I found what I needed downstairs.

The girl was at the bar by herself and her behaviour was different from most everyone else in the club due to the fact that she couldn't stop herself from staring up at the upstairs area. Everybody else was busy with dancing or posing and preening, trying to show off for each other. Not her, though: she knew there was more to this club and she wanted in.

She was fairly ordinary looking, but pretty in her own special way, with her slight upturned nose and full pouty lips. Her lips had on more makeup than they should, but not as much as you would expect from a Goth girl. Jet black hair cut in bangs right across her eyebrows framed her pretty face and ordinary brown eyes; the way she absently reached for her face and ended up having to do something else with her hand told me that she usually wore glasses, but not that night. That night was for contact lenses only. She was dressed in a black mini-skirt with fishnet stockings that would have been distracting on longer legs but were perfect on her. She was one of those girls with a slightly longer torso and nice b-cup boobs that she was doing her best to flaunt in the corset that fit her quite well and accentuated her curves. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that she wasn't a knockout like the skinny models we had upstairs, but she was still a damn good-looking girl. She spotted me almost immediately as I made my way over to the bar, feeling very much like a predator on the hunt.

The bartender came over immediately, recognizing my status if not my face. It definitely wasn't the suit, since it was no longer immaculate and I had lost (thrown away?) the tie at some point over the past thirty odd hours or so.

"Are you looking for the VIP bar sir?"

I shook my head and glanced toward the back of the club where the bartender was trying to direct me. There was some kind of roped off area with one very skinny bouncer. I thought I caught a flash of what could be Beatrice talking to someone, but I couldn't be sure. In any case, it was definitely not on my must-see list.

"Do I actually have to pay for drinks here?"

"Not at all sir. Your money is no good here."

"My man!" I said, delighted by this turn of events and then was instantly sad. I finally had a place with permanent open bar and I couldn't even get drunk anymore. "Bottle of tequila por favor! Something expensive but still good."

The girl had been watching me this entire time, and trying very hard to make it look like she wasn't watching me, but she couldn't hold it in any longer. The instant the bartender turned away to fetch the bottle of Tequila, she turned to me.

"Oh my God!" she said, her eyes wide in shock and awe. It was as if she had just seen a celebrity. "You're one of them! You're one of the family!"

"It's the eyes isn't it?" I said, now a little self-conscious. No wonder the bartender had recognized me. There were no contact lenses I knew of that could simulate what my eyes had become. At least not without looking like contacts lenses.

"Yuh-huh. So freaking cool! Syndine and Angelyne are never going to believe this. They've been trying to meet one of the family, like forever." She indicated two blondes a few feet down the bar who were engaged in talking to a pair of douchebags who seemed a little too intent on drawing attention to their blue eyes. One of them was pretending to be a little self-conscious about his pointy little nubs of incisors and the girls were eating it all up. Idiots.

"Are those their actual names? They sound a little made up."

"You kidding me? Cindy totally made hers up and Angie insists on using a fucking 'y' in her name now. Says it's more mysterious and that none of you would respect a name like Meredith. That's me, by the way: fucking Meredith."

I grinned and held out my hand; Meredith shook my hand and held on, breathlessly excited.

"Meredith, I'm fucking Bob!"

Meredith squealed and held on to my hand with both hands, such nice soft warm hands. I was aware of just how good she smelled, knew that she used Dove soap and had only used a tiny bit of perfume on her neck and wrists. Under all those layers of goth clothing was just an excitable girl who was too thrilled to play it cool.

"You're fucking with me, aren't you?" She laughed and I shook my head, laughing with her. "Seriously? Bob?"

"It's the only name I've got. Technically it's Roberto, but only my mom calls me that."

"I like 'Bob'," she said and now she was flirting heavy, leaning towards me. It occurred to me that she still hadn't released my hand and didn't seem to have any intention of doing so. She looked over her shoulder to watch her friends Cindy and Angie walk away through the crowd giggling and whispering to each other. Their fake vampire douchebros watched them go and then fist-bumped each other.

"Are they friends of yours? We could go over—"

I couldn't help myself. I nodded in the direction of the two men as I watched them try to order drinks from my bartender who was taking delivery of a very special looking bottle from one of his staff. It was a tall bottle of Barrique de Ponciano Porfidio according to the label, and from the way he handled it, it was extremely expensive. He saw me looking and lofted the bottle with a slight smile. One of the douchebag brothers started to say something, but the other one grabbed him roughly and whispered something in his ear. They both turned to look in my direction as the bartender came back towards me, and their eyes widened just a little. Apparently, they also knew what to look for and at that moment, it was me.

"If you know what to look for, you can spot who the posers are..."

She grinned evilly. "Cindy and Angie are going to be so disappointed. I would hate to be the one to break the news."

"So let's not and say we didn't!"

The bartender presented the bottle with a flourish and produced two shot glasses. He smiled as he poured for us and corked the bottle, ignoring the douchebags down the bar who were now arguing amongst themselves. There was apparently a disagreement about how best to be a douchebag.

"Will there be anything else sir?"

"Get a glass for yourself, my friend. Have a toast with us."

The bartender produced a glass and poured for himself, ignoring me trying to get a better look at his name tag. OTIS the name read. "Right you are sir. And what are we toasting?"

I gave a glass to Meredith and took one for myself. She looked at it nervously.

"What? No salt? No lime?"

Otis was scandalized. "This costs at least five thousand dollars a bottle and it's worth every cent. You want to taste every drop, not obscure it with lime and salt. That's for the cheap stuff."

"Listen to your friendly neighbourhood bartender," I noted and Meredith smelled the tequila cautiously. I could see her friends returning from wherever they had gone and they were looking over at us curiously. The douchebags had deliberately turned away from me and seemed to be trying to make themselves invisible.

Otis nodded. "Listen to your friend. He gives good advice. So what are we toasting?"

I raised my glass again. "To new lives and new friends."

We drank deeply and I grinned, relishing the taste. Meredith gasped and smiled, surprised at the actual flavour that didn't threaten to strip the skin from her throat.

"Holy shit!"

I smiled at her reaction, and just relished the warmth of the alcohol and the instant rush that it gave me before it faded away. I was going to need a lot more shots if I was even going to pretend to be drunk. I looked at the stunned Meredith and decided right then that just a little of her blood was exactly what I needed to get the high I was looking for.

"I think the bottle is coming with us Otis," I said and he nodded.

"Right you are sir."

"Damn straight!" Meredith said and held her glass out for Otis to pour. He obliged her and set the bottle down on the counter with a longing look.

"Call me Bob, and have another shot."

"As you wish sir," he said, and poured another shot for himself. "Will there be anything else?"

"As much as I love to see those two douchebags squirm, I won't keep you."

Otis glanced over and allowed a smug smile to come to his lips. He downed the shot. "Some people just don't respect the house sir. Do you want to have them escorted out?"

Whoa! Really? Someone was going to give me that much power? Having the ability to not have to pay was awesome enough, but this was really way too much power in my hands. I shook my head and poured a shot for myself.

"Give them some friendly advice before Harry sends someone to talk to them. I'm going to take this lovely young lady upstairs and give her a thrill." I paused and smiled at Meredith. "You do want to come upstairs with me, right?"

Meredith squeezed my hand tight and her eyes widened to the point where I thought her contact lenses were going to pop out. A shudder ran through her entire body and she barely breathed the next words, never taking her eyes off of mine.

"Will you really take me?"

"I'll take you," I said, barely biting back the innuendo.

"What else will you do to me?" Meredith whispered. I stroked her cheek gently, already anticipating kissing those lips and biting her on the neck, or maybe on the upper thigh. I had a flash of the girls from last night enjoying the hell out of that particular trick.

"What will you do to me?" She asked again.

I answered Meredith as honestly as I could.

"Everything."

***

Meredith was awkward and sweet and nervous as hell.

I took her into one of the dimly lit rooms upstairs where she sat on my lap and I drank from her wrist. She hissed with pain when I used the little knife to make the cut, but she kept her eyes on mine the whole way, telling me with every action that she trusted me. Silly girl.

I drank deeply and her blood was sweet and was everything I needed in that moment.

I got high and I lost myself for a while.

******** AUTHOR'S NOTE **********

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