Chapter 15
Trying to get the Witherbornes into one room was like trying to herd dripping wet, angry cats.
There was a whole lot of complaining from Bentley, clucking and tutting from Geraldine, and silence from Leander, who sat in one of the grand chairs and waited for his family to stop bickering.
Leander wore an age-old exhaustion on his bones, like an old suit that had grown tired with everyone and everything.
Theo, after arguing a family meeting was a terrible idea, waited patiently off to one side, watching the meeting unfold from his position propped against the wall.
“Who’s the girl?” Bentley asked, from his sprawled position on the couch, posed there like one of those long body cushions.
“Fleur lives in the pool house now, dear,” Geraldine muttered. She sat at the dining table, examining her glossy pink nails. “Do keep up.”
“Since when?”
“Since the pool gave her up,” Leander said, his voice low and monotone.
“Which I am only now learning about. And also, there are things in the pool that tried to grab Theo?” Bentley tutted again. “What a shame they didn’t succeed.”
“You told me that nobody kills Theo but you,” I blurted. “Don’t you care?”
Bentley narrowed his eyes. “Why are you in a family meeting anyway? I said you were trouble, and here we are. Again. Who called this meeting? I have places to be and none of this concerns me.” He moved to stand.
“Did you organize those creatures?” I asked him.
He bared his fangs in a sneer and turned his head toward Geraldine. “Mother, why am I answering to the help?”
“Sit down,” Leander said, calmly, but the very act of his father speaking kept Bentley on the couch.
“I called this meeting for Owen, as it has become quite clear we have a threat that needs addressing, and as wonderful as our family is, working together is not something we do particularly well. Owen has offered to help.”
Owen had?
Bentley rolled his eyes. “Ugh, is this going to take long?”
“Go ahead, Owen,” Leander said.
The meeting had been my idea, but as nobody was going to listen to me, I’d asked Leander to help with that.
And now they were here. Four vampires, and one Fleur, eagerly watching all this from a second couch.
With her legs crossed, she watched the meeting with wide eyes, engrossed in the Witherborne family drama.
Finally, everyone was settled and listening. And this was my big moment to shine. And hopefully get some answers.
“Well . . .” I began. “Clearly, your pool is different.”
“It was fine before you got here,” Bentley grumbled.
“Quiet, Bentley!” Geraldine snapped. “Let the pool boy speak so we can all get back to more important things.”
“I suspect Jay stumbled onto the truth or was investigating it,” I said, looking at each of them for a reaction. They didn’t give one. “He would have seen the same strange chemical signatures that I’ve seen and gone looking for answers.”
“And got himself killed,” Theo said, clearly aimed at me and my decision to follow Jay’s metaphorical footsteps next door.
“Ugh, the Briars,” Bentley said, playing with a thread on his shirt cuff. “They seem harmless enough. Creepy, but what are they going to do to us?”
I looked at Geraldine and found her already staring at me. “You know, don’t you.”
She huffed. “I know little, but I know they’re not harmless. They’ve been stalking this family for over twenty years. Always popping up nearby but never too close.”
“What happened twenty years ago?” I asked. “Did something trigger them?”
“Theo was born.”
“Ugh, Theo, why are you such an attention whore?” Bentley groused.
“They want Theo. Why?” I asked, before Bentley could derail Geraldine’s helpfulness.
“They don’t want him hurt, I know that much, but little else. They’ve been circling like vultures, watching and waiting. To do what, I do not know. Perhaps to take him? As the heir, he’s both our strength and our weakness. Without him, our bloodline is done.”
Bentley cleared his throat and raised a hand. “Spare, right here.”
I flicked my gaze to Theo and found him still leaning against the wall, as though nothing fazed him, but his set jaw and his stillness revealed that all of this disturbed him.
“Maybe they’ll take Bentley in my place?” Theo drawled. “Do whatever weird shit they want with him. Let’s hand him over tonight.”
“No, dear.” Geraldine sighed. “I would already have done so if that were the answer. You’re the heir, and you’ve not yet transitioned to immortality.
You are remarkable and mundane. It is that they require, I suspect, as it’s the only interesting thing about you.
Although, I don’t know what they need you for, and that is the most concerning thing of all. ”
That was the most concerning thing? Not that the Briars had been stalking Theo since he was born?
“Do you know what they are? The Briars?” I asked. “You said of the earth, and we saw those wooden things . . .”
“I have tried to discover more over the years, but nobody seems to know. Whatever they are, it’s obscure.” She blinked and her gaze unfocused. “Or . . .”
“Or?”
“Or they are banished.”
“Banished? What does that mean?”
“Undesirable things are dealt with. Like your police deal with criminals. We have our own way of doing things. The supernaturals, I mean.” She flapped a hand, dismissing me. “It doesn’t concern you with your limited human thinking.”
“Until now, they’ve been a nuisance,” Leander said, picking up the trail of thought from his wife. “We get them sometimes, people obsessed with vampires, but the Briars had never attempted to hurt us. This incident with the pool is an escalation and begs the question, why now?”
“That’s why you hired me,” I said, speaking to Leander. “Specifically. You said, back there, by the pool—”
“I hired you because of your skillset, and your past means you are likely willing to be a little more flexible when it comes to unconventional legal matters.”
Bentley laughed. “What’s the pool boy going to do? Bore them to death with water purification facts?”
Leander held my gaze and said to the room. “Mr. Marsh has a unique portfolio of skills we will find useful.”
All eyes turned to me again.
Heat warmed my skin, as though I were standing under a spotlight.
Leander likely meant I was a criminal, and therefore wasn’t likely to call the cops on them.
I cleared my throat and tried to switch the topic back to the real problem.
“The Briars’ pool and yours are linked,” I said.
“Or actually, it’s more like they’re the same pool split in two.
I saw Jay’s body next door that morning, then he turns up in your pool.
I don’t think anyone put Jay in your pool.
In a way, he was already in it. Like a . . .”
“Gateway,” Leander finished for me.
“I was going to say doorway, but sure. Then Fleur appears. No memory. Nothing to give us a clue to who she is or where she’s from, because she came from the pool itself. She didn’t fall into it; I think it brought her here. Maybe?”
“The gateway,” Leander said. He was the only one in the room who didn’t look lost.
“Doorway, yes. The fact she survived being face down in the water for twenty minutes, which is . . . impossible . . . And now we’ve seen those wood creatures. It seems quite clear the pool is in some way supernatural. And maybe Fleur is too.”
Everyone looked at Fleur, quietly sitting cross-legged on the couch opposite Bentley. She raised her hand. “Hooray for me being alive.”
“Well, you’re in a house full of vampires, dear, so don’t count your chickens yet,” Geraldine said.
Fleur’s grin faded.
Leander’s gaze came back to me. “You are the gatekeeper.”
He kept saying that, like it meant something more than just a word.
Bentley snorted. “He’s just a pool boy. This all started when he showed up.” He flicked his nails and smiled. “We should get rid of him and all of this will go away.”
“Anyone touches Owen, you’ll have me to answer to,” Theo said cooly.
“Ooh.” Bentley mock shivered. “However will we survive your scowling and mood swings?”
“Fuck you, Benny. When can we put him up for adoption?”
“We can’t,” Leander said with a sigh, as though he’d already explored that option.
“Nobody touches Bentley,” Geraldine growled.
“Thank you, Mother.”
“Shut up.”
How Theo survived in this family was beyond me. If I’d been him, I’d have packed my bags and walked away years ago. Bloodline or not, they clearly did not deserve him. Except maybe his father, who seemed to be at least reasonable and a great shot with a shotgun.
Leander had his head down, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose, exasperation written all over his body language.
“Anyway, I think the Briars sent those things through to grab Theo,” I summarized.
“You were all supposed to be asleep. This house is like a mausoleum in the daytime. They’d have walked right in unchallenged, grabbed Theo, dragged him through the pool and back to the Briars’ house.
My guess is that Jay discovered the pools were linked, like I did.
He maybe even knew the reason, and Jeremy Briar killed him for it.
I’m beginning to wonder if Jeremy sent him here or the pool just .
. . did it itself, to help you realize you were under threat. ”
“A pool isn’t a thinking thing,” Bentley said confidently. “You of all people should know that. I don’t think you’re very good at your job. Father, did you even ask to see any credentials?”
“Because it’s not a pool, it’s a gateway,” Leander said. Again. “And Owen speaks its language.”
I laughed, but it sounded strained and nervous. “Well, I don’t know about that.” Nobody was laughing with me.
“We should go over there, tonight,” Theo said. “Face them. Demand answers.”
“No,” Geraldine said.
“No way,” I added. “That’s what he wants, to shake you loose. You can’t go near that place, Theo.” I waited to see if anyone had any better ideas, then sighed and said, “I’ll go over there.”
Bentley laughed. “Sure, go die like the other pool boy. Problem solved.”