Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (175 page)

Silence.

Tessa sucked in her breath. She
nudged Cody. "We have to stop them. We won't know where they’ll
take Jared if they leave now."

He reached around and pinched her to
shut up.

"What was that?"

Shit.
She'd forgotten to keep her
voice down. She stared horrified into Cody's grim
gaze.

"I didn't hear anything."

"Really? Thought I heard
voices."

"In this mausoleum? Don't think so.
There's only us here. And the dead guy. Maybe his ghost is talking
to you."

"Hey, that's not funny."

But apparently it was, as Tessa and
Cody were treated to the sounds of raucous laughter that faded as
the men walked away. They both relaxed slightly as they waited to
hear if the men would return.

Tessa knew better than to push Cody,
but waiting for him to give the all clear had her pressing her
nails into her palms as she fisted her hands together.

"Now, quietly." Cody pushed open the
door and stepped into the fetid-smelling room.

"Oh, that's gross," she hissed,
following him out. She'd thought the air in the tunnel had been bad
– this was ten times worse.

"Look." Cody pointed down at the
floor where a grey-haired male lay crumpled and still.

"Do you recognize him?" she asked,
walking closer to the body. She'd never seen a dead person before.
She didn't think she'd ever want to see one again,
either.

"No."

Gritting her teeth, Tessa bent down
over the dead man to look for identification. He had a wallet in
his back pocket. Gross. But necessary.

"What are you doing?" Cody
hissed.

"Finding out who he is. Remember,
humans carry identification with them all the time."

"Yeah, I'd heard that." He shook his
head. "I just don't understand why."

"They have to have it for their
monetary and legal system. That's part of their system we haven't
taken over – unlike their credit cards that we probably couldn't
live without."

The wallet was thick and the pocket
narrow. She struggled to pull it out without touching the body.
With a final tug, it yanked free. Standing up, she walked toward
Cody, flicking through it. "His name is Carstairs
Wallace."

"Now that you know, what difference
does it make?"

"Now, I can let the police know he's
dead."

Cody shook his head. "Don't be naive.
You can't go to the police. They're going to think you killed
him."

True. She glanced down at the dead
man. "Maybe, but we have to do something for him."

"It's too late for that."

Cody hushed her to silence, his head
cocked toward the exit.

"Let's go. I hear
vehicles."

"Shit." Tessa raced out the same
doorway that the men had disappeared through. Cody flew ahead of
her, disappearing into an exterior doorway. Tessa burst out in the
moonless night seconds later.

The front yard was empty.

The Escalade and the Nitro were
gone.

So was Cody. She heard the distant
beat of wings as Cody took chase. She studied the night sky,
watching as he swooped overhead, intent on the hunt.

Could she catch
up?

She wouldn't know unless she tried.
And she hated being left behind. Tucking Carstairs's wallet into
her back pocket, she pulled together as much of her vampire
genetics as she could and took off.

Her loping gait and crab jump
smoothed out slightly as she slipped back into the
movement.

She wished she'd learned how this
skill worked a long time ago. Like a lot of things in her vampire
life. She took another jump and winced at her heavy landing. If
anyone were awake under these rooftops they were going to wonder
what was going on.

She took off again, then again. It
did get easier. Flying would be even easier.

Not to mention faster.

Already Cody had vanished from sight.
She raced from rooftop to rooftop then hopped to the ground and cut
across the back field. She'd seen the vehicle turn off up here.
Speeding along on the ground was like running through molasses
compared to her weird jumping strategy.

She glanced around. There wasn't much
to jump up to or off from here. She ran and took a ballet leap and
found that she could easily cover twenty feet. She did it again.
Weird.

Maybe, there was something out there
for her after all. She'd always felt like the defective ugly
duckling of the family, so it had never occurred to her that she
could be a hybrid with two sets of skills, human and
vampire.

She raced forward, more confident in
her leaps and she came down more securely in her landings. This was
actually cool. Now, if only she could do this with a touch of
class.

She took another leap and then
another. Before long, she'd reached the point where the vehicle had
turned. Staring up in the sky, she searched for Cody. There was no
sign of him. He should have gotten to his destination within
minutes. She needed to get higher so she could see where to go
next. There was only one tree. She winced at the poor landing spot.
Taking a deep breath, she jumped.

And hit Cody broadside.

He nearly fell, and scrambled to grab
onto the branches. His wings automatically opened, catching in the
branches. Luckily he caught hold and stabilized himself.

"Jesus, watch what you're doing,
Tessa."

Tessa was too worried
about finding a firm grasping place on the tree branches to worry
about him. Once she caught her balance and her breath, she gasped,
"Sorry. Didn't mean to hit you."

"If you'd opened your damn eyes,
you'd have seen me."

Thank goodness for the dark of night
because revealing heat washed over her face. Tessa groaned silently
because of course, he was right. For some reason she'd switched
back to her human vision, which explained why she hadn't seen him
in the sky. She was an idiot. Still, she'd found him and she'd made
it to the right spot – accidentally or not.

"What did you find out?"

"That you're not a little kid
anymore. You pack a hell of a punch and almost knocked me out of
the tree."

Exasperated, she scolded him. "Quit
your whining. Geesh, you're acting like a big baby."

He snorted and hunkered back down on
his heels. She envied his natural grace. His sense of humor was
pretty good, too. Not to mention he was in really good shape. She
was still huffing, and damn if she didn't have a stitch in her
side.

"They drove into that
yard."

"Did they move the humans inside?"
She felt his sideways look and sighed. "Humans. That's the correct
term. Just because I count several of them as friends, doesn't mean
I don't understand the problem between the races."

"Oh. I figured you just didn't like
vampires."

"I am vampire, remember?"

"How could I forget, especially with
you in that outfit? Even if these last couple of years it seemed
like you'd turned your back on us."

Horrified, she could only stare at
him in shock. "I have not."

"You have, you know. Everything you
did was with humans. Your vampire friends were shoved off to the
side."

"No,
they weren't," she answered quietly. "They shoved
me
off to the side –
because I'm not like
them
. That's when I cultivated my
human friends. Figured if I couldn't get along with one species,
maybe I could with the other."

Silence drifted through the night
air, broken only by the occasional whisper of tree branches bending
in the wind. His heavy sigh hung for a moment between them. "I'm
sorry. I didn't know. Did you explain that to your
parents?"

She raised one eyebrow. "No. Why
would I? They couldn't do anything about it, and besides, I figured
it was common knowledge."

"Your family cares about you,
Tessa."

"I know." A comfortable silence
narrowed the gap between them. "Thanks for that."

"Anytime."

Tessa studied the building. "We have
to get in there. If they move Jared again, we may never find
him."

Cody considered her words for a
moment. "Just the two of us? That is a seriously bad
idea."

"I know." Tessa pondered their next
move. "Thanks for sticking around to help me."

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you
before," he admitted slowly. The energy around them shifted, warmed
with his quick grin. "So are you going to sit up here and wait, or
are you coming with me?"

Tessa snorted and jumped, only to
find Cody already at ground level. "I hate that you can do
that."

"What, fly?"

"No, make me look like an
idiot."

He laughed. "Let's go."

They raced around to the back of the
house and stopped outside the circle of bright lights.

"What's wrong with this picture?"
Tess stood with her hands on her hips, studying the
area.

"It looks like they're expecting
company."

"That's not good. Anyone connected to
this kidnapping is bad news."

Cody's face thinned with distaste.
"True. Let's go. As much as it would help to know who's coming, I
don't think it's safe to stick around."

A growl erupted behind them. "Too
bad, as you're both going to be our guests for a while."

Tessa spun around ready to
bolt.

Pain exploded in the back of her
head, and for the second time that night she collapsed to the cold
ground, unconscious. The last sound she heard was the beating of
heavy wings.

CHAPTER FIVE

Cody knew the power of his wings,
even if he had yet to test them in battle. And that was little hard
to do since there hadn't been a battle during his lifetime. Energy
rushed through him.

From the corner of his eye he could
see Tessa crumpled on the floor, blood seeping from her temple.
Anger slammed into him.

Rage drove him forward in a mad rush.
Both vampires fought back. Suddenly Cody found himself fighting for
his life – and Tessa's. Rearing back to recoup, he rushed them
again, raining blows on the two men from above, trying to chase
them from Tessa. Teeth bared as long claws slashed. He fought with
brutal precision, knowing that to lose was to lose Tessa. He could
not lose Tessa.

"Hell. What is he?"

"He's a fucking vampire, you idiot."
The older of the two rushed him, slashing Cody deeply across the
chest. Then he was gone too.

"So what? I am, too, but I don't
fucking fly. Why can he?" The two men circled Cody, trying to stay
out of reach of wings and claws. "What the hell do we do with
him?"

"We take him down."

The younger vampire gazed at Cody in
astonishment. "And how do you expect to do that? He's like us.
Killing him isn't going to be easy until there's sunlight. He's not
likely to run away and hide."

Cody grinned. A deep fanged smirk
that made the other men back up. "Even then, I won't be going and
hiding anywhere." He swooped down and caught the younger one up in
a choke hold. "I'm not like you. I'm better." Squeezing tightly, he
backed up, struggling with the man's weight. What the hell had this
one been eating? Vampires were rarely fat; they couldn't consume
enough to get that way. This one, though, had some serious poundage
on him already. Cody tucked that tidbit away in the back of his
mind as he squeezed tighter and moved back another couple
steps.

And stumbled on uneven
ground.

Cody's arm lock barely loosened, yet
it was enough that the vampire broke free and bent forward, gasping
for air. "Shit, get him, Benj."

"Shut up, you fool."

The young pudgy vampire coughed a
couple times before turning back to face Cody. "He's just a fucking
kid. We can take him."

"Like you just did?"

Cody came to a graceful landing, one
foot on either side of Tessa. "This isn't a game. You attacked this
girl."

"Huh. This is my house, and you are
trespassing." The older vampire grinned maliciously. "Go ahead and
try to explain that one."

Cody tucked back one wing and knelt
slowly, one eye on the men. He checked Tessa's pulse. "I won't have
to. Do you really think no one saw you snatch the
humans?"

Relief bounced through him at Tessa’s
strong, steady pulse. Though she was a genetic anomaly, nobody
wanted to test out the theory that she'd live forever. Who could
say for sure? What if they were wrong?

He also didn't want these assholes to
know who she was. She'd be worth a lot in ransom. Then again, they
wouldn't live to enjoy it. There were problems between Tessa and
her dad, but no one doubted that he adored her. Old vampires like
him also didn't take lightly to young upstarts like these two
assholes.