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A bunch of kids-about twenty of them-were sitting on the hoods of the vehicles, passing bottles, cigs, pil s, whatever else they had to share.
They watched the slow approach of the hearse with the wary attention of people who might have to run for it at any moment. The only reason they hadn't scurried already was that it wasn't a standard vampire sedan, or a cop car.
Roy Farmer was sitting on the hood of his Caddy with his arm around a plump blond girl. They were both wearing cowboy hats and boots. She must have been cold in her tank top and torn jeans shorts, but from the looks of her, she was too drunk to care. Roy watched as the hearse pulled to a stop, and he took a long pul out of the brown bottle in his hand.
"Mike," Shane said as I reached for the door. "Seriously, man, slow your rol . He wouldn't just be sitting there like this if he didn't have something up his sleeve. He has to know you'd be coming for him. Let me check it first."
I didn't bother to answer. I wasn't letting Shane, or anyone, do this. If Roy had come after Eve, he'd come after me, and I couldn't let him see it any other way. Maybe it was loyalty; maybe it was possessiveness. I don't know; Eve wasn't there to set me straight on the difference. But I knew that it was my job, not Shane's, to make Roy regret it.
Maybe that was part of being married. Or maybe it was just me, discovering for the first time that I really, truly wanted Eve to look up to me and believe that I could-and would-protect her. She'd probably laugh and cal me a Neanderthal, but secretly, deep down, she'd be pleased.
I got out of the hearse and walked over toward the other cars. The teens fel silent, watching me. Nobody ran, nobody reacted overtly, but they were allready; I could see it in the tension of their bodies. Even the stoners put down their drugs of choice to pay attention.
I knew how it was. I'd rarely been one to come hang out here, but I was a Morganville kid. We'd allbeen taught to watch vampires with complete attention when one was in the area.
"You," I said, and nodded at Roy. He stayed where he was, one arm draped over his girlfriend's shoulders. "Just you. Everybody else gets a free pass tonight."
"Hey, look; it's the big man off campus," he said. "I'm busy. Screw you."
I felt a growl building inside me, the beast clawing on its chain. Eve's smile flashed in front of my mind's eye, and I wanted so badly to wipe the grin off his face. "Careful," I said softly. Just that. His girlfriend must have sensed the menace coming off me, because she straightened up and cast Roy a worried look; the others were slipping quietly off the hoods of their own vehicles, stowing their drinks and smokes. No loyalty here. Nobody was wil ing to stand up for Roy, not even the girl he still held clamped under his arm as if he intended to use her as a human shield.
I waited until the other vehicles started their engines and began heading for less hostile places to get high. Once they were allgone, the Morganville night was cold, silent, and very, very heavy around us.
"Why Eve?" I asked him. I was aware of Shane standing somewhere behind me, ready and most likely armed; I didn't need him. Not for this.
"Why did you go after my wife?" Wife still sounded strange in my mouth; she'd been girlfriend or friend for so many years. But it was a heavy word, an important one, and he must have heard it, because his grin got tighter and more predatory.
"'Cause it's evil," he said. "Anybody stupid enough to marry a vampire deserves to die before she contaminates other people."
"She wasn't hurting you."
"Man, it makes me want to vomit just looking at her, knowing you had your hands allover her. She's better off dead." That grin-I kept staring at it, wanting to rip it off his face. "Is she? Dead?"
"No," I said.
"Too bad. Maybe next time. 'Cause you know there's gonna be a next time, fanger. You can't get us all."
"Maybe not," I said, "but I can damn sure get you."
I moved, and he caught it and moved at the same time, shoving his girlfriend into my path. She screamed and rolled off the hood, tripping me, but I landed easily on the other side of her and grabbed Roy by the arm as he tried to jump behind the wheel. His shirt tore as he jerked free, and he backed up, still grinning, but it was more like a snarl now.
He had a spray can in his hand. I didn't need to ask to know it was silver. The downside of allthe weapons that Shane and Eve had developed to help us survive was that now allof the humans of Morganville had the recipes; he'd made his own anti-vamp pepper spray, and if he nailed me with it, it wouldn't just hurt; it might blind me for days. It would certainly put me down hard enough that he could stake me with silver without breaking a sweat.
Except that I heard Shane, still standing behind me, pump a shotgun. Roy's eyes slid past me to focus on him, and his snarl faltered.
"Looks like somebody brought a can to a gunfight," Shane said. "Just to be clear, if you tag my friend, I get to spray you right back. Seems fair."
"You won't shoot me," Roy said. "I'm like you. I'm resistance."
"Then the resistance is scraping the bottom of the DNA barrel," Shane said. "And you're going after my friends. That trumps anything else." I wouldn't have doubted him, in that moment. Eve was like his adopted sister, and I knew how Shane felt about her.
So did Roy. He stepped back, eyes darting side to side. He finally dropped the spray can and held up his hands. "Okay. Okay, fine, you got me. What you gonna do now, vamp? Kil me?"
"I could," I said.
"He's got a card that says he can, and everything," Shane said. "But he's not going to." I sent him a look. Shane shrugged. "You're not, man. I know you. Anyway, it ain't the Roys of this thing you have to worry about. You need to talk to the head man."
"Captain Obvious," I said. Roy's face drained of color. "You're going to tel me where to find him."
"No way."
His girlfriend was getting to her feet behind me. I didn't even look at her, but I grabbed her and pulled her closer, my arm around her neck to hold her still as she struggled. "We'll start with her," I said. "And if she's not important to you, then I'm pretty sure saving your own neck wil do the trick.
You kicked my wife when she was down, Roy. You're not that brave."
"Michael," Shane said, very quietly.
"Shut up," I said, and let my fangs come down. "Captain Obvious. Now."
It took only about a minute for him to give it up, but for me to feel I was done with him, it took four more.
"You have something to say?" I asked Shane. I was in the front now, since it was no longer daylight. He cut his gaze toward me for a second, raised his eyebrows, and shook his head. "Too little or too much?"
"I'm not you, Michael. I don't know. It's really too bad about the car, though. That was a really nice car."
"If it were Claire-"
"It nearly was Claire." He paused for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know. I'd want to kil the little bastard. Hel , I still want to."
"I could," I said. "And nobody would say a thing about it. Do you know how scary that is?"
"Yeah," he said. "And I think it was damn nice of you to just break his arm. But the next vampire, they'd kil somebody for staring at them too long, spil ing their coffee, whatever. That's why it can't be like this, with every vampire getting some kind of free pass to murder. For every Michael, there are three Jasons. Get me?"
I nodded. I understood that better than he did, probably; I'd been around more vampires over the past year or two than he ever had. "We have to fix things," I said. "You're right about that. First Captain Obvious, and then-"
"Then Oliver," Shane said. "Because that crusty old bastard is getting his way, and if he does for much longer, we're not going to have a town left. The only way we're going to survive here is if we make everybody show respect."
The drive-like every drive inside the city limits-was short, and when we pulled to a halt in front of a plain, everyday house-it was a little weather-beaten, a little run-down-Shane and I sat for a moment, assessing it. "What do you think?" I asked him. He shrugged.
"Looks okay," he said. "But if Roy wasn't shining us on, and it is Captain Obvious's place, he's going to be prepared for the vampire apocalypse in there. You walk in there allfangs and red eyes, and you're done."
