Morganville Vampires 5
Rachel Caine
Claire stares out the living room city at the glow of the burning city. Amelie approaches her and Claire asks her not to send Shane out in the blood mobile. Amelie reminds her that she could easily give the town to Bishop and be spared. She doesn’t because she cares about the people in Morganville. Eve comes down the stairs with an armful of clothes she took from everyone’s closets. She starts handing stuff out so people can get out of their ball costumes. Eve creates the semblance of privacy by holding up a blanket for people to change behind. After both Claire and Shane have had a chance, Eve goes to talk to Michael. Shane and Claire stay behind to talk before they go their separate ways. He tells her that his dad is planning to come back to town in the next couple of days. He wanted her to be warned in case he doesn’t make it. Claire tells him to stay in touch and he shows her he has his cell phone.
The four roommates come together to give their goodbyes and then all go their separate ways. Amelie gives Claire a stake and a knife for protection, but tells her to only fight to defend herself. Her group goes through the portal to arrive in Myrnin’s lab. Hannah Moses, a former marine now mechanic, tells Claire to stay close to her. Amelie has found that someone has locked the door on the far wall. When Amelie says Bishop still has Myrnin, who hasn’t been back through the lab, Claire suggests Jason locked it. Amelie has a vampire named Gerard grab the handle and his hand bursts into flames. Bishop has left a trap. Gerard tells the humans to stand behind as he sweats blood to break off the door handle. Amelie opens the door and then concentrates on where she wants them to go. The vampire body guards go first. Amelie tells Claire and Hannah to stay by her side because of the danger they are about to face.
Amelie and Hannah each have a grip on one of Claire’s arms as they step into complete darkness. Claire feels herself being pulled by Amelie, but suddenly, both hands disappear from her arms. She calls to Hannah quietly. Something grabs her and puts a hand over her mouth as she screams. Claire is thrown and lands on the stone floor of a dimly lit tunnel. Amelie apologizes for what they went through, but says it was necessary. They continue down the tunnel. Claire spots an old painting of Amelie and a few other vampires she recognizes. She realizes she is walking through their history. They come to a group of vampires and Claire decides they are on the same side when she sees the body guards relax. Amelie speaks to her captains and sends them to different locations. When the remaining group is still small, she introduces Claire to Theo and his family who were all changed by Bishop. Theo explains they are Jewish and will not fight on the sabbath. They prefer not to fight at all, but will Bishop attacks them. Amelie reminds them they owe the humans that are with them certain protections. Theo agrees to follow Morganville rules, but his family comes first. Amelie gives Hanna a gun that shoots silver pellets. She gives Claire a vial of silver powder that will explode on contact. Claire is surprised how prepared Amelie is. The vampire explains peace always ends and her preparations for war never go unused.
Amelie, Gerard, and the other body guard lead Hannah and Claire out the side door into the night. They don’t make it far before they are caught by one of Bishop’s patrols. Hannah tackles Claire to the ground and starts shooting the attacking vampires. When they have a moment, they run for a white door that doesn’t have a handle to open it. Amelie takes a second to open it and says Bishop’s vampires will not be able to follow them through it. They make their way through a few other places and come to a wall with a picture on it. The pictures changes to show Myrnin hurt and in chains. Amelie opens a door to another hallway that has doors with different vampire symbols on them. She sends the others ahead to get Myrnin. When they find the door, Gerard kicks it in and they are able to free him. He immediately attacks Hannah, so Claire stakes him from behind. They start going back to Amelie, but Bishop is there staring her down. Gerard and the other body guard go to help her while Hannah and Claire drag Myrnin out of there. They find a portal and Claire uses it to get them to Myrnin’s lab. She wants to try to use it again to get to the Glass house, but the entire system seems to go down. Claire decides they have to get Myrnin to Oliver. Hannah says they need to call for backup.
After a few calls, Eve comes to get Claire, Hannah, and Myrnin and takes them back to common grounds. Oliver pulls the stake out of Myrnin and then gives him the liquid form of the crystals to keep him sane. The effort visibly weakens Oliver. Myrnin immediately wants to go after Amelie and rescue her, but Oliver refuses to risk anyone’s life for someone they don’t know is still alive. Claire sits at the bar while Eve makes drinks for people. He asks Eve to the back to get him a bag of blood and she reluctantly goes. Oliver tells Claire he could kill her for staking Myrnin. Instead he admits the vampires of Morganville are unwell. Eve returns and is wowed by Oliver stash of blood and meals in the back. Myrnin joins them in a new trench coat he acquired. His main concern is Amelie, but Oliver is not convinced they could do anything in the two hours they have before dawn. Myrnin suggests sending humans during the day, but Oliver doubts even a human army would be sufficient against Bishop. Oliver asks Claire to tell him what happened with Amelie.
An hour later, just before dawn, Oliver sends Claire out to deliver coded walkie talkies to certain locations. Eve drives while Hannah guards them. When they reach a location, they give the talkie, the code, and move on. Along the way, they find several vampire cars running, but abandoned. Claire calls Oliver to tell him about it. They find a few of the Founder houses have been burned down. When they get to Gramma Day’s house, Lisa lets them all in. They have tied up the vampires and plan to use the war as a way of getting rid of them all. Hannah tells them they are making a mistake and the three women leave without delivering a walkie talkie. Claire calls Oliver to let him know what is going on. Eve tries to get through, but a man named Quentin tells them Oliver is trying to keep a group of vampires from leaving so close to dawn. They stop at the Glass house and warn Monica to keep the vampires inside. As they are leaving, they see vampire officer O’Malley. They try to convince him to get into Eve’s car so they can get him to safety, but he just moves Claire out of the way and continues down the street. When the sun comes up, he starts to smoke and then bursts into flames. Eve grabs a blanket and Claire tries to save him. Hannah has to pull Claire off the fiery vampire as the blanket catches fire and he keeps trying to crawl to where ever he is trying to get to.
The guard at the university gate, Jessup, recognizes Hannah and lets them in. Claire is surprised at how normal campus looks despite the soldiers patrolling the edges as they head for the dean’s office. After going through more guards to get in the building, they find themselves in front of a secretary asking for Michael or Richard. The woman insists Michael is in a meeting when he comes out the door and starts heading for the exit. Hannah and Eve try to hold him back while Claire runs to the nearest guard for help. He gets Richard on his walkie, who tells him to help Claire. She shows him Michael and says they have to stop him from going outside. The guard shoots him with three tranquilizers and they carry him back to Dean Wallace’s office. When Richard arrives, he checks in with Oliver. Oliver tells everyone on their network to restrain the vampires any way they can. After asking what happens if Oliver is drawn in, Oliver announces that Richard will take over the lead. Dean Wallace assures them they will secure the vampires and Richard plans to move them to the jail whenever possible. Hannah and Claire drop Eve off at Common Grounds and head for the Glass house. Before they arrive, there is a communication that sounds like Oliver in a fight. They turn around to find the windows busted from the inside of the coffee shop. The door is locked, so Hannah and Claire go in through a broken window. They find two dead and three wounded people, but no sign of Oliver, Eve, Myrnin, or the other vampires.
Back at the Glass house, Claire welcomes in Gramma Day. She explains that she can’t stay in her own house with what her daughter has been doing. They go to the kitchen and make sandwiches for everyone. Once Claire is done eating, she joins Gramma day in the living room. She has Claire pull out a book and shows her pictures of riots in New York during the civil war. She explains that people get ugly violent when they are angry and people in Morganville have been angry a long time. Claire goes to tell Richard what she has learned from Gramma. He plans to escort his sister back to their parents to make sure they are all safe. Shane comes in the back door and Claire tells him Eve is missing. Richard tries to advise him against going to search for her, but his mind is made up. Claire and Hannah go with him in Eve’s car. They go to Common Grounds, but it is locked up. They go around back and find a trail of candy skulls. They follow it until they find Eve’s cell phone ringing. Claire gets a text message from Eve’s phone saying there was an emergency at German’s Tire Plant. Claire wants to let Richard know, but the cellular service goes out again. Shane decides they are going anyway.
They have to pass the abandoned hospital to get to the tire factory and it brings back bad memories for Claire. When they get to the large building, Shane and Hannah go inside while Claire waits in the locked car. Monica comes and bangs on the window for help while a mob of townspeople chase after her. Claire switches over the the driver seat and lets Monica in. She drives as fast as she can until Monica makes a mean comment. Claire stops the car and says she won’t go again until Monica starts treating her with respect. When Monica apologizes, Claire drives as fast as she can. She parks the car in an abandoned lot hoping it will look like they went into a different building. Claire leads Monica into the tire factory and they start looking for the others. Monica ends up making a lot of noise, so Claire calls out for Hannah and Shane. Shane calls back and tells her to be quiet. Shane finds them, but so do some odd creatures that are somewhere between human and vampire. Myrnin appears and scares them off. He says admits the creates were failed experiments. He shows them to where he locked Eve for safety. Myrnin decides that he will stay hidden with his creatures for a while, but he and Claire will have to get back to work soon because the added stress will quicken the illness’ affects. Eve starts driving them home, but they have to take a few detours due to rioting humans. They try to drop Monica off at her house, but people are looting and burning it. They get back to the Glass house and it welcomes them. The people that have been staying there complain that the house made their stay very uncomfortable. Claire calls her parents when the cell service turns on for a while. Afterwards, she goes upstairs to find Shane in her room. She asks about his day and he tells her about the lack of adventure they had in the blood mobile. He shows her the book Amelie gave him, but it is locked. Claire thinks chemicals were used to help preserve it. They lay together and declare their love for each other. Shane leave the room because he knows if he stays they will have sex and he promised too many people that he wouldn’t. Claire goes to sleep.
The next morning, Claire gets up and starts doing some neglected housekeeping. Eve and Shane are awake when Richard stops by to check on them. They haven’t seen any vampires except those locked in the jail cells. Shane tells Richard that Monica can’t stay with them anymore. They all hop in the police cruiser and head out to see Michael. Richard takes Monica to their parents while another officer takes them down to the cells. Sam insists on being let out so he can go find Amelie. The other four vampires seem to have themselves under control. Micheal explains the call has stopped, but there are other reasons Sam wants to get to Amelie. When Richard arrives, he explains they will let the vampires out that night if they don’t have any issues during the day. Claire and Eve go over to the Danvers’ house. Claire’s dad tries to convince her to move in with them. She says she will consider it when things go back to normal. On the drive home, Claire tells Eve that Shane said he loves her. Eve admits that Shane came to her to talk about sex. He is all in the relationship with Claire and wants to make sure he does things right. When it is close to sunset, Richard calls to let them know they will release the vampires from the cells. Eve drives them down to get Michael. when the door is unlocked, Michael tries to convince Sam not to rush off, but it doesn’t do any good. Eve and Shane point out they all have family issues. They all go home.
Michael stares out the window expecting something to happen. Everyone tries to sit down for dinner when they hear something upstairs. Michael goes first while Eve pulls out wooden stakes for everyone. When they get upstairs, Myrnin is there with Theo and his family. Myrnin pulls Claire aside to tell her he is not going to last much longer without any medication. She promises she will get him some as soon as she can. He tells her he will wait in his cell. They rejoin the group and Myrnin explains Theo needs someplace safe to sleep. Claire remembers him saying his family comes first and she points out he plans to use the two humans with him for food. She refuses and suggests they go stay at Common Grounds. Michael and Eve take them while Claire and Shane stay home. They are relieved when they are all back home together. The next morning, Claire gets up early to meet Dr. Mills at the university coffee shop. She gives him the slides of Myrnin and Bishop’s blood samples. He gives her what he has of the medication and says he is making more. He leaves to go sleep before going to check on the hospital. Claire goes to a few classes before seeing Monica on campus. Other students are coming up to her and putting stickers on her for people she has inadvertently killed. A big jock named Clark says people will be watching to make sure she doesn’t take them off. Michael calls Claire to tell her to come home. Richard has signaled an emergency from City Hall.
By the time Claire gets home, Richard is already broadcasting his message over the walkie-talkie network. There is a large storm coming in and he is giving instructions to people for safety. After everyone is done, Richard asks to speak with Shane. He says there have been sightings of his father in town. Shane lies and says he doesn’t know anything about it, but the police are free to do whatever they want with his dad Michael and Eve are furious Shane didn’t tell them he knew about it. Claire goes upstairs to pack her things so she can move back in with her parents. Shane comes to her door and she lets him in. He is surprised she really is planning on moving out. He gives her a case containing a silver cross necklace. She tries to give it back, but he tells her to keep it and leaves the room. She puts it on and goes to Shane’s room. They make up and she says she can’t move out because she has too much laundry to do. They hear something above in the attic. Claire goes to get Michael and Eve, who are not happy about being interrupted. They load up on weapons and make their way to the secret room and then further to the hidden attic. They find Oliver badly burned by silver. He tells them the attack on City Hall is Bishop’s distraction. Someone else is in the attic with them and grabs Claire and knocks her unconscious.
Claire wakes up and to see coffee boxes around her and realizes she is probably in a warehouse that Oliver uses for Common Grounds. Jason is the one that took her and tied her up. Ysandre appears and tries to bite Claire, but the silver necklace stops her. Claire is able to angle herself so that when Ysandre comes after her again, she lands on the silver knife in Claire’s pocket. Before anymore damage can be done, Amelie arrives and saves Claire. Amelie tells her she has to go to Richard and tell him to evacuate town hall because that is where the battle between her and Bishop will happen. She sends Claire back to the Glass house through the portal. Claire tells her roommates what happened and they get in Eve’s car to head to City Hall. Traffic is heavy as half the town is heading there for safety from the storm. Michael gets out and goes ahead because he can move faster than the traffic. A truck pulls out in front of Eve’s car and Frank Collins and his gang get out. Frank welcomes the sight of his sone, but keeps looking for Michael so they can kill him. Shane tells his dad he won’t betray his friends. They all get back in the car and Eve starts driving. Frank steps in front of her car and Shane has to reach over to press on the gas to keep her going forward. He points out that they are shooting at them from behind. Eve floors it and they get to Town Hall as quickly as possible. When they get inside, they see the place is packed and the shelter is full. They head up two flights of the emergency stairs to find a hallway marked with the founder’s symbol. Claire is the only one able to open it. They find a door with the same symbol and again, Claire opens the door. Bishop and Francois are inside. Shane and Eve try to be brave, but they know they don’t stand a chance. Francois bites Claire. When she comes to again, Shane and Eve are looking after Claire, grateful Bishop and Francois left them alive. Richard is there with his parents (his dad had a heart attack and hasn’t had medical attention). The tornado comes through and rips the building apart. Shane, Eve, and Claire are all alright. Richard and Eve start CPR on Mayor Morrell to resuscitate him, but Richard has to have Shane take over because he has debris in his side. Claire goes to get help, but in the process lets up a group of scared humans who are fleeing the now feuding vampires. She finds Michael and they start back to the room with their friends. The building is too unstable and Michael leaves Claire in a relatively safe spot while he goes to check on the others. Francois comes and finds Claire. She backs into a room and he follows after her. Michael appears with the others and tells Francois to leave her alone. When he turns to deal with Michael, Claire stabs Francois in the back with a pencil through his heart. They leave him there and tell the other refugees to follow them. They head down to the second floor and Michael tries to break down the door without any luck. Suddenly it opens from the inside and Myrnin tells them to come in. They find themselves in his lab. Michael and Eve continue to try to save the mayor until Myrnin tells him it isn’t possible. Myrnin goes and get Theo, who helps remove the piece of metal from Richard’s side. Claire gets Myrnin to take some of the medicine, but it doesn’t last as long as they need it to. She gets him to agree to be locked up, but he keeps messing with the portal. Suddenly, Theo comes back through saying Bishop has his family and will only trade them for Amelie and the book.
Claire wants to help and immediately volunteers to the dismay of her roommates. They all agree to go with her and Myrnin pushes Claire through the portal. They all end up in the dark room with the mystery creatures. Myrnin and Michael lead them through. They eventually get to the hall where Myrnin was kept by Bishop and come to a different door. Myrnin says he is going to completely betray Claire’s trust and takes Shane through the door. Michael tries to break it down, but only draws the attention of the humans and vampires in the rooms off the hallway. Michael’s eyes turn red and he is under Bishop’s control. They are taken to Bishop, who says he has won Morganville. Myrnin and Shane are already there. Myrnin takes the book from Shane and gives it to Bishop. He also points out that Claire is the only one that wears Amelie’s symbol in the old way. Bishop says Richard will run the human world and Myrnin will run the vampires. He will use Shane as bait to lure out Frank Collins. He sends Myrnin off to collect Oliver’s head. He then rips a page out of the book and tells Claire to put it around her arm. She does as she is told and the ink goes under her skin. She can’t seem to bring herself to care about what is happening. Bishop lets Eve go and she swears she is going to come back with Amelie to defeat him. He laughs at her as Claire goes to sit by the foot of his throne.