been listening. "I'm watching it again. God, he issmokin' hot!"
A click, and Claire was left with nothing. Not even--when she checked--a call history. It was a blank number.
"What?" Eve asked, frowning. Claire shook her head.
"I have no idea," she said. "But...it probably isn't good."
"Well, there's a stunning surprise," Eve said. "Didn't see that coming. Was it Monica?"
It should have been, by all logic that Claire knew, but...it hadn't been Monica or Jennifer or any voice she knew. She'd made enemies in town, but not so many that she didn't know how to identify them.
So why was some random weird girl calling her aboutShane ?
What had she said...? "I'm watching it again," Claire said out loud. Eve looked at her with a frown.
"Watching what?" Michael asked.
"Exactly," Claire said, and felt like she was falling off a cliff into the dark. "Exactly. Something's really, really wrong, Michael. I just know it!"
"Let's get inside," he said. "And we'll figure this out."
Chapter Eleven
ELEVEN
Afew months back, a girl named Kim had wormed her way into Eve's friendship, and she'd betrayed it. She'd recorded a lot of things all over Morganville, but her personal favorite had been sex tapes.
Claire, fingers trembling on the keyboard, did a search forShane Collins on YouTube.
It came back empty, and she slumped back in her chair, so relieved she thought she might faint. If Kim had somehow gotten that on the Internet......
"Try Google," Michael said. He was crouched down next to her chair. Eve was hovering over her shoulder, all of them fixed on the glowing screen of her laptop. Claire bit her lip and tried that, and results scrolled down. Most of them weren't abouther Shane, but one caught her eye. She clicked it, without even consciously realizing why she'd picked it.
A Web site came up, loud and red and edgy, all jagged type and torn-up graphics. The banner read immortal battles. An animated thing underneath asked if she had the courage to enter the game.
There were lots of fragments of pictures making up the splash page--dark, gritty stuff, mostly guys looking intense and sweaty.
And immediately, one face jumped right out at her. She gasped at the same time Michael leaned forward and pointed. "That's Shane," he said. She nodded. "Click it."
"I--"I don't want to, she thought, but she squeezed her eyes shut for a second, then aimed the mouse at the glowing entry box.
She clicked. It exploded, and the sound rattled harshly out of the speakers. Michael didn't flinch, but she did.
When the screen cleared of the animated explosion, there was a sign-in box and a link to create an account. She clicked that. "It says I need a credit card," she said. "And that it's a hundred bucks to sign up."
Michael opened his wallet and handed over a card. He hadn't had it long, she guessed; it still looked shiny and new. It was black, with Amelie's logo in gray in the background and the bank's info at the bottom. "Do it," he said. She typed in the info and handed the card back, then clicked register. There was the usual wait, and then the screen cleared for a video.
"That's a vampire," Eve said, leaning forward. "What thehell ?"
"His name is Vassily," Michael said. "I never liked him."
Vassily--whom Claire had never seen before, except maybe at a distance--was a long-haired guy only a little older in face-age than Michael. Kind of good-looking, if you went for lots of sharp angles and arrogant smiles. He was wearing period costume, which struck her as a little weird; some vampires did, but not many. They were anxious to fit in, not stand out. He looked like he'd ripped the clothes off Dracula in an old black-and-white movie.
"Welcome," Vassily said, and smiled. He showed teeth. "To Immortal Battles. We don't fight to the death--we fightbeyond death, in the world's most dangerous sport. You'll never see ultimate fighting the same way again--I promise you. Ah, I see our betting windows are open. Choose to view previous matches, or place a bet on an upcoming one. And remember: we know who you are." Another flash of vampire teeth. It was all weirdly campy.
"What thehell ?" Michael murmured, almost laughing. "Amelie's going to kill him."
The video went away, and Claire was left with choices. There were two previous-bout videos, and she clicked on the second one.
Michael sucked in a startled breath, and so did Eve.
Two half-naked guys in a wire cage, pounding the hell out of each other. Nothing you couldn't see on pay-per-view,