35 - ‘Come gentle night…’

“Welcome back.” Trevor said, stepping fully into view. “And by the way, thanks for saving me the trouble of dealing with that one.”

Kemp grinned as he sheathed his knives. “Any time. Were you following me or is this just a coincidence?”

Trevor returned his grin with a sardonic smile. “Now how could I be following you when I didn’t know you were back until just a few moments ago, kid?”

“It’s Kemp, and I suppose you couldn’t have been following. But still you do manage to show up when I need you, so I could start to wonder how and why.”

“Right. Kemp. Sorry.” Trevor chuckled. “And trust me except for the first time it’s always been pure coincidence.” He leaned back against the brick wall of the building as he looked Kemp over carefully before asking, “Does anyone know you’re back in town?”

“Only the owner of the club where I used to work.. He hired me back. And,” Kemp’s mouth tightened, “I’m sure my brother has figured out that I’ve come down here again.”

“So you’re on the run from him, from the way you phrased that.”

“Yeah. Well not so much on the run as just wanting to steer clear of him if he comes looking for me.”

“I think I need to hear the whole story. All I know is that you suddenly disappeared. I was afraid at first that you’d had a run-in with a vampyre you couldn’t handle. But nothing on the grapevine said a dhampir had been killed, and believe me there would have been a lot of cheering in certain circles if that had been the case. “

“Well, what happened was…”

“Not here. Come on, I’m taking you home with me unless you already have a place. And since you’re toting that backpack I suspect you don’t.”

“Nope,” Kemp admitted. “I was heading for the cemetery when all this went down.”

Trevor shot him a look of disgust. “First off that would have been a stupid move. Secondly why didn’t you come to my place in the first place.”

Kemp chewed his lip, not willing to say that he wasn’t certain he trusted Trevor not to get word to his brother about where he could find him.

“I swear,” Trevor growled, obviously sensing exactly what Kemp was thinking. “Look, Kemp, assuming this is why your back and trying to avoid your brother, let me state once and for all that, while I might not have approved of your relationship with Owen, it’s between the two of you and no way would I interfere.”

“Thank you Trev. I wish everyone else felt the same way.”

“Adults like to think they know better than kids about what’s good for them. Not much you can do to change that,” Trevor replied as he took off walking.

Kemp hurried to catch up with him. “So if Leif comes looking you’ll keep quiet about me?”

“Yeah, sure. What the hell, said I would, didn’t I?”