*All the characters belong to Rachel Caine but the plot belongs to me. This is set after Kiss of Death and has nothing to do with Ghost Town. Please tell me if there are any mistakes or errors in this so i can change them. After feel free to ask me any questions because i know there will be some in later chapters.. well maybe. ENJOY!*

Chapter 1

"Geesh, we're finally home!" Michael Glass grumbled as he placed his newly famous guitar on the floor next to the wall. The sun had just set below the horizon when the Glass roommates piled through the door after him. Behind him was his girlfriend Eve Rosser who said, "Oh My God! It's so good to be home. But I wish Dallas lasted longer, without the 3 crazy vamps." Claire Danvers placed her bags on the floor by the couch as her boyfriend Shane Collins came in.

"So what do we do now?" she asked as she looked at Shane, who was already parked on the couch with the remote in one hand and an Xbox controller in the other.

"Well I know what I'm going to do! I'm missed it too much!" he smiled and looked back at Claire, holding their gaze. "Wanna play?" he said still smiling.

"Uh…thanks but no." she said as she hitched her bag on her shoulders and headed to the stairs, "I'm going to call my parents to tell them were back so they don't call the police."

When she got to the stairs, she stopped and slowly turned around.

This is how things should be… all of us together. Shane playing his Xbox, Michael sitting next to him shouting at the TV, Eve collapsed in the chair and me… I'm supposed to be sitting on the end laughing about how addicted those two are to that game! She smiled then turned and continued up the stairs. When she got to the last room she opened the door and stepped in. Her room was just how she left it. Clean and somewhat fresh compared to the rest of the house.

She put her book bag down next to her desk and then did a face plant into her soft pillows. The hotel was comfortable but this was better. She missed this…

She sat back up and just stared at nothing but then again everything. The way her life is now is just so… perfect, in a sense. She stood up and pulled out her phone, that Amelie had given her. Claire dialed her parents' home number. She could tell her mom had been waiting for her to call because on the first ring, her mother answered.

"Claire! How was your trip?" Her mom said.

"Hi mom, it was good, I suppose. How are things going at the house?"

"Oh, great actually. Well your father is always on the computer now. How are you? Are you okay?"

"Of course mom." Well except the fact that she was really bruised up and her ankle sometimes hurt, but she knew this was going to be about Shane somehow.

"Um… how's that boy, Shane?"

Ugh.

"He's fine mom." Claire said.

"Oh, well that's good." She had that tone in her voice that told Claire, her mom was still uncertain about Shane.

"Yeah. Mom I'm sorry but I have to go. I have to do some studying for school. I need to catch up." She lied. The last thing she wanted to do was study.

"Tell dad I said hi and that I love him."

"Okay, I will. Just… be careful, and I love you."

"You too mom. I love you, bye." Claire hung up the phone before he mom mentioned something Claire didn't want to hear.

She put the phone down and laid down on her bed. It was a nice feeling. Claire heard a knock on the door.

"Room service!"

Shane.

Claire got up and went to the door. She opened it; Shane was standing right there smiling. His smile made her feel so warm inside. She likes that feeling, that warm and fuzzy feeling.

"Hey." He said still smiling. Claire couldn't help but smile back and say, "Hey."

"May I come in?"

"Ugh I guess so." She said trying to be funny. She guessed it worked because he smiled again and chuckled.

"I thought you were playing your game." She said.

"Oh I stopped because I got bored, I guess. I need a new one." Claire smiled and walked back to her bed. Shane went to sit next to her. He took her hand and just stared at her ring.

"What?" She asked. He looked up at her and kissed her. It was a long, sweet kiss. She backed away and looked at him. Then he pulled her back to him and they kissed again, leaning back against the bed.

An hour passed of Claire and Shane just lying on her bed. She felt as if she melted up against his chest and never wanted to leave.

"I need to take a shower." Claire said. Shane just laid there, completely ignoring her comment.

"I love you." He said as he kissed her again not wanted to let her go.

"I love you too." Claire whispered as she buried her head in his chest. She thought about so many things. Shane, Eve and especially Michael. She was so proud of Michael.

"So what's for dinner?" Shane asked. And as Claire thought about it. She hadn't realized that she was really hungry.

"I don't know, maybe Eve will cook something. Like maybe the usual."

"Claire, that girl can burn water, I'm surprised she hasn't burned…"he started to say, but he quickly stopped as if he had a flashback.

At that moment Claire realized what Shane was about to say. Claire guessed it still hurt Shane to think of Alyssa, Shane's sister, so Claire just said, "Yep. Well let's go downstairs and see what's going on." Shane nodded and got up, heading for the door. As Claire and Shane walked down stairs they heard Eve and Michael in the kitchen making dinner.

Yep, just as Claire had guessed. Eve was standing there with two plates in her hand with tacos on them. Eve looked up and smiled and said, "Dinner is ready." still smiling she headed for the table and set the plates down. They had a normal dinner. Sat around and watched Eve and Shane make smart Alec remarks to each other. Shane and Michael scarfing down their food like there was no tomorrow. For a few minutes there was silence and then finally Michael said, "Well um… I'm gonna go to the store. Anybody wanna come?" as soon as Eve heard that her eyes got big as if she noticed something big.

She finished chewing and said, "I'll go. I wanna get some new things." Which Claire knew was more make up stuff for her powered white face.

"Okay." He said. And both he and Eve went to go dump their stuff in the sink. Right after went Shane. He gave her a "thumbs up" and left. Then right after Claire went. She was normally always the last to finish.

"Claire, hey I got a package for you. Get up!" Shane was standing in the door way with mail in his hands. She was still asleep. Sighing, Shane walked over to the bed and sat next to her sleeping form.

He gently brushed his hand over her hair as she stirred in her sleep. When she didn't open her eyes, he bent down and kissed her forehead.

"Claire…" he stopped as she opened her eyes. "Hey, now that you're awake… I got mail for you. It's from your vamp boss." Blinking her eyes she slowly was starting to comprehend what he was saying.

"What? Oh Myrnin… okay just leave it by my bag. I'll look at it later." She yawned as Shane smiled, nodded, and got up to place the package on her bag.

"Okay, hey do you know what time it is? I was amazed you slept in so long." He said as he left the room. Claire, lying on the bed, pushed the covers away and got up. She looked at her alarm clock and it read, 10:45 A.M.

"Oh Man!" She whispered when a little louder, "Shane you could have woken me up sooner!" She got dressed, and then walked out her door then down the stairs. When she came into view, Eve smiled and joined Claire by the stairs.

"Hey lazy you're finally up." She said as she hugged Claire. Claire hugged her back then walked to the kitchen to make herself a bowl of cereal. She was alone until Shane walked in and sat down at the table, while Claire poured milk into a bowl.

"Hey what's cracki-lackin?" Shane asked. She smiled and said, "In a hurry to go to school. I guess Eve is taking me, I'm not in the mood to walk."

"Oh okay, that's cool." He seemed bored and tired.

"Yep, then I'm going to see Myrnin. You know, to check-up on him." He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Claire realized that Shane didn't exactly… trust Myrnin, after what he did to me.

Shane took a deep breath and finally said, "Claire, are you sure wanna go to Myrnin's? I mean he did bite you."

"Yeah I know, but he's still my boss, and… a friend." She made a slight smile.

"You are too forgiving." He said as he smiled and kissed her.

"Don't you have to go to work? Do some manly knife cutting?" His smile faded a little and his eyes widened.

"Crap! Okay I have to go I'm going to be late!" He got up and went to Claire, bent down and kissed her. "I love you, I'll be back." Claire smiled again.

"I love you too. Bye."

"Bye." Claire heard Shane go out the front door in a hurry. Claire finally remembered she also had someplace to be. School and then Myrnin's place.

When Eve drove Claire to school it was kind of quiet. It seemed like Eve had something to hide.

Claire decided not to go to Myrnin's. During Adv. Chem., Claire got a text from Eve saying that she wanted Claire to call her when she could. At the end of class, Claire got out her cell phone and dialed Eve's number. There were four rings before Eve answered saying, "Hey Claire."

"So what was up with the text? Is something wrong?" Claire knew Eve was at work because she heard Oliver's voice in the background.

"No. Michael and I were thinking. You know how Shane is cautious about the vamps?"

"Yeah?" Claire really didn't like where this conversation was going.

"Michael and I wanted to play a prank on him." She could tell Eve was smiling on the other line. Okay definitely didn't like it.

"Okay what kind of prank?" Claire was kind of worried about how far they would take it.

"Vampire prank. Come home and Michael and I will explain it to you."

"Um… okay. I'll be there in an hour. I have one more class to go to."

"Excellent! We'll be waiting!" Eve hung up the phone.

"Uh…bye?" she said to herself.

It seemed like minutes went by slower and slower…

When Claire got home, Michael and Eve were sitting on the couch talking. Claire walked into the living room and saw a couple of bags beside the couch on the floor.

"What's in the bags?" Eve looked up with a smile on her face.

"Blood." Claire froze looking at Eve.

"Fake blood, Claire." Michael said. He could tell Claire was about to freak.

"Um…Please tell me that's for the prank Eve was talking about." Eve stood up, got the bags and put them on the table. She then started to pull out IV bags full of fake blood. She looked back up at Claire and said, "Yep, they are."

"So what's gonna happen?"

"Well since I'm a vampire, we're going to pretend that I drain Eve. And since Shane would completely FREAK if I killed someone, we want to see how he would react if I killed Eve."

"Okay, but then what do I have to do with it then?"

"Oh you're gonna be dead too!" Eve said that with way to much enthusiasm. She smiled and started hopping around. Michael stared after her with a smile on his face. Claire was dumbfounded by the idea already.

"Man, what have I gotten myself in to? So let me get this straight, Eve and I are going to 'pretend' we're dead while you 'suck' our blood so we can freak Shane out when he gets home?" She asked looking at Michael. Still smiling he nodded his head.

"Yes, that's what we're planning on doing."

"Okay, well… I have to do a paper for my Chem. Class so I'll be down later. Um… when are we going to do it?" She asked before she went to the stairs. Eve finally got a hold of her and sat down next to Michael on the couch.

"Well, Shane gets off at 4, but he took someone else's shift so it will be after dark so come down at sunset, CB." Eve said as Claire nodded and made her way to the staircase. At the top she headed to her room, but then stopped at the hidden button. Should I? She asked herself. She smiled then pushed it.

When the stairs appeared she went down and started on her paper.

Claire must have dozed off because when woke up Michael was knelt next to her on the couch.

"Hey, sleepy head. Its sunset come on. It's show time." He stood up and held his hand out to help her up. She smiled and grabbed hold.

When the passage way finally closed shut, Eve was standing at the end of the stairs with a bad of fake blood, red contacts and weirdly enough, really real looking glue on fangs.

"Good you're up. Who wants to be Mrs. Dracula?"Eve said with a wink and big smile. Michael laughed while Claire shook her head no.

"Not me. That can be you. So just tell me what to do." Claire made her way down the stairs with Michael behind her.

"Michael, you want to explain? No? Okay fine I will," Michael shook his blond head as Eve went on, "Claire, you will lay on the couch and we'll set the blood on you and the fake bite marks so it looks like my big hot vampire bit you." Claire saw a smile on Michael from the corner of her eye. She turned back to Eve as she continued, "I'll be laying on the floor next to the coffee table with we came up with this, Michael leaning over me 'sucking' my blood. Well pop the blood bags so there will be blood all over the floor and are two sets of red contacts. Michael will wear a pair because it's not good if he turns real psycho vamp on us. So I think it's okay if we just fake it." Eve had that excited glow about her.

"So, Eve will have the other contacts in and the glue on fangs. I can make mine come out without trying. And finally Claire, your job is to just lie down on the couch and pretend to be dead. You'll lie on your stomach so your breathing isn't that noticeable." Michael said. Claire stood up in the living room thinking about what they were about to do. Imagining the look on Shane's face.

When he walks through the door later, and how they will laugh at him, when she is covered in blood and he pulls her into him…

"Okay I can do that." She said as Eve towed her to the couch and moved Claire so she was lying on her stomach. Claire looked back at Eve and saw that Eve had already popped a bag of blood all over Claire.

"Oh god! It's all warm and totally gross!" Claire yelped.

"Oh stop being such a baby it's not that bad. It'll come out." Eve said and then her eyes went wide and she turned to Michael.

"Hey so do I have to become a vampire too? But I thought we were both being drained."

"Well we got an extra pair of glue on fangs so what the hell we have to try." Michael said then turned back to what he was doing as Eve continued to pour gooy fake blood on Claire and herself.

After waiting and waiting Michael finally heard a car pull up in the drive way.

"He's here! Act dead!" he said that in a whispered scream. As soon as Claire heard that she felt like her heart had stopped. But all she could do was go along with it and play dead.

The door unlocked and in walked Shane. He was looking at a magazine so he didn't notice right away.

"Hey, people I'm h-" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a look in his eyes as she was already sure he saw Michael.

Shane froze in his place.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Claire could tell there was so much anger in his voice. She turned her head just enough to see Shane. He was reaching in his pocket for something. Claire couldn't tell right away what he was reaching for. Then she saw what it was. It was a silver coated stake.

"You're dead Michael!" he lunged toward Michael with an angry yell. It took Shane all his effort to push Michael into the wall. It sounded almost like thunder. Claire didn't know why Michael wouldn't just tell him this was all a prank.

"I'm going to kill you Michael!" he said as he held the stake to Michael's chest.

"Shane stop! If you stake Michael, it'll kill him!" Eve said as she stood up and tried to pull the stake from Shane's grasp.

"You too!" He said as he saw Eve's red eyes. She ignored him and yelled at Claire.

"Claire get your ass over here and help me dammit!" Claire got up and raced over to help Eve. As soon as she tried to get the stake from Shane, he let go once he saw her.

"What the hell Shane? Psycho much?" Eve asked. He gave her an angry look, flipped her the finger, and stormed out heading for the stairs.

"Shane!" Claire went up after him but by the time she got to his room he slammed the door. Claire was about to knock on the door until he opened it. He was standing there staring at her.

"Shane I'm sorry, can I com-" she started to say. But before she could finish he said, "Come in."

He left the door open for her to come in. he went to go sit on his bed. Before Claire could even say anything he looked up and said, "You know how worried I was? Thinking my best friend had killed my girlfriend." He looked mad.

He continued, "I was so scared. At that moment I wanted to kill Michael and I would have too if you and Eve didn't get up to stop me. But I was relieved to know it was fake." He attempted a smile but it didn't seem to reach his eyes. He kissed her. There was so much passion in that kiss.

"Look, Shane, don't be mad. It was a joke, I'm sorry I really am. I didn't even what to do it"

"Who thought of the prank? Was it Eve?" Claire didn't say anything. She wasn't sure if she should rat on Michael and Eve.

"I don't know, really I don't." This was true because all she knew was that they wanted to do the prank.

"Okay then what? Did you decide on it?"

"No of course not! I guess you could say it was both of them. Eve texted me saying to call her, I did and she told me about the prank. I got home and they explained what they wanted me to do."

"Okay. I believe you." He kissed her again but this time she broke away.

"Good." She smiled. She got up and he pulled on her arm for her to sit down again.

They stared at each other for it seemed like the world had stopped just for them and then he said, "I love you Claire, you know that. That's why I was so… so… I don't know…angry? I was just so afraid Claire."

"I know and I love you too Shane. You don't have to worry about Michael, at least, like you said he's your best friend. He wouldn't kill Eve or me if his life depended on it. No pun intended." She nudged Shane giving a little smile, he smiled too.

"Yeah, well good because I would kick the crap out of him if he did."

"Yeah. Hey do you know what's for dinner?"

"I don't know. Did you guys plan dinner while pouring fake blood all over the place? Oh by the way you still are covered in blood and who knew Corn Syrup smelled and tasted that bad?"

"Ha yeah, who knew?" She got up and headed out the door. She shut the door and raced to the bathroom to take a shower. Which she needed badly.

When she was done with the shower she raced to her room in a towel. When she was in her room, she opened a drawer and got a clean pair of underwear and slipped on some decent clothes. After Claire was done she went to the stairs to find Shane, sitting on the couch playing his new game 'Saints Row'. That was the one game that didn't have killing, eating zombies. She looked around and found the place clean, well sort of, there was a pile of blood bags in one corner.

"Hey Shane, dinner's done. Go get Claire." Eve said.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it." Shane got up from finally pausing his game. Claire heard something thump from the Secret room. Claire put her head against the wall to listen a little better.

"What are you doing?" Claire jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Whoo sorry didn't mean to scare you, I thought you heard my footsteps." Claire was still breathing hard from the scare but she managed to still choke out,

"No haha I thought I heard something from the room."

"Oh well dinners ready. Are you going to eat or go anorexic on me?" He smiled. She stuck her tongue out at him then put it back into her mouth remembering the last time she did that.

"Ah-ah-ah remember what happened the last time you did that."

"Ugh yes and ugh gross!" His smile widen as he winked at her.

"Come on let's go.

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