“Who do you live here with?” the officer asks.
Chris doesn’t answer. He isn’t sure if they already searched the house, and if they did, what they found. In a case like this, he has to remain silent in order to not be arrested.
“Okay, that’s how you want to do it. We found some items belonging to a missing girl. Her name is Alex and her parents are worried sick about her. One of her friends saw her in the woods tonight and alerted us and her parents. Do you know where she is?”
Still no answer.
“You are a sick bastard if you are keeping this woman away from her family and friends. Tell us where she is.”
Chris stares right through him.
“Since you want to be stubborn, we have to take you into custody for questioning. We believe that you know where she is and on that grounds, we are within our rights to take you into custody.” The officer motions for him to stand.
Chris is glad that he wore a long-sleeved shirt tonight. The officers won’t be able to feel his cold skin through the shirt. He stands up and puts his hands behind his back. Only Alex could make him willingly get himself arrested. His love for her is selfless and strong and he wants no harm to come to her. He uses his feet to mark ‘Don’t Worry’ subtly in the dirt so that only she will be able to see it. He glances around the yard one last time and walks to the police van as they lead the way.
Alex jumps down out of the tree when the cars drive off. She saw the message that Chris sent, but she can’t help but worry. What will they do to him? Can they do anything to him? She isn’t sure if there is any one thing that hurts vampires, Chris has never mentioned anything, but that doesn’t put the worry at bay.
Another peculiar thing about him is that he put himself in danger for her. Is it because he loves her? Or is it the guilt making itself known once more?
Alex can’t help but fantasize that it is love that made him do it. She could see the worry in his face as he looked around the yard for her. It is strange that it is in the middle of this misfortune that their love presents itself again. Her security in his love is back. If he was willing to do that, the feeling has to be mutual.
What to do now? Alex walks into the house and see that not even a pillow was left unturned. They even took her clothes with them, maybe to use as evidence against Chris. She walks through the house to see what else they touched. A cologne she had bought for Chris two days before lay shattered on the ground. Alex doesn’t recognize the house that a few short hours ago was their home. Everything is in disarray and she flops down in the couch where he last sat and took in his scent.
“This isn’t how it ends, Chris. We are supposed to get our happily ever after. I don’t want to spend eternity alone, I want to spend it with you.” She says to the empty house.
Alex feels horrible that she made a non-existent woman disrupt her happiness. Jessica only exists in Alex’s mind. Why did the fact that he wants to find her to ensure that she is okay become a problem between them? There are times when she feels secure in his love, and other times when she feels like a burden, like he just keeps her around out of guilt and that shouldn’t be. She shouldn’t be having doubts about the love that they share. Though it hasn’t been a long time since they met, the sparks started flying soon after. They quickly became inseparable.
Alex turns her focus on how she can help him to escape the custody of the police without being noticed. Police stations are surrounded by cameras, this will take expert skill to pull off. She could get in and out without being seen, but he will more than likely be in a cell, with guards. What will she do when she gets in and pass the cameras, but has to stop to break the lock on the cell? The guards and cameras will definitely notice her there.
Alex has been to the police station once before to visit a friend. If she remembers correctly, the cells are to the west of the building and they have air vents that will allow him to pick up her scent and sense her if she stays there for a while. She could then tell him what to do quickly, so that the guards don’t hear them. If he is able to break the lock while she creates a commotion outside and distract them, then that should help. They can both escape quickly.
Alex gets up and repack what is left of their belongings. This will be the first place that the police will come when he escapes. If the bags are ready to go by the time they return, they can just leave for Detroit immediately. She packs his personal items, his favorite cups, straw, etc. and puts the suitcases at the back door. It will be difficult for her to move discretely if she has two, big suitcases in her hands.
She doesn’t pack much for herself because the police took anything that looked like it belonged to a woman. The clothes that she wore the night of her transformation is gone, along with everything else that she treasures. Every semblance of normalcy is gone, every trace of the life she lived as a human. She takes one last look around the house and dash off into the woods.
Chapter Four
At the police station, Chris is placed into an interrogation room. The room has just two chairs and a big, black desk. Three officers come into the room with him. One sits down in the chair across from him, while the others stand at opposite ends of the room.
Chris is worried about the glare of the light shining directly on him because he is sure that they are able to see the difference in his skin. While his hands and legs are covered, his face isn’t. He is sure that they notice that something isn’t normal about his skin. Their stares proves this to him. No one asks any questions, they are all just looking at him, wondering why he looks different from them.
Chris moves uneasily in the chair and remembers to pretend to breathe. Realizing that this is getting more uncomfortable by the second, he says. “So are you going to ask questions? I have told you before that I have nothing to do with any missing girl.”
“Then why are her things at your house? Her family identified them as hers, so you can’t tell us that they aren’t. Where is she?” the officer sitting before him asks.
Letting out a heavy sigh. Chris says “I don’t know. Did you see her there?”
Looking annoyed, the officer asks “How long has she been living with you?”
“I am not answering any questions without an attorney, and I am sure you see how pale I look, I don’t feel so well.” He tells them.
“We are going to place you in the holding area until in the morning when your attorney arrives for questioning. Do you have an attorney?”
“Yes I do. Can I call her now?” he asks.
“Sure. One of the officers will take you to make the call.
Chris decides to call Jessica. He finally found her tonight and they had a really good conversation. She is living close by and has gotten over her anger and resentment towards him. He dials her number.
“Jess?” he says when she picks up. “I need your help, I have been taken into custody for questioning at the police station. I need you, as my lawyer to be present when I am being questioned. Can you come down in the morning?” he asks, hoping that she gets the hint.
“Sure, see you soon.” She says.
As Chris walks back to the holding area, he is comfortable in the decision he made to call her. As a vampire, she knows a lot of people and can easily get a fake I.D. in a matter of minutes. He needs somebody who can help him to escape with the least amount of suspicion. There is no way that he can call Alex because that would surely give them both away.
After the officers escorted him back to the holding area, he is left alone with his thoughts. He is so happy that he finally found Jessica. She is living by herself and is doing quite well. She has mastered everything that he taught her and he is extremely proud of her.
The new predicament of how Alex will react to him finding her is something that he will have to deal with soon. He hates to see Alex sad and the pain in her eyes the last time he saw her was unbearable. Chris loves Alex and his search for Jessica is in no way to prove that he has any sort of feelings for her. How does he get Alex to understand that? How does
he get her to understand that he truly loves her in a way that he has never loved before?
Where is she now? She must be scared and lonely, not knowing what is going on with him. Oh he misses her, misses the days when he could just hold her in his arms with nothing hanging over their heads. The days when she had no suspicions about his actions. She was so loving and free and it hurt him to know that for the second time, he is the cause of her distress. He wants so much for her to be happy and to let go of the pain and hurting of her past life, but can she do that if he continues to hurt her in this new life? Will she ever be able to move on from it? Will she be able to accept Jessica as a part of their little group?
He hopes that they can become friends because it must be lonely for them to not have any females to talk to about their new life. It would be good if they could keep each other’s company. That way he doesn’t have to worry about them being lonely and he would no longer feel so guilty for destroying their lives.
Chris looks up to see an officer watching him through the glass door. They didn’t even give him a comfortable chair. What if he wasn’t a vampire and wanted to sleep? They just place him to sit on a chair with no care for his comfort. Had he not been worried about Alex, he would have bust out of this place a long time ago. The walls were wearing him out. Sitting down and staring at them for so long is maddening.
Realizing that he didn’t tell Jessica to come before the sun comes up, he started to worry that it might affect them when they were leaving. Remembering, also that she has been living on her own and is still undiscovered gives him comfort to know that she is smart enough to do the right thing.
Chris’ vampire instincts begin to creep in as his throat starts itching for all of the humans in the building. He watches the throat of the officer standing at the door and uses every willpower in him to remain under control. It would be so easy to grab him and drink his blood, so very easy. The vein was pulsing and he could hear his heartbeat above all the noise in the station. It sounded so delicious, so yummy and inviting.
The officer looks seemingly uncomfortable under Chris’ intense gaze and places his hand on his gun. Chris smiles. If only the officer knew that his bullet would just dent when it hit him, but cause no harm. If he knew, he would release him immediately.
Chris peels his eyes away from the officer and turns it back to the wall. He is becoming impatient and bored, having to sit in one place and pretend to be normal for so long. He looks up on the clock on the wall and sees that the time is 5:15 AM. He is just about to get up to ask the officer if he could call back his lawyer, when he heard her voice on the other side of the door.
Relief flood through him when he sees the door open and she confidently strides into the room.
“I need to speak to my client alone please.” She says and the officers left them by themselves.
“What’s going on?” she asks Chris. “Why are you here?”
“Somebody spotted Alex when she went hunting tonight. They trailed her back to my house and I didn’t know. I was coming back from seeing you and ran straight into the crowd of police. I have no idea where she is or I would have escaped, but I didn’t want to leave and then she shows up and they take her.” he tells her.
Jessica listens intently. “Do you know where she is now?” she asks.
“No, I have no clue. I sensed her faintly at the house, but I can’t be sure because the scent of the humans overpowered any other smell. I am worried about her Jess, can you check on her for me?”
Jessica nods. “Of course. I have to wait until I go back out though, because they took my phone when I came in. I am going to try to get them to release you, I have watched enough law shows to know that they cannot hold you without probable cause. I am going to call them in for the questioning now.”
Jessica informs the officers that she is ready for the questioning and they came into the room.
“We have reason to believe that your client knows the whereabouts of a missing woman. We found her possessions at his house and she was spotted earlier nearby.” One of the officers says.
“So, let me get this straight. You take my client into custody because someone is staying at his house? How old is this woman?” she asks Chris.
He tells her that Alex is twenty-two.
“She is twenty-two years old, that means that she is an adult and she is free to make her own decisions. If she doesn’t want to contact her family, then my client has nothing to do with that. She isn’t a fugitive, she isn’t a minor and she wasn’t kidnapped. My client must be released immediately or I will file a lawsuit against the state. He should not have been in custody for a woman who makes her own decisions.” Jessica says, while Chris stares at her in admiration. It seems the women in his life will continue to impress him and leave him speechless.
The officer turns to Chris. “We have to release you, but please tell her that her family is worried and they miss her. Ask her to just give them a call to say that she is okay.”
By the time Jessica and Chris leave the police station, the sun is almost out, but Jess had taken umbrellas with her as a backup. They got into her rental and started the journey to his house to find Alex.
Chapter Five
Alex has been sitting in the tree outside of the jail cells for the past two hours. She has to leave soon because the place is getting to bright and she isn’t sure if her umbrella will provide enough shield from the sun’s rays. She has tried unsuccessfully to communicate with him to see how to help him to escape. She is worried sick about what is going on with him. She has no idea who to call or what to do. She knows that she cannot go into the police station because they will recognize her and cause drama that she doesn’t want.
This has been her roughest night since Chris’ return. Everything just went downhill so quickly and she blames herself for being careless. Had she not allowed herself to be seen, none of this would have happened.
The look on their faces was hard for her to take in. it is obvious that they are truly hurt by her disappearance and the thought of them thinking that she ran away and chose not to contact them, chose to leave them in misery is troubling to her. She hopes that they can think of a way to give them some closure to allow them to move on with their lives. This is something that she has to put some thought into because she hates that this is causing them so much pain.
It is funny that a few months ago, she thought her parents didn’t really love her. It is a pity that it took this tragedy for her to know how they feel and for them to really show her that they love her. Her parents have never been vocal about their feelings, nor were they affectionate people who showed their emotions. There is an old saying that we should make use of time because it goes by in a flash. Alex and her parents are perfect examples of that. No one expected this, not even the person who caused it all.
Seeing that she is having no luck with helping Chris to escape and that it is getting dangerously bright, Alex makes her way back home. This time, she makes sure to observe her surroundings and moves as fast as she can to ensure that she isn’t seen. As Alex makes her way through the woods, she can’t shake the feeling that she is being watched by somebody. She jumps into a tree and scan the area around her, but sees no one. She has that eerie feeling that eyes are following her and she runs as fast as she can, but slows down when she gets close to the house.
Afraid that the same thing that happened to Chris might happen to her, she quickly climbs into a tree and concentrates on the scents around her. She visibly relaxes when she senses Chris, and looks up in confusion when she senses another vampire. It has a peculiar scent, one she has never smelled before.
Alex jumps down from the tree and cautiously enters the house through the back door. She sees no one in the back rooms, but finds Chris standing by the living room, and a woman sitting in the couch.
Chris walks over to her with outstretched arms. “Oh, Alex. Thank God you are okay. I have been so worried.”
Instead of going into his arms, Alex uses h
er hand to block him and looks from him to the woman. “Who is this?” she asks him.
“Oh, my bad. Alex, this is Jessica, the woman I told you about.”
“You finally found her.” she says, taking a seat in a chair.
Chris doesn’t like her tone, but because he knows that she has been having a rough time, he pretends to not notice. “Yes, I found her last night. I was coming back to tell you when I ran into the little welcome party.” He laughs. “I could sense you last night, but it wasn’t strong enough for me to know where you were. Where were you hiding?”
“I was in a tree out back. I sensed them coming and ran outside so they didn’t find me inside. I wanted to call you to warn you, but I realized too late that I left the phone inside. I was hoping that you would sense them and turn back, but it seems you were still distracted.” She looks over at Jessica when she says ‘distracted.’
Jessica remains silent throughout their exchange. Sensing the tension between them and feeling that she is somehow the cause, she deliberately ignores the jibe that Alex throws her way. She knows how women are when they are hurt and she knows Alex will soon get over her insecurity when she sees that Chris really loves her and that she isn’t a threat to her relationship.
“I was indeed distracted, but I was so excited to get home to you and share the good news.” Chris says to her.
“I was thirsty and went hunting. I was also distracted and didn’t sense a nearby group that was hiking. The person that saw me was a classmate of mine and she must have alerted the police, who trailed me her. Apparently she saw the direction that I went it and then told them. I’m sorry for being careless.” She says.
Shaking his head, Chris says. “We were both careless and should have been more careful.” He sits down on the handle of the chair beside her. “I missed you.” He says, placing his hand around her shoulders.
Alex leans away from him. “How did you get out?” she asks.
Confused, yet again by her behavior, Chris tells her. “I called Jessica to pretend to be my lawyer. She told them that they didn’t have any grounds under which to hold me because all of your sightings showed that you are not being restrained. You are not a minor and you are not being held against your will. She was pretty good actually, my freedom proves it.” He smiles.
Beautiful Deadly: Betrayal Vol. 2 Page 2