Fall of Night The Morganville Vampires - By Rachel Caine Page 0,70
house every once in a while – it’s kind of on the way to work, okay? And last time I was by here, I saw this big guy trying to jimmy your front door. I warned him off and asked the cops to step up patrols.’
‘The attempted break-in card,’ Claire said. ‘Was it Derrick who was trying to break in?’
I nodded. ‘Yeah, he introduced himself. He’s a real douche bag.’
‘He’s Liz’s stalker.’
‘Well, that fits. He had the vibe.’
‘So it was Derrick who went in to get her.’
‘No,’ I said, and leant forward to lower my voice. ‘It was four guys in a very slick military manoeuvre – one in a delivery van with a sliding door that blocked the view of the front, and three who went inside. They had master keys, because they opened it up fast and went in quietly. Then, about a minute later, they came out with a girl with a black hood over her face – like some kind of CIA rendition from the movies. She wasn’t protesting too much; I think she was too scared. I was going to move, because I honestly thought it might be you, Claire, until I saw her getting into the van; she didn’t move like you, and she was as tall as Eve, so I thought it must be your friend. One of the men went back inside, and then all of a sudden, Derrick showed up. I don’t think he knew what was going on – he was across the street in his usual spot, holding up the lamp post. All he knew was that the door was open, so he bolted inside; he didn’t even know they’d taken the girl out.’
‘Liz,’ Claire said softly. ‘Her name is Liz.’
‘I know. Sorry. I would have done something, except I’m not in the best shape right now.’
She paused, biting her lip, studying my face. ‘God, Shane. You weren’t kidding, were you? You really got beat up.’
I had, and I felt it. The aches and pains were bad enough, but half my face was throbbing, and I knew the bruising was going to darken into a spectacular tie-dye pattern. Plus, my damn arm hurt as if I’d cracked a bone, though I knew I hadn’t, or at least the X-rays hadn’t showed it. The skin itched something crazy, as if I’d fallen into a bunch of poison ivy. Not too likely, even if we were Ivy League-adjacent.
I really didn’t want to look at Claire directly, because despite the apparent concern in her words, her voice had a fragile, hard tone I didn’t like. I don’t know what would have been worse, seeing pity from her, or seeing … something else. Instead, I stared at a discoloured spot on the table and scraped at it with my thumbnail as I continued my story. ‘Derrick and the other guy came stumbling out less than a minute later, and Derrick looked hurt. They tossed him in the van too, and took off.
‘Do you know where they took them?’
‘Not a clue,’ I said, ‘but I got a picture of the van and the plate, plus at least one of the guys.’ I dug out my phone and passed it to Jesse, who navigated the menus with an impressive amount of ease, considering she was an ancient bloodsucker; I’d already worked out that she had to be pretty old, because she wasn’t particularly worried about the sun. Even with the hoodie and hat, most vampires would have been scared, but Jesse seemed cool and calm and not the least bit flammable. ‘Maybe you’ve got some contacts who can use that?’
‘Likely,’ Jesse said. ‘All right, Claire, you obviously can’t go back home. Whether this was some separate event related to your friend – and I’m going to have her background and family checked – or whether this had to do with you and your work with Dr Anderson, it’s not safe for you there, and it’s our fault you stayed as long as you did in a difficult situation. When you reported the first event to Irene, I should have insisted you get out of that house immediately, but she was convinced that they were only looking for the device, and since it had been moved …’
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘What event are we talking about?’ Because it seemed to me that I’d missed something important. Something Claire should have told me.
It was probably wrong for me to be upset about that, considering how much I’d kept