“No, I mean you really have to come down!” Milo said.

“She’s going in the room with him!” Bobby shouted plaintively at Milo. “Tell her to hurry and get down here! We’ve gotta do something!”

“I’m not leaving you alone to deal with her,” Milo told Bobby, and I really wished I understood what was happening or the music behind them was quieter.

“What is going on?” I asked.

“Jane is down here, and she looks like a corpse! For real! Not like a zombie Halloween costume or anything,” Milo said. “She looks really, really terrible, and she just went into the backrooms with that Jonathan guy she was with before. I can’t go after her and leave Bobby alone, so you need to get down here. If she doesn’t get out of here tonight, she’s probably never getting out of here.”

“This better not be some trick to get me to come out!” I said, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t. Both Milo and Bobby sounded genuinely frazzled, and I hadn’t been doing enough to get her to stop being a bloodwhore.

“I would never lie about something like this!” Milo yelled, and he wouldn’t. I don’t think he ever lied about anything.

“Fine! I’ll be there as soon as I can! Wait for me by the dance floor!” I told him, then hung up the phone. Immediately after doing so, I found a giant flaw in my plan: I didn’t know how to drive.

- 25 -

I realized that there was somebody here that always fixed everything and knew how to drive. “Ezra!”

“Yes?” Ezra answered, and I walked to the end of the hall so I could see him. He looked up from his computer. “Something is the matter?”

“Milo’s at a club, and Jane’s there. She’s a bloodwhore, and he says she’s in really bad shape. I need to get her before something bad happens,” I said. “Would you be willing drive me down there?”

“Absolutely.” Ezra hit a button on the computer and stood up. “Milo told me he and Bobby were going out to the clubs tonight, and Bobby was looking quite well, so I told them to have fun.”

“I think they’re having fun,” I said sourly as he met me in the hall

“At least I get to go out on Halloween,” Ezra smiled at me, and we walked towards the garage. “I haven’t done that in years.” He noticed his teasing falling flat on me, and he nodded solemnly. “We’ll get your friend out of there.” I nodded and followed him out to his Lexus. “And Jack will come home. He does love you very much.”

“I know,” I lied. “I just wish I knew where he was.”

“He’ll turn up soon,” Ezra assured me. “He’s not the kind to stray very far.”

Ezra said very little else on the car ride to V. Downtown was a madhouse. People were everywhere, dressed in all sorts of wacky garments. Most of the girls’ outfits could barely count as “clothing,” and it seemed like everyone was drunk or high or just certifiably insane.

I had to jog to keep up with Ezra, and I felt strange going to the clubs with him. He dressed more fashionably and appropriate for a club situation than I did, but it was weird thinking of him clubbing. Even as attractive and as young as he looked, he never seemed like the kind of person that would frequent a place like this.

In the block before the club, he had to fend off several very drunk girls. I mean he literally had to push them off of him, and by the looks of the last one, she wasn’t exactly drunk. The fading pink marks on her neck meant she was just leaving the club we were going to.

A couple guys made a pass at me, and I didn’t really care, except for the fact that I was starting to get hungry. I hadn’t even really felt it until we were in a crowd of people.

Ezra held the door open to V for me, and the two giant bouncers were still manning their post. They nodded at Ezra and exchanged some kind of look with him. It made me wonder if he was acquainted with him, but I didn’t really have time to ask. Jane was in trouble, and it didn’t really matter who Ezra did or didn’t know.

The dance floor was completely packed. Michael Jackson’s hit song “Thriller” blasted out over the stereo, and at least half of the floor was doing the dance that went along with it. It would’ve been a sight to behold, but Milo and Bobby waited by the doors for us, reminding me of the business at hand. One of Milo’s wings looked damaged, but with the floor being as crowded as it was, I was surprised that his costume had stayed as intact as it had.

“It’s crazy here tonight!” Milo shouted over the music.

“I don’t understand how they all know the moves,” Bobby said, watching the Thriller dancers with some fascination.

“Yeah, great. Where’s Jane?” I asked.

“In one of the backrooms.” Milo gestured across the dancehall to the vampire bar section of the club. Blue lights flashed over head. “I don’t know which one for sure, but I thought you could find her”

“As long as she’s still alive, I probably can,” I said.

Milo grabbed Bobby and made his way across the dance floor. I went into the crowd after him, but they were impossible to get through. Apparently, I wasn’t even as forceful as Milo.

Ezra came up behind him, and putting his arm around my waist, he started pushing our way through them. I was strong enough to do it, but I felt bad about pushing people out of the way. Not that any of them seemed to mind. Humans and vampires alike seemed to enjoy being touched by Ezra a little too much.