Fade Out

“We grew up in ages when ru

“Like baths?”

“Oh, we had baths in the old days. We called them stews, and they caused diseases.” He shoved open the door and lit a row of candles set into a kind of shelf along the side of the room, which gave off just enough light to make Claire feel she could turn her own portable lamp off. “What you’re looking for is here, in the box.”

The box was a rickety-looking crate with rope handles. Inside were more hard drives—the ones that had been missing from the radio station—and some DVDs. One was labeled, in black Sharpie, MICHAEL & EVE. Claire choked a little at the sight of it. She frantically combed through the others, but there was nothing marked SHANE & CLAIRE.

“Don’t worry,” Shane said. “The lighting was terrible on ours, anyway.”

“Not fu

“I know.” He put his arm around her. “I know. Speaking of not fu

Morley nodded. “Follow me.”

Three doors down was a much smaller cave—more like a cell—and Morley combed through an ancient ring of ancient keys until he found one to fit the huge rusty lock. “I keep her here for her own safety,” he said. “You’ll see.”

He opened the door, and Kim cowered back from the wash of the flashlights—but not Kim. The face was the same, but all the Goth had been scrubbed off except the dyed hair. She was dirty, dressed in filthy clothes, and there was zero bad attitude left.

Claire had been prepared to let loose a flood of anger, but this was just . . . pathetic. “Kim?” No response. “Kim! What did you do to her?”

“Nothing. She doesn’t respond to her name,” Morley said. “It seems she’s lost her mind.”

“Bullshit,” Eve snapped. “She’s an actress.”

“I’ve seen rehearsals,” Morley responded. “She’s not that good.”

Eve shoved past him to crouch down next to Kim, who covered her face and tried to curl into a ball. “Hey!” Eve said, and shook her, hard. “Kim, snap out of it! It’s Eve! Look at me!”

Kim screamed, and Claire caught her breath at the sound of it; there was real terror in it, and pain, and horror. Eve let her hand fall away, and she leaned back against the nearest wall, frowning.

“What happened to her?” Shane asked. Morley shrugged.

“Something bad,” he said. “Something permanent, as far as I can tell. She crossed someone who didn’t take well to her initiative.”

“You said you keep her locked up for protection.”

He flashed Claire a dark smile. “Consider it locking up the wine cellar. The girl’s still a good vintage, if not a brilliant conversationalist.”

Ugh. “I need her,” Claire said. “I need to take her with me.”

Morley’s vampire followers didn’t seem especially happy about her act of kindness. “She’s got no family,” Patience said. “No one is going to miss her. No one was even looking for her.”

“We were.”

“To punish her! We will do that for you.”

Even Shane looked a little sick at that. “We’ll do our own punishing, thanks,” he said. “Humans, I mean. Not me, personally.”

Morley’s eyes narrowed, but he shrugged as if he didn’t really care. “Take her,” he said. “Take the black boxes she thought were so important. Take it all, and remember your promise, Claire: you have one month to secure Amelie’s permission for us to leave Morganville. If you don’t get it, I’ll be paying your friends a visit.”

Kim was too scared to fight, but Shane took some strips of cloth and wrapped her wrists and ankles tight before slinging her over his shoulder. Eve took the box with the hard drives and DVDs.

Morley and his vampires stood in their way.

“One month,” he said. “Remember what I said.”

Then they parted ranks, and the three of them, carrying Kim, walked uphill toward the light at the end of the tu

Ada was standing right at the very edge of the darkness, hands clasped before her, eyes like burned paper holes.

“I see you found her,” Ada said. “Good. I want her.”

“Why? Why did you bring us here?”

“Morley was supposed to kill you. I suppose one must do everything one’s self these days.”

Claire felt a sick wave of understanding flood over her. “You,” she said. “You would have known all about the cameras. You probably found out the first time Kim placed one.”

Ada smiled.

“You let her do it.”

“Oh no,” Ada said. “I helped her do it. The girl told me she would use the video she’d collected to rid me of Amelie and Oliver, and I gave her access. I helped her place her cameras. But she was a liar. A cheat. A thief.” Ada’s image contorted, taking on a monster’s shape for a flicker, then smoothed back to her Victorian disguise. “She was going to cheat me out of my revenge and destroy Morganville altogether. I won’t have that. Unlike Morley and his rabble, I can’t simply leave. I am Morganville. I must survive.”

“You’re not Morganville,” Claire said. Kim, draped over Shane’s shoulder, had caught sight of Ada, and she was thrashing wildly, screaming. It was all Shane could do to hold on to her. “You’re just a science project. One that doesn’t work right.”

“I am the force that holds this lie of a town together,” Ada said, and glided closer, so close Claire could feel the cold chill generated by her image projection. “As far as Morganville is concerned, I am its goddess.”

“Word of advice,” Eve said. “It’s time for a change of religion.”

Ada’s image became distorted again, and she stretched out a hand. Claire controlled the natural impulse to flinch.

She’s not real. She’s just a ghost—Ada’s fingers touched her face. Not quite real, but almost.

Claire jumped back. “Outside!” she yelled. “Get outside!”

Ada smiled. “I’ll see you soon.”

They made it outside, into the faint hint of sunrise, without anyone jumping them again.

Claire flagged down a passing police cruiser and got them to take Kim, who shrieked and fought so hard they had to use a taser on her. Eve winced, and so did Shane.

Claire didn’t. She felt bad about it, but she just couldn’t bring herself to really feel sorry for Kim.

Karma, she thought. They’d end up putting her in a padded cell, and eventually maybe Kim would recover enough to function as a normal person. Maybe even a better one. Claire didn’t even resent that, so long as she never, ever had to talk to her again.

Ever.

By ten a.m. they were back at the Glass House, and Michael was waiting. “Where were you?” he demanded as soon as they opened the door. Claire said nothing; he was focused on Eve, anyway. “I’ve been calling; it went straight to voice mail.”

“I turned it off,” Eve said. “We were kind of being stealthy.”

“Since when do you turn off a phone?” Michael put his arms around her, and Eve relaxed against him, and for just a moment, it looked like everything was the same again.

Then Eve pulled free and walked away down the hall, head down.

Michael looked awful. “What do I have to do—?”

Shane slapped his shoulder as he passed. “Give her space,” he said. “It’s been a hard couple of days. Where’s Myrnin?”

“He never showed at the rendezvous,” Michael said. “I wasn’t really worried about him. More about you.”

“Yeah, about that—we kind of had to make a deal with Morley. You know, Graveyard Guy?”

“What kind of deal?”

“The kind where we don’t want to pay up,” Shane said. “Ask Claire.”

She shook her head, walking on. “Ask Shane,” she said. “I’m not done yet.”

“What?” Shane grabbed her wrist, pulling her to a stop. His face was tense and pale. “You can’t be serious. Not done with what? We’ve got the videos, the cameras, Kim. What else?”

“Myrnin,” she said. “He didn’t show up at the rendezvous.”