I got halfway to the club. Which was honestly better than I should have thought I would. Halfway to the club when Seb showed up.

“Hey there.”

“Hey,” he said, a bit nervously.

I hoped the nerves didn’t mean he was going to be the next person hitting on me – although at least he was fairly harmless. “What’s…wrong?”

There seemed to be something wrong, so that was what came out instead of the more neutral what’s up.

“I could use your help.”

“Okay. I’m going to an all ages club…come with me?”

“People might think…”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care if people think you’re my boyfriend or date or whatever. It’s a good place to talk. Do you need somebody beating up?”

He looked down at his feet and mumbled something which might be a yes.

I continued towards the club. We could sit in a booth and discuss it with soda, like civilized people. I very much wanted to be civilized people that night. He followed, still looking at his feet.

Whatever was wrong, he was embarrassed about asking for help. I bought him a coke and guided him to a booth. “Talk to me.”

“I’m supposed to be good at this stuff, but…”

“What do you need beating up?”

“Couple of vampires. They’re hanging out in the park and now a kid’s gone missing and I should have taken them out before and I should be able to handle a vampire.”

Vampires had struck me as easy, but I didn’t say that. Seb had lost all of his cocky confidence. “Did they…”

“They have to actually intend to turn you. Or it’s just a nasty bite.” He rolled up his sleeve. Fang marks.

“Ow. You should maybe get antibiotics for that.”

“I did. I told them it was a stray dog. They made me get rabies shots too.”

Ugh. They might not inject them into the stomach any more, but rabies shots sucked. “Okay. How about we get something to eat and then go deal with them?”

“We?”

“We.” I wasn’t going to let him hide behind me, not when I knew he was going to be annoyed with himself for doing it. “We’ll need to swing by my place, I don’t have my sword with me.”

“Okay. Just don’t…”

“I don’t think I have to worry about being bitten. I’d give them indigestion.” A pause. “Do you have…”

“I have holy water. That helps.”

I nodded. “Okay. Food first.” Because I had a feeling he hadn’t eaten all day and now I thought about food, I was rather hungry myself. Food was one of those things you didn’t remember you needed until you thought about it, sometimes. The club had food…it wasn’t great, but you could get a sandwich. He ordered a club, I bought a croque monsieur, munched on it. Between munches. “So, they’re in a park?”

“There’s like this…tunnel kind of thing that I think they’re denning up in. You know how vampires are. They don’t exactly care about their living conditions.”

I remembered the state the previous vampire den had got into and shuddered. “I definitely do.”