“At one of these parties, and we hit it off. She’s gorgeous, a lot of fun, and we would spend hours talking. She was… she was amazing.”
Dante didn’t miss the wistful tone of his voice, but he would prod further into that in a minute. “Did you know Jasmine was a vampire when you met?”
Preston snorted and tugged at his hair again. “No, who would ever suspect that? I was engrossed in this lifestyle, and I never saw it coming. We dated for a few months, and I was beginning to think she was the one. Then I learned the truth about her, and she turned me.”
“What happened after?”
“She went crazy. It was like she assumed she owned me or something. I didn’t plan to break up with her, but she started getting so possessive and weird that I couldn’t go out without her following me. I never cheated on her, and I never gave her any reason to suspect I would.
“When I was with her, I never even looked at another girl, but there was no way I was spending an eternity dealing with her tracking my phone and interrogating me every time I went out. We continued to date for a couple of months after she turned me, but eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore.”
“How long ago did you break up?” Dante asked.
Preston rested his fingers against the wall as he pondered this. “It’s been almost two months. At first, she didn’t take it very well and continued to follow me everywhere. If I was in a place like this, she would show up. If I was sitting in a bar, she’d be there. If I went to buy jeans, she was there. It was fucking miserable.”
“Then what happened?” Dante asked.
“Nothing. She vanished three weeks ago, and it all stopped. I haven’t seen her since.”
“So, two women you were close to both vanished.”
Preston’s brow furrowed as this realization sank in. “I never thought about that.”
“Is there anyone out there who would have any reason to hurt someone close to you?”
“Jasmine’s the only one I know who was really angry with me.”
“Did Jasmine know Julie?”
“Yes. We were dating for about a month before I reached out to Julie.”
“And why did you do that?”
Preston stared into the shadows of the stairwell before looking at Dante again. “After my dad died—and by dad, I mean my stepdad and not Dr. Abbott—my mom kinda lost her mind. I always knew Bill wasn’t my real dad, but it never mattered because he was my dad, you know?”
“Yes,” Dante said when Preston seemed to require an answer.
“I never considered looking for my real dad because I had Bill. And then, one day, I didn’t have him anymore, and it sucked.”
Dante completely understood.
“After his death, it got really bad. In one of my mom’s many drunken rants, she told me about my real dad and said he threw us aside to start a family with another woman. Until then, I never really considered the possibility I might have siblings, but I didn’t try to find them. If my bio dad didn’t want anything to do with me, then I didn’t want anything to do with him either, and that included his children.
“Then I turned on the news, and one of the stories was about a prominent heart surgeon who was killed in a car accident. They showed a photo of him with his family, and I saw Julie. She was so happy in the picture. I remembered being that happy in my pictures too, and I realized we had more in common than DNA. The death of your dad is a shitty thing to have in common, but I wanted to help her.”
This side of Preston was not what he expected to find when he approached the man at the bar and received his wise-ass replies. He’d been on the verge of slapping that punk upside his head. Now, he was considering taking him out and commiserating over a couple of beers. However, he still didn’t trust the man.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“How did you contact her?” Dante asked.
“Instagram. We bonded over the loss of our dads, and I don’t mean Dr. Abbott. The only reason I care about his death is because it broke Julie’s heart. The more we talked, the more we realized we liked the same kind of music and movies. I introduced her to Jasmine, she came to some of the clubs with me, and we started having more in common as she got involved in the underground lifestyle. She’s my sister and my friend.”
“Did you talk often?” Dante asked.
“We talked every day through texts, and we saw each other a couple of times a week.”
“How did she handle it when you became a vampire?”
“She was super excited. I told her that when she was older, I would change her if she decided to do it. She didn’t want it to happen now.”
“Why not?”
“Who wants to be sixteen forever?”
Not me, Dante thought. “So, you haven’t had any contact with Julie in two weeks?”
“No, I’ve been texting her every day, but she hasn’t replied to any of my messages.”
“Weren’t you concerned when you didn’t hear from her?”
“Yeah, but I assumed her mom found out about me and put an end to her contacting me. I figured that, as soon as she could, she would get in touch with me again, but if you’re here, then something far worse happened.”
Preston bit his lip as he stared into the shadows again. “She’s all I have,” he whispered.
This guy was either better than Tom Hanks, or he really didn’t know anything. And Dante’s instincts were telling him that Preston didn’t know anything, which meant his leads were dwindling.
“Do you know where I can find Jasmine?” Dante asked.
“I know where she lived before we broke up; I’m not sure if she’s still there.”
“I’ll start there then.”
Preston gave him an address in Brighton, and Dante wrote it down.
“Are you going to talk to her now?” Preston
