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some grumbling, but the circle slowly parted. Eve grabbed Michael's hand and towed him off, heading for the exit. Claire hesitated, staring at Shane's back as he bobbed, weaved, and punched.

"Shane," she said. "I still love you."

He didn't answer. Sandro shoved her after her friends.

"You heard him," Sandro said. "Get the hell out and stay out. He ain't interested."

She looked back just once. There was pain--real pain--on Shane's face as he fought the training bag, and their eyes locked just for a second before he looked away.

His were red. It wasn't possible to tell tears from sweat, but she thought--no, she knew--how devastated he felt.

Because she felt exactly the same.

Tears welled up and spilled over, and she sucked in a trembling breath that smelled like sweat and metal and despair.

Eve took her hand. "Come on," she said. "Nothing you can do here."

That was true, and it hurt so, so badly.

SHANE

I wish I could say I don't know why I did it. That would make me feel better, cleaner, about what I said to her. But I knew. It was just like Claire figured: Glory had glamoured me. But I didn't care, because

under the glamour there was a real bad streak of...me. I felt right. More than that, I felt righteous, like a knight in the old stories riding off to some God-justified war. I felt like I had when I'd had a purpose and my dad had been alive to tell me what it was.

I punched the heavy bag until my arms trembled and my legs felt like lead, and then collapsed on a metal bench. Somebody brought me another protein shake, and I downed the bottle in thick, thirsty gulps. My head was hurting, and I was having trouble catching my breath.

"Hey, man, you all right?" That was Sandro. I hated Sandro, I hated his greasy smile and his gold chains and his fake New Jersey cred. He was from Morganville, like the rest of us. Hell, his dad was a baker. You can't be a badass when your dad makes cakes.

Sandro squeezed my shoulder, tightly enough to bend tendons. I knocked his hand away. "Fine," I said. "Get lost."

"Good job dumping that little Renfield. I don't know what you ever saw in her, anyway. She looks like half a boy. Me, I like my women with curves and bounce, if you know what I mean."

I drained the last of the shake and felt a fresh burst of anger and hunger. "Maybe you need to look up whatget lostmeans." Michael wasn't here to take it out on, but Sandro would do just as well.

"Don't get attitude with me, Collins. You ain't that tough."

I knew better. Sandro was schoolyard tough. I was fight-for-your-life tough. But I wasn't going to teach him the difference, because for all his faults, for all he was a prime, grade-A jackass, he was breathing and his heart was beating, and that's all it took to put him on my side. Two kinds of fighters: us and them.

None ofthemwere here right now. Glory and Vassily had separated us into humans and vamps, and it had worked. Now every time I saw a vamp it made me want to rip into it.

Including Michael.

That made me feel weird inside, but not weird enough to want to change it. This was where I belonged. This was what I was meant to do. Born and bred to it, honestly. My dad had taught me well.

In here, I didn't have to be Shane Collins, eternal slacker, orphan, lost boy. In here, with these guys, I was part of something. Part of the war.

Even if, right now, that war was fought one on one, in the ring, with people cheering.

Someday, it would be fought in the streets, and people would cheer there, too.

Even Claire.

Soon.

"It's Gloriana," Claire said once they were safely in the car. "I saw her, Michael. I saw her watching you and Shane fight. She wassmiling. "

"I don't know how she could do it without affecting me or you or Eve," he said. "Glamour isn't that specific."

"Hers is," Eve said. He gave her an odd look as he drove down the street, heading for home. "What, you didn't know that? She can grab one guy out of a room if she wants to. I've seen her do it. I've seen her do it toyou ."

Claire had seen it, too, at her welcome party--Gloriana had lured Michael away with just a smile and a wink, right out of Eve's arms. She