The moment you've all been waiting for is here, so i hope you enjoy it. Some of what happens here will only make as much sense as it does to me if you've read 'Last Breath'.
Let me know if you're happy with how this has gone now? :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing affiliated with Morganville Vampires.
'What?' Eve gasped, her eyes wide, her hand clinging to Michaels. Shane stood frozen, staring at the flickering black and white image of Frank before him.
'How could you possibly do that?' Amelie practically growled. It looked like she wanted to tackle Frank's image to the ground and beat the answer out of him, but instead she clenched her little fists to her side and glared.
'The DNA samples in my system, so I know who it is leaving or entering town. Claire has one. If you could find a way to make the porous material in the foundations of a founders house absorb her blood, then you could ghost her, get her somehow into the hidden room, and then break the house.' Frank sounded so sure that it would work. Shane thought it sounded like a long shot, and Eve's expression told him that she thought the same thing, but both Michael and Amelie were contemplating this.
'How would breaking a house with Claire's ghost in help at all?' Eve demanded. It did sound like a silly long shot.
'We break the hidden room, if she is inside at the time, then she will come out alive if someone pulls her out in time. It's the only shot if you really want her back.' Frank sounded bitter and continued to glare at Shane, who still hadn't said anything. Michael and Amelie still looked like they understood this more than both Eve and Shane.
'Myrnin?' Amelie raised her voice a little so he would hear.
'Yes, Amelie?' Myrnin's voice echoed back along the cave and into the room, he sounded irritated and tired.
'Could you return, for a moment. Mr Collins may have the solution we have been searching for.' Shane startled a little at this. They had been looking for a way to bring her back? News to him. Maybe that's why they hadn't buried her yet. Myrnin appeared back at Amelie's side in seconds, his eyes wide and earnest, but suspicious at the same time. Like he couldn't quite believe that Frank would try to save the same girl he'd had killed.
'How exactly, do you plan to bring her back to us?' Myrnin growled, taking a step towards Frank's flickering image. Frank explained it again, and Myrnin's eyes glassed over while he looked like he was considering it. Suddenly he whirled and grabbed Amelie's hands. The look on his face was so desperate that it was almost terrifying.
'It may work, Amelie. We must try. We will use one of the few founder homes that solely belong to you, it will accept your blood into it's foundations. We mix a tiny part of your blood with Claire's and put that into the house. I've pulled someone out from the smashed hidden room before.' His grip looked like it tightened around her hands and his sheer desperate enthusiasm gave Shane a flicker of hope.
'Are you saying this might work, that we could bring her back?' Shane asked. Myrnin turned his head and looked at him, his eyes still held that terrible desperation.
'It might.'
'We have to do it. We have to.' Myrnin nodded and then turned his attention back to Amelie, who considered for a moment more and then nodded to him. Myrnin's shoulder slumped in something that looked like relief and he turned to the flickering image.
'If you try and stop this, interfere in anyway. I will turn you off in the most painful way you could imagine.' The flickering image of Frank nodded, but said nothing.
'Were do you keep the DNA samples?' Michael asked, Eve was still clinging to him but she looked more hopeful now, less confused and sceptical. Even Shane was allowing the waves of hope and possible relief flow over him. They could bring her back, he could feel it, he knew this would work. It had to.
'They're at the blood bank.' Myrnin replied, already making his way towards the wall where he would create the portal. 'There's a doorway into a cleaning cupboard there. Come along.' Amelie followed after him, and a second later Michael led the others across. They all turned their backs on Frank and had to trust he would do nothing to compromise this. He said nothing as they left.
Shane was sure that there would be people around who would find it weird that they were all stepping out of a cleaning cupboard, but they followed Amelie out into the reception area of the blood bank and no one even blinked at their sudden appearance. Like it was an everyday thing. Maybe it was. Amelie told the three of them to wait while her and Myrnin went to the receptionist, a moment later they were on their way into the deepest part of the bank that Shane had ever been in, and one step closer to bringing Claire back.
It took longer than expected to reach the room, and a lot of security. None of them stopped the group though, instead crossing their arms across their chests in respect to Amelie and opening doors for them. The room was clean, white and sterile, with rows and rows of little vials filled with blood in glass cabinets along the walls. Shane shuddered, and he watched as Eve had the same reaction. Michael's face went blank and emotionless, like he was trying to hide how he was feeling.
Everything was alphabetised, each vial had it's own label on it, and it took only a few moments to find the one marked 'Danvers, Claire.' Amelie swiped a key card in the slot next to the container holding them and plucked Claire's out carefully, wrapping it in a white cloth and sliding it into an inside pocket of her pastel coloured jacket. Another ten minutes later and they were back in the cleaning closet and debating on which house to use for bring Claire back.
'We could use the one closest to founders square. It would be easiest.' Michael suggested.
'No, that one is the first, we can not risk ruining it.' Amelie replied, Michael just sighed and stepped back to take Eve's waiting hand.
'What about the one Claire's folks were in?' Shane asked, Myrnin looked at him with consideration, like he'd said something smart. 'I mean, they're not planning on coming back and it's still empty, right?'
'Yes, yes that might work. Amelie?' Myrnin turned and looked over at the founder who was now flicking through frequencies at the portal and looking for the right place. Shane couldn't understand how she knew which was which, all the rooms going past looked the same to him. Claire had tried to explain it to him once, but it had been too scientific. Eventually, Amelie landed on what Shane could only assume was the correct one and stepped through without a word, Myrnin followed, then Shane. Michael and Eve brought up the rear, and then the portal slammed shut behind them.
'How do we do this?' Eve asked, her voice more light and hopeful than it had been in what felt like a long time.
'I add my blood to the vial of Claire's and then we pour it into the foundations. It'll have to be the floor of the basement. Myrnin will wait just outside of the hidden room. Once you feel the house react, that means that Claire will have ghosted. Tell her that it will be ok, and that if she will just go to the hidden room like the one in the Glass house, then we can fix this. Once in there, Myrnin will break the rooms own protections and pull out Claire.' Amelie explained matter of factly, while pulling out the vial of Claire's blood and pulling out the stopper. Myrnin produced a small folding knife from his own pocket and Amelie held out her hand for him to cut. The blade cut a deep line across her finger and she dripped her own blood in with Claire's until the vial was completely full. A moment later, the cut healed up and the bleeding stopped.
Amelie and Myrnin shared a look and then she took off for the basement, Myrnin left to open the door way to the hidden room and wait for Claire. Michael, Eve and Shane stood very quietly, waiting and listening for anything that might indicate that Claire was back. Nothing happened in what felt like a very long time, and the hope that Shane had been feeling was beginning to fade away, until a coldness flowed through the house and caused him to shudder. It felt like the house itself vibrated with the change. Claire was here. Eve gave out a little half-sob half-sigh sound and reached her free hand out to Shane, who took it.
'Claire, sweetie? If you can hear us, it's okay. I promise it's okay. We're going to fix this, you just have to get to the hidden room, okay? Do something, anything to let us know that you understand, please CB.' Eve called out. It felt like the house was taking a breath before a colder line of air blew across all three of their necks.
Claire was floating in darkness one moment, and then the next, she wasn't. It was like a jolt of electricity flowed through her, into her, and brought her out into the light. She was stood in a room that looked very much like the front room of the Glass house, but wasn't. It still had some remnants of her parents furniture scattered around and Claire knew where she was. It was very confusing, and she didn't know how she'd gotten there or why she felt so odd, until she turned around and saw Shane, Michael and Eve stood there all huddled together and holding hands. She watched as they shuddered as if they were cold, but they looked straight through her like she wasn't there.
'Shane?' Claire called out, taking a step towards them. No one reacted, until Eve began to talk.
'Claire, sweetie? If you can hear us, it's okay. I promise it's okay. We're going to fix this, you just have to get to the hidden room, okay? Do something, anything to let us know that you understand, please CB.' Okaayyy Claire thought to herself, trying to work out what was going on, until suddenly it clicked. They were in a founders house, and she was there, but they couldn't see her. Claire tried to remember where she'd been last and could only remember hearing Frank's laugh and feeling that monster pulling the blood from her body. She must have died, and now she was a ghost, but they had a way to fix it? Claire decided that it wasn't important right now, and did the only thing she could think of. Carefully, she concentrated any energy she could gather, like Michael had once explained to her, and walked behind them, drawing a finger along each of their necks before setting off in the direction of the hidden room.
A door down from what had been her bedroom stood Myrnin, he looked desperate, hopeful and tired as he waited by the open entrance to the hidden room. Claire gathered her energy together again and put a hand against his arm. Myrnin gasped.
'Claire?' He whispered quietly. Claire pushed harder against his arm and watched as his eyes shut and he shuddered, a slight smile etched on his mouth.
'Now, Claire, don't worry about this. I can do this, I promise. It's going to feel different inside the room, there will be less energy for one. I'm going to break the room and you'll see it like glass shattering. When my hand appears, I want you to grab it. I'll pull you out, don't worry. I promise you Claire, I will keep you safe.' Myrnin sounded excited and optimistic, something she had rarely ever heard from him before. She glanced a look behind her to see Shane, Michael, Eve and Amelie appear at the top of the stairs and come towards them. Amelie and Myrnin nodded to each other, and it seemed like a signal to Claire. She took a deep breath, looked over them all one last time, and went into the room.
Myrnin had been right, the energy was significantly less inside this room. It was like it actually was glass, and the energy was like oxygen in a small enclosed space, slowly running out. Claire stumbled and landed on her knee's on the floor. Slowly, she put her head between her fallen knees and tried to breath deeply and conserve what energy she had left. She had to trust Myrnin would get her out of this trapped, claustrophobic little room in time.
What felt like a lifetime later, but was in fact only a moment, she felt a pressing of power against the outside of the glass. It cracked and broke apart in rivets around the room and Claire looked up. The cracks began to trace around the room as the pressure from outside increased. It was getting hard to breath as the energy inside the room began to dissipate quickly. Claire began to scream with what air she had left, and then the room shattered.
Shane stood as close to Myrnin as he could get without encroaching on his personal space and felt the entire house react to what was happening. Both he and Eve couldn't see what was happening, but Myrnin was concentrating very hard and both Michael and Amelie looked at the wall with great concentration. The wall that Myrnin had his hands pressed against began to shimmer and shake, and Myrnin's hands pushed through it. He let out a cry of half-surprise and half-success and continued to press his hands into the wall.
'Claire!' He called out, his voice strained with the effort. 'Claire grab my hand!' A faint shape wrapped itself weakly around the shape of Myrnin's hand through the shimmering wall and tried to hold on, but the shape of it flickered like a torch running out of batteries. Myrnin laid his other hand on top of the flickering shape of Claire's hand and tried to hold.
'Claire, hold on!' Myrnin practically screamed and began to pull backwards to pull her our. The shape of Claire's hand flickered more and what sounded like a scream came from inside of the room.
'SHANE!' Claire's voice echoed through the hallway and Shane sobbed harshly, reaching out and thrusting his hand into the shimmering space of the wall. A second faint, flickering hand grabbed onto his and he felt it like some kind of heavy pressure. Myrnin looked over at him, panic settling into his face, and nodded. At the same time they both pulled hard on the hands they held. The room inside sounded like it was breaking into a million pieces, and the echo of Claire's voice screamed through the hallway, until suddenly, the noise stopped. The sound of breaking stopped, the screams stopped, everyone held their breath as the house dropped into a new kind of silence. Everything was frozen for a while, just staring, until Claire began to fall sideways, and everyone moved to catch her.