"Wait a minute. Shane never said anything about coming back to Morganville with a friend," Eve said.
"Yeah, he wouldn't, because he doesn't know I'm here. Mr. Collins - Shane's dad - sent me after him. I was supposed to stay to keep an eye on Shane, kind of watch his back." Dean shook his head. "Except nothing was the way he said it would be. I didn't know where to hide, so I enrolled at TPU because it gave me an excuse to hang around. Then I kind of lost track of everybody a few weeks ago." He looked at them hopefully. "So? What do I do now?"
Claire and Eve stared at him in silence for a moment, and then Eve said, very seriously, "Look. We know Frank Collins - know, hate, whatever. And you need to give up on that evil old loser. You seem like kind of a sweet kid. Pack it in and go away. Get out while you still can."
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Dean said. "It was supposed to be easy. I mean, the good guys were supposed to win, you know? The vampires were supposed to die."
"And then what, you guys take over and run the town?" Claire sighed. "Not likely. And I've met Mr. Collins. Not a good idea to give him the keys to the city, either."
Dean looked at her like he thought she was crazy, and that it really was a pity. "At least he's not a vampire."
"They're not all bad," Claire said.
For a split second, she thought she saw an altogether different Dean watching her - same guy, same emo haircut, but his eyes were weird. Not vampire weird. Odd weird.
Then he blinked, and it was gone, and she thought it was just her imagination. If you couldn't be paranoid in Morganville, though, where could you?
"Well, that's new to me," Dean said. He smiled, and it was a real smile. A warm one, not at all nervous. "I just always thought the whole bloodsucking thing made being bad a lock."
"What you know about vampires could fit into a mosquito's ass," Eve said, irritated. "All you know is what you grew up seeing on TV. You ever actually meet one?"
Dean didn't answer that, but the tips of his ears grew red and his smile disappeared as he faced Eve directly. "Yeah, well, I'm not some collaborator who's willing to apologize for what these monsters do. Maybe that's the point. Anyway - it wasn't really my choice. I just came because Frank asked, and I didn't have anyplace else to go. My brother was running with Frank, and he was all I had."
Eve's eyes remained watchful. "So where's Big Scary Bro now?"
"Dead," Dean said softly. "He got killed in the fighting. I'm all alone."
Claire stared down at the table, suddenly not interested at all in her mocha, no matter how delicious. The truth was that some of those guys - the foot soldiers, the ones who'd come along to Morganville with Frank Collins as his shock troops - well, some of those guys hadn't fared well, either in the fight or in jail. She didn't know who they were, not by name. Up until this moment, they'd just been labeled in her head as Frank Collins's minions. But they all had names, friends, lives. They all had families. Claire wouldn't know Dean's brother from any of his fellow muscle-bound biker dudes, but that didn't mean Dean didn't mourn him.
That led Claire to a terrifyingly real waking nightmare - Bishop summoning her, telling her that he'd decided to let Shane go. Shane lying there, not moving . . .
"Hey, Claire?" Eve snapped her fingers under Claire's nose, and Claire jerked so hard she slopped coffee onto the table. "Damn, girl. You space so hard, you ought to look into a career at NASA. So. We agree that Mr. Dean here is a terrible excuse for a vampire hunter, is in a whole lot of trouble if he doesn't keep his head down, and he should head for the hills if he knows what's good for him?"
"Sure," Claire said, but Dean was already looking oddly stubborn.
"I'm not going anywhere," he said. "My brother would have wanted me to finish what I started. I told Frank Collins I'd look out for Shane. I'm staying until I know they're okay."
"That's sweet, but how exactly are you going to look out for him, seeing that he's in jail?" Eve said. "Unless you want to look after his girl instead." She winked at Claire.
The tips of Dean's ears turned even redder. "That's not what I meant."
Except that Claire had the funny feeling that he did.
She avoided Eve's gaze for another few seconds, then pulled out her cell phone and checked the time. She had nowhere to be, but this was turning weirdly uncomfortable all around.
"Gotta go," she said, and grabbed up her backpack. She'd had about all the Dean time she wanted.
Eve blinked. "You barely touched the mocha!"
"Sorry. You have it."
"I work in a coffee bar. No. Here, Dean. Knock yourself out."
The last she saw before she ducked off into the crowds, heading for nowhere in particular, was Eve handing Dean her abandoned drink, and chatting like old friends.
Claire really didn't have a lot of ideas about what to do for the rest of the day, but one thing she did not intend to do was go against Michael's instructions. No way was she going anywhere near Vampire Central today. Going home didn't have much appeal, either, but it seemed the safest thing to do. As she walked, she dialed Richard Morrell's cell phone number. It went to voice mail. She tried the new chief of police next.
"Hannah Moses, go," said the brisk, calm voice on the other end.