Chapter 45

Tessa’s POV

The drive into the city was silent. After Officer Jordan’s recent threat on my life, I thought it would be better if I said nothing. He wasn’t much of a conversationist anyway.

It was infuriating that Joseph didn’t trust me to go into the city alone, but I wasn’t going to argue with a vampire. Just like I’m not going to argue with a Nightwalker officer who was highly trained and skilled in taking out supernatural creatures.

He could take me out in a heartbeat.

I was probably the least threatening individual, and I didn’t understand why Jordan had it out for me. He made it perfectly clear that he didn’t trust me whatsoever. His not trusting me is causing me to not trust him as well.

But strangely enough, I trusted Joseph despite knowing what he was, and I trusted his judgment. He might not like Jordan, but he trusted him to protect me.

The city was booming at this time of the day. For a little while, I didn’t think we were going to find any parking. But thankfully, Jordan knew of a secret lot.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by that. He was part of a secret organization after all. They probably knew of all the secrets in this region.

I quickly got out of the car and turned to Jordan, who was standing behind me, looking bored already.

“So, how’s this going to work? Are you just going to follow me around like some overprotective father?”

“Looks that way,” he muttered.

I sighed and turned away, beginning to walk into the busy streets. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for specifically, but I knew whatever it was, Joseph had to like it.

It was his Villa.

The problem was I wasn’t sure what Joseph would like. He was a vampire and naturally, he liked dark colors because bright colors made him uncomfortable.

We went into a couple of interior design stores. I picked out some rugs for a couple of different rooms. I picked out some new curtains, a lamp, a couple of paintings from the art gallery, a wall clock, some floor statues, and some office supplies for his study.

It took about a couple of hours before both Jordan, and I were hand-deep in supplies. We each had about 5 bags of stuff that we kept running back to the car. For most of the day, Jordan followed silently behind me.

That is, until we reached one store that contained some furniture.

“What about this desk for the living room?” Jordan asked, peering over at me.

This was the first time he’d ever contributed to my mission, and I rose my brows at him in surprise.

Jordan shrugged once he saw my face.

“I’ve been in his living room, and I always thought it was missing a work area. He can’t always want to work in his office.”

He had a point.

“I like that,” I said in return.

After another hour, I was expecting Jordan to want to return me back to Joseph’s house, but he seemed intrigued by the supplies around the stores.

“Do you think we should go back?” I finally asked, giving him a small frown.

“I guess so,” he said, glancing at his watch. “Joseph is probably still sleeping though. Maybe we shouldn’t return just yet. Is there anything more you want to grab?”

I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head.

“How about lunch? You have to eat, right?”

I rose my brows at him, again.

“You want to go to lunch with me?”

“Don’t make a big deal out of it. I promised them I’d take care of you and that’s what I intend to do. I’m not going to send you back hungry.”

He started walking past me and in the direction of his car.

I knew my face was red on the spot. I suddenly felt like a toddler being babysat. But one of his rules was to not argue with him and my stomach was growling. I hadn’t really eaten much today so I just sighed and went back with him toward his car.

There was a small café down the street I’ve been to a few times with Ruby. I got a hot tea with a bagel and Jordan got a scone with a coffee. We sat down at one of the window booths that overlooked the busy streets of the city.

“So, why exactly do you want to decorate his house?” Jordan asked as he took a bite of his scone. I wasn’t really expecting him to make conversation and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take me by surprise.

“You’ve seen his Villa,” I said, fighting a laugh as I sipped my tea. “It’s dark and gloomy. It needs a little more life.”

“He’s a vampire. What did you expect?”

I was confused by his statement. It didn’t make sense that he was against vampires. At least, that’s how it seemed. The Nightwalkers seemed to be working very closely with vampires, specifically Joseph.

So, what did Jordan have against them?

“Why are you a part of the Nightwalker Police force if you don’t like vampires?” I asked him, leaning back in my seat and staring at him with curiosity.

“Who said I didn’t like them?”

“Your attitude.”

“I don’t trust them,” he said with a shrug. “I mean they have the ability to kill us with ease. They are dangerous, supernatural creatures. Nobody in their right mind would trust them,” Jordan said, curling his lip up in disgust. “My job isn’t to be friends with them, it’s to keep humans protected from them and others.”

“I see…” I breathed, staring down at my bagel with a frown. “Can I ask another question?”

Something tells me you’re going to regardless of what my answer is,” Jordan said with an eye roll. And I rolled my eyes too.

“Why don’t you trust me?”

He looked at me for a long while, trying to figure out how to answer that question. He pressed his lips together and leaned forward across the table and toward me.

“Because you belong to him. Which means it’s only a matter of time before he turns you.”

My face warmed on the spot, and I was shocked by his accusation.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he scoffed. “He’s going to turn you one way or another. Either by accident or on purpose. When that happens, you’ll be a new vampire and there’s no telling what you’ll do.”

“That’s not a fair accusation,” I said, shaking my head at him. “Nobody owns me. I don’t even want to be a vampire and my relationship with Joseph isn’t like that.”

“Right… he’s your ‘professor.’”

I didn’t like the way he said “Professor.” It was like he didn’t believe me.

“He is my professor,” I said firmly, putting my bagel on my plate. Once again, I found myself not very hungry.

“I doubt there are no feelings,” Jordan said, narrowing his eyes at me.

Heat rushed to my face, and I opened my mouth to say something more, but the sound of the door chime brought me out of my mind and my attention to whoever had just walked in. I didn’t want to talk to Jordan about this anymore and I needed any form of distraction.

Jordan didn’t seem to mind because he was already back to sipping on his coffee and eating his scone. It took everything I had not to roll my eyes at him, but once my attention turned to the person who walked into the café, it felt like my heart fell straight into my stomach.

I was filled with straight-up panic.

She stopped at the doorway and her eyes found mine, widening with a little hurt lingering in them.

“Tessa?” She breathed, narrowing her eyes in my direction.

I swallowed hard as I slowly stood from my seat.

There was no hiding now. I was caught in a massive lie.

“Hi, Ruby.”