It was a quiet walk to the university campus. We didn't see anybody. The few cars that passed didn't stop, and although we heard sirens converging on the party, none of the police cars cruised our way.
The night was just cool enough to be pleasant, and the air felt dry and crisp. No clouds. It would have been pretty and romantic, except for the general crappiness of the evening. Eve had stopped crying, but that was almost worse; she'd been so happy before, and now she'd sunk into a gloom so deep she really did seem like a true Goth.
My feet hurt. I was glad when we turned the corner and caught sight of the big, well-lit campus behind the wrought-iron fencing. We'd have to go to one of the four entrances to get through. I'd never really thought about it before, but the place looked unnatural, like a wildlife park.
Or a zoo.
Justin was getting tired, and put the girl down on the first bench we came to once we were inside the fence, while Eve flagged down a passing campus cop car. The Q&A went pretty well, but then, the campus cops weren't especially sharp. It took about half an hour, and then the girl was whisked off to the clinic for detox and checkups, and the three of us looked at each other in the glow of the cop car's headlights as it backed up and pulled away.
"Right," Justin said. "Probably ought to get moving."
Eve got out her phone.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Calling a cab."
He snorted. "In Morganville? At night? Right. Eddie doesn't even like picking people up during the daytime. No way is he risking his ass out here for us at night. He probably took his phone off the hook, anyway. He hates frat parties."
"What about Detective Hess?" I offered. "I'm sure he'd give us a ride."
"Light it up."
I tried. The number rang, but nobody picked up. Same thing with Travis Lowe. I looked at Justin with a sinking feeling, and shrugged helplessly. Eve stood up, shivered, and crossed her bare arms for warmth. Justin took his black jacket off and draped it around her shoulders.
"Guess we're on foot," he said, and took my hand, then Eve's. "Don't slow down, and don't stop for anything. If I tell you guys run, you run. Got it?"
He didn't give us a chance to argue. We walked down the path to the exit from the university grounds. Outside, the street lights were few and far between, and I could just feel eyes on me in the shadows. Whether that was real or not, I didn't know, but it made me shake all over with fear. Come on, Ana, get it together. There are three of us, and Justin can kick enough ass for all of us.
We crossed the street and headed over a couple of blocks, then down. It was the straightest shot to the house, and the best lit, but it also was going to take us right by Common Grounds. Somehow, I felt even more uncomfortable at the idea that Oliver was going to see us trailing by, in all our not-too-smart glory. We'd had a rough enough night without that.
Although, it was a cheering thought that Monica almost certainly was having a worse one, trying to explain to the cops about why there were more drugs in her house than the Rite-Aid Pharmacy, not to mention the underage drunken orgies and the dead girl in the bedroom.
By contrast, walking home at dark in Vampire U.S.A. seemed a little bit mild.
At least until Eve whispered, "Somebody's following."
I almost faltered, but kept walking when Justin's hand tightened around mine. "Who?" he asked. Eve didn't turn her head.
"Don't know, I just caught a glimpse. Somebody in dark clothes."
Since only Amelie seemed to like colors in the pale winter hues, I figured that didn't narrow it down much. I walked faster, tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and nearly went down, if it hadn't been for Justin's steadying grip. But it slowed us all down, and we couldn't afford for it to happen again.
"Crap," Justin breathed. We were still at least a block from the next burning streetlight, and now I could hear slow, steady footsteps behind us. Up ahead, a single open storefront spilled warm yellow light out onto the street. Common Grounds. Neutral territory, at least theoretically. "Right. We're not going to make it all the way home. We go into Common Grounds, and -- "
"No way, I'm not going in there!" Eve blurted. "I can't!"
"Yes you can, you have to. Neutral ground. Nobody will hurt you there. We can make some kind of deal with Oliver if we have to, temporary protection or something. Promise me -- "
Justin didn't have time for anything else, because all hell broke loose. The footsteps behind us suddenly accelerated to a run, Justin swung around and pushed us behind him, and there was a flash of movement I couldn't really see. Something hit Justin in the head. Hard. He stumbled and went down to one knee.
I screamed and reached for him, but Eve grabbed me and hauled me by force toward the glow of Common Grounds.
"Get up!"
I twisted out of Eve's grip and whirled to see that the yell had come from the jerk from the party, the one who'd felt me up and then gotten his ass kicked by Justin. He'd followed us, and he had a baseball bat. He'd hit Justin in the head with a baseball bat and he was getting ready to do it again.
"No!" I cried, and lunged back toward them, but Eve grabbed me tight and swung me around toward the coffee shop again.
"Get inside!" she screamed.
"Let go -- "
We stopped fighting each other as a shadow stepped out of the alley right in front of us, blocking the way.
A long silver line glinted in the starlight. A knife.
It was Eve's brother Jason, looking as greasy and starved and fevered as he had at the party.
"Hey, sis," he said, and the knife turned, and turned, and turned. "I knew you'd be coming this way. Soon as I heard you left the party without your bloodsucking bodyguard, I knew the time was right."
"Jason -- " Eve let go of me and stepped in between the two of us. "This isn't her problem. Let her go."
I was torn -- watch Jason, who was terrifying, or pay attention to what was happening behind me, because Justin was fighting now, fighting for his life, and he was already hurt. I risked a glance back and saw Justin grab the baseball bat from his attacker, hit a home run to the guy's shoulder, and send him spinning into the brick wall. The frat guy went down, screaming, but Justin was clearly not doing well either -- he lurched, off balance, and went down to his hands and knees. The bat rolled away.
"Oh God," I whispered. There was blood running down his face, dripping in a wet thread to the pavement. "Justin!"
Justin shook his head, and the blood flew in a spray to splatter the concrete around him. He looked up, saw me, and blinked.
Then he saw Eve, and behind her, with the knife, Jason.
Justin fumbled for the bat, found it, and climbed to his feet. He stumbled forward, grabbed me and pushed me behind him, then yanked Eve away from Jason as well. He set his feet wide apart and took up a batting stance.
He looked pale and shaken and half-dead, but I knew he wasn't backing down.
"Leave them alone," he said. Not a yell, not a threat, just a low, quiet voice with absolute control. "Walk away, Jason."
Jason lost his smile. He put the knife in his pocket and held up his hands. "Sure. Sorry, man. Don't go all Sammy Sosa on me." He lowered his hands again and stuffed them in his coat pockets, looking casual, but there was an avid glitter to his eyes, and a cruel twist to his thin lips. "I heard you found a present in your basement. Something girl-shaped."
Eve groaned, and I reached out to steady her when she swayed. "Jason," Eve whispered, and she looked awful, like she was going to throw up. "Oh God, why?"
Justin took a step forward, bat raised and ready, and Jason backed up again. "Doing it there, that was just fun," he said. "But it's not about the girls. It's so I get noticed."
"Noticed?" I echoed faintly.
"Yeah, so they see I'm capable. Ready to be one of them."
"Oh God, Jase, is that what this is about? You're just some pathetic wannabe vampire making his bones?" Eve sounded so freaked it made my guts knot up. "You're trying to impress them? By killing?"
"Sure," Jason shrugged. He looked thin and weedy, almost lost inside that black leather jacket. "How else do you get attention around here? And I'm going to get lots of attention. Starting with you, Ana."
Justin yelled -- it wasn't even words, just a yell of pure fury -- and swung at him.
There was a sharp, loud sound, and the smell of something burning, and I stared stupidly at the wisp of smoke rising from Jason's coat pocket.
There was a hole in the leather.
It wasn't until the bat hit the pavement with a noisy rattle, and Justin collapsed to his knees, that I realized that there was a gun, and Jason had fired it.
And Justin had just been shot.
Justin didn't seem to understand it either. He was panting, trying to say something, but he couldn't get the words out. His eyes were wide and confused.
Jason turned and walked away, hands still in his pockets. People were coming out Common Grounds, looking puzzled and alarmed, and at the forefront was Oliver. Oliver's head turned quickly, and he focused on us.
I dropped to my knees next to Justin. He looked desperately into my face, and slowly collapsed to his side.
His hands were clutching his stomach, and there was so much blood ...
Eve hadn't moved. She was just -- standing there, in her lovely black dress, staring blindly after her brother.
Oliver grabbed her and shook her. Her black hair flew wildly, and when he let go, Eve sank down to a defeated slump against the building's brick wall. Oliver shook his head impatiently and turned to me, and Justin.
I looked up, mute with misery, and saw Oliver staring down at us.
For just a second, I thought Insaw something in him. Maybe just a tiny glimmer of empathy.
"Someone is calling the ambulance," he said. "You should put pressure on the wound. He's losing a lot of blood. It's a waste." The blood, he meant. Not Justin.
"Help me," I said. Oliver shook his head. "Help me!"
"You'll find that vampires aren't particularly good with the wounded," he said. "I'm doing you a favor by staying away. And don't try to order me, little girl. That gold bracelet of yours means almost nothing to me except that I shouldn't leave witnesses behind."
Justin coughed, wet and hard, and blood trickled out of his mouth. He looked as pale as Michael. Vampire-pale.
I cradled him in my arms. Oliver glanced at Eve, frowned, and went away. People were coming closer, murmuring, asking questions, but I couldn't make any sense out of it. I pressed down on the wet bloody mess of Justin's shirt, felt him tense and try to squirm away, and didn't let him. Pressure on the wound. It seemed to take forever until I heard the distant sound of sirens approaching.
Justin was still breathing when they loaded him inside the ambulance, but he wasn't moving, and he wasn't talking.
I went to Eve, got her on her feet, and put an arm around her shoulders. "Come on," I said. "We should ride with Justin."
Oliver was staring at the wet, dark smears of blood on the concrete, and as I helped Eve up into the back of the ambulance, he looked at one of his coffee shop employees and nodded toward the mess.
"Clean it up," he said. "Use bleach. I don't want to smell it all night."