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"Oh, this doesn&039;t sound like a good idea," Claire said, looking down at the paper that had been shoved into her hand by a passing student She paused in the shade of the Science Building porch to read it Only idiots stood around in full sun at Texas Prairie University in the middle of the afternoon--well, idiots and football players--so Claire angled herself into a corner where she wouldn&039;t get buffeted by the strea out after the end of class There were a few hardy sal to swim upstream, but she didn&039;t think they&039;d oldenrod sheet of paper she had--stuffed into pockets, crammed into books, held in hands

She was one of the last ones to get pauessed She was just a little surprised anybody had bothered at all, given the fact that she, Claire Danvers, was s-hard-on-eighteen years, and tended to blend into the crowd at the best of tih her ultra-fashion-conscious housemate Eve--with all the best possible intentions--had et her brown hair all highlighted so it glowed red in the sun Still, she just wasn&039;tnoticeable

She&039;d learned it the hard way: early ade sucked

Someone stopped next to her in the relative quiet of the shade It was a tall, good-looking boy, and he dropped his backpack on the tiled floor with a thump as he looked over the salanced over at her "You going?"

Once she got over the dazzle of his good looks (truthfully, it didn&039;t take that long; her boyfriend was just as cute), she checked his wrist He was a Morganville native; he earing a bracelet around one wristsyraved on the central plate ItCho, as one of those vampires that Claire had never directly run into She liked it that way Really, her circle of vae as it was

"Hey," he said again, and rattled the paper in front of her face "Anybody in there? You going?"

Claire looked down at the paper again It had a bunch of pictures and symbols on it, no words A musical note, which meant a rave was on the menu Soal stuff was going to be floating around The address was coded in the forh; it was an address on South Rackha warehouses that used to be thriving businesses The tiraphic of the witch was for--the witching hour The date was several days away

"Not interested," she said, and handed hi to be out there"

"That&039;s why" He laughed "You a training-wheels partyer?"

"I&039;m not much of a partyer at all," Claire said, and couldn&039;t help but sh, one thatat her, at least That was different "Hi, by the way I&039; from Chem?"

"No, Computational Physics"

"Oh," he said, and blinked "And I have no idea what that is Right, carry on, Einstein Nice to meet you"

He picked up his backpack and moved off before she could even explain about many-body and nonlinear physical systems Yeah, that would have really i away, he&039;d have been running

She felt a little hurt, but only a little At least he&039;d talked to her That was ninety-nine percent better than her usual score with college guys, except the ones anted to do souys were very chatty

Claire squinted against the bright sunshine and looked out onto the courtyard The big open brick space was clearing, although there were, as always, a knot of people around the central column where flyers were posted for rides, rooms, parties, and various services and causes She had ti all the way to the University Center coffee bar in the unseasonable late-autuet there, have maybe half an hour, and then she&039;d have to walk another long way to get to her next class

TPU really needed to look into e of cas, so it was actually a shorter walk to one of the four exit gates, across the street, and then to Common Grounds, the off-campus coffeehouse Of course, it ned by a vaanville, you couldn&039;t be too choosy about those kinds of things if you valued your caffeine Or your blood

Besides, Oliver could rabbed her heavily laden book bag and set off in the withering sunshine for Va through town she could tell which people were "in the know" about Morganville, and which weren&039;t The ones eren&039;tsmall town that rolled up the side-walks at dusk

The ones who did know still looked unhappy, but in that hunted, haunted way She didn&039;t blah the entire adjustment cycle, from shock to disbelief to acceptance to , but true It was a dangerous place, but she knew the rules

Even if she didn&039;t always obey the rules

Her cell phone rang as she was crossing the street--the Twilight Zone theme That meant it was her boss She looked down at the screen, frowned, and shut it off without answering She was pissed at Myrnin, again, and she didn&039;t want to hear hi about the

He wanted to put a hu Myrnin was crazy, but norood crazy, not a creepy crazy Lately he seeh She seriously wondered if she ought to get so They probably had so medical school Common Grounds was blessedly dim and cool, but mercilessly busy There wasn&039;t a free table to be had, which was depressing; Claire&039;s feet hurt, and her shoulder was about to dislocate fro She found a corner and duh of relief and joined the line at the orderThere was a new guy working the counter, again, which didn&039;t surprise Claire h employees pretty quickly She wasn&039;t sure if that was just his strict nature or whether he was eating them Either one was possible, but the latter wasn&039;t likely, at least Oliver was more careful than that, even if he didn&039;t really want to be

It took about five minutes to reach the front of the line, but Claire put in her order for a cafe uy spelled her na on the cup She moved on down the counter, and when she looked up, Oliver was staring at her from behind the espresso ing hippie, graying hair pulled back in a classy-looking ponytail, one gold stud in his right ear, a coffee-splattered tie-dyed apron, and eyes like ice With all the hippie-flavored details, you didn&039;t tend to notice the pallor of his face or the coldness of his stare right away unless you already knew hied completely, like another person had just stepped into his body--the friendly coffee-shop guy he liked to pretend to be "Claire," he said, and finished du shots into her mocha cup "What a nice surprise Sorry about the lack of seating"

"I guess business is good"

"Always" He kne she liked the drink, and added whipped crea it over "I believe the frat boys by theare about to leave You can get a seat if you hurry"

He was right; she could see the preleaving preparations going on Claire nodded her thanks and grabbed her bag, pushing between chairs and apologizing her way to the table so that she arrived just as the last frat boy grabbed his stuff and headed for the door She was one of four who had aith of one outstretched, well-manicured hand

"Excusedown at her with unconcealed delight "The junior skank section is over there, by the trash Beat it"

The sister of Morganville&039;sher shiny dark hair over her shoulders; she&039;d added soain, but Claire didn&039;t think they did her any favors She&039;d accessorized with aruy with one of those faces that was beefy but still handsome He was blond, which seemed to be Monica&039;s new type, and (Claire knew from the one class she&039;d shared with hi Monica&039;s coffee, which he put down in front of her before taking a seat next to her, close enough to drape his big are

It would have been the safe thing to just back off and let Monica claim her petty victory, but Claire was really not in the mood She wasn&039;t afraid of Monica any she wanted to do was let Monica spoil the one thing she&039;d been looking forward to during the entire walk over: a decent seat in which to enjoy her drink

So Claire put her cafe mocha down at the third place and sat down, just ahead of Jennifer, as irlfriend/minion, had already taken the last seat

Monica, oddly, didn&039;t say anything She stared at Claire as if she couldn&039;t quite figure out what the hell that was doing sitting down at her table, and then, once she got over the shock, she smiled, as if it occurred to her that maybe this could be fun In a nasty sort of way Her new te any of it as he sh five with so down at Claire, clearly not sure what to do, and Claire was acutely aware that she had her back to the girl Never a good plan She didn&039;t trust any of them, but she trusted Jennifer least of all these days Gina had kind of discovered huue sort of way, and Monicawell, Monica could usually be counted on to do as good for Monica

Jennifer was unpredictable, and six of the worst kinds of crazy Gina was mean, and Monica could be vicious, but Jennifer didn&039;t seem to have any sense of boundaries at all Plus, Jennifer had been the first one of the three to push her Claire hadn&039;t forgotten that

Claire sensed a movement at her back, and al will happen, not here Not in front of Oliver It wasn&039;t that Oliver was fond of her, exactly--only that he didn&039;t like conflict inside of his business that he himself hadn&039;t started

Monica&039;s eyes went to Jennifer--wide and a little odd, as if Jennifer spooked her, too "Jesus, Jen, get a grip," she said, which irl was getting out a knife, but she et another chair It&039;s not rocket science"

Jennifer&039;s tone of voiceat the back of Claire&039;s head "There aren&039;t any"