“Yeah! You did this thing-”

“Stop,” Jack told her, his voice low and even. “I know what you’re doing, and I want you to stop.” She batted her eyes innocently, and he turned to me. “When she mentioned it the first time, your heart sped up, and now she’s just saying things to make it race. She’s trying to set you off.”

“It’s beating like a moth caught in jar,” Violet smiled wistfully at me. “I can’t help myself. It sounds so beautiful.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Jack reassured me quietly.

Blushing, I curled up closer to him. Even in the dimly lit room, I could see the way Violet looked at me with pure thirst in her eyes. Jack would never let anything happen to me, and I don’t think she wanted to kill me. But she wanted to taste me, and that was a weird thing to know.

“Are you gonna go back to one of the rooms?” She nodded toward the dark doorways that led out of the room, and I wondered what kind of rooms they were. “I would kill just to watch.”

“We’re good, thanks,” Jack said.

Violet kept her eyes locked on me and slid closer to Jack, pressing her body against him. He tried to recoil, but I was at the end of the couch and he didn’t want to smash me.

“You’re just a little treat, aren’t you?” Violet winked at me.

“Alright, that’s fun.” Jack stood up, pulling me to my feet with him.

“We must not have messed around, otherwise you wouldn’t be turning me down,” she laughed at him. “I can do things, for the both of you that you’ve only ever dreamed about.”

“Yep. I’m really missing out.” Jack steered me towards the bar in the corner, and Violet cackled behind us. “I’m sorry. This was a terrible idea. I’ve never brought a human here before, and I didn’t really know what to expect.”

“It’s not so bad,” I said.

At the bar, Jack moved me in front of him, so my stomach was pressed against the wood. He stood behind me with his arms on either side of me. The vampires had freaked him out, and he wanted to surround me.

Oddly, I didn’t feel the slightest bit anxious, and my emotions tended to mirror his. Something about being in this room, it made me strangely sedate.

The bartender came over to take our order and gave Jack a bewildered look.

“I’d like a drink. Just whatever you have handy,” Jack told him, and that only deepened the bartender’s confusion. “Do you have any vodka back here?”

“All the light drinks are out there.” The bartender gestured to the dance floor. He looked at me, then up at Jack. “Are you sure you really want a drink?”

“Yep,” Jack said, and when the bartender continued eyeing me up, Jack added, “She’s just for looks.”

“Whatever floats your boat, buddy,” the bartender shook his head and walked away to get a drink.

“You know what? Cancel the drink.” He slid his arm around me and stepped back from the bar.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“This was a stupid idea, and we’re getting out of here.” He looked around uneasily as he led me away. “Everyone is looking at you like… I don’t know.”

“What about Milo?” I asked. We were just about out of the room, back to the dance floor where my words would be drowned out, so I stopped.

“I’ll text him when we get outside,” Jack said.

“He won’t hear it. It’s too loud. And even if he does, he wouldn’t answer. He’s having fun.”

“Then we’ll leave him here, and he can call when he’s ready,” Jack said.

“We can’t just leave him here!” I insisted. Milo might be a vampire, but he’s still my little brother, and I wasn’t prepared to leave him alone on his first night out.

Jack tried to reason with me, so I jerked my hand away from him and crossed my arms over my chest. Behind us, the vampire in black leather with the girl on her lap whistled loudly at my display, so both Jack and I turned to look at her.

“She’s a firecracker!” the vampire laughed, but it was that lazy, blissed-out laugh people have when they’re really high. “You’ve got your hands full with that one, don’t you?”

“I make do,” Jack told her, but looked severely at me. “Alice…”

“I’m not leaving Milo here,” I persisted.

“Well, I’m not dragging you out there to look for him.” He pursed his lips when he glanced out at the crowded dance floor. Going across the room wouldn’t be so bad, let alone wading through there for any length of time, with all those people grabbing at me.

“I can keep an eye on her for you, if you need to me to,” the vampire offered. She patted the girl on her lap. “And I know how hard it is to keep the flies away from the food.”

“Just keep an eye on her, nothing else,” Jack warned her.

“Cross my heart and hope to die.” She crossed her heart with her long black fingernail.

“I’ll be right back.” He hesitated before leaving, and then placed his hands on my cheeks and quickly, he kissed me. Keeping his face close to mine, he whispered, “Don’t let anybody touch you.”

“I won’t.”

“Good.” Reluctantly, he turned and disappeared in the writhing bodies on the dance floor.

“What’s your name?” my vampire baby-sitter asked me.

“Alice.” I hugged myself and tried to keep my eyes fixated on her and the girl on her lap, and not on the room full of leering vampires around me.

“Olivia,” she gestured to herself, and then to the girl on her lap. “This is Hannah. She’s mine.”

“Congratulations,” I said lamely, unsure of what else to say.

“Thanks,” Olivia laughed. “It’s tricky what you have with him.” She nodded at the door after Jack. “Why hasn’t he turned you?”

“It’s a complicated situation.” I rubbed my arms. The girl on Olivia’s lap stirred, and she stroked her hair to quiet her. “Why haven’t you turned Hannah?”

“I wouldn’t have any reason to keep her if I did,” Olivia said, but she looked at her with some affection. “You’ve heard the saying ‘why buy the cow if you get the milk for free?’ Well, if I bought the cow, I wouldn’t get any milk at all.”