Page 58 of The Vampire and the Tattooist (The Vampire and Series Book 4)

Seth was busy. He dispatched Donny to check out Jessica Balding’s main home and Neill to look into her apartment. He pulled others off various assignments and sent them where needed. There were a few assignments that weren’t urgent, so Seth had no problem pulling people off them for now.

He had just walked out into the garden when he heard a crying sound. He followed the sniffs and saw Jack and Spencer sitting on the ground behind some shrubs. Spencer was leaning against Jack, crying.

He pulled out his phone and sent a quick message to Louise. Once done, he hurried over and sitting on Spencer’s other side and put his hand on Spencer’s back. “Hey,” he said softly.

Spencer looked up and turned, throwing himself against his chest.

Seth wrapped his arms around him and looked at Jack.

“He’s having nightmares and flashbacks over his time in captivity,” Jack told him.

Just then, Louise came walking quickly out of the house and over to them, dropping to her knees in front of them.

“Spencer,” she said gently.

Spencer pulled back from Seth and moved into Louise’s arms. “I’m sorry,” he said, sniffing.

“There is nothing to apologise for. Cry all you need to; shout out in anger if you must; ask Seth or Gio to help you blow something up. Whatever you need to do, you do, and we’ll all be here to help you.”

Spencer pulled back and looked at her in surprise. “I can blow something up?” he asked, a smile tugging at his lips.

“As long as it’s not the house and an adult is supervising, I don’t see why not,” Louise replied.

Spencer turned and looked at Jack, who was now resting against Seth. “Wanna come and find Gio with me? You should get to blow stuff up, too.”

Jack laughed. “We can. But he might be a bit busy at the moment with like the new guards coming and everything. We could raid the kitchen for cake and biscuits first.”

“And after you’ve done that, you can search the house for more secret passages,” Seth said.

“More secret passages?” Jack asked him, smiling.

“Oh yeah. Just imagine the fun you’ll have looking for them and our secret library,” Seth told them.

Spencer wiped his hands over his face. His eyes were red from crying, and he kept sniffing.

“Spencer, Jack, we can get a therapist in to help you sort out your emotions if you want extra help,” Louise said to them. “But we will always be here if you would just rather just talk to us.”

“Can we phone Stefan tonight?” Spencer asked her.

“Of course we can, darling.”

“Thanks,” Spencer said, giving her a quick hug and jumping up. “Come on Jack, we have biscuits to eat, secret passageways to find and things to blow up.”

* * *

Dave was satin his library. He was worried about what everyone would find in the council offices. Hopefully, a way to stop all the crap that’d been found out. He wished Max were there, but he was working all day in the library again. Deciding he was getting nothing done, he got up and left. With David gone, he really should be available to greet the new guards.

He walked into the kitchen and saw Jack and Spencer raiding the biscuit tin. “Don’t eat all the biscuits, you greedy things.”

“We’re stocking up on biscuits and then going to search for more secret passages and the secret library before we blow things up,” Jack told him, putting some into his pocket.

Dave looked at Spencer and noticed his red eyes and nose. “Let me guess, Seth said you could blow things up to make you feel better,” Dave said, taking a couple of biscuits out of the tin.

“No, Louise. I’m having a bad day today. She said I could get angry and yell or find Gio and blow something up,” Spencer admitted, his shoulders slumping.

“That’s understandable with everything you’ve been through,” Dave said gently. “You saw yesterday I had a mini freak out. It wasn’t the first and probably won’t be the last. Just know we are all here for you both for whatever you need. Just please, no blowing the house up. AJ already has a lot of work to do.”

Jack and Spencer laughed.

“We’ve already been asked not to blow it up and to have adult supervision when we do blow something up,” Jack told him.

“That’s good. Now, as for the secret library, do you want me to show you where it is, or would you rather look for it yourselves?”

Jack and Spencer looked at each other. “We’ll try by ourselves first,” Jack said.

Dave nodded. “Excellent. In that case, go forth and have fun.”