“No! No way!” I shook my head. “Even if I wasn’t too busy being suicidal, there is no way you can talk me into that. No gold bikini’s or cinnamon bun hair-do’s.”
“Fine. Costume or not, you really should come out with us,” Milo said, looking at me with concern. “It’s not good for you to just lay in bed all the time like this. You’re not even watching TV or listening to music. You’re just laying in the dark. It’s not healthy.”
“I don’t care.” I smiled wanly at my brother. “I’m okay, though. Honest. I’ll get up and do something tonight. I just… I can’t go out. But thanks for inviting me. I really appreciate it.”
“Okay,” Milo relented. “But you better be out of this bed when I get back. Or else.”
Milo smiled sadly at me before leaving with Bobby. On the sheets next to me, he left behind a trail of glitter and black feathers.
I did not want to get out of bed, but I didn’t really want Jack coming back to me being a big, stinky mess, so I decided that if nothing else, I should keep up my hygiene, so he doesn’t break up with me for that. I showered, styled my hair, put on makeup, and got dressed. For the sake of Halloween, I even painted my nails green. I don’t know why I went through all that trouble, but it felt like something to do.
Matilda needed to go to the bathroom, so I went downstairs to let her outside. She was the only real consolation I had. As mad as Jack might be at me and everyone else, he would never leave her behind. Not for good.
While she was outside doing her thing, I glanced down the hall. The door to the den was open, and Ezra sat at the computer, the screen glowing blue on his face. He probably still slept on the couch in there, and I wondered if he and Mae were ever going to make up. And if they weren’t, I wondered why neither of them left.
My cell phone started ringing, and my heart skipped a beat until I realized it was Milo’s ringer and not Jack’s “Time Warp.” I briefly considered not answering it. He probably just wanted to talk me into coming out with him. But then again, he might be in trouble, so I figured I should take it.
“Hello?” I answered, and I had to hold the phone away from my ear because the music was so loud.
“Hello?” Milo shouted over the music. “Hello?”
“Milo?” I yelled back, so he could hear me. “Milo? Where are you?”
“I’m at V!” Milo shouted, and I could barely hear Bobby saying something in the background about a girl. “You’ve got to come down here!”
“No, I already told you I’m not going,” I sighed. Matilda started barking at the French doors off the kitchen, so I went and let her in. “Thanks anyway.”
“No, I mean you really have to come down!” Milo said.
“She’s going in the room with him!” Bobby shouted plaintively at Milo. “Tell her to hurry and get down here! We’ve gotta do something!”
“I’m not leaving you alone to deal with her,” Milo told Bobby, and I really wished I understood what was happening or the music behind them was quieter.
“What is going on?” I asked.
“Jane is down here, and she looks like a corpse! For real! Not like a zombie Halloween costume or anything,” Milo said. “She looks really, really terrible, and she just went into the backrooms with that Jonathan guy she was with before. I can’t go after her and leave Bobby alone, so you need to get down here. If she doesn’t get out of here tonight, she’s probably never getting out of here.”
“This better not be some trick to get me to come out!” I said, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t. Both Milo and Bobby sounded genuinely frazzled, and I hadn’t been doing enough to get her to stop being a bloodwhore.
“I would never lie about something like this!” Milo yelled, and he wouldn’t. I don’t think he ever lied about anything.
“Fine! I’ll be there as soon as I can! Wait for me by the dance floor!” I told him, then hung up the phone. Immediately after doing so, I found a giant flaw in my plan: I didn’t know how to drive.
- 25 –
I realized that there was somebody here that always fixed everything and knew how to drive. “Ezra!”
“Yes?” Ezra answered, and I walked to the end of the hall so I could see him. He looked up from his computer. “Something is the matter?”
“Milo’s at a club, and Jane’s there. She’s a bloodwhore, and he says she’s in really bad shape. I need to get her before something bad happens,” I said. “Would you be willing drive me down there?”
“Absolutely.” Ezra hit a button on the computer and stood up. “Milo told me he and Bobby were going out to the clubs tonight, and Bobby was looking quite well, so I told them to have fun.”
“I think they’re having fun,” I said sourly as he met me in the hall.
“At least I get to go out on Halloween,” Ezra smiled at me, and we walked towards the garage. “I haven’t done that in years.” He noticed his teasing falling flat on me, and he nodded solemnly. “We’ll get your friend out of there.” I nodded and followed him out to his Lexus. “And Jack will come home. He does love you very much.”
“I know,” I lied. “I just wish I knew where he was.”
“He’ll turn up soon,” Ezra assured me. “He’s not the kind to stray very far.”
Ezra said very little else on the car ride to V. Downtown was a madhouse. People were everywhere, dressed in all sorts of wacky garments. Most of the girls’ outfits could barely count as “clothing,” and it seemed like everyone was drunk or high or just certifiably insane.
I had to jog to keep up with Ezra, and I felt strange going to the clubs with him. He dressed more fashionably and appropriate for a club situation than I did, but it was weird thinking of him clubbing. Even as attractive and as young as he looked, he never seemed like the kind of person that would frequent a place like this.
In the block before the club, he had to fend off several very drunk girls. I mean he literally had to push them off of him, and by the looks of the last one, she wasn’t exactly drunk. The fading pink marks on her neck meant she was just leaving the club we were going to.
A couple guys made a pass at me, and I didn’t really care, except for the fact that I was starting to get hungry. I hadn’t even really felt it until we were in a crowd of people.
Ezra held the door open to V for me, and the two giant bouncers were still manning their post. They nodded at Ezra and exchanged some kind of look with him. It made me wonder if he was acquainted with him, but I didn’t really have time to ask. Jane was in trouble, and it didn’t really matter who Ezra did or didn’t know.
The dance floor was completely packed. Michael Jackson’s hit song “Thriller” blasted out over the stereo, and at least half of the floor was doing the dance that went along with it. It would’ve been a sight to behold, but Milo and Bobby waited by the doors for us, reminding me of the business at hand. One of Milo’s wings looked damaged, but with the floor being as crowded as it was, I was surprised that his costume had stayed as intact as it had.
“It’s crazy here tonight!” Milo shouted over the music.
“I don’t understand how they all know the moves,” Bobby said, watching the Thriller dancers with some fascination.
“Yeah, great. Where’s Jane?” I asked.
“In one of the backrooms.” Milo gestured across the dancehall to the vampire bar section of the club. Blue lights flashed over head. “I don’t know which one for sure, but I thought you could find her”
“As long as she’s still alive, I probably can,” I said.
Milo grabbed Bobby and made his way across the dance floor. I went into the crowd after him, but they were impossible to get through. Apparently, I wasn’t even as forceful as Milo.
Ezra came up behind him, and putting his arm around my waist, he started pushing our way through them. I was strong enough to do it, but I felt bad about pushing people out of the way. Not that any of them seemed to mind. Humans and vampires alike seemed to enjoy being touched by Ezra a little too much.
; The dim lighting and muffled sound of the smaller bar came as a huge relief. Even in here, it was incredibly packed. Usually there were just a handful of couples, but tonight, every available surface was covered with vampires feeding on people or making out with each other. There were even two vampires lying on the bar in the corner, grinding in a very provocative fashion. Milo, Bobby, Ezra, and I stood out for the simple fact that we were not kissing or biting.
“Which hall did she go down?” I asked Milo quietly.
There were seven different hallways that went off the main bar, and I’m not even sure how many rooms were down each hall. I went down one before, and it seemed to go on forever.
“I think that one.” Milo pointed to one on the far side of the room.
“Are you sure?” Bobby squinted. The red lights in here weren’t the best for his eyesight. “I thought it was the one just to the left of that.”
“You’ve got be kidding me,” I groaned.
“Ezra Townsend!” Olivia squealed, and pushed an unconscious girl onto the floor. She moaned a little when she hit her head, but that was the only sign she gave that she was still alive.
Olivia’s tight leather uniform seemed much more appropriate with the Halloween crowd, and she was smiling widely at Ezra in her usual drugged out way. I expected him to look appalled by her, but instead, he smiled back at her, and when she reached him, they actually hugged.
“It’s so good to see you!”
“Likewise,” Ezra agreed when they stopped hugging. I glanced at Milo and Bobby to see them gaping at him too.
“It really has been too long.” Olivia touched his arm and laughed. “I didn’t even know you were still in the area! I thought you would’ve moved on years ago.”
“Well, I tried, but the wife has roots down here,” Ezra shrugged.
“She’s not-” Olivia looked at me distrustfully.
“No, no, Alice isn’t mine. She’s my brother Jack’s,” Ezra said, and Olivia nodded and smiled again at me.
“She’s a little tart, isn’t she?” Olivia was looking at me in a way that would’ve made me blush if I wasn’t busy trying to figure out how we’d find Jane.
“Perhaps,” Ezra looked at me, and I was pleased to see it was affectionate. I think I had been kind of expecting him to hate me after all the trouble I caused between Jack and Peter, but Ezra didn’t seem to be one to hold a grudge either.
“You should’ve told me you were with Ezra,” Olivia said and touched my arm. “I would’ve given you the special treatment.” I had a feeling she was already giving me special treatment, but I just smiled.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize you two knew each other,” I said. I didn’t want to talk to them anymore, but I wanted Ezra to help me, and I didn’t want to be rude to her. After all, she had helped me out a couple times.
“That’s just like Ezra,” she rolled her eyes. “He never talks about his past.”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but we’ve got a missing friend,” Milo interjected, saving me from some long, semi-drunken conversation. Olivia might not be able to drink alcohol, but she drank more blood than a vampire needed too, leaving her to act and feel rather drunk.
“Same one as before?” Olivia raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, and we’ve got to find her. So, if you’ll excuse us.” Milo had Bobby’s hand in one hand and he took mine in the other. Olivia nodded at us as we started making our escape, but Ezra stayed with her. I wanted him to come with us, but I couldn’t force him.
“So you know which hall it is?” I asked as Milo drug me to the other side of the room.
“Nope, but it’s got to be one of these two halls.” Milo let go of my hand, but he still hung onto Bobby’s. In another circumstance, it would’ve been a very funny sight to see a black glittery fairy leading a rather short Han Solo by the hand.
They led the way, but once we were in the hall, they slowed down considerably. Milo didn’t really know how to track Jane, not as well as I did anyway, but it was going to be impossible. There were too many people tonight.
Everything smelled like blood, and I was incredibly impressed with my current level of self-control. My stomach burned a bit, and I was really thirsty, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. It did, however, make it hard to distinguish different scents and sounds. Blood overpowered everything else.
I was about to give up on the whole thing when I finally got something. I froze in the middle of the hall, and Bobby bumped into me. It was too dark for him to see that I had stopped moving. Very faintly, I could smell her perfume. Her blood wasn’t as distinct to me as I thought it would be, but her perfume was.
“It’s this one,” I whispered, gesturing to the door in front of us. Milo moved in front of Bobby, putting himself between him and any possible attack.
After the way Jonathan had reacted the last time we busted in on him with Jane, I figured we should take the necessary precautions. This time, I decided against busting in. Very slowly, I turned the knob and pushed the door open.
Jonathan didn’t hear us because he was feeding on Jane. He knelt on the bed, her body hanging limp in his arms, and he gnawed on her neck. It wasn’t the gentle bites that Olivia always gave her girlfriends, or like the ones I’m sure Milo gave Bobby.
This was intensely animalistic, reminding me of the shark attacks I watched on TV. Jane appeared completely unconscious, and when I listened for a heartbeat, I couldn’t hear one. Only the sounding of his, pounding strong and fast.
Without thinking, I flew at him. He was killing her, and I had to stop him while there was still time, if there was still time. I jumped onto his back, and he snarled and threw Jane to the ground. It would’ve been easier for him to just drop her on the bed, but he purposely chucked her away, like a piece of garbage.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, but he reached back and grabbed me by my hair. He lifted me by it, and I screamed. I kicked and clawed at him, and he threw me against the wall.
The pain stopped instantly. Hitting the wall hurt like hell, but it was over right away, and I was back on my feet. I dove at him again, punching at him. I had never been in a fight before, so I was just doing whatever I could think of.
Theoretically, I should be really fast and strong, but I did not feel like it. He blocked every move before I even made it, and when I was resorting to simply scratching and kicking, he turned me around. He wrapped his arms tightly around me, pressing my back to his chest, and I couldn’t move.
“Drop the meat!” Jonathan roared at Milo, and I looked over at him. Milo had carefully picked Jane up off the floor, but he didn’t want to leave me alone with Jonathan.
“Get out of here!” I shouted. I didn’t really want him to leave me, because I had a feeling that I couldn’t win this fight, but this was his only chance to save Jane. “Go!”
Milo was indecisive, and Bobby stood in the hallway right out the door, looking pale and afraid. I struggled against Jonathan but didn’t accomplish much. He tired of the standoff, and in a ridiculous move, he bit into my shoulder.
I yelped, and I could feel the blood flowing hot and strange from the wound, but he didn’t drink from me. He could’ve bitten my throat and caused real damage, but he was doing this just to hinder and annoy me. Losing blood weakened me, and I wasn’t that strong of a fighter to start with.
“Alice!” Milo shouted.
“Drop the girl!” Jonathan snarled, and threw me to the ground. My shoulder had already stopped hurting, and it tingled from healing, but I could feel the blood seeping out of me. It was incredibly nauseating.
“Run, Milo!” I yelled, and Jonathan turned back to glare at me.
He stood right by me, where I lay on the ground, and an idea occurred to me. He kicked me, and I let him, and Bobby shouted at me to get up. If Jane wasn’t unconscious, Milo probably would’ve handed her to Bobby and helped me himself.
As soon as Jonathan turned back to Milo, I moved forward and bit into his ankle as hard as I could. I tore through
his Achilles tendon, and Jonathan screamed in pain and fell back on the ground. Even though the pain would stop soon, the damaged ligament would slow him down.
I got to my feet. Jonathan, still on the floor, grabbed my ankle. I stomped on his hand before he would get the chance to bite me the way I had done him, and he hissed but wouldn’t let go. He bared his teeth like he was some kind of animal, so I kicked him hard in the face. At the same time, he pulled my leg, so I fell back onto the ground.
His mouth was full of blood from me kicking him, and when Jonathan laughed, some of it sprayed on me. The worst part was that all the blood still smelled like Jane. I kicked him in the mouth again. He finally let go of me, and I scrambled to my feet.
Milo had started setting Jane down on the bed, preparing to help me fight off Jonathan, but Jonathan was busy holding his mouth to stop the blood from spilling out. I rushed over to help Milo get Jane, even though he wouldn’t need any help. She was little more than skin and bones. Her throat was torn open, and Jonathan had really gone to town on it when he had bit her. It was like a dog bite and not the usual small incision vampires made.
I swallowed back vomit and lifted her up in my arms. I couldn’t feel a pulse, and her head and limbs just dangled. Milo stared down at her with a look of dull horror. If she was still alive, she wouldn’t be for much longer. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement, and Bobby gasped. I looked up, but it was already too late.
Jonathan had Bobby in his clutches.
- 26 –
Milo lunged after them, into the hall where I couldn’t see anything. I wanted to throw Jane on the bed, but if she was dying, I didn’t want that to be the move that killed her. All I could hear was the sound of growling and flesh hitting flesh and Bobby screaming.
Finally I decided saving Jane’s life wasn’t worth my brother or Bobby dying, so I set her on the bed.
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