Ch 1

Pam was checking ID's at the front of Fangtasia as she usually did, wearing the same bored expression on her face as every other night. She was unusually annoyed on this particular night due to the surplus of underage blood bags. After telling the tenth underage human to leave, she became curious. She wondered if it was someone undermining their business, trying to get them to serve minors.

When the eleventh one that night came up, her ID obviously drawn-on in a poor attempt to make Pam think she was 21, she decided to find out. She moved her eyes from the card in her hands to the girl, who was fidgeting while looking at her, her expression excited and anxious, waiting for Pam to let her in. Pam locked eyes with the girl, and her mind became like putty in her cold hands.

"Why did you come here tonight ?" Pam asked, her voice taking a soothing, hypnotic edge.

"School let out today, so all the juniors and seniors are lookin' for fun." She said rather matter-of-fact as Pam rolled her eyes.

"So why come here?" Pam continued, not satisfied with the girl's answer.

"We thought, with y'all being vampires an all, you might be willin' to serve minors. Do ya?"

"No, we don't." Pam told the girl, pursuing her lips. Eager to rid herself of the insolent girl and her trashy hoop earrings, she sent her home. The next hour passed the same way, with her sending more minors home then allowing adults in.

In the corner of her eye she spotted a group of people, most of which she recalled from nights before. She casually caught one of the regular's eyes andnodded her head, beckoning the group into Fangtasia.

Inside, loud music was thumping, and a sea of sweaty bodies were pressed up against each other, grinding, shaking, and pulsing. The group Pam had ushered in tried to remain cool. One boy in the group was attempting to shake off a girl who had a fistful of his shirtsleeve in her hand. She looked intrigued with everything around her, but at the same time, frightened. She suddenly realized that the boy was trying to unpeel her fingers from around his sleeve so she gave him a dark scowl.

"You promised you would take me here when I graduated Kevin," She whispered angrily.

"I said I would take you here Paige. You're in now, so leave me alone!" His last word was enunciated by the fact that he had managed to rip her away from his shirt while she was focused on his face. He sidestepped away from her, smoothed out the slightly wrinkled sleeve, and after one final hard look in the eyes, he mouthed the words "be safe", and disappeared into the crowd.

"God, he's such a jerk sometimes!" She huffed, facing the remaining three in the group. "What happened to your sister, Roy?"

"She left to go to the bar with her boyfriend" Said Roy, who obviously wanted his older sister hanging around him just as much as Paige wanted her older brother around.

"What should we do then?" Asked Paige nervously, crossing her arms to reveal her electric blue nail polish on her freshly sunburned skin.

She had never been quite sure about going to a vampire bar in another town, but she wouldn't let her brother tease her for being a wimp, so she swallowed her fear and came with him. "Claire?" She asked.

A taller girl stood to Roy's left, her left hand place lightly, but solidly, on his slightly horizontal forearm, as if he was a lifeline. Her light gray-blue eyes were looking in front of her, vivid below her dark bangs.

"Hmm?" She hummed in response, turning only her head to face them, her long dark hair swinging slightly; she had been tuning out her companions until the sound of her name brought her back.

"I was just asking what you think we should do." Repeated Paige, her voice calm.

"Well, what is everyone else doing?"

"They're dancing, I guess." Answered Roy.

"Well, that's probably what we should do then." Said Claire, as if the answer was obvious.

"What about you Claire?" asked Paige.

"I don't think it's safe for you to go out and dance. It's totally crowded, and you wouldn't have a partner to dance with," She quickly grabbed her boyfriend's arm, tugging him close to her; it just wasn't cool for three people to be dancing together, especially when the majority of the dancing would be grinding.

"Take me to an empty table, you guys go have fun." Claire told them lightheartedly, with a fake smile on her face so they wouldn't see how left out she felt. She still didn't know why she even felt this emotion, she should be used to it by now. Only her school helper ever called her, but she knew that was because she pitied her. She tried to remember the last time she had gone out with friends, but found her memory blank.

"No, no. Claire we are not going to leave you alone in a vampire bar!" She lowered her voice, "They could eat you and you wouldn't even know until it was too late!" Paige stressed, her voice getting nasally and high pitched , a sound that made Roy's head begin to hurt.

Paige had real concern for her friend. She hadn't known her for long, and truly she had only invited her along because her other friends had bailed out last minute, but she still wasn't going to leave her alone. Claire's face had lost her smile though, and her eyes had tensed.

"I am not completely defenseless Paige." She snapped. Gosh darn it, she was not going to be blamed for ruining their graduation night. "If you think you are going to sit with me and miss all the fun you have been waiting months for you're wrong. Now you can either take me to a table and go dance or I will find one myself!" With that, Claire took her hand off Roy's forearm and crossed with her right arm in front of her chest, waiting for their reply.

Paige was taken aback by what Claire had said. She should be thanking me for even bringing her sorry ass down here. I would have been perfectly content to come down with just Roy, but no. Kevin demanded that I bring a third, and that we were safer in threes, as if it is a flippin' war zone or something. Paige narrowed her eyes at Claire, and grabbed Roy's hand.

"Fine. You can go find your own table. Let's go Roy." She pulled on Roy's hand, forcing him to come with her into the crowd. Roy looked back at Claire, her scowl still on her on her face, and her gray eyes facing them as they left.

Poor girl, thought Roy before he was sucked into the sea of bodies and Claire's face was invisible.

Claire was leaning against a barstool thinking about what to do. How am I going to find an empty table? Paige told me not to bring my cane, and It sounds pretty crowded in here. To be honest, she really couldn't hear anything above the blaring music, besides the people two seats down who were encouraging someone to take shots. She was contemplating just leaning against this barstool all night, until she hear d a voice come from her right.

"You gonna order something or just stand there?" A gravelly voice said, clearly annoyed. She turned her head toward him, but continued staring straight ahead of her, not making eye contact.

"No, just looking for an empty table. I can't seem to find one." She replied, hoping this sounded ok and that there weren't a lot of empty tables. The bartender looked at her as if she was some sort of idiot. His eyes went to her fitted black t-shirt and dark colored skinny jeans, all of which gave her slightly pear shaped body a wonderful silhouette. He decided to ignore her stupidity, but still internally told himself to keep an eye on her. He didn't want any trouble to happen tonight.

"There's tables all along the walls, completely empty." He said, nodding his head to a table across the room to show her, his face still showing his confusion.

"Where?" She asked as if he hadn't pointed it out. She didn't even move her head to see where he pointed, just kept facing him.

"Jesus, do you want a map? Turn around and start walkin'," He half yelled. He did not have time to be giving directions to idiots. He looked at her in disbelief as she walked away. He had heard of dumb blondes, but she was brunette. Perhaps all humans were idiots by nature.

Claire began slowly walking in the direction the bartender had set her. She swung her arms unnecessarily far so she wouldn't hit anything on her way to the table. Fortunately for her, it was a rather clear path, and for that she was grateful, but unfortunately it was also a short walk, and her hand hit a metal chair hard, and she felt the vibration start rolling up her arm. She grabbed her hand by instinct, as if it would dull the pain.

Feeling like an idiot, she felt for the chair again, more slowly than before, and sat in it. Claire sighed with relief. She usually had someone help her with everything, and was rarely on her own, so being independent made her feel good, more confident.

It had taken a very long time to convince her mother that she was just going to a friend's house that night, and that she was going to be perfectly fine without her help. Her mother was constantly afraid for her daughter ever since the accident when Claire was eight. She would never forgive herself for the pain she had let her daughter go through that day, and promised herself that she would protect her daughter from something bad ever happening to her again. Thinking about this made Claire feel slightly guilty for lying to her mother, but she quickly dismissed it. This was her night.

Claire ran her hand through her hair, which had been flat-ironed pin straight by Paige. Paige had also done her makeup, something Claire had never bothered to do before. She didn't really care what she looked like; seeing her was everyone else's problem. She had caved to peer pressure though when Paige had asked her to come to Fangtasia with her. She had been completely free that night and was in fact completely free for the rest of the summer. Paige was mildly popular, and perhaps if Paige ended up liking her enough, she would be invited to a party. Claire smiled thinking about this. Although her chances of getting into one of those coveted parties had probably dropped like the stock market since her outburst at Paige. She didn't like it when people thought less of her, or pitied her. Damn teenage hormones.

Just then, Claire sensed someone slide into the chair to her right. She heard a dull click as a half-full bottle was set on the table. She turned her head to the bottle, her absent minded smile now lost from her face, and was replaced by a blank one. It was probably just Roy come to apologize for Paige's behavior. She put a half smile on her face as she prepared a sappy speech to make him feel guilty.

"Well hey there baby," cooed a slurred voice with a thick southern accent. "I saw you eyein' me from across the room. And then when you smiled at me, well," he paused talking to take a small breath, "I took it as an invitation." He purred. He put his arms on the table and leaned toward her. Claire could smell the alcohol on his breath as he said, "How 'bout it?"