Vampire in Chaos (2 page)

T
essa stared down
the stairwell in horror. Endless darkness stared back. She stretched further out, balancing precariously on the railing, and called frantically one last time, “Dad?”

“Easy, Tessa.” Strong arms grabbed her by the waist, tugging her back against a warm chest. “He’ll be fine.”

She closed her eyes briefly. “Hope so.” She rotated in Cody’s arms to stare up at him. “We have to find him.”

“And we will.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “But not by repeating his mistake.”

Typical. She smirked. “Right. Then race you to the bottom!”

She bolted sideways, laughing down the next flight of stairs. The laughter might not have been appropriate, but it was her way of coping with the fear. She – they – had been through so much. If something had happened to her father…that would be more than she could stand. He was larger than life. He had always seemed indestructible.

Unfortunately, she had proof than no vamp was safe forever. Not even ancients like her father.

She wished he’d waited for her, for them. But he’d always been so in control. So powerful and capable. A take-charge kind of guy.

That didn’t mean he was infallible.

She poured her energy into getting down the stairs as fast as she could go. There was a serious silence the deeper they went. She couldn’t bear the thought that something might have happened to him. She rounded another flight of stairs, her heart pounding as the tension inside threatened to choke her.

“Dad?” Still no answer. She gritted her teeth, drew in more energy, and jumped again. This time Cody landed in front of her, his hand reaching out to slow her progress. She fell against him as she hit the brakes. “What’s the matter?”

“We’re at the bottom.”

“Really?” She looked around at the empty concrete space. “Oh thank heavens.” Her father wasn’t lying in a broken heap anywhere. That meant he had to be fine.

“Wher—”

“Shh.” Cody placed his finger against her lips and leaned forward to whisper into her ear. “I hear something.”

She gasped and spun around.
It’s probably Dad.

With her head cocked, she strained to hear what Cody had heard. She couldn’t hear anything. She raised her eyebrow at Cody.
What is it? What did you hear?

I’m not sure.
He slipped around behind her and placed his hand on the wall.
There’s no door here, is there?

Tessa walked closer, shifting her vision to open both her vampire and human eyes. She shook her head
. I can’t see any energy on the wall.

He turned in frustration to stare at the circular stairway they’d descended.
Can you take a look at where we’ve been? Are we following any tracks? Energy trails?

She studied the wall at this level. No, nothing. Cody was at her heels, waiting, watching her. She turned slightly to look from a different angle. And stopped. She grabbed his hand and motioned to the wall.
There is a door here.

He looked at her as if to make sure. At her nod, he walked closer, his hands slipping across the old surface, looking for the break in the wall.

To the left,
she said.
Yes, right there,
as his fingers found the crack. She could see the door shape surrounded in light. And part of the energy in that doorway had come from her father. And…she couldn’t be sure, but maybe David as well.

Dad is behind here.

Are you sure?
Cody looked over at her, his gaze searching.

Tessa nodded and walked over and kicked the wall where there was a shimmering ball of energy. Cody jumped back as the wall slid inward silently.

What kind of doors are these that they open like this? So quietly.

Old technology. The energy is very young, but the wall is very old.

He shot her a questioning look as she moved past him.
Don’t ask,
she said.

She slipped into the space behind the open door. There were no lights shining, but she could see the energy blazing a trail. The corridor ahead was empty and gloomy. Cody moved ahead and led the way.

Careful,
she said.

Of course,
he murmured, in a deeper tone than he’d used so far. It sent warm tingles down to her toes. If she hadn’t been so worried about her dad, she’d be tempted to take advantage of the situation. Cody turned and shot her a look, his steps slowing.

No!
She grabbed his shoulder and turned him forward.
Dad comes first.

First? I like that.
He grinned and grabbed her hand.
Let’s find your father then.

But they hadn’t made it much further when she heard sounds off to the side. Cody froze, his arm instinctively tucking her behind him.

She snorted at that.

Shhh,
he whispered.
Someone is coming.

*

Rhia curled up
into big wingback chair. Her head pounded and her stomach ached. Something she hadn’t expected. Or experienced before. Her thoughts were so confused. Tessa. Seth. Cody. David. There was so much going on in there. Orders. Instructions of some kind.

She buried her head in her hands, the pounding building to the point that she wanted to bang her own head into the ground. She groaned.

“Easy, Rhia,” Sian said. “Take it easy.”

Rhia’s eyes fluttered open, and she gazed into her old friend’s face. At least it looked to be Sian. She blinked several times, but it was hard to focus. Everything was blurry. She could barely discern her features. “Sian?”

“Yes.” A warm hand brushed the hair back from Rhia’s forehead. For the first time, she noticed her forehead was damp, her throat struggling to swallow, the tissues dry and empty of saliva. She choked.

“Easy. Here.” Sian held up a glass to her lips. After the initial dryness, Rhia drank with a vengeance.

“Drink it slowly.”

Rhia couldn’t. She gulped greedily. When the glass was empty, she collapsed backward on the couch. “Thank you.”

“Are you feeling better?”

Rhia groaned and closed her eyes. “I’m not sure. Everything is mixed up. I can’t make any sense of it.”

There was an odd silence.

Rhia’s eyes shot open. “What? What don’t I know?”

She caught the merest whisper of a grimace before Sian managed to school her features.

“Sian?”

With a heavy sigh, Sian said, “I think you’ve been drugged – again.”

“Oh no.” It took her a moment to digest the news. “How? Why?”

Sian shrugged. “We don’t know yet.”

“How did you find out?”

There was that same ugly pause. Rhia studied her best friend’s features, cold fear edging out her confusion. “Sian, What did I do?”

“When we found you, you had chained Tessa up to a bed and were trying to arrange her passage out of the country.” Sian paused then added quietly, “You were also trying to inject her with drugs.”

Rhia gasped.

Sian, her voice lowered to a hoarse whisper, added, “And apparently you’ve already arranged to have Seth taken away.”

Rhia’s chin wobbled. “Oh no. I wouldn’t have done that.” She stared blindly ahead as multiple conversations rolled through her mind. Bits and pieces were all disjointed and jumbled up. Nothing made any sense. “Where’s my son, Sian?”

“Honey, we don’t know.” Sian shook her head, a sad look on her face. “He was taken to the hospital for treatment after the blood farm.”

“Right.” Rhia struggled to sit up. “He was getting treatment at the hospital.”

“Except the hospital has been taken over by the bad guys. They are holding several of our people in the hospital. We have no idea who is involved.”

“No. No. It can’t be.” Rhia shuddered. “He’s supposed to be safe. Getting proper care.”

“Yes, and that’s what we thought, until you chained up Tessa and started talking all crazy like.”

“I’d never hurt Tessa. Not willingly.” Rhia closed her eyes. “You know that, right?”

“I know you wouldn’t.” Sian stroked her hand. “You were doing this so that Tessa would stay safe – at least in your mind. It was the drugs talking, twisting your thoughts, your actions. Making all of it sound very reasonable.”

“I didn’t hurt her, did I?” Rhia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. But she knew she had to know the worst. She had to make amends and before she could do that, she had to know what she’d done.

Sian winced again, her gaze straying down Rhia’s body.

And for the first time, maybe because of the drugs wearing off, maybe because Sian had unintentionally brought it to her attention, Rhia could feel the agony rolling toward her head in greasy waves. Her leg was injured, and healing…slowly.

“No, you didn’t hurt Tessa, but you fought and she was forced to hurt
you
to protect herself.”

“Oh no.” Rhia collapsed onto her back, crying out in torment.

*

David knew his
family was behind him somewhere, but how long until they got here? He had to find Jewel. Who knew what they’d done to her while she’d been a prisoner in this damn hospital?

He was still questioning his decision to go down the stairs. Stairs that seemed to go on forever only to end at a cement basement level showing a huge expanse of open space on the other side of the open door. He stopped to listen, but there was nothing, just an echo of his footsteps. Surely there had to be someone here.

As far as he could see, the damn place was empty. Still, that was much better than being full of assholes. It made no sense that this massive space existed. And as he was lost in all this vast emptiness, Jewel was tucked away somewhere else. Why had he come down here again? Feeling like he’d wasted precious time, he headed back toward the staircase. He should have gone up. Jewel was above him somewhere.

He had to find her.

He stopped and turned to retrace his steps. And heard a voice. He spun around, looking to take cover. He was no longer alone.

*

Jared stood in
the middle of his bedroom and couldn’t decide what to do. He hadn’t eaten yet. He’d come straight to his room, had a shower, and now he dithered, uncertain of his next move.

He didn’t want to be here. It wasn’t his room, but it was familiar. He needed food, a place to sleep. He’d spent some time here. Knew some of these kids. But after the last few crazy days, he felt he no longer knew anything. His aunt and uncle were both dead. He tried to feel sorry for them but couldn’t. Not after all they’d done to his father.

But they’d been murdered. If it had only been one of them killed, then he’d have been able to toss it off as a random act. A burglary gone wrong. But to have targeted both, well…his mind couldn’t help but lock onto the fact that they’d both had regular dealings with the blood farm coalition and maybe with all the craziness there, the men behind that nightmare were cleaning up.

Or the middlemen were cutting ties to save their asses.

Or just as likely the humans busy selling their own people were trying to get the hell free of their own web of deceit.

Either way, he hoped the investigation uncovered a shit ton more people involved. The only way to clean this up was to purge the whole lot from society. He didn’t know how far the disease had spread, but they needed to stop it before it spread any further. He hoped that none of his friends and their families were involved but as he stared out the window of his bedroom, he figured that the chances were good that some of them were. This was a relatively small community.