They stepped into yet another room, Liam keeping his eyes peeled for those vampires the entire time, and it was like stepping into another world.

The people in that room were dressed in impressive costumes from various science fiction and fantasy properties that made the whole room a chaotic hodgepodge of nerd culture.

“Impressive,” Olivia muttered.

“You’re telling me,” he said, looking around.

He couldn’t help but smile. A convention was the only place in the world where you could see a guy dressed as Gandalf in one corner of the room having a conversation with Admiral Kirk. The rank insignia on his shoulder coupled with the blood red original series movie uniform clearly showed he was pre-demotion Kirk and not the Kirk from Star Treks V or VI.

The less said about Star Trek VII Kirk with authentic bridge dropping action the better.

In another part of the room he saw a girl dressed as a slave Leia who, predictably, was getting all kinds of attention. Though to be fair she seemed to be eating up that attention rather than getting annoyed by it.

In Liam’s experience the kind of person who wore a costume like that enjoyed the attention. To a point. Like they didn’t like unwanted sexual advances, but enjoyed a “good job on the awesome costume and spending so much time in the gym to pull it off.”

That point was driven home by a dude standing near her occasionally casting glances her way. He was dressed like Conan from the original Arnold classic, not any of the ill-advised attempts to recapture the magic since, and he had the physique to pull it off.

Like there were some people who didn’t seem to care that they didn’t have the appropriate body type for a particular costume, more power to them if that’s what they enjoyed, but a guy who looked like he could be oiled up, tossed onto a stage, and win Mr. Universe without any preparation really added a layer of verisimilitude to the costume.

From the way he and Leia kept eye fucking each other over the crowds of admirers fawning all over them, Liam got the feeling that Crom was going to be strong in Leia’s mountains later that night.

He turned to face a crowd of dudes gathered in the middle of the room, wondering what could draw their attention like that. Then that crowd parted just enough for him to see what was in the middle, and ice ran through his veins.

Vampires, and not just one. No, there was a whole group of them. There was also a strange energy in the room, the reason everybody seemed to be eye fucking everybody else, and it was emanating from them.

“Somebody pinch me,” Michael said as he looked around the room.

“Easy there buddy,” Anna said.

Each of the vampires looked like they could be models on earth. They were all beautiful, and they all wore practically nothing. They all had the look of booth babes, but they were laughing and chatting with everyone like they were paying to have fun at the con the same as everyone else instead of being paid to pretend they were having fun with everyone else.

Because of course that was the kind of thing a vampire would do when she was trying to lure someone in for the kill.

“Why would someone pinch you?” Rick asked.

“Because this isn’t the kind of thing that happens at conventions,” Michael said.

“What are you talking about?” Rick asked. “There are parties like this at conventions all the time!”

“Look closer,” Liam said, his tone dripping with disbelief. “There are parties like this, sure, but not like this.”

Rick looked around again. In particular his eyes ran appreciatively over some of the pretty vampires. He swayed as he took them in. Like he’d been taken by the strange energy in the room. He shook his head, then grinned.

“I don’t see anything wrong in this room at all!”

“Your friend is an idiot,” Olivia said, loud enough that Rick should’ve been able to overhear her, but if he heard her he didn’t seem to care.

“Tell me about it,” Liam muttered.

“I think I see what you mean,” Michael said. “This doesn’t feel like a regular party.”

“I’m definitely getting a weird vibe,” Anna said.

“Told you so,” Liam said. “The odds are good at these parties, but the goods are usually odd.”

“I take offense to that,” Anna said.

“Me too,” Olivia said, giving him a light push. Though he noted she looked nervous. She knew what was going on in here. She’d seen the vampires at work earlier, and she was clearly terrified.

“We don’t need any of your internalized geek misogyny here, thank you very much,” Anna said.

She swayed slightly, though. In a way that Olivia, who knew what was going on here, definitely wasn’t.

“Didn’t you say the same thing to Michael earlier when he was trying to get you into a threesome?” Liam asked.

“Shut up,” Anna said, still swaying slightly.

He thought about the bond with Tori. She’d been able to protect him with that physical shield that stopped their weapons, so was it possible she could also protect him from whatever mental mojo the vampires were working on the room?

“You’re welcome,” Tori muttered. “You and your friend.”

“Um, thanks?” he said. Then he realized he was talking to the voice in his head and glanced around to make sure none of his friends had noticed.

Not that he needed to worry. Everyone was distracted by the vampires, and only Olivia looked appropriately terrified by what she saw.

“You can thank me by saving me,” she said.

“Those girls are really hot,” Michael said, still swaying. “Like, way hotter than you usually see at a con.”

Liam nodded, though Michael wasn’t paying attention to him. He figured that as geek culture got more mainstream the kind of person who attended these conventions, and by extension convention parties, would start to have more overlap with the kind of person who hit the gym on the regular.

There were usually a few hotties at any convention, but nothing like this where it looked like they were staring at the leftovers from some generic Hollywood casting couch where a ten was considered at the low end of the scale.

“Hey guys!” a dude in a polo shirt and khakis said, walking up to them with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Welcome to the party!”

Liam smiled back at the dude, though he was on guard. There was something about the guy that had him on edge.

“How’s it going?” he asked, not really paying attention to or caring about the answer.

Liam didn’t want to give this guy the idea that he was actually interested in anything the dude had to say. Rude? Maybe, but he’d been caught in enough conversations he didn’t want to be a part of because someone couldn’t pick up that he wasn’t interested over the years, and he didn’t want to get pulled into one of those now.

“Pretty great,” the guy said. “What are you up to tonight?”

“Just making the rounds of convention parties,” Liam said. “Are you having a good time in here?”

“I am!” the guy said. “But I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Liam blinked. Then he looked around the room again. He wondered if there was something he was missing here. Aside from that group of vampires standing in the middle of the room, that is.

One of them glanced at him and smiled as his eyes ran across her. He shivered under that smile. It was the kind of smile that might’ve had him interested under other circumstances, but today, knowing what she was, it gave him the creeps.

“What are you talking about?” Michael asked.

“Yeah, aren’t these parties supposed to be open to anyone?” Liam asked. “You had your door open. Rule of the con.”

“I’m so sorry if we gave the wrong impression,” the guy said with a tone and a look that said he was anything but. “This is an exclusive party. If you guys don’t have an invitation then I’m afraid you’ll have to…”

He didn’t bother to finish the thought. He just spread his hands like he was apologizing, but being apologetic clearly wasn’t going to stop him from kicking them out of this hotel room.

Or rather this suite, because that’s what it looked like. The place was swanky. At least as far as accommodations went at this hotel, which wasn’t exactly a five star establishment to begin with.

“Wait, you’re actually kicking us out?” Michael asked, starting to sound pissed off. “My friend here is right. Parties are supposed to be open to anyone if the doors are open. Con rules, man!”

Liam nodded along with Michael. He didn’t want to stay at a party where they weren’t wanted, but it was a breach of etiquette.

He didn’t mind a bunch of Sparklefang fans descending on the convention, but this asshole with that soulless smile and the khaki cargo shorts that looked like they’d be better suited on a dad in his forties was starting to annoy him.

And there were those vampires standing in the middle of the room. A bunch of dudes surrounded them, and the vampires looked like they didn’t mind being surrounded one bit.

Why would they mind? They’d found fertile hunting grounds.

“They’re right,” Olivia said. “And I should know. I’ve…”

She trailed off. Liam got the feeling she didn’t want this guy to know she was an employee of the hotel considering things looked like they were about to go south.

“I really am sorry,” the guy said, again his eyes telling them just how not sorry he was. “But this party is being hosted by Brian Talbot, and I’m afraid it’s invitation only. If you aren’t part of his program then you can’t be here.”

And with that name a dawning realization came over Liam. He looked around the room again, and everything finally clicked into place. He also realized he recognized the guy standing in front of them.

“Motherfucker,” he said, shaking his head and laughing. He suddenly understood why there were so many people in the room who had model good looks. Including the vampires.

He would’ve bet good money those pretty people in the room, at least the non-vampires, were paid to show up and make it look like they were pretty people at the party organically. They were booth babes after all.

“Who the fuck is Brian Talbot?” Michael asked.

“Brian Talbot is the man who can help you seize your future!” the creepy dude said. “But unfortunately he’ll have to help you seize your future after you’ve paid for the program, gone through the first few stages of orientation, and gotten the badges that allow you to attend our party. When you do, it will change your life!”

“Wait, so what the hell is wrong with my life right now that I need the help of some guru?” Michael asked, glancing at Anna.

“Come on,” the dude said, his eyes looking Michael up and down. “You can’t tell me you don’t have any trouble with the ladies?”

Liam was getting more and more amused by this exchange. He couldn’t help but giggle as Michael’s eyes went wide. Then he turned and looked at Anna who’d been surrounded by a couple of guys in similar khaki cargo shorts and polo shirts. Like that was the uniform of this pickup artist cult.

Anna looked deeply uncomfortable with whatever conversation they were having, and she kept casting glances over to Michael like she expected a rescue.

“I have a girlfriend, thank you very much,” Michael said. “And I didn’t need to pay some dude to tell me how to get her.”

“Really?” the guy asked, his eyes darting to Anna. He looked her up and down, and clearly there was some interest there. “Well if you were to join Mr. Talbot’s course then you’d learn how to maximize your relationship potential and…”

“Would you stop talking about yourself in the third person?” Liam asked. “I know who you are. I’ve seen stuff about your program online.”

“You’ve heard of me?” the guy asked, sounding surprised.

“Wait, he’s talking about himself in the third person?” Michael asked, barely holding in a laugh. “Who is this guy?”

“He’s one of those pathetic pickup artist gurus,” Liam said.

“Yeah, he’ll probably tell you that you need to try and keep Anna barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen or something while you go out to bars finding girls to cheat on her with,” Olivia said.

“Yup,” Liam said. “He thinks the whole world should go back to what he imagines the 1950s looked like, even though he wasn’t there and the ‘50s weren’t great for most people if you really think about it.”

“Oh,” Michael said, that one word encompassing him coming to the same realization that Liam and Olivia had just moments ago.

The creepy dude in the khaki shorts who was totally Brian Talbot despite insisting on talking about himself in the third person gave Liam a once over. It wasn’t a flattering once over. No, it was the kind of critical once over that made Liam want to punch the dude in the face.

The only thing keeping him from doing just that was the sure knowledge that it would probably get his ass kicked out of the convention faster than you could say excelsior!

“I’ve already asked you to leave,” Brian said, dropping the creepy friendly routine. “And I would also ask that you don’t insult me or my methods. They get results.”

“So is the whole 1950s schtick the only difference between this dumbass pickup artist versus all the others?” Michael asked, looking around the room.

“I think his only real innovation is getting guys to go to the gym before he teaches them all his dumbass pickup artist bullshit,” Liam said.

“So what, he’s like Charles Atlas or something?” Michael asked.

“Who’s Charles Atlas?” Brian asked, looking genuinely confused.

“I’m surprised to hear a guy who probably got plenty of sand kicked in his face at the beach growing up doesn’t know who that is,” Olivia muttered.

“Seriously?” Liam said. “You don’t know who fucking Charles Atlas is? He was on the back of every great vintage comic book ever!”

“Fucking poser,” Michael said.

“I’m not the fucking poser,” Brian said. “I like Marvel movies like Daredevil and Fantastic Four the same as I loved the new Batman vs Superman, thank you very much!”

“Let me guess,” Liam said. “You’re hosting an event here because you think it’ll be a great recruiting spot for your program, and you’re telling your dudes that geek girls at these conventions don’t have as much self-confidence or something so you can neg them easier? Good fucking luck with that.”

Liam looked over to Anna who was getting increasingly angry. Come to think of it, every other woman in the room who wasn’t an obvious hired model was also getting increasingly pissed off as they were surrounded by thirsty dudes in polo shirts and khakis.

“Fucking posers,” Michael said.

“Why don’t you talk about how great Battle of the Five Armies was while you’re bullshitting us,” Liam said, rolling his eyes. “Everyone knows how well it held true to Tolkien’s vision.”

Olivia shivered. “You said that so convincingly I almost believed you there for a minute.”

“Hey, I thought it was pretty awesome with all the cool battles, and that orc warchief was pretty badass,” the guy said.

“Spoken like a true poser,” Olivia muttered.

Liam nodded. He was totally against people being gatekeeping assholes, but that was when people were gatekeeping people who were genuinely interested in the stuff. Assholes like this guy looking to take advantage of people by pretending to be interested in the same things were fair game.

Brian stepped closer, glaring at the three of them. The polite smile was gone. He looked around the room like he was checking to make sure no one could hear him.

Once he’d checked that the coast was clear his smile disappeared entirely. It was creepy how he was able to glare at them and smile at the same time, but all the fake niceness was gone now.

“You can go fuck yourself boys,” he said. “Because I’m going to be banging one of these fine cosplay hotties by the end of the night!”

“Did you forget I’m not a guy?” Olivia said. “Plus I’m probably going to be fucking Liam here at least one more time before the weekend is over.”

That sent a thrill running through Liam. Though the thrill was tempered by the knowledge that he’d have to survive the vampires overrunning the convention before he could get with Olivia again.

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to get with Anna this weekend too, as much as she jokes about me not getting laid. Once she sees Jacob Grey in person…”

Michael shrugged as though there was no need to finish the thought. Which there really wasn’t.

“But sure, have fun banging one of these cosplay hotties you’re obviously paying to spend time here duping your paying customers,” Liam said, barely containing his laughter.

Liam looked across the room to the Conan knockoff who was chatting up Leia now. He wondered if they were actually chatting it up, or if they were both actors hired for the evening to boost the confidence of the poor unfortunate nerds stupid enough to fall for Brian Talbot’s expensive bullshit.

Though as he glanced at the vampires he couldn’t help but think they were going to fall for more than expensive bullshit by the end of the evening. One of the vampires glanced over to him, as though she was drawn by his look, and smiled.

It was the kind of smile that would’ve had him walking over to see what was up under other circumstances, but the fact that she was a bloodsucking creature from another planet really put a damper on things. Not to mention Olivia was right there, and he didn’t think she’d be interested in getting with any vampires the same as she’d been interested in those Klingons.

“Come on,” Michael said. “It’s not worth getting kicked out of the convention to argue with this prick.”

Liam looked at the vampire for another moment. He wondered if she was part of the group that’d been chasing him earlier. Though if they knew who he was they didn’t show it.

He’d take it.

“You’re right,” Liam said. “Fucking pickup artists.”

“That’s right,” Brian said. “If I have to ask you to leave again then I’m calling hotel security, and I don’t think you want to get kicked out of the convention for the weekend.”

Liam shook his head and laughed, still staring at those vampires. More of them were looking at him now, and some of them seemed to be looking over his shoulder. At the same spot Katie had been looking earlier in the day.

Which he figured couldn’t mean anything good.

“You guys are about to have a really bad night,” he said.

He’d meant it to be a warning. He fully intended to tell this guy what kind of trouble he was in letting vampires into his suite, for all that the dude would probably think he was full of shit, but the guy’s eyes narrowed and he seemed to take it the wrong way.

“Is that supposed to be a threat or something?” he asked. “Because if it is then I’m going to call hotel security right now!”

“What the fuck ever,” Michael said, taking Liam by the arm and pulling him away from the creepy dude. “We don’t need your lame pickup artist bullshit to get laid anyway.”

“It’s not bullshit!” Brian said, that creepy smile reappearing when he realized they were leaving. “I assure you it will change your life, but you have to be willing to make those changes first!”

Liam flipped the guy the bird as they made their way towards Anna who looked like she could use a rescue. If any more thirsty guys surrounded her then she’d be able to start her own personal D&D table.

“I mean that’s a pretty cool Sparklefang shirt if you prefer the comics,” one of the dudes surrounding her said. “But you’re not a real fan unless you’ve seen the movie version. Everyone knows that’s superior.”

Anna’s eyes went wide and her nostrils flared. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Totally serious,” the dude said, a gleam in his eyes as he looked Anna up and down appreciatively.

Michael put a hand on Anna’s shoulder, and she jumped as she turned, looking ready for a fight. Then she realized she was staring at her boyfriend and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Don’t worry about these assholes,” Michael said. “They’re trying to neg you to get in your pants.”

“That’s not what we’re doing at all,” the dude who’d been talking to her said. “We were just having a nice friendly conversation, and I’d appreciate it if you’d back off, man.”

“Not gonna happen,” Michael said. “Me and my girlfriend are going to head to another party.”

Michael put special emphasis on “girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?” the dude said, his eyes narrowing. “Well aren’t you a fucking slut?”

Anna rolled her eyes. “And there we have it. The whole spectrum of the nice guy. From telling me I’m beautiful to telling me I don’t know anything about my favorite comics and movies because I don’t like the right version of it, to calling me a fucking slut.”

“That’s what you are if you come to a party like this when you have a boyfriend,” the dude said, rolling his eyes. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”

Liam opened his mouth to say something, most likely a warning considering the guy made a beeline for the vampires at the center of the room exuding their mind control power, then closed his mouth. He figured that guy would get what he fucking deserved, to paraphrase a line that had so recently become a favorite of guys like that.

They turned and headed for the door. Though Liam paused to look for Rick. The dude was nowhere to be found, though. Which worried him.

Rick was exactly the kind of guy who’d fall for the kind of bullshit Brian Talbot was spitting, and he worried their friend had been pulled into another room where he was signing a contract that would start him on whatever expensive program Talbot was pushing at this convention.

Plus there were those vampires to worry about.

They stepped out into the hallway and Liam took a deep breath. He knew the air wasn’t any cleaner out here than in that hotel suite, but it felt cleaner out here because he wasn’t surrounded by a bunch of creepy pickup artists.

Michael pulled out his phone and started tapping away.

“What are you doing?” Liam asked.

“Trying to figure out where the hell Rick disappeared to,” he said.

“That guy is probably signing a contract with the pickup artist extraordinaire right now,” Olivia said.

Michael snorted, and Anna rolled her eyes.

“Is that what was going on in there?” she asked. “I wondered why those dudes were so thirsty and creepy. And why they kept insulting me like that was going to get them anywhere.”

“Negging nerds are the worst,” Olivia said. “Actually, any guy who tries to hit on you by negging you is the worst.”

“Holy shit,” Michael said.

“What’s up?” Liam asked, immediately on guard because of his friend’s tone.

“You’re not going to believe who just texted me that he’s at a cool party down the hall,” Michael said.

“Bill fucking Murray?” Liam asked.

Michael looked up at him and gave him a one fingered salute.

“You’d never believe me if it was,” Michael said.

“Too right,” Liam said. “But seriously. Is there something interesting going on somewhere around here?”

Though he couldn’t help but glance back into the room they’d just vacated. Which earned him a glare and a surreptitious middle finger from Brian Talbot. Liam was more interested in those vampires, though. There was an even larger clump of men around them now.

Olivia was also casting nervous glances into the room. Though at least Liam could rest assured Rick wasn’t in there and in immediate mortal danger if he was texting them about an awesome party somewhere else in the hotel.

He struggled with what to do. On the one hand he felt like they should try to warn the guys in there, but on the other hand that guy had been a total asshole. He figured if he did try to give them a warning then it’d just result in convention security getting called on them.

He wished he could find Katie the Galactic Enforcer. Or Tori, even. He figured either one of them would know what to do. He also figured if all the vampires were busy grabbing a bunch of wannabe pickup artists then it meant the rest of the convention was safe.

For now, at least.

“Rick is swearing up and down he’s found a party that has a bunch of hotties,” Michael said.

“Which does none of us any good,” Liam said, smiling at Olivia.

“Yeah, why would you care about a party full of hotties when you have me?” Anna asked, arching an eyebrow. Which left Liam trying to decide if she was annoyed that her boyfriend wanted to go to a party with a bunch of hotties, or intrigued by the idea.

She liked to protest that she wasn’t into the idea of having a walk on the wild side, but he knew from their habit of oversharing that it wasn’t out of the ordinary for those two to find a friend to spend the night with at a con.

“I’m just trying to look out for my single friend here,” Michael said.

“Who has his own date for the night,” Olivia said, sounding annoyed.

“Anyway,” Michael said. “Rick is probably getting in trouble, and we should go save his ass before he does something that gets him kicked out of the convention.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “I thought we were trying to spend as little time with Rick as possible this weekend?”

“But if he’s actually found a good party…”

“I don’t believe it,” Liam said.

“Hey, even a blind sow finds an acorn once in a while,” Michael said.

“What does that even mean?” Olivia asked.

“That someone who isn’t good at something occasionally hits the mark,” Anna said. “Though it’d be a miracle if Rick managed to hit the mark.”

“Come on,” Michael said. “What do we have to lose?”

“You mean aside from the five minutes it takes us to walk to whatever party he’s discovered?” Olivia asked, sighing. “I guess when I put it that way we don’t have much to lose at all.”

“Except maybe your life,” Tori’s voice said, drifting through his head and sounding decidedly cryptic and ominous, which he could’ve done without.

“I agree with Tori,” Liam muttered.

“Who?” Anna said.

“Nothing,” Liam said quickly, not wanting to get into strange disappearing women or voices in his head. “Just something we were talking about earlier.”

Anna hit him with a look that said she didn’t quite believe that, but she also clearly wasn’t going to get into it with him just then.

“I guess it’s worth a look,” Anna said with a shrug. “And if it turns out the party is as bad as we’d expect from a party Rick was invited to then we’ll move on to something better.”

“Fair enough,” Liam said, glancing into the room one final time and deciding he wanted to get away from the vampires who were starting to turn and look at him despite the crowd of men gathered around them. “Lead on!”