Page 73 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

What did I know?

The pool was a gateway. Check.

Jeremy needed to open the gateway to bring his family through. Check.

He needed Theo’s blood to do it. Check.

But things hadn’t gone smoothly. Jay had clearly intervened somehow, and I’d stopped his creatures from kidnapping Theo before, using the chlorine to burn them out of existence. The pool was the gate. And I was the gatekeeper.

That’s right . . . I’m the gatekeeper.

“Uh, so, I have a suggestion?” I croaked out and raised my hand.

Jeremy’s hollow gaze locked onto me. “Speak, but do so quickly.” His voice had warped now too, turning into a gravelly growl.

“Well, it seems like you’ve been planning this for a while, but you’ve had some trouble. You’ve been trying to get this door—gate open for a while with some success, but it’s not perfect, am I right?”

Jeremy tilted his head. “There have been some technical issues.”

“Your family is important to you, else you wouldn’t be going to all this trouble. You don’t want this procedure going wrong halfway through.” I started to walk around the pool, toward Jeremy and Theo. “Well, I’m the pool guy. I know pools. I know this pool.”

“Stop stalling,” Jeremy snarled. “What do you know that can help me?”

Theo bucked some more, but the spindly leg things clamped down harder.

“Okay, so . . . here’s the problem as I see it.” I sounded clearer now, more confident. Pools were my thing. “Your chemical balance is off. I’ve been trying to correct it, because I thought it was an error. But I didn’t know what was going on, or I would have been able to help you sooner. You want a pool that’s friendly to your kind, right? Not toxic. So your buddies can come through without exploding into tiny splinters? But the Miami water keeps going bad on you.”

“That is what this young vampire’s blood will do, haven’t you been listening?” Jeremy said, sounding oddly reasonable for a talking murder tree.

“Alright, but isn’t it too late by then? You want his blood to hit the water when it’s primed, not before it’s ready, or the toxicity in the water will spoil his blood before it’s even had a chance to work. If it goes wrong, you could kill your people. And unless you’re like the Witherbornes, who seem to take pride in trying to kill each other, your family’s untimely death would be a bad thing.”

“That is . . . insightful.” Jeremy blinked. “Go on. Do you have a solution that can make their passage safer?”

“You need a buffer. Something in the system to soften the water, to calm it down, so it doesn’t fight back. This is what you were trying to get Jay to do? I saw his notes, and they didn’t make sense then, but now they do. He didn’t know how to help you, he tried but failed, so you killed him.”

“Jay Green was a terrible pool boy,” Jeremy said. “He had no idea. But you appear to. This . . . buffer. Is it something you can put in place now?”

“Sure. I just need to grab some things from the pump house over there.”

“You had better not be stalling.” Jeremy narrowed his hollow eyes.

“I’m a professional pool maintenance person.” Had I said that with the right kind of professional weight behind it? “Pools are my passion. I’ll help you, but you let Theo go after.”

Jeremy wasn’t going to let Theo go, we all knew it. But I had to play along.

Theo bucked and mumbled through his gag. Probably something along the lines of, “What the holy heck are you doing, Owen?!” I was wondering that myself. My buffer explanation was good, and also complete nonsense. I had no idea what was going on, but I could sure sell it like I did.

“Do it,” Jeremy snapped. “And hurry!”

I scooted behind him, hurried down the slope, and yanked open the pump-house doors. Inside, everything was as it had been previously. All the chemicals were here. I eyed the chlorine. It would work if Jeremy was in the pool, but he wasn’t, and it didn’t look as though he planned to go swimming anytime soon. I needed something else.

Theo moaned.

I looked up. One of Jeremy’s root limbs had shifted into a jagged point and was poised in front of his chest. Over his heart.

Cold, visceral rage burned the wine from my veins, briefly turning my vision white. No. That was my one single thought. No. This wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t about to watch Theo die when I could do something to stop it, and stop Jeremy.

I grabbed the chemicals in their little buckets and boxes, scooped them up into my arms, and hobbled back to Jeremy. One bucket fell from my grip and clattered onto the tiled pool edge.