Eve was dressed in a black fluffy robe, sitting on the toilet; she'd stripped off her makeup and let her hair down, and she looked like a little girl in a too-large adult outfit. Fragile. She gave Claire a shaky grin and wiped tear tracks from her face. "Sorry," she said, and cleared her throat. "Kind of a suck-ass day, you know?"
"That guy. That vampire. He acted like he knew you," Claire said.
"Yeah. He - he's the one who gives my family Protection. I turned him down. He's not too happy." She gave a hollow little laugh. "Guess nobody likes rejection."
Claire studied her. "You okay, though?"
"Sure. Peachy." Eve waved her out. "Go study. Get smart enough to blow this town. I'm just a little bit down. Don't worry about it."
Later, when Michael started playing, Claire heard Eve crying through the wall again.
She didn't go investigate, and she didn't watch Michael vanish. She didn't think she had the courage.
Shane went with her the next day to buy some clothes. It was only three blocks to the colorless retail section of town, with all its dingy-looking thrift stores; she didn't want his company, but he wasn't letting her go alone.
"You let Eve go alone," she pointed out as he sat on the couch putting on his shoes.
"Yeah, well, Eve has a car," he said. "Besides, I wasn't up. You get escorted. Live with it."
She felt secretly pleased about it. A little. It was another typically sunny day, the sidewalks almost vibrating with heat. Not a lot of pedestrians, but then, there rarely were. Shane walked with a long, loping stride, hands in his pockets; she had to hurry to keep up. She kept waiting for him to say something, but he didn't. After a while, she just started talking. "Did you have a lot of friends, growing up here?"
"Friends? Yeah, I guess. A few. Michael. I kind of knew Eve back then, but we hung with different crowds. Couple of other kids."
"What - what happened to them?"
"Nothing," Shane said. "They grew up, got jobs, claimed Protection, kept right on going. That's how it works in Morganville. You either stay in, or you run."
"Do you ever see them?" Because she'd been amazed how much she'd missed her friends back home, especially Elizabeth. She'd always thought she was a loner, but...maybe she wasn't. Maybe nobody really was.
"No," he said. "Nothing in common these days. They don't want to hang with somebody like me."
"Somebody who doesn't want to fit in." Shane glanced at her and nodded. "Sorry."
He shrugged. "Nobody's fault. So what about you? Any friends back home?"
"Yeah. Elizabeth, she's my best friend. We talked all the time, you know? But...when she found out I was going away to school, she just..." Claire decided a shrug was about the best opinion she could offer about it.
"Ever call her?"
"Yeah," she said. "But it's like we don't know each other anymore. You know? We have to think about what to say. It's weird."
"God, I know what you mean." Shane suddenly stopped and took his hands out of his pockets. They were in the middle of the block, in between two stores, and at first she thought he was going to look in a window, but then he said tensely, "Turn around and walk away. Just go into the first store you see, and hide."
"But - "
"Do it, Claire. Now."
She backed away and turned, walked as fast as she dared to the store they'd already passed. It was a skanky-looking used-clothing store, nowhere she'd willingly shop, but she pushed open the door and looked back over her shoulder as she did.
A cop car was gliding to the curb next to Shane. He was standing there, hands at his sides, looking bland and respectful, and the cop who was driving leaned out of the window to say something to him.
Claire nearly fell forward as the door was jerked open, and stumbled over the threshold into a darkened, musty-smelling interior.
"Hey there," the uniformed cop who'd opened the door said to her. He was an older man, blond, with thinning hair and a thick mustache. Cold blue eyes and crooked teeth. "Claire, right?"
"I - " She couldn't think what to say to that. All her life she'd been told not to lie to the police, but..."Yes, sir." She could tell he already knew, anyway.
"My name's Gerald. Gerald Bradfield. Pleased to meet you." He held out his hand. She swallowed hard, wiped her sweaty palm, and shook. She half expected that he'd click handcuffs around her wrists, but he just half crushed her hand as he pumped it twice, up and down, and let go. "People been looking for you, you know."
"I - didn't know that, sir."
"Didn't you?" Cold, cold eyes, no matter what the smile said. "Can't imagine that, little girl. Fact is, the mayor's daughter was worried about where you might have got off to. Asked us to find you. Make sure you were all right."
"I'm fine, sir." She could barely talk. Her mouth had gone dry. "I'm not in trouble, am I?"
He laughed. "Why would you be in trouble, Claire? No, you don't have to worry about that. Fact is, we already know where you are. And who you're running with. You should be more careful, honey. You're brand-new here, but you already know a hell of a lot more than you ought. And your friends aren't exactly the kind that guarantee a peaceful life in this town. Troublemakers. You don't look like a troublemaker to me. Tell you what, you move back into the dorm, be a good girl, go to classes, I'll personally make sure nothing happens to you."
Claire wanted to nod, wanted to agree, wanted to do anything to get away from this man. She looked around the store. There were other people in there, but she couldn't get any of them to look at her. It was like she didn't even exist.
"You don't think I can do it," he said. "I can. Count on it."
She looked back at him, and his eyes had gone white, with little dots of pupils in the middle. When he smiled, she saw a flash of fangs.
She gasped, backed away, and grabbed for the door handle. She lunged out into the street, running, and saw Shane standing right where he'd been, watching the police car pull away from the curb. He turned and grabbed her as she practically crashed into him. "Vampire!" she gasped. "V-vampire cop. In the store!"
"Must have been Bradfield," Shane said. "Tall guy? Kind of bald, with a mustache?"
She nodded, shaking all over. Shane didn't even look surprised, much less alarmed. "Bradfield's okay,"
he said. "Not the worst guy in town, that's for sure. He hurt you?"