Bite clube, non (books not by me ) [best book club books TXT] 📗

it. But once she got in bed, with the moonlight falling cool over the sheets, she couldn't sleep after all. She tossed and turned, watching the black branches scratch at the windows like skeletal hands, and wondered what Shane was doing. She'd half expected him to come knock on her door, but he hadn't.

Finally, she started getting drowsy, and was almost asleep when she had the unmistakable impression that someone was in the room with her,right there , standing beside the bed.

She turned over, heart pounding. The moonlight didn't reach that side of the bed, and the room was dark, but she could make out something...a shadow...

And then the shadow stepped forward, into the light, and it was Myrnin.Not Shane.

He looked...dangerous. His dark hair curled black around his pale face, and his eyes were very wide, very dark. Claire opened her mouth to demand to know what the hell he was doinghere , in herbedroom , but she didn't get the chance. His hand flashed out and covered her mouth with cold flesh.

She tried to scream, but it came out a muffled buzz, not nearly loud enough to alert anybody. Myrnin held a long, slender finger to his lips and bent close.

"So sorry to do this," he whispered. "I realize it's not appropriate. That's right, isn't it? Coming to a lady's boudoir without an invitation is still inappropriate, even in these lax social circles?"

She nodded emphatically. He didn't let go, probably because he could tell she was going to yell the house down if he did.

"Well, so sorry, but this is a bit of an emergency. Get dressed. Amelie wants to see us."

Oh.Well, vampires didn't keep regular people hours, but still.Not cool.

"Please don't scream," he said. "It would look so very bad for me, all things considered."

That, more than anything, made her nod. Myrnin's cold hand moved away, and she pulled in a deep, convulsive breath...but didn't yell. Shedid scoot all the way over in the bed, preparing to eject at a second's notice.

"You could have called," Claire said. Her voice sounded a little higher than usual. "I have a phone."

"I lost mine," he said. Claire couldso believe that. "Stupid things. So small. So easy to put in a pocket and forget them when you wash your clothes...Well. It just seemed easier to come over. Are you dressed?"

"I can'tbelieve you're asking me that. Standing in my bedroom in the middle of the night. Don't you think that's a little creepy? Maybe even perverted?"

"Ah, excellent point. I'll just...wait outside. But hurry. And tell no one."

Claire expected Myrnin to head for the bedroom door, but no, of course, that was toonormal , wasn't it? Instead, he opened the window, the one that overlooked the backyard, and climbed through. He dropped down with all the ease of someone stepping off a curb, only it was twenty feet down, if not more.

Claire didn't even bother to look. Of course he was okay, and she didn't care if he wasn't. Howcould he just show up like this while she wassleeping ......

She was fumbling in the dresser for clean underwear when there was a soft knock at the door. "Claire? You awake?"

Shane. She froze and held her breath. She wanted to open it, fall into his arms, and forget all about Myrnin and his weird behavior, but the truth was that Myrnin didn't show up for nothing. Something was wrong, and he'd said,Tell no one. That included Shane, unfortunately. She watched the doorknob, but it didn't turn, and after another quiet knock, she heard his footsteps moving away, toward his room.

Claire let out her breath, shook her head, and muttered, "And again, I hate you, Myrnin."

Dressed, if not exactly stylish, Claire stuck her head out of her bedroom window. As expected, Myrnin was pacing there, hands behind his back, head down. He was wearing some kind of neon-bright shirt that was probably a holdover from the eighties, and was back to his shorts and comfortable sandals. These were leather, at least, and looked kind of like something a guy would wear. If pushed.

Not exactly vampire chic, as pop culture defined it, but Myrnin wasn't one for fitting in. Ever.

He looked up at her, black hair falling back from his moon-pale face, and said, "Well? Jump!"

It was one thing for a vampire. Quite another for a breakable, not-too-athletic human. Claire shook her head. Myrnin sighed, tugged at his hair with both hands as if wanting to pull out his brain by the roots, and then seemed to have a bright idea. He dashed off into the darkness.

A moment later, he was back, carrying a ladder--and not their ladder. He'd ripped it off from a neighbor, Claire guessed. Well, it was better than jumping.

The climb down was chilly and scary, because Myrnin didn't think about bracing the ladder, which bounced and shifted uneasily with every step she took. Claire jumped the last couple of rungs, landing flat-footed, and whispered, "Where did this thing come from?"

"Oh, out there," Myrnin said, and waved vaguely at the darkness. "We don't have time for niceties. Keep up, please."

Oh, right. Myrnin didn't drive, so there was no car; that meant walking. In the dark. In Vampire City. Well, at least she had an escort, although he had longer legs and didn't bother to slow down for her, so she had to almost jog to stay with him.

"What's going on?" she asked, by the time they'd reached the corner of Lot Street. The streetlight was out. Most of the streetlights in Morganville stayed off when you needed them most. "What's the emergency?"

"I found out who killed your friend."

"Oh." She sucked in a deep breath as they crossed the street and took a right, heading for Founder's Square in the center of town. "Who?"

It was a simple question, but she didn't expect a simple answer. Myrnin was always being vague when she most needed clarity.

So it surprised her when he said, "Do you actually want to know?"

"Of course I do!"

"Think carefully before you answer. Do you want to know, Claire?"

That sounded...ominous. And Myrnin sounded very, very serious and in control, which was odd, to say the least.

"Is there some reason I shouldn't?" she asked. He glanced over at her, and she was unsettled again by the concern in his expression.

"Yes," he said. "Several that I can think of."

"Then why drag me out of bed about it?"

"Not my choice. Amelie's orders. Trust me, I objected. I was overruled."

Claire concentrated on walking for a few moments, until the pale glow of the lights from Founder's Square warmed the night ahead of them. The houses they passed were silent and dark. Apart from a few barking dogs, nobody seemed to notice them.

"Tell me," she said. "Tell me before we get there. It's better if I know what I'm walking into."

"I knew you'd say that." She couldn't decide whether Myrnin approved or sounded resigned about it. "Very well. It's Eve's brother. Jason."

Jason.Well...that didn't shock her quite as much as it probably should have. Jason had sat with them at their dinner table. He'd even kind of saved her life once. But on the other hand, he'd terrorized her, threatened her, and he'd actuallyhurt Shane. With glee. Jason was not a good person, deep down.

"Eve's going to be so upset," Claire said. She couldn't imagine how bad her friend would feel; Eve had been so excited about Jason's supposed turnaround, so supportive of his attempts to make himself better. And now this. It would knock her flat.

"You're not surprised."

"Not...really. I mean, I'm disappointed more than surprised. I wanted him to be...better."

"Ah, Claire." Myrnin shook his head and reached out to give her a quick, fierce, one-armed hug. "You want us all to be better than we are. That's charming, and alarming. I've disappointed you many times."

"Not like this."

"Very much like this," he said. "But perhaps not so bloodily."

"What's going to happen to him?"

Myrnin gave her a long, sideways look. She realized that it maybe wasn't the most perceptive question she'd ever asked. "No," she said. "No, Myrnin. He didn't kill a vampire, no matter how it turns out. Human violence gets judged and punished by humans. That's the rule."

"Amelie makes the rules, dear child."

They were in a relatively deserted part of town now, heading for Founder's Square. Normally, Claire wouldn't have liked walking out here in blazing noon sun, not even with an escort, but having a vampire at her side had made her careless.

She never saw it coming, not until Myrnin suddenly stopped and raised his head, face gone still and unnaturally pale in the silvery moonlight. He usually had a kind of awkwardly angled grace that was almost human, but now he took on that weird vampire stillness that made Claire feel so...clumsy. So vulnerable.

Except Myrnin hadn't abruptly gone all fangy on her; he was focusing on something out in the dark.

"Claire," he said, in a low, soothing, carefully controlled voice. "I would like you to take out your mobile phone and call the police, please. Do that now. Perhaps that emergency number."

It was so utterly un-Myrnin that it scared her into fumbling her phone out of her pocket. "Why?" she whispered, as she started punching the three numbers in.

"Because it's an emergency," he said, and then somethinghit him , something faster than Claire could

actually see, and she'd only just gotten the 911 entered and hadn't pressed call, and before Myrnin fell, something had her wrist in a crushing grip. She had a confused impression of a stench like the worst body odor in the world, like poor Stinky Doug times a thousand, and a feverish glitter of eyes, and a face that looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over it.......

With sharp, sharp,sharp fangs that glittered like knives and were heading straight for her throat.

Myrnin hit him--it?--with so much force that the two vampires skidded at least fifty feet, rolling and punching and fighting, and Claire realized that just standing there like a total idiot might not be the best survival strategy. She felt numb and stupid with shock, but she saw the glowing blue screen of her phone in the grass, scrambled for it, and hit the call button. She looked around wildly, trying to get her bearings; it all seemed dark and murky and strange, but she saw the street sign in the faint gleam of the underpowered streetlight at the corner.

She was only two blocks from Founder's Square.

Claire ran, holding the phone to her ear. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like a sledgehammer hitting her chest. The sidewalk was dark, very dark, but she didn't worry about cracks or uneven pavement or anything else but running as fast as she possibly could, heading for the somewhat questionable safety of even more vampires, and,God , she couldn't believe she was runningto the vampires, but that thing, that thing wasn't--

"Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?"

She didn't have any breath, she realized. Claire gasped out something about where she was and was about to try to explain what the hell had just happened, when she tripped and the phone went flying as she lost her balance and momentum carried her forward into what was going to be a bone-snapping impact with the pavement.