“Au contraire,” she said, and her pale white fingers took it from his. “It is, in fact, your salvation.”

She stood, looked around the room, and sighed a little. “I have missed this place,” she said. “And I believe it has also missed me. Someday I will come back.” She pressed the hidden catch on the arm of the settee, and without another word to them turned to leave.

“Hey, what about the cops?” Shane asked. “Not to mention all those people who tried to kill us today?”

“They answer to Oliver. I will make it known that you are not to be troubled. However, you must not further disturb the peace. If you do, and it is your fault, I will be forced to reconsider my decision. And that would be…unfortunate.” She gave him a full smile. With fangs. “Au revoir, children. Do take care of the house more carefully in the future.”

Her two vamp guards went with her. Smoke and silence. There was no sound on the stairs after. Claire swallowed. “Um…what did we just do?” she asked.

“Pretty much all we could,” Shane said. “I’m checking the street.”

They ended up going down together, in a group—Shane with the bat, Eve with the knife Jennifer had abandoned, and Claire armed with a broken chair leg sharp on one end.

The house was deserted. The front door was standing open, and out on the street, cop cars were pulling away from the curb around the big black Cadillac. A limousine was leaving, too. Its tinted windows cast back blinding reflections of the sun.

It was all over in seconds. No cars, no vampires, nobody hanging around. No Monica. No Richard. No Oliver.

“Crap,” Shane said. He was standing on the porch, looking at what was hanging next to the doorbell. It was a black lacquered plaque with a symbol on it. The same symbol that had been on the book cover he’d sent to Oliver. “Does that mean she wrote the damn book, too?”

“I’ll bet she did, for backup,” Eve said. “You know, the symbol’s also on the well in the center of town. It’s the Founder symbol.”

“She’s the Founder,” Shane said.

“Well, somebody had to be.”

“Yeah, but I figured it was a dead somebody.”

“Funny,” Claire said, “but I think it is a dead somebody.”

Which made Shane laugh, and Eve snort, and Shane slung his arm over her shoulders. “You still quitting school?” he asked.

“Not if I can’t leave town.” Claire smacked herself in the head. “Oh my God! I can’t leave town! I can’t ever leave town? What about school? Caltech? My parents?”

Shane kissed her on the forehead. “Tomorrow’s problems,” he said. “I’m going with let’s just be glad there’s a tomorrow, at this point.”