Hard Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires 4)

"And I don't know you," confirmed the blond one, his expression turning cold. That he didn't know me was a little miracle given my previous front-page antics. "I don't like vampires I don't know."

I winked. "Maybe you should get to know me. If my boyfriend approves, I mean."

The two of them exchanged a glance, and then they made their first mistake. The blond vamp wrapped an arm around my waist and yanked me back against him. "Enough with the games. You're coming with me."

I raised my voice to a girlie squeal. "Oh, my God, get your hands off me!"

"Aw, fighting's only gonna get him excited, sunshine," said the tall one.

"Not in this lifetime," I muttered, then dug the heel of my boot into the blond guy's foot. He yelled out a string of curses but released me.

That's what I'd been hoping for. I took a step away, then looked over at the dark-haired guy with doe eyes.

"He hurt me."

"Yeah, well, it's gonna get worse." He lurched forward, arms outstretched to reach for me, but I wasn't about to get into a fight with some socially obnoxious, magic-drunk vamp at a party I was crashing. I was not, however, too proud to keep my shots above the belt. I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a knee to the groin that dropped him to his knees.

"Jackass," I muttered, before adopting the squealy tone again. "And you keep your hands to yourself!" I poutily yelled, before stepping over him - curled on the floor, groaning - and hustling into the anonymity of the crowd. I figured I had a good minute or two before they barreled after me, which meant I needed to find Jonah and we needed to jet. I couldn't yet say whether Tate or Jackson had been right about the violence, but some of these vamps were definitely on a hair trigger - and I was in their line of sight.

I glanced around to find some sign of my would-be partner, but he was nowhere to be seen. Still keeping an eye on the girl, probably, but that wasn't going to help me. The crowd had thickened, which was great in terms of sheltering me from the thugs, but not for finding the needle in the vampire haystack.

I decided to make concentric circles around the space. With each turn, I'd move a little closer to the middle. I had to hit Jonah eventually, and hopefully I'd also confuse the guys who thought I was nothing more than a fanged party crasher.

I made my way over to the plastic wall, which was damp with humidity, and began to move forward along it, eyes peeled for any sign of Jonah. I had to bob and weave through the crowd to make progress, but still didn't see him.

What I did see were vampires and humans enjoying one another's company. Random bits of furniture had been placed here and there.

Vampires were draped along the furniture, and humans, now brought into the vampire mix, were draped across the vampires. They seemed more than happy to be the center of fanged attention.

And I meant "fanged" literally. A few of the humans had already been tapped - with a vampire at a wrist or attached to someone's carotid. I worked to block out the perk of interest the blood prompted - wishing I'd had a prophylactic drink box before I'd left - and to fight the urge to shake the humans back to their senses. But their expressions fairly screamed consent . . . until I reached one of them who didn't look so interested. I stopped short.

She sat on the concrete floor, her back against a steel post. Her knees were up, her head rolled to the side, eyes slowly blinking, as if she was having trouble focusing on the world around her.

Glamour. A lot of it, if the tingle in the air was any indication.

Humans volunteering to dabble in the dark was one thing. But this looked like something different. Something much less consensual.

Ethan had told me once that glamour was about reducing a human's inhibitions. That a human wouldn't do anything he or she didn't ordinarily want to do. But there was nothing in this girl's eyes that spoke of pleasure . . . or consent.

I'd never drunk from a human before. Of course, I also hadn't really had the urge. My recent experiences with humans hadn't exactly been pleasant. And this girl? Suffice it to say I found nothing even mildly interesting, vampire or not, about biting a girl who seemed to be drugged beyond her capacity to consent to the act. I guess rationality could overcome hunger.

I crouched down in front of her and couldn't see any visible bite marks. While she might have been bitten in some hidden spot, there wasn't any blood in the air.

"Are you all right?" I asked her.

She looked up at me, her eyes orbs of black, her pupils almost fully dilated. The opposite of the vamps' eyes. "I'm perfectly content."

I was pretty confident she didn't actually believe that. "I think that's the glamour talking.

Have you - have they - "

"Did they drink my blood, do you mean?" She smiled a bit sadly. "No. I keep hoping they will.

Do you think it's because I'm not pretty enough?" She reached out a wobbly hand and touched the end of my ponytail. "You're very pretty."

But then her hand dropped, and her eyes fluttered closed. She looked pale. Too pale. I wasn't sure if glamour was strong enough to actually sicken a human; if not glamour, and not blood loss, maybe something slipped into her drink?

Whatever the reason, I needed to get her out of here.

Her eyes opened again, just a sliver beneath her lashes. "You'll live forever, you know. All vampires do."

"Unfortunately, probably not the ones who get into as much trouble as I do."

I should have knocked on wood after saying that, but at least I smelled old blood on the vampire behind me before he attacked.

I mouthed a silent curse before standing and spinning to face him. He was tall and muscular with dark, curly hair and a chin that fell on the wrong side of too square. There was blood at the corner of his mouth, and I'm proud to say I didn't have the slightest interest in it.

And his eyes - wholly silvered just like those of the other vamps I'd seen.

"Are you poaching, vampire?"

"She's sick," I told him. "This isn't the place for her. You want human blood, find it somewhere else."

The vampires around us began to glance our way, their gazes darting between me and him as if they were trying to work out whose side they should take. He looked around at them, a cajoling smile on his face.

"Aw, do we have a human sympathizer on our hands? Do you feel sorry for the little humans?"

Not so much sorry for as empathetic. I knew what it meant to be drunk without consent. With some luck, I'd made it through my attack, but I wouldn't wish it on anyone else.

Unfortunately, the vampires around me weren't yet convinced.