Rachel Caine - Fall of Night

With all my best to my MIT alumni contacts, especially the lovely Sarah Vega, who introduced me to Jack Florey and helped me capture some of the unique flavour of the school. Errors are all hers. No, thats wrong, I mean, all mine.

This book couldnt have been possible without the love, support and encouragement of many people, but especially Sarah Weiss, Janet Cadsawan and NiNi Burkart. Thanks, ladies. You rock. Always.

Morganville, Texas isnt like other towns. Oh, its small, dusty and ordinary, in most ways, but the thing is, there are these well, lets not be shy about it. Vampires. They own the town. They run it. And until recently, they were the unquestioned ruling class.

But now Claires taken a sabbatical from the insular little world of Morganville, and a vacation from vampires, to pursue her dream of studying at a prestigious new school. Leaving town seems like a fresh start, but Claire knows by now that trouble follows her wherever she goes.

Talk about a killer programme she may wish for something as simple as the rules of Morganville.

The billboard at the edge of the border of Morganville hadnt changed since Claire had first driven past it on the way into town at the tender age of sixteen. It seemed a lifetime ago, but here was the same old sign, faded and creaking in the dry desert wind. It had a 1950s-era couple (white, of course) next to a finned car as big as a boat, looking into the sunset. WELCOME TO MORGANVILLE. YOULL NEVER WANT TO LEAVE.

Yet here she was. Leaving. Actually leaving.

The weight of it felt suddenly unbearable, and the billboard dissolved into impressionistic swirls as tears formed hot in her eyes. She was finding it hard to catch her breath. I dont have to go, she thought. I can turn around, go home, go back where its safe because as crazy and dangerous as Morganville was, at least shed learnt how to live in it. How to adapt, and survive, and even thrive. It had become, well, home. Comfortable.

Out there she wasnt sure what shed be any more, out there.

Its time to find out, the more adult part of her said. You have to see the world before you can give it up to be here. She supposed that was right. Didnt the Amish send their kids out on rumspringa, to find out what life was like outside and make a real decision on whether or not to stay in their community? So, maybe she was on a kind of vampire rumspringa.

Because that was what she was leaving, even though she definitely was not one of the plasma-challenged a vampire community, with almost everything in some way related to them: to protecting them, making them money, giving them blood. In turn, at least theoretically, the vampires protected the town and the people in it. Didnt always work, of course. But the surprising thing was that it did work, more often than not. And she thought, from the way things were settling down now, that it might work lots better this time around, now that the towns founder Amelie was back in charge. And sane. Sane was a plus.

Troubled?

The voice made her gasp and turn, blinking away tears, because shed actually forgotten that he was standing there. Not Shane. Shed left early, before her boyfriend was awake; shed actually sneaked away before dawn, so that she could be off without goodbyes that she knew would rip her heart in pieces. Here she stood with her suitcases and her stuffed backpack, and Myrnin.

Her vampire boss if you could call being a mad scientist a profession was standing next to the big black sedan he occasionally very occasionally, thankfully drove. (He was not a good driver. Understatement.) He wasnt dressed crazily this morning, for a change. Hed left the Hawaiian shirts and floppy hats at home, and instead he looked as if hed stepped out of an eighteenth-century drama breeches that tucked into shiny black boots, a gold-coloured satin waistcoat, a coat over it that had tails. Hed even tied his normally wild shoulder-length hair back in a sleek black ponytail.

Vampires, unlike humans, could stand perfectly still, and just now he looked like a carved statue alabaster and ebony and gold.

No, Im not troubled, she said, aware shed hesitated way too long to answer him. She shivered a little. Here in the desert, at night, it was icy cold, though it would warm up nicely by midday. I wont be here then, she realised. But Morganville would go on without her. That seemed weird.

I am surprised you did not bring your friends to say goodbye, Myrnin offered. He sounded cautious, as if he was far from sure what the etiquette of this situation might be. Surely its customary that they see you off on such a journey?

I dont care if it is, she said. A tumbleweed a thorny, skeletal ball of nasty scratching branches rolled toward her, and she sidestepped it. It ploughed into a tangle of its fellows that had piled up against the base of the billboard. I dont want them to cry. I dont want to cry, either. I just look, its hard enough, okay? Please dont.

Myrnins shoulders lifted in a minute shrug. For the first time, as he turned his head away, she saw that hed secured his ponytail with a big black bow. It fit what he was wearing, and it was weird that it didnt look out of place on him. He looks like Mozart, she thought or at least, how Mozart had been dressed in the paintings shed seen.

It must have been easier when people dressed like that, she said. Being a vampire. People made their faces white with powder, didnt they? So you didnt stand out so much.

Not just their faces, he said. They powdered their wigs, too. One could choke on the arsenic and talcum. I cant imagine it was good for the lungs of living, but one does what one must for fashion. At least the women werent tottering around on five-inch heels, constantly in peril of breaking bones. He paused a moment, then said, What made it easier for vampires was that we lived by candlelight, lamplight it makes everyone look healthier, even the sick. These harsh lights you favour now well. Difficult. I heard that a few vampires have taken to those spray-tanning salons, to get the proper skin tones.

She almost laughed at that, at the image of a badass vampire like Oliver ferocious and fearless standing around in a Speedo to get himself painted. But Oliver had left Morganville, too banished, now, from Amelies side, where hed been ever since Claire had first come to town. That was probably the right thing to do, but Claire felt bad for him, a little. Hed betrayed the Founder, but he hadnt meant it and he hadnt had a choice.

If any vampire could survive in the human world, though, it would be Oliver. He was clever, ruthless, and mostly without a conscience. Mostly.

You can still change your mind, Myrnin said. He stood perfectly still, except for the wind ruffling his clothes and the bow on his ponytail; he didnt try to meet her eyes. You know you dont have to leave. No one wants you to go, truly.

I know. That was all shed been thinking about, for hours. She hadnt slept, and her whole body ached with nervous tension. Youre not the only one to tell me so. Shane, for instance. Though hed been quiet about it, and gentle. It wasnt that she was angry with him God, no but she needed, desperately, to make sure that he trusted her as much as she trusted him. She loved him, that was what made it so, so hard to do this. She needed him. But hed screwed up, big time, in believing a big lie about her told by one of their enemies. Hed actually believed that shed been sneaking around behind his back, with his best friend, Michael.

She needed to think about how she felt about that disappointment on her own, but all she could really think right at this moment was how much she wanted to feel his warm, strong arms wrapped around her, his body shielding her from the cold. How much she wanted one more kiss, one more whisper, one more everything.