"What are you doing here? Because I know you didn't come to get us," Claire said. She advanced and wrapped her hands around the bars, as though she wasn't at all afraid of him. She hoped he couldn't hear her heartbeat, but she knew he could. "We're not important enough."
"Well, that's certainly true. You're entirely incidental. Actually, we're in search of a town. Something small, remote, easily controllable. This seemed a good possibility, but it's rather too large for our purposes." We. Morley hadn't just slipped out of Morganville alone. Claire remembered the big, throbbing engine outside. Might be a big truck. Might be a bus. Either way, it would probably hold a lot of vampires--like the ones Morley had applied to be allowed to leave Morganville with in the first place. Oh, this just got better and better. "You can't just move in here," Claire said, trying to sound reasonable, as if that would do any good. She let go of the bars and backed away as Morley took a step toward her again. "People live here."
"Indeed, I'm not planning on it. Too much trouble to subdue such a large population. However, we're in need of supplies, and this town's quite well stocked. Couldn't be better." Morley suddenly lunged forward, grabbed the bars of their cell, and ripped the door off--just like that, with a shriek of iron and sharp snapping sounds. Eve, behind Claire, screamed, and then the sound went muffled, as if she'd covered her mouth. Claire didn't move. There didn't seem to be much point. Shane was yelling something, and for some odd reason the place on her neck hurt, the place where Myrnin had bitten her, where there was still a nasty scar. Morley stood there for a moment, hands on both sides of the doorway, and then stepped inside. He glided, like a tiger. And his eyes turned red, the irises lighting up the glittering color of blood. "Get down!" somebody yelled from behind him, and Claire hit the floor, not daring to hesitate even for a second. There was a loud roar that it took her a second to identify as gunfire, and Morley staggered and went down to one knee. The sheriff looked dazed, and there was blood on the side of his head, but he held his gun very steady. "Get down, mister," he said. "Don't make me shoot you again." Morley slowly toppled forward, face-forward, on the floor. The sheriff breathed a sigh of relief and gestured for Eve and Claire to come out. Claire did, jumping over Morley's outstretched hand and expecting that any second, any second at all, he'd reach up and grab her, just like in the movies. He didn't. Eve hesitated for a few seconds, then jumped for it, clearing Morley by at least a couple of feet, straight up. The sheriff grabbed them and hustled them off to the side, then unlocked Shane's cell. "Out," he said. "Help me get him inside."
"It won't do any good to lock him up," Shane said. "He already ripped off two of your doors. You want him to go for three?" The sheriff had clearly been trying not to think about that. "What the hell are these people?" he snarled. "Some kind of damn monsters?"
"Some kind of," Shane said. He'd put his hands on Claire, and now he wrapped his arms around her, and after a second, included Eve in the hug, too. "Thanks. I know you don't believe us, but we're not the bad guys here."
"I'm starting to think you might be right about that."
"What gave you your first clue? The fangs, or the door ripping?" Shane didn't wait for an answer. "He's not dead. He's playing with you."
"What?"
"You can't kill him with that thing," Eve said. "Can't even slow him down, really." The sheriff whirled to stare at Morley, who was still facedown on the floor. He aimed his gun at the body again and kept it there. Morley didn't move. "No, he's down," the sheriff said, and walked over to press fingers to Morley's dirty neck. He yanked his hand away quickly, stumbling back. "He's cold." Morley laughed, rolled over, and sat up, doing his very best risen-from-the-grave imitation. It helped that he was filthy and looked kind of crazy scary. The sheriff backed away, far away, all the way to the wall, then aimed his gun at Morley and pulled the trigger, again. Morley brushed his clothes lightly, dismissing the bullet even before the echoes from the shockingly loud gunshot stopped ringing in Claire's ears. "Please," he said, and practically levitated to his feet. He reached out and took the sheriff's gun from him, then tossed it in the corner of the cell where Eve and Claire had been kept. "I hate loud noises. Unless it's screaming. Screaming's all right. Let me demonstrate." He reached out and grabbed the sheriff around the neck. Something pale and very fast flashed through the doorway, and suddenly another vampire was there--Patience Goldman, with her slender hand wrapped around Morley's wrist. She was a dark-haired young woman, pretty, with big dark eyes and skin that would have probably been olive had she still been alive. It added a honey undertone to her pallor. "No," Patience said. Claire had met her--and the entire Goldman family--more than once. She liked them, actually. For vampires, they had real concern for other people-as demonstrated by Patience's trying to keep Morley from killing the sheriff. "There's no need for this." Morley looked offended, and shoved her back with his free hand. "Do not lay hands on me, woman! This is none of your concern."
"We came to--get supplies," Patience said. She seemed uncomfortable with that, and Claire immediately realized that supplies was code for people-to eat. "We have what we need. Let's go. The longer we delay, the more attention we attract. It's unnecessary risk!" Patience and Jacob, her brother, had been hanging out with Morley for a while, and they'd wanted to break out of Morganville, and their parents' restrictions--Theo Goldman was a good guy, but kind of strict, as far as his family went, or at least that had been Claire's impression. Claire could easily believe that Morley had convinced Patience and Jacob to come along, since he was leaving, anyway, but she also didn't believe they'd go along with killing people. Not unnecessarily, anyway. Vampires in general were a little shaky on the details of morality in that area--a hazard of being top predator, Claire guessed. "Hmmm," Morley said, and turned his gaze back to the sheriff. "She does have a point. Fortunately for you." He released the man, who slammed back against the wall, looking sick and shaky. "Stay. If you move, speak, or in any way irritate me, I'll snap your neck." The sheriff froze in place, clearly taking it all very seriously. Claire didn't really blame him. She remembered her first encounter with vampires, her first realization that the world wasn't the neatly ordered place she'd always been told it was. It could really mess up your head. In fact, she wasn't entirely sure hers had ever recovered, come to think of it. She was just starting to relax when Morley reached out and grabbed her and Eve by the arms. When Shane yelled a protest, Morley squeezed, and Claire felt agony shoot in a white bolt up her arm. Yeah, that was almost broken. "Don't cause a fuss, boy, or I'll be forced to shatter bones," Morley said. "The girls come with us. If you want to run, you may. I won't stop you." Like Shane would. Or even could, being Shane. He fixed Morley with a bleak, grim stare and said, "You take them, I'm coming, too."