"Myrnin, maybe we should call somebody. You know, get a cab. Or Eve, we could call Eve - "
Myrnin turned on her.
It happened fast, so fast, and she barely had time to gasp and duck as he came at her, a white blur in the star-light. There was a sense of hard impact, of falling, and then everything went a little soft around the edges.
Myrnin was stretched out on top of her, and as the world stopped wobbling, she realized she was flat on her back on the ground. "Get off!" she yelped, and battered at his chest with both fists. "Off!"
He put his cold hand over her mouth and lifted a single finger of his other hand to his lips. She couldn't see his face in the shadows, but she saw the gesture, and it made the panic in her shift directions from oh my God, Myrnin's going to bite me to oh my God, Myrnin's trying to save me.
Myrnin dipped his head low, so low he was well within critical vein range, and she heard him whisper, "Don't move. Stay here."
Then he was gone, just like that. As noisy as he could be at times, he could also be as silent as a shadow when he wanted.
Claire raised her head just a little to look around, but she saw nothing. Just the alley, the fence, the sky overhead with wispy clouds moving across the stars.
And Myrnin's flip-flops, which he'd left behind, lying sad and abandoned on the ground.
There was a sudden, enraged shriek from the other side of the fence, and something crashed against the wood with enough force to splinter heavy boards. Claire rolled to her feet, heart pounding, and gripped the stake in her hand hard. Funny, I didn't think to use it on Myrnin. . . . Maybe she'd known, deep down, that he was acting to protect her.
She hoped so. She hoped it wasn't that she couldn't see the threat in him anymore, because that would eventually get her killed.
Whatever was happening on the other side of the fence, it was bad. It sounded like tigers fighting, and as she backed up from the snarls and howls and sounds of bodies slamming around, the boards of the fence broke again, and a white hand - not Myrnin's, this was a woman's - clawed the air.
Reaching for Claire.
"I've changed my mind," Myrnin called. He sounded eerily normal. "Do go on and run, Claire. I'll catch up. This may take a few moments."
She didn't wait. She grabbed up her fallen backpack and ran for the exit of the alley, where it dumped out into the cul-de-sac next to the Day House.
A vampire car was parked there, door open, engine idling. Nobody around.
Claire hesitated, then looked inside. In the glow of the instrument panel, she couldn't see much: dark upholstery, mainly. She didn't think there was anybody inside, although it was tough to see into the back. She ducked into the cabin and flipped on the overhead light, then bounced back on her heels with the stake held in her most threatening way possible. (Which, she had to admit, probably wasn't very intimidating at all.)
Luckily, nothing lunged at her from the backseat.
Claire threw herself behind the wheel, dumped her backpack on the floorboard of the passenger side, and slammed the door. She leaned on the horn, a long blast, and yelled, "Myrnin! Come on!"
It was a risk. There was every possibility that whoever won that fight back there, it wouldn't be Myrnin opening the car door, but she had to try. He'd taken on another vampire - more than one, she thought - to save her life. The least she could do was give him fair warning that she was about to speed away and leave him behind.
It was impossible to see through the dark tinting on the windshield and windows. Claire counted to ten, slowly and deliberately, and got to a whispered seven before there was a casual knock on the passenger window. She yelped, fumbled, and found the switch that rolled down the glass.
Myrnin leaned in and smiled at her. "Fair lady, may I ride with you in your carriage?"
"God - get in!" He looked . . . messy. Messier than usual, anyway; his coat was shredded in places, he had bloodless scratches on his face, and his eyes were still glowing a dull, muddy red. As he slid into the passenger seat, she caught a sharp scent from him - fresh vampire blood. In the dashboard glow, she saw traces of it around his mouth and smeared on his hands. "Who was it?"
"No idea," Myrnin said, and yawned. His fangs flashed lazily. "Someone Bishop set to spy on me, no doubt. She won't be reporting back. Sadly, her companion was too fast for me. And too frightened."
He was so casual about it. Claire, freaked, made sure all the doors were locked and the windows rolled up, and then realized that they were sitting in an idling car, and she couldn't see a thing ahead of her. Of course. It was a standard-issue vampire-edition sedan. Not meant for humans at all.
Myrnin sighed. "Please, allow me."
"Do you have the faintest idea of how to drive a car?"
"I am a very fast learner."
In fact, he wasn't.
Myrnin dropped Claire off at her parents' house well before dawn, tossed her cell phone out of the car to her, and drove off still bumping into curbs and running over mailboxes with cheerful abandon. He seemed to enjoy driving. That terrified her, but he was officially the Morganville police's problem, not hers.