“How exactly is that any different from any other day?” Shane asked. “We got this, man. And if he’s right, it needs to happen or we have no shot at all at controlling these things. They’ll take the town away from us until there’s no place left to hide except right here in Founder’s Square, surrounded. Food and water will run out, sooner or later, even if they can’t break through.”

“And vampires must also feed. They will begin to take blood where they can get it,” Myrnin said softly. “It’s something I very much wish not to happen, Shane. But at this point it is inevitable if we don’t act now. This is as much to save your lives as ours. Oliver refuses to see that just now, and we cannot wait. Will you do it?”

“I only need to know one thing. Am I going to need the flamethrower?” Shane asked.

Myrnin smiled, with fangs. “Absolutely.”

CHAPTER FIVE

EVE

So, I was running around Morganville in what was just about twilight with a bunch of vampires, none of whom were Michael. Or even Myrnin. Or even Oliver.

This was not comforting.

I know, my idea, and it was a good one, but being surrounded by fangs when my body was still shuddering off the effects of … what had happened … wasn’t a personal best time ever. I’d briskly introduced myself to the female vamp who seemed to be in charge; she’d said her name was Adele, but not in any way that encouraged me to use it. The other vamps didn’t volunteer so much as a nod. I was invisible.

And maybe, thinking about it, that was kind of a good thing. I mean, I’d rather be invisible than a walking snack-pack. But at least worrying about my veins kept me from thinking about the dangers of running around in a town where the draug could pop up at any time.

Oh, and the vamps were wearing what looked like headphones, with some kind of bubbling copper attachments on the sides—Myrninwear, apparently, to cancel out the draug’s siren song. I hoped they were efficient noise cancellation. Me, I stuck to foamy earplugs.

Of course, we were in a vamp sedan, which meant I couldn’t even look out at scenery, such as it was in Morganville, since the window tinting was on the extreme side. I could only admire the pale skin of my co-riders, and think about the many, many awful ways this could go wrong.

And miss Michael, in a traitorously angry kind of way. I couldn’t believe that I’d stabbed him, but then, he’d not only hurt me, he’d tried to scare me. Seriously tried. And I wasn’t going to let that kind of bad boyfriend behavior go on without some kind of response, though in retrospect, escalating the domestic violence might not have been the most positive choice.

Got the point across, though, and I wasn’t sure that when you were dealing with a vampire, counseling really worked. God, Michael. Why did this happen to us? I wanted to ask him that, not that he’d have any kind of an answer. I wanted to be in his arms, snuggled together under layers of warm blankets, safe from the world.