Chapter 27
Catalina sensed a movement and opened her eyes.
Shock charged through her. Gleaming white teeth like those of a sabretooth tiger were close in front of her face.
Blood dripped from them, while glowing red eyes pinned her so she couldn’t move, couldn’t run, couldn’t flee.
Fear paralyzed her muscles. They disobeyed her mind’s command and remained frozen to the spot where she was.
There was something so familiar in those eyes, as if she knew the person behind them, yet it didn’t assuage her fear.
She knew something was wrong. She was in danger.
Every cell of her body told her so. With every second that passed, the teeth came closer, their sharpness emphasized now.
She blinked, wishing them away, and suddenly found herself lying on the couch where Benjamin had covered her with a blanket.
In the crook of her neck, she felt an itch and wanted to rub it away, but her body didn’t follow her command.
As if she was still in the dream that she’d just awoken from.
No, not a dream: a nightmare. As if the monster from her nightmare had bitten her and left a wound that ached.
When she finally managed to touch the spot, she encountered perfect skin, no wound, no scar, nothing.
So why did it feel like the monster had bitten her there?
A sudden sound at the door made her hold her breath. She couldn’t see the door because the high backrest of the sofa obstructed her view. She heard the creaking of the hinges, then footsteps as somebody entered.
“You think she’s the one for him?” a man asked.
She knew this voice. She’d heard it at the party. This was David, one of the triplets.
“I’m convinced she is. I mean, have you seen how Benjamin looks at her?” The man who replied was his brother, Zach.
And they were clearly talking about her.
Her nightmare was instantly forgotten. She should sit up now and make them aware of her presence.
But for some reason she didn’t. Was it because she wanted to find out what others thought about her relationship with Benjamin?
Was she seeking confirmation or reassurance that Benjamin declaring his love for her was real?
Whatever it was, it made her stay where she was, hidden from David’s and Zach’s view.
“Yeah, he looks pretty pussy-whipped.”
“Still, I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes,” Zach replied.
“Why? She’s not your type?”
“It’s not that. But the whole idea of having to tell a human your secret. I could do without that.”
Secret? And why did he call her a human? That was an odd way of referring to her.
“Let’s face it: at some point we’re all gonna be in the same boat,” David said calmly.
“Not if I blood-bond with a woman who already knows what we are,” Zach hedged.
“Well, that really narrows your circle to pretty much the hybrids, and to tell the truth, I’d rather mate with a human. Their blood is so much sweeter.”
Catalina slammed her hand over her mouth in order not to release the gasp that was working its way up through her throat.
Had he really said he wanted to drink blood from a human?
That couldn’t be right. That was impossible!
It would mean… No! She couldn’t even finish that thought.
Maybe she was still dreaming, or maybe she’d simply misheard them.
Or perhaps they knew she was in the den and were playing a prank on her. But even she knew that this wasn’t the case. Only good friends played pranks on each other, and the two brothers barely knew her. No, their conversation had been real. What did that mean for her? What now?
“Oh, here are my car keys,” Zach suddenly said, and she heard the clinking of keys.
“Let’s get going. I’m sure the club is already packed,” David said.
“Not before I grab another bottle of blood. I’m sure Samson has plenty of the good stuff in the fridge.”
“Okay, but drink it in the car. I wanna get going.”
A moment later, the two brothers left the den.
She heard their footfalls in the corridor and realized that they had left the door ajar.
She listened intently, and only after what appeared to be a full minute, when she heard the entrance door open and then close again, did she dare to breathe deeply.
She sat up on the couch and pushed the blanket aside.
She took a few steadying breaths to collect her thoughts.
Every interaction with Benjamin replayed in her mind.
Had there been any instances that suggested that he wasn’t who he said he was?
Any indication that he had a secret? And that his secret had to do with what David had suggested?
And he had definitely said that he wanted to drink blood.
Did this mean that Benjamin was like him too?
Did he have some sick fetish of wanting to drink blood?
Was there such a thing? Because if it wasn’t a fetish, then her other suspicion could be true. And that would be horrifying!
Still, she couldn’t form the word even in her mind. Because to do so would make it real. And she didn’t want it to be real. It would destroy not only everything that she thought she had with Benjamin, but also her entire worldview. Because in the world she knew, monsters didn’t exist.
Yet…
So much would finally make sense. If he and his friends and family were really what David’s words suggested, then it would explain why they all looked so young.
Benjamin’s father and mother in particular, as well as Benjamin.
Nobody looked their real age. While it was easier to explain away in Benjamin’s case, there was no reason why his parents looked no older than their own son—unless none of them aged.
And that would make them… monsters who didn’t age.
Vampires.
There, she’d finally allowed herself to form the word in her mind. If the lore could be believed, then they didn’t age, they drank blood, they stayed out of the sun.
Her mind screeched to a halt. Benjamin had been outside during the daytime. She’d been with him. Did that mean he couldn’t be a vampire? Or was the lore wrong?
She pressed her hands to her temples. She was going crazy.
Again, she let the words she’d overheard replay in her mind.
She’d missed something. Zach had said that he wanted to drink another bottle of blood, and that there would be plenty in Samson’s fridge.
In an instant, she remembered the night of the party at Benjamin’s flat.
She’d seen bottles filled with a red liquid in his refrigerator and had assumed it was tomato juice, but what if it wasn’t?
She had to know, or she would drive herself completely crazy.
Since David and Zach had left the house, she could risk going to the kitchen and peeking into the refrigerator.
Even if Benjamin or anyone else surprised her there, she could simply say she wanted to grab a bottle of water to drink and didn’t want to disturb Delilah in her work.
Collecting all her courage before it could leave her, she rose and went to the door.
Again, she listened to the sounds in the hallway, but it was quiet.
She left the den and walked along the corridor.
The first door she opened led to a dining room, and from there she saw an open archway leading into the kitchen.
She entered and walked to the stainless-steel refrigerator.
Her heart pounded into her throat, and her palms were damp.
Catalina wiped her hands on her pants, then exhaled before she finally gripped the handle and opened the refrigerator door.
She let her eyes roam over the shelves. There wasn’t as much food inside as she’d expected.
After all, it appeared that not only Grayson and Monique were staying at the house, but that David and Zach were also visiting.
She would have expected the fridge to have been stocked for the many guests.
Instead, one of the lower shelves was filled with bottles.
Bottles with red liquid. In shape and content, they looked identical to the bottles she’d seen in Benjamin’s fridge.
She took one and inspected it more closely.
As she tilted it, she noticed that the liquid inside seemed viscous, but it didn’t leave the sometimes grainy texture that tomato juice left on the glass.
She turned the bottle around to read the simple white label.
AB+ was written in black letters, then farther below, Bottled by Scanguards.
She gasped, and her heart began to race. She swallowed hard. AB+ was a blood group. This was the blood Zach had spoken about. It was true then. Benjamin had had bottles of human blood in his fridge. She couldn’t deny it any longer. She was surrounded by vampires. She had to get away from here.
“Who are you?”
The voice coming from the door almost made her drop the bottle. She caught herself in the last second and placed it back on the shelf before closing the fridge and facing the person who’d spoken.
The boy was maybe four or five years old and wore pajamas. He stood at the door to the kitchen and stared at her. Undoubtedly, this was Delilah’s grandson Ross, whom she’d put to bed before they’d arrived at the house.
She forced a smile. “I’m Benjamin’s girlfriend, Catalina.”
He didn’t acknowledge her words and instead said, “I’m thirsty.”
“I can get you something,” she said quickly.
And just as soon as she’d given him some water or milk, she would leave as quietly as she could.
“You smell nice.”
He stared at her, and suddenly she noticed that his eyes seemed to change from a dark brown to the color of a glowing ember.
Benjamin paced in front of the desk, while Delilah continued to scroll through the documents on the screen.
“Well, well, well,” Delilah finally said and looked up.
“You found something?” he asked, hopeful now.
Delilah smiled. “I always do.”
There was pride in her voice, and he knew that feeling. It was the same he had whenever he found an important clue in his investigations.
“Tell me,” he urged, when his phone suddenly rang.
He glanced at the display. “Damn, that’s Anita. Let me take it quickly.”
Delilah nodded, and he tapped on the phone to answer the call.
“Anita? I’m with Delilah. Is it urgent?”
“You could say that,” she replied. “The Prestons recognized Catalina on the security tape they sent to your father. They know she’s Santiago Vargas’s sister.”
“Fuck!”
He rubbed his neck. This wasn’t good news. Now the Prestons were warned and would be on their guard.
“I’m assuming you’re aware of what’s going on?” he asked her.
“Your father filled me in. But I kind of guessed that something was up when you introduced Catalina to me at the station. You could have given me a heads-up.”
“We wanted to keep this on the down low until we had more information.”
“Unfortunately, your time is up. The Prestons are pressing charges. There’s a BOLO out on Catalina. You’ve gotta bring her in.”
The words rocked him to the core. He hadn’t expected this—at least not so soon. He’d hoped that it would never come to this, because they would have evidence to expose the Prestons before that.
“I can’t do that,” he said. “We need more time.”
“You don’t have any time. The longer you hide her, the worse this is gonna get.”
“Please, Anita, isn’t there anything you can do?”
A sigh came through the line. “Listen, just bring her in tomorrow morning first thing, and I can arrange for her to be arraigned right away. They’ll set bail, and you can get her out. Be smart about this, or the Prestons will have you charged as an accessory.”
He contemplated her words for a moment, but he knew she was right. How he would make Catalina understand, he wasn’t sure. This would definitely be a blow for her.
“Okay. Tomorrow morning. Thanks for the heads-up.”
He disconnected the call.
“What’s wrong?” Delilah asked.
“Our clock’s running out faster than I thought. Which makes it even more important to get something on the Prestons.”
“Then you’ll be pleased to hear that I’ve indeed found something. The Prestons were up to their eyeballs in debt.”
He listened up. “Enough to do anything to raise money? Even something risky and illegal?”
“Absolutely. So, a month before the burglary at their house, they faced almost certain bankruptcy.”
“How so? They own that huge home. It must be worth ten to twelve million.”
“It is, but it’s mortgaged to the hilt. They own two other properties, but they are also mortgaged.”
“Isn’t Preston an investment banker? They must have stocks and bonds.”
“That’s where it gets interesting. James Preston traded a lot on margin, and most of his bets didn’t go his way.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“He sold massive amounts of stocks short, betting that the stock price would drop so he could then repurchase the shares for less, thus making a profit. Unfortunately for him, the companies whose stocks he sold short, rallied and made unexpected gains. The stock price rose. He was facing massive margin calls, which he couldn’t satisfy.
He had to come up with cash. All his credit lines were already exhausted. ”
“How much are we talking about?”
“By my estimate, somewhere between fifteen and twenty million dollars.”
“So a necklace that’s worth twenty million would have given him that cash.”
She nodded. “Shortly after the trial, the Prestons received an insurance payout of around twenty million. From what I can see in his accounts, he paid the investment banks for the margin calls and is square with them now.”
“Definitely a good reason to frame somebody for a theft so that he could collect the insurance money.”
“Mmm.” Delilah frowned. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to just sell the necklace? Christie’s or Sotheby’s could have auctioned it off, and they wouldn’t have had to wait for the money.”
“Catalina was wondering the same,” Benjamin confessed. “But so far we have no idea why they didn’t do that.”
Delilah nodded to herself. “Let me go a little further back in time to see if I can figure out their reasoning.”
“You’ll need financial records for all of last year. I only got you the records for a few months before the burglary.”
Though he was now hesitant to call it a burglary. It looked more and more like it was a setup just like Catalina had suspected all along.
“Don’t worry. I’ll call IT to ask them to hack in and get me what I need.”
“You’re the best, Delilah. Without your expertise, I wouldn’t have been able to weed through all this.”
“Anytime. If you—”
A shrill scream interrupted her. Benjamin recognized it instantly as Catalina’s. The vampire inside him fought his way to the surface, ready to protect the woman he loved from whatever or whoever was hurting her. Because there was no doubt in his mind: her scream was one of pain and fear.