Chapter 16
Zaos
It had been two weeks since Phia’s celebration of life, and Kian was still staying in our guest room.
I was glad he was here, and so was Hugo. I’d been afraid that Hugo might get uncomfortable or annoyed at having another person around constantly, but he was just as pleased to have my brother here as I was.
If I couldn’t feel the truth of it, I might not have believed it since Hugo was such a private person. But he was truly happy having my little brother stay with us.
I hated the reason for it, and I hated that Kian spent so much time in his room. But I was glad he was comfortable here with us. I was glad he wasn’t alone.
And even though he was clearly heartbroken and likely depressed, being around us seemed to be doing him some good.
My sister, dads, and granddads came around all the time too, so people were in and out of the house, but things had calmed down significantly. Although I was definitely grateful for all the food everyone kept bringing us.
We’d also restarted the construction project. If nothing else, having all those people in our home for so many days proved exactly why we were adding a two-story tall addition with a billion bedrooms to our little house. I couldn’t wait for it to be done.
Although, then we’d have to decorate, which would be a whole thing with my Mr. Not Wanting To Spend More Money viramore in charge.
That thought made me smirk.
“Hey, baby brother,” I said when he walked into the kitchen.
He grunted at me and went straight for the coffee maker.
Hugo gave me a look, then turned his attention to Kian, asking, “Are you still going into work today?”
Kian sighed. “That’s the plan.”
“But you’re coming back here after, right?”
Key finished making his coffee, then turned to lean his back against the counter and stare at us. “Aren’t you two sick of having me here?”
Hugo straightened, and before I could say anything, he said, “Absolutely not.”
My brother eyed him for a moment, then looked at me, so I nodded in agreement, and he sighed again. “Are you sure? I don’t want to impose or overstay my welcome.”
“We like having you here.” My viramore spoke again before I could, and I couldn’t contain a small smile. I loved that he loved my brother the way I did. “We’re happy you’re staying with us.”
Kian stared into his coffee mug for a long moment before quietly asking, “Are you sure?”
“Yes, Kian,” I said this time so he’d know I was on board with this plan too. “Please come back here after work tonight.”
“I think we still have a frozen eggplant lasagna from Uncle Tio,” Hugo said. “We can make that and just relax for a while, maybe watch some TV or whatever.”
“You two don’t want to go out?”
Hugo shook his head. “Staying in and chilling on the couch is my favorite thing to do.”
Kian snorted, shaking his head. “Why am I not surprised?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hugo didn’t sound offended at all. He sounded amused, luckily for my brother.
Key shrugged. “That your viramore is the most boring person on the planet, so I shouldn’t be surprised you’re just as boring.”
Hugo picked up his spoon from his own coffee mug, licked the liquid off, and to my surprise, chucked it at Kian. All three of us watched it fly across the kitchen and smack my brother right in the center of his chest before falling to the ground.
Kian looked up at Hugo in surprise. “I can’t believe you did that!” And then all three of us burst out laughing.
It was so good to hear a true laugh from him. I was pretty sure this was the first real, full one he’d had since Phia died, and it was encouraging to know he still had it in him.
When my phone rang, I was surprised to see my Uncle Bas calling. I was in the middle of a class—luckily my phone was on vibrate—and since I figured he would only call if it was urgent, I quietly stood and walked out into the hallway to answer. “Hello?”
“Hey, Zay. Are you busy right now?”
“Um, I’m in class, but I stepped out.”
“Shit. I’m sorry—”
“It’s fine. What’s going on, Uncle Bas?”
He let out a long sigh. “I just wanted to check up on Kian and see if any of you have seen or heard anything suspicious since Phia’s death?”
My brow furrowed. I knew he was one of the agents investigating her murder, but why in the world was he asking me this right now?
“Um… no, not that I’ve noticed. Hugo only went back to work two days ago, and Grandpa escorted him there and back himself. Kian went back today, although you probably know that since he works in your office.”
Uncle Bas let out an unintelligible murmur. “Right. Okay. Well, keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you see anything.”
“Did something happen?”
Even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew he was grimacing from the sound of his voice. “No, but we found a few… strange connections between Phia and that Bart—or Bokkai—guy.”
My heart seized in my chest. “What? Hugo’s old boss? The one who tried to kill us?”
“Yes.”
“What the fuck?” Inside my head, I reached out to Hugo, asking, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Just at work. You okay?”
“Yes.”
In my ear, Uncle Bas said, “My thoughts exactly. And before you freak out, my dad and pops are both already at the bar with Hugo. Sending them over was the first thing I did as soon as I found the connection. It’s not a strong one, mind you, but it’s there, and we’re not going to risk your viramore or anyone else, okay?
I can’t go into more detail about the specifics, but I wanted to warn you, especially because you’re both going to have more protection on you from now until we figure this out. ”
I wanted to argue, I wanted to complain about needing extra protection, but I knew I shouldn’t.
Not only was I not stupid enough to believe I could take on some crazed assassin or whatever this was, but if I wanted Hugo to allow bodyguards to follow him around, I needed to be willing to do the same.
So all I asked was, “Who’s watching over me? ”
“Uncle Thay and Uncle Toby.”
That made me relax a little. “Okay. And how are we getting Hugo to and from work?”
“Your grandparents have a very magically shielded car coming straight to them, and you have a second one coming to you. They wouldn’t fit through the portal, obviously, so we’re having to drive them up, but the cars are coming with extra guards and will be there before you finish class and before Hugo’s done at work.
“Your school is well protected already, and the bar is as well, but your grandparents are placing extra protections at the bar now, and as soon as my brother gets to you, he’ll be doing the same at the school, or at least in the areas where your classrooms are and where you walk around often.”
That seemed excessive, but I wasn’t about to complain about it. “Alright. That… that sounds good.”
He paused for a moment. “Look, I know it’s a lot, but we’re going to keep you two safe, okay?”
“Y-yeah. I know.”
“Good. Now, I’ll see you soon.”
“Wait. You’re coming?”
“Uncle Hiro’s already driving the new car up, and with the way he’s speeding, we’ll be there very soon.”
In the background, I heard a grumbly voice but couldn’t make out the words—obviously Uncle Hiro was complaining or whatever.
“Thank you, Uncle Bas.”
“No need to thank me, kiddo. I’ll see you soon. Stay safe. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
We hung up, and I took a deep breath, leaning against the wall for a moment before I steeled myself to go back to class. There was nothing else to do for the moment. Well, almost nothing else.
To Hugo, I asked, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. Why? What’s wrong? You seem stressed.”
I wanted to laugh at that. Stressed didn’t even begin to cover it. “I am. Just… worried about you. About us. I kinda wanna go home and just hunker down for the next few weeks until everything with Phia’s figured out, you know?”
“So someone talked to you?”
That surprised me. “Yeah… did someone talk to you?”
I heard him sigh in my head. “Yeah. Sebastian told me what’s going on, but he doesn’t seem too worried. He said it’s just a precaution and that we’re okay to keep living our lives normally.”
I grimaced a little at that. I was positive Grandpa was simply trying not to worry him, and I didn’t want to burst his bubble.
All we needed was for Hugo to start freaking out even more than he already was.
I knew he was worried about leaving home after what’d happened, and this was only reinforcing those fears.
I didn’t want him scared. But I did want him cautious.
“Yeah, I’m sure everything’s fine. But keep an eye out for anything… weird.”
“Babe, since the day I met you, pretty much everything’s been weird.”
I snorted out a laugh, told him I loved him, and headed back into class.
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.”
I stepped forward with my friend beside me and my two uncles-slash-bodyguards behind us. This was going to be a very interesting few days with them following me around everywhere.
Mother of All, I hoped it was only a few days and not weeks. Or hell, months.
I grimaced at the thought of walking across the stage to receive my diploma with Uncle Thay and Uncle Toby trailing behind me.
That would be… so horrible and embarrassing. Yikes.