Chapter 163

Tessa’s POV

The school after-hours was a ghost zone. I had never been here this late at night before, but I knew Joseph liked to stay behind to get some extra work done. The halls in the academic center were completely dark and I felt a little uneasy about being there.

I knew if the dean saw me here at this hour, she wouldn’t be happy. The janitor was definitely around somewhere because I could hear the vacuum in one of the classrooms. I grabbed Carter's arm, and we scurried up the stairs to the faculty office wing.

Thankfully, there was a light upstairs and we weren’t walking around in the dark anymore.

We made our way to Joseph’s office, and I was about to knock, but Carter shoved past me and opened the door without hesitation. I frowned deeply at him and watched as he stepped into the dark room.

“He’s not here,” he muttered, shaking his head with aggravation.

“What?” I asked, stepping into the room behind him. “If he’s not at home and he’s not here, where could he be?

“I don’t know but it seems he got into a fight with the remote,” Carter said, a little bemused, as he stared down at Joseph’s desk.

Sure enough, the television remote was shattered on his desk. My stomach clenched as I looked up at the TV that hung on his wall.

What had happened that set him off? I wondered.

But sitting beside the crumbled pieces of the remote was also his cellphone.

“He left his phone too,” I pointed out, grabbing it and putting his passcode, which was just his birthday, into the phone, unlocking it.

“Check his missed calls,” Carter said as he walked around the office like he was highly investigating Joseph’s double life.

I went into his missed calls record and frowned when I saw how many times Carter had called him. Bernard called him too. The notifications were cleared out, so he saw that they were trying to reach him.

But he didn’t call them back.

Then, on the top of the list, I saw a number that he didn’t have listed as a contact.

“Who’s this?” I asked, turning the phone to face Carter.

He furrowed his brows together and took in the number.

“It’s the Nightwalker Police,” he said, sighing. “He must be at their headquarters.”

“Do you know where it is? I might remember and we can go there together.”

“I know the location,” Carter said, narrowing his eyes at me. “I don’t think it’s wise that you come too though.”

“I’ve been there before. I think they trust me now, so they won’t mind if I tag along,” I said, shrugging as I put Joseph’s phone in my pocket. “Besides, I need to give him back his phone.”

Carter smirked.

“I can always give him his phone back,” he replied. “Seriously, Tessa. Joseph would kill me if I brought out there.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that neither of you are my bosses,” I said with a shrug. “Come on, Carter. I’ve proven myself helpful before. Let me help again.”

He looked at me for a long while before sighing.

“Fine. But if he’s pissed, I’m blaming it completely on you.”

“That’s fair,” I said, grinning.

We left the school and got back to Carter’s car.

The drive to the headquarters portal felt like it was an eternity long. But once we reached the open field, I saw Jsoeph’s car parked in the same spot he parked the last time we were here, and I sighed in relief.

This meant we were right; he had gone to the headquarters. It’s strange that he would leave his phone though.

I decided to brush the thought out of my mind and follow Carter through the open field. The pedestal was exactly where it was last time we were here and just like Joseph had done, Carter placed his hand on the stone, and it began to light up.

I wondered if it only worked for their tribe, or if all vampires could access this portal. But before I could ask, the large headquarters building formed before our eyes. Without hesitation, Carter began to walk toward it. He disappeared as soon as he broke through the barrier between this world and the world the headquarters was hidden within.

I ran behind him, hurrying before the portal closed and locked me out.

I hadn’t realized he stopped walking until I ran directly into him.

“Ouch,” I muttered, rubbing my aching head. I was about to ask him why stopped walking, but then I saw what he was looking at.

There were a bunch of Nightwalker Officers standing in front of us, holding guns and pointing them directly at us.

“State your business,” one of them growled.

Carter held his hands up in his defense and I slowly raised mine as well. I’m sure I looked like a deer in headlights.

“My name is Carter; I am the warrior for the Blood-Thorn tribe. I apologize for the disturbance, but we had a prisoner and a new vampire both escape last night, and I’d like to do my part in helping retrieve them.”

Blood-Thorn? I had no idea their vampire tribe was called the Blood-Thorn tribe.

That was good to know.

I recognized a couple of the Nightwalker officers who had taken notice of me, and their eyes were wide and alert as they took me in. For the most part, though, I didn’t know any of the others.

“We don’t need any more vampires here. One is enough,” the officer in the front scowled.

“Joseph is a friend of ours,” Carter explained. “I’d like to see him if it’s all the same to you.”

The officer was about to open his mouth to say something; and telling from his eyes, I knew it was going to be unpleasant. But then another voice sounded from the back.

“Let them in,” a familiar voice said. “We could use all the help we could get.”

The officers who were blocking this man, scowled as they lowered their guns and stepped aside, allowing him to walk through them.

A tall and broad figure stepped through the crowd of Nightwalker Officers and when he made himself known to us, I found my body relaxing, which was strange, considering who was standing in front of us.

His eyes found mine and I thought I saw a flicker of a smile tugging at the corner of his thin lips.

“Good to see you again, Tessa,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me.

“Likewise, Officer Jordan,” I said in return.

He turned away from us without even giving Carter a second look and began to walk back through the crowd of officers. They were still holding onto their guns tightly, but they weren’t pointed at us anymore.

I took that as our cue to follow him as did Carter because he took off behind him quickly.

We walked inside of the headquarters where I caught a few familiar faces turned in my direction. They paused and stared at me with open mouths, clearly not ever expecting to see me again.

I kept my head low, suddenly feeling a worried feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“You certainly made an impression here,” Carter pointed out, nudging me with his elbow.

I couldn’t help but smirk at him.

“What can I say?” I said, shrugging casually. “People love to hate me.”

This made him laugh, which in return, made me laugh as well. Jordan shot us both a look over his shoulder that silenced us both.

“Joseph is speaking with Mulligan in his office,” Jordan explained. “There’s been no sign of either vampire, however, we did just get word that there’s a hostage situation downtown at the local bank and we are thinking it might be related. We were about to leave to check out the situation.”

A hostage situation?!

My stomach clenched upon hearing this new information. Could Ryan seriously be stupid enough to hold the human hostages at a bank? He was a vampire; what could he possibly want human money for?

Reading my confused face, Jordan continued.

“It’s one of the busiest banks in this region,” he explained.

“Which would make for the perfect feeding ground,” Carter said, his frown deepening.

“Exactly,” Jordan agreed. “The local police are there already. We are waiting for word, but I don’t think we should wait any longer.”

“I agree,” I chimed in quickly, getting their attention. “We should go there right now.”

Jordan smirked at me.

“I doubt you are going anywhere other than home,” he said, shaking his head at me. “But nice try, Tessa.”

I furrowed my brows.

“I came all this way; I want to help,” I argued.

“I don’t know what kind of shit you’re trying to prove. But now isn’t the time,” Jordan scowled.

We were about to reach the door that I knew led to Chief Mulligan’s office, but an angry voice sounded from nearby, making my entire body freeze.

“What the actual fuck are you doing here?!”