UGH! The responsible kind ... but not too responsible.

“I’m not 100% on sex right now, with the … wobbliness,” you say quietly, the thing inside you screaming objection as violently as it can. “I want to, but I keep thinking about impaired judgement …”

“God, for a vampire, you’re so not a vampire,” she responds with a laugh. “I wanna’ push. Because I’m still super-horny and totally comfortable getting weird with a buzz on. But if you’re being all responsible and socially-conscious, I can’t let the walking dead be more woke than me.” She pauses, glances over your shoulder, then back. “Dance? I have … some energy to burn off.”

“How are you not trashed from that wall thing?” you ask, distinctly not an objection to the idea of feeling the sexy goth girl grinding up against you through that miniskirt, which suddenly strikes you as very daring for someone not wearing panties tonight.

“I heal fast. Like I said, got my tricks, even if I’m pretty much just a puny human.” Andy kisses you lightly, one of her legs sliding up against yours. “That’s not a no?”

“Dancing sounds great about now.” She spins around you, taking one of your hands, and leads you back into the club. The bouncer, again, poses no problem given your abilities, and the two of you find yourselves on the floor together in short order.

Despite saying no to sex, it occurs to you that the two of you are only about a layer of clothing away from that. Blue 8 isn’t a “slow dancing,” club, so the way you pull her hips back into you and she rides back with the beat is anything but innocent. It’s a little hard to listen to the better angels of your nature as your hands slide across her stomach and up her chest, Andy leaning back against you and arcing her arm behind your neck as she expresses approval as best she can without words. You draw your tongue over where you bit her earlier and are reward with a light moan you can even make out through the heavy music and sea of bodies around the two of you. It takes notable effort to keep your fangs from dropping when she spins around and dances up on you face-to-face, her expression the picture of confidence and lust as she watches you follow her lead. ‘God, she’s probably got a lot of vampires like this …’ you think as she takes your hands and dips back, your hips moving together as she bends backwards, then rises up again. ‘Just keep teasing, avoid a good position to be bitten in, invite them out back … hell, she did it to me, and I’m not sure it wouldn’t work again!’

The two of you eventually regress to kissing loosely and quickly on the floor, still nominally dancing, but the grinding more in service to the lip-locking than for its own purpose. It hardly even draws an eye, not even sort of being the only people nearly-fucking on the dance floor. In a haze of inebriation and passion, you can even spot two or three people removing the “nearly,” from that statement. Why did you not used to go to places like this again?

“Be back. Get a table and a drink, my legs are on fucking fire!” she yells over the music when you finally slow down. She kisses you on the cheek before heading to the bathroom, leaving you to your own devices.

After getting a drink (quickly in a corner for yourself, back to the table from the bar for Andy), you sit down at one of the many unoccupied tables. You fumble a little for your phone, that guy you just took a sip or two from before sending him back to his buddies with a fun story definitely a little drunk, and pull it out to text Eva.

Jaq: Eva. Eva eva eva. This is Jaq. But you knew that, because of caller text ID. I’m fine.

Jaq: I am. Slightly drunk. But I’m okay. I’m with a new friend, who you should meet, she’s pretty cool.

Jaq: Her name is Andy and she stabbed me in the chest, but we’re cool now. We killed an evil vampire-man together.

Jaq: And then she let me bite her to say she was sorry for stabbin me. It was a bondage experience.

Jaq: Bonding.

Jaq: I hope you’re sleeping well, cute-face. You’re the best eerie partner-in-crime a dead girl could ask for.

Jaq: Oh, Andy is a Van hesling, so I’ma talk to her about monster stuff. Just, like, not when I’m so blitzed. And also when she isn’t.

Jaq: Love yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooou.

You stare confidently at your text, sure that this was absolutely the best way to convey your safety and the night’s events so far, then nod before locking your phone and pocketing it again. Andy sits down without you even noticing she was headed towards you, making you jump a little in your seat.

“I’m … I’m really sorry … I stabbed you … and tried to smack your head off with a baseball bat,” she says with a slight slur, grabbing her drink. “My job fuckin’ sucks. And most vampires are assholes.”

“No, no, I’m getting’ that,” you answer her. “Wait, do you get paid for this?” She snorts out a laugh, then leans forward, trying to stop for a few seconds before it works.

“Not even a little bit!” She lifts her head back up, grinning broadly. “No, just one day, there I am, and BAM! I can see monshters. Mahnsturs. Monsters. And then it’s just, like, I can’t IGNORE IT. They’re mean! Like, so much of the time!”

“Mean people suck,” you inject with a lot of sincerity for such a simple sentence.

“THEY DO! But you’re … you’re a good vampire. I can tell. I couldn’t but now I can.” Your phone buzzes and you look down at it.

Eva: Someone STABBED you? Jesus, where are you? Do you need me to come get you?

Eva: /do you need me to kill ‘em? I’ll kill ‘em if it’ll help.

Eva: And you killed a vampire? That’s … are you okay about that? I mean, Atlee, then this …

Eva: … it occurs to me you’re drunk and I’m not gonna’ get a coherent answer back, am I?

“Whozzat?” Andy asks, leaning on your shoulder. “Eva … you said that before.”

“She’s ma’ roommate,” you tell her, typing back. “And my favorite. She helped me with the whole ‘wakin’ up dead,’ thing. Even though I almost killed her when it happened.” You glance over at Andy, who’s looking up at you with either confusion or concern. “We got all sexy, and I took too much, but I got her back without turnin’ her all …” you make a fang motion with two fingers.

Jaq: I’m good. I can Wolverine if I’ve got blood. Andy showed me how to do that, too.

Jaq: I don’t think she’d do that if she still wanted to kill me …

Jaq: Whatever. I’m fine. He tried to kill me and her and this other girl, so I feel fine.

Jaq: Besides, Andy decaffeinated him with a bat, not me. I just slapped him with me tentockls.

Jaq: Do you want to come out?

Jaq: No, right, you need to sleep. Shh. Go to sleep.

Jaq: Sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

“God, who’d you bite while I was peeing?” Andy laughs. “You’re so drunk!” You nod, unable to even deny it as you set your phone down. “Hey, what’s an Atlee?”