“We’re still alive,” Claire said, and pointed to herself, Shane, Jason, and Eve. Eve was sitting a few feet away, curled in Michael’s arms. “And we’ve been at this a whole lot longer than you.”
“Then you’re deluded,” Mrs. Grant said. “How can you possibly trust these— people? ”She acted as if that wasn’t the word she wanted to use.
“Because they gave you back your guns,” Claire said. “And because they could have killed you in the first couple of minutes if they’d really wanted to. I know it’s hard. It’s hard for all of us, sometimes. But right now, you need to believe what they’re telling you.”
Mrs. Grant frowned at her. “And when exactly do I stopbelieving them?”
Claire smiled. “We’ll let you know.”
There weren’t a lot of kids in the library, but there were a few—seven total, according to Claire’s count, ranging from babies who were still being bottle-fed to a couple of trying-to-be-adult kids of maybe twelve. Nobody was too close to Claire’s own age, though. She was kind of glad; it would have been just too creepy to see the kind of blank fear in their faces that she saw in the younger kids. Too much like seeing herself, in the beginning of her Morganville experience.
She wound up thinking about the kids because Eve had brought over a lantern, gotten them in a circle, and started reading to them. It was something familiar, from the few words Claire could hear; it finally clicked in. Eve was reading Where the Wild Things Are.All the kids, even the ones who would probably have said they were too old for it, were sitting quietly, listening, with the fear easing away from their expressions.
“She’s got the touch, doesn’t she?” That was Michael, standing behind Claire. He was watching Eve read, too. “With kids.” There was something quietly sad in his voice.
“Yeah, I guess.” Claire glanced over at him, then away. “Everything okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Just another day for us Morganville brats.” Now the smilewas quietly sad, too. “I wish I could take her away from all this. Make it all—different.”
“But you can’t.”
“No. I can’t. Because I am who I am, and she is who she is. And that’s it.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug so small it almost didn’t even qualify. “She keeps asking me where we’re going.”
“Yeah,” another voice said. It was Shane, pulling up a chair beside Claire. “Girls do that. They’ve always got to be taking the relationship somewhere.”
“That’s not true!”
“It is,” he said. “I get it; somebody’s got to be looking ahead. But it makes guys think they’re—”
“Closed in,” Michael said.
“Trapped,” Shane added.
“Idiots,” Claire finished. “Okay, I didn’t really mean that. But jeez, guys. It’s just a question.”
“Yeah?” Michael’s blue eyes were steady on Eve, watching her read, watching her smile, watching how she was with the kids clustered around her. “Is it?”
Claire didn’t answer. Suddenly, shewas the one who felt closed in. Trapped. And she understood why Michael was feeling so ... strange.
He was watching Eve with kids, and he was never going to have kids with Eve. At least, she didn’t thinkvampires could.... She’d never really asked. But she was pretty sure she was right about that one. He looked like someone seeing the future, and not liking his place in it one bit.
“Hey,” Shane said, and nudged Claire’s shoulder. “You noticed what’s going on?”
She blinked as she realized that Shane wasn’t figuring out Michael—that he hadn’t even really noticed all the personal stuff at all. He was, instead, looking out into the shadows, where there had been vampires patrolling at the edges.
“What?” she asked. She couldn’t see anyone.
“They’re gone.”
“What?”
“The vampires. As in, no longer in the building. Unless there’s a big line for the bathroom, all of a sudden. Even Jason’s gone.”
“No way.” Claire slid off her chair and went to the desk. There was no sign of Oliver, or Morley. The map of Blacke was still spread out on the table, anchored with weights on the corners, marked in colored pencils with things she didn’t understand. She grabbed the lantern and went to the library doors, where Jacob Goldman had been standing.
He wasn’t there.
“See?” Shane said. “They’ve bailed. All of them.”
“That’s impossible. Why would they just leave us?”
“You have to ask?” Shane shook his head. “Claire, sometimes I think your head’s not really in the survival game. Think: why would they leave us? Because they can. Because as much as you want to believe the best about everybody, they’re not the good guys.”
“No,” she blurted. “No, they wouldn’t. Oliverwouldn’t.”
“The hell he wouldn’t. Oliver is a rock-solid bastard, and you know it. If he added up the numbers and it looked like it might benefit him by adding even a second or two to his life, he’d be out of here, making up some sad story. It’s how he survives, Claire.” Shane hesitated for a second, then plunged on. “And maybe this is a good thing. Maybe if he’s taken off, we should, too. Just—run. Get as far away, as fast as we can.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying ... ,” he began with a sigh. “I’m saying we’re out of Morganville. And Oliver is all that’s stopping us from heading anywhere in the world, other than there.”
She really didn’t want to believe that Oliver was gone. She wanted to believe that Oliver was, like Amelie, someone who took his word seriously, who, once having granted his protection, wouldn’t just walk away because the going got tough.
But she really, really couldn’t be sure. She never was, with Oliver. She had absolutely no doubts about Morley; he was all vampire, all the time. He’d smile at you one minute and rip out your throat the next, and wouldn’t see any contradiction in that at all.
He was right, though. Oliver wasall that stood between them and a life out in the world; a life free of Morganville.
Except for the people they’d leave behind.
She glanced back at Eve, surrounded by the kids in a circle of light, and at Michael, watching her from the shadows with so much longing and pain in his face.
And it hit her.
“Michael,” she blurted. “Whatever Oliver might do to us, he can’t leave Michael behind to die. He can’t.Amelie would kill him.”
No doubt about that. Amelie had deeply loved Sam, Michael’s grandfather, and when she’d turned Michael into a vampire, she’d considered him family— herfamily. If Oliver planned to throw them to the infected wolves, he was going to have to figure out how to do it andsomehow save Michael, without letting Michael know what had happened to the rest of them.
Michael must have heard her say his name, because he looked over at her. Shane crooked a finger at him. Michael nodded and walked over.
He was much more observant than Claire was, because before he ever reached them, Michael looked around and said, “Where are they?”
“Thought maybe you knew,” Shane said. “They being your fellow fanged ones. Isn’t there some kind of flock instinct?”
“Bite me, blood bank. No, they didn’t tell me anything.” Michael frowned. “Stay here. I’m going to check the rest of the building. Be right back.”
He was gone in a whisper of air, hardly making any sound at all, and Claire shivered and leaned against Shane’s solid, very human warmth. His arms went around her, and he touched his lips lightly to the back of her neck. “How can you smell this good after the kind of crappy day we’ve had?”
“I sweat perfume. Like all girls.”
He laughed and squeezed her. He smelled good, too—more male,somehow, a little grungy and edgy and sweaty, and although she loved soap and water and shampoo, sometimes this was better—wilder.