FOURTEEN

Myrnin had a car. Somehow, this surprised Claire; she hadn't thought he had any use for one, but Amelie would have undoubtedly thought about emergencies, which was why there was a conservative, dark-toned town car sitting in a dilapidated shack behind Gramma Day's home. It wasn't locked up, and it had a coating of dust that made Claire wonder if it had ever been moved at all. Myrnin had no idea where the keys were. Claire found them on a nail, hanging behind the shack's sagging door.

They were loading the black bags into the trunk of the car when the door slid back and a squat, round, stooped shape was silhouetted by the sunlight at its back. It took a second for Claire's eyes to adjust, but when she did, she recognized the lined, hard-set face of Gramma Day under that soft cloud of gray hair. Gramma was wearing a flowered dress and house shoes, and she was carrying a shotgun that Claire would have sworn was too big for her to lift.

She sure looked like she knew what she was doing with it. The sound of her racking a round into the chamber, that heavy metallicchuk-chuk , made all three of them freeze. Even Myrnin.

Gramma leveled the shotgun at them, squinted, and then started to lower it. "Is that Claire?"

"Gramma, it's me. And my friend Eve. Oh, and you probably know Myrnin."

Gramma clearly did, because the gun came right back to her shoulder. "I know who all my neighbors are. Don't much care forthat one."

Myrnin raised his chin. "Dear lady, I'venever --"

"Only 'cause I don't allow you anywhere near my property. You know what I call you? Trapdoor Spider."

Myrnin blinked. "That is...surprisingly accurate, actually. Well, feel free to drop in on me any time you wish. Oh, of course, I promise not to hurt you."

"Don't think I'll be relying on yourpromises. What are you doing in here?"

"Driving my car."

"Oh." She did lower the gun now and staggered a little. If she'd actually fired it, she'd probably have broken her shoulder, as thin and fragile as she was. "Didn't know it wasyours. Knew it belonged to some vampire or other, but I never asked any questions. Never saw anybody driving it."

"Well, you have now," Claire said. "Providing it starts." She pitched the keys to Eve, who managed to field them while Myrnin was distracted with Gramma Day. "And before you ask, no, you're not driving, Myrnin. I remember the last time."

"That accident was not my fault."

"You were the only one on the road, and the mailbox actually didn't leap out in front of you. No arguments. You sit in the back, too."

"You've turned into quite a bossy little thing," Myrnin said. "I think I might like it." He opened the back door and slid inside. Eve shrugged, got in the driver's seat, and cranked the engine. It wheezed and coughed, but it did start. Gramma Day shook her head and hobbled out of the way, holding the door back.

"Claire," she said. "You want to watch yourself. That man ain't right. You keep a good watch on him. You hear me?"

"I know. I will."

"You want my shotgun?"

"No," Claire said very politely. "But thank you."

Gramma waved at them as Eve piloted the car out of the garage and then applied the brakes sharply and said, "Um...problem?"

"What?" Claire looked up from fastening her seat belt. Eve was staring at the front window with a horrified, mortified expression on her face.

Theblack front window. "It's avampire car," she said. "And I can't believe neither of us thought about that."

"I can," Myrnin said from the backseat. "Now. Could I please drive my own car, seeing as how I am the only one who is actually qualified to do so?"

He's been justwaitingfor that, Claire thought. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. It was going to be a long, long day.

"Switch," she said. "Myrnin, drivecarefully. Understand?"

"Of course."

He didn't.

Afterward, Claire tried not to think how hair-raising the ride was; Myrnin was the only one who could actuallysee the danger, but she couldhear it, and it was horrifying. Squealing brakes at virtually every intersection as other drivers put all their skills to use in avoiding the moving target of their car. Yells. Honking horns. A siren that Myrnin blissfully ignored, and that finally turned off without him ever pulling the vehicle to the curb.

At least he didn't hit anything that she could tell. She was almost sure about that. Almost.

Myrnin finally hit the brakes way, way too firmly, sending her and Eve hurtling against their seat belts, and put the car in park. "See?" he said, with an unholy amount of glee. "I hardly broke any laws at all. I should drive more often."

"No. Trust me, you shouldn't," Eve said. "Think of the little old people and the children. Please tell me we're there."

"Of course."

Eve opened her door and peered out cautiously. She shut it again. "Bythere I meanparked , Myrnin."

"We're not moving."

"Against the curb."

He started the car and drove another two feet at an angle. Claire felt the bump as he ran over the curb. So much for not hitting anything. He left it there, with the car's right wheels up off the street.

"Not exactly what I meant," Eve said.

"Do you imagine they're going to issue me a citation...what was your name again?"

"Still Eve."

"No, I'm sure it's something else. That doesn't seem right." Myrnin got out and opened the trunk of the

car. They all loaded up on bags, and Claire took her first real look around. It was a decrepit old neighborhood; most of the houses looked deserted. The one where they were parked had sheets tacked up as curtains in the windows--those that weren't covered up with peeling, rain-warped plywood. Trash had blown up against the walls, and from the look of it, some of it was older than Claire was.

"This is it," Eve said. "You're sure."

"This is his address."

"Good. You go first."

Myrnin gave her a wicked smile. "Whatever happened towe don't need you ?"

"We don't," Eve said. "But while he's busy staking you, we can get the drop on him."

Myrnin didn't seem to see the humor in that, but he shrugged and hurried to the door, looking ridiculous in his flapping trench coat and old-lady hat, right up until he kicked in the door with one casual blow, leaned in, and said, "Please don't run. I'm not in a good mood. Better if you just sit still."

He cocked his head and listened, then smiled. What was it with vampires and chilling smiles? His made Claire grip her antivampire bag tighter and wish she hadn't stood quite so close. "Ah," he said. "And there he goes. You two wait here."

He dashed off, moving like a flicker of light. Claire looked at Eve, who shook her head and stepped over the threshold into the house. Claire stayed with her. There was some kind of commotion at the back of the house, where she presumed a rear door was located, and as the two girls walked through the deserted, messy living room (what was it with guys and old pizza boxes? Could they not throw them away?) Myrnin reappeared from the back, shoving a pale, skinny man ahead of him. The guy they were looking for, Claire supposed. He looked terrified.

"Sit," Myrnin said, and shoved the guy onto the threadbare couch. He looked around, sighed, and pushed some old pizza boxes and fast-food bags off an end table, then sat down. "You really should look into a maid. Just a thought."

"Are you Harry?" Claire asked. "Harry Anderson?"

The man was not only pale and unshaven; he was also shifty-eyed. He looked like he was lying even when he wasn't talking. When he did finally answer, it looked even worse. "No," he said. "I'm, uh, watching the place for a friend. Harry's my friend, I mean."

Eve reached into her bag and pulled out a crossbow. She stuck a lethal-looking metal bolt on it and cranked back the string. The man watched with increasing worry. "Uh, I'm not a vampire," he said.

"Yeah, I can see that, since you're wearing Oliver's Protection bracelet," Eve agreed. "That's not the only thing this is good for. You'd be surprised how effective it is on liars, too, Harry."

He licked his lips, staring at her, and then shifted his gaze to Claire. He must have decided she was nicer, because he said, "You're not going to let her do this, are you? What are you girls, anyway, twelve? Do your parents know you're hanging around with vampires old enough to be your--"

Eve snapped the trigger, and the bolt whizzed past Harry's head and buried itself in the wall next to him.

He yelped and almost jumped off the sofa, but Myrnin put a hand on his shoulder and held him down as Eve reloaded.

"Now," Eve said. "We've got some questions, Harry, and I'm going to suggest,strongly , that you just go ahead and answer them. If you think Claire is going to be any kinder to you than I am, you're very mistaken. My boyfriend's only missing. Hers is in your little fight club."

"Oh," Harry said, and then, in an entirely different and much more worried tone, "Oh.This is about--"

"ImmortalBattles-dot-com," Claire said. "You helped set it up, so you know these people. You know where they were."

"Uh, sure, but they're not there now."

"Nobody's there, idiot. They blew it up," Eve said. "You see the bruises and cuts on my friend there? That's what your friends did. They tried to blow up theFounder. How do you think that's going to go over, Harry? Because I'm thinking that you should just take this crossbow bolt straight in the heart and get it over with. She's not the forgiving type."

Harry closed his eyes and sweated, a lot. Claire waited, content to just stand there and look--well, not menacing, but maybe impatient. Myrnin, on the other hand, looked menacing. He'd shed the hat and coat, and now was perched with inhuman grace on the arm of the couch, staring down at Harry with those glowing, scary red eyes.

"Harry," he said quietly. "Do decide what you want to do. I'm hungry, and if you're going to cooperate, please indicate it immediately, before I assume you're not. I'd hate for you to be trying to utter a dying declaration and be unable to do so."

Harry's eyes snapped open again, full of panic, and he scooted as far away from Myrnin as was possible. That wasn't very far, because the other half of his couch was a rat's nest of piled-up papers, mail, boxes, and wadded-up old clothes. The place was a pit. Claire shuddered and decided not to sit downanywhere.

"Wait," Harry blurted. "Just wait, okay? Uh, right, the fight people. Yeah, they paid me to move everything. You know, the cameras, the equipment, the server, the whole setup. And to run the re-encryption, not that it's going to do any good; somebody cracked it pretty good the first time...."

"Where?" Claire asked. When Harry didn't answer immediately, she opened up her bag and rooted through it. She came up with one of Eve's silver-coated stakes, decorated with shiny crystals in the shape of a Gothic cross. She showed it to Eve. "Pretty," she said.

Eve smiled. "I like things to be nice," she said. "But you can never get the blood out from between those--"

"Okay!" Harry interrupted. "Jeez, you're justkids ! All right, fine. I moved it all to a place near the edge of town. I can give you the address, and then I'm done, okay? Done. I pull the phone, grab my stuff, and I move the hell out of here. You won't have any trouble from me--no, sir."

"I can think of an easier way to ensure that," Myrnin said. "Girls? What do you think?"

Eve stared at Claire, who stared back, twirling the silver stake in her fingers. It was all theater. She

wasn't going to kill anybody, and neither was Eve. Myrnin might have, but Claire thought they could hold him back. Maybe.

"I think we should give him a chance," Claire said. "Mr. Anderson, you understand that if you give us the wrong information, or if you doanything to warn them we're coming...well, it won't be nice. Will it?"

"I knew it: you're the nice one," he said. "You called me Mr. Anderson."

Claire stabbed the stake in the coffee table, point down, with all her strength. It sank in, not as deeply as she wished, but enough to hold it upright on its own, with its red Gothic cross shining in the dim light. "Harry," she said. "I'm really not that nice."

He swallowed and nodded and reached for a piece of paper and a pencil. He scribbled down an address and sketched out a map. He even noted on there which doors were safe to go into. He looked at her, then Myrnin, then Eve, and finally handed the paper to Myrnin.

Who smiled. "Why thank you, Harry. What a good decision you've made." He jumped down with a loud thump, pulled on his trench coat, and slapped the hat on his head. "I think we can go now."

"No," Eve said. She held out her hand. "Cell phone."

Harry dug in his pockets and came up with one, which she dropped to the floor and stepped on, a lot, until it was just pieces of glittering junk.

"Your computer?"

"Back there." He pointed.

"Myrnin, would you mind?"

"Of course not. I told you I was useful."

"Then go rip it up. Claire, find his landlines."

In the end, they left Harry sitting miserably in his filthy living room, with a pile of broken phones and shattered computer equipment, and instructions to stay out of things,or else. Claire was pretty sure he'd gotten the message. Loudly. But just to make sure, Eve had tied him up with duct tape. He looked like a silver mummy.

"Don't worry," Eve said. "I'm going to call the cops and ask them to look in on you in about, oh, three hours. None of those cockroaches look hungry--that's the good news. They're all about the pizza, not the human flesh. So you'll be just fine, Harry." She patted his head and smiled so brightly that Harry looked momentarily dazzled. Eve was pretty, and she could be totally stunning when she smiled like that.

"Bye," she said. He mumbled something around the duct tape, and that was that.

Eve did do what she'd promised; as Myrnin drove (another terrifying, in-the-dark experiment), she called Hannah Moses's office and reported the whole thing.

"Wait," Hannah said. Claire could see why, as head of the Morganville police department, she was a little puzzled about this whole thing. "You're telling me you just assaulted and terrorized a Protected

citizen of Morganville and left him tied up, and you wantme to check on him for you? Did I get that right?"

"Yeah," Eve said. "Well, it sounds bad when you say it like that, but that's pretty much it. Just so he doesn't choke or have a heart attack or something. Also, there are a lot of cockroaches. I worried about that."

"You realize that you're admitting to crimes, Eve."

"No," she said. "Because we're sort of doing stuff for Amelie. Following up a lead. She'll, ah, back us up." She raised her eyebrows at Claire, a clearRight? in her expression. Claire shrugged. "Besides, Oliver's his Protector, and Oliver won't care what we did. If he'd gotten to him first, I'm pretty sure you'd be doing a whole lot more cleanup."

Hannah was quiet for a few seconds and then said, "I remember when this was a quiet little town. That was nice."

"It was never quiet, Hannah. You just went off to Afghanistan."

"And it was quieter there, too. All right. I'll check in on your prisoner. What are you girls up to?"

"Do you want to know?"

"Shouldn't I?"

"Uh...I don't think you should," Claire said. "Seeing as how you'd think you needed to do something about it, and staying out of the way is probably a whole lot safer right now."

"Are you going to take your own advice?"

"We can't," Claire said. "Shane and Michael are in trouble. We're going to get them out."

"You're sure I can't help with that?"

"Yeah," Eve said. "I'm sure. We've got all the help we can handle already."

Myrnin whipped the wheel in a sharp movement that made tires squeal, and threw the girls around in the backseat of the car. Eve almost dropped her phone.

"Are you in the car that's almost caused three accidents on North Vance?" Hannah asked. "Because I'm following you with my lights flashing, and whoever's driving isn't pulling over."

"Let him go," Claire said. "Trust me. You aren't going to get him to stop."

"Oh, God. It's Myrnin, isn't it?"

"Tell that police lady to stop chasing me," Myrnin said, annoyed, from the front seat. "Really, I'm notthat bad at this."

All evidence to the contrary. But Hannah hung up on her end, and the wail of her siren died away. Claire supposed that at the moment, that was as much of a win as they might reasonably hope for. So here they

were, hurtling into the dark on the tip of a terrified thief who might or might not be screwing with them, and they'd just refused police assistance.

This was turning outso well. But Claire had to admit, Eve was all kinds of awesome, when she had the chance to shine. She glittered and flared and was sharp enough to cut, just like a diamond. All Claire had to do was look reasonably intense, which right now wasn't a problem. Shefelt intense, because she couldn't stop thinking about Shane. Where he was. What he was doing. What was being done to him.

Gloriana.

Claire's cell phone rang, and she jumped and looked at the screen.

Mr. Radamon, MIT.

Oh, God.

She took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and answered. "Hello?"

"Ms. Danvers, hello. This is Mr. Radamon from MIT. I'm very sorry to bother you, but I need to check in and see how things are going. With your arrangements. As you can imagine, these places are very difficult to hold, and I do need your answer fairly soon to--"

"I know," Claire said, and tried not to let her voice shake. She felt like she was being squeezed in a vise now, and her head was about to explode. "I'm sorry, I'm kind of in the middle of something. I promise, I'll call you as soon as I can, sir. Thanks."

"All right, thank you--"

She hung up. Fast. Silence in the car. Eve gave her a curious look.

"Well," Myrnin said quietly from the front seat. "I would suggest we focus on the problem at hand. The fewer distractions, the better, I believe."

His tone of voice was entirely different than it had been before, and Claire realized that he'd heard the conversation. Heard every word on the other end of the line, too. No secrets from someone like Myrnin.

She couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he was unnaturally still.

"Myrnin--" she began. He held up one stiffened hand in a sharp gesture.

"No," he said. "We don't discuss this now. Later, perhaps." He glanced at her in the rearview mirror, and his eyes were dark and very troubled. "We should be at the address Mr. Anderson gave us in just a moment. You should be ready."

"About that..." Claire forced herself to stop marveling at the incredibly bad timing, and remembered just what it was they were doing. "We know the safe entrances, but how are we going to do this? Go in together? Separately?"

"I assume the priority is to find your friends and remove them from the premises first, before calling in Amelie and Oliver--that being equivalent to summoning a nuclear strike. Is that correct?"

"Yes," Eve said. "Shane and Michael, first priority. Oh, and not getting killed. That one's big, too." She frowned and grabbed Claire's cell phone back. "Hey, is this thing Internet ready?"

"Yeah, it's a smartphone," Claire said. "Why?"

"I think we should see what's going on at the Web site," Eve said. She worked with the phone for a minute or so, then held it out so Claire could also see the small but clear screen. The Immortal Battles site loaded slowly, but it loaded, and Eve expanded the part that talked about upcoming bouts.

There was a countdown counter going, and it was winding down fast. The banner read live event. There was a video embedded next to it that started playing when Claire clicked it.

Vassily again, dressed in his dumb Halloween interpretation of a vampire (although, truthfully, Myrnin wasn't costumed so differently right now). Vassily looked excited and a bit nervous as he leaned toward the camera, enough that it caught glimpses of his long, white teeth. "Hello, members," he said. "We have a very special treat for you, so get ready to place those bets. On one side, we have our reigning champion, Shane `The Hammer' Collins." And Vassily drew back to show Shane sitting there in a chair, stripped to the waist, all those awful bruises showing. He wasn't tied up or anything. He seemed fine, but very focused.

Vassily moved on, and the camera moved with him. They went through some kind of a door, very walk-and-talk, and all of a sudden the camera fumbled and focused on another familiar face.Michael. He seemed okay, but unlike Shane, he was tied up--no, chained. Chained to a wall. He lunged for Vassily, but he came up short. Vassily flashed fangs at him. Michael flashed them right back.

"And this, my friends, is our newest warm-up contender for our champion...Michael! These two have been building a grudge match for more than a year, and it's all the more violent because they were once best friends. So, who do you think will come out on top: the current victor, or the vampire? Place your bets! The match starts in just a few minutes, with the winner meeting our special benefactor..."

Vassily was walking and talking again, leaving Michael's frustrated, anguished face behind. The camera jostled after him, through tunnels and darkness, and quite suddenly, apparently to Vassily's surprise, there was a man standing in his way. His patter faltered and stopped.

It was Mr. Bishop. Not the skeletal, desperate thing that Claire had seen before...no, Bishop had showered, found fresh clothes, and, clearly, fed until he was completely recovered. He lookedyounger than before. And very, very strong. The menace came off him like black light.

"Well," Vassily said awkwardly. "Uh, sir, I don't think you should be--"

"Shut up, Vassily. I make the decisions here," Bishop said. "And I have decided that today--I will fight the winner of today's match. I feel the need for a bit of exercise before we move on to bigger prey."

"Sir, this isn't...this isn't what we agreed--"

Bishop's eyes went red and his fangs came down, and Claire almost dropped the phone. Even whoever was running the camera was moving backward. "I'm changing our agreement,minion. Tonight I'm changing all the agreements. Tonight we will take the fight out of the cage. Into the streets. To the Founder."

"Sir--"

Bishop hit Vassily hard enough to knock him into the wall, and stood there staring down at him. "I've waited long enough," he said. "I don't need your filthy money. What Ineed is to feel her blood in my mouth. Are we understood?"

Vassily got up, cringing, and bowed his head. "Yes, sir. Understood. Uh, but first, we bring you the fighting...?"

"By all means," Bishop said, and smiled. "I want to see these two do damage to each other. It would please me a great deal."

The video ended. Claire fumbled with the phone and, hands shaking, pulled up the counter again. Next to it were odds. Shane was favored over Michael two to one. Bishop was heavily favored to beat either one of them.

And the counter......

The counter for the fight had run out.

"No," Claire whispered. "No..." Bishop didn't intend for this to go on much longer; he'd gone on camera in open defiance of Amelie. He was serious; this would end in slaughter, whatever happened in the cage match.

They were out of time.