Page 41 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

need u

come now

Owen??????

where r u???????

come to house!

Owen

Freckles

answer

some1 in pool

I stopped outside my car and immediately dialed Theo back.

“Shit, thank the fucking gods. Owen!” He spoke fast but quiet. “There’s someone in the pool again.”

“They’re still there?”

“Yeah.”

“Theo, are they moving? Alive?”

“I don’t know.”

“You haven’t checked?!”

“I don’t want my DNA on all of this! Where are you?”

I could see their house from the Briars’ driveway.

If I told him I was next door, I’d have to go over there, and if the person was dead, then what? What was I going to do about it? Why’d he call me? Didn’t he have a procedure for accidental dead bodies?

I dropped into my car’s driver’s seat, tucked the phone against my shoulder and cheek, and started the engine. “Don’t you have people to help you with stuff like this?”

“With dead people?!” He hesitated. “Actually, yeah, there is a service. But then I’ll have to fill out a load of forms and claim diminished responsibility, and it gets real legal and complicated.”

“What do you think I can do?”

He breathed out hard. “Yeah, you’re right . . . I don’t know why I . . . Never mind.”

He hung up.

I stared at the phone. I mean, technically, I had told him I couldn’t help. But he was just going to hang up? I turned the car around, sped from the Briars’ box house, and a few minutes later, turned into the Witherbornes’ driveway. The gates clanged and heaved open, letting me pass.

I pulled up to the house, already hearing Bet complain in my head. Bad idea. Walk away. I knew this was a bad idea and I was doing it anyway. Whatever self-preservation ship I’d been on since jail had sailed off the edge of the map about a week ago.

I jogged up the side path, and came around the back, and sure enough, someone floated face down in Theo’s pool. I didn’t hesitate. Probably should have—after what had just happened next door. I dove clean into the water. Cold flushed through me. Bubbles obscured my vision. A few kicks, and I came up fast under the floating figure. A woman. Short blonde hair fanned out around her face. I broke the surface, scooped her against my chest, and kicked backwards, taking her to the edge of the pool.

Theo was there. Had been there since my dive. He caught the young woman’s arms and heaved her out.

I gripped the pool’s edge and heaved myself out alongside them.

Theo had his hand over her chest, his face close to hers.