Morganville Vampires [01] Glass Houses by Rachel Caine Page B

eyes moved to rest on hers for a few seconds. “I’m not without influence around here. Eve tells me that you’re very gifted. We can’t have some bad apples driving you off.”
    “Um…thanks?” She didn’t mean to make it a question; it just came out that way. “Thanks. I will.”
    Oliver nodded and went back to his work dissecting the coffeemaker. Claire found a seat not far away. Eve slipped out from behind the counter and pulled up a chair next to her, leaning forward, all restless energy. “Isn’t he great ?” she asked. “He means it, you know. He’s got some kind of pipeline to—” She made a V sign with her fingers. V, for vampires . “They listen to him. He’s good to have on your side.”
    Claire nodded, dunking the tea bag and watching the dark stains spread through the water. “You talk about me to everybody?”
    Eve looked stricken. “No! Of course I don’t! I just—well, I was worried. I thought maybe Oliver knew something that…Claire, you said it yourself—they tried to kill you. Somebody ought to be doing something about that.”
    “Him?”
    “Why not him?” Eve jittered her leg, tapping the thick heel on her black Mary Janes. Her hose had green and black horizontal stripes. “I mean, I get that you’re all about being self-sufficient, but come on. A little help never hurts.”
    She wasn’t wrong. Claire sighed, took the tea bag out, and sipped the hot drink. Not bad, even on a blazing-hot day.
    “Stay,” Eve said. “Study. It’s a really good place for that. I’ll drive you home, okay?”
    Claire nodded, suddenly grateful; there were too many places to get lost on the way home, if Monica had noticed her after all. She didn’t like the idea of walking three blocks between the student streets, where things were bright and busy, and the colorless hush of the rest of the town, where the Glass House lived. She put the tea to one side and unpacked books. Eve went back to take orders from three chattering girls wearing sorority T-shirts. They were rude to her, and giggled behind her back. Eve didn’t seem to notice—or if she did, she didn’t care.
    Oliver did. He put down the tools he was using, as Eve bustled around getting drinks, and stared steadily at the girls. One by one, they went quiet. It wasn’t anything he did, exactly, just the steadiness of the way he watched them.
    When Eve took their money, each one of the girls meekly thanked her and took her change.
    They didn’t stay.
    Oliver smiled slightly, picked up a piece of the disassembled machine, and polished it before reattaching it. He must have known Claire was watching, because he said, in a very low voice, “I don’t tolerate rudeness. Not in my place.”
    She wasn’t sure if he was talking about the girls, or her staring at him, so she hurriedly went back to her books.
    Quadratic equations were a great way to pass the afternoon.
     
    Eve’s shift ended at nine, just as the nightlife at Common Grounds picked up; Claire, not used to the babble, chatter, and music, couldn’t keep her mind on her books anyway. She was glad of an excuse to go when Eve’s replacement—a surly-looking pimpled boy about Shane’s age—took her place behind the counter. Eve went in the back to get her stuff, and Claire packed up her backpack.
    “Claire.” She looked up, startled that somebody remembered her name other than, well, people who wanted to kill her, and saw Kim Valdez, from the dorm.
    “Hey, Kim,” she said. “Thanks for helping me out—”
    Kim looked mad. Really mad. “Don’t even start! You left my cello just laying around out there! Do you have any idea how hard I worked for that thing? Way to be an asshole!”
    “But—I didn’t—”
    “Don’t lie. You bugged out somewhere. Hope you got your bags and crap. I left them out there just like you left my stuff.” Kim jammed her hands in her pockets and glared at her. “ Don’t ask me for any favors again. Right?”
    She didn’t wait for an answer,