Page 22 of Overexposed

“You are here because I chose to not 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 connection will end. It is charity and compassion on my part, nothing more. And Ethan is simply being kind because it is 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.

“Thank you,” Charlie said. He watched us with guarded looks and dipped another one of the oven fries I’d made into the peanut butter sauce on his plate.

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

“Just like that?” Charlie asked. “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. “About vampires? That they exist. 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 will give 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 managed to evade them all this time.”

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

The words were ripe with bitterness, and Charlie was hunched over in the kitchen chair. He played with another one of his fries. The food was probably cold by now.

“Did… uh. Did Jonathan force you to come to the Czech Republic with him in the first place?” I asked.

Charlie looked at me again, and his eyes flicked back and forth between me and Auris. “Jonathan wasn’t a bad dude. 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. For 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 bloke. He went to the meeting. He never came back. And I was supposed to fuckingwait.” He shook his head, eyes narrowed. “And the arsehole gets himself killed, of course. And I can’tnotwait. Fucking anticlimactic, 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, Ethan?”

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

* * *

I waited in the bedroom, and I had every intention of not 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 off yesterday’s clothes, 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.

“Before you complain, I let you sleep because you had a long day, and I thought you needed rest. I just got news about your computers and all the rest of the things you wanted shipped here. They should arrive in three days’ time,” Auris said. 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 that 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. And he sort of stares at her back. She’s a woman. Obviously, she notices such things.”

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

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

“Sorry. I’m not following. He had a Covid test? That’s an issue now why?”

Auris uncrossed and recrossed his legs. “Apparently, Jonathan would have taken care of such mundane things for Charlie, despite being a little shit who entranced the human he proclaimed under his protection in such a way that said human was left bereft of his free will after Jonathan’s death.”

I pushed the comforter back. “Oh, you have opinions about that.”

“How could you tell, my sweet? I was trying so hard to hide it.”

I chortled. “What are we going to do now? Are you going to try to distract me from the Brit staring at Eva’s ass by a dramatic reading of the shipping manifest for my stuff and your photos?”

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