Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (190 page)

Serus glanced down at Rhia tucked up
tight in his arms. "No, I hadn’t, and honestly, that thought is
enough to make me want to pack up my family and run. That means
there’s war ahead. For all of us – with humans becoming the
discarded, undervalued casualty."

"I don’t understand."

Tessa and David stared at each other.
"You’re saying these old enforcers could be behind this
factory?"

"Or they could be the beneficiaries
of the blood."

Tessa’s eyes widened. "But how many
are there? Surely, they couldn’t consume this quantity?"

"Not unless someone is building an
army of them."

***

Jared couldn’t stop his legs from
trembling. He wouldn't make it out of the room in this condition.
His feet had turned to mini glaciers.

There. Noise sounded next door to
him. Men approached.

He waited, his fingers tense on the
makeshift weapon.

"The next door is open, I’ll check it
out."

"I’m coming, too," a female voice
said.

Jared closed his eyes and prayed. He
didn’t want to die. But he really didn't want to endure this undead
existence.

Footsteps sounded. A tall male
entered, followed by a shorter one.

Jared swung. Hard.

"Ouch." Both men spun around. The
pole bounced harmlessly off the first man's arm. Jared watched in
horror as fangs slid down. He kicked out, helpless as he was picked
up and tossed onto his bed. His head bounced twice before he slid
to the floor. So great was his disappointment, he barely felt the
pain. He'd failed.

Jared lay staring up at the ceiling,
defeated. He had no more energy for a second attempt. It was all
over.

"Wait."

Jared heard a female voice. Almost
recognized it. Then everything started to waver before him. The
next thing he knew Tessa was bending over him, a huge smile on her
face. "Jared," she cried. "We found you."

He smiled at the vision. She’d dyed
her hair again. And, damn, did she look good.

Just like an angel should.

He closed his eyes and let
unconsciousness take him out.

***

"You hurt him," Tessa accused Cody in
outrage. "Why did you do that?"

"Because he beaned me with this."
Cody held up the IV pole and shook it at her. "Besides, I hardly
touched him. I just threw him onto the bed."

Tessa looked from the pole to him and
sighed. "Okay, so you were justified in defending yourself, but
look at him. He looks terrible."

Then she stopped and peered closer.
"Actually, he doesn’t look all that bad. They must be giving him
vitamin injections or something."

Her mother dropped to the floor
beside Jared. "This is the boy?" she asked as her hands ran over
him quickly looking for injuries.

"Yes, he’s the one." Tessa chewed on
her bottom lip. She wished he’d wake up. They weren’t out of danger
yet. She'd like to get a long ways away before someone else came
into this picture. "Is he going to be okay?"

"I’m sure he will be."

Tessa glanced out the doorway to the
macabre laundry line of hanging humans. "They were going to hang
Jared up like those other people, weren't they? Put him a plastic
bag and turn him into a milking machine?" Anger burned inside,
overwhelming the relief at having found Jared safe. They'd almost
been too late. Look at what these animals had put him through. Put
her through for that matter.

Angry tears filled her eyes. She
wiped them away.

"It’s
all right, honey. We found him in time.
You
found him. You did
good."

Tessa sniffled. She was so tired. And
it wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. There were still a few assholes
here to find and deal with, and all these poor humans to help.
"Mom, will taking these people down kill them? Or do you think Taz
might be able to save them? At least some of them?"

Rhia glanced at the rows and rows of
suspended blood donors, then looked away quickly. A shudder rippled
over her. "I don’t know sweetheart. I hope he can."

"If they’ve been up there for a long
time, their muscles won’t work anymore, will they?" Tessa's voice
thickened at the thought.

"They’d probably have to recover
slowly, like a patient waking up after being in a long
coma."

Tessa ran her hand down over her
face. "I guess the professionals will have to make that decision.
They can't stay like this. It's obscene. They’re the real living
dead."

"You think they'd be better off
dead?" Rhia studied Tessa’s face. "I can see how most people would
believe that." She glanced back at the men, who’d finished checking
the other rooms and were slowly returning to the group again.
Lowering her voice, she added, "This has been a hard couple of days
for you, honey. But as tough as it's been, you've grown…matured.
You've really come into yourself. And I, for one, am very proud of
you."

Tessa's eyes filled with tears again.
Her emotions were so close to the surface now. She smiled as she
stared down at Jared still lying on the cold floor. "I couldn't do
anything less."

"And that's the change I see. I'm
sorry it came through such painful circumstances, but you are
better for it."

With a sniffle and a half
smile of thanks, Tessa looked around. "He’s really cold. Isn't
there anything warm he could wear?"

David piped up. "We found a store
room with a bunch of clothing. Any idea of his size?"

Tessa shrugged.

But her mother leaned over with an
assessing eye and said, "I wouldn’t worry about size too much.
Better to go large anyways. Get something warm with long sleeves.
Oh, and make sure to look for socks, too." She busied herself with
an extra blanket and tucked it in around him. Placing the back of
her hand against his forehead, she frowned again. "Serus. Can you
lift this boy back onto the bed? I don’t like his
color."

Tessa cried out, "What’s
wrong?"

Her mom reached over and pulled her
back out of the way. "I don’t know what they’ve been giving him,
but he could be going through withdrawal from their
drugs."

"Oh no." Too upset to say anything,
Tessa watched as her father bent down and scooped up Jared like he
was a four-year-old and carried him across the room to a clean
bed.

David arrived with an armload of
clothes. Rhia pushed Tessa and David out. "Serus, give me a hand
getting him dressed, please. This boy is freezing."

Outside, Tessa wandered back and
forth, refusing to look at the rows of undead hanging amongst the
crazed network of tubing and piping. A weird pumping suction noise
made her bones cold. The sound had something to do with the blood
collection system. She didn't want to know any more than
that.

"Are you all right?" David walked up
and hooked his arm through hers. "We found Mom and him, thanks to
you."

A wan
smile escaped. "And to all of you. I can’t believe all this." She
motioned to the mess around them. "So ugly. Shameful. I
hate
that our people
created this."

He
raised an eyebrow at her phrasing. "I know. I’m not feeling very
proud either. Just remember, it’s not
us
. There are bad humans and bad
vampires."

She closed her eyes and felt herself
sway gently.

"Hey. Stay awake. There’s still a lot
to be done."

A sudden thought hit. "We still have
to find the other guards too, don't we? Not to mention check on the
ones we knocked out earlier. I don't want them to wake up and come
after us." She spun around. "What’re the chances that pudgy guy has
gone for reinforcements?"

"Calm down. There’re a lot more of us
now. We can do this. Goran has gone with Cody, Jewel and Ian to
look for others and move the ones we've captured into a locked
room. Mom and Jared can’t take much more. Not sure you can either."
He studied her face, frowning. "You’re exhausted. But I have to
tell you, you’ve done a fine thing these last two days, and I’m
really proud of you."

Tessa stared at him. His words slowly
penetrated the fog in her brain. She smiled slowly, brilliantly,
some of her fatigue melting away at his words. "Thanks. It’s nice
to hear."

"You deserve it. I’m not sure how you
knew to kick the doors or how you can see this energy stuff… I’m
just glad you had the skills to put into use when we needed them."
He shook his head as if remembering her actions.

She grinned. "The kicks were easy. I
was just mad. The energy stuff is something I’ve always seen. It
never occurred to me that I saw things differently from the way you
do. My skills, as you call them, never showed up before because
there was no need for them. I haven’t been trying to develop my
vampire abilities because, well, I didn’t think I had any to
develop."

"Jared owes you a lot. I’d never have
believed this…" David waved his arm around, adding, "If you’d just
told me. I’m glad I’m here to see it for myself."

"And I wish I’d never seen it.
Chances are it will remain in my nightmares for
decades."

"Mine too, Tessa. Mine too," he added
softly. Wrapping his arms around her he tugged her in for a
brotherly hug. "Let’s go check on Jared."

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

Cody strode down the south side of
the warehouse at his father’s side. He couldn’t help but feel a
little cocky after helping to rescue his old man. Kinda made him
feel like an equal. Ian strode along on the other side of his
father, quiet as always. Jewel almost ran at Cody's side to keep
up. She was one of the rare shorter vampires. But then Jewel was
unique in other ways, too. Like her coloring. Her hair was more
charcoal-colored than jet black.

And Jewel had a big heart. She'd come
accompanied them on this search to give David's family time
together. He could understand that. He wanted to put some distance
between him and Tessa, too.

He was still pissed off over getting
brained by her friend, Jared. At the same time he had to admire a
guy willing to fight when he was still so drugged he could hardly
stand. Cody frowned. Jared’s health was in question, if he’d read
Rhia’s expression correctly. Tessa would be devastated if anything
happened to him at this stage.

And Jared wasn’t sure how he felt
about that. Tessa was only sixteen…okay, almost seventeen. David
had mentioned her upcoming birthday was just a couple weeks away.
Was she too young for him? At least right now? With vampires living
for centuries, age stopped being a factor once they became adults.
Still, Tessa was a long way from being an adult. These last days,
he'd had a chance to understand her, gain some insights into her
weird I-want-to-be-human thing she had going on before. He figured
she’d let most of that go now.

In fact, she looked and acted more
like a vampire pureblood than most of them did.

She wore
it well. And had she suddenly
developed
overnight? Where had that
figure come from? She almost popped out of her shirt or whatever
that thing was called. He'd caught himself watching, waiting for
just that to happen. He shook his head. Stupid.

"What’s bothering you?" His father
nudged his shoulder.

Like he was going to tell the truth.
Cody shrugged. "Just this whole mess. We seriously need to find out
what’s going on here and who the ringleaders are."

"I know. This has Moltere’s touch.
But he can't be working alone. That brings up the possibility of a
human accomplice…or many of them. And given the size of the
operation, we have to consider that Council members all over the
world could also be involved."

"If it’s that high up we’re going to
have a lot of trouble ferreting out who is involved."

"I know."

They arrived at yet another series of
doors like the ones down at the end where they’d left Tessa’s
family. With a grin at the other two, Cody opened the first one
with a flourish. And wrinkled up his face. This room resembled a
storeroom. Steel drawers and cupboards lined two walls and the
temperature was even colder than the rest of the warehouse.
Thankfully there didn’t appear to be any bodies lying
around.

Closing it again, he stepped up to
the second door.

"My turn." Goran pushed the door open
and frowned. There’d been someone here recently, from the looks of
things. It appeared to be some kind of staff living quarters.
Furniture, a small kitchenette. Dirty bottles littered the table.
Two doors lined the back walls.

Pushing the door wide enough for
everyone else to see, he pointed out the two doors down the back.
"We need to check out those."

Ian and Cody headed to the left door
first. A series of bunk beds suggested the room was designated a
sleeping area. Empty, but clothes lay strewn across bedding. Again,
someone had been here recently. The two turned and followed Goran
and Jewel to the next room.