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of the vampires. That's why he took the blood. He was going to go public, or he was blackmailing them."

"What?"

Claire pointed to Stinky Doug's slack face as he was dragged out of the cage. "He fought two weeks ago, right? Maybe he wasn't happy with what he got paid. He stole vamp blood from a college lab experiment. I think maybe he was going to use it for proof, or to get more money out of the Immortal Battles people. After all, they're playing the vampire part of it like theater. Like a joke."

She was right; the comments proved it. People were playing along with it, but clearly, nobodybelieved there were vampires fighting on screen. They were guys in makeup. But they liked it all the same.

Claire remembered the phone call she'd gotten that had tipped her off to the Web site. Somebody inside Morganville knew for sure, and theywould take it seriously.

"There's something else," Michael said. "Shane's fast, yeah, sure, and he's always been strong. But he's not superhuman. Or he wasn't. But you saw him tonight. That was...different. He's gotten faster and stronger and able to take more punishment. They've done something to him."

And it all came together in Claire's head in a blinding flash. Doug...the lab experiment. Her discussion with Frank about why someone would want vampire blood in the first place. He'd told her it wouldn't make a decent drug, because there wasn't a high and it wore off too fast, butit made you stronger and faster.

"Vassily's giving them vampire blood," Claire said. "In the protein shakes, probably. It's a temporary boost, but it breaks down fast."

"Oh, God," Eve said. "That's bad. That's damn bad, isn't it?"

Michael didn't deny that at all. "Click on the link for upcoming bouts."

Claire did. In three days, Shane was scheduled to fight again, this time a vampire named......

"Jester," Michael murmured. "He's fighting Jester. And Jester will murder him." He didn't mean it figuratively. "We have to get to Shane and get him out of this. He can't survive that, not even with the help of whatever they're giving him. The human body's not made for it."

"We have to get him out of it before Amelie finds out," Claire said, "because she'll kill everybody involved, no questions asked. This is a high-security risk for the town. She won't hesitate."

Eve dropped down onto Claire's bed and buried her head in her hands. "And how are we supposed to do that, exactly? Shane's allgrrr now. He's not going to listen to us. And he's got an entourage of his very own tough guys who'd gladly beat the crap out of us for breathing his air."

"What are we going to do, then? Just let himdie ? Formoney ?" Claire stood up and glared at the Web site again in utter fury. Her hands ached, and she didn't know why until she realized she was clenching them into tight fists. That made her think about Shane fighting, and that made her even angrier. There was a red-hot pressure inside her head that felt like it might blow her apart. "We can't tell Amelie. We can't go to Shane. Thenwhat ?"

Her cell phone rang. She looked at the screen and it said nothing at all again. Her breath hissed out in a sound of pure, enraged frustration, and she answered it in a voice she hardly recognized as her own. "If you're calling to tell me howhot it is to see my boyfriend get beaten up, I'm going to come over there and--"

"It's Frank," said the weird mechanical voice on the other end. That hit her like a bucket of ice-cold water, making her flinch and shiver at the same time.Oh, God, he could hear her. Frank could hear any of them, anytime, if they had their cell phones on them and he cared to listen. The ultimate eavesdropper, and she'd forgotten all about it. "Get here. Now."

"The lab," she said.

"No, Candyland! Of course the lab! And you'd better come prepared to explain to me what the hell is happening to my son, Claire." He hung up on her. She'd just been hung up on by a disembodied brain in a jar. Fantastic. She hadn't even had time to say,Don't tell Myrnin , but she didn't think Frank would, anyway. He'd have picked up on how dangerous this was for Shane, and if Myrnin knew, well...Myrnin wasn't Shane's biggest fan at the best of times. Claire didn't think he'd rat Shane out just because of that, but he was, ultimately, Amelie's friend first. And Amelie would want to know.

This was so dangerous.God , everywhere she turned there was risk. To Shane and to Morganville. Even to the vampires, though she didn't care quite as much about that, because the vamps could always take care of themselves...and would.

"Who was it?" Michael's face was carefully blank, but she saw the glitter in his eyes. He was waiting to see how much she was going to lie.

She sighed and told the truth. "Frank Collins," she said.

"Frank's dead."

"Yes," she said. "And...I have some things you'd better know before we go any further."

"Oh, this should be good," Eve said, in a "not really" voice. "Somebody make popcorn."

Claire told them about it on the drive to Myrnin's lab. It was darkest night now, and only vampires went out by choice; they took Michael's shiny, town-provided Vampmobile, with highly tinted windows, because Claire wasn't absolutely sure that they'd be back home before dawn, and, besides, it provided her and Eve with some extra protection from snack-inclined vampires. Just in case.

"So, wait," Michael said. "Back up. Myrnin chopped Frank's brain out and put it in a jar to hook up to his machine, after Amelie told him he was officially not supposed to be working on that machine. Is that about right?"

"Amelie was mad at him," Claire said. "But Myrnin was going to do it, anyway, and I think she knew it. It was just...timing. And whose brain he was going to get to use. Considering that he was thinking about using mine..."

"Yeah, I get it; it's a solid win." Michael shook his head, bemused. "Remind me to have myself cremated if I ever get killed around here. Can't trust anybody these days. But I have to say, if I had to pick somebody to trap in a jar for eternity, I'd vote Frank Collins every chance I got. He didn't deserve to live, but he did deserve to suffer. He's suffering, right?"

"Well...I guess." Claire hadn't seen much evidence of suffering, actually, but Michael seemed pretty happy about the whole idea. "The point is that Frank is connected to a lot of sensors, cameras, cell

phone networks, Internet feeds.... I'm guessing that the site we looked at was encrypted, though, because he didn't start yelling about things until we started talking about them. He couldn't see it."

"Somebody knew enough to take precautions," Michael agreed. "Somebody on Team Vampire."

"Like Vassily," Eve said. "Or Gloriana, that bitch."

"She's not that bad."

"Michael, you're going to want to stop defending her now before I have to cut you somewhere you'll feel it."

"Ouch."

"Fiancee," Eve said, pointing one black fingernail at her chest. "Donot defend her to me. She tried to drag you off to her lair. I'll bet she has a lair. And a boudoir in her lair."

Michael gave up. Claire thought she saw him smiling, but if he did, he made it vanish pretty fast. "Who's Frank likely to tell? Myrnin?"

"Maybe," Claire said. "And Myrnin will blab to Amelie, and then--"

"And then the vampires involved get a slap on the wrist, and the humans involved get dead, and we redefinesnafu in our time," Eve said. Michael made a left turn. Claire had no idea where they were; it was featureless blackness out the windows. Michael was the only one who had the super eyesight to make anything out. "We should have taken the portal."

"And what happens if Frank decides to lock down the portals to keep us from leaving?" Michael said. "I like having my own transportation."

He had a point. Claire didn't trust the portal system, which Amelie and Oliver--and sometimes Myrnin--used to skulk around the town. Sure, it was all magically amazing until it stopped working. She'd seen it stop working midtransit. The results hadn't been pretty.

Michael braked. "We're here."

"Maybe you guys should--"

"Go in with you," Eve said. "Because we're not dumping you off on the curb like an abandoned puppy, Claire. You know that's not happening."

She did know, and she was grateful. Very grateful.

Michael, though, had one more question, as they were walking down the alley toward the lab, lit eerily by the bobbing flare of the little flashlight Eve kept in her bag for emergencies. "Does Shane know? About his dad being kind of alive?"

"No," Claire admitted. "I didn't want to tell him. I thought,Maybe later . It was too soon. He'd just come to terms with losing him. I couldn't stand to see him hurt all over again."

"I probably would have done the same thing," Michael said.

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me. Just because I'd have done it doesn't mean it was right."

That was not exactly comforting. Claire thought about it all the way inside the leaning, dry-rotted shack that stood at the end of the narrowing alley, and down the unlit steps that led to Myrnin's lab.

She was prepared for Myrnin to be there, but he wasn't. She found the light controls and brought up the glow on the wall sconces. The lab looked its usual disorderly self, half cool steampunk junk shop, half dump. She still hadn't broken him of the habit of leaving stacks of books everywhere, including blocking the paths between the lab tables. He'd just gotten in a new shipment, she saw. More alchemy books. The top one, designed in garish black and yellow and white, was titledAlchemy for Idiots . He'd probably picked that one out just for her.

"Myrnin?" She called out, but not very loudly. No sign of him. When she raised her eyebrows at Michael, he shook his head. Not here, then.

That was confirmed by the flickering black-and-white ghost dressed in motorcycle leathers that appeared at the far end of the lab and came toward them at a brisk walk, passing through everything in his way...stacks of books, lab tables, and Eve, who wasn't looking the right way at that moment. She squawked and jumped back as Frank Collins's arm thrust its way through her stomach. "Hey!"

He smiled. With Frank's craggy, scarred face, it was a gruesome sight, especially in horror-movie black-and-white. "Don't stand in the way if you don't want to get hurt," he said, and dropped his arm back to his side. "I see you brought your friends, Claire."

"I didn't have a choice. They needed to know about you."

"In your opinion."

"Yes. In my opinion." Claire stared at him, and he stared back, and finally Frank shrugged.

"Fine by me, but keep my son out of it. By the way, Myrnin's not home."

"Where is he?"

"Hunting," Frank said.

Claire stiffened. "Myrnin doesn't hunt. He has regular blood deliveries."

Frank just looked at her, then at Michael. "You. Best friend. What the hell's going on with my son?"

Michael exchanged a quick glance with the others, then said, "Probably easier if I show you. Got a computer? One