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TWO

It didn&039;t take long at all to read the book She stopped in a park on the way ho seat and rocked slowly back and forth as she flipped pages

It was about people she&039;d never heard ofand people she knew Amelie, for one Amelie&039;s disputes with various vampires Amelie&039;s decisions to sentence this person for his crimes, spare that one There were other vampires profiled, too Some she&039;d never heard of; she supposed that they&039;d died, or left, or maybe they were just reclusive Oliver wasn&039;t in the book, because he was a latecomer to town Neither, curiously, was Myrnin She supposed Myrnin had been a closely guarded town secret fro, but overall, she didn&039;t knohat good it was going to do her to know that Aainst a oods store?) for cheating the huotten his store taken away from him, and he&039;d opened the town&039;s first

In the end, Claire dropped the book into her backpack and thought aboutit anonyed, anyway She thought about it on the way ho about whether vampires could somehow sense she&039;d handled it CSI: Vaht

"You&039;re late," Michael reh the kitchen door He was standing at the sink washing dishes; there was nothing odder to her than seeing her house-hot, not to mention all kinds of vampire, up to his elbows in suds at the sink Did rock stars really do their own housework? "Also, it&039;s not my day to do the kitchen It&039;s yours"

"Is that your passive-aggressive way of trying to get me to pick up your laundry duty?"

"I don&039;t know Is it working?"

"Maybe" She put her bags down on the table and went to join him at the sink He washed plates and handed them over, and she rinsed and dried Very doot what time it was"

"Bookworood mood, no question about that; he had been for the last couple ofhis ood for hi back had been hard, but he&039;d finally settled into the routine They all had It had been a crazy, weird vacation, al they&039;d dreaood to be out there with her friends, on the road, without the shadow of Morganville hanging over the, and just looked at her with those big blue eyes Thaton Not that he was flirting with her--notat her a lot more deeply than usual, and he didn&039;t blink

Finally he did, turning his attention back to the sink, and washed another plate before he said, "You&039;re nervous about so Your heartbeat&039;s faster than normal"

"You can hear--Oh Of course you can" He hadn&039;t been staring at her so ht And that was kind of creepy, except it was Michael He made creepy adorable, most of the time "I ran part of the way home; that&039;s probably it"

"Hey, if you don&039;t want to tell me, don&039;t But I can tell when you lie"

Okay, that was supercreepy "You can?"

He srimly down at the dirty dishwater "Nope But see? You fell for it anyway Careful, or I&039;ll read your hed and wiped her hands as he pulled the plug on the dishwater and let it swirl away into the dark The kitchen looked like someone actually cared She really did owe him laundry, probably

Claire tossed him the dish towel "That was a mean trick"

"Yeah, still a vampire Spill it"

As he wiped his hands and ar on the table, rooted around to find the slim volume, and handed it over He sank into a chair As he looked it over, his eyebroent up and up "Where&039;d you get this?"

"The used bookstore," she said "I don&039;t think Dan--you know, the guy who runs it--kneas there Or if he did, maybe it&039;s--I don&039;t know--full of lies? But that&039;s a picture of Aht?"

"I didn&039;t know there were any, but that&039;s definitely one" Michael closed the book and handed it back "Maybe it&039;s Morganville propaganda Seems like Amelie&039;s done that fro deal But if it&039;s not--"

"If it&039;s the real history of Morganville, then I should take it to Aured that one out"

He leaned forward on his elbows and grinned "You are a difficult kid But a ser, just like Eve or Shane would have done "Hey, who&039;s on dinner patro--"

Before she could finish the last word, the front door banged open, and Eve&039;s cheery voice echoed down the hall "Hellooooo, creatures of the night! Put your pants back on! Food&039;s here, and I don&039;t mean me!"

Michael pointedleftover sandwiches from the University Center," Claire moaned as Eve burst into the kitchen door with a white paper bag in hand

"I heard that," Eve said, and opened the refrigerator to duot you the bacteria special; I kno much you like that The UC kitchen staff sends their love Whassup, dead guy?"

"Not dead yet," Michael said, and rose to kiss her Except for the cool bluish tone to his skin, he looked like any other boy of nineteen; the sharp, pointy teeth were folded up, like a snake&039;s, and when he was like this Claire actually kind of forgot he was a va a faded T-shirt that had a happy face on it, with vaht it for him

Eve herself had to stand just a bit on tiptoe for the kiss, which went on about five seconds too long for it to be just hi-honey-welcome-home, and when they parted, Eve&039;s cheeks were flushed even under the white Gothshots at the TPU coffee shop--she alternated noeen there and Common Grounds--she still looked cheerful and alert Maybe it was all that caffeine It just soaked right into her body without her even having to drink it She earing black tights with orange pumpkins on them--left over from Halloween, Claire assuht black skirt, and three layers of thin shirts, each a different color The one on top was sheer black, with a sad-eyed pirate skull printed on it

"I like the new earrings," Claire said They were silver skulls, and the little eye sockets lit up red whenever Eve turned her head "They&039;re you"

"I know, right? Couldn&039;t be cooler" Eve beamed "Oh, and actually, they were out of the bacteria special, so I got you the ham and cheese That&039;s usually the safest one"

Safe being a relative term when it came to UC food "Thanks," Claire said "Tohetti Yes, before you ask, withsound with her teeth Michael just so see Aht, do you?"

"No, probably not The book&039;s been sitting in that shop for who kno long It can wait until too to the lab anyway Amelie will be a nice break, after ot herself a cold Coke froed Claire&039;s bag off of a chair and dumped it in the corner "How is crazy boss uess He&039;s been getting a little weird"

"Sweetie, coe scale of weird"

"I know" Claire sighed and sat down, propping her chin on both fists She debated how much to say, even to her friends, but honestly, there weren&039;t any secrets Not in the Glass House "I think he&039;s under a lot of pressure to get the h, seriously, he&039;s not bringing that back to life, is he?"

"Notexactly, no But Ada wasn&039;t all bad, you know Well, Ada was, the personality, but the s that the vaive alerts when residents leave, wipe memories when they want it doneand run the portals" The portals were the dih town Myrnin had discovered so stable tunnels through space-ti to understand, let alone ic, but sometimes there didn&039;t seeic and Myrnin&039;s science "It&039;s i to, you know, take the Ada factor out of the equation and get thewithout the hed "Like we didn&039;t have enough trouble in Morganville already I&039; about are good for us, Claire Bear You feel ular hu those safeguards lets them trust us, at least a little, and trust is all that keeps this town going"

Eve didn&039;t have a coanville existed on a teetering, dangerous balance between the paranoia and violence of the vampires, and the paranoia and violence of the huht there, at the balance point, they could all coexist But it didn&039;t take s to one side or the other, and if that happened, Morganville would burn

Claire chewed her lip and continued "We&039;re getting it done; really, we are, but he&039;s got sotodo soround, dresses funny, and occasionally eats his assistants," Eve said "Define crazy"

Claire closed her eyes "Okay I think he wants to put my brain in a jar and wire it into the machine"

Dead silence She opened her eyes Michael was staring at her, frozen in the act of opening the refrigerator door; Eve had put her Coke down, her eyes as wide as anything ever drawn in ani, reached in, grabbed a green sports bottle, which he carried to the table, and sat down "That&039;s not going to happen," he said "I&039; to let it happen Neither will Amelie"

Claire wasn&039;t so sure about that last part, but she was sure Michael meant what he said, and that made her feel a little better "I don&039;t think he&039;s serious about it," Claire said weakly "Well, noton about how the brain is ato happen," Michael repeated flatly "I&039;ll kill him first, Claire I mean it"

She didn&039;t want Myrnin dead, but it did make her feel better to have her friend say it Michael was a sweetheartcold inside him--and it wasn&039;t just that his heart didn&039;t beat It wasso darker Mostly, it didn&039;t show

Sorateful it did

"Shane&039;s late," Eve said, changing the subject "Where&039;s Mr Barbecue McStabby?"

"Working late," Claire replied "Soht shift, so he had to work dinner service He said it was okay; he could use the overtime And he doesn&039;t like you to call hi up thatAnd that knife is as long as my arm Mr McStabby it is"

They debated it for a while, with Michael staying out of it and sipping his sports bottle of--probably--blood, until Eve got the sandwiches out and they ate a cold, and soeted around, too restless to study,andstuff, and she went up toward her rooo there; she stopped in the hallway, reached out, and found the hidden catch to the secret roo clicked open, and she went in and shut the door behind her No knob on this side, but that was okay; she knehere the release was She ran up the narrow flight of stairs and came out in the less, dusty rooured had been Amelie&039;s retreat, when she&039;d once lived in this house It looked like her, sos, multicolored Tiffany lamps that were probably worth a fortune It was always a little cold in here, for some reason Claire stretched out on the old velvet sofa, staring up at the ceiling, and thought about how many times she&039;d come here with Shane It was their private place, where they could just get away fro, and the blanket draped over the back s like the ghost of Shane was here with her, snuggling up close

She had no idea she&039;d fallen asleep at first, and then she thought she was drea her or anything, just a fingertip being dran her cheek, across her lipsa slow, gentle sort of caress

She opened her eyes to see Shane crouched down next to her His hair was--as usual-- around his face, and he smelled like barbecue and wood s she&039;d ever seen

"Hey, sleepyhead," he said "It&039;s three in the ht vampires stole you, but that&039;s only because you didn&039;tI think I&039;er paused there, tracing her ot wider

"Miss me?"

"No," she said "I wanted soone"

He clapped his hands over his chest like she&039;d shot him, and fell on the floor Claire rolled off the couch on top of hi and thoroughly She licked her lips as she pulled away "Mht UC sandwiches"

Shane lad I ht snacks"

"Boys Is that all you think about?"

"Midnight snacks?"

"Is that what the cool kids are calling it these days?" He laughed, and she felt the ruh often, except when they were together; she loved the light in his brown eyes, and the wicked way his smile curled up on the ends "Like I would know," he said "I never was one of the cool kids"

"Bullshit"

"Such language, Miss Danvers Oh, wait, shit--I&039;ainst his chest, listening to the rush of his breathing "Tell me what you were like in school"

"Why?"

"Because I missed it"

"You didn&039;tout a lot He was Mr Popular, you know, but really shy Girls, girls, girls, but he was pretty choosy At least, up until our junior year"

"What happened in your junior year?" she asked before she thought

Shane&039;s fingers kept stroking through her hair as he said, "House burned, my sister Alyssa died, my family went on the run So I don&039;t kno Mikey was the last two years of school We caught up so happened to hied, even with her weight on him, but then, she wasn&039;t uy "There&039;s not a lot to say aboutduhed "Football, for a while I liked hockey better More chances to hit people But I&039;m not really a team player, so I ended up in the penalty box about twice as much as everybody else Not as uess you know Monica was after me for a while"

That surprised her "Monica Morrell? You mean, after you, in the sense of--"

"I mean she slipped me really dirty notes and tried to rip uess to her was love Not so ot hard for a ot pissed You know the rest"

Shane believed--and Claire had no reason to doubt it--that Monica had set the fire that had burned his home and killed his sister and destroyed his fa to heal; he was always going to hate Monica with an intense passion that o seconds fro hie

Claire couldn&039;t think of ain, and it felt sweet, warm, a little distracted on his part She shouldn&039;t have brought it up, she thought He didn&039;t like to think about those days at all "Hey," she said "I didn&039;t ht he was back in the here and noith her, instead of in the bad old days "Glad you weren&039;t here for all that, actually I wasn&039;t really all that good to know then Plus, if you want to know the truth, I was kind of a jerk in junior high"

"All boys are jerks in junior high And row up to be jerks" She kissed hiain "But not you, Mr McStabby"

"Oh, o, is she?"

"Not reht out some crazy streak in her she didn&039;t think she had--that was probably orried her parents so much about the two of them But Claire liked it When she ith Shane, she could feel--feel the blood pounding in her veins, feel every nerve awake and alive and hungry to be touched Everything was brighter, clearer, cleaner A little crazy was a good thing "Want to make out?"

"Maybe I should take a shower I sreat," she said "I love the way you s sappy, you know that? And maybe a little creepy"

"Oh, shut up, you like it"

He did, she could tell, especially when they were under the blanket, curled together on the couch, and Ae was their own, their private, sweet, war could intrude

Well, except for Claire&039;s cell phone alar was hard, partly because neither one of them had slept much, and partly because Claire just didn&039;t want to ever leave the rooet down the stairs to the closed door

It didn&039;t open "Shane!" she yelled "I have to go!"

His evil laugh drifted down to her, movie-campy, but he pushed the button and let her out She beat Eve to the shower, of course; Eve was not voluntarily an early riser, and it was her day off, so Claire could take her tiether without knocks rushing her along When she opened the bathroo on the floor next to it, blocking the hallith his legs He had on his rumpled jeans, but he&039;d left off the shirt

So not fair She loved looking at his chest, and he knew it

"We have got to get a second bathrooh the doorway "You take way too long"

"Do not!" she said, outraged, but the wood had already closed between the!" he called froed on the door, then winced and hoped it wasn&039;t loud enough to wake Eve or Michael, and went down the hall to her rooht: she had neverthe pillows right and everything Then she pulled out old, ratty clothes and her worst high-tops

There was no sense in wearing good clothes to Myrnin&039;s lab They were just going to get splashed with icky stuff, or stuff that burned holes, or stuff that never caot with laundry add-ins Claire gulped a bowl of cereal in the kitchen, standing over the sink, and started to wash the bowl--but it was Shane&039;s kitchen day, and with a grin, she put the dirties down unscrubbed

Served hi to make her late

She dumped s that were relevant to her project with Myrnin, then added in the sli She&039;d missed sunrise, but it was still a little cool, and the sky was a beautiful clear blue with only a few scrubby clouds on the horizon At this hour, the sun see monster it would becoate, and set off for Common Grounds first No Oliver, and this time both the baristas were new eain

Coffees in hand, she headed for Myrnin&039;s lab