Rachel Caine - Kiss of Death

“I know.”

“Because I suck at saying it,” he said. “It’s a work in progress, all this relationship stuff.”

She hadn’t really slept all night. She’d been too busy thinking, worrying, wondering. Imagining all kinds of futures. Imagining this moment. And she felt as if she were falling from a very tall building as she asked, “Shane? Are you—are you going to come back? To Morganville?”

Apart from Frank, his now-vampire dad, there was nobody Amelie could hold over his head ... nobody but Claire and Eve and Michael, and, anyway, Amelie had never really needed Shane. Claire needed him, though. With every heartbeat she needed him more.

He looked at her, holding the stare for so long it felt as if the fall would go on and on, falling forever....

And then he said, very quietly, “How can I not go back? How can I let you go, Claire? We all stay, or we all go back. I’m not letting you go on your own.” He touched a fingertip to her nose, startling a laugh out of her. “Somebody’s got to be your bodyguard.”

She kissed him, and their skins warmed together in the sunlight; silently, Shane raised her right hand to his lips, and kissed her fingers and kissed the claddagh ring glittering there, that promise of the future that had so much meaning for him, in the past.

And then, one more time, while they were still completely free, he told her how much he loved her.

Afterward, going back to Morganville didn’t seem so dark.

As always, music drives the creative bus for me, so here are some songs that rocked this little road trip. Feed the artists, please. They deserve your support.

“Good 2 U” Dave Mason

“Fire” Daniel Lanois

“Guilty as Charged” Gym Class Heroes

“Call in the Cavalry” The Shys

“Troubled Land” John Mellencamp

“Luisa’s Bones” Crooked Fingers

“Looking Pretty, Pretty” TAB The Band

“Post Blue (Dave Bascombe Mix)” Placebo

“Running up that Hill” Placebo

“Sister Rosetta (Capture the Spirit)” Noisettes

“Circle the Fringes” The Gutter Twins

“Nighttiming” Coconut Records

“I Can’t Do It Alone” 30H!3

“Wish We Were Older” Metro Station

“That Dress Looks Nice on You” Sufjan Stevens

“Kill Kill” Lizzy Grant

“I Love You Good-bye” Thomas Dolby

“Prime Mover” Steve Stevens

“I Don’t Live in a Dream” Jackie Greene

“Down Boy” Yeah Yeah Yeahs

“People C’mon” Delta Spirit

“The Future’s Nothing New” The Alternate Routes

“Snakes and Lions” Melpo Mene

“Gift” Curve

“World Can’t Have Her” Cobra Verde

“Go My Way (The iPod Song)” Bacon Brothers

“Don’t Let the Devil Take Your Mind” Jackie Greene

“Keeper” Butterfly Boucher

“Lonely Ghosts” O+S

“Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” Three Dog Night

“2080” Yeasayer

“Wild Life” Bacon Brothers

“Architeuthis”Bacon Brothers

“On Fire” JJ Grey & Mofro

“I’m Good, I’m Gone” Lykke Li

“Disappearing” Simon Collins

More playlists at www.rachelcaine.com

In addition to the Morganville Vampires series, Rachel Caineis the author of the popular Weather Warden series, which includes Ill Wind, Heat Stroke, Chill Factor, Windfall, Firestorm, Thin Air, Gale Force, and Cape Storm. Her ninth Weather Warden novel will be released in August 2010. She also writes the Outcast Season series, which currently includes Undone and Unknown. Rachel and her husband, fantasy artist R. Cat Conrad, live in Texas with their iguanas, Popeye and Darwin.

Web site: www.rachelcaine.com

Social networks: MySpace, LiveJournal, Facebook, and Twitter