Chapter 22 pt. 3

“Have we found him yet?” Kris asked as he strolled into the office.

I stood up slowly. “Kris, I…”

He cut me off. “None of that was your fault, so I don’t want to hear it. You did great.”

“Kris, the guy…”

He cut me off again. “Don’t worry about those idiots. I should have assigned you different people.”

“No, Kris, she’s trying to tell you about the hunter,” Leo blurted in frustration.

I was quiet for a moment; ashamed of what I had to tell him. “Kris, he’s my brother.”

The silence after that was thick. I wasn’t sure what to do so I just stood there.”

“Are you sure?” he finally asked.

I nodded.

“So what does that mean exactly?” Leo tried.

“Was he looking for you?” Kris asked.

“He looked surprised when I cut him off, so I don’t think he was looking for me,” I replied carefully.

“Keep a low profile for now. When we know more, we’ll revisit this. Understood?”

I nodded.

“Go spend the night with Leo before I have to send you back to Alizya,” he sighed. “I’ll handle the stuff here.”

“Are you sure?” Leo asked, his hand already snaking around my waist.

Kris nodded. “Have fun you two.”

Leo took me to his place and we settled onto the couch to watch a movie snuggled together.

“He’s going to make me go back to train with Alizya in the morning, isn’t he?” I asked about halfway through the movie.

“I know you don’t want to but it’s safest if you get all the training you can with her. We don’t want Warren to find out about your magic and have you killed. On top of that, it’s one of the safest places for you with your brother hunting random vampires here.”

I leaned into Leo. “I don’t think he knew I was here and I don’t think he’s hunting me. He seemed pretty confused when he saw me.”

Leo ran his fingers through my hair. “Hunters don’t work alone, Raven and even if your brother isn’t hunting you, someone else might be using him to get to you.”

I sat up with a sudden idea. “What if I go talk to him? He can tell my parents that I’m not dead and maybe I can go see them.”

“Sweetheart, you are dead. You’re a vampire and Warren would never let you leave London if he found out that your brother is a hunter.”

“What if we don’t tell him?” I begged.

Leo shook his head. “I’m sorry honey but it’s too risky.”

I sighed and sank into the couch, leaving space between Leo and me.

“Raven, honey, don’t be mad at me. We don’t have that much time and I don’t want to spend it fighting with you.”

“Then help me find my brother so I can talk to him,” I pouted.

“That’s a terrible idea, Raven. What if he wants to kill you?”

“Come with me and watch my back, then,” I tried. “We’d have the advantage in numbers.”

“Unless he’s holed up with more hunters. Think this through Raven! It’s not a good idea,” he begged me but I was already thinking about a spell Alizya had taught me to locate someone.

I stood from the couch. “I need a map of the city. I doubt he has left yet.”

“Raven, seriously. This isn’t a good idea. You need to stay here,” he replied, mirroring me in standing up.

“Leo, I’m doing this. You can either help me or get out of my way. He’s my brother and I need to talk to him.”

“Getting yourself killed is not how you go about this though! Why don’t you just call him on a phone or something?”

I paused, thinking back to the last time I had tried calling him. Was that why he was in London? Was he looking for me?

“I’ve made a collect call to him before. The day I woke up with no memory. You took me to the museum.”

“Okay, so do that again. Do you remember the phone number?”

I thought about it for a moment as he put a phone in my hand.

“I think so,” I spoke as I let my finger muscle memory take over. A moment later I was connecting to my brother’s phone through an operator.

I didn’t get my hopes up as I waited what felt like hours for the operator to connect us. It was possible that he didn’t want to talk to me and it was possible that he wanted to kill me. Then, when I heard his voice, all of my worry choked off my voice and I had to fight to get it back.

“Raven?” he questioned carefully.

I opened my mouth but nothing came out but a small squeak.

“Raven, is that really you?” he tried again.

I finally found my voice and wasn’t sure what to say. “It’s me T.J.”

“Tell me what I told you just before you left for Ireland,” he spoke carefully. He wanted to make sure that it was me.

“You said that if I didn’t come home in one piece you would never let me out of your sight. Then you said that you missed me already and that you wanted to hear about my adventures every day,” I rattled off without thinking about it. My brain was on autopilot.

He swore softly and I looked at Leo with tears starting to well in my eyes.

“I’m sorry T.J. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I was about to come home but something happened. I don’t remember it, though.”

“So that was you calling on mom’s birthday, then?” he asked calmly.

I nodded, sniffled, then answered, “Yeah, I was scared and couldn’t figure out what was going on. I don’t remember anything from the past three years. We don’t know why yet.”

“Dad is not going to like this.”

“Did you know that mom is a witch?” I blurted beyond my tears. Leo rubbed my back.

“What are you talking about?” T.J. responded. “Mom isn’t a witch. I would have seen it.”

“She gave up her power. I met our grandma Alizya here in London.”

“Why did you wait to find us? Why now?” he grumbled, shifting the topic possibly in an attempt to save face.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember anything from those three years. I thought you’d want to talk after I saw you in the warehouse. What’s going on? How are you a hunter?”

“I’ve been a hunter since before you were born. We chose not to tell you hoping that you would stay safe and have a normal life. How do you think we had so many people all over the world to keep an eye on you?” he spat. His anger cut like a knife and I felt stupid. How had I never seen it before?

“I… I didn’t know…” I spoke quietly in embarrassment.

“You should have stayed in Ireland and come home like you were told,” he growled.

Tears began to roll down my face and Leo took the phone from me.

“All she wanted to do was warn you to get out of London before they kill you. Our boss will not show you any mercy. She didn’t choose to change and honestly, she’s lucky to be alive at all whether you recognize that or not. So now we’re done here. You won’t hear from us again,” Leo spoke sternly before ending the call.
After that he set the phone aside, wrapped me in his arms, and sat us down on the couch to let me cry until I was out of tears.