Vampire in Crisis (18 page)

“I hated her.”

“I got that.” Tessa understood, but there had to be a powerful reason for that much hate, to wait so long for revenge. He had to have a major reason.

But getting it out of him wasn’t going to be easy.

“She must have hurt you badly.”

The fire in his eyes would have told another person to back off. Tessa didn’t listen. She had to know the connection to Deanna. With the men lying prone at their feet and time wasting, knowing Cody didn’t understand why she pushed again, guessing, “She hurt someone close to you.”

Bart narrowed his gaze at her, his jaw locking then pulsing. He wanted to speak. He wanted to let it all out.

“No, she didn’t,” he snapped. “It’s none of your business.”

“And yet it is. I have to do something for her,” Tessa explained. “I can’t do my job if I don’t know what I’m up against.”

“She got to you, did she?” Bart snarled. “Well then, you’re going to get your death wish after all. That bitch killed my daughter. All I had in this world. She killed her, and my girl was only trying to help.”

That didn’t sound right. Tessa said, “I’m so sorry for you and your girl. What happened?”

“Some bullshit story about needing an apprentice to pass all her knowledge onto after her death.”

Tessa gasped, but Bart wasn’t listening. “One day after an elaborate ceremony, they did this mind thing and Deanna was supposed to pass over big chunks of her knowledge, her wisdom, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead of my daughter waking with all the new information, Deanna killed her.”

He glared at Tessa. “One minute my baby was there with me and laughing like she always did, and the next thing I know she was screaming for help as her brain overloaded – and she died in my arms.”

*

Serus tried to
focus as he followed his son and Goran through the bowels of the hospital in search of the mechanical room. He’d held them back long enough trying to raise the alarms about Rhia both mentally and via Sian. Everyone already knew she’d taken off, but no one had found his beloved. She’d hidden and if she’d taken the drugs again as Sian suspected, she’d know the best places to hide. Had she turned? Had she become so addicted to the drugs she had to go back for more?

He hoped not. He had visions of spiriting her away to an old hideaway where he could keep her locked up and safe until the addiction, the horrible craving, passed.

Not fun. For either of them. But he’d do it if necessary.

Then again, he also wanted to race after her and give her a heavy shaking. Or a damn good kick in the backside. How dare she take off alone? She could trust him to help, whatever it was she was trying to do. And he’d understand. He might not like it. He might have tried to stop her, hell, he would definitely have tried to stop her – at least he would have spent the whole time trying to talk her out of it – but that wouldn’t mean he wouldn’t have also looked for a different solution to help her.

He pulled back slightly as Goran slipped into his mind, berating him.
Damn it, Serus, get back into the game. There are bad guys here.

Hell, there are always bad guys lately,
he grumbled.

What?
Goran was racing ahead.
We’re almost at the heating system and someone beat us to it.
He paused then laughed
. How the hell did she do that?

She?

Serus caught up to the others and peered around Goran’s shoulder to see Tessa and Cody ahead of them. “Tessa? How did you get here so fast?”

His daughter’s face lit up at the sight of him, making him smile inside. Damn, she’d turned out well. He wished Rhia could see her. Hell, he wished Rhia was here.

“I am not sure, actually. We took the elevator back down to find the security camera feed to see what happened upstairs when we found Bart here.” She tugged a fat vampire out from the center of the group and damn it if he didn’t recognize him from the blood farm.

“Bart – hey, we were afraid you died when the mountain came down.”

Bart shrugged. “I escaped out one of the shafts. She’s a walking disaster.” He glared at Tessa.

Tessa gave a sheepish shrug. “Hey, I’m getting better.”

Goran snorted. “So not true.”

“See, even he agrees with me,” Bart snickered. “I barely escaped with my skin.”

“You’re lucky you got out,” Goran reminded him. “Thousands didn’t.”

“Yeah, lot of good it did me when you consider that I’m sitting here with her again.”

This time Tessa glared at him. “You’re the one that helped them hook up the canisters full of drugs. Sounds like you don’t deserve to escape again.”

“Ha. I just took those guys down too.” He hitched his belly up and hooked his thumbs under the straps to his overalls.

Serus wanted to laugh, but a smirk slid out instead.

Goran stepped forward. “And did those drugs get into the vents? Is that why you are down here again? Is everyone upstairs dead? Drugged?”

“No.” Cody spoke up. “We never found anyone, but once Tessa realized the guards you left watching the elevator were gone, she was afraid there was a trap up ahead. She wanted to come down and search the video feed first. Instead, we found Bart here trying to sneak away after helping them set up the new drug delivery system.”

Goran’s phone rang. He stepped off to one side and answered it.

“Hey, I didn’t know what was inside those damn things. I wouldn’t have helped if I’d known. There are a lot of vamps in this hospital.”

“Versus a lot of humans, I suppose.” Tessa shook her head, all the while managing to glare at Bart. Serus had to wonder at their relationship. It appeared they knew each other quite well.

“We’re wasting time,” David snapped. “We have to stop them.”

Bart snarled right back at him. “We are doing something. We just took out these couple assholes and got the canister back. The system won’t work if there is only one canister. They’d need to seal off this half of it first.”

David stared at Bart in surprise. Serus admitted he was a little surprised himself. All he’d seen of that vamp had been a sleepy disinterest. Now he was agitated…and angry.

Serus wished he understood what was behind it.

And apparently Tessa didn’t either as she studied Bart intently. “What’s the matter, Bart?”

“You,” he snapped. “All of you. You cause so much trouble.”

“It’s not me,” Tessa said in surprise. “We’re trying to fix the problem.”

“And the problem just keeps getting bigger. If you’d left well enough alone, we’d all be living our normal lives.”

Sadness whispered across Tessa’s face. Serus’s heart tugged at what she’d been through.

“That wasn’t possible,” Tessa said quietly. “People were getting hurt. It had to stop.”

“And now vamps are getting hurt because of it. When do our people not count?” There was so much bitterness in his voice that no one appeared to know what to say.

“It’s true that trying to help my friends brought on more problems than we could have ever understood ahead of time, but that didn’t mean I could let them be hurt and do nothing about it.”

“Whatever.” Bart turned away. “The hospital was doing a lot of good here too, you know. They were trying to help some vamps. It was a medical facility. A treatment center.” He headed to the door. “Now it’s just a disaster zone.”

And he walked through the doorway, canister in hand, leaving the others to stare behind him in wonder.

Goran walked forward, closing his phone. “What happened to him? The last time I saw him he was completely disinterested in the war going on around us. In fact, I think he was hoping it would pass by and not disturb his sleep.”

“He was.”

Serus, a glimmer of understanding trickling into his conscience, suggested, “Maybe the war has struck too close to home. While it was at the blood farms, as long as he didn’t take part in the consumption of the blood and had no caring for the humans involved, he wasn’t involved. But now that it’s here…”

“Where the hospital was doing testing and treatments.” Tessa added, “He does care.”

“And that would give rise to the assumption that he has someone here that he cares about who is being adversely affected.”

“Then again,” David said, “We all are. If he’d helped out early on, this stage might have been prevented. It’s not like Jewel or Wendy wanted to be drugged. Or Mom. Or how about Darren? He was one of the few vamps hanging up in the blood farm – it’s not like he asked for this. We’re all suffering. Bart has to decide which side he’s on.”

“I think he already did,” Serus said, following after Goran. “He left, didn’t he?”

“He said he was going after the second canister, but whether he does or not…” Cody said.

“Speaking of side,” Goran said, “Motre just filled me in. They were attacked trying to get to the elevator. They broke off and raced down the stairs. The fight was bad enough that they lost a few men before they managed to hole up on the second floor. They are safe but pinned down. He says the men need some time to recover, so don’t race to their rescue just yet.”

“Good. We’ll straighten this out then go to him.”

*

“Jared?”

The voice wove through his dreams. Tessa? Chelsea? No…Sian. He woke with a jolt and bolted upward, knocking out the chair from under him and falling backwards. Catching himself, he shuddered with shock as he stood frozen in place, trying to figure out where he was.

“Easy, Jared.” Sian stood in front of him, worry creasing her beautiful face. “You’re fine here.”

“Sorry.” He shook his head to loosen up the cobwebs. “I guess I fell asleep.”

“No wonder. You and Taz,” she turned her head to another man Jared only just now realized had crashed on the couch opposite him, “are working so hard.”

Taz opened his eyes and gazed at his beautiful wife. The look in his eyes made Jared wish for things he’d never had. Someone to love him. Someone to love.

The two people were so well suited to each other; he couldn’t imagine a better couple. And Taz was human. “You guys are great together,” Jared said warmly. “You’re very lucky.”

Sian laughed, her light caring voice rippling through the room. “Thank you. So many people would not agree with you.”

“And they’d be wrong.” In a smooth muscled movement, Taz came off the couch to stretch his arms to the ceiling. He walked the two steps over to his wife and gave her a loving kiss. “Did you get any rest?” he asked, staring down at her, his gaze studying her features.

Jared turned away from the intimate look into the relationship between two people he barely knew. Behind him, he heard the gentle murmurings but deliberately tuned it out. He walked to the window and stared out into the dark of night. God, he hoped Chelsea was safe and sound and tucked into bed somewhere warm. He couldn’t stand the thought of her lying in one of those horrible cells he’d lived in while they checked his blood out.

She was innocent and fragile. She had a loving family – and he hadn’t contacted them. Shit.

He spun around to look at the couple still talking quietly behind him. “I never contacted Chelsea’s parents.”

Sian nodded. “We tried but haven’t connected yet. We’ll keep trying.”

Jared pulled out his cell phone on the faint hope that Chelsea might have contacted him while he’d slept. But there were no messages. He immediately sent her one even though he knew the assholes had her phone. He just couldn’t help himself.

As soon as he hit send, he panicked. “I just sent another message to Chelsea. What was I thinking?” he exclaimed. “What if they can track it? What if they know I’m here now? They will come after me. And find you.”

Oh no, what had he done? He hadn’t meant to but hadn’t thought his actions through. He’d reacted, and not in a good way.

He raised his stricken gaze upward to stare at the other two.

“If that’s possible, which it likely is, then we’ll have to take your phone somewhere to lead them away from here,” Taz said calmly. “And you’ll end up losing yet another phone.”

Another phone? Jared stared at Taz in dismay. “But I just got this one.”

Sian laughed. “And we’ll help you get another one. The bottom line is if they can find you, they can kidnap you yet again. Once was enough, don’t you think?”