Vampire in Crisis (10 page)

He laughed, the sound odd and comforting in the kitchen. “I never thought I’d be grateful to that old bastard for anything.”

But he was.

An hour later, he was feeling pretty decent. He’d eaten, had a hot shower, had his clothes going through the laundry, and had cash in his pocket. Damn, it was the best life had been in a long time. He grabbed his phone and checked for messages.

Chelsea.

His face splitting into a big grin, he clicked on it. Instantly his smile was wiped off. The message was only two words.
Help me.

A
s the elevator
door closed in front of her, Tessa caught sight of the two men in the beds. She frowned, surprised that she’d missed them. She tried to peer through the space before it closed, but she was at the wrong angle to see them clearly.

“What’s wrong with them?” she asked. She hadn’t been able to see how badly hurt they were, but it wasn’t like the ancients to leave injured men alone – especially not given the number of times she’d been called in to help lately.

“Nothing,” Serus said. “They are only pretending to be ill. They are going to watch for anyone coming up this elevator.”

“Except no one will go up if we have it full of people coming down all the time.”

“True,” Goran conceded. “But if we have someone watching what’s going on, then they might see a stranger arrive that we might have otherwise missed. It’s definitely a problem right now. We don’t want to have anyone infiltrate our organization through a doorway we didn’t know about.”

“Too late,” Tessa said dryly. She didn’t think those two men would make a bit of difference.

“We can hope not.” Serus stepped in front of her. “How are you?”

Tessa smiled. “I’m okay. A little more tired than I’d like and still not sure of how to handle all this, but I’m working on it.”

“Good. Keep working.”

She nodded, her mind caught on his earlier words. She frowned and said, “Sorry, did you say those two men
aren’t
sick?”

“No. We just wanted a couple of men to stand guard in case anyone from the other side used this elevator. Seemed like a good idea for them to appear sick. That’s all.”

“Why, Tessa?” Cody asked quietly.

She turned to look at Cody when David groaned. “They looked sick to you, didn’t they?”

“Sorry, yeah, their systems had both gray and black,” she said.

“What?” roared Serus. “We just grabbed the first two men we saw.”

He glared at Goran as if this was entirely his fault.

Goran groaned. “What if they’d just arrived and that’s why they were the closest?”

Tessa snickered. Her father spun and glared at her. “If you knew, why didn’t you say so?”

“I only caught sight of them as I entered the elevator. I didn’t know for sure,” she replied. “And I don’t honestly know how black. I’m finding out that black is different now.”

“Harrumph.” He turned and glared at Goran again. Goran grinned back at him. “Too bad she took so long to join us. She could have told us what we were doing wrong.”

Stiff, Serus turned his back on all of them.

Holding back a giggle at the ancients’ antics, Tessa watched the elevator lights flash as the machine descended to the lowest floor.

Cody slid an arm around her waist, tugging her backwards against his chest. She loved these moments. They didn’t happen often or last long enough. They were stolen bits of time. Special time. She grabbed his hand and laced her fingers with his. She squeezed gently, loving the instant response.

Too soon the double doors opened. Goran and Serus immediately slid out of the elevator, each taking a different side and crouching low, ready for anything.

Tessa assessed the weird energy, with nothing feeling right anymore since Deanna, and strode out. Ten feet ahead, she stopped and studied the vast empty area. It had a familiar look to it – but was that familiar to Deanna or to Tessa? She opened her vision wider when the colors slammed into her head; she cut that back by half. The place had a gray cast to it. Lots of energy having come and gone in years past, but much less recently. But there’d been some activity on the right.

She pointed in the direction of the energy trails. “The energy disappears in that direction.” She did a slow circle to make sure she didn’t miss anything. Satisfied, she walked toward the energy trails. “A dozen or so slightly older energies, likely the ones Goran met up with and a half dozen that are fresher. Like an advanced party arriving.”

“Well, the new arrivals…they won’t be given a chance to warn the others, that’s for sure,” Goran snapped, pulling out his phone. “And these two men at the top need to be sequestered until we know for sure which side they are on.”

Tessa, realizing he’d be calling Motre up above, turned to make sure all the new energies had actually gone into the elevator and not come out as the older ones had. It took her a moment to sort the colors before she realized. “Six arrived as a single group. One came here and went back the same way. Five went up the elevator.”

“Shit.”

David shook his head and kept moving forward. “Let’s make sure no more are coming. The others upstairs can deal with the trojans in their midst.”

“Can they, though?” Cody wondered out loud. “Or is it going to take Tessa to see who is good and bad again?”

“If so, then she needs to go back up and find the traitors,” Serus snapped. “We will follow this direction and find out where they came from.”

Tessa hated to be sent back but if she didn’t go, could the others find the right men? If they didn’t, how much damage could the men do on their own? Her footsteps slowed. And those two ‘guards’ needed to be checked over. But given the potential drug issue through the vents, it was dangerous. Too dangerous. Especially for those she loved.

“Damn it.”

Cody stopped a step ahead of her and turned, his gaze piercing. “What’s the matter?”

“We need to get those men out of there. What if there are other elevators here like this one? Or hidden staircases or something,” she cried out in frustration. “Our people won’t know until it’s too late.”

“Are you wanting to go back upstairs?” he asked.

“I don’t want to leave my family alone to face whatever is around the corner,” she said.

Serus tossed back, “We’ll be fine. Go find those sneaky bastards.”

Crap. She could see the energy trails in the distance but had no idea what lay off in the shadows beyond.

As if sensing her uncertainty, Goran stopped and faced her and said, “We’ve been fighting wars like this for a long time. Don’t worry. Go get the others separated so they can’t do more damage to the place.”

“I’m more concerned about the gas,” she admitted, “than the actual vampires.”

Everyone stopped.

Her father turned his hard gaze on her. “Gas? What are you talking about?”

“I told you about that when I first saw you at the top of the elevator. Some of the men that were clear now have drugs in their system.” She frowned at the confusion on both Goran and Serus’s face. “Remember I was afraid that they’d be using the ventilation system to spread gas throughout and poison all of us.” When anger started to light their gazes, she cried out, “I told you about it – that’s why the mass exodus.”

Goran shook his head. “You told us about everyone leaving via the elevator but not why.”

Sure she had, hadn’t she? Confused, Tessa tried to remember what she’d said to whom and realized she couldn’t. She closed her eyes and groaned. “I swear I did.”

“It’s too late to worry. Give it to us now,” her father demanded.

Quickly she explained about the two men and the black trail leading to the window and the vamps hiding outside who’d then been burnt in the sun.

The anger in the men’s faces turned darker. “Little buggers. A gas like that is likely to affect everyone.”

“Exactly. That’s why I thought everyone should leave.”

“You do realize that as we’ve all come down here, we won’t know if the gas has been administered already or not. We could go back up there to find out we lost the war already and didn’t even know it,” David spoke up impatiently.

“Therefore Tessa needs to get back upstairs so she can let us know what the energies look like and find the assholes that snuck in on us.” Serus said. “We’ll go track down the base these guys are using and hopefully find out their plans for this gas. The heating system should be housed in the mechanical room, likely on this floor. We can scope it out and make sure no one is there.”

“We’ll go there first,” Cody nodded. “Make sure our people are safe from attack.”

“That no one is coming down yet also concerns me.” She turned and glanced back at the elevators. “The first group should be here by now. I’m going to go up and send a group down to help you.” She looked back to see Goran with his phone out again. “I suggest we get word out to Sian and Councilman Adamson. If the attack happens and many of our people are drugged, they could be taken in no time. With spikes, our friends and family could be gone in seconds – permanently.”

And she needed to go alone. It was too dangerous for them. Plus this way, she could communicate through mindspeak and Cody could keep the rest of the group apprised of what was going on. Keep them all safe.

She picked up the pace and ran to the elevator. The double doors stood open.

Inside, she pushed the button to close the door. Cody raced toward her.

“Wait for me, damn it,” he roared.

“I can’t. The drugs aren’t likely to work on me, but they will on you.” She smiled sadly at him as the doors snapped shut in his face. “I have to keep you safe.” She screamed back into the empty room, “Help the ancients.”

She didn’t know if he heard her, but she didn’t dare have him become a victim too. All her friends and family at the hospital were down on this level. If they stayed there, they’d likely be safe.

At least as safe as anyone could be now.

*

Cody kicked the
elevator doors, then kicked them again. “Goddamit, Tessa.”

“Easy, Cody. Wait until the elevator stops, then go up,” Goran called. “You know she’s just trying to keep you safe.”

Cody turned to glare at his father, anger speeding through him. “I don’t want to be kept safe. I’m trying to keep
her
safe.”

“Ha, good luck with that one. She’s a spitfire, that girl.”

Cody watched as the ancients strode ahead almost out of sight, David trailing behind them. Did he go with them and help keep Tessa’s family safe like she wanted him to or go back up and try to look for that little witch? How effective was that going to be if she tried ditching him at every turn?

And why the hell had she done that this time?

The drugs. I don’t want you to get drugged.

He spun to stare at the elevator as her voice sounded through his mind.

Damn it, Tessa. You aren’t immune to the drugs any more than I am.

No, maybe not, but with any luck I’ll see them coming. In your case, I won’t be able to warn you in time.

Hell, you won’t be able to do anything yourself in time either. You have to stay alive, Tessa. Stop thinking you are indestructible just because you’ve got Deanna’s energy.

No, I don’t think that. If anything, her memories, her information, all that wisdom are a burden that makes me realize I need to stay alive so I can pass it on to others.

So use it to figure out how to stop this war instead.

I have to help the others upstairs. I’ll keep you updated.

And how are you going to do that?
he demanded.

I don’t know yet.
She added,
You’ll have to shut down the heating system.

No, let David do that. He’s good with that type of thing. You go find the traitors. Leave that system to us.

She smiled in his head
. Okay.

But her acceptance was a little too fast. A little too easy. Then he realized what he said.
Damn it. You did that on purpose.

She laughed.
We all have a job to do in this war.

And my place is at your side. You’re the one who refuses to understand that,
he snarled, pissed at her for the manipulation.
This isn’t something Tessa pre-Deanna would have done. She’d have explained her reasoning, understood that I had a right to the truth and could deal with being sent off in one direction or another without games. Don’t start the games, Tessa,
he warned.
You aren’t going to like the outcome.