Kiss of Death Page 0,6

was enough. Why am I the bad guy?" Shane muttered, loud enough for only Claire to hear, "Good question, bro." She hissed at him to be quiet. This was private, and she was feeling bad for both Eve and Michael, having witnesses to all this. It was bad enough to be fighting and worse to have Shane making snarky comments from the sidelines. "I don't know, Michael. Why are you the bad guy?" Eve shot back. "Maybe because you're acting as if you own the world!"

"You're being a brat."

"A what?"

"You're going to dump crap all over the floor and walk away? What else do you call it?" Eve looked so shocked, it was as if he'd hit her. Claire winced in sympathy. "It's okay; we'll do it," Claire said, and started picking up plates and piling them up. "It's not a big deal." Shane was still staring at their friends as if they were some kind of sideshow exhibit; she kicked him in the shin and shoved plates at him. "Kitchen," she said. "Go." He raised his eyebrows, but he went. She began cleaning up the mess on the floor. In Shane's absence, it felt as if things changed, as if the balance shifted again. Claire kept herself small, quiet, and invisible as she worked at scraping up the spilled food into a pile with napkins. "Eve," Michael said. He wasn't angry anymore, Claire realized. His voice had gone soft and quiet. She glanced up and saw that Eve was silently crying now, tears dragging dirty trails of mascara down her cheeks, but she didn't look away from him. "Eve, what is it? This isn't about Jason. What?" She threw herself into him, wrapping her arms around him. Even with vampire reflexes, Michael was surprised enough to rock backward, but he recovered in just a second, holding her, stroking her back with one hand. Eve put her head down on his shoulder and cried like a lost little girl. "I don't want to lose you," she finally snuffled. "God, I really don't. Please. Please don't go."

"Go?" Michael sounded honestly baffled. "What? Where would I go?"

"Anywhere. With anyone. Don't--I love you, Michael. I really do." He sighed and held her even more tightly. "I'm not going anywhere with anyone else," he said. "I swear. And I love you, too. Okay?"

"You mean it?"

"Yeah, I mean it." He seemed almost surprised and let out a slow breath as he hugged her tighter. "I mean it, Eve. I always have, even when you didn't believe it." Eve dabbed at her running mascara, hiccuping little breaths, and then looked past Michael to Claire, who was getting all the mess put onto one plate for disposal. Eve looked stricken. "Oh God," she said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean--Here, let me. I'll get it." And she pulled free of Michael and got down on her hands and knees to clean up the rest. And Michael got down there with her. Claire backed through the kitchen door with a load of stuff, and as it swung closed, she saw Michael lean over and kiss Eve. It looked sweet and hot and absolutely real. "Well?" Shane asked. "World War Fifteen over out there, or what?"

"I think so," she said, and hip-bumped him out of the way at the sink to dump her armload of plates. "You're washing, right?"

"I'll play you for it."

"What?"

"Best high score wins?" That was the same basic thing as doing it herself now and saving herself the humiliation, Claire thought. "No bet," she said. "Wash, dish boy." He flicked suds at her. She shrieked and laughed and flipped more at him. They splashed water. It felt ... breathlessly good, when Shane finally captured her in his soapy hands, pulled her close to his wet T-shirt, and kissed her. "And that's World War Sixteen," he said. "Officially over."

"I'm still not playing Dead Rising with you."

"You're no fun." She kissed him, long and sweet and slow, and whispered, "You sure?"

"Well, I'm certainly changing my mind," Shane said, straight-faced, at least until he licked his lips. His pupils were large and dark and completely fixed on hers, and she felt as if gravity had reversed, as if she could fall up into his eyes and just keep on going. "Dishes," he reminded her. "Me dish boy. And I can't believe I just said that, because that was lame." She kissed him again, lightly this time. "That's for later," she said. "By the way? You look really hot with suds