The Morganville Vampires Series: Final Goodbyes

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

CLAIRE

"Shane, hurry up!" Eve yelled from the bottom of the stairs. "It's about to start any minute!"

"I'm coming," Shane barked at her.

"Claire!" It was her turn to get an earful from Eve. "Have you found what you were looking for yet?"

"Yes." She walked down the stairs with bright, rosy cheeks.

"Oh," Eve pretended to glare at her but Claire could see her smile playing on her lips.

Claire fonud what she was looking for ages ago. She had spent the last few mintues teasing her husband with kisses. "I found what I was looking for. Come on let's go."

Eve walked out to the car where Michael was settling in the babies. Claire was about to follow her best friend when Shane gently-but-firmly grabbed her arm and lowered his lips to hers. Claire pulled away after a few seconds as they really did have to get a move on.

"Ah, Mrs Collins," Shane said playfully, "promise they'll be more of that later?"

 "Mr Collins, I assure you that they'll be more of that for the rest of your life." Claire said sophisticatedly.

Shane locked the door with a shine in his eye as Claire strutted towards the car.

The minute that they walked towards the crowd of people gathering for the burning, Myrnin escorted them towards the front of the crowd. Apparently, Amelie had already started the burning and she was calling up people alphabetically since she went "next are the Es." And some families that Claire knew had surnames begginning with E approached the fire - which had a barrier of how close they could get to it. Amelie's security guards checked each item before it was thrown in.

It was a nice gathering of everyone in town. Some people had been ordered to set up stands for drinks, food, sweets, things that light up - just little knick-knacks. It was almost like a festival.

Amelie saw us and the babies so she picked up Carrie and was pointing things out to her.

"As if she can understand what Amelie's saying." Shane whispered to Claire. "She's just looking at the fire and seeing a big orange, floaty thing."

"Great description of fire there, Shane." Claire teased him.

"You're the science-y one in this family. I don't know all the technical definitions." He laughed.

"Thank you for not saying the geek in this family." Claire teased him even more. "You wouldn't want to be seen dating a geek."

"I'm not dating a geek. I'm married to one." Shane shot back. He pulled Claire closer to his side and leaned in to tell her, "you're not a geek - you're a genius. If it wasn't for you, Claire, a lot of these people would be dead by now. You've helped vampires and humans to work alongside each other. I'm not saying that everybody's going to get along with everybody, because they won't - it's just how the world works. But you made a change, Claire. The minute you came into town. The vampires will play fairly - and abide by the rules - and the humans won't just assume that all vampires are bad. Everyone's treating everyone equally. Anyone who breaks those rules are like criminals."

"Shane," Claire stopped him from carrying on, "please. It wasn't just me. It was you, and Eve, and Michael, and Myrnin, and Jesse, and Sam, and Melissa, and Miranda, and Amelie, and Oliver." Although the last two were harder to convince. "It takes the world to change the world."

"But it takes one person to make a difference." Shane pointed out. "You came to Morganville, you made all of us-" he gestured to himself, Eve and Michael - "want to do what we can to change Morganville - not just save to odd person when we can. That then caused everything that we've done together."

"Actually," Claire chewed her lip out of amusement, "if it's a chain reaction you're talking about then the trigger for all of that was really Monica." Shane just froze - possibly out of horror. "She pushed me down the stairs."

"Because you slapped her back when she slapped you," Shane pointed out simply.

"But I did hit Jenifer's hand."

"She was trying to shove you whilst you were on the stairs."

"It's because I corrected her on World War Two, so she threw away my clothes and then they laughed at me. So that's why all of this has happened. Because Monica and her clones bullied me and I moved out and met you."

"Claire," Shane said slightly frustrated with her modesty, "you chose to come here and to that school. You got to go there early - if you didn't there may not have been a Morganville for you to come to. It's because of you and your genuis brain."

She opened her mouth but for the first time she couldn't think of something smart to say. She settled on saying, "thanks, but it was a team effort."

"Next are the Gs." Oliver announced.

"That's us," Eve nudged Claire.

Amelie watched Sam in his buggy whilst holding Carrie. Oliver held Amelia as we all went together. Claire and Shane had missed their turn but Amelie allowed them to join their friends as they all lived in the Glass House.

"What have you got, Mikey?" Shane asked over the sound of the crackling fire.

"My sports bottle," he answered honestly, "I don't want to remember that I drank human blood." And with that he threw the bottle into the fire.

"What have you got, Shane?" Michael asked whilst watching the fire burn his past away.

"I'm throwing away this," he held up a gun - the one he was going to use to kill himself when Claire had died. "I'm never going to need it - and neither is anyone else." He looked at his wife as he let it drop into the fire, making her a silent promise that he would never ever use it - or harm himself if anything was to happen to her because he had to think of his girls. And he knew she'd be disappointed in him.

Claire squeezed his hand tightly to show that she understood his message. "Eve, what is that?"

"It's a stake," Eve held it up for everyone to see. "It's a symbolic peace offering." She then lowered her voice for just her friends to hear, "don't worry, I have more for emergencies." She threw the stake into the fire to burn alongside her husband's sports bottle and Shane's gun.

"What have you got, Claire Bear?" Eve grinned at her.

"Oh, just some papers." Shane snatched them out of her hand.

"Just some papers," he tutted at her. "It's the letters that she got from different universities and a picture of herself just before she came to Morganville."

"Why do you want to burn those?" Michael asked.

"I'm not going to any of them universities. I can get a job through a recommendation by Amelie if I ever change my mind. And that picture..." Claire sighed.

"You can't burn it, it's such a nice picture." Shane commented.

"You look so sweet." Eve agreed.

"Mum's got copies anyway." Claire pointed out. "I just want to burn it because I'm not like that anymore. I'm not weak and can only hide behind books. I'm a wife and a mother now. And look at what we've done together."

Eve took her hand, Shane wrapped his arm around her waist and Michael held on to Eve. They huddled together as Claire threw in the final piece to be burned within their family. They stood watching the fire burn all the things that no longer mattered to them.

WELCOME TO MORGANVILLE.
YOU'LL NEVER WANT TO LEAVE.

You know the few important rules you need to know to feel comfortable in our quiet little town:

* obey the speed limits,
* don't litter,
* whatever you do, don't get on the bad side of the vampires

You know  how to run fast, to stay out of the shadows, and to build a network of friends who can help you.

Welcome to Morganville. You'll never want to leave.
   And if you do... well, you can't.
   Sorry about that.