Chapter 4

A long while after we'd sat down, Claire was still softly stroking my hair when I realised something. "Haven't you got to go to school?" I asked Claire.

"It's fine. I don't want to leave you. Especially on your own."

I thought about that. It would be better for me if she stuck around today. Just to have her close would make me feel so much better. But that would be selfish of me. "I'll be fine. Go be smart with other less smart people." I knew she wouldn't want to leave. She thought that I was vulnerable (she was probably right) at the moment and it wouldn't be right to leave me alone. Just as she was about to protest but I said, "Don't worry about me. I'll see you when you get back."

"Are you sure?" You could tell that somewhere in the back of her mind that a part of her really wanted to go which ultimately made up my mind. For some reason, unbeknown to me, school was important to her. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to be as academic as Claire and actually enjoy it. School was something that I just always had to do. I never used to pay any attention in class and that was probably why she seemed so strange to me.

"Positive." She leant over and kissed me. Before she tried to seduce me into asking her to stay, I pulled back and said, "Now, off you go genius."

"I'll see you tonight," she said before kissing me one more time and jogging off down the stairs. Thirty seconds after she'd headed towards the stairs I heard the door slam shut. I waited a couple of minutes to make sure she wasn't going to come back and then I went into the bathroom and had the quickest shower I could manage.

When I went into my room I threw on some clothes without really looking at them. A plan was constructing itself in my head. Usually I wasn't much for planning ahead but I thought it necessary. If I didn't have a plan today, I was going to get myself killed and I wouldn't allow that to happen. I wouldn't put my Claire through that. She didn't deserve it.

I opened up my wardrobe. There weren't many clothes in there, they were mostly strewn all over my bedroom floor, which is why I noticed straight away that the bag I always kept at the bottom was gone. A life saving bag that would be impossible for me to misplace even as messy and unorganised as I am.

I spun around searching for it nonetheless. This wasn't part of the barely formulated plan. Then it clicked and I stopped dead. That was it. The only explanation. Michael. He knew me that I had a short temper. He knew that I'd want revenge on Myrnin for what he'd done to the people I loved. Thinking about it the only opportunity he would have had to do that would have been when I'd been talking to Claire in her room earlier.

That meant one of two things. One, he'd told Claire he was going to work and then he'd snuck back in to take them or two, they were in it together. Either way I knew their hearts were in the right place. They wouldn't want me to be able to go off and get myself hurt and they knew that despite everything, I wasn't stupid enough to go charging off after a vampire without any weapons.

They were right. I wouldn't. But I knew where there was an equally as large supply of weapons. Smiling at my own cunningness I raced down the stairs. On my way to the front door I picked up two sets of keys. One were my own and the other, Eve's spare car keys.

It annoyed me that I had to head in the opposite direction. I was eager to just get on with it. Because I was so desperate to get there, I made the ten minute walk in five. I hesitated as I was about to open up Eve's car. Perhaps I was being a little paranoid but something told me that I should really have a reason for being here. Regretfully, I opened the door to Common Grounds and stepped inside. It wasn't that busy inside. Eve was behind the counter and when she heard the bell above the door ring she looked over. When she realised it was me she didn't look happy. Great. She pointed at me then to a table in the far corner. I took that as a hint that she wanted to talk to me. Yet more a delay to my plans. But I complied and trudged over to the corner like some naughty school boy.

Shortly, Eve followed. She had with her two cups of coffee. I guessed one was for her but I hoped the other was for me to drink and not for her to pour on me. She was so angry last night. She set it down in front of me and said, "You have two minutes to explain before I start hitting things. And by things I mean you." Yeah she was pissed.

I decided the quickest way to get this over with was to get straight to the point. "Fine," I sighed. "You remember that time when I watched my Dad get blown to pieces?" She nodded uncomfortably. "Well it turns out Claire's psycho boss decided to hijack his brain and stick it in one of his jars." Her mouth dropped wider than I thought possible. "Oh yeah, and Claire knew about it."

"Oh my God," she said. I just nodded. Without warning she got to her feet and hugged me tightly. "I'm sorry Shane."

"Not your fault." Although Eve and I argued a lot of the time, we really did care about each other. We were like brother and sister really. We messed around but when it came down to it, we'd always be there for each other.

"What are you going to do?" she asked. I knew what she meant. Just like Michael, (and possibly Claire) Eve thought I had a plan too. Despite knowing full well what she meant, I played dumb.

"I'm just going to go home and chill. Claire and I worked things out. I'm okay. Really."

"If you want I can ditch work and come play some video games with you," she offered.

"No you can't," Oliver called from behind the counter. "Get back to work Eve."

"It's fine. I'll see you at home," I said leaving Eve and my untouched coffee behind.

I was glad that Eve had parked her car slightly down the street so that it was just out of sight because she watched me the whole time I was leaving. Not wanting to draw any attention to myself, I casually pulled the inconspicuous black bag out of the car and locked the door.

Next stop Myrnin's lab.

Sorry about the wait. It took longer than anticipated to get back into writing this story.

I'll get the next chapter up in the next week. It's the holidays now so I'll have plently of time to write.

Thanks for keeping up with the story so far.

xx