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Claire wondered if Richard knew that. She thought about Monica, too. Not that she liked Monica--God, no--but still.
She thanked Gramma Day and walked back into the kitchen, where the policemen were still talking. "Gramma Day thinks there's going to be trouble," she said. "Not the vampires. Regular people, like those people in the park. Maybe Lisa Day, too. And she thinks you ought to look after your family, Richard."
Richard nodded. "Already done," he said. "My mom and dad are at City Hall. Monica's headed there, too." He paused, thinking about it. "You're right. I should make sure she gets there all right, before she becomes another statistic." His face had tightened, and there was a look in his eyes that didn't match the way he said it. He was worried.
Given what Claire had just heard from Gramma Day, she thought he probably ought to be. Joe Hess and Travis Lowe sent each other looks, too, and she thought they were probably thinking the same thing. She deserves it, Claire told herself. Whatever happens to Monica Morrell, she earned it.
Except the pictures from Gramma Day's book kept coming back to haunt her.
The front door banged shut, and she heard Hannah's voice--not an alarm, just a welcome. She spun around and went to the door of the kitchen . . . and ran directly into Shane, who grabbed her and folded his arms around her.
"You're here," he said, and hugged her so tightly that she felt ribs creak. "Man, you don't make it easy, Claire. I've been freaking out all damn day. First I hear you're off in the middle of Vamptown; then you're running around like bait with Eve--"
"You're one to talk about bait," Claire said, and pushed back to look up into his face. "You okay?"
"Not a scratch," he said, and grinned. "Ironic, because I'm usually the one with the battle scars, right? The worst thing that happened to me was that I had to pull over and let a bunch of vampires off the bus, or they'd have ripped right through the walls. You'd be proud. I even let them off in the shade." His smile faded, but not the warmth in his eyes. "You look tired."
"Yeah, you think?" She caught herself on a yawn. "Sorry."
"We should get you home and catch some rest while we can." He looked around. "Where's Eve?"
Nobody had told him. Claire opened her mouth and found her throat clenching tight around the words. Her eyes filled with tears. She's gone, she wanted to say. She's missing. Nobody knows where she is.
But saying it out loud, saying it to Shane, that would make it real, somehow.
"Hey," he said, and smoothed her hair. "Hey, what's wrong? Where is she?"
"She was at Common Grounds," Claire finally choked out. "She--"
His hands went still, and his eyes widened.
"She's missing," Claire finally said, and a wave of utter misery broke over her. "She's out there somewhere. That's all I know."
"Her car's outside."
"We drove it here." Claire nodded at Hannah, who'd come in behind Shane and was silently watching. He acknowledged her with a glance; that was all.
"Okay," Shane said. "Michael's safe, you're safe, I'm safe. Now we're going to go find Eve."
Richard Morrell stirred. "That's not a good idea."
Shane spun on him, and the look on his face was hard enough to scare a vampire. "Want to try and stop me, Dick?"
Richard stared at him for a moment, then turned back to the map. "You want to go, go. We've got things to do. There's a whole town of people out there to serve and protect. Eve's one girl."
"Yeah, well, she's our girl," Shane said. He took Claire's hand. "Let's go."
Hannah leaned against the wall. "Mind if I call shotgun?"
"Since you're carrying one? Feel free."
Outside, things were odd--quiet, but with a suppressed feeling of excitement in the air. People were still outside, talking in groups on the streets. The stores were shut down, for the most part, but Claire noticed with a stir of unease that the bars were open, and so was Morganville's gun shop.
Not good.
The gates of the university had opened, and they were issuing some kind of passes to people to leave--still sticking to the emergency drill story, Claire assumed.
"Oh, man," Shane muttered, as they turned down one of the streets that led to the heart of town, and Founder's Square--Vamptown. There were more people here, more groups. "I don't like this. There's Sal Manetti up there. He was one of my dad's drinking buddies, back in the day."
"The cops don't like it much, either," Hannah said, and pointed at the police cars ahead. They were blocking off access at the end of the street, and when Claire squinted, she could see they were out of their cruisers and arranged in a line, ready for anything. "This could turn bad, any time. All they need is somebody to strike a match out there, and we're all on fire."
Claire thought about Shane saying his father was coming to town, and she knew he was thinking about that, too. He shook his head. "We've got to figure out where Eve might be. Ideas?"
"Maybe she left us some clues," Claire said. "Back at Common Grounds. We should probably start there."
Common Grounds, however, was deserted, and the steel shutters were down. The front door was locked. They drove around back, to the alley. Nothing was there but trash cans, and--
"What the hell is that?" Shane asked. He hit the brakes and put the car in park, then jumped out and picked up something small on the ground. He got back in and showed it to Claire.
It was a small white candy in the shape of a skull. Claire blinked at it, then looked down the alley. "She left a trail of breath mints?"
"Looks like. We'll have to go on foot to follow it."
Hannah didn't seem to like that idea much, but Shane wasn't taking votes. They parked and locked Eve's car in the alley behind Common Grounds and began hunting for skull candies.
"Over here!" Hannah yelled, at the end of the alley. "Looks like she's dropping them when she makes a turn. Smart. She went this way."
After that, they went faster. The skull candies were in plain sight, easy to spot. Claire noticed that they were mostly in the shadows, which would have made sense, if Eve was with Myrnin or the other vampires. Why didn't she stay? Maybe she hadn't had a choice.
They ran out of candy trail after a few blocks. It led them into an area where Claire hadn't really been before-- abandoned old buildings, mostly, falling to pieces under the relentless pressure of years and sun. It looked and felt deserted.
