The club was called "La Club," which Adrian thought was hardly impressive. But then, this was Ohio.
"I'm never gonna get in," muttered Joe. He shook back his red hair and tried to look mature and confident. It didn't help that Evelyn looked even younger. Sure, her ID said she was twenty-two. She'd been turned at eighteen, but she looked sixteen; in pigtails and a uniform she could have sold Girl Scout cookies. And if they carded her they'd card him too. He only ever got into unpopular bars on week nights.
"Don't worry," Adrian assured him.
Jake followed behind the three of them, looking at Joe's arm draped over Evelyn's shoulders. He felt like he ought to have someone to put his arm around. He was really beginning to wonder why he was here, too. It had seemed like it was his idea, to begin with. Go for the funeral, drop in and say hi to Evelyn. Adrian was just tagging along. Now it seemed like Adrian had engineered the whole thing. Maybe he should find out how Great-Uncle Philip had died.
Gideon, walking beside him, seemed, if possible, even more uncomfortable. His three-piece suit wasn't really club attire. He looked like he was their dad or something. Jake broadcast the joke mentally to Adrian, hoping to get the other vampire to open a conversation with him.
Adrian just turned around and winked. Gideon looked from Jake to Adrian and Jake blushed. Now Gideon thought he was gay....
"Evening," said the bouncer. "Can I see some ID, Miss?"
Evelyn started to open her purse, but Adrian leaned in toward the man. "You don't need to do that. She's twenty-one," he said in a low, very smooth voice. "We're all of age."
"That's okay, go ahead." The bouncer waved them in.
"Except the man in the suit," added Adrian.
"Can I see some ID?" asked the bouncer as Gideon got to the threshold. Adrian herded the others along without waiting for him.
Gideon could have pulled the same mind-bending stunt, but the bouncer might have gotten suspicious, and such pettiness was beneath him. He showed his identification. The bouncer, a bit puzzled as to why he'd carded a middle-aged man in a suit, waved him in.
The inside of La Club was not nearly so mundane as the outside. It was mostly dark and smoky, with lots of small tables and U-shaped booths with privacy curtains along the back wall, like wings on either side of the raised DJ's booth. The dance floor too small; the stage beside it was too big for the grunge band that occupied it. They had just finished a set and were smoking away their break while the DJ took over. The walls were bare brick, the floor was bare cement, and the acoustics were terrible.
But the crowd was as colorful -- and colorless -- as you could want. Goths, aging yuppies, drag queens, middle-aged men with paid escorts, skin-heads, students, and what looked like a bunch of Japanese businessmen. The couples swaying on the dance floor were girl-girl, boy-girl, boy-boy and one was boy-girl-boy.
Gideon surveyed the smoke and noise and flashing lights with distaste as he made his way to the booth the others had piled into in the back corner.
A waitress with spiky blonde hair and three rings in her eyebrow took their orders.
"Nothing," said Gideon.
"Three drink minimum," she replied.
Not wanting to test the quality of their brandy, Gideon pondered. "Scotch and soda," he conceded. He didn't really want to be here long enough to have three drinks. Why had he been persuaded to go along? If Josh was along -- and this wasn't the kind of place Josh would usually take him to -- he'd drag Gideon onto the dance floor. Gideon sighed.
Evelyn slid over Joe's lap to sit next to him. "See, this isn't so bad, is it?" she asked.
Gideon smiled at her weakly, not wanting to tell her that this was exactly as bad as he'd thought it would be.
"I come here for the music. I really enjoy dancing," she said pointedly.
She wanted him to ask her to dance. Well, Gideon appreciated her prompting him to ask instead of coming out and asking him like most females would in this day and age. He opened his mouth to find a politely subtle way of declining, but when he saw that her expression was all business, he knew she wanted to talk, not dance.
"Would you like to dance, Miss Evelyn? If it's all right with you, Joseph?"
Joe shrugged and spread his hands. "Hell, I'm just along for the ride," he muttered under his breath.
Gideon got up and offered Evelyn his hand in a courtly gesture not seen in this century. Adrian was kicking himself for not thinking of it first. His best tactic was to keep Evelyn and Gideon apart, so that she'd pick him by process of elimination.
The waitress brought their drinks and hard on her heels came a man in makeup who asked Adrian if he'd like to dance. He didn't look like he expected a yes. Adrian's eyes flickered over to Gideon and Evelyn, who looked like a daddy-daughter couple at a dance class Valentine's Day party.
"Sure." He threw his jacket on the seat beside Jake as he walked away.
Joe slumped, watching Evelyn and Gideon glumly. Jake sat back, feeling left out. He certainly didn't want to dance with Adrian -- he had asked Evelyn to bring him out to hunt -- but being left here at the table with her unfriendly boyfriend was no fun.
Jake looked out at the dance floor and saw that the professor's eyes were glowing. Literally. Red. Shit.
Adrian, Jake projected, you need to eat.
Joe looked at him strangely, and then out at the dance floor.
"I hope he finds a meal, 'cause I don't want to be dinner," Jake explained as if the younger man had asked the question he obviously wanted to.
"Are you usually?" asked Joe with raised eyebrows.
"I have been. Not on a regular basis." Jake hid his blush, not wanting to share his peculiar physical reaction to being a menu item with this boy who willingly slept with a vampire. "But Adrian can just find himself another meal ticket tonight."
Adrian flashed him a smile over his partner's shoulder, showing fang.
Idiot, Jake thought at him. There was no answer.
Alright, since he was stuck here with Joe he might as well make the best of it. It didn't occur to Jake to go looking for a dance partner -- he didn't want to miss anything at his own table.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?" asked Jake. "'Cause I really don't."
Joe looked at Jake through strands of long hair. "No," he answered sourly.
"Maybe if we put our heads together, we could figure it out," suggested Jake.
Joe continued to stare at Evelyn. "In two years we haven't had one vampire visitor," he said suddenly. "She talked to him," he nodded towards Gideon, "the Baron, a while ago. Three months ago, maybe. Never said nothing about a visit then. And tonight there's two vampires here. How come?" He finally looked at Jake.
Jake took a swig of his beer. "I don't know. Back in Toronto, they hated each other. He was jealous of her, she was trespassing on his turf. She didn't like him because he was a bully and he reminded her of... that Simms guy."
"He's not acting like he hates her now," commented Joe.
"Well, it's not sex he's after. Trust me I've been around Adrian enough and seen him operate -- that's not it."
"Long way to come to get fucked anyway," muttered Joe. "Okay, so what other motive could he have? I think we can rule out blood. Money?"
"Mm, doubtful. Adrian is good at ditching creditors. He just moves, changes his name."
"Well, what is there besides money and sex?" asked Joe.
"Power?" suggested Jake doubtfully.
"What kind of power could he get from Evelyn?"
"Or over Evelyn," said Jake, all the fine little hairs on the back of his neck prickling.
