Thrall was not like Babylon. It didn’t take Justin long at all to figure out that much. Glancing around as they entered, the blonde tried to squash the niggling doubt as to why the hell he was in such a place. If he was honest with himself, he knew exactly why he was there: to learn who he truly was.

He’d become depressed since ending things with Brian. And Evan had had plenty of opportunity to reinforce the voice in his mind that said Justin had never had a chance at getting his old life back again. He and Evan? They were different. Feared, hated, strange, second class citizens. Vampires. Doomed yet somehow blessed to live a requisite ‘alternative’ lifestyle for the rest of their immortal days. Justin let himself indulge the concept, finally starting to believe that he could reimagine himself the way that Evan wanted him to. He’d even let Evan convince him to throw away the letters his loved ones had written him all those months ago. They weren’t going to be able to be a part of his future, after all. Justin had finally moved on. He’d decided that Liberty Avenue didn’t have to be the center of his universe anymore. Now L.A. could.

Oh yes, he was still going. Justin had printed the boarding pass and hidden it where Even wouldn’t find it. He’d be off to his new life in less than a week. But first there was Thrall.

The establishment could hardly be called a dance club, though there seemed to be a long line of eager patrons trailing down the sidewalk outside, quite willing to pay the hefty cover charge. Vampires got in for free. Inside, Justin glanced around at what he could see, and it had his nerves on edge. The expansive room that constituted Thrall was extremely long and narrow, like a bowling alley that simply went on forever. The ceiling was low and the lights dark blue. The music that hummed through the air was seductive, but eerily so. Despite the atmosphere, it wasn’t hard to see just what the people inside were doing.

At first glance, nothing out of the norm appeared to be going on. Justin allowed Evan to pull him along, deeper into the mesmerizing room. They each ordered drinks, adding their own ingredients while the bartender looked the other way. Justin swallowed nervously, welcoming the intoxicating lull that slowly began to come over him. People were milling about, talking and drinking. But half of them were vampires and half of them human, and as Justin progressed deeper into the dark blue haze, he could see couples laid out on couches large enough to be beds. They were everywhere: places to drape yourself. Some people hadn’t kept all of their clothes on, and some hadn’t kept their fangs to themselves.

“Evan…” Justin ventured as he worriedly eyed a man laid out on one of the couches. “You didn’t say this was an orgy.”

“It’s whatever you want it to be,” the wiry man replied deviously. “Didn’t you want to get a preview of what this life is like?”

“Yeah but—” Is this legal? he wanted to ask.

“You said you wanted all that L.A. had to offer, didn’t you? Well this is just a sliver of what you’ll see over there,” the dark-haired vampire warned. “It’s not some well-behaved human club. This is a place where you can be yourself.” Placing a hand comfortingly on the other man’s shoulder, he urged, “So go on, and be yourself.”

Justin swallowed more of his drink nervously. The man on the couch in front of him had six people touching him. Six. One of them—a woman—removed the man’s shirt with no objection. The human looked eager for their hands, their mouths. Justin inhaled sharply as the first of the six bit into the man, and his lips parted in shock as the remaining five followed suit. Again, the human didn’t complain. He looked fucking blissed-out.

Fluttering his eyelids in a heady mix of shock and arousal, Justin carefully set his glass aside. He watched them take what they wanted from the man like a pack of lions feasting on their prey, and Justin imagined himself as one of them. Over his shoulder, Evan’s voice sounded. “Go on,” he said. “Find somebody.” He didn’t have to say what for.

---

“Where do vampires go in Pittsburgh for a good time?”

“You know Mikey, that’s a good question. I might just have to find out.”

Brian looked up to the sign above. Illuminated faintly by lights, the lone word Thrall seemed ominous to say the least. And unlike at Babylon, where stairs were ascended from the street, here the patrons went down. Michael’s question had yielded inquisitive efforts, and those had led Brian here. He’d left Liberty Avenue for a part of Pittsburgh that he could neither define as good or bad, simply because until very recently, he hadn’t known it’d existed at all. Brian Kinney was standing outside of what was one of the most popular locations for vampires to congregate. Though through his research, the dark-haired man knew that humans were more than welcome too. In fact, he was banking on it.

He’d reached the front of the line of waiting patrons, all the men—and surprisingly women too—around him dressed just like anyone else ready to head out for a night at the club. Only Brian knew full well that the establishment they were all waiting to get into wasn’t the usual sort. It catered to a particular clientele, and people didn’t come there to dance. He tried to discern who of those in line might be human, and who not, but it seemed impossible to tell. They all had one trait in common though: everyone looked very eager to get in. They looked like little emo junkies come to get their next fix. It left a discomfited feeling in the pit of his stomach, and Brian was almost worried he wouldn’t blend.

As he neared the bouncer by another few feet, the normally self-assured man glanced down at himself. He’d abandoned labels for leather, Gucci for GHB, self-respect for self-degradation. Or at least, he saw it as self-degradation. Because there was eyeliner involved. But no one had ever claimed that Brian Kinney wasn’t willing to go to outrageous lengths to get what he wanted. And tonight what he wanted was inside that club. He’d trussed himself up sluttier than the time he’d been dragged along to Michael and the Doctor’s snotty political fundraiser, semi-sheer shirt and leather pants putting pretty much everything on display.

The bouncer eyed him up at the door, eyebrows raised when he found no telling scars anywhere along the brunette’s neck. “Not you,” he immediately dismissed.

Brian’s eyebrows furrowed at the novel occurrence. He was never a ‘not you.’ “Excuse me?” he said.

The bouncer smirked, “I don’t think this is your scene, little boy.”

Brian hadn’t been called anything close to ‘little boy’ in nearly a decade. “Why the hell not? Aren’t I good enough for your vampires to suck on? I’ve got someone in there waiting on me.”

“Really?” Bouncer man didn’t look convinced. Brian was obviously fresh meat, and both men knew it.

But Brian was nodding. He pulled his closed fist from within his pants pocket, displaying bills that more than doubled the advertised cover charge, and a vial of clear liquid as well. “I share party favors, too.”

The man stared hard at him for a moment, before taking the money and allowing Brian through the door. Humans that came with V and other favors were good for business, no matter their level of experience with the scene. “Play at your own risk,” he muttered, before turning back to decide who else would be admitted that night. Several eager patrons surged forward to volunteer.

Inside, it was dark and cool blue, UV up-lighting casting just enough of a haze onto everything and everyone to illuminate, but not define. But given the outlines of half-naked and completely naked bodies, Brian was sure that the darkness wasn’t by mistake. He stepped carefully through the throngs of people, trying to remain anonymous as he searched them out with his eyes. To himself, the dark-haired man thought that if this place didn’t exemplify the term “den of iniquity,” then he didn’t know what did. People were tangled up in the shadows and the blue haze, drinking and fucking and feeding. In a way, it reminded the promiscuous man of an extremely luxe version of Babylon’s back room.

The only difference was that here it was all done in the open, and that women were present en masse as well. With numbers bordering on what would constitute a busy night in Babylon, Brian was a little taken aback by how many people were into this sort of scene. He blinked at them through the darkness, hoping that he didn’t look as uncomfortable as he felt. He was there posing as a vampire junkie, after all. And even though this was all in the hopes of somehow tracking Justin down and luring him back, Brian couldn’t deny that he hadn’t felt so intimidated by a group of people since the time he’d walked into Justin’s twelfth grade prom.

And just as he was marveling that he’d never actually been in a nightclub that catered to all sexual orientations, one of the aforementioned women in the room pushed off from the bar, approaching him with a purposeful smirk. With a nervous gulp, Brian decided that vampires were definitely more intimidating than twelfth graders.

---

In the very back of the expansive lone room of Thrall, Justin had found his “somebody” for the night.

He had him pressed against the wall near one of the massive couches, his back to Justin’s front. Six two, lean muscular build, dark brown hair and aquiline features made him gorgeous; Justin’s cup of tea. The fact that everything but his blue eyes could’ve been directly mistaken for Brian may have been why Justin had him turned to face the wall. But that wasn’t something the blonde vampire was willing to admit to himself.

“You want to fuck me too?” Tall dark and handsome asked, in a voice that very much ruined the illusion of who he could have been. Brian never would have asked that.

Justin squeezed his eyes shut, chastising himself for doing it again. All this thinking of Brian just had to stop. Moving onwards, he pushed harder against talldark’s back, resting his face in the cradle of his neck. “What I want is to eat,” he said bluntly, taking in the scent of the man’s skin. When he placed his lips against his throat, he could feel the thrumming rush of his blood, coming at him in rhythmic waves. All he had to do to get at it, to loose that heady, rich nectar and have it flowing over his tongue; was bite. So beautifully simple. “Can I?”

“Yeah.” Talldark sounded aroused, eager. He canted his head to the side, “Go for it.”

Justin licked his lips, excitement flushing his veins. He’d had enough practice at this by now that the prospect of sinking his teeth into a human’s vital pathways no longer scared the shit out of him. It thrilled him. Digging his fingers harshly into the man’s arms, he whispered for him to hold still, before surging in. Talldark gasped, sounding rightly pained as the vampire behind broke skin. As Justin drank, the sounds the human made turned to ones of gasping pleasure, urging him on and on. Justin fed and, if you’d asked him, he couldn’t have guessed who felt more ecstatic as they stood there, locked against the wall in their violent embrace.

---

“You look lost.”

The woman’s voice was smooth and sultry. It was the kind of voice Brian would have used in an advert for luxury lingerie, or women’s fragrance. When he turned to glimpse her fully, the dark haired executive thought that she had a face worthy of commercials as well. The woman was gorgeous. “I’m Irena,” she introduced, cool confidence radiating from her every pore.

Brian gave a polite smile. Stunning might have been the word for this woman, whom he quickly surmised to be a vampire. Her hair and makeup were effortlessly done, her posture lax yet proud. She’d sidled up to him until they were intimately close, and the promiscuous man realized that he was about to be propositioned. Brian blinked in surprise. At six two, he barely reached her height. Though to be fair, women’s footwear did tend to give the advantage. He took the drink she handed over, if for nothing else than to calm his nerves of being in the situation that he was. “Brian,” he finally said over the rim of the glass, offering his own name.

“I saw you when you walked in. Couldn’t take my eyes off of you.”

“Many can’t. But feel free to keep looking.”

The woman—Irena—chuckled at him. “You haven’t been here before,” she said, stating more than asking. Brian was ignoring the voice in his head that was telling him to rebuff the woman. His curiosity was piqued by this place, these people, and it had him cancelling out his better judgment and his ‘I’m into cock’ spiel for the moment. He didn’t try to stop her as she touched his forearm in conversation. “You haven’t, have you?” she asked again.

“I’m new,” he admitted lightly. “And you’re not?”

“Oh, Brian,” she chided, using his name familiarly. Brian knew the gesture well and smiled at her intelligence. In general, people responded to the sound of their own name like catnip.

“Irena.”

“I’ve been here before. We can leave it that.” She smiled, displaying white, sharp teeth. “And I can show you around if you want. Introduce you to some people. Or you and I could just… talk.” Her brow quirked, and she pointed down the room. “Sit with me over there?”

Brian shrugged, still trying to observe in this elegant woman how the game was apparently played. How did vampires lure their dinners in? “What for?” he asked offhandedly, bringing the drink to his lips yet again.

“Why to get more comfortable, of course,” she purred. Her other hand came up to touch his face as she closely regarded him. “I rarely make my pick so early in the night. But you’ve made me decisive.”

“Have I?”

She nodded, plum lips curving. “Come get comfortable with me.” She moved as if the matter was decided, and that they’d cross the room together to ‘get comfortable’ on the nearest vacant surface. But Brian held fast. “What is it?” she asked at the pause.

Setting his drink aside, the dark man announced, “I’m gay.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m not into pussy,” he reworded hastily.

The woman didn’t frown or draw away. Far from it, she looked faintly amused. And again Brian was surprised at her. Coming back to the man she’d solicited, she stared into his face from almost exactly the same height. “Crude man,” she murmured. “But I wasn’t offering mine. Tell me Brian: are you into mouths?”

Brian fought back the image of Justin’s perfect, Botticelli lips that flashed through his mind. “Um, mouths?”

“Yes, mouths. Because what I want to do to you involves mine,” she placed cool fingers against the strain of his throat, “here.”

“I see.”

“I promise you don’t have to be straight in the slightest to enjoy what I’m offering.”

Brian winced at her proposition, gently removing the fingers. “I don’t think I would,” he returned, clarifying, “I’m not into pain. Well… not that much anyway.”

Irena chuckled, but this time the laugh sounded as if it was at the daring man’s expense. “Just because you said that… now I know you’re a virgin. No one who’d ever been bitten would worry about anything so trite as the pain.” She laughed again, pulling herself away from the closeness that’d crept between them. “You should go on and play, Brian,” she advised dismissively. “I don’t know what you’re looking for in here tonight, but I hope you find it.”

And with that she walked away. Brian watched the sway of her as she resettled herself at the bar, and it wasn’t long before another man—this one also presumably human—approached her with a drink of his own. Brian turned from the female vampire who’d obviously moved on from their brief interlude, hazel eyes searching the room yet again. With the creeping influence of a drink now in his system, he stepped further into the haze, determined to seek out that which he’d come there for.

---

Even watched what was going on in front of him with an increasing sense of trepidation. He hadn’t meant for Justin to run away into fantasies of Brian when he’d sent him off to into the club. He’d meant for Justin to find a new toy to become infatuated with. Some stupid junkie human who would have him drawn back to the blue haze again and again for the rush of sex, blood, and being desired. But there the evidence was, clear as day: Justin wasn’t moving on, he was reveling in the loss. The man he was feeding from looked like Brian Kinney’s long lost cousin. Fuck.

The wiry vampire stepped forward, prepared to bring himself into the mix again. Justin had lost himself in the dark-haired Adonis against the wall, twin trails of near black already winding down his dinner’s throat. Stepping forward to take his opportunity, Evan laved a line up that very neck, erasing the evidence that’d escaped the blonde’s mouth. His lips ended right next to Justin’s and the other man pulled back to look at him.

“What are you doing?” Justin asked. His pupils were blown wide from the adrenaline of what he’d been doing, but he looked unsure at his friend. To be honest, after the drugs and the blood he’d consumed, he’d pretty much forgotten the other vampire altogether. “Evan?”

“Just keep going,” Evan assured, moving around to stand between the human and the wall. “And we can share him.” He bent to the other side of the man’s neck, locking eyes on the uncertain form of Justin as he bit into skin. Justin didn’t miss the man’s pained hiss as he was violated yet again.

“Are you sure that’s okay?” Justin asked Evan, while at the same time sort of asking talldark too. He looked into the human’s blue eyes, a little surprised that Evan hadn’t even bothered to ask him permission. Maybe the guy didn’t want to be gang-fanged. Maybe it wasn’t safe… Justin had seen the lagging forms of a few of the humans lying around. There didn’t seem to be a rule in Thrall as to how many hungry vampires one could entertain at a time. The blonde had somewhat suspected that the worst ones were flirting with unconsciousness, what with the number of people leeching off of them. It wasn’t very palatable.

But the man standing between them was taking Justin’s hand and guiding it back to his body, apparently his way of reassuring the blonde vampire that he was fine with whatever happened. “Go on,” he breathed.

Justin drank again, ignoring his misgivings and taking advantage of the situation. And for a moment more nothing was amiss. Evan drank from his side, and Justin from his. But after a while, the human between them began to lose his stance, staggering in their combined hold at the loss of blood. Justin drew back, alarmed.

“Shit, Evan stop,” he urged.

The wiry vampire pulled away long enough to glance at his friend, face morphed into a look of feral pleasure. “Why?” he grinned as if he’d said something funny.

“He can’t go any more,” Justin stated the obvious.

Evan gave the tall human an appraising look as he moved around his body, pressing him to the wall in front of them. “Come here,” he urged Justin, reaching to pull at the semi-coherent man’s pants. “I think he can still make himself useful.” His finger tugged at the man’s clothing again, intentions clear.

“You can’t do that!”

“Of course we can. Don’t you want to feel good, handsome?” he’d leant forward to ask the man that last, and talldark could be heard moaning something affirmative against the wall. “See? He wants it.” Evan had worked the guy’s jeans down far enough to reveal his backside.

Justin was looking at his friend as if he’d grown another head. He felt bile ready to rise in his throat at what was occurring. “Are you insane?!” he gaped, “He can’t consent to this!”

Evan laughed acerbically, reaching to cradle Justin in a familiar squeeze against his side. “He consented when he walked in, Sunshine. Now,” Evan leant forward just enough to kiss the blood off of Justin’s bottom lip. “Do you want him first, or should I?”

Justin’s lip was still tingling when he stepped back from the other man. Evan had called him Sunshine. And it had sounded so wrong. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I think we should leave.”

Evan’s features hardened at that. Turning away, talldark was left to waver unsteadily against the wall. “Why should we do that, huh?” Evan challenged, eyes dark as he realized that this was not going well for him. Justin still didn’t get it. “This is who we are. We have a right to do this. We have a right to be here!” Glancing meaningfully about, the wiry vampire gestured to the tangled couples around them. “I mean come on! Look at them. Outside everyone hates us, but these people can’t get enough. They’re here for us, because they want to be. We don’t have to feel guilty for having what we need; for taking what we want.”

“Well maybe we should!” Justin shook his head angrily, suddenly realizing how fucking ludicrous this all was. “This is wrong Evan. These people are all junkies. They can’t help themselves. And I don’t care what you say. We don’t get the right to take advantage of them. Not like this.” He’d moved to try and rearrange the exposed human’s clothing, righting him where he obviously could not right himself, but Evan jerked his hands away,

“Stop it. What are you doing?” The darker vampire looked as if he truly couldn’t comprehend what was driving his friend’s actions. Here he’d gone out of his way to bring them closer together, to show Justin all the things that made their existence so special, and the other man was acting as if he’d done something monstrous. Evan couldn’t see how Justin wouldn’t want to share this with him. “Sunshine—”

“DON’T… call me that.” Justin was backing away, the urge to escape the blue haze overpowering his thoughts. “I’m out of here. This was a mistake.”

“Justin… Justin! Wait a minute!” The words didn’t return his fledgling friend to him, and Evan panicked. Everything was falling apart. With one last contemptuous glance to the human he’d left at the wall, Evan surged off in the direction that Justin had gone. He had to do something before it was too late.