Chapter 11
Jamie walked into the library and looked around. He saw Max off to one side putting some books away, a library trolley next to him, and hurried over to his side.
“Max,” he said when he was close.
Max spun round smiling, as Jamie launched himself at him, pulling him into a hug.
“Thank you for your help yesterday, and for talking to Dave about my dream,” he pulled back. “Dave showed me the library and offered me a job.”
Max laughed. “I’m happy for you, Jamie. When are you handing in your notice?
“Today,” Jamie replied. “Oh, here you go,” he put his hand into his bag and pulled out a lunchbox. “Thomaz sent you some lunch.”
“That was nice of him,” he said, taking the box, “and good timing as I’m starving.”
“I have to go and take over from Lucy, chat in a bit,”
“Yeah, Lucy is dying to get out of here; it’s been quiet this morning.”
“See you in a bit,” Jamie said, walking to the coffee shop. “Hey, Lucy. I hear you’re bored and dying to go home.”
Lucy nodded. “Yeah. I know I complain about it being dead, but we literally get paid for doing nothing. Well, I can watch my study videos. I just wish I could get more hours.”
“Funny you should say that. I’m handing my notice in today.”
Lucy grinned. “Really? Recommend me for full-time.”
Jamie nodded. “Will do.”
“Thanks. Right, I’m off, see you tomorrow.”
“You will,” Jamie agreed as Lucy walked away. Jamie put his bag under the counter and put on an apron, ready to start his shift.
Thomaz knocked on Hunter and Gavin’s door, carrying a large tray filled with all of Gavin’s favourite foods, freshly cooked biscuits and drinks enough for all of them. Raz opened it. “Hey, Thomaz.”
“I brought food, all Gav’s favourites,” he said, walking in and over to the coffee table, putting the tray down. “If you need more food or drinks, just message me.”
Gavin signed, “Thank you,” and hugged him.
Thomaz hugged him back. “You doing better?” he asked softly.
Gavin shrugged, and Thomaz patted his arm as he pulled back.
“Thanks, Thomaz, you’re still awesome,” Gabe told him, with a grin.
“Yeah, thanks, Tom Tom,” Raz said, grinning.
Thomaz turned and scowled at him. “Call me Tom Tom again and see what happens.”
Everyone laughed, and Thomaz started to leave the room. He suddenly stopped and spun round. “And no calling me that in front of Dave, or I’ll poison your food.” He walked out to much laughter.
Gavin pulled his phone out and sent a message to Dave.
“Sweetheart, did you just tell Dave?” Hunter, still laughing, enquired.
Gavin nodded and signed. “Thomaz didn’t say we couldn’t text Dave.”
“That’s true,” a laughing Thiago said.
“Let’s eat. I don’t know about you lot, but I’m starving,” Mathis commented, walking to the tray.
Ivan arrived back at the coven. He kept watch but didn’t see another car following him. Maybe it wasn’t someone following him but someone following Jamie. His dad, maybe? He walked inside and hunted Seth down. He found him in the garden with AJ and Gio, by the current campsite and training area.
“Hey,” Ivan said, walking up to them.
“Jamie get off to work, okay?” AJ asked.
“Yeah, but we were followed for some of the journey. I managed to shake them in the end, but it might be best if no one leaves the coven alone.”
“That would be wise, I’ll message everyone later,” Seth replied.
“Have you seen Kitty and Karl? I want to check they’re okay?”
Gio laugh. “They’re fine. If you look over there, you will see Jessamy teaching them martial arts.”
They all turned to look where Gio pointed, and the four children were indeed in a training session, copying a move Jessamy was making.
“We thought we’d start their training straight away, especially because of what happened yesterday,” Gio added.
“That makes sense, thanks for that.”
At that moment, Kitty looked over at them, her face splitting into a massive smile when she saw Ivan. She waved before going back to the move she was being taught.
“I can’t believe she likes me. Not once has she shown any fear of me, even seeking comfort from me yesterday,” Ivan said, still a little confused by the show of trust so soon.
“Children, even human children, are good at figuring out someone’s character, who’s good and who isn’t. You were with her brother helping save them, for that alone, she’ll completely trust you,” AJ told him.
“Thanks. I’ll try my best not to shatter that trust. I can’t believe I have a mate and a new brother and sister.”
“Believe it, my friend,” Gio said, touching his shoulder.
“Dave told me he showed Jamie the library and offered him a job,” Seth said.
Ivan smiled. “Yeah, he, of course, said yes. That library is literally his dream job. Dave, Max and Jamie will have fun working together. But now I’m off back to my office, catch you all later.”
Troy pulled out another folder to read. They had been reading for what felt like years, when in fact it had only been a few days. Troy hated being stuck for so long in an office. “Stefan, Cairo, you guys are vampires. Don’t you have super speedy reading skills?”
“Please say yes,” Sean said, grinning at them. “You guys could probably read everything in this room in like ten minutes.”
Stefan and Cairo laughed.
“We can read quickly, which is why we’re both reading three times as much as you are, but we also don’t want to miss anything important, so slow and steady it is,” Stefan replied.
“What’s the matter, kitty, reading getting too much for you?” Bert taunted.
“Not in the slightest, old bean, not like your pungent scent.”
Bert scowled. “What scent? I don’t smell.”
“You might want to ask for a second opinion on that, old bean.”
Bert sniffed his clothes. “They don’t smell.”
“Ignore the kitty, he’s been cooped up too long,” Cairo told him.
Bert looked at Stefan. “Dave isn’t here, can’t you accidentally drain the annoying cat?”
Stefan laughed. “Unfortunately not, that would upset Cairo, which would upset Dave and then there would be lectures and probably lots of scowling.”
“Plus, Annie would probably stop feeding you,” Kayden pointed out.
“And that,” Stefan agreed.
“Bad luck, puppy,” Troy said, with a grin.
Bert went to move, but Cairo dropped the folder he was reading and grabbed Troy’s arm. “We’re off to annoy Donald; we’ll be back soon.”
Troy put down the folder he had in his hand and let Cairo pull him out of the office.
“I hope Gavin is okay,” Sean said, pulling his phone out and texting him.
Gabe had messaged them earlier. Sean felt bad for Gavin; he was so sweet and gentle.
Sean was also in awe of Gavin, as Gavin wrote his favourite computer games.
Indeed, he and Kayden were going to be helping Gavin write a new game, Vampires versus Witches.
“His Hunter and brothers will help him,” Stefan assured him as Sean’s phone pinged with a message.
Sean looked and saw it was Gavin replying. He read the message and laughed. “So Gavin is feeling better, even more so now that Raz called Thomaz, Tom Tom. Apparently, Thomaz warned them not to call him that in front of Dave, so Gavin texted him instead.”
The others burst out laughing.
“You just know, someone will call him Tom Tom tonight,” Kayden replied. “Bert, I meant to ask, how are you and Max getting on?”
“Talking nightly and last night he actually sat next to me and didn’t move away when I touched his arm.”
“That’s a good sign,” Stefan said.
Bert nodded. “It is. It helps that we’re chatting every day.”
“You know you can go back and ask him to meet you for dinner, right?” Stefan told him. “There are enough of us going through everything here.”
“I probably will do in a couple of days.”
The General looked at Bert. “Do you want me to kidnap your mate and bring him here?”
Bert laughed. “As tempting as that would be, no, my mate is human and is trying to overcome his fear of the paranormal world.”
“That sucks. My brother had the same problem with his human mate, but now they are happily mated and expecting twins,” the General told him.
Bert nodded. “Thanks.”
“I don’t believe it,” General Goldberg exclaimed, going back to reading more of his folder.
“What have you found?” Stefan asked.
“Tanner Henshaw, a captain in my guards, was involved in this as well.”
“Do you know where he is at the moment?” Bert asked, putting down the papers he was reading.
“He should be on the fourth floor, guarding the reception area. I’ll go and get him and drag him down to the interrogation room,” the General said angrily.
“Or we could let the kitty drag him down,” Bert suggested.
“He’ll like that,” Kayden said.
“Let’s do that then, and I can finish reading this file before I go down and gut him.”