Tessa’s POV “It was an ambush,” Mulligan continued. “We didn’t expect there to be more than one vampire. But they were expecting a trap, and the result was Noah getting critically hurt. Thankfully, Joseph was able to put a stop to these vampires with our help and they were locked up. But Noah suffered greatly.” I felt sad by this story. I felt sad for Joseph. I lowered my gaze and stared at my hands. I was so awful to him for not letting me do this. I didn’t understand, but now I get it. He was afraid the same thing would happen to me. “Joseph blamed himself for not being able to protect Noah. He blamed us as well. He went into retirement and fell off the grid for a long time,” Mulligan said, a sad look in his eyes. “You said that Noah was hurt critically, but that's not that he died