Morganville 7
Rachel Caine
1. Claire and Shane year Eve screaming and rush to find out what is going on. She has landed the role of Blanche in the towns production of A Streetcar Named Desire. As she rushes off to make arrangements for rehearsals with her job, Claire says bye to Shane to go to work. She goes to the demolished cabin that sits on top of Myrnin’s secret lab. The door is locked, but she is able to get in by moving a board. The entire lab has been cleaned and redone. Myrnin has Claire start going through boxes to see if anything could be of use to them. She finds a letter from Amelie asking Myrnin to come to America to visit her. He scolds Claire for reading his personal mail, but tells her that was when Amelie started Morganville. She finds a locker with a lock of hair and a picture of Ada. Ada’s projection appears, and Myrnin is angry with her for appearing without being summoned. The last notable thing Claire finds is a sculpture with alchemical symbols. Myrnin grabs it and goes to sit in his reading chair to admire it. The next box explodes when Claire opens it.
2. Claire wakes up in the hospital with Michael holding her hand. The box contained a UV bomb that would have been dangerous for a vampire. Luckily Claire only has a bad sunburn. Dr. Theo tells her to follow up with her doctor to be sure. Michael takes her home. She takes a shower and lays on her bed listening to Myrnin’s latest recorded lecture he gave her. Eve comes to get her for dinner, but Claire is feeling self conscious about her burn. Eve reminds her it will take a while to go down and convinces her to join them for dinner. She feels a cold wave and grabs her emergency kit thinking it is warning her of danger. When she gets downstairs, the others don’t seem to notice. She continues to get colder. They find the fiunder’s bracelet she is wearing is turning white like ice. Michael calls Oliver to see if Amelie is with him, but he doesn’t know where she is. Eve declares they will all go to find Amelie immediately.
3. Shane tried to keep Claire awake while Micheal drives the four of them to the cemetery. They find Amelie mourning at Sam’s grave. She has cut her wrists and put silver coins in them to keep the wounds from healing. Micheal goes to get Amelie, but she snaps at him. Claire goes to her and tells her she is being a coward. Eve sees the blood and takes the coins out. Amelie explains offering blood was an old custom. A vampire name Morley appears with his gang and threatens them. Amelie isn’t worried and insults him while they talk. When Morley attacks her, Michael defends her. Oliver and a few other of her followers are there to back her up and Morley runs away. Michael drives Amelie to the blood bank and then him and his roommates back home. Claire plans to hang out with Shane after they eat their now cold dinner, but she ends up falling asleep in the car. She wakes up the next morning at her parents’ house. She takes a shower to get ready for school and can feel the burns on her face. Her mom asks what happened and Claire lies and says she fell asleep in the sun. On her way to school, she stops into a store to buy a hat. But she is still spotted by bully Monica Morrell who uses her car to block Claire’s path. Claire asks her what she wants after Monica and her friends are done hurling insults at her. Monica needs tutoring. Claire tells her for $50, she will meet her at Common Grounds at 3pm and Monica can buy the mocha. Monica agrees and takes off. In literature class, Eve is studying Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey. She wonders if Myrnin knew Oscar Wilde. In the middle of class, she gets a text from Eve telling her she has news and to meet her at Common Grounds. Claire goes there after class and Eve starts ordering Oliver around because she feels they have to get along because they are in the play together. She then introduces Claire to Kim, the town’s other goth girl. Claire gets jealous of how much Eve and Kim have in common and that they leave her out of the conversation. Claire ends up leaving and feels like everyone is watching her humiliation.
4. Claire goes to the Glass House and throws herself down on the couch. She listens to Michael play his guitar for a while before she tells him about Eve having Kim as her new best friend. Micheal tells her it will only be temporary and Kim will move on soon. He says he doesn’t know her too well because she went to the Catholic school instead of the public school. He thinks Claire should get to know her without getting attached. He asks if she knows that Kim survived being homeless when she was 16 by killing the vampire that was trying to drain her. She is one of two people to get away with killing a vampire in Morganville. Mayor Morrell is the other. Claire wants more information, but Michael has to get ready to go. Shane comes in the back door with barbecue and reminds her Michael has his big gig in the TPU auditorium that night. Claire feels bad and chastises herself for complaining about Kim. Shane admits he dated her and Claire pretends not to care. On the way to the show, Claire and Shane ride in the back of Michael’s car. Claire asks about Kim again and Shane admits they went on one date, hooked up, and then Kim moved onto the next guy. He says he was relieved and is glad he ended up with Claire. As they are trying to get to their seats, the vampire Pennywell steps in front of them saying Oliver needs to talk to Claire right away. They aren’t able to get away from Pennywell until Kim comes up and introduces herself as the town historian. She starts giving him tips for his portrait and Shane and Claire use the opportunity to slip away. Once they are in the theater, Shane goes back to check on Kim, but they are both gone. Kim appears behind Claire. Claire is frustrated, but relieved they can get away from her to find their seats. Eve joins them just as the show starts. After the show, Claire, Shane, and Eve stay for the after party. The last person to leave is Mr. Sloan. He asks Michael for a demo CD. When Michael says he hasn’t recorded one yet, Mr. Sloan says he knows a great place in Dallas he would like to send him to. After Mr. sloan is gone, Pennywell is waiting for them. He says “they” will never let Michael leave. He says I’m he is only there for Claire and will kill all of them to get to her. Claire agrees to go willingly. As she goes with Pennywell, she sees Kim go over to Shane and grab his arm. She tells Shane not ti do anything crazy.
5. Pennywell takes Claire outside and into a limo. She gets in to join Oliver and Myrnin and Pennywell follows. As they are driving, Oliver asks her how she knew what Amelie was doing the previous night. She isn’t sure how her connections works and Myrnin confirms he doesn’t know either. Oliver questions whether or not Amelie is still fit to rule Morganville. Oliver realizes Myrnin’s loyalty cannot be swayed from Amelie and he stakes him. Suddenly, a sedan runs into the limo and it rolls. Clare and Myrnin end up in the roof and she drags him out the broken window. Once his chest is out, she pulls out the stake. Myrnin recovers and starts to protect her, but Oliver comes up from behind and grabs Claire so he can hurt her until Amelie can feel it. Michael comes up from behind and stakes Oliver. Myrnin tells Michael to get Claire out of there. Michael picks her up and runs her back to the TPU theater. Eve and Kim get in the front seats of Eve’s car is hike Shane and a Michael get Claire in the backseat between them.
6. Back at the house, Michael goes upstairs to change his clothes and call Amelie to let her know what happened. Claire leaves a voicemail for her parents that she is staying at the Glass house for the night. Claire and Shane cuddle in the couch and he admits he is a bit jealous that he couldn’t go with Michael to save her. They start making out until Eve tells them to stop because she wants plausible deniability when Claire’s parents ask. Kim finds a zombie video game and asks if anyone plays it. Shane admits he does, but looks for an excuse not too. When he cannot find one, he starts playing with her. Claire goes upstairs to get cleaned up and changed. On her way back downstairs, Ada’s projection appears and leads Claire into the hidden room. She tries to get Claire to go into a portal, but it is dark and Claire refuses. When Ada uses Claire’s phone to tell her Myrnin needs her immediately, Claire takes a lamp and puts the bright end through the portal. There are savage, hungry vampires on the other side. She slams the portal shut and closes off access to the Glass House. She calls Myrnin to tell him what just happened. He says he will fix her programming, but warns her not to go anywhere with Ada. Claire goes back downstairs, but ends up sitting on the stairs because Shane is still playing video games with Kim. Michael comes down and sees her struggling with the situation. He tells her not to worry and goes to scare Kim so she loses the game. Shane mentions that Kim should go home. Eve rushes past Claire and down the stairs to ask Kim to stay and read lines. Kim declines and agrees to hang out the next day. Eve invites Claire, but she says she has other plans. Shane jumps in and says he is taking her out for their anniversary. After Kim is gone, Shane and Michael go back to playing video games.
7. The next day goes pretty normal for Claire. She attends her classes and aces a quiz before going to Myrnin’s lab. She is surprised at how clean and organized it is. She pulls a journal off the shelf and starts reading. She decides to stop when she finds an entry about herself where Myrnin mentions eating her. He arrives and is surprised to see her there in her day off. He mentions the journal she is holding is some of his best work, but he has no idea what any of it means. Claire leaves while he is feeding his pet spider, Bob. She goes to the library and is curious about the digital vampire interviews. She looks at the newest one and starts listening to Michael talk about Oliver killing him and then Amelie turning him. She feels guilty and turns it off to open Oliver’s file. He doesn’t make it very far into the questioning before he angrily leaves. Oliver sees Claire watching the video, but he says he can’t do anything to her because of Amelie. Claire takes off through the stacks and hears Oliver destroying the computer kiosk. She trips over Kim, who was sitting in the floor doing research in her phone. Oliver comes up to them and is furious Kim didn’t destroy the footage of him when he told her too. She points out that it was Amelie’s project. He demands all the copies, but Kim refuses and walks away reminding him they have their play rehearsal soon. Clare and Oliver agree they don’t like her. Claire asks what was the last play he was in. Hamlet. Claire’s next stop is Common Grounds to tutor Monica. She love teaching and Monica seems to be catching on while others listen in and take notes. When she leaves, she meets up with Shane outside and they start walking home. About halfway to the Glass House, the street lights go out and the vampire Morley rushes towards them. He says there is a pack chasing him and tells them to run before he takes off. A few seconds late, a truck full of drunk hillbillies pulls up next to them asking if they saw which way the vampire went. When one of them recognizes Claire, they decide she is just as bad as a vampire because she works for them. Shane starts running and pulling Claire along behind him. Claire trips and the gang catches up to them. They start to attack and Shane is able to fight most of them off. One goes after Claire, but she is able to trip him up by wrapping her arms around his knees and pulling. She grabs the bat and holds it menacingly. The gang eventually gives up and takes off and Shane and Claire rush to the house. Michael insists on them telling Amelie what happened and she shows up in person. She says she will do what she can, but she will have to allow the vampires to protect themselves to set an example. After the others go back downstairs and out of the hidden room, Claire lingers ti ask Amelie if she is okay or needs anything. The vampire says she will be fine and sends Claire on her way. Shane takes her to his room that he paid Eve to clean. They make out for a few hours before he takes her home. The next morning, she is walking to class and sees Kim filming people. Monica rushes up to Claire with a large group of people and hugs her because she got an A on her economics test. She says she might need her services again and takes off. Kim comes over to film Claire and ask her about her relationship with Monica. Claire tells her to leave her alone and stop filming her. Kim turns off the camera and says she likes to film people until their true nature comes out. Filming vampire to make a sort of mockumentary is her hobby.
8. At the end of Claire’s school day, she goes to the coffee shop age works at. Eve asks Claire to come to her rehearsal at three that afternoon and Claire says she’ll try to make it. She uses an app she made on her phone to track down the closest open portal (to prevent the disfiguration that comes with humans trying to open them themselves too often) and finds it is in the administrative building. She uses the portal to get into Myrnin’s lab. Ads try’s being nice and even translates the title of a German book for Claire to shelve. When Claire asks where Myrnin is, Ada gets angry at her. Claire sees the rug over the trap door to the cave has been pulled back and cals Michael for help to investigate. While she waits for him to arrive, she decides to feed Myrnin’s pet spider, Bob. When she opens the terrarium, Ada makes Bob grow and attack Claire. Claire is able to fend off the spider until its organs explode from the changes Ada made to it. Michael arrives and jumps down into the cave so he can catch Claire when she does the same. They find the cavern that houses Ada’s computer and find Myrnin slumped over it. Michael stops Claire from running to him seeing he has an electrical charge going through him and if she were to touch him it would kill her.
9. Michael hands Clair a bone and they get in either side of Myrnin to push him out of the electrical current. When he comes to, they get themselves out of the cave. Myrnin replaces the door that has an electromagnetic lock (his fingerprint is the key) and the carpet over it. Claire tells him he needs to do something about Ada and he gets angry. He tells her to get him blood and she refuses. He attacks her and she holds the bone to his chest threatening to stake him. His teeth are at her throat when Michael hands her a cold bag of blood from the fridge. She gives it to Myrnin and he devours it. When he has recovered himself, he apologized. He is then curious about what Ada did to the spider to make it grow like she did. He points out it was the second spider he got to be Bob’s companion that died and Bob was still in his container. He wants to dissect it and orders Claire to get him supplies. Michael points out she has done enough for him and Myrnin eventually agrees to let her go. Micheal and Claire leave and go to Eve’s rehearsal. When they enter, the German vampire director is furious that an actress did not show up. Micheal goes up to the assistant and grabs her phone that she has been frantically dialling on. He sees it isn’t Eve and goes back to her dressing room. When he comes out, Eve is with him and not in costume. She demands the day off to go look for Kim. I hen the director refuses, Oliver steps in to let them go. They ask for his help, but he tells them it is a human matter. They head out to the garage and Claire Claire calls Shane asking for his help. He agrees and she checks her app to see a spontaneous portal forming near them. They run for the car as a swarm of giant spiders comes after them. They get in the car and drive away and the spiders all die shortly after. Claire says they will focus on finding Kim first and then they can worry about trying to reset Ada.
10. Once they get into Kim’s apartment, they split up and start searching the place for clues. Shane makes an inappropriate joke about searching Kim’s underwear drawer that hurts Claire. Claire is in the living room sorting through the mess and notices a mural on the wall. One of the many eyes has a shine to it. She checks the closet and finds it is a camera. She asks if there is a computer and Eve calls out there is one in the bedroom. Claire tries a few passwords to get into the laptop and is uncomfortable with the discovery that it is “Shane.” she finds a file on the desktop and opens it. It is a video journal of Kim talking about how she is going to get an Oscar for her reality show on Morganville. She talks about how she tricked Eve into inviting her over so she could plant a camera in their home and an added bonus would being able to see Shane naked. Claire points out the computer is camera 72, so there must be at least 71 more out there. They think Kim is hiding out somewhere to cut it all together and send out of town. Micheal says they didn’t know about it and the other three get defensive about him taking the vampire’s side. He says they have 24 hours until he has to tells someone. Eve is furious and storms out. Shane is defensive and Michael accuses him of still having feelings for Kim to get back at him. Claire packs up the laptop and tells Shane to get the camera. He tries to convince her he is only interested in her. Once they are all in the car, Eve says she needs to go to Common Grounds to talk to some people. Michael offers to go with her, but she refuses saying he has other things to do. She asks Shane to go with her and he agrees. Claire will be at the house by herself looking into the technical side of where the video feeds are going.
11. Claire finds cameras in their house pointed at Michael and Shane’s beds. She tries to use them to find out where the signal is going, but there were measures taken to prevent that. Shane and Eve come home and fill in Claire on what they learned. They ended up at a leather bar where Kim had been known to hang out. Eve exchanged favors for information. A few of the vampires said they were taken to a studio for their interviews, but would my tell her where. They got themselves into trouble pretty quickly, but Michael stepped in to save them. He doesn’t think the vampires know about Kim’s project and includes himself on the vampire side. Eve gets upset and points this out. He reminds her he is a vampire and there isn’t anything he can do about it. He tells her if she is not okay with it, they don’t have to be together anymore. Kim used to work at a radio station Amelie shut down a long time ago. They decide she was probably using that space for her project and decide to go. Shane and Michael are against going at night until Claire tells them about how cameras have been trained on their beds for the past week. Michael takes off to meet Detective Hess at the radio station. Eve, Shane, and Claire grab weapons and attempt to follow in Eve’s car, but it won’t start. When Eve and Shane get out to check under the hood, they find that Michael removed wires. Suddenly, vampires are around them. Claire honks the horn to warn them and then they try making their way to the door. Eve gets surrounded. Claire is able to fend off the vampires with a super-soaker filled with water and silver nitrate long enough for Shane to get her out of there. Once they are inside, they decide they need a new plan. Claire calls Myrnin to have him open a portal for them. He can’t seem to do it and uses a portal to get to their house. He wonders who could be sabotaging the portals. Claire suggests Ada, but Myrnin blows off the suggestion. After they explain the situation to him, he decides to go with them (though he thinks they should tell Oliver).
12. Myrnin is able to get them to German’s Tire Plant, which none of them have fond memories of. They get out as quickly as they can because zombie-like vampire creatures are lurking around. They get tot he radio station and find Michael’s car parked out front. Myrnin goes into the building to look for him and the others arm themselves before they follow. When they find Michael, he is is a room that has been used recently. Equipment has been added for video editing and there are labeled hard drives. Michael shows them what Kim has cut together so far and they decide they have to destroy it before the other vampires find it. Myrnin is positive Amelie would end Morganville to start over somewhere else if she knew about the videos. They find a master list of 74 cameras and decide to split up to find and destroy them all. Myrnin and Michael will get the ones in Vampire territory, Shane and Eve will take town, and Claire has campus. They all agree to meet back at German’s just before dawn. Claire finishes and finds Shane and Eve working in their last one. They try to take a portal back to German’s, but end up in a dark cave. They are attacked by strange vampires they seem more like giant sewer rats than human. After sending them off, they are low on supplies. Morley and his crew come to them to make a deal. They have been working with Kim to expose Morganville because they want their freedom to leave town. Jacob and Patience Goldman are with them and owe Claire. Jacob refuses to let them hurt Claire. Morley decides to let them live if Claire convinces Amelie to let them go. If she doesn’t, he will come after Shane and Eve. He takes them to Kim who seems to have lost her mind. They carry her out with the rest of the drives and are confronted by Ada as they make their way out of the sewer. She says she sent them there to die. She threatens to come after Claire soon and Clair can feel Ada touch her . They run out as quickly as they can. They are relieved to be able to hand her over to a passing police officer. They get back to the Glass House around 10 am and Michael is waiting for them. No one else showed up at German’s. Claire tells them they have to go after Myrnin. As they are all getting ready to back her up, Ada opens up a portal and pulls her in. She snaps it shut before anyone can follow. She is in complete dark but Myrnin is there. She starts heading towards his voice, but he warns her the floor is crumbling. He finally agrees something is wrong with Ada. She is angry he doesn’t seem to love her. Claire tries to convince both of them he does while Myrnin gives her step by step directions on how to get to him. When she finally reaches him, he bites her.
13. When Claire wakes up, the lights are on. She can see that Ada has put silver bars between the bones in Myrnin’s arms and chained them so that he cannot remove them. Blood was slowly dripping out and he needed Claire’s blood to survive. Myrnin tries to tell Ada he will never see Claire again, but she knows it isn’t true. She grabs Claire by the hair and pulls her towards the chasm. Claire is able to grab a bone from the floor and thrusts it behind her own head and wounds Ada. She uses all of her focus to open a portal to the cave under Myron’s lab. She gets to the keyboard and finds all the symbols have been wiped off the keys. She remembers where they were and puts them in. Ada tries to stop her, but Claire is able to complete the reset sequence. Ada resets and decides she cannot live with herself after she tried to hurt Myrnin. She tells Claire to tell her she loves him and then lets herself die. Claire falls asleep. When she wakes up, Amelie and Myrnin are with her. She explains what happened. Amelie is concerned about how they will maintain Morganville without Ada. Myrnin needs to rebuild, but he doesn’t have a person/vampire to use. Amelie has an idea of who to use and Claire is worried she means her. Micheal, Eve, and Shane arrive. Amelie takes the bracelet off of Claire and announces the three humans are employees of the city and consider neutrals. Amelie says they will be off limits to all vampires. Claire tells her about the deal she made with Morley. Amelie says she cannot protect them from deals they made prior to her proclamation. She asks Amelie to let the vampires leave, but Amelie say no. Shane reminds her they have a month to figure something out. Heather calls to tell Eve that the director of the play has insisted Claire join as Kim’s replacement. Claire asks what happened to Kim. Eve says she talked to Detective Moses and Kim is being treated for insanity. If she does recover, she will go to jail. Myrnin gives her the last hard drive marked "Shane and Claire." She gives it to Shane, and he destroys it. They go home.