‘Let me take a look,’ I said, and came up one step.

‘Back off.’ He put the thing that was not a key in his pocket quickly, and upped the ante by coming down two steps, letting me know he was ready to charge. Again: not impressed. ‘None of your business, punk, just keep walking.’

I had a number of really awesome choices in front of me. First, I could take another step up, and smash this guy’s face with my fist, which sounded great; second, I could take another step up, let him punch at me, duck, and then smash his face with my fist. Or – and the less awesome choice – I could avoid causing a scene and possible police incident, back off, and pay attention to this douche bag from now on to see what he was up to.

I went with the less awesome option. Claire actually had changed me, it turned out – she’d made me think a little bit about the consequences, so I wasn’t just in attack mode all the time. I didn’t necessarily love it, but I saw the wisdom of it, and I nodded to the big guy, stepped down out of his way, and moved to the side. ‘Sorry,’ I said, not very sincerely. ‘Just trying to help, man.’

‘Fuck off,’ he snapped, and charged past me. He didn’t have to slam his shoulder into mine, but he did, and for a second I considered teaching him the wisdom of taking the high road, but I let it go. The slight discomfort was enough to make me feel righteous and all as I watched him walk down the block and around the corner. I had the weird feeling that he hadn’t gone far, so I got on my bike, made a show of roaring away around the corner, and then coasted to a quiet stop so I could take a look.

Sure enough, the guy went back. He didn’t try the door again, but he went across the street and took up a leaning-against-a-wall post. Looked like he could do it all night.

Looked like he had, before, which bothered me. He had to be the lurker I’d seen before.

What in the hell was going on? Was it related to Jesse being a vampire? Dr Anderson? Something else?

I didn’t want to leave, but after watching him for about ten minutes, I got on the bike and raced back to Florey’s. It was that, or lose my job, and for now, I needed the pay cheque.

Before I left, I pulled out my cell phone and reported an attempted break-in to the cops, just to make sure the dickhead got well and truly harassed. Emphasis on ass.

Man, the real world sucked. And it sucked even more that I actually missed Morganville.

CHAPTER SIX