Page 38 of Bitten By Desire (Crooked Point #1)

Tuesday

I stared at Zoey in horror. “What are you talking about? Why would Bennett want to hurt Callum?” I knew they didn’t like each other…but to threaten death?!

Zoey took another savage bite of her cucumber.

“Because Callum is a vampire! We couldn’t find you and Bennett and his friends figured that Callum had taken you back to his house.

They’re coming up with a plan right now to save you and kill him.

When they stopped by earlier I gave them all the back-up garlic powder I bought at the store.

I’m completely out. And I definitely heard one of them say something about sharpening wooden stakes. ”

What the hell?! “We have to warn Callum!”

“But if he’s a vampire…shouldn’t they maybe go through with it?”

“No!”

“But Callum is a monster!”

“They’re all…” I started coughing again. Fuck. Stupid blood oath. “It doesn’t matter,” I gasped. “I love Callum. And he’s no monster.” Not even close. He’d proved me wrong. He wasn’t a villain.

“So he’s not a vampire?” She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank God. Geez, all of this crazy paranormal stuff has been getting to my head.” She laughed and finished eating her cucumber.

“But of course he’s not a vampire,” she said with her mouth still full.

“Duh. Because vampires don’t exist.” She laughed.

“Well, I mean…he is technically a vampire.”

Her eyes grew round. “You just said he wasn’t a vampire!”

“I said he wasn’t a monster …”

“Vampires are monsters, Emma! Haven’t you ever seen a scary movie?!”

“But Callum isn’t a bad vampire. He just drinks animal blood.” And mine when I ask him to. But it didn’t seem to be the right time to bring that up because she looked truly horrified. “And don’t tell anyone about this. Callum doesn’t want to be run out of town.”

She stared at me like I was crazy. “Did he admit it to you? He flat out looked you in the eye without a mind control pocket watch and told you he was a vampire?”

“Yeah. And he has it under control. So please just calm down. It’s going to be fine, I promise.”

“You promise? Emma! Are you forgetting about the freaking severed hand in the hay maze?!”

“That wasn’t Callum…”

“Good God! There’s a vampire and a serial killer loose in this town? You’re right. We need to get the hell out of Crooked Point ASAP. When is the next flight?” She pulled out her phone and started searching for outgoing flights. “This freaking town.” She shook her head as she scrolled.

There were also werecats in this town. She was freaking out and she didn’t even know all of it. But we were safe. Callum wouldn’t hurt us. And he said he wouldn’t let anyone else hurt me either .

Could he protect us from werecats though? I knew he was strong. He’d ripped my leggings clean off. I nodded to myself, hoping I was right. “It’s fine,” I said.

“It’s not fine! You were just at the train station, right? Were there any more trains leaving tonight? I need to go pack.”

“We’re not going anywhere. We’re staying right here.”

“No…we’re leaving. Now.”

“Take a deep breath.” I knew this was all a lot to take in. But she was acting hysterical. I was seconds away from slapping her across the face. “It is fine. Because I don’t care about the whole vampire thing.”

“What are you talking about? You’ve cared very much the past few days. It was all you’d talk about.”

“But Callum’s one of the good ones.” That’s what he’d told me.

I didn’t know very much about vampires. I think half of what I’d researched was probably closer to werecat stuff.

Or at least werewolf stuff. Because now that I wasn’t drunk and thinking clearly, the full moon was definitely a werewolf thing.

I think. Either way, I didn’t know anything else about vampires because Zoey had interrupted us before I got to ask all my questions.

But I believed Callum. He’d had a chance to hurt me and he hadn’t. Even under a full moon. Twice.

“One of the good ones huh? When did he start only drinking animal blood?”

“Sometime within the last ten years.” It came out as more of a question than a statement. I knew he was trying to be better for me. But I didn’t know if he’d given up human blood a year ago or ten .

“So after he met you? That girl on campus disappeared the same night you met him. And he was still killing people then, right?”

Shit. “Zoey, he’s not a bad guy.”

“So you’re saying that he didn’t kill that girl on campus ten years ago?”

I winced. “I mean…technically he did do that.”

“What?! On the same night he met you? What the fuck, Emma?!”

“Yes, it was the same night. But it happened right before he met me.” As if that helped. Yeah, I had a lot more questions to ask Callum.

“How are you not freaking out right now? Callum literally murdered someone right before he fucked you and ghosted you.”

Okay when she put it like that… Yeah, that was bad.

My stomach churned. Exactly how many people had Callum killed?

And how close had he really been to killing me?

I never would have thought about it when we first met.

But he very much looked like he wanted to kill me in that hay maze. With the smell of blood everywhere.

“He killed someone and then kissed you with his murderous lips!”

He hadn’t kissed me that night. I’d wanted him to. But his mouth had been preoccupied. I felt my hand gravitate to my neck. Would I have tasted the blood on his tongue if we’d kissed? Her blood? I swallowed hard. Callum wasn’t a monster. And yet…he’d done very monstrous things.

“Fucking hell.” Zoey pulled my hand off my neck. “He bit you? Are you a vampire now? Why did I give Bennett all my garlic powder?! ”

“I’m not a vampire. I don’t know how it all works. You interrupted us when…”

“You’re welcome! I probably saved you.” She looked at my neck again. “You need some Band-Aids. Several. I can’t believe you let him bite you!”

“I’m okay. Really. I…I liked it.” I really freaking liked it. And I deserved the way she was looking at me. Like I’d lost my mind. She’d been staring at me like that a lot over the past ten years.

“You liked your blood being sucked by a vampire? Do you even hear yourself right now? I need to call Bennett…”

“No.” I grabbed her hand to stop her. “You can’t, he’s…

” I coughed. “He…” I started choking on nothing but air.

I tried to take a deep breath. “He’s dangerous.

” I smiled. I’d said something about it!

I guess that wasn’t really spilling their secret.

But it was a good warning. I breathed a sigh of relief.

She groaned. “Don’t tell me he’s a vampire too.”

“No. But he’s definitely dangerous. His friends too. They’re all really dangerous. Way more dangerous than Callum.”

“Worse than being a vampire?” Zoey shook her head. “I can’t even fathom what is worse than that. And I don’t understand why you won’t just tell me.”

“I can’t. It’s like Callum said…they really do have to show you.” Not that I wanted her to be alone with those werecats. I was pretty sure I’d almost died tonight. I shuddered thinking about Bennett’s sharp teeth and claws.

“I don’t want to see any of it. Creepy things like this aren’t supposed to exist in real life. Especially in a safe town like Crooked Point. ”

I laughed. This town was anything but safe. It was as crooked as its name.

She ignored my reaction. “And Halloween is over! Has this town not gotten the memo?”

I laughed again.

“This isn’t funny. Any of it. And damn it, Bennett and his friends are all so hot. Why do they have to be dangerous?”

“I knew you liked Bennett.”

“I can’t help that I’m attracted to bad boys! You know it’s my weakness.”

“I thought hot, married cops were your weakness?”

“Not funny!”

I grabbed her shoulders. “Take a deep breath, Zoey. Everything is going to be fine. Callum promised he wouldn’t let anything happen to me. That extends to you. He’ll protect us.”

“I don’t want protection from a vampire. I want everything to go back to normal. At least Bennett and his friends don’t kill people.”

I pressed my lips together. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“What?”

The doorbell rang and Zoey screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Who is that?” I asked and looked over my shoulder.

“Bennett. And all his dangerous friends.”

“You invited them here?!”

“They stopped by looking for you earlier. I told them you ran off. They figured you were with Callum. And they said they needed time to come up with their plan. They’re here to loop me in.

And to hopefully give me some of my garlic powder back because I don’t know how to make my eggplant parmesan without it. ”

Everything about what she just said was terrible. Eggplant parmesan instead of chicken parmesan? And seriously…why had she invited them over here?!

“Well, we can’t answer the door,” I said.

“They know we’re here. The lights are on and they can probably hear us talking.”

Shit, she was right. “Let’s turn the lights off then.”

“Like that won’t be suspicious?”

“You know I’m bad at thinking on my feet!” The only good part about Bennett being here was that he wasn’t currently trying to murder the love of my life.

“How dangerous are they exactly?” Zoey asked. “On a scale of one to ten.”

“A ten.”

“And is ten the most dangerous or least dangerous?”

“The most!”

“Don’t yell at me,” Zoey said. “I’m already freaked out. I need a banana or something to calm down.” She started walking toward the kitchen.

I grabbed her arm. “I’m not answering the door alone.”

“I know. Just give me one second. I’m starving for my favorite fruit.” She walked off.

Gah! I stared at the door as the bell rang again.

Zoey came back holding a banana. “Let’s do this thing.”

It looked like she was either going to eat the banana or throw it at them.

Neither would do us much good. I thought about texting Callum for help, but I had a feeling that his presence here would just make everything worse.

Bennett wasn’t here to kill Zoey or me. But he was planning on hurting Callum.

“We just need to tell them everything is fine,” I said.

“And to go away.” I wish I’d done some research about werecats while I was standing at the train station.

Not that I regretted Callum interrupting me.

I didn’t regret that one bit. But I had no idea what killed werecats. Maybe…dogs? Since they were cats?

I closed my eyes and tried to focus. “Silver!” I yelled. I was pretty sure werewolves hated silver. Were werewolves similar enough to werecats that they had the same kryptonite? I grabbed a candlestick off Zoey’s mantel.

“Do you want to bash them in the head with that or something?”

“No.”

“Then what the hell are you doing with my candlestick?”

I couldn’t tell her. This blood oath was like freaking torture.

I looked down at the candlestick, hoping it was actually silver.

It probably was. Since Bennett and his friends had robbed a bunch of banks and made Zoey a secret millionaire overnight.

“Nothing. Ignore what I said. I just thought this silver candlestick looked nice and heavy as a weapon.”

“Good thinking.” She grabbed the other one.

“Now let’s just do the asking them to leave thing.” And if they didn’t, I’d chuck this silver candlestick at them.

“Perfect. And if worse comes to worst, we can just get on our knees for them.”

“Zoey! ”

“It’s a good idea. Dangerous men love dirty girls.” She was smiling again. She suddenly no longer seemed scared of opening the door.

This was bad. Really bad.

She reached out for the door handle.

“Wait,” I said. “What if they have the pocket watch?” What would they make us do?

And more importantly…what if one of them got angry and morphed into a man-eating werecat and silver wasn’t their kryptonite?

I wish I hadn’t taken the blood oath. I really needed Zoey to know all of this.

How was she supposed to survive in this town not knowing?

“Oh we’re definitely getting on our knees then. I don’t mind if they make me.” She winked at me.

“You’re not helping.”

One of the guys outside started banging on the door with his fist.

“Now they’re dangerous and angry.” There were stars in Zoey’s eyes. “This is going to be fun.” She threw open the door to five very angry men.

I gulped as Bennett stared down at the candlestick in my hand. And Zoey immediately fell to her knees with a smile on her face.

“Hey, bad boys,” she said.