Page 46 of The Vampire and the Barista

Jamie touched her shoulder. “How come?”

“Mum kept taking our stuff to sell for booze money. Karl and I learned to hide anything we didn’t want lost.”

“Sorry,” Jamie said to her.

She took his hand. “It wasn’t your fault. We knew you were saving up to get us out of there. Just the thought of that kept us going, and now look, we’re living with you in a fancy house with vampires.”

“Sounds mad,” Jamie replied, grinning at Ivan and Olly.

“But it’s true,” Ivan said distractedly, almost like he was on guard.

Jamie noticed Olly looked to be on guard as well, and then Jamie felt it, the feeling of being watched. Thankfully, they had just reached the car. “What should we do?”

“Get in the car and leave, we have Kitty with us,” Ivan said.

“What’s wrong?” Kitty asked, looking between them.

“We’re being watched,” Ivan told her.

“But you’re safe, we’re here and will get you and your brother home safely,” Olly replied.

“You and Ivan need to be safe as well,” Kitty said, frowning a little.

“We will be,” Olly said as he clicked the unlock button and they piled into the car. Olly waited until they were buckled in and started the car.

Much to Jamie’s surprise, they didn’t speed off, which is what he would have done. They instead drove normally down the road as if they didn’t have a care in the world. All the while, Jamie was expecting a car to follow or even ram them off the road. He let out a sigh as Olly turned into the coven drive, two guards waved them down the drive, and finally parked up.

They got out of the car, and Kitty moved to Jamie’s side. He slipped his arm around her. “We’re safe, Kitty Kat.”

Kitty nodded. “I know.”

Ivan touched her shoulder. “Let’s go and have lunch.”

Lunch was just coming to an end when Seth looked at Ivan, Olly and Jamie. “We should chat.”

Ivan nodded.

“Can you give me ten minutes to check on some searches I set up?” Olly asked.

Seth nodded. “Yep, we can chat in the office.”

“Thanks,” Olly replied.

“Jay, why do you need to be in the meeting?” Karl asked.

“A weird guy keeps turning up at work, we’ll probably be chatting about that,” Jamie replied, trying to reassure him.

Karl looked at Ivan. “You’ll keep our brother safe?”

Ivan nodded. “I’ll protect him with my very life.”

“Thanks.”

“Karl, we’ll all protect Jamie, as well as you and Kitty,” Seth reassured him.

Karl nodded.

“Jamie, we’re visiting the school tomorrow at 11, if you want to join us,” Seth told him.