Now that they have a solid plan, the girls continue on to the Count's place, worried that they need to know more about this situation if people are going to be accosting them on the freeway. When they arrive, they find his club - charmingly named Drain, which makes Issy roll her eyes - staffed by two young men who give them a hard time, refusing to let them in until Valencia makes dire threats and Issy argues that the Count will be angry if his good friends are turned away. They are eventually allowed in, but told that the Count will be unavailable for several hours, and they decide to take advantage of the situation by having a good time at the bar until he decides to put in an appearance. One of the club managers, a haughty man named Damian, annoys Issy so much that she begins actively finding ways to ruin his night. After a couple of hours and a few too many drinks, the Count finally arrives, accompanied by impressive organ music and explosive dramatics (which Helena, oddly enough, experiences as a much more unimpressive low-budget attempt at impressing everyone). When Issy explains that they were shot up because some other vampires identified them as friends of his, he is contrite and tells them that he'll be happy to find some way to make it up to them, even though he stresses that he had nothing to do with it. After conferring briefly, the girls decide that the Count could help them in their current mission, and that they can trust him with the basics of what's going on. He seems very interested to learn about the cult of Artemis and the Colossus' effect on it, and tells them that his own people have been having trouble with Aldonza's minions as well, aligned as they are with the nighttime. They explain that they're worried that their upcoming ritual with Hermione may encounter dangerous resistance from the cult, and that they won't be able to fight off invaders at the same time that they're trying to learn lunar religion. The Count is reluctant to commit physical forces to the cause, even after the shooting incident, but Issy is charming and eventually he agrees to a halfway measure: since the three ladies will have to round up as many of the moon creatures as possible to return to the sky via their ritual, he will send some of his followers to distract and annoy Aldonza's, hopefully preventing them from being able to head the ladies off or get to the lost moon exiles before they do. Delighted, all three ladies accept this as a perfect way to make up for Issy (and Valencia's Bentley, she'd like to remind everyone) being mildly shot, and everyone shakes hands before the girls roll back out to make their plans and the Count fades mysteriously back whence he came.
