The energy enma.s.se twisted in agitation. She sighed. "d.a.m.n. That's not what I wanted." And she realized something else. If the energy was here, it was here because she'd allowed it. They also likely couldn't leave on their own. She'd have to send them packing herself. But she didn't want to send them all away. That made no sense.

"Sorry, forget I said that."

Instantly, all the energy calmed down.

"Deanna, come here."

A red a deep, dark blood red slowly, sinuously swayed in front of her. How appropriate. "Deanna, I need you to stay in your place. I need you to stop interfering or trying to take over. Even if you aren't trying to do that, it seems like you are. Like your energy, your opinions, your thoughts...they are not my thoughts."

The same red energy twisted in front of her. It was silent, but there was a mocking appearance to the movements now. How that could be she didn't know, but there it was.

And d.a.m.n if that didn't p.i.s.s Tessa off more. "This isn't a game. You are not in control here. By my generosity, by my hand, you are allowed to stay. Behave yourself or I'll trash you."

The energy quivered before its form started to bend with angry movements.

"That's right. This is my body, my psyche." Tessa stopped. Then, in a hard voice, she continued, "You had yours forever. This is mine. Now stop, or I'll stop you."

And Deanna, laughing like a crazy loon, launched herself at Tessa.

Cody watched Tessa's body lying peacefully at his side. The hard floor had to be uncomfortable, but she didn't appear to notice. He had no idea what was going on, but it was as if he was a part of it, too. He sensed when she was disturbed. Knew when she was in trouble. He'd stretched a hand out and covered hers with it. It had seemed to help. How he didn't know, but maybe it was enough for her to know he was here. Her hands clenched as he watched. That could not be good. A puzzled Tessa was one thing; a thinking Tessa was a beautiful thing as she got that wild and wonderful mind of hers focused in a specific direction. An angry Tessa not something anyone wanted to see.

He waited. There'd been no more texts from anyone else. He hoped they'd solve the problem of drugs being fed through the duct system or find the camera and security room to determine what had happened to the others. He glanced at his phone. He re-read the text that he'd gotten earlier from Ian, but it really made no sense. It was long and c.u.mbersome with reference to Rhia and more drugs, to Jewel at the hospital, and to two men attacking them. They'd gotten the first shot in though so all was well. Even Ian and Wendy were in the middle of things. Why would anyone at the Council do that to them? A case of mistaken ident.i.ty? Or something more sinister?

Apparently Sian hadn't shown up yet either. But they weren't worried. Cody might be though. There were any number of reasons for her to be missing, and none of them were good.

Tessa stiffened at his side, her foot jolting out and kicking him. He reached down a steadying hand. Her skin was cold, clammy even. He hated to see that. Tessa had one of the prettiest complexions he'd ever seen.

But right now there was a gray pallor to her skin, and she looked...old. As in seriously old. He shifted to peer closer at her face, and sure enough it appeared to have taken on a hint of Deanna's features.

The face twisted in anger, then horror, and was yanked away.

Jesus. She really was in the midst of a fight.

"Come on, Tessa. You can do it. Don't let Deanna do this to you. You're way more powerful than you know." Cody reached over and clamped her hand between his. "d.a.m.n it, Tessa." He watched her face, his heart pounding, his hand clutching hers tight. "Fight her off. Beat her at her own game."

Tessa's features scrunched up in a ball, then they relaxed. He watched carefully. Was that Tessa in there or Deanna? Another set of features slipped across her face. Jesus. What the h.e.l.l was going on in there? He sat back on his haunches, his own belief system once again in shock.

"d.a.m.n it, Tessa, stop this. Kick those a.s.sholes out of there and come back to me."

Her face twisted again as if in pain.

"Stop it," he shouted. "Don't make me come in there and stop this for you."

An idle threat. He hoped. He had no way of going inside her mind and doing anything.

Except talking to her.

He frowned, noting the slack skin tone and loose jaw. Whatever the h.e.l.l was happening wasn't easy on her.

That d.a.m.ned Deanna. She should never have picked Tessa. He thought about Bart and his daughter having gone through what Tessa had and not surviving. That had been brutal for a father to witness. If his daughter hadn't been prepared, hadn't been strong enough to handle that downloaded information, then of course she'd have died. He had been afraid of Tessa doing just that.

He didn't understand how Deanna's force of will could still be in effect. The d.a.m.n woman was dead wasn't she? It was Hortran who'd been the ghost. If he'd been the one to download all that knowledge and then hung around, maybe it would make sense.

He thought about the bond between those two people. Was it possible that Hortran was helping Deanna survive past her "best by" date? If so, that would mean that Hortran really was a Ghost.

Wait, what the h.e.l.l was he saying? That was crazy talk. Hortran was only part of the Ghost species. He wasn't actually dead and still here in ghostly form.

Right? Cody couldn't help look around the room to make sure he was alone. When the back of his neck broke out in goose b.u.mps, he d.a.m.n near bolted to his feet and spun around to face a new enemy. Of course the hallway was empty. It had been before, too.

What the h.e.l.l was going on? He glanced down at Tessa again. She looked... He crouched down and studied her beautiful features she looked normal now.

"What did I just see?" Serus dropped to his knees at Tessa's side. He'd been watching her face as he arrived, seeing something...not right. "Surely that wasn't another face on Tessa's features, was it? Please tell me my eyes were playing tricks."

He knew it was a stupid question, but as he looked up at Cody and watched that super slow shake saying he hadn't imagined it, he had to wonder what kind of nightmare was going on inside her body.

That d.a.m.n b.i.t.c.h.

"Deanna, you get the h.e.l.l out of my daughter," he snapped down at Tessa. "Just walk away and leave her alone."

"Sir, do you think that's a possibility at this point?" Cody asked.

"I wish, but if she can find a way to survive death and live on inside Tessa's memory banks, then that greedy b.i.t.c.h would do it in a heartbeat. She really doesn't care about anyone other than herself." Serus studied Tessa. "G.o.d, I hope she pulls through this."

"She will." Cody's voice was hard, but sure.

Serus looked at him, appreciating the confidence Cody had for Tessa. He'd proven to be a wonderful protector. "Thanks for looking after her so well."

Cody lifted his gaze. "I had no choice. She snuck into my heart and left me no option."

"I know how that feels."

"Is there a cure?" Cody asked curiously. "Not that I'm looking for one...but I'm wondering if this is a life sentence."

"Yes," Serus grinned, seeing the lovelorn look in the young man's eyes, "If you are lucky..."

Sian drove the last block to the Council Hall. She was still tired. Maybe she shouldn't have tried to make it home to spend a little time with Taz. It seemed all they did was talk on the phone these days since that d.a.m.n blood farm mess came to light. To find out Jared was at her home had personalized the issue for her. Both of the men sitting together in the office made her realize both were survivors of the same system. Both had been hung in blood farms and both had endured long enough to be rescued.

She wished there'd been more opportunity to get to know Jared. The more she got to know the humans, the more she realized the similarities between the species. That didn't mean she wanted to have more to do with the Human Council though. Lord, they were stubborn. They still sent regular requests for Tessa to come and help them. Some of those requests were demands couched in softer words and others were downright pleas. They were trying to clean up their house but didn't appear to have many tools to do so. They also weren't a harsh enough people to make good on their threats of punishment should people not want to talk. Vampires had no problem applying torture tactics to get what they wanted.

Humans were wusses in that department. But they took action whereas vamps sat around and discussed options for decades. But she still didn't want Tessa making the decision of who got to live and who got to die. She was a kid to the vampire clans. She wouldn't want her to lose her innocence until she was over fifty years old preferably a century.

That Tessa was the only one to see the poison in each person human or vamp was disturbing, but it was also difficult in that no one else could help her out. Cody and Goran were happy to sort the people into each group, but only after Tessa gave the command as to which group.

The traffic light stopped her one block away from her destination. d.a.m.n. She'd gotten some very garbled texts from Wendy and Ian earlier. She'd set them aside to deal with Taz and Jared but now needed to figure out what the h.e.l.l was going on at the Council. There shouldn't be problems there.

Sian pulled up to the next stop and yawned. She wondered if she'd ever feel rested. The baby was adding to her fatigue as well. She dropped a hand to lovingly caress her rounded belly. She was so happy. Of course this bulls.h.i.t going on around her was a different story altogether. She just wanted it all over with and her family safe at home. If she could, she planned on taking Taz away alone for a bit. Just the two of them. There were a few vampire hideaways she'd like to show him. That he was going to die well before her was concerning, but she had hopes she might find a solution to that down the road. She knew he'd never agree to become a turned vampire and it was against her rules to do such a thing, but there was something she knew about him now that made her wonder about his biology. He wasn't aging at the same rate as the other humans. When she'd brought it up, he'd just laughed and said she was imagining things and besides, men who were happy were known to age slower.

She'd left it, but the thought of spending centuries alone...

The light changed in front of her. She waited for the car in front of her to move, only it appeared to be stalled. She groaned and looked out the windows to see if she could drive around him. Another vehicle was in the second lane and she had no shoulder.

d.a.m.n. She settled back to wait when a third vehicle, exactly the same color and model as the second one, came up behind her too close behind her.

She grabbed her cell phone and sent a warning to Taz and gave him her location, and then she repeated the message out to her friends. She had no idea what was going on, but there was no room for error here. Not when she was carrying her precious baby.

And this baby was half vamp and half human. Something that many on both sides of that genetic marker might not like.

The driver's door on the car in front of her opened and a huge vamp got out. She smiled, a feral sound coming from deep inside the back of her throat.

Let them come. They hadn't met a wild Amazon vampire until they turned on a pregnant one. There were few pregnant vampires ever, and most hid away until the term was up. Not Sian. She'd done the same as Rhia. She'd walked around proudly. Screw her critics.

Now these a.s.sholes would see what happened when they threatened a baby vamp while the momma was still around to avenge the insult.

A second man got out of the truck in front on the other side. Then two men stepped out from the vehicle behind her. Her grin turned lethal.

"You'd better have sent more men than that or I'm going to be very insulted." She glanced to the other vehicle parked beside her. Sure enough, there were two more men getting out of each vehicle.

Her cell phone beeped. She glanced down to see a text from Taz. We could use them alive to find out about Chelsea and Tobias.

d.a.m.n.

She frowned. Then a second one came in from him. They are after your DNA and that of the baby. Watch out for the drugs. I'm on the way.

Drugs. Her blood froze then shattered into icicles. That would hurt her child. And she'd kill both of them before she'd let them have her baby or her baby's DNA. She wasn't sure how yet, but she knew this was likely the end of the line for her. She closed her eyes. d.a.m.n. She thought she'd have more time.

She quickly texted Taz. Just in case I love you.

Jared waited impatiently for Taz to get off the d.a.m.n phone and point them in a direction to move.

He stared out the window. Then heard s.h.i.t.

He spun around, for the first time seeing the doctor's face go sheer white and panic setting in. Instead of bolting out the door, he called someone else and immediately yelled into the phone, "Sian is a block away from the Council Hall. She's been surrounded. Get help now."

He'd hung up, but he was already halfway to the car. Jared raced to catch up, his own stomach churning. Jesus, was there no end to what these guys would do to one of their own? Sian was pregnant, for G.o.d's sake. And then he considered how they'd view her baby in their eyes. As an abomination or a curiosity.

Taz jumped into the car. Jared threw himself into the pa.s.senger seat and was almost thrown out again as the powerful sports car took off. With his door flying open, Jared clicked the buckle in place. The door slammed shut as Taz ripped around the next corner.

His knuckles turned white as he clutched the seatbelt to his chest. He thought Taz had driven like a crazy man on the way to the hospital. Now he realized that had been Taz impersonating a senior on a Sunday sightseeing tour.

He swallowed as they screamed past a line of cars on the sidewalk.

"Holy s.h.i.t," he whispered, then he started a quiet prayer in his head.

Before he'd finished it, Taz had run two red lights, jumped the sidewalk again to pa.s.s someone going too slow, and came to an earsplitting stop in the middle of the road.

He was also out of the vehicle, his tracks a blank whirr of moving energy. Shaking and so d.a.m.n glad to be alive, Jared forced his fingers to unlock their grip on the one safety line he'd been able to grab his seatbelt. Still shaky, he made it out of the car, realizing more and more vehicles were screaming around them. Great, he was surrounded by vamps again. s.h.i.t. The only place he felt safe was with Taz. He didn't know any of these vampires. And worse, it was nighttime. Nothing quite like it to make one feel more vulnerable.

He managed to make his way to the center of the vehicles and stopped.

Sian, the most ferocious look on her face, completely covered in blood, stood, spinning in a slow circle as if looking for more enemies. Jesus. Vamps were down and disabled around her, some dead and some still moving sluggishly.

Taz's voice cut through the night, a caring, soothing sound that Jared had never heard. "Sian, it's me, Taz. Take it easy, sweetheart. You're safe. The baby is safe. Easy."

A howl slid out of the back of Sian's throat. Jared caught the blind look in her eyes. She didn't know where she was or who was here. She'd gone into some animalistic mode and wasn't hearing or seeing anything but danger.

Taz kept up the same soothing tone as he talked to her calmly and lovingly. As he walked toward his wife, Jared had to wonder how he could trust her in this s.p.a.ce. From the heap of vamps dead ones, maybe he knew she'd been on a killing spree.

He'd known she was capable, but to see this kind of evidence in b.l.o.o.d.y clarity...yeah, that was a visual he'd be a long time forgetting.

"Sian," Taz said, his tone sharper now, "It's over. Come down from battle mode. Please."

As if she'd been dipped in ice water and pulled back out, the shift in her demeanor was as startling as the shift in her circ.u.mstances. She dropped her head and closed her eyes. The crowd around him all sighed and the tension in the air cut back. It was over.

She was going to be okay.

"Taz," Sian's trembling voice said. "They wanted our baby to do experiments on."

An angry murmur whistled through the place, and tension immediately spiked as everyone understood what this had been about.

"Maybe," Taz said, his voice hard, edgy. "And they might have just said that to torment you."

She shuddered, a long, bone-wracking movement that left her slumped in place. Taz immediately walked through the blood and took her into his arms. He held her close.

Cheers erupted around them.

The noise directed Wendy to the scene. Ian's hand in hers, they'd raced out as soon as they realized something major had happened. With all the yelling back and forth, they'd gotten the gist of the situation. Now as cheers rang loudly around them, they realized that something good must have happened too, but what?

They squeezed through the black-thronged crowd until they got to the center.

"Jesus," Wendy whispered in shock. Sian, held tenderly in Taz's arms, was covered in blood, and so was the scene around them. The cars, the cement, everything was dotted with the stuff. And the vamps on the ground were in one large heap. A couple still moaned as they were tugged free of the pile. Good. She hoped the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds paid for what they'd tried to do.

Then she realized something. "Hey, everyone, one more thing."

Ian at her side looked at her in surprise. "Huh, Wendy?"

"No," she said in a loud voice, "this is important."

The other vamps ignored her.