Page 6 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

I tried to give him the friendly “we’re just two guys going about our day meeting by a fence nothing to see here” face.

He looked at my hand . . . then up at my face, so he could memorize it and murder me later. “I’m the pool boy,” I said, like that explained everything. Maybe it did. Because the guy’s eyebrows swept up, tugging the corners of his mouth with them.

“So uhm . . .” I pulled my hand back, shoved it in my pocket, and took out a business card. “If you need any work doing, I’m available.”

Stop. Talking. Dumbass.

He reached through the railings and plucked the card from my fingers. I hadn’t expected him to actually take it.

“How fortuitous,” he said, voice rich and dark and full of bad things. “An opening just came up.”

“Oh good. Great.” I grinned. Oh fabulous.

The opening was because of the body in the pool, wasn’t it? The body in the water was their pool boy. And I’d just volunteered for his job.

I blinked too fast. “So . . . uhm . . . your gardens are very well maintained.”

His gaze finally left me to look around the grounds, as though seeing them for the first time. “Yes. They are this morning. My name is Jeremy Briar. I’ll be in touch.” He tucked the card deep into his bathrobe pocket, turned on his heel, and walked barefoot back across his lush garden, toward the pool.

I watched him go for a few beats, then stumbled back a few steps and breathed. Alright. Okay. Everything was fine. Apart from the dead guy. Things were not fine for him. Jeremy Briar didn’t stop by the pool, but instead headed into his glossy box house.

The body was still there.

Alright then.

I dove back into the bush and dropped to my knees beside the crumpled Theo. “Hey!” A few pats to his cheek didn’t do anything. I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. He had to be. If he died too, then I was clearly trapped in a bad dream.

“Okay.” I rocked back on my heels, swiping at the flowers and leaves to get them out of my face. “Alright. Wait here. I’ll go get someone.”

This was way above my pay grade. I did not do murders, or passed-out party vampires, but mostly not murders. I’d go back to the house, get someone who could deal with all this, go home, and pretend none of it had happened.

I dashed back across the yard, ran past the pool, and yanked open the sliding doors. “Uh, hello?” My voice echoed off all the shiny marble surfaces and cavernously high ceilings. “Hello?” Where the heck was everyone? What if Theo was home alone? I could call the cops . . . Yeah, maybe not. Law enforcement and I didn’t get along.

“Who are you?” a haughty, jagged voice asked.

The man standing in the doorway, as though he’d just appeared there, wore a white dress, and for a second my brain painted a picture of a man in a wedding gown with short blond hair. I blinked, my mouth falling open. No, not a dress, a dressing gown. Tied closed around his waist. Made of fluffy white cotton. One of those eye masks that help you sleep had been pushed onto his forehead, making his blond bangs stick up in a fan. It took a second for my panicked thoughts to stitch all these random bits of information together.

The brother.

The blond bombshell to Theo’s dark energy. Taller, slimmer, mean face, cold eyes. I knew his name but couldn’t recall it right then. Barren, Boris, Ben, Bastian?

“So, uh . . . Theo’s in a bush in your back yard and your neighbor maybe killed someone. And I really have to go now, so if you can deal with that? That’s great. Bye.”

I was out of there. Not hanging around. Done.

Go back to my apartment. Hide under the covers. Watch trashy TV.

“Wait!” the brother snapped.

His voice come from across the room, but when I glanced back at the sliding doors, he somehow got in front of me, blocking my exit. I got an eyeful of fluffy gown, pale skin, sharp chin . . . and yup, there they were, the tiny points of sharp fangs hiding behind pale pink lips.

“I asked who you are.”

I swallowed. “The pool boy?”

“You left my brother in a bush?”

Oh. His snarl grew, more fangs showing. There’s knowing vampires are a thing, and then there’s seeing the sharp canine teeth up close. My heart was ready to leap out of my chest and flee the country, something I probably should have done a few years ago.