Page 65 of Benjamin and the Thief

“Stop where you are, Ma’am.”

The order came from a policeman who’d just stepped out of his patrol car. A second one exited the car from the other side.

“You have to help me,” she called out. “I’m injured.”

The police officer nodded. “Alright, calm down. We’ll take you in.”

Relieved, she let out a breath. She would be alright. They would protect her.

Everything suddenly began to blur around her, and she reached out her uninjured arm to find something to grasp, but there was nothing to hold onto. Her knees buckled, and all strength left her. Darkness wrapped around her, and she allowed it to take her.

29

Benjamin realized his mistake the moment Catalina had looked over her shoulder while running toward the living room. He’d seen red—literally. He’d seen her through a sheen of red, which meant that his eyes were glaring red, indicating that his vampire side had gained the upper hand. When she’d stared at him in horror, he felt his heart sink. She knew what he was, and she saw him as a monster.

She was bleeding profusely from her forearm. It wasn’t difficult to guess who’d inflicted the wound. There was still blood around Ross’s mouth, and the scent of it confirmed that it was Catalina’s. The little hybrid vampire had bitten her. He hadn’t learned yet to control himself.

“Catalina! I can explain.”

But she continued running. He had to stop her, firstly, so he could heal her wound, and secondly, to tell her the truth about him, before her imagination made things worse. Quickly, he set Ross, who was still crying, back on his feet and pulled the door open to rush outside into the hallway so he’d have a straight line toward the entrance door rather than navigating around furniture in the dining and living rooms.

In the hallway, he crashed into Delilah, who came running from the office. The impact was so forceful that Delilah tumbled backward, losing her balance. To prevent her from hitting her head on the hardwood floor, he grabbed her and managed to set her back on her feet. She swayed, and he realized that she was dizzy from him bumping into her with such force. He steadied her.

“I’m sorry, Delilah. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”

Ross’s wailing cry turned louder.

“Oh, my God! Ross. Is he hurt?” she asked, her voice panicked, while she reached for the kitchen door.

“He’s fine. But he bit Catalina. He drank her blood,” he explained hastily. “I’ve gotta catch her.”

Before Delilah could say anything in response, he ran toward the entrance door, which stood open. Outside, he looked first in one direction, then the other, inhaling deeply. He could smell her blood, and while he was sorry that she was bleeding and in pain, her blood trail would make it easier for him to find her.

He began running, while constantly sniffing the air ahead of him. Blood had dripped from her wound and landed on the sidewalk, and even though it was hard to make out in the dark, the smell was as potent as if it were an arrow pointing in the direction in which she’d fled. He could only imagine what was going through her. First, the shock that Ross had bitten her and had clearly sunk his fangs deep into her flesh to drink from her, then seeing him in his vampire form. He was certain his own fangs had been extended as a result of the strong scent of blood in the kitchen.

He cursed. Why hadn’t he taken her aside earlier tonight and revealed to her what he was? It could have all been done in a safe and calm environment, where he could have shown her that there was nothing to fear, that he wasn’t a monster, and that he would never hurt her. But after being bitten by a vampire, albeit a small child, how would she ever believe that the bite was nothing to be feared? True, Ross’s bite would have hurt, because as a small child he didn’t yet know that there was a way to make it painless. He would have had to lick the spot first to numb it. But there was no sense in crying over spilled milk. All that mattered now, was to find Catalina and come clean.

He took another turn at the next intersection, following the scent of her blood, but he couldn’t see her anywhere, nor could he hear her footsteps. There were the occasional cars going by, but there was no other foot traffic. At the next intersection, he stopped, sniffing again. But to his surprise, he couldn’t tell in which direction she’d continued. He ran down half a block, sniffing constantly, but her scent was gone. He turned back to the intersection, where he’d last smelled her blood, and went in the other direction, but there was none of her scent either. The third direction produced no blood trail either. It simply stopped at the intersection.

Fuck! He’d lost her. How was that possible? One second, the scent of Catalina’s blood had been strong, the next, it was gone. What now? He couldn’t just let her run around in the city, scared and bleeding.

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tapped on Catalina’s number. It rang once, twice, three times. He was already thinking that she wouldn’t answer when the call suddenly connected.

“Catalina, please⁠—”

“Benjamin, it’s Delilah.”

For a second, he didn’t understand what was happening. “Delilah?”

“Yes, Catalina’s phone was in the den. She left it.”

“Fuck!”

“You couldn’t find her?”

“Her blood trail stopped abruptly.”