by Rachel Caine
Dr Davis and his two minions actually exchanged amused glances before he said, ‘You’re playing well out of your league, boy. Please don’t bluff. It’s just embarrassing.’
‘He’s not bluffing, professor,’ Claire said. ‘Really.’
Shane shook his head. ‘Ah, come on, don’t call him professor, he’s got no right to that. He’s a scumbag who gets college girls to bang him for grades. Right, Claire?’
‘Definitely. By the way, Liz cried all night. In case you were interested, professor.’
‘Here’s a tip,’ Shane said. ‘If you leave a girl crying, you’re probably not doing your Don Juan routine right, asshole.’
Dr Davis said nothing, but his expression compressed into an angry mask, and his eyes bored holes into the two of them. His grip tightened on VLAD.
And that was exactly the moment that the two men standing next to him just … vanished. Not literally, in a dramatic puff of smoke, but more of a now-you-see-them, now-you-don’t blur of motion. Davis didn’t even notice for a few seconds, and by then it was too late; Oliver was there, teeth bared, facing him.
Davis’s startled cry and stumbling backward retreat was almost fun to see. Almost … and then Myrnin was behind him, shoving him forward into Oliver’s embrace. Oliver spun the man around, and Myrnin stripped the device from Davis’s hands.
Then Myrnin froze, looking at Claire with a blank, odd expression, and said, ‘Did you build another one already? Because this most assuredly is not the working model.’
And that was the moment when Dr Irene Anderson stepped out from the closed doorway behind them, aimed with the VLAD weapon that she was holding, and shot Oliver with it.
The effect was immediate, and drastic. Oliver flung Dr Davis away from him, cried out, clapped his hands to his head, and sank down against the wall, shaking. Weeping. He got to his hands and knees, tried to rise, and she shot him again, and this time … this time Oliver didn’t get up.
Claire, open-mouthed, stared at her professor, and didn’t know what to do. What to say. Maybe she misunderstood, maybe …
She hadn’t.
Dr Anderson turned toward her, and the look in her eyes was flat, cool and very scary. ‘That’s three of them out of commission,’ she said. ‘But I know Oliver didn’t come here alone. Where is Myrnin?’
Claire involuntarily glanced aside at the place Dr Davis had been standing, but the area behind him was vacant now. Myrnin was nowhere to be seen. ‘You played me,’ she said. ‘You played me all along. You agreed to take me on as a student not because Myrnin asked you, but because you found out I had something you could use. Something your crazy friends wanted. He trusted you, but you—’
‘I got the hell out of Morganville, Claire, just as you did, so please don’t pretend that there is some higher moral ground on which you’re standing. The vampires used me just as they used you; they found a young, impressionable and bright girl and fed her to the monster. You and I survived that. Not everyone did.’
Everything Dr Anderson was saying was true, but – but it didn’t describe Myrnin, not really. It wasn’t his fault. He tried, tried hard, to be a good person, a real person, not just a soulless monster sucking blood out of people.
But when he failed, he failed spectacularly, like a doomed meteor plunging to Earth.
Claire suddenly realised that a shadow off to the side, about six feet away from Shane, wasn’t empty any more. Myrnin had managed to make his way there. He didn’t have the weapon any more; his hands were empty, and he stood very quietly, utterly immobile. Waiting for a chance to strike.
But any second, Dr Anderson might notice him. So Claire kept talking. ‘That doesn’t give you the right to—’
‘To do what?’ the woman snapped, eyes blazing. She took a step forward, then another, and Shane instinctively shoved Claire back as he got in the way. It also put Anderson closer to Myrnin, and Claire expected him to lunge for her … but he didn’t. He was waiting for her guard to drop completely. ‘To do exactly what you were planning to do – develop a weapon that would allow humans the chance to really defend themselves from a vampire attack? To create a nonlethal solution to the problem you know exists? Because you are the one who put us in this position, Claire. You solved the problem of the disease that was destroying them; you helped them defeat the only things that they feared. You put the top predators back on top, and you were right to think we needed a way to stop them.’ Dr Anderson touched VLAD’s casing with a light, almost reverent hand. ‘I’m just the one who pointed it at them first.’
All that sounded right, but at the same time, wrong, all wrong, but the passion of Anderson’s words robbed Claire of the ability to argue … until Shane did it for them.
‘Bullshit,’ he said, with a strange, tight little smile. ‘Man, you sound just like my father. He was really good at this, too; good at justifying all the lying, stealing, beating and killing he needed to do. Oh, it’s all for a higher cause, kid. Don’t you sweat the details. We’re fighting monsters, we have to get our hands dirty. But you used Claire to get the weapon here, and then you used her to get Myrnin coming to the rescue when he heard there was trouble. Then you used Liz, because you knew Claire would come for her, and we’d all help. You weren’t picky about who got hurt. Still aren’t. So don’t preach at us like you’re some kind of saint. You’re just another sinner.’
Claire nodded. ‘You could have taken Myrnin when you talked to him about the missing gun – which was never missing in the first place. But you waited.’
‘Of course I waited. I wanted them all. We need to have as large a sample size as possible to conduct our tests, document results and present it all to the agency that Dr Davis and I work for. And no, Claire, it is not the government that I’m working with. Sorry to disappoint you. But those who employ me are well funded, and they do have the best interests of humanity at heart.’ Dr Anderson’s eyes turned colder, and she aimed the device straight at Shane’s chest. ‘I know Myrnin is here, somewhere. You probably have a good idea how to find him; you seem to have him on a leash. This won’t kill your boyfriend, but it’ll damage him for hours, maybe days. Maybe even permanently. I’ve set it on its highest intensity. Want to see what it does to a human? I imagine it won’t be too pretty.’
She had reinforcements coming. Dr Davis was missing, and he’d be coming back with plenty of help. Oliver was helpless. So was Jesse, somewhere, and Michael and Eve wouldn’t have anywhere to go that was safe, either. They’d had strength in numbers, but that strength was gone, all gone. Shane couldn’t take her before Anderson took the shot, and Claire was sick with horror at the thought that something she’d built, something she’d intended to be a positive thing, could do so much damage to those she loved.
She shut her eyes for a long second, and then opened them and said, ‘You don’t have to do that. Maybe you’re right after all. I’ve seen how much harm vampires can do. I’ve seen how much death there’s been. I’m not naive, Dr Anderson; I designed that thing for a reason.’
‘Then help me,’ Anderson said. ‘Don’t make me hurt you or Shane. Tell me what I need to know.’
It was the moment of truth, and Claire didn’t hesitate. She pointed at the corner where Myrnin was hidden in shadow. ‘He’s right there. I’m sorry, Myrnin. I’m sorry!’
That last part came out in a wail, because he was moving out fast, but not fast enough.
Irene Anderson was quick on the trigger, and VLAD’s blast caught him no more than three feet from his hiding place. Claire watched, feeling suddenly cold and numbed, as Myrnin cried out, pitched forward to the floor, rolled on his side, and stared up at her with a tormented, dark expression. Not angry. Just … disappointed.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, as Anderson shot him again, and all that was Myrnin just … vanished out of those eyes.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SHANE
Whatever I expected, it wasn’t this. It wasn’t Claire selling out Myrnin, of all people. Oliver maybe;
we both had enough cause to do that. But without any kind of warning, without so much as a hesitation, she’d given him up, knowing that Anderson was going to shoot.
I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same, but I never claimed to like the guy so much. We had a cheerful sort of loathing going on; he’d save my life out of sheer duty, and I’d do the same for him, but neither of us would shed any tears over a tragic accident.
But Claire … I knew she had this thing with Myrnin. Not love, maybe; not in the sense of the romantic kind of love, anyway. But whatever her feelings were, they ran deep, and so did her loyalty. For her to stick it to him like that … it shook me. It made me wonder in that instant, if I really knew her at all.
I’d been thinking we could still salvage all this – let Myrnin take Anderson, grab Oliver, get the hell out before Dr Davis’s armed cavalry returned. But Claire … Claire changed all that. Claire gave up – she gave up on the whole idea of winning. And I never saw it coming.
From the frozen shock on Myrnin’s face when she’d pointed him out, it wasn’t what he’d expected from her, either.
I didn’t love the guy, but I winced and looked away when Anderson kept shooting him. No visible wounds, no bleeding, but the agony was obvious. She was hurting him, and from the cruel, wet light in her eyes, she liked hurting him a whole hell of a lot. I wondered what kind of crush she’d harboured on Myrnin all these years, only to see Claire take her place in the lab, and maybe in the vampire’s affection.
I tried to step in, but Anderson swung around on me, ready to fire, and I was forced to come to a halt with my hands up. ‘Yeah, right, okay,’ I said, and I kept my voice quiet and calm. ‘Lady, he’s down already, he’s down. You can quit now. He’s no threat to you.’
Dr Anderson stopped firing, then, and she got a look on her face like she was sickened by what she’d done – but only for a second. And then it was gone, replaced by that righteous glow I remembered so well in my father. He was all about the cause, and he’d sacrificed everything and everybody for it. Including me, of course.
I wondered what, and who, she’d sacrificed along the way, if this was her cause now. The crazy thing was that Myrnin had still trusted her – had trusted her the same way he did Claire. He’d never suspected that she’d turned on him.
And now Claire had just stuck the knife in, too. Not a good day for Team Vampire.
I didn’t try to go see if Myrnin was okay; it was pretty obvious he wasn’t – just like Oliver, who was rocking and moaning in the corner. And Michael, whom we’d left trembling in Eve’s arms like a scared little kid. I’ve staked vampires, don’t get me wrong; I’m no wilting flower when it comes to doing what needs to be done, when it needs doing.
But what Anderson had done, and was doing … it was cruel.
Claire was chalk-white, and her eyes were huge; I was afraid she might just fall down too, as the enormity of what she’d done hit her, but instead, she lifted her chin and met my stare without flinching. Like she was trying to tell me something. I had no idea what, but maybe, just maybe, Claire had some sort of a plan.
It made more sense than thinking she’d suddenly developed a talent for two-faced betrayal.
Trust her, something in me said. No matter what it looks like. No matter what she says or does, or what anybody else says or does. For God’s sake, trust her. Because that was the lesson I’d learnt so hard over the past few weeks. When everything went crazy, when nothing made sense … Claire made sense. I just had to trust even when I couldn’t see.
I brushed the back of her hand with mine in a silent caress, and tried to make her understand that I was about to play along. I hope she got the message, because after that, the first thing I did was shove her backward. ‘The hell, Claire? He was our only shot at getting out of this! What the hell were you thinking?’
She stumbled, looked stunned, and for a second I thought she’d totally missed my attempted reassurance – but then I knew she hadn’t. I couldn’t even pinpoint how I knew … but she and I were in sync, again, and we understood each other. ‘He wasn’t our only shot, and we weren’t getting out of it,’ she said. ‘And don’t you push me, Shane. Don’t you ever do that again.’
‘Or you’ll what? Get your buddy there to vamp-tase me?’ Anderson was watching us closely, and I made sure I put as much bitterness into it as I might have once felt. ‘You stabbed Myrnin in the back, Claire. I thought you actually liked him.’
‘More than I like you,’ she shot back. ‘I left you, Shane. I left Morganville. I left Myrnin. I came to make a new life and try to be somebody else, and you all followed me! Why am I the bad guy all of a sudden? She’s not hurting them, she’s just … she’s just disabling them. Like you said. A taser, only for vampires.’
‘Look at them. Look! You’re sure that it doesn’t have lasting effects?’ I asked her. ‘You’re sure that Michael’s going to get up and laugh it off? Yeah, and even if it is temporary, I’m sure Oliver’s going to take it totally well when he quits crying like a little girl. You just made damn sure they all kill us really, really dead, you understand that? If you wanted to go to war with Amelie, you’ve done it. She’s never going to let this stand.’
‘Amelie will never know,’ Dr Anderson said. ‘Oliver was in exile. She sent Michael to chase down her wayward missing pet madman. If all of them disappear along the way, well. Accidents happen, even to vampires. And no one can possibly swear they were ever even here.’
‘Except Liz, and Pete, and Claire, and Eve and me,’ I said. ‘So I guess we’ll have to take a fertiliser nap in your rose garden, right? Oh, wait, you’re the good guy. Sorry, I was confused for a second.’
‘I can assure you that the four vampires won’t be killed. They’re invaluable lab specimens, so long as we can keep them docile, which this weapon does very well,’ Dr Anderson said. ‘And I think I can persuade the rest of you that it’s in your best interests to keep silent. Liz is a young, impressionable girl. You, Shane – well, if you won’t be convinced, I’m sure I can talk Liz into blaming her abduction on you. You’ll spend half your life in prison.’
‘You don’t have to do that,’ Claire said. ‘He won’t say anything. Shane – listen to me. If we all stick together, if we tell the same story, we can be safe. For the first time in our lives, safe. Amelie won’t come here, it’s too much of a risk. We can stay here, live our lives not afraid of them for a change. We can be happy.’
‘And, of course, if you decide your principles are more important, I’m sure we can still fall back on Option One,’ Dr Anderson said. ‘I admit, it’s not my first choice. I dislike hurting humans. My goal is to make a world where vampires can be contained, constructively managed for their own safety and for ours. If you agree with that, I think we can all get along just fine.’
‘You going to make Eve agree with that, too? With letting Michael be some kind of – of lab rat?’ I demanded. ‘Shit, Claire, you know it’s never going to happen. Maybe you can convince me about the rest of them, but not Michael. He’s our friend. He’s my brother.’
‘I don’t really need four subjects,’ Dr Anderson said then, ready to make the concession at just the right time. My dad would have been proud. ‘Three will do. Michael can be kept safe, but unharmed. Does that answer your concerns?’
What had happened, in the moments since Claire had given up Myrnin, was pretty amazing, because we’d gone from being on the deadly end of the deal to negotiating for favours, and I didn’t think Dr Anderson had even realised she was being played as thoroughly and masterfully as she’d once played Claire. It was impressive. And a little scary. That funky weapon wasn’t pointed at me any more, even vaguely; it was aimed down at the ground. That didn’t mean it couldn’t come right back up again, if I did something stupid, but by focusing my anger on Claire, I’d won some breathing space from the real target. I’d put Claire and Anderson on the same side, and now they were just working out details.
I just hoped Claire wasn’t buying into what
I was selling. I couldn’t really tell now. She still looked pallid, shocked, and fragile and I wanted to take her in my arms so bad it hurt … but that wasn’t what would help either of us right now.
‘You’ll have to sell it to Eve, not me,’ I said. ‘But you back off Michael and I might be able to live with the rest of it. Maybe.’
‘There’s no maybe, Shane. Maybe earns you prison. So I suggest you think hard about your next answer, yes?’
I let the moment drag out, and then finally nodded. I was trying not to look at Myrnin, because he was curled in a fetal ball on the floor, whispering to himself, and if I’d ever thought he’d looked crazy before, well, I’d been wrong. He looked wrecked now, and I wasn’t sure any of those pieces were going back together again. Myrnin had been breakable, and now he looked shattered.
Claire had a dull, hard look in her eyes, one I recognised; she was trying to keep everything inside, to just get through to the next moment without feeling the pain. I knew that look because I’d just about invented it.
‘So what do you want me to say?’ I asked, and looked at her directly. ‘Claire, tell me what you want me to say. You know I’ll do anything for you. I always have.’
She pulled in a sharp, shaking breath, and said, ‘Just say you’ll back me up when I have to talk to Amelie. Tell her you never saw any of them, or any of … this. Tell her that as far as you know, everything’s normal here.’
‘What about Jesse? Amelie sent her to watch your boss, here. She’s going to be suspicious when Jesse goes missing too.’
‘Jesse will be handled,’ Anderson said. ‘She has pressure points, and I know how to apply them. She’ll do what I tell her when it counts, and she’s got little love for Amelie anyway.’
I knew all of a sudden exactly what that pressure point was … Myrnin. Jesse had a special little sparkle when she talked to him; she was fine with Oliver, but extra fine with Count Crackula. Dr Anderson would keep Jesse in line by threatening more damage to Myrnin. And it was all okay, because hell, they were just vamps, right? Didn’t matter if they got hurt. Lab rats.