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at Claire. "Mornings are hard.""It isn't morning," Claire said, straight-faced. Eve made a tragic face. "I stand corrected. Afternoons are hard. Mornings are pure evil from the pits of hell, which is why I don't do them anymore." She took a gulp from her cup, shuddered, and said, "Oh, yeah, that's the stuff. Caffeinate me. So, Beautiful Brainiac, what can I do for you?""The usual, I guess.""One piping-hot mocha, extra large, coming up!" Eve rang it up and took Claire's money. As she counted out change, she shook her newly shag-cut black hair back from her pale face and grinned. The grinning didn't really go with the whole Goth thing, but that was Eve. She didn't do labels. "Hey, did you get how excited Shane was about that martial arts thingy? He almost ran me over when I came downstairs. I never saw somebody so thrilled to be invited to an ass kicking.""He was pretty stoked," Claire agreed. "How about you? Are you going?""Take classes ? That I actually pay for ? What do you think I am--a college girl or something? Besides, I defend myself just fine." She did, actually. Eve not only made her own stakes, but she also blinged them out with crystal designs. The wooden ones were sort of like stun guns for vamps; wood couldn't kill most of them, just immobilize them, unless the vamps were very young, like Michael. But Eve also made silver ones, and those were deadly. Claire felt a shiver along her spine as she remembered just how deadly they could be. She hadn't meant to, but she'd destroyed one vampire that way. Nasty. And even though she'd done it in self-defense, she hadn't felt good about it."Hmmm," Eve was saying now, in a contemplative kind of way. She tapped her lip with one black fingernail and smiled. "There could be a use for that gym after all, now that I think about it. You know, there is one martial art I like.""Which is?""A surprise, Claire Bear. Yeah, that might definitely be some fun. You might even enjoy it, too." A cute, tiny frown line slowly appeared between her eyebrows. "You okay? You look kind of spooked.""Yeah, coming from someone who looks like an actual ghost. .....""Respect the awesome look, girlfriend. Okay, if you don't want to talk, don't. One mocha, coming up! Sit down; I'll bring it over. It's slow, anyway."It wasn't just slow; this hour of the day, it was deserted. Claire left Eve to the espresso construction (something Eve was amazingly good at, actually) and flipped open her laptop. It took her exactly seven minutes to hack into Larkin's class roster and discover that Stinky Doug's full name was Doug Legrande. Larkin, creepily enough, even had all their addresses, phone numbers, and e-mails, although Claire was pretty sure she'd never provided him with any of that intel. Either the university was really free with their personal details, or Larkin had connections. Duh, she already knew that. He had a bracelet from Oliver. Connections didn't quite cover it."You gonna drink that?"Claire looked up. Eve was sitting across from her, slumped in the rickety plastic chair, sipping her massive cup of whatever--it was Eve's own cup, with a cartoony got blood? on the side. On campus, it was funny. Off campus...not so much. As Claire stared blankly at her, Eve nodded to the mocha that had magically appeared next to her laptop. "The whipped cream is getting all melty," Eve said. "Whipped cream is a terrible thing to waste. Oh, except it's not real whipped cream--it's that canned stuff, which is kind of nasty, so there's that. Maybe a good choice after all, letting it melt. Whatcha doing?"That was Eve, through and through, even when she was sleepy. Keeping up with her required a healthy gulp of the mocha and a very active brain. "I'm trying to find Stinky Doug," Claire said. "He lives on campus, in Lansdale House, I guess.""Stinky Doug? Oh, God. Please tell me you're going to do everyone a public service and deliver him some shower gel. The last time he came in here, I thought I was going to have to call those biohazard guys. Although if this is some weird and inconceivable college-crush thing, I don't want to know. Let me have my fragile illusions."Claire rolled her eyes. "Trust me, I wouldn't kiss Doug even after the shower gel and decontamination. No, he did something stupid, and I need to convince him not to make it worse--that's all." She explained about the experiment, the blood, and Doug's boneheaded move. Eve kept steadily drinking her coffee, eyes half closed."You considered snitching on him?" she asked. "Because, honestly, wouldn't be the worst idea ever. Just make sure Larkin knows you didn't take it. Let him draw his own conclusions.""That's the same thing as throwing Doug under the bus," Claire said. "Look, he's just dumb, that's all. And he doesn't know about"--Claire waved vaguely around, indicating Morganville--"all this." Well, she wasn't one hundred percent sure of that, actually, but he shouldn’t know. That counted."If he had any kind of a clue, he wouldn't be caught dead with that stuff. See what I did there? Caught dead? I crack myself up." Eve sipped more coffee she probably, at this point, didn't need. "So you're visiting Stinky Doug and warning him off, without explaining why. Is that your whole plan?""Kinda.""Awesome. Let me know how it goes, Plan Girl.""You have any better ideas?"Eve took another delicate swallow of coffee. "Well," she said, "Stinky Doug has a lot of classes. If you've got his dorm room address, how difficult would it be to toss the place, find the stuff, and get rid of it? Nobody has to know.""Great. And do you actually know a ninja?""Yep," Eve said, and gave her a sleepy, luminous smile. "He's my boyfriend."Hmmm. Claire had to mull that over for a few seconds, because technically vampires were like ninjas--quiet, sneaky, fast, and deadly. And when they wanted to be, they could be disturbingly invisible. "Would he do it?" she asked. That wasn't what she wanted to ask, actually; she wanted to ask, Will he tell Oliver? Because, like it or not, Michael was a vampire in equal measure to being her friend, and even though he tried to stay on the human side, sometimes he had to be a vamp first. Maybe this was one of those times. Eve jacked up her black eyebrows another half inch in answer."Okay," Claire finally said. "I admit, he has significant ninja qualities.""Booyah. I will summon the ninja. Oh, and take a lunch break while we burgle.""You're going, too?""Am I not ninja enough? Are you saying that I lack ninja?""No, I was just thinking you're a little, uh, recognizable, maybe?"Eve batted her thick eyelashes. "Why, thank you, sweetie. That's the nicest insult I've had today, not counting the jock who said he'd date me but he had a restraining order out for necrophilia. I promise, I'll dowdy up for the occasion. It'll take me five minutes." She took her cell out of her pocket and texted ass he spoke. "Promise me you won't leave without me.""I promise.""Want me to organize Shane into this posse, too?""He's at work." Claire sighed. She would have gladly had Shane added to the mix at this point, but he was already on fragile ground at work, considering he'd ditched twice this month--once for a legitimate sick day, but the other had been just plain boredom. "Next time we commit crime, we'll make sure to include him."Eve held up one fist while she kept typing with one thumb, and Claire tapped it. Eve finished with a flurry of keystrokes, snapped the phone shut, and drained her coffee. "Right. Mikey's on the way. I'll be anti-Eve in five. Enjoy your mocha."Claire did, drinking fast. It was a good thing she did, because in just about five minutes, Michael was walking through the big UC open hall outside the coffee area, a guitar case slung over his back. He should have drawn attention--Michael was just plain gorgeous, and girls looked --but he was walking with his shoulders slumped, hands in his pants pockets, looking down, and the whole aura just projected Don't look at me so strongly that Claire couldn't see a single person other than herself actually taking notice of him. He slid onto a seat next to her, leaning the guitar case against the table. "So, now we're going to be actual criminals," he said."And, see, you brought a guitar."He gave her alook . "I was on my way to practice.""Oh. Well, thanks.""Sounds like I didn't have much of a choice. This guy has vampire blood?""I guess so. Larkin was using it for some experiment. I suppose it was authorized.""Larkin? Had to be. He wouldn't dare do it on the side." Michael nudged her empty mocha cup with a fingertip. "Where's Eve?""Right here, Ninja with Fangs." Eve leaned over behind him, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him right over the cool blue veins. "Claire said I had to go in disguise as a regular person."And she had. Eve had scrubbed off every trace of her Goth persona and tied her black hair back in a tight ponytail. She'd changed into a plain black hoodie--one without skulls or symbols, so Claire could only figure she'd raided someone else's locker for it. The only thing left to indicate she wasn't like every other college-age girl on campus were the thick-soled boots she was wearing. Still, those weren't all that noticeable. She'd even thrown on an old pair of blue jeans."Wow. We really are stealthy now," Claire said, and shut her computer. "Can we store stuff in the back?""Sure, my locker has an actual lock."Claire raised her eyebrows and tugged the cord of the black hoodie. "And you keep this in it?""I didn't say that the locks couldn't be picked. But actually my good buddy Edie never locks hers, anyway. Come on, let's get the storage taken care of."In the end, they left Michael's guitar, Claire's backpack (with laptop), and pretty much everything else behind, as Eve set up the lunch break sign on the counter and locked up the register. In a surprisingly short time, they were headed out again. Michael had brought a leather hat, which looked kind of sloppy-cool and shaded his face and neck. He kept his hands in his pockets."You're not as sensitive anymore," Claire said. "To the sun, I mean." Because when Michael had first been venturing out, he'd had to drape himself in a blanket to keep from burning."Well, it's cloudy," he pointed out. It was; there were ominous dark masses in the sky, and the sun had disappeared behind the curtain. "And I've got on two layers. But, yeah, it's better now than it was." He said it as if he wasn't sure how he felt about it, which was strange. Claire supposed that becoming more stable meant he also felt more like a vampire. "I'll be okay unless the sun comes out full strength again."Which, Claire could tell, it wouldn't. Rain was coming, the kind of torrential desert rain that would drown the streets and create flash floods out in the arroyos outside of town, and would be completely gone tomorrow. There were already flashes of hidden lightning inside the clouds. Luckily, they weren't far from Stinky Doug's dorm. It housed both male and female students, which was lucky, because it meant the three of them were even less noticeable, and there weren't any sign-ins required. Once they'd made it to the stairwell, Michael took off the hat, stuffed it in his jacket, and ran up the steps with so much ease that Claire, puffing a little in his wake, wondered if maybe this vampire thing might not be okay after all. Eight flights of stairs wasn't her thing. At the top, she and Eve caught their breath and joined up with Michael as he stepped out to