Kiss of Death Page 0,54

medical kit and handed it to Patience. "I'll stay here," he said. "Draw the blood."

"Yeah, don't make any of them short ! one of the other vampires called, and there was a ripple of laughter. "Enough," Jacob said, and there was a hint of relaxed humor in his voice. "You'll all get what you want. Just not now. And not here." He looked over his shoulder at Patience, who was strapping a tourniquet around the first human she'd found--a woman, this time. There was a little resistance, but not much, and Patience proved herself to be just as good at drawing blood as her brother. She filled ten more vials, which she handed over to Jacob for distribution as she moved on to the next donor. So it went, even after Morley came back inside after fueling up the bus. He saw what was going on, and shook his head. "You can take the vampire out of Morganville ... ," he said, and left the rest unsaid as he dropped into the driver's seat. "Right, young ones, bloodbath later. First, we drive." Claire half hoped that the vamps would be done with lunch before Patience worked her way back to her row, but no such luck. However, she turned left, and started with Angry Guy, whose bug eyes and muffled shrieks seemed to make no impression on her at all. She did the blood draw quickly and easily, pocketed the vials, and moved on to Orange Cap, who'd lost his cap now and was crying wet, messy tears. His nose was dripping, too. When Patience was finished tapping him, she turned to Claire. She looked at her for a long moment, then said, "I will not take your blood. Nor that of your friends. Not yet." Next to Claire, Eve let out a little sigh of relief. Shane, who'd been sitting tensely in the row ahead, relaxed as well. Claire didn't. "Why?"

"Because--we owe you a favor, I think. Let this be payment." She started to move on to the next row. "Wait," Claire said. Patience's dark, strange eyes returned to her face. "They're going to kill us all. You don't want that, you and Jacob."

"Jacob and I are outnumbered," Patience said softly. "I am sorry, but there is little we can do more than we are doing now. Forgive me."

"There has to be something--" Claire bit her lip. Eve was paying attention now, and Shane, although Claire was trying to keep the whole conversation to a whisper. "Can't you maybe let us loose? We promise, we won't tell Morley."

"Child, you have no idea what you're saying," Patience said, a little sadly. "He'll catch you, and then Morley will find out what he wants to find out. He has no reason not to rip this information from you, and it would be suspicious enough that I haven't drawn blood. He already thinks Jacob and I are too weak. You put us at risk, as well as yourselves."

"So what's our choice?" Eve hissed, leaning over as far as she could. "Getting fanged to death? No, thank you. Pass. If I'd wanted that kind of gruesome, horrible horror-movie ending, I could have stood on a street corner in Morganville and saved myself the trouble!" Patience looked even more uncomfortable. "I can't help you," she said again. "I'm sorry." That was her final answer, apparently. Claire watched her continue on with her blood work, apparently satisfied that she'd done her good deed for the day. "We're screwed," Shane said, in a matter-of-fact voice, and turned back, face forward. "Still want to go back to Morganville? Because every day is pretty much just like this, one way or another." Eve sighed, slumped against the window, and looked as if she was close, again, to bursting into tears. She didn't. Claire almost wished she would. It wasn't like Eve, all this nervous anger. It made her nervous, and the last thing she needed right now was more to raise her pulse rate. "Michael will find us," Eve said. "They'll come for us." Claire wished she felt that sure about it.

Patience and Jacob distributed all of the collected blood, two vials per vampire, and gave the rest to Morley, who chugged it back like shots at happy hour. It was disgusting, watching all the vampires having their snack; Claire's stomach turned, and she found it was easier staring down at her feet than actually paying attention. Some of the blood donors had actually passed out, though whether