Chapter 68

Tessa’s POV

I stared at Joseph, feeling a mixture of rage and hurt.

I couldn’t believe he was keeping this stuff from me. All those times he told me his meetings with the Nightwalker police have been boring and uneventful, he’s been lying to me. I wanted to yell at him and curse him out, but all I could do was stare at him with such shock.

He still looked angry though, maybe even a little annoyed.

He also didn’t answer my question, which was infuriating to me.

“What did you do, Joseph??” I asked again, pressing my lips firmly together.

“I manipulated her mind into thinking it was all fake,” Joseph answered, keeping his red eyes on mine. “I couldn’t have her going around and talking nonsense about vampires.”

“So you basically gaslit her?” I asked, furrowing my brows together. “She’ll be committed.”

“She was already going to be committed. The doctors were bringing her to the psych ward because she was going on about vampires,” Joseph said, shaking his head. “Regardless, it wasn’t working out in her favor.”

I couldn’t believe him.

I couldn’t even look at him right now. I pulled my eyes away from him and looked at Mulligan.

“What else?” I asked. “What else have these vampires done?”

“They killed someone else and left their body in the street for just anyone to find,” Mulligan answered solemnly.

My heart fell deep into my stomach, and I leaned back in my chair, unable to hold up the weight of my own body.

Another person died… and it was because of me.

These vampires were looking for me. These warnings were because of me. I wanted to throw up but I wasn’t going to give any of these people the satisfaction of watching me become weak.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” I asked, looking back at Joseph. “How could you just keep me in the dark?”

“Because it wasn’t something you needed to concern yourself with,” Joseph said, his body tensing. “I had things handled.”

“Clearly not!” I shouted, this time I did stand to my feet. “Someone is dead, and another is traumatized, Joseph. That’s not handling that’s.”

Mulligan smirked as he stood up too.

“I told you she was smart,” Mulligan said, staring at Joseph. “That’s exactly why we need her.”

“I already said no,” Joseph said between his teeth.

“You promised you’d give it a try if she agrees,” Mulligan said, narrowing his eyes. “You can’t go back on your word.”

“What are you two talking about?” I asked, staring between the two of them. “No more secrets,” I added firmly.

They both fell silent and looked at me.

“I was speaking to the other officers, and we came up with a plan to lure and capture the new vampires,” Mulligan began to say slowly.

My heart grew heavy waiting for him to continue.

He was quiet for a moment longer, looking at Josep who was tightening his fists.

What the hell was going on with him? Why was he so angry?

Then again, why was I so nervous?

“Oh, for Christ's sake,” Jordan muttered from across the table. “We want to use you as human bait.”

Everyone stared at him in shock from his outburst.

“Bait?” I croaked, looking at Mulligan and not Joseph.

They wanted to use me as bait?

“To put it more nicely…” Mulligan began as he sent Jordan a death glare. “We want to lure the new vampires so that Joseph can capture them. They are smart and wouldn’t fall for the cardigan trick again. Joseph has been trying to track them for a while now with no luck. People are dying and soon word will get out that these recent attacks weren’t animal attacks. We are running out of time, and we believe the quickest way to get them to come out of hiding is to… um…”

“Use you as human bait,” Joseph seethed, fury flashing through him once again. “I already told them it was over my dead body.”

“What?” I asked, staring at Joseph in disbelief. “You told them no?”

“I refuse to put you in danger like that,” Joseph exclaimed. “You are living with me because you trust me to keep you protected. That’s exactly what I’m doing. My decision is final.”

I was still in such shock that I couldn’t believe all that I was hearing. My body had gone completely numb.

“Tessa,” Mulligan said, his voice calm. He gave me a small smile when I looked at him. “I know this is a lot of information at once and we don’t want to pressure you into anything. It was just an idea. We could always try to think of a better plan if it’s too much for you.”

“There is no better plan,” Jordan muttered annoyed.

Clearly, this was Jordan’s plan. I should have known he would come up with a plan that could be the cause of my death.

Before I could say anything in response to him, Joseph was slamming his fists into the table, cracking it slightly as he stood to his feet.

“I am not putting her in danger!” He seethed.

I was terrified of him at that moment, and I felt I needed to move away from his location.

The Nightwalker police didn’t look frightened. They dealt with supernatural creatures all the time so I’m sure they were used to this kind of thing.

But I was not. Nor did I want to be.

“I will not allow her to do this,” he continued through his teeth.

“Why did you even have me come here if you already made up your mind?” I asked him.

“Because he knows that we have tools that can make any vampire, including him, beg for death,” Mulligan said, folding his arms across his chest.

His words sent a chill down my spine, and I looked at Joseph again.

“Joseph?”

“I wanted you to hear the plan,” Joseph finally said, placing his face in the palm of his hands. “I wanted to give you a chance to hear the plan. But now that we are here, I’m standing by my original decision.”

I was in disbelief as I stared at him, my mouth gaping open.

“With all due respect, Joseph, this isn’t your decision to make. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me. Innocent people are dying because these new vampires are looking for me. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. It’s not fair to them and it’s not fair that you are making this decision for me.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out of his lips. I saw the anger on his face though, and it made me flinch, but only slightly.

Joseph was acting so strangely, and I couldn’t figure out why. I knew he didn’t want me to get hurt and run into the eye of danger, but his reaction was completely unnecessary. He’s made it clear that we weren’t more than teacher-student, so why was he acting like an overly protective boyfriend suddenly?

I was angry with him for keeping these things from me, but also furious because he was making decisions for me and not consulting me about them.

But I wasn’t going to let him do that anymore.

“The decision is yours, Tessa,” Mulligan said, staring at me carefully.

Ignoring the angry glare and the deep breathing from Joseph I turned to Mulligan, straightening my shoulders.

With a rapidly beating heart and trembling fingers, I bit onto my bottom lip as I often do when I’m nervous, and then I nodded.

“I’ll do it.”