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Sky was out of his seat and across the room in a flash. He carefully eased up to the window, trying to make sure that he didn’t cast any kind of shadow to give himself away. With heart pounding hard enough to bruise, he peeked through the sheer curtain and between the blinds to see a tall, slender man confidently walk down Nolan’s front steps and to the car. The driver leaped from behind the wheel and hurried to open the man’s door.
The stranger was definitely sexy in the moonlight. He gave off that rich, powerful vibe that was always a pants dropper. Not fair.
Sky wasn’t rich or tall.
And his brand of powerful horrified most people.
“I think he’s a vampire,” Grammy declared.
“What?” Sky lurched back and gaped at the misty ghost standing beside him. She might have passed away in a hospital gown with her hair in a braid, but her ghost was dressed in what had been her everyday wear of a strangely mismatched skirt and shirt and her long hair up in a messy bun. Necklaces and bracelets covered her neck and wrists, so she made soft metallic clinking noises when she moved from room to room, like a clichéd ghost dragging its chains.
Thank you so much, Charles Dickens and Jacob Marley.
“Look at him, Skylar. That man is a vampire!” Grammy pressed.
Sky peeked out the window, only to jerk away again. The stranger was staring at his house. Did he know Sky was watching him through the blinds? Did he know who he was?
“I’m serious. He looks like a vampire. He moves like one, too.” Grammy twisted up her lips and scrunched up her nose, so that the wrinkles lining her face tripled in number. “An old one at that. What is your boyfriend doing with a vampire?”
Sky struggled to not groan and roll his eyes. He loved Grammy with every bit of his heart and soul, but there were moments she drove him insane. “Nolan is not my boyfriend. He’s my neighbor and a boy I’d very much like to date. Butnotmy boyfriend.”
Carefully, he eased up to the window in time to see the man—and possible vampire—slide into the rear seat. The driver shut the door behind him and hurried to the front.
“That man can’t possibly be a vampire,” Sky snapped. He marched from the window and threw himself onto the sofa the second the car zipped down the street, disappearing around a corner. He crossed his arms over his chest and tucked his hands in his pits to keep from picking up his phone. “First off, I put wards all over that house. A vampirecan’tget in that house and that man wasin the house.”
Grammy moved to stand in front of him, her legs going right through the coffee table. “And you know a vampire can circumvent those very wards by getting Nolan to invite him inside.”
Sky’s mouth fell open to argue with her, but he closed it again without making a sound. She was right, after all. Nolan could invite a vampire inside, nullifying all of Sky’s hard work.
He shook his head. “No. Impossible. Nolan wouldn’t do that. After all the trouble he went through with his brother, he wouldn’t invite a vampire inside. Well, maybe Gideon or Rafe Varik. They at least helped him a little, but that was not Rafe Varik.” Sky sat up and swung one hand out, pointing at Nolan’s house. “And if some vampire randomly showed up on his doorstep, Nolan would call me before he invited the vampire inside.”
Grammy lifted her chin and stared down her nose at him. “What if he didn’t get the chance to? What if the vampire said something to convince him that he had no other choice?”
“What could a vampire possibly say that would convince Nolan to let him in? That’s ridiculous.”
Grammy didn’t flinch. “What if the vampire threatened you? Would he put himself in danger to protect you?”
Sky’s stomach sank, and a flash of cold covered his skin from head to toe.
That sounded exactly like something Nolan would do.
But he wouldn’t…right?
Nolan had to know Sky had plenty of tricks to protect himself from vampires. He’d seen him face off against vampires twice now.He had Kevin and Bob, for Chrissakes!That crazy, self-sacrificing neighbor with the big squishy heart wouldn’t stupidly sacrifice himself and push Sky away in the name of protecting him.Would he?
Fuck, he would.
Nolan totally would.
Sky jumped to his feet and snatched up his phone as he strode over to the window. The strange car was gone, and there was no one outside on the street between their houses. Nolan’s house was dark, but he thought he could see a sliver of light as if a lamp were on in one room at the rear of the house. As he stared across the street, he dialed Nolan’s number and let it ring until the voice mail picked up. There was no point in leaving a message. Nolan wasn’t calling him back.
Instead, he texted.
I’m coming over there. If a vampire has killed you, I’m going to be pissed.
He shoved his phone into his pocket and grabbed his keys and jacket. This was what he should have done two days ago. He was marching over there and getting to the bottom of this mess. If he was wrong about vampires and danger, well, he was going to apologize and eat a little humble pie. This was a good chance for Nolan to learn that he was a touchy-feely, overprotective lunatic. If Nolan couldn’t handle that, maybe they didn’t have a shot.
Gripping the doorknob, Sky paused and forced himself to take a deep, calming breath. He hoped that wasn’t the case.
