Bite Club Page 0,22

was cool.

Maybe,she thought,fencing isn't my sport after all.

Chapter Four

FOUR

Michael was home when they arrived, and surprisingly, he wasn't playing guitar. He was sitting on the couch in Shane's customary spot, playing a game. "Hey," he said as Claire and Eve entered. "Nobody made dinner."

"Nobody but you was home to eat it," Eve said. "And I'm taking a wild guess that you didn't make it, either."

"Nope." He killed a zombie with a chainsaw, and ducked instinctively as another one lunged at him out of the shadows on the screen. "Guess we're all going to bed hungry, like the bad children we are."

"Guess not." Eve winked at Claire, who held up a grease-stained bag. "Seriously, you couldn't smell the burgers? Is your vampire nose on the fritz, Michael?"

"I was hoping I was imagining the burgers."

"Shut up. I got you one made extra rare. With pickles. I know you like pickles."

Michael paused the game and put the controller aside, and as he stood up, the door opened and Shane came in. He nodded to Michael as he dropped his canvas bag in the hallway, next to Eve's. "Who got burgers?"

"See,he can smell the burgers!" Eve yelled from the kitchen.

Michael ignored that. "You guys go to the gym?"

"Yeah," Shane said. "The martial arts guy is pretty hard-core."

"I got a bruise!" Eve shouted. "Big one! Right over my heart! Guess who put it there?"

Michael raised his eyebrows at Shane, who held up his hands. "Not me, man. I never touched her."

"Oliver!" Eve backed out of the kitchen door, holding plates, balancing them like a pro. "Michael, here's your almost-cooked one. Shane, got you the jalapeno burger. Me and Claire have plain old boring

ones."

"We're branching out into different forms of junk food," Michael said. "Exciting."

"Shut up. Do you want your juice warmed up?"Juice, Claire figured, was Eve's new code forblood. Well, technically, it was juice, Claire supposed. People juice.

"I'll get it," Michael said. "Thanks. Shane, Claire--Cokes?"

"Yes!" Claire yelled, at the same time Shane did. He walked over to put his arm around her and bent to kiss her.

"Jinx," he whispered.

"I like this version of jinxies better than the one I did in grade school," she said. He tasted like salt and metal, but it still seemed sexy--and so did the way his damp T-shirt clung to his shoulders and chest. She'd never thought sweaty was all that sexy before, but Shane...well. Shane rocked it.

"So, what did you do at the gym?" he asked. "I thought I saw you on the stair machine."

Oops. Busted."I was on it for a while," she said. "Then Eve took me to teach me how to fence."

"Not so much how to fence as how to hold a sword and not drop it," Eve said. "And then I fought Oliver to a draw."

Shane fluttered his hands. "Oh, and then we were all elected as ice princesses and asked to go to Disneyland!" He rolled his eyes.

"Laugh all you want. I'm going to lookway better in full skirts than you," Eve said. "And besides, I'm not lying. I got a mortal touch on Oliver. Ask your girlfriend."

"She hit him with her sword," Claire said, when both Michael and Shane looked at her. "I saw it."

"And then, to make sure I knew my place, he practically rammed his epee through my heart, but, you know, details. Hence the bruise." She dragged down the neckline of her shirt to show off the top of it. Shane whistled appreciatively--not at her assets, Claire felt sure. The bruise. That was Shane, through and through.

"I didn't know fencing was a contact sport," he said. "I thought it was more, you know, a pretend sport. Like golf. Or competitive eating."

"Hey, golf is hard." Eve shrugged. "Anytime you want me to whip your lame ass on eighteen holes, let me know."

"I got whipped enough, thanks." Shane flopped down in his chair and pulled the plate toward him. "I could eat roadkill, I'm so hungry. Without hot sauce."

"Well, you're in luck, because I have no idea what's really in these burgers," Eve said. Michael came out of the kitchen and put three cold cans of Coke on the table, and one sports bottle thatmight have possibly held juice. Warm juice. Claire was glad it was opaque. "Dinner together. Wow. This is an event."

It was, recently. They'd all been doing their own thing so much, it had been more like two of them eating together, or maybe three. Having all four at the table was great for a change. Eve chattered on