The Morganville Vampires Collection (The Morganville Vampires #1-4) (16 page)

Claire sighed. ‘I’m going to bed.’

But she didn’t. She was tired, and aching, and jittery…but her brain was way too busy picking over things. She finally nudged Shane over on the couch and sat next to him as he and Michael played, and played, and played…

‘Claire. Wake up.’ She blinked and realised that her head was on Shane’s shoulder, and Michael was nowhere to be seen. Her first thought was,
Oh my God,
am I drooling?
Her second was that she hadn’t realised she was so close to him, snuggled in.

Her third was that although Michael’s part of the couch was empty, Shane hadn’t moved away. And he was watching her with warm, friendly eyes.

Oh. Oh, wow, that was nice.

Embarrassment flooded in a second later and made
her pull away. Shane cleared his throat and scooted over. ‘You should probably get some sleep,’ he said. ‘You’re beat.’

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘What time is it?’

‘Three a.m. Michael’s making a snack. You want anything?’

‘Um…no. Thanks.’ She slid off the couch and then stood there like an idiot, unwilling to leave because he was still smiling and…she liked it. ‘Who won?’

‘Which game?’

‘Oh. I guess I was asleep for a while.’

‘Don’t worry. We didn’t let the zombies get you.’ This time, his smile was positively wicked. Claire felt it like a hot blanket all over her skin. ‘If you want to stay up, you can help me kick his ass.’

There were not one but three empty beer bottles on the table in front of Shane. And three where Michael had been, too. No wonder Shane was still smiling at her, looking so friendly. ‘That depends,’ she said. ‘Can I have a beer?’

‘Hell no.’

‘Because I’m sixteen? Come on, Shane.’

‘Drinking kills brain cells, dumbass. And besides. If I give you one, that’s one less for me.’ Shane tapped his forehead. ‘I can do the math.’

She needed a beer, to stay down here next to him, because she was afraid she was going to do or say
something stupid, and at least if there was alcohol involved, it wouldn’t be her fault, would it? But just as she opened her mouth to try to convince him, Michael came out of the kitchen with a bag of neon-coloured cheese puffs. Shane grabbed a handful and stuffed his mouth. ‘Claire wants a beer,’ he mumbled through orange goo.

‘Claire needs to go to bed,’ Michael said, and flopped down. ‘Scoot over, man. I don’t like you that much.’

‘Dick. That’s not what you said last night.’

‘Bite me.’

‘I want another beer.’

‘You’re cut off. It was my birthday present, not yours.’

‘Oh, that’s low. You really are a dick, and just for that, I’m totally thrashing you.’

‘Promises, promises.’ Michael glanced at Claire. ‘You’re still here. No beer. I’m not corrupting a minor.’

‘But
you’re
a minor,’ she pointed out. ‘At least for beer.’

‘Yeah, and by the way, how much does it suck that I’m an adult if I kill somebody, and not if I want a beer?’ Shane jumped in. ‘They’re all dicks.’

‘Man, seriously, you are one cheap drunk. Three beers? My junior high girlfriend could hold her liquor better.’

‘Your junior high girlfriend—’ Shane brought himself up short without finishing that sentence, and flushed bright red. Must have been good, whatever it was. ‘Claire, get the hell out of here. You’re making me nervous.’

‘Dick!’ she flung at him, and went up the stairs before he could nail her with the pillow he grabbed. It plunked into the wall behind her and slithered down to the bottom of the stairs. She was laughing, but she stopped when a shadow suddenly blocked access to the hallway at the top.

Eve. And Miranda, looking weirder than ever.

‘Miranda’s leaving!’ Claire called down. Which wasn’t such a great idea, because Eve looked upset, and Shane was drunk, and letting some vampire-crazy maybe-psychic kid walk home by herself was…bad, at best.

‘Miranda’s not leaving,’ Eve said, and clunked down the stairs, with Miranda drifting like a black-and-white ghost behind her. ‘Miranda’s going to do a séance.’

Below, in the living room, she heard Michael say, in outright horror, ‘Oh, shit.’

Eve was so intense about it that not even Shane, three beers down, was able to exactly say no. Michael didn’t say anything, just watched Miranda with eyes that were way too clear for somebody who’d had the same amount to drink as Shane. As Eve cleared stuff off the dining room table and set up a single black candle in the centre, Claire wrung her hands nervously, trying to get Michael’s attention. When she did, she mouthed,
What do we do?

He shrugged. Nothing, she guessed. Well, nobody but Eve believed in it, anyway. She supposed it couldn’t really hurt.

‘OK,’ Eve said, and sat Miranda down in a chair at the end. ‘Shane, Michael, Claire – sit down.’

‘This is bullshit,’ Shane said.

‘Just – please. Just do it, OK?’ Eve looked stressed.
Scared. Whatever she and Miranda had been doing upstairs with those tarot cards had really made her nervous. ‘Just do it for me.’

Michael slid into the chair at the other end, as far from Miranda as he could get. Claire sat next to him, and Shane grabbed a seat on the other side, leaving Eve and Claire the closest to Miranda, who was shaking like she was about to have a fit.

‘Hold hands,’ Eve said, and grabbed Miranda’s left, then Shane’s right. She glared at Claire until Claire followed suit, taking Miranda’s other hand and Michael’s. That left Shane and Michael, who looked at each other and shrugged.

‘Whatever,’ Michael said, and took Shane’s hand.

‘Oh, God, guys, homophobic much? This isn’t about you being manly men, it’s about—’

‘He’s dead! I see him!’

Claire flinched as Miranda practically screamed it out. All around the table, they froze. Even Shane. And then fought the insane urge to giggle – well, Claire did, and she could see Shane’s shoulders shaking. Eve bit her lip, but there were tears in her eyes.

‘Somebody died in this house! I see him. I see his body lying on the floor…’ Miranda moaned, and thrashed around in her chair, twisting and turning. ‘It’s not over. It’s never over. This house – this house won’t let it be over.’

Claire, unable to stop herself, looked at Michael, who was staring at Miranda with cold, slitted eyes. His hand was gripping Claire’s tightly. When she started to say something, he squeezed it even more. Right. Shutting up, she was.

Miranda wasn’t. ‘There’s a ghost in this house! An unquiet spirit!’

‘Unquiet spirit?’ Shane said under his breath. ‘Is that politically correct for
pissed off?
You know, like
Undead American
or something?’

Miranda opened her eyes and frowned at him. ‘Somebody already died,’ she proclaimed. ‘Right here. Right in this room. His spirit haunts this place, and it’s strong.’

They all just looked at one another. Michael and Claire avoided more eye contact, but Claire felt her breath get short and her heart race faster. She was talking about Michael! She
knew
! How was that even possible?

‘Is it dangerous?’ Eve asked breathlessly. Claire nearly choked.

‘I – I can’t tell. It’s murky.’

Shane said, ‘Right. Dead man walking, can’t tell if he’s dangerous because, wow, murky. Anything else?’ And again, Claire had to choke back a hysterical giggle.

There was a bitter, unpleasant twist to Miranda’s
face now. ‘Fire,’ she said. ‘I see fire. I see someone screaming in the fire.’

Shane yanked his hands away from Eve and Michael, slammed his chair back, and said, ‘OK, that’s it. I’m outta here. Feel free to get your psychic jollies somewhere else.’

‘No, wait!’ Eve said, and grabbed for him. ‘Shane, wait, she saw it in the cards, too—’

He pulled free. ‘She sees whatever you want! And she gets off on the attention, in case you didn’t notice!
And
she’s a fang banger!’

‘Shane, please! At least listen!’

‘I’ve heard enough. Let me know when you want to move on to table rapping or Ouija boards – those are a lot more fun. We could get some ten-year-olds to show us the ropes.’

‘Shane, wait! Where are you going?’

‘Bed,’ he said, and went up the stairs. ‘Night.’

Claire was still holding Michael’s hand, and Miranda’s. She let go of both, pushed her chair back, and went up after him. She heard his door slam before she made it to the top, and raced down the hall to bang her fist on the wood. There was no answer, no sound of movement inside.

Then she noticed that the picture on the wall hallway was crooked, and moved it to stare at the button underneath. Would he?

Of course he would.

She hesitated for a second, then pressed it. The panel across the hallway clicked open, letting out a breath of cold air, and she quickly slipped inside, latched it back, and went up the stairs.

Shane was lying on the couch, feet on the curved polished-wood armrest, one arm flung over his eyes.

‘Go away,’ he said. Claire eased herself down on the couch next to him, because his voice didn’t sound, well, right. It was quiet and a little bit choked. His hand was shaking. ‘I mean it, Claire, go.’

‘The first time you met me, I was crying,’ she said. ‘You don’t have to be ashamed.’

‘I’m not crying,’ he said, and moved his arm. He wasn’t. His eyes were hot and dry and furious. ‘I can’t stand that she pretends to
know
. She was Lyssa’s friend. If she knew, if she really knew, she should have tried harder.’

Claire bit her lip. ‘Do you mean she—?’ She couldn’t even say it.
Do you mean she tried to tell you?
And he couldn’t admit it if she had. If he admitted that much… maybe his sister didn’t have to be dead.

No, Claire couldn’t say that. And he couldn’t hear it.

Instead, she just reached out and took his hand. He looked down at their clasped fingers, sighed, and closed his eyes. ‘I’m drunk and I’m pissed off,’ he said. ‘Not
the best company right now. Man, your parents would kill us all if they knew about any of this.’

She didn’t say anything, because that was absolutely true. And something she didn’t want to think about. She just wanted to sit here, in this silent room where time had frozen still, and be with him.

‘Claire?’ His voice was quieter. A little smeared with sleep. ‘Don’t do that again.’

‘Do what?’

‘Go out like you did tonight. Not at night.’

‘I won’t if you won’t.’

He smiled, but didn’t open his eyes. ‘No dates? What is this, the Big Brother house? Anyway, I didn’t come back to Morganville to hide.’

She was instantly curious. ‘Why
did
you come back?’

‘Michael. I told you. He called, I came. It’s what he’d do for me.’ Shane’s smile faded. He was probably remembering Michael not answering the phone, not coming to the hospital. Not having his back.

‘It’s more than that,’ she said. ‘Or else you’d have just taken off by now.’

‘Maybe,’ Shane sighed. ‘Leave it, Claire. You don’t have to dig into every secret around here, OK? It’s not safe.’

She thought about Michael. About the way he’d looked at Miranda across the séance table. ‘No,’ she
agreed. ‘It’s not.’

They talked for hours, about pretty much nothing – certainly not about vampires, or sisters dying in fires, or Miranda’s visions, obviously. Shane delved into what Claire had always thought were the Boy Classics: debates about whether Superman could take Batman (‘Classic Batman or Badass Batman?’), movies they liked, movies they hated. Claire tried him on books. He was light on the classics, but who wasn’t? (She wasn’t, but she was a freak of nature.) He liked scary stories. They had that in common, too.

Time just didn’t seem to pass at all in that little room. The talk seemed to keep going, spinning out of them on its own, gradually getting slower as the minutes and hours slipped away. She got cold and sleepy, and dragged an afghan off the arm of a nearby chair, spread it around her shoulders, and promptly dropped off to sleep sitting on the floor with her back against the settee, where Shane was lying.

She woke up with a start when the settee creaked, and she realised that Shane was getting up. He blinked, yawned, rubbed at his hair (which did very funny things when he did) and checked his watch.

‘Oh, God, it’s early,’ he groaned. ‘Hell. Well, at least I can grab the bathroom first.’

Claire jumped to her feet. ‘What time is it?’

‘Nine,’ he said, and yawned again. She reached over him, pushed the hidden button, dashed past him to the door, barely remembering to shed the afghan on the way. ‘Hey! Dibs on the bathroom! I mean it!’

She wasn’t worried about the bathroom so much as being caught. After all, she’d spent the entire night with a boy. A boy who’d been
drinking
. Most of that was against the house rules, she figured, and Michael would have freaked out if he’d known. Maybe…maybe Michael was too distracted from what Miranda had been spilling to worry about it, though, because she had to admit, Miranda had known exactly what she was talking about.

Just not by name, really.

Well, Michael was back to incorporeal in the light of day, so at least she didn’t have to worry about running into him…but she did need to decide what to do about school. This was already the worst academic week of her life, and she had the feeling it wasn’t going to get any better unless she acted quickly. Shane had made a deal with the devil; it only made sense to take advantage of it, until she could find a way to cancel it. Monica and her girls wouldn’t be after her – not in a lethal way. So there was no reason not to get her butt in the library.

She grabbed her clothes and jumped in the bathroom just as Shane, still yawning, stumbled out of the hidden
room.

‘But I called dibs!’ he said, and knocked on the door. ‘Dibs! Damn girls don’t understand the rules…’

‘Sorry, but I need to get ready!’ She cranked up the shower and skinned out of her old clothes in record time. The jeans
really
needed washing, and she was down to her last clean pair of underwear, too.

Claire was in and out of the shower fast, trusting that the waterproof bandage they’d put on her back would hold (it did). In under five minutes she was fluffing her wet hair and sliding past Shane in a breathless rush to grab her backpack and stuff it with books.

‘Where the hell are you going?’ he asked from the doorway. He didn’t sound sleepy now. She zipped the bag shut, hefted it on the shoulder that wasn’t aching and complaining, and turned towards him without answering. He was leaning on the doorframe, arms folded, head cocked. ‘Oh, you’ve
got
to be kidding. What’ve you got, some kind of death wish? You really
want
to get knocked down another flight of stairs or something?’

‘You made the deal. They won’t come after me.’

‘Don’t be dense. Leave that to the experts. You really think they don’t have ways around it?’

She walked up to him, staring up into his face. He looked enormously tall. And he was big, and in her
way.

And she didn’t care.

‘You made a deal,’ she said, ‘and I’m going to the library. Please get out of the way.’

‘Please? Damn, girl, you need to learn how to get mad or—’

She shoved him. It was dumb, and he had the muscle to stay right where he was, but surprise was on her side, and she got him to stumble a couple of steps back. She was already out the door and heading out, shoes in hand. She wasn’t about to stop and give him another chance to keep her nice and safe.

‘Hey!’ He caught up, grabbed her arm, and spun her around. ‘I thought you said you wouldn’t—’

‘At night,’ she said, and turned to go down the stairs. He let go…and she slipped. For a scary second she was off-balance, teetering on the edge of the stairs, and then Shane’s warm hands closed around her shoulders and pulled her back to balance.

He held her there for a few seconds. She didn’t turn around, because if she did, and he was right there, well, she didn’t know…

She didn’t know what would happen.

‘See you,’ she gulped, and went down the stairs as fast as she dared, on shaking legs.

The heat of the morning was like a toaster oven, only without any yummy food smells; there were
a couple of people out on the street. One lady was pushing a baby stroller, and for a second, while Claire was sitting down to put on her battered running shoes, she considered that with a kind of wonder. Having babies in a town like this. What were people thinking? But she guessed they did it anywhere, no matter how horrible it was. And there was a bracelet around the woman’s slender wrist.

The baby was safe, at least until it turned eighteen.

Claire glanced down at her own bare wrist, shivered, and put it out of her mind as she set off for campus.

Now that she was looking, just about every person she passed had something around his or her wrist – bracelets for the women, watchbands for the men. She couldn’t tell what the symbols were. She needed to find some kind of alphabet; maybe somebody had done research and put it somewhere safe…somewhere the vampires wouldn’t look.

She’d always felt safest at the library, anyway. She went straight there, watching over her shoulder for Monica, Gina, Jennifer, or anybody who looked remotely interested in her. Nobody did.

TPU’s library was huge. And dusty. Even the librarians at the front looked like they might have picked up a cobweb or two since her last visit. More proof – if she’d needed it – that TPU was first, and
only, a party school.

She checked the map for the shelves, and saw that the Dewey decimal system reigned in Morganville – which was weird, because she’d thought all the universities were on the Library of Congress system. She traced through the listings, looking for references, and found them in the basement.

Great.

As she started to walk away, though, she cocked her head and looked at the list again. There was something strange about it. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it…

There wasn’t a fourth floor. Not on the list, anyway, and Mr Dewey’s system jumped straight from the third floor to the fifth. Maybe it was offices, she thought. Or storage. Or shipping. Or…coffins.

It was definitely weird, though.

She started to take the stairs down to the basement, then stopped and tilted her head back. The stairs were old-school, with massive wooden railings, turning in precise L-shaped angles all the way up.