The cash falls from my mouth as I try so hard to make my lungs work, to get my legs moving, but I feel so weak.
The wound on my neck is dripping blood down along my chest, and my wrist pulses with pain. At this point, I shouldn’t even be upright. I should be passed out cold, but I think the shock and the adrenaline that followed are what’s keeping me conscious. Before it’s all gone, I have to use it to get to my phone.
If I can just call him, maybe… maybe he can find me.
One step at a time, I push myself to stand and walk out of the room onto the main floor again. It’s still crowded, still bumping with energy from the music and the drinks being poured at the bar. Only now, the violation I feel at being humiliated and assaulted is more potent. Every person I push past, every other face I see, makes me wonder who is really human.
“Hey girl, where’re you going?” a male voice says against my ear, and I whip around, panicked. He isn’t Dante, or any of the others from the VIP room, just some random guy with a lop-sided grin on his flushed face.
“I need help.” My voice sounds hoarse. “Can’t you see I’mbleeding?”
The guy doesn’t respond. In fact, the look in his eyes reminds me of Kendra’s in the dressing room from earlier. There, but not present. Clearly, he’s drunk, but the faraway look on his face tells me that Dante wasn’t just bluffing—he did this to everyone. I back away from the patron and flash my eyes to every open spot in the club, terror gripping my chest.
Am I really this paranoid?
Someone grabs my hips and I jolt forward, their laughter ringing out behind me. Too close, too similar to Dante’s cruel voice just before he bit me. I choke back a sob, intent on finding my way to the dressing room, when something stops me dead in my tracks. A few feet away, half-shadowed by the darkness, half-lit by the strobing neon lights, is the man who attacked me on Halloween night.
My gut twists, threatening to wretch up whatever I ate before I left this evening.
No, no, I think, driving myself into a panic,no, no! That’s impossible. It can’t be him. It can’t be!
As if reading my thoughts, his lips twist up into a smile so ugly, so full of contempt, that I feel like I’m standing in the church tower again, waiting for him to attack. It isn’t just his face, or the way he’s looking at me like I’m his next meal, no. It’s the sharpened points of his fangs that make this a reality. He isn’t just a vision, I’m sure of it. He’s here, and he’s…undead.
The strobes flicker away from him and then back, but by the time they do, he’s gone. Vanished into the crowd, and likely on his way to me. Instinct takes over, moving my feet at a pace much faster than before. I push past people, ignoring their cries of protest and the swears they hurl at me. But not a single one of them stops to ask if I’m okay, even though I know I look like a crazy person. Even if what Dante said was true, that no one would be able to see that I’m bleeding, I doubted they wouldeven care or notice, regardless. They’re drunk, they’re horny, and they couldn’t give a single fuck about someone like me.
Just keep moving. It’s like Halloween all over again, and I hate how thinking that instantly brings tears to my eyes.
I’m so close to the opening at the edge of the crowd when someone walks into my path. I don’t even look before I start swinging. “Get the fuck off of me!”
“Millie!” Two hands wrap around mine, one of them closing over my wrist, and I yelp at the pressure. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”
A couple people look back at me, confused, but I turn away from them. Instead, I’m surprised to find that the person I ran into isn’t my undead stalker, but Gray. Relief catches in my chest as I relax, throwing myself into him. He catches me with ease, drawing me away from the floor and into the cover of the shadows beside the main stage. I can’t see him, but I can feel him.
“You’re here,” I croak through tears. I can’t seem to hold them back anymore. “How are you here?”
“I went for a walk,” he says coolly, his hands gliding over my skin. They find the puncture wounds at my throat and pause. His crimson gaze hardens. “You’ve been bitten.”
“Is it bad?” My body is shaking through the tears.
“I need to get you out of here,” he says, shocking me as he scoops me up into his arms.
“My stuff,” I manage weakly.
“Where?” he demands. There’s an edge to his voice now, like a knife poised and ready to slice.
“Dressing room. Down the hall.” We’re moving before I even finish my sentence. We get to the back, which is empty of anyone, and he sets me down for only a moment to retrieve my things. He doesn’t ask where they are, or what they look like, he just zips in and zips out. I plan to ask him how he knew that when my mind doesn’t feel so damn foggy.
Coat on and phone tucked in my pocket, Gray sweeps me back up again and carries me out into the cold through the back door. I hear him whisper ‘hold on tight’ before I feel the icy sting of November air hitting me in the face. I turn into his chest and close my eyes, beating back the tears before anymore can start falling. Now isn’t the time to lose my shit. I have to keep myself conscious, and focus on the real issues.
Dante, who almost killed me tonight, and the guy that almost killed me a couple of nights ago. Both vampires, though one of them shouldn’t even be walking. I caught glimpses of what Gray did to him in the church tower, and by all accounts, no one should have survived that.
Did Gray… turn him?
Eventually, the movement stops with a halting force, and the wind recedes, replaced by the familiar warmth of home. Gray eases me from his chest and places me on the couch. I realize then that I’m shivering and my teeth are chattering.
“Wait here,” he says, his voice soothing and gentle. “I’ll be right back.”
My eyes follow his form as he disappears around the corner. It’s silent in the house, except for the chatter of my teeth. Within seconds, though, I hear the sound of water running.
