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lot of dates and times. "Wow, they're really working it, aren't they?"

"Of course they are," Eve said absently. "The whole town turns out for - oh, damn, I'm going to have to call my boss. I'm going to have to switch shifts for some of these. . . ."

She hustled off, frowning at the paper, and Claire sighed and leaned her back against one wall of the hallway while Shane took the other. He raised his eyebrows. She did, too.

"Is it really that big a deal?" she asked him.

Shane shrugged. "Depends," he said. "Everybody does go, even most of the vampires. They like a good play, although they're usually not so hot on the musicals."

"Musicals," she repeated blankly. "Like what? Phantom of the Opera?"

"Last one I saw was Annie Get Your Gun. Hey, if they'd put on Rocky Horror Picture Show, I'd definitely go, but somehow I don't think they'd have the guts."

"You don't like musicals? Unless they involve transvestites and chain saws?"

Shane pointed both thumbs back toward his chest. "Guy? In case you forgot."

That made Claire smile and tingle in deep, secret places. "I remember," she said, as indifferently as she could, which was not very. "And I'm changing the subject, because I need to get to work." A glance at the window told her that it was an ice-cold spring afternoon, with the freezing Texas wind whipping old leaves down the street in miniature tornadoes. "And so do you, soon."

Shane pushed off and crossed the distance fast, pinning her in place with his hands flat against the wall on either side of her. Then he bent his elbows and leaned in and kissed her. The warmth spread from his lips to hers, then out in a rushing summer heat that moved over her entire body in a wave, and left her feeling as if she were glowing inside.

It went on a long time, that kiss. She finally put her palms flat against his chest with a wordless (and mostly weak) sound of pleading.

Shane backed off. "Sorry. I just needed something to get me through another eight hours of the exciting world of food service." He was working at Bryan's Barbecue, which wasn't a bad gig as jobs in Morganville went. He got all the barbecue he wanted, which meant a lot of free brisket and ham and sausage for the rest of them when he carted home a goody bag. The job also brought decent money, according to Shane, and as a plus, he got to use a sharp knife most of the day, carving meats. Apparently that was cool. He and some of the other guys practiced throwing them at targets in the back when the boss wasn't looking.

Claire kissed him on the nose. "Bring home some brisket," she said. "And some of that sauce. I've had enough chili dogs this week to last me a lifetime."

"Hey, my chili dogs are the best in town."

"It's a really small town."

"Harsh," he said, but he was smiling. The smile faded as he said very seriously, "You be careful."

"I will," she promised.

Shane played with knives, but she had the dangerous job.

She worked with vampires.

Claire's job was lab assistant to a vampire mad scientist, which never made sense when she thought of it that way, but it was still accurate. She hadn't meant to become Igor to Myrnin's Frankenstein, but she supposed at least it was a paying, steady job.

Plus, she learned a lot, which meant more to her than the money.

She'd been on job leave, with permission, for a couple of months while the vampires got themselves back together and fixed the damage that had been done - at least the physical damage - by the tornado that ripped through town. Or by the vampire war that had burned down part of it. Or by the rioting by the human population, which had left some scars. Come to think of it, the construction was going pretty well, all things considered. So she hadn't been to the lab for a while - today was, in Myrnin's words from his note, the "grand reopening." Although how you had a grand reopening of a hidden lair beneath a tumbledown shack, Claire had no idea. Was there cake?

The alley next to the Day House - a virtually identical twin to the Glass House where Claire lived, only with different curtains and nicer porch furniture - looked the same. The Day House was a shining white Victorian structure, and the alley was narrow, dark, and