Chapter 2:

WHEW! Overwhelming response last chapter! 11 reviews? In the opening night? Sheesh, I'd love that response on EVERY story, so thanks for them!

*time frame* this fic is set after Glass Houses but before Dead Girl's Dance.

Just going to reply to 'ew' here, as it was annoymous. Tbh, I agree with you - it is rather disgusting, at the minute; then again, you haven't seen what I know should be coming en el futuro to know why that wasn't what it was :P

On with the chappy!

Claire's POV:

Oh my god. WHAT have I been doing? Why is my head fuzzier than I don't know what and absolutely kills when I touch it?

My hand moves gingerly down from my head (the pain was exacerbated by Eve's yelling for me to get up... Says the girl who was going back to bed) to my neck and stops in horror.

Why have I got fang marks in my neck?

I move across the room to the mirror in horror, forgetting the aches and pains in my head as I crane my head to get a better look at them. The holes in my neck... Some vampire has bitten me! But why don't I remember? Oh god, I don't remember anything since about 2pm yesterday... It's 6am now. That's 16 hours which have gone by in a flash - whatever happened, it cannot have been good if it ended (or started) with a vampire biting my neck. Just frickin' great; exactly what we need, isn't it? That I've been bitten by a vampire and I don't remember!

I move to cover the wound with my hand, wincing as the raised and angry skin protests as I do so, leaving my finger sticky from touching the healing bite. The pain of this, in conjunction with the searing agony returning in my head, drives me nearly insane.

A cold wind breezes over me and I realise that Michael is in the room. Shit... He's seen the fact that my neck contains fang bites.

"Jeez, Michael, give me some privacy in my own room!" I whisper, trying to laugh but a stabbing pain in my head stopping me mid-attempt. "If I don't feel you leave in less than three seconds, I'll tell Eve you're a pervert and I'm sure she'll dump you instantly. Swirl over me now if you understand," I hiss, force behind my tone even though it's quiet. I feel him cross me once, even as a spirit managing to say 'we'll talk later', before disappearing entirely.

Now the room is my own again, I flop backwards onto the bed, panting as I try to ignore the stabbing pain in my head. For many a minute, I lie on my bed and breathe in and out but it doesn't get any better, so I decide that I should get dressed.

I decide not to bother with a shower; I'm late for school and having a shower will just take too much of the time in which I could be eating or drinking coffee. Hey, here's a thought: I could use the time to walk to school so I'm not late again.

Slowly, I walk over to the other side of the room where my wardrobe is, feeling as if the three or so metres are a wide chasm I have to leap across otherwise I'd fall into a pit of molten lava. Oh wait, the lava is already in my neck and head; maybe I'm jumping across the vampire that did this to me, the one who has made me feel so weak and empty.

Once at my wardrobe, I search through it for the jumper I have that covers my neck; Michael may know but he's not here yet and I cannot be bothered with Shane or Eve going off about the bite. Firstly because it's hard enough for me to wrap my head around and secondly because I cannot deal with their yelling and overly used use of an exclamation mark. I decide up on a pair of blue jeans, the rolled neck jumper I brought with me (who cares if it's summer... I'll just blame a cold or something) and a simple pair of trainers so if this vampire comes after me again, I can outrun them. This idea works in theory, or at least in my head, but I doubt it will in real life. The only way I would have a chance of outrunning a vampire is if it was the middle of the day, they were covered in silver chains and I was faster than Usain Bolt.

Once dressed, I simply walk downstairs without even brushing my hair; I tied it back without having to prevent myself from screaming which I know I would have done if I had have tried to brush it. My rucksack is at the bottom of the stairs and I wonder if I can guilt sucker Eve or Shane into giving me a lift to uni because, to be honest, walking in this state is just going to kill me. With all the ways I could die in this town, exhaustion or traffic are the seriously mediocre choices!

"Finally, sleepyhead, you're up!" Eve says with a yawn from behind the kitchen door. Her voice gives me a fright even bigger than when I found out there was vampires in this town, and I involuntarily jump. This motion causes me to wince as the movement agonises my head even more. My hand instantly raises to my throat but I pass it off as a movement of fright, dropping it down to my heart after a fraction of a second.

"Jeez, Eve, you frightened me more than half to death; something even living in Morganville hasn't managed to do yet!" I exclaim as she appears in my line of sight, a wide grin on her face. That's already the worrying thing; since when does Eve EVER smile like that this early in the morning?

"Oh come off it, Claire, I'm not that scary!" she says in a cheerful tone, pouring us both coffee. I slide into one of the stools we use for breakfast and lower my head to roll the bottle of milk along my forehead. It soothes it slightly but I know that it either won't last or that I can't take a bottle of milk (which will eventually get warm) into class with me. "Anyway, drink up because we both have big days ahead of us: you, doing whatever genius' do and me... Working at the coffee house on campus!" she does a little dance but the only excited motion I can muster up is a half hearted smile.

"That's great, Eve," I say quietly and she looks disenheartened.

"You could sound a little more excited," she grumbles before turning to face me, my coffee (complete with a tonne of milk) in her hand. "Here you- holy crap! What the hell is wrong with you?" she begins before changing sentence mid way when she looks at me. Her loud voice doesn't change volume or pitch as she says the last bit; in fact, it seems to antagonise my head further! I point to my head without looking away from the coffee pot.

"Headache," I mumble before hearing her moving. Why Eve finds it necessary to wear high heeled shoes in the house ('clack clack' is all you hear), I don't know, but right now I wish she wouldn't!

"Oh right... Sorry," she whispers as she opens cupboard doors and closes them quietly. Finally, I hear her popping out pills before tiptoeing over to me to place them in your hand. "That'll sort it out... As long as it's not a hangover... Not that you should have a hangover at your age," she says, sounding stern by the end.

I lift my head up and down the pills with a little coffee before setting it down on the side with a small thud. Fifteen minutes I wait until they begin to kick in... I hope that when this goes I can remember something, otherwise Michael is just going to yell even more because I don't know who did it or what happened.

OoOoOo

"The working girl and the genius have arrived home," Eve yells, forgetting that my head is still tender. The pills this morning may have helped a little but the constant babbling of other students throughout the day has just exacerbated and elongated the problem. The wound on my neck has been killing as well, throbbing every single second. I considered going to Common Grounds for a coffee at lunch (as it's sooo much cheaper than the UC) but I didn't. I went yesterday; I remember walking into the coffee shop, but nothing further. Yet I doubt Oliver would have bitten me - the café will have been full of people and there is no way in hell I'd have gone back into his office!

"Working girl?" Shane's voice suddenly calls out of the kitchen, his head popping around the door. "Jeez, Eve, get out of here! We don't want a prostitute littering our doorstep... Although you're certainly dressed for the job!"

Eve removes one of her shoes and lobs it in his direction before racing after him. The door slams shut and leaves me alone in a house where I know Michael is... Somewhere. I walk slowly forwards into the living room and make my way up the stairs, almost comatose.

As soon as I reach the top of the stairs, a strong arm yanks me towards the area of wall where I know the secret room is. I stifle a scream - natural reaction when startled in Morganville - as I see the blonde hair of Michael in front of me as I am dragged up the stairs. Once we're at the top, Michael locks the door and I know that I can't escape until he decides my answers are good enough.

"So, let's start with the most obvious question," Michael says in a tone barely concealing his anger. "Who bit you?"

I move from my position at the top of the stais to sit down next to him on the sofa. All the while, I think desperately for an answer, always coming back to the same one.

"I don't know," I answer honestly, his eyes flipping over my face in confusion and anger.

"You don't know which vampire bit you?" he asks, increduled. I nod very slowly and he laughs a laugh that matches his tone. "Bloody hell, Claire, that's ridiculous! What the hell happened before that?"

"Michael... I don't know, I can't remember," I say, my lower lip quaking slightly as I digest what I'm saying. "The last thing I remember is walking into Common Grounds about 2pm. I don't remember even walking into the café... Everything is gone. I woke up this morning and lost sixteen hours, but had a ridiculous headache that felt like knives were being thrust into my head and bite marks in my neck. I'm so confused and I don't know what to do..." I break down into tears but Michael doesn't move. Rather, he doesn't move at first... Suddenly he moves forwards and hugs me, allowing me to press my face into his shoulder. I wrap my arms around his back and cry my heart out.

"Sshhh... Claire, you'll get to the bottom of it," he whispers as he clutches me close. "It's going to be ok, I mean you're fine, aren't you? You haven't died. If you want, I can speak to Amelie and see if she knows anything," he continues and I shake my head.

"Don't... I'll try and get some information and stuff," I mumble through my tears. "I'll go... I'll go see Oliver," I whisper, knowing that this can be the only place that any information could be found. I don't want to go to Amelie, so Oliver is the only person left to ask.

"If that's what you think," he replies, something in his voice that I can't identify.

I nod and cry even more into Michael's shoulder. Having him close to me makes me feel as if my neck is pretty ok, as if there isn't a wound there. He hugs me back and soothes me until the tears run dry.

I don't know what's going on or anything. Yet I need to find out... Otherwise how am I going to manage to move on?

Oliver's POV:

Ahhh, my masterplan has been set in action. Kissing her seemed to be the icing on the cake to the other manipulative things I have begun to make Claire fall for me. The things I have done to make sure that she will do everything that I say seem to be workng as well.

I turn my attention to the corner, where my map of Morganville is. Approximately 1/5 of it is currently under my control, 3/5 definitely under Amelie's and the remaining areas 'neutral'... But not for long. Claire will be helping me take over Morganville, but she won't know that. She won't know what she is doing or remember when I instruct her to forget. She won't be able to convey any information to anyone... Ever since I bit her and she responded to that, she has been mine and only my compulsion can work on her.

Hmmm... What should I have her do first? Well, Brandon is getting rather irritable to have around; he's always trying to infringe on my customers and my blood.

I'll arrange her to have him killed. Maybe I'll even watch. It could be rather amusing.

Ahhh, all this power. All from a kiss; who knew it could be so powerful?

So, what did you think?

I had a maths exam today, and spent like 40 mins of the hour thinking up how this story is going to progress (I finished it early!) so I now have an entire plan of how it's going on!

Please review... You know you want to! 11 reviews... Let's beat it!

Vicky xx