Tessa heard the mutterings behind her. She didn't know what to tell them. Things were easier for her now. And bigger. That didn't make them better.

She didn't want anyone to see her as any odder than she already was, but it was likely too late for that stage.

Especially after this.

Still, it had been totally cool to see Hortran's trick in action.

Trying to shuffle off the sense of being looked at differently, she strode ahead. The men had been cl.u.s.tered around this end of the hallway. And she wanted to know why.

There were several doorways up ahead.

She stopped at the first one.

Interesting. It was empty. She went to the second one. Also empty.

The windows on the left showed the dark night dotted with heavy gray clouds. The moonlight peeked through. The hallway itself was gloomy.

The atmosphere strained.

Too bad. She sighed and settled a mantle of indifference on her shoulders. She couldn't help being who she was.

And you shouldn't have to.

Cody's voice, as always, brushed through her mind like a warm hug.

Thanks. I guess that last display pushed them over the edge.

Just some of them. The others are still trying to figure out how to get you to teach them. And you just shot up off their respect meter.

Really? She laughed. Good to know. I always wonder when it's too much and I go from something cool to something ugly again.

Never.

She glanced behind her to see him rapidly catching up. She held out her hand, loving the strong secure grasp as he connected. He tugged her backward into the circle of his arms.

From against his chest, she motioned to the closed door in front of them and said, "This is the last room that they were either protecting or just accidentally standing around."

"I doubt they do anything accidentally."

Stepping back slightly, she pushed the door open. And d.a.m.n if Bart didn't bolt to his feet.

"What are you doing here?" Cody snapped from behind her. "I thought you were after the other canister and the a.s.sholes that were part of that delivery team."

Bart's face turned ugly. He pointed at the almost empty bed on the side of the room holding the two canisters. "Both are here."

Tessa heard them arguing, but her gaze had landed on the beautiful, delicate-looking vamp female on the bed.

"She's so pretty," she exclaimed, walking closer.

"She is." Bart stepped forward, stopping her forward motion.

Tessa studied Bart. This wasn't the same who-cares-what-the-world-is-doing Bart she'd first met. Neither was this the one that she'd seen get irate over the drug canisters. This was a different side to his personality altogether.

She puzzled on it, her gaze going from his surly but ready to do battle look to the young woman in the bed.

And she knew.

With a heavy sigh, she asked, "Is this your daughter?"

Bart's glare deepened, but he never volunteered an answer.

"Can't be," Cody said. "Bart said his daughter died after that encounter with Deanna."

Tessa nodded quietly. She could sense the sadness inside the big man. The pain. "She did die in a way, didn't she, Bart?" She nodded to the woman. "Has she been like this since that incident?"

As if understanding Tessa wasn't there to cause more damage, and maybe the compa.s.sion in her voice was enough to soften his stance, he nodded. "She never woke up again."

Tessa could hear her father's shocked gasp beside her. The men in the back crowded around, wondering what was going on. From the murmurs deep behind her, she realized some people were filling the others in on the story.

So sad.

"Was she not strong enough?"

"The doctors never had an answer."

"So she's been like this since then?" Cody asked incredulously. "That's a horrible way to live."

Bart took a step toward him, his fists clenched and his hard voice snapping, "It's the only life she's got to live."

Her father's voice at her side asked, "Tessa, can you help?"

"I don't know," she said honestly. And she didn't. This wasn't anything she'd seen before. There was energy, but it wasn't black. It wasn't old and gray and used up. It was just so very thin. And almost pure white.

She had no idea what she was seeing.

But she wanted to. She took a step forward. Bart growled at her side. She stopped and shot him a look. "I've helped a lot of vampires these last few weeks. I don't know if I can help your daughter or not." She deliberately took another step toward the comatose woman. "But I'm going to take a look and see."

"Like h.e.l.l you are." Bart lowered his head and lumbered toward her.

"What if she can save her?" Cody asked quietly. "She's already not here in so much of the sense that we understand life to be," Cody continued, emotion threading his own voice as he worked to convince Bart to not try and stop Tessa. "If she can help, what have you got to lose?"

"No one can help. That b.i.t.c.h Deanna did her job well." Bart glared at Tessa. "I might not have been able to take Deanna out while she was alive, but I'll be d.a.m.ned if I let her live on through you."

Without warning, he launched toward her, silver spikes in one hand and some kind of weird gun in the other. There was an odd flash, a pop, and a bolt shot forward so fast no one seemed to recognize what was happening.

"No." Serus knocked Tessa over at the last moment. She fell slightly. Just enough out of the way.

The bolt zapped into her father's side, knocking him to the floor.

He roared.

Cody raced to tackle Bart.

Tessa screamed and raced to her father's aid. The wound ripped into his side.

She shoved her hand into her father's open wound, pouring as much healing energy as she could and with a weird chant, almost a hum in her head and uncaring of those around, pulled the bolt from his body. There was a mix of color in the wound. His, hers, more than she expected, and a tinge of Bart's, and then the damaging energy of the silver bullet.

But her father hadn't gone up in ash he should have but he was still here.

Except...was that a hint of smoke?

"No." She plunged as much bright blue energy as she could manage and shoved it deep into the hole, surrounding the open edges, stopping the burning from getting to the point of blowing up. The bolt had taken a piece of leather from his jacket in with it, protecting his skin. The rest? She could only imagine that some of her energy had been sitting in the s.p.a.ce as he jumped into her place. The bolt would have taken a little more inside as well.

She poured more and more energy into him, wrapping the silver in a tightly confined ball before slowly raising it.

Once out, she lowered it to the floor beside him, watching as the blood gushed clean from her father.

She smiled. He'd make it now.

"If you're smiling, I'd like to think that means I'm going to live," he growled on a short gasp of pain. "That obviously wasn't silver."

"Oh, it was," she said with a big grin, "but it also took a chunk of your leather jacket in with it. That and my energy appear to have stopped the silver from letting you explode."

He leaned back and closed his eyes, but she knew. Relief was coursing through him that they'd get to live another day.

She was feeling pretty much the same. Still, he'd need time to heal, and this wasn't the place for it.

"He has to go back to the Council Hall," she ordered.

"Like h.e.l.l," he snapped. "Give me a minute and I'll be fine."

"Like h.e.l.l," she snapped right back. Rather than argue with him, she waved her hand and knocked him out.

Looking over at Motre, she nodded down at her father. "Take him and the others out of here. It should be safe now."

He shook his head. "What about Bart?" he protested. "I'm not leaving you with him here."

She gave him a smile that had him backing up.

"Don't worry about Bart," she said in a low, hard voice. "I'll take care of him."

Wendy and Jared raced down the hallway toward Ian. With Ian's instructions, they'd gone deeper into the Council Hall.

There he was. Wendy laughed and waved as she ran the last few feet to his side. He stood outside the doorway, a big grin on his face.

"This is great," Wendy cried. "I've never been down here."

"Hey, it's better than sitting there and listening to those crazies talk themselves in circles," Jared grumbled.

Wendy smirked. "Jared is struggling with the Council."

"Who isn't?" Ian snorted. "They are all idiots." He motioned to the room. "Come look at what I found."

The three entered the room. Jared made it a few steps inside then stopped and stared at the wall of monitors. From where he stood, he recognized the meeting going on in one of the screens. In another, Sian slept. So not good. Did these people know they were being watched? "Wow, what do they need with all of these?"

There was an odd sound behind him. He twisted around to look at Wendy and Ian.

And d.a.m.n if the door didn't snick closed and lock behind all three of them.

Ian spun and took a blow up the side of the head.

Wendy, hissing, lashed out and kicked the man who'd taken out Ian, but another vamp grabbed her from behind, a huge vamp, making the fight short and sweet and before anyone had realized it, she was down and out cold. The fight was over before it ever started.

Jared stared at the two huge vamp males facing him. If Wendy and Ian, both vamps, hadn't been able to do anything against these guys, what could he do? He held his hands out in front of him. "Hey, this isn't my fight. I don't know what you guys want, but I don't have it."

"It's all right, Jared. We've got exactly what we want."

A third man gave a cold raucous laugh. "Yeah. We want you."

Where the h.e.l.l had he lost that d.a.m.n Bart? Seriously? He and David had been going around in circles, but the evidence was clear Bart had booked it again. He stopped and glared down the hallway. "What the h.e.l.l, David? Where did the b.u.g.g.e.r go?"

"I don't know," David answered, gasping for breath. "He has to know pa.s.sageways we missed."

Goran growled. "Where are we?"

David snorted. "Somewhere in the d.a.m.n hospital." He pointed to where the wall changed up ahead. "I bet that's the stairs and elevator."

They walked toward the area and sure enough, it was the exit. As they walked closer, the elevator doors opened and a large group of vamps exited and turned toward them.

Motre. Relaxing slightly, Goran grinned, happy to see his friend. Until he recognized the burden he carried.

"Serus!" he roared and raced toward him, reaching his side in seconds.

"What happened?" he demanded harshly, his worried gaze going from Motre to Serus and back. That Serus was slowly waking up was rea.s.suring, but that he'd fallen in the first place was too shocking to contemplate.

I'm fine, Goran.

Like h.e.l.l, he snapped. Who did this to you? Are they still alive?

For the moment, but I don't give them long. Serus groaned slightly, his body twisting with pain. He gasped out, Tessa saved me, Goran.