Jonah and any sign of the girls, but the crowd seemed to have thickened, and neither was in sight. For the first time, I actually wished I'd been with Ethan instead of Jonah. At least he and I could have communicated telepathically.
"I don't appreciate your attitude," the blond guy said.
"I'm sorry?" I offered. "I was just trying to get out of your way." While batting my eyelashes, I looked him over, hoping to find some clue of House affiliation. But there was no medal, no jersey. Out of luck on that front.
"You know the password?" he asked.
"Um, temptress," I said, boredom in my voice.
"I'm going to find my date." I turned to step away from the guys and toward the part of the room Jonah had headed into, but the vampires anticipated the move. The dark-haired one moved in front to block me, while the blond one took up point at my back.
"That's not all of it," mumbled the dark-haired guy.
The other one narrowed his gaze. His eyes were in the same shape as the fanged vamp I'd seen earlier - his pupils pinpricks of black amid a sea of silver. These guys were seriously vamped out tonight. Was that a side effect of all the magic in the air? Did my eyes look like that right now?
"What's the other half of the password?" he demanded.
My stomach went cold. Even if Jonah's text message had offered up the rest of the password, I had no clue what it was. I figured offering the wrong word was only going to piss them off more. It was time to bluff, and since I was dressed for the part, I opted to play party girl.
I wrapped a strand of beads around my finger and leaned forward. "You guys don't seriously need the other half of the password from me, right? My boyfriend was the one who talked to the security dude. Have you seen him anywhere? Reddish hair. Really tall?"
"Everyone's responsible for the password," the dark-haired guy said. "If you don't know it, you don't belong here." I waited until he turned back to me to check his eyes: same as the other two. Completely silvered out, but the pupils constricted like the vamps were staring down the sun.
"And I don't know you," confirmed the blond one, his expression turning cold. That he didn't know me was a little miracle given my previous front-page antics. "I don't like vampires I don't know."
I winked. "Maybe you should get to know me. If my boyfriend approves, I mean."
The two of them exchanged a glance, and then they made their first mistake. The blond vamp wrapped an arm around my waist and yanked me back against him. "Enough with the games. You're coming with me."
I raised my voice to a girlie squeal. "Oh, my God, get your hands off me!"
"Aw, fighting's only gonna get him excited, sunshine," said the tall one.
"Not in this lifetime," I muttered, then dug the heel of my boot into the blond guy's foot. He yelled out a string of curses but released me.
That's what I'd been hoping for. I took a step away, then looked over at the dark-haired guy with doe eyes.
"He hurt me."
"Yeah, well, it's gonna get worse." He lurched forward, arms outstretched to reach for me, but I wasn't about to get into a fight with some socially obnoxious, magic-drunk vamp at a party I was crashing. I was not, however, too proud to keep my shots above the belt. I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a knee to the groin that dropped him to his knees.
"Jackass," I muttered, before adopting the squealy tone again. "And you keep your hands to yourself!" I poutily yelled, before stepping over him - curled on the floor, groaning - and hustling into the anonymity of the crowd. I figured I had a good minute or two before they barreled after me, which meant I needed to find Jonah and we needed to jet. I couldn't yet say whether Tate or Jackson had been right about the violence, but some of these vamps were definitely on a hair trigger - and I was in their line of sight.
I glanced around to find some sign of my would-be partner, but he was nowhere to be seen. Still keeping an eye on the girl, probably, but that wasn't going to help me. The crowd had thickened, which was great in terms of sheltering me from the thugs, but not for