Bless The Beauty - By Stacey Kennedy Page 0,43

stand. They gave chances.

Vampires never did that. Fuck up once and that was it. Harsh as it was, it saved moments like these. Mortals always believed that people are capable of change. I knew better—

once a killer, always a killer. I’d seen that point proven time and time again.

“I…I…” Bob stammered, shame flashed across his features.

I ignored his moment of ignominy. It was too late for that. I turned on my heels and began walking from the room. “If we need anything further, we will contact you, Dr.

Peterson.” With that, I left, walked briskly out of the hospital with Chase and Kellen following in behind me.

Once outside, Chase softly touched my elbow, drew my attention to him. “A bit harsh on him, don’t you think?”

I snorted, outright angry about the whole thing. “It’s just so frustrating. They let him out knowing what he could do. These women are dead because they released them. He was their responsibility and I’m not letting them off the hook for that.”

Kellen gave me a knowing glance.

I felt the weight of that look right down to my very toes. The knowledge that if I’d just done what Kellen suggested right at the beginning, Sabrina would be home in the arms of her family by now.

All this time wasted, for what? Following rules and protocols that now seemed meaningless.

For the first time, I began to doubt the way mortals worked and wondered if this whole time I‘d been wrong. The little tinge of annoyance made me hate the fact that Kellen may have been right.

Chapter Twelve

Back at the station, the time had come. Chad sat in the interview room in front of me, an image of your typical college grad. Clean cut, innocent face—cute. “Would you like something to drink—eat?” I asked, attempted to create a sense of camaraderie with the young chap.

Chad gave an award-winning smile as he looked at me with pretty, blue eyes. “No, thank you, I’m fine.”

Neither the smile nor the eyes won me over. I’d like to do to this man what he had done to his victims, only worse. Even though I had the ability to do just that, I knew I couldn’t—mortal rules and all.

It didn’t mean the thought hadn’t crossed my mind and always would when I met these vicious killers.

And now, with all my doubts running through my mind about this whole situation, I seriously questioned doing just that. Instead, I held back and went through the procedure as I always did. I needed to ask questions—give the appearance I was a skilled interrogator before I locked him in and warped his mind to spill the beans. This was being videotaped, the camera in the corner was evidence of that. I needed to go through the procedure protocol called for.

“You are all so wonderful here,” Chad said, snapping me away from my thoughts.

Then his expression became confused. “Will I be going home soon?”

I gave a loud snort. “I highly doubt that.” I opened the file in front of me, took out all eight photos of his victims and spread them out in front of him. “Do you know these women?”

Chad leaned in and a twinkle of pride rose along his face. “Aren’t they so lovely?”

“They’re exquisite,” I concurred. “God’s marvels.”

Remembering what the doctor had told me, I focused my questions along the lines of his advice.

When the time came that he would be prosecuted, the doctor would indeed testify as to what he learned from Chad and also what he told me. I needed to make sure I covered my tracks with all this.

“That is just how I see them,” Chad marvelled.

Ah, ha. He was right where I wanted him. It was important I set out a path that would lead me to my final answers. Get him to admit that he knew them. I had to make it appear that I’d broken through to him. “So you do know these women?”

“God knows those women and I am his messenger.”

It was more curiosity that led me to my next question. Now that I had him here, it intrigued me a little to understand the way his mind worked. “What message are you sending them?”

“That they are beautiful and loved. That they’re God’s creation and he is proud of them.”

That was certainly the most fucked up thing I’d ever heard. It was hard to really grasp how his mind worked. I suspected no matter how much time I spent with him, I wouldn’t understand. “And why do you