6 years. 6 whole, agonising years Myrnin had been away from the place that felt most like home to him. Honestly, it was the only place he'd ever stayed long enough for it to deserve a status in his heart. It hadn't been easy, leaving without Claire, she had known she could leave that place, go with Myrnin and have a chance to live, but she had stayed, for the sake of her friends. Now, returning after 6 years, Myrnin's brain couldn't help but come up with alternate realities to what was happening in his beloved home town, like his young, exuberant assistant becoming nothing more than vampire chow after he'd left. Claire was the only one, aside from Ada, that would put up with Myrnin for long periods of time and not get bored and dismiss him as if he were some feeble old human that spoke of nothing but nonsense all day and dribbled in a rocking chair. Standing at the energy barrier in the rising morning light - he'd had to travel during nightfall to make it to his destination in one piece rather than ashes - Myrnin realised how much he truly had missed life back in the dangerous Texas Town. More importantly, he had missed Bob terribly, briefly he wondered how the spider was doing, if it had been eating, or whether its life force had not been meant to be around for the eight years it had, whether the dear pet had passed without knowing that Myrnin had missed him. Pressing a hand to the energy field that Myrnin could feel with his heightened senses he contemplated if anyone would welcome him back? Would Amelie forgive him for ducking out on her? Or had Oliver gotten to her and turned her dark side? So many questions raced through his overactive mind, one popping up more regularly that others, Is Claire alive?... She had probably gone on to marry Shane and had kids and forgotten all about her, slightly abusive, - through no fault of his own - boss. Or maybe she missed him, waited patiently for his return? He couldn't allow himself to get his hopes up but also couldn't allow the fear to set in too far. He needed to see Morganville and what it had become in his absence.
Myrnin stepped through the barrier with a boost of nervous energy.
Morganville stood in front of him, a proud town, much more proud than before, this was not a comforting thought. Myrnin took each step one at a time, carefully placing his feet as if there was a mine that could blow them off. The truth was, the more careful he was with each step, the longer it would take him to reach the town hall to get some information. Half way through his tiny pace, Myrnin paused, did he really want to go find out what was happening now? Or would he like to go see his old home again, check on Bob? Choosing the latter, Myrnin allowed his feet to guide him along the familiar streets, breathing in the similar smells that he missed, mostly, the smell of the humid desert and acrid scent of the cars.
On his way, Myrnin's nose caught a whiff of blood and he turned to see where the smell was coming from, not being able to feed for fear of being caught, Myrnin could mostly control his carnal instincts. A young girl, roughly 20's, that he didn't recognise came into view on the street opposite the May house and she stopped dead when she saw him, then broke into a run in the other direction, heading a direction that Myrnin couldn't have cared less about, her reaction to him was enough to determine that vampires were still at large in the sleepy town, and since she was the only human Myrnin had seen, he came to the conclusion that in this town, they were now a dying breed.
The way down his small alley way was short and the dim lighting and dank setting were enough to ease his mind that some things never changed. The lab that resides under the buildings behind the day house were much like Myrnin had left them, or so he thought until he flicked the light on. Everything was stacked neatly, there was no dust in the air and the chalk board had fresh equations written in spiral patterns around the rim. Someone had been using his lab while he was away and judging by the neatness of his work areas, Myrnin had an idea who. Claire, the darling girl had been using his laboratories recently! That meant she was alive! Myrnin was so happy that he forgot to be annoyed that his work had been moved around, obviously the girl had seen the sense of spiral formulas, however, which was some merit in her corner. The dingy room was a welcome home to Myrnin and he took in the sights as if it was blood for a starving vampire, which, in a way, it was. Heading towards the back of his home, Myrnin noticed a cage in the corner with something moving inside of it, BOB! He was alive! Claire must have been feeding him! Myrnin contemplating kissing the girl when he next saw her, but as much as he wanted to, decided against it because he didn't want to be torn to shreds by the Collins boy.
"Frank?" Myrnin called out tentatively, not sure whether he was or wasn't expecting a reply but sure enough there was a flicker to his left and the ghostly figure of a disgruntled man appeared. The apparition wasn't nearly as strong as it had been when Myrnin had last seen it, he could only assume that Claire had figured out a way to keep the machine going without as much blood.
"You're back?" Frank said in a monotone, it seemed he couldn't muster as much emotion as he wanted to if the bitter look on his face was anything to go by.
"Yes. Has Claire been back here since I left?"
"How should I know? I have been sleeping since she fixed up the machine, I can only come when called now and she hasn't so I am as much in the dark as you are." Frank seemed disinterested and the emotion looked genuine so Myrnin gave up on trying to figure him out.
"Is the machine still in the same place?"
"Why? What are you going to do?" The apparition looked suspicious but it's voice remained unfeeling. Myrnin walked away from the ghost and towards the hole he knew would be in the floor further to the back of the lab. Upon reaching his home, Myrnin jumped the huge distance down and landed lightly, like a cat. Hanging on the wall in the lit hallway was something that almost made him cry, Claire had evidently missed him because hung on the wall, looking crumpled - and smelling strongly of her - were Myrnin's lab coat and worn down bunny slippers with fangs, it was a sight that made him smile genuinely for the first time in a while, it was a small, sweet gesture that would have stopped his heart, that is, if it had been beating to start with. Breathing in the scent for a second, Myrnin slid his feet into the shoes, leaving the lab coat, and continued down the corridor. He came to the opening into the cave with the machine in the middle where it always stood but Myrnin noticed a lot of Claire's additions and alterations in the machine, he also noticed that it wasn't that Claire wasn't feeding the machine at all really, it was that she had used a constant feed from a blood bag of almost stale O negative. Anyone with common sense knew that the best thing for a machine like this one was AB positive and a fresh flow, that was only if it had to be human blood, if not, it could be any kind of blood from a vampire straight from the vein. Myrnin walked to the machine and slammed his hand into the metal needle still jutting from a copper plate half way down the contraption; he felt the blood being drained from his body and watched as the machine whirred into a stronger state of life and the apparition of Frank Collins appeared behind him, a sadistic gleam on his face.
"You shouldn't have done that."
Myrnin jumped violently at the voice behind him, and turned to see who it was, a girl stood behind him, a stone expression on her face as she brushed him out the way to examine the machine. She pulled his hand off the copper plate and began pressing various buttons that hadn't been there when Myrnin created the device. "He isn't good to have strong blood, we kept him on that for a while but he went crazy and did strange things with the town. Thank you, for ruining our defence, he has to go offline for a couple of days, nice one Myrnin." She told him sternly and all he could do was stare at her short frame.
"C-Claire?" He managed to choke out after a while. She had changed, her pixie cut black hair was longer and styled in soft curls around her shoulders, she had grown a small amount but still wasn't quite average height but she really had grown up, and my god, she was now so beautiful. A soft smile played on her lips as she readjusted a setting on the screen on the machine.
"How have you been, Myrnin?" She didn't even glance up but he could hear that she wasn't really angry with him, not properly, her voice had softened into a caring tone.
"Uh, good... you?"
"Fine, I suppose. Mary, she's been in Morganville since 3 weeks after you left, she saw you on her way home and panicked, she came straight to me at the Mayor's office, I didn't let anyone else come, I knew it had to be you, they'd have killed you without a second thought. We don't really take kindly to vampires here anymore."
Myrnin didn't know where to start, what was Claire doing at the mayor's office? Since when did she order people around? and what was with the policies on vampires? Wasn't this town run by vampires?
"I can see you have a lot of questions. Come with me to my office at the town hall and I'll explain everything okay?" Claire asked with a smile as she finished her tampering with the machine and Frank disappeared with the sound of a small static discharge. All Myrnin could do in response was nod and he followed Claire out of the room and back down the hall. She paused at the lab coat and took it off the hook, handing it to him with a wistful quirk of the lips. "I believe this belongs to you,"
Myrnin took his coat gently from her and swung it gracefully around his shoulders, putting his arms through the familiar sleeves and relishing in the scent that came from it, it was a guilty pleasure that he didn't let on to Claire.
After leaving the building and back into the alley way, Claire muttered "It's good to have you back, boss," and Myrnin smiled, not much had changed with his assistant, she was still the quirky girl he knew.
"Missed you too," he whispered almost imperceptibly, but the smile on her face meant that she'd heard him, no matter how subtle he'd been trying to be.
They reached the town hall after not too long, all the way discussing what Claire had done to the lab and how she had enhanced his machinery and Myrnin had to admit, he wouldn't have thought of a lot of the things she'd done. It had also seemed to fix a lot of the problems he'd been having. The mayor's office was different from how he remembered, mostly because it was Amelie's office in the Town Square instead of the one located in the town hall.
"Please, take a seat." Claire smiled and gestured to the empty white leather chair across from her glass desk. As Myrnin sat down opposite her, he took the time to see what else other that her hair had changed. Her dress sense was much more conservative and formal, a white, fitted, short suit jacket hung perfectly over a turquoise, soft shirt. The jacket had a delicate pattern down the sleeve that, on closer inspection, turned out to be intricate skulls embroidered in a cascading flower formation over Claire's arm. She wasn't all that formal, however, because she wore blue denim jeans with a bootleg and shoes that looked suspiciously like Eve's biker boots.
"I'm sure you have questions, ask away and I'll answer as best I can." She looked at her nails, painted turquoise and ran an absent hand through the ends of her hair.
"I, uh, where do I start?" Myrnin, didn't know what he wanted to know, everything, but then at the same time, nothing. If he learnt too much, would he see things the same way?
"I see, shall I start from what happened since you left 6 years ago?" Myrnin nodded.