Chapter 16

Tessa’s POV

I spent most of the night researching vampires and finding a lot of information about them. Of course, these were all stories, but with all the evidence I already accumulated these last couple of days, things were finally starting to add up.

Joseph teaches classes at night and keeps his windows shaded in both his house and his office. I thought it was strange how dark he liked things. It was almost like he was avoiding the sun. Most of the articles I had read during the course of the night all mentioned that vampires burn in the sun.

I remember his eyes turning red and his ability to suppress Brian so easily. Not to mention the bite marks and hallucinations.

I know I’m not crazy. These things happened, and they were very real. I remember the moonlight hitting his features so perfectly, lighting up his entire face.

There was no mistake. It was definitely him.

The correspondence of these details made me feel both nervous and excited. My body grew warm as I thought more about Joseph’s appearance. His large muscles are so evident through his buttoned-down shirt, so I knew he was strong. But was he strong enough to dent two motorcycles with only his hands?

I felt like this research was starting to drive me crazy. I could hardly wrap my mind around all the stories I’ve been reading. Most of the pictures were similar to one another with the same wounds on their necks and pale white as the clouds.

It was like whoever had done this had drained these people of every last drop of blood. Opening a new document, I began writing a new short story. A story about a charming vampire seducing a young girl. In the end, the girl becomes a vampire and began “hunting” in the city with the male protagonist.

The words flew effortlessly from me. It was an erotic fantasy and some of the things I had written caused me to blush. But I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips upon reading what I had written.

I posted the story to my blog, along with my third-place sample writing I did for the writing class. Once it was posted, I shut my laptop. It was probably better if I stopped obsessing over this vampire stuff.

At least for right now.

…

Crash!

I jumped awake at the sound of glass shattering to the ground.

There wasn’t a single light on and telling from the window, it was the middle of the night. In the darkness, Ruby tripped over the couch and landed on the ground before I could fully grasp what was happening.

“Tessa! Wake up,” she said in a hushed whisper, not realizing that I was already awake. “Somebody just tried to break in.”

My heart was racing as I stood up from the couch and went over to the broken window. It looks like whoever tried to break in was long gone. Ruby’s apartment was on the first floor, so escaping was easy for them.

I looked at Ruby, who was shivering and had tears spilling from her eyes.

“Who would try to break in?” She asked in a broken whisper.

I hugged her, keeping my eyes locked on the broken window, trying to see if I could see anybody through the dark shadows. But I couldn’t see a single thing.

“Call the police,” I said to her, trying to keep as calm as I could.

She soon released me and went to retrieve her phone. I could hear her sobbing from her room as she spoke to the police.

It didn’t take them long to arrive and when they did, I was displeased to see the same officer who questioned me at the police station.

Ruby started to tell him what happened, that she heard a noise and came to check it out. There was a man that blended in with the shadows, but she couldn’t get a good look at his face. But as soon as she appeared, the man broke a window and escaped.

I stood frozen as she finished telling her side of the story.

How did I not hear any of that happening?

I felt a chill go down my spine.

The officer then looked at me and asked, “Let me guess, you didn’t hear anything?”

I frowned at him.

He thought I was insane or just lying to him.

“I didn’t hear anything until he broke the window,” I told him, keeping my eyes locked on his. “I don’t think he was here for long.”

“It could have been the same guy who killed those hooligans. Maybe he came back to finish the job,” the officer suggested, shaking his head with dismay written all over his face.

Ruby only gasped.

“You mean those guys who attacked you are dead?” She asked, raising her brows at me. “When did that happen?”

“They were found last night,” I answered. “That’s why I didn’t come home right away. I had to go to the police station and explain the details of that night.”

“How did they die?”

“Their cause of death is still unclear as of right now,” the officer stated. “It’s an ongoing investigation. But we will get to the bottom of it. However, it seems they’ve been dead since the night they attacked Miss Tessa.”

Were they implying something?

Ruby looked startled, but then the police officer asked, “If they broke the window during the escape, how did they get in?”

“I…I don’t know,” Ruby stammered. “Nothing else is broken though. The door was still intact.”

“Maybe we forgot to lock it?” I asked. “Then when you caught him, he panicked and escaped through the window.”

Ruby was quiet for a moment.

“Yeah, maybe…” she finally said.

“Well, we will keep an eye out for whoever broke in and keep you updated,” the officer said, putting his notepad away.

“Thank you,” Ruby sniffled.

Ruby was never the type to be frightened easily, but at that moment, she seemed genuinely afraid.

I couldn’t blame her though.

She already cleaned the shards of glass off the ground, but now there was just a big open window causing the room to get extremely cold.

“What if it was Brian?” Ruby gasped, once the officers were gone. “Or Amanda. Could they be trying to hurt you?”

Something inside of me was telling me that it wasn’t either of them. But I could have been wrong.

“I don’t see why they would. They should be happy they can be together now.”

Ruby tried her best to cover the window and keep the cold air out while I got back into the couch bed.

“Have you decided if you wanted to go to the dinner party at Professor Evergreens’ house?”

I knew Ruby desperately wanted to go but she didn’t want to go without me. I felt like if I went, things would just be weird, and when I tried to express that to her, she shook her head at me.

“It would only be weird if you let it be weird,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “He already told you that he wants to maintain a student-teacher relationship.”

I knew she was right.

Not before long, she was going back to bed. I wasn’t sure how she was able to sleep after what had just happened.

I certainly wasn’t able to sleep.

By the next morning, I received an email from Joseph Evergreen requesting an rsvp for his dinner party on Saturday.

As weird as I knew it was going to be, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued. Especially with the suspicions I had.

It was because of those suspicions that I clicked “yes” on the rsvp form.