She, and this setup, all looked a little too perfect. Shane and Michael exchanged a look, and Claire knew they were communicating the same thought.
Eve gave them a bright smile and said, "Good morning, campers! Coffee?"
"Hey," Michael said, in such a soft and tentative voice that Claire felt her stomach clench. "You should be resting." He reached for her, and Eve flinched. Flinched. Like he'd tried to hit her. His hand dropped to his side, and Claire couldn't look at his face. "Eve-"
She spoke in a rush, running right over the moment. "We have hot coffee, all the good stuff-sorry I couldn't get mocha up and running, but this place has a serious espresso deficiency ... oh, and the croissants are hot out of the oven, have one."
"You baked?" Shane's eyebrows threatened to levitate right off his face.
"They were in one of those pop-open rolls, moron. Even I can bake those." Eve's smile wasn't so much bright, Claire thought, as it was totally breakable. "I don't think anybody ever used the kitchen in here, but at least it was stocked up. There's even fresh butter and milk. Wonder who thought of that?"
"Eve," Michael said again, and finally she looked directly at him. She didn't say anything at all, only picked up a cup, filled it with hot, dark coffee, and handed it to him. He took it as he stared at her, then sipped-not as if he really wanted it, but as if it was something he was doing to please her. "Eve, can we just-"
"No, we can't," she said. "Not right now." And then she turned and walked back to the kitchen, stiff-armed the door, and let it swing shut behind her.
The three of them stood there, only the sound of the door creaking on its hinges breaking the silence, until Shane cleared his throat, reached for a cup, and poured. "So," he said. "Aside from the five-hundred-pound gorilla in the room that we're not going to talk about, does anyone around here have half a plan on how we're going to live through the day?"
"Don't ask me," Michael said. "I just got up." The words sounded normal, but not the tone. It was as odd as Eve's had been, and just as strained. He put his coffee back down on the table, hesitated, then took a croissant and walked away, back toward the room where they'd been. Shane started to follow, but Claire grabbed his arm.
"Don't," she said. "Nothing we can do about this, is there? Let him alone to think."
"It wasn't his fault."
"I know. So does she. But she got hurt, and he did it, and that's going to take time, all right?" She held Shane's gaze this time, and he was the first one to look away. He'd hurt her before-more emotionally than anything else. And he hadn't been in his right head-place, either. But sometimes explanations just didn't matter as much as time. It was a hard lesson to learn, for both of them; it was going to be even harder for Michael and Eve.
God, sometimes growing up sucked.
"Okay, so it's down to us, then. We still need a plan," he said. He drank coffee, and she fixed hers up and gulped down a hot, bitter, wonderful mouthful. Next was the croissant, still steaming inside from the oven, and it was heaven in bread form, melting in her mouth. "No, strike that. We need SEAL Team Six, but I'll settle for a half-ass plan right now."
She swallowed. "Don't talk with your mouth full."
He did exactly what any boy-no, man-his age would do: he showed her a mouthful of mashed croissant, which was gross, then drank more coffee and showed her again. Gone.
"That is disgusting, and I will never kiss you again."
"Yes, you will," he said, and proved it by pressing his lips to hers. She wanted to squirm away, just to prove the point, but God, she loved kissing him, loved that his mouth was so warm and sweet and bitter with coffee ... loved being so close to him now, teetering on the edge of the end of ... everything. "See?"
"It wasn't bad," she said, and kissed him again. "But you really need to work on your technique."
"Liar. My technique is awesome. Want me to prove it?" Before she could protest, his lips touched hers, and he was right about the proof. She slipped her hands under the loose hem of his shirt, fingers gliding lightly over the tensing muscles of his stomach, up to the hard, flat planes of his chest. His skin was like warm velvet, but underneath, he was iron, and it took her breath away.
Or so she thought. But when he skinned her Train T-shirt up and fitted his strong hands around her waist, pulling her to him even closer, she gasped against his mouth, moaned a little, and just ... melted.
The hot, golden moment was sliced cleanly by a cold voice saying, "I can bear a great many things, but this is not one of them. Not now."
Claire jumped back from Shane, guilty as a shoplifter. It was, unmistakably, Oliver's voice, and it was coming from behind her. She hated round rooms. Too many ways people could come at you, especially sneaky, cranky vampires. She turned and faced him as he stalked toward them-no, toward the coffee, since he brushed them aside and filled a cup. She'd never seen him drinking it, but of course, he would; he owned the local coffee shop, Common Grounds. Or at least he had when there was still a Morganville that was alive and kicking.
Common Grounds, like everything else in town, was closed.
Oliver had always taken pains to present himself as human ... maybe because he, of all the vampires, seemed the furthest from it. He was cold, unfeeling, acerbic, and sarcastic, and that was on a good day. It clashed with his friendly-aging-hippie vibe of tie-dyed shirts and jeans that he wore at the coffee shop, but he'd dispensed with all that now. He'd donned clothing that suited him, in a sinister and scary way-black pants, a black coat that must have been about a hundred years old, and a white shirt with a ruby pin where a tie would usually have gone. Except for a top hat, he could have stepped out of the turn of the last century. These, Claire felt, were his own clothes. No hand-me-downs for Oliver.
"I guess it's pretty useless to say good morning," Shane said.
"Especially as it's neither morning nor good, yes," Oliver replied, just shy of a snap. "Don't try to banter with me, Collins. I am far from in the mood." Claire could make out the red mottling on his pale skin, like Michael's, a souvenir of his time spent in that drowning pool. She wondered how he'd slept, if he'd slept. "As to plans, yes, I have one, and yes, it is under way."
"Mind if we ask-?"
"Yes, of course I mind," Oliver said, and this time it was a snap. There was a gleam of red in his eyes. He looked tired, Claire thought, and there was a flicker of something almost human in him. "If you wish to be of use, go find Theo Goldman and bring him to me. Now."
"Theo?" Claire was startled, because she'd heard that Theo had gone missing, like many other vampires in Morganville ... and she'd assumed he'd been in the pool. A casualty, when Amelie had resorted to throwing silver into it to kill the draug and their trapped victims with them. "Is he here?"
"If he was here, I wouldn't ask you to find him, would I?"
Shane was doing that thing now, his posture getting stiff with challenge; he didn't like it when Oliver treated her-or any of them-like idiots. But especially her. The last thing any of them needed today was to fight each other. They were working together-more or less-and that was how it had to be to survive this. So Claire put a hand on Shane's arm to hold him back and said, in a very reasonable tone, "Do you have any idea where to look for him?"
Oliver's hand trembled, just slightly, but enough to make the cup rattle lightly on the saucer. He, like Michael, still felt weak. That should have made Claire feel reassured, because he was usually so intimidating, but instead it made her feel extra vulnerable. "No," he said. "I do not. But I require his presence, so you will find him." He let a second pass and then added, without looking at either of them, "For the sake of the Founder."
For Amelie. And there was a very slight change in his tone when he said it, something that almost seemed ... softer.
"She's worse," Claire said. Oliver turned and walked away without responding, so she looked at Shane. "She's getting worse, right?"
"Probably. Who knows with him?" But Shane had the same thought she did; she knew it. If Amelie died, they were at Oliver's mercy. Not a good thing at all. He was a general, and when he fought wars, he liked them bloody-on both sides. "Maybe we should have left town when we had the chance. Just picked up and run for it."