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“Oh my God, dude.” Jamie’s voice broke through his thoughts. “You’re smiling. Like, actually smiling. Is it the whiskey? We need more.” He turned around in his chair, raising a hand. “Monique! Shots!”

Colin was vaguely aware of Monique telling Jamie to get his own damn shots, but he couldn’t focus too hard on it.

Two vampires. No mates.

Colin could work with that.

This was a bad idea. Or possibly it was a great idea, but one that should definitely be left until the morning, when Colin had sobered up and maybe—hopefully—even slept a little.

He didn’t think he was drunk drunk, but Jamie had poured them quite a few whiskeys, and Colin had maybe forgotten to eat dinner. Good thing he was, for the moment, living within walking distance of downtown. And maybe, if things went well here, he’d still be within walking distance of downtown.

He walked up to the house he was 99 percent certain was the one Jamie had been leaving earlier that night.

It had definitely seen better days, what with the peeling paint, sagging porch, and sprinkling of cracked pots with dead plants inside.

The only thing in reasonably good condition was the porch swing, painted a bright white, with a padded cushion on the seat.

Overall, it wasn’t exactly the gothic mansion of Colin’s vampire dreams. More like the crappy haunted house of his mediocre nightmares.

Still. It was what was inside that counted.

He felt like he was on the edge of something major. What or why or how, he had no idea. But it felt right, even more than it felt crazy.

Or was that just the whiskey talking?

It was maybe a little late in the night to be doing this—Colin was fairly certain it was well past midnight but couldn’t be bothered to check—but it was now or never.

Or, again, in the morning, when he’d sobered up. But fuck that.

He rang the doorbell.

Vampires barely needed to sleep anyway, so what was the point in following pointless social niceties?

In less than a minute, the front door was opening. Colin’s breath left him in a rush.

Well, damn.

He wasn’t sure exactly what he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t a muscled ginger in a bro tank and clingy athletic shorts. The guy only had an inch or so on Colin, but he was definitely…bigger. His biceps alone said he could toss Colin off the porch no problem.

He’s a vampire, dummy. He could do that anyway.

The guy did that thing hot guys did where he grabbed onto the top of the doorway with both hands, showcasing all those upper-body muscles Colin was sorely lacking as he leaned out.

His hair wasn’t bright orange but a deep auburn, and he had it slicked back from an annoyingly handsome face.

He raised a brow as he gave Colin a lengthy once-over.

“Well, what do we have here? You lost, little lamb?”

Little lamb ? Colin briefly debated a swift kick to the ginger’s shin but ultimately realized that would be counterproductive to his goals. He took a deep breath and let his stupidity take the wheel. “My friend tells me you and your brother are vampires.”

He was gratified to see a look of pure shock flash on the guy’s face before it was covered swiftly with an exaggerated smirk. “Sounds like you and your friend have had one too many shots of—” He paused and made a show of sniffing the air around Colin. “—whiskey?”

Colin frowned at him. “We weren’t shooting it, we were sipping it.”

So there. Point one to Colin.

A muffled voice sounded from inside the house, and Colin tried to peer around the probable vampire to see inside, but the guy’s unnecessarily massive form took up the whole doorway.

Buff Ginger tipped his head back to answer whatever had been asked, but he never took his eyes off Colin. “There’s a guy at the door says we’re vampires.”

He focused back on Colin, giving him another once-over while he was at it. “If we’re vampires, what does that make you? Local vampire slayer?” His voice lowered to a sultry croon. “Is that a stake in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

Colin was saved from answering that mind-crushingly dumb line by the appearance of a second, identical buff ginger, this one with mussed hair and a slightly less hostile look about him.

And then it was sort of suddenly very hard to breathe. Which was annoying. Annoying and nonsensical. Because, like, they were handsome, sure, but there were plenty of handsome people in the world. It was just that they seemed to take up a lot of space. They had…presence.

And they smelled super good. Rich and a little bitter, like coffee and dark chocolate.

Yeah, sober probably would have been better.

The new twin tipped his chin at Colin. “Who the fuck are you?”

Colin did his best to ignore the frankly offensive animal magnetism of the duo and peer past their stupidly large shoulders into the house. “This place have two bedrooms?” he asked.

New Twin blinked at him. “Three.”

“And it’s just you two here?”

“Yeah.” First Twin scowled at him. “Is that a fucking problem?”

Colin scowled back. No one would ever accuse him of not being able to match attitude for attitude. “Why would that be a fucking problem?”

New Twin put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. He was soothing him, Colin was pretty sure, judging from the way First Twin’s expression softened minutely at the touch. “I’m confused. Are you here looking for vampires or a real estate opportunity?”

“Both.” Was Colin swaying in place? He hoped he wasn’t swaying in place, but it was kind of hard to tell. These two were sucking up all his available focus. “I need a place to stay.”

“We don’t take on charity cases.”

“I’d make it worth your while.”

“Oh yeah?” First Twin leered at him. Colin was pretty sure he’d never been leered at before. He didn’t know it was a thing people actually did, outside of bad movies. “Tell me, slayer, how would you do that?”

“You can feed on me,” Colin offered. He thought about arching his neck in demonstration, but maybe that would be too lurid for a first encounter. He did have a nice neck, though, he was pretty sure. They should appreciate that, right?

The twins exchanged a look. First Twin narrowed dark-blue eyes at Colin. “Who’s this friend of yours again?”

“Jamie.”

First Twin’s lips pulled into a hard smile. “Of fucking course. Listen. Forget what you heard. Your friend’s just an asshole. Vampires aren’t real, we eat hamburgers, not the blood of virgins, et cetera, et cetera.”

What kind of idiot did they take Colin for? He frowned at them. “They are real though. I’ve met a few now. And I’ve been fed on before, so you two can stop gaslighting me.”

The twins crossed their arms in unison, muscles bulging. Jesus. Colin didn’t even have a thing for muscles. Did he? It was hard to remember at the moment. He licked dry lips. “So how about it?”

“You want a free place to stay in exchange for a little blood every week?” First Twin scoffed. “There’s two of us. And we’ve got big appetites. I doubt that scrawny body of yours could satisfy us both.”

Colin’s cheeks felt hot all of a sudden.

Why did everything sound like sex coming from this guy?

He cleared his throat. “A place to stay and your willingness to answer a few questions now and then. I can clean too. I could pay a little rent, even.” He pointed a finger at them.

“Although, that’s starting to feel like you taking advantage of the situation, considering. ”

“Taking advant—”

First Twin held up a hand, halting New Twin’s protest. He was looking from his brother to Colin and back again.

“Personal blood bag and housekeeper all in one, huh? One moment please.” He pushed his twin back and started to close the door, then paused and gave Colin a stern look. “Don’t fucking move.”

Colin didn’t think he could even if he wanted to. He felt it again—that sense of being on the precipice of something big. He’d camp out on this porch if he had to.

These two weren’t getting rid of him anytime soon.