Vampire in Chaos (5 page)

“Right, Jared?” the cook asked encouragingly. “It’s important to stick together.”

Jared nodded, and the cook smiled with relief. Now if only Jared knew what the cook was talking about. And what Jared had just agreed to.

He’d just about finished his second plate when the manager stopped at the doorway. “Jared, you done?”

Jared swallowed hard and took the last couple of bites and nodded. He stood up with his plate, but the cook took it from him and nudged him toward the boss. “Go. I’ll clean this up for you tonight. You’ve had a tough day.”

Yeah, he had. But from the look on the manager’s face, Jared didn’t think the shit was over yet.

He followed the manager into the small office and took the seat pointed out to him. “Now, Jared, I just got off the phone with the police. I’d like to hear about what happened in your own words.”

Oh, that was a surprise. The police report wasn’t enough? Feeling like he was walking through a minefield, Jared carefully retold the same story he’d given the police. The manager frowned, never taking his eyes off him the whole time. Jared could just feel that probing gaze looking for something wrong in his story. A lie? Something to show him that Jared might have seen or done something other than what he’d said he’d done?

When he fell silent, the manager sat there, thinking. He pivoted a pen from end to end on his fingers. “Well, sounds like you had one hell of a day. It also presents us with some problems. As you no longer have any living relatives, that means you need to go into foster care.”

Jared’s heart sank. He hadn’t seen this coming. “Really? Why can’t I stay with friends for the next few months until I’m eighteen? That’s only like three and a half months.”

“With no parent or living guardian, by law you are a ward of the state now. That means a foster home.”

“Then I’ll stay here,” Jared said reasonably. At least here he could go to the same school. One day he’d just not come home.

“No, you can’t. We have kids in need here. It’s not a group home for healthy individuals as you know. It was a stopgap measure for you while the doctors kept you under observation.”

The manager leaned forward and studied Jared closer. “Are you experiencing any side effects from those drugs?”

Jared held his breath, considering. If he said he was, he might be able to stay here, but did he want that? He’d come across two dead men here and there was some kind of revolt going on. If he said no, then they’d ship him off to a group home – and who the hell knew where? He wanted to finish his term at school and then be on his own.

“No, I guess not,” he said. “Except the headaches. They are bad sometimes.”

The manager frowned.

“Headaches. That can’t be good. I’ve got two doctors coming tomorrow. I’ll get them to check you over. They’ll have the final say as to whether you stay or go.”

Jared stood up, already feeling the small satisfaction of being safe with a roof over his head and a full stomach fading. “Right. I’ll head up to my room. I’m really tired.”

And he made good on his escape.

T
essa studied the
energy pathways her father and brother had taken as she and Cody walked forward. From what she could see, they’d been on horizontal pathways, joined up, then joined by someone else – no, two someone else’s. She walked in a circle until she understood the pattern then turned back to Cody and explained. She pointed down the direction they’d gone. “They were taken this way.”

“Taken?” he asked, slowly staring in the direction she’d pointed. “We don’t know that though, do we?”

She studied the energy again. “The newcomers are behind them, pushing David and Dad ahead of them.”

“Damn.” Cody headed into the darkness. “I wonder if it’s the same group as from the blood farm.”

“I don’t know why it would be. The blood farm isn’t operational down here. In fact, this looks like it’s been deserted for over a century.”

“Hard to say,” Cody said. “The hospital above is connected, so it makes sense that anything going on down here is too.”

She hated to think that, but it made sense. “Maybe David triggered a sensor when he opened one of the doors. Otherwise, why would there be anyone here on this level? There are what – forty, fifty floors above us?”

“Unless they were here for something else, guarding something?”

“And that just begs the question of what?” She searched the gloom around them. “There’s nothing here.”

She hated this. “We’re supposed to be helping free Jewel and Ian. Not getting caught up in these issues again.”

Cody stopped in front of her. “Can you text Ian?”

She pulled out her phone. “Here is a text from David. Saying where they are.” She looked around. “Which we know anyway, but they aren’t here now.” She studied her phone. “We have very limited connectivity.”

“Makes sense being so deep underground. It would also explain why David isn’t here when his text said he would be. Probably took a while to send.”

“I’ll send one to Ian regardless and let him know we’re at the bottom of the staircase and there are unfriendlies here too.”

She hit the send button and the tiny pinwheel started churning, but it didn’t send. Damn. She pocketed the phone and looked around. They’d been getting deeper and deeper into the empty building. It appeared to be made from rock and cement. Old, as in very old. “Maybe this foundation is older than what’s up top.”

“What difference does it make if it is? It’s still connected to what’s up above,” Cody said, almost absentmindedly.

“I’m just thinking that maybe whatever, or whoever is down here is old or has been here for a very long time. They may have been connected to what’s above at one time, but there is little to no energy coming down that stairwell, so they aren’t going up very often.”

“Unless they have an easier way of travelling.”

She frowned. “True. Very true. I wonder if they have another entrance.”

From behind them came a deep and very old voice. “There’s another exit. It helps us to avoid people we don’t want to meet.”

Cody and Tessa had both frozen at the sound of the voice. As one, they spun slowly around to see a very old vampire in front of them. He held up a finger to his lips for silence and motioned them off to one side. “You must go quietly in here. There are eyes and ears everywhere.”

And he moved to the left. “Come, follow me.”

And he disappeared into the shadows. Actually, it was as if the shadows closed around him.

*

Goran waited impatiently
for Sian to return to ask about his damn clothes. Taking his off for a woman was one thing, having his clothes taken off him for a damn doctor to run tests while he was out cold was quite another. He still had his boxers on, but he was rather desperate for his pants.

She chose that moment to walk in.

He almost jumped her. “Sian, where are my clothes? Did you take them away?”

Sian frowned, looking around. He thought she’d been about to make some kind of stupid excuse to keep him there, but she’d surprised him again when she said, “They should be here.”

After a cursory glance around, she added, “There’s no reason for them not to be here.” With her hands on her hips, she said, “It’s not like this is a hospital, for crying out loud.”

With her help, they searched the room.

“Aha!” he said when he opened a bottom cupboard and found his clothes neatly stacked in the back. “Here they are.”

Sian stepped out while he got dressed. Which he did quickly. He opened the door to let her back in, but there was no sign of her. He waited for her to return. He would go out there on his own, but he wasn’t up to a session with the doctors telling him he needed to stay here. Screw that. He was leaving.

He’d called out mentally to Serus a couple of times, but there’d been no answer. He didn’t like that. It took a lot for their mindspeak to not work. And it usually meant one of them was unconscious. Now the last time had been his fault as he’d been the one out cold, but he was awake now and given that, where the hell was Serus?

A rap on the door sounded. He opened the door. Sian.

“Good.” He nodded at her. “Now where is everyone?”

Sian wrinkled up her face.

“No idea. Dr. Hansen isn’t around that I can see. He’s only here to help out, so maybe he left to get some rest.”

“Help out?”

Sian searched his gaze. “Remember all the vamps that you were supposed to be bringing to the Council?”

“Oh right. Forgot about those little shits. Are they okay?”

Sian shook her head. “No. One of the three you brought from the mall was killed in the accident. The other two men appear to be enhanced and are slowly dying. We’re trying to get what little information from them that we can.” She peered around the hallway then gave him the all-clear signal. “The young vamps are in bad shape, but they will pull through. One of them is Councilman Baker’s son, and he says they’ve all been forced to use enhancements or be killed.”

“No way. Not his own son?”

“Yes.” Sian shrugged. “They were told to think of it as an improvement.”

“Seems like lab rat type of experiments to me.”

Sian turned a corner. “Absolutely. I think the kids agree. Apparently it was more of a numbers game. Something to do with being short on manpower and needing more men. They weren’t given a choice.”

“Ha. So we knock out their clones and they just turn to their own families to build up their numbers. That’s just sick.” And disgusting. Goran made a mental note about Councilman Baker. He’d be sure to find the asshole and pay him back for getting his own son involved. “It’s not a shining hour for vampires,” he said quietly.

“No,” Sian answered. “It’s definitely not. Then again, the humans aren’t proving worthy either.”

Goran shot her a look. Delicately, he asked, “How is Taz?”

“He’s fine.” She beamed. “I meant all the humans selling their own kin for the blood farm. The Human Council is in a hell of a mess. Between poisoning each other, selling off each other, and generally just being greedy, the human race needs to be culled.”

Such violence from one so gentle was unusual. Goran wasn’t sure what was going on, but with Sian being the liaison between the two Councils, she must have observed a gutful of nasty behaviors. He decided silence was the best avenue. Then she did it.

“The Human Council,” she said, “wants Tessa to go through the human population and sort them out the way she did at the meeting.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” Sian said, shooting him a dark look. “It worked so well there apparently, they want her to tell them who is good and who is bad. So they can destroy the ones involved.”

“Ah hell. They can’t use her like that. Especially if she understands what they plan to do with the bad guys. It’s one thing to kill during war; it’s tougher to be the decision-maker as to who should live and who should die.”

“I know,” Sian said. “Taz and I have both taken that stance. The trouble is the humans aren’t listening.”

Goran nodded. “Don’t worry about it. They’ll have to go through Serus and Rhia before that can happen.” He snorted. “No way is she going to do that. Hell, I’ll tell them myself.”

“I wish someone would,” Sian said, fatigue in her voice. “They call almost every hour.”

“What does Tessa have to say about this?”

And damn if he didn’t see a whisper of something cross Sian’s face. His stomach sank. He groaned. “I forgot. They all left without me.”

Sian gave a shout of laughter. “Well yeah, you were comatose so they had to go without you.”

He glared at her. “I’m never too sick to go hunting.”

“Well.” She glared back at him. “This time you were. And would have stayed that way except for the drugs that brought you back.”

“Then I’m going after them right now.” He strode off in the direction of the front door, his mind churning.
Serus? Where the hell are you?

“Wait. Goran?”

He spun to see Sian running to catch up. She was trying to pull something out of her pocket.

“Here.” She held out his cell phone. “You didn’t give me a chance to give you this.”

He groaned. He hadn’t even thought to look for that damned thing. Maybe he wasn’t as well as he thought he was. Sheepish, he accepted the phone, noting the fatigue around her eyes. She should be resting.