Fall of Night The Morganville Vampires - By Rachel Caine Page 0,37
didn’t think so. He was also bigger than I was, and I didn’t think he should have any business jimmying my girlfriend’s door, so I pulled in, jumped off the bike, stood on the bottom step to block his path, and said, ‘Hey, something I can do for you there, buddy?’
He whipped around, and I saw the fury and fear mixed together before it all smoothed into a bland, but still somehow unpleasant, mask. ‘What’s your problem?’ he barked at me, and flexed his shoulders to show me his muscle-guns were loaded. I remained unimpressed. ‘Just having some trouble with my key. Had a break-in last week, had to change the locks, this one sticks.’
One thing about liars, they can never resist the opportunity to take it just a step too far. If he’d just left it at the first part about the key, it might have been believable, but he just kept talking, and that proved he was making it up.
Plus, of course, he didn’t live there. Obviously, that gave it away.
‘Let me take a look,’ I said, and came up one step.
‘Back off.’ He put the thing that was not a key in his pocket quickly, and upped the ante by coming down two steps, letting me know he was ready to charge. Again: not impressed. ‘None of your business, punk, just keep walking.’
I had a number of really awesome choices in front of me. First, I could take another step up, and smash this guy’s face with my fist, which sounded great; second, I could take another step up, let him punch at me, duck, and then smash his face with my fist. Or – and the less awesome choice – I could avoid causing a scene and possible police incident, back off, and pay attention to this douche bag from now on to see what he was up to.
I went with the less awesome option. Claire actually had changed me, it turned out – she’d made me think a little bit about the consequences, so I wasn’t just in attack mode all the time. I didn’t necessarily love it, but I saw the wisdom of it, and I nodded to the big guy, stepped down out of his way, and moved to the side. ‘Sorry,’ I said, not very sincerely. ‘Just trying to help, man.’
‘Fuck off,’ he snapped, and charged past me. He didn’t have to slam his shoulder into mine, but he did, and for a second I considered teaching him the wisdom of taking the high road, but I let it go. The slight discomfort was enough to make me feel righteous and all as I watched him walk down the block and around the corner. I had the weird feeling that he hadn’t gone far, so I got on my bike, made a show of roaring away around the corner, and then coasted to a quiet stop so I could take a look.
Sure enough, the guy went back. He didn’t try the door again, but he went across the street and took up a leaning-against-a-wall post. Looked like he could do it all night.
Looked like he had, before, which bothered me. He had to be the lurker I’d seen before.
What in the hell was going on? Was it related to Jesse being a vampire? Dr Anderson? Something else?
I didn’t want to leave, but after watching him for about ten minutes, I got on the bike and raced back to Florey’s. It was that, or lose my job, and for now, I needed the pay cheque.
Before I left, I pulled out my cell phone and reported an attempted break-in to the cops, just to make sure the dickhead got well and truly harassed. Emphasis on ass.
Man, the real world sucked. And it sucked even more that I actually missed Morganville.
CHAPTER SIX
Jesse and Pete walked Claire up to the building, through the regular nonsecured hallways, and then, as they approached the secured hallway and Claire dug the pass out of her pocket, she hesitated. ‘Um, maybe you’d better give me the box,’ she said. ‘I don’t think you can go in without an ID card …’ Her voice trailed off, because Pete balanced the box one-handed as if it was filled with nothing but packing peanuts, pulled a pass out of his pocket, and looped the cord over his neck. Jesse had one, too. ‘Oh. Never mind.’
Jesse winked at her as she slid the pass through the card reader. ‘Don’t sweat it,’ she said. ‘We’re