Page 64 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

“What happened twenty years ago?” I asked. “Did something trigger them?”

“Theo was born.”

“Ugh, Theo, why are you such an attention whore?” Bentley groused.

“They want Theo. Why?” I asked, before Bentley could derail Geraldine’s helpfulness.

“They don’t want him hurt, I know that much, but little else. They’ve been circling like vultures, watching and waiting. To do what, I do not know. Perhaps to take him? As the heir, he’s both our strength and our weakness. Without him, our bloodline is done.”

Bentley cleared his throat and raised a hand. “Spare, right here.”

I flicked my gaze to Theo and found him still leaning against the wall, as though nothing fazed him, but his set jaw and his stillness revealed that all of this disturbed him.

“Maybe they’ll take Bentley in my place?” Theo drawled. “Do whatever weird shit they want with him. Let’s hand him over tonight.”

“No, dear.” Geraldine sighed. “I would already have done so if that were the answer. You’re the heir, and you’ve not yet transitioned to immortality. You are remarkable and mundane. It is that they require, I suspect, as it’s the only interesting thing about you. Although, I don’t know what they need you for, and that is the most concerning thing of all.”

That was the most concerning thing? Not that the Briars had been stalking Theo since he was born?

“Do you know what they are? The Briars?” I asked. “You said of the earth, and we saw those wooden things . . .”

“I have tried to discover more over the years, but nobody seems to know. Whatever they are, it’s obscure.” She blinked and her gaze unfocused. “Or . . .”

“Or?”

“Or they are banished.”

“Banished? What does that mean?”

“Undesirable things are dealt with. Like your police deal with criminals. We have our own way of doing things. The supernaturals, I mean.” She flapped a hand, dismissing me. “It doesn’t concern you with your limited human thinking.”

“Until now, they’ve been a nuisance,” Leander said, picking up the trail of thought from his wife. “We get them sometimes, people obsessed with vampires, but the Briars had never attempted to hurt us. This incident with the pool is an escalation and begs the question, why now?”

“That’s why you hired me,” I said, speaking to Leander. “Specifically. You said, back there, by the pool⁠—”

“I hired you because of your skillset, and your past means you are likely willing to be a little more flexible when it comes to unconventional legal matters.”

Bentley laughed. “What’s the pool boy going to do? Bore them to death with water purification facts?”

Leander held my gaze and said to the room. “Mr. Marsh has a unique portfolio of skills we will find useful.”

All eyes turned to me again.

Heat warmed my skin, as though I were standing under a spotlight.

Leander likely meant I was a criminal, and therefore wasn’t likely to call the cops on them. I cleared my throat and tried to switch the topic back to the real problem. “The Briars’ pool and yours are linked,” I said. “Or actually, it’s more like they’re the same pool split in two. I saw Jay’s body next door that morning, then he turns up in your pool. I don’t think anyone put Jay in your pool. In a way, he was already in it. Like a . . .”

“Gateway,” Leander finished for me.

“I was going to say doorway, but sure. Then Fleur appears. No memory. Nothing to give us a clue to who she is or where she’s from, because she came from the pool itself. She didn’t fall into it; I think it brought her here. Maybe?”

“The gateway,” Leander said. He was the only one in the room who didn’t look lost.

“Doorway, yes. The fact she survived being face down in the water for twenty minutes, which is . . . impossible . . . And now we’ve seen those wood creatures. It seems quite clear the pool is in some way supernatural. And maybe Fleur is too.”

Everyone looked at Fleur, quietly sitting cross-legged on the couch opposite Bentley. She raised her hand. “Hooray for me being alive.”

“Well, you’re in a house full of vampires, dear, so don’t count your chickens yet,” Geraldine said.