Page 26

Charlie finally looked up, but instead of showing a sweet tooth, he asked, “What exactly is this?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

His eyes darted around. “You and the vampire. What did you take Jonathan’s remains for? Why did you come looking for him in the first place? Did you know him? Why am I here?”

Auris glided into the kitchen from the direction of the living room.

“You’re here because I chose not to abandon you after stripping you of a strong entrancement. I didn’t know Jonathan, nor do I know any of these contacts you said he was going to meet with. I will see you returned home safely, and there our shared time will end. It’s charity and compassion on my part, nothing more. Ethan is simply being kind because it’s in his character to be so.”

That led to another uncomfortable silence. I very nearly broke it by asking who wanted muffins, but Auris stopped me before I could and pulled me to his side.

In the end, Charlie spoke first. “Thank you.” He watched us with guarded looks and dipped an olive into the peanut sauce on his plate.

Auris inclined his head. “It is the least we can do. I have arranged a flight and transportation to London Heathrow for you. You’ll leave tomorrow evening, and I managed to get your Covid test fast tracked for the morning.”

Charlie’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Just like that? I’m free to leave, just like that, with everything I know about your kind?”

“What do you know?” I asked before Auris could stop me.

Charlie looked at me, and I got the impression he was surprised I’d spoken.

“I know vampires exist, for a start. Fuck, I was with one for over ten years.”

Auris tightened his hold on me. “You spent a good seven years of those ten years under entrancement, Charlie. To others who might look into you, you were an illegal alien without a visa, which you should have gotten after Brexit. Very few people will listen to you. I’ll grant you that the church might be very interested in the tale you have to tell, but they will not reward you for telling it. If you don’t mind me saying, I’m surprised you’ve managed to evade them all this time.”

Charlie shrugged. “They come and go. They’re scary dudes, you know? I slept rough for a while before Jonathan, and I’m not a total idiot. He just told me to stay and wait for him, and heel if I could.”

The words were ripe with bitterness, and Charlie was hunched over in the kitchen chair. He played with another olive. He rolled it across his plate with a fork, listlessly attempting to spear it on the tines.

I cleared my throat. “Did Jonathan force you to come to the Czech Republic with him in the first place?”

Charlie looked at me, and his eyes flicked back and forth between me and Auris. “He wasn’t a bad dude. Jonathan. He was… We both had goals. We knew what we wanted out of this. He could be very nice, very… He took care of me. Most of the time. He wanted to have a peek at the ossuary. He compelled one of them, one of the priests. He arranged a meeting with the guy. He went to the meeting, and he never came back. I was supposed to fucking wait. Guess he didn’t trust me.” He shook his head, eyes narrowed. “The asshole gets himself killed, of course. And I can’t not wait. Fucking letdown, if you ask me.”

I felt like I should say something, do something, and getting some damn muffins out of the freezer wasn’t it. Auris could probably tell, and he brushed my hair back behind my ear, kissed my cheek, and said, “Will you excuse us?”

I nodded, glad to have been given the option of escape.

13

I waited in the bedroom, and I had no intention of falling asleep. That worked out not at all, and in the end, I woke to morning light drifting in through half-closed curtains.

I’d never taken yesterday’s clothes off, but Auris had draped the comforter over me, and when I spotted him in the black armchair by the window, playing with his phone while clearly also watching me, I wrinkled my nose.

He held up a hand, palm out. “Before you complain, I let you sleep because you’d had a long day, and I thought you needed rest. I just got news about your computers and all the other things you wanted shipped here. They should arrive in three days’ time.” He gave me a tired smile. “The large prints I ordered of your photographs should also arrive then.”

I sat up, cursed myself for not putting a glass of water on my bedside table last night, then saw Auris had done that for me.

I grabbed it, sloshed it around in my mouth, and wiped the sleep from my eyes. “I didn’t dream that we found a Brit in an Airbnb, did I?”

Auris heaved a sigh. “If only you had. I think he might be upsetting Eva.”

I looked up from wiping my eyes. “Why’s he upsetting Eva?”

Auris shrugged. “Because Eva is trying to make pleasant conversation as she likes having a chance to practice her English, and Charlie is being stubbornly monosyllabic. He sort of stares at her back. She’s a woman—obviously, she notices such things. If she decides to retaliate for that in any way, there’s frankly not a thing I can do about it.”

I sat up straighter. “Why are you letting him stare at Eva?”

Auris didn’t roll his eyes, but it was close. He breathed in and out three times before he spoke again. “Because I was busy staring at you, and because I suspect if I go into the kitchen, he will complain about having gotten his nostrils swabbed earlier.”