There was absolutely no question that Michael meant it. Even Myrnin figured that out.

“Tell you what?” Shane asked. They were sitting in the backseat of the car, and Michael was driving, which was a huge improvement over the prospect of Myrnin doing it; his modern-vehicle-piloting skills were—to put it mildly—tremendously bad. They were driving a standard-issue black vampire sedan, with tinted windows, although as best she could tell, it was gloomy and cloudy outside. Myrnin was in the shotgun seat in front, which left just the two of them in the back. It felt private, even though it really wasn’t.

Why you still sit so stiffly. Why you touch me as if you can’t believe I’m really there. Why, when nobody’s paying attention, you look so … lost. She couldn’t ask him those things yet. He was supposed to be better; he insisted he was. Michael, when she’d pulled him aside on the way to the car, had said he seemed okay.

But she knew he wasn’t. No idea how she knew, but she just … did. He wasn’t right, though he was faking it really well. It wasn’t the kind of discussion they should have in front of Myrnin. Or maybe even Michael. There was something way too personal, private, intimate about those questions.

So instead she said, “Tell me what we’re supposed to be out at Morganville High School looking for, because I know it’s not their amazing chem lab.”

“You’d be right about that,” Shane said. “Although to be fair, chem class did turn out some would-be meth cookers—right, Michael?”

“Would-be is right. They blew themselves up in a trailer at the edge of town,” Michael said. “Not exactly an endorsement of our fine public school system.”

“Which way?”

“Either way.”

“Good point.”

God, Shane sounded fine, but when she touched his fingers she felt him shiver, then grab hold tight, as if he was clinging to a life raft in a stormy ocean. The question he’d asked last night kept haunting her. Are you really here?

Was he?

“You didn’t answer my question,” Claire said. “What are we looking for?”

“Let me have my moment,” he said. There was something weird in his voice now. “Always dreamed of being the one to come up with the answer.”

She suddenly didn’t want to push him anymore. Instead, she just held his hand and scooted over close. He put his arm around her, holding her closer.

As if she might just … fade away.

Michael rolled the car to a stop and said, “We’re here, guys. Shane, gonna need a plan now, please.”

“Wait,” Myrnin said, staring intently through the window. He had brought along his giant boom box thing, and now he clicked the switch on it and turned it off, and Claire heard the faint, whispery sound of the draug singing. It wasn’t much, but it was there. Myrnin hastily flipped the machine on again. “We’re too close to the infected side of town; they still have enough numbers to call, at least for now. We should be quick about this. Shane, I do hope you know where we are going …?”