Two of her party guests were still passed out, sprawled out on her overstuffed furniture. One of them was a very pretty girl wearing only a black bra and leggings with blood dried on her neck. The other was a vampire with very high cheek bones. He reminded me of Daniel Johns from Silverchair when he’d been anorexic.
“Olivia!” I said loudly, kicking an empty wine bottle.
The vampire lifted his head a bit, squinting in the light. All the windows were tinted to keep out UV rays, but they didn’t have any shades, and the sun hit the building straight on. I don’t know why the vampire hadn’t gone back to one of the rooms to sleep, but I didn’t really care either.
“Olivia owns the club?” Violet asked, sounding shocked.
She knew Olivia, as did most people, but Olivia kept her status under wraps. She didn’t want anybody to know what power she still held. She liked staying under the radar.
“Yep.” I walked over to Olivia’s bedroom door and knocked it. “Olivia, wake up.”
“She doesn’t like me very much,” Violet said.
“You’re hot. She likes you,” Bobby said, sitting down on the couch. He picked up a bottle of wine by his feet and swooshed it around. It still had some in, so he took a swig.
“Bobby, it’s nine in the morning! Do you really need to drink?” I asked.
“It’s red wine and I had one drink,” he scoffed. “It’s not like I’m blitzed.”
“Who the hell are you people and why are you here?” the Daniel Johns vampire asked.
“We’re not here. It’s just a dream. Go back to sleep,” Bobby said.
“Olivia!” I pounded on her door again, and when she didn’t get up, I pushed it open. “Olivia!”
“What?” Olivia grumbled, her face buried in a pillow.
She lay in a massive bed, curled up in silk sheets. A beautiful, topless girl lay in bed next to her. I’d seen her a few times before, so she was a semi-regular of Olivia’s, but I never learned her name. I didn’t want to. It made it easier to let Olivia feed on people if I didn’t actually think of them as people.
“I need you to come out here for a minute,” I said. I stood in the doorway, because if I walked away, she’d just fall back to sleep.
As Olivia got up, she mumbled something under her breath and pulled on a satin housecoat. It was so weird seeing her wear things that weren’t leather, but she did exclusively wear black. Her long hair shimmered down her back, completely smooth and silky, even though she’d just woken up.
“It’s too bright out there.” Olivia paused in the doorway and refused to step out further. “What do you need from me? I just went to bed.”
“I brought you a present.” I stepped back and gestured to Violet, who stood to the side.
“Hi.” Violet forced a smile and wiggled her fingers meekly.
“Didn’t that girl try to kill you?” Olivia arched her eyebrow at me.
“I say let bygones be bygones,” I shrugged. “But she doesn’t have a place to stay. So she’s gonna stay with you for a while.”
“Fine, fine.” Olivia yawned and waved her hand at me. “The second bedroom is open.” She pointed at the room next to hers. “She can stay there. Just be quiet when I’m sleeping.”
“Thank you,” Violet said, but Olivia didn’t acknowledge her.
“Thanks,” I echoed, and Olivia nodded.
“Next time wait until later in the day.” She started shutting the door, then stopped. “Are you coming over tonight to train?”
“Sure.”
“Alright. See you tonight then.” Olivia yawned again and shut the door.
“There you go,” I told Violet and stepped away from the room. Olivia’s sleepiness was contagious, and I yawned myself.
“Thanks.” Violet looked unsure about everything, but I didn’t really want to reassure her. She’d be fine here, and I’d done my part. Now the lack of sleep and stress of the day started to hit me.
“No problem,” I said and walked over to the elevator.
Violet just stood off to the side, almost as if she was afraid to move. When the elevator doors opened, I stepped inside, and I had to hold them open for Bobby.
“Why are you helping me?” Violet asked as Bobby stepped in.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly, and the doors slid shut.
“I thought of something,” Bobby said. “After we met Violet, but I didn’t say something when she was around.”
“What’s that?” I leaned back against the wall and rubbed the bridge of my nose as the elevator went down.
“You know how Jane’s dumpsite had more blood than the others?” Bobby asked. “Maybe it’s not because the killer was more aggressive. Maybe the first two victims were drained of their blood.”
“You mean by a vampire?” I asked, looking over at him.
“Yeah,” he nodded.
“But then why wouldn’t Jane be drained too?” I asked. “If it’s a vampire, why not drink her blood? And then why kill her at all?”
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Maybe they meant to kill her and drain her, but they couldn’t.”
“Why wouldn’t they be able to? It’s not like we get full easy or something.”
“After you bit me, Milo wouldn’t bite me,” Bobby said. “My blood was tainted, and it made him sick when he could even smell you on him. So maybe if Jane was bitten by someone else, they wouldn’t bite her. But she was all part of their murder scheme, so they went ahead and killed her anyway.”
“She just got out of rehab, though. And I talked to her. She’d been doing good. I don’t think she got out and just went straight back into it,” I shook my head.
“She’s a junkie,” Bobby said, as we reached the ground floor. “You can never be sure. And you don’t know who the last vampire was that bit her.”
“Actually,” I said as the doors slid open, “as far as I know, I was the last to bite her.”
9
Milo had taken to napping when he got home from school, since he had to be up all day, and he was getting home later and later. Last night was the debate team practice, and tonight it was something about tutoring a girl in calculus. He’d also started talking a lot in French, but since I’d barely passed the class the two years I’d taken it, he only ended up confusing me.