Morganville Vampires [01] Glass Houses by Rachel Caine Page B

get on Monica’s—”
    “Shit list?” he supplied, and drilled a few dozen bullets into a lunging zombie in a prom dress. “You don’t have to do much, just not crawl on your belly every time she walks in a room.” Which, she noticed, wasn’t exactly an answer. Exactly. “What’d you do?”
    “I, uh…I made her look stupid.”
    He hit some control and froze the game in mid-scream, and turned to look at her. “You what?”
    “Well, she said this thing about World War II being about the Chinese, and—”
    Shane laughed. He had a good laugh, loud and full of raw energy, and she smiled nervously in return. “You’re feistier than you look, C. Good one.” He held up a hand. She awkwardly smacked it. “Oh, man, that’s sadder than the video game thing. Again.”
    Five hand smacks later, she had mastered the high five to his satisfaction, and he unfroze the video game.
    “Shane?” she asked.
    This time, he sighed. “Yeah?”
    “Sorry, but—about your sister—”
    Silence. He didn’t look at her, didn’t give any indication he’d heard a word. He just kept on killing things.
    He was good at it.
    Claire’s nerve failed. She went back to her textbook. It didn’t seem quite as exciting, somehow. After half an hour, she bagged it, stood, stretched, and asked, “When does Michael get up?”
    “When he wants to.” Shane shrugged. “Why?” He made a face and narrowly avoided getting his arm clawed off on-screen.
    “I—I figured I might go back to the dorm and get my things.”
    He hit a button, and the screen paused in midshot again. “What?” He gave her his full attention, which made her heart stutter, then pound harder. Guys like Shane did not give mousy little bookworms like her their full attention. Not like that.
    “My stuff. From my dorm room.”
    “Yeah, that’s what I thought you said. Did you miss the part where the cops are looking for you?”
    “Well, if I check in,” she said reasonably, “I won’t be missing anymore. I can say I slept over somewhere. Then they’ll stop looking for me.”
    “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
    “No, it isn’t. If they think I’m back in the dorm, they’ll leave me to Monica, right? It could be a few days before she figures out I’m not coming back. She could forget about me by then.”
    “Claire—” He frowned at her for a second or two, then shook his head. “No way are you going over there by yourself.”
    “But—they don’t know where I am. If you go with me, they’ll know.”
    “And if you don’t come back from the dorm, I’m the one who has to explain to Michael how I let you go off and get yourself killed like a dumbass. First rule of horror movies, C.—never split up.”
    “I can’t just hide here. I have classes!”
    “Drop ’em.”
    “No way!” The whole thought horrified her. Nearly as much as failing them.
    “Claire! Maybe you’re not getting this, but you’re in trouble ! Monica wasn’t kidding when she pushed you down the stairs. That was light exercise for her. Next time, she might actually get mad.”
    She stood up and hoisted her backpack. “I’m going.”
    “Then you’re stupid. Can’t save an idiot,” Shane said flatly, and turned back to his game. He didn’t look at her again as he started working the controls, firing with a vengeance. “Don’t tell them where you were last night. We don’t need the hassle.”
    Claire set her jaw angrily, chewed up some words, and swallowed them. Then she went into the kitchen to grab some trash bags. As she was stuffing them into her backpack, she heard the front door open and close.
    “A plague upon all our houses!” Eve yelled, and Claire heard the silver jingle of her keys hitting the hall table. “Anybody alive in here?”
    “Yes!” Shane snapped. He sounded as mad as Claire felt.
    “Damn,” Eve replied cheerfully. “I was so hoping.”
    Claire came out of the kitchen and met Eve on her way up the hall. She was in plaid today—a