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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 
BENTLEY
Since River hasn’t used his laptop in the weeks since he was turned, I pick it up to move it off the desk in my bedroom to the dresser. When I set it down, a Post-it falls out that reads: Bentley, if I die, the password to the second file is Amara.
Second file?
I turn the computer on and type in the password he’d given me a while ago. Then I click on File Explorer and see that he has a second document labeled the same as the first one I’d been reading with the addition of a two after it. It instantly asks for a password and I’m left staring at it in confusion. Is it wrong of me to open it when he’s not dead? Of course it’s wrong of me, but has he been lying or evading the truth about something else?
Just a peek won’t hurt anything, right?
I type Amara’s name in and hit enter as guilt immediately fills me while the file opens up.
Bentley, I want to tell you something that I didn’t tell you before. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell you, it was that I couldn’t. I was scared that if you found out, my family would be killed, and I couldn’t live with myself if I got my family hurt. I wasn’t heroic enough that I battled my way away from the vampire who had me. I wasn’t some hero who was on some vendetta revenge war plan or some bullshit. I’m just some regular guy from some boring town who is probably going to die during this surgery tomorrow (if you’re reading this then I’m dead. Don’t be sad because you now have a quite rare and exclusive Banshee in your life who is awesome enough she makes up for everything else).
Alright, here’s the down and dirty because I don’t have time to make it a clean and beautiful story. Corbyn conditioned me into believing that there was only one way to survive and it was to listen to him. Not listening to him often resulted in pain, terror, and me pissing my pants. So… he conditioned me into listening. I should have realized it was some fucked-up game he was playing where he etched these names into my head until they were burned there. Then he gave me a gun, he gave me a motive, he gave me the threat of killing my family if I told anyone (or I fucked up), and he sent me out to do his dirty work. This whole thing? It was orchestrated by him.
I did the theatrics but the drugs, the bullets, the money, all of that came from him. Now you’re coming in and I can’t finish writing this. I’ll tell you the rest after you go to sleep.
And because River’s goal in life is to make things difficult for me, he never finished it.
Fuck. But he claims the reason he didn’t go to the police was that someone from law enforcement was involved. There are countless people working it, but the only one who has had a spike in interest with the group is Chief Bowman. We all assumed he was interested in the case because of Governor White, but it is strange for him to be involved.
River’s been out of it for weeks now, which I’m honestly thankful for because work has been absolutely shitty. After the body in the river and Perez’s death, shit just plummeted hard at the VRC. The attention of everyone there was snapped away from River’s case and thrown into Finn’s. It’s not unusual for our overworked staff to be juggling two large cases at once, but with River quiet, there’s been not a peep from anything that could be considered suspicious after Huang’s death. With Wren and the others gone, we’re left worrying about what will happen to Finn. There’s just too much shit on my plate. And everything with River seems to be a dead end after dead end. But if River knows more than he’s letting on, if he’s really being controlled by this Corbyn man, does he know more?
I walk into the kitchen and stop abruptly as I see River lying on his stomach, staring at Banshee.
“Are you planning on eating the cat or watching it?” I ask. I try to keep the two separate, since I still don’t trust him, but I do what I can.
River looks up at me and grins. “You never know. Can I get out of the house so I can zoom around?”
“No.” I want to ask him about Corbyn, but I feel kind of guilty for looking into his laptop. I’ll ask him about it, but I don’t want to get into it right before Watson’s arrival.
“So I can’t leave but Watson can come over?” he asks suspiciously. “Come here, Banshee. Let me feast upon your furry neck!”
Banshee, the warrior she is, trots right over to him. He grabs her and rolls around on the ground with her as I hover nearby, absolutely terrified he’s going to eat her. He’s tried eating the fish who barely have blood multiple times, but so far, he’s been good with Banshee and all the fish are still thriving.
“Watson already knows about you, and if I let you outside and you come across like roadkill or some shit, you’ll attack it.”
“I would never,” he says as he belly crawls over to me and pretends to gnaw on my leg. He’s taking this “being a vampire” nonsense extremely well.
He pulls my leg, like he’s planning on dragging me to the ground, so I reach down and pick him up off the floor. I carry him over to the couch and sit down on it with him held tightly in my arms.
“How’d you get even more handsome after I became a vampire?” he asks as he cups my face between his hands.
“I don’t think I’ve changed.”
“You totally changed,” he says.
He’s been sleeping so much that we barely get time to be with each other, but I’ve appreciated all the time he’s spent wrapped up in my embrace. He’s easily pleased by passing out in my arms and leaving me in awkward positions where I can’t possibly move him because he’s so damn cute.
He snuggles up against me and kisses my cheek. “I kind of want to eat you.”
“Please don’t eat me.”
He licks my neck, which I know is not done in a sexy way and instead because he literally wants to eat me. “Just a little eating.”
“I won’t taste good.”
“Chomp chomp.”
“No chomping.”
He smiles at me as he pokes my face. “You look like ice cream. I want blood ice cream!”
“Well… I guess at least I’m similar to your favorite fetish,” I say as he squeezes me tightly and smiles at me. I love moments like this where I can just hold him and don’t have to worry about whether or not it’s the last time I do.
There’s a knock, so I set him to the side and go over to the door to open it. Watson smiles at us. “Good to see you both.”
“Thanks for coming out here. I would have taken him to you, but I don’t… trust him yet,” I say.
“I tried eating his fish once, and he’s terrified I’ll take down all of mankind,” River says as he walks up with Banshee in his arms. Banshee takes one look at Watson and hisses at him before batting the air in front of her like she’d enjoy slicing his face off.
Watson’s eyes narrow as he looks at the demon cat. “Quite a feisty little thing.”
“She only likes River,” I explain.
“She likes you too! She hasn’t drawn blood on you in forever!”
Likes… me… too? I think about waking up with her lying on my nose and mouth like she thought that if I were human, she’d suffocate me. Yesterday, she leapt out of the bathtub where she’d been hiding and scared me to death as she wrapped her claws around my leg and bit my knee. She’s fucking evil!
Her tail is twitching as River hands her off to me like he thinks I want I hold her. Her green eyes stare at me as her tail flips around, clearly dissatisfied.
“Thanks for coming earlier; I forgot we had a VRC meeting today,” I say.
“A meeting for the vampires as a reminder not to eat people, right?” River jokes.
I grin. “Yes. Finn’s excited he lucked out and doesn’t have to go, and I’m a bit jealous.”
Watson chuckles. “I don’t think you guys have to worry about Finn eating anyone.”
“He’s not really tall enough to reach anyone’s neck, is he?” River teases.
“Ohhh, don’t let him hear you say that,” I say, making Watson laugh. He clearly gets Finn and his aversion to height jokes.
“So Finn will be home this evening? You think they’d be concerned leaving him all alone like that. Or will Orin be watching him?” Watson asks.
“I think Orin will be out, but Claude, Marcus’s brother, will be there.”
“I see. I hope nothing happens,” he says.
I carry Banshee, who is oddly allowing it, into the kitchen where Watson has River sit down at the table. He makes him do some different tests as I watch and find myself scratching behind Banshee’s ears.
“You look good,” Watson says.
“I’m afraid I’m going to run out of blood the way we’re going,” I admit. My card shows my allotted amount of blood per month so the government can keep a decent amount of blood on the market for people. Even if I buy blood at something like a café, I have to show my ID for it and it counts toward my allotted amount. A lot of people think it’s a conspiracy to keep tabs on and control the vampires, but there’s no proof to any of it.
“Hmm… I see how that’s a concern. Let me see if I can think of something. Young vampires feed much more often as well.” Watson tips River’s head down. “It’s extremely strange that his hair is growing in white where I removed the tumor.”
“I’m just glad I’m not bald, but yes, it stands out quite a bit,” River says as he reaches up and runs his fingers over the white patch that’s vibrant in his brownish-black hair. “So… you think everything is good? The tumor is gone? I’m going to be fine?”
Watson smiles. “You look extremely healthy to me. We removed all of the tumor, so you’re good to go.”
“He’s been extremely lethargic for weeks; do you think that’ll get better?”
“Yes, he looks fine. So it’s most likely because the body takes a while to recover from everything he experienced. Not only was he changed, but he’d just had surgery, he was dying—it’s a lot to go through. I wouldn’t be surprised if it still took him a couple more weeks before he functions as well as or better than he did before.”
“Thank you, Watson,” I say as I give him a smile. “You really… you did so much for us.”
River gives him a huge smile. “I would be dead if it weren’t for you. Thank you for keeping me alive.”
“Of course,” he says as he gives River’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“And for not telling anyone about this,” I add.
“Don’t stress about it. When I decided to become a doctor, it was because I wanted to save people, and sometimes… there’s a way to save people that’s not exactly the ‘right’ way. But then again, who knows what the right way is?” He finishes his checkup and heads for the door, leaving me alone with River.
“I need to get going here in a little bit. I’m going to lock Banshee up, and do you want me to handcuff you?”
“I’m not running off and eating anyone. I feel bloated from how much blood you force-feed me. I’m good,” he assures me as I put Banshee in her crate. She lives up to her name the moment I put her in it by yowling loudly, but I’d really prefer River not eat her.
As I turn around, River is there with a smile on his face. I think this is the longest he’s been responsive since I changed him. He wraps his arms around my neck and smiles at me in the way he does that makes me want to give in to anything he wants.
Instead, I just kiss his lips. “Be good.”
“What will you give me if I’m good?” he asks.
“If you’re still awake when I get home, we’ll just see,” I tease.
“Hmm… I can’t wait,” he says before kissing my lips again. He doesn’t have the whole fang thing figured out and kissing is a bit of an experience, but he’s cute, so I let him do anything he wants. Which… seems to be the story of our life so far.
“Don’t eat my fish.”
“I’ll be patient and just snack on you when you come home.”
“Don’t eat the cat.”
His smirk falls to a mock glare. “Come on, have some faith in me!”
“Don’t eat the neighbor.”
“The neighbor is like ninety and shriveled up and probably has old blood.”
I raise an eyebrow. “And you know what the neighbor looks like because?”
River stares at me with wide eyes. “I… like… watching blood bags—people… walk around outside as my mouth waters.”
I’m quite terrified of this fact. “Oh my god, you’re going to eat someone!”
He starts laughing. “I’m joking! I was just testing my ears out. I could hear something and saw him taking out the trash. I won’t leave the house.”
“Okay,” I say before giving him a squeeze. “I can’t lose you.”
He gives me another kiss before I head back to get a shower and get ready to go. Once I’m dressed and positive he’s not gnawing on the cat, I head out. When I reach the meeting location, I immediately hunt for Marcus and Alexei, so I’m at least with people I know.
“This needs to end,” Marcus growls as he anxiously begins pacing. He’s rightfully concerned about leaving Finn alone when that monster is still after him. But the monster has been quiet for a bit, so I understand him doing so.
“Calm down, I’m sure Finn will be fine. It’s honestly a surprise anyone would even want that annoying thing,” Alexei says, trying to lighten the mood.
Marcus grumbles at Alexei, but it at least distracts him momentarily. I can imagine the stress he’s going through with Finn at the moment. He hasn’t let him out of his sight in weeks as far as I’m aware.
“Claude is watching him, right?” I ask.
“Yes. Claude,” Marcus growls and Alexei’s face scrunches up.
I happen to find Marcus’s brother Claude rather nice but these two have anger management issues and Claude’s happiness seems to ruin their lives.
“Church,” Wren says which just adds to Marcus’s bad day. I forgot that he’d be here, since it’s a requirement for all the vampire units in the state. Foster and Grant are trailing behind him but before Marcus can take his bad day out on anyone, the chief of police, Bowman, takes the stage and begins talking. Could Bowman have more of a hand in this than I ever imagined? Could he be Corbyn?
All I know is that tomorrow, River and I are going to talk about this, and I hope he trusts me enough to tell me the truth.
      
RIVER
I’d assumed Bentley would have been back by now. I anxiously look at my phone, hoping for some reply. I know Corbyn said he’d be patient with me, but he’s clearly getting tired of my excuses. I guess “recovering from a brain tumor operation” wasn’t enough for him.
I hear a noise outside the door and slowly walk toward it. Is Bentley home?
He has blankets over all of the windows so the sunlight can’t leak in, but now that it’s night, I can push it to the side. The driveway is empty, so it must not be him. Maybe it was just a dog or a cat or something because I can’t hear them anymore.
Suddenly, the front door slams inward and Corbyn smiles at me. “I wondered where you’d gone but of course you’d be here with your new detective. And that’s when I realized just why my sweet little prodigy is avoiding me.”
I stare at him, unsure of what to do. Now that I’m a vampire, I’m stronger, but can I protect myself? And at what cost? He swears he’ll have someone kill my family if I don’t listen to him, so it’s probably best to just let him do as he wants.
He grabs me by the throat and slams me against the wall. “Did you think you could just stop listening to me?”
“I told you about the surgery. And you’ve been watching what I was doing. Like you were there the night I had White—”
He gives me a fang-filled grin. “Oh, but you didn’t tell me about this. I see the detective turned you. When were you going to mention that?”
“He didn’t! It wasn’t him,” I say, anxious that he could now hold this over our heads.
He yanks my head back as he leans over me. “Don’t lie to me.” He grabs my throat and digs his fingers into my neck, nails sinking into my skin as fear rises inside of me. I was an idiot to think I could avoid him, to think I could stop doing what he asked of me.
I shove him back and he swipes my abdomen with his free hand, making pain spike inside me. Quickly pushing the front door open, I rush outside and start running toward the backyard, hoping to get away from him. My legs are moving faster than they’ve ever moved, but it’s nothing compared to him as he slams into me and drives me to the ground. He grabs my neck as I kick and fight against him.
“Stop fighting or I’ll kill that sweet detective the moment he steps into his fucking driveway.”
I force the fight in me down as I stop what I’m doing and look up at him. “Please! This is your fight! Let me go.”
“This is not just my fight. This is your fight too, is it not? Do you want others to go through this?” Corbyn asks.
I don’t, I really don’t, but I know there are better ways to do this. Ways that will help them faster. If he’d just help me or go to the police it could end. “No! But the way you’re doing it is all fucked up and wrong! Why can’t you just help me?” My stomach is aching as it slowly heals, but I can feel my shirt wet with blood.
“Because I wanted to watch their fucking faces as a human tore them apart, but you couldn’t even do that right!” he growls as he hits me.
His weight keeps me pinned down as I watch him close his eyes and take a deep breath. It’s like he’s trying to think about something, and all the while I’m left wondering what I should do to keep from him killing me or someone I love or care about.
His eyes open and they instantly drop down to mine as he leans over and grabs my face in his hand. “Alright, I see you love making things difficult for me, but this will be fine. I’m going to give you a list of people you’re going to kill. And if you don’t kill them, I’m going to kill your brother, and then your father, and then your mother. I’ll probably even kill that cute little dog of yours too. And then I might as well kill that stupid detective you’ve become so smitten with. Really, maybe I should just kill him now. You were listening so well until he popped up on scene. Is he the issue?”
I try to shake my head, but his grip prohibits it. “No. I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt him. I promise I’ll listen.”
“And you haven’t told him who I am, right?”
“No! I swear. He doesn’t know.”
“Because he’s awfully suspicious as he wanders around, and we can’t have him sniffing too hard now, can we? And if you do tell him, that’s the end of everyone you love.”
“No. I’ll listen.”
“I will be in contact with what I want you to do next. Okay?”
I nod. “Yes.”
“That’s my good boy. Now don’t piss me off again or you know what happens,” he says before leaving. I roll up onto my side in the backyard of Bentley’s house. My stomach aches where he cut me open, but I’m still healing. I stagger toward the house as I realize how unbelievably hungry I am. When I look down, I see all the blood soaking into my pants and shirt and my desire for blood spikes.
I just need to get into the house and chug whatever blood is in the fridge.
“Hey, there!”
My head snaps around as my eyes fixate on the neighbor taking his trash out. He looks a bit confused by my fixation but shrugs and drops his trash in. Blood… so much fresh blood running through his veins.
I move toward him, unable to tear my eyes away as he closes the lid and continues up toward the house, not understanding what’s happening. My nails bite into my palms as I take a step in his direction.
And then I begin to run toward him.
No! I can’t kill him. I can’t kill the neighbor. If I bit him, would I stop? I sidestep to the right and slam into a tree. Desperately, I grab onto it, aching to keep it between us as a way to keep myself from looking at him. I couldn’t live with myself if I killed him.
Oh, but the blood. I need the blood more than I’ve needed anything in my life.
That’s when I see someone walking toward me.
      
BENTLEY
I can’t believe the vampire attacked Finn. He knew Marcus would be gone and waited until he was just out of reach before attacking. It’s like he’s toying with him, but at least Finn’s safe and no one died. When I pull into my driveway, I instantly know something’s wrong. From here, I can see that the front door is cracked open and panic fills me.
Did something happen? Did River run off? What if he hurts someone? What if someone hurts him?
I rush out as the smell of blood fills my nose.
“No, no, no,” I whisper as I run toward the back of the house. That’s when I see someone leering over River as he holds his stomach coated in blood.
Without thinking, I grab them and drive them to the ground. They’re quick as they slip to the side and knee me hard before flipping me onto my back where they pin me down.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Alexei growls, and I still instantly.
“Alexei?” I ask in surprise.
“You have a baby vampire and you’re going to attack me over it?”
I shove him off me before turning to face him. “Why are you here? Why are you on my land?” I growl as I flash him my fangs.
His eyes narrow as his expression tightens. “Ah, just going to turn into a jackass, are we? You have no right to snap at me when you’ve created that.”
“You act as if I had a choice. I had no fucking choice, and if you try to hurt him, you have to go through me,” I growl.
There’s a flash of hurt on Alexei’s face that startles me and I realize how insane I’m acting. I don’t even know what’s happening here, and I’m pointing all fingers at Alexei? Did he even attack River? I’m threatening him, and why? For what?
“Fuck you, DeGray. Fuck you,” he growls before heading to his car.
I rush after him and reach for him but he sidesteps me as his eyes narrow. “You can’t tell anyone.”
“Fuck you,” he says as he gets into his car and slams the door shut before taking off, tires squealing.
I run over to River who is huddled on the ground, arms wrapped around his legs as he rocks slowly. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” River just keeps rocking until I say his name louder. This time he jumps and looks up at me. “Did Alexei hurt you?”
“N-No, he didn’t hurt me, he was trying to help me. I almost attacked the neighbor,” River says as he looks up at me with clear pain on his face. “I almost killed the neighbor.”
“And… Alexei stopped it?” Why the hell did I attack Alexei? I feel like the biggest asshole ever. I don’t even understand why I did it. I just rushed him without thinking.
“Yes… fuck… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Who attacked you?” I ask.
River hesitates and then shakes his head. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing to me and tell me some fucking truth, River! You know who this guy is, so tell me and this can end!”
He keeps shaking his head as his hands ball up into fists. “But it won’t end! He has people working for him. He has the ones he turned, and he told me he’d kill my entire family and you. He’ll do it. I know he’ll do it and I can’t, Bentley. I can’t lose them.”
“I know, but—”
River grabs onto me, his eyes locking on as he shakes me. “I can’t do this. I can’t let my family die.”
His fingers dig into my arms as he rocks back and forth. “River, we need to end this. Please. People are dying and we can stop it.”
He turns his head away from me. “Well, aren’t I fucking selfish then because I just want you and my family to keep living! Why can’t you just drop it? Please! Forget about it!”
Why is he being so unreasonable? “He attacked you. I’m not going to just forget about it!”
“Because I wasn’t listening to him!”
I hear a noise behind me, and River’s eyes immediately latch on to the neighbor.
“Everything okay?” he asks softly.
River moves toward him, like he’s going to attack him, and I grab him in my arms. “Everything is fine,” I assure him. “He just fell and sprained his ankle. We’re good, thank you.”
I pick him up and quickly carry him into the house before there can be an accident. His nails dig into my back as he longingly looks toward the area the neighbor was. I carry him straight over to the fridge and grab some blood. I move to warm it, but he’s on it instantly. He chugs it down as I realize how low I’m getting on blood. He’s going through it far too quickly and I have no way to get it once it’s gone, beyond hunting for animals myself. They don’t take too kindly to handing blood over, and I’ll probably have to kill them, which I hate doing.
River cradles the empty bottle against himself as he looks at me. “I’m sorry I almost attacked the neighbor. I’m so sorry. What if I’d killed him?”
“It’s okay. You didn’t. You did good,” I assure him as I wrap him up in my arms and hold him against me while I realize that I really don’t know what he could’ve done. And River wouldn’t have handled the guilt of killing him.
I keep his head tucked tightly against me as I kiss his forehead and beg that I can figure out what to do. I want to keep him safe and I want to keep him happy, but I feel at a loss on how to do either. He’s going to eat himself up about this when I just want everything to be normal for him and for him to be happy.
“I promise I’ll make everything better. I promise everything will be okay.”
And I really hope I can keep that promise.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 
BENTLEY
I hate leaving River alone, but the case with Finn is getting more and more dicey, and I know my team needs me. There’s no one to help us and no one to watch Finn in case the man who attacked him returns. River asks that I keep him handcuffed so he can’t go anywhere, so that’s what I do.
“Are you positive you’re okay?” I ask as I run my fingers through his hair. I tug gently on the white patch.
“Positive! I have a TV remote, a book, another book, some video games.” He looks around the king-sized bed laden with items. “I’m almost positive there’s not room for anything else. You’re only gone for like eight or nine hours, right?”
I smile as I lean over and kiss the top of his head. Understanding what I want, he tips his head back and smiles in return before kissing me. I savor the feeling of his soft lips on mine before I sigh. “I hate leaving you alone.”
“He’s not going to touch me or hurt me. He told me he’d send me some information and he’s never sent it. So he can’t get pissed at me if he’s never sent me anything. And I promise I’ll let you know exactly what he asks for. I’m sure he won’t get upset if you’re helping me.”
I nod, even though I don’t like this and he knows it. “Yeah… be good.”
“The absolute best. Your fish are just out of reach.”
“They would barely have enough blood to even taste it!”
“I’m going to be real honest and say that when you were in the shower one time, I grabbed one but the moment I tasted the fish water on my tongue, it snapped me out of it and I put it back. We’re friends now,” he says.
“You are out of control,” I realize.
He starts laughing. “Not anymore.” He jingles the handcuffs I got from work that were specifically designed to hold a vampire. “Please be safe. I won’t do anything stupid. I’ll watch porn, and you just need to remember that I’m handcuffed and waiting for you to come home.”
I stare at him as he gives a fucking wink. “You’re seriously going to say that as I’m walking out the door?”
River gives me a grin. “You’re the kinky boy who tied me up.”
“Oh, fuck me, no.” I give him one last kiss before rushing for the door. I can’t be late; I’ve already missed enough work that I don’t need anyone saying something to me. Especially when Alexei knows.
Once at work, I try to corner Alexei to apologize, but he quickly sticks to Marcus’s side, so I head to my desk. I pull out both versions of River’s journal and study them closely. One thing that stands out to me is the bullets and drugs he has. River claims this Corbyn man is getting them for him. There was speculation that the bullets were similar to the ones we confiscated from Perry, the man who’d been trying to create chaos between the humans and vampires. Wren’s crew assumed River had been buying them from somewhere, or that perhaps he’d been in contact with Perry or his group at some point.
But River stating that Corbyn was getting them for him tells me the man really is working law enforcement.
I head to the evidence room before stopping in front of Li, the woman in charge of it.
“Good morning, Li, I had a question.”
She gives me a smile. “Of course.”
“So when they analyzed the drug I was injected with, they found components similar to the bullets that were used during Perry’s case. Is there a way you could tell me where those bullets went?”
“I can… are you looking into Huang’s case again? I thought they closed it.”
“Just something’s bothering me about it.”
“Of course,” she says as she turns to her computer. “If I remember right, we did take in some of the bullets, but the majority went with Wren’s analyst crew.”
“And the ones here are still accounted for?” I ask.
“Of course,” she says as she turns away from the computer. “Seems everything is in order.”
“Could you double-check?”
“You’re speculating they’re gone? But if they were the bullets used to shoot Huang, the analyst team would have identified them,” she says.
“Just for fun,” I say. Even if they weren’t the same bullets, someone could be duplicating them.
Li shrugs and gets up before heading over to the evidence room. She unlocks the door and we walk inside to where she goes over to their exact location. She opens the box, and I don’t even have to look inside to tell they’re gone. Her face tells me just that.
“Well, shit,” she says. “So you think the man who killed Huang stole the bullets?”
“Or someone stole them for him,” I say thoughtfully.
“So it’d have to be someone who had access to the evidence room and you pretty much know everyone who had access.”
I think of the people I work with but that couldn’t be right, could it? I couldn’t imagine any of them being the man doing this to River. But then again, I’m making assumptions because I don’t want it to be true.
Fuck.
“I’ll look into it. It’s my fault if this happened,” Li says.
“It’s not your fault at all. There’s no way you could have known this was going to happen,” I say.
She hesitates. “Well… hold on. Come with me.” She rushes over to security and types in an exact date before glancing at her log and typing a time in. We watch as Finn enters the room and heads straight for the shelf the bullets were on before Briar steps into the room, interrupting him.
“Finn… took them?” I ask in disbelief. “What date was this?”
“It was only two days ago, so it doesn’t match up with your hypothesis,” she says.
“Shit… he probably took them thinking they’d help him kill the vampire after him. I mean… I don’t blame him. We aren’t even legally allowed to carry bullets like that which is bullshit.”
“He told me he was looking into something with Tonya Everest’s case. If I report him, he’ll lose his job,” she says as she looks up at me, like she wants to know what I think about that.
Fuck, and it’d be all my fault. “Please don’t report him. Not yet, at least. Let me find him. Let me talk to him. I don’t want to be the reason he loses his job if he’s really just doing this because he’s terrified.”
She bites her lip as she thinks about it. “Okay… I’ll contact the other office and have them check. If they’re gone as well and we can pin their disappearance on someone other than Hayes, then maybe they just happened to take these ones too if anyone ever notices their disappearance.”
I grab her hands and squeeze them. “Thank you. I’m sorry for dragging you into this.”
I rush out and tell Brooks I need to go out into the field but instead, I drive to Finn’s father’s house, where Finn has been staying since the attacks on him started. Marcus is at work, so thankfully I won’t have to deal with him. Once I arrive, I knock on the door.
The door opens and Claude beams at me. He was horribly wounded during the last attack, so I’m surprised he’s still playing guard with Finn, but I think he really likes him.
“Well hello there, normal detective.”
“Is… Is that what I am?” I ask, confused.
“Well, yes. Karsyn’s the sexy one, Marcus is the evil one, and Finn is the loud one.”
“Who are you calling loud?” Finn shouts.
“See?” Claude asks with a grin. “Loud.”
“Can I talk to Finn?”
“Perhaps. Did you bring the sexy one along?”
Claude has very clearly taken an interest in Alexei. “No, just me. I had a question for Finn.”
“And you couldn’t call? How interesting,” Claude says with a mischievous grin.
“Claude, stop harassing him,” Finn says as he walks up. “I’ll make Marcus put you in a dog crate again if you don’t.”
“Ha. Ha. So funny,” he says as he waves me on inside to where Finn is approaching.
“DeGray? I’m surprised to see you here.”
“Can we talk privately?”
Finn nods. “Yeah, of course.” He waves me to follow him and I notice Claude instantly joins right in. “Without you, Claude.”
“There is no ‘Without Claude.’ Without Claude is like without blood or air or water if you’re a weak little human.”
“Go text Karsyn using my phone,” Finn says as he hands it off to him. I’ve never seen an explosion of a smile as big as the one Claude is wearing as he wanders off.
“Sometimes… I feel really bad for Karsyn, but other times, I think he enjoys it, and I feel like I’m awesome at smooshing them together. Unless someone else wants me to play Cupid for them.” Finn stares me down as I realize I missed something.
“Huh?” I ask, confused before I realize what he’s meaning. “No matter how hard you try to build something, there’s nothing there.”
“Fine, fine. Claude it is for poor Karsyn. I think it’s hilarious, if I’m being honest… how feisty he gets.” He pulls the door shut and turns to me. “What is it?”
“Why’d you take the bullets out of the evidence room?”
His smile plummets and his body stiffens as he stares at me. “What?”
“The bullets were taken.”
He looks nervous more than guilty as he shifts on his feet. “Yeah… not—”
“I saw the video. Just tell me why.”
Finn swallows hard and his eyes drop. “I just… need to stop him and I know regular bullets won’t do it. I don’t want to die or let anyone else I love die, DeGray.”
“I know. That’s fine. I… thought someone else took them, and I thought it was a lead for the case, so Li knows, but she’s promised not to say anything.”
The look on Finn’s face switches to one of terror. “Li… Li knows? Fuck… I’m going to get fired, aren’t I?”
“We’re not going to tell anyone. Okay? I just… I need to know it has nothing to do with Huang’s case.”
Finn gives me a look of surprise. “Huang? Is this about River?”
I still as I stare at him and Finn immediately starts laughing.
“We are literally the worst detectives. The moment you said something about the bullets I’m sure my face gave it all away and same with you for this River guy. No, I had nothing to do with the Huang case beyond working it with you. Wait, so… you think someone from the department is involved and you think the bullets are the same… but no, they can’t be because we would have identified them, right?”
“Unless someone is fucking with the reports,” I say. “Someone’s pulling strings. We all know how suspicious it was for them to wrap up the case so easily.”
Finn’s silent for a moment. “After I was finished interrogating River, what did Wren send Grant in for?”
“Grant?” I ask, confused. Grant was a part of Wren’s group, but he was pretty quiet and focused on the job. I thought I was the only one who went in after Finn. “I didn’t know he did… River never said anything… I have to go.”
Finn grabs my wrist before I can run. “No! Don’t leave me here! I’m going to perish of boredom, let me help!” he pleads.
“No, you’re not allowed to help. I shouldn’t even be here, and if Marcus—”
“If Marcus what?” Marcus growls from behind me. How the hell didn’t I hear him?
Finn clings on tighter. “He’ll only kill you once, I promise. It’ll be fine. Please! Please, DeGray, please!”
“What’s going on here?” Marcus asks.
Claude steps up between Finn and me and puts an arm over each of our shoulders. “Ah, just a regular orgy. What about you?”
Marcus’s eyes narrow. “I will murder you.”
Claude laughs and hurries me over to the door. “You’d better run before he murders you.”
“Can you look into a name for me?” I ask.
Claude looks delighted to be involved. “Ooh, of course. I do love doing things that make me seem important. Hit me up.”
I exchange phone numbers with him so when I have all of Grant’s information, I can send it his way. He assures me he can figure it out with just his last name and job title.
“Oh, and DeGray? Maybe just slip into your next conversation with Karsyn how amazingly helpful I am.”
Well, seeing as Alexei currently hates me, I don’t think that’s a good idea. “I’ll get right on that,” I lie. Claude seems pleased as he hurries off and I start walking out to the car where I get a call from Li.
“Hey, what did you find?” I ask.
“The bullets are missing, so they’re combing through data at the moment.”
“Without drawing too much attention to it, can they look into whether or not Grant might have been involved?” I ask.
“Grant? Um… yeah, I can ask about him. Let me see what I can do.”
When I hang up with her, River almost immediately calls.
“You detecting stuff?” River asks.
“Um… what?”
“As a detective. Detecting… get it? Ha… ha… you know what? I’m funny. I’m hilarious, actually. Banshee just told me I’m hilarious. I asked if she would share just a drop of blood and she clawed me and told me to eat the fish. But I’m a good boy. I’ve eaten nothing.”
“I can always tell when you’re hungry. Everything in the conversation turns to food,” I say.
He snickers. “I’m not hungry. I just said the fish looked good again.”
“Hmm… yeah,” I say suspiciously. I start driving as he continues on.
“Did you know that the average human has around one-point-three gallons of blood in their body?”
“Are you looking up blood facts?”
“No. Ew. Why? Gross. I would never—and that a person can die from losing two and a half liters of blood. I couldn’t remember how many liters went into a gallon so if I took one gallon of blood there’d be three-point-seven liters. And that’s a lot of blood.”
“River?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Don’t eat the cat.”
“My god, I would never eat my cat. Cats only have eight and a half ounces of blood and that’s not even worth ruining my whole life for. You know? Like I would hate myself so much I’d probably just die.”
“I’ll be home in like four hours. Please don’t eat anything.”
“Fangs for the heads up. Get it? Fangs? Like thanks… oh my god, Bentley, I think my brain got messed up in the surgery. Do you think my brain got messed up?”
“No, you’re just dealing with your body changing and wanting to eat everything.”
“That makes sense. Come home and bring an elephant. They have sixty-five gallons of blood.”
“Be good. Stay away from the cat. The door is still closed, right?”
“Oh, no, she opened the door like hours ago and has been licking her butt on your pillow. I told her it was a bit gross, but when she looked at me her cute little pink tongue was sticking out and I told her she could do whatever she wanted.”
“Wonderful. Amazing. Thanks, hon.”
“You’re welcome, blood bag.”
I sigh as he laughs and hangs up and I realize that I have no idea why he called beyond stating random blood facts at me. I debate going home and locking up Banshee again and pleading with River to stop thinking about blood, but I have to trust him sometime, I suppose. And if he ate Banshee, I could get him a nice cat, and would it really be that much of a loss?
Back at work, Brooks pulls me into some stuff dealing with our current case, making me put River’s stuff on hold. When I finally get done, it’s after dark and I’ve barely dug into Grant at all. I also need to find a way to keep River’s family safe before I take too many risks, since that’s River’s main hesitance on working with me.
I decide I can keep working from home and head out the door. As I’m walking toward my car, I immediately feel a strange presence and hesitate as I look around for the location of it. When I don’t see them immediately, I slowly continue walking while keeping an eye out.
That’s when I see someone sitting in the passenger seat of my car, clearly enjoying my struggle to find him. Hesitantly, I walk over to my car and pull the driver’s door open before looking in at Grant.
“I hear you’re looking for me,” he says as I stoop down low enough to get a good look at him.
“I wasn’t looking for you. I was looking into you,” I clarify.
He waves his hand through the air. “Oh, same difference, now come in, come in. I’d like to chat.”
I grit my teeth as I get into the car and do everything in my power to keep from tearing his head clean off his body because I could do it. He seems to realize this because he chuckles.
“Don’t fuck with me—I have people watching River’s family. If I don’t respond to them, then they’re all going to die. See, I realize I’ve been going about this wrong. I was planning on having River do all the dirty work for me, but then you went and changed him, and now… I realize that it’s not him I need. He’s too young and out of control at this point, but you… I could use you,” he says.
“You’re not using me,” I growl at him. There’s no way I would let this monster use me. After he touched River, I want to destroy him.
He gives me a sad look, as though he pities me. “But if you don’t, River’s family dies and I really don’t need River doing things for me anymore, so I’ll just take him back. You don’t mind if I keep him, right?”
I bare my fangs at him, angry he’d even mention touching what is mine. “I will kill you if you touch him.”
“You’re also aware I’m the only one who knows that River is innocent? I’m the only one who knows how to find these poor lost souls who’ve been taken by the greedy and selfish vampires who feast on them,” he says.
“Do you even care what happens to them? Because to me this seems like you’re playing a fucking game. You don’t give a shit what’s going on, do you?”
He grins at me, his mouth twisting up into something truly sadistic. “I want to watch them sweat. I want to watch them fret as they question if they’re next and they realize how fucked they truly are.”
“And you have no care for the humans and the lives they destroy? We could work together to bring this down. We could stop them!” I say.
He looks irritatingly amused as he shakes his head. “I’ve given up on stopping them. Now I want to destroy them. And I don’t fucking care who I have to kill to get my way. I’m going to give you my number and we’re going to be in contact with each other, alright?”
Fuck, I can’t let something happen to River and his family. Before doing anything else, I need to see how truthful he’s really being. Is he lying about having a target on their backs? He could be, but until I know for sure, I’ll do what he says.
“Fine,” I growl. “But consider doing this the right way and helping me end them.”
He just grins at me before taking my phone and adding his number to it so casually while I’m seething inside. I want to tear him apart, destroy him for even touching River. Not only that, he’s hurt him so much. He’s terrorized him, destroyed his life… fuck.
“See ya around,” he says almost teasingly as he gets out of the car, and the anger is overflowing inside me. I need to remain calm. I need to figure out who he’s working with, who knows about this, and who could hurt River and his family. And then once I know they’re safe, I’m going to tear him apart piece by piece.
I don’t know that I’ve ever felt so much rage in my life as I do at this moment. I slam my hand into the window, cracking it, and I realize that I don’t even know why I would take my anger out on my car. Quickly, I drive home, feeling like at least being with River has to help.