Ghost Town

Amelie kept watching her for a moment more, then frowned down at Oliver, who was propped now against the wall, still making no effort to rise. She turned and walked back to a big, polished desk. Claire looked around and realized that she recognized this room; she’d been in it before, but by portal rather than the front door. There were a lot of old books in built-in shelves, and beautiful old furniture, and soft lights. Large windows that were, just now, uncovered to show Founder’s Square at night.

The cage in the middle of the park was lit up like an exhibit. Claire wondered if the boy was still in there, or if somehow he’d managed to take advantage of the confusion and get out. She kind of hoped so. What if Kyle didn’t remember why he was in that cage? How awful would that be?

Claire limped over to a chair and fell into it. Her head was spi

Outside the room, there was sudden silence, and then the door banged open with a crash that sent the lock flying right out of the wood. Michael came inside, dragging the guard along with him. She’d been tied up with what Claire realized were strips torn from her coat, and he’d added a gag. Both of them looked ragged and worn-out.

Amelie stood up, mouth open, and cried, “Sam?” just a second before she realized she was wrong. Not Sam Glass. His grandson. They looked a lot alike, except for their hair color. Sam’s had been more red. “Michael. But you . . . you can’t be . . .” Her expression changed, slowly, and she breathed out, “No. Not possible. You can’t be any get of mine. I would know this. I would remember.” But Claire could tell that she could feel it was true—and that made Amelie even more confused.

A confused Amelie was very dangerous.

Michael dumped the guard in the corner and came to Claire. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m okay.”

“There’s blood on your shirt.”

Oh. Yeah, her neck was bleeding a little. Not enough to worry about. “I’m fine.” Except for the headache, which was bad, but that wasn’t something she wanted to go into. Michael looked doubtful, but he turned from her to look at Oliver. “What happened to you?”

“Complacency,” Oliver murmured. “I thought she was under my control, and then . . . she changed.”

“She lost her memory,” Claire said. “She forgot you’d taken over. So she attacked you.”

Oliver lifted a weak hand in agreement, and they all looked at Amelie, who was white as a marble statue now. “How can this be? You were . . . I remember you, Michael. You should be younger . . . thi

“And not a vampire,” Michael said. “But I am one. And you made me one.”

“Yes,” Amelie whispered. “I can feel that. But how . . . how can this be true when I don’t—”

“It’s the machine in Myrnin’s lab,” Michael said. “We need your help to stop it before it’s too late. Myrnin doesn’t remember things, either. He won’t let us get close without a fight. You’re the only one he’ll listen to.”

“I must think,” Amelie said, and sat down as if she’d lost all strength. “Leave me.” She didn’t seem to care about them anymore, any of them. There was a deep, miserable confusion in her eyes, and Claire remembered how the vampire in the diner had snapped. Surely that wouldn’t happen to Amelie.

Not to Amelie.

Claire turned to Oliver. “Help us,” she pleaded. “We need your help. You still remember.”

“For how long?” Oliver asked. He, too, sounded weak and odd. “I saw it overtake her. It will do the same to me, and I’ll be of no use to you then.”

“Convince her to come to Myrnin’s lab,” Michael said. “That’s how you can be of use to us. We need you there. Both of you.”

Amelie looked up sharply. “No one convinces me. Leave now, or I’ll destroy both of you. If there’s action to be taken, I will take it, but you will not stay here and insult my authority by appealing to him.” She pressed a button on her desk, and an alarm began to sound out in the hall. “I must have time to decide what to do.”

Michael pulled Claire out of the chair, grabbed her backpack, and said, “We’re going.”

“Then run,” Amelie said. “Because if my men catch you, I will have them kill you.”

Michael nodded, and practically dragged Claire at a run out of the office.

“I can’t!” Claire panted. Her head was pounding, and she couldn’t keep her balance. Michael didn’t hesitate. He grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder, and kept ru

Vampires were coming out of the doors and ru

Michael banged through a door, and suddenly she was airborne. That didn’t help the disorientation at all, but at least it was fast, and she felt the impact when he landed—where?

Oh, at the bottom of the stairwell. She craned her neck and looked up three stories, where the vampire pursuers were jumping after them, and one of them was on the railing, readying to leap right on top of them.

Michael didn’t wait. He threw open the door to the parking garage and the next thing she knew, she was being tossed into the back of the Death Limo and Eve was peeling out of the garage like her tailpipe had caught fire.

Claire breathed as deeply as she could, and in a few seconds, the world stopped twisting around quite so badly. She opened her eyes and looked up at Shane, who was holding her in his lap.

“You were supposed to call,” he said. He sounded angry.

“Sorry,” she said. “We were busy being almost killed.”

Eve screamed through the window at the front, “Michael? Michael, what happened? Are you all right?”

“I’m okay,” he said. He must have been, because Claire couldn’t imagine how he’d outrun all those vamps if he hadn’t been. He was lying down, though, on the other bench seat in the back. “They won’t chase us outside of the square.”

“I’m not taking any chances! We are going straight home!”

Nobody had any argument for that. Claire was thinking, But we have to do something. Anything.

The problem was, everything she could think of ended with them getting killed.

She had to think of something.

Only she didn’t. It was late, and they were all tired, and her head hurt. She fell asleep on the couch, and Shane finally woke her and told her to go to bed. She wanted to stay with him, but she knew she shouldn’t, not when she was trying to think, and her head hurt so badly.

She didn’t remember getting upstairs to her room, but she must have, because when she woke up, sunlight was streaming through the curtains and laying a warm blanket across her bed. She felt better, until she poked at the bump on her head; that still hurt. But it was healing, she could tell.

She still hadn’t thought of what she was going to do, except that she needed to get to Myrnin, convince him to help, or else she needed to take down the computer’s power. Maybe the power station, she thought, but she’d been there once, and unless she was pla

It had to be done in the lab. Which left the problem of the crazy vampire who didn’t remember her and wanted to have her for lunch.

There was nothing coming to her, nothing at all. Amelie might help, or she might not. There was no telling what she, or Oliver, would do.

It was still early enough that Michael was probably home, but Claire thought today was Eve’s early day at Common Grounds; she put in only about sixteen hours a week there, but she tried to do it early mornings, because she really didn’t like spending evenings there anymore. So she’d probably already been up and gone, if she was intending to work at all. Shane would be in bed. He never got up before ten unless he had to.