Family Blood Ties Set 5 in 1 Read online

  Jewel laughed and leaned in to hear the discussion.

  "I'm going to check out this train system more closely." Cody's voice broke up over the phone.

  David jumped in. "Wait. Don't go alone. Let's tell the adults." He stared down at the screen. "Cody hung up."

  "Really?"

  "He's gone down the tunnel." David redialled. "No signal. Shit."

  "Should we go after them?"

  David looked at the computer monitor, where figures were still streaming. "I need to capture some of the data and send it home first."

  She frowned. "Can you do that?"

  "Yes." He looked at her. "But I won't be able to hide my tracks."

  "So? Let the experts handle it."

  "Yeah, maybe." He stood and logged off. He didn't bother telling her he'd already sent several random files to an offsite storage site that he used as part of his student Council role at university. He'd try to come back later and dig a little deeper. He didn't want to trip any alarms by staying on too long. He might have already alerted the techs he'd been on the server. Better to leave and let them guess who might have been on the machine.

  He motioned toward the door. "Let's go see what Cody found."

  *.*.*

  Serus strode over to Rhia. "Goran thinks he can head out now. He's searching for Cody to tell him it's time."

  "Oh, thank heavens." Relief ripped across Rhia's face. "I want Tessa back by my side, where she belongs."

  "We'll get her." He wrapped her in his arms. "Don't worry, honey."

  "I'll worry until this nightmare is over, and we're all home safe and sound."

  Serus couldn't answer right away; a big ball of emotion blocked his throat. He couldn't blame her. He wouldn't rest until his family was home safe, either. "We'll get her," he said, his voice hoarse.

  "I want to go, but I also want to stay here?" She stared at him bravely. "They need me. These people have no one to speak for them."

  "Look at you." He smiled gently. "You’re always an advocate for the underdog."

  A whisper of a smile stroked across her face. "Someone has to be. Please find our daughter and bring her back."

  "I will, as soon as we find the others. Where did they go?"

  Rhia frowned and looked around. The medics walked up and down the lines of hanging bodies, making notes. The techies had returned to the computer labs awhile back. "David and Jewel were together a few minutes ago. Jared is missing, too." Rhia spun around and looked for them. "Have you seen any of them?"

  "Not in the last half hour. I thought they were all hanging around here." Uneasiness tingled at the base of his neck and lodged in his chest. He hated it. "They have to be together somewhere. Would they have gone to lie down?"

  "Not likely." She glanced back at the room where Jared had been, and Serus saw the fear etched on her beautiful face, too. "David wanted to ask the computer techs if he could help, but Ian arrived and said the techs wouldn't allow it. They put their heads together and then took off."

  "Uh oh." Serus turned toward the other side of the warehouse. "I bet that boy of ours has found another computer somewhere."

  "Oh, he wouldn't. Would he? The techs need clear access to all the data. It's the only way to make sure all of these people get the help they need."

  "Try telling him that." Serus knew his son, and figured he'd never been able to resist a computer.

  She scowled at him. "I'll tell him as soon as I see him. The boys have to be around here somewhere. We shouldn't waste any more valuable time."

  "Goran planned to take Cody – more eyes, and all that. But the two of us will be fine without him."

  "Go." Rhia gave him a gentle push. "Everything here is fine. Rescue our daughter...please."

  Tessa hunkered down in the dwindling light. Huddled up tight against the cold, she switched on both types of vision, hoping to see the energy streaks of those searching for her.

  Nothing was happening.

  How much longer? Surely David would text her as the fliers were leaving. With a sigh, Tessa buried her head against her knees. But she couldn't help glancing up often. The energy trails of the fliers should show up like the typical jet streams of human planes. They were the same color, too. Not that she'd had much experience of seeing them, only the ones she'd spotted over the last few days.

  She studied the darkening sky, and although nothing had changed there, she understood so many other things had actually changed and that the biggest changes were those inside her.

  Her phone pealed.

  David's somewhat garbled text said Cody had found how they'd moved her out of the room and also, the two elders were on their way. Yes. Her dad was coming for her.

  Tessa brightened with relief. Then her shoulders sagged. Being rescued was great, but with the elders coming, that meant she'd have to jump home. Goran had been injured, and her Dad was a jumper. Neither elder would be able to fly her home. If Cody had come, he could have carried her home – as he'd done once before.

  Weird whispers hung heavy on the branches. She knew they were normal night sounds. Vampires loved the dark. Only, her human genetics weren't as comfortable with them. While she was a creature of the night, she lived her life in the daylight.

  She searched the black sky yet again. How long would it take them? She didn't want to consider that they may not even be in the same geographical area. For all she knew, they could be searching miles away. Somehow she had to help them to see her. As it stood right now, they'd only find her if she saw them first and could attract their attention.

  Now if only she could communicate telepathically as the elders did. What about her mother? Could Tessa communicate that way with her? It had never worked before. Not that that would do any good as Rhia wasn't part of the rescue party. Tessa might have tried it with Cody, but she wasn't sure if he was coming, either.

  Damn it.

  *.*.*

  "Where the hell is she?" Goran glared into the blackness around them. They'd covered many miles already.

  Serus took a deep breath. Fatigue had already wreaked havoc on his normal strength. Or maybe worry about his daughter had eaten it away. Whatever the cause, he hated it. He looked at Goren. "I don't know. She shouldn't be that far away. How far have we come?"

  "At least twenty miles, with all the back and forth we've been doing."

  Serus could believe it. He hated to admit it, but he wasn't in the same shape he used to be. Goran wasn’t showing the same weariness, so maybe flying was easier on him. At least that excuse worked for him. Grinning, he shook off the natural competitiveness that had always existed between him and his old friend.

  The break from worry was only temporary. His daughter had to be somewhere. The night was damn cold, and with every jump he reeled from the bite of the wind. Not good. She'd been through so much already, and dealing with this icy weather wouldn't be easy.

  Goran's voice interrupted his train of thought. "Left or right?"

  "I don't know. I'm not picking up any sign of her."

  "Do you want to split up? I'll fly low to the left and cover what I can on this side, then come over your way."

  Knowing his friend could cover twice the distance he could, Serus agreed. He headed for a bluff up ahead, one that might give him a visual advantage. Tessa was supposed to be somewhere easy to see. That's if she could find such a spot. A bluff of some sort would make sense. Goran took off to make a thorough sweep of the area. Serus grabbed air and headed for the rock bluff. They had to find her soon.

  The other option was too terrible to contemplate.

  *.*.*

  David left his mother quietly pacing the room and headed off after Cody, Ian, and Jared at the railway track. Jewel had refused to stay behind. Secretly, he admired her tenaciousness but found himself worrying about having her along.

  "You should stay here and rest."

  "Well, I'm not going to, so forget it." She slipped in front of him and reached the
door before he could get there. "Last one down is the loser."

  David snorted and bounced past her as she opened the door to the back room. She sneaked ahead of him while he was looking around for the second door. With a laugh, she grabbed the handle and dashed through before he could turn around.

  "Catch me if you can." Her laughter pealed down the stairwell.

  He hurried after her. "Jewel, wait up."

  Her laughter continued. Groaning and realizing that as a flier, she was liable to whoop his butt, David picked up the pace until he was almost flying himself. If only he really could. He whipped past the first corner, then the second. He spotted her ahead. He grinned and sped up, catching her at the bottom of the next flight. Wrapping her in a quick hug, he swung her around and dropped a kiss on her nose. While she blinked, he slipped around her and ran down the next flight of stairs.

  "Oh, that's so cheating."

  "Too bad, so sad," he sang back at her. And just like that, he arrived at the last landing.

  Jewel plowed into him from behind. "Oops! Sorry." She stepped back to give him room to open the door.

  Gleaming white tiles filled the tunnel beyond the door. It looked more like a hallway than anything else, except for the metal rails and dirt walls in the distance.

  "From the look of things, Cody is flying forward and exploring as usual."

  "You can't blame him. It's not like you'd have listened either."

  David shot her a comical look, then pulled out his phone and texted Cody. "Now let's hope he answers, because the other option is that he and the others have been taken like Tessa."

  Jewel gasped and clutched his hand.

  David wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. "I don't think anyone else is here, but this tunnel goes somewhere. Who knows how many other vampires might be down here? If it's set up right, vamps could live their entire lives in a place like this. We don't need the surface like humans do."

  "I don't know about that. It would be hard to not have your family and friends around you."

  "Not if they're all down here with you. Besides, you could still go out and do things in the world as part of this project. And your coworkers would become a family down here. At least, over time they would. And vamps have a lot of time."

  "I don't think we have reception here." David stared down at the silent cell phone in his hand. Technology had developed at a rapid rate, and most people, humans and vamps, had come to depend on always having reception, but he wasn't sure how well the device would work deep inside a mountain. But he'd received a text from Cody earlier when he was down here, so maybe it would work. At least, work sometimes.

  Jewel shuddered. "I don't want to go looking for them. People keep disappearing. Why didn't they stay close?"

  "Perhaps it’s because they're normal teens." David offered with a grin. "I know. If something goes wrong, they probably did something stupid. If things turn out great, they're considered daredevils – heroes."

  Jewel snickered. "And every young vamp is dying to prove himself. Cody's no different. If anything, he's a bit worse. Being one of the ancient ones, like you, he probably feels he has to prove he's as good as his father and brother."

  "Then there's Jared. What's he doing with them?" David could only imagine Cody and Jared together.

  She shrugged. "The same thing-trying to prove himself. He was kidnapped, and then rescued by a girl. I can't imagine that would sit as well as if, say...he'd escaped and saved the others. His ego's been hit, and he probably wants to redeem himself."

  David grinned. "Thanks to my femme fatale sis."

  "Don't kid yourself. Her popularity will have taken a huge swing upward after this week."

  "Tessa won't care." David smiled. "She'll say that if people didn't like her when she was just normal Tessa, then she won't like anyone who tries to befriend her now. She doesn't want fame. She only wanted to help her friend."

  "That will be the reason for the rise in her popularity. She did it all for the right reasons, and people will notice. They're going to flock around her." She punched his shoulder. "You're going to have to protect her from all the guys eyeing her from now on." Jewel grinned. "She's filled out a whole lot, too."

  "I didn't even recognize her." David rolled his eyes. "She's changed so much. It's like she grew up overnight."

  "Or grew out, you mean." Jewel laughed. "She's a young woman now, and she needs to be treated as such."

  "How come you're so full of wisdom?" David asked thoughtfully, studying her.

  "Tessa's had a raw deal. This is her chance to shine." Jewel shrugged and added sheepishly, "Besides, I probably treated her the way the other girls did. I know better now, but I still feel bad."

  "I'm sure you didn't. Some of those girls were just plain bitchy." He glanced at dead phone.

  "And I wasn't much better...unfortunately." She grimaced, and shame whispered across her features. "I didn't know her. But like everyone else, I knew of her."

  David studied her face for a long moment. He didn't know what to say. "She told Cody something about having turned to humans after she felt shunned by her own kind." Anger lit up David's face. "I never knew. I figured she was just going through a stage. I didn't realize she was turning away from pain."

  His fists clenched. "There's nothing wrong with her. She's very special. We didn't even know how special, until this scenario. She's come into her own, and I'm very proud of her."

  "So am I. She's been brilliant through all of this. She's the one who figured out how these weird mechanisms work." Jewel shook her head. "Cody and I would've stayed locked in the freaky cement room until our bones turned to dust if she hadn't."

  "I know. I just wish I knew how she'd figured all that out." He glanced at his dead phone. Where the hell was Cody?

  With a shrug, Jewel said, "Something about energy signatures."

  "That's how Tessa found the door," he corrected, "but opening it was something else. Then again, maybe it wasn’t. If the energy had sat in one spot, she'd have seen remnants of it left behind. My mom said my great-grandmother had some weird skills. Tessa's crab hop thing is something she did, too."

  "Yeah, but you should see her now. She glides from treetop to treetop and can stand on things that by rights shouldn't hold up a bird. We laughed at her awkward crab movement, and then all of a sudden she started this totally cool gliding motion, while we exhausted ourselves. Her movements were half your Dad's advanced techniques, and half all her own."

  David laughed. "I wish I'd seen it. We should make a video. She'd loved to know she's to the point of doing something others would envy."

  "Her self confidence is pretty low." Jewel hugged him warmly. "I remember my own pain a few years ago. Puberty is brutal on us all, I guess. Teenagers can be horribly cruel."

  David's cell phone rang suddenly, making him jump. He checked it and found Cody's response. Finally.

  "Well, thank heavens for that," he said to Jewel. "They're on their way back. Said they walked up the tunnel hoping to see where it went but never came to another doorway."

  "So where are they? I don't like it down here." She glanced around nervously and gestured to the tunnel running endlessly in both directions. "And what's with the partial tiles on the walls and the dirt roof? I wonder if this area is a work in progress."

  "I'd say it probably is." David studied the weird lights hanging from the open infrastructure which contrasted crudely with the pure white tiles. "They're either doing repairs, or just completing this section. It might lead to another section of the mine, or maybe to an exit of some kind."

  "What do they do with the blood? They must produce truckloads a day. Where are the trucks? How do they access this place?" Jewel looked at him.

  With a grimace, David said, "I've been wondering that, too. They must pipe the blood to a central collection point we haven't found yet."

  "And..." She let the word trail off and gulped, her face twisting in
disgust. "What do they do with the bodies? You know-the ones that die?" Her face paled, making her eyes look huge. "And how quickly do they know if a person is dead? What if that person's blood is still pumped after they die? If it's all going into one collection spot, just a bit of bad blood could contaminate the whole lot, and no one would know."

  "I hear you." David's stomach roiled. "I think that's what the fancy monitoring system is all about."

  "Technology isn't full proof." She looked at little green.

  A shout startled them both. Turning, David's breath whooshed free as he saw the three missing teens walking toward them. Jared walked on the left of the tracks, and the other two strode down on the right.

  Jewel turned to David. "Do you think that's how Tessa felt? Always left out?"

  "Yes, that's exactly what I think. According to what she told Cody, she never felt like she belonged or was welcome at any vampire event."

  Cody strode forward, confident and sure of himself, while Ian loped along at his side, a sidekick happy to know his place. Then there was Jared, weary but valiant. David had to admire his guts. He'd been through a lot at the hands of his people, and David understood his lack of trust. Still, he'd stuck with them and had even gone searching with Cody. David grinned as he caught Cody's eye and nodded in Jared's direction.

  The sour look on Cody's face said it all.

  "I'm determined to like Jared," Jewel said, "if for no other reason than because he's Tessa's friend."

  "That's a good point." David slid her a sideways glance, before focusing on Jared. "He befriended her when no one else would."

  "Didn't she have any girlfriends?" The horror on Jewel's face made him realize the impact of isolation in a girl's world. He'd been so busy in his own world, it had never occurred to him that his kid sister might have been ostracized during what was almost a rite of passage. He remembered all the giggling girls he'd known in school and their plans for sleepovers and makeup nights. Just the thought of Tessa being excluded from either of those events made his blood simmer. That Jewel might have been one of those who'd treated his sister like that made him pause.