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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT 
RIVER
Bentley’s been wound up tight for a few days. As soon as he got home the other night, he unlocked my handcuffs and went right to his computer which he endlessly stared at. Not even me telling him that I wouldn’t mind if he handcuffed me while I was naked helped, which means something bad is going on. Bentley never resists my sexy talk.
I wonder if he’s just so overwhelmed with Finn’s case that it’s hard for him to concentrate. I’m leaning that way until I realize that I haven’t heard from Corbyn for days. He’d told me he was going to send me my next task, yet… he never did.
I grab my chair and squeak it over to Bentley before pushing it into his leg… still nothing. I plop down in the chair and loom into his personal space as he click-clacks away. And still nothing.
I jab my finger into his cheek which barely gets a grunt of recognition.
“I’m going to eat the neighbor.”
“Please don’t,” he says.
“Then pay attention to me!” I cry before climbing onto his lap so he can’t mindlessly stare at the laptop. “Talk to me. Are you mad at me for not telling you? Upset? Is this about me wanting to eat the neighbor? Or looking up all the blood amounts?”
He sighs before wrapping me up in his arms and squeezing me tightly. I find myself melting into him. “No, I’m sorry. I’ve just been a bit overwhelmed.”
“A bit punchy?”
“Huh?”
“I noticed your car window.”
He looks a little horrified. “Oh fuck. Don’t look at that. That was… a bird.”
“Wow, that’s impressive. Alright, I’ll distract you. What if we draw each other naked?” I suggest.
He grins at me. “That’s what you want? Drawing each other naked?”
“Yes, please! Me first,” I decide as I run off for my sketchbook and pencils. I set up an easel and lead him over to the couch. “Gotta get these off.” I quickly start pulling his T-shirt off as I draw in the scent from his bodywash. The way I can smell, hear, and see better still amazes me. And I see now why the vampires wear such light scents. Too much cologne or bodywash would knock me out.
But Bentley always smells good or maybe I’m love blind… that’s probably it. I happen to think everything Bentley says or does is amazing.
“Huh…” I say.
“What?”
I smile at him. “Nothin’. I just like thinking about sexy stuff, ya know? Like how sexy you’ll be in my ultimate pose.”
“You can pose me however you’d like, but I also get to pose you how I’d like.”
“Fine, fine,” I say as I push his sweats down, taking his underwear with them so he’s gloriously naked. “You know what would be fucking hot?”
“If I was covered in blood?” he guesses.
I look at him in surprise. “How the hell did you guess that?”
“You literally talk about blood at least once an hour.”
“I do not… like who would even do that? Ha. Not me. Do you know how much blood a bull has?”
He starts laughing as he kicks his pants and underwear off his ankles. “Alright. Where do I go?”
“Couch. Sprawl out, put your arm dramatically over your head so you look like you just spilled your last bottle of blood. Good. Good,” I say, even though he has a ridiculous look on his face. “Now let’s add some decorations to it.” I pick up Banshee who yowls at Bentley as I set her down. She clearly likes him, though, because she doesn’t smack his face. Instead she just stares into his soul while swishing her tail menacingly.
“I feel like if I even glance at her she’ll pluck my eyes out,” Bentley says.
“Just be thankful it’s not your balls, and I’m sure she loves you! Now here is the ultimate question: do I cover the penis like in those old Victorian paintings or do I draw it?”
“You know what? Both ways will be extremely awkward while I stare your cat in the eyes, so I say just go for whatever your heart desires.”
“Here we go,” I say as I pick up a small toy mouse that’s definitely not big enough to cover much and set it right on top. “Perfect.”
I stare at him for a long moment as he stares back at me.
“Do I need to look more dramatic? Oh, who spilt my blood! Woe is me with some pity!” he says, and his cries seem to sate Banshee who climbs onto his head and just sits down.
“Your cat’s butthole is on my cheek.”
“She just got done licking it, so it’s fine!”
“You know she’s doing this to try to kill me, right? Last night, I woke up with her on my face suffocating me. If I were human, I would have died.”
“Wow, what a weak human you’d be,” I say as I start drawing the magnificent beast he is. I pay extremely close attention to the area around his groin and make his pubic hair look like the Amazon jungle bushing out from around the toy mouse. It’s absolutely beautiful.
“How long are you going to draw for?” he asks curiously.
“Well, I currently only have your crotchal area finished. Is that a problem?”
He starts laughing, which annoys Banshee greatly, so she smacks his face to shut him up. “I might just take a nap.”
“No! I’ll do your face really quickly,” I say as his phone starts to ring.
“Do I grab that or do you want to so I don’t ruin the pose?”
I jump up and grab it before carrying it over to him. I notice it’s a call from someone named Li. He hesitates, looks at me, then says, “I have to take this.”
He gets up and hurries off into the bedroom before shutting the door. Is he… is he hiding from me?
I quietly creep over to it while fully knowing that I should respect his privacy but also knowing there’s only one thing he’d keep from me. Has he been looking into Corbyn? Does he know who he is? Is that what he’s been so fixated on?
I press myself against the door and listen as carefully as I can.
“What do you mean he’s gone? Huh… interesting… okay, thank you for letting me know. Yeah, if you hear anything, keep me updated.”
The door opens before I can run and hide, leaving Bentley to look at me. “Eavesdrop much?”
“What are you hiding?” I ask, like I have any right to pester him about this when I’ve hidden so much from him.
He stares at me for a moment before folding his arms over his chest and looking stubbornly defiant.
“I feel like you’re wanting to be all ‘You didn’t tell me the truth so why should I?’ but I swear I would have if I’d been able to. It really hasn’t been easy for me not telling you everything and not running to see my family.”
He sighs and drops his arms. “So I figured out who Corbyn was a few days ago and was looking into him. Then he threatened me some, and I’ve been trying to figure out how much of an issue he really is. Like whether or not he’s all talk. But something interesting I’ve found out is that he’s recently disappeared. Yesterday, he didn’t show up for work and no one has seen or heard from him.”
“What?” I ask in surprise before panic hits me. “What if he’s pissed? What if he’s done something to my family? I need to check on them.”
“I’m sure it’s fine. We’ve backed off and done what he said, so why would he just attack your family?”
I grab the phone and start dialing their number before grudgingly handing it to him. “Call them, pretend to be a telemarketer. My dad will answer. He always answers.”
Bentley sighs but nods and takes the phone.
“Hello?” Dad almost immediately answers.
“Hi, this is John with the electric company. We had an alert that this number was having issues, but we see nothing wrong on our end. Can you tell us if you’re still having issues?”
“Um… not that I know of. I didn’t call.”
“Maybe your wife?”
“Hold on… honey, did you call the electric company?” he asks. I can’t hear Mom’s reply but I can hear her mumble, telling me she’s fine. It feels so fucking good listening to them. I love it so much and I swear I could sit here for hours as Bentley asks them about electricity issues.
I’m so relieved as Bentley finishes the call. “The first time you talked to my parents, you wore mesh. The second time, you wore nothing at all. It’s so romantic.”
Bentley grins at me before pulling me in for a hug. “Come on. We can finish the drawings later,” he says as he pulls me into the bedroom with him. He sinks down onto the bed, dragging me on top of him as he kisses and holds me tightly.
I shouldn’t have gotten upset with him, when I’ve put him through so much and he does so much for me. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize… I was in the wrong,” he says as he kisses each of my fingers on my right hand. “I just want you safe. I want nothing to ever happen to you and I can’t stand knowing that man hurt you.” He kisses the palm of my hand before wrapping his arms around me and squeezing me tightly. I press myself into him as I run my fingers over his bare skin, holding him close.
How did I get so lucky to stumble upon this man of all people?
I smile at him before kissing him lovingly. “You’re like my sexy guardian angel.”
Bentley raises an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I am, but I’ll take it.”
“Sexy angel with bat wings. When do you think I’ll be able to turn into a bat?”
“Go back to talking about me being your guardian angel.”
      
“Your cat is evil!” Bentley says.
“Evil but cute, right?” I ask as Banshee wraps herself around Bentley’s leg and proceeds to rear her head back, mouth open before chomping down. “Gosh, look how cute she is!”
He sighs before quickly turning toward the door. “Someone’s here,” he says a moment before there’s a pounding on the door.
“What’s wrong?” I ask because there’s clear panic on his face.
“I didn’t hear them until they were there.”
“It’s just me! Open up! Finn illegally figured out your address and sent it to me to, and I quote, ‘Please, go bug someone else!’” someone says.
“I’ll get rid of him, hide,” Bentley says as he goes over to the door and pulls it open. It’s been about a week since he told me Corbyn, or Grant as he knows him, went missing. Neither of us have heard from him since.
Before I even reach the bedroom, an extremely flashy vampire steps in and locks eyes on me.
“Well hello there, darling,” he says with a huge smile.
I’ve never seen such a brightly colored vampire in all my years. He’s in front of me in a heartbeat and smiling widely as he pokes my nose, of all things.
“You’re so damn cute I could just eat you right up.” His finger brushes my neck and I jerk back from him as I quickly look over at Bentley while wondering if we’ve extremely fucked up.
“Not as cute as my Alexei, of course, but still rather cute. Do you know how to get a man to look at you who pretends to hate your guts?” he asks me.
“Uh… why would you want to be with someone who hates your guts?” I ask.
“Pretends to. See, Alexei is this sexy blend of tragically misunderstood and sweet. Under that prickly exterior is a sweet man who just needs to be loved.”
“Umm…” I look to Bentley for help.
“This is Claude, Marcus’s brother,” Bentley explains.
I’m not sure I’ve ever been so shocked in my life. “The evil one?” I ask before thinking better of it.
Claude starts laughing, clearly joyous at my outburst. “I really like you. You and I could be good friends,” he says as he pulls me into him and hurries me over to the couch. His sequined suit jacket is pressing into my arm as he guides me to a cushion.
“Come, DeGray, sit, sit!”
Bentley walks over and sits down in the armchair as Claude keeps me pressed down tightly to him.
“So I looked into Grant for you. I was glad for the distraction and this is what I found. Grant was born Corbyn Handler in 1981—”
“Wow. I thought he was young. He couldn’t be but five or six years old as a vampire then, right?” Bentley asks.
Claude nods. “Seven… presumedly. And I say that because seven years ago Corbyn Handler was identified as deceased. He went backpacking and never came home to his family.”
“Oh my god,” I whisper.
“Which… I mean, I have to admit, I got a little nosy and dug a bit more than you asked but I stumbled upon this Huang case where other humans had gone missing.”
“Corbyn was one of the ones they took and sold,” I realize as I look at Bentley. “Right?”
Bentley slowly nods. “It would make sense, but then how did he get turned into a vampire and wind up in law enforcement? One doesn’t just… get illegally changed and end up in law enforcement,” he says. “If we’re assuming this is what’s happening, someone else must be pulling his strings.”
“Or was trying to, which is why he’s trying to ruin them,” I say. “They took his life from him and he’s trying to get back at them. But that means this shit has been going on for years.”
“Claude, can you figure out who hired him and where the name of Grant came from?”
“I’m already ahead of you,” he says as he holds his phone out. “Here is Jeffry Grant. An older vampire, but there isn’t much information on him until Corbyn presumedly took his name two years ago and began working in law enforcement.”
“So someone took him from his life as a human, changed him, and gave him a whole new identity.”
“So if he’s working inside this ring of people, was he the one who took you?” Claude asks me.
The question startles me and I wonder if I gave something away by accident. “W-What? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, while sounding like I also have no idea what I’m talking about.
“The scars on your neck, you’re recently changed, and you were a human when you were interviewed by the VRC. River Garcia, a twenty-eight-year-old with a brain tumor who went into surgery and came out dead.”
I glance at Bentley who gets a very unreadable expression on his face.
Claude waves him off, like all of this is nothing to fret about. “Don’t worry. It’s a secret I’ll take to my death. I’m more interested in what’s going on. Corbyn is now missing, so is he missing on purpose or did someone kill him?”
“Claude, this can’t be mentioned to anyone. Not to Marcus, not to Finn… no one can know,” Bentley pleads. “I had no choice.”
Claude just gives him an extremely charming smile. “Settle, settle. I’ve kept many secrets in my many years of life. Anyway, do we know anything else?”
Bentley shakes his head. “No. The threat Corbyn had on River has kept us off his trail, and now that he’s gone, the only clues we have are the names he gave River, but they’re extremely influential people who clearly have someone protecting them because I just hit dead end after dead end.”
“I’ll dig into it some more. Just reach out any time you have something.”
When we’re done going over stuff with Claude, he kisses the top of my head for some reason and just hurries on his way.
Bentley looks over at me. “It’s pretty dark out. Do you want to go for a short walk?”
My eyes get wide. “A walk?”
“Yes.”
“Ooh! Yes, please, please. Oh my god, I haven’t seen the outdoors in years besides that one time I tried eating the neighbor.”
“It hasn’t even been a month,” Bentley says.
“Years!”
I rush off to get properly dressed and cram my shoes on. Bentley waits at the door for me before taking my hand and leading me out.
“Do not let go of my hand to eat anyone, got it?” he asks, like us holding hands is the equivalent of being handcuffed to him.
“What if they want to be eaten?” I ask. “Just a little bit?”
“Nope. No one wants to be eaten.”
“I wouldn’t mind you eating on me a bit,” I say as I lift his arm and fake bite it.
He grins at me as he starts down the quiet and dark street. “You can eat me a little bit. No one else.”
“Fine,” I say with a grin.
The night air feels wonderful as I let my surroundings invade my senses. The noise is almost overwhelming as I hear every bug, every car, every voice that’s near me.
“Do you get used to the noise after a while or does it stay overwhelming?” Because it sure feels a bit overwhelming to me.
“You’ll get used to it and learn how to cut out things. They just become a blur of background noise after a while, if that makes sense.”
“It does,” I say. “I don’t know that I ever truly thanked you, Bentley… Like obviously I’ve been grateful, but I’m not sure you understand how much it means that you risked so much for me.”
“I know, and I understand,” he says as he kisses the side of my forehead before stilling. “Something’s wrong.”
“What?” I ask as the hand on mine tightens.
“When I let go of your hand you’re going to run to the car and just start driving.”
“W-What’s wrong?” I ask, not sensing anything off besides the spike of worry in his body.
“Shit… we’re surrounded,” he says as he pulls me in close.
“By whom?”
“Probably by someone pissed I’ve been so fucking nosy,” he says as he keeps a steady hand wrapped around me.
Unlike him, I can’t sense the vampires until they’re almost on us.
“Stay away,” Bentley says, but they’re all clad in black, unrecognizable.
“I can help you fight,” I say. “I fought Huang and the others that Corbyn made me.”
“Go get my gun. It’ll help me put them down faster,” he says. “The moment I break through them, get my gun.”
I nod, unsure if he’s telling the truth or if he really just wants to get me away. I can see about ten of them and there are only two of us. When one rushes in to grab Bentley, he lets go of me and knocks the man back as they rush for him. They don’t seem to care about me since I’m probably not much of a threat. I feel like I have to help Bentley, but I don’t know what to do. The vampire grabs onto Bentley so I hook my arm around his neck in an attempt to pull him off. He slams his arm into me, flinging me off him as another tears me to the ground. And I realize just how unmatched I am in this fray.
“Run, River. Dammit, run!” Bentley yells.
I scramble up to my feet and start running. If I can get Bentley’s gun, maybe I really can help. I’m decent with a gun, although not the best.
I run back for the house and race over to where Bentley keeps his gun when he’s not at work. The moment I step out of the house with the gun in hand, someone drives me to the ground. I fall to the porch, slamming onto my side as I roll to my back and switch the safety off. The man rushes for me as I shoot him in the chest. He growls at me as I scramble up to my feet and jump the porch railing. I need to get back to Bentley. I need to—
Pain tears into my side as I’m shoved down by a vampire I never even heard. These are nothing like Huang. These are nothing like the vampires that Corbyn would sic on me. These are monsters.
Terrified, I fight against the new vampire as she grabs for my throat. She’s flung off me by Bentley as he takes the gun from me and shoots two of them right in the head but there are too many. More than ten now and the ones who are down just keep healing.
“That’s enough,” a man says, and everyone stops to stare at us as Bentley pulls me to my feet. He’s coated in blood, and his shirt is wet with it. “Detective, back the fuck off or I’ll kill you and him and your niece and everyone else you could even think about caring about. Don’t mess with us. If I hear you’re even thinking about messing with us again, it’ll be the end of both of you.”
And then they’re gone. Bentley wavers before dropping to his knees as I realize how badly he’s wounded.
“What do I do? I need to get someone—”
Bentley shakes his head. “Just… give me a minute.”
He sinks down onto his back as I kneel next to him in the light leaking out from the house. I pull his shirt up and see that his stomach is completely torn open. My entire body suddenly feels hot as fear ignites inside me. Is he going to die? Can a vampire die from this? No… no, he’s old enough he’ll be okay, right? Please let him be all right.
He’s not responsive and I don’t know what to do so I grab his phone and scroll through the names looking for Claude’s. When I don’t see it, I notice Alexei’s. He knows about me, right? He already knows.
I quickly call him and listen to it ring.
“Hello?”
“I-Is this Alexei?” I ask.
“It… is?”
“B-Bentley was just attacked and they said we can’t tell anyone or they’ll kill us but he’s not waking up and I don’t know what to do.”
“Where are you?”
“A-At his home.”
“Shit, okay. I’ll be there shortly. Get him some blood.”
“We… don’t have any here,” I say, feeling extremely guilty that I drank the last of it.
“Just stay inside. I’ll be there in five minutes,” he says then hangs up. I grab Bentley and drag him into the house. Then I run over and grab a towel to hold against his wounds, but he has so many.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I say as Banshee comes over to figure out what the hell is going on.
It feels like hours before the door opens though I know it hasn’t been but minutes.
“Are they still here?” Alexei asks as he kneels down.
“No… I don’t think so. This is my fault. Is he going to die? It’s my fault. I just ruin everything. Why does this keep happening to me?”
“Shut up and calm down. It’s not your fault,” he says as he hands me a container of blood. I pop the lid off and hold it against Bentley’s mouth as Alexei begins to pull Bentley’s shirt off and check him all over. “See? He’s healing. He’ll be fine. He’s just healing slowly because he lost a lot of blood. Now can you tell me what happened?”
“W-We were just going for a walk when these people attacked us. At first there were about ten but more came in and Bentley sent me off for his gun… I didn’t know what to do. This is all my fault. I should have just died. All I’ve done is create bullshit for everyone else. I just don’t fucking understand what I’ve done to piss someone off this much. First, I have six months left to live, then I’m taken by a fucking psychopath, and now all of this?”
Alexei puts a hand on my shoulder. “You need to calm down. It’s not your fault. Shit happens. He’s fine. He’s already healing faster with the blood. I promise that he’ll be back to normal in ten minutes. Go lay a blanket down on the bed that can get dirty.”
I jump up and find a blanket before laying it down just in time for Alexei to carry Bentley in and set him down. Alexei pulls me out of the room as I feel horribly defeated. I feel beat down and useless. “Do you think they’d leave him alone if I left?”
He raises an eyebrow. “You really think DeGray cared about you enough to change you but would let you leave?” Alexei asks. “That’s a joke. He knew what he signed up for when he changed you. So you can’t just walk out on him. I don’t know what’s going on with all of this and you guys can tell me, but I think you’re being an idiot if you think walking out will help.”
“I just… I didn’t want to die. He was scared of me dying, so please don’t be mad at him.”
Alexei sighs as his eyes shift toward the door. “I’m not mad at him because he changed you. I’m mad because he’s a fucking idiot,” he growls. “I’m going to go look around; have him call me when he wakes up.”
I grab his arm. “No! Please don’t. They said if we dug into it anymore, they’d kill us. Let’s just drop it. Please drop it. Let them do whatever the fuck they want. We can’t control them.”
Banshee walks up to us, looks up at Alexei and meows at him.
He looks at me, then kneels down and pets the cat. I stare in pure wonder as she purrs and rubs on him. The door to the bedroom opening and Bentley staggering out doesn’t even stop it.
“Karsyn?”
I worriedly look over at him. “I… I didn’t know what to do, so I called him.”
“And the cat likes him?” Bentley says, like that’s the most concerning issue at the moment.
Alexei stops petting her and stands before folding his arms over his chest, glaring at Bentley, then turning to leave.
“Alexei, please, I’m sorry.”
“You were an asshole, but I slightly forgive you. But still. Asshole. I’m going home. If you need help with whatever this is, let me know.”
“No, we’re going to drop it,” I say. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt or dying. We’re done.”
Bentley sighs as he walks over to the table and sits down. He’s extremely pale and a bit shaky but seems all right otherwise.
Alexei waves to the kitchen. “I brought blood and put it in the fridge. If you need more while he’s getting shit figured out, let me know. Keep him fed or you’re going to end up with an accident and a prison sentence.”
“I know…” Bentley says. “I’m trying. Thank you so much.”
“Yeah,” Alexei says before leaving.
I walk over to Bentley and reach for him, but I don’t want to hurt him. He grabs my wrist and pulls me onto his lap. “I’m all healed, come here. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so openly looking into him. We’re going to back off for now, okay?”
I nod, even though I know he shouldn’t be the one apologizing when I’m the one who threw him into this mess. “I love you and I can’t live without you, so please… please for now, let’s just back off,” I say.
He squeezes me tightly. “I love you too. And this terrified me about what would happen if they wanted you dead.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
“Why would I be mad at you? The only thing I’m mad about is Banshee letting Alexei pet her. Alexei, of all people.”
I smile at him and wonder what I could have done differently to save the people being used and abused by the vampires. Because right now, it feels like there’s no option but to step back.