“You might wanna get that checked.”
“He’s fine,” Heather said. “
We’re
fine.” She hugged herself closer to Derek, and I saw her shiver. I bit my lip, hoping she was too upset to notice Derek’s frosty, marbled body.
Pete’s face fell. “We?”
“Yes,” Heather said triumphantly. “We. Me and Derek. We’re on a date.”
Pete gawked, but his girlfriend spoke up. “What a coincidence,” she said. “So are we.” She smiled and put her hand on Pete’s gangly thigh. She had an oily voice that matched her oily vibe.
I was instantly suspicious. I thought maybe if I got closer I could pick up more about her, so I leaned in and said, “Hi. I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Faith.” I extended my hand.
Paula turned to me. “Paula Tourmaline,” she said. She touched her fingers to my hand and shook it lightly. I immediately felt a wave of crazy hit me—that same crazy, snarled-up energy I felt from all supernatural beings I’d ever come in contact with.
Then something else registered as Paula slid her hand from mine: she was wearing long, black, silken gloves.
Oh crap.
“Tourmaline?” I asked, trying to sound normal. “Is that French?”
“No,” she said shortly. She returned her big brown eyes to Heather. “It was nice to meet you, Hannah.”
“Heather,” I corrected loudly.
I tugged Derek’s sleeve and steered him away from the table, leaving Heather to fend for herself. She gave me a narrow look, but rounded on Pete saying something that looked snide.
Derek let me tow him to the hallway near the bathrooms, but then snatched his arm away.
“You need help going to the bathroom?” he asked. I heard the fury in his tone, but now was not the time for fighting.
“That chick is a vampire!” I all but screamed.
“Shut up,” he said, though he must have seen the urgency in my gaze because he straightened and inhaled deeply. His pupils dilated, and he rolled his head back, staggering into the wall. “Jesus,” he gasped. “Don’t let me breathe again.”
“Why’d you even do it at all?” I asked, voice high.
“I was trying to see if I could smell her ... but
damn
.” He opened his eyes, and I saw that his pupils had filled his entire eye, his mouth was parted, and I could see the tips of his elongated incisors.
Suddenly, he looked terrifying.
“Close your eyes!” I squeaked, glancing around anxiously.
Derek did so and reached out to hold my hand. I took it and squeezed as hard as I could.
He groaned and slammed his fist against the wall, making a little depression in the brick.
Great. This was going
so
well.
Some girl with too-big hair gave us a frightened look, and I wrapped myself around Derek, pretending to make out with him. People usually averted their eyes from such a sight.
“It’s okay,” I said in his ear. I ran my hand over the back of his neck and then had a horrible thought. “Am I making it worse?”
“Yes,” Derek said. “But don’t stop.”
“Masochist,” I teased.
Derek laughed shakily. “Guess I didn’t realize how bad I wanted it.”
“You haven’t been breathing this whole time?”
He shook his head. “One of the benefits of being dead.”
“Derek, I’m pretty sure Paula is a vampire.”
“How do you know?”
I didn’t want to tell him that I felt her vibe. Derek knew that I felt people’s energies, but he’d never actually believed it. I barely ever talked about it with him. But that was before he’d become a viran. Still, now didn’t seem like the time to go into it. Instead, I asserted my next-best reason, which was infinitely less convincing. “She was wearing gloves,” I said lamely.
Derek pulled back and opened his eyes, which were back to normal. “Faith, lots of people wear gloves. It’s winter.”
“But I felt this freaky vibe coming off of her!” I protested.
Derek put his hands on his hips. “Are you still on about that? Seriously?”
“What? So you can believe in vampires and werewolves, but you can’t believe that I felt something weird about her?”
“I don’t think there’d be a
vampire
in Zydeco’s.”
“This is where I met Vincent,” I said.
“She’s not a vampire,” he said firmly. “You’re being paranoid.”
“No, you’re being a jerk!” I yelled, halfway into hysterics. “Pete—your
friend
—is in danger!”
Derek’s jaw clamped shut and his pupils widened a smidge. “You’re crazy,” he spat. “I gotta get back to my
date
.”
But when he turned, Heather was gone.
“Where’d she—,” Derek started, looking around.
“Maybe she went back to the table,” I suggested, heading there. But when we returned Katie was sitting alone, looking bored. “Where’s Heather?” I asked.
“No clue,” she said with a shrug. She slurred her words a little, and I realized five of the shots were gone.
Awesome.
“Go check the bar,” I instructed Derek and closed in on Katie. “Are you drunk?”
“Only a little,” she said. “Why? Who cares?”
“Because you’re supposed to be our guardian tonight!” I said, sounding more than a little hysterical. “What if Derek loses control? And did you know that Paula is a vampire?”
Katie’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
I faltered. “I’m pretty sure.”
Katie cursed, seemingly angry with herself now.
Well, good,
I thought vindictively.
She’s being totally irresponsible.
“Should I go check and see?” Katie asked. “I can smell it if she’s a vampire, but I have to get closer. All these humans are obscuring the scent.”
“I don’t know, I think we should—”
Just then, Derek returned without Heather, and I broke off. “I didn’t see her,” he said curtly.
“This is a disaster,” I muttered, running my hand through my hair. “We need to leave.”
“I’ll check the bathroom for Heather,” Katie said and took off, stumbling.
Derek sat at the table and downed another shot.
“Will you stop that, please?” I said as I sat next to him and put my head in my hand.
“What’s your problem?” he asked. “You’re acting completely insane.”
I just stared at him. How could he not see the danger here? Was I the only one left with any sense? Or maybe I was just the only one who’d been repeatedly attacked by a vampire and a pack of werewolves in the last month. Maybe Derek was right—maybe I was being paranoid.
I sighed, trying to release the tension squeezing me from the inside out. “I guess I’m just on edge. I’m not used to being out like this. With a werewolf and a newborn viran.” I smiled ruefully at him.
He didn’t return it.
A hand touched my shoulder and I jumped, turning around. It was Katie.
“I found her,” she said. “She’s in the bathroom.”
“Oh good,” I said. “Get her and we’ll go.”
“Ah . . . that might be a problem.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s in there with a bunch of blood bitches.”
“What!” I shrieked.
Derek turned. “What’s a blood bitch?”
“Humans who drink vampire blood,” Katie said. “They do favors for the vampires in return for small amounts of blood. They’re like drug addicts. It’s disgusting.”
“How do you know they’re blood bitches?” I hissed, glancing around to make sure nobody was listening in, which was dumb because the club was ear-splittingly loud.
“I can smell the vampire blood in their systems,” Katie explained. “Plus, I’m pretty sure I recognize one of them. I can’t place her, but I’m thinking I must have seen her during a raid or something.”
“Oh, God,” I moaned. “So what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Katie said. “Maybe we should call Lucas?”
I pressed my lips together. I really didn’t want to do that. He’d be so mad that we’d gone out, and it wasn’t like he could help us from two hours away. “No,” I said. “I’ll handle this. Just—stay with Derek.”
She nodded and sat beside him as I headed off toward the bathroom. I didn’t know exactly what I planned on doing, but Heather was my friend—sort of—and I couldn’t let her go down this path. Maybe she’d listen to me.
I entered into the yellow light of the bathroom. The brick walls gave the room a rusty odor that mingled unpleasantly with the scent of bleach and toilet bowl cleaner. As Katie had said, Heather was there, sitting on the counter and talking with four other girls, all of whom looked over when I entered.
Three of the girls were close to identical. Dull brown hair pooled around their shoulders, skanky clothing covered their anorexic bodies, and a glazed look hung in their eyes. The fourth girl looked very different. She had reddish-brown hair and gorgeous jade-green eyes that pierced into mine, indicating that she wasn’t high on drugs or large quantities of vampire blood. She wore a brown leather jacket and red heels, both of which I liked very much. Had this meeting been under different circumstances, I would have asked her where she’d gotten them. But as it was, I fixed the girls with my best I’m-a-badass stare and went up to them.
“Heather, I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” I said pointedly.
She seemed unconcerned and just giggled.
“We’re ready to get out of here,” I went on. I waited for her to jump off the sink and come toward me. But she just smiled dazedly. She was high, but whether she was vamped or on drugs was beyond me. Nor did I care. I just wanted out of there, and Heather, too. “Come on,” I said, holding out my hand for her to take.
“She doesn’t want to go,” said the girl with reddish hair.
I rounded on her. “And you would be?”
A grin spread on the girl’s strawberry-kissed lips. “Danni,” she supplied. “And who says you get to decide when she leaves?”
“I do. I’m her friend.”
“Some friend,” Heather grumbled.
“What?” I turned back to her, seeing that her freckled face had gone sour.
“You’re a crappy friend,” she said. “You never call me, and I practically had to drag you out tonight. And then you totally left me with Pete and Paula!”
She was right, but regardless of how sucky I’d been to her, I still cared about her and I didn’t want her anywhere near these people. “Look—I’m sorry, but I’ve been going through some ... things. Can we please just leave now and we can talk about it in private?”
“No,” she said. “I’m happy right here.” She folded her arms over her chest.
“Why don’t you stay?” Danni said to me. She gestured to the grimy bathroom as if she was asking me to stay in some posh penthouse.
I had to repress the urge to laugh. “No thanks,” I said. “I don’t do drugs.”
“Come on, where’s your sense of adventure?” she asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I must have left it in my dorm room. Along with my brain.” What, did she think I was an idiot? That I would actually take drugs from some chick I just met?
“But it’s awesome!” Heather suddenly exclaimed. “Danni says it’s called getting
vamped
.”
I froze and locked eyes with Danni’s cunning stare. The ghost of a smile played in the curl of her lips. She’d actually told Heather that the drug was vampire blood? Or had she merely said it was a drug? I didn’t know, but something about the way she was looking at me, made me think she knew something she wasn’t telling.
Instantly, I reached out with my power to feel her vibe. It was strangely faint, but I’d been drinking, so maybe that affected my power. What little I got from her was laid-back and bored.
“Take a hit,” she offered. She reached over with one hand and held the charm bracelet hanging on her wrist. Among the colorful baubles was a slim vial in the shape of a fang. It was blood-red. She gave the vial a small twist and the body came off, leaving the top attached to her bracelet. The vial had to contain a tiny amount of vampire blood.
Cute.
Instead of immediately declining, I decided to probe a little into this business. Part of me was extremely curious—not that I wanted any. God, no. But I did want to know how the others did it, what they were willing to do for it and, most importantly, if they knew where the vampires were. It seemed likely if they were in contact with them.
“How much do I need to take?” I asked. “To get vamped?” I felt like such a dork saying it, but I was trying to use the lingo.
“A drop will enhance your senses; two gives you strength and speed. And three makes your brain work faster. Any more than that and you get all of the above, plus a serious high. It’s euphoric.”
I was thrown by her casual tone. It was almost apathetic. As if she was reciting the symptoms of the chickenpox out of a textbook.