Shane

I was hesitant to leave Claire since Brandon decided to attack again, but I was reassured knowing Michael and Eve were more alert now. I asked Mike to keep an eye on her, and as selfish as I felt, I had to get out of the house. I put on my gym shorts and sneakers and as soon as I hit the cement, I took off. I had to run, to sweat it all off. The worry, the pain. I still felt selfish, Claire was in more pain than me, was more scared, but it didn't change the fact that I had to get out of that house. I had no idea what Amelie wanted, but it can't be good.

Claire

Claire woke to the angled rays of yellow morning light filtering through her window, making her room warm and bright. She was shocked at how long she had slept, when she fell asleep, it was still daylight.

Claire jolted upright in a panic as the memories of the day before came back in a rush, making her head spin and her ribs ache at the sudden movement. She groaned, clutching at her abdomen and she felt warm hands on her back, "Claire?" Shane asked worriedly, "What is it? Did you have another nightmare or something?"

Claire shook her head and her boyfriend quickly moved to get her water and shake a small pill into his palm, handing them to her, which she took gratefully. Once she washed the medicine down and the pain began to fade, being replaced with a familiar and comfortable numbness, she asked, "What happened?"

Shane sighed, perching himself on the edge of her bed and rubbing the back of his neck, "Yeah, about that. Amelie is making a visit today."

"What? About what?" Claire demanded, sudden panic washing over her again.

Shane put a hand on her shoulder, "Relax. We don't know yet, but whatever it is, we're in it together. Okay?"

She nodded reluctantly and decided she needed a shower. Maneuvering slowly and carefully, with the occasional help of Shane as she got off her bed, she was able to manage it successfully, even in her haze.

She wasn't particularly fond of pain medicine.

It had the perks of lessening her pain, yet made her mind work slowly, which was incredibly frustrating. Especially to a science nerd.

Still, the warm water did well to relax her tense and aching muscles and gave her some alone time to think. What could Amelie want? Surely she wasn't in trouble?

No. Not this time, Brandon came after her.

Maybe she caught him. Maybe Claire was now safe from the savage vampire. Her hope quickly took a down turn as she imagined her captor somehow resurrected again, and shuddered, redirecting her thoughts.

Sighing, Claire shut off the water when it started spraying cold and got dressed. Shane wasn't in her room so she guessed everyone was downstairs and took a deep breath, expecting to meet with Amelie.

She was right, as Claire descended the stairs, she saw Amelie standing in the living room in all of her powerful glory and Claire was surprised to see that her elegant platinum hair was not twined in the usual crown on her head, but hanging down to her lower back. Of course, she knew Claire was there and turned her cold, ice blue eyes on Claire.

"Ah, Claire. How nice to see you well and rested. I see your recovery is well underway, come, sit."

Sometimes, Claire found it odd that Amelie invited them to do things in their own house, as if they were guests, until she remembered that it was technically Amelie's house.

Claire hastily moved to sit with Shane as Amelie moved to look at Claire directly.

"Claire, I would like you to relocate to some place safe. Away from Morganville, and away from Brandon, until we discover and kill him. I need you safe and unharmed, Claire, you are far too important to Morganville and we cannot have a repeat of the recent events. You will stay in the location I have provided for you until I contact you to let you know it is safe to come back. And you will come back."

Claire stared in disbelief.

Okay, so kind of a cliffhanger there. So, this is up to you guys. If you want a brief look into next chapter and Claire's answer, give me….oh, at least 5 comments telling me that you want it. At least by 7 pm tomorrow. Also, to those of you who have hinted at me about Clyrnin, I'm sorry, I love Myrnin, I think he's the cutest, funniest, craziest scientist vampires ever, but in no way do I support Clyrnin. No offense to those who do ship them, but you will see no Clyrnin stories or moments from me. I love Shane too much, and if I could, I would marry him myself. Well, I'm at 7,717 words now on the version of this I'm doing for creative writing. It's not close to 25,000, but it's progress. Wish me luck!