THE ART OF WAR

It started with a bump, an obviously drunk female vamp stumbling backward. We were inside the would-be penthouse again when she ran into me, pushing me into two guys at my back.

She glanced cattily at me. "Sorry."

"No problem," I said with a tight smile. But when I turned around to apologize to the guys I'd run into, they were even less thrilled.

They were both vamps, both average-looking, both in button-down shirts and jeans, one slightly taller than the other. The taller vamp had dark hair; the shorter one was a blond. They boxed me in, close enough that I could smell their cheap cologne and the faint tang of blood that surrounded them. They'd taken blood recently - but from someone in the room?

I started with politeness. "Sorry. I got bumped."

"Yeah, well, watch where the fuck you're going."

Okay, bit of an overreaction, but we were at a party with a lot of people. Could be they'd been stepped on before and were sick of the crowd.

I smiled lightly. "Sure thing."

The blond guy grabbed my elbow. "That doesn't sound like much of an apology, you know. It doesn't sound like you were truly sorry for running into us."

Was this guy serious? I'd barely bumped him.

I pulled my arm away. "Again, sorry." I glanced casually around, checking both for Jonah and any sign of the girls, but the crowd seemed to have thickened, and neither was in sight. For the first time, I actually wished I'd been with Ethan instead of Jonah. At least he and I could have communicated telepathically.

"I don't appreciate your attitude," the blond guy said.

"I'm sorry?" I offered. "I was just trying to get out of your way." While batting my eyelashes, I looked him over, hoping to find some clue of House affiliation. But there was no medal, no jersey. Out of luck on that front.

"You know the password?" he asked.

"Um, temptress," I said, boredom in my voice.

"I'm going to find my date." I turned to step away from the guys and toward the part of the room Jonah had headed into, but the vampires anticipated the move. The dark-haired one moved in front to block me, while the blond one took up point at my back.

"That's not all of it," mumbled the dark-haired guy.

The other one narrowed his gaze. His eyes were in the same shape as the fanged vamp I'd seen earlier - his pupils pinpricks of black amid a sea of silver. These guys were seriously vamped out tonight. Was that a side effect of all the magic in the air? Did my eyes look like that right now?

"What's the other half of the password?" he demanded.

My stomach went cold. Even if Jonah's text message had offered up the rest of the password, I had no clue what it was. I figured offering the wrong word was only going to piss them off more. It was time to bluff, and since I was dressed for the part, I opted to play party girl.

I wrapped a strand of beads around my finger and leaned forward. "You guys don't seriously need the other half of the password from me, right? My boyfriend was the one who talked to the security dude. Have you seen him anywhere? Reddish hair. Really tall?"

"Everyone's responsible for the password," the dark-haired guy said. "If you don't know it, you don't belong here." I waited until he turned back to me to check his eyes: same as the other two. Completely silvered out, but the pupils constricted like the vamps were staring down the sun.

"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.

"I feel sorry for anyone who's not here by choice."

He belly-laughed, one hand pressed to his abdomen as he chortled. "You think any of these humans don't want to be here? You think they wouldn't pay to be here with us? Let the humans call us names. Let the press call us monsters. We are all that they aspire to be. Stronger. More powerful. Eternal."

There were vague mumblings of agreement in the crowd. I'd apparently gone from anti-vampire demonstration to pro-vamp rally in a matter of hours.

You know what I thought? I thought people needed to stop holding on to their blind prejudices and do some rational thinking. Stop forcing themselves into the mold of the lovers or haters. Some vamps had issues, as this guy was demonstrating, and there were plenty of humans in Chicago - some of them elected - who weren't exactly paragons.

"Enough," I said. "Enough talk. This girl isn't in a state of mind to consent to anything. I'm taking her out of here." I squeezed my hands into fists, preparing myself for battle, and rubbed my calf against the inside of my boot, feeling for the telltale bump of the dagger hidden there.

But the vamp wasn't buying my speech, and clearly wasn't afraid of me. "You are not my Master, child. Find something else to do. Some pretty boy to bite."

"I'm not leaving her."

He narrowed his gaze and I felt the head rush of his glamour, the loosening of worry and fear, and the urge to find a spot on the floor and offer myself over to him, regardless of the circumstances.

But I kept my eyes trained on his and fought through the dizziness. I straightened my spine and gave him a questioning glance. "Were you trying to do something there?"

He tilted his head at me, interest in his expression. I fought the urge to slink back and hide from his intrigued stare, but as long as I was the target - and the girl wasn't - I figured I could stand it.

"You are . . . interesting."

I almost rolled my eyes, but then I realized the gift he'd handed me. I glanced slyly at him.

"Would you like to find out how interesting?"

Like a coquettish teenager, I twirled the end of my ponytail, then threw it back over my shoulder, revealing my neck.

As bait went, it might not have been much, but it worked well enough. He dropped his eyes - staring at me beneath hooded lashes - and began stalking toward me like a hunting lion. I'd seen a vampire stalk before - I'd seen Ethan in his prime, moving in my direction with lust in his eyes. This wasn't that kind of lust. This wasn't about love or connection - but control. Ego. Victory.

I stared right back, even as the intensity in his expression made my skin crawl. He would drink - but he wouldn't stop, not until there was nothing left of me or her. Maybe it was the magic in the air that pushed him toward the brink; maybe it was his own predatory instincts.

Whatever the reason, I wanted no part of it.

In a silky-smooth move that would have filled Catcher with pride, I whipped a hand around and slid the dagger from its sheath. And then it was up and in my hand, light pouring down the blade, the steel leaving a comfortable tingle in my palm.

I tightened my fingers around the handle.

The vamp finally seemed to realize I was serious. His expression fell.

The dagger in hand, I looked down at the girl.

"Can you get up?"

She nodded, tears slipping from her eyes. "I'm okay. But I want to go home."

I reached out my hand. When she grabbed it, I tugged her to her feet. Unfortunately, getting her to her feet didn't help us much. We were still surrounded - by one vamp pissed that I'd poached, and by a dozen more who didn't have a specific interest in the girl but seemed bizarrely eager for a fight.

Was this the violence Mr. Jackson had spoken about?

I swallowed down fear that knotted in my throat, and stood straight, gazing out at the crowd with forced bravery. "I'm taking her out of here right now. Anyone got a problem with that?"

I should have known better than to phrase it in the form of a question.

"Try me, cupcake," said the vamp who wanted me, and cold trickled down my spine. I was strong and fast and immortal, but the girl was not.

Even if I fought my way through the crowd, I couldn't fight full out and protect her at the same time.

What I needed, I thought, was a distraction.

His timing couldn't have been better.

"Goddamn it!" I heard across the room, followed by the crash of glass that silenced the rest of the crowd.

The metallic tang of blood filled the air, and all the vamps in the vicinity turned toward the locus of the smell. I saw Jonah through the crowd, staring down a cowering vampire.

Blood had been spilled, maybe from a broken glass or pitcher. Not a bad way to get the attention of vampires - and to give me a way to get to the door.

I looked at the girl on my arm. "What's your name?"

"Sarah," she said. "Sarah."

"Well, Sarah, we're going to make a run for it. You ready?"

She nodded, and as soon as the brawler and the rest of the vamps began to move toward the waves of scent, we bolted.

I understood the draw of the blood. I was beginning to get hungry. We were nearing the end of the evening, and it had been hours since I'd eaten . . . or had blood. The smell was becoming undeniably delicious, so I gnawed on my lip to stay focused, the sharp sting of pain pushing back the hunger. As was so often the case, this wasn't the time or the place.

I guided Sarah through the vampires now rushing toward the blood, her arm over my shoulder, my arm around her waist. We weren't exactly graceful, but we got closer to the door and the edge of chaos.

And chaos had definitely erupted.

The room became a hurricane of violence as vampires stepped and crawled over one another to get to the blood. One angry vampire spurred a brawl with another, and that brawl pushed its way into someone else's conversation, which angered those vampires, as well. The violence traveled like a virus through the room, spreading as it made contact. And as the violence increased, so did the magic - spilling into the air and making the vampires even more predatory than they already had been.

"I thought you might need the cavalry."

I looked to my right, relieved to find Jonah at my side again. "Took you long enough. Thanks for the distraction."

"You're welcome. I didn't exactly expect you to have pulled a blade and kidnapped a human."

He glanced at Sarah. "What happened?"

"Don't know. Drugs? Glamour? I'm not sure.

Either way, we need to get her out of here."

"I'm right behind you," he said with a nod, and we made our way to the elevators.

The doors were open when we got there; I helped Sarah inside while Jonah mashed buttons until the doors closed, muting the sounds of fighting behind us. I slipped the dagger back into my boot.

It wasn't until we were halfway down the building again that I let out the breath I'd been holding. I glanced over at Sarah. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm okay. But all those other people in there. We need to get them out, too."

Jonah and I exchanged a glance.

"Maybe you could call the police?" she asked.

"Tell them about the party, and when they come, they can get the rest of the humans out?"

Jonah looked back at me. "If the cops come . . ."

I nodded, understanding his concern. If it took cops to shut this thing down, we'd be swimming in bad press and right back in the mayor's office  - assuming Tate hadn't already issued Ethan's warrant.

But maybe we didn't need the cops. Maybe we just needed the fear of the cops. . . .

"We can beat them to it," I said as the elevator doors opened again. "Help her outside. I'll meet you there in a minute."

We shifted positions at Sarah's side, and while they shuffled to the front door, I hustled to the security desk. The guard's gaze followed Jonah and Sarah out the front door, his hand on the walkie-talkie on his desk.

"Hey," I said when I reached it, drawing his attention to me. "We just got a call - the cops are on their way to the top floor. You better head upstairs and make sure they clear out, or there's sure to be arrests and a gigantic mess. I know you don't want that in the papers tomorrow. Your, um, fanged clientele won't be happy about it."

The guard nodded with understanding, then picked up his walkie, turned a knob, and asked for backup. I hoped he had enough of it - and maybe some vampire repellent while he was at it.

I left him to his preparations, gulping in fresh, untainted air when I made it outside again. I watched Jonah and Sarah hobble across the street to a small square of green. He helped Sarah to a wrought iron bench; I stayed where I was until I was sure my mind was clear and my hunger was under control.

A minute or two later, I crossed the street.

"Evacuation in progress," I told Jonah, then crouched down in front of Sarah. "How are you feeling?"

She nodded. "I'm okay. Just really, really embarrassed." She pressed a hand to her stomach. Whatever haze had silenced her passed, and she began to sob in earnest.

Jonah and I exchanged an uncomfortable glance.

"Sarah," I softly said. "Can you tell us what happened? How did you end up there?"

"I heard vamps were having this party." She rubbed a hand beneath her nose. "I thought, oh, vampires, that could be fun, you know? At first it was okay. But then - I don't know. The tension in the room got kind of high, and then I started to feel really weird, and I sat down on the floor. I could see them out of the corners of my eyes.

They'd move around and take a look at me, like they were trying to see if I was ready."

"Ready?" I asked.

"Ready to give blood?" She shuddered and sighed. "And then you came along." She shook her head. "I'm just really embarrassed. I shouldn't have been there. I shouldn't have gone." She looked up at me. "I really want to go home. Do you think you could find me a cab?"

"On it," Jonah said, stepping back to the road to scan for passing cabs. It was late, but we were still within a couple of blocks of Michigan, so it wasn't completely unlikely that we'd find one.

As he moved away, I looked down at Sarah again. "Sarah, how did you find out about the party?"

She blushed and looked away.

"It would really help us if you could tell me. It might help us put a stop to these parties."

She sighed, then nodded. "My girlfriend and I were out at a bar - one of those vampire bars?

We met a guy there."

"Do you know which vampire bar?"

"Temple?"

My stomach sank. That was the Cadogan bar.

"Go on."

"So, I went outside to get some fresh air - there were a lot of people in there - and there was a guy outside. He said a party was happening and we'd have a good time. My friend, Brit, didn't want to go, but I wanted to, you know, see what it was about."

So Sarah had gotten info about the rave at Temple Bar, and Jonah had found the phone at Benson's. That meant the folks who frequented the bars also knew about the raves. Ethan was going to be pissed about that one.

"The guy you talked to - what did he look like?"

"Oh, um, he was kinda short. Older. Dark hair. Kind of grizzled-looking? And there was a girl with him. I remember because she had on this, like, gigantic hat, so I couldn't see her face. Oh, but when I was walking back inside, he called her name. It was kind of old-fashioned, like Mary or Martha. . . ." Sarah squeezed her eyes closed as she tried to remember.

My heart thudded in anticipation. "Was it Marie?"

Her eyes popped open again. "Yeah! It was Marie. How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," I said. I may not have known a particularly short man, but I knew a vamp with a predilection for causing trouble. And once upon a time, she had been known as Marie.

Before I could ask a follow-up question, Sarah grimaced.

"Are you okay?"

"Just a headache. There was something weird in their air, I think."

Excellent segue to my next question. "Did you take anything while you were there? Maybe a drink someone handed you?"

She shook her head. "You're asking about drugs, but I don't do drugs. And I know not to drink anything I didn't pour myself. But I did see this. Another girl - a human - handed it to me."

She pulled a small paper envelope, the kind that might hold a gift tag, from her pocket. It was white, and there was a V inscribed on the front. I stuffed it into my pocket for later. And then I asked a question that made me hate myself a little bit, but it had to be asked. The stakes were too high.

I had to know if she posed a risk to Cadogan.

"Sarah, are you thinking about going to the police?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh, God, no. I shouldn't have gone to the party, and if my parents found out, if my boyfriend found out, they would freak.

Besides," she shyly added, "if I called the cops, you'd get in trouble, too, right? You're a vampire, too, but you helped me."

I nodded, relief in my chest. "I am a vampire," I confirmed. "My name's Merit."

She smiled a little. "Merit. I like that. It kind of describes you. Like you were always meant to be good, you know?"

This time, I was the one sniffing back a sudden errant tear.

The clack of a car door opening pulled my gaze to the street. Jonah stood beside a black and white cab, door open. "Let's get you home."

Sarah nodded. She still wobbled on her feet, but we made it the dozen or so feet to the cab. At the door, she turned back and smiled at me.

"Will you be okay?" I asked.

She nodded. "I will. Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me. I'm sorry about what happened. I'm sorry they made you feel uncomfortable."

"It's forgotten. But I won't forget this," she said, "not what you did tonight."

When the door closed, we watched the cab pull away.

Jonah glanced back at me, and then at the eastern sky. "Dawn will be here soon," he said.

"We should get home." He gestured down the street. "I actually parked pretty close. You want a ride back to your car?"

"That would be great," I agreed, the adrenaline giving way to exhaustion.

We walked in silence a few blocks, then stopped at a hybrid sedan.

"Thinking about the environment?"

He smiled ruefully. "If the climate goes bad, we're going to be here for it. Might as well plan ahead."

When he unlocked the doors and we climbed inside, I gave him directions to my own parking spot, then closed my eyes and dropped my head back to the seat.

I was out in seconds.