Kiss of Death Page 0,51

old-fashioned way. Claire wasn't too cool with it herself, and she knew Eve well enough to know she'd fight it, hard. "Let us go," Claire blurted. Morley had wandered away toward the front of the bus now, talking to someone else, and Patience was leaning over her, checking her bonds, which were very tight. "Patience, please. You know this isn't right. Just let us go."

"I can't do that."

"But--"

"I can't," Patience said, with soft but unyielding emphasis. "Please don't ask again." She straightened and walked away without another glance, leaving them in the back, pinned like the other UnHappy Meals. At least she hadn't gagged them. Claire supposed she would, if they started screaming. Note to self: don't scream. Good advice. Shane twisted around in his seat to peer at her over the top of the seat. "Hey," he whispered. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. Eve?" Eve was fuming, her cheeks bright, her eyes hot with fury. "Fine," she snapped, biting off the word and leaving a sharp, broken silence. After a second, she softened a little. "Pissed off. Really pissed off. What kind of stupid trip is this? So far, I've been assaulted, insulted, arrested, and now I'm tied to a chair by a bunch of vampires in case they crave a little O negative at lunch. And my boyfriend is out there somewhere, dodging sunbeams. This sucks! "

"Ah--" Claire didn't quite know how to answer that. She looked at Shane, who shrugged. "He'll be okay."

"I know," Eve said with a sigh. "I'm just--I need him right now, you know? Shane was all gallant and came with you. I feel... abandoned, that's all."

"You're not abandoned," Shane said. "Dude, don't bag on Michael. It's a whole different problem when you're flammable." Eve turned her face away, toward the window, and said, "I know. I'm just--Gah, seriously, I hate being helpless! We have to do something," she said. "We have to get out of this." But, as Morley dropped into the driver's seat of the bus, slammed the doors closed, and put the beast in gear, Claire wasn't at all sure what options they really had. Morley wasn't interested in bargains, and they had nothing to trade, anyway. No way they could threaten him, not even with Amelie; he'd already given Amelie the finger on his way out of Morganville, and he clearly wasn't worried about her coming after him--or, if so, what would happen when she did. Claire didn't have anything else in her bag of tricks; nothing at all. "Wait it out," Shane said, as though he knew what she was thinking--and he probably did, actually. He was starting to get really good at that. "Just wait and watch. Something will happen. We just need to be ready to move when it does."

"Fantastic," Eve muttered sourly. "Waiting. My favorite. Next to skinny-dipping in acid and having vampires suck my blood. "

"Sorry," Shane said to Claire. "For what?"

"That you're sitting next to Little Miss Sunshine. It's not going to be a fun trip." He was right about that. It wasn't. 8 Eve mostly sat in silence, but she was just crackling with anger. Claire could feel it coming off her like static electricity. She wasn't cooling off anytime soon, either; Claire thought she was being angry to keep from being scared, which wasn't a bad choice. Being scared under these circumstances wasn't going to get them anywhere. It certainly hadn't helped Orange Cap and Angry Guy much, or the five other people Claire could spot who were bound and gagged, waiting for a vamp to get hungry. She saw it happen once, but in the medically approved way; Jacob Goldman--Patience's vampire brother, and under other circumstances kind of an okay guy--had fixed somebody up with a tourniquet and drawn out about ten tubes of blood from one of the men sitting two rows up. He was good at it. Theo, his dad and a doctor, had probably taught him how to do it. She supposed there was one advantage to having a vampire draw your blood--he wasn't likely to miss a vein and have to try again. Jacob looked unhappy about what he was doing, and at the end, even patted his victim on the shoulder in a gentle, reassuring way. Claire half expected him to hand over a lollipop- although since the man was gagged, that probably wouldn't make much sense. "Not happening," Eve whispered next to her. "No, not happening. This cannot be happening. Where the hell is Oliver? Isn't he