Chapter 15
Jamie was just taking his apron off when Ivan, Kitty and Olly arrived.
“Hubba hubba,” Sarah muttered, catching sight of them.
“Put your tongue back in,” Jamie joked.
“But look at them.”
“The only one I’m looking at is my man. See you in a couple of days,” he teased, as he picked his bag up and hurried around the counter and straight over to them.
“This is a nice surprise,” Jamie said to Kitty.
“I wanted to see where you worked.”
Jamie waved his hand. “Well, there it is,” he said, looking at Ivan. “Hey, handsome.”
Ivan leant in and kissed him. Jamie happily kissed him back until he remembered they were in the library and then pulled back.
“So, that’s our patrons getting a free show,” Max said laughingly.
“I hope they enjoyed it,” Jamie replied. He looked for Kitty.
“She’s sat with Olly, Gavin and Hunter,” Max told him, guessing who he was looking at.
“Thanks, Max,” Jamie said, as the three of them walked over to the table. He glanced at Sarah, who grinned and held up both thumbs. Jamie chuckled.
“How’s your day going, Hunter, Gavin?” Olly asked them.
“Good, we popped in to see if there were any more books we could look through, and then we were picking up lunch for everyone,” Hunter replied.
“And instead you’ve been babysitting me, sorry guys,” Jamie said.
Gavin started signing.
“Gavin says, family looks after family,” Max translated.
Jamie nodded. “We do. But we’ll let you get back to your day. Thanks for staying.”
“Always,” Hunter said. “I might talk to Gio about actually having some defence lessons.”
“Jessamy is teaching us. You can join our lessons if you want,” Kitty offered.
Hunter smiled at her. “Thanks.”
“Right, we’re off back home, see you both later,” Ivan said, after a quick goodbye and Gavin hugging Jamie and Jamie hugging Max, the four of them left the library.
“What’s Karl up to, do you know?” Jamie asked Kitty as they walked towards the car.
“Doing push-ups and stuff with Spencer and Jack, I left them to it.”
“I don’t blame you,” Jamie commented. “While we’re here, do you need anything?”
Kitty shook her head. “Whoever packed our stuff, packed all our clothes, so we’re sorted.”
“What about for your room, princess?” Ivan asked.
Kitty leant into him and took his hand. “I don’t need anything; we have more in our rooms now than we had at home.”
Jamie touched her shoulder. “How come?”
“Mum kept taking our stuff to sell for booze money. Karl and I learned to hide anything we didn’t want lost.”
“Sorry,” Jamie said to her.
She took his hand. “It wasn’t your fault. We knew you were saving up to get us out of there. Just the thought of that kept us going, and now look, we’re living with you in a fancy house with vampires.”
“Sounds mad,” Jamie replied, grinning at Ivan and Olly.
“But it’s true,” Ivan said distractedly, almost like he was on guard.
Jamie noticed Olly looked to be on guard as well, and then Jamie felt it, the feeling of being watched. Thankfully, they had just reached the car. “What should we do?”
“Get in the car and leave, we have Kitty with us,” Ivan said.
“What’s wrong?” Kitty asked, looking between them.
“We’re being watched,” Ivan told her.
“But you’re safe, we’re here and will get you and your brother home safely,” Olly replied.
“You and Ivan need to be safe as well,” Kitty said, frowning a little.
“We will be,” Olly said as he clicked the unlock button and they piled into the car. Olly waited until they were buckled in and started the car.
Much to Jamie’s surprise, they didn’t speed off, which is what he would have done.
They instead drove normally down the road as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
All the while, Jamie was expecting a car to follow or even ram them off the road.
He let out a sigh as Olly turned into the coven drive, two guards waved them down the drive, and finally parked up.
They got out of the car, and Kitty moved to Jamie’s side. He slipped his arm around her. “We’re safe, Kitty Kat.”
Kitty nodded. “I know.”
Ivan touched her shoulder. “Let’s go and have lunch.”
Lunch was just coming to an end when Seth looked at Ivan, Olly and Jamie. “We should chat.”
Ivan nodded.
“Can you give me ten minutes to check on some searches I set up?” Olly asked.
Seth nodded. “Yep, we can chat in the office.”
“Thanks,” Olly replied.
“Jay, why do you need to be in the meeting?” Karl asked.
“A weird guy keeps turning up at work, we’ll probably be chatting about that,” Jamie replied, trying to reassure him.
Karl looked at Ivan. “You’ll keep our brother safe?”
Ivan nodded. “I’ll protect him with my very life.”
“Thanks.”
“Karl, we’ll all protect Jamie, as well as you and Kitty,” Seth reassured him.
Karl nodded.
“Jamie, we’re visiting the school tomorrow at 11, if you want to join us,” Seth told him.
Jamie nodded. “I will do, thanks.”
Seth, Ivan, Olly, Gio and Jamie were sat in the office.
“I’m almost afraid to ask what, if anything, you found out about the weirdo. I mean, you only had an hour or so to look into him. Did Gavin or Hunter text you?”
“Gavin,” Ivan admitted. “But Olly and I started researching him after I dropped you off.”
“Why? Was he the one who followed us the other morning?”
“I honestly don’t know. But the weirdo is connected to me, but I can’t see how. It shouldn’t be possible,” Ivan ran a hand through his hair.
“Ivan, I’m getting scared. Just tell me who he is.”
“I want to tell you, but I’m scared you’ll leave me,” Ivan confessed.
Jamie took his hand. “Murder vibe, remember. I’m not going to leave you, even if you say you killed a whole village. I might have questions, but I will not leave you.”
“Okay, here goes. Everyone here knows about my past,” he paused and looked at Gio. “Did Seth tell you everything?”
“Only the basics,” Gio replied.
“Okay. So, around two hundred years ago, I was dating a man called Derrick. He was a hundred percent human. We had a thing for a few years. He had some quirks, but that’s all I thought they were, strange quirks.”
“Like what?” Gio asked.
“Wanting us to sleep in a coffin, dressing in black, only wanting to go out at night, wanting to drink blood, a biting fetish.”
“All things humans associate with vampires,” Jamie said.
Ivan nodded. “He kept begging me to turn him into a vampire.”
“Idiot,” Seth put in, rolling his eyes. “Did you tell him that wasn’t possible?”
“More than once. Then I started finding dead animals around the place, drained of all their blood.”
Jamie screwed his nose up. “That’s just nasty.”
“It really is,” Olly agreed.
“Anyway, he started disappearing for hours on end, and I began to hear rumours of people going missing before being found days later, drained of blood and with teeth marks in their necks.
No one thought it was a vampire, as the teeth marks were human bite marks, not the two holes a vampire leaves.
Plus, none of the townspeople knew about vampires.
I confronted Derrick about the murders, and he just laughed. He said he would become a vampire if it was the last thing he did. There was complete madness in his eyes,” he shook his head. “He said he found a book that explained everything. He dragged me into the library and showed me the book.
I tried to tell him the book was nonsense, but he just kept going on and on about how I was keeping him from his destiny. Finally, I put him to sleep and carried him to bed.”
“Did you do that vampire compelling thing?” Jamie asked.
Ivan shook his head. “No, I didn’t know how to do it. David had to teach me.”
“What happened after you put him to bed?” Gio asked.
“I went to reread the book, and when I got back to the bedroom, he was gone. I went searching for him and found him being arrested in the local village. He had been caught in the middle of killing a young woman. He spouted on and on about how he was a vampire and needed blood to survive.
He was charged with multiple murders. They had a doctor examine him. Found he was a normal man, except completely insane. He was sentenced to live the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum.”
Jamie shuddered. “I’ve read about those old asylums. But I’m confused. How does this weirdo relate to Derrick? Is he like a great, great, grandson or something?”
Ivan was silent for a moment.
Jamie looked at the others, confused as to why they would be uneasy, unless, “Wait, you think weirdo man is Derrick? But that would make him hundreds of years old, which is impossible, plus he doesn’t look old.”
“It should be yes. I searched some records and couldn’t find his date of death, but it’s him, even down to the scar at the side of his eye,” Ivan said.
“But, how?” he asked, stunned.
“It’s got to be magic, right?” Gio put in. “Would Adrian know if that was possible?”
“Let me message him and find out,” Seth said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and sending the text.
“While we wait. I ran some searches to find out what Derrick has been doing. He’s rented a house not far from here. We can go and see him and find out what he wants,” Olly said.
“He’s seen me with Kitty!” Jamie suddenly exclaims. “What if he does something to her?”
“Nothing will happen to her or your brother,” Gio assured him.
“This place is overflowing with guards, protecting Jack and Spencer, and now Karl and Kitty. They will have shadows wherever they go, and when they leave the coven house, they will have a minimum of two guards each. We also now have guards at the top of the drive. AJ is going to build a proper gatehouse, and we’re going to start closing the gates. ”
They were interrupted by a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Olly called out.
The door opened, and Adrian stood there. “You called?”
“Pull up a seat, Adrian, we need your expertise,” Seth told him.
“What’s up?” he replied, pulling a chair out and sitting down.
“Is there any way a human could live for hundreds of years?” Seth asked.
Adrian looked around, finally looking at Ivan. “When you mated with Jamie, that increased his life span, the same for Dave, Hunter and Taha.”
“Yeah, sorry, we know that. But there’s a man from Ivan’s past who has turned up. He’s human and should have died a hundred or so years ago,” Seth explained.
“Is it even possible that a non-mated human can live for hundreds of years?” Ivan asked.
“Well, there have been a few recorded instances,” Adrian said.
“You mean like the men in the bible that lived stupidly long lives?” Jamie asked.
Adrian snorted. “No, I mean real people. But their long mortality was because of spells, curses or demon possession.”
“So how would this Derrick chap have come across any of them?” Gio asked. “He was locked away in a mental asylum.”
“I imagine you could find anything in an old asylum. I mean, think about the people that were sent there, not all of them were nuts,” Jamie mentioned.
“Exactly,” Adrian agreed. “Also, demons could be drawn to the total despair of the place. This man could have sold his soul to a demon for a longer life and power.”
“How do we fight a demon? I’m happy to go up against one if I know what to expect,” Gio offered.
“We’ll need to talk to Thiago and ask for his assistance,” Seth said.
“In the meantime, I think we should go and take a look around that asylum. It’s better to research everything before we confront him,” Adrian suggested.
“That’s if it’s still standing,” Ivan put in.
“It is,” Olly said, scrolling down his tablet page. “It was closed in the early 1900s, and has been empty ever since.”
“So it will be falling to bits then,” Jamie observed.
“Most probably,” Adrian said, before he grinned and leant forward a bit. “So, when are we going?”