Page 85 of Bitten By Desire
I stared at him. And I couldn’t quite explain it…but I had this feeling in my gut. That he was lying. I just didn’t know what exactly he was lying about.
“But if she quits she has to leave town next week.” Zoey turned to me. “This sucks. I don’t want you to leave. I can’t live alone now. Freaking vampires exist.”
Or…do they?I stared at Bennett. It almost seemed like he just wanted me to be scared of Theo. Like he was just trying to get me to stay away from him. Everything he said made sense. I’d already thought about it all before. I’d even dreamed about Theo biting my neck.
But what if this was just some kind of trick to get me to stay far away from Theo? I knew it was crazy, but I’d been in love with the man for ten years. And he’d never once hurt me. He’d even told me he wouldn’t. So…did I really need to be that scared of him?
I took a deep breath. “I need proof.”
“What?” Zoey stared at me. “Bennett just told you all the proof.”
“Which is all the same stuff I told you the other day.” I needed more. I turned back to Bennett. “Can I borrow that pen? And poke him myself?”
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Bennett said.
“I can’t let this go until I see it for myself. Please.” Bennett said that Theo was a liar. Theo said that Bennett was. And I just needed to get to the bottom of everything. “And I want to see this artifact. The one that Theo is trying to steal.” I needed to get in those vaults. Theo said that Bennett wouldn’t show me. And I couldn’t trust Bennett until he let me in.
“Oh, I’d love to see it too,” Zoey said. She pushed her empty plate aside.
Bennett sighed. “Okay. Let’s head back to the bank.” He pulled out some cash and left it on the table. We all made our way back out onto Main Street.
Zoey stepped between Bennett and I. “Speaking of the bank.” She looked up at him. “I know I already asked you about Otto and Titan. But what’s the deal with Huxley and Ace? Are they single?”
“Yes,” Bennett said. “But they’re looking for something serious too.”
Zoey sighed. “Since when are all the hot guys looking to settle down instead of hook up?”
I had no idea how she was thinking about hooking up with anyone right now. Theo was out there, probably plotting our murder. And there was a serial killer loose. Or maybe worse.
Bennett pulled out a key and unlocked the front doors to the bank. We’d been running around town so long, I hadn’t realized the bank would be closed.
It was just the three of us. Bennett’s friends were all gone for the day. Our feet echoed in the empty building as we followed Bennett behind the counter. He went to the second vault.
“What’s in that one?” I asked and nodded to the one we’d passed.
“Like I said earlier, most of them are filled with safety deposit boxes.” He typed in a code and spun the wheel on the vault. It made a mechanical whooshing noise and the heavy metal door sprung forward.
Bennett pulled it the rest of the way open.
Oh my God.I stepped in. It looked like we were standing in a museum. There were lots of gold itemswith similar etchings as Titan’s pen. But it wasn’t just stuff like that. There were gems, items woven out of fabric, creepy masks, and some primitive weapons lining the walls.
“These all have magical powers?” I reached out to touch one of the masks.
Bennett grabbed my hand. “Don’t touch anything.”
“Why?” I turned my attention away from the mask and stared at a rolled-up carpet.
“We don’t know what all of them do.”
“Wait, is that a magic carpet? Does it actually fly?” I pulled out my camera to take a photo.
“No photos either.” Bennett put his hand over the lens of my camera.
I had a million questions about all the artifacts in the vault. About what kind of magic all these items possessed. I turned my attention back to some of the golden items with etchings similar to Titan’s pen. “What are those symbols?”
“They look kind of like hieroglyphics,” Zoey said. She reached out to touch a ring, but Bennett caught her hand to stop her.
It didn’t seem like Bennett was going to tell us anything. He’d let us see them, but that was about it. I wanted to see the powers he was talking about. “Which artifact is Theo after?”
