Page 14 of The Vampire and the Barista

“Yeah,” his brother replied.

Gabe helped him stand, and Ivan held his hand out to Jamie.

“Thanks,” Jamie said, smiling at him. “I’m almost scared to ask, but where’s our dad?”

Cairo snorted out a laugh. “He took one look at the kitty and passed out.”

“I’m not even going to pretend I understand that at the moment,” Jamie said, shaking his head.

“I’ll open a portal here, wouldn’t want to shock the neighbours,” Gabe said, swirling his hand and a portal opened in the dining room.

“What the hell?” Karl exclaimed. “I think I might have injured my head worse than I thought. There looks to be a shiny doorway right there,” he said, pointing.

“Gabe is a super cool witch,” Jamie told him. “We used one of these to get to you quickly, and thank goodness we did.”

“Guys, we’re going,” Cairo called out.

Bert and David walked out of the lounge and joined them in the hallway.

Kitty took Ivan’s hand. Ivan looked at her again in surprise and smiled down at her. “Ready?”

Kitty bit her lip but nodded.

“Come on then, there’s nothing to this,” and with that, Ivan led Kitty through. They came out in the coven kitchen. Ivan moved them out of the way so the others could come through.

He saw Seth and Gio jump up as they entered. Adrian, Kevin and Ian were also there.

Gabe clicked his fingers when they were all through and closed the portal.

“Somehow I wasn’t expecting to come out in a kitchen,” Jamie commented. At a quick glance, Jamie could see that this room was massive. At one end was a shiny modern kitchen, and in the middle of the room was the biggest table Jamie had ever seen.

“Welcome to our home,” Ivan said.

Bert saw his brother. “Bacon, what are you doing here?”

Some of the others smirked.

“Catching up with Seth and Gio, Gerty.”

Just then, Dave and Max rushed into the kitchen.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re all safe,” Dave said, pulling Jamie into a hug. He pulled back and then went to say hello to David.

“Thank goodness,” Max said, before catching sight of Bert. “Hi, I didn’t know you’d arrived back.”

“Literally just back. We were all together when Seth called for reinforcements, so we all came.”

“Wait,” Jamie said, looking from Dave to Max. “You both live here?”

“I do, Max doesn’t yet. Hunter lives here as well,” Dave replied, still wrapped in David’s arms.

“Tattoo Hunter?”

Dave nodded. “Yep. This is a big place, I’m trying to fill all the rooms up.”

As they were talking, Adrian walked close, looking at Karl, then Gabe.

“I healed what I could, which was a fair bit of damage. Karl’s brain took a big blow. I started healing it, but my healing will take time. I’m hoping you can heal his brain quicker than I can.”