Flutter (25 page)

“Is she coming with?” Bobby asked, appearing in the
doorway behind Milo. He was wearing a white shirt, unbuttoned down
his chest, with a black vest and tight pants. I was about to guess
for some kind of pirate, and then I saw the laser blaster in his
belt.

“Are you Han Solo?” I raised my eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, I wanted him to be Princess Leia, but he
wouldn’t go for it,” Bobby gave Milo a pouty look, and I was
momentarily relieved that Jack wasn’t around so he couldn’t try out
that exact idea on me. Then I realized that Jack wasn’t here, and I
got sad again.

“I am not going to wear a gold bikini,” Milo said.
“Even I’m not gay enough for that!”

“So you’re like half a costume?” I asked Bobby.

“Yeah, I was gonna be Andy Warhol, but I looked
really terrible with the white wig. My complexion is all wrong for
it,” Bobby gestured to his skin, then an idea dawned on him, and he
smiled wickedly at me. “Hey, if you don’t have a costume, you could
always go as Leia!”

“No! No way!” I shook my head. “Even if I wasn’t too
busy being suicidal, there is no way you can talk me into that. No
gold bikini’s or cinnamon bun hair-do’s.”

“Fine. Costume or not, you really should come out
with us,” Milo said, looking at me with concern. “It’s not good for
you to just lay in bed all the time like this. You’re not even
watching TV or listening to music. You’re just laying in the dark.
It’s not healthy.”

“I don’t care.” I smiled wanly at my brother. “I’m
okay, though. Honest. I’ll get up and do something tonight. I just…
I can’t go out. But thanks for inviting me. I really appreciate
it.”

“Okay,” Milo relented. “But you better be out of this
bed when I get back. Or else.”

Milo smiled sadly at me before leaving with Bobby. On
the sheets next to me, he left behind a trail of glitter and black
feathers.

I did not want to get out of bed, but I didn’t really
want Jack coming back to me being a big, stinky mess, so I decided
that if nothing else, I should keep up my hygiene, so he doesn’t
break up with me for that. I showered, styled my hair, put on
makeup, and got dressed. For the sake of Halloween, I even painted
my nails green. I don’t know why I went through all that trouble,
but it felt like something to do.

Matilda needed to go to the bathroom, so I went
downstairs to let her outside. She was the only real consolation I
had. As mad as Jack might be at me and everyone else, he would
never leave her behind. Not for good.

While she was outside doing her thing, I glanced down
the hall. The door to the den was open, and Ezra sat at the
computer, the screen glowing blue on his face. He probably still
slept on the couch in there, and I wondered if he and Mae were ever
going to make up. And if they weren’t, I wondered why neither of
them left.

My cell phone started ringing, and my heart skipped a
beat until I realized it was Milo’s ringer and not Jack’s “Time
Warp.” I briefly considered not answering it. He probably just
wanted to talk me into coming out with him. But then again, he
might be in trouble, so I figured I should take it.

“Hello?” I answered, and I had to hold the phone away
from my ear because the music was so loud.

“Hello?” Milo shouted over the music. “Hello?”

“Milo?” I yelled back, so he could hear me. “Milo?
Where are you?”

“I’m at
V
!” Milo shouted, and I could barely
hear Bobby saying something in the background about a girl. “You’ve
got to come down here!”

“No, I already told you I’m not going,” I sighed.
Matilda started barking at the French doors off the kitchen, so I
went and let her in. “Thanks anyway.”

“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.

The dim lighting and muffled sound of the smaller bar
came as a huge relief. Even in here, it was incredibly packed.
Usually there were just a handful of couples, but tonight, every
available surface was covered with vampires feeding on people or
making out with each other. There were even two vampires lying on
the bar in the corner, grinding in a very provocative fashion.
Milo, Bobby, Ezra, and I stood out for the simple fact that we were
not kissing or biting.

“Which hall did she go down?” I asked Milo
quietly.

There were seven different hallways that went off the
main bar, and I’m not even sure how many rooms were down each hall.
I went down one before, and it seemed to go on forever.

“I think that one.” Milo pointed to one on the far
side of the room.

“Are you sure?” Bobby squinted. The red lights in
here weren’t the best for his eyesight. “I thought it was the one
just to the left of that.”

“You’ve got be kidding me,” I groaned.

“Ezra Townsend!” Olivia squealed, and pushed an
unconscious girl onto the floor. She moaned a little when she hit
her head, but that was the only sign she gave that she was still
alive.

Olivia’s tight leather uniform seemed much more
appropriate with the Halloween crowd, and she was smiling widely at
Ezra in her usual drugged out way. I expected him to look appalled
by her, but instead, he smiled back at her, and when she reached
him, they actually hugged.

“It’s so good to see you!”

“Likewise,” Ezra agreed when they stopped hugging. I
glanced at Milo and Bobby to see them gaping at him too.

“It really has been too long.” Olivia touched his arm
and laughed. “I didn’t even know you were still in the area! I
thought you would’ve moved on years ago.”

“Well, I tried, but the wife has roots down here,”
Ezra shrugged.

“She’s not-” Olivia looked at me distrustfully.

“No, no, Alice isn’t mine. She’s my brother Jack’s,”
Ezra said, and Olivia nodded and smiled again at me.

“She’s a little tart, isn’t she?” Olivia was looking
at me in a way that would’ve made me blush if I wasn’t busy trying
to figure out how we’d find Jane.

“Perhaps,” Ezra looked at me, and I was pleased to
see it was affectionate. I think I had been kind of expecting him
to hate me after all the trouble I caused between Jack and Peter,
but Ezra didn’t seem to be one to hold a grudge either.

“You should’ve told me you were with Ezra,” Olivia
said and touched my arm. “I would’ve given you the special
treatment.” I had a feeling she was already giving me special
treatment, but I just smiled.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize you two knew each other,” I
said. I didn’t want to talk to them anymore, but I wanted Ezra to
help me, and I didn’t want to be rude to her. After all, she had
helped me out a couple times.

“That’s just like Ezra,” she rolled her eyes. “He
never talks about his past.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but we’ve got a missing
friend,” Milo interjected, saving me from some long, semi-drunken
conversation. Olivia might not be able to drink alcohol, but she
drank more blood than a vampire needed too, leaving her to act and
feel rather drunk.

“Same one as before?” Olivia raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, and we’ve got to find her. So, if you’ll excuse
us.” Milo had Bobby’s hand in one hand and he took mine in the
other. Olivia nodded at us as we started making our escape, but
Ezra stayed with her. I wanted him to come with us, but I couldn’t
force him.

“So you know which hall it is?” I asked as Milo drug
me to the other side of the room.

“Nope, but it’s got to be one of these two halls.”
Milo let go of my hand, but he still hung onto Bobby’s. In another
circumstance, it would’ve been a very funny sight to see a black
glittery fairy leading a rather short Han Solo by the hand.

They led the way, but once we were in the hall, they
slowed down considerably. Milo didn’t really know how to track
Jane, not as well as I did anyway, but it was going to be
impossible. There were too many people tonight.

Everything smelled like blood, and I was incredibly
impressed with my current level of self-control. My stomach burned
a bit, and I was really thirsty, but it was nothing I couldn’t
handle. It did, however, make it hard to distinguish different
scents and sounds. Blood overpowered everything else.

I was about to give up on the whole thing when I
finally got something. I froze in the middle of the hall, and Bobby
bumped into me. It was too dark for him to see that I had stopped
moving. Very faintly, I could smell her perfume. Her blood wasn’t
as distinct to me as I thought it would be, but her perfume
was.