Rachel Caine: Midnight Alley

Parents had some kind of sin radar, Claire thought. They always called when you were in the middle of something you just knew they'd consider wrong. Or at least risky.

Claire Danvers slid off of her boyfriend Shane's lap with a regretful sigh, licked her damp, tingling lips, and went to answer the ringing phone in the kitchen. Michael was just getting up from the table to grab it, but Claire waved him off. She just knew it would be her mother.

She was right.

"Claire! Oh my goodness, I've been worried sick, honey. We've been trying to call you on your cell for days, and — "

Crap. Claire rubbed her forehead in frustration. "Mom, I wrote you guys an email, remember? My cell got lost, I'm still working on getting another one." Best not to mention how it had gotten lost. Best not to mention anything about how dangerous her life had gotten since she'd moved to Morganville, Texas.

"Oh," Mom said, and then, more slowly, "oh. Well, your father forgot to tell me about that. You know, he's the one who checks the email. I don't like computers."

"Yes, Mom, I know." Mom really wasn't that bad, but she was notoriously nervous with computers, and for good reason; they had a tendency to short out around her.

Mom was still talking. "Is everything going all right? How are classes? Interesting?"

Claire opened the refrigerator door and retrieved a red can of Coke, which she popped open and chugged to give herself time to think what, if anything to tell her parents. Mom, there was a little trouble. See, my boyfriend's dad came to town with some bikers and killed people, and nearly killed us too. Oh, and the vampires are angry about it. And so to save my friends, I had to sign a contract, so now I'm basically the slave of the most bad-ass vampire in town.

Yeah, that wouldn't go over well.

Besides, even if she said it, Mom wouldn't understand it. Mom had been to Morganville, but she hadn't really seen. People didn't. And if they did, they either never left town, or had their memories wiped on the way out.

And if by some chance they started to remember, bad things could happen to them. Terminally bad things.

So instead, Claire said, "Classes are great, Mom. I aced all my exams last week."

"Of course you did. Don't you always?"

Yeah, but last week I had to take my exams while worrying if somebody was going to stick a knife in my back. It could have had an effect on my GPA. Stupid to be proud of that ... "Everything's fine here. I'll let you know when I get the new cell phone, okay?" Claire hesitated, then asked, "How are you? How's Dad?"

"Oh, we're fine, honey. We miss you is all. But your father's still not happy about you living in that place, off campus, with those older kids — "

Of all the things for Mom to remember, she had to remember that. And of course Claire couldn't tell her why she was living off campus with eighteen-year-olds, especially when two of them were boys. Mom hadn't gotten around to mentioning the boys yet, but it was just a matter of time.

"Mom, I told you how mean the girls were to me in the dorm. It's better here, really. They're my friends. And really, they're great."

Mom didn't sound too convinced. "You're being careful, though. About those boys."

Well, that hadn't taken long. "Yes, I'm being careful about the boys." She was even being careful about Shane, though that was mostly because Shane never forgot that Claire was not-quite-seventeen, and he was not-quite-nineteen. Not a huge age difference, but legally? Huger than huge, if her parents got upset about it. Which they definitely would. "Everybody here says hello, by the way. Ah, Michael's waving."

Michael Glass, the second boy in the house, had settled down at the kitchen table and was reading a newspaper, looked up and gave her a wide-eyed no-you-don't shake of his head. He'd had a bad enough time of it with her parents the last time, and now ... well, things were even worse, if that was possible. At least when he'd met them, Michael had been half-normal: fully human by night, an incorporeal ghost by day, and trapped in the house twenty-four/seven.

For Morganville, that was half-normal.

In order to help get Shane out of trouble, Michael had made a terrible choice — he'd gained his freedom from the house, and gotten physical form all the time, but now he was a vampire. Claire couldn't tell if it bothered him. It had to, right? But he seemed so ... normal.

Maybe a little too normal.

Claire listened to her mother's voice, and then held out the phone to Michael. "She wants to talk to you," she said.

"No! I'm not here!" He stage-whispered and made waving-off motions. Claire wiggled the phone insistently.

"You're the responsible one," she reminded him. "Just try not to talk about the - " She mimed fangs in the neck.

Michael shot her a dirty look, took the phone, and turned on the charm. He had a lot of it, Claire knew; it wasn't just parents who liked him, it was ... well, everybody. Michael was smart, cute, hot, talented, respectful ... nothing not to love, except the whole undead aspect. He assured her mother that everything was fine, that Claire was behaving herself — his eyeroll made Claire snort cola up her nose —and that he was watching out for Mrs. Danvers's little girl. That last part was true, at least. Michael was taking his self-appointed older brother duties way too seriously. He hardly let Claire out of his sight, except when privacy was required or Claire slipped off to class without an escort — which was as often as possible.

"Yes ma'am," Michael said. He was starting to look a little strained. "No ma'am. I won't let her do that. Yes. Yes."

Claire had pity on him, and reclaimed the phone. "Mom, we've got to go. I love you both."

Mom still sounded anxious. "Claire, are you sure you don't want to come home? Maybe I was wrong about letting you go to MIT early. You could take the year off, study, and we'd love to have you back home again ..."

Weird. Usually she calmed right down, especially when Michael talked to her. Claire had a bad flash of Shane telling her about his own mother, how her memories of Morganville had started to surface. How the vampires had come after her to kill her because the conditioning didn't stick.

Her parents were in the same boat now. They'd been to town, but she still wasn't sure just how much they really knew or understood about that visit — it could be enough to put them in mortal danger. She had to do everything she could to keep them safe. That meant not following her dreams to MIT, because if she left Morganville —assuming she could even get out of town at all — the vampires would follow her, and they'd either bring her back or kill her. And the rest of her family, too.

Besides, Claire had to stay now, because she'd signed a contract pledging herself directly to Amelie, the town's Founder. The biggest, scariest vampire of them all, even if she rarely showed that side. At the time, she'd been Claire's only real hope to keep herself and her friends alive.

So far signing the contract hadn't meant a whole lot — no announcements in the local paper, Amelie hadn't shown up to collect on her soul or anything. So maybe it would just pass by ... quietly.

Mom was still talking about MIT, and Claire didn't want to think about it. She'd dreamed of going to a school like MIT or CalTech her whole life, and she'd been smart enough to do it. She'd even gotten early acceptance. It was drastically unfair that she was stuck in Morganville now, like a fly in a spider's web, and for a few seconds she let herself feel bitter and angry about that.

Nice, the brutally honest part of her mocked. You'd sacrifice Shane's life for what you want, because you know that's what would happen. Eventually, the vampires would find an excuse to kill him. You're not any better than the vampires if you don't do everything you can to prevent that.