I need to save my son.

And what about your other son? Your daughter? Your best friend and husband? Do you betray those three to save one?

No. I'm not betraying them. I need just enough of the drug to remember.

How much is enough? Face it, you're addicted. You need another shot. It's already working. Look at you. On the run from everyone who cares about you.

No. I'm not on the run. I'm going to go to the last address I saw that I could remember having made any sense. But not yet.

No. You're going to the source. You want more. Need more...

"No," she cried out to the insistent voice in her head. "I don't. I just want to know what I did with my son."

And how are you going to figure that out?

"By going back to the scene of the crime where I sent him away. I can access those computers. They will have the information."

So then where is that?

"The hospital. I'm going back to the hospital."

You know they are trying to kill your family, but you're going to go to their stronghold why? Who are you deluding? The only thing you're going to do is give them the power to control you and hold that over your husband's head to get him to do what they want him to do.

"No, he'd never do that."

He would in a heartbeat, scoffed her conscience. You know he'd do anything for you. Including sacrificing himself.

"That's why I have to save his son. I have to do this even if I sacrifice myself."

So be it then. But if you fail, Serus will be the one that takes the brunt of your behavior.

"He's strong. He will survive."

The reason he's so strong is he's had you at his side. What do you think he'll do when he finds out the others have you in their clutches again?

She shuddered at the thought. Serus would go crazy, and he'd destroy them all if anything happened to her. "I'll have to be smarter than them. I have to win. The stakes are too high to fail."

But are you strong enough to withstand the drugs coursing through your veins?

"I have to be. There's no other option."

Jewel stood tall and proud at least on the inside. Outside she looked ridiculous, wrapped up in her own wings, but oh, the joy of having her wings follow her command once again was priceless.

"What are you doing?" a nurse stood at the bathroom doorway, shock and concern on her face. "Come back to bed. You shouldn't be up, and you definitely shouldn't be walking around. I sure hope you didn't have a shower as well," she clucked as she walked toward Jewel and before she knew what had happened, Jewel had been coerced gently but implacably toward the bed.

As she collapsed back down, Jewel realized how much the shower had zapped her strength. That and the shock of having someone walk in on her.

She still didn't understand where she was or if this woman was there to help her or hurt her, but Jewel had to accept the ministrations.

She was as weak as an infant.

There was no way she could escape.

At least not yet.

d.a.m.n it, Tessa. Why hadn't you shown the rest of us how to tell our vampire genes to kick in and power up when we need it?

Instantly, she felt a weird stirring inside. She straightened, her gaze widening in shock, then closed her eyes and lay down again. The last thing she wanted to do was let this woman or anyone know that she was going to heal a lot faster now.

But she knew, and that's all that mattered.

Jared ran to the hospital, cursing that he couldn't find the keys to his aunt's car. It still sat in the driveway, but he'd been unsuccessful in finding the keys. And he'd wasted precious time to go back and look after getting the last horrific messages. d.a.m.n. He turned the corner and peeled down the street, hating the panic coursing through his blood. He was a good sprinter, but now it was as if his feet had wings. He couldn't stop the thoughts of what the doctors might be doing to Chelsea right now. Hopefully they'd not taken her to the final destination. He remembered the time it took for the blood to be taken, sorted, and tested. He'd had at least one day in there where he was safe from their drugs. He couldn't remember any clearer than that.

It was dark out now, and he watched the skies as carefully as he watched the traffic. He didn't dare get caught by any vampires out hunting. So few people understood what he was going through. So few people he could trust. And he knew more vampires than humans in both categories at this point.

How sad was that?

He turned another corner, feeling the power and need driving him forward. It helped to have the blood pulse through his veins, reminding him why he was doing this. Why the vamps were doing this. They were higher up the food chain. They could do this, so they did. It was people like Tessa and her family who would be able to stop this ma.s.sacre with his help.

Hopefully before they got their d.a.m.n needles into Chelsea. He didn't know her well, but he sure liked what he did know and he couldn't let any more humans be sacrificed to that d.a.m.n farm.

He should have asked her if she had family friends. Maybe a better question was if she had any enemies. Although chances were good that given the timing, her questions about Tobias had triggered some alarm and the a.s.sholes decided she'd become a troublemaker and needed to be taken out of the picture.

As he'd been labeled the same.

He didn't care if they did come after him. Let them. He was more than willing to have a chance at payback. Especially since he realized Tessa and her family would come after him again.

If she knew about this.

Which was a very good point.

Pursing his lips, he thought about who to tell and why. With his breath harsh and raspy, he realized he needed to tell Tessa just to be sure. He hadn't heard from her in a long while, and that bothered him. But he also had no idea if she was even awake.

If he found Chelsea safe and sound, then no problem, but if something happened to him in the process...well, he'd like someone to know. Someone who'd do something about the travesty. That meant Tessa.

He could only hope she'd ditched the arrogant Cody, but he doubted such a thing would be easy.

Cody looked like he went where he wanted regardless of anyone else's wishes. Right now Jared figured Cody would be busy thrashing Jared for getting into trouble again. And blaming him for Chelsea's disappearance. Which maybe he was responsible for. He hated the thought, but it couldn't be avoided. If he hadn't told Chelsea what he'd seen that night, then she wouldn't have ended up at the hospital looking for Tobias.

And wouldn't have found Taz.

So how had someone found out about what they were doing? Had they been overheard at the hospital? Were the phone lines bugged? Or had someone seen her asking unwanted questions? Or had she asked the wrong person at school? He wouldn't put it past her to have told d.a.m.n near every student and teacher there about Tobias. That widened the suspect pool to almost everyone as those she'd spoken to initially were likely to have spoken to one or two friends. Especially by now. Gossip travelled fast.

That's how misinformation and gossip turned the corner from being harmless to being a big problem.

He didn't need more problems, but he needed to find Tobias. He'd seen the condition he'd been in as he was hauled out of the group home. Not a pretty sight.

He reached the hospital and came to an abrupt halt. It wouldn't do to go in there in a panic. It was the emergency room. Likely they'd have him flat on a stretcher and undergoing an examination before he could tell them what he was doing there.

With his breath under control, he wiped his sweaty hands on his jeans and entered.

Ignoring the front desk, he headed to Taz's office. When he reached the last corner and went to duck around it, someone called out, "Can I help you?"

He turned and gave the green uniformed woman a headshake. "No, I'm fine, thanks. I'm just looking for Taz."

"He's not here," she said, glaring at him. "He's gone home for the night."

As if seeing a protest about to burst forth, she said in a waspish tone, "What did you expect? That he lived here? No, he's gone home for some well-deserved rest."

Meekly, he walked away, but inside he was trying to figure out how to get a hold of Taz. Then he realized he could text him. Stupid.

He sent a short message to both Taz and Sian and waited for a response. In the meantime, he sent Chelsea's message to Tessa in the hope that she might have some idea of how to hunt his friend down. He then added several more by way of explanation.

When he was done, there was still no response from Taz. He couldn't go home when he'd done nothing yet for Chelsea, so he sat on the closest bench and waited for the good doctor to get back to him.

It wasn't long and the message made him smile. It was the doctor's address and a terse message. Come.

He grinned, feeling reconnected. He responded with, Okay, Taz, I'm on the way.

"Let's hope you have some magic left in your world to pull out yet another trick to help Chelsea. h.e.l.l," he said aloud, "How about a way to stop this whole d.a.m.n issue?"

With a look at the map, he turned in the direction of the doctor's house and started to run again.

Chapter 7.

Tessa walked forward slowly into the empty room. Had the two vamps they'd left behind been taken out? Or had they gone to take other vamps out? Her gaze spun from side to side looking for anything out of the ordinary. If the a.s.sholes had actually managed to do a ma.s.s drugging, she could be in deep trouble. She had to avoid that at all costs. But how did one do that when she was in the same building? She sniffed the air experimentally, ready to bolt back to the elevator.

The air smelled normal. She frowned. Would she know the difference? Maybe not by odor, but she would by color. She shifted her gaze slightly to look at the air, searching for the black effect of the drugs, and found nothing unusual.

She opened the door to the hallway and snuck out. The long white hospital corridor stretched endlessly in front of her.

The look made her skin crawl. She'd seen a similar sight way too often in her life and would like to never see it again. That this was the hospital and not the blood farm made her pause because they were just too much alike. Especially considering the number of bad guys she'd met at both places. The connection made her cringe.

Still, she had a lot of people in here that needed her help. She'd do that between the two locations regardless of the look to the place. Besides, it might keep her focused. Help her remember why she was here and what could happen again if she screwed up. Something she had no intention of doing.

Hopefully with Deanna's help, they could put a stop to this once and for all.

Except Deanna hadn't done anything about this blood farm before, and she wasn't exactly going to be of much help now. But she knew things. And some of those things Tessa needed to know. As she walked silently toward the room she'd left with Cody, she opened the pathway to Deanna's memories she'd filed away. Need information on the hospital. Who built it, why and when?

Ninety-two years ago by the Council currently in place, to hold vamps in the event humans caused a major catastrophe.

She came to a stuttering stop. Really? Were they so bad to have you worried about such a possibility?

Chemical warfare, bombs, nuclear energy, war and more war that continued to escalate. There wasn't so much an answer to her questions as the information streamed through her mind in a series of text. No emotion or judgment pa.s.sing with it. Odd and yet fantastic at the same time. Nice to get some background on the place.

And speaking of background, how long have the blood farms been running?

In one form or another, for centuries. They come up as an animal husbandry option. The early ones went under due to ma.s.s die-offs. Infection and disease were big issues, but each new farm is technologically more advanced than the last one with the latest human weaknesses addressed.

Were you ever a part of them?

The answer was confusing. Not really.

Tessa stopped at one of the doorways and realized the first three rooms were completely empty. Interesting. So where the h.e.l.l was everyone?

She kept walking.

What about your partner?

Yes, Mikko was a great believer in keeping the blood supply flowing. I wasn't of the same opinion.

Hmmm. Tessa wasn't sure how much she believed the answers. In terms of Deanna's memories, this information was coming across more like a tape recording, not necessarily the encyclopedic information Tessa had seen earlier. How did that work?

Shoving the problem to the back of her mind and the niggling suspicion that she couldn't trust everything that was coming up as truth, Tessa asked about the other blood farms. Do you know where they are located?

No.

d.a.m.n. Why couldn't Deanna know something useful? And didn't that contradict what she'd said to Tessa when they'd first met her? She'd intimated that she knew where the blood farms were back then. She tried again. Do you know anything useful in this situation?

Silence.

Feeling slightly off, Tessa gave up on the questioning and continued to walk down the hallway, then realized she should let Cody know that something was going on. He could keep the ancients apprised of what was happening.

Cody, the entire floor is deserted. The good news is that there are no piles of ash floating around. As good news went, that came in at the top.

A startled sound came though her mind. Are you sure?

Yes.

Maybe they are already moving down and out of the hospital.

That fast? I doubt it.

There could be more exits.

Maybe, she said doubtfully. There were a lot of men here. And the two guards our fathers left behind aren't here either.