“I don’t want you to go back there if the memories are going to hurt,” Patrick said.
“You getting hurt would be worse.”
“Jono.”
“I’m going, Pat.”
He didn’t sayhome, because it wasn’t, not anymore. Tottenham and the council estate he’d grown up on before getting kicked out after being infected with the werevirus hadn’t been home for years. His family hadn’t wanted him, neither had his old mates, and Jono had done what he’d had to so he could survive.
It had meant shady jobs, under-the-table payments in cash, skirting the edges of local gangs, all with a target on his back. He’d had no pack, no territory to call his own, no support, and dealt with discrimination every day because of the telltale color of his eyes. What relationships he’d made were thin at best after his family disowned him. He hadn’t seen a quid of the settlement amount from the court suit against the hospital that had given him the bad blood transfusion. His family had kept it all, and he’d been left out in the cold.
You couldn’t change the past, but you could change your family, and he’d done that.
He wouldn’t let anyone make him feel less because of it.
Jono shook his head. “Sage can keep an eye on Wade today. You and I will drive up to Tottenham, though it’s in the complete opposite direction as Heathrow. Traffic is going to be bloody terrible.”
“If we’re late, Spencer can take the Tube in. We can pick him up from a station or something.”
“That’s a bit rude if you already told him we’d pick him up from Heathrow.”
Patrick patted Jono’s cheek with one hand before pulling away. “He and Fatima can fend for themselves. Trust me on that.”
Jono had never met PIA Special Agent Spencer Bailey, but Patrick had been explicitly clear they’d never dated. Jono figured Patrick was making a point, but rather than get jealous, Jono had only shrugged and proceeded to distract Patrick in bed. All he knew was that Spencer used to be in the Mage Corps, and now he wasn’t, and that the joint task force was bringing him over on an unofficial basis.
Jono had a feeling theunofficialbit would make things messy in the end, but diplomatic niceties weren’t his forte. He left those to Sage.
“Let’s get the car and be off. I’ll text Sage she’s on her own with Wade today,” Jono said.
“All right.”
Patrick wandered off to finish getting ready, and Jono tried to mentally steady his nerves. He didn’t even know if his family lived in the council estate anymore. Last he’d heard years ago, they’d been talking about buying a home and moving out. Jono didn’t know if they had, and he’d never bothered to find out.
They’d washed their hands of him, and he’d done the same.
Definitely going to need a pint after today.
Somehow, he didn’t think Patrick would mind keeping him company if he did.
Patrick didn’t take long, and before Jono knew it, he was seated behind the steering wheel of their rental, driving north, following a route he’d never thought he’d ever take again. Time was he’d ride the Tube, but the drive wasn’t unfamiliar. He used to borrow Tom’s car back in the day, had actually learned to drive in it, but that hadn’t been his regular mode of transportation.
“How will you even know if Rossiter is around?” Jono asked.
Patrick didn’t lift his head away from where he had it leaned against the window. “Same way I know when demons are around. My magic will tell me.”
“What does it feel like?”
“Like I need to gargle with alcohol to get the taste of hell out of my mouth. Why?”
“Just curious.”
If Patrick was shielded, Jono couldn’t tell when Patrick was using his magic unless he used the soulbond to tap a ley line. The connection between them wasn’t always open, but it was tighter than it had been last summer. Part of it was due to the torn open hole in Patrick’s soul and the deeply buried connection he had with Hannah. The soulbond had spread deeper into their souls to block that connection since Chicago, but Patrick hadn’t figured out how to sever his tie to Hannah yet.
Some days, Jono wasn’t sure Patrick even wanted to.
Patrick had a lot of guilt where his sister was concerned. Jono hadn’t raised the issue about the connection tying the twins together and what to do about it because that was a minefield he had no map for.
“So we’re just burning petrol whilst you”—Jono lifted a hand off the steering wheel and wiggled his fingers—“go abracadabra?”
