I was sweating. The room was crowded, and as bodies pressed in, I felt light-headed.
“Why are you so consumed by that girl? Why do you want to help someone who doesn’t want your help?” Bobbie Jean’s voice was sharp.
“Because she’s my friend—my best friend,” I replied. “She needs my help whether she wants it or not. And maybe I can help some of the others, too.”
“You can’t save everyone, Tansy,” she said.
“I can try,” I replied.
The lights went off, and then a laser show started. The band took the stage to the roar of the crowd. Travis held up his hands, and two balls of vampire fire appeared to float in the air. As the crowd’s cheers grew louder, the flames went higher. Then he clenched his fists and the flames went out, and another kind of noise began when the band started to play.
I stood in the front, surrounded by girls in skimpy white outfits, and admired the way Vaughn’s arms flexed as he kept the beat.
After about an hour, the band took a break and disappeared into the back room.
“The new drummer’s hot,” one of the Bleeders said.
“He has a girlfriend,” I snapped.
“So?”
“So that girlfriend is me,” I said.
“Drummer’s off-limits. Got it,” she said quickly and dragged her friend to the other side of the stage.
The band came back onstage, and the screaming began again. And I wasn’t talking about from the audience. The definition of a cacophony was taking place in front of me, and people were convinced it was music.
I watched Vaughn; he looked like he was in pain, but I couldn’t really blame him.
Travis screamed into a microphone right next to him, so Vaughn was getting an earful of pitchy wailing.
“They sound worse than last time.” I spoke in Bobbie Jean’s ear, but the music was deafening, so I doubted she could hear me.
Thorn shoved her way next to me. “Maybe earplugs will help.” I handed a set to her. “He mesmerizes them with music,” I said. “Didn’t you know?”
She frowned but took the earplugs. I put my set in. Immune or not, I didn’t want to hear Travis making “music.”
After I rescued Skyler, maybe she could help me figure out a way to stop the band for good. I adjusted them in my ears to make sure they blocked out most of the sound.
I thought I caught a glimpse of Skyler right by the stage, but by the time I’d elbowed my way to the front, she was gone.
Travis almost dropped his guitar, which would have been a bonus, but he recovered quickly.
At every gig, I’d noticed the guys in the band—excluding Vaughn, of course—all picked out a few girls from the audience, and tonight was no exception. Gary scurried around to escort the twelve girls (blech, twelve girls for three guys) to the back.
The band left the stage, and I thought my ears might get a rest, but the girls in white started to clap and shout.
Please, no encore, I begged, but after a few minutes, Travis came back looking as engorged with blood as a summer tick. There was an encore. A long, loud, painful encore.
When it was finally over, I went to the bathroom and sprayed on a new cloud of scent-concealing perfume and took a few deep, cleansing breaths.
I headed to the VIP area, which was cordoned off by velvet ropes and guarded by a big guy with a judgy expression. The band was already lounging on some couches in the back. The bouncer stepped in front of me and tried to stop me from entering.
I heaved a long sigh. “I’m with the band,” I said.
Chapter Twenty-One
When I finally made it through the velvet rope to the VIP section, the guys were all sitting around in chairs with various Bleeders draped over them. I tried not to grimace when I saw Ozzie nibbling on Natasha’s neck.
My heart thumped when I realized it was Skyler on Travis’s lap. Her hair was matted and tangled, and her body was a mass of bruises and bite marks even worse than the ones I’d seen before.
Vaughn sat at one end of a sofa. There was a girl at the other end, but she was inching closer. She had her neck tilted to one side, like she was offering it to Vaughn. Did she think he was a vampire, too?
I walked over and sat in his lap, really trying to sell the whole girlfriend thing. Also because I liked being close to him.
“Baby,” he said. “What took you so long?” The panicked look on his face told me he was aware of the girl trying to get him to notice her.
I leaned in, nuzzled his neck, and whispered, “I’m going to try to get what we need tonight.”
Vaughn’s arms tightened around me, but Travis’s loud voice drew my attention away. “Did I tell you guys that Johnny has been keeping something from us?”
Ozzie and Armando both stopped what they were doing. “Yeah? What?”
There was suspicion in their eyes, and it didn’t lessen when Travis explained, “Johnny here knows my Schuler,” he said. “She’s been telling me all about it.”
“I do know Skyler,” Vaughn said evenly. “Tiff and I both do. We go to the same high school. There are tons of kids at our school, but I’ve seen her around.” It wasn’t a lie.
Travis deflated. He’d obviously thought we’d deny it or something.
“Did she say anything else?” I asked. Like my grandmother is a witch? Or that I am?
“I don’t pick girls for their conversational skills,” he said, snickering.
I raised an eyebrow. “Then what do you pick them for?”
“For the way their blood tastes,” he said.
I tried to keep any expression from my face. “There’s a difference?”
“Hell, yeah,” Ozzie said. “I’m a B-positive man myself.”
“I like a good A,” Armando chimed in. “But I’m not fussy.”
“He’s like a blood bank.” Travis snorted. “He takes all types of donations.”
“What about you?” I asked, then wished I hadn’t when Travis said, “I like O negative. But I had blood from a redheaded witch once that was the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.”
I froze. Had he figured out who I was?
“Jesus, Travis,” Ozzie said. “Quit obsessing about the witch.”
“I know a witch,” Sky said drowsily.
His eyes gleamed red. “That’s right, baby,” he said. “Tell me all about her.” He crooned it.
“It’s Granny,” Skyler said. “Granny used to make me apricot crostata when I was little and was missing my mommy.”
Travis relaxed. “I’ve never bitten anyone’s grandma.”
“Ease up on your girl, Travis,” Ozzie said. “I think she’s a quart low.”
I had to do something before Skyler started to tell Travis everything about my grandmother and me.
“Baby,” I said loudly to Vaughn. “I want to be alone with you.”
Vaughn’s eyebrows rose. “I thought we were going to hang out with the guys tonight.”
The band members were watching us now, but I didn’t want them to remember what they’d been talking about moments before.
He’d ditched the gross vamp tee and changed into a navy shirt. I put my hands on the inside of Vaughn’s button-down shirt and started undoing the buttons. “Now, baby,” I pseudo-whispered. My fingers lingered because touching his smooth skin was exhilarating, even in a room full of vampires.
Our eyes met, and he must have seen the panic in mine, because Vaughn kissed me gently on the lips and stood, then hoisted me into his arms. “We’ll be back.” I wrapped my arms and legs around him.
Travis snickered. “We don’t mind a little show.”
He was so disgusting.
“She’s shy,” Vaughn said.
I buried my face in Vaughn’s neck, just so I wouldn’t say something I’d regret. Then it occurred to me what I had to do
.
“Don’t be mad,” I whispered to him and slid out of his arms.
And then I asked Travis to dance. “I love this song,” I said. “Come dance with me.”
His brow furrowed before a slow grin covered his face. “Your girl’s getting tired of you, Johnny. I told you, they can’t resist me for long.”
I dug into my purse and pretended to search for my lipstick, but instead palmed the folding scissors and slid them into the sleeve of my top.
I ignored Vaughn’s pissed-off expression, and I led Travis onto the dance floor.
It was a risk getting this close to Travis, but I was desperate. “Thank god the DJ is on now,” I said.
Travis frowned at me. “Don’t you like our music?”
“Of course I do,” I lied. “I just meant that since you’re not onstage, it gives me the opportunity to dance with you.”
A slow song started, and Travis grabbed me and held me in a tight grip. Up close, the smell of decay and old blood was overwhelming, but I tried not to let my distaste show.
I put my arms around his neck and slid the scissors from my sleeve but fumbled and almost dropped them. I caught them before they hit him, but it drew his attention. “What are you doing?” he said, shouting over the music.
Sweat poured off me. This was my only chance.
“I love your hair,” I cooed, stroking a promising lock with my other hand and grasping the scissors with the other.
When Travis’s hands started to wander, I snipped, catching the long strands. But now what was I supposed to do with them?
“Can I cut in?” Vaughn said.
“What? No,” Travis said.
“Oh, but I have to give your other fans a chance,” I said and moved quickly into Vaughn’s arms.
Travis looked like he might argue, but the song ended, which seemed to galvanize him. Without another word, he strode off toward the DJ booth.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Vaughn growled.
“I was running out of chances to get a lock of his hair,” I said. “But I did it.”
“He had his hands all over you,” Vaughn growled.
“It wasn’t great,” I admitted. “But now I have what we need for the spell, except for the filet of fenny snake.” That had to be easier to get than a lock of vampire hair.
“If he touches you again, I’m going to knock him out,” Vaughn grunted, but handed me my clutch, so I guessed he was done being grumpy. I grabbed a plastic baggie and placed the vampire’s hair into it before shutting it back into my purse.
Travis said something to the DJ, and she handed him the microphone. “Baby, come up here,” he said.
A couple of girls, including Natasha, started forward, but he waved them off. “Schuler, where are you?”
A spotlight panned over the crowd, and then I saw her. Skyler, looking like she was being held up by invisible men who were moving her arms and legs, walked to where the DJ booth was.
“What’s he doing?” I asked Vaughn.
“He does this at special shows,” a girl nearby said. “He performs a magic trick.”
“Magic? What kind of magic?”
“He really likes fire,” she said. “He calls it vampire fire.”
Sky was now standing next to Travis.
He waved his hand theatrically, and then a small blue flame danced in the palm of his hand.
There was no expression on her face—not even when Travis snapped his fingers and ordered her to touch the flame. Sky’s hand passed over the flame, and her mouth opened in a silent scream, but she didn’t say anything.
“That had to hurt.” The girl next to me winced. “At the last show, the girl ended up in the emergency room.”
I had to do something. I had to put the fire out.
What was Travis doing?
My mind went blank. I couldn’t remember anything Granny had taught me. Instead, Expecto Patronum ran through my brain on repeat. For the first time, I regretted my love of Harry Potter.
“Enough!” I finally shouted, trying to clear my brain of my childhood favorite.
Then the overhead sprinklers went on and everyone started screaming and running. The only light was the red exit sign, but I didn’t move toward it.
Enough was enough. I wasn’t leaving without Skyler.
Vaughn used his phone as a flashlight. “C’mon, Sky has to be around here somewhere.”
He was right. “You look upstairs,” I told him.
“We shouldn’t separate,” he said.
“There’s no time,” I argued. “We’ll cover more ground if we go in different directions.”
He nodded and then merged into the crowd. He made it to the stairs and then disappeared.
I pushed against the exiting crowd, but apparently Bleeders, Drainers, and baby vamps didn’t like to get wet. They were stampeding toward the exit.
Bodies flowed past me. Someone stomped on my foot, and I swore. I shoved a guy out of my way and managed to jump on top of the bar to scan for Skyler, but I didn’t see her.
A girl let out a long scream. She’d fallen, but another girl yanked her up and helped her move out of the way.
Before long, the club had emptied out. We were too late.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vaughn made his way back downstairs. We searched the entire first floor, but it was empty.
I wanted to punch a wall. I couldn’t stand the thought of Skyler with him.
“Maybe Sky’s still here,” Vaughn said.
“We’ll search the rest of the club,” I decided. “You stay down here this time.”
Upstairs, I searched until I found an unmarked door open just a crack.
Inside sat two guys, one with a hipster mustache and too much cologne, the other an acne-faced teen. And they weren’t alone. I’d finally found Skyler, but she was in bad shape, with several fresh-looking bite marks. There was new and dried blood all over her clothes.
It made me want to gag.
She sat on a crusty-looking sofa between the two vampires.
They’d hurt my best friend. Turned her into the scared, quivering thing before me.
I took her into my arms and rocked her gently, trying not to touch the bruises and bite marks on her body, but there were so many of them.
I closed my eyes, but all I could see was my best friend’s pain. The sight of her made me want to scream the house down.
“Travis said we could,” Mustache muttered. My eyes snapped open, and whatever he saw in them made him cower. “Sh-she wanted it,” he added.
I put Skyler down on the couch gently before I advanced on him. “Say that again,” I said.
There was a tornado in my mind, whirling and destructive.
“She—” But he never got the rest out, because I stabbed him in the heart with Fang’s drumstick.
I stared down at his unmoving form. “That’s the last time you’ll listen to Travis.”
I didn’t expect the dead man to turn to ash, like in the movies, and just like Fang, he leaked black goo all over the tacky carpet. The smell was horrific, so I put a hand over my nose and tried to breathe through my mouth.
I turned to the remaining vampire. “What’s your name?”
“My n-name?” he asked, like he’d never heard the question before. My eyes narrowed, and he added quickly, “It’s Leonard.”
“Well, Leonard,” I said. “Skyler is off-limits. Upon pain of death. Spread the word. You understand?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Don’t move,” I said. I took my phone out of my back pocket and texted Vaughn, who was searching the kitchens and storage areas. I stared at them while we waited. Soon enough, I heard Vaughn’s footsteps pounding up the stairs.
“Thank god,” he said. Then he saw her and swore under his breath. “Wh
at did they do to her?”
Leonard didn’t answer the question. He just grabbed his keys. “Good luck. From the look of her, she only has a few hours.”
“A few hours before what?” Vaughn asked.
“You bunch truly are babes in the wood,” Leonard said. “You have a few hours before she goes apeshit and tries to eat one of you.”
My wig itched, and I ripped it off my head. There was no sense in hiding behind my groupie-girlfriend disguise anymore. We were busted anyway the second I used my power to kill Mustache.
“Now, Leonard.” A voice like a cat’s claw, swift and bloody, interrupted our conversation from the doorway. “Why don’t you introduce me to our guests?”
I didn’t think the vampire could get any whiter, but the sound of the voice turned him even paler.
We all swiveled and stared at our company. The newcomer stood in the doorway, flanked by Travis and the rest of the band members. He looked like a fifty-five-year-old accountant, dressed in a neat suit and tie. Except for his deathly pallor and his tie printed with what looked like little bats, he resembled Granny’s favorite beau, who was a CPA.
“K-Kral?” Leonard stuttered out.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Jure Grando at your service,” the man said. His eyes were like a portal to hell, all flames and screaming and the torture of dead souls. I forced myself not to shudder.
“What do you want?” I snapped.
“Are you a vampire, too?” Sky asked. “Like Dracula?” It was the first thing she’d said since we’d found her.
Jure’s lip curled. “That poseur? Never. He was a pale imitation.”
“See what he did there?” I snickered sarcastically until his black eyes turned to me.
“I thought Leonard called you Kral,” Vaughn said.
Jure kept his black eyes focused on me but answered the question. “Kral means king.”
“You’re king of the vampires?” That meant Travis was his son, since Rose said he was the prince.
Papa Vamp gave me an “obvi” look. “Would you like to be my queen?” he mocked me.
“I wouldn’t if I were you, Dad.” Travis sneered.
Lightning fast, he grabbed his son by the back of his head and slammed his face into a table. Over and over. Each sound was like an explosion, but Travis didn’t make a peep. Jure’s anger was so strong, it pushed everything else out of the room. Everything except fear.
The Afterlife of the Party Page 17
