Chapter One.

Claire's POV.

God, I was exhausted. I got up at 5am this morning, when Myrnin called me in for some ridiculous new contraption he made, that supposedly would eliminate the need for Frank, but so far; nothing. He'd had me working all day and I'd barely even had the time to sit down, never mind eat anything. I was moody, tired and hungry; not a good combination. Currently, I was working on an experiment, whilst Myrnin sat in the corner, flicking through an ancient, dusty, metre thick journal.

I glanced up at the clock on the lab wall that I had finally managed to convince Myrnin to get after countless nights of working overtime for no extra pay, and was shocked by what I saw; it was almost 8 o'clock, I'd been here for 15 hours! I wasn't even sure that was legal, but I supposed no one cares about human laws in Morganville.

I tidied away the vials and beakers and grabbed my backpack from the floor.

"I'm going to go now, Myrnin", I said and he waved at me, barely even looking up from his journal.

I laughed and made my way out onto the street. Oh no. The sky was almost pitch black and I knew better than anyone that in Morganville, that was a very very bad idea. I just hoped that the vampires were too preoccupied to notice a small, unarmed 17 year old girl walking the streets at night.

I took my phone out of my pocket, and saw that I had 40 missed calls from Shane, I shoul have known he'd be worried. I dialled his number and he picked up on the first ring.

"Claire! Where are you? Please tell me you're okay!?" he practically screamed down the phone,

"Shane, relax, I'm fine. I'm on my way now; I'm nearly in Lott Street, okay?"

"Oh, hell no! Please tell me you aren't walking home?!"

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, but I'll be fine! Look, I'm going as quick as I can, okay? I'll be there in a minute. Bye."

I shoved my phone back in my pocket, and increased my speed, my head down.

Whilst I had been on the phone to Shane, I swear I felt someone watching me, so I knew that I had to get home as quickly as possible, but I didn't run. Running would make it too much fun for whoever it was.

As I jogged up the steps to the Glass House, I was convinced that someone was watching me, so I braved a look out into the street and sure enough, a tall, ghost white man was leaned up against a lamppost, hidden in the shadows. He looked up and we caught gazes and suddenly, I couldn't move. I wanted to go to him, follow him wherever he took me and give him all the blood he needed.

He stared at me, a menacing smirk playing at his lips and I took a step forward. I vaguely remembered Michael telling about the mind control vampires could sometimes used, but that thought was slowly diminished as he invaded my mind. I slowly went to take another step forward, off the porch. Out of safety, but suddenly a pair of arms grabbed me from behind, pulling me inside and the door shut in my face.

The sound of the door snapped me out of my 'trance' and I blinked, dazed and confused.

I turned around to find a very angry Shane glaring at me.

Oh god! I was about to go to that man, I was going to let him drink from me and …kill me.

"Oh god!" I gasped in horror, covering my mouth with hands as I realised what I had just been about to do.

Shane's expression changed from stern to gentle and he pulled me into his arms, rhythmically stroking my hair, in an attempt to calm me down.

When my breathing had slowed, I pulled back to look up at him, "Hey", I smiled, shyly,

He gave me a gorgeous smile in return, "Well, hey to you too", and he grabbed my hand, pulling me to the living room, where we snuggled on the sofa together.

He pulled me close and I nestled into his shirt, completely at ease. Wow, I loved him so much. I closed my eyes, sighing contently as he smoothed my hair comfortingly and I suddenly realised how tired I really was.

I guess I must have fallen asleep, because next thing I knew I was being shaken awake by a very excited Eve, screaming at me in a pitch so high, I'm sure only dogs could hear it.

"Claire bear, wake up! Wake up!" she sang,

Shane sprang up from the sofa, ready to fight any intruding vampire, another habit us Morganville residents had required. His wary eyes scanned the room for any sign of danger, before stopping on Eve, hopping up and down like a demented rabbit.

He sighed heavily, plopping back down on the sofa next to me, rubbing his face with his hands,

"What the hell do you want, Gothica?"

She stopped jumping for a second and glared at him,

"Wow, someone's pmsing, but look, look, look!" she said, waving a piece of paper in my face.

I took it from her and read out loud. "Dead girl's dance party, tomorrow night 7pm"

Oh god…

"Eve…", I grimaced looking up at her, "uh, I don't think that's a good idea , I mean remember last time?"

Shane grabbed the invite off me, quickly scanning it,

"Oh, hell no!" he shouted, "Eve, what the hell are you thinking? Claire nearly got raped last time? Did you forget about that?!"

She rolled her eyes, "no dumbass, but this time you and Michael are gonna be there if anything goes wrong, which I doubt it will ,and you can act all big, bad boyfriend for a whole night!"

I was getting pretty sick of this; I stood up from the sofa,

"Look guys! I'm not a kid anymore! I know not to talk to strangers, give my number out, and take strange drinks…" I counted them off on my fingers.

Shane hugged me, "I know babe. I'm just worried that's all"

I turned around to look at him, "Shane, seriously. I'll be fine I have you, eve and Michael there, nothing is gonna happen,"

I leaned in to peck him on the lips, "okay?"

He nodded, defeated.

"Good", I smiled

"So?" Eve asked, "What's the verdict?"

I turned around to face Eve,

"Fine!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in surrender, "we'll go!"

She erupted into screams and giggles, jumping up and down, clapping her hands,

"I'll go wake Michael!", and with that she bolted up the stairs, tripping as she went.

Shane chuckled, "wow, what's she on?"

I slapped his arm, playfully, "You know", I said, "I think this'll be good for us, everything's been too serious lately, and we need a bit of fun in our lives!"

"I couldn't agree more!" Shane laughed, kissing my hair.

A/N: Hey guys! This is Clairebear97 :) Together with Claire Collins, I'm writing this story and we will take it in turns at writing chapters. We'll tell you who wrote it at the beginning of each. I hope you enjoyed chapter one, it was long! Yaaay! Please review and we'll update quicker!