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stacks of books everywhere, including blocking the paths between the lab tables. He'd just gotten in a new shipment, she saw. More alchemy books. The top one, designed in garish black and yellow and white, was titledAlchemy for Idiots . He'd probably picked that one out just for her.

"Myrnin?" She called out, but not very loudly. No sign of him. When she raised her eyebrows at Michael, he shook his head. Not here, then.

That was confirmed by the flickering black-and-white ghost dressed in motorcycle leathers that appeared at the far end of the lab and came toward them at a brisk walk, passing through everything in his way...stacks of books, lab tables, and Eve, who wasn't looking the right way at that moment. She squawked and jumped back as Frank Collins's arm thrust its way through her stomach. "Hey!"

He smiled. With Frank's craggy, scarred face, it was a gruesome sight, especially in horror-movie black-and-white. "Don't stand in the way if you don't want to get hurt," he said, and dropped his arm back to his side. "I see you brought your friends, Claire."

"I didn't have a choice. They needed to know about you."

"In your opinion."

"Yes. In my opinion." Claire stared at him, and he stared back, and finally Frank shrugged.

"Fine by me, but keep my son out of it. By the way, Myrnin's not home."

"Where is he?"

"Hunting," Frank said.

Claire stiffened. "Myrnin doesn't hunt. He has regular blood deliveries."

Frank just looked at her, then at Michael. "You. Best friend. What the hell's going on with my son?"

Michael exchanged a quick glance with the others, then said, "Probably easier if I show you. Got a computer? One with Internet?"

"Yeah, over there." Frank pointed, and Claire led the way to the laptop that she kept in the corner, the one that she'd set up for Myrnin but he never seemed to use. "I was monitoring your keystrokes, but I couldn't see the Web site. Somebody's gone to some trouble to blind me."

Claire pulled up the Immortal Battles site. "Can you see it now?"

"No." Frank's insubstantial, flickering ghost leaned forward, frowning. "Just a blank screen. White noise."

"Try this," Eve said. She took out her cell phone and turned on the camera, then focused it on the screen. "Can you see it now?"

He wasn't looking at her cell phone screen, but he grunted in acknowledgment. "That works," he said. "I can see your cell in real time, so I can watch it through your camera. Good thinking. All right. Show me."

He didn't have any comment until Claire loaded up the video of Shane's first fight. As he watched the boy get thrown into the fence and then turn it around on the vampire, he did the thing Claire most dreaded.

He smiled in genuine pride.

"Hey!" she said sharply. "Your son is beinghurt. I know you're an abusive asshole, but could you maybe focus on the fact that he could have beenkilled ? Maybe?"

Frank lost the smile, but the pride remained. "He won," he said. "My son won a bare-knuckles fight with a vampire. You, Glass. You want to tell me how unlikely that is?"

"Pretty damn unlikely," Michael said. "But Claire's got a point."

"I trained my son to survive in Morganville. I'm not apologizing for that."

"You beat the hell out of him," Michael said, and behind his soft tone there was steely anger. "I remember how many times he came to my house to stay the night because he couldn't face going home to you. How many times he had bruises from yourtraining . My parents didn't do that to me to train me to survive."

"Yeah," Frank said. "And look how you turned out, Glass, with all the blood drinking. No offense."

"Lots taken," Michael said. "And by the way, you wound up with fangs, too. So screw you and your self-justification for being Worst Parent of Our Lifetime, Drunken Ass Division."

"I'd kick your disrespectful butt if I still had legs, but I'll let it go. For now," Frank said. "So my son's tangled up with this. I'll admit, it's risky, but it's right up his alley."

"He's doing it for money," Claire said.

"Good for him. I'd have done the same thing myself if it had been around in my day. Good training and cash, plus the chance to pound some bloodsucker in the face."

"It's illegal!"

Frank shrugged. "Maybe. But who cares?"

"Frank, it's run byvampires . They're getting rich off your son's blood!" Michael said. Frank raised his eyebrows.

"You think that's a news flash? That's how it's been from the

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