“Is she one of us?” Alex asked as he eyed me suspiciously.

Nathan smiled, a clearly antagonistic gesture. “Yeah, she’s one of us. Not Movement, though.”

Gary raised his hands as if surrendering as he stepped away from his friend.

Alex inclined his head toward me. “Any reason for that?”

Before I could answer, Nathan stepped in front of me, and in doing so, was almost nose to nose with the other vampire. “She’s not sure about it yet.”

“Not sure if she wants to be good or evil? That doesn’t sound like a tough choice to me,” Alex said, his voice liquid hate.

Nathan tried to remain calm. “She hasn’t broken a single rule since she turned.”

“Yeah, but you know the rules, man.” Gary sounded nervous, as if they might all be struck down for consorting with a renegade vampire any second.

“And we all know how well you follow the rules.” Alex stared right at him. The tone of his voice implied an intense dislike for Nathan.

Gosh, if this guy thought Nathan was soft on the rules, I’d hate to think how he lived his life.

I saw the muscles of Nathan’s back bunch beneath his shirt. More vampires would be arriving soon. I sent up a silent prayer Nathan wouldn’t flip out and start throwing punches.

I cleared my throat and tried to sound authoritative. “This isn’t about Nathan. It’s about me. I’m all for law and order and keeping the peace, but I don’t know where you Movement guys get off with your ‘join us or die’ rhetoric. I don’t do anything unless I’m asked nicely.”

I stole a glance at Nathan and saw quiet pride on his face.

“I think you better ask her nicely,” Gary said with a laugh.

Alex sneered at me. “Pretty please, with a cherry on top, would you join the fucking Movement?”

“I’ll think about it.”

With a muttered curse, Alex walked to the cluster of chairs and dropped down heavily. I secretly hoped there would be a weakness somewhere in the chair’s frame so that it would topple from under him.

Alas, it didn’t. Gary regarded me with wide eyes and went to join his friend.

Nathan leaned close as he walked past me and whispered, “Think you can do that about fifteen more times?”

He wasn’t kidding. Exactly fifteen more vampires showed up, offering fifteen lukewarm receptions. But most of them just ignored me as they socialized with one another. The situation harkened back to my high school days, when my friends would rope me into going to college parties and promptly disappear with their new frat-boy love interests. I’d just be standing there, holding a red plastic cup of two dollar beer, trying not to catch anyone’s attention.

The variety of vampires surprised me. I like to think of myself as a forward-thinking woman with feminist leanings, but I was truly surprised when almost half the team turned out to be female. Some of the women looked like stereotypical vampire seductresses, with dark clothes and heavy makeup, but most of them were very normal looking. One of them even wore a pink cashmere twinset with pearls. She looked more suited to be an attendee at a meeting of the Young Republicans than a gathering of ruthless assassins.