Jared, and now four of our original group are
missing."

"Four?" Jewel turned to look at Cody.
"Who else is missing?"

"My dad, Rhia, Ian and
Jacob."

Tessa's wrinkled up her face. "Except
Jacob didn't disappear. He was on the wrong side to begin
with."

"Don't jump to conclusions." Her
father’s voice was sharp as he walked around her mom's
car.

"Then form your own opinions."
Quickly she told the others what she'd seen, gratified to watch
their faces darken with fury. "Exactly."

"There's no sign another vehicle was
driven on this road." Serus studied the tracks on the ground
leading up to the house.

"Then either she's still here – which
is very possible given the timeframe – or they are all fliers and
took her with them," David suggested logically.

"Except Dad and Ian are fliers
themselves and would be hard to take away like that." Cody shook
his head at the others.

"They could have forced them to fly
on their own. Any kind of leverage – like threatening to harm you –
and your dad would have gone easily," David pointed out.

Cody winced.

Tessa nodded. "That could be, but I
don't think that’s what happened. I can't see the energy, which
you'd think would be floating around here if they had. My take is
everyone is still here somewhere."

"Then find them. Look for the energy.
Surely, if you can find Cody behind a secret door, you can track
your own mother." Serus glared at Tessa.

Tessa's cheeks flushed hot at his
wording. "I'm working on it. If they're here, there has to be an
energy trail showing what direction they went."

She walked a good thirty feet away
from the group that stood there watching her. But no pressure, of
course. A blanket of midnight covered the stars. There was a
refreshing stillness to the air, the coolness easing the mugginess
from the day's heat. That might help her get a clearer picture. She
turned around to face the others. Switching on both vision systems,
she studied the bright lights of the group. Energy flashed and
pulsed in a big ball because they stood so close
together.

Because everyone already wandered
over the yard, energy sat low and wide with new trails over old.
She backed up further, looking for a heavy concentration of energy
leading off in one direction. She walked around looking at the
various pathways from different angles.

Damn it. They didn't have time for
this. Jared had been missing for way too long, already. Who knew
how much longer he could survive? Had he even survived this long?
She couldn’t let herself doubt it. And where were Cody's dad and
her own mother? Just the thought of them captive somewhere made her
stomach heave.

She walked toward the others. The
bulk of the glowing mass appeared to be white light. It took
precious moments to see the different personalities. She could
separate Cody's and Jewel's energy easily, as theirs looked
slightly different, darker. Something about being fliers, she
supposed, which meant if she saw Goran's energy then she might be
able to distinguish where he'd gone.

Her dad's was heavier, thicker.
David's was faster moving and resembled slim ribbon-looking waves.
She stopped about ten feet away from them and studied the ground
and the energy paths. The last outbuilding in the row had a heavy
track of mixed energies. But everyone here had been looking for her
mom.

A
flyer
had
gone in
there. That energy had a more masculine look. There was also a
feminine energy.

Her mother’s.

She crouched lower to the ground and
changed the angle so she could see the mist better. And then she
knew. She bolted upright and raced to the outbuilding. "She’s gone
in here."

Pounding footsteps followed her. She
barely heard them over the thudding of her heart. What she hadn’t
said was that her mother hadn’t been alone.

Arriving at the entrance first, her
father wrenched open the double barn doors. With both open, the
vacant space appeared larger, emptier than the first time she'd
check it.

Tessa was no longer
fooled.

She stood at the entrance and studied
the energy patterns as the others searched the area. Her mother had
passed this way and stopped. From the look of the energy, she’d
have to say she’d gone down.

Where and how?

"Tessa?" Serus walked up to stand
beside her.

"It looks like the floor
again."

"Really." Her dad crouched down to
stare at the plank floor, as if it would give up its answers that
way. "Any idea where?"

Tessa walked forward a few steps.
"It's almost like the whole floor moves. I don't get
it."

There was energy everywhere. Yet all
of it sat just above the planks. She walked back over to the
doorway and searched the walls on either side. There had to be a
lever or something here. A weird spot glowed on the left side. She
placed the palm of her hand flat on the wall like she had last
time. Nothing. She pushed. Still nothing. Moving her hand slowly,
her fingers spread apart, she searched the small area, certain
there was something there.

"What are you looking for?" David
spoke at her ear. She started, surprised to find everyone crowding
around her.

"A way to open the floor."

"Open?"

"Raise and lower it then. Somehow the
floor moves."

Cody reached above her and placed his
hand flat where hers had been. He pushed hard. Instantly the sound
of gears had them all spinning around. The entire floor descended –
with them on it.

David backed up, only there was no
place to go. "Okay, this is beyond weird. Shouldn't someone stay
above in case we get locked in down here?"

Tessa suggested, "I think this time
we should all stay together. Every time we split up, we lose
someone."

"Besides," said Cody. "It may take
all of us to get everyone out of here safely."

The floor moved at an incredibly slow
pace.

"I presume this was used to move
heavy equipment. That gear system is seriously engineered." Cody
studied the large pulley system as the floor dropped. "I mean this
thing is old."

"Not that old." Serus
crouched down to try to see where they were going. "Makes me
realize how damn lucky we've been to not run afoul of more of his
inventions." He turned and appeared to count heads as if reassuring
himself that they hadn't lost someone else. "When Moltere was under
fire from the rest of the vampire clan he was rumored to have built
in a lot of self-defense systems and getaway chambers. I thought
the gossip was all rumors."

The floor came to a gentle rest so
slowly that it took a moment for everyone to realize they'd stopped
moving.

Another empty room.

Tessa headed for the door on the far
side, not bothering to explain. She could see the energy wisps,
proving she was on the right track. "This way."

A flat steel door with a short handle
faced them.

"Damn." Tessa fished in her pocket
for her dad's credit card again and slid it down the seam to find
the locking mechanism. After a few frustrating minutes, she
realized she couldn't open this door. "This isn’t working. I can't
get it open."

"Step aside, maybe I can rip it off
its hinges." Her father grasped both sides of the steel door and
pulled. The steel refused to shift. He refused to give
up.

Finally, Tessa tapped him on the
shoulder. "It’s not doing anything."