“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know why. Please, don’t ask me

to explain it, okay? Because I just can’t.”

But somehow she thought he could. She’d seen the bite on his

arm, seen how he’d acted from time to time around Michael and

the other vampires on the trip back. There was something wrong

with him. Real y wrong, in ways that scared them both, but Shane was trying to conceal and ignore it all.

It wasn’t the time to dig into it, though, and she shoved down

her desire to interrogate him until this made some kind of sense,

however twisted; he was right— she needed to go back. For Eve.

For Michael.

For Myrnin, because if anyone knew where he was, Michael

would.

She kissed Shane, and then she scrambled up and went back to

the doors. The deputy— Bud?— didn’t harass her about it this

time; he just silently unlocked them and let her back in, and she

walked over to stand beside the spot where Eve and Michael were

still kneeling near the fountain. They didn’t seem inclined to let

go of each other, but Eve looked up and raised her eyebrows, si-

lently asking the question.

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“I don’t know,” Claire said. “But he feels better out there. It

was almost like claustrophobia or something.”

“Weird,” Eve said. “Because that boy never hesitated to crawl

into small spaces, and this isn’t exactly restrictive. It’s a mall. ”

“Maybe it’s the high ratio of vampires,” Michael said, and

managed a smile, though it was thin. “I mean, if I wasn’t already

on Team Fang, I might be a little intimidated.”

“Shane? Intimidated? Better be glad he’s out there and not in

here making you eat those words,” Eve said. She shook her head.

“No, something’s not right with him. It’s just wrong, the way he reacted. Wrong and weird and wrong, also. Claire, keep an eye on

him, okay?”

“I will,” she said, and hesitated for a long few seconds before

she glanced at Michael. “Um— I have to ask, because I don’t see

them, but about Myrnin, and Jesse—?”

“They’re fine,” Michael said. “Well, you know. It’s Myrnin, so

fine probably isn’t so accurate, but she’s keeping him calm in one of the rooms that way.” He nodded toward the darkness, the north-east corner where some dark, shuttered spaces lurked. “He’s having

a hard time accepting . . . the situation.” He tapped the collar with one fingertip and gave Hannah a quick glance. “You know how he

gets when he feels trapped.”

Oh, she knew, and she felt heartsick at the idea of how Myrnin,

of all people, would have reacted to wearing a shock collar. Han-

nah would probably have had to replace the batteries in her control unit several times over, because one thing about Myrnin, he was

stubborn, and he just did not give up. Jesse was probably holding him back with all of her strength to keep him from charging out