‘Do I?’ Myrnin asked, and smiled slowly. It had a sharp edge of lunacy to it. He made a purring sound low in his throat. ‘Do try to pet me, then. You can report back how sharp my claws might be, once your throat grows back.’

‘Fool.’

‘Narrow roundhead.’

‘You thieving, insolent Taffy—’

‘Enough!’ Claire shouted, sharply enough that they all looked up. ‘We’re not fighting each other. Myrnin just said it, and you agreed: we get Jesse back. We get VLAD. We stop Dr Davis. Yes?’

Oliver unwillingly nodded. Myrnin smiled.

And Eve said, from where she sat holding tightly to Michael’s shaking body, ‘And we help Michael. We help him, Claire.’

‘Yes,’ Claire said softly. ‘We help him. I’m so sorry. I never meant—’

Eve’s dark eyes fixed on her, red from crying. ‘I don’t want to hear it,’ she said. ‘Science doesn’t fix everything. Sometimes, it just screws everything up, okay? He wouldn’t have hurt you. He’d never have hurt you. Why does it have to be him?’ Michael was reacting to Eve’s anger and distress, rocking back and forth now, and Eve held on, rubbing his back, soothing him like a restless child. ‘Shh, it’s okay, honey. I’m here. I’m here with you. It’s all going to be okay.’

Her stare dared Claire to make that happen. Now.

Liz was basically unconscious, still; she’d lost a lot of blood, and Claire thought that her coping mechanism was to just try to sleep until everything set itself right. Not a bad plan, really, but it didn’t help anyone else deal with the issues. She also wasn’t fit to donate any blood, which left her, Shane, Pete and Eve. Eve, however, had already devoted blood to Michael, and he was going to need more; Claire knew that would be her responsibility. It ought to be, because she was the reason Michael was so badly hurt.

She felt the guilt of it bubbling in her stomach, like acid.

There was trouble among the potential donors, because Pete wasn’t having any of that. ‘Hell no,’ he said, from where he sat with Liz. His voice was tight and utterly firm. ‘No vampire’s getting a fucking drop out of me. Especially not these vamps. They left Jesse behind. She trusted you, and you let her down.’

‘Pete—’ Claire began, but Shane put a hand on her arm, silencing her.