Morganville Vampires 2
Rachel Caine
Shane's dad, Frank Collins, and his two biker-looking lackeys come in and take over after killing Michael. When Shane protests, his dad throws pictures of their family at him. Claire sees one of Alyssa's burnt body. When Shane tries to tell him to leave Michael alone, his dad hits him. They take the body outside and Shane rushes the girls upstairs to lock themselves in Eve's room.
Hours later, Shane brings chili for Clair and Eve. A shouting match start up between Shane and Eve where he mentions her brother. She demands a beverage and he storms off to get one. When there is a knock on the door, Clair opens it without thinking. One of the bikers makes his way in, closing and locking the door behind him. He starts to threaten them, and Eve tries to fend him off with a field hockey stick. Shane comes back and realizes what is going on. Eve sends him for help. Luckily, the sun sets and Michael appears to save them. He hides when Shane returns so that he doesn't have to lie to his dad. Michael takes the girls to the secret room after Shane leaves. He uses Eve's cell phone to call the police. Claire goes downstairs when she finally hears the sirens. Frank leaves without Shane.
The police come inside and start asking Claire, Eve, and Shane what happened. Eve does most of the talking, saying it was a break=in by someone they didn't know. A couple of vampire detectives come along asking about Michael. When Shane is about to loose his temper, the ghost shows up. The detectives loose interest and leave the rest to the human officers. After they leave, Shane is upset that he didn't know Michael was still alive and relieved to see his best friend. They all enjoy dinner together, but know that they still have a huge problem. Shane tells his whole story about leaving Morganville. His mom spent a long time focusing until she remembered everything. She asked Shane until he remembered as well. He went out for a few hours and came back to find his mom's staged suicide. His dad was already a drunk and Shane was strung out on drugs when lawyers came to give them money and assess what they could remember. After, they both cleaned up and started their plan. Shane was supposed to be their scout. However, he wasn't supposed to make friends and get involved.
After cleaning up dinner, Claire goes to sit on the couch with Shane. Eventually they both fall asleep, but he wakes up from a nightmare and is terrified. Claire comforts him, but he doesn't want to go back to sleep. They make out until Shane is afraid he can't hold back. The next day, Claire stays home from school at Michael's request. Two human police officers, Joe Hess and Travis Lowe, come to tell them they are looking out for the humans, including the Glass House. Eve comes down and greets them cheerfully. She leads them to the kitchen. Shane and Claire listen outside the door and hear that her brother, Jason, is getting out of jail. Shane explains that Eve turned her little brother in for stabbing a girl, who is now revoking her complaint.
Claire, against her roommate’s wishes, goes to class. She runs into Monica but only insults are exchanged between them. She continues on with her day and then starts heading home. She sees Frank in Common Grounds and decides to go in to verify. Oliver goes to talk to him and Claire turns to leave. In her haste, she runs into Sam, who already knows her name and wants to talk to her. He offers her a coffin shaped necklace to give to Eve, but she refuses to take it. He accepts that and asks her how Amelie is doing. She made him a vampire fifty years ago and he hasn’t seen her. He explains that he is outcasted from the others. Claire tells him to ask Amelie and walks out to go home.
Claire doesn’t want to tell Shane about what happened, so she waits until she and Michael are doing dishes. He tells her to do another and be safe. Later that night while the four roommates are playing Monopoly, Michael asks Eve about her brother. She gets upset when he won’t drop the subject and goes to her room. Michael follows. Shane and Claire spend some time together before he sends her to bed to prevent things from going too far. The next morning, Claire decides to go to Morganville’s Historical Center to find out what Eve’s brother, Jason, looks like so she can avoid him. She gets lost on the way and is about to go down an alley when an old lady on her porch calls out not to. She warns Claire that if she goes down the alley, she won’t come back out. The old woman’s granddaughter, Lisa, comes out to apologize for her grandma. When she sees the founder’s symbol on the house, Claire asks to use the bathroom and Lisa directs her inside. When she opens the bathroom door, she finds Amelie in a study. Amelie explains that Claire was teleported to her and that she is the only real historical center in Morganville. Claire asks about Jason and Amelie hands her the Rosser family file. Claire finds out that Jason was the guy that watched her go into Common Grounds the previous day. She reads on to find out that Eve told the police that her brother drove off with the girl who later turned up with a stab wound. Claire leaves to find herself in the bathroom. Lisa threatens that she better not have stolen anything. The grandma says Amelie has marked her and the others won’t bother her.
The next day, Officers Hess and Lowe show up to escort Eve and Claire to campus (Eve is now working at the college coffee shop). They think Jason killed Karla, a girl missing from campus, whose body they just found. Claire goes to refill the off-duty officers’ coffees while Eve gets ready. Frank is there with one of his gang members. They threaten to kill everyone to get to Shane. Claire points out that the search for them is dwindling and it would be dumb to draw attention. She promises not to tell they were there if they leave Shane alone. Impressed, Frank agrees, saying Shane will come to him. Claire goes to visit Eve at work between classes. A few jocks give Eve a hard time, spilling coffee and making crude jokes. Claire helps Eve clean up. A different guy is nice to Eve and starts talking to Claire. He invites her to his fraternity’s “Dead Girls’ Dance” party. She gives him her phone number to get the details. As they go their separate ways, Claire realizes she may have accidentally made a date with someone who isn’t Shane. After studying for a while, Claire goes to help Eve deal with Monica and her friends. They back off easily. Later that night, Hess and Lowe pick the girls up to take them home. One the way, they are stopped by vampire detectives, Hans and Gretchen. The girls and Hess pile into the backseat of their car. They are taken to the Founder’s square and in front of Amelie, Oliver, and Mayor Morrell. They are shown Brandon’s dead vampire body. Richard Morrell points out that he was tortured. Eve and Claire don’t give anything away. When Oliver starts to threaten Eve, Claire says it was the bikers that broke into their house. The vampires reveal they know who is behind both disturbances and reveal a biker and Shane being restrained.
Shane and the biker were found over Brandon’s dead body. Amelie revokes her protection over Shane despite Claire’s protests that he didn’t do it. There is an attack on the room and when the smoke clears, there are three of Frank’s men in the room, two are already dead. Oliver kills the third. Claire wants to talk to Shane and Officer Hess explains that he will be kept in a cage on display for two days before the sentence is carried out. Claire and eve are taken to Shane’s cage. he looks defeated and tells Claire that Brandon was already dead when he showed up. Hess tells her she needs to find evidence that would prove Shane’s innocence. The girls are taken home. Eve immediately starts pulling out illegal weapons to fight vampires, ready to attack right away. Michael, whom she called useless, locks her in her room. He tells Claire she needs to get the vampires to agree to let Shane go if she finds evidence. She calls Hess for a ride and he begrudgingly agrees when he realizes she will go with or without him. Hess drives Claire to the Day house where Lisa lets her in. Amelie is already there and ready to talk. They enter her study and she explains that she knows Shane is innocent, but will not save him. She gave the order to kill his mother and believes she should have had Frank and Shane killed as well. Amelie points out that Claire forgot to ask her to meet with Michael before sending her away. Claire runs out to the car, but Hess isn’t there. She thinks she hears his voice and follows it into the alley she has been warned to avoid. Amelie calls to her from the Day house and tells her to go back. She runs back to the car where Hess is waiting. Clair goes to Oliver next, but he is not so sure of Shane’s innocence. He starts to threaten her and sends them away when Claire offers herself to Oliver. He explains that he will not give her a normal contract, but one from the old days; he would own her completely. Hess gets her out of there and takes her home. She tells Michael what happened. He tells her that he got Eve under control and Claire realizes that he used a vampire power. She sleeps and when she wakes up, she lets Eve out of her room. They get ready to go find people that can help.
Eve and Claire start the search for someone that can help. When Eve returns to the car with a second denial, they are blocked into the parking spot. Claire is taken into a van with Monica and Gina ready to torture her. They tell her the Mayor, her dad, wants to trade Shane for his father; they want Claire to deliver the message. Shane’s dad stops the van, keeps Monica and Claire in it, and has one of his gang members drive off. They go through a storm drain and drop Claire off at a ladder that will exit by City Hall. She is to tell Mayor Morrell that Frank has Monica and will kill her if Shane dies. Claire repeats the message and eventually is allowed to go home. She eats and falls asleep and when she wakes up, it is night. Eve comes up with the idea of asking Sam (who happens to be Michael’s grandfather) for help. Claire calls Common Grounds to see if he is there and is informed that he went to the frat party Claire was invited to. She and Eve get dressed up for the Dead Girls’ Dance to go find him. Claire is stopped by Ian and Eve continues to search. It is too late when Claire realizes she has been drugged and is surrounded by four guys in a bedroom. She tries to fight them off. Sam comes to the rescue, but their escape is ruined when Sam hears some threat coming. He throws them all in a closet until it goes away.
Same lets everyone out of the closet when it is safe. As he carries Claire through the house, she realizes it was Frank’s gang that came to the party to kill vampires. Back at the Glass House, Claire sleeps off the drugs. She starts going downstairs to find that Michael is talking to Amelie about becoming a vampire, while she tries to talk him out of it. Michael’s mind is made up, knowing he will go crazy if he has to stay a prisoner of the house. Sam takes Claire upstairs and Amelie makes Michael a vampire. Claire and Eve rush downstairs when it is over. Amelie commands Sam to stop Michael from killing his friends. She tells Michael that he should separate himself from them for their safety. He refuses to leave his family, and Eve tells him she still loves him. Amelie takes him to feed.
When Michael returns, he has traded Sam and Amelie for Hess, Lowe, and Richard Morrell. They all agree to leave the girls behind. Michael takes Eve’s car keys to be sure. After they leave, Eve grabs the spare keys and they make their way to a burning building Michael comes out and Claire brings him the cop car with the tinted windows. Hess and Low come out next, saying Richard and Monica were right behind them. Claire rushes in and reaches them on her hands and knees. She pulls Monica, who holds onto Richard. Eve is able to grab Claire and drag them all to safety. Richard, Monica, Eve, and Claire get in the cop car and head for Founder’s square.
Claire and Eve explain what happened and Richard confirms that the girls saved his and Monica’s life. Mayor Morrell explains that he can’t free Shane because Frank has already broken him out and they are on the run. Richard takes them to an abandoned hospital where Frank’s gang is surrounded. Oliver grabs Claire out of and threatens to kill her if she and Shane don’t swear loyalty to him. Shane comes out for her and they are able to get away because the sun has weakened the vampires. They run through the hospital to the morgue with vampires following close behind. Shane picks up Claire and puts her down a body chute so they can escape through the morgue tunnels.
Shane and Claire land in the tunnel to find Frank’s team ready to set off an explosive that would bring down the whole hospital. Claire destroys it and Shane protects her. He tells his dad to leave town. Shane and Claire surrender to the police. The Mayor clears them of all charges. Shane has a rough time dealing with Michael being a vampire. Claire and Shane mess around after she talks sense into him. Later, she sneaks away to sign a contract of loyalty to Amelie