Bitter Blood (Morganville Book #2)

Chapter 2

Morganville didn't look all that different now from when I had first come to town, and I found that really, really odd. After all, when the evil overlords took over, you'd think it would have made some kind of visible difference, at least.

But instead, life still went on - people went to work, to school, rented videos, and drank in bars. The only real difference was that nobody roamed around alone after dark. Not even the vampires, as far as I knew. The dark was Mr. Bishop's hunting time.

Even that wasn't as much of a change as you'd think, though. Sensible people in Morganville had never gone out after dark if they could help it. Instincts, if nothing else.

I checked my watch. Eleven a.m. - and I really didn't have to go to the lab. In fact, the lab was the last place I wanted to be today. I didn't want to see my supposed boss Myrnin, or hear his rambling crazy talk, or have to endure his questions about why I was so angry with him. He knew why I was angry. He wasn't that crazy.

My dad had been right on the money. I intended to spend the day trying to help Justin.

First step: see the mayor of Morganville - Richard Morrell.

I didn't have a car, but Morganville wasn't all that big, really, and I liked walking. The weather was still good - a little cool even during the day now, but crisp instead of chilly. It was what passed for winter in west Texas, at least until the snowstorms. We had a few days of fall, which meant the leaves were a sickly yellow around the edges instead of dark green. I'd heard that fall was a beautiful season in other parts of the country and the world, but around here, it was more or less a half hour between blazing summer and freezing winter.

As I walked, people noticed me. I didn't like that, and I wasn't used to it; I had always been one of the Great Anonymous Geek Army, except when it came to a science fair or winning some kind of academic award. I'd never stood out physically - too short, too thin, too small - and it felt weird to have people focus on me and nod, or just plain stare.

Word had gotten around that I was Bishop's errand girl. He'd never made me do anything, really, but he made me carry his orders.

And bad things happened. Making me do it, while I was still wearing Amelie's bracelet, was Bishop's idea of a joke.

All the staring made the walk feel longer than it really was.

As I jogged up the steps to Richard's replacement office - the old one having been mostly trashed by a tornado at City Hall - I wondered if the town had appointed Richard as mayor just so they didn't have to change any of the signs. His father - the original Mayor Morrell, one of those Texas good ol' boys with a wide smile and small, hard eyes - had died during the storm, and now his son occupied a battered old storefront with a paper sign in the window that read, MAYOR RICHARD MORRELL, TEMPORARY OFFICES.

I would be willing to bet that he wasn't very happy in his new job. There was a lot of that going around.

A bell tinkled when I opened the door, and my eyes adjusted slowly to the dimness inside. I supposed he kept the lights low out of courtesy to vampire visitors - same reason he'd had the big glass windows in front blacked out. But it made the small, dingy room feel like a cave to me - a cave with bad wallpaper and cheap, thin carpeting.

Richard's assistant looked up and smiled as I shut the door. "Hey, Anastasia," she said. Nora Harris was a handsome lady of about fifty, neatly dressed in dark suits most of the time, and had a voice like warm chocolate butter sauce. "You here to see the mayor, honey?"

I nodded and looked around the room. I wasn't the only person who'd come by today; there were three older men seated in the waiting area, and one geeky-looking kid still working off his baby fat, wearing a T-shirt from Morganville High with their mascot on it - a snake, fangs exposed. He looked up at me, eyes wide, and pretty obviously scared, and I smiled slightly to calm him down. It felt weird, being the person other people were scared to see coming.