We do another take, and another, each one better than the last, and Jay doesn’t move the entire time. Finally Ismay gives us the thumbs-up and says, “We got it.”

It’s only then that I realize Jordan is sweating. She wobbles as she rises from her seat.

“Are you okay?” I touch her arm, and she looks at me, wild-eyed and startled. “Whoa. What’s up?”

“Your voice has changed,” she says. “It’s so dang beautiful that I just wanted to sit there and listen to it. It took everything I had just to keep singing my part, and I was only able to do it because I knew you wanted me to.”

“But…your voice is way better than mine.”

“I know,” she says, her fingers curling with frustration. “Objectively, I know that.” She shakes her head.

I cast a quick look at Jay, behind the glass. He’s frowning faintly, pinching the bridge of his nose. Chrystie and Ismay are discussing the music, and the light on our side of the glass is off, so they’re not listening.

“I promise I haven’t used it on purpose…except to test it a little, but apparently my voice has a weird effect on vampires,” I say quietly. “Something about your sensitive hearing and a specific tone I use. It, like, hypnotizes you guys. Makes you suggestible and obedient.”

Jordan stares at me. “What the hell?”

I grimace. “Yeah, I’m not exactly sure what it’s all about yet. It sounds similar to what Gran used to do—you know, my grandmother on my dad’s side?”

“Right, you said she was a hypnotist and a mentalist.”

“Yup.”

“Well, babe, you gotta ask your dad about her. Get more details.” Jordan picks up her bag. “Can’t have you running around mind-controlling people.”

“Well, at least you were able to resist it when I was singing. Not so much on the phone earlier, though.”

“Hold up. You mind-controlled me over the phone?”

“Just a little bit. Just to see if it would work during a phone conversation. I asked you what was so special about the way Jay transforms people. I’m sorry… I should have explained first. I won’t do that again, I swear.”

“Good. You better not.” She observes me for a second. “How does it feel?”

“The mind control thing? It’s scary, and I feel guilty about it. I’m having to be a lot more careful with my tone, especially around people who might be vampires.”

“But I bet it feels good, too.”

I tug my lip with my teeth, slanting a glance at Jay. “It’s fascinating, for sure. I’ve been so conflicted about it that I haven’t really let myself admit this, but—yeah, it feels really, really good, having that level of power over someone. Does that make me a terrible person?” I cover my mouth with my hands. “It does, doesn’t it?”

“Wanting power? Loving the way it feels?” Jordan chuckles. “You’re not terrible. In fact, I’d say you’re aggressively normal. Who doesn’t want to feel powerful and in control? Why do you think I got into the whole stunts scene? I love the way it makes me feel. Where you have to be careful is when your power starts to hurt other people.” Her smile fades, and I know we’re both thinking about George. Strictly speaking, his death wasn’t our fault, but there’s a sense in which we both share some blame. She climbed the cliff first, and I told him to show everyone what he could do. Those combined influences were all the impetus he’d needed.

“I’ll hold myself accountable,” I tell her. “And if you’re willing, I’d love for you to keep me in check, too.”

“Like a sober coach, so you don’t get drunk on all this power.”

“Exactly. You call me out when I need it.”

“You know I will.”

Jordan stays for a light dinner, salads topped with grilled chicken or smoked salmon, depending on preference. Chrystie and Ismay join us as well, so we can’t talk openly about vampires or superpowers.

After dinner Jay pulls me aside and gives me fingerprint access to his blood bracelet. Since Jordan arrived, Jay has barely spoken to me. Our conversation about immortality was left unfinished.

Jay can’t know for sure that vampires are immortal. Cody definitely stopped aging when he turned. He’s been a vampire for a few decades and he still looks like he’s in his early twenties. And I suppose logically it makes sense that they would continue to exist indefinitely, as long as their regenerative abilities stay in place. But the blood supply thing might become an issue, if not soon, then a couple hundred years from now, and I can’t help feeling that Jay’s being a bit shortsighted in that respect. Like maybe he’s putting too much faith in whatever research teams he’s got working on a blood substitute. I’ve seen the movies, and that never works, at least not for everyone. There will always be vampires who prefer drinking straight from the vein.

“That should do it.” Jay takes my finger and passes it over the bracelet. The lighted bar shows up, the indicator near the edge of the green zone. “And this is how you access my heart rate and other stats, pressing here. There’s an admin app we use to track everything, but you don’t need access to that right now. Eventually you’ll have it, though. I want you to be a part of all this. If you want, I mean.”

“Sure.”

He shoves his hands deep into his pockets and leans against the wall, looking at some random point on the floor. I can’t quite read his mood, and that unsettles me.

“Okay, we’re off.” Jordan breezes past us, jingling her key fob. “Misbehave, babies. Make me proud.” She gives me a wink and links arms with Chrystie and Ismay as the three of them leave the house. Ismay barely has time to throw a “thanks for dinner” in Jay’s direction before they’re all sweeping outside, and the door closes behind them.

We’re truly alone now, Jay and I. No more pool guys or household staff. Just the two of us. The thought sends a shiver of anticipation over my skin. But I shrug it off and fake a yawn.

“I should go home,” I say. “I’ve been in your hair for, like, a couple days now, and you’re probably really sick of me, so—”

“Never.” He bites out the word. “I could never be sick of you.”

“Hmm.” I survey him, drawing on my years of experience with Jay’s body language. Seemingly casual pose. Hands in pockets, head down. Avoiding direct eye contact. He wants to say something or do something, and he’s holding himself back for reasons. He used to get this way after something terrible happened with his family. A sort of bad day made him chatty; the really wretched ones made him quiet and jumpy. And the only thing that loosened him up was physical activity.

I grab his wrist. “Come on. Let’s take a walk before I head home. I keep hearing about the hedge maze in your gardens. Can’t believe you still haven’t showed it to me.”

He lets me pull him toward the back door. “During the parties, the maze becomes hookup central,” he says. “I didn’t think you’d want to see all that. You wouldn’t believe the number of used condoms my poor cleaning guys have to retrieve.”

“Gross.”

He shrugs. “At least they’re being safe, I guess.”

“Still gross. Why don’t people clean up after themselves? It’s not that hard.”

We pass through the screened porch and give the pool a wide berth. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to swim in it again without having a flashback of Jay, spread-eagled and unconscious in its depths, his blood swirling around him.

I tighten my grip on his wrist. “I’m so glad you’re a vampire.” The words break free, colored with a ferocity I didn’t know I had.

“So am I,” he says, with a glance at the pool. “Can you imagine if I had made my money some other way, and come here, and gone through all of that—reuniting with you and everything—only to be shot?”

“That would have been seriously tragic.”

“Way too tragic.”

We walk between flower beds, past a fountain, to the entrance of the hedge maze. Tinted lamps, angled toward the hedges, illuminate them in green light. Moths and night insects flutter near the bulbs. A mosquito whines past my ear, and I wave it away.

Then I let my fingers slip from Jay’s wrist. “I noticed, when we were on the hike, that you like to run. To chase people.”

He kicks the ground. “It’s like an animal instinct, a predatory thing. That’s one reason Cody suspects Dr. Endive used some animal DNA in his formula. Our primal urge to hunt is way stronger than a normal human’s.”

“Cool.” My heart is thrumming twice as fast as usual, and I haven’t even started running yet. “Give me a ten-second head start.”