Page 46

CELINE

U n-fucking-believable.

Does he think I’m a fool?

Zavier was the killer this whole time and he knew I was the detective investigating the cases. He came to one of the crime scenes for crying out loud.

It had seemed like it was impossible for one perp to kill so many people—especially the sprees that included ten or more people at a time.

Killing one person is an exhausting endeavor on the human body let alone that many.

It all makes sense that the murderer was never human now that I’m privy to supernatural beings.

Walking down the block with no real destination in mind, I cycle through endless thoughts in my head.

Anger and sadness are the two emotions spiraling through me the most. What hurts most of all is him not telling me.

I know revealing the murderer is him wouldn’t have been easy.

When I really think about it, the crime scenes are gruesome, and he might take it a bit too far with the theatrics, but he’s only killing people that deserve it.

Some of these criminals the police force can’t even take down so he’s doing the city a favor.

Zavier choosing to keep it a secret especially when he knew we were mates and growing closer is a stab to the heart though. I want our relationship to be based on honesty and sometimes that means hard truths.

I shiver and curse my stupidity when a breeze ruffles my shirt and I realize I forgot my jacket in my race to get out the door. It’s a shock Zav didn’t thrust it at me himself, but it goes to show how distracted we both were when I left.

Rays of sunlight stream between buildings and I realize it’s still early in the morning. I lost all sense of time after he carried me to my room last night. Pigeons flitter by and walk along the sidewalk with me as silent companions aside from the occasional coo.

On a normal day, I wouldn’t be out and about at this time, even with work. Zav waking me up for another round of sex this morning wasn’t unwelcome though. Well, until everything dissolved when I saw that stupid smiley face on the pancakes and figured it out.

Even with my troubled thoughts, I still envision a future with Zavier which might be insane, or it could be the bond talking.

Cars honk even at this time of the morning as I mosey my way along to the river. I wonder what people could possibly be so pissed off at this time of the morning already. Did they also find out their vampire boyfriend was a serial killer?

I kick a stray rock in my path and watch it skip along the pavement. It stops right at a pair of booted feet and for a second I’m about to rip Zav a new one for following me. Then I scan up the body and quickly discover it’s not him.

A cold, shivery feeling travels down my spine. The kind of fear that roots you into place even when every instinct is screaming at you to run from the predator in front of you.

Vampire.

And he mostly definitely doesn’t want to chat with me.

He advances quickly, I know he could be in front of me in a millisecond, but he seems to like dragging it out.

I rest my hand on my pocket where the knife Zav gave me rests.

Even in my upset state, I was smart enough to slip some sort of weapon in my pocket.

There was even a moment when I thought I might have to use it to stab Zav if he followed me.

Not that it would actually hurt him, and I’m fairly certain the sick fuck would enjoy it.

I’m not sure how good the knife can do against a vampire but I’m not about to go down without fighting.

Slipping my fingers in my pocket and fingering the edge of it, I slash out as soon as the vampire is within distance. It doesn’t do much, but it gives me a slight advantage when I turn to run.

I should’ve known better.

My luck isn’t that good and another vampire advances on me from the other side. I have nowhere to go. I’m outmatched.

The new vampire strikes out with his arm, smacking me across the face.

I fall to the ground, my vision going black, and then there’s nothing.