chapter twenty-eight

Vanessa was beautiful today. I was observing her diligently working on schoolwork in the university library. Vanessa surrounded herself with reference books, opened to various pages as she hunched over her tablet, and scribbled furiously at her digital notebook. She wore her hair in a ponytail, with strands cascading over her left shoulder. Even though she was wearing jeans and a black blouse, she outshone every mortal here.

I tried to make myself less conspicuous and easier to identify by wearing a hoodie and turning slightly out of her line of view. I was glad there weren’t many people in our section because I could smell her sweet scent unmingled with any other. Even though I wasn’t where I wanted to be, which was wrapped around her, I was as close to heaven as I could get in the moment.

I had many plans for Vanessa, and while I was here watching her, it was euphoric. But this was different from my original plans. They all changed when I could finally track down the scent saturated on her sheets and around her house.

Hadrian Barlow.

While I couldn’t uncover many specifics about his job, I did discover that he held the title of FBI agent. That made me nervous. Ever since I found out an FBI agent was sniffing around my chosen mate, the only time I had truly left her side was to feed. I would’ve hunted him to keep her safe, but I didn’t want an FBI agent to go missing if he was investigating my mate. I may be good at hiding bodies, but I was not the most technically inclined. If he had notes about her and any kind of technical notebook, I would be putting her in even more danger than she already was.

At least with Hadrian, I knew exactly who to look for, and he then became the devil I knew rather than me looking for the devil I didn’t. Once I turned Vanessa, she would have more protection, which would put me more at ease. Especially with her kills, the government would be more inclined to keep her habits a secret when she became one of us. Especially if she signed up to join Uncle Sam’s army.

In fact, I am pretty sure she would probably want to join it without any probing. As an incentive, they would send victims her way to get rid of the scum of the streets while keeping her happy. They always got a little bit giddy when a serial killer got turned. They put more of their preferred victims on the approved human list.

Along with the approved human list, every legitimate immortal signed up to be a part of the army because it was easier to be far more compliant and under the human’s thumb rather than to be seen as a threat in their eyes. They didn’t always deploy us, only when they didn’t want their actions to be accounted for. In fact, this was quite a lot, but most of us didn’t mind, especially when they allowed us to feed on any of the targets without facing consequences.

Either they didn’t know we could feed off humans without killing them, or as long as we were not killing non-approved humans, they didn’t care. Either way, we played that game with each other, and I knew they would be ecstatic that Vanessa was one of us.

With anticipation, I retrieved my phone and quickly sent her a picture I had taken earlier. The image showcased a delightful cappuccino enhanced by a mesmerizing design in the foam. As she reached into her pocket to grab her vibrating phone, a smile of recognition spread across her face when she saw my name on the screen.