Page 55 of The Human’s Heart

As I sat down, Beatrix caught my eye and mouthed, “Everything okay?”

I gave her a smile and a nod, then concentrated on taking notes. She’d come to Phia’s service to support us, and she’d been nothing but kind and sweet with me, but we weren’t super close yet. At least not close enough to spill my worries all over her. One day we’d get there, but not today.

My Uncle Thay slipped into the classroom a little while later—I assumed Uncle Toby was guarding the hallway—and the teacher paused her lesson for a moment. But my uncle held up his BCA badge, and she blanched before settling back into the lesson.

Uncle Thay shot me a wink and a grin, and I smiled softly back. Sometimes it was strange to me how he looked the same age as me even though he was like way, way older than me… at least in his sixties or something. But he looked like he was in his early twenties, at least by human standards.

He kept the left side of his red hair braided back the way many of the witches in our coven did, so he had that typical Ellwood look about him, even if he looked nothing like my granddad at all, unlike Uncle Bas, who was the spitting image of Ailin Ellwood.

Shaking my head of its random thoughts, I went back to class… or tried to. It was really hard to concentrate.

When class was over, I slowly packed my bag, allowing everyone else to file out before me since I knew Uncle Thay would want to speak to my teacher to let her know what was going on so he could sit in on the rest of my classes without causing more issues. Plus, I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone to associate me with the BCA agent in the back of the classroom, so letting them go first would ensure they didn’t realize he was with me.

I kept a low profile at school this whole time, and I was very close to being done, so I didn’t want to ruin it now.

Unfortunately, Beatrix had other ideas, which wasn’t really her fault considering we walked together after class every day. She was just doing the same thing we always did, which was wait for each other.

After I was packed up, she asked, “Ready?”

I glanced over to my uncle to find him already having a quiet conversation with the teacher. Since I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I could only assume he’d cast a spell to keep any supe ears from listening in.

I took Beatrix in for a moment and decided I could at least be honest with her about this. “Um, soooo… he’s actually here for me.”

She looked at him, then at me with wide eyes. “What do you mean? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

That made me snort. I was probably the only one in my entire family that’d never been in trouble in my life, at least not in the way she meant it. “No. It’s… he’s my uncle.”

She took him in again and raised a brow, likely in disbelief because if I thought Uncle Thay looked nothing like Granddad, I surely looked nothing like anyone else in my entire family. Not to mention I was an incubus, and he was a witch. Most families weren’t as diverse as mine was. “Um, oh. Okay. Soooo… what’s your uncle doing here?”

“He, uh, works for the BCA. He’s gonna be, um, my bodyguard for a little while.”

Her eyebrows shot straight up, so high they were practically in her hairline. “Why do you need a bodyguard?”

I shrugged like it was no big deal. “It’s just a precaution. Nothing to worry over. My family’s a bit… overprotective.”

“And they can just have a BCA agent guard you?”

I shrugged again. “Guess so. Anyway, as soon as he’s done, we can walk to our next class, if you’re okay waiting?”

“Sure. We have a few more minutes, and it’s not like anyone’ll care if we’re two minutes late anyway.”

That made me grin. “You hate being late.”

“Yeah, but I also hate walking the halls alone, so… what’re ya gonna do?”

I snorted and threw my bag’s strap over my shoulder.

Uncle Thay finished up as we approached him, and I gave the teacher a nod before following my uncle out of the room with Beatrix behind me.

I said, “This is my friend, Beatrix. Bea, these are my uncles, Thayer and Toby.”

She gave a shy wave. “Hi. Nice to meet you.”

“You too.” Uncle Thay grinned at her. He was always very open and happy. A super sunshiny attitude kind of guy.

Uncle Toby nodded at her. “Nice to meet you.” He was certainly more reserved, but he smiled easily, especially at his viramore, and he was one of the sweetest people I’d ever met. He had a huge heart, despite being a very big, very scary-looking vampire.

Uncle Thay waved us on. “Lead the way, Zay.”