Tessa’s POVJoseph looked almost mournful when he told me this story and my heart tugged for him.“He didn’t handle the transition well at first,” Joseph explained. “He was angry with me for fucking up his fate. I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to do it. I haven’t been able to do it again since.”He went quiet for a moment as the memories surfaced in his mind.“You don’t have to tell me anymore if you don’t want to,” I said softly. “I understand.”“No, you should know some of the backgrounds before we arrive,” he said, taking a deep breath. “At first, I thought he was dead. As did his doctors. But then he woke up and he was… hungry.”Something was telling me he wasn’t talking about food. My stomach tightened at his words.“Did he hurt anyone?” I was afraid to ask.“Yes,” Joseph answered. “A lot of people died that night. It took me a while to find him and calm him down. I gave him blood from the blood bags I stole and made him go to school with me. I went back to the school to re-dom
Tessa’s POV“Don’t tell me you live in a castle, Your Majesty,” I half teased, unable to take my eyes away from the magnificent building.“I do, but not full-time,” he answered. “That’s the Vamp House.”“The Vamp House?” I asked, raising my hands. “It’s much more than a house.”Joseph laughed.“Yes. I suppose we went a little overboard with it,” he said, shaking his head at whatever memory was surfacing in his mind. “But it needs to be big for the tribe.”“I don’t understand,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. “Does the entire tribe live there?”“A lot of people live there,” Joseph explained. “I have an apartment on the second floor of the Vamp House and Carter has his apartment on the third floor that he shares with Nathanial, both of them being single and always busy with work, so it’s easy for them to share the floor. But they also have their own homes that they live in most of the time. The rest of the floors are reserved for the warriors and other vampires who don’t have their ow
Tessa’s POV“A monster, huh? That’s a little cruel,” Bernard said, folding his arms across his chest. “After I saved your life?”“Bernard was the neighbor that turned you?” I asked, glancing at Joseph questionably.“He is,” Joseph answered. “Which is the only reason why I allow him to enter my home when I’m not here.”Joseph stepped further into the house, still holding my suitcase.Bernard was eyeing me carefully and I fought to urge to meet his eyes, but I kept my eyes fixed on the ground, afraid to make any sudden movements. Though, Joseh seemed oddly relaxed.“She has an odd scent,” Bernard spoke about me as if I wasn’t even there.“You know she can hear you, right?” Joseph asked, rolling his eyes.Bernard finally pulled his eyes away from me to glare at him.“You’re bringing a human into a village of vampires with blood that appears highly attractive,” Bernard said, his tone growing dark and angry. “What is wrong with you?”“She’s off limits,” Joseph said through his teeth. “Nobo
Tessa’s POV“How long have you been there for?” Joseph asked, eyeing me carefully.“Long enough to hear about a cookout tomorrow,” I said, a faint smile playing on my lips. “Are we going?”“No.”He began to walk toward the stairs, and I could tell he wasn’t planning on saying anything else on the subject.I stood to my feet quickly, following him up the stairs.“No?” I asked disappointment in my tone. “Why not?”“It’s too soon to throw you in the mix of things,” he answered. “The others are wary of your presence, and I don’t want to put you in danger.”“I should probably break the ice at some point,” I told him once we got back to the bedroom. “That’s the whole purpose of me being here, right? To see if I can do it.”He turned to face me, seriousness on his face.“We should take it slow,” he said.“I don’t want to hide here for two weeks. I want to go out and see things. I’m going to be encountering others at some point. I’d rather it be sooner than later,” I told him, folding my arms
Tessa’s POVI suddenly couldn’t breathe.The human girl walked by so casually and our eyes locked. She looked at me with curiosity in her gaze and then her eyes went straight to Joseph who appeared to not have noticed her. The vampire she was with muttered something to her and I watched as her face paled.She bowed her head low to him and his eyes met mine. An icy chill went down my spine and it was taking everything I had not to grab Joseph and hide behind him. Then, the strangest thing happened.The vampire draped a protective arm around the human and pulled her close to him. She instantly went into his arms and remained by his side as they continued to walk in the direction of the Vamp house.My mind was whirling with confusion. It seemed like they were very much together, but I thought vampires couldn’t be with humans.I wondered how many other humans were here and why it was kept from me.“Why didn’t you tell me there were humans here,” I murmured, stepping close to Joseph and tr
Tessa’s POV“Nice to see you too, Bernard,” Joseph said as he placed his plate and coffee mug on the table beside the blonde guy.The blonde guy looked up from his meal and looked at me curiously with a timid frown before looking at Joseph.“Welcome back, man,” he said, giving Joseph what seemed like a genuine smile.“Good to be back,” Joseph said in return.“You shouldn’t have brought her here, Joseph. How careless are you?” Bernard went on to scold.I sat down beside Joseph, feeling all sorts of awkward. Bernard’s voice carried throughout the dining hall, gaining some unwanted attention.“Sit down, Bernard,” Joseph ordered casually as he took a sip of his coffee. It didn’t seem like he was bothered at all, like this was just typical Bernard. “Tessa is my guest and will be treated as such.”“You are putting her and us at risk. We worked hard to become domesticated. Her blood poses a problem,” Bernard continued, glaring at Joseph as if he had just slapped him in the face.The woman th
Tessa’s POV“Your memory is shit, Nate,” Carter laughed, taking another big bite of his food. “Also, we aren’t your caretaker. Set an alarm if you want to get here early.”The man, Nate, was still staring at me blankly. Then, I saw the movement of his nose.I flushed.He was smelling me.“Don’t you remember me telling you that Joseph was bringing a human guest?” Carter continued, peering over at him with a frown.After another pause of silence, Nate’s eyes flashed recognition.“Oh, right,” he said, glancing down his plate. “Just didn’t think her scent would slap me in the face.”What did that mean?I looked at Joseph who was glaring at Nate with a grimace.“Tessa, this is Nathanial,” Joseph said through his teeth. “He can be a prick when he wants to be.”“I’m just honest,” Nate said, shrugging as he took a bite of his food. “I’m cranky when I don’t have my bacon.”“Here,” I said, sliding my plate closer to him. “You can take some of mine.”He looked puzzled by my gesture. Joseph reach
Tessa’s POVWe got into a freaking elevator.Joseph typed in some kind of code and the elevator door opened, allowing us access. Once we were inside, he pressed number two and it started to move upward. I noticed that the elevator only had four buttons. One, two, three, and ground floor.But there were definitely a lot more floors than that.“Why are there only four buttons?” I asked, peering up at him.“This takes us to the elder levels,” he explained. “The grand stairs you saw in the main foyer only go up to a certain level. But once it reaches the elder levels, the stairs stop, denying access to anyone who doesn’t have the code for the elevator.”“The elevator is the only way we can get to those floors?” I asked with raised brows. I could already imagine all the issues that could pose.“There’s an emergency staircase behind a door that’s password-protected,” he explained. But villagers aren’t allowed on our level unless granted special permission. They don’t need to be there. Those
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