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Claire sighed and held up her wrist to show him the bandage. "Man, you would be so embarrassed if I said it was something else." Michael looked blank. "I'm a girl, Michael, it could have been all natural, you know. Tampons?"
Vampire or not, he was such a guy, and his expression was priceless --a combination of embarrassment and nausea. "Oh crap, I hadn't really thought that through. Sorry. Not really used to this yet. So -- what happened?"
"Paper cut," she said.
"Claire."
She sighed. "Don't freak, okay? It was Eve's brother, Jason. I think he just wanted to scare me."
Michael's eyes widened, and his head turned fast, searching the coffee bar for Eve. When he saw her, the relief that spread over his face was painful -- and it didn't last long before it curdled into something grim. "I can't believe he'd come here. Why can't they catch this jerk?"
"Maybe somebody doesn't want to," she said. "He's only killing human girls. If he's the one doing it." Although he'd pretty much confessed, hadn't he? And the knife was a big clue. "We can talk about it later. I need to get -- " She remembered, just in time, that she couldn't talk to Michael about Myrnin. "Get to class," she said. She hadn't really thought Amelie would make her go alone, and she wasn't sure she could do it. Myrnin was fascinating, most of the time, but then when he turned ... no, she couldn't go alone. What if something happened? Sam wouldn't be there to help get him off her.
Michael didn't move. "I know where you're going," he said. "I'm your ride."
She blinked. "You're -- what?"
He lowered his voice, even though nobody was paying attention. "I'll take you where you're supposed to go. And I'll wait for you."
Amelie had told him, Claire found out on the way to Michael's new car. She'd needed to, apparently; she hadn't trusted any vampire but Sam with the information and access to Myrnin, but Michael had an investment in Claire's wellbeing, and Sam was going to be out of action for a couple of days at least. "But he's okay?" Claire asked.
Michael opened the door to the parking garage for her, an automatic gesture that he'd probably learned from his grandfather, once upon a time. He had some of Sam's mannerisms, and they had the same walk. Funny how she was just starting to notice that. "Yeah," Michael said. "He nearly died, though. People -- vampires -- are pretty wired right now. They want the one who staked him, and they don't really care how it happens. I made Shane promise to keep his ass inside, and not to go out alone."
"You really think he'll keep his word?"
Michael shrugged and opened the door of a standard-issue dark vampire-tinted sedan, exactly the same as the one Sam had driven. A Ford, as it happened. Nice to know the vamps were buying American. "I tried," he said. "Shane doesn't listen to much anything I have to say anymore."
Claire got into the car and buckled in. As Michael climbed in the driver's side, she said, "It's not your fault. He's just not dealing with it very well. I don't know what we can do about that."
"Nothing," Michael said, and started the car. "We can't do anything about it at all."
It was a short drive, of course, and as far as Claire could tell from the dimly seen streets outside Michael took the same route Sam had to the alley, and Myrnin's cave. Michael parked the car at the curb. When she got out, though, Claire realized something, and bent to look into the dim interior of the car, and ducked back inside.
"Crap," she said. "You can't come inside, can you? You can't go out in the sun!"
Michael shook his head. "I'm supposed to wait out here for you until the sun goes down, then I'll come in. Amelie said she'd make sure you were safe until then."
"But -- " Claire bit her lip. It wasn't Michael's fault. There were about three hours of sun left, so she was just going to have to watch her own back for a while. "Okay. See you after dark."
She closed the car door. When she straightened up she saw that Gramma Katherine Day was on the porch of her big Founder's house, rocking and sipping what looked like iced tea. Claire waved. Gramma Day nodded.
"You bein' careful?" she called.
"Yes ma'am!"
"I told the Queen, I don't like her putting you down there with that thing. I told her," Gramma Day said, with a fierce stab of her finger for emphasis. "You come on up here and have some iced tea with me, girl. That thing down there, he'll wait. He don't know where he is half the time, anyway."
Claire smiled and shook her head. "I can't, ma'am, I'm supposed to be there on time. Thank you, though." She turned toward the alley, then had a thought. "Oh -- who's the Queen?"
Gramma made an impatient fly-waving gesture. "Her, of course. The White Queen. You're just like Alice, you know. Down the rabbit hole with the Mad Hatter."
Claire didn't dare think about that too much, because the phrase off with her head! loomed way too close. She gave Gramma Day another polite smile and wave, hitched her backpack higher on her shoulder, and went to Night School.
Chapter Eight
Amelie had made sure she was safe, all right. Shed done it by locking Myrnin up.
Claire dropped her backpack at the bottom of the stairs -- she always put it where it was easy to grab in mid-run -- and spotted a new addition to the lab: a cage. And Myrnin was inside of it.
"Oh my God -- " She took a few steps toward him, navigating around the usual haphazard stacks of books, and bit her lip. It was, as far as she could tell, the same cage that the vampires had used to lock up Shane in Founder's Square - heavy black bars, and the whole thing was on wheels. Vampire-proof, hopefully. Whoever had locked Myrnin in had been nice enough to give him a whole pile of books, and a comfy (if threadbare) tangle of blankets and faded pillows. He was lounging in the corner on the cushions, with a pair of old-fashioned Benjamin Franklin-style glasses perched on the end of his hooked nose. He was reading.
"You're late," he said, as he turned a page. Claire's mouth opened and closed, but she couldn't think of a thing to say. "Oh, don't fret about the cage. It's for your precaution, of course. Since Samuel isn't here to watch over you." He turned another page, but his eyes weren't moving to follow text. He was pretending to read, and somehow, that was worse than heartbreaking. "Amelie's idea. I can't say that I really approve."
She finally was able to say, "I'm sorry."
Myrnin shrugged and closed the book, which he dropped with a bang on the pile next to him. "I've been in cages before this," he said. "And no doubt I will be let out once your appointed guardian is here to chaperone. In the meantime, let's continue with our instruction. Pull a chair close. You'll excuse me if I don't get up, but I'm a bit taller than -- " He reached up and rapped the bars overhead. "Amelie tells me you have enrolled in advanced placement classes."
