Read The Morganville Vampires Collection (The Morganville Vampires #1-4) for Free Online Page B

said flatly. ‘Look, I don’t want your blood on my hands. You can stay for a couple of days. But only until you find a place, right? And make it fast – I’m not running a halfway house for battered girls. I’ve got enough to worry about trying to keep Eve and Shane out of trouble.’
    For a guy who made such beautiful music, he was bitter, and a little scary. Claire put the moneyhesitantly on the table in front of him. He stared at it, jaw tense.
    ‘The rent’s a hundred a month,’ he said. ‘You buy groceries once a month, too. First month in advance. But you’re not staying past that, so keep the rest.’
    She swallowed and picked up two hundred of the three hundred she’d counted out. ‘Thanks,’ she said.
    ‘Don’t thank me,’ he said. ‘Just don’t get us into trouble. I mean it.’
    She got up, went into the kitchen, and spooned chilli into two bowls, added the bowls to trays along with spoons and Cokes, and brought it all back to set it on the coffee table. Michael stared at it, then her. She sat down on the floor – painfully – and began eating. After a pause, Michael took his bowl and tasted it.
    ‘Shane made it,’ Claire said. ‘It’s pretty good.’
    ‘Yeah. Chilli and spaghetti, that’s pretty much all Shane can cook. You know how to make anything?’
    ‘Sure.’
    ‘Like?’
    ‘Lasagna,’ she said. ‘And, um, sort of a hamburger hash thing, with noodles. And tacos.’
    Michael looked thoughtful. ‘Could you make tacos tomorrow?’
    ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘I have classes from eleven to five, but I’ll stop and pick up the stuff.’
    He nodded, eating steadily, glancing up at her oncein a while. ‘I’m sorry,’ he finally said.
    ‘About what?’
    ‘Being an asshole. Look, it’s just that I can’t – I have to be careful. Really careful.’
    ‘You weren’t being an asshole,’ she said. ‘You’re trying to protect yourself and your friends. That’s OK. That’s what you’re supposed to do.’
    Michael smiled, and it transformed his face, made it suddenly angelic and wonderful. Dude , she thought in amazement. He’s totally gorgeous . No wonder he’d been worried about her being underage. A smile like that, he’d be peeling girls off of him right and left.
    ‘If you’re in this house, you’re my friend,’ he said. ‘What’s your name, by the way?’
    ‘Claire. Claire Danvers.’
    ‘Welcome to the Glass House, Claire Danvers.’
    ‘But only temporarily.’
    ‘Yeah, temporarily.’
    They shared a smile, uneasily, and Michael cleared up the plates this time, while Claire went back up to her room, where she spread her books out on the built-in desk and started the day’s studying.
    She listened to him playing downstairs, the soft and heartfelt accompaniment to the night, as she fell into the world she loved.

C HAPTER F OUR
    Morning dawned bright and early, and Claire woke up to the smell of frying bacon. She stumbled to the bathroom down the hall, yawning, barely aware that she was scantily dressed in her extra-long T-shirt until she remembered, Oh my God, boys live here, too. Luckily, nobody saw, and the bathroom was free. Somebody had already been in it this morning; the mirrors were still frosted with steam, and the big black-and-white room glistened with drops of water. It smelt clean, though. And kind of fruity.
    The fruity smell was the shampoo, she found, as she lathered and rinsed. When she wiped the mirror down and stared at herself, she saw the patterns of bruises up and down both sides of her pale skin. I could have died . She’d been lucky.
    She tossed the T-shirt back on, then dashed back toher room to dig out the panties she’d rescued yesterday from the washer. They were still damp, but she put them on anyway, then dragged on her blue jeans.
    On impulse, she opened the closet, and found some old stuff pushed to the back. T-shirts, mostly, from bands she’d never heard of, and a few she remembered as ancient. A couple of sweaters, too. She