"c.r.a.p," he said, "Why are you guys always so d.a.m.n big?"

"Because we're kicka.s.s," the big man boasted.

Goran snorted, reached into his pocket, and slashed.

David caught sight of the silver and jumped free as the big man blew up into a nasty pile of sour-smelling ash in his face.

"Oh, gross."

Serus came up along the side and smacked Goran on the shoulder. "Glad to see you're up to your old tricks."

"Always. Where the h.e.l.l did you sneak off to? It's not like you to leave a good fight."

Serus grinned. "I found something. Come see."

Chapter 3.

Standing on her feet for the first time, and to the sound of resounding cheers, Tessa took one step. With a small grin, she took an equally shaky second one. The room swayed as if too big to comprehend. The absolute size and ma.s.s of the energy swarming around her, even though pale and not intrusive, was still startling. She could see the energy of the walls. The energy of the beds. Waves of color floated up from the floor, making her unsure of where to place her foot.

She understood the human lesson in physics. One of their famous scientists, Einstein, supposedly said, Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another. Now there was no doubt about it; she could see everything. A fact that was both disturbing and fantastic.

But confusing for her to sort through. She could see people as ghostly images behind the colors whereas she'd rather see the colors as ghostly images. Instantly, her vision shifted and morphed to her seeing it the way she wanted to.

"Oh Lord," she whispered.

Cody, ever at her side, asked, "What's the matter?"

She shook her head, not sure how to even begin. She'd seen so much before that she hadn't understood; what could she say about this now?

"I'm fine," she said in a low voice. "Things just look... different."

He shot her a long careful glance. "Good different or bad different?" he asked cautiously.

She smiled. "Good, as soon as I figure out how to make sense of it all. I saw a lot before, but now I can see a whole lot more."

"More?" He shook his head. "I can't imagine."

"I couldn't have before either." She stopped to study the group of males standing alert in front of her. They completely surrounded her. She had no idea why. "What's with the bodyguards?"

"You were injured," he said, laughter flooding through his voice, adding, "They are all trying to keep you safe." His voice was understandably humorous.

"From what?" And what did they think they could do for her that she couldn't do herself?

"Remember you were unconscious for a long time."

True. She had been. And apparently some people had been worried about her. Wait. She twisted ever so slowly and took a look back at the group that was leaning and standing around her, still on guard but relaxed, knowing there was no immediate danger.

Or was there?

She looked from one to the other and studied their energy. Only there was no need to study anything. Two of the men stood out so clear and so dark that there was no missing the blackness of their energy, and in this case she highly suspected for their soul. Had they infiltrated the group here at the hospital or had they been given the drugs unwillingly while captive? Or was it something else altogether?

She lowered her gaze and called out to Cody. The two young men on the left, their systems are chock full of black.

What? Are you sure?

Yes, she said softly, but I'm not sure how or why. I haven't seen anything like this before.

Maybe and maybe not. You were tired and had a lot going on. You could have missed it. Or not recognized what you were seeing.

True. Or the drugs were in their system and we unhooked them too late to stop it from taking them over. She pondered the issue. Do you think it could be something else? We were so sure these men were all on our side.

And they might be. It's possible the darkness is working its way through them and they know nothing about it.

Then how do we find out if they are victims? How do we save them?

Can you see more now? Is that why you are seeing this new energy? Cody asked.

Tessa had to stop and consider. Was she seeing things differently now? Definitely. Was it allowing her to see more energy? h.e.l.l yes, but was it showing her more of what she needed to see or was all this just background noise? Would she have seen these guys' black energy before? She'd have thought so. But maybe not.

She turned slowly to stare at the energy she could make out from where she stood. With seeing so much now, was what she was looking at the same darkness as before? Or was she seeing something different? Something on a different level? It made no sense. Why put energy into healthy males to make them look like they were diseased? To make them look like they were guilty unless you wanted to have them appear that way?

If you wanted to get rid of them. She wondered just how tricky the a.s.sholes were getting. Enough to have them kill each other?

"Do you know them?" she murmured to Cody.

"Slightly. Not as friends though."

"I'm going to try something." Aware of his intent gaze watching her, she bowed her head and closed her eyes. Calling to her vampire heritage, she was almost blasted backwards with the force of the response.

"Whoa." Cody grabbed her and held her steady.

"I'm okay," she whispered. "It just surprised me."

"It?" he murmured. "Whatever it was, it d.a.m.n near sent you flying."

"I was calling up my vampire heritage to help me." A tiny laugh escaped. "I'm guessing Deanna's energy has affected everything I do. I'll have to remember that."

"Or better yet, learn to control it."

"Hmmm. Easier said than done."

She took a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes. Instantly, the same vivid hues she'd seen the first time she opened her eyes took over, almost blinding her. She gasped, a shudder taking over her body. Tone it down, please. I can't see.

Instantly the force of the energy muted down. Still shuddering in reaction but in better control, she took a slow look at the two men. All the men were standing and staring in her direction, confusion and worry on their faces. She tried to smile back at everyone but wasn't sure it worked when their expressions didn't change. Sighing and knowing her oddness was growing in a legendary way, she focused on the two young men with the black energy weaving through their systems. She wished she understood where it was coming from. Maybe then she might understand how it got to that place. It was on the surface of their systems, but maybe not inside? She couldn't tell from here. Was everyone affected or only these two? If so, why?

With more questions tumbling around her head than answers, she walked slowly forward, the others moving away from the two men who now stood up and looked at her nervously.

"Hey, Cody, what gives?" one of them asked.

"Not sure. She's found something...odd."

"With us?" asked the second man in alarm. "What the h.e.l.l? We didn't do anything."

"She's not saying you did relax. But since the Deanna thing she sees...more."

"More? c.r.a.p. She already saw so much. What else is there to be found?"

"That's what she's trying to sort out."

Tessa froze, half her awareness on the conversation going on around her and half on the twisting strands of black. A superficial black. Almost a dusting over them not through them like she'd originally a.s.sumed. The black looked darker, thicker because she also saw the dusting from behind them, too.

Odd. She took a step to the right, then a second one, keeping an eye on the dispersion of the energy. Looking for where it might have come from. And d.a.m.n if the black didn't snake off to the right and zip out the door.

No way. She understood the blackness to be drugs, injected chemicals with an energy signature that affected the individual person, but there was no way it should be capable of leaving their energy s.p.a.ce and travelling down the pathway unless they'd walked that direction themselves as in that was their energy signature.

Instead, these two men had been sitting here for a long time. The energy pooled around them showed that. They had other colors twisting with them, but nothing dark like that very specific strand. As it raced out the door and down the hallway, she ran out after it. She didn't know where it had come from, but she needed to track it backwards. She almost laughed at the thought. It was the first time she'd tracked anything that way. Normally she caught sight of the energy and tracked it to the person. Not this time.

The energy, still black and strongly defined but in a waist high cloud, raced away in front of her. Clearly seen, and that in itself was odd. She hit the double doors at the end of the hallway, but they opened just before she made contact. Weird, but she didn't let it slow her down. She chased the black energy down the stairs, dimly realizing a herd followed her. She'd been so focused she hadn't noticed the group from the room was hot on her heels. She raced down flight after flight, determined to find the source of the energy affecting the men.

And then she hit a wall. Literally.

She bounced backwards and was picked up before she had a chance to regain her balance. She was lifted and set gently back down on her feet.

For all the shock of being lifted and straightened up there was no sense of danger. No fear. No dislike from the man and yeah, it was a young man who'd helped her.

In fact...she gasped and laughed. "You look so much better than the last time I saw you."

The man beamed. He said, "Xclkileens don."

Cody, slightly out of breath, stepped up beside her and said, "What the h.e.l.l?"

Tessa laughed. "It's one of the Nordic guards."

"Okay, I can see that given his size, but what the heck did he say?"

Tessa smiled and responded in the same language the young mammoth had spoken. "I'm glad you are feeling better."

The man's face lit up, and a spate of gibberish streamed from his mouth.

Only it took just seconds for the words to reform into English. She beamed at his kind words of thanks for saving the life of his friend. And his apology for standing in her way.

He stepped to one side and gave a slight bow. As big as he was, the bow barely lowered his head to her level.

"Thank you," she said in his language and walked through the door.

"Ah, Tessa? Since when do you speak a second language?"

"I don't. Deanna did. Several, in fact."

With the stunned silence of his mind like a low hum inside her own, she continued at the slower pace, studying the hallway in front of her for signs of the same darkness. It was here, but fuzzier around the edges. It wasn't as contained or as powerful. Dispersed with time. As if older. Somewhere between the hallway and the staircase, it had lost much of its force.

Why?

She spun around and realized going back was not an option at least not without some difficulty. More than thirty men stood in front of her, including the big Nordic man.

She turned to stare out the window, lost in thought, when it hit her. She was staring at a pool of black. That was where the energy stream stopped.

The window was the answer. Whoever or whatever had been part of that energy had come and gone through the window. She turned to study the large cas.e.m.e.nt. It was surrounded in blackness. Dark, twisting, fresh black, but as she peered at it closer, the darkness was on the outside.

This wasn't the older dissipating stuff heading down the hallway. This was fresh.

She stepped up to the window, studying the latch. It had not only been opened recently, it was still open.

She gave a hard push back.

There was a startled shriek, then sounds of heavy wings followed by harsh cries of panic.

With everyone crowding behind her, she watched as the two vamps who'd been waiting in position, weird cans in their hand, were burnt up by the sun's rays.

Cody shot her a sharp look. "Seriously? How did you recognize those vamps were here?"

"The energy," she said simply. "It's changed. It's still what I saw earlier, but now it's...different."

"It's different," Cody asked shrewdly. "Or are you different?"

Tessa's shocked gaze was clear and direct as he stared into her eyes. He'd followed her mad flight out of the room and down to the floor below, wondering what she was up to and just hoping that she had some clue.

Deanna's energy was a ma.s.sive shift for her. To have all the memories, all the knowledge from the oldest vampire should have caused Tessa a fair bit of trouble sorting out the new reality she was living. Except with her typical aplomb, she'd shrugged herself into this new life, gave a wiggle or two to help things settle in place, and she was off and running into who knew what trouble yet again.

He felt like he did nothing but follow along behind. He wished he knew what kind of changes Deanna had made to her psyche.

None, she snapped. Deanna's memories are filed away in my memory banks. They haven't changed me.

Yet you spoke to that Nordic vamp in his own language. He barely held his surprise back at her tone of voice.

That was Deanna's ability, she said. And stopped. Frowned.

Exactly. It was because of Deanna that you could speak to him. So if she'd enabled you to do that much, what else has she done?