Page 91 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

I needed to breathe harder because my lungs were shrinking, or I was about to have a seizure, or a heart attack. I’d just watched Theo feed on a guy. I hadn’t stopped him. Hadn’t tried. Wanted Sweet dead. Payback. Revenge. Felt good. Was feeling pretty good right now, in fact.

Karma, baby.

And to top it all off I was hearing voices.

I wobbled on my feet. Theo caught my arm, holding me up. “Easy there. Usually I’m the one who passes out. Actually, can’t think about that, or I will . . .”

I blinked at his paling face and laughed. What a ridiculous pair we made. “Stop,” I wheezed. “We can’t both pass out.”

“You started it.” He chuckled too. “I was doing fine until you reminded me.”

That was how Bentley found us, the pair of us clutching each other and laughing over a dead body.

“Mother said—” He stopped talking and walking. His gaze dropped to the corpse. “He’s definitely not on the guest list.”

“He was threatening Owen,” Theo said, straightening. The change came over him fast. He went from laughing alongside me to all the humor falling off and his smile turning to ice on his face. “Help us deal with it, or I’m telling Mother where you really were last night.”

Bentley shook his head and rolled his eyes. “There’s no need to be so dramatic, brother. Of course I’ll help. In fact, you go on, I’ll deal with this little incident. Don’t worry yourself.”

I side-eyed Theo. Where the heck had Bentley been last night to turn him into the perfect sibling?

Bentley moved in, scooped up the big dead guy, and headed off into the garden as casually as though he was carrying a new suit over his shoulder.

“Can he be trusted?” I asked, watching him disappear into the gloom.

“Not normally, but he really doesn’t want Mother to know where he was.”

“Where was he?”

Theo’s sly grin returned. “Build-A-Bear.”

I blinked. “What?”

“At a build-a-bear workshop. You know, you pick out a bear, dress it, give it a name . . .”

“Oh my god.”

“I know, it’s shocking. Mother would murder him a second time if she knew.”

I pinched a laugh behind my lips, and we headed back into the pockets of crowds around the house.

I smiled at Theo after catching him watching me, then pulled him to one side. We weren’t alone, there were people all around, so I lowered my voice when I asked, “You alright?”

“I should ask you the same thing. I didn’t mean for that back there. I saw him there, on you, and decided he was dying.” He leaned in, plastering himself against me. “I would have hunted him to exhaustion. Nothing could have stopped me. The moment I decided it, the outcome was inevitable.” His fingers skimmed my cheek, then his thumb tugged at my bottom lip, teasing more. “Do I frighten you?” he whispered.

I hooked a leg around his, locking him close. “No, I just needed a minute.”

Theo braced an arm against the wall, beside my head, and leaned in. His lips skimmed mine. “Then did you like it?”

I pinched my mouth closed, because the answer I wanted to say sounded wrong.

His lips twitched. “I’d kiss you, but I just killed a guy with my mouth, so . . . you’re probably not into that.”

I might have been into it, but we didn’t get a chance to find out.

The sound of Geraldine’s heels clip-clopped around the side of the house. “Ugh! Theo!” she snapped. “Take your fangs out of the pool boy and come greet our new neighbors. Hurry, you’re keeping her waiting.”

“New neighbors?” he asked, extracting his body from mine. I instantly missed his firmness.