Its night, Gretchen pointed out. So where is he? Your friend?
Shane swallowed, and it was hard to miss the wave of misery that went through him. Hes around.
Around where, exactly?
Claire exchanged a look of dread with Eve. Shane still thought Michael was dead, buried in the backyardand Michael had been pretty firm on the idea that Shane shouldnt know.
I dont know, Shane said. The tips of his ears were turning red.
Hans the Detective smiled slowly. You dont know much, son. And yet you look like youre not completely stupid, so how exactly does that work? Did you hide in the room with the girls? He leaned on the last word, and his vampire partner laughed.
Shane got up. There was something insane in his eyes, and Claire felt her heart stop beating because this was bad, very bad, and Shane was going to do something horribly unwise, and there was no way they could stop him.
Youre looking for me?
They all turned.
Michael was standing at the top of the stairs. He was pulling on a plain black T-shirt with blue jeans, and he looked like hed just rolled out of bed. His feet, Claire saw, were bare as usual.
Shane sat down. Fast and hard. Michael took his time coming down the stairs, making sure they were all focused on him instead of Shane, to give Shane time to get through what he was feelingwhich was, Claire thought, a lot to pack into less than thirty seconds. Relief, of course, which brought a sheen of tears to his eyes. And then, predictably, he got pissed, because, well, he was a guy, he was Shane, and that was how he handled being scared.
So, really, by the time Michael padded down the last step to the wooden floor and crossed over to the couch through the circle of police, things were pretty much just as theyd been, except that Shane wasnt about to push the button on his nuclear temper.
Hey, Michael said to him. Shane moved over on the couch to make room. Guy room, which left plenty of empty space. Whats up?
Shane looked at him like he might be crazy, not just nearly dead part-time. Cops, man.
Yeah, man, I can see that. How come?