by Мишель Роуэн
I really had to save up for another shard.
Amy was dressed to kill, though considering her mood, I hoped not literally. Her skirt was even shorter than mine, and her top so low-cut that you could almost see her brand-new belly-button ring (a diamond-studded bat). Her hair was sleek and very blond and made her stand out in the crowd whenever she went under a light. She looked like a slutty angel.
“If only Barry could see me now!” she shouted above the techno thump of the dance music.
“Yeah, I think he might lose a few more inches in height.”
“It would serve him right!”
Janie and Lenny were over in the middle of the throng of people crowding the bar keeping an eye on us party monsters. It was a lot different from Haven, mostly because it was very busy. Sweaty bodies were everywhere. And from the smell, I could tell that 99 percent of them were human. Humans just have a different smell than vampires, something I hadn’t even realized before, since I didn’t hang out with humans much—if at all—anymore, and especially not in these numbers. And it wasn’t just sweat. It wasn’t unpleasant. Just the opposite, in fact. It was slightly nutty, almost like a peanut butter smell. If I gave it any thought at all—which of course I hadn’t—I’d say it was an appetizing smell that made my fangs ache slightly.
I’d always loved peanut butter.
But that would be a wrong thing to think. And extremely disturbing, given the week I’d had.
So, knowing that we were surrounded by regular Joes, that pretty much left me, Amy, and George as the friendly neighborhood vampires in residence.
We secured drinks, and George tipped his flask into each of them, depositing a few drops of the
Moonshine. And then we went to dance.
After a few loud, throbbing dance tunes, I was feeling a little more at ease. Not much, but a little. I used to go out clubbing a lot more before my vampification. It was fun. A good chance to forget your worries and dance your butt off after a hard week at the day job, knowing that nothing outside the dance floor mattered. The world came to a stop for fun, fun, fun.
Then again, I was much more of a bubblehead back then. Not being hunted helped my mind stay free of anything but the day-to-day issues of fashion, cute guys, and having a good time.
Aka the good old days. Sort of.
Therewere a few things about clubbing I’d never been particularly fond of, though.
Some guy had sidled up behind me and was now grinding his hips against me. “Hey, baby. Wanna dance?”
I glanced over my shoulder at him. He was your typical club rat . . . sweaty, yet peanut-butter-esque,
dressed in the latest metrosexual fashion, about ten years older than he was trying to act. His eyes were fixed directly on my ass.
“I think that’s what I’m doing already, thanks.”
He put his hand on my hip. “Yeahyou are. Shake that booty.”
“Take a hike.”
“Lemme buy you a drink.”
“I already have a drink.”
“You want me, baby, I can feel it.”
“Feel this.” I turned around and stomped my high heel into his instep. He howled in pain and hopped away.
If only all my problems could be handled so easily.
I turned back to George, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“That’s so hot,” he said.
I shrugged.
He grabbed my plastic cup and poured a little more Moonshine into it.
I frowned up at him. “Hey, how do I know this isn’t poison or something?”
He poured some in his own cup, took a sip, then looked at me. “It is. And you’ve already had enough to kill you. We have about three hours to live.”
I swung my arm over his shoulder. “Yeah, I wish.”
“Is my little brunette buttercup depressed tonight?”
“George, we’re totally soulmates. You and me. I’m going to leave Thierry, say goodbye to Quinn, and you and me can get together and live happily ever after. Maybe we’ll raise a litter of Chihuahuas to keep
Barkley company.”
He grabbed my hand and spun me around in a circle, narrowly missing some other dancers on the crowded floor, a motion that made me a bit dizzy. “Honey, if you were male, ripped, and available, that sounds like a definite plan. It also sounds like the Moonshine is kicking in.”
I looked up at his handsome face, with the music swirling around me, the strobe lights flickering in circles. He was absolutely right. I was drunk as a skunk.
I raised my glass. “Rock and roll, baby.”
“Well said.”
I frowned. “I kind of feel like something is missing.”
George hugged me. “You’re going to be just fine, my little chipmunk,” he slurred. Obviously the
Moonshine was working on him, too. “You just need to be more positive. Not that I’m an expert on positivity, but it beats feeling down in the dumps.”
When he let me go, I shook my head, which made me even more dizzy. “No, I mean something specific is missing. Like, right now at this very minute. Where’s Amy?”
“Amy who?”
“Amy, the blond chick we came here with? My friend? Remember?Get Shorty ’s wife?”
He nodded slowly. “Oh, yeah, her. I remember now.” He looked around. “She’s not here.”
“Obviously. But where is she?”
“Good question.”
I tried to remember the last time I’d seen her. It was over by the bar when we got our drinks. What did she say? “If only Barry could see me now”?
Not good.
I pushed my way off the dance floor. George followed. I made my way through the sea of deliciously peanut-butter-scented clubbers and over to the ladies room where I opened up the door to poke my head inside.
“Amy, are you in here?” I called.
Two severely drunk girls looked over at me from the sinks where one had just vomited, the other holding her hair back off her face. “Who the hell is Amy?”
“Gross. Never mind.” I closed the door and turned to George. “She’s not in there.”
“I’m sure she’s fine. She’s an adult, she can look after herself.”
Which, in theory, should have been true. But this was Amy we were talking about. A few months ago she’d gotten lost at the Toronto Zoo, and I had to go and collect her in Lost and Found. Though they did let her hold a baby chimp who was in for a checkup to cheer her up a bit. She’d liked that.
But there were no chimps on site at the Liar’s Club that I was aware of. No chimps at all.
Geez, I frowned.What was I even thinking? I was seriously drunk. Had to focus.
“What’s the problem?” Janie approached me with Lenny hanging on behind her.
“I can’t find my friend.”
“Oh, is that all? I thought it was something hunter related. It’s been a slow day.”
I gave her a dirty look. “Yeah, sorry to disturb you.”
Lenny grabbed Janie’s arm. “C’mon, let’s go dance.”
She jerked her arm away. “I told you before, I’m not dancing. We’re working right now, remember?”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t have any fun.”
She spun around to face him. “Yes it does. Lenny, if you don’t start acting more professional, I’m going to have to request a new partner. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth.”
His bottom lip wobbled. “But . . . I love you.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Oh, my God.”
He grabbed her hand. “I’ve always loved you. Can’t you see that we’re perfect together?”
She turned to look at me. “I’m going to need a minute here.”
“Yeah. You take as much time as you need.” I grabbed George’s arm and moved us away from the little tableau of bodyguard love. I spotted a flash of blond hair on the dance floor. “Come on, I think I see her.”
I approached close enough that I could see for sure it was Amy. She was dancing with her eyes closed,
smiling a wide, currently fang-free smile, getting cozy with a cute guy who had his hands on her butt and was dancing so close to her that she might need a pregnancy test later.
And he looked awfully familiar.
Who had my best friend Amy just picked up in a human nightclub?
Oh, no.
It was Chad.
The vampire hunter with the stain-resistant Dockers. The one who’d informed me of my new little nickname.
He’s going to kill her.
Just as the thought raced through my mind, he moved in, even closer to Amy, and . . .
Started making out with her?
I dug my fingernails into George’s arm to a loud protest from him. That did not look like typical hunter behavior. Why wasn’t he trying to kill her?
My eyes widened. Her fangs! She’d had them filed down. He didn’t realize she was a vampire.
“Ouch.” George pulled my claws out of his arm. “Watch it there, Wolverine.”
“George,” I turned to him. “Amy’s dancing with a hunter.”
He glanced over. “He’s a hunter?”
“Yeah. He tried to kill me.”
“Well, that’s not good.”
“You think? I can’t go over or he’ll recognize me.” I looked over at the bar where we’d left Janie and
Lenny. They’d disappeared. I turned back to George. “You need to go rescue Amy.”
“Are you crazy? What about your hired muscle?”
“I don’t know where they’ve gone. You won’t get hurt. I don’t think he’ll automatically assume you’re a vamp. Just go. Amy doesn’t know how much trouble she’s in.”
He sighed, then nodded before he weeded his way onto the dance floor until he was standing next to
Amy. He tapped her on her shoulder and she pried open her eyes. Chad’s brow lowered and he said something to George I couldn’t hear. Amy said something, too. George turned around and returned to me.
“She doesn’t want to leave. She told me in no uncertain terms to go away. The girl needs her mouth washed out with soap. I am offended.”
“Does she know who she’s dancing with?”
“I didn’t feel it was an appropriate time to let her know she was dancing with a potential murderer.”
I looked at Amy, who glanced over at me. I waved my arm for her to come over. She shook her head.
“Stubborn littlebee-yotch ,” I said.
Chad whispered something in Amy’s ear and left the dance floor. I beelined over to her.
“What?” she said when I approached.
“We need to leave.”
She shook her head. “But we just got here.”
“Yeah, I know. But we have to leave. Right now.”
“Why? I’m having fun. Plus, I feel drunk.”
“That would be the Moonshine.” I ignored the room, which had decided to begin spinning in leisurely circles around me. “Do you know you managed to pick up a vampire hunter?”
Her eyebrows went up. “Seriously? Too cool.”
“No, it’s not cool. It’s very bad. And I’m not feeling sober enough to deal with this if we don’t leave right now.”
“He’s buying me a drink.”
“I don’t particularly care if he’s buying you a car. We’re out of here.” I grabbed her wrist and turned around. Chad was standing behind me with two blue-colored drinks in his hands. His eyes widened when he saw me, and the drinks slipped from his grasp and crashed to the floor.
“Slayer of Slayers,” he breathed.
I smiled brightly. “Hey, how’s it going?”
He took a step back. “Don’t hurt me.”
“Then get out of my way.”
He stepped aside and let us pass. Well, that was easy.
George stepped in line with us and we headed for the nearest exit. In this case, it was the designated outdoor smoking area, roped off and crowded with people getting their nicotine fix.
“I don’t want to leave,” Amy protested, wrestling to pry her wrist away from me.
“Too bad.”
“I really liked him. So what if he’s a vampire hunter? You and Quinn managed to work past that, didn’t you? He likes you even though he’s a hunter.”
“That’s different. And I’m not sure how much he likes me anymore anyhow, since I believe I bruised his ego earlier. Also, he’s not a hunter anymore.”
“Quinn is hot,” George commented.
“Besides, remember Peter?” I said. “You’ve dated a hunter before, and how did that turn out?”
She stuck her tongue out at me. Very mature.
I was examining the thick rope, which was like netting, that hung around the smoking area. They’d obviously set it up so people couldn’t sneak into the club through this entrance without paying the hefty cover. Or, in our case, sneak out.
Some of the smokers were heading back inside. Actually, most of them, steadily moving back into the club until there was nobody left out in the cold, smog-clogged air but the three of us. Amy was pouting and had her arms crossed.
“Some birthday. This totally blows.”
“Your birthday isn’t even till tomorrow. Listen, we need to go out the same way we came in,” I said.
And we turned to the entrance.
A pale-faced Chad the vampire hunter was staring at me.
“I thought I told you to get out of my face?” I said, thrilled that I managed to sound adequately brave.
“That’s her.” He pointed at me. “The Slayer of Slayers.”
“That’s right, jerk. And I’m going to—” I looked past Chad to see that he was flanked by several other guys who all had their arms crossed and their eyes narrowed. They were all wearing University of
Toronto jackets. Tall, young, all very cute. Fraternity guys, maybe.
Chad was pushed to the side and the huge frat boy behind him grinned at me. “Well, isn’t this our lucky night? I’ve heard all about you. This is an honor.”
I blinked at him. “Gee, thanks.”
“It will be an honor to end a celebrity vamp like yourself.” He felt at his belt and pulled out a wooden stake. “The other guys will be so jealous.”
I took a step back. “You have the wrong person.”
Where the hell were Lenny and Janie? Wasn’t this exactly the kind of situation they were being paid to protect me from? I strained to look past him and into the club but couldn’t see anything.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. Chad here’s my boy. And if my boy says that you’re the Slayer of
Slayers, then that’s just who you are.”
My stomach dropped. I suddenly wished I hadn’t drunk so much Moonshine. My lack of foresight, not to mention lack of bodyguards, was seriously going to be the death of me.
Which, according to the look in Frat-boy’s eyes, was going to be in T minus ten seconds.
Chapter 14
My goodness, that was an excellent cigarette I just inhaled into my very human lungs,” George said loudly. “I guess my human friends and I should head back inside now.”
I eyed him. “Really?”
He shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
Frat-boy shifted his stake to his other hand. “Somebody get the camera. This is worth documenting.”
My eyes widened. The camera?
Come on, Janie, I thought.Time for you and your lovestruck partner to save my ass .
I waited.
Any time now. That would be super.
“Here it is,” one of the other guys said, after fishing a digital camera out of his pocket. “The card’s almost full and the batteries are running low, so let’s make this quick.”
“No problem,” Frat-boy said, and took a step closer to me.
Janie?
Lenny?
Did they get in a fight and leave? Did they quit? Was that necklace guy right when he said that Janie was not to be trusted? If that was the case then we were completely screwed.
I braced myself. I
was going to have to put my self-defense lesson, such as it was, to immediate use. I only hoped I’d learned enough to . . . disable five fully grown men with weapons.
It could happen. Sure.
I glanced at George and Amy, hoping one of them had a plan to get us out of this.
They looked back at me blankly.
Self-defense. I wracked my brain. What had I learned?
Frankly, not a whole hell of a lot.
I jumped as the flash went off. Frat-boy handed the camera to his buddy, and they produced wooden stakes out of nowhere.
“Who takes a wooden stake to a dance club?” I said aloud.
He smiled at me. “I just like the way it makes me feel.”
Great.Think, Sarah, think .
“All right, let’s do this.” He took a step toward me. “The Slayer of Slayers and her evil minions.”
“Minions?” George repeated, sounding vaguely offended through his fear.
I held a hand up. “Just one second.”
“What?” Frat-boy stopped in his tracks.
“So you know who I am, right?”
He glanced at his friends, then back to me. “Sure.”
“I’m the Slayer of Slayers. That means that I’m extremely dangerous.”
He laughed. “You don’t look so tough. I think I can handle you.”
“That’s what the others said. And now they’re six feet under.”
I sawChad visibly flinch at my words. “She’s right. Maybe we should just clear out.”
Frat-boy shook his head. “She’s bluffing.”
I shrugged. “Do you know who Gideon Chase is?”
He hesitated for a split second. “Of course. Everybody does.”
I nodded. “He’s on his way to Toronto right this very minute. Why? Because of me. Because of who I am. He wants to meet the Slayer of Slayers himself.”
“So what?”
“So if you kill me, kill us, I think he’s going to be majorly pissed off. It’ll be the ultimate insult. Spoiling his fun. And you know Gideon. He likes his fun, doesn’t he?”