Page 25 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

“You bite people.”

He rolled his eyes. “Obviously. What do you think I’ve got these for?” He pressed a thumb to the point of one fang, drawing a bead of blood. Then licked it off. It happened so fast I almost missed it.

“Uh . . .”

“Three. Pick it up.”

“Do you kill people?”

“Try not to. It’s bad PR. Next.”

“Will you kill me?”

“Never.”

That was a relief. “Did you kill Jay?”

“No. Fuck.”

“What are you afraid of?”

He blinked, hesitating. “Blood.”

“Wait, what?”

He waved the question away. “It’s not a problem.”

“Seems like it should be.”

“I get by.”

“But you drink blood to survive. The beer, food, it’s just surplus to requirements. I googled that much.”

He pinched his lips together. “Until I transition, I can drink blood, but I get by on normal food.”

“What’s the transition?”

“Uh . . .” He hesitated, lashes fluttering. “It’s complicated. Until we transition, we’re mostly mortal, like you. The transition is when being a vampire really sinks its teeth in. We change, get hungrier, more lethal, and we need blood then, but we get stranger too, can see things about people. It’s a whole thing, too big to go into now.”

From his darting gaze, I could tell he really didn’t want to go into it now.

“When does it happen?” I asked, while I could.

“We have to die,” he said, cold and direct. “And then be brought back. When the body dies, it kicks the vampire DNA into overdrive. But if nobody brings us back, we die.”

I stared. He had to die to live? And the Theo he was now wasn’t the Theo he’d be after his transition happened. Wow, I hadn’t realized that.

“Has Bentley transitioned?” I asked.

“Yeah, mother killed him.”

“Oh.” Holy sweet potatoes. Bentley’s mother had killed him?

“I brought him back, she uh . . . she didn’t.” Theo swallowed at the end of that admission, as though it had cost him.

My mouth fell open, and when I next spoke, my voice trembled. “Is that why he keeps trying to kill you, to help you transition?”

“Fuck no, he just wants me gone. Just plain ol’ murder.” Theo laughed, but it wasn’t all that funny. He noticed I wasn’t laughing. “Hey, you know what . . .” Theo’s tone lightened, and his smile was back. “I promised you fun, and this isn’t that. Let’s shake things up.”