Аманда Хокинг - Flutter

Milo and Bobby rode in Mae’s Jetta down to the club, since Jack thankfully wouldn’t let him drive the Lamborghini. Still, it did little to ease my nerves knowing he was driving. Jack was a notoriously speedy driver, but the trip downtown had never seemed to take so long. Since it was after two in the morning, most of the clubs and bars had let out and cleared out, and Jack easily found a parking spot a block away from V. Milo pulled up behind us a minute later, meaning that he had been speeding as well. I considered launching into a speech about the importance of driving safely, but then I saw a vampire walking towards us.

After becoming a vampire, other vampires are a lot easier to spot. The number one give away is their heartbeat, which is always the first thing a vampire notices about any living creature. A vampire’s heart beats much slower and much quieter than a human could and still walk around. The one walking towards us was tall and slender and pale, reminding me very much of the way Tim Burton would design a vampire, and the human girl he had at his side looked even shorter and chubbier than she actually was in comparison to him.

His skin almost glimmered white in the street lamp, and hers had a blotchy ashen quality to it, a symptom I associated with recent blood loss, and her eyes were glassy with overly dilated pupils. Her Tim Burton companion was leading her along carefully to keep her from stumbling or simply passing out right there, and while he looked happy, there was an offhand way that he treated her. Like a dog walker who had no real interest in dogs. Or more accurately, like he was leading a cow to the slaughter.

I shivered involuntarily, and she smiled dazedly at me, her pudgy cheeks dimpling. She couldn’t be more than sixteen herself, if that, and I fought the urge to steal her away from him. He had already drank from her, and she wasn’t dead, so that was a good sign. He wouldn’t be eager to part with her, though, and even if I could get her away, she wouldn’t appreciate it, and it would be at the expense of creating a new vampire enemy. Besides that, the horrible truth of it was that this was the way of life. My way of life. Vampires are going to drink from people, and at least this way they’re both willing participants. This is probably the best I can hope for.

“Come on,” Jack said quietly, putting his hand on my back. He saw me watching after the vampire, and while he empathized with her like I did, he knew there was nothing we could do for her.

Besides, we had more pressing issues on hand. “We should get going.”

“Yeah, come on. Before Jane leaves,” Milo agreed. He had taken Bobby’s hand and started walking ahead of us.

Milo turned off of Hennepin Ave onto a darkened street. The nearest streetlamps had gone out, and I suspected that was a constant occurrence. Vampires liked night as dark as it could be, which was why the doorway of the club was hidden on the darkest street in Minneapolis. Bobby gripped onto Milo more tightly, probably because he couldn’t see where he was going and didn’t want to trip over anything.

Jack and I followed directly behind them, and Milo glanced back once at us before opening a nondescript door.

The bouncers were all but blocking the door. They were two massive vampires, and they barely looked at any of us, but I saw one of them sniff at Bobby. The movement was too small for his human eyes to catch, but Milo glared at him. We squeezed in between to them to the narrow hall lit by a single red bulb, and I saw Bobby cling onto Milo even tighter, and I remembered why.

At the end of the narrow hall, there was a rather steep set of cement stairs leading down into what appeared to be black nothingness. The only light in the stairway came from the red one upstairs. It was more than enough light for me to see the way down, but Bobby went down them slowly and carefully, and Milo kept his hand on him to catch him if he fell. The last I had been here, I had been human, and I had been terrified that I would plummet to death at the bottom of the steps.

As soon as we had opened the doors upstairs, I had been able to hear the faint sound of the music, but I’m sure that Bobby was just starting to hear it when we hit the landing. The narrow hall went on forever, but we stopped at a pair of massive doors. Jack pulled them open, bathing us with a blue light that was almost blinding after the darkness of the hall. I’m sure to all the people dancing inside, it seemed dim and reasonable for a club, but it was a different story for us.

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.