Page 9 of The Vampire and the Barista

Jamie nodded. “Will do, thanks.”

“Come on, Jamie,” Ivan said gently, holding his hand out. Without thinking, Jamie took it, and he led Jamie to his car.

“Be back whenever,” Ivan called as he opened the passenger door and helped Jamie inside. He rushed around to the driver’s side, buckled up and started the journey to rescue his maybe soon-to-be family.

“Young Jamie looks like he’s about to break,” Gio commented softly.

“Yeah, life isn’t being fair to him at the moment,” Max replied.

“Well, that changes here and now. Let’s call someone and get Jamie’s car towed to a garage and then sort out where they can live, although pretty sure that will be at the coven, so I’ll make up some rooms for them,” Dave said, as Seth pulled out his phone.

“Good job, I know a guy,” Seth said, grinning.

“I would expect nothing less, my Seth.”

Ivan looked at Jamie. “Do you want to programme in the address?”

Jamie nodded. “Thanks,” he leant forward and put the address into the built-in SatNav. “This is for the parents’ house, but Karl and Kitty are hiding out in the park.”

“Will they be safe there?” Ivan queried, with a slight frown, starting the car and reversing out of the parking space.

“Hopefully. I need to let them know I’m on my way.” He sent a quick text.

“Was there nowhere safer they could go?” Ivan asked as he waved to the others and drove away.

Jamie shook his head. “I asked that, but Karl said, if they went to a friend’s, the parents might call the police and social services might get involved, something none of us wants.”

“I can understand that. I’ve heard the care system isn’t all that great.” He remembered Spencer had run away from different foster care homes, which was how he was kidnapped. The witch Jake Conway had seen him walking down the road one night and kidnapped him, after beating him up.

“I mean, it must be good for some people, but you hear so many horror stories,” Jamie paused for a moment. “Thank you for coming with me, Ivan. Just to warn you, though, if we run into my dad, he’s big and mean and knows how to use his fists and belt.”

Ivan shot him a look. “I guarantee I can be and am a lot meaner than he could ever hope to be.”

“I believe you. You and the others that came into the library all have that, come near me and die vibe. It was one of the first things I noticed about you,” Jamie replied, blushing a little.

Ivan looked at him quickly, grinning. “One of the first things?”

Jamie nodded. “The first thing I noticed was how handsome you are, then I noticed your gorgeous dark brown eyes, then the whole murder vibe.”

Ivan burst out laughing. “Murder vibe?”

“Oh yeah, I mean, you’ll probably think I’m nuts, but you have that whole paranormal vampire, shifter thing going on. I told Max, I dreamt of you being a vampire or werewolf.”

“You dreamt of me?” Ivan asked, shooting him another quick look, this time of amusement.

“Well, I am... that is..,” Jamie cleared his throat. “Umm, what now?”

Ivan laughed, picked up Jamie’s hand and kissed the back. “I hope you did, because I’ve been dreaming of you too.” Ivan internally shook his head. So much for not wanting to start something with Jamie.

Jamie squeezed his hand before letting go, so Ivan could put his back on the steering wheel. Jamie was surprised. Now that he was with Ivan, he felt calmer, his headache lessening. “So we have a few hours before we get to Karl and Kitty, why don’t you tell me about yourself?”

“I can do that. So, as you probably know, I work for a security company. When I’m not out and about doing whatever is needed, I hack computers and retrieve what information I can.”

Jamie frowned. “Is coming with me now, disturbing your work?”

Ivan shook his head. “No. Most of us are working on the same case at the moment, as it’s big.”

Jamie turned in his seat as much as he could so he could look at Ivan better. “Are you allowed to tell me about it?”