Jenny got a confidence boost when she entered the living room wearing the dress and Damian, sitting on the couch and lighting a cigarette, almost dropped the cigarette when he saw her.
She stood in the doorway and looked at him, half of her still angry and half of her feeling exhilarated.
The dress did something weird to her. Although she had protested it and had been sure she would hate it, once she was in the dress she felt rather sexy. She kind of felt like one of those kick-ass warrior-type women in the movies who could take out a dozen vampires wearing the barest of clothing. She'd never felt the urge to be like them, but since she had to wear the dress anyway, it was a pretty cool feeling.
Not that she'd want to wear something like this all the time. In fact, she was pretty sure she would never wear it again. But for once, she almost – almost – felt like she could stand against Raina in the looks department.
Damian nodded, looking stunned. "Yeah, that will work."
Jenny grinned. His expression made up for her losing her balance and falling on her ass in the hallway.
***********
An hour later, Jenny found herself suddenly very, very nervous. She sat at a dark corner table at some night club – and by night club, she meant Night Club, the kind with a black iris painted on the door. The place crawled with Night people. She'd never seen so many of them gathered in one spot before. The only thing that came close was that club The Executioners had "stormed," as Gunther liked to describe it. But that was nothing compared to this.
She had felt hungry stares on her as she and Raina had entered with Damian, after Damian had given the password at the door. If it wasn't for Damian, she and Raina probably would have been dessert.
Sitting at the table, she had to keep reminding herself not to tense up and shrink into the corner. She had to look relaxed, like she didn't sense anything out of the ordinary. Damian kept giving her sideways glances which said the same thing. But it was damn hard. She wasn't used to just sitting in the middle of a bunch of Night World people who weren't trying to kill her.
She sighed and gave Damian a look of impatience. "So when is this friend of yours going to show up?"
He merely glanced at her and looked away again. His eyes were moving back and forth, taking in everything and everyone in the place. Jenny would normally be doing that too, but she wasn't feeling like herself, dressed in this outfit and pretending to be a vampire groupie. In fact, she was trying to avoid eye contact with anybody outside of their table. "Soon," Damian said, without looking at her. He wouldn't say any more.
She sighed again and leaned back against the wall behind her, glancing at Raina, who was sitting on the other side of Damian. Despite her uneasiness, Jenny felt a little wave of satisfaction wash through her at Raina's expression. Raina sat stiffly in the chair, looking around and chewing on her lip. Even though Raina obviously felt out of her element, she still looked great, Jenny noted bitterly. Damian hadn't had to give Raina any clothes to wear; she'd already had some that worked. She wore tight black pants and one of those shirts – Jenny didn't even know if they had a name – that looked like a handkerchief with straps.
She got to wear pants, Jenny noted with an inner scowl.
Raina must have sensed Jenny's gaze, because she turned and looked at her. Jenny could see the fear in her eyes and suddenly all her jealous thoughts about Raina washed away. Raina was still human, and just as scared as Jenny. Even if she was intolerable most of the time, she deserved a break, at least tonight.
When is Damian's friend going to get here?? Jenny found herself thinking again. She sidetracked herself with scanning the room instead of worrying about her eminent death if she was discovered.
She saw a tall blond girl heading in their direction, her eyes narrowed on Damian. Jenny glanced at Damian as he muttered something she didn't catch under his breath.
The girl gripped the edge of the table and leaned across it, giving Damian a free show with her low-cut shirt.
"Where have you been?" she said. No, she didn't say it; she purred it, Jenny thought. In fact, everything about the girl seemed very feline. She had pale blond hair with streaks of black in it and her green eyes were oddly oval shaped. Her movements were limber and graceful. Jenny would've bet she was some kind of cat shapeshifter.
She glanced at Jenny once and looked away with a sniff of disdain. She brushed one hand across Damian's cheek. "I've missed you, Damian," she said.
Damian swatted her hand away. "Can't say the feeling's mutual, Ariana," he said and purposely looked away from her, as if ignoring her.
She stood up, her expression suddenly angry. "Don't pretend I wasn't the best you ever had, Silverwind!"
Damian yawned and placed his arms around Jenny and Raina. Ariana didn't like that much either. Her eyes narrowed even more, like a predator looking at prey, as she glared at the two humans.
"Who says I was pretending?" Damian said, glaring right back at her.
Ariana gasped. "I knew I should have listened to everyone who told me not to get involved with you. You're just a pile of … dead flesh!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, go scratch up a post," Damian muttered.
Suddenly the girl's face twisted into a sly smile. "By the way, Troy wants to see you." She turned around with a flip of her hair and stalked off.
Damian sighed. "Great. Just what I need."
He stood, motioning for Jenny and Raina to do the same. He took each of them by the arm and began leading them across the club. Jenny noticed Raina give Damian a look of disgust for touching her. At least she had the sense to disguise the look as soon as it appeared.
"Who's Troy?" Jenny asked as they waded through the crowds of Night people, packed together tightly and talking in groups. It looked like any other club full of teenagers. If Jenny hadn't known about the Night World already, she would never have a clue that most of these people weren't human. They were all just really good-looking.
"The jerk who owns this place," Damian said with a scowl. "We had a little altercation the last time I was in here."
They began climbing a set of stairs along the wall, leading up to a black wooden door.
Halfway up, Damian paused and looked at Jenny, then Raina.
"Whatever you do, don't give this guy any hints that you know what he is," he said softly. "He's very close with Hunter Redfern, and if he senses anything out of the ordinary, he might figure out who you are. So no funny business." He looked intently at Jenny. "I mean it, Jenny."
She looked back at him, widening her blue eyes innocently. "What kind of person do you think I am?"
Raina muttered something on the other side of Damian. Jenny was glad she didn't hear, because knocking Raina down the stairs might be considered "funny business."
Damian just nodded and began climbing again. With his hand on Jenny's arm, Jenny could sense – vaguely – feeling broiling inside him. She could tell he held a lot of old anger inside of him, focused toward this Troy person.
And fear. Jenny could sense a sharp, bitter fear behind the anger. But fear of what? She couldn't tell if it was fear of Troy, fear of what could happen to Jenny if she was discovered, or fear of what Damian might do once they got inside that black door.
She suddenly did not want to go behind that door. Whoever was in there was not somebody Jenny wanted to meet. She had a bad feeling about him. But maybe that was just something she was getting from Damian. She swallowed and forced the feeling down.
Damian knocked on the door at the top of the stairs. A wooden slat in the door slid back and a pair of dark eyes looked out.
"Yes?" a voice asked.
Damian stepped up to the window, leveling his gaze at the person inside. "Yeah, I vant to suck your blood."
Jenny raised an eyebrow at Damian at that.
A pause, then the doorkeeper suddenly laughed. "Damian? Holy shit, is that you?"
Damian suddenly grinned. It brightened his face considerably. Jenny didn't think she'd ever seen him smiling so genuinely before.
"Yeah, it's me, Toby," he said.
The door opened and a small boy – he looked like a small boy anyway, short and thin, with ear-length brown hair lying untamed around his head – grabbed Damian's arm and yanked him inside the room, which was decked out in red velvet furniture, like some exotic waiting room in Hell.
"I knew you'd be back some day!" the boy exclaimed. "Man, am I glad to see you!" He had taken Damian's hand and was pumping it up and down wildly.
"Good to see you too," Damian said. "I'm glad to see that you haven't gotten yourself killed yet."
The boy slapped Damian's arm. "Aw, come on. You know me. I'm tough!" He suddenly noticed jenny and Raina standing in the doorway. He winked at Damian. "Well, well, what do we have here? I see you haven't lost your touch, Damian. Who are they?"
Damian motioned them inside, slipping an arm around their waists. "These are my girls, Toby."
Jenny almost laughed out loud. She could just see Raina trying not to react to Damian touching her. She smiled at Toby. Might as well make it look real, she thought.
Toby nodded. "Well, they're going to have to stay here if you're going to see Troy," he said, giving Damian a look which Jenny plainly read as meaning "because they're human." Apparently, Toby wasn't very good at subtlety.
"Of course," Damian said.
His arm slipped away from her waist, and Jenny suddenly felt alone, like she had lost her connection with the world. Once again, the feeling of dread rose up inside her, and she impulsively grabbed his hand as he stepped forward. He turned and looked at her. Jenny stared into his eyes, willing him to here her thoughts – Please, be careful. We need you. I need you. An image of Michael rose in her mind and Jenny, without realizing it, pushed it back down before she could think the rest – I need you … to get Michael back.
The violet ring around the pale blue of his eyes seemed to pulse, swirling with unnatural energy. He nodded. "I'll be back." He withdrew his hand and turned to follow Toby to another black door on the other side of the room.
Jenny ignored the startled looks Raina was giving her and moved closer to the door. She wanted to see what was on the other side.
As Toby reached for the door handle, Damian turned and gave her one last long look. In it, she could feel the deep and despairing longing he felt for her. The light reflecting off his eyes reminded her of the night before in the moonlight, when she had almost let herself go. At that moment, he didn't seem inhuman, or fiendish, or evil. He was just Damian, and he loved her unexplainably and unconditionally. Jenny knew then that being soulmates meant never falling out of love, even if that love was unfulfilled. And she suddenly knew that Damian would go on loving her for as long as she lived, and maybe even after. But could she ever return the love that Damian so wanted to give her?
Sometimes love was just too painful to give.
He turned from her, and the train of her thoughts was broken, shattered into nothingness. The image of Michael popped up again in the back of her mind and this time she let it stay.
The door opened, revealing nothing but blackness, a pit of evil darkness waiting to swallow up anyone who entered. The two stepped into the darkness and disappeared.
Jenny took a step forward. She felt suddenly certain that she would never see Damian again.
The door slammed shut.