Bite Club Page 0,52

a deep breath. "Thanks for snapping me out of it."

"She wasn't even trying," Frank said. "If she had been, you wouldn't have left that easily. Like she said,

she was just playing."

That was awful.Awful. Claire felt ill and filthy, as if she'd drunk a gallon of sewer water. She wanted to throw up, thinking about how easily she'd been walked around like a puppet. About how she'd felt everything that Glory wanted her to feel. "It didn't do any good," she said. "We didn't find out anything."

"Maybe we did," Frank said. "She mentioned that she saw Shane at the gym, didn't she?"

"So? Even I've been to the gym. So has Eve. Lots of people go there. Including vampires."

"But why would Glory? She doesn't fight. She makes other people do her fighting for her." Frank's voice sounded oddly preoccupied. "I've been going over the rolls of vampires in Morganville. Looks like some haven't been surfacing in their usual routines recently."

"You mean...you mean they're missing?"

"I don't want to jump to that conclusion, but I found five--no, six--that aren't following their usual patterns."

"Well, some left, you know. With Morley. They're in Blacke, that little town outside of--"

"I know about Morley. I'm not talking about his people. These are other vampires that haven't surfaced in the past three weeks. No checkouts at the blood banks. They haven't shown up on surveillance. They're not communicating at all on the phones or computers."

"How can vampires gomissing ? Who are they?"

"Nobodies, in terms of the Morganville hierarchy. Just your regular vampire working class. And they haven't been missed all that much. Vampires may socialize, but not like humans do; they're used to not seeing each other for long stretches. Doesn't raise any questions."

"So where are they?" Claire asked. "Do they have any connection to Bishop?"

"Not that I can find. In fact, looks like they were on Amelie's side in the conflict with her father." Frank was silent for a moment, then said, "It bothers me that I don't have eyes inside the gym. I can't see or sense anything within those walls."

"What?"

"It's recent construction. No cameras. No portals. No way of observing what's going on there. It seems like a lot of this connects through there, some way. I wish I had some devices there."

"Inside the gym." She thought about it for a second. "You want me to...what? Put cameras in there?"

"What, you're scared to act as my spy?" Frank sounded amused now. "Knowing you, that doesn't stop you. Never seen a kid so fearless, deep down. Not even my son."

Shane. Claire remembered Glory talking about him, and felt a little sick--not because Gloriana was drooling over him, as Ysandre had, but because shewasn't. Because to her, Shane was just another piece of meat, something she might get some use out of. Or not.

Whatever was going on, Gloriana was in it up to her pretty little neck. Claire was sure of it.

"All right," she said. "If you want eyes in the gym, I'll make sure you get them. Somehow."

SHANE

I felt like I was cheating on Claire, and I couldn't figure out why. All I did was fight...and I did damn good, too. Jester didn't totally wipe the mat with me, and I was able to keep on going. When I got tired, Vassily passed me more protein shakes. I didn't like the way he smiled or the way he watched me, like a proud owner of a pit bull in the ring...but that didn't mean I didn't like being in the ring, either.

So why, on breaks, did I go sit down with my phone and text Claire? It was like I'd been out kissing some other girl and felt like I had to tell her I did love her, no matter what I'd been doing that she wouldn't like.

Well, she wouldn't like this. I knew that without any doubt at all.

"Hey, meat! You done pushing buttons yet?" That was Jester, dancing around in the ring, looking lean and dead-fish pale, punching the air in a blur. "I'm ready to push yours!"

I shot him the finger and finished sending my message, took another drink of my protein shake, and felt the aches and pains magically recede. Not that they were healing, exactly...maybe they weren't as bad as they should have been, but I was going to have bruises tomorrow. Lots of them.

But you couldn't let pain stop you. I'd let it stop me once, when my house was on fire. I'd touched Alyssa's door handle and burned my hands