Chapter 16
I met Bentley outside the Briars’ gate right after sundown, with the sky still a pastel pink on the horizon.
I’d parked a little way down the winding palm-lined street, just in case I’d need to make a quick getaway.
My car did not have enough power to dramatically smash through the Briars’ fancy gates, but I could vault a fence.
If I needed to. It probably wouldn’t come to that.
We were just going to talk, to find out what was really going on. Like civilized people.
Bentley wore his cream suit, playing the part of sophisticated neighbor, and carried a bounce in his step that hadn’t been there before, probably at the prospect of sanctioned murder.
It wasn’t going to come to that. No house burning, no murder. Just talking.
At least Bentley’s father had forbidden him from hurting me. I should technically have been safer with him beside me. But when I saw that gleam in his eye and the smile on his pale lips, I had to wonder if I’d brought a rabid dog along as backup.
Was Bentley a liability or an asset? I was about to find out.
I buzzed the gate intercom. “We’re here to see Mr. Briar. He’s expecting us.”
Earlier in the day, I’d called ahead and asked for a meeting about his pool. I hadn’t told him I was bringing a plus-one. After a few minutes of silence, we got buzzed in.
The gates clunked and heaved open. We stepped over the threshold and walked up the drive. The gates clanged behind us, locking us inside. The house was a short walk ahead, up the driveway and through the gardens.
“So, what are you, then?” Bentley asked. “What’s a gatekeeper?” His face looked paler in the dappled evening light, and his skin was almost porcelain smooth. The short, tousled white hair alongside that shade of skin meant his blue eyes held an icy sparkle.
“Your father’s fancy way of saying someone who looks after a pool?”
“Nope. Don’t think so. The other pool boy wasn’t a gatekeeper. Just you.” He looked at me sideways. “Are you human?”
“Very.”
“Yeah, I can smell weakness on you.”
Nice. I made a face and his fanged smile grew.
“I’m going to make a few things clear. I’m not like Theo,” he said.
“He’s all ‘we gotta blend in, be nice to our food.’ I’m not like that.
I lean into our lore. Humans are prey, we are predators.
You are weak, we are strong. We have evolved to hunt you.
It’s the natural order of things. And frankly, I am peak vampire. ”
That was some ego he had there.
“What I’m saying is,” he continued. “You want old-school vampire, that’s me. Sneaking about, creeping into bedrooms, stalking maidens—”
“A pervert, got it.”
“Right. What? No. Haven’t you read any dark romances? Human females adore being stalked and intimidated.”
I laughed. “Human females?”
His eyebrows pinched together. “What do you know about human females? You’re gay.”
I laughed harder. “I know they probably don’t like being referred to as human females. Was your date tonight an AI girlfriend?”
“Fuck you, pool boy. I’m in a relationship with a wonderful female.”
“Is it your reflection?”
Bentley’s eyes widened, but his lips twitched. He’d almost laughed at that one. “Stop interrupting. As I was saying, Theo doesn’t lean into his vampire side enough, if you ask me.”
“I didn’t.”
“Whatever. I’m telling you how it is as a courtesy. Be prepared to see a real vampire when we’re in there. Don’t freak out again. You silly humans are always screaming and fainting when I shake off this nice act.” He gestured at himself, with his cream suit and beautiful hair.
“This is your version of nice?”
Now his smile came out, but turned sly. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with. You humans are so stupid. Like sheep. Sheeple.” He laughed at his own joke. “Running around, all helpless and terrified. Like you did the morning we met. Oh no, the scary vampire showed me some fang.”
“When did I run—” Oh, right, the running away part when he’d cornered me in the garden.
Yeah, I had run away from him then. “Fine. Warning received and understood. But before you do anything vampirey, let me talk to Jeremy. It’s good to give people a chance to tell you their side before any kind of murdering starts. ”
His grin got wider. “You ever killed anyone, Owen?”
Wow. He just whipped that out and slapped it down on the table, huh. “No.” I answered fast, maybe too fast. Could he hear my heart racing?
“But you’ve wanted to. I see it in you. Literally.”
That was concerning. What could he see, exactly? “What do you mean, you see it?”
“After the transition, vampires recognize the fellow bloodthirsty. Theo hasn’t transitioned yet, but he already senses what you are inside.
You can pretend to be a good guy, be all sweet smiles and dumb cuteness, but we see the real you.
We know what’s in your heart. It’s a heightened sense.
Helps us hunt the bad ones, the ones society doesn’t mind if you remove from the gene pool.
Theo suspects what you are, but when he transitions, he’ll see how dark your soul really is.
Like I can see it, right now. You’re a bad guy, Owen, and that makes you an even sweeter target to us.
I’m surprised Theo hasn’t taken a bite out of you already. Or has he?”
“No, no . . . he hasn’t . . .” I trailed off.
Theo knew the kind of person I was inside, and hadn’t said anything? How much could he know from vibes alone? He couldn’t know how deep the rot went. He hadn’t transitioned, so I was safe until he did. Which would hopefully be a long time from now and not something I needed to worry about.
Focus.
I swallowed and tried not to think about what Bentley saw.
Was that why Theo had kissed me? Because he knew I was rotten at my core and he’d liked it? Been drawn to it, because vampires were programmed to hunt the baddest ones?
No, not thinking about it.
“I uh . . . me and Theo? We’re not a thing, by the way,” I said. “And I’m different now. Better. Turned over a new leaf an’ all that.”
He laughed, bright and loud. “You just keep telling yourself what you need to hear to get through the day. It’s pathetic, if you ask me. You should embrace the darker side of you. You won’t be a happy human until you do.”
Was Bentley my therapist now?
“I didn’t ask you, though, did I?” I snapped. I’d tried embracing it and ended up in jail. And I wasn’t taking advice from a vampire who called women human females.
“What I wouldn’t give to find out what skeletons you have in your closet.”
“No skeletons.” I’d buried them in my back yard instead. At least it didn’t sound as though he knew any details about my past, but he had been fishing. I was going to have to be more careful around Bentley in the future, or just avoid him altogether. That would be easier and more satisfying.
The massive multi-level box house appeared, glowing among its dark grounds. We had to focus on the meeting ahead, the diplomacy, so the Briars and Witherbornes could live next door to each other in relative harmony. That was the plan.
“You think they’re all home?” Bentley asked, as we approached the large, plain black front door.
“I’ve only ever met Jeremy.” Hopefully, it would just be him. I didn’t fancy trying to talk through all this if we were outnumbered by supernaturals of unknown origin. “I don’t think anyone else lives here, honestly.” Just the quiet staff.
We reached the swept-clean front steps. Not a cobweb in sight. No fallen leaves. Pristine perfection. Even the mat looked as though it had just been bought at the store and laid down for us.
“You notice that?” I asked.
“Notice what?” Bentley looked around us, at all the wrong things.
“How clean it all is?”
Bentley shrugged. “That’s what you pay the help for. Knock already, you’re not getting any prettier.”
I was beginning to wish I hadn’t had the bright idea of bringing Bentley along. “Do you have any friends?”
“I have decades of friends. What do you have, except your hand when you’re lonely?”
I opened my mouth to argue, but nothing came out. I maybe had a hot mess vampire who may or may not be a friend. Bet was paid to talk to me. That was it. My corrections officer and a vampire on a friend rebound. And uh… my hand.
I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened before I could land it. A stern-faced housekeeper grunted at us to enter the house and wait in the big hall.
“Have you been here before?” I whispered, while we loitered in the cavernous space.
“Never set foot on the grounds. Mother’s rules.” Even Bentley seemed impressed with the space.
“You follow all your mother’s rules?”
“Yes, I follow all her rules. You would too if your mother was a centuries-old master manipulator who tried to murder you at a young age. I pick my battles, and that’s not one I’m ever winning.”
“Momma’s boy, I get it.”
“The fuck you just call me, pond skimmer?”
I shrugged. “I’m just saying you maybe have some mommy issues, is all.”
“Do you have a shred of self-preservation or are you truly as dumb as you look? I could rip your throat out right here and nobody will stop me.”
“Actually, Mommy would stop you.”
He glared as though his stare alone could cut me in half. “I don’t like you.”
“That’s a relief.”
Alright, so maybe I was teasing Bentley to keep my mind off the fact we’d walked into a murder house and Theo was relying on us to negotiate some kind of truce based off knowledge we didn’t have.
Ruffling Benny’s Gucci feathers made for a great distraction, especially since he couldn’t retaliate.
Honestly, he might have been a prissy little drama vampire, but Bentley did scare me. Humor was my coping mechanism.
Jeremy Briar descended the magnificent curved staircase, hand on the rail like last time, each step placed perfectly, like a prom date making her grand entrance. Although Jeremy was a fifty-something older man with graying temples, and was far less beautiful than a prom date would have been.