Chapter 1, Wrong.

I walked down the deserted street after only being awake only an hour. Shane had kept me awake all night with his constant nagging and wanting from me. He had tiered me out so much and when I woke this morning I woke later than usual. Myrnin wanted me to come in early but now I was running later than what I would normally be at the lab for. Myrnin was going to be in a mood with me all day because of this. On top of all that I had to stop by common grounds to get my daily dose of coffee because of this mess.

When I entered common grounds Oliver (the totally creep vampire) was smiling at me. It was so unusual to see him working in day time. That myth about vampires spontaneously bursting into flames when sun light hits them is a lie. Yes they do burn but as they get older they are the less likely that is to happen. Oliver is old, I mean real old so he doesn't need to cover up as much.

Oliver was wearing his hippie look he chose to wear, all the time when around humans but when he was around Amelie he wore a long black leather coat or a suit, depending on whether he was outside or at the council.

"Oh Claire what a pleasant surprise." He shouted over the large crowd that was filling common grounds.

I walked to the counter where the perky young female was serving. She smiled at me her full red lips curving. Oliver tapped her on the shoulder and she swung her glossy red head around, her hair smashing into Oliver's face. He wasn't impressed by that.

"Let me deal with her." He commanded. She nodded silently and left me and Oliver too it.

No matter how full Common Ground was Oliver had made the buzzing of the chatting students fade away.

"Please don't slow me down Oliver." I pulled a sad facing hoping it would get me some sympathy but it didn't.

Oliver smiled at me, that predatory smile. "Why what's wrong?"

I sighed deeply. "Shane kept me awake all night and if I don't get a move on Myrnin is going to kill me, of course not literally. He still needs me."

"Usual?" As he started to pull on levers to make my usual coffee filled sugary treat.

He passed it me over the counter taking his time he calculated the price, even when he knew it off of the top of his head.

I paid him and was just about to turn away when he called me back. "Claire!" I froze in my tracks. "Good luck!"

After that I left Common Ground's with my fists clenched, Oliver always put me in that mood. He always made me angry and now Myrnin was going to get on at me for being so late. My day had started off crap and it was going to continue to get even crappier.

When I made my way down the steps and into the lab Myrnin was running around, picking things up and placing them someplace else. I hated it when he did that, it took me 3 weeks to get one side of the room sorted and that was just the equipment.

"What are you doing?" I asked Myrnin rushing in trying to stop him in his tracks.

Myrnin stop and looked at me confused. "Claire? What are you doing here? I thought I gave you the day off?" He walked over to me his long red velvet coat open showing his cream tunic and his tight black leather pants. It sort of reminded me of a pirate.

"You texted me last night, asking me to come in early." I was used to Myrnin's crazy ways, he would forget everything he did.

He looked confused but quickly shook it off. "It's a good job you're here anyway. I'm trying out my new machine." He was already starting to walk towards one of the back rooms before I could protest and get out of here.

The last time Myrnin had asked me to help with an experiment it ended up me in the hospital for a few days. I had survived 15 explosions and 2 fires. Working with Myrnin was get worse with every passing day.

We came to a dark room, with Myrnin having perfect vampire vision he had no need for a light. As I walked in the room I switched the lights on and suddenly wished I hadn't. There was a huge metal machine in the middle on the room. It took up the room in height and almost in width. I gulped deeply, this was the second largest machine he had built by far, the first being Ada his true love.

"What is it?" I asked mouth gaping wide.

He patted the machine. "It's a shield for the town." Myrnin was proud of his machine. "I know I can never bring Ada back so the next thing to do is create something similar."

I nodded, at least he wasn't using any part of a human. Just as I had my hopes up Myrnin crushed them by pulling off a cover on a jar. In the jar was a human brain accompanied by a green liquid, it looked very sci-fi creepy. I yelped and jumped away.

"Don't be scared Claire. It was donated by a young man who tragically died in a car accident. His brain was alive but his body wasn't so good." Myrnin smiled as he turned knobs and pulled levers. "After this anyone who leaves Morganville and knows about us will forget."

"Are you sure…" I trailed off.

"If it'll work? I have no idea let's try it out." He pulled a last lever.

The machine jerked to life, making groaning noise that impressed Myrnin, the smile on his face grew bigger. It lasted for a minute before Myrnin made a sad and then scared face. The machine made a weird clicking noise, like a bomb.

"No!" Myrnin dived in front of me, pushing me flat on the ground and then dived on top of me.

There was a bright light and I clung to Myrnin who was acting like a shield. Flames ran across Myrnin's back, burning his clothes and his flesh.

When the fire had died down Myrnin crawled off of me and onto the floor. I sat up and turned to look at the damage, Myrnin's back was so badly burnt that his clothes would have needed to be replaced and his spine was visible.

"Myrnin!" I went to tend to the wound but Myrnin grabbed my wrist.

"Go Claire!" He shouted at me then pushed me away.

Quickly I jumped to my feet, stumbling away from him. What should I do? Myrnin was slowly healing but he would need blood to heal fully. That is what I had to do, I need to get Myrnin blood or I would be on the menu. Jumping over rubble and little fire's I ran out of the room and towards the kitchen. The fridge was next to the microwave, I flung it open nearly destroying the door. The fridge was full of little sachets of blood, with disgust I pulled two out. There was no time to heat them up so I ran back to Myrnin, he was still on the floor by the time I got back.

"Myrnin, here." I passed him the bags of blood, relived I didn't need to touch them anymore. "Drink." And that is what he did, he sat up slowly and ripped the plastic bag the shreds drinking the contents.

After he was finished he smiled at me, really? He had just been badly injured and he was smiling at me?

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Myrnin drooped his head, still smiling but obviously not wanting to share. "I just save your life." He was happy about that? Normally I just dove to the ground and everything was alright, he must have known what would happen if the machine had exploded. "And in return you help me heal. Thank you Claire." Did he really just say that? Myrnin never thanked me… I had tried everything in the damn book for him to just thank me once and all it took was helping him heal?

"You're welcome, I guess." I said nervously. This could be one of Myrnin's mind tricks, he could be saying thank you to catch me off guard and then he wound pounce on me. Slowly I slid away.

"Maybe you should take the rest of the day off. I'll clean up this mess." Did he hit his head while I wasn't here?

We rose to our feet at the same time. "Are you sure?" He nodded. "Okay then, I should be going then."

Myrnin followed me into the main part of the lab, I grabbed my backpack and turned to face him again. I opened my mouth to speak but Myrnin spoke over me. "No, Claire just go home, I can clean up after myself."

"No, you can't I clean up everything. Just last week I had to clean up your last failed experiment after I had been rushed to hospital with a nasty head wound." I paused. "Myrnin, what is wrong with you?"

"Nothing! Now go!" Myrnin's voice boomed making the glass equipment on the table shake.

That scared me into submission. "Fine!" I threw my backpack onto my shoulder and stomped up the stairs.

"Claire come back!" I heard Myrnin's voice call.

"No!" I slammed the door behind me.