He opened his mouth to respond to the cryptic comment, but immediately the area sprang to life, sounds wafting toward him that had been muted before, and a faint, neon glow emanating from the other room and spilling out to where they stood. Heather bounded inside, not waiting for him, and as he strode into the next portion of the building, he struggled not to gawk, shutting the door behind him while aware he’d officially wandered too far to turn back now.

An unfamiliar woman sat behind a desk and waved Danny over to where Heather already stood. The room had been tastefully decorated, but also bore a bright, pastel motif, subdued only enough to make it still pleasing to the eyes, but far more cheerful than Nocturne could ever be. Another woman and a man stood guard by a set of stairs leading both upstairs and downstairs, engaged in conversation, and through-out the area, Danny could hear music, laughter, and moaning.

“What the hell is this place?” he muttered under his breath.

“Are you high, sweetheart?” the woman behind the desk asked, breaking his stupor and forcing him to focus on her again. Danny finally wandered to her and though her smile brightened, it remained closed-mouthed. “You know the drill.”

“The drill?” He glanced at Heather, watching her rummage through her pockets and empty them out onto the desk. When her purse joined the collection, he said, “Right, sorry,” and followed suit. His wallet and keys made it onto the desk, followed by the small amount of change that had been jangling loose. “I’m not high, but I’m just shy of drunk.”

“Who do you belong to?”

“Liam.” Reciting the name had become a safety net that had yet to snap. “I don’t know if he’s expecting me, though.”

“Well, he’ll be pleased that you’re drunk, hon. Might want to have a coffee and sober up a little first.”

Danny nodded, reading the subtle sarcasm in her first comment without need for translation. Heather left her belongings on the desk, walking to the stairs to begin her descent. While she disappeared, the woman at the desk led Danny to a back area housing a kitchenette. “Eat something, too,” she said. “There should be food you can heat up in the refrigerator.”

“Got it,” Danny said, and with that, the woman left him alone.

He switched on the light and furrowed his brow when presented with yet another well-decorated room. All the appliances were state-of-the-art, the coffeemaker keeping half a carafe of coffee heated on its burner, but otherwise meticulously maintained. Danny pulled a mug from the cupboard, filling it with black coffee first and bringing it with him to the refrigerator. “Well, at least they’re conscientious,” he said, taking a sip first before opening the door.

The sight of blood on the top shelf, however, led him to slam the door shut.

His pulse raced, grip on the mug tightening. When he second-guessed what he’d seen, he opened the door again and as he examined the packets, he saw ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘O’ listed, with either a plus or minus sign beside them. Nothing else about the bags indicated how they’d been obtained, and in the shelves beneath them, containers with prepared food had been arranged. Danny reached for one and pulled it out, bringing it to the counter where he set both the container and mug down so he could examine the food.

Danny hadn’t known what he expected when he opened the container. When he saw steak, spinach, and potatoes inside of it, the lack of anything insidious only confused him further. The fear of what might happen if he ate it conflicted with a gnawing that formed in his stomach, though he reminded himself he’d already started to ingest his coffee.

If these were pseudo-immortals, Danny thought as he placed the container in a microwave, then they were devoted toward appearances.

When nothing bad happened after his first few bites of food, he consumed the rest. After depositing the mug and empty container in a sink, he walked back out to what he had decided was a reception area, halfway determined that any idiot with a blood fetish could steal a pint from him if they continued feeding him so well. Regardless of whoever this Liam guy was, he took care of his ‘Pets’, whatever that meant. And the slow walk toward sobriety had become warm and pleasant, all-of-a-sudden.

Danny walked to the stairs without a second thought. The duo keeping watch allowed him down while protecting the stairs leading upward, and though that struck him as odd, Danny decided against fighting resistance, obediently descending into the basement area. The music – far more pop than Goth – became louder. As Danny reached the bottom, he prepared himself for anything.

And yet, what he found managed somehow to defy the limits of his imagination. The visual assault greeting him impacted too quick for him to focus on one thing, and with a dizzy head he struggled to sort out the chaos that filled his line of sight. There were couches and chairs. Rugs covering the concrete floor and a bar area at the back of the room. More neon signs. Several people filling the space. One couple having sex. What appeared to be neck-kissing with one until his mind finally settled on the most dizzying portion of what he saw. As one woman lifted her lips from the other woman’s neck, blood dribbled from puncture wounds, running down the donor’s back, the same way the blood had from Danny.

And in the other woman’s mouth, two long, pointed teeth, covered in red slid back up into her jaw. She licked her lips and then, she licked the other girl’s wounds.

Danny felt his stomach turn. His vision shifted from one grouping to another, though he realized that at least one of the participants had the same long teeth, and as he spotted Heather, he saw her topless, breasts exposed, and legs parted so that the man between them could suckle on her thigh. Whipping around, he tried for the stairs again and encountered resistance when he took one step further. Without knowing where he’d come from, and how he’d gotten there, Danny found himself eyeball-to-eyeball with a familiar man.

Familiar only in the context of a dream that had haunted him. Danny saw the long hair brushing the other man’s shoulders that had been pulled back in his dream, and as he took a step forward, Danny clambered one step back. “How did you find me?” the man asked, more curious than angry, but his calm only made Danny more unsettled.

“I don’t…” he said. “I didn’t. I’m going to leave. I shouldn’t have come here.”

“Whether or not you shouldn’t have, here you are.”

Liam lurched forward so quickly, Danny barely registered the movement. Without realizing what was happening, Danny became subdued in an embrace, pressed against the other man’s body while suddenly realizing the mistake he had made. “I won’t tell anyone,” Danny said. He motioned to repeat the words, but Liam cupped one hand over his mouth, the second reaching to tear the collar from his neck. As he felt Liam’s cool breath on his neck, he cried out at the sensation of sharp teeth piercing his skin and immediately, his senses became muddled; his voice distant. Everything that had been pain sank swiftly into delight and confused him as pleasure mixed with panic, making his head swim even more. Liam drew from him and Danny felt himself relent, unable to hold on fast enough to stop himself from drowning.

As quickly as it had begun, it ended. Liam licked his neck and held him upright, Danny neither remembering when his legs had stopped supporting his weight, nor able to scream or fight any longer. He heard Liam ask somebody to take him upstairs and as one set of hands passed him to another, he felt the urge to sleep overwhelm him and gave his last embers of energy toward staying conscious. After briefly disappearing, Liam reappeared with little warning, startling Danny when he made eye contact with him.

Liam frowned. “Rest,” he said. “We’ll talk later, when you’re more docile.” His words were laden with suggestion, not a plea so much as a demand. Danny felt his head bob in a drunken nod, the motion involuntary, his will overridden by something outside of himself.

Then, with forced obedience, he shut his eyes and fell asleep.