Is it safe to come out yet? *Pokes head out of panic room* Right. I know a lot of peeps wanna kill me right about now, so just calm down. I've just got the new Morganville book and have started writing again. Past few months *shakes head sadly* not good, not good at all, but I'm back... hopefully? I suggest you reread my story, but if you don't want to, here you go;

CATCH UP: Bishop's after Claire to make her his pet 'granddaughter'. Shane's still in love with Claire. He's in charge of this big pack of humans who are known as the wolves. Like a biker gang. They hang out in this air hanger during the day; mess up Amelie's and Bishop's plans by night. Most people are either team Bishop or team Amelie. Most of the guys in the wolf pack are Team Amelie. Eve turns out as an ex drug addict, she's just got reconstructive surgery on her nose. She did a deal with Shane; she hands over info on Vassily (the guy Shane blames for his and Claire's break up) for a nose job and a chat with Claire. She got the plastic surgery, not the chat because she slashed Monica (who's in love with Shane but is getting pissed off cuz he's refalling for Claire) s wrist and then had a fight with Shane in his kitchen. Claire shouted bad at them and stormed off, and made Frank portal her to the city (who is another Ada that Myrnin gave Shane and Claire fixed). When she came out of the other side she's in this room and there's loads of pictures of Eve O-o

Claire's POV, this is during the last chapter by the way.

I gasped as I heard a creak outside the door and backed up... fast. I looked for anywhere to hide but before I could the door swung open. I hardened my face and turned to see whose house Frank had dropped me into.

The first thing I saw was the blue eyes and blonde hair. Then the features set in. I gasped.

"Claire?" Michael asked, "Is that you?"

"Michael? Wow you look... different." He did. It wasn't anything specific, still looked the same on the outside except he looked... scared. Like a little kid hiding from the monsters. Nothing like the laid back confident guy I had known.

He shifted uncomfortably under my gaze, the wooden floorboards creaking under his feet, his hands pulling on the bottom of his baggy faded blue t-shirt, "What are you doing here Claire? I thought you were-, I thought you'd disappeared. A run away."

I frowned, "I got out of Morganville, you know why. To get away, not run away," I snapped. I hated the thought of anyone even thinking that I had run away. I suddenly felt traitorous, not to Amelie, but to my friends. Had I ran away and doomed them to this fate? Left them to become heartless, druggies and apparently stalkers?

Michael seemed to shrink in on himself and he looked in the corner of the room, his eyes betraying his fear, "Sorry," he barely whispered.

I cocked my head to the side, "What happened to you after I left Morganville?" I asked, sadness for what had passed replacing my shame and anger, "What happened to all of you? Shane and Eve-,"

"You've seen Eve?" Michael interrupted his eyes suddenly intent on me. His whole body language shifted into something else entirely compared to the self conscious social introvert he seemed to be. It was as if he was suddenly ravenous; he stepped towards me, almost like he was getting ready to pounce, "Where is she? I can't find her anywhere! Have you taken her? TELL ME!"

I took a step back and immediately went into large dog owner mode, "Hey!" I snapped, and then reverted to a soothing tone, "Calm down Michael, I didn't take her."

He blinked and took a step back, fiddling with the bottom of his shirt again, and his attitude once again flipping faster than I could blink. "Sorry, I just-, I don't know what to do," his eyes started to restlessly dart from picture to picture, "I don't know where she is and now... now I don't know what to do."

I frowned, Eve had been at the Garage, what, two days? "Do you follow her around a lot?"

Michael looked at me and glanced at his pictures. It was as if he wasn't even in the room when he was looking at them.

"I follow all of you, but Eve mainly," he stated, like it wasn't a big deal. But it was. "Here," he gestured for me to follow him. I paused, doubting the wisdom of following an apparent stalker, but then dismissed the notion. It was Michael, right?

Outside the Eve room was a corridor. There was a staircase at the side, an open door way at the end of the hall revealing a gleaming white bathroom and two shut doors to my left. Michael opened the nearest one and I walked in after him, curiosity eating away at my eyes. Like the hallway and the other room, the floor boards were a dark grey, almost black, and the walls were a murky looking cream. There was very little light, only a small lamp shoved into the corner of the room to shed light on Michaels stalking exploits.

I walked in after Michael and he rushed across the room, busily occupying himself at a table in the corner of the room messing with big opaque tanks of liquids, I could hear their contents sloshing about as he moved them.

While Michael was distracted I looked around the room curiously; it was mainly pictures Shane, a look of stern concentration on his face with a hands-free in his ear and a gun in his hand. My gut did a little twist at the sight of him. There were always people near him, often Monica. A few times Michael had managed to catch her staring at him with big, love sick eyes. He was completely oblivious to it. So Dr Mills had been right, she was in love with him. The thought made jealousy unfurl in my gut, and I wanted to go back and claim him as mine. All mine.

And then there was a small section of the wall of me. There was one where I was leaving my street, looking over my shoulder. He's followed me everywhere and I hadn't even known. A cafe in the safer part of the city meeting one of NASA's guys, and me meeting with Richard, and he'd even caught me talking to one of the homeless network. I suddenly felt like converting to a paranoid believer.

"So how long has this been going on?" I asked. I was extremely nervous about how to approach the subject. What if he flipped again? Michael seemed unstable to say the least, like all he had been doing these past few years was follow Eve and Shane and I sometimes. And now that he didn't have Eve to follow he was lost.

"With you not long, I only realised you were even in the city a few weeks ago. I started to keep tags on Eve when I found her three years ago. Took up photography. I thought maybe it was a good idea. It makes me feel... better, with her around, even if it is just her picture. Like I did when I lived in Morganville..." Michael drifted off, gazing into space with a small smile on his face.

O-kay.

"Michael?" I asked softly. His eyes snapped back to reality and he looked at me with that look that lets you know the vampire in front of you is going to attack. But then his eyes clicked and he looked at me like he didn't even realise that he'd been planning on attacking me.

"Yeah?" he asked, smiling softly.

I narrowed my gaze, theories running through my head. For the moment I decided to leave it for now. "Where am I in the city?"

The light in his eyes dimmed and he looked at the photo that was the first on the stack his hands, but it was too dim for me to see what it was, "Campell Road, near the Business District."

I nodded, "I know where that is. I can get home from here." I was already planning on what needed to be done, thinking about which problems were priorities and what havoc I was going to cause when I hacked into Bishops mainframe.

Michaels gaze flickered to me and his face fell and he looked like he was going to cry, "You're leaving?" He asked, his voice small and his bottom lip trembling slightly.

I shifted, suddenly uncomfortable, "Well, I need to go home. I don't know how long it will be until people come looking for me. And I have things to do; I can't just keep out of this thing now."

He looked crestfallen, "I don't want you to go."

I paused, shifting on my feet. It was clear that Michael was clinging desperately to his old life. I was part of that life. Not a developed photo, but actual flesh and blood. Maybe not exactly the way in his old life, but close enough. He seemed to need that bit of his past, when life was good and happy.

I sighed with resignation, "You want to come with me? Then we can go find Eve, I think she's with Shane." I knew that I was shooting myself in the foot. I didn't know what had happened to Michael but I was pretty sure that bringing him with me was a bad idea. But still, he was Michael. He was like the big brother that I never had before all of this happened, and I just couldn't turn my back on him. Not after all I've been through with him.

I should have never left Morganville.

Michaels eyes went big, like a rabbit caught in headlights, and he started to pace, tugging his shirt until the neck came down. I thought I caught a glimpse of scars on his chest but he left his shirt alone to shove his hands in his hair and tug before I could make sure, "Oh I don't know Claire I don't know. I've not spoke to her... but it's Eve-,"

"Wait, you've been following her but you've never spoken to her? Why?" I asked incredulously. If I had been in his position and I had found Shane, I wouldn't be able to watch him and not want to talk to him.

He looked at me shocked, and then glanced down at himself. He looked back at me and opened his mouth a few times without saying anything.

I frowned, not sure what was going on. One thing for sure I know is that I didn't want Michael on his own. He seemed frightened at the prospect of being around people but then desperate for company.

"Please Michael," I twitched my mouth, "Please come with me. I've not seen you in years, I don't want to leave you yet, but I have to go." I left out the part that I kind of needed him to. Despite the five year absence of him being in my life, he just felt normal. He was acting weird and something was up, but just being around him felt natural and comfortable.

Michael scratched his head, and then slowly nodded. Then he jumped like he'd been stung by a wasp, "Let me get my cameras!"

My eyebrows shot up as he rushed back into Eve's room. I followed him, watching curiously as he opened the metal wardrobe. In it were shelves, and on the shelves different containers with scrawled writing labelling them on one side, and then different camera bodies and lenses on the other.

He grabbed a bag from the bottom shelf and started to put a certain lens with a body and then packed more lenses with it. It was over in a few seconds with him having the speed of a vampire. Once he had his bag packed he slung it over his shoulder gave it a slight adjustment and then looked expectantly at me looking like any other college kid. Or a little boy going on his very first school trip.

"Okay," I sighed, "Wait, what time is it? Have you got a car?"

"It's just gone One, and yeah, why?" He asked, his brows furrowing instantly, then his forehead smoothed, "Oh, right. The sun. Okay then, car it is."

He stood there, the shuffling of his feet the only sound in the room. I sighed, "Where is it?"

"Oh, erm, this way," and he slipped awkwardly past me and jogged down the bare wooden stairs. With a sigh I followed. Down stairs there was a TV and a couch, with a guitar next to it. Worryingly, the guitar looked like it hadn't been played in a while. A thick layer of dust covered the body and somehow, it seemed lost. Michael moved through the house, going through a side door in the kitchen. Reluctantly I followed him into a built in garage. There was a car in the middle of a lot of stuff, almost abandoned, from Morganville.

Michael sighed, "Err Claire?"

"Yeah Michael?" I asked as I started to walk towards the passenger side.

"I can't drive."

I froze, and then spun around to face him, "What do you mean you can't drive?"

His shoulders shot up and he started to tug on the bottom of his t-shirt again, his eyes darted to the corner of the room and suddenly his eyes seemed to go out of focus, like he wasn't seeing the cramped dump of his garage anymore, "I-I don't know, I just... can't? I'm sorry Claire!" Tears filled his eyes and he looked at me like his world was falling apart, "I don't want to go! I don't want to! No, DON'T!" His voice rose to a shrill shriek and he started to violently shake his head, whipping it back and forth. Panic rose up in my chest, but I remembered how Myrnin used to be and tried to remain calm on the outside.

"Hey," I crooned, "Hey Michael its okay, its okay. You don't have to come."

He took deep shuddering breaths and whispered, "Don't make me," over and over again, "Please don't make me." He seemed terrified, and I felt ugly, like a monster that scared because it didn't know what else to do. Or someone that was delivering news that I was going to torture him in a week's time.

"I'm not going to make you Michael. Don't worry. You don't have to go anywhere-," I started.

Michael's eyes fixed on me, suddenly normal looking, "What are you talking about? Are we going?"

I paused as he walked to the other side of the car, carefully placed his cameras on the back seat and then jumped into the driver's seat. The car started with a wheezy cough, filling the cold dark room with the sound of a running engine and the smell of petrol. I frowned but let it slide, opening the passenger door and sliding inside, buckling up.

We were out of the garage and out on the streets within seconds. Not that I could see much. It was a quiet five minute drive. I was too scared to try and make conversation, Michael resembled a teenager taking their very first driving lesson, new to the concept and shit scared. He gripped the steering wheel tightly and looked around with scared eyes, turning the car slowly, cautiously. It was a long drive.

Eventually we rolled to a stop, "We're here."

I took a deep breath, "I'll be one second, I just want to get my bag and are you okay going to a... friend's house?"

"Sure," Michael smiled tightly at me, and it was obvious that it wasn't okay. It wasn't okay at all. I sighed, seeing no other option, and quickly got out of the car and onto the pavement. I assessed my town house carefully, it didn't look like the security had been activated, and that was good. It meant that once I had been taken, no one had tried to get in.

I ran across the front lawn and opened the door, not needing to open the seven locks or care about the trip wire. I was scared to leave Michael on his own, even if he was still in my line of sight. There was a shelf near the front door; on it was a back pack. I grabbed it and then ran outside; shutting the door and hearing the locks automatically slide into place.

I ran back towards the car and hopped in. Michael looked over at me, timid curiosity on his face.

"What's in there?" He asked looking at my back pack carefully, as if he was scared it might be a Jack-in-the-Box in disguise.

I opened the zipper and pulled out a gun, not too big to be classed as a heavy weapon but not small enough to be a hand gun. On the top of the gun there was a small screen, around the size of a sat nav screen. I touched it and a menu popped open. I clicked a few times and then a bigger screen, this time the size of a computer screen, appeared between two antennae that extended out of the gun.

"What does it do?" Michael asked.

"It's a weapon. Doesn't kill, not unless it's on the right setting. Usually it reverts to knocking people out. But it's also a portable computer," I said.

A cool male voice filled the car, "Good evening, Miss Claire, how can I be of service to you?"

"Hello Steve," I said, "I want you to find Gloriana. She'll be high profile. If she's not in the city find next of kin when it concerns Vassily. Also, why you're doing this, please can you over ride the cars system?"

"Yes Ma'am, and can I interest with you with the fact that there is a high security alert concerning you that has been issued two minutes and fifty one-two seconds ago?" He informed.

"Yes you can but leave it for now," I said, "Start driving, avoid patrolling vehicles please."

"As you wish," he replied as the car started once more, much more smoothly this time, and the gear stick moved automatically. Michael jerked back in his seat, his eyes glued to it.

"That will be all Steve. Michael it's okay, it's only Steve. You didn't seem comfortable driving," I looked away from the screen, where I was half way through a hack of Bishops wireless network, and glanced at him. He was looking fearful.

"I'm," he visibly swallowed, "I'm going to sit in the back."

He slid between the two front seats and carefully set his bag to the side and sat forwards , "So, who is Steve?" He asked.

"Yes Ma'am?" Steve asked.

"Silent Steve, listen in context please," I asked, "Steve is a CMS that I created. A computer mimicking system. He's got a personality, a voice, almost like a person, but he is a programme primarily designed to assist me in the lab. At first he was just a few basic tools, an extra hand, literally, and he helped me. Then I expanded that to a security system and a... do you remember Ada?" I asked.

In the back seat, Michael shivered, "Yes."

"He is a more sophisticated and personalised version of her. Except instead of watching over a town or a territory, he is based around a being, that being me-," I stared to explain.

"Ma'am, I have located the vampire Gloriana, she is currently in England just south of the river Thames. Would you like the most direct route there?" Steve interrupted.

"No, revert to the next of kin," I asked. "So yeah, obviously I've not used an actual brain, hence the mimic part, and it does have its down points, but he can't override me like Ada did. I also can't change an order or take an action if he thinks that it doesn't match up with my past judgement or pattern. So, for example, Steve is able to remove a person's memory. However, I can't do what Myrnin did and take away everyone's memory in a certain area, or my own, if he thinks that I am not in a decent state to make that judgement."

"So where is it taking us?" Michael asked.

"To get an informant."

~~World of Chaos~~

I routed around in the bottom of my bag, picking up the gloves and the headset which showed me the computer screen attached to the top of my gun. Except I was more limited to how complicated a code I could put into Steve with the headset. I put both the gloves and the headset on.

With the headset on I could see through the cars tinted windows. The informant, someone who had worked at the gym of Vassily's in Morganville along with having crossed paths with both of them together on different occasions according to a few vampire journals, lived in the other side of the city. It had taken us just over two hours to get there. This was a big city.

Despite it just passing three in the afternoon the sky was already darkening. We couldn't take too long about this. We were deep into the war zone where the ownership of land constantly shifted from Bishop to Amelie and back again. The houses were a wreck, like what I'd imagine London looking like after the Blitz. There were blood stains all over the street and gouges in the road and on the walls the size of fingers where Vampires had fought. It seemed deserted, but I knew that there would be people looking, whoever had this land as theirs for now would be waiting for the other to make a move. They would have watching patrols.

I turned to Michael, "Michael, I'm going to have to override his basic brain functions to get him in the car since I'm not strong enough to carry him and you can't leave the car, so you might... he might struggle when he first gets in the car. Are you prepared for that?" I asked him, looking back. He was hugging his knees, his eyes big and scared and tired like a kid whose been locked up in a car for too long.

"I want to go home," he mumbled, "I don't like it here. It doesn't feel right."

"We'll head back in a sec, I won't be long. Stay in the car." And feeling like his mother I got out of the car, shutting the passenger door after me. I looked around; it was an empty street, most of the houses deserted and derelict.

But the vamp I was looking for wasn't in a house, he was in a basement.

I walked towards the row of dilapidated houses and continued walking, looking for signs of recent entry and exit. Eventually, in front of a house more or less intact, I saw it. A worn down path, a slight print of a shoe, and brown stains that could easily pass for mud, but I knew were blood. Carefully, getting my gun in my hands and setting it on the right settings, I walked inside the house in search for the entrance to the basement.

Part of the ceiling had fallen in, and weak sunlight was the only light source in the room. Other than that it was a sea of gloom and dust. There was a moulding couch, a TV set with a crude looking shelter protecting it from the elements of weather and a small refrigerator half filled with beer bottles, the other half blood. The carpet was rotting and blood stained and the whole place stank of death.

There was a boy on the couch, obviously a vampire. He was bare-chested with bite marks all over him. He looked sunken and dishevelled, and the sight of him cast a memory in my mind's eye.

A grave yard, feeling cold, so very cold, and vampires. Homeless vampires looking haggard and refusing to take on the modern way of living. The ones that had mercilessly killed as soon as Ameile and Bishop had finally created a situation that neither of them together could keep control of.

I pulled the trigger. A yellow light, almost like a laser, shot towards him, but he darted out of the way just in time and ran into another room. I followed. This room must have been a kitchen, once upon a time, but now half of the walls were missing and the counters were rotten sagging lumps. There was a huge ant's nest in one mess of a counter, insects crawling everywhere and flies buzzing around.

The vampire was at a metal door, desperately trying to unlock the several big padlocks and chains covering one side of the door. I pulled the trigger and a yellow ball of energy, only half visible, hit him in the back. He froze in midway of grabbing the handle. I tightened my hands on the gun and pointed it at his back.

"Turn around," I commanded.

I could see his muscles working, his body begging him not to obey, but he turned around, straining with everything he had. His jaw was clenched and his face set in panic and anger.

It wasn't the one I was looking for. This vamp was young. I sighed with disappointment and set my gun to stun. There was a whirring noise that filled the half room, like air conditioning, and blue lights began to twirl around the barrel of the gun. The vampire fought against the mind control with all he had, and maybe if he was older he'd have won, but I pressed the trigger, and he hadn't.

A stake made out of dancing blue light shot out of the gun and hit the vampire in the chest, right over the heart. The vampire was flung against the wall next to the door, and then sank to the floor as if he'd been staked.

He had, just psychologically. If he was older, maybe he'd survive.

I walked over to the metal door, made sure that the vampire was out of the way, and then opened the door after taking all of the locks down. Most of them had been undone by the young one. There were stairs, but after the third step down it was pitch black. I could hear a girl screaming and crying.

Oh god.

I reverted my gun back to mind control, increased the headsets power so that I could see in the dark and then rushed down the steps. I paused at the bottom of the steps, I'd found my vampire alright, and he was raping someone.

I snarled and raised my gun and took aim, "Hey, dick, if I were you I'd stop that."

The vamp raised his head from her neck, where she was thrashing wildly under him. He snarled at me, all fangs, the bottom half of his face was covered in blood. He zoomed towards me, faster than sound, but I'd already shot at him and he collided with the bright ball of yellow energy in one glorious moment. The whole room was lit with a dazzling light, the vampire lit up yellow like some freak show lamp. He froze, one foot on the ground, half way through running mere steps from me. I felt like being sick at the sight of him.

"Get dressed," I snarled, "And release her from her bonds."

The vampire, like the young one fought. Except this one was old, really old. I turned to my gun and turned up the intensity, then reshot him with a mind control bullet with a side dose of holy water. He hissed and snarled but he zipped up and cut the hand cuffs tying the girl to the bed in half. The girl shot up, crying, and ran into the furthest corner, pulling at her hair and doing the best to cover herself.

"Do you have clothes?" I asked her, "Do you have a place to stay?"

She looked at me with horrified eyes, her hands scratching her head and she was rocking back and forth, back and forth, shaking her head. "I don't know who you are, or what you've done to that... that thing, but just go. Just leave me alone." She shook her head again and looked away with glassy eyes. I knew to just leave her alone, she'd be better with him gone.

"Don't worry; he's going to suffer. But just in case, if you need help, go to a telephone box and call 101 okay? I'll answer; no one deserves to be alone after this, okay?" I waited for her to nod before saying, "Come on Gerard, up the stairs."

He drifted up the stairs obediently and stood in the doorway as I stepped over the knocked out vamp. "Outside, there's a car waiting. I want you to get in it, and I want you to keep the door open, you're old enough to survive the sun a little while," I smiled cruelly.

He zoomed out of my sight with a puff of air. As soon as he had gone I took a long shuddering breath. My hands were shaking and I wanted to puke up, cry, and go find Shane and ask him to never let that happen to me, ask him to hold me where I know I was safe. That should never happen to anyone. I wish that I could help the girl more, take her somewhere, but I was worried about how Michael would react. The last thing she needed was another vampire attacking her. I felt guilty, but I needed to think about Michael.

I took a deep breath and blinked the tears away, then slowly walked to the car. Once back out on the street I stood in front of Gerard, who was sitting in the driver's seat, door wide open and staring straight ahead. I pointed my gun and changed the settings, aiming as the tell tale blue light started to emit from the guns barrel.

But as I shot I was pushed back a few feet and the bolt hit the guy hard. It hit him so hard that with a crunch of metal the seat was forced back as far as it could go, thus hitting Michael in the face. Once he'd gotten over the shock, his eyes filled with tears and he looked down, fiddling with the bottom of his t-shirt, shoulders rising in insecurity.

"Shit, sorry Michael, I forgot to turn the power down, it wasn't meant to be so... well, powerful," I explained, rushing to the car and waiting, maybe hoping that he would look at me. He nodded but didn't look up, and I heard the distinct sound of a snivel. Great, he was crying.

With a sigh, I closed the driver's door shut and walked around to the passenger's seat. This was a very, very long day, and I had a feeling it was only going to get worse.

~~World of Chaos~~

Night had already fallen as the car rounded the corner onto my street and pulled into the drive next to the house. As soon as the car stopped, slowly we started to sink underground; the rest of the drive around the car rising up until it was higher than the windows, showing the metal structure hidden under the layer of gravel. As we smoothly sank down my underground lab was revealed.

It was a city of white, white plastic was everywhere, white painted walls and white metal benches. I think that my mother would be jealous about how clean this place was. As the car lowered the layout of the lab became less distinct. There was my garage, the row of cars at one end along with the workshop where most of the mechanical creating happened. There was not one speck of oil anywhere. After that was a small square structure where I messed with any chemicals, and then there was the testing area. The ceiling of the lab was made of squares of white plastic, softening the harsh lights above them. There were also smaller squares which were tiles dotted seemingly randomly among the lights.

As I stepped out of the car with Michael slowly following, four of the nearest tile covered hatches soundlessly opened and automatic guns dropped out and fixed their barrels straight for his head. I was quite proud that he didn't even realise. I had designed them to be soundless of course, but no vampire had ever come here so I never knew if it worked or not.

A small auto bot rolled over on its wheels, waving merrily at me as it came closer, "Welcome home, Miss Claire," Steve's voice said. Steve could control all of the auto bots here, but he liked to present himself as the very first auto bot I had made.

"Steve, this is Michael, an old friend from Morganville. He's safe," As I said that the guns rolled back into the ceiling as if they were never there, Michael none the wiser.

My garage was big. As I stepped off onto the platform auto bots eased forward, opening the driver door and handling the unconscious Gerard with mechanical disinterest. They carried him to a board and placed him against it, locking his hands and feet down for when he eventually wakes up.

"Give me some status on Gerard please Steve," I asked, standing off to the side and watching as the auto bots moved backwards to make room for the more hospitalised equipment, which moved forwards in their place. The first one, almost like a smaller car washer started. The barrel rolled, and then started to move down on the two poles that were holding it up; as it did a green scanner ran over Gerard. A screen next to the board Gerard was buckled onto lit up, registering his brain activity and body state.

It was low. I'd nearly killed him.

The next couple of machines took blood tests, skin samples and hooked him up to an IV, so that once we woke up he would be compelled to do what I say.

As Michael grabbed his bag of cameras out of the car and came to fidget next to me, the car started and parked itself at the end of the row of my cars.

Michael released his breath, "Wow."

I smiled, "Thanks. Y'know the Glass House inspired me? How it always alerted us and it had a... a presence?"

Michaels eye brows shot up, and for a moment he seemed like... like Michael. But then his shoulders were in the air and his pout was back.

I sighed and started walking to the stairs, "This is my lab, where I do most of my physical and experimental work, building weapons and stuff. The board that Gerard's on is what I use to make robots, but it should hold him. This is my mechanical shop and that room over there is where I mess with chemicals don't go in there. And this way is the house," I finished as I reached the stairs. As soon as I hopped onto a step the stairs began to lift me up like an escalator. Michael glanced nervously down, then cautiously stepped on and followed me.

"Upstairs is a lot different than my lab. Whereas that's all white, well you'll see," I said.

The stairs lifted us up to the main corridor. I stepped out onto the concrete floor, my pumps scuffling slightly on the rough floor. The walls were bare plaster, but it was lit up a warm yellow by the lights that ran at my eye level throughout the whole of the house. The ceiling was panelled, like everywhere else in the house. I knew that Steve was carefully watching Michael, especially now that Newton wasn't here. I missed him; it felt strange not having him follow me around.

"What about the-, Gerard?" Michael asked.

I shrugged, "I really didn't mean to hit him that hard. I raised the power of my gun because he was going to break the mind control; I forgot to turn it down when knocking him out. You want anything to eat?" I asked as I put my backpack back onto the shelf near the front door. I repacked my gloves and gun and then zipped it up.

Michael's expression was full of shock and he looked kind of upset, as if he hadn't expected me to raise the issue of blood. I rolled my eyes exasperated, "Not blood obviously, I meant food food. Even though I might have some blood left from my experiment with the blood types and how it linked to a person's essence-."

"No, that's fine. I'm okay thank you," He shook his head, backing up a few steps as if to show how far he would go to refuse blood.

I shrugged, "Well I'm starving." I walked through the living room; there was only a couch facing a TV in the whole huge room, a rug in between them in an attempt to make it a bit warmer. As I walked into the kitchen, the lights under the hard plastic counters flickered and turned on. There was still the knife and vegetables half chopped on the counter from when Shane came to kidnap me, although the vegetables I'd brought out had shrivelled a considerable amount.

I binned them before opening the freezer and looking for food. I decided to go with something simple and easy, pizza. While it cooked I washed the few dishes in the sink and cleaned the bad food out of the fridge. That done I washed my hands and then made my way over to my office after nervously glancing into the living room where Michael was awkwardly stood in a corner.

My 'office' wasn't much, just a small room with a laptop in the middle of the desk. I sat down and moved my mouse; it was still on the page confirming that my message to NASA had sent. I bit my lip, "Steve, turn the TV on. Invite Michael to turn to what he wants."

"Yes Ma'am," he said, and I head the faint noise drift through the kitchen. Then the door swung closed and Steve asked, "Miss?"

"I want you to do brain scans on Michael, I don't know what's wrong, he seems to have some kind of split personality going on. He's changed too much, personality wise in the past five years, and that isn't natural for vamps, even just as recently turned as him. Vampires change slowly personality wise, only a momentous event generally changes qualities and patterns of their behaviour. But him... he's too different. It's not normal. Check him out. But discreetly, okay? He doesn't seem stable," I took a deep breath.

"Yes Miss, I shall do what I can," he said.

I nodded and the door opened again, strains of a music channel coming through from the living room floated through along with the smell of cooked pizza. My stomach gave a loud grumble. I stood and walked back into the kitchen, turning the oven off and pulling the pizza out. I turned around and jumped, Michael was right there, inches away from the other side of my pizza.

"Jeez Mike, don't scare me like that," I breathed, placing the pizza down before I dropped it.

Michaels bottom lip wobbled, "I'm sorry, it's just- no, never mind you're busy-," he turned around and started to walk off.

"Michael," I smiled, "You don't need to be afraid of me you know. You can ask me stuff; I'm not going to stake you."

He turned around and gave me a half hearted smiled, his hands nervously tugging the bottom of his shirt, "I was just wondering... how's Eve?"

I smiled, I should have known, "Take a seat," I said as I took the pizza cutter out of the drawer, "I'm guessing you know about the... addiction?" I glanced at him, noticing how upset he was. He nodded numbly, "Well, she's stopped. She got reconstructive surgery on her nose, it's looking good. By the sounds of it, she's turning herself around."

I pursed my lips from saying more, but Michael must have known there was a bad side to the story. "What happened?" He asked softly.

I sighed and picked up a slice of pizza, biting into it. "She did a deal with Shane. She hands over information for a nose job and a talk with me. Obviously I didn't have any objections. I was supposed to meet her in Shane's apartment but... when we got there." I took a deep breath and sighed, "Shane asked Monica to keep an eye on Eve, I don't know why he did such a dumbass thing-. But anyway, Monica must have pissed off Eve or something, and when we got there Eve had Monica pinned down with a knife to her throat. She slashed Monica's wrist and..." I drifted off, biting my lip as the memory of Eve and Shane going for each other so viciously, like they truly hated each other came back to me.

"What happened Claire?" Michael asked intently.

I sighed, "Nothing much, Eve didn't get hurt but... She was scary Michael. I've never been scared of Eve before but... she had so much hatred in her. For herself and everyone around her. It just... her and Shane started fighting when she came after me. I managed to get my dog to split them up and I was just so angry that I left. I portaled, but the system that I used isn't exactly reliable or anything, that's how I ended up in your house."

I bit my lip, regretting spilling so much, and took another bite of my cooling pizza. Reliving it made me feel miserable. I glanced at Michael, who was picking at his nails and not looking at me.

"Do you still not want to see her?" I asked softly.

He shrugged, "I'm not... I'm not the man she fell in love with, I'm..." he sighed, "this."

Now it was my turn to ask, "What happened, Michael?" I paused as I tried to get a bit of bell pepper out of my teeth, stopping when I realised I was trying to make myself stall, "In Morganville, after I left? What happened?"

He gulped, goose bumps pebbling his arms, "When Bishop rolled in he made Vassily kidnap Eve. Everyone was looking for her, trying to find her. When we finally did, she'd been gone a week and... Vassily had her strung out on drugs. We tried to get her off it but, she wasn't the same Claire, she didn't even recognise me. She joined Vassily. Just for something I couldn't give her."

"Drugs," I sucked in a breath.

Michael nodded, "It was theorised Vassily had put something else in the drug, to make her so focused on it, but I don't know. It's never been proven, and we can't know now." He gave a world weary sigh, "She left town, Shane got into that gang, and I was alone. Amelie did her best, probably because Sam wouldn't have wanted me like this, but it didn't work, and she had Bishop trying to kill her all the time. Everyone left me in Morganville."

I shivered, suddenly imagining waking up one morning to everyone gone. Leaving you forgotten and left behind like piece of broken furniture or useless junk.

"Well, I'm back now. If I'd have known this would have happened," I said, gesturing in general the whole situation, "I never would have left. First things first, bring Vassily down. He's going to pay for what he did to Eve and I think personal vengeance should come first."

Michael raised his head slowly to look at me, "How? If he knows he's being hunted..."

I smiled, "Because I ran away from Morganville he'll be underestimating me Michael, and that's where he'll mess up. If there's anything being Amelie's pet slave did, it taught me how to hit where it hurts. We just have to wait until this vampire wakes up. Now I've got some hacking to do, are you sure you'll be fine without any blood?"

Michael shrugged, "Yeah."

"Tell me if you get any cravings; don't want you going all munchy monster on me. Get some sleep Michael, I'll wake you up, don't worry," I smiled at him. I felt better now I had a goal, something to do.

He nodded and said, "Where?"

I gestured for him to follow me and led him through the living room and up the stairs. My house was three floors, four if you count the basement. I led him to the guest bedroom on the first floor and stopped in front of the door.

"Put your thumb on the scanner," I said, gesturing towards the small black square where the door handle usually is. Once he had it down I said, "Steve, allow this thumb print to be a key to this room."

Then the door swung open. I walked in. Unlike downstairs and the corridors, I tried to make the rooms as homely as possible. The room was quite small, a single bed with dark brown covers was shoved into a corner and there were book shelves on the wall above the bed. They were all my books that I'd collected from university and the few fiction that I'd ever read. The walls were a warm green and the carpet a nice beige, neutral but somehow welcoming.

"You know where the kitchen is, the bathroom is just the room next to this one. If you get too cold just ask Steve to turn the heating up. You going to be okay?" I asked.

He nodded, "Thank you, and Claire... What happened between you and Shane... it would have killed me. Inside, what happened. You've done well not letting that break you."

I grimaced as I walked out of the door and looked back at him, "It did break me Michael. I am broken. I just don't let it show."

And with that I closed the door and slowly made my way downstairs.

I walked back into my office and sighed, thinking about that night so very long ago. I'd barely even seen Shane in the past two weeks and I'd gone to find him. He was with his 'friends'. We had a full blown argument in front of them all. He'd broken my heart, said the cruellest things, and even though I'd known something was up, it was still Shane saying it. It was everything my insecurities had been screaming at me and I couldn't help but believe what he was saying to me. I'd ran away that same night, tricked the system into letting me go and made sure I couldn't be tracked.

Shane had looked for me, I know that. And I made sure that he never found me.

Breaking out of my reverie I sighed, "Steve, tell me about this alert for me? The one from this afternoon."

"The high security alert? It was activated at Forty Two minutes past One today by Bishop and it concerns all of the vampires under his rule."

I bit my lip, "So he's looking for me. Do you have a source?"

"The information gathered from the hacking earlier on today has revealed that moments before the alert Bishop received a message from Michael Glass, sourcing from outside the house. Since then Michael has sent him three more messages. One outside of Gerard's house, the second when you arrived home and the third a few seconds ago."

Dread and sadness exploded inside of me. The scars on his chest. He'd been caught and turned by Bishop. I don't know how long ago he'd been converted or if it was willing but I was so stupid! I'd been carting my worst enemy around with me all day. I thought of leaving, doing the sensible thing and running now before Michael could deliver me to his master himself, which I was sure he was planning to do at this very moment. But then shame filled me, it was my fault he was in this state in the first place. I had been the first to leave him, and because of that he'd been an easy target for Bishop. That meant that Michael was a trap, for me and for Amelie. But if Michael was a trap, what about Eve? She could have been offered pure drugs by Bishop. Or Shane, but no, Bishop had turned Frank Collins in front of Shane's eyes, Shane would never work for Bishop. That was one of the only things I knew was a fact.

"Right Steve, ready a car, preferably the stealth one. Activate the mines outside as well. We won't have long until they get here. Is Michael still in his room?" I ordered, trying to organise the facts I knew and my thoughts about them.

"Yes Ma'am."

"Knock him out with some gas. What is Gerard's status?" I asked.

"Still unconscious. Expectant to wake up in approximately three hours."

"Get the bots to load the both of them in the car. And send all of my research and hard drives into the vault. I want nothing left except food and finger prints left in this place." I stood up and walked into the living room. The TV was still blaring music.

I ran upstairs and into my room on the second floor. There I changed my clothes into a black suit and gathered up my most needed gadgets. Then I rushed back down stairs, feeling a tad more presentable just in case I was captured. I don't know what was worse, getting caught or getting caught in ripped two day old jeans with a top that had drying pizza stains on it. I was caught behind the pair of auto bots as they carefully manoeuvred Michaels limp body down the last flight of stairs. Once they got onto the ground floor I quickly grabbed my backpack and darted in front of them as I went down into the basement, pausing as a large boom echoed through the house, echoing from the front door. I carried on going when I heard the muffled blasts of the mines kicking in.

I rushed through my lab, happy to see things disappearing into the floor and into the vaults below. On the platform there was a blue car waiting for me, it was a strange combination of casual estate car and off road rally racing. Gerard was already strapped into the passenger seat.

I climbed into the driver's seat and strapped myself into the harness. Outside it looked like your average family car, but inside was a maze of complicated switches and dash boards and the floor was riddled with metal tracks. I glanced behind me, packed into the boot was a turret gun.

"Testing the turret, switch now," I said. The car hummed to life and then my seat moved and changed. It slid back and then twisted on its side, a counterpart came up under me, so that the seat was on my back like a weird turtle shell and I was sat ready to operate the turret gun. The boot of the car opened so that I had a clear shot and I slid further out so that I could shoot at all angles.

The turret was built the same as my gun, so I switched the settings so that it shot bullets to mess with mechanical things rather than vampires brains and then said, "Back to driving." The seat moved back and flipped over again, settling in front of the wheel. I grinned with pride.

"Show me the surveillance," I said before glancing around to see the progress of my lab being locked away.

The windshield flickered and then there were three separate screens showing me the front of the house. There were vampires crawling everywhere. Mud and dust were all over the street, the neighbour's cars and the house, along with bits of brick and debris. By now the vampires were going for the roof.

"Get Michael in the car, now Steve," I snarled as I put the car in gear. Half way across the now pretty empty lab the auto bots started to hurry their pace, nearly dropping Michael as they did. Twenty seconds later the door was open and they were strapping him in.

Once they had him in I was yelling to Steve to get us out of here. The auto bots hurried to get off of the platform as it lifted into the air and swung into place in the now gaping rectangular shaped hole in the drive way. The auto bots waved to us before shutting themselves down as we rose back to ground level.

The front lawn was a disaster and the house was a wreck. I pulled out of the drive, looking over at the destruction, sad that I'd lost my home. I looked forwards as the house appeared in my rear view. There was no going back now, so it was time I came back with a bang. I pressed my foot to the floor and glared at the streets as I sped through them.

It was time to get some revenge.

It was time to piss a few people off.

**World of Chaos**

It was busy, people walked along the sidewalks and rushed by in suits. This was Amelie's district, and across the road from where I was parked was her building. It was a massive fifty floor corporate tower, home to one side of the war. There was a semi circle drive way under the huge shelter, every now and then a heavily tinted car would pull up and the driver would give their keys to one of Amelies vampire valets as they entered the building, nodding to the guards who watched passively from the sides of the doors.

You wouldn't think that less than a half an hour drive away, broken homes and drained bodies lay strewn in the streets, the rubbish left over from a fight.

So my plan had kind of flopped. I didn't have long until Michael was waking up, and he was going to know that I'd found him out. I'd been meaning to dump him in front of Amelie's building, let her deal with the consequences of leaving him behind, and scram. But of course she was going to have guards. The lack of sleep was seriously starting to catch up with me. How could I have possibly not thought of the guards?

I sat back in my car and took a deep breath, tears pricking my eyes. My head pounded from my concussion, the fact I had been sat in various car seats for the past god knows how long was not doing the fact that I have whiplash any good, and my neck and shoulders hurt. I just wanted a nice hot bath and a warm bed. Nothing more, nothing less. I was physically and emotionally drained. Every time I thought of that poor girl that I'd left behind in Gerard's basement I wanted to cry my heart out and just give up.

But first I had these two vamps in my car to deal with.

I glared at the guards in front of the doors and muttered, "Fuck it."

I pulled out my phone and dialled Amelie's personal number. It hadn't changed since Morganville. It rang and rang and rang, and I sat there impatiently tapping my nails on my steering wheel. Eventually it went to voice mail.

"Amelie, I've left something outside your building for you. Next time, don't leave people behind like strays, or, like strays, someone will eventually take them in. You better sort this out." I ended the call and then put the car into gear.

"Steve, when I pull the car up, dump Michael out and close the door after him," I snarled, then pressed the accelerator and rushed across to the other side of the street, ignoring the large amount of near collisions as I cut through heavy traffic and into the drive. By the time I had got there cars were piling up on top of each other one after the other, and there was a flicker of fire under one of the bonnets. It was an explosion waiting to happen. Well, shit.

As I pulled up I looked towards the guards and then glanced at where they were moving. Not towards me, but towards the middle door. As I prepared to accelerate away I saw Amelie stood there, framed in the door way, her face a mask of shock. I glared at her before I put the car into gear and zoomed out of there; leaving Michaels body slumped on the curb like a sack of potatoes.

As I sped through the city I quickly glanced at the rear view mirror. All I could see of the car collision behind me was a mass of smoke and fire, people running out of the cloud every now and then. Then like phantoms, cars began to chase after me, trailing smoke from the cloud hovering over the heavy car pileup that I had caused. I frowned as I recognised the car's that had been idling on my lawn as their drivers had ripped their way through my roof. Then more cars joined in with the chase. Three guesses who they belonged to.

I slammed into top gear and began to desperately weave my way through inner city traffic. Only one place to go now, and hopefully Shane and Eve had gotten over their little bicker.

There, a very long chapter that took me yonks to write! Are you appeased? I've got some of the next chapter already written, and when I say some I don't mean much.

Now, just a little (maybe kinda big) explanation, I am a perfectionist when it comes to my work. (Well, I tell myself that to make myself feel better, but really it's more of an OC thing.) I will not be happy until I actually like what I've written, and until I like what I've written there is no way in hell it's going up on any kind of internet. I wrote this chapter like, a week, maybe two weeks ago, but when I was proof reading I didn't like it, so I rewrote it. And observe, I have next to no self motivation. And while I like writing, it takes a lot out of me to hunker down and write a story that follows a plot. And I still get it majorly wrong, (in the first chapter, Claire leaves the house with no shoes on. It is never mentioned again. This I just realise.) And it's little things like that that makes me want to rewrite the whole story. But anyway, I am not a professional writer, but I enjoy writing, and I love contributing to Fandoms, so I'm going to contribute at least half decent stuff and I'm going to enjoy myself while I do. But like I said, I'm not a professional writer and I have a lot of stuff going on, so I don't have much time to write. But trust me, I may take what, eight months to update? But I am not going to-

Abandon

Adopt

Give up

On my stories. I love my stories. They are my babies. They are what I share with the world. And they take me ages to write because I want to be proud of them. So there, mini rant/explanation over ;{)

And I know, if you actually read that, that you are sick of listening to me right now, but QUESTION: What is a flame? I was thinking, people say they get flamed or have done in the past, and I read every single review but I never read a flame, is it because they cut them out or something? What's the difference between a flame and criticism? Is anything other than, omg i love this story update soon! A flame? Hmm, *le stroke beard*

(BTW I don't have a beard X'{))

REVIEW!

FW :{D

TEASER FOR ANYONE WHO SAYS THEY HAVE A BEARD!