“Boss?” Amelie considered that, and nodded. “Yes. Exactly. While I do not command Oliver, neither can he command me. Until he discovers the secrets I hold, he cannot unseat me in Morganville, and he cannot create his own followers to overwhelm mine. We are…evenly matched.”
Shane looked down at the book in his hand. “And this would have changed that.”
“Yes,” she said softly. “That book would have destroyed us all in the end. Vampires as well as humans. I owe you a debt for this, and I will pay it as well as circumstances will allow.”
Shane thought about it for an agonizing second, then looked at Eve. She nodded. Claire nodded when he checked for her approval, and then he held the book up. “Michael?” he asked. “Yes or no?” After another long second, he sighed. “Guess that’s a yes. Well, anything that pisses off Oliver is a good deed, so…” He held it out to Amelie.
She made no move to take it. “Understand,” she said, and her eyes were bitter cold, “that once this is done, it is done. Your Glass House will remain, but you are bound together. None may leave Morganville, after. I cannot risk your knowledge escaping my control.”
“Yeah, well, if we go now, we’re toast anyway, right?” Shane kept holding it out. “Take it. Oliver was right about one thing: it’s nothing to us but death.”
She stood, looked around the room, and sighed a little. “I have missed this place,” she said. “And I believe it has also missed me. Someday I will come back.” She pressed the hidden catch on the arm of the settee, and without another word to them turned to leave.
“Hey, what about the cops?” Shane asked. “Not to mention all those people who tried to kill us today?”
“They answer to Oliver. I will make it known that you are not to be troubled. However, you must not further disturb the peace. If you do, and it is your fault, I will be forced to reconsider my decision. And that would be… unfortunate.” She gave him a full smile. With fangs. “Au revoir, children. Do take care of the house more carefully in the future.”
Her two vamp guards went with her. Smoke and silence. There was no sound on the stairs after. Claire swallowed. “Um…what did we just do?” she asked.
“Pretty much all we could,” Shane said. “I’m checking the street.”
They ended up going down together, in a group—Shane with the bat, Eve with the knife Jennifer had abandoned, and Claire armed with a broken chair leg sharp on one end.
The house was deserted. The front door was standing open, and out on the street, cop cars were pulling away from the curb around the big black Cadillac. A limousine was leaving, too. Its tinted windows cast back blinding reflections of the sun.
It was all over in seconds. No cars, no vampires, nobody hanging around. No Monica. No Richard. No Oliver.
“Crap,” Shane said. He was standing on the porch, looking at what was hanging next to the doorbell. It was a black lacquered plaque with a symbol on it. The same symbol that had been on the book cover he’d sent to Oliver. “Does that mean she wrote the damn book, too?”
“I’ll bet she did, for backup,” Eve said. “You know, the symbol’s also on the well in the center of town. It’s the Founder symbol.”
“She’s the Founder,” Shane said.
“Well, somebody had to be.”
“Yeah, but I figured it was a
“Funny,” Claire said, “but I think it
Which made Shane laugh, and Eve snort, and Shane slung his arm over her shoulders. “You still quitting school?” he asked.
“Not if I can’t leave town.” Claire smacked herself in the head. “Oh my
Shane kissed her on the forehead. “Tomorrow’s problems,” he said. “I’m going with let’s just be glad there’s a tomorrow, at this point.”
Eve closed the front door. It swung open again in the breeze. “I think we’re going to need a new door.”
“I think we’re going to need Home Depot.”
“Do they sell stakes at Home Depot here?” Claire asked. Shane and Eve looked blank. “Dumb question. Never mind.”
Chapter 17
C leanup took pretty much all day, what with the broken furniture, the shattered windows, the front and back doors, and hauling Claire’s damaged mattress out to the curb. They were just sitting down to dinner when the sun went behind the horizon, and Claire heard the sound of a body hitting the floor, followed by dry retching.
“Michael’s home,” Eve said, as if he’d just come back from school. “You guys dig in.”
It took a while before she came back with Michael. Holding hands. Shane got up, smiling, and held up his hand. Michael high-fived it.
“Not bad, brother,” Michael said. “The girls gave you enough time for the switch.”
“Even though they didn’t know. Yeah. Worked out,” Shane said, pleased. “See? My plans don’t all suck. Just most of them.”
“So long as we keep on being able to tell the difference.” Michael pulled up a chair. “What’s for—oh, you’re kidding me. Chili?”
“Nobody wanted to go to the store.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Michael closed his eyes. “I’m saying a prayer. Maybe you ought to, too. It’s going to take us a miracle to get through this.”
Whether he was serious or not, Claire sent the prayer up toward heaven, and she thought the others did, too. So it seemed kind of miraculous when the doorbell rang.
“At least they’re getting more polite when they try to kill us,” Shane said. Michael got up and went to the door. After a second’s hesitation, they all got up and followed.
Michael swung the new door open. Outside, in the glow of the porch light, stood a middle-aged man with a scraggly beard and a huge scar down one side of his face, dressed in black motorcycle leather. Behind him were two more guys, not quite as old and a whole lot bigger and meaner-looking.
Bikers. Claire nearly choked on her bite of chili.
The man nodded.
“Son,” he said, looking past Michael right at Shane. “Got your message. Cavalry’s here.” He walked right in, past the threshold, and ignored Michael like he wasn’t even there. “About time you got your ass in gear. Been waiting for you to call for six damn months. What kept you? Took you this long to find the head bloodsucker?”
They followed him into the living room. Michael turned to look at Shane, who was turning red. Not meeting anybody’s eyes, really. “Things have changed, Dad,” he mumbled.
“Nothing’s changed,” Shane’s dad said, and turned to face them, hands on hips. “We came to kick us some ass and kill us some vampires, just like we planned all along. Time to get some payback for Alyssa and your mother. Nothing’s going to change that.”
“Dad, things are
Shane’s father grabbed him by the hair, quick as a snake. There were tattoos on his hand, ugly dark blue smudges, and he forced Shane’s head back. “Can’t?
“Hey!” Michael said sharply, and reached out for Shane’s dad. When he touched him, something happened, something like an electric shock that flared blue white in the room and raised the hair on Claire’s arms. Michael flew back and hit the wall, too stunned to do anything.
