Tessa’s POV“Tess, you know this guy?” Ruby asked, staring wide-eyed at Carter who was standing in the center of my living room.“Uh…” I said slowly, not sure how to respond. “Yes?”Okay, that was lame. Carter gave Ruby a small smile and bowed his head slightly at her.“I’m Carter, Tessa’s cousin,” he explained.My eyes widened at his quick lie. Ruby gave me a strange look as she slowly put her phone back in her bag.“You never mentioned him before,” she said, furrowing her brows together suspiciously.“He’s a distant cousin,” I said, trying to sound as convincing as I could. “We aren’t that close.”I gave Carter a look when I said that last part and he only gave me a one-shoulder shrug. He then looked back at Ruby, like he really looked at her. She was bruised around her jawline from when she was punched, and she was still holding onto her stomach from when she was kicked. I was bruised too but Carter’s attention was fully on her.“What happened to you?” He asked sounding a little t
Tessa’s POVThe school after-hours was a ghost zone. I had never been here this late at night before, but I knew Joseph liked to stay behind to get some extra work done. The halls in the academic center were completely dark and I felt a little uneasy about being there.I knew if the dean saw me here at this hour, she wouldn’t be happy. The janitor was definitely around somewhere because I could hear the vacuum in one of the classrooms. I grabbed Carter's arm, and we scurried up the stairs to the faculty office wing.Thankfully, there was a light upstairs and we weren’t walking around in the dark anymore.We made our way to Joseph’s office, and I was about to knock, but Carter shoved past me and opened the door without hesitation. I frowned deeply at him and watched as he stepped into the dark room.“He’s not here,” he muttered, shaking his head with aggravation.“What?” I asked, stepping into the room behind him. “If he’s not at home and he’s not here, where could he be?“I don’t know
Tessa’s POV“Why would you bring her here?!” Joseph growled as he paced back and forth in Chief Mulligan’s office.Carter stood in the center of the room, taking all of Joseph’s wrath.“Don’t blame Carter… it was my idea,” I said, stepping toward Carter like I was trying to protect him from Joseph’s wrath.Not that I could do much.“Of course, it was,” Joseph shot back without even looking at me. “You shouldn’t have come here, Tessa.”“Look, we don’t have time to sit around and argue about this,” Chief Mulligan said, standing to his feet. “Tessa is here, so maybe we could utilize her. You said Ryan tried to capture her before, right?”“Yes,” both Joseph and Carter said at the same time.“He almost killed her,” Joseph seethed. “Which is why she needs to return home.”“Carter is my ride,” I said, motioning to Carter. “I’m not going anywhere without him.”“Then, you can both leave,” Joseph said, glaring at Carter. “You don’t need to be here either. Why are you?”“If you answered your pho
Tessa’s POVIf Mulligan hadn’t caught me, I would have fallen over from the force of Joseph jumping between Jordan and me.“What the hell is wrong with you?” Joseph growled with fury. “I’m going to fucking kill you, Jordan!”Before Joseph had the chance to do anything, Carter swung his fist and punched Jordan right in the face. A small crowd of people took notice and jumped out of the way before Jordan’s falling body knocked anyone down.I saw blood gushing from Jordan’s face, and I knew his nose was probably broken. Both Carter and Joseph stood over Jordan, breathing deeply through their noses like they were angry bulls.I looked down and saw blood running down my forearm. I hissed as my arm stung painfully from the blood. The pocketknife had clattered to the ground and the sharp edges were covered in my blood. I grabbed my arm, trying to stop the bleeding before it began to drip onto the ground.Mulligan was quick to jump in front of Carter and Joseph.“I’ll take care of it,” Mullig
Tessa’s POV“Chief Mulligan, can I speak with you for a moment?” I asked once if they were both distracted enough to continue their conversation.Carter and Mulligan both looked at me with narrowed eyes.“Oh, hey Tessa. We didn’t see you there. How’s your arm?” Carter asked, eyeing me carefully.I lifted my arm and pulled down my shirt slightly so he could see the bandage.“Good as new,” I told him.“Jordan won’t get away with it,” Mulligan muttered, shaking his head. “I sent him back to headquarters with a couple of others. He’s suspended until further notice.”“I understand why he did what he did,” I said, adjusting my shirt. “I know that he only wanted to make my scent more potent to Ryan. I can't blame him for trying.”However, he was stupid to do that in front of Joseph and the others. He should have known it wouldn’t end well for him.“Is that what you wanted to talk about?” Mulligan asked, furrowing his brows together.I shook my head and glanced at Carter; I knew if I told Cart
Tessa’s POVThe scream was loud and incredibly high-pitched. It shook the entire building and almost made the air foggy. Though it was uncomfortable, it didn’t have the same effect as it had on the others. Mulligan and his officers dropped their weapons and tumbled to the ground.They clutched their heads and screamed in agony as blood began to ooze from their ears.Looking at the hostages, they too were clutching their ears and rolling on the ground in pure agony.Ryan stared at me with amusement before he went to grab the guns and push them aside and out of the reach of the officers.“Well, isn’t that interesting,” Ryan breathed a glimmer of humor on his face. “It seems her abilities don’t work on you. I wonder what makes you so special.”The rogue that had his hold on me tightened his embrace and hissed in my ear, making my skin crawl. I had no idea what was happening and how Fae was doing this, but I noticed that the rogues had earplugs.Ryan did too.They anticipated that this wa
Joseph’s POVTessa? Why the hell was Tessa inside the bank? I looked down and saw that Mulligan and some of the officers passed out on the ground with bleeding ears. Tessa also passed out, but she didn’t have bleeding ears. It was clear Ryan had drunk from her and she lost too much blood.My blood was boiling.Everything happened all at the same time. Rogues were coming out everywhere to attack both Carter and me. More rogues piled into the building.I witnessed Fae’s new goddess-given gift and now I’m seeing the aftermath as Mulligan struggled to regain his consciousness. When Fae stopped screaming the first time, it knocked him and the others out, but since she stopped, they were starting to twitch back to consciousness.Fae started to scream again, and it shook the entire building; I looked at Carter who returned my confused look. She was trying to take us out, but because we were elders, her abilities didn’t work for us. This gave us an advantage.I knew from Fae’s eyes that Rya
Tessa’s POVWhen I woke up, I was lying in my bed. Ruby lay next to me, curled up, and completely passed out. She wasn’t as pale as she was when I left her yesterday and looking over at the bowl that I left for her, filled with her favorite soup, Tomato, and Basil, it was completely gone.Telling from the sun that desperately tried to peer through my closed window blinds, it was morning.I tried to think about the events that unfolded last night but it was kind of foggy. I remembered the bank and the hostages. I remembered having a stupid idea to go inside and then—Oh, God. Joseph!It all seemed like a crazy dream, but it wasn’t. The building collapsed with Joseph and Carter still inside.How did I get back in my room? I reached for my neck and felt the bandages had been removed, but I felt a swollen puncture wound on my neck from when Ryan bit me.Tears instantly began to cloud my vision as I scrambled out of bed and rushed into the living room. I couldn’t breathe; I needed to fin
Tessa’s POV10 years later!“You got called here too?” Ruby asked as I walked up the steps of the middle school. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, letting it fall around my shoulders.“Are you really surprised?” I asked her, rolling my eyes.She wrapped an arm around my shoulders and held me close to her.“Just take a deep breath. Maybe it’s not too bad this time,” she said, trying to appear soothing.I gave her a pointed look.“Please, when is it ever not that bad?”“Well, they aren’t vampires yet. So, it could be worse,” she said, shrugging her shoulders and chuckling.“I can only imagine the trouble they will get into once they are vampires,” I muttered.Ruby only laughed harder as we walked into the school. We went down the hallway and towards the principal's office, but a familiar voi
Tessa’s POV“Breathe, Tessa. Just breathe!” Ruby said as she held onto my hand tightly.I’m glad she’s a vampire and strong because if she was a typical human, I would have broken her hand by now. Pain shot through my lower abdomen and into my spine, crippling me in agony. I screamed out in pain, my entire body quivering.“You are doing great,” the doctor said, looking at my vitals. “That was a big contraction. It won’t be much longer until it’s time for you to push.”“Where the hell is Joseph?” I asked through my teeth.I knew he was working when I went into labor but that was several hours ago. I thought he would be here by now.“He texted Carter a bit ago and said he was almost here,” Ruby assured me. She placed a cool cloth on my forehead, and I sighed in relief. The pain in my body started to simmer down for a moment, but I knew th
Tessa’s POVA month after the big battle 4 years ago, Amelia called me and told me that they had taken Ruby to the most elite healers in California where Amelia is originally from. Carter hadn’t left her side since they took her there. They were able to get her heart beating once again, but she remained in critical condition for a little over a year.Nobody, including me, was allowed to see her. The only ones allowed near her were Carter, her true love, and Amelia, her mother. However, Amelia tried to keep me updated as frequently as possible but for a long while, it didn’t seem like Ruby would ever wake up.But 18 months later, she finally woke. It was a long road to recovery though. Even though she was healing and awake, both Carter and Amelia thought it would be best if she remained in California and stayed isolated until she was 100 percent ready to return. Apparently, she suffered some serious PTSD, along with minor memory
Tessa’s POV4 years later. “This had got to be the longest engagement in the history of engagements,” Hannah said as she continued to fuss over my hair for the last several hours. “I’m so happy it’s finally coming to an end.”I smiled at her through the vanity mirror, feeling a lightness in my chest that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Not since my daughter, Amaya, was born.“I know,” I told her honestly, biting my lower lip, making Amy huff with dismay as she grabbed more lipstick to fix my makeup that I unknowingly ruined. “With everything that went down 4 years ago, marrying Joseph just didn’t seem right. I really wanted to get my life back in order. I wanted to succeed in my career, Joseph needed to adjust to his new role as Overseer, and plus, I didn’t want to get married pregnant.”This made both girls pause what they were doing and lo
Tessa’s POVMost of the coven stayed with me in my father’s home. Esme went out to help the police look for Penny.There was no way I was going to leave my father alone if Penny was still out there and planning on killing him. My father and I talked a lot about everything that had happened, and he apologized countless times even though I told him it wasn’t necessary.None of this was his fault and I hated that he was blaming himself.He set up sleeping bags, and air mattresses and pulled out the couch for everyone to sleep on. He has one guest bedroom that Laura and Austin occupied. Joseph and I were going to sleep in my childhood room, but I really didn’t want to leave my father and plus, I had missed him throughout these years.Even though he was in my life these past few years, with Penny around, we didn’t really have a great relationship. Now I understood why; because Penny had her claws dug deep i
Tessa’s POVThe Moon Goddess had completely taken over my body and spoke to everyone through me. She warned them what would happen if anything were to happen to me or my baby. Now it was up to them to decide if they wanted to continue hunting me to gain the powers of the Heavenly Heart, or if they were going to trust the Moon Goddess with her decision.Seeing the horror on everybody’s faces, I knew the choice they would make. It was the obvious choice; I had seen what they had seen, and they would be stupid to chance it. Their lives and the state of this earth were in their hands.Silence consumed us as everyone processed what they had just seen. Only the yelling of Carter brought me back to the present moment. I turned to look at him and I could see the straight-up horror on his face as he screamed for Ruby.I turned to see Ruby lying on the ground, her body completely still and it was clear she wasn’t breathing. But mo
Tessa’s POVEsme, Patty, Cole, Claira, and Bennet worked on putting a shield around the circle while the rest of us gathered around while Ruby stood in the center. Everybody looked equally nervous except Ruby who looked confident.I could hear the battle ongoing around us and my heart was breaking for the lives that have been lost. I glanced at my father’s house, hoping and praying that he was still inside and that he was safe.I glanced over my shoulder and through the fighting I saw Joseph kneeling on the ground beside Benard who had blood pouring out of his neck. My heart shattered in an instant. My entire concentration and faith had been broken as I felt sick from the sight before me.Bernard… no… He couldn’t be… My thoughts went back to Anna’s vision a while back about Bernard dying during a battle.Was this the battle he was meant to die in?
Tessa’s POV“We’ve enchanted the house!” Esme said as she rushed towards me. “Nobody besides your blood can get in. Including any of us.”“What about Joseph?” I asked, shouting through the chaos. “We weren’t able to exclude him either,” Esme told me. She grabbed onto my arms and gave them a gentle squeeze. “You need to go inside and protect yourself. They are here because they want your heart.”I looked around at the ongoing fight. My stomach twisted. People were dying and I couldn’t help but feel responsible. I needed to fix this, not hide like a coward.“We need to find Ruby,” I told her firmly.“We are on the lookout for her, but so far we haven’t been able to see her or Eevee,” Esme said, looking around with a frown on her face.“Have you checked everywhere?”“We c
Third Person POV (Ruby)At some point, Ruby had fallen asleep. Though, she knew right away that it wasn’t a normal sleep. It was a vision.This one felt a different thought. She was surrounded by my dark smoke, though it didn’t feel like smoke, it only looked like it. She couldn’t exactly see what was happening, but she could hear the sounds of death and destruction around her. Innocent people screaming and crying for mercy. The sounds of supernatural’s fighting and killing one another.There was so much darkness and despair, that Ruby felt a sense of dread weighing on her chest. Her breathing hitched when some of the smoke cleared, and she saw blood soaking the grass around her feet. Puddles of blood were everywhere. The sky was hazy and unrecognizable.Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at all the bodies that occupied the earth. This was too much for her to handle; why did she have to be cursed with seeing