Kiss of Death

and those who do will suffer. You know that.”

“Your choice—go and burn; stay and be torn apart.” Morley shrugged. “For my part, burns heal. I’m not sure that my disconnected pieces would, and I’d prefer not to find out.”

“Something’s coming,” a voice called from the window. “A truck. A delivery van!”

Claire shoved through the crowd of vampires, ignoring the cold touch of skin and the hisses of annoyance, and managed to get a clear space right in front of the window, where a solid couple of feet were still bathed in sunlight. Eve had already claimed it, but she let Claire squeeze in beside her.

The van was a big yellow thing, some kind of bread truck, with a boxy, windowless back. As Claire watched, it jumped the curb and bounced up onto the lawn, charged forward, and knocked down the leaning iron fence around the Civic Hall. It missed the statue of what’s-his-name, the town’s patron saint, but the vibrations caused the whole thing to wobble uncertainly, and as Claire watched, it toppled over that last couple of inches, and gravity took over, slamming the smug statue’s face into the grass once and for all.

Thankfully, not in the way of the van.

The van reversed, turned, and then backed up fast toward the window. It stopped a few feet away, and Shane hopped down from the driver’s side. He ran to the window and grinned at Eve and Claire.

His grin faded fast as his eyes adjusted to the shadows, and he saw all the vampires in the room. “What —”

“Morley’s people,” Claire said. “I guess we’re all in this together right now.”

“I’m ... not loving that.”

“I know. But we all need to get out of here.”

Shane shook his head, shaggy hair sticking in damp points to his face, but he turned and opened up the back doors of the van. Inside, there wasn’t much space, but there was enough to hold all the vamps—maybe. “I’ll take as many as can fit,” he said. “But seriously, once they’re out of here, all bets are off.”

“Agreed,” Morley said, and stepped forward into the sun. If it bothered him, it was only to make him narrow his eyes a little. He grabbed the frame of the window and, with one hard pull, ripped it right out of the stone and tossed it out into the overgrown grass. “Right, youngest first. Go, now.”

There was a hesitation, until Morley gave a low-decibel growl, and then vampires started stepping up, quickly throwing themselves out into the sunlight and moving fast to the sheltering darkness of the van. In only a few seconds it was just her, Michael, Jason, Eve, Morley, and Oliver, with Shane standing outside the window.

“I said youngest first,” Morley said, glowering at Michael. Michael raised pale eyebrows at him. “Idiot.”

“I stay with my friends.”

“Then it would appear you get to tan with them, as there’s no more room in the back.”

“No,” Oliver said. “Michael goes in the back. You and I ride outside.”

Morley let out a black bark of a laugh. “Outside?”

“I’m sure you’re familiar with the concept.” Oliver, without even looking at him, grabbed Michael by the shoulder and almost threw him across the open space to the back of the van. Michael crashed into the small open space left and was pulled inside by Patience Goldman, who looked anxious, almost frightened. Shane slammed the back doors of the truck and ran to the front. “Right. Move it, ladies.”

Jason didn’t wait for girls first; he jumped out and went. Oliver boosted Eve up to the window, and she ran for the cab of the truck, where Jason was already climbing inside. Claire followed, avoiding any help from Oliver, and as she pulled herself up on the truck’s mounting step, she saw Oliver and Morley jump out of the building and flatten themselves on top of the truck, in full sun, arms and legs spread wide for balance. She banged the door shut behind her and squeezed in next to Eve, with Jason on the other side next to Shane.

“We couldn’t have done this boy/girl?” Shane complained, and started up the car. “Back off, freak!” That last was for Jason, who was pushing too close for Shane’s comfort, evidently. Claire tried wiggling closer to the passenger door, but the cab wasn’t made for four, no matter how relatively skinny they might be. And Shane wasn’t small.

“Just drive, smart-ass,” Jason snapped. Shane looked like he was considering hitting him. “Unless you want the two on top baked golden brown.”

“Crap,” Shane spat, and glared at the steering wheel as if it had personally offended him. He put the truck in gear, ground the gears, and got it roaring through the grass. It bumped hard over the curb, sending Claire into the dashboard, and she flailed to regain her balance as the truck slewed back and forth, got traction, and roared off down the street.

“Where the hell are you going?” Jason yelled.

“Your sister gets to talk. You don’t.”

“Fine,” Eve said. “Where the hell are you going, Shane?”

“The library,” he said. “I promised I’d bring the truck back.”

Claire blinked, looking over at him, and Eve, wide-eyed, shook her head.

“You know it’s desperate,” she said. “Shane is going to the library. ”

And in spite of everything, that was actually funny.

11

The library was about a block down, on the left. They passed a lot of empty, blank buildings, broken windows, destruction that seemed like the aftermath of a good looting. It didn’t seem recent, though.

The library’s windows were all intact, and there were people patrolling outside it—the first living people Claire had seen in Blacke, actually. She counted four of them, armed with shotguns and crossbows.

“My kind of library,” Shane said. “What with all the weapons and everything. I tried to boost the truck, and they finally let me have it, but I had to bring it back. This looks like the place to be. At least we can find out what the hell is going on, maybe get a bus or something.”

The guards outside the library were certainly paying attention. The guys with shotguns tracked the truck as it approached, and they looked really serious about firing, too. Claire cleared her throat. “Uh, Shane—?”

“I see it,” he said. He slowed the truck to a crawl. “So, I’m guessing, Hi, we’re friendly strangers with a bunch of vampires in your bread truck probably isn’t the way to go here.” He put the truck in reverse. “Guess this wasn’t as good an idea as it looked at a distance.”

“Maybe we should—”

Whatever Eve was about to suggest became useless, because two police cruisers, carrying more armed bubbas, came screaming out of alleys on either side of the library building and blocked Shane’s exit. Shane hit the brakes. In seconds, Claire’s door was yanked open, and a huge man with a shotgun glared at her, grabbed her, and dragged her out onto the hot pavement. He pressed fingers to her throat for a second, then yelled, “Live one!”

“This one, too!” yelled his buddy, who was pulling a fighting, screaming Eve out of the cab. “Watch it, girl!”

“You watch it, you pervert! Hands!”

“Hey, leave her alone!” That was Jason, flinging himself out after Eve, looking every bit the feverish little maniac Claire remembered from the first time she’d seen him. Maybe a little cleaner. Maybe.

He must have moved too fast for the armed guard’s comfort, because he got hit in the guts with the stock of the shotgun, and collapsed to the street. Eve screamed his name, and got picked up and bodily carried into the library, along with Claire. “No!” Claire screamed, and looked back at the truck. Shane was getting wrestled out of the driver’s side, and Jason was being dragged to his feet.

This was not going well. And where the hell were Oliver and Morley? They weren’t on top of the van anymore....

Oliver dropped from the overhanging roof of the library and drop-kicked the bubba holding Claire. He shoved Claire out of the way as the one holding Eve aimed a crossbow and fired; Oliver snatched the arrow right out of the air and snapped the thick shaft with a twist of his fingers, grinning. “Let the girl go,” he said. “I’ve played this game