Page 91 of The Human’s Heart

“So what’s next? What can we do?” Hugo asked, sounding eager.

Uncle Bas stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged. “Well, the two of you can go home and stay in your wards unless you’re with at least two bodyguards.”

Hugo frowned. “What? We can help. Beatrix is Zay’s friend. We could invite her over or something and then you guys can—”

“No.”

“But—”

“Listen to me, Hugo,” Uncle Bas said, stepping closer to us, but not in our space—lucky for him. My incubus would’ve lashed out again if he’d come even an inch closer to my viramore.

Hugo sighed and met my uncle’s eyes.

“You and Zaos are not allowed to contact Beatrix in any way. Not even a single text. We—the BCA—will find her and bring her in for questioning. All you have to do is go home and stay safe.”

“But wouldn’t it be easier if we asked her to—”

“No. Enough of this.” He looked at his viramore. “Let’s get them home. Right now.”

Uncle Hiro nodded, but I could see him holding back a small smile as if amused by Uncle Bas. To us, he said, “Come on, kiddos, before you give my viramore a heart attack.”

My own viramore sighed, so I gave him a kiss on the temple. Then we followed my uncle out.

Chapter 30

Zaos

It had been nearly three weeks since the whole Anithea interview thing, and the BCA still hadn’t been able to locate Beatrix or the rest of the Egawa clan.

It was pissing me off.

Not only because it meant my Hugo wasn’t safe, and in fact, none of my family was safe. But because Hugo and I had offered, again, to call her up or text her and ask to meet up.

But my uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents—all my family members that worked for the BCA—decided against that.

Which was so stupid. There was little risk to me calling her, for fuck’s sake. It wasn’t like she could reach through the phone and hurt me.

But noooooo. We weren’t agents in the BCA, so we weren’t allowed to help.

Psh. They were all asshats.

Hugo grinned at me and knocked my shoulder with his, likely in agreement if he overheard my thoughts.

We were sitting on the couch. I was doing homework since my last semester just started, and he was doing a word search or something. He’d bought an activity book and a few fantasy books just so he’d have something quiet to do beside me while I studied or did homework. It was such a sweet gesture that it’d melted my heart and made me a little less angry at the world for a little while.

I knocked his shoulder back and refocused on my school book.

About an hour later, I felt that nudge I always got when someone walked too close or touched our wards. Hugo flinched and sat up straight, obviously feeling it too.

In a whisper, he asked, “What was that?”

I shrugged. He was still getting used to it, so I wasn’t surprised he freaked out a little. But it wasn’t uncommon for people walking on the sidewalk to accidentally brush by the wards or for the mailman to touch them when he put the mail in our mailbox right outside the wards.

As long as no one was knocking on them, we had nothing to worry about.

As if hearing my own thoughts, I felt another jolt from the wards, followed by another and another.

Well… someone was fucking knocking on them after all. Lovely.