John leaned against the wall and watched as the tiny little windows at the very bottom of the building brightened. Tela was home and moving around. He’d succeeded and gotten her there safely. He should go back to District One and relieve whoever had taken over for him once he’d left to help Tela home. This girl who’d gotten in over her head wasn’t his concern. They were a conquering army. The humans should be grateful that they weren’t enslaved. It was more than John had ever gotten. So why should he feel bad now?

He was about to push himself away from the wall when he heard it—the panicked scream of a familiar voice. A moment later, Tela ran out of the building, her head whipping in each direction. He knew her neck wound would be hurting, but she didn’t seem to be in pain. She was frantic. She started calling over and over and over again for someone named Dani.

He ran to her side, reaching her in half a second. “Who is Dani?”

She pushed him aside, not seeming surprised at his presence at all. “None of your business.” Her eyes never stopped scanning the street.

John grabbed her arm and forced her to face him, the manhandling finally getting her attention back on him. “Are you going to keep running down the street screaming?”

She opened her mouth and closed it. For the first time in her entire ordeal, he saw her shaking. Her run-in with the vampire tonight hadn’t scared her, but right now she was terrified. “I’ll help you find Dani. Who is he? Your lover?”

She blinked a few times, once again looking over John’s shoulder and down the street. “No.... I don’t even know where to start. She doesn’t have a phone anymore. How am I supposed to find her?”

Her? For some stupid reason, it made him happy. It wasn’t a boyfriend. “Were there any signs of struggle inside?”

“Struggle? I.... The door wasn’t busted open. There wasn’t like broken glass or anything.”

“Was anything moved? Where it shouldn’t be? Anything tipped over or out of place? If it were a human, the lock could have been picked. For Vopura, the door would’ve been opened voluntarily.”

Tela took a deep breath and seemed to relax marginally. “Dani would never let a vampire in. She knows better than that.”

“All right then. If a human took her, she would’ve put up a fight. Why don’t we go back and look for anything that can help.” She still seemed shaken, so John led the way back into her building and downstairs. “Invite me in so I can take a look around.”

“I... I can’t do that.”

“Do you want my help?”

“How about I leave the door open and you can look in?”

“Do you really think I’ll be as effective that way?”

“I think I’ll be more alive that way. Can you really blame me for wanting to keep you out?”

No, he really couldn’t. Besides, what did it matter? If she never found this girl, it was no skin off his back.

He leaned back against the wall across the hall and looked inside. He couldn’t see much from here. A living area and a hallway that seemed to lead to a kitchen. Small, from what he knew about human living quarters. Even this small space was so much more than he had on Vora....

“Found it!” called Tela, her voice adding a little croak. He heard her footsteps as she ran back to him. It was as though she no longer had any pain or fatigue from the blood loss as she ran out to the hall and slammed the door shut behind her.

“You seem miraculously better.” He looked skeptically at the piece of paper in her hand.

“Dani is my sister. I’ll keep it together until she’s safe. I need to. Don’t you things have family?”

He shrugged. “Sure. My mother sold me when she couldn’t take care of me any longer.”

Tela stopped short and looked at him. He could see a mix of disbelief and... pity? Fuck that. He leaned forward and wrenched the paper from her hands. He didn’t think there would be any harm in telling her that. After all, every Vopura around recognized him as a former slave immediately. However, he’d forgotten the negative connotations slavery carried here.

He stifled a growl. Give him war. Give him beatings. But for fuck’s sake, don’t give him pity.

He squinted at the neat writing. Reading English was new to him, but he was now able to get through one English book a week and was getting faster and faster. However, handwriting always made it harder.

I hope everything went great. I’m with Tiffany at Queens Club. I’ll be back before dawn!

Damn. Well, any thought of leaving Tela to handle this new development on her own was pushed aside. “Why would your sister go there?” Tela was already moving down the hall, and he caught up with her immediately.

“Because she’s an idiot. Have you heard of it?”

“I’ve attended. It’s no place for a child.”

Tela snorted. “Child. That’s the perfect word. A young, reckless, stupid child. Is it as dangerous as I think it is?”

He didn’t know how to answer that the right way, so he chose not to answer. “Why would your little sister go there?” he asked as they reached the first floor and headed out the building.

She glanced over at him and looked away abruptly. “I don’t know. Why do kids do anything?”

He frowned. Even without listening to a heartbeat, he knew she was trying to deceive him. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“It’s nothing important. I just want to get there as fast as possible and find Dani.”

“It would be faster if you let me carry you.” He saw her neck tighten at her obvious discomfort toward the idea. “This... adrenaline rush you’re feeling will fade away eventually. The pain and fatigue will come back. The sooner we get to Queens Club, the better. Unless, of course, you pass out on the way there. If you’re unconscious, there’s nothing I can do for your sister. I don’t exactly know what she looks like.”

Tela was still marching toward Queens Club, but John knew it was about ten blocks away, in District Four. A long walk for a mortal who hadn’t just suffered massive blood loss. For Tela, it would be near impossible.

“Just like... professional, right? You don’t get off when carrying wounded women around the city, do you?”

“Get off?”

She rolled her eyes. “I swear, you don't know the simplest things. All right, fine. For the sake of my sister, you can carry me. But you better not be enjoying it.”

“I wouldn’t think of it.” He held one arm out.

She sighed skeptically. “What am I supposed to do with that?”

Unintentionally, he smiled at her question. He couldn’t think of a way to explain it without being more awkward than this already was, so instead he moved to close the distance between them until the arm he had stretched went behind her back along her shoulder blades. From there, he bent enough so his other arm could go behind her knees, and then he straightened, turning her in his arms as he went until he was cradling her against his chest.

Despite himself, he was abruptly able to understand what she meant by “get off.” Maybe Dante had been right. John thought he was being regimented and strict by keeping himself away from some of the more tempting offerings of this world, but his body was obviously still controlling him. If he wasn’t gaining any more control over his base instincts, what was the point of rising above temptation?

“I’m going to go fast. This can be jarring for most mortals.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a roller coaster.” She patted his shoulder twice. “I’m ready, let’s go.”

He frowned down at her, unsure what to do with that. He wasn’t livestock for her to ride, yet at the same time he didn’t mind the touch. He’d definitely have to look into getting a blood donor once he got back to the Sorenson.

His grip on her tightened. Without giving her any more warning, he took off east, making a quick turn when required.

A moment later, he was close enough. He didn’t stop right in front of Queens Club. When he was going at full speed, it was too hard to judge distances and most of his attention went to avoiding colliding with obstacles. If he ran into a parked car, he would be fine, but his current cargo wouldn’t fare so well.

So he ended up three buildings short, but close enough to hear the booming music inside. When he stopped, he went to set Tela down but stopped when he got a good look at her. Her unnatural coloring and pained expression told him plenty about how unpleasant the ride had been for her. Mortal bodies weren’t made to go that fast without shields of glass and metal protecting them.

“I.... Um....” She seemed to be struggling to form words. “Put me down,” she finally croaked.

John frowned at her. “I don’t know if you should be standing right now.”

“We won’t know till you try, now will we?”

Against his better judgment, he lowered her feet to the ground but kept his arm steadily behind her back as he allowed her weight to rest purely on her own two feet.

Tela reached out and set a hand on his shoulder, steadying herself. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. I’m not all convinced that wasn’t a big mistake.”

“Not just for bringing me here. I meant thanks for....” She winced and looked away from him.

John frowned. “I’m only doing this for personal gain. You know that.”

She scoffed. “It’s not like I thought we were going to be best friends or anything. I was just saying thank you for helping me find my sister.” She pushed away from him and started walking toward the club.

John was already bracing himself for the sensory hell he was about to walk into. He would never understand why there were some Vopura who frequented places like this. His senses were already so much stronger than most humans, especially sound and sight. So to walk into a club with such loud music blaring and flashing strobe lights seemed like his idea of hell. From what he understood, there were a lot of Vopura who liked the overload. It almost became so much that they couldn’t hear or see much of anything. Like a drug that dulled the senses and blocked out any anxieties.

But he had a feeling he wouldn’t feel the same way.

There was a line outside the building of humans eager to get in.

Ever since his kind had gotten here, there had been no shortage of humans more than willing to fraternize with the Vopura. He wondered whether that was why Tela had become a blood donor. Obviously she needed the money, but maybe she was drawn to danger too.

But he sure as hell wasn’t waiting in any line. “Stay close to me,” he warned. “You still smell like blood, so they’ll be drawn to you.” Even though he wasn’t looking at her, he could feel Tela tense and move closer into him.

He saw the guard out front and he gave the Vopura a little nod as he and Tela were granted access inside.

John had only been to Queens Club once before, and he had a feeling he’d never be there again. Instead of a wide-open dance floor for humans and Vopura to writhe against each other, there was a system of small, closed-off rooms, each with multiple entrances and exits to make it as easy as possible to get lost. Tela haphazardly started darting in and out of rooms, calling her sister’s name. John wasn’t a fan of how much attention this was getting, but he knew that if he tried to make her act more discreetly, she would just make a bigger scene. And considering he didn’t know what her sister looked like, he decided to let this play its course. He stuck close to Tela, making sure any Vopura who approached knew she was with him.

Most of the creatures here wouldn’t know who he was exactly. He was by no means famous, but the slave marks around his neck gave his past away to anybody who looked. His kind weren’t known for going down easy in a fight.

Abruptly, Tela stopped and John walked right into her back. “I see her.” She pointed through the door in front of them to the next room.

He followed her finger to a cluster of people dancing in the middle of the small dance floor. There was no one who stood out who was obviously related to Tela, but he did notice two girls who looked younger than everyone else in the club. Human ages were still hard for him to interpret, but he guessed these two would still be in high school.

Tela started to make her way through the crowd, but John reached out and grabbed her arm. He leaned forward and spoke quietly in her ear. “I’ll get her. Which one is she?”

He could tell from the stubborn set of her jaw that she wanted to fight him, but luckily she was able to contain herself.

Tela pointed once more. “The blonde one.”

Of course it was. No one back from where he came from had fair hair, so blondes tended to get special attention from his kind.

As he moved through the dance floor, the crowd naturally parted for him, human and Vopura alike. He knew he’d always given off a negative energy that his kind picked up on easily, no matter how loud the music was. It was evident that humans picked up on it too. Good.

The blonde that Tela had pointed to, Dani, was dancing with another young girl, and two Vopura males.

They, of course, were oblivious of him, unlike everybody else in the room who had taken a few steps back and were watching with interest. John glanced over to make sure Tela was still where he’d left her before reaching out to put his hand on the back of Dani’s shoulder.

The girl didn’t jump or react much to his touch at all. Who knew how many strangers had their hands on her in the tight quarters of this place? One more sensory overload all of the patrons were exposed to.

He squeezed her shoulder and gave a small tug, forcing the girl to turn toward him. She gave him a curious glance, but her expression turned serious real fast as she realized that no one else in the room was dancing except for her group.

The girl had long blonde hair that was slicked back with sweat. Her shirt was the type that tied around the back, leaving almost all of her skin bared, only a layer of glitter protecting her from the predators in the room. Her eyes were large and blue, just like her sister’s, and the bolt of fear that shot through them was the first bit of common sense he’d seen her display so far.

“Dani?” he asked, just to be sure.

“I, um....”

“Who’s asking?” asked one of the males she was dancing with.

John turned his attention to the young Vopura Dani had been dancing with. He was almost the same height as John, but he had the thin build of the elite. He had a feeling this one had never been in a fistfight in his life. “I’m asking,” he said simply.

The other Vopura, who had been dancing with the young girl John assumed was friends with Dani, looked at John and immediately took a step back. At least this one knew what was good for him.

“Your sister sent me,” he said to Dani. “It’s time to go.”

The girl shook her head in confusion. “What? She never would’ve—”

“Hey, man. She’s not going anywhere with you.” Her Vopura escort shoved at John, a motion that did nothing to physically move him.

He looked down to where the unwanted contact had been and back to the offender. “That’s the last time you touch me,” he said in a low voice that was practically inaudible over the music.

“It’s not worth it,” said the smarter of the two. “Let’s just go.”

“No. I want to dance, and no filthy slave is going to—”

John reached out and grabbed the Vopura’s neck with one hand and squeezed. The crunch beneath his fingers vibrated through him and filled him with a rush of satisfaction.

The vampire fell to the ground, where his friend started to drag him away as Dani let out a loud scream. He would live, but maybe next time he’d know better than to talk so damn much.

John needed to get out of here before any more of these morons tried to stop him. Just because he was now free didn’t mean others would take kindly to a former slave hurting one of the elite. No more talking. He approached Dani and swiftly bent down, grabbing the girl and tossing her over his shoulder. He glanced to her friend and said, “I suggest you come with me,” even as he started to carry the teen out with him.

She was screaming and pounding at him when he reached where Tela was staring at him with a look of horror. Well, she was just going to have to get over that. “Hold onto me and don’t let go until we’re out of here,” he ordered.