*CHAPTER 57*

*CHAPTER 57*
I adjusted my clothes and hair back into place as Malcolm finished fastening the button of his pants, slipping his phone back into his pocket from where it had fallen to the floor a few moments ago during our desperate collide against the wall, 'We have ten minutes until Caleb's band comes out. We need to find Ricky before that happens and people start getting more crazy. Let's go. Let me know if you see a guy with an eyepatch.'

People pushed closer to the stage, ready to get good views of the bands, leaving other parts of the floor, not clear but more manageable to walk through. I wasn't used to this type of thing, clubs and parties and crowds. Had never been one for this type of thing before, but something about the atmosphere of it all had my heart pounding out something buzzing and fizzing through my veins. The lights and music, the energy something palpable that buzzed against my skin.

I forced myself to focus, peering through the growing fog now positively pouring from the machines, eyes catching on one of the costumed figures now passing out drinks and necklaces.

Over there, I jabbed Malcolm in the arm, over by the VIP lounge. The pirate. He's wearing an eyepatch.Malcolm's head turned in the direction I pointed to. 'That's got to be him.'

Malcolm swerved his way through the crowd, more expertly than I did. I kept getting jostled by people, rekindling the dull ache in my ribs.

'The next person who steps on my foot is going to get a hole burned into their pants.' Malcolm's voice reverberated through my head.

It's not their fault you have giant oaf feet. I pushed back down the bond.

He leveled a scowl over his shoulder at me, unamused.

The pirate offered us drinks as we approached.

"Nice eyepatch you have there," Malcolm started.

I wanted to shove him to the ground. Could he not be a jerk to someone for five minutes? For some reason I'd thought he'd be a little more professional for his job, if nothing else, but I'd apparently given him too much credit.

The pirate looked on as unamused as I was.

"Are you Ricky?" I asked him, trying to distract him from the idiot next to me.

His eye fell to me, "Yeah, I'm Ricky. Who's asking?"

"A private investigator who's searching for the person who did that," Malcolm gestured to his patch, "to you."

His eye bounced between us, looking unconvinced, "Did Louis put you up to this?"

"The person who attacked you has hurt other people—" I explained, trying to keep my voice soothing, "a lot of other people. We're trying to make sure he's stopped."

Ricky's lip curled in disgust, "Good, I hope you catch that creepy son of a bitch—"

"If you don't mind my asking," I stepped a little closer so he could hear me over the group of girls chattering as they walked past, "Why didn't you report your attack to the police?"

"For starters, I didn't think anyone would believe me to begin with..."

"What do you mean?" I pressed.

He took a deep breath, "It all happened so fast, but I think I was kidnapped by a vampire." When he finished, he braced himself like he wasn't sure how we would react to him.

"Did it have black eyes? Pale skin? Needle-like teeth?" Malcolm asked.

Ricky blinked at him in shock, "Yeah, how did you know about that?"

"I was attacked by one too." I pulled back the edge of my shirt to show him the scar on my shoulder. The bite mark scar that hadn't gone away no matter how much of Jenna's cream I'd put on it. I grimaced at the memories of that strange creature in my doorway. If Malcolm hadn't shown up when he did, I may have ended up like Ricky had.

Something about seeing my scar and our acknowledgement that he wasn't actually crazy made him comfortable enough to keep talking. Had his shoulders slumping in either relief as he continued talking.

"The thing cornered me outside in the parking lot. All the sudden I was getting bitten." He pulled up the sleeves to show me the weird half moon looking scar on his wrist that was similar to my own, "And I must have blacked out or something. I woke up to a different guy leaning over me. He called himself something weird...the watcher or something like that."

"The Eye?"

"Yeah, that's it. Freaky bastard. Then he took my actual eye. I was in some sort of bloody circle, full of candles and shit. He was muttering to himself about how he finally figured it out, how the subjects needed to still be alive for the curse to work. Something like that. Like he had been doing some sort of experiments or something and I was just a lab rat or something. I passed out I think from the pain, and when I woke back up, I was in the Nightshade parking lot next to my car. I drove to the hospital and checked myself in."

"And you don't remember anything about the guy who did this to you? Did you see his face?"

"He was wearing a hood, so I didn't see what he looked like. But he did have a few strange tattoos on his hands...they looked homemade or something. Not exactly professionally done."

Malcolm and I shared a look. We didn't have time to ask him any more questions though, because we were suddenly interrupted. From our left, two giant middle-aged men in black came up to stand beside us, narrowed eyes appraising as they looked us up and down.

Malcolm didn't seemed particularly worried by their hulking size like I was. He tilted his head in their direction, annoyance dripping off him in waves, "Yes?" He asked, exasperation evident.

"We're going to need you two to come with us." One of the bouncers told us. Their tones and body language didn't brook much room for argument. We followed as one of the men led the way, the other bouncer taking up the rear to make sure we followed. We trailed behind them to a door partially hidden in the wall off to the side of the side of the VIP rooms.

What did I tell you?! I knew we were going to get kicked out. I said to Malcolm down the Bond.
I don't think we're getting kicked out. Malcolm thought back.

A short walk through a narrow and dimly lit hallway brought us into a lounge of some sort. Two guys and a girl stood off to the side, talking to another bouncer. The girl had blue hair and was obviously panicking. Caleb's bandmates.

They recognized Malcolm as he came in, "Malcolm," the guy with the shaved head's eyes lit with relief, "we heard you were coming."

Malcolm took a step in their direction, eyes flickering around the room, taking stock of things, "What happened?" His face and voice were surprisingly calm, but there was an undercurrent of something just below the surface.

"It's Caleb." The girl with the blue hair said, brushing a strand from from her eye, lower lip quivering, "He disappeared."