"Oh." She sucked in a deep breath as they crossed the street and took a right, heading for Founder's Square in the center of town. "Who?"
It was a simple question, but she didn't expect a simple answer. Myrnin was always being vague when she most needed clarity.
So it surprised her when he said, "Do you actually want to know?"
"Of course I do!"
"Think carefully before you answer. Do you want to know, Claire?"
That sounded...ominous. And Myrnin sounded very, very serious and in control, which was odd, to say the least.
"Is there some reason I shouldn't?" she asked. He glanced over at her, and she was unsettled again by the concern in his expression.
"Yes," he said. "Several that I can think of."
"Then why drag me out of bed about it?"
"Not my choice. Amelie's orders. Trust me, I objected. I was overruled."
Claire concentrated on walking for a few moments, until the pale glow of the lights from Founder's Square warmed the night ahead of them. The houses they passed were silent and dark. Apart from a few barking dogs, nobody seemed to notice them.
"Tell me," she said. "Tell me before we get there. It's better if I know what I'm walking into."
"I knew you'd say that." She couldn't decide whether Myrnin approved or sounded resigned about it. "Very well. It's Eve's brother. Jason."
Jason.Well...that didn't shock her quite as much as it probably should have. Jason had sat with them at their dinner table. He'd even kind of saved her life once. But on the other hand, he'd terrorized her, threatened her, and he'd actuallyhurt Shane. With glee. Jason was not a good person, deep down.
"Eve's going to be so upset," Claire said. She couldn't imagine how bad her friend would feel; Eve had been so excited about Jason's supposed turnaround, so supportive of his attempts to make himself better. And now this. It would knock her flat.
"You're not surprised."
"Not...really. I mean, I'm disappointed more than surprised. I wanted him to be...better."
"Ah, Claire." Myrnin shook his head and reached out to give her a quick, fierce, one-armed hug. "You want us all to be better than we are. That's charming, and alarming. I've disappointed you many times."
"Not like this."
"Very much like this," he said. "But perhaps not so bloodily."
"What's going to happen to him?"
Myrnin gave her a long, sideways look. She realized that it maybe wasn't the most perceptive question she'd ever asked. "No," she said. "No, Myrnin. He didn't kill a vampire, no matter how it turns out. Human violence gets judged and punished by humans. That's the rule."
"Amelie makes the rules, dear child."
They were in a relatively deserted part of town now, heading for Founder's Square. Normally, Claire wouldn't have liked walking out here in blazing noon sun, not even with an escort, but having a vampire at her side had made her careless.
She never saw it coming, not until Myrnin suddenly stopped and raised his head, face gone still and unnaturally pale in the silvery moonlight. He usually had a kind of awkwardly angled grace that was almost human, but now he took on that weird vampire stillness that made Claire feel so...clumsy. So vulnerable.
Except Myrnin hadn't abruptly gone all fangy on her; he was focusing on something out in the dark.
"Claire," he said, in a low, soothing, carefully controlled voice. "I would like you to take out your mobile phone and call the police, please. Do that now. Perhaps that emergency number."
It was so utterly un-Myrnin that it scared her into fumbling her phone out of her pocket. "Why?" she whispered, as she started punching the three numbers in.
"Because it's an emergency," he said, and then somethinghit him , something faster than Claire could
actually see, and she'd only just gotten the 911 entered and hadn't pressed call, and before Myrnin fell, something had her wrist in a crushing grip. She had a confused impression of a stench like the worst body odor in the world, like poor Stinky Doug times a thousand, and a feverish glitter of eyes, and a face that looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over it.......