Tessa’s POVEmily’s laugh echoed throughout the room. She was chuckling at a writer’s joke that Joseph had told the class. In fact, everybody, including Ruby was laughing. But I could only hear Emily’s laugh. Her face lit up and she touched Joseph’s shoulder as she laughed. He didn’t seem to mind it, or at least he didn’t make it known that he minded.I hated that I was feeling this way towards her. Otherwise, I would have been fangirling with the rest of the class. I absolutely loved Emily Thorton’s blog. I read it every day. I was always so eager to hear about her next adventure and see pictures of the world through her eyes.But now all I could see was an attractive girl stealing her claim on Joseph.I wanted to shout to her that he was mine, but that didn’t feel right either. Mainly because he wasn’t mine.Occasionally, Joseph’s eyes were turned in my direction, maybe to see my reaction towards him bonding with Emily right in front of me. I felt sick watching them and as much as I
Tessa’s POVI stopped midbite to look at Joseph who was now eyeing me carefully. His face was so serious and the look he was giving me took my breath away.Was he serious when he said I was the only when he’s been with this lifetime?My heart was pounding rapidly against my chest, and I had to press the palm of my hand to my chest to keep it from exploding right in front of us.He continued to look at me like I was some kind of fascinating science experiment.“I don’t date,” he continued to explain. “I don’t have a lot of free time to do so. It’s complicated explaining to women why I can’t see them during the day. But I’m not here to pursue women, I’m here because I have a job to do. I’m here to stop those new vampires from killing humans and now I’m here to protect you and make sure you aren’t their next victim. I’m also curious about you because you have blood that’s not only attractive to them but also attractive to me. It makes me nearly lose control when I’m around you and that’s
Tessa’s POVEmily stood before me with a kind look in her eye and a small smile plastered to her lips. I wasn’t sure what she would possibly want to talk about, but I knew it couldn’t have been good.“Yeah,” I found myself saying, trying to plaster a smile on my own lips. “I would love to talk during lunch. Should I just go to your office at that time, or…”“Yes, that would be perfect,” she said fondly.I watched as she disappeared down the hallway and toward her classroom.I felt nauseous.I thought about going to Joseph’s office and talking to him about this, maybe he had some kind of idea on what she might want to speak about. But I was going to be late for my next class if I didn’t leave right now.I quickly grabbed my things out of my locker and went straight to my next class.By the time it was over, it was lunchtime.Ruby met me outside my classroom door as she often does the period before lunch, and she was chatting my ears off about the pizza they were serving today.“I wish
Tessa’s POVI felt sick to my stomach. I didn’t want to sit in this office any longer. She was now working on her computer, and I was frozen to the seat, staring at her with a dumbfounded expression on my face.She glanced at me with a frown.“You may leave now; I have some work to do. But thank you, Tessa, for speaking with me. I quite enjoyed this talk.”I still remained seated; I was unable to feel my body. It seemed as if Miss Emily was going to start pursing Joseph and she was warning me to stay away from him. But I couldn’t have understood that correctly. I never gave her a reason to believethere was anything going on between Joseph and me.Miss Emily was very beautiful; that was obvious from the moment I met her. But would Joseph really go for her?I felt my face flaring; I had to shake the thought out of my head before I lost my mind.I stood to my feet and forced a smile at her.“Thank you, Miss Emily,” I said to her.I left without another word.I wanted to crawl into a ball
Tessa’s POVI shouldn’t have gone to bed so early. Now I was awake in the middle of the night with a stomach that wouldn’t stop growling. I hadn’t even eaten dinner.I wondered if Joseph had eaten anything last night. I didn’t cook for him but he’s not incompetent that he couldn’t cook his own meal. In fact, Joseph was an impressive cook.Going to bed last night was the only thing my mind could truly do. I wrote a new blog post, something that I probably should have kept in my journal, and then I crawled into bed and fell asleep. I didn’t even say anything to Joseph yesterday, so I’m sure he knew that I was upset.I just couldn’t get that conversation with Emily out of my head. She has real feelings for him and she’s beautiful. She would be more than just a one-night stand and it’s not just her blood that attracts him.Although, he told me that he doesn’t feel that attraction towards her, yet he could have been saying that to make me feel better.I shouldn’t even be this upset over it
Joseph’s POV“We ran the fingerprints again, just like you asked. But once again, they came back inconclusive,” Chief Mulligan said on the phone.I grew aggravated and clenched my phone tightly in my hands until my knuckles grew white. I had left Tessa in the kitchen only moments ago to go into my study and call the Nightwalker headquarters.“These vampires might be new, but they are smart. They are covering their tracks well,” Mulligan continued. “We need to figure out a plan to trap them.”“Whatever the plan is, it’s not going to include Tessa,” I said for the hundredth time.I rubbed the bridge of my nose with my pointer finger and my thumb, trying to ease some of the tension.“It might come to that—”“No!” I growled, stopping his words short. I felt a wave of fury cross me and I had to step back and recollect my thoughts.Calmly I added, “We are not going to use her for any part of this plan. Tessa stays out of it. That was our agreement.”“Then we will figure out another way,” Mu
Joseph’s POV“I’m afraid you are mistaken, Miss Parker,” I said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind me.She was trembling in the bed, her lips quivering.“No, I’m not!” She yelled. “You’re a vampire. You have the same darkness as the others!! You’re one of them. Th…the dudes who attacked me…”Tears spilled from her eyes.“I assure you, I am not here to hurt you,” I said, stepping closer to her bed.She recoiled, but she was hooked up to a bunch of machines, so she wasn’t able to go anywhere.“Please…” she begged. “Please leave me alone.”Once I reached her bed, I lowered myself, so I was at eye level with her.“I’m not here to hurt you, Miss Parker. Due to the trauma, you are very confused. My name is Dr. Evergreen. I’m only here to evaluate you,” I said to her, narrowing my eyes at her feeling her mind being hooked.She fell silent and her shaking was growing less apparent.“Oh…” she breathed, still keeping her eyes locked on mine.“There are no such things as vampire
Tessa’s POVI hadn’t seen or spoken to Brian since I told him to leave me alone. I thought that I had finally gotten through to him when I told him that our relationship was never going to continue.Brian and Amanda never came to the library, which meant they saw us through the window and decided to come in to harass us.I looked up at Joseph who was staring at Brian with an expression I couldn’t read. He was calm though and I don’t think he was very worried.Amanda’s red lips were thinned out in a line as she folded her arms across her chest.“Are you really hanging out together publicly at school? Shouldn’t you be doing this more privately? Considering your relationship is a secret after all,” she sneered. Her icy blue eyes narrowing at me.I swallowed the solid lump that formed in my throat. I wished I could be as calm and collected as Joseph, but I could feel my body trembling.Before I could say anything, Brian stepped around her, shielding her view of me.“Is what Amanda tells m
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