Kiss of Death

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 that was just sleep, low blood pressure, or panic, Claire wasn’t sure. It was quieter, at least. Morley kept driving, and it seemed like hours before he slowed the bus again. He didn’t stop, just geared down and beckoned to a vampire sitting behind him. The vampire nodded, pointed to three others, and gestured for them to follow.

“What’s going on?” Shane asked. “Can you tell?”

“No,” Claire said, and then gasped as Morley opened the bus doors. The bus was still rolling along at maybe thirty-five or forty miles an hour. The four vampires up front put on coats, hats, gloves-su

One by one, they bailed out.

“What the hell?” Shane twisted around awkwardly to the limit of his ability. “Eve, can you see anything? What’s going on?”

“I can’t—wait, I think—” Eve squinted, leaned her head against the window, and finally continued. “I think they’re going after something behind us. A car, maybe.”

Four vampires had just bailed out of a moving bus, in broad daylight, to attack a car that was behind them. Following them?

Claire gasped as an electric shock zipped up her spine. Michael. Oliver. It had to be! They’d figured it out. They were right behind them.

Yeah, her tragic, pessimistic little voice said in her head. They’re right behind us, and four vampires are about to drag them out of the car and leave them to fry.

“Can you see—” Claire’s voice was shaking now. Eve didn’t answer. “Eve!”

“I’m trying!” Eve snapped. “It’s all just shadows out there, okay? I can barely tell there’s a car! Oh no ...”

“What?” She and Shane blurted it out together, leaning toward Eve as if somehow they could make things out any better.

“The car,” Eve said. “I think—I think it crashed. It’s not behind us now.” She sounded dull again; defeated. “It’s gone.”

“Dammit,” Shane said. “Probably was some farmer driving to market. Didn’t have anything to do with all this crap.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” Eve whispered. “They’re not coming now.”

She began to cry, producing wrenching sobs that made her whole body vibrate, and banged her forehead against the window glass—hard. Claire instinctively tried to reach out for her, and came up against her restraints, again. “Hey,” she said, trying hard to sound compassionate and soothing. Her heart just ached for Eve, who sounded so ... lost. “Eve, please don’t. Please don’t do that. It’s going to be okay; it’s all—”

“No, it’s not!” Eve screamed, and turned toward Claire in a tearful fury. “It’s not okay! Michael! Michael!”

She started thrashing against her restraints. Shane tried to calm her down, too, but Eve wasn’t listening anymore—not to anybody.

Patience came and, with a sad but determined look at Claire, leaned over and gave Eve a quick injection in her shoulder. It was so fast Claire couldn’t react to try to stop her, and Eve stopped thrashing to say, in blank surprise, “Ow!”

Then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she went completely limp in her chair, her head tilting toward the window, wild strands of hair covering her face.

“What did you do?” Claire demanded, and tried not to scream it. She’d just seen what screaming got you.

“She’ll sleep,” Patience said. “She’s not injured. It’s better this way. She could hurt herself, otherwise.”

“Yeah, can’t have that,” Shane said bitterly. “Gotta save that for you guys. What was that, with the vamps getting off the bus?”

Patience put the cap back on the needle she’d used to inject Eve and put it in her pocket. “Someone was following,” she said. “They’re not now. That’s all you need to know.” The bus changed its pitch again, air brakes sighing, and slowed to a relative crawl. The doors banged open again, and two vampires got on, wearing hats and gloves and long coats against the sun.

One of them was smoking, even with all the protective gear.

The other one, a little taller and thi

“Go!” he shouted, and stripped off his hat.

The tall one was Oliver.

Michael—who was the incoming vampire trailing wisps of smoke—raced down the aisle, slammed into Patience and Jacob, and knocked them out of the way. Nobody else had time to stand up, although a few vampires lunged and caught pieces of his coat as he ran toward the back of the bus. Oliver was right behind him, and as they reached the rows where the humans were, Oliver turned and snarled at the other vampires, who were starting to get to their feet. They were hampered by close quarters, but there were a lot of them.

Jacob bounded up, gave Oliver a second’s dark look, and then jumped up on top of the headrest of the seat next to him, crouching like a bird of prey. Patience did the same on Oliver’s other side.

“No,” she said flatly, as the vampires started to move toward them. “Stay where you are.”

Michael reached them and snapped Claire’s bonds first. It took him a precious few seconds, because the plastic was tougher than he’d thought, and he had to try not to hurt her. As soon as she was free, he leaned over Eve and pushed out the side window with one powerful punch. Metal bent and shrieked, glass shattered, and the whole window assembly fell out onto the road.

Light streamed in, pure and white-hot, and hit him full in the face. Michael jerked back into the shadows with a choked cry. Claire had a blurred impression of burns, but he didn’t give her time to worry about him. “Out!” he yelled, and grabbed her by the waist to boost her toward the window. The inch of skin exposed between his coat and gloves sizzled like frying bacon. Claire grabbed hold of the jagged edge of the window and looked down. The bus was still rolling, and it was picking up speed as it started down the hill. “Claire, jump!”

She didn’t really have a choice.

Claire jumped, hit the hard pavement with a stu

The bus kept on rolling. She could hear screaming—and fighting. Another window broke, next to Shane.

“Come on,” Claire whispered, and clambered to her feet. She hurt all over, and her ankle felt as if she’d sprained it, but that didn’t matter right now.

She watched the bus.

Nobody came out the window.

Claire started to run after the bus—limped after it—and had to stop when her ankle folded under her after a dozen steps. “Shane!” she screamed. “Shane, come on! Get out!”

Her attention was completely fixed on the bus, but she had good survival instincts, thanks to Morganville’s harsh training; she sensed a shadow behind her, and dropped just in time.