Page 89 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

He was here, and big, and had a hold of me with a solid grip.

“What game are you playing, huh? Cleaning pools? That ain’t you, Owen. Davis needs your brain back at the numbering. He misses you. Time to come with me.”

Davis didn’t miss me. He missed the money I made for him.

Don’t fight. Don’t do anything. Nod along, let him think we’re listening, and when he lets go, which he will, because Davis doesn’t want you dead, lure him into the garden over there and make it so he has an accident. A fatal one.

Have a what now?

Was the voice in my head even mine? It seemed darker than the typical voice I argued with in my head.

“This is how it’s going down, Owen.” Sweet’s thick hand pushed in, forcing my head back against the hard wall. A reminder that I was smaller and weaker. Pain sparked behind my eyes. “You’re gonna pack this shit up, and you’re going back to Davis. You hear? You owe him. You belong to him.”

That wasn’t happening, but I nodded anyway.

“Stop fucking around with fake vampires and get back where you belong.”

“Did you just call me fake?”

Theo!

Sweet turned his head and there was Theo, head and hip cocked, dark-lashed eyes all emotive and devilish, shirt half open, pants low on his hips, like he barely knew how to dress himself. But like his mother’s suits, the casual mess he projected was camouflage.

“Yeah, you, pretty boy, whatever the fuck you are. Whatever this is, it ends now. You hear? Owen is taken by a guy you don’t wanna mess with. You get me?”

Theo tilted his head. A shallow laugh fell out of him. “Oh, I get you. You think this guy Davis owns Owen? Is that right? Just so I’m clear? I wouldn’t want any unfortunate misunderstandings between us.”

A dark teasing curl of humor wove through Theo’s voice, shooting off warning flares in my mind. There wasn’t anyone around. We were out the back of his property. And Theo was moving closer, doing his whole “I’m a dumb vampire who sunbathes for kicks” act.

Sweet took his hand off my mouth and said to me, “Tell this freak you’re taken.”

Sweet had taken his gaze off Theo.

I opened my mouth to tell Theo not to do something stupid, but Theo had already moved.

Sweet vanished. I felt him go instead of seeing it—snatched from the place he’d been standing. A few masculine grunts in the bushes to my left was all the warning I got that Theo had Sweet down there.

I took a second to catch my breath, and stumbled over to them.

Sweet’s legs stuck out from the hibiscus, kicking in the dirt. His heels dug out grooves, and then the kicking began to slow. Theo was on him, straddling his hips, face buried in his neck.

There’s knowing you’re maybe boyfriend is a vampire, and then seeing he’s a vampire. And the seeing was very different to the knowing. I wanted my piano leg back.

Theo’s back and shoulders moved with every pull from Sweet’s veins. His whole body moved with the motion. He fed, that was the only way of describing it. He fed.

If Theo killed this guy, Davis would double his efforts. He wouldn’t send one man, he’d send a small army to get me back. It would be worse.

I reached down and touched Theo’s shoulder. He snapped his head up and glared through me. Rabid, predatory hunger burned in Theo’s eyes. The bedroom softness had long gone. Sweet was his kill, and I clearly wasn’t getting between him and his meal.

I could stop this. Should stop this. At least try to save Sweet. Right?

On the other hand, he would have gotten violent, would have taken me back by force, and that would end with me back in trouble with the law, or worse. Because I wasn’t ever going back. I’d rather die.

Theo shook my hand off and buried his fangs in the man’s neck again.

Or . . . I stepped back. I could also not help?

Just stand back and let nature take its course.