'Not easily. If I'd already tasted that blood, I'd know it, but from what's smeared around in here, I'd have to say that it's a male in his late twenties who drinks too much Red Bull.' Jesse shrugged when Claire stared silently at her. 'It has a certain smell to it. So does coffee and strong liquor. But I can definitely tell you that it wasn't a girl your age who was hurt here. You said the door was open. Maybe she fought with someone, hurt him, and ran for it. That would explain the open door, if he took off in pursuit.'
'Can you - can you track them?'
'Not them. Just him. And only if he keeps bleeding. What the hell, we can give it a try, I guess.' Jesse pushed her cap back on and flipped up the black hood. 'Come on. We've got as good a chance of solving this as the police right now, and I don't really want the cops involved in anything if it traces back to me, or to Irene.'
'But - what if Liz-'
'Trust me,' Jesse said.
Claire hated it when vampires said that, and she was just about to say so, when someone else darkened the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. Tall, broadly built, and she instantly thought Derrick, and felt a surge of fury.
It wasn't Derrick.
Shane was standing there on the doorstep, staring up at her. His face was set and pale, and his whole body said that he was braced for a painful impact, but he just nodded to her and said, 'So, I've got no doubt that we're going to talk about this later, and that will be hard, but for right now, you're going to need my help.'
Jesse frowned at him. 'Shane?'
Claire somehow descended a whole flight of stairs without even realising she'd done it. All of a sudden she was on the landing outside of Liz's door, and her hand was hurting from the strength with which she was clutching the railing. Her knees were trembling, but the rest of her felt ... numb. 'Wait,' she said. 'You know him?'
'Yeah, of course I do. He's the dishwasher at Florey's.'
Claire's mouth opened and closed, but she couldn't sort out the whirl of words flying around in her mind. I wasn't wrong. I did see him there.
That meant that Shane had been here for days. Maybe longer.
Long enough that he'd lied to her about it, and so had Michael. So had Eve.
'Oh, we're going to talk,' she said then, and the chill in her voice surprised her. 'But for right now, you'd better tell me what you think you know about this.'
'Outside,' Shane said. 'We need to get moving. Now.'
'Why?' Jesse asked.
'Because the people who took Claire's friend might come back.'
CHAPTER NINE
SHANE
Of all the ways I wanted to come face-to-face with Claire again ... this wasn't the one I'd preferred. I knew that there was a slim chance we might accidentally meet, but this wasn't any accident; I was showing up on purpose on her doorstep, and there was no way to pretend that I hadn't been here, hadn't been interfering in her life, hadn't been keeping eyes on her.
Because I was about to confess all that.
Jesse's anti-sun disguise was pretty good; once her oversized sunglasses were on and her hands were in her pockets, most of her pale skin was protected from accidental sun exposure. It helped that today was cloudy and a little rainy. Claire locked the house's front door and followed Jesse into the street, where I was waiting for them under a tree (that was polite of me, I thought, look at me being all vampire-sensitive). I nodded to both of them and led the way at a brisk walk a couple of blocks, then turned the corner. There was a cafe there with an awning. I sat down at one of the fragile-looking tables, and Claire and Jesse took seats on the other side of me. Jesse didn't look pleased.
Claire - actually, I was too scared to look at her directly to tell what she might be feeling. She hadn't jumped into my arms and declared her eternal love, so I was going to assume that I was in trouble. Big trouble.
Didn't matter right now, given the situation.
Jesse's gaze flicked from me to Claire, then back again, and I saw her making the connections. 'Shane, just to be sure I've got this all right: you followed her from Morganville, but didn't tell her about it. And you, Claire, you didn't know he was here.'
'That's right,' Claire said. I didn't say anything, but then again, I didn't have to; just being here was silent agreement. 'I didn't know he was coming.'
'That's on me. I didn't want you to know.'
I could tell that she checked herself right then, and because I knew her, I also knew that she was thinking that our personal relationship issues weren't the worst thing happening today. 'Then tell me what happened today.'
'Okay, here's the truth,' I said. 'I pass by the house every once in a while - it's kind of on the way to work, okay? And last time I was by here, I saw this big guy trying to jimmy your front door. I warned him off and asked the cops to step up patrols.'
'The attempted break-in card,' Claire said. 'Was it Derrick who was trying to break in?'
I nodded. 'Yeah, he introduced himself. He's a real douche bag.'
'He's Liz's stalker.'
'Well, that fits. He had the vibe.'
'So it was Derrick who went in to get her.'
'No,' I said, and leant forward to lower my voice. 'It was four guys in a very slick military manoeuvre - one in a delivery van with a sliding door that blocked the view of the front, and three who went inside. They had master keys, because they opened it up fast and went in quietly. Then, about a minute later, they came out with a girl with a black hood over her face - like some kind of CIA rendition from the movies. She wasn't protesting too much; I think she was too scared. I was going to move, because I honestly thought it might be you, Claire, until I saw her getting into the van; she didn't move like you, and she was as tall as Eve, so I thought it must be your friend. One of the men went back inside, and then all of a sudden, Derrick showed up. I don't think he knew what was going on - he was across the street in his usual spot, holding up the lamp post. All he knew was that the door was open, so he bolted inside; he didn't even know they'd taken the girl out.'
'Liz,' Claire said softly. 'Her name is Liz.'
'I know. Sorry. I would have done something, except I'm not in the best shape right now.'
She paused, biting her lip, studying my face. 'God, Shane. You weren't kidding, were you? You really got beat up.'
I had, and I felt it. The aches and pains were bad enough, but half my face was throbbing, and I knew the bruising was going to darken into a spectacular tie-dye pattern. Plus, my damn arm hurt as if I'd cracked a bone, though I knew I hadn't, or at least the X-rays hadn't showed it. The skin itched something crazy, as if I'd fallen into a bunch of poison ivy. Not too likely, even if we were Ivy League-adjacent.
I really didn't want to look at Claire directly, because despite the apparent concern in her words, her voice had a fragile, hard tone I didn't like. I don't know what would have been worse, seeing pity from her, or seeing ... something else. Instead, I stared at a discoloured spot on the table and scraped at it with my thumbnail as I continued my story. 'Derrick and the other guy came stumbling out less than a minute later, and Derrick looked hurt. They tossed him in the van too, and took off.
'Do you know where they took them?'
'Not a clue,' I said, 'but I got a picture of the van and the plate, plus at least one of the guys.' I dug out my phone and passed it to Jesse, who navigated the menus with an impressive amount of ease, considering she was an ancient bloodsucker; I'd already worked out that she had to be pretty old, because she wasn't particularly worried about the sun. Even with the hoodie and hat, most vampires would have been scared, but Jesse seemed cool and calm and not the least bit flammable. 'Maybe you've got some contacts who can use that?'
'Likely,' Jesse said. 'All right, Claire, you obviously can't go back home. Whether this was some separate event related to your friend - and I'm going to have her background and family checked - or whether this had to do with you and your work with Dr Anderson, it's not safe for you there, and it's our fault you stayed as long as you did in a difficult situation. When you reported the first event to Irene, I should have insisted you get out of that house immediately, but she was convinced that they were only looking for the device, and since it had been moved ...'
'Wait,' I said. 'What event are we talking about?' Because it seemed to me that I'd missed something important. Something Claire should have told me.
It was probably wrong for me to be upset about that, considering how much I'd kept from her, though. Didn't stop me.
When she didn't immediately start talking, though, Jesse spilt it for her. 'Two spy types let themselves into the house the other night,' she said. 'While Claire was there. She hid, and they searched the place. Nobody got hurt.'