Page 47 of The Vampire and the Barista

Jamie nodded. “I will do, thanks.”

Seth, Ivan, Olly, Gio and Jamie were sat in the office.

“I’m almost afraid to ask what, if anything, you found out about the weirdo. I mean, you only had an hour or so to look into him. Did Gavin or Hunter text you?”

“Gavin,” Ivan admitted. “But Olly and I started researching him after I dropped you off.”

“Why? Was he the one who followed us the other morning?”

“I honestly don’t know. But the weirdo is connected to me, but I can’t see how. It shouldn’t be possible,” Ivan ran a hand through his hair.

“Ivan, I’m getting scared. Just tell me who he is.”

“I want to tell you, but I’m scared you’ll leave me,” Ivan confessed.

Jamie took his hand. “Murder vibe, remember. I’m not going to leave you, even if you say you killed a whole village. I might have questions, but I will not leave you.”

“Okay, here goes. Everyone here knows about my past,” he paused and looked at Gio. “Did Seth tell you everything?”

“Only the basics,” Gio replied.

“Okay. So, around two hundred years ago, I was dating a man called Derrick. He was a hundred percent human. We had a thing for a few years. He had some quirks, but that’s all I thought they were, strange quirks.”

“Like what?” Gio asked.

“Wanting us to sleep in a coffin, dressing in black, only wanting to go out at night, wanting to drink blood, a biting fetish.”

“All things humans associate with vampires,” Jamie said.

Ivan nodded. “He kept begging me to turn him into a vampire.”

“Idiot,” Seth put in, rolling his eyes. “Did you tell him that wasn’t possible?”

“More than once. Then I started finding dead animals around the place, drained of all their blood.”

Jamie screwed his nose up. “That’s just nasty.”

“It really is,” Olly agreed.

“Anyway, he started disappearing for hours on end, and I began to hear rumours of people going missing before being found days later, drained of blood and with teeth marks in their necks. No one thought it was a vampire, as the teeth marks were human bite marks, not the two holes a vampire leaves. Plus, none of the townspeople knew about vampires.

I confronted Derrick about the murders, and he just laughed. He said he would become a vampire if it was the last thing he did. There was complete madness in his eyes,” he shook his head. “He said he found a book that explained everything. He dragged me into the library and showed me the book.

I tried to tell him the book was nonsense, but he just kept going on and on about how I was keeping him from his destiny. Finally, I put him to sleep and carried him to bed.”

“Did you do that vampire compelling thing?” Jamie asked.

Ivan shook his head. “No, I didn’t know how to do it. David had to teach me.”

“What happened after you put him to bed?” Gio asked.

“I went to reread the book, and when I got back to the bedroom, he was gone. I went searching for him and found him being arrested in the local village. He had been caught in the middle of killing a young woman. He spouted on and on about how he was a vampire and needed blood to survive.

He was charged with multiple murders. They had a doctor examine him. Found he was a normal man, except completely insane. He was sentenced to live the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum.”

Jamie shuddered. “I’ve read about those old asylums. But I’m confused. How does this weirdo relate to Derrick? Is he like a great, great, grandson or something?”

Ivan was silent for a moment.