“You’re saying that Jane could actually die?” I sat up straighter in bed, and my mouth suddenly felt very dry.

“No. I’m saying that… unless she gets out of that lifestyle, she will die,” he said quietly.

Time seemed to stop. It wasn’t until somebody threatened to take her away that I realized how much she meant to me. Jane was vain, self-absorbed, and a bitch most of the time, but underneath that, she had always been my friend. No matter who was at a party or what they thought of me, Jane always brought me along, and most of the time, she stood up for me. When vampires attacked us a few months ago, she saved my life.

Jane just never believed that she was more than a pretty face. And even through all the things she did, she had been my best friend since I was seven years old, and she’d been there for me as much as she was capable.

Now she was in serious trouble, and it was all because of me.

“We have to go get her,” I said.

I jumped off the bed, scrambling to pull on my jeans as I did. Panic started taking over, and I flew around the room. Grabbing my shoes and my brush and a sweater and thinking that I had to do something to my hair before we went to a club or Jane wouldn’t even speak to me… and then Jack grabbed my wrist.

“Alice. Slow down,” Jack said. “She’s not dying right now.”

“You don’t know that!”

“I’m pretty sure if she was in immediate danger, Milo wouldn’t have left her there,” he pointed out.

“Maybe.” My heart slowed a bit. “But we still have to go get her.”

“I agree, but you need to take a minute to calm down. We’re going to a vampire club, for the first time since you turned, and it would be helpful if you were in control of yourself.” Jack smiled wryly.

“Okay,” I nodded and looked down at myself. The casual jeans and top combo I was going for would never work at a club, or at least Jane would say it didn’t. If we were going there, I might as well fit in. “I’m gonna go get ready. Why don’t you let Milo know, and we can get out of here?”

“Sounds good.” He kissed me gently on the lips, sending tingles through me so much that I almost forgot about Jane. “Everything will be okay.”

I smiled like I believed him, and I went into the closet to look for something to wear. What exactly did one wear when going to rescue their former best friend from an underground vampire club?

- 13 -

Milo and Bobby took the Jetta down to the club because Jack called dibs on the Lamborghini. Jack was a notoriously speedy driver, but the trip downtown had never seemed so long.

Since it was after two in the morning, most of the clubs and bars had cleared out, and he found a parking spot a block away from V. Milo pulled up behind us a minute later, meaning he had sped 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. 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 of the way Tim Burton would design a vampire. The human girl at his side looked even shorter and chubbier in comparison to him. Her skin 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 led her along carefully to keep her from stumbling or simply passing out right there, and while he smiled, there was an offhand way that he treated her. 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 wanted to steal her away from him. He wouldn’t be eager to part with her, though, and even if I could get her away, she wouldn’t appreciate it.

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, putting his hand on my back. He saw me watching after them, and while he empathized with her, he knew there was nothing we could do. “We should get going.”

“Yeah, come on. Before Jane leaves,” Milo agreed. He held Bobby’s hand and walked ahead of us.

Milo turned off 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 held 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 at us before opening a nondescript door.

The bouncers stood inside the door. They were two massive vampires, and they barely looked at any of us, but they sniffed at Bobby. We squeezed in between to them to the narrow hall lit by a single red bulb.

At the end of the hall, a steep set of cement stairs led down into black nothingness. The only light came from the red one upstairs. It was more than enough for me to see the way down, but Bobby went down slowly and carefully, and Milo kept his hand on him to catch him if he fell.

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 hall went on forever, but we stopped at a pair of massive doors.