I don’t know why she’s being so chatty. ‘Uh, yeah. I guess.’ I slide the dress over me, pulling my jeans down underneath. The sparkly fabric is warm and smells faintly musky. I hand my jeans to the girl, who’s standing in her underwear, arms folded.
‘Sorry,’ I say, though I’m not sure why.
‘At least you can come back home, afterwards.’ Her voice changes, a warning in her words, as well as bitterness. I don’t know where she came from, but get the feeling that home, perhaps, isn’t an option for her anymore.
‘It’s fine,’ I say again. I tug at the hem of the dress. It’s short and low cut, and I feel exposed, as though the glow of the candle-lamp is a spotlight. I shrug on my leather jacket, pulling it closed across my chest. The dancer, meanwhile, is in my clothes, her jacket over the top. We’re similar enough in build, I suppose, that the guards won’t be able to tell from a distance. And Nick, the other guard, has dark hair like Kyle. I remind myself why I’m doing this. To bear witness, and to test my plan. I don’t want to be Raven, and this is my way out.
There’s a knock at the door. ‘Are you ready?’
ChapterSixteen
DANCING GIRL
The club is dark and smoky, candles guttering in sconces, wax dripping down the walls to the floor. Kyle and I sit in a booth next to the small dance floor. The room is long and low-ceilinged, screens dividing it in half. I glimpse stacked chairs, grey with dust, beyond them. The bar has a mirrored backdrop with bottles lined up along it, stacks of glasses, and a fridge containing rows of white packets next to different coloured glass bottles. No caged humans here. I have a glass of wine, courtesy of Kyle. He has nothing. There are blood dancers and vampires, as well as quite a few humans, leaning against the bar. The blood dancers are sort of swaying and jumping, nothing like the sinuous movements of the dancers my parents use. The one closest to us, her shoulders bare above a black bustier, has a scar running from the base of her throat along one shoulder. Another dancer is wearing an eyepatch, her hair shaved short on one side.
‘What is this place?’
Kyle grins. ‘It’s a bar.’
I frown. ‘Well, that’s obvious.’
‘You said you wanted an authentic human experience. This is about as close as you’re going to get.’
‘Really?’ I make a face, looking around. This is not at all how I imagined it would be, nothing like the old films I watched, nightclubs bright with neon and glossy people, cocktails poured from silver shakers. Perhaps things are different in the Safe Zones. ‘But where are these humans from?’ Humans stay in Safe Zones, as far as I know. Certainly at night. Yet they’re here, mingling with vampires and blood dancers, smoking cigarettes, drinking, dancing.
‘They’re from your estate.’
My eyes and mouth stretch wide. ‘What? What the hell – Kyle! What if one of them recognises me?—’
He shakes his head. ‘Look at them, Emelia. Do you recognise any of them?’
I glance quickly at the crowd. ‘No. These aren’t our dancers.’
‘Who said they were? There are other humans on your estate. What do you think they do?’
I look down. ‘They’re food,’ I say, my voice quiet.
‘For whom?’
‘For everyone. Except me.’ My mouth twists. I don’t like where this is going.
‘That’s right. They’re food. For the guards, and for everyone else who works for your family. And when their shift is over, they go back to the Safe Zone and their families. Except maybe, on the way back, they might bribe their vampire drivers with a drink, or something more, to stop off here, earn a bit more money, or just forget, for a while, what they have to do to live.’
Well, fuck. I stare at the scratched surface of the table, ashamed. I don’t want to look at anyone. I knew, of course, about the other humans on our estate. But my one and only visit to the guards’ food hall, via the secret passages, made me determined to never see it again. I turned away from what I saw, instead of speaking up. Tried to put them out of my mind, convinced that they were somehow deserving of their fate, and that what I saw on TV was how humans really lived. HowIwas going to live. But this grotty bar, with its mix of humans and vampires, co-existing under the same roof, is just about the opposite of what I thought a human experience would be. I thought I’d changed, had opened my mind. But I can see now that I’m only at the beginning of what I need to learn.
‘Hey.’
‘What?’ I look up. Candlelight gilds the planes of his face, the leather of his jacket.
‘This is what you wanted, right? To understand?’
‘I feel so stupid.’ He’s right, though. This is what I wanted. It’s not his fault that things aren’t quite as I thought they would be.
Kyle takes my hand, playing with my fingers. I don’t look at him. ‘How were you supposed to know?’
‘Still.’ I shake my head. ‘I could have asked questions, tried to find out more, instead of just assuming. I mean, rebels attacked my home, tried to kill my father—’ my voice is trembling ‘—and I still don’t really understand their reasons, or why they think they can win.’
‘Emelia.’ His voice is gentle, as is his hand on mine. ‘What don’t you understand? Think about what they might want. What they would risk everything for.’
