I am soooo sorry. I didn't forget this time, of course, I kinda took a trip to the ER...Oops :/ but! I made sure to get a chapter up for you guys today! Enjoy!

It was a fairly nice hotel, Claire thought when they arrived. Alucard told them which room they would be in on the top floor and that he'd be right across the hall. During the drive, Claire discovered he wasn't nearly as intimidating as he acted around Amelie. He was kind of friendly. Not like Sam, but not as cold as Amelie's other guards, either.

From their room, Claire and Shane had a clear view of the beach that was just a walk away, which they would probably visit soon, if they could. However, Amelie had most likely order that Alucard not let them in public without supervision, and the vampire couldn't exactly go to the beach and get a nice tan.

He was too flammable.

When they finally got settled in their room, Claire collapsed on the bed, then reveled in the shock of how comfortable it was. She could have fallen asleep right there. Shane went into the bathroom and she heard the shower turn on and decided to get changed into more comfortable, clean clothes and curled up under the fluffy blankets, exhausted. She worried about Michael and Eve, about Brandon's next move, but that also reminded her that Eve demanded that she call when they got settled. She grabbed her phone and dialed. Eve picked up almost immediately.

"Claire Bear? Did you guys get there? Are you okay?"

Claire laughed, "Yeah, Eve, we're fine. Shane's taking a shower and Alucard is right across the hall."

"Is he miserable?"

"Surprisingly, no. He's not too bad. He's kind of nice."

"Wow, weird." Eve said, her tone unbelieving.

"I know. So how are things there?" Claire asked nervously.

"Calm, if you can believe it. Amelie's planning up a storm for how to catch Brandon. Then we'll have you home."

Claire's brief relief came with a new flood of worries over Amelie's "plan".

She didn't exactly appreciate Amelie's plans a lot of the time, seeing as how one of them made Shane the target of Bishop, her evil father, by giving him the book that Bishop wanted so badly and having him drive around town, or when she had the brilliant idea to take advantage of the little gold bracelet on Claire's wrist and blackmail her in order to make her work with Myrnin, all the while knowing that she could be a potential meal for the ancient, sick vampire.

Not to mention Claire's punishment for killing the vampire who almost killed her. Making her work on that stupid machine with no sleep or rest, ultimately resulting in everyone's memories resetting to three years back, not only turning Amelie, herself against Claire, but also Myrnin and everyone of her friends, as well, leaving her to break terrible news to Shane, but also leaving her utterly alone and terrified when her memory reset, too.

Needless to say, Amelie's plans hadn't exactly worked well for her and her friends.

"What exactly is she planning?" Shane stepped out of the bathroom and Claire shot him a nervous look. He came over and lay down next to her, picking up one of her hands and playing with her fingers absently, his wet hair dripping on her shoulder.

"So far, she's having her guards and some other vampires try to track him. I guess she's going to try to get us to trap him or something."

"Us?" Claire asked in disbelief

"Yeah, I'm helping out too, I'll probably end up being the bait, but you know."

Yes, she did know. All too well, "No, Eve, you have to do something else, that's not safe. You'll get hurt!"

"Relax, C.B., I got Amelie's vamp army, thing protecting me. And Michael."

"If you say so," Claire mumbled.

"I do. And while I'm at it, I heard you were going someplace nice, enjoy it, C.B.! Don't sit and worry yourself gray, because, honestly, I don't think you could work that. Relax! Love ya!" then, she hung up. Claire stared uncertainly at her phone as the line went dead.

"Everything alright?"

She looked over at Shane, who still occupied her hand, "Amelie has a plan." She said flatly.

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Eve's the bait."

Shane stayed quiet for a while, no doubt trying to control his emotions, so Claire continued, "She's not worried. Apparently Amelie has a vampire army thing going on and I guess they're supposed to protect Eve."

"If she's not worried, why are you?"

"Amelie's plans don't always work out, especially when it comes to us."

Shane sighed and rubbed a thumb across Claire's cheek, "Try and get some rest. I know I'm beat."

She nodded, turning into him as her lack of sleep caught up with her.

Claire sighed as she pulled a brush through her massive bed head. Shane appeared behind her in the bathroom mirror and laughed, "Shut up," she sighed. He poked her ribs, "Someone's cranky today."

Sighing again, Claire put the brush down and leaned against the sink, "Yeah, sorry."

Shane spun her around and kissed her lightly, "What do you say about a day on the beach?"

Claire hummed her response. She had been wanting to go, it had been a week since they'd arrived and they'd mostly been cooped up in that little room, it could be just what she needed, "What about Alucard?"

"I'm sure he'll be down. Go get some stuff ready, I'll go talk to him." Claire, not surprisingly, found some bottle of sunscreen and picked out her tank top and shorts, not knowing that she would need a bathing suit.

Shane came back in as she zipped up the back of essentials for the beach, laying them on the bed "We're clear."

Claire smiled, "Okay, let me go change." She escaped, once again into the bathroom and heard the Shane's phone ring, "Hey, Mike," he answered, "How's things?"

Apparently, Shane had it on speaker, because she could hear Michael's voice, but not enough to make out the words. She heard Shane mumble something like, "No, she's in the bathroom,"

Just as she stepped out, she heard every word Michael said crystal clear, "…attacked and had to take her to the hospital. She lost a lot of blood, man." He paused, "And we lost Brandon. He ran off again."