Chapter 166

Tessa’s POV

“Chief Mulligan, can I speak with you for a moment?” I asked once if they were both distracted enough to continue their conversation.Carter and Mulligan both looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“Oh, hey Tessa. We didn’t see you there. How’s your arm?” Carter asked, eyeing me carefully.

I lifted my arm and pulled down my shirt slightly so he could see the bandage.

“Good as new,” I told him.

“Jordan won’t get away with it,” Mulligan muttered, shaking his head. “I sent him back to headquarters with a couple of others. He’s suspended until further notice.”

“I understand why he did what he did,” I said, adjusting my shirt. “I know that he only wanted to make my scent more potent to Ryan. I can't blame him for trying.”

However, he was stupid to do that in front of Joseph and the others. He should have known it wouldn’t end well for him.

“Is that what you wanted to talk about?” Mulligan asked, furrowing his brows together.

I shook my head and glanced at Carter; I knew if I told Carter my plan, he’d go and tell Joseph. He’s already in the doghouse for letting me come here in the first place; I didn’t want to get him into even more trouble, and I doubt he’d go along with this plan.

When I met Carter’s eyes, he seemed to have understood this and nodded at me.

“I need to go help Joseph before he gets himself killed by rogue vampires,” Carter said, pointing to the roof. “Seems he’s finished up with setting up the patrol and he’s going to be impatient if I don’t get there soon. Hopefully, between the two of us, we’ll be able to fight them.”

“Please be careful,” I pleaded.

He nodded and turned to walk away.

Once he was out of sight, I turned to Mulligan.

“They aren’t going to be able to do this by themselves. I have a strong feeling that there’s more to Ryan’s plan than we know. I want to help them.”

Mulligan’s eyes widened.

“What exactly do you mean?” He asked, confused.

“Ryan has Fae in there. There’s no reason he’d have her unless he’s using her for something. I think he’s using her as a weapon. He just broke out of prison and once he becomes a rogue, he will be powerless. But maybe he’s already powerless since breaking out of jail and that’s why he has Fae with him,” I said, keeping my eyes locked on his.

“Okay?”

I sighed before continuing.

“I knew Fae before she turned into a vampire and I know she’s not dangerous,” I told him “She doesn’t want to hurt anyone. I might be able to get her to come with us so at least Ryan won't be able to use her anymore. It might make him even weaker and vulnerable to attack.”

Mulligan folded his arms across his chest.

“That’s a risky idealization, Tessa. Not to mention Joseph would never allow you to enter that building.”

“That’s why I’m not asking Joseph,” I told him. “You know that this situation is very bad. Especially now that we know there are rogues involved.”

“Joseph and Carter have it handled,” Mulligan said, shaking his head. “Our job is to stay on patrol and once we are given the clear, we will get the hostages out.”

“They aren’t going to be able to do it all by themselves. Ryan is using Fae for a reason and if we took away that reason, we might be able to come out on top. We don’t know how many rogues are in that building waiting for them. We don’t know how powerful Fae is but she must be powerful enough for Ryan to want to use her.”Mulligan was quiet for a moment as he stared up at the building. Joseph was already on the top of the building with Carter and some local police. They were speaking about something; I wished I knew what they were saying.

“Do you think you’d be able to get Fae to turn on Ryan?” Mulligan finally asked, pulling my attention back to him.

I nodded.

“Yes, I do. She’s my friend. She would help us if she knew she’d be safe. Ryan is probably threatening her and scaring her,” I told him firmly.

Mulligan sighed.

“You’re not going in there alone,” Mulligan finally said, looking back at me. “I’ll go in with you and we are taking a couple of others of my men.”

I beamed at him.

He turned to a Nightwalker Officer who stood nearby.

“Get Johnson and Montgomery. Grab the guns with the silver bullets and the spray that blocks our scents. We are going in.”

“Is that wise, Chief? The vampires told us to stay gaurd,” the officer said, sounding worried.

Mulligan looked at me and I gave him a nod; he sighed and looked back at the officer.

“Yes; I’m sure,” he muttered. “I still have some men on patrol down here, along with some local police.”

The officer nodded before taking off.

Mulligan looked at me again and narrowed his eyes.

“You better be right about this,” he murmured.

I hoped I was right about this too.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced a positive and confident smile. Not before long we were joined by two more Nightwalkers with handguns. One of them handed Mulligan a gun as well.

Mulligan caught them up on the plan and though they looked unsure, they didn’t argue.

We walked through the crowd of people and toward the bank.

As we walked, we each sprayed ourselves with the spray, hoping that would block our scents from these vampires. I knew it would be hard to block my scent, but I still sprayed myself anyway.

Mulligan led the way to the back of the building where there were a couple of local police officers standing guard with their guns drawn.

“We are going in,” Mulligan informed them.

Their eyes widened.

“It’s not a good idea,” one of them said, shaking his head. “It’s dangerous.”

“We don’t shy away from danger,” Mulligan said in a gruff tone. “Now step out of the way.”

They looked at one another before moving; they both did double-takes when they saw me passing them as well. I gave them a sheepish grin before following Mulligan and the others into the building.

We stepped into a dark room that almost looked like a conference center. There was a long table in the center of the room with a projector on the far side of the room hanging on the wall. The lights were completely off, and it almost felt ghostly.

Mulligan led us out of the room, and we entered the long hallway that occupied many doors. We continued down the hallway until we reached a large set of doors that I assumed led to the bank lobby.

I could hear muffled voices coming from the other side of the door and some light crying. Mulligan’s brows knitted together, and he looked back at the rest of us, shaking his head. We stepped away from the door as Mulligan scanned the other doors in the hallway. He went to one of them and pressed his ear against it.

None of us dared to speak while he assessed each door. Rogues could be anywhere. He soon opened the door and peered inside. He motioned for us to follow him.

I heard walking around on various floors, which I assumed were probably rogues patrolling certain areas.

Walking into the room, I saw that it was the room where the bankers kept the safe. There was also a door that led to the bank lobby.

As we stepped further into the room, we were soon stopped by the vampires who emerged from dark corners and lunged at us. From their pale faces and torn clothes, I knew right away that they were rogues. Thankfully, Mulligan and his men were quick and were able to shoot them. The guns went off silently, making me realize they had silencers, and the vampires went down easily.

The door to the safe opened quickly, startling us. Mulligan whipped around with his gun pointed and a stalky man walked out with bags of money in his possession. He was shaking and staring wide-eyed at the guns pointed at him.

“I’m just doing what I was told,” he stammered, on the verge of tears. “I’m one of the bankers.”

His eyes went down to the dead rogues, and he gasped as he dropped the bags of money.

He was a hostage; my heart squeezed painfully in my chest. He looked so scared.

I narrowed my eyes to the bags of money.

“Ryan wants money?” I asked, furrowing my brows together.

What could a vampire want with money?

“S…something about needing it when he becomes a…. a… rogue…” the man said through his chattering teeth. “They’re…. v... vampires…”

Mulligan looked at one of his three men who accompanied us.

“Get him to safety,” Mulligan ordered.

The officer nodded as the man burst into tears of relief. I wanted to say something to comfort the man, but I needed to get inside the front lobby and get to Fae before she did something she regretted.

Mulligan motioned with his head for the rest of us to follow him. We kept ourselves low as he slowly opened the door to the bank lobby.

But we froze when I heard Ryan and Fae’s voices clear as day.

I can also hear the growling and hissing of other rogues as they taunted the hostages.

“I can smell her,” Fae breathed. “She has entered the building.”

“Perfect,” Ryan said, and I knew he was smiling at the thought. “As soon as she’s in our possession, Jospeh will have no choice but to turn us rogue if he wants to keep his precious girlfriend alive.”

My stomach clenched; this was a setup.

Fae remained quiet, which gave me a little bit of hope that she didn’t want any of this. I could still get to her.

“Where is that pathetic human with our money?” Ryan seethed.

“Why do we need money anyway?” Fae asked, uncertainty clear in her tone.

“I’ve told you, once we are rogue, we won’t have anything including our abilities. We need the money to build a new life,” Ryan explained, sounding frustrated.

I could hear the whimpering of some children as they buried their faces in their mother’s chests.

“Shut the hell up!” Ryan hissed. “Or I’ll let my friends here drain you of every ounce of your blood.”I flinched at his cruel words, but I pressed my lips together to keep myself quiet.

Fae knows we are in the building, but she doesn’t know just how close we are. Joseph will be here any minute and I know there’s going to be a fight. If I wanted Fae on our side during this fight, I needed to act quickly and carefully.

I looked at Mulligan who was still crouching behind the counter and watching the scene unfold before us. His eyes were trained on the rogues that were wandering around.“They are everywhere; we are going to have to wait until Joseph arrives before we do anything.”

Before I could say anything, I was grabbed by the hair and yanked to my feet. A rogue had wandered behind the counter and caught us without any of us realizing it. Ryan and Fae both turned to face me.

At first, Ryan was shocked to see me, but then his face melted into pure amusement as he watched me struggle against the rogue vampire.

Mulligan and the others were quickly on their feet with their guns drawn, ready to shoot.

However, they were soon stopped when Fae walked into view and began to scream.