Chapter 17:

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Claire's POV:

(This is a dream by the way)

I see him: I see Shane. He is wandering through the fields around Morganville and looks lost, hurt, confused… he doesn't seem to know where he is going or what he is doing… he's alone.

I rush through the prairies towards him and call his name: "Shane, Shane!" I cry every few seconds when I breathe, the distance between us shrinking with every huge leap I take. But he doesn't turn… he doesn't react to my shrieks for him, nor does he give any sign that he hears my approach behind him: he just stands there.

I reach him finally and shake his shoulders, trying to get him to see me – it's as if I'm a ghost and he is just staring in a direction… he can't see me and this worries me…

"Shane!" I whisper his name into his face as I hold onto him, pulling him down to my level. Though he reacts, he doesn't seem to know why he is moving and he still doesn't see me – why? "Come on honey, I've missed you! Haven't you missed me?" I continue, tears beginning to stream down my cheeks as I realise that he can't see me for some reason.

Suddenly, someone appears behind me: it isn't that I can hear their approach, not at all, but rather the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end… it's a vampire. they pull me away from Shane, who doesn't seem to notice any of this exchange, and back to Morganville, back to the control of Amelie and the vampires…

All the while, I kick and scream but they don't react: I don't know who the vampire is but they are bringing me back. Violently, they shove their hand over my mouth to shut me up and accidentally strike my head in the process. Yet, I continue to fight and refused to let them win, even as they take me into a council building and set me down in one of the wooden, hard chairs – for visiting humans… who aren't going to leave.

Some other vampire I don't know approaches me, and their fangs are extended. I know what they are going to do and fight to get away from them, kick and scream but they continue to advance, taking ahold of my neck and slowly bending towards it… they begin to drain my blood, and I begin to fade and fade into… nothingness…

(End of dream)

"Claire, Claire, wake up – it's only a dream!" someone shakes me back to consciousness and I open my bleary eyes to see… Michael? No… Michael has blonde hair – who is this?

"W-who are you?" I whisper, my brain unable to catch up to what is going on – somewhere inside, I know I recognise him… but he's a vampire. The only thing I can think about vampires right now is that awful dream, how they stole me from Shane who didn't even recognise me and then killed me.

His brow furrows at my lack of recognition towards him, and it floods back into my mind who he is – Sam, Michael's Grandad. "Claire, I'm Sam, remember?" he says gently, helping me sit upright on the sofa.

"Yeah… sorry… I forgot," I say, still unable to get the images from the dream out of my mind. I realise I'm crying and that my throat is killing – why? "Um… I don't know what I was going to say," I laugh weakly but then recoil at the pain in my throat: what? Why does my throat hurt?

Sam hands me a glass of water already on the side and I gulp it down, wincing as it strikes the pain in my throat before gradually soothing it. "When I came in, you were thrashing around and screaming your head off – you were already waking up but I helped you," he explains, disappearing into the kitchen and returning with an apple. He throws it across the room at me and I duck, but just about manage to catch it.

"Thanks, Sam," I say, biting into the apple and realising just how hungry I am. I take a glance at the clock and realise its 4pm – the time he said he would be coming over. Have I really been asleep for four and a bit hours? Whoa, that is weird – and if I had that dream across the entire time, no wonder my throat hurt! "How's Michael now? When can he come home?" I ask him and he laughs at my sudden change in subject.

"I think he should be back definitely next week – it's hard to explain what's going on with him and how vampires recuperate but it's not something that you want to be around Claire, seriously," he tells me gravely and I know that he is right: I couldn't cope with seeing Michael all vampirey… he's Michael to me and to see him struggling would be like a little kid realising that Santa Clause is just it's parents – it would make me realise that Michael really is a monster underneath all the angelic looks.

"Ok," I sigh before smiling slightly at Sam. "What do you want to do tonight?" I ask him and he smiles back at me, shrugging.

"Could watch a film, if you want?" he suggests and I nod, not really bothered. It's strange being in the house all by myself… normally there should be Shane, Michael and Eve… but one of them is on the run because Oliver saved him, one is recuperating after almost being blown to pieces and one of them is in hospital after narrowly missing death by her brother shooting her.

"What do you want to watch? Before you say anything, I don't care," I whisper, the realisation that, of the four of us, the only non-Morganville native is left here.

He hesitates before placing a hand on my shoulder and pulling me into his chest for a hug. Here, I just sob and sob, venting all my feelings from the past week or two into his shirt… which doesn't do it any damage at all. "Sam, I'm sorry about your shirt," I say with a small smile as I finally stop crying after about fifteen minutes.

He laughs and looks down at the soaking wet patch on the shoulder of his shirt and shrugs. He stands up and hesitates before making a decision in his mind as to doing something – but what? "Come on, Claire, there is something I should show you – after all, you're in the house alone now and if there are any emergencies you need to be able to get out without using the door," he says to me, pulling me up without effort to stand next to him. Carefully, he tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear before taking me across the room to look at… the wall.

"Sam, I'm not really seeing the importance of a wall," I sigh, but he shakes his head.

"Amelie'll kill me," he mutters to himself before turning back to me. "Claire, you know how last night we went from the council building to here in the space of a second?" he asks me but I shake my head.

"I don't remember anything after Amelie draining my blood," I confess and he grimaces.

"Right, ok, Claire, you don't need to know the specifics because I am entirely the wrong person to go into that, but there are methods of transport around Morganville… for special people, people who know," he tells me, sounding as if he is bound by something not to tell me… or he just wants me to guess for myself. With the lack of speech from me, he waves an arm and suddenly…

… WOAH! Is that a door?

"Portals?" I confirm, as I open the door to see… black… it's just empty. But as soon as Sam looks into it, I suddenly see an apartment which is sparsely furnished but is covered in books… I take it that that is Sam's place then.

"There is a machine in Morganville that controls the way that people forget things as soon as they leave the boundaries and various other things, but you don't need to know them. Claire, this machine means that there are doorways, portals, from places in Morganville to others – all the Founders Houses are linked together, along with Common Grounds, though Oliver doesn't know it, the Hospital and an assortment of others," he tells me urgently –but why is he telling me, if Amelie didn't want me to know? Speaking of that, why didn't Amelie want me to know?

"Why did she not want me to know?" I ask him quietly, as we face his apartment – it seems so weird to see somewhere which I know is across town appear just through a door!

"I think it is because you signed with Oliver – if you had gone 'with her' she would have told you," he predicts an answer from a very complicated woman's brain – she is crazy, though, because what woman in their right mind would turn someone like Sam away who is obviously entirely in love with her? Jeez… she's absolutely puddled, up the wrong tree!

"So is this just incase of an emergency or something then?" I confirm and he nods, instantly on guard and worried.

"You cannot tell her that I told you, Claire, you just can't," he begs of me and I feel sorrow and anger for him. sorrow because he is so scared that she will use anything against him so that he can't be near her, and anger because he shouldn't have to act like this to be with the woman he loves; if she loves him, she should be with him, not hiding away and playing on his feelings to get him to do anything she wants him to.

"I promise I won't, Sam, truly," I confirm and he nods, evidently relaxing slightly at my complete honesty and acceptance that I won't tell the woman he loves that he basically betrayed her confidence… but the fact that she showed him shows how she does love him. Perhaps there is hope for them, after all.

"I'm going to go and get changed so why don't you choose a film or something that we can take back to your house to watch and then maybe order a pizza?" he suggests, already disappearing into his room to change the shirt – probably going to go for another one of the exact same style. Well, he is the teacher - he needs to appear professional!

I select Harry Potter number 6 to watch because Sam doesn't exactly have girly films and this series is one of the only ones I could watch without getting more nightmares. Once I have selected this, Sam is already back, now wearing an emerald green shirt: I was right about it being the same style.

"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – good choice," he says with an easy grin, already dialling a number for pizza. "Margarita?" he confirms with me and I nod, walking through the portal back to my house with a touch of hesitancy and trepidation – to be walking all the way across town in one step is so strange! I would love to know more about the way that this has been set up but I doubt that I will ever be able to, if Amelie doesn't trust me enough to tell me about the portals. I mean, all I've done is rescue the book to give to her from Oliver and save Michael's life by voluntarily giving him blood. Nothing at all there, is there?

I set the film up whilst Sam gets drinks and then collects the pizzas (he got a ham one) from the delivery vampire – of course, a human would refuse to work at this late hour.

OoOoOo

"Claire, it's time to go," he shakes me awake again, but it isn't so bad this time. I fell asleep after the film on his shoulder and he stayed with me for the past few hours, so I wasn't alone: evidently, I only get the scary nightmares when I'm sleeping in the house alone. That's an issue for tomorrow night then, because I can't make him come and stay here every night, can I?

"Urgh," I groan as I wake myself up after only about four hours of sleep. He laughs at me and hands me another drink – coffee – to wake me up enough to pay attention in his class.

"This isn't late for a vampire, you know," he tells me and I nod, unable to talk as I wipe the sleep from my eyes.

"Well, thank god for the fact that I'm not a vampire then," I smile and he ruffles my already messed up hair before standing up.

"I wasn't kidding, Claire, sorry but we have to go," he tells me softly, helping me up. I retie my hair back and make myself at least semi presentable before following him out of the door, only stopping to pick my bag up on the way out.

We drive faster than I thought was possible in an urban area to reach the university in record time, I scared out of my wits because the windows are so tinted that I have no chance of seeing out of them! Sam then almost dragged me upstairs to the room where he teaches and, what a surprise, there were no students in there yet.

"They're normally late but if I am ever late then they give me hell," he explains, sitting me down at the table closest to him, so he can protect me if the others get arsey. I'd have thought wearing Oliver's symbol would be enough, but I want Sam's protection as well.

"What are we studying?" I ask him, getting a pen and paper out of my bag in preparation for the lesson. As he writes on the board the useless lesson WALTs and WILFs, he answers:

"We're reading and then analysing Lord of the Flies," he tells me and I groan. "What, you don't like the book?" he asks me with a surprised tone to his voice.

"I absolutely detest it," I inform him in a quiet voice, hitting my head on the table.

"Good job, because we aren't really reading it – we're going to start Great Expectations tonight," he says in a cheery tone, coming and sitting on the desk in front of me. My head shoots up and I narrow my eyes as I look at him, wondering whether or not he is kidding me here as well, and which book we are actually going to do.

"Are you kidding?" I ask but he shakes his head, tossing a fresh copy of Great Expectations at me from the side. "Yay, this is awesome! I had to read Lord of the Flies in school and it was the hardest time of my life," I tell him and he smiles, evidently agreeing with me.

"I was already a vampire when it was released but it was quite possibly the worst book I have ever read," he agrees with me before suddenly standing up. "The other students are coming in now, so just be careful, ok?" he says to me, evidently concerned for my wellbeing.

I half snort, thinking I've lived through Oliver searching for the book, everything with Monica, a possible shooting attempt and a bomb, as well as being signed with Oliver: how could vampires register on the list? But then I remember them and how scary they are and shudder,

"I'll be careful, honest," I say meekly and Sam nods, evidently happy with this.

"Good," he tells me shortly, a slight coolness to his voice. "As I promised Michael that I would look after you, and I can't have you messing that up," he continues: oh… ok then… be good, just to help Sam… but I should do.

"Believe me, we're going to be fine," I say with a grin, absentmindedly twisting the bracelet on my wrist. I belong to Oliver… and I can never forget it.

Oliver's POV – the next day:

She has had a day or two to herself now, and that is time enough. For the full effects of my plan to come into action, she needs to get into action soon. Otherwise the stunt with removing the most influential vampires and humans in town will have been for nothing – it will make this event pale in comparison to what it has the potential of doing.

Amelie loves children… so she ought to love them still, after what Claire will do.

I turn in my office and smile as I see the products bought with the alias' credit card that I use to ensure Amelie doesn't track down what I have ordered, so that it cannot be traced back to me…

… After all, what would I want to do with 1500 cubic metres of gas?

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What do you think is Ollypop's next *evil* action?

Review please!

I'm off on holiday now!

Vicky xx