Considering we were in the basement, the ceilings of the room were amazingly high for what was undoubtedly a dance floor. Electronica filled my ears, blotting out any sound of heartbeats, which was a relief.
However, there was nothing that could be done for the smell. There were at least twohundred people smashed onto the floor, dancing wildly. Slender arms waved in the air, and bodies moved delicately and perfectly in time with the music. And they all smelled deliciously of blood and sweat.
Instantly, I started to salivate, even though it had been a few hours since I last ate, and Jack squeezed my hand tightly, drawing me back to him before bloodlust hit me.
A long, metallic bar lined the far side of the room, and bottles lining the back wall, full of alcoholic drinks for the humans. Several very attractive vampires stood behind it, manning it for drinks. The stools in front of it were full, and a line of sweaty humans were waiting to get drinks.
“She’s probably in the other room,” Milo leaned in closer to us. He didn’t raise his voice at all, but I could hear him clearly above the echo of the club. Bobby probably couldn’t hear him, but he looked too distracted by the dance floor.
The dancers were a mixture of vampire perfection and people, but it was clear that the bouncers sifted through the humans to make sure only the more attractive specimens made it down here.
Every one of them was beautiful and delectable, and I could hardly stand to look at them. For Bobby’s part, he seemed just as entranced by the vampires. I wanted to be angry with him for it, but they were still captivating to me, and I had spent much longer adjusting to them.
Wrapping his arm tightly around Bobby’s waist, Milo started wading his way through the crowd. Jack looked down at me, checking to make sure that I could handle crossing the floor. It would require me to push up against lots of people, to physically be able to feel their rapid pulses beating against me, but I had to learn willpower sometime. Swallowing, I nodded and gripped his hand, and he followed after Milo. Everyone was hot from dancing, and I could feel the heat radiating from them. Jack pushed headily through, purposely being rough to get them out of the way. He wasn’t a threatening person, but he was strong, and they parted easily for us. It was still a fight to keep back my thirst. I had no idea how Milo had been able to handle himself so well after he first turned.
We made it across the room, where the blue lights started to fade, and there was a doorway into the next room, glowing warm under the dim red lights. Milo was waiting at the door for us, Bobby pressed up close to him, his head resting on his shoulder. I hadn’t been to able to see what happened, but something had obviously spooked Bobby. I could imagine what it was, though. Vampires had a tendency to grab and glam onto whatever they found attractive, and fresh food was always attractive.
Just before as we reached them, I heard something disturbingly familiar. Jack and Milo didn’t seem to notice it, buried in the sounds of the club, but I froze in my tracks. The sound was sweet yet fragile, like a tinkling bell… on helium. I pulled away from Jack, scanning the crowd for bright purple hair.
The last time we had gone to the vampire club, I had been introduced into a pair of vampires, Lucian and Violet, who became intent on stalking and killing me. Peter had taken care of Lucian, but she had gotten away. Violet had seemed less interested in pursuing me, but like her boyfriend, she had been a caricature of vampirism. Her hair had been dyed purple, her eyeliner was thick black, and she capped her teeth to make them pronounced fang.
“What?” Jack asked, watching me frantically scan the dance floor.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. I had been positive I had heard Violet’s laugh, and it was a very distinct sound that I wouldn’t easily forget, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.
I was just about to give up looking when a girl at the bar caught my attention. Her long blond hair hung down her back, shimmering like silk under the blue lights. She tilted her head back, laughing at something a drunk guy was saying to her, and I shivered. That was Violet’s laugh. Absently, she looked back over her shoulder, her blue eyes landing on mine, and they flickered with frightened recognition. She had traded in the thick black eyeliner for something subtler, or maybe nonexistent, making her even more beautiful than she had been before. Somehow, she looked even younger, more innocent.
Turning into a vampire made her look around nineteen or twenty, but something in her eyes led me to believe she was younger than that, and she had probably hadn’t been turned for very long either.
“Violet?” I said more to myself, but she instantly looked away, shielding her face with her hair.
“You know her?” Jack was at my side, looking at her quizzically. He had only met her very briefly when she looked much different, so he didn’t recognize her, but he was on edge anyway.
“I think that’s Violet.” Without really thinking, I started to walk towards her, but Jack put his hand on my arm.
“Wait, wait. That’s the girl that was stalking you before?” Jack’s eyebrows crinkled with concern and confusion. “Why are you going to talk to her? Are you gonna…” His face darkened. Peter had been the one that had saved my life that night, not him, and it had been a hard thing for him to get over.
“What are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know. I wanna talk to her,” I shook my head, unable to explain myself.
“What’s going on?” Milo asked. He was still standing in the doorway, his arm around his boyfriend, looking impatiently at me. He had to yet to see Violet, and I suspected that was for the best.
He would take running into her much worse than I would.
“I’ll be right back,” I told him, then hurried over to Violet before she hid or escaped. Jack was right behind me, but he didn’t try to stop me.
The drunk guy talking to her was mid-sentence, and she stood up without explanation, preparing to get away. I know I should’ve felt angry. She had almost gotten me, Milo, and Jane killed, but I wasn’t out for revenge. I just… wanted to talk to her. She looked so normal now, and I was a vampire, too.
The playing field was even, and I wanted to know what the hell she had been doing before.
“Hey. Violet.” I blocked her path, and she looked up at me, her eyes wide. All of her former cockiness was long gone, and I suspected that had a lot to do with the death of her boyfriend.
“I don’t know what you want but…” She trailed off, her eyes flicking nervously from me to Jack. The piercing she had in her face was gone, too, and she pushed her hair back from her face. Her short nails were painted purple, the only sign of her former getup. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“Neither do I,” I admitted, and I glanced back at Jack to make sure he wasn’t glaring at her or anything. In truth, Jack had such an open face, it was pretty hard for him to look threatening unless he was really pissed off.
“What do you want then?” Violet demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. She was trying to look strong and angry, but without the confidence behind it, she just looked like a whiny child.
“I don’t know.” I chewed my lip before asking her what I really wanted to know. “Before, when you were chasing after me… what exactly were you planning on doing with me?”
“I didn’t want anything with you!” Violet insisted vehemently, her eyes wide. “I mean, at first, I went after you as a lark because you were so…” She lowered her eyes and shook her head. “I was mostly teasing you. But Lucian, he wouldn’t let it go. I don’t know what he wanted. I think he just liked the idea of stealing you from another vampire.”
“Well, but now he’s gone and she’s a vampire, so that’s settled then,” Jack interjected with a clumsy smile. He was afraid that we might suddenly battle to the death or something, and he was eager to end the conversation.
“How old are you?” I asked pointedly, ignoring Jack.
“I don’t why that matters,” Violet replied, but she looked flustered. I just stared at her until finally she answered. “I was fourteen whe
n I turned, and that was like two years ago.” A strand of blond hair fell into her eyes, and she looked at me, as if daring me to defy her. “Look, it wasn’t my idea. Not going after you, not turning into a vampire. It was all Lucian. He thought this was all some great big fantasy, and he tracked somebody down that would turn him, and then stupidly, I had him turn me.” She shook her head again, trying to keep me from noticing the tears standing in her eyes. “But he’s dead. And I’m over it.
So…” Blinking hard, she looked at me evenly. “Are we through?”
“Yeah. Sure,” I nodded, unable to think of a reason to keep her talking to me.
Violet brushed past me, disappearing into the dance floor. Even after everything she had put me through, I felt this strange sadness for her. I couldn’t imagine going through the whole process of turning without Jack or Ezra or even Milo to guide me. To be so powerful and so young and so confused and alone.
It would be impossibly terrifying. She had just been a dumb kid playing around with Hot Topic makeup, and she had gotten in way over her head.
“You okay?” Jack touched my arm gently.
“Yeah.” Then I remembered that we weren’t here to check up on my enemies and make sure they were happy. Jane was here somewhere, probably losing blood as we spoke. “Sorry. Let’s go.”
Bobby was still clamped onto Milo’s side when we reached them, and I was starting to wonder why he even came here. Despite his fondness for my brother, he seemed rather frightened and upset by everything going on around here. Not that I blamed him, but that didn’t explain why he would keep coming.
“Who was that girl you were talking to?” Milo asked, and Bobby craned his neck around to see what girl he was talking about. Violet was long gone, though, and that was just as well.
“Nobody. Where’s Jane?” I said.
“I haven’t seen her yet, but we’ve just been waiting here,” Milo gave me an irritated look, so I pushed past him into the adjoining room.
The light above glowed dull red, the kind of lighting that was most pleasing to vampires’ eyes. This room was smaller than the last, and dressed more like a bar or a coffee shop than a club.
Several soft looking couches filled the room, and there was a small bar in a very dark corner. That bar served drinks too, but ones that were served best at 98.6 degrees. There were lots of doors and darkened hallways leading out of it, and while I had never been in one of the rooms, I knew exactly what they were for. Some vampires required more privacy when they were with the bloodwhores, while others were camped out on the couch, drinking openly from their human donors.
With one quick scan of the room, I knew Jane wasn’t there. Her heartbeat and her scent were almost as familiar to me as Jack and Milo’s, and they were nowhere in this room. I turned back to look at Milo, and I could tell he had come to the same conclusion as me.
“She was here before,” Milo said.
“She was with a guy,” Bobby added helpfully.
Jack had moved on to looking around more closely, in case we had missed something. I sighed, thinking that I had taken too long getting ready, or staring at the people outside, or randomly talking to Violet.
I had been wasting time, when I should’ve been tracking down Jane. Admittedly, I still had her phone number, but she hadn’t answered my calls since I turned.
“Alice! He finally did it!” a voice purred, and a vampire got up off the couch and walked over to me.
With long black hair past her knees, she had that ageless beauty, but I suspected that she had been in her forties when she had turned, which had probably been a very, very long time ago. Her clothing was entirely tight black leather, and I had never understood how was able to move. While we weren’t exactly old friends, Olivia had been vampire who had first rescued me from Lucian and Violet. There seemed to be a wisdom lurking below her hazy grin, and even though she had the slow, slurred movements of any aging junkie, she still had the killer instincts of a vampire.
“What?” I tried to return her smile, but I was too frustrated over not finding Jane.
“He turned you,” Olivia said, and she reached out, caressing my cheeks softly with her hands. Her eyes were glazed, but her voice was low and surprisingly seductive. “And what an exquisite creature you are.”
She left a girl discarded on the couch behind her, a thin trail of blood drying on her neck, and she moaned softly, reaching out in the empty space where Olivia had been.
“Thanks,” I replied uncertainly, and Jack appeared at my side. Even though Olivia had saved me before, her level of interest in me made something vaguely jealous flair up in him.
“Maybe you can help us,” Milo walked over to us, thinking quicker than I did. Bobby trailed after him, and Olivia looked at him with disdain. Her interest apparently didn’t go past human girls, or probably girls in general. “We’re looking for a girl, a friend of Alice’s.”
“She’s a bloodwhore, we think,” I added. “She’s tall and thin, and very pretty, like a model.
Her hair is short and dark, and she’s always dressed to the nines.” Olivia looked at me, as if studying me could tell her where my friend was. “Her name is Jane, and I think she’s in trouble.”
“If she’s the girl I’m thinking of, she definitely is in trouble,” Olivia nodded gravely. She licked her lip and pointed down the hall. “She’s been coming around here a lot more than any one person should, and she went down that hall an hour ago with a vampire. I’m not sure what room they’re in, but I’m sure you can find her.”
“Thank you,” I smiled quickly and turned down the hall.
The hall was almost pitch black, but I could see the outlines of the doors. I could smell the blood and hear the erratic heartbeats and happy moans, and I had concentrate on it without thinking about it. I had to find Jane without giving into my own thirst. Jack was a few steps ahead of me listening for her, and I could hear Bobby complain about being unable to see anything behind us. Milo was trying to reassure him, and then I heard it.
Before I could even smell her, I heard her overly sultry moan. Unfortunately, in my years of friendship with her, I had heard it far more than I had ever cared. But if it would help me find her now, it suddenly seemed all worth while.
Without thinking, I threw open the door. I couldn’t really make out anything, and then a figure was flying towards me. I didn’t have a chance to react, and Jack was already in front of me, shielding me the vampire coming at my throat. Jack threw him back, slamming him against the wall and holding him there while he gnashed his teeth at Jack. Somehow, Jack managed to hold in him in place, but Milo was in the room, rushing past me to help Jack restrain that seriously pissed off vampire.
Meanwhile, Jane was lying on a bed, covered in dark stains from similar acts. In the darkness, I could still see her clearly. She was still beautifully dressed in some tiny piece of clothing that passed for a dress, and her skin was almost white. While she had always been thin, her arms were downright bony and her face was gaunt. The most terrifying thing was that her heart beat was almost nonexistent. The room was filled with the scent of her fresh blood, and it was impossible to ignore. She moaned tiredly and stirred slightly in the bed, and somehow that let my urge to protect her override my urge to eat her.
“Jane!” I ran to her, leaving Milo and Jack to contend with the thrashing vampire on the wall. I climbed on the bed, trying to ignore how disgusting and tantalizing the blood stained mattress was, and I slapped her cheek. I had meant for it to be gentle, but the panic mixed with my unmastered strength made me slap her a little hard, not that she even noticed or woke up.
“Is everyone okay? What’s going on?” Bobby asked plaintively, and I glanced back to see him feeling around the doorway. He couldn’t see anything, and all he could hear was the sound of struggling.
“Everything’s under control!” Milo shouted as the vampire tried to bite his throat.
“What the hell is going on?” the vampire growled, and when he saw me tending to Jane
, he stopped fighting them and just glared. “You’re after the whore?” We had interrupted him in the middle of feeding, the time when vampires are most animalistic, and he was just coming down from that, back to something that resembled civilized.
“Her name is Jane!” I snapped, trying futilely to rouse her. She was completely out, and I knew how draining and wonderful blood loss and how impossible it was to wake up from.
“I know her fucking name!” the vampire shouted. “What I want to know is what you want with her?”
“What do you care?” Jack countered, doing his best to sound tough. It would be comical if he wasn’t trying to hold back a vampire from possibly slaughtering us.
“Jonathan,” Jane murmured, still mostly asleep.
“No, it’s me, Alice,” I said. She moved her head, and I turned it towards me, trying to get her to focus on me. “Jane, wake up. We need to get you out of here.”
“She’s talking about me, you silly twat! I’m Jonathan!” The vampire pushed against Jack, and he lessoned his grip on him. Jack exchanged a look with me, debating whether or not he should just let this Jonathan vampire go. I shrugged, leaving up to his judgment. “Will you let me go? I’m not gonna fight you! I don’t have to. She’s not gonna go with you.” Jack took a step back, and Milo did the same, but more hesitantly. Jonathan smoothed out his shirt and glared at them but made no move towards them.
“Jane, honey, wake up!” I yelled and started to gently shake her.
“No, Jonathan, let me sleep,” Jane swatted absently at me.
“She’s not going with you,” Jonathan repeated. He stepped closer to me, and Milo growled and stepped in between him and the bed. “I’m not gonna stop you! She just won’t go! What do I care if you take the whore?”
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