Brian opened the back door and went back inside the club. He cut through a cloud of smoke and people until he reached the backstage area. He started counting faces he knew: Mikey, Seth, Maddy, James, all in various states of inebriation. Maddy had taken her shirt off again and was sitting Indian-style atop a speaker, holding court in her bra: her frequent proclamation was that her breasts were so tiny, it wasn’t a public offense.

All accounted for.

Brian went back into the throng and looked for the blonde vampire. It was too crowded; he couldn’t see shit. “Hey, man, sorry about this, I need to borrow your stool!” he shouted in an ear, pointing at the floor to try to pantomime what he meant. Brian leaned on the guy’s shoulder and stood on the rungs. He spotted the vampire at the bar. “Thanks,” he said and headed in that direction.

‘Yeah, and what the hell are you going to do when you get there? Ask him to leave?’