Page 79 of The Vampire and the Barista

CHAPTER 27

Jamie sighed as he pushed one of the two new sofas into position. The furniture for the new library seating area had arrived. Along with the two deep green sofas, there were a couple of comfy chairs, a coffee table and a couple of side tables.

“This looks much better now,” Dave said, looking around.

“It does,” Jamie agreed, flopping down on the sofa. “Oh, this is comfy.”

Seth, Ivan, Olly, and Jessamy had brought the heavier items down for them and left Dave and Jamie to move everything where they wanted it.

Other deliveries had also turned up, a few of the guards bringing the boxes down. They were stacked up waiting to be unpacked.

Dave sat on one of the chairs, a beautiful leather wingback. “I know the chairs don’t match, but I fell in love with them.”

Jamie shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that.”

Dave looked at Jamie. “Wanna talk about it?”

Jamie sighed. “Why does my father want Karl and Kitty back? Why did Derrick save me? What did he do to my father?”

“All questions we can find answers to. I would say, let’s jump online and see what we can find out, but we can’t get a decent signal down here. I’ll ask one of the guys to do something about that.”

“And maybe some plants,” Jamie suggested, looking around their seating area. “And possibly some pictures.”

Dave nodded. “I’ll ask Royston what he can suggest. He must know plants that can grow in a basement devoid of sunlight.”

Jamie laughed. “I believe that’s called a dungeon,” he paused, the smile falling off his face, and thumped his head on the back of the sofa. “I could have died in that alley. What would have happened to Karl and Kitty?”

Dave sat forward. “But you didn’t, and as for your brother and sister, I can guarantee we would have looked after them. I would say Ivan would have, but he’d died along with you, but they would and will always have a place here. We would all take on guardianship for them.”

Jamie gave a small smile. “Thanks, that’s one worry off my mind.”

“For the other worries of yours, you have everyone here to help you figure out what’s going on and to keep Kitty and Karl safe. Mind you, they are getting good at self-defence, even though they’ve only had a few sessions.”

“I should probably take some as well, especially after earlier,” he paused and looked at Dave. “How do you stay so calm around all this?”

Dave shook his head. “I don’t. You remember me telling you about the super witches' attack the other day?”

Jamie nodded.

“I was calm until I heard an explosion, which was the hallway wall exploding. I jumped up and had a panic. Would we have enough blood to help any injured vampires? Should we call Kevin’s pack to come and help? Would we have enough medical supplies for our witch friends? Stefan had to calm me down. He helped me slow my breathing and not panic. I’ve not been long in this world either, but I trust our completely mad family. That helps.”

“I trust them too. Shall we go and raid the biscuits, then we can research my father and find out why he wants my siblings back under his roof?”

Dave jumped up. “Yep, we can unpack the other boxes later.”

Stefan laughed at the still disgruntled Bert.

“Rulers don’t get to have fun, remember. We’re the sensible ones.”

Drake laughed, then he quickly turned it into a cough.

Bert glared at him, a look Drake chose to ignore.

“There’ll be more fun things for you to do soon,” Gabe told him supportively.

“I’m sure Dave, Seth, Ian, Gabe, Gavin, Sean, Kayden and Max can help with that,” David said with a laugh.

They were all sat in the restaurant having lunch. On the pretence of cheering Bert up. Truthfully, they were teasing him.