Vampire in Chaos by Dale Mayer

happy to have the synthetic stuff.”
    Tessa exhaled noisily. “So you weren’t part of the group that created the blood farm?”
    “Bah, of course not. I’d have had all humans strung up like that if I were. Besides, like I said, humans don’t taste the same anymore. Gross tasting now if you ask me.” Her gaze sharpened. “That doesn’t mean I don’t know who is running it though. Like I said, we keep tabs on everything.”
    Cody, his voice hard, asked, “Then who is behind it all?”
    *
    Cody stared at the ancient crone and wondered what game she was playing at. Who’d stay a prisoner in order to turn the tables on their captor? Then again, as she could come and go and her captor was forced to keep guards here to watch over her, it might just be damn clever. But it was a twisted kind of clever. And said much about her relationship with her captor. “And is it the same person who imprisoned you?”
    A smile whispered across her lips. “My husband is the one who imprisoned me.”
    Cody heard Tessa’s gasp of shock. His own mind was scurrying through his memory banks, looking for the name of her husband. And came up empty.
    “I hadn’t heard you were married.”
    She laughed. “It was a long time ago.”
    “Why would he do that?” Tessa asked, anger in her voice.
    “For the best of all reasons,” Deanna smirked. “To get back at me for imprisoning him.”
    Dead silence.
    Tessa said cautiously, “You imprisoned him, he escaped and turned around and imprisoned you, you escaped but he doesn’t know it.” She shook her head. “You do realize that none of this makes any sense, right?”
    Deanna chuckled. “Oh, it does to us, child. You just have to understand we’ve been married for over nine centuries. Sometimes games liven things up.”
    Amusement whistled through Cody at the thought. How bloody fascinating. And intriguing and yet…sick at the same time. From the look of incomprehension on Tessa’s face, Cody realized she wasn’t understanding at all.
    “I don’t suppose you are here…some of the time… are you? As in the odd time when he comes to check up on you personally, perhaps,” Cody asked, humor threading through his words.
    Deanna gave him a droll look. “You do understand. How very interesting. It must be Goran’s influence. That man does like a good time.” And she smiled in such a way that Cody was sorry he’d broached the conversation.
    Tessa, however, didn’t appear impressed. “And why are we here? You said there was danger and we had to hurry.”
    “Ah, right to business. You could do well to spend more playtime with Cody here.”
    Tessa, her voice hard, snapped. “Any playtime I have with Cody is my business and not up for discussion.”
    Deanna rolled her eyes. “Lord, so young. So vehement. So passionate. You two must have fun.” She gave Cody a single, slow, up–and–down look that actually made him embarrassed. “Ah well…”
    Until Tessa stepped in front of him and blocked him from Deanna’s view.
    Cody hid his grin. Oh, he did love this girl.
    *
    Jewel opened her eyes again. Awareness hit faster than the last time, making her alert and almost cognizant of her surroundings. And her situation. She was in a hospital, but the jury was still out as to why she was still here. She got that she’d been drugged. Understood that she’d taken a turn for the worse and knew the doctors were keeping her under observation. But if all the above were true, where the hell was David?
    She sat up slowly and paused, realizing something had changed. Her restraints were off.
    Or had they been part of her nightmares?
    With effort, she made her way to the laundry tub and took a drink of water. When she was done, she stood in the open doorway and surveyed the room. She was only wearing a hospital gown, so where were her clothes? More important than those, where was her cell phone? She went through the cupboards systematically, feeling her strength slowly seep away as she finally