"Yeah, but they weren't drugs," he protested. "If they were, I didn't know." He spun around and stared behind him, a stricken look on his face. "We have to stop them," he cried, and he bolted back the way he'd come.

Cody hadn't even had a chance to register that the old vamp had moved; then he was struck by how fast the b.u.g.g.e.r was scuttling away.

With Tessa was racing behind him.

s.h.i.t. Cody took off after the other two.

"Tessa, I wouldn't trust him. He could be leading us into a trap."

"Yep, he could be," she called back. "But I don't see that we have much choice."

d.a.m.n. Neither did he.

Jared stood in Taz's home office nervously shifting from side to side. He was desperate to do something to help Chelsea. There'd been no further communication from her or her kidnappers. Just the thought of those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds made his blood run cold. He didn't want to think of Chelsea in their hands. That they would consider coming after him that they knew him, where to find him yeah, he might never sleep again. He looked around the brightly lit room, dark curtains still protectively covering the windows even though it was dark outside and wondered if they'd find him here. They could a.s.sociate him with his uncle and aunt's places, but would they find a connection to Taz?

He glanced sideways at Taz tapping away on his keyboard. Would Taz let him stay here? Surely they'd never think he'd hide out in a vampire hideaway.

Then again, this was only a half of one, with Taz being as human as Jared. Interesting times. He shifted restlessly.

"Pull up a chair, Jared." Taz motioned to the far side of the room without taking his eyes off the monitor. "I'm going to be a while."

Taking that suggestion to heart, Jared grabbed what looked like a Victorian-style kitchen chair and turned it around and sat down backwards facing Taz and the computer system. A very elaborate system. He wondered at that.

"That's a lot of computer equipment," he said casually.

"It is, and some came from the blood farm. I'm trying to decipher all the codes used for the victims we found hanging."

"What codes?" He leaned forward. If this was related to his father, he wanted to know everything he could. Maybe he could help somehow.

"Drugs they were given and why. If they ever awoke. The drug doses. Health issues found."

"Oh." He tried to make his voice sound normal, but the thought of someone treating his father as a number to be a.n.a.lyzed hurt more than he thought.

His pain must have trickled through into his voice. Taz turned abruptly to look at him, his gaze foggy, lost in his thoughts. His expression cleared suddenly and he closed his eyes. "Lord, I am so sorry, Jared. I forgot about your father."

"It's okay." Jared shrugged, wishing saying that would make it so. "At least it's getting easier."

"Good, but this has to be hard."

"It is, but it also helps keep me focused on catching these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Chelsea did nothing to them. They shouldn't have taken her."

"And Tessa would have said the same thing about you."

Jared sat back. "That's a perspective I hadn't thought about. Tessa really started something when she came after me." He hated that so far he hadn't been able to do anything to help Chelsea. At least it seemed like nothing. Look at the war Tessa had brought on in her fight to save him. He felt like a n.o.body. A failure. He hadn't managed to stir anyone to action. It was driving him crazy. He dropped his head on his arms over the back of the chair. "I'm really lucky that Tessa took up the fight to save me."

Taz looked over at him, a crooked smile on his face. "If you had any idea how and what that girl went through well..." Taz shook his head and returned to his monitor.

"Maybe that's why I'm so stricken now," Jared admitted. "Someone saved me. I think it's time for me to save someone else. I couldn't save my father I have to save Chelsea."

"And we will. We will."

Bart raced to the mechanical room and those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who were trying to drug everyone in the hospital. He d.a.m.n near worked for nothing now to keep Lacy safe. They weren't going to go back on their word and take her out with gas. Like h.e.l.l. If need be, he'd carry her out himself.

He cast a glance behind him. They were still following. Gaining even. Not good. He hitched his pants up and tucked in his energy and sped forward. He might not be a warmonger like most of his clan, but he'd certainly picked up a trick or two in his time.

And he knew how to disappear. Escaping was his thing. From trouble. From battle happy vamps. From teenage girls who had a death wish.

h.e.l.l, they wouldn't catch him easily.

Hopefully they wouldn't catch him at all. He needed to talk to the guys he'd help install the canister for. Find out what was in it. Find out what the plan was for the contents. They made him a promise a long time ago.

And he planned on making sure they kept it.

The nurse clucked around Jewel like she'd been missing for hours. This was the nurse's third trip to check on Jewel in just over an hour. All she'd done was have a hot shower. Who knew she wasn't supposed to do such a thing so fast? She felt good physically. Maybe even mentally, but emotionally yeah, not so well. David hadn't shown up. She had no cell phone to text him with and the nurse had no idea where or who he was.

She also hadn't explained where Jewel was either.

And her wings no longer appeared to be working. How depressing. At least they had worked once so she knew it could happen again. Healing was in progress.

And that made her more determined than ever to not let the nurse know how quickly she was recovering. At least until she knew if she could trust her.

"Now no more showers. Rest. Your body has been through a lot of trauma. It needs time to heal."

"What trauma?" she asked curiously.

"Drugs, of course." The nurse smiled. "What else could it be?" Her clear gaze suddenly intensified, as if thinking Jewel had hidden some kind of injury from her.

Not likely and certainly not after being found in the shower. A little hard to hide much that way.

"Now I'll just be outside. You eat and rest."

And the woman walked out.

Jewel looked at the blood slushies the nurse had left for her. She was so very hungry. Was it safe? Or were there more drugs hidden in her drink?

The door closed behind the nurse, leaving Jewel alone with her thoughts and her dinner.

Chapter 9.

Tessa watched Bart disappear around yet another corner. For a chubby guy, he could sure move. If he was upset about the concept of drugging the whole hospital, did that mean he was on their side? At least maybe he wasn't on the bad guys' side. He had to have some conscience in there.

She opened her vision to study the figure in front of her. His energy was fast, energized, and definitely not black.

In fact, she couldn't see anything like that on him. So he'd not been taking or been given any of the blood farm drugs as far as she could see. Feeling better, she quickly shared her findings with Cody.

"Do you trust him?" Cody asked.

"To try and disappear as soon as he can? To find a way to stay out of trouble? To avoid getting into trouble? Yes to all three." She picked up the speed as he raced ahead. How is he going so fast? That's not like anything she'd seen before...except Hortran. Nah, Bart is as far from being a Ghost as I am.

Why? It's not like we've seen more than one Ghost to be able to make a.s.sumptions about them all.

I think he'd have said something or been something special if he were a Ghost.

He is special. Just not the way you might think. The sn.i.g.g.e.r in Cody's voice made her laugh.

It felt good to be back on track with him. In spite of Bart's presence, or maybe because of it, she felt better. More normal.

Anything that helped her feel more grounded in this energy vortex she was living in was a good thing.

Bart slowed to a halt then took one half step forward, his head tilted to the side as if listening for something.

She tuned in her hearing, feeling more energy pulses there than she'd ever felt before. She toned it down and then tweaked the colors playing around beside her. Instantly, her hearing sharpened and the voices sounded clear as a bell in her ears.

Only she didn't understand a word they were saying.

She turned to Cody, who'd snuck up beside her. "I can hear them, but I don't understand the language."

He looked at her oddly. "Doesn't Deanna know it?"

Tessa shook her head. She'd have to wonder that later. "No. I'm not getting any indication that she did."

Cody nodded then nudged her shoulder. "Looks like Bart might."

Bart spun back to look at her; he mouthed something but she didn't understand. She sidled closer, not wanting to alert the others to their presence. When she was beside him, she asked him to repeat what he'd said.

"They are looking for me. They can't get the second canister connected."

"They have two?" s.h.i.t.

"Go join them as if someone sent you to help them out," she whispered. "And we'll come around and take them from behind."

He glared at her. "No way. I brought you here. That's all I'm going to do." He gave a silent snort. "You're the one with the death wish, not me."

"But if you stay here in the hospital, that death wish is going to be yours, remember? That gas will fill the whole building and no one will be safe."

"Precisely why I'm not sticking around."

"Going to run away again, Bart?" Cody asked. "How is it you can run so fast?" He watched Bart's face turn belligerent, his puffy jowls filling up in a huff.

"Good question," Tessa interjected smoothly. "I've only ever seen a Ghost move like that."

At the word ghost, Bart spun around to look behind her. "Ghost? Did you say you saw a Ghost?"

Only there was no fear in his voice. More surprise. Puzzlement maybe, as if he didn't think there was such a thing. At least not any longer.

"Yes, a Ghost." Cody went to brush past Bart and look around the corner when Tessa added, "Hortran."

Bart grabbed Cody's arm. "As in Deanna and Hortran?" Now his voice vibrated with some unnamed emotion, but it sounded suspiciously like fear...mixed with a big dose of rage.

Tessa nodded. "Did you know Deanna?"

"Everyone knows Deanna," Bart said harshly. "She's a mean old b.i.t.c.h and can't be trusted."

Tessa winced. "She was a mean old b.i.t.c.h. She's dead now."

He gazed at her in shock. Then his head shook like a wet dog. "No. You are mistaken. She can't be dead."

"Why?" Awareness kicked in. What did Bart know that Tessa didn't? She narrowed her gaze, waiting for him to answer.

"If she'd dead, there's been a major shift in power. She'd not have died easily either."

"She died here," Cody said, his voice harsh. "At the hospital."

Bart continued to shake his head in that lumbering bear way of his. "It can't be. It can't be."

He looked so stricken that Tessa wanted to reach out and pat him on the shoulder, offer comfort even though it wasn't going to be wanted.

"Why not? Was she special to you?"

Instead of answering, Bart turned back to where the men stood talking, his shoulders slumped as if he didn't quite understand how his world had changed.

She could sympathize, but she still wanted to know how he knew Deanna and what their connection had been. He wasn't anywhere near as old as Deanna had been and there hadn't been any type of similarity in their features, so she wasn't sure just what kind of question to ask, but she knew she needed to know what was going on. It might be personal, but the time for privacy issues to rear their ugly head was long past.

As she listened to the men's voices getting louder and louder, she grabbed Bart's shoulder, forcing him to pay attention to her. "Bart. Tell me. What was Deanna to you?"

He shrugged off her hand. "Not going to tell you."

She frowned. She could make him, maybe. But was it worth the effort? Maybe not considering that the bad guys were almost upon them.

Tessa? What are you doing?

Yeah, I know, but I really want to know why he's so stricken at Deanna's death.

It's his business.