Chapter 6 #2
There was a lot to unpack in that sentence. I had no idea where to begin, so I left it packed and untouched. “Then Jay didn’t have anyone in his life who could have done this to him? You think his death is related to you?”
“He was a good guy, no enemies that I knew of. People knew we talked, knew we came out here, blinds drawn, and they assumed we were sleeping together. It wasn’t like that, he wasn’t . . . He was straight. Or I would have smashed that on day one.”
“You’re not? Straight, I mean?” I tried to ask it casually and wasn’t sure I pulled it off.
“You think I could be?” He grinned. “One, I’m a vampire.
We’re all bi. The whole bloodline goes back long before some ancient king somewhere decided everything had to be binary.
And two, being straight has too many rules.
I’m an equal opportunities lover. If something feels good, why limit yourself? ”
I nodded, suddenly very interested in the label on my beer bottle. “So, you think whoever killed Jay did it to get to you personally?”
“Yeah, and I wanna think it’s the neighbor, Jeremy Briar.
They’re weird as fuck over there. And they have it out for us.
” Theo fell quiet for a moment, thinking.
“I followed Jay over there . . . He sometimes did work on their lawns. New gig for him. He’d been there a few months, and he’d been different since starting there.
More guarded. Pretty sure the Briars were feeding him lies about us.
I thought maybe the wife was into him. Never met her, never seen her, if she even exists.
That’s why he was going over there at weird hours.
Weird hours for you lot—humans, I mean. I heard his car, I went to take a look through the fence, and that’s when I saw him. Just like you did.”
“You didn’t think to call the police?”
“Right, because we both know how that goes.”
He didn’t know my details, but he knew enough to know I was law enforcement averse. “Did the Briars move him to your pool?”
“Must have. How else would he have got there?”
“Bentley? If he wants to frame you, get you out the way so he inherits?” It was public knowledge Bentley was a dick.
“He’s the obvious one, and he’d have done it too, if he’d known Jay was dead.”
“I uh . . . after I left you in the bush, I took him out there to find you.”
“You did? Shit. If he’d found me in the hibiscus, I’d never live it down.”
“He could have seen Jay’s body in the pool then.”
“What was he wearing?”
“Huh?”
“Benny, what was he wearing?”
“Oh, some kind of Gucci gown. He wasn’t happy about having to go looking for you in it.”
“Then there’s no way he’s going to drag Jay out of the pool and put him in ours. Benny hates getting wet, or anything remotely filthy. Cleanliness is his religion. I don’t think it was him, it feels off. This whole thing feels off.”
Where did the ring fit in all of this? Geraldine had been interested in whether I’d found anything in the pool that morning, suggesting she knew there’d been something to find. “What about your mom?”
“Huh?”
“I mean . . . what are her thoughts on Jay’s death?”
“She doesn’t care about anything unless it’s politics. I doubt she even remembers Jay. To her, people like you are just the help. No offense.”
“She didn’t care that you were talking to Jay? Or that Jay was working for the neighbors when you guys have ancient beef?”
Theo considered it, then shrugged. “Maybe, she’s hard to read. Had a long time to perfect her face.”
“How long?”
“A few hundred years.”
I blinked. “Wow.” So how old was Theo?
“I’m two hundred and three, if you’re wondering.” He saw my face fall and laughed hard. “Wow, you’re gullible. I’m twenty-five, just plain ol’ off-the-shelf mortal years, until I transition.”
“Oh.” My heart started up again after stopping for a solid minute.
“Your face.” He chuckled. “How old are you, huh?”
“Twenty-three . . . and a half, mortal years.”
He laughed. “Haven’t you even googled vampires, Owen?”
“A bit, yeah, but I might as well ask you, right?”
“Alright.” He shifted forward on the couch. “What do you want to know? Lay it on me. Ask me anything. I’ll be truthful.”
“Oh no, I can’t do that.”
“Sure you can. I’m offering. Ask.”
“No, it’s fine, you don’t need to—”
“Stop being nice and ask some fucking questions. Straight from the horse’s mouth. Quick fire. Go.”
I laughed, and shifted forward too, so we were looking across the coffee table but closer now.
“Quicker. I’m bored already.”
“Alright, alright . . . Let me think.” I might not get another opportunity like this.
“Tick tock, Owen. The offer expires in five seconds.”
“Alright, okay—”
“Four—”
“You bite people.”
He rolled his eyes. “Obviously. What do you think I’ve got these for?” He pressed a thumb to the point of one fang, drawing a bead of blood. Then licked it off. It happened so fast I almost missed it.
“Uh . . .”
“Three. Pick it up.”
“Do you kill people?”
“Try not to. It’s bad PR. Next.”
“Will you kill me?”
“Never.”
That was a relief. “Did you kill Jay?”
“No. Fuck.”
“What are you afraid of?”
He blinked, hesitating. “Blood.”
“Wait, what?”
He waved the question away. “It’s not a problem.”
“Seems like it should be.”
“I get by.”
“But you drink blood to survive. The beer, food, it’s just surplus to requirements. I googled that much.”
He pinched his lips together. “Until I transition, I can drink blood, but I get by on normal food.”
“What’s the transition?”
“Uh . . .” He hesitated, lashes fluttering.
“It’s complicated. Until we transition, we’re mostly mortal, like you.
The transition is when being a vampire really sinks its teeth in.
We change, get hungrier, more lethal, and we need blood then, but we get stranger too, can see things about people.
It’s a whole thing, too big to go into now. ”
From his darting gaze, I could tell he really didn’t want to go into it now.
“When does it happen?” I asked, while I could.
“We have to die,” he said, cold and direct. “And then be brought back. When the body dies, it kicks the vampire DNA into overdrive. But if nobody brings us back, we die.”
I stared. He had to die to live? And the Theo he was now wasn’t the Theo he’d be after his transition happened. Wow, I hadn’t realized that.
“Has Bentley transitioned?” I asked.
“Yeah, mother killed him.”
“Oh.” Holy sweet potatoes. Bentley’s mother had killed him?
“I brought him back, she uh . . . she didn’t.” Theo swallowed at the end of that admission, as though it had cost him.
My mouth fell open, and when I next spoke, my voice trembled. “Is that why he keeps trying to kill you, to help you transition?”
“Fuck no, he just wants me gone. Just plain ol’ murder.” Theo laughed, but it wasn’t all that funny. He noticed I wasn’t laughing. “Hey, you know what . . .” Theo’s tone lightened, and his smile was back. “I promised you fun, and this isn’t that. Let’s shake things up.”
“I dunno, I was having fun until that last part.”
He got to his feet. “By rooting around in my deepest fears? Nice.” On the last word, he flashed some fang and held out his hand. “Let’s go visit the neighbors.”
“What?” I stared at his hand and didn’t move.
He dropped his hand. “You wanna Nancy Drew this shit, let’s go.”
“Nancy who?”
“Owen. You and I are going to solve Jay’s murder.”
“Uhm, no thank you. I have to be in bed by one a.m.”
“Go wild. You might like it.”
“Yeah, I uh . . .No, I don’t think going wild is for me.”
“Hey.” He stepped around the table, plucked my beer out of my hand, took a swig from my bottle, then backed up, swaying his hips. “Whoever it was made you boring? That guy? Fuck him.”
“What?” My little laugh came out strained. “No, nobody hurt me. I’m just like this.”
“Baby, no you’re not,” he purred. “I see you, Mr. I Like Rules. I think something got you running scared, and I know all about that. So let’s do this. Let’s find out who killed Jay, and maybe it’ll clean off some of that self-loathing stain you’re carrying around with you, huh?”
Self-loathing? My thoughts ground to a halt. He’d just called out my fears. We’d met twice, and he’d read me like a book. Damn.
Theo Witherborne was a lot more observant than I’d given him credit for. Or I was terrible at keeping my emotions off my face. A little of both, probably.
He set my beer down and offered his hand again.
Why did this feel heavier than just taking a walk next door? Why did it feel as though taking his hand would seal my fate? And why, again, did I want to go all in, knowing it wasn’t going to end well? Why did I dance too close to the flame every time?
I took his hand.
I danced too close to the flame because I liked the burn.
He pulled me to my feet, and I almost stumbled into him. He grabbed both my arms, bracing me
“Good.” Theo grinned. “You ready?”
“Not really, no.”
“Life is short, Owen. You gotta live a little.”
Which was easy for him to say, when he’d potentially live forever. All I could do was hope that whatever he was getting me into didn’t leave me face down in the neighbors’ pool too.