Page 19 of The Vampire and the Barista

CHAPTER 7

Annie led them upstairs, and just as Thomaz had said, they found Bruno and Diablo lying at the top of the stairs. Bruno was lying on his side, with Diablo snuggled into him.

Bruno raised his head when he saw them. Annie bent down and patted Bruno’s head. “You’re a good boy, Bruno.”

Kitty and Karl dropped to their knees and stroked Bruno and gently stroked the puppy.

“Come along, you can play with the dogs tomorrow,” Annie told them.

The children stood up, and they all followed Annie down the long hallway.

“Here are the rooms that have been readied for you. This is the first one,” Annie said, opening the first door. She moved on to the room next door. “This is the second one,” again she opened the door and then moved across the hallway. “And this is the final one. Jamie, we made up a room for you as well in case you didn’t want to share with Ivan. All rooms should have everything you need. I’ll let you all decide who has which room, and now I’m off. See you all in the morning.” And just that quickly, Annie was gone.

“So that was Annie,” Ivan commented with a grin. “Why don’t we look at the rooms and see which ones you want?”

Jamie looked at Ivan curiously. “So many questions.”

Ivan gave him a gentle smile. “And I will answer them all for you, but let’s get your brother and sister sorted first.”

Jamie nodded and turned to them. “Let’s check out the rooms and see which one you like.”

After looking at the three rooms, Kitty and Karl chose the rooms next to each other. They were both the same size, one was green, which Karl picked, the other was yellow, which Kitty chose, and they both had en-suites. Jamie spent time with them, while Ivan waited in the hall.

“I like Ivan,” Kitty said, looking at Jamie, who blushed a little.

“Is he your boyfriend?” Karl asked.

“It’s new, so we’ll see what happens,” Jamie replied. “Ivan and I need to talk about so much.”

“But we’re safe, right?” Karl asked him, fear still showing in his eyes.

Jamie pulled him into a hug. “Yes. I might not know everything at the moment, but I know both of you will be safe here,” he pulled back. “Do you want a hand unpacking your things?”

“No, we can do it. You go and talk to Ivan and figure out if you’ll be staying in your own room or Ivan’s,” Karl said, grinning at his brother.

Jamie tried not to blush. “I’ll be in the spare room for tonight.”

“But who knows what will happen tomorrow,” Karl added, playfully wiggling his eyebrows.

“Shut up,” Jamie said, fake scowling at him. He sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me how bad things had gotten?”

Kitty leant against him, and Karl stepped closer.

“We didn’t want you to worry, but it got too much. That was when we decided to run away and come to you, because it was getting so bad.”

Jamie put his arm around Karl. “I’m sorry you both had to go through all that, and I’m glad I had help rescuing you both.”

“How mad is it that vampires and witches are real?” Kitty asked.

“Crazy, but thank goodness they are. Now it’s getting late, you two need to get to bed. Karl, I suggest you have a shower before you go to bed, to wash the blood out of your hair and off your face. I’ll come and get you both up in the morning, but if you need me in the night, I’m right across the hall.”

“Thanks, Jay, night,” Karl said.

Kitty hugged him. “Thanks, night.”

With a final hug for both children, Jamie left them in Karl’s room. He found Ivan pacing the hallway.

“Everything alright?”