Thicker Than Water (8 page)

The woman's body seemed to go limp. The two “vampires” biting her held her up, pressing her against the bar. Kia's own knees felt weak as she watched the woman clutch at the two men's arms. There was a desperation in the way she gripped them, as if she needed to pull the men closer.

Watching that woman giving over completely, letting physical sensation inhabit her entire body, Kia felt warm all over. She forced herself to ignore Aaron and Carol making jokes beside her, talking about outfits and how lame the scene was, timing the biting, taking bets on how long it would go.

Then the first man, the one in the brocade jacket, pushed the other man aside and, in one sudden movement, lifted the swooning woman into his arms and carried her away through the approving crowd.

The spurned second man slowly wiped his mouth, bared his fangs at the crowd in a grimace, and stalked off in the opposite direction.

Wow,
Kia thought, too stunned to process.

There was a crackle from the loudspeakers. “Welcome, all, to the gathering of the undead,” a voice said.

Kia looked around and noticed that there was now someone standing on the stage.

He spoke again into the microphone. “I see familiar faces. I see new faces. But what I see most of all is our fierce, predatory power. We are vampire. We embrace the darkness, and without the Mundane's fear of death, we have no fear at all.”

“We are vampire!” a group shouted near the stage.

“We are sustained by blood. Blood is life, so we feed on it,” the man on the stage crooned. “We eat life, we breathe life, we who have gone beyond life. It is our blood right.”

“Our blood right!” someone shouted.

“The dark is our home. We are part of the eternal, and that is our power.”

Kia's eyes traveled from the man at the microphone to the skulls that lined the front of the stage. The symbols for infinity that decorated the black velvet curtain. The goblets filled with dark red liquid on pedestals behind the man. She shivered but not from cold, not from fear.

“Embrace your dark selves,” the man said. “Do not fear your shadow side. Embrace it, for it will empower you.”

Kia felt herself nodding. Could she embrace her dark side? Could she accept the part of herself that needed to cut her skin, release her blood, strike at her own flesh? Maybe it wasn't so terrible after all?

Kia glanced at Carol. She looked bored and slightly disgusted. Aaron just seemed amused, and it made Kia's shoulders tense. She didn't want to hear what either of them might say.

The man on the stage lifted a taloned hand. His nails were long and curved and sharpened to little points. “Now let's turn the night back over to Damon, our illustrious DJ. And dance till the sun extinguishes our revels.”

The crowd applauded, a few people howled like werewolves, and music blasted again from the loudspeakers.

“That was so—” Aaron began.

Kia cut him off. “I want to dance,” she said “I love this song.”

She headed for the dance floor, not really caring if they followed or not. She wanted to burrow more deeply into this strange new place. Dancing seemed the best route in.

All around her, people surged with the pulsating beat. Kia let herself get lost in the sound, in the rhythm. She shut her eyes to feel it more intensely, to let it surround her. Surrounded by darkness and somehow feeling light.

Someone banged into her and she found herself staring up into red eyes. The gaunt face smiled down at her, his fangs small and discreet. “Excuse me,” he said.

Kia smiled back and let him wriggle by. Carol stared after him. Kia hadn't noticed until then that Carol and Aaron were dancing beside her.

“What a weirdo,” Carol said. “I can't believe he's actually wearing fangs.”

Kia started dancing again. She liked that the guy was extreme, was doing the vampire thing totally. He looked real—and wasn't that the point? To get dressed up and create a whole alternate world?

Kia wished she had done more to get ready and noticed that Aaron and Carol were getting the same suspicious looks on the dance floor that they had gotten outside. Here it was Kia who fit in.

Scanning the crowd, she wondered if this was a secret world for most of these people. An entirely alternate life.

A vault,
Kia thought, looking up at the arched stone entry-ways. That's what Vampyre Central reminded her of—a place to hold and keep secrets safe. The kind of place where Kia could have as many secrets as she wanted and no one would be disappointed in her.

“You came!”

Kia turned and saw Hecate coming toward her through the crowd. She was dressed even more provocatively than she had been at the hospital, in a plastic micro-mini and a vinyl corset.

“So what do you think?” Hecate asked Kia.

“The music rocks,” Kia said.

“Yeah, Damon's awesome,” Hecate said. She glanced toward the DJ booth. “Not to mention hot.”

Kia felt Carol and Aaron standing there, just standing. They had stopped dancing and were waiting to be introduced. For the first time ever, Kia felt uncomfortable about claiming their friendship.

“Carol, Aaron, this is Hecate,” Kia said.

“So I'm guessing this is kind of new for you,” Hecate said to Carol.

“Uh, yeah.” Ordinarily Carol behaved as if she were the hostess of the universe. But with Hecate she kept quiet.

“So are you a
vampire?”
Aaron asked. He drew out the word
vampire
and said it with a bad Transylvanian accent. Kia cringed.

Hecate ignored the question and smirked. “What were you thinking?” She gestured at Carol and Aaron's clothing. “I'm surprised Scream let you in.”

“Scream?” Carol said, raising an eyebrow. “Someone calls himself Scream?”

“I'm going to get a drink,” Hecate said. “You want anything?”

“Definitely,” Kia said.

They wove their way to the long bar. Hecate ordered the round since she was the one with the ID. Kia noticed there were a few kids probably around her age, but mostly the crowd was in their twenties, and some a little older.

Red confetti drifted down onto the bar in front of her. She looked up and once again stared into black eyes. The DJ grinned down at her from his booth above the bar. He was leaning on the rusty-looking iron railing, his fair hair feathering around his pale face.

He looks like a drawing.
The high cheekbones, the smooth plane of his forehead, the short, sharp nose, the curve of his lips all created shadows and surfaces perfectly laid out for charcoal. And slightly unreal. From this distance, Kia couldn't tell if he had fangs or not, but if he did, Kia was sure they'd look good on him.

“Damon's sizzling hot, don't you think?” Hecate said, nudging Kia in the side with her elbow. Kia flushed and looked down at her drink. It was a muddy red and served in a martini glass.

“What is this?” she asked, grateful to have an escape from the DJ's intense eyes.

“Bloodbath,” Hecate said, lifting her glass. “Cheers!” She clinked Kia's drink and took a sip.

“What's in it?” Aaron asked, eyeing the drink suspiciously.

“Red wine and Chambord,” Hecate said, licking her purple-outlined lips. “What—did you think it was the blood of virgins or something?”

“Nah,” Aaron said. He picked up the martini glass, spilling a little as he brought it to his mouth. “I don't think you'd find any of those here.”

Hecate laughed. “You got that right.”

Carol held back her long hair and bent over her glass. She took a dainty sip without lifting it up. She cocked her head. “Not bad,” she decided.

Kia ran a finger along the stem of the glass, trying to sense if the DJ was still looking at her. She glanced up through her thick bangs. Nope, he was gone again.

She sipped the bloodbath. She was relieved to see that Carol looked a little more comfortable and had started chatting with Hecate.

Kia turned and leaned against the bar so she could watch the scene in front of her. A striking burgundy-haired woman dressed completely in white stood out in high relief against the ocean of black. She was having an earnest conversation with two extremely overweight women, both wearing skimpy leather outfits. Two men approached them, and they actually seemed just as interested in the heavy women as the thin one. Interesting. The woman in white eventually excused herself and the men and the heavy leather-clad women headed for the dance floor.

Two bare-chested men in leather pants strolled by, their bodies covered in vivid tattoos. One man's entire back was tattooed with the image of a vampire biting the neck of a naked woman. They eyed Kia and her friends, nodded at Hecate, and kept walking.

“Nipple piercing has to hurt,” Aaron said as he watched the men vanish into the crowd.

A woman in a vinyl jumpsuit and a mask standing beside Aaron let out a sharp laugh. “Maybe that's the point,” she said with a sly grin. “Got a problem with pain?”

“Well, actually, yes,” Aaron said, taking a step closer to Carol. “I'm against it.”

The woman picked up her drink—a strange green concoction—and drank it all in one gulp.

A man in his late twenties approached the woman. “Hey, Queenie, haven't seen you in a while.”

“I haven't wanted to be seen,” the woman responded coldly, then walked away.

The guy shrugged and slid an arm around Hecate. “Want to get happy?”

Hecate shook him off. “Not with you, thanks. They don't either,” she added, indicating Kia, Carol, and Aaron.

The guy smiled, and Kia realized his eyes were out of focus. “I get that. Cool.” He shambled away again.

“I don't know if you guys drop or sniff or whatever, but never get anything from that creep,” Hecate said.

“It's pretty late,” Carol said. “We should be getting back.”

“You sure?” Hecate replied. “The party kicks into gear around now.”

Kia scanned the room. It was more crowded—she hadn't thought that was possible. People had spread up onto the stage and were dancing there. The feeling in the club had become even more charged, more intense. Kia felt herself revving up with it as if she'd plugged into a special battery pack.

“Come on,” Carol urged. “We have a long way to go to get home.”

“Yeah, plus we're going to be useless tomorrow as it is,” Aaron added.

Kia knew they were right: that subway ride wasn't going to be pretty. And there was school in the morning. “Okay,” she said with a sigh. “But I need to hit the ladies' room first.”

Carol shuddered. “I don't even want to think what that experience might be like. We'll wait right here.”

Hecate pointed Kia toward the bathrooms and headed over to a group of kids wearing lots of metal jewelry. They looked closer to high school age. “Thanks for the invite,” Kia called to Hecate. Hecate nodded and grinned and then joined the conversation.

Kia made it to the bathroom.
I don't know what Carol was so worried about,
she thought as she washed her hands in the sink. She checked herself in the mirror. Next time, she'd really do it up.

The woman in white Kia had seen earlier appeared in the doorway. “You're new,” she said. Her voice was soft and low. Her burgundy hair was cut in a severe 1920s bob, like flappers wore, and the dress was an extravagant lace concoction that showed off her slim but shapely figure to full advantage. Her blue eyes were thickly outlined in black, and her lips were pale, pale pink. She looked older than Kia, somewhere in her late twenties.

She stepped into the bathroom. “I haven't seen you before.”

“No,” Kia said. “My first time here.”

“And ... ?” the woman asked, her voice a caress. Kia realized the woman had very subtle, very small fangs.

Why does she care what I think?
Kia wondered, flattered.

“And I want to come back,” Kia said.

‘So you enjoy our vampire community?” the woman asked.

“Yes,” Kia said. “I'm glad I came.”

“Good. We welcome new nocturnal creatures,” the woman said. “I am called Kali.”

“Kia.”

“Welcome, Kia,” Kali said.

“Thanks.” Kia realized Carol and Aaron were probably going to come looking for her if she didn't get back to the bar soon. She was suddenly uncomfortable about them meeting this elegant, otherworldly woman. “My friends are waiting for me,” Kia apologized. “I need to go.”

Kali nodded. “Of course.” She reached into her tiny velvet handbag and pulled out a small postcard. “We will see each other again.”

Kia took the card and glanced at it. It was an invitation to another vampire night. This flyer said:
Private party. Admittance with this card only. Invitation not transferable.

“Thanks,” Kia said, slipping the card into her bag. “I think we will.”

M
onday at lunch Aaron laid his head on his arms. “Wake me up when it's time for chemistry,” he said.

“I was totally useless in technique today,” Carol complained, jabbing her salad with her plastic fork. “I just couldn't get my fingers to behave.”

“They were napping,” Aaron said, his eyes closed. “Like I want to be.”

Kia yawned. She was tired too, but so what? School was just school, like it always was. But last night—that was something different.

“Do you think you can get some more costumes from the shop?” Kia asked Aaron. “Like you did with those witchy robes?”

Aaron sat back up and dusted crumbs from his cheek. “For what?” he asked.