Chapter 74

Joseph’s POV

“It’s been three days and there’s still no signs of these new vampires,” I growled. “Face it, Mulligan This plan was nothing but a failure. I’m pulling her out of there.”

“Not yet,” Mulligan scowled. “We need to give it more time.”

Three days.

Three days without a single new vampire sighting. It was aggravating. I have stayed in my posts for those three days, waiting and watching. Tessa did a variety of activities while in this apartment, but I could tell she was losing her mind with boredom.

She did a lot of yoga and meditation. I didn’t know if she did either, but she was incredibly flexible. She changed into tight yoga pants and a workout bra that showed a lot of her stomach and enhanced her breasts.

I didn’t like the fact that everyone could look at her like this. A pit of fury boiled in my stomach, an unfamiliar feeling, but something I had trouble ignoring.

When she bent down, touching her toes without bending her knees, I felt my cock grow hard.

Get it together, Joseph. I scolded myself.

Tessa did a lot of reading and writing as well. I read her recent blog posts and shook my head, fighting against a smile. They were real stories of what was happening, stories that nobody would expect to be true. But I knew they were true, and I admired her boldness.

I also saw that Rachel Bloom, a well-known literary agent commented on one of her posts after being tagged by a fan.

When Tessa saw it, I watched as she jumped for joy. She danced around the living room, twirling with a large smile on her face. It made my heart swell with joy watching her. But then I remembered that other men were watching her as well and that unsettled feeling returned to my stomach.

I didn’t want them to see her like this. Nightwalker organization or not.

She also did a lot of homework to occupy her time.

As requested, Ruby has been sending her homework and notes through her email. Ruby was kind enough to go to each of Tessa’s classes and grab each assignment from her teachers and written notes from her peers.

I was hoping it wouldn’t take this long and that I could bring Tessa home with me soon. But “soon” was looking a lot further away. I was growing impatient and aggravated.

I was done keeping Tessa locked in that apartment.

“I’m bringing her home with me,” I hissed to Mulligan who was risking his life by giving me a death glare. I could kill him with only one look if I truly wanted to. Lucky for him, I didn’t.

But that could change if he continued to go against me.

“We aren’t ready to give up yet,” Mulligan said in return, his lips pressing together firmly. “We—”

“Chief,” one of his officers said, running into his office. “We might have found something.”

Without another word, we were running to the security room a few doors away from Mulligan’s office. There were a few officers there, including Jordan.

I was still displeased with him.

I turned toward the monitor they were looking at. We had a monitor for each camera placed. I spent a lot of time during the day watching Tessa from this room. I forced everyone else to leave while I kept watch over her and then at night, I would keep watch over the building in person.

The officer who came to get us pointed at the monitor in the bottom corner. It was an outside view facing the front of the apartment building. It was nighttime, so there weren’t many pedestrians roaming the city. With these attacks, not many dared to be outside during the night hours.

But this particular person didn’t seem afraid. In fact, they were just standing and occasionally looking up at the apartment building.

Looking up at the window, I knew was Tessa’s.

“This person has been there the last three nights. They look ordinary, so we missed it. But I was just looking back toward the footage and noticed them.”

Vampires can disguise themselves as humans well, even if they are new. This person didn’t look at all familiar and I was pretty sure I already knew what these vampires looked like.

“I zoomed in,” he continued as he zoomed in on the camera. On this person’s arm was the symbol I knew all too well.

It was the symbol I had in my home as well, the symbol of the vampire queen.

My heart fell into my stomach.

“It must be one of them,” I said, furrowing my brows together.

“She doesn’t look like either vampire we saw in the park,” Mulligan pointed out.

I was aware of that, which made me believe there were others.

“She’s not,” I said through my teeth.

Mulligan snapped me a look.

“There are more than two?”

“Seems that way,” I answered, glaring at the screen. “I’m pulling her out of there.”

“Not yet!” Mulligan said firmly, following me to the door before I ripped it off the hinges. “It could jeopardize everything. We got this far. We have to keep going.”

“There are unstable vampires lurking outside her apartment. I’m not having her stay there any longer.”

“Why do you think they are waiting? If they know where she is, why aren’t they attacking yet?” I heard one of the officers asking.

“They are probably afraid to make a move. She’s a wildcard. They don’t know what her blood will do,” Jordan answered.

“I’m not waiting around to find out,” I hissed.

“Taking Tessa out of the apartment could prove to be more dangerous for her right now. She’s safer where she is. We need to take care of these vampires first. Then, and only then, will we get her out of there.”

…

Tessa’s POV

It’s been three days since I last saw and spoke to Joseph.

I did everything I could possibly do while being locked up in this apartment, like a modern-day Rapunzel. I was slowly losing my mind.

I didn’t think it was going to be such a boring mission.

I spoke to Ruby a few more times while I was here. I kept with the same story of being sick and she didn’t ask many questions about it.

Thank God. Because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to answer them.

Mulligan had also called me a couple of times using the burner number, so he’d be untraceable. He updated me on the mission and from what I knew, it didn’t look like there was much progress. Except for tonight, that is, Mulligan said they believe they spotted an extra vampire lurking outside the apartment building.

I was on the very top floor, so the idea of them breaking in easily wasn’t really a thought. Joseph promised that they would be stopped before they even got to that point. But I was worried because it went from two vampires to possibly three.

Maybe even more.

“We are on our way to your location right now,” Mulligan said on the phone. “Keep yourself hidden in the apartment. Stay away from all windows. We don’t know how many there are, but we are going to find out soon enough.”

“Is Joseph with you?” I found myself asking.

“Yes,” Mulligan answered. “He’s not going to let anything happen to you. I’ll call you if there’s any news.”

He hung up without another word.

Joseph was going after these vampires. My stomach clenched painfully in my chest, now I was consumed with worry. I worried that Joseph would get hurt trying to protect me.

I stared down at my trembling hands, trying to keep myself calm, but to no prevail.

I sat on the ground in front of the couch, pressing my knees close to my chest, and kept my head buried in my lap.

They were walking blindly. They had no idea how many other vampires there were. This could end badly for them.

My heart continued to pound violently against my chest, and my body shook uncontrollably.

The lights in my apartment were turned off, so I sat in the dark, praying that Joseph and the others made it out alive.

They might have been sneaky and fast, but they weren’t strong enough to go against Joseph, regardless of how many there were.

Right?

After what felt like an eternity, my phone rang again.

“Yes?” I asked into the phone.

“I think we got them all,” Mulligan breathed. “We captured about 4 vampires. 2 we recognized 2 we did not. But they are in custody and being taken away as we speak.”

Before I could respond, I heard something cracking on the window and my heart fell into my stomach. I watched as the bolts of the window clattered to the ground. I scrambled away from where I sat, my heart racing in my chest.

I somehow knew it wasn’t Joseph.

A pale hand slapped the window glass, making me jump out of my skin.

“If you caught the new vampires…” I began in a trembling voice. “Then who is breaking into the apartment?“