Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (171 page)

"No. They aren't," he said. "I was
hoping everyone would leave so no one would have to
know."

"What's up?"

"My family is a little different. And
I don't have any parents. I live with my uncle. He figures if I go
out alone, then I should be able to get home alone."

"Then you're walking home?" Tessa
grinned. Maybe this wasn't such a bad end to her evening, after
all.

"Oh, yeah."

"So am I. I lied. My brother isn't
coming to get me. Everyone is out for the evening, so no big deal,"
she said, glancing down the street in the direction of her home.
"I'm heading this way. Where are you going?"

"Down a block, then left for another
block. Let's go. I'll walk you home first."

"Such a gentlemen." With
the moon shining down on the deserted parking lot, the recent
harrowing scene seemed like a nightmare they could now laugh about.
She linked her arm through his as they walked and talked, tickled
at the unexpected bonus end to her evening.

Halfway home, she heard another
sound. Remembered fear slammed back into mind. She spun around in
time to see a wave of blackness cover her. A blow slammed the side
of her head, sending her to the ground. She cried out. "Jared, look
out!"

Pain exploded at the side of her head
for a second time. The world disappeared briefly as blackness
surrounded her. Agony clawed through her brain. Groaning, she tried
to straighten, hearing the voices around her.

"What the hell! Why doesn't she stay
down?"

Another blow slammed into her, this
time catching the arm she'd lifted defensively. Shards of agony
slid from her wrist to her elbow. She screamed in a blend of pain
and fury. Drawing on her primary heritage, she opened her mouth in
fury to scream.

"Shit!"

Just like that the attackers
disappeared. She staggered to her feet, moaning at the sledgehammer
pounding inside her head. She stood, closed her eyes briefly
against the throbbing and waited for the world to stop
spinning.

Where was Jared? She searched
everywhere. Jared was gone.

CHAPTER TWO

Tessa slammed through her front door,
her hand to her chest, screaming, "Mom! Dad! Where are
you?"

"Honey, what's the matter?" Her
mother met her in the hallway, a dishtowel in her hand. A frown
marred her perfect forehead.

Her father came running from the
direction of the office. "What's wrong?" He took one look at Tessa
and raced over, grabbing her arms. "What happened?"

Tessa gasped for air, tugging her
injured arm away to hold it protectively against her chest. Her
head boomed from the inside. "We were attacked," she gasped, "by
vampires."

"What!" Her parents exchanged shocked
glances before turning back to stare at her.

"Are you sure?" barked her
father.

Tessa gave him a withering look.
"Yeah. I think I know what a vampire is, Dad."

"Tessa, watch your mouth," her mom
warned, then glared at her husband.

Taking a deep breath, Tessa tried to
calm her frustration. What was it about parents that made them ask
a million questions instead of taking action? "Sorry."

"Now tell us what happened. From the
beginning," her mom said.

Words tumbled over each other as
Tessa related the series of events from the time she and her
friends had left the movie theater. She'd only half-finished when
her brothers walked in and she had to start at the beginning
again.

"It happened just a block from here?"
Her dad's frown thundered across his face. "Did they know you were
a vampire?"

Thinking back, Tessa couldn't
remember the details of her actions, but she thought she might have
bared her fangs, but her attackers might not have noticed. "Maybe."
She explained what had happened at the end. Before she finished
speaking her mother rushed over to check her head injury. She'd
forgotten that she'd been hurt. Her brother's faces darkened with
fury.

"Forget about me. I'm not the problem
here. They took Jared," Tessa cried out.

"Jared. Who's Jared?" Her mother
fussed over Tessa's head as if she'd taken a fatal blow, which
being part vampire, obviously wasn't likely. Brushing her mother's
hands away, Tessa said, "He's one of the people I went to the movie
with."

"I thought you went with Catherine?"
her father questioned, confusion wrinkling his face.

Frustrated at her family's inability
to stay on topic, she snapped, "I did, but Jared was there – Billy
and Zack, too."

"Okay, okay. Your father didn't mean
to upset you, dear." Her mother's gentle voice barely penetrated
the noise the rest of her family made as they discussed the concept
of vampires attacking humans.

"Mom, I'm upset because Jared was
kidnapped," she yelled into the melee, finally silencing her father
and brothers. "Does no one understand me? My friend's been
kidnapped."

"Seth,
contact the Council. I need to meet with them
now
." Her father spun around to look
her in the eye. "Tell me. Did you recognize
anyone?"

She shook her head vehemently. "No.
It all happened so fast. Once I regained
consciousness––"

"What?" he roared. "They knocked you
out?" Her father's jaw squared and the look in his eyes promised
someone would pay. Good. Her father was one of the oldest of the
vampire clan. He didn't forgive or forget easily.

"Just briefly. When I came to,
everyone had left."

Seth, being the smart-aleck brother
he was, asked, "Then how do you know your friend was kidnapped.
Maybe, he just went home?"

Shaking her head, Tessa knew in her
heart Jared would never do that. "I'm sure he wouldn't have left me
lying on the ground alone like that. He'd have called for help, at
the very least."

"I'm sure he would have, honey.
You've always been a good judge of character," her mother
said.

"True. Except humans are afraid of
us, and if your friend had never seen one of us in action before…"
Seth shrugged. "Just saying."

"Don't bother saying," snapped Tessa.
All of a sudden her stomach felt a little queasy. "Ooops." She
raced to the bathroom, her mother following behind her. At the
toilet, she dropped to her knees and bent her head over the bowl.
"I think I'm going to be sick."

And she was. Crap, what a horrible
feeling, not to mention embarrassing. Was her mother digging into
her hair again? She slapped her hands away. "Mom, I'm
fine."

"No, you're not. Head wounds can be
tricky. Nausea and throwing up are early signs of a concussion and
other more dire conditions." Her mother handed her a wet washcloth.
"Here. Wipe your face."

Tessa sighed and did as ordered. Once
a mom, always a mom. Cool water slipped over her sweaty skin and
eased the tension in her taunt muscles. Everything ached, and not
just from the blow to her head.

"By the way, you really should know
by now, that those head injury symptoms really don't apply to
vampires," Tessa said and grinned up at her model-perfect mother.
What a trial to grow up under the umbrella of a smart beautiful
woman who was also stunningly graceful. "You're a great mom, you
know that?"

Her mother's face split into a
beautiful smile and her eyes lost their worried look, warming with
love. "Thank you. You're a great daughter, too, you
know?"

"Even though I'm a
throwback?"

Her mother frowned. "Don't you ever
say that. For all I know you could be the wave of the
future."

Tessa tossed her a disbelieving look.
"Oh sure. Like I'm going to believe that. I'm defective, Mom. Let's
be honest here."

Her mom's gasp filled the small room.
"That's so not true, Tessa." She bent and gave her a quick hug.
"You're beautiful and you're unique. You are not alone in
this."

"Really. I'm not the same as you, and
I'm not the same as my friends. I'm stuck somewhere in the middle
and don't fit in either world. Sometimes I feel so alone." Tessa
thought it must have been the blow to her head that caused this
maudlin fit. It so wasn't normal for her.

"Oh, honey. I had no idea you felt
that way."

"How could I not? I don't even live
the same part of the day as the rest of you do. David and Seth go
to vampire schools at night while I'm asleep and I go to school
most of the time when you're all asleep. Mom, do you have any idea
how separated I feel?"

"Oh, honey. I'm so sorry. I never
knew."

Just as her mother crouched down to
give Tessa a big hug, a heavy pounding sounded on the door. Her
father called out for her mother, "Rhia, come on. Council has
called an emergency meeting."

"Can I come?" Tessa hopped to her
feet and raced behind her parents who were already heading for the
living room.

"No, you can't," her father yelled
over his shoulder. "And you should know better than to
ask."

"Serus," her mother chided. "There's
no need to speak to her like that."

"She's never yet been allowed, and
she certainly can't come tonight. You know as well as I do that she
may never be allowed." Even he cringed at Tessa's shocked gasp. He
didn't back down though.

"Sorry, Tessa, but that's the way it
is. That's not exactly news; we've discussed this
before."

"No," said Tessa, bitterness coloring
her voice. "You said when I was older I'd probably be allowed. But
what you really meant is when, and if, I matured to be more like a
vampire and less like a human, then I'd be allowed.
Right?"

A hunted look came over his face. "I
don't make the rules. They've been in effect for hundreds of years.
Of course I'd love for you to be included, but the way things are
now with the Council, well, they aren't going to change any time
soon."

"So, I'm not part of the vampire
world at all?" Resentment sharpened her voice more than she'd
expected.

Seth placed a warning hand on her
shoulder. "This isn't the best time, Tessa."

"Then
when is?" she cried. "It's
my
friend who's been taken."

"And he wouldn't have been if you
were a proper vampire," snapped her father.

Dead silence filled the
room.

Tessa gasped. Tears filled her eyes
as a world of hurt filled her heart. She raced from the
room.

Her father's groan of dismay chased
her. She no longer cared what he thought. The words had been said.
They could never be unsaid, and they would never be
forgotten.

Jared's kidnapping was her
fault.

***

An hour later, Tessa stared in the
mirror, her blow dryer still in her hand. The dye job was crude but
effective. Her short-lived white locks, a sign of rebellion, were
gone. She couldn't afford to be recognized now. She'd left two
defined locks surrounding her face in pure white. Dramatic? Yes.
And hopefully effective. To find Jared, she would have to hunt her
own kind, blend into the vampire world.

That
meant she would be a vampire – at least as much as she could. She'd
accent her vampire traits and make herself into something she was
not. Vampire females were haughty, arrogant and sexy with
knockout bodies, tight-fitting clothes and witchy
looks.

Her father's words had rooted
themselves at the base of her spine. Her determination to find
Jared had stiffened it. She might not be the same as the rest of
her family. She might never be included in their Vampire Council,
but she knew right from wrong, and she knew about friends. That
they were human didn't matter. They'd been there for her – even
when her family hadn't.

Friends mattered to her. Human
friends mattered. Jared mattered.

She wasn't going to stand by and do
nothing. If she had to save him from her own people, alone, then
she would. She just hadn't figured out how.

She knew where the Council meeting
was being held. Hopefully her family wouldn't recognize her until
she had the information she needed. She doubted she'd get a chance
to speak to a Council member, but maybe she could find out what the
Council's decision was tonight and not wait until her father
decided it was in her best interest to know.

She walked to her closet.
What to wear and how to wear it to the best advantage? Vampire
women were gorgeous. Tessa was not. Different? Yes. Striking?
Maybe. That's what she needed to strengthen. She had skintight
black leather pants. They'd been Caroline's until she gave them to
Tessa last year. She hoped they still fit. Dragging them out of the
back recesses of her closet, Tessa eyed them critically. They
looked small. Pulling them on, she found them surprisingly
comfortable, if a bit snug. Glancing in the mirror, she let a
surprised whistle slip out.

With deadly precision, the pants
hugged the curves of her thighs and butt, yet flattened her tummy,
drawing attention to her tiny waist. She only wore a bra on top and
considered her options. She headed back to her closet.