‘Yeah, so far. Though it’s pretty rare to find one on her own out here, isn’t it? Vampires like safety in numbers, because they’re so rare, especially these days. If she feels confident enough to be out here on her own, I’m pretty sure she’s nobody we want to cross.’ I shifted, because my arm was hurting again, bone-deep throbs as if I’d just slammed it hard into a brick wall. And it itched like mad. I clenched and released my fist, and then shook it out, hoping that it’d get better. It didn’t.

‘What’s wrong?’ Claire asked. She still sounded distant, and a little unwilling to ask, but she was asking. Which was encouraging.

‘Well, when you get a major-league ass-kicking from a bunch of guys, even if they generally suck at it, you do feel it later,’ I said. ‘No big thing. I’ll live.’ Yes, I was trying to be a tough guy. I didn’t feel like it, right at that moment; I wanted to curl up against her, feel those wonderful soft hands touching my face and tracing lightly over the hurts. She always, always made it better. There was something so healing in being with her; it felt like standing in the sunlight when I’d spent my whole life in the dark.

But the best I could feel from her right now was … shade.

We sat in silence for a long, painful moment, and then a waiter came up and asked us if we wanted anything, in that annoyed voice that waiters develop in college towns when they figure you’re only marginally good for the cheque in the first place, and tips are out of the question. I tried to order a plain coffee, Claire tried to order a mocha, we talked over each other, and we both looked up at the same moment, and …

… And we stopped, just staring at each other. Because all of a sudden it was real. The moment was real, and there was no avoiding it any more. The waiter’s annoyed sighs finally sparked me to say, flatly, ‘Beat it,’ and he did, muttering under his breath the whole time. I didn’t care. I didn’t care if Jesse descended on us, fangs out, and the entire zombie horde from Dead Rising suddenly started shambling through the restaurant. They could wait.

Claire said, ‘I really thought you were back in Morganville. You got Michael and Eve to lie to me.’