Chapter 33

Joseph’s POV

I didn’t like being awake during the daytime, so I was already tired when I arrived at school early this morning. I dressed in a long coat and put dark shades over my eyes in an attempt to shield myself from the sunlight.

It didn’t work though. As soon as I was outside, I could already feel the effects of the sun.

Tessa had gone to school by herself.

I probably should have told her I was going to be giving her rides to school for her own safety. However, hiding from the sun, I found it difficult.

This probably wasn’t the best idea.

Tessa stared at me with large eyes as I began to tell her that I was going to give her a ride to school, but we were soon interrupted by the sound of angry parents coming from down the hallway.

I quickly turned to see a small crowd marching toward us.

I recognized one of the parents to be Morgan’s mother. She had bloodshot eyes from when she was crying. I can’t imagine she had stopped crying since finding out her daughter was killed.

She also looked as if she hadn’t been eating or bathing.

“How dare you invite our children to your home after school hours! It’s inappropriate!” One of the parents growled.

“Because of you, they were attacked by an animal!” Another parent cried out.

“One of our children died because of you!!” Another screamed, causing Morgan’s mother to flinch.

“What is going on here?” The principal of the school, Mr. Connors, said as he approached. He looked alarmed at all the parents until his eyes landed on me. “Professor Evergreen?”

“It seems some of the parents have concerns about me,” I answered, trying to keep my tone as even as possible.

“Concerns?!” One of the parents’ hissed. “You are allowing students into your home! How is that allowed?”

At that point, it wasn’t just the parents that were gathered around, it was also some of the students.

“It’s disgusting! What kind of teacher has students in his home?! They shouldn’t have been out that late in the first place. It was a school night.”

“You are forgetting that my students, your ‘children’ are now adults, nearing graduation. Most of them live on their own and don’t have a curfew,” I reminded them.

“My daughter is dead…” Morgan’s mother finally spoke after being silent this entire time.

Everyone was silent with respect to her. Her voice sounded strained as if it pained her to speak. Tears filled her eyes as she looked up at me.

“She’s dead because she was out too late. Shame on you, Professor Evergreen…”

“It’s not the professor's fault!” One of the students shouted, stepping forward. “We wanted to go there and find out more information about the stuff he teaches!”

“He’s an incredible teacher!” Another student agreed. “Please don’t be angry with him for fulfilling our wishes.”

“Its inappropriate behavior is what it is. He should be fired!!” A parent growled.

“No!!” That voice came from Tessa and the forcefulness of her tone startled everybody. “You can’t fire him, Mr. Connors. Professor Evergreen did nothing wrong just as everyone was saying. He has limited edition books and books that haven’t been released to the public in his library at his home. He was talking about them in class, and we wanted to see them. He didn’t force us to go to his home. The students who wanted to see these books chose to visit there. It was nothing more than a book club. What happened to Morgan was unfortunate, but it wasn’t his fault.”

Everyone fell silent as they processed Tessa’s words. I was impressed with how strong-minded she was. She appeared to be brave and lively at that moment and the pure thought of it caused my heart to pick up a pace.

“He shouldn’t be working at this school,” a parent muttered, folding their arms across their chests.

“There isn’t a better Professor to teach this special writing course,” Tessa continued, eyeing that one parent. She then turned to Morgan’s mother. “I am so sorry about what happened to Morgan… it was a tragedy,” her voice cracked as she spoke those words.

She was choking back tears.

“But none of this was Josephs… uh… Professor Evergreen’s fault,” she continued.

She then looked at Mr. Connor and added, “You have to believe that.”

Mr. Connor looked at her for a long while before looking at me.

“See me in my office,” he ordered, turning away, and walking down the hall.

The parents stood around for a moment longer, muttering things amongst each other. I paid them no more attention though. I was exhausted from being awake and I just wanted to return home to sleep for the day until my class tonight.

That is unless I get fired.

I didn’t worry about it that much because I knew I was only here to get the new vampires caught.

This has always been a temporary job for me.

But Tessa clearly didn’t think so.

Before I went to follow Mr. Connor down the hallway and toward his office, I paused and met Tessa’s eyes. She held eye contact for a moment longer before she released me from her trance.

I followed Mr. Connor until we reached his office.

He motioned for me to take a seat.

“These parents fund our schools Mr. Evergreen,” he began, shaking his head at me. “They could pull their funding at any moment and the school would be in jeopardy.”

“I understand,” I said, trying to appear as apologetic as possible.

“A student died almost immediately after leaving your house last night—”

“It was an animal attack.”

“I understand that, but she was only out that late because she was at your house. If she hadn’t gone there, she would have been tucked away in bed, safe and sound,” Mr. Connor said, narrowing his eyes at me.

He was blaming me for her death.

“Why were they even there?” Mr. Connor proceeded to ask.

“Just as Tessa said, they wanted to see limited editions and never seen before books. It was nothing more than a book club,” I answered.

“That’s something you should have brought up to the board first. They should have given you written permission to have the students at your house.”

“I truly apologize,” I said in return. “It won’t happen again. I can assure you that.”

“We appreciate all that you do, Joseph. It would be a shame if something like this were to ruin your career. But I’m afraid the parents have spoken, and they want you gone—”

“You don’t want to do that, Mr. Connors,” I said, my tone deepening, and I fixed my gaze on his. As much as I didn’t care if I was fired or not, I wasn’t quite done here. Plus, I needed to be here to protect Tessa until those vampires were caught.

His eyes were now glued to mine. Manipulating the human mind has become easy for me over the years.

“The students really like me and I’m an exceptional teacher. You need me at this school, and you know you’ll never find anyone as good as me.”

Mr. Connor nodded, still very much in a trance.

“I assure you. I won’t be inviting these students to my home any longer. So, rest assured that they are safe. I apologize for any confusion on my part.”

After a breath of silence, he finally blinked a few times, snapping out of the trance as I released my hold on his mind.

He looked confused for a second before looking at me.

“I think we are done here for tonight. Thank you for sitting and speaking with me. Have a good class tonight.”