Bite Club Page 0,78

to go. Right? I trust Shane. I have to trust him."

"Well...they'll never let you in," Eve said, but she sounded doubtful now rather than definite. "You'd never make it past the bouncer."

Claire locked eyes with her and held the stare, trying to put all her grief and passion into it. "I have to," she said. "Please understand.Please. "

Eve didn't want to, but she finally, unwillingly nodded. When Michael tried to interject, she shook her head firmly. "She's right, Mike. She's not a little kid; we can't always be there. And she's also right about how Shane feels about vampires. If either one of us shows up, it kicks it up to a whole new level. If she's alone, it's more personal. And no matter how wack Shane may be right now, I can't believe he would hurt her, not on purpose."

Michael clearly had his doubts, but he held up both hands to signal surrender. "First we wait to see if he comes home tomorrow," he said. "If he doesn't, then we'll drive you to the gym and wait for you--and Frank monitors your signal. Any sign of trouble, he pushes the alarm button, and all bets are off. Oh, and we tell Amelie. Immediately, regardless of how that conversation goes with Shane."

Claire didn't like it particularly, but she could see the wisdom of it, too. It hadn't occurred to her, but since she knew Frank could use the camera, too, she could be wearing her cell phone around her neck with the camera activated, and he could see and hear everything. He'd wanted eyes and ears inside the gym; this was the best she could do.

"I'll go there tomorrow," she said. "If he doesn't come home tonight."

"Hang on," Frank said. "What about this Web site?"

"Can you block access?"

"Only for people inside of town."

"How about, you know, launching some kind of attack? Like a virus or a denial of service?"

Frank blinked. "No idea what you're talking about. Look, I was never the Internet guy. And it's pretty freaking strange to be--this. I got no idea how to do that denial of whatever. And I don't have any viruses."

"What if I give you one?"

"Try it, and you won't need to be afraid of what my son does."

"Okay, right. Never mind," Claire said. "It was just an idea. Obviously not a very good one."

"Bad enough I'm stuck like this, without you getting any ideas about making me sick like the last occupant." Meaning Ada, Myrnin's old assistant. And girlfriend. Claire was suddenly glad she hadn't suggested the whole virus thing while Myrnin was around, because he would surely have beenvery unhappy with her.

And as if she'd conjured him up, thanks to even thinking his name, Frank suddenly turned to face the side of the lab where the portal door was located. "He's coming back," he said. "Nobody tells him nothing." And just like that, Frank vanished, leaving behind nothing but a trailing hiss of static in Claire's cell phone speaker, just as a pool of darkness formed inside an open doorway, then rippled into what looked like a dimly lit library.

Myrnin stepped through, and the portal collapsed behind him into darkness. He shut the wooden door and padlocked it, rolled the bookcase back in front of it as additional cover, and, without turning around, said, "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, uninvited guests?" He didn't sound happy. Or even, as was more typical for Myrnin, wacky. Bad sign.

"I...needed to check on something," Claire said. "Sorry. We were just leaving."

"Were you?" He turned, clasping his hands behind him. He looked very old-school Myrnin, formally dressed, even down to shiny boots. Well, the shirt and vestmight have clashed, but apart from that, he'd obviously been somewhere that didn't accept his usual wardrobe choices. Like, say, Amelie's office. "There are a number of odd things happening in this town, Claire. Most notably, the behavior of you and your friends. Including that boy most strangely absent from your little group. I don't often see him separated from you."

She felt a prickling of fear and tried not to let it show. "He's busy," she said. "So am I." She nodded to Michael and Eve and headed for the stairs.

Myrnin got there ahead of her. She came to a fast stop, wondering what the hell was up with himthis time. She'd seen so much insanity from him that it was tough to work up real terror anymore. He'd wig out on her and grow fangs,