Vampire in Chaos (24 page)

“And
her
is looking for answers as to what you want with her,” Tessa said in exasperation, stepping boldly between them.

Deanna looked startled, then she laughed, a great booming laugh that rang loudly throughout the room. “Oh Serus. You did good.”

The Ghost walked over to stand beside Deanna, but he had a grin on his face. If that was what the cadaver scrunched–up look meant. Serus watched him carefully. “And yet you don’t answer her.”

Deanna’s grin widened. “I am not sure this is quite the right time.”

“There might not be a better time,” Tessa said coolly. “I certainly don’t want you screaming through my mind and knocking me unconscious because you feel like it.”

The look on the Ghost’s face was a combination of shock and respect. As if he wasn’t used to seeing anyone stand up to Deanna. Or question her.

Deanna was a force to be reckoned with regardless of her age, position, or status. She had power – megawatts of it. And she had no compunction about using it.

Deanna stared hard at Tessa. Serus watched Tessa relax and cross her arms across her chest. Instead of straightening in a show of power, she’d gone the other way and relaxed completely, dismissing the concept that she was in danger. And as a result, she had defused the tension.

Serus shook her head. Was Tessa that smart? Or had she not understood the consequences of her actions? He couldn’t help wonder if she hadn’t done it naturally – as if instinctively understanding that with all the power floating around the room, another power play wasn’t the answer.

Damn. She was good.

*

Cody had watched
the interplay quietly. He knew Serus wouldn’t let anything happen to Tessa. He knew Tessa had no clue who or what Deanna was. She’d been kept out of the loop from most of the Council stuff. Whether right or wrong, she was never included because of her heritage. But it was too bad right now that she didn’t have some idea of just how dangerous Deanna actually was. That the Ghost was her defender or protector and obviously loyal dog made him an unknown, and in Cody’s estimation, that made him much more dangerous. Particularly when an order from Deanna would be carried out without question.

He wondered how this stalemate was going to end when Deanna started to laugh again. She walked closer to Tessa. Cody shifted his attention to Tessa. There was no artifice in that girl. No way to hide her as being anything other than what she was. Happy and content in who and what she was. Now. Not who she’d been. Now she faced Deanna and didn’t seem to know how dangerous a rattler was when cornered.

He swallowed, wondering what to do. His muscles bunched. His jaw locked.

“Down, lover boy,” Deanna said, “I’m not going to hurt her.”

Cody switched his gaze to Deanna, instinctively holding back the snarl clogging up his throat. He had much he wanted to say, but Deanna wasn’t even looking at him. She was studying Tessa.

“Well Tessa, I see you have a couple of champions.”

“So do you,” Tessa answered coolly. “Not that either of us need them.”

A smile whispered across Deanna’s face. “Isn’t that the truth. You are lucky, you know?”

Tessa tilted her head, a gentle smile on her face. “I know.”

Another long moment passed where Deanna studied Tessa’s face slowly, carefully, as if she was searching for answers.

Cody wished he knew what she was looking for.

Tessa, do you understand what’s going on?

No
,
she said something earlier about testing me.

Right.
He’d forgotten that.

The door beside them burst open. Goran and Motre rushed in. Sizing up the scenario in front of them, the two men immediately flanked Serus. Cody happened to glance back in time to see an odd look cross Deanna’s face. He wondered at it, but then he saw the Ghost ready.

Deanna threw her arm out to the left in front of the Ghost.

Stopping him.

Tessa looked at the Ghost and said mentally,
It is all right. They are not here to hurt you
.

The air buzzed with odd energy.

Cody realized suddenly that Tessa was talking to the Ghost mentally.
How are you doing that?

Having walked through the weird door in my mind,
she said,
I can now speak to the Ghost. And maybe other people.

Damn. “Tessa, I know you are talking to the Ghost and likely Deanna mentally, but the rest of us need to hear words out loud. It makes us all worried when the silence gets big and awkward like this.”

Tessa looked startled, then she laughed. She walked over to Cody and slipped her arm through his. “It’s all good. Deanna isn’t quite ready to tell me. She’s not sure about me yet.”

Cody wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. He couldn’t help the whole protective male thing. He knew she didn’t need it but at the same time, he did.

She patted his chest. “It’s fine.”

“Hi, Goran. Motre,” Serus said easily. “Good to know you found Jewel.”

Goran never responded, his glare locked on Deanna.

Cody studied Motre. He was just as silent, only his gaze, shocked and confused, had locked on Hortran. Maybe he had never seen a Ghost before.

Neither had Cody, but that was the way his life went these days with Tessa. She made life interesting. Then he realized she was leaving the circle of his arms. He tried to pull her back. She shook her head, gave him a smile, and walked over to stand between Deanna and the Ghost.

Damn it, Tessa

It’s fine.

You don’t know that.
Cody said
. She’s got plans for you. You can’t trust her.

I don’t plan to.
And she took another step closer to her father.

“It’s all good, Dad.” She smiled cheerfully, switching her gaze to Goran. “Goran, Motre, can we lower the guard dog modes down a little?”

Goran switched his gaze to Tessa. She brightened up her smile.

“Do you have any idea what you are up to?” he growled. “Or with who?”

“Not yet, but I won’t find out if things don’t calm down.” She spun around to face Deanna. “Who locked you in the morgue drawers?”

Deanna sighed, her aggressive stance easing. “It was Rexy, a punk that reports to Stanley. He came with a dozen others. We chose the easiest path.”

Tessa motioned to the gurneys surrounding them. “Do you know what happened to these men?”

Deanna’s gaze hardened. “They were dupes. Volunteers for the new drugs. Drugs that were not ready for circulation. My love warned me of it before he disappeared.”

“He couldn’t stop it?”

“No.” Deanna said sadly. “He said it was out of control as vamps were volunteering all over the place to get enhancements.”

*

Jared sat on
his aunt’s bed. He was stunned by the depth of her betrayal. He had to wonder about his uncle’s house. Was it his? Or had it been his father’s house as well? He glanced through the rest of the papers, but he hadn’t had time for a real look. He stuffed all the contents back into the brown envelope and put it inside his backpack. Then he repacked the hatboxes and replaced them both. He checked the night tables on both sides of the bed and couldn’t help bending down to look under her bed. He wanted to have more time – do a better search. Be more thorough. As in tear the place apart. He wanted to flip her mattress and rip it to pieces. He couldn’t forget the idea that if she had this hidden, there was likely a whole lot more hidden as well. And he wanted to be the one to find it. Just in case someone tried to take his father’s house away from him. Again.

He slipped back down the staircase and into the kitchen. He looked out at the morning. It was time to get moving. He walked through the kitchen to the back door. He gave a quick glance through the cupboards before opening the top drawer. It was full of papers. There was a manual to the washer and one for the dryer. And something that looked like a manual for the coffeemaker.

There was lots of other little manuals plus the odd receipt. He rifled through the mess but couldn’t see anything important. Then he stopped. She’d been killed in the house, so where was her purse? He walked to the long cupboard that had been converted to a key and catch–all cupboard. There, on the bottom shelf, sat her purse. Therefore, she’d been home long enough to put her purse away instead of having just walked in the door. So who killed her, and had she let them in? Had they just knocked on the door or snuck in through the back?

She’d lived on the criminal edge. She hung out with unsavory people, so she must have known that she’d be in danger. Or she’d become so smug she’d discounted her position as dangerous. As disposable. He pulled out her purse and opened it on the counter. There was makeup, a notepad, and several candy bars. Those he pocketed. He opened her wallet to find her credit cards and several twenties. He didn’t know what to do, but he didn’t want to leave her wallet behind for someone else to steal. He stuffed it into the bottom of his backpack. Then took it out and stared at it. What if he left it here but in a different location? One no one but him would know about? That felt like a better deal than getting caught with it and making it look like he’d been stealing. He glanced around the kitchen, deciding to hide the wallet in the very end of the pot cupboard inside a stack of pots.

Done, he then slipped out the back door. It was late now. If he hurried, he’d be just in time for school.

T
essa looked at
the young men on the gurneys. There was sadness but also stupidity in their actions. She hoped they’d enjoyed life before it had been snuffed out at too young an age.

The humans were a completely different matter. They’d had no choice. They’d been bled dry like cattle and their bodies in cold storage for further disposal. She wondered how they would dispose of so many bodies. Were they in cahoots with a funeral home? Maybe that was an angle to look into.

She filed away a note then realized she was better off letting Sian know. Maybe they could track back faster. How many funeral homes could there be? She quickly wrote up a text to Sian and copied Wendy on it. Maybe one of them had time to do some checking. When she hit send, she looked up to find the group all staring at her.

“Well,” Goran snapped. “Do you think you could put your social life on hold for a few moments so we can figure this out?”

“As I was texting Sian to search for connections to funeral homes to find some of the humans in cahoots with this mess, given…” she swept her arm back, “the fifty–seven human bodies that are here waiting for disposal, I hardly think my social life is involved.”

At his mollified look, she sighed and asked, “Where do we go from here?” She turned to Deanna. “Where are you planning to go now?”

Deanna stared at her. “I was going to go into hiding, but if you are all here, I suspect something major is going on.”

Serus spoke up just ahead of Goran. “We found several members of the German delegation upstairs, connected to several machines that we believe are pumping them full of drugs.”

“Believe,” she snapped, using that same autocratic voice that had terrorized everyone else at the Council meetings. “What do you
know
?”