The Morganville Vampires Collection (The Morganville Vampires #1-4) (3 page)

‘Yo!’ Eve yelled again, and clumped on down the hall. It opened up to a bigger room; from what Claire could see, there were big leather couches and bookshelves, like a real home. Maybe this was what off-campus housing looked like. If so, it was a big step up from dorm life. ‘Shane, I smell the chilli. I know you’re here! Get your headphones out of your ears!’

She couldn’t quite imagine
Texas Chainsaw
Massacre
taking place in a room like that, either. That was a plus. Or, for that matter, serial-killing roommates doing something as homey as making chilli. Good chilli, from the way it smelt. With…garlic?

She took a couple of hesitant steps down the hallway. Eve’s footsteps were clunking off into another room, maybe the kitchen. The house seemed very quiet. Nothing jumped out to scare her, so Claire proceeded, one careful foot after another, all the way into the big central room.

And a guy lying sprawled on the couch – the way only guys could sprawl – yawned and sat up rubbing his head. When Claire opened her mouth – whether to say
hello or to yell for help, she didn’t know – he surprised her into silence by grinning at her and putting his finger over his mouth to shush her. ‘Hey,’ he whispered. ‘I’m Shane. What’s up?’ He blinked a couple of times, and without any change in his expression, said, ‘Dude, that is a badass shiner. Hurts, huh?’

She nodded slightly. Shane swung his legs off the couch and sat there, watching her, elbows on his knees and hands dangling loosely. He had brown hair, cut in uneven layers that didn’t quite manage to look punk. He was an older boy, older than her, anyway. Eighteen? A big guy, and tall to match it. Big enough to make her feel more miniature than usual. She thought his eyes looked brown, but she didn’t dare meet them for more than a flicker at a time.

‘So I guess you’re gonna say that the other chick looks worse,’ Shane said.

She shook her head, then winced when motion made it hurt even more. ‘No, I – um – how did you know it was—?’

‘A chick? Easy. Size you are, a guy would have put you in the hospital with a punch hard enough to leave a mark like that. So what’s up with that? You don’t look like you go looking for trouble.’

She felt like she ought to take offence about that, but honestly, this whole thing was starting to feel like some strange dream anyway. Maybe she’d never woken
up at all. Maybe she was lying in a coma in a hospital bed, and Shane was just her lame-ass equivalent of the Cheshire cat. ‘I’m Claire,’ she said, and waved awkwardly. ‘Hi.’

He nodded towards a leather wing chair. She slid into it, feet dangling, and felt a weird sense of relief wash over her. It felt like home, although of course it wasn’t, and she was starting to think that it really couldn’t be. She didn’t fit here. She couldn’t actually imagine who would.

‘You want something?’ Shane asked suddenly. ‘Coke, maybe? Chilli? Bus ticket back home?’

‘Coke,’ she said, and, surprisingly, ‘and chilli.’

‘Good choice. I made it myself.’ He slid off the couch, weirdly boneless for his size, and padded barefoot into the kitchen where Eve had gone. Claire listened to a blur of voices as the two of them talked, and relaxed, one muscle at a time, into the soft embrace of the chair. She hadn’t noticed until now, but the house was kept cool, and the lazy circle of the ceiling fan overhead swept chilly air over her hot, aching face. It felt nice.

She opened her eyes at the sound of Eve’s shoes clomping back into the room. Eve was carrying a tray with a red and white can, a bowl, a spoon, and an ice pack. She set the tray on a coffee table and nudged the table towards Claire with her knee. ‘Ice pack first,’ she said. ‘You can never tell what Shane puts in the chilli.
Be afraid.’

Shane padded back to the couch and flopped, sucking on his own can of soda. Eve shot him an exasperated look. ‘Yeah, man, thanks for bringing me one, too.’ The raccoon eye make-up exaggerated her eye roll. ‘Dork.’

‘Didn’t know if you wanted zombie dirt sprinkled on it or anything. If you’re eating this week.’

‘
Dork!
’ Eve turned towards Claire. ‘Don’t worry, you go on and eat. I’ll go get my own drink.’

Claire picked up the spoon and tried a tentative bite of the chilli, which was thick and meaty and spicy, heavy on the garlic. Delicious, in fact. She’d got used to cafeteria food, and this was just…wow.
Not.
Shane watched her, eyebrows up, as she started to shovel it in. ‘’Sgood,’ she mumbled. He gave her a lazy salute. By the time she was halfway through the bowl, Eve was back with her own tray, which she plunked down on the other half of the coffee table. Eve sat on the floor, crossed her legs, and dug in.

‘Not bad,’ she finally said. ‘At least you left out the oh-my-God sauce this time.’

‘Made myself a batch with it,’ Shane said. ‘It’s got the biohazard sticker on it in the fridge, so don’t bitch if you get flamed. Where’d you pick up the stray?’

‘Outside. She came to see the room.’

‘You beat her up first, just to make sure she’s tough
enough?’

‘Bite me, chilli boy.’

‘Don’t mind Eve,’ he told Claire. ‘She hates working days. She’s afraid she’ll tan.’

‘Yeah, and Shane just hates working. So what’s your name?’

Claire opened her mouth, but Shane beat her to it, clearly happy to one-up his roomie. ‘Claire. What, you didn’t even ask? A chick beat her up, too. Probably some skank in the dorms. You know how that place is.’

They exchanged a look. A long one. Eve turned back to Claire. ‘Is that true? You got beat up in the dorm?’ She nodded, hastily shovelling more food in her mouth to keep from having to say much. ‘Well, that totally blows. No wonder you’re looking for the room.’ Another nod. ‘You didn’t bring much with you.’

‘I don’t have much,’ she said. ‘Just the books, and maybe a couple of things back at my room. But – I don’t want to go back there to get stuff. Not tonight.’

‘Why not?’ Shane had grabbed a ratty-looking old baseball from the floor and tossed it up towards the tall ceiling, narrowly missing the spinning blades of the fan. He caught it without effort. ‘Somebody still looking to pound you?’

‘Yeah,’ Claire said, and looked down into her fast-diminishing chilli. ‘Guess so. It’s not just her, it’s –
she’s got friends. And…I don’t. That place just – well, it’s creepy.’

‘Been there,’ Eve said. ‘Oh, wait, still there.’

Shane mimed throwing the baseball at her. She mimed ducking.

‘What time is Michael getting up?’

Shane gave her another mock throw. ‘Hell, Eve, I don’t know. I love the guy, but I don’t
love
the guy. Go bang on his door and ask. Me, I’m gonna go get ready.’

‘Ready for what?’ Eve asked. ‘You’re not seriously going out again, are you?’

‘Seriously, yeah. Bowling. Her name’s Laura. If you want more details, you’re gonna have to download the video like everybody else.’ Shane rolled off the couch, stood up, and padded off towards the wide stairs leading up to the second floor. ‘See you later, Claire.’

Eve made a frustrated sound. ‘Wait a minute! So what do you say? You think she’d do OK here, or what?’

Shane waved a hand. ‘Whatever, man. Far as I’m concerned, she’s OK.’ He gave Claire one quick look and a crooked and oddly sweet smile, and bounded up the stairs. He moved like an athlete, but without the swagger she was used to. Kind of hot, actually.

‘Guys,’ Eve sighed. ‘Damn, it’d be good to have another girl in here. They’re all like,
Yeah, whatever, 
and then when it comes to tidying up the place or washing dishes, they turn into ghosts. Not that you have to, like, be a maid or anything, I mean…you just got to yell at ’em until they do their part or they walk all over you.’

Claire smiled, or tried to, but her split lip throbbed, and she felt the scab break open again. Blood dribbled down her chin, and she grabbed the napkin Eve had put on the tray and applied pressure to her lip. Eve watched in silence, frowning, and then got up from the floor, picked up the ice pack, and settled it gently against the bump on Claire’s head. ‘How’s that?’ she asked.

‘Better.’ It was. The ice began to numb the ache almost immediately, and the food was setting up a nice warm fire in her stomach. ‘Um, I guess I should ask… about the room…’

‘Well, you have to meet Michael, and he has to say yes, but Michael’s a sweetie, really. Oh, and he owns this place. His family does, anyway. I think they moved away and left him the house a couple of years ago. He’s about six months older than I am. We’re all about eighteen. Michael’s sort of the oldest.’

‘He sleeps days?’

‘Yeah. I mean, I like to sleep days, but he’s got a thing about it. I called him a vampire once, ’cause he really doesn’t like being up in the daytime. Like, ever. He didn’t think it was real funny.’

‘You’re sure he’s not a vampire?’ Claire said. ‘I’ve seen movies. They’re sneaky.’ She was kidding. Eve didn’t smile.

‘Oh, pretty sure. For one thing, he eats Shane’s chilli, which, God knows, has enough garlic to explode a dozen high-quality Dracs. And I made him touch a cross once.’ Eve took a big swallow of her Coke.

‘You – what?
Made him
?’

‘Well, sure, yeah. I mean, a girl can’t be too careful, especially around here.’ Claire must have looked blank, because Eve did the eye-roll thing again. It was her favourite expression, Claire was sure. ‘In Morganville? You know?’

‘What about it?’

‘You mean you don’t
know?
How can you not know?’ Eve set her can down and got up to her knees, leaning elbows on the coffee table. She looked earnest under the thick make-up. Her eyes were dark brown, edged with gold. ‘Morganville’s full of vampires.’

Claire laughed.

Eve didn’t. She just kept staring.

‘Um…you’re kidding?’

‘How many kids graduate TPU every year?’

‘I don’t know… It’s a crappy college, almost everybody transfers out…’

‘Everybody
leaves
. Or at least, they stop showing up, right? I can’t believe you don’t know this. Didn’t
anybody tell you the score before you moved in? Look, the vamps run the town. They’re in charge. And either you’re in, or you’re out. If you work for them, if you pretend like they’re not here and they don’t exist, and you look the other way when things happen, then you and your family get a free pass. You get
Protection
. Otherwise…’ Eve pulled a finger across her throat and bugged out her eyes.

Right
, Claire thought, and put down her spoon.
No
wonder nobody rented a room with these people. They’re
nuts.
It was too bad. Except for the crazy part, she really liked them.

‘You think I’m wacko,’ Eve said, and sighed. ‘Yeah, I get that. I’d think I was, too, except I grew up in a Protected house. My dad works for the water company. My mom is a teacher. But we all wear these.’ She extended her wrist. On it was a black leather bracelet, with a symbol on it in red, nothing Claire recognised. It looked kind of like a Chinese character. ‘See how mine’s red? Expired. It’s like health insurance. Kids are only covered until they’re eighteen. Mine was up six months ago.’ She looked at it mournfully, then shrugged and unsnapped it to drop it on her tray. ‘Might as well stop wearing it, I guess. It sure wouldn’t fool anybody.’

Claire just looked at her, helpless, wondering if she was the victim of a practical joke, and if any second
Eve was going to laugh and call her an idiot for buying it, and Shane would go from kind of lazy-sweet to cruel and shove her out the door, mocking all the way. Because this wasn’t the way the world worked. You didn’t like people, and then have them turn all crazy, right? Couldn’t you
tell
?

The alternative – that Eve wasn’t crazy at all – just wasn’t anything Claire wanted to think about. She remembered the people on the street, walking fast, heads down. The way the mother had yanked her little girl off the street at a friendly wave.

‘Fine. Go ahead, think I’m nuts,’ Eve said, and sat back on her heels. ‘I mean, why wouldn’t I be? And I won’t try to convince you or anything. Just – don’t go out after dark unless you’re with somebody. Somebody Protected, if you can find them. Look for the bracelet.’ She nudged hers with one finger. ‘The symbol’s white when it’s active.’

‘But I—’ Claire coughed, trying to find something to say.
If you can’t say anything nice…
‘OK. Thanks. Um, is Shane—?’

‘Shane? Protected?’ Eve snorted. ‘As if! Even if he was, which I doubt, he’d never admit it, and he doesn’t wear the bracelet or anything. Michael – Michael isn’t, either, but there’s sort of a standard Protection on houses. We’re sort of outcasts here. There’s safety in numbers, too.’

It was a very weird conversation to be having over chilli and Coke, with an ice pack perched on the top of her head. Claire, without even knowing she was going to do it, yawned. Eve laughed.

‘Call it a bedtime story,’ she said. ‘Listen, let me show you the room. Worst case, you lie down for a while, let the ice pack work, then bug out. Or hey, you wake up and decide you want to talk to Michael before you leave. Your choice.’

Another cold chill swept over her, and she shivered. Probably had to do with the bang on the head, she figured, and how tired she was. She dug in her pocket, found the package of pills the doc had prescribed for her, and swallowed one with the last gulp of Coke. Then she helped Eve carry the trays into the kitchen, which was huge, with stone sinks and ancient polished counters and two modern conveniences – the stove and the refrigerator – stuck awkwardly in the corners.

The chilli had come from a Crock-Pot, which was still simmering away.

When the dishes had been washed, trays stacked, trash discarded, Eve retrieved Claire’s backpack from the floor and led her through the living room, up the stairs. On the third riser, Eve turned, alarmed, and said, ‘Hey, can you make it up the stairs? Because, you know—’

‘I’m OK,’ Claire lied. Her ankle hurt like hell, but
she wanted to see the room. And if they were likely to throw her out later, she at least wanted to sleep one more time in a bed, however lumpy and old. There were thirteen steps to the top. She made every one of them, even though she left sweaty fingerprints on a banister Shane hadn’t even bothered to touch on his way up earlier.