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EIGHT

Eventually, they all went home Or at least horeed, and Michael steered his car to one of Morganville&039;s two all-night diners This one was Shane&039;s favorite, Marjo&039;s, although Claire guessed that Marjo herself--the rudest waitress ever--was off duty, since a woman with the nameplate HELEN came to take their orders She wasn&039;t nearly as rude as Marjo, but she wasn&039;t nice, either Claire supposed that being nice was against the rules Or anville tended to h, was delicious Juicy burgers, crisp fries, h Michael skipped that and ordered soht was probably not ice creae students, although they were pushing the curfew, as well as lots of quiet, pale people who sat in groups and, when they looked at the hulitter in their eyes

Marjo&039;s, like Oliver&039;s Coanville had a kind of unofficial truce Besides, who didn&039;t like haetarians, Claire supposed But she didn&039;t think there were any vegetarian va of priests, Father Joe caestured for hi to say hello to people (and vae man, but he waswell, kind of cute Eve had once had a monster crush on hi him now, she still had one) She&039;d claiht it was more the wavy red hair and cute smile

"How&039;s your father, Claire?" Father Joe asked, even before he&039;d sat down in the chair he&039;d pulled over to their table "I was planning to stop by again tonight before I went ho better," she said "They&039;re taking him to Dallas tomorrow"

Father Joe nodded and sat back as Helen ca a haer, too Claire wondered why they bothered to even have a menu, really He favored strawberry milk shakes, which put him in solidarity with Eve "I&039;ll keep your father inhis menu back "And yourin Morganville?"

Claire sighed "For now, anyway"

"I hope to see you on Sunday, then, at the evening services Amelie comes quite often"

Huh, Claire had never considered that Aoer "And Oliver?"

Father Joe chuckled, then sipped on the strawberry milk shake Helen thuical differences with the Roman Catholic Church He attends a h he usually argues with me about formats"

She could see Amelie in church, but Oliver? Really? That wasnew

Father Joe must have seen the confusion in her face, because he said, "Most of them attend some sort of service After all, in the tiion was a vital part of life and society It&039;s a little less so today, but for ely irinned "But I&039;ood ot awful taste"

"Are you kidding? That last thing I took you to was totally sick!"

"If you mean, madewhere heads don&039;t explode?"

"Probably not, unless it&039;s one of thosepoofy skirts and corsets and nobody does anything That ht actually killfor Worst Boyfriend Ever?"

"In the subcategory of Completely Awesome," Shane said, and stole some of her fries Eve stabbed at him with a fork, but missed

The bell over the door chi, exactly; she was too busy laughing But soht her eye Maybe it was because she was clearly a vampire, and from the way she dressed and the hair, she&039;d probably last cared about fashion in the 1940s She looked eerily out of place here, wherecasual, modern clothes, even if their hairstyles seemed a little iffy

She looked around the diner as if she were trying to locate someone The waitress Helen steered in her direction, and must have asked her if she needed help, because the woman focused in on her immediately

And then she attacked her Justcold, flat-out bit her It was so fast Claire couldn&039;t react at all, at first; it see she wasn&039;t seeing it

Other people reacted, though Father Joe, for one; he jumped up and raced to help So did a tableful of vampires seated near the door It took all of theainst the counter, holding a shaking hand to her bleeding throat Her knees buckled, and she fell Other diners bent down to check her as the va crazy now, yelling in a language Claire didn&039;t recognize at all Finally, they got her out the door and off into the night

For some reason, Claire hadn&039;t moved at all Most of the people hadn&039;t Maybe they&039;d been afraid to draw attention She felt, suddenly, like a small, defenseless animal in a room full of predators

"Uh, Mike?" Shane asked "What was that?"

"I don&039;t know," Michael said "But it was freaking weird"

Helen was okay, it appeared, although she wouldn&039;t have been if the vamp had been able to do her worst Father Joe offered to drive her to the hospital, and the cook came out of the back to keep order and make sure nobody ran out on their checks He was a vampire, which for some reason struck Claire as i But then again, they were really great burgers Being i technique, Claire guessed

As they paid their check and headed for the door, Claire overheard one of the va to another, "Did you understand what she said?"

And the other va"

"What was all wrong?"

"I don&039;t know," he said, and shrugged "The world? She&039;s off her head"

And once again, Claire felt that shiver

Soanville

She just knew it

She woke up early the next , and felt as if she could&039;ve slept for a dozen , and Claire decided not to wake them up; she showered and dressed as quietly as possible, and sneaked out the front door while the round outside, and the sun was just coanville was pretty at this time of day--still, quiet, cleaner soht She&039;d always liked early h, she liked the fact that sunrise signaled most vampires to head for their beds Except Myrnin, who hardly ever seehts caain, and people started their usual days A construction crew had gotten busy early, lots of guys in flannel shirts, jeans, and work boots haht It feltnew And good

There was a car parked in the middle of the street up ahead Claire frowned and sloatching it--it wasn&039;t pulled to the curb; it was just sitting there, blocking whatever traffic irl only a little older than she was--maybe nineteen or twenty--opened the driver&039;s-side door and got out She stood there next to the car, looking around

It was eerily fa by the side of the road, see somewhere She was dressed for an office Claire could see a laptop and a purse in the passenger seat And there was a sealed cup stea the scent of coffee into the air froht of Claire, and waved her over Claire hesitated, re what kind of reception she&039;d had froe and said, "Are you having car trouble?" Because that irl looked at her and said, "I can&039;t find my mom&039;s office"

"IExcuse o there all the time! It&039;s ridiculous! Look, can you help me?"

"Uhsure," Claire said cautiously "What&039;s the name of the office?"

"Landau Realty"

Claire had never heard of it "You&039;re sure it&039;s around here?"

"I&039;one, and there&039;s nobody inside I&039;ve been up and down the street There&039;s not even a note It&039;s ridiculous! I was there yesterday!"

Aa briefcase The girl yelled at him "Hey, mister! Where&039;s Landau Realty? Did theyhis newspaper under his arirl repeated "God, really? Has everybody gone crazy?"

"You&039;reLaura, right? Iris&039;s daughter?"

"Yes! Yes, Iris is h of relief "Noe&039;re getting soht here, and I don&039;t understand"

Theat her very oddly He also looked at Claire, as if she ought to be doing so She had no clue Finally, he cleared his throat and said, "Laura, look--I don&039;t knohat happened, but you knohere your mom is Sheshe died last year The office was closed up I attended the funeral So did you"

Laura stared at him, wide-eyed, and shook her head "No No, that&039;s not true I&039;d remember--"

She stopped Juststopped It was like someone hit a reset button in her head, because all of a sudden she looked older, and her face just cruht of misery "Oh, God," she said, and put both hands to her mouth "Oh, God, I re? Why did I? Oh, God, Moot back into her car, sla the door as she fumbled for a tissue out of her purse

Thearound to be a shoulder to cry on He walked away quickly, like whatever had gotten into Laura ht to do so to Myrnin&039;s lab seemed much more i her nose, wiping her eyes, putting her car in drive, and heading off down the street, still crying

So

It&039;s the ht

It had to be the s didn&039;t go as she&039;d planned Not at all

First, as she descended the stairs, she found that the lights were all off That wasn&039;t like hiy conservation, and he couldn&039;t be bothered to turn things off if they were already on Power failure, Claire thought, but when she located a switch on the wall and threw it, all the sconces on the walls lit up with a reassuring golden glow, spilling color and life through the roo stretched out on one of the lab tables, wearing a criown that had seen better days--at least fifty years ago His eyes were closed, and he seemeddead Asleep? But Myrnin didn&039;t sleep, not really She&039;d seen hihtest sound

She&039;d just clohts, and he hadn&039;t moved

"Myrnin?" She said it reasonably loudly, but he didn&039;t stir "Myrnin, are you okay?" She was getting a sick, strange feeling about this He lookedposed, almost Like a corpse laid out for burial

After what seemed like an eternity, his eyelids slowly raised, and he stared blankly at the roof of the lab "I think I was dreaed and slow "Was I dreae, luone" "I went ho all over her skin "Don&039;t you remember?"

"No," he said softly "No, I don&039;t retired I wish I could sleep Sleep " In the same distant, contemplative voice, he said, "I loved her, you know"

Claire opened herMyrnin didn&039;t seem to care either way "I loved her and I destroyed her Don&039;t you ever wish you could take so terrible that you wish never happened?"

He really wasn&039;t well She just knew it She could feel it "Maybe I should call Dr Mills," Claire said "Or Theo You like Theo You can talk to him"

"I don&039;t need a doctor I&039;eneration, and I&039;n of the disease that afflicted us before" He shut his eyes again "I&039; It&039;s a mood It will pass" To prove it, he sat up and hopped off the lab table--from depressed to manic in one leap His heart wasn&039;t in it, but he rubbed his hands together and smiled at her "Now What do you have for me, my little mechanic?"

She hated to say it now, because she kneas absolutely the worst time to try to talk to hi wrong with the "

His eyes opened very wide "And ould you say such a thing? I&039;ve run all the tests, I tell you There&039;s nothing wrong"

"It&039;s not so that&039;s obvious; it&039;s just that--" She couldn&039;t quite think how to phrase it, so she just blurted it out "People are acting crazy I think it&039;s the machine"

"Don&039;t be ridiculous It&039;s not the machine; it can&039;t be," Myrnin said "Don&039;t be so overdrao around the twist, normally in fairly spectacular ways It&039;s really not all that unusual Perhaps it&039;s unusual to see so s have happened here" He smiled and spread his hands "There All explained No cause for alarm"

"Well--but there was this boy, Alex I saw hi He didn&039;t knohere he was It was really weird, and he was really upset"

"Don&039;t young men these days constantly seek neays to obliterate their brains? They certainly did in h the es and exotic herbs Young Alex almost certainly had a blackout that can be perfectly explained by drugs and alcohol" Myrnin turned away to pick up his Ben Franklin spectacles, balanced them on his nose, and looked over theht to say that"

"I don&039;t," Claire said, exasperated, and sat down across from him on a pile of boxes "Okay, then, never ht I was his mother! Hoeird is that?"

"Hmm Less explainable, but when did this happen?"

"Yesterday "

"Don&039;t you ever wake up and think yourself in a different place, a different time? It happens to vampires fairly often, actually It even happens to e to sleep" Myrnin studied her for a few long seconds "He&039;s fine now, I assume"

Claire hesitated, then had to nod Michael had been absolutely norether that didn&039;t belong It ht even explain the va"There was another one at the hospital," Claire said "He said he was a doctor, but he wasn&039;t Michael said later that he used to be a doctor, before he had a breakdown" "Aha, a breakdown I believe thatShe just knewbut Myrnin&039;s arguical and practical that she felt stupid "And thisfor her mom&039;s office But her mom&039;s been dead for a year And Laura went to the funeral and everything It was like she just woke up andforgot"

ThatHe touched his earlobe, tugged it, and finally said, "I acknowledge that I have no explanation for that I&039;ll run another set of diagnostics and review the logs, I promise you, but I can&039;t see any way that these incidents could be connected with our efforts The ned to have an effect outside of town, not inside I can assure you that, strange as this may seem, it could be complete coincidence"

"Are you sure?" she asked "Are you really, totally sure?"

"Yes," he said "I a after you went home yesterday I even made a few improvements, just in case"

The first part of that reassured her The second partnot so , really Mostly just strea You really did very well; I certainly don&039;t want you to think that I am one of those people who has to be in control all the--Oh, well, I suppose that&039;s actually true--I do have to be in control all the tie, of course" His e look in his eyes, and so was off about his behavior, too "It&039;s all fine, Claire You should just leave it to me"

She sed a mouthful of dread "Can I take a look? Not that I don&039;t trust you Only because I&039;m really worried about my friends"

"Aren&039;t I your friend?" he asked, very softly There was a cold light in his eyes, so hi wrong with the machine In fact, for the first time in years, I actually feelrested I feel better"

But fiveher "Myrnin, you are ht about this Please Let me see it"

He debated it for a one froe shifted back, subtly, to the Myrnin she knew "Of course you can I&039; Well, I moved it downstairs and installed it below," he said "I&039;ll show it to you just this once I put in safety protocols to protect it against any unauthorized ta, so be warned I don&039;t want you down there alone, all right?"

"All right," she said The "safety protocols" were, no doubt, so that would eat her or burn her face off She wasn&039;t eager to go poking around downstairs "I just won&039;t feel good about it until I check for myself"

He tapped his pen on his lips "I heard your father is unwell"

"He&039;s in the hospital Theythey werehim and my mom today to Dallas, to a heart hospital"

"And yet you&039;re here, talking to ue suspicions," he said "I would have thought that you&039;d be at his side, still"

She felt terrible the instant he said it; she&039;d been feeling guilty about it all , but her dad had texted her at four a me ready Love you, sweetheart And she&039;d texted hi when she woke up, but the aone," she said "And I want todidn&039;t make him sick in the first place" That was a little more of an attack than she&039;d planned, but she didher in silence, and then bowed his head "Perhaps I deserved that," he said "I haven&039;t beencorrectly I can feel it Can&039;t you?"

"I can&039;t feel anything," Claire said "I wish I could"

He led the way to the trapdoor in the back of the lab, and she stood back while he entered the code and pressed his hand to the plate The hatch popped open with a hiss of escaping cool air

"Right, down you go," Myrnin said, and, without any warning at all, grabbed hold of her, wrapped his arms around her, and ju fall, but it ay longer than she&039;d ever like to jump by herself Myrnin landed with hardly a jolt For a second, he held on to her, whichways And then all of a sudden he let go and was across the roohts with the flip of a switch "I really ought to install one of those hts on when you clap?"

"You could get motion sensors"

"Where would the fun be in that? This way Stay close There are a fe things lying around that it wouldn&039;t be good for you to, ah, encounter"

Right Myrnin was the master of understatement, because from what Claire had seen of his downstairs playhouse, it was full of things that no sane person would want to run into And now there were new things

Claire stayed so close she rafted to him He seemed back to norh-hewn tunnel studded at not-very-regular intervals with lights lay a big, open cave that held the remains of the computer Claire had once known as Ada Ada had been mostly machine, but partly vampire: Myrnin&039;s forot around to telling the details--alirlfriend, too, at soanville, had contracted a disease that had o insane--and unlike the rest of the vampires, they hadn&039;t been able to treat her It hadn&039;t been sostuck inside thatwithout a body that had finally driven her coone now, but the whole idea of her still scared Claire

Her instant ihts in the cave, was that Ada was back The tangle of pipes, wires, hoses, screens, and keyboards that sprawled over half the cave orking again, hissing steaears turned

The screens on the sides of it were all dark The one in the raphic interface, the one that had been hooked up to the parts on the lab table

As she studied it, she realized that the parts she and Myrnin had developed and tested were actually welded into the , clumsy typewriter-style keyboard Liquid bubbled Steam escaped in wisps of

"It&039;s working just fine," Myrnin said, and walked to the screen It was a bizarrely out-of-place touch of high tech a all the retro brass and tubes "Here, I&039;ll show you" He deftly brought up the syste odd about hoas perforines on coed the ed the otten where he was Michael had called her his ht her ownat the core of the problem, whatever "the problem" really meant But until she had proof, solid proof, there was no way Myrnin would believe her He was feeling too fragile

"Can you shohat i look, and she forced a smile "I just want to learn You know, understand what it was I left out"

That soothed him a little He started to touch the mechanism under the keyboard, then pulled his hand back with a snap "Ah," he said "Must deactivate the securityTurn around, please"

"What?"

"Turn around, Claire It&039;s a secure password! "

"You have got to be kidding"

"Why ever would I joke about that? Please turn"

It was stupid, because she could always figure out Myrnin&039;s passwords; she didn&039;t think he ever used more than three, and they were all ridiculously simple He didn&039;t remember his own birth date, so he didn&039;t use that, but he either used his name, Amelie&039;s name, or Ada&039;s

She tried to count key clicks, but vampires typed really fast

"Done," he said She turned; nothing looked any different He pointed at a tiny LED diode on the corner of the keyboard "Green et theot on her hands and knees and crawled under the keyboard with him It was murky underneath, but she could just"It occurred to uests more finely," he said "I installed a variable switch Should you wish to take eted to an individual, you see, or set as the general field around the town But only outside of the borders"

"What&039;s it set on right now?"

"Three years According to anville do it within three years We can, of course, exempt certain people from the effects if we choose"

Claire&039;s mouth went dry "What about ht rammed in their exceptions," he said, and ht "Your parents will rereat risk It would be safer, and kinder, if I had been allowed to take their burdens away"

"They won&039;t remember that I&039;m here if you do that They&039;ll think I--" She could hardly bear to say it out loud "They&039;ll think I ran away Or that I&039; into her eyes She couldn&039;t read his expression at all "And you don&039;t think that would be kinder, in the end?"

"No," she snapped "Why would you?"

He didn&039;t answer, just slithered out froet out, he&039;d tapped his password in again The LED on the keyboard glowed red

"Don&039;t touch it," Myrnin said, and there was a certain chill in his voice she hardly recognized "Only I can alter the machine from this point on I don&039;t want you down here Do you understand?"

"Yes"

"From now on, the machine is my responsibility," Myrnin said "Only mine"

That did not make her feel any better Claire swore to herself that she was going to figure out the password She had to understand as going on, and so see Claire walked hohnuts the next day She didn&039;t see any crazy people, or even confused people Everyone see

Was it possible that she&039;d really just blown it all out of proportion because she was so scared by the fate of poor, doomed Kyle, and so tired fros looked different today Better, somehow She felt a little foolish, really, after she&039;d stopped in a couple of stores and talked to perfectly noranville) people, who didn&039;t see odd at all

Outside of the used bookstore, she ran into another familiar--and unwelcome--face He stepped out of theto the shadows, and she pulled herself to a sudden halt as she realized that she was facing Frank Collins

Shane&039;s dad looked just the sa his face She couldn&039;t tell what he was thinking or feeling, but he lookedas hell It was his default expression

"Stay away from me," Claire said, and started to walk around him He stepped in her path She went off the curb into the sunlight, and that stopped him "Just leave us alone, okay?"