Milo pulled them open, bathing us with a blue light that was almost blinding after the darkness of the hall. To all the people dancing inside, it seemed dim and reasonable for a club, but it was different for vampires.

A long, metallic bar ran along the far side of the room, and bottles lined the back wall, full of alcoholic drinks for the humans. Several very attractive vampires stood behind it, bartending. The stools in front of it were full, and a line of people were waiting to get drinks.

The ceilings of the room were amazingly high for a basement. Electronica filled my ears, blotting out any sound of heartbeats, which was a relief. Nothing could be done for the smell. At least five-hundred people were smashed onto the floor, dancing wildly. And they all smelled deliciously of blood and sweat. Jack squeezed my hand tightly, drawing me back to him before bloodlust hit me.

The dancers were a mixture of vampire perfection and people, but 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. 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.

“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 above the echo of the club.

Wrapping his arm around Bobby’s waist, Milo waded through the crowd. Jack looked down at me, checking to make sure I could handle crossing the floor. It required 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 we followed Milo.

Everyone was hot from dancing, and I could feel it 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 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 a doorway  led into the next room, glowing warm under the dim red lights. Milo waited at the door for us, Bobby pressed up close to him, his head resting on his shoulder.

Just before 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.

The last time we had gone to the vampire club, I had been introduced to a pair of vampires, Lucian and Violet, who became intent on capturing me. Peter took care of Lucian, but she had gotten away. Violet seemed less interested in pursuing me, but like her boyfriend, she had been a caricature of vampirism. Her hair had been dyed purple, her eyeliner was thick black, and she capped her teeth to make them more pronounced fangs.

“What?” Jack asked, watching me search the dance floor.

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. I had been positive I had heard Violet’s distinct laugh, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.

I was just about to give up looking when a girl at the bar caught my attention. Her blond hair hung down her back, shimmering like silk under the blue lights. She tilted her head back, laughing at something a drunk guy said to her, and I shivered. That was Violet’s laugh.

Absently, she looked back over her shoulder, her odd purple eyes landing on mine, and they flickered with frightened recognition. She traded in the thick black eyeliner for something subtler, making her prettier and younger, more innocent. Turning into a vampire made her look around nineteen or twenty, but something in her eyes led me to believe she was younger than that.

“Violet?” I said, but she instantly looked away, shielding her face with her hair.

“You know her?” Jack was at my side, looking at her quizzically. He had only met her very briefly when she looked much different, so he didn’t recognize her.

“I think that’s Violet.” I walked towards her, but Jack put his hand on my arm.

“Wait, wait. That’s the girl that was stalking you before? Why are you going to talk to her? Are you gonna…” His face darkened. “What are you gonna do?”

“I don’t know. I wanna talk to her.” I shook my head, unable to explain myself.

“What’s going on?” Milo asked. He stood in the doorway, his arm around his boyfriend. He hadn’t seen Violet, and that was for the best. He would take running into her much worse than I would.

“I’ll be right back,” I said and hurried over to Violet before she hid or escaped. Jack was right behind me, but he didn’t try to stop me.

The drunk guy talking to her was mid-sentence, and she stood up without explanation. I know I should’ve felt angry. She had almost gotten me, Milo, and Jane killed, but I wasn’t out for revenge. I just wanted to talk to her.

“Hey. Violet.” I blocked her path, and she looked at me with wide eyes. All of her former cockiness was long gone, and that probably had to do with the death of her boyfriend.

“I don’t know what you want but…” She trailed off, her eyes flicking from me to Jack. “I don’t want any trouble.”

“Neither do I.” I glanced back at Jack to make sure he wasn’t glaring at her or anything. Jack had such an open face, it was pretty hard for him to look threatening unless he was really pissed off.

“What do you want then?” Violet tried to look strong and angry, but without the confidence behind it, she just looked like a whiny child.

“I don’t know.” I chewed my lip. “Before, when you were chasing after me, what did you want?”

“I didn’t want anything with you,” Violet said. “I mean, at first, I went after you as a joke because you were so tasty…” She lowered her eyes. “But Lucian, he wouldn’t let it go. I think he liked the idea of stealing you from another vampire.”

“Well, now he’s gone and she’s a vampire, so that’s settled then,” Jack interjected with a clumsy smile.

“How old are you?” I asked, ignoring Jack.

“I don’t know why that matters,” Violet said, but she looked flustered. “I was fourteen when I turned, and that was like two years ago.

“Look, it wasn’t my idea.” A strand of blond hair fell into her eyes, and she looked at me, as if daring me to defy her. “Not going after you, not turning into a vampire. It was all Lucian. He thought this was all some great big fantasy, and he had somebody turn him, and then stupidly, I had him turn me.