Page 25 of Bitten By Desire (Crooked Point #1)

Monday

I spun around and put my hands out, like they would somehow stop an axe from taking my life.

But it was just Bennett standing there. Very much alive.

“Really, what are you guys still doing out here?” he asked and looked down at the bush we’d been hiding behind.

Zoey threw herself into his arms. “We were trying to save you!”

No… I was trying to save him. She was trying to tell me we should save ourselves. Or go grocery shopping. And why was she all over Bennett right now?

Zoey pulled back. “How did you get out? God, we’re so glad you’re alive.”

“I can be pretty stealthy when I need to be.” His eyes met mine. “Are you okay, Emma?”

I nodded. I would be as soon as my heart stopped feeling like it was going to beat out of my chest. I tried to take a deep breath, but my lungs weren’t working properly.

He walked up to me, cradling my face in his hands. “You’re sure?”

I nodded. For some reason I wanted to burst into tears. I was just so happy to see his face. “I’m so glad you’re okay. Let’s get out of here. ”

“Yeah, I’m starving,” Zoey said. “Let’s go grab something to eat. I know the perfect place.”

That was a good idea. I didn’t want to go back to her house right now. I couldn’t believe she’d invited Theo inside earlier. Such a rookie move.

“Wait,” I said. “What about the voicemail?”

“What voicemail?” Bennett asked.

“We were trying to call Theo to distract him. And we forgot to hang up when it went to voicemail. Zoey said something about him being busy butchering you.” And some other stuff. I glanced at Zoey.

“But we don’t know when the voicemail started,” she said. “It’s possible we only recorded some funny stuff about the size of your dick.”

“Why were you talking about…” Bennett shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. No one listens to voicemails. Especially from an unknown number.”

I stared up at him. He had a good point. I never listened to voicemails. I actually didn’t think I’d even set a voicemail up for my newest phone. “How sure of that are you?”

He shrugged. “Do you guys ever listen to spam voicemails?”

“No,” Zoey said. “Never.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s great. Nothing to worry about.”

I didn’t think it was that simple. “Unless he happens to listen to voicemails.” Because my mom was a fan of them.

And she was born in the 60s. Who knew how much someone born in the 1700s loved stupid voicemails?

Probably a ton. Or maybe he didn’t even know how to use a telephone.

Wait, when were phones invented? He probably still used telegraphs or something basic from the early 1800s.

Wait, no. He had all those old phones in the attic.

Maybe he still preferred one of those...

“There’s nothing we can really do about that,” Zoey said. “It is what it is.”

“We could try to steal his phone…”

“I’ve done enough breaking and entering for one day, thank you very much. Come on, we need to debrief over big juicy burgers. I always crave meat after a good workout.”

Yeah, she was definitely screwing her clients. And I’d hardly classify her standing guard for two seconds a workout. Bennett and I were the ones running all over the house trying to escape. “Really, how did you get out?” I asked him.

“Easy,” he said as we started walking down Main Street.

“I hid behind the car. And moved whenever he walked around it so he never saw me. Then I followed him out of the garage. He turned at one point so I had to bolt up the stairs. But eventually he went into his office, I think. And I walked out the back door.”

“You did all that without being seen?”

“I said I could be pretty stealthy when I need to be.”

“Well I’m very impressed.”

He smiled down at me.

“Here we are,” Zoey said and opened the door to an Italian restaurant.

Bennett stepped inside.

“Italian? For burgers?” I whispered.

“Just in case you’re somehow actually right and Theo is a vampire. He won’t step foot in here. The place smells deliciously of garlic.”

“Smart. ”

She shrugged. “I know. And they actually do have really good burgers. Anyone that can make a mean meat sauce knows their way around some ground beef. Oh, I’m going to get extra cheese on mine.”

If there’s one thing I could trust Zoey on, it was her knowledge of meats.

We got a table in the back corner, per Bennett’s request. He kept looking around like he was worried someone was going to pop out and kill us.

I cleared my throat. “So…” I waited for Bennett to start talking, but he was saved by the waiter.

After we all ordered, I leaned forward. “Bennett, you swore you’d tell me everything you knew about Theo Gold after we got out of his house.”

He glanced at Zoey and then back at me. “I kind of thought we’d maybe do that in private.”

“Anything you tell me you can tell Zoey.”

He sighed. “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

“Trust me, the only crazy person at this table is Emma,” Zoey said. “She thinks Theo Gold is a vampire.” She laughed. “Can you believe that?”

Bennett looked back and forth between us again. “Did Theo tell you that?”

Zoey laughed. “No. Of course not. Because that’s insane.”

“Look,” Bennett said, lowering his voice. “I’ll start from the beginning. Titan has always had this fascination with ancient artifacts. He collects them. You saw one in his office, Emma. That golden pen?”

I nodded. But I had no idea what that had to do with anything .

“Specifically he collects things that are rumored to have…interesting powers. Powers we can’t quite explain.”

“Like being able to discern if someone is evil?”

Bennett nodded. “Exactly. The pen is supposed to burn anyone who touches it that is…unholy.”

“So it’s a religious thing?”

He shook his head. “No, not really. Titan was just curious about all of this at first. Especially artifacts from his ancestors. And then my friends and I were all curious about it. Not because of the powers they’re supposed to possess.

But because we quickly realized how dangerous some of these artifacts would be in the wrong hands.

So we curate things from all over the world.

And keep them locked in the vaults in the bank for safe keeping. ”

So that’s what was in the vaults? In the back of my head I was a little worried it was more freezers. But leaning into superstitions about weird artifacts was pretty strange too.

“Theo Gold took one of them from us.”

“Wait.” I shook my head. “When I spoke to Theo earlier, he told me that you stole something from him .”

“That’s a lie.” He pressed his lips together. “Well, kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“It belongs to us,” Bennett said. “Rightfully. Theo stole it. And ten years ago, we took it back from him. And I guess he followed us to this town to steal it back from us.”

“Ten years ago?” Why was everything in my life about ten years ago? I swallowed hard. This did all make sense. Theo had tried to get me to see in the vaults. He was probably hoping I’d get a look at whatever the stolen item was. To make sure they still had it or something.

“Yeah, ten years ago almost to the date. We followed him to some college town one fall. He was keeping it in this creepy old mansion in the middle of nowhere.”

Oh my God.

“We snuck in during a party for some soccer team and stole it back.”

There was no way…

“We didn’t even run into him. He must have been off doing something.”

He was busy doing me. “We know that house.” I turned to Zoey. “Do you think that’s the same one where we first met Theo?”

“Was it in the woods by the Wildcats campus?” Zoey asked. She pointed to the Wildcats sweatshirt I was still wearing.

“Yeah,” Bennett said. He lowered his eyebrows as he stared at the sweatshirt. “Wait, were you two there?”

Zoey nodded. “Seriously, how is that possible that we were all there that night?”

“So that’s the night Theo took advantage of you?” Bennett clenched his jaw. “I could have saved you.”

I didn’t need to be saved. I’d loved every second. I shook my head. I couldn’t believe he was there that night.

“But why were you there that night?” Zoey asked.

“We’d been trying to find him for a while,” Bennett said. “And we chose that night to steal it back for a reason. Because there was a party. It was easy to blend in to the crowd. ”

She shook her head. “That’s insane. It’s a shame that Emma didn’t meet you that night instead of Theo.”

I opened my mouth and closed it again.

“Yeah,” Bennett said. “That would have changed everything.”

I shook my head. I didn’t regret that night ten years ago. And I was happy at this table right here right now with him. Maybe it had all worked out for the best. Bennett was a guy I could count on. Believe in. Wait one second. “I’m sorry, I’m so confused. You told me you didn’t know Theo Gold.”

“I didn’t know he’d followed us here.”

That doesn’t answer my question…

“He is new to town,” Zoey said.

“But Bennett, I told you about him on the Ferris wheel. Why didn’t you acknowledge that you knew him?”

Bennett leaned forward and lowered his voice even more. “The guy changes his name like every couple of years. It’s a little hard to keep track of what he’s going by. And I had never heard of him going by Theo Gold before.”

“Why does he keep changing his name?” I asked.

“Because he’s a freaking criminal,” Zoey said. “He’s a murderer and a thief, right? God, this is really bad.”

Bennett didn’t reply.

“So why didn’t you tell me after you saw him in the maze?” I asked. “You knew Theo was Callum and you kept it from me. You just told me not to hang out with him one on one instead of telling me the truth.”

“Because that was the only thing that was important. I was just trying to keep you safe.”

“From what? ”

He sighed. “This is where you’re going to think I’m nuts.”

I shook my head. “Just tell us.” I believed everything he was saying. It all made sense. Theo definitely seemed like he was after something. And I was a little relieved that it was an artifact and not my blood.

“Remember that pen in Titan’s office?” Bennett asked.

I nodded.

“You don’t just have to hold it. You can also just…kind of poke someone with it. To see if they have a reaction.”

“So you’re saying it actually works?”

“Yeah. I’ve seen it work.”

Okay. I got his point from earlier. This was definitely a little nuts.

But of course he actually believed in the powers of the relics or he wouldn’t lock them in a vault to keep them away from evil people.

He believed in powerful artifacts. I believed in vampires for a few days there.

It was fine. It definitely wasn’t a deal breaker for me.

“So you saw it burn someone?” Zoey asked.

Bennett nodded. “Yeah. Theo Gold. Ten years ago. When I guess he was going by Callum Walsh.”

“Wait, what?” I said.

“Before we took the artifact back, we wanted to see what we were up against. So Titan bumped into him on that campus a few days before the party. And touched his arm with the pen. It singed his skin.”

My heart started racing. “So what does that mean exactly? That he’s…unholy?”

“It’s not about whether you’re a good or bad person.

It’s more than that. You were right, Emma.

About all of it. I was just trying to protect you.

But I can’t if you don’t know the full truth.

When I said unholy I meant Theo’s actual soul is corrupt.

There’s no penance for someone like him.

He’s the devil walking among us. The pen would only burn someone like that. ”

“Someone like what, Bennett?”

“Theo Gold is a vampire.”