Amelie

I should be getting some work done. I should be signing papers, going to meetings, making decisions...but I truly prefer to sit in a very unattractive way in my office chair and rest my head on the desk.

I'm not myself today; I can't bring myself to do anything except sit here engulfed in self pity and nostalgia for the days when I was more...human.

I hear approaching footsteps and immediately sit up straight, smooth down my hair and pick up a pen.

I smell him even before he knocks and my heart reacts stupidly. I am the Founder, I can't let my infatuation with Samuel show.

"Come in Samuel and...Michael" I say, recognizing the second scent a few seconds too late. "What is it that you require?"

"Amelie..." Sam begins to say

"Claire's run away" interrupted his grandson "it's getting dark and we don't know where she is"

Oh...that child is so...childish. Honestly, she is a great asset to the town and has done me great services but she is sometimes so...my lips twist in distaste as I can't find the word.

"What do you expect me to do?" I ask coolly, watching the boy's hopeful expression change as he hears my tone. Samuel is purposefully staying out of my line of vision, skulking in a corner of my office.

"We were wondering if...'cause of your connection with Claire...the bracelet and all...if you knew where she was."

I weave my fingers together, trying to contain my anger at his hesitation and incapability to form a simple request,

"I have no idea, Michael. I have more pressing problems than the childish fights amongst my younger residents. Now go, if by tomorrow night she has not returned, I shall consider sending people to search for her."

The child looks at me for a moment with disgust before controlling his emotions and stalking out.

Samuel look so sad and betrayed that I feel my heart breaking again. He follows his grandson out. They look remarkably alike; they're identical except from the hair colour.

I turn to my papers and try to awake an interest for the lack of blood donations this past week.

After a few seconds, I return to my earlier position, letting my head rest on the desk and wonder where Claire is and why she ran away.

Claire

Myrnin and I sit on the floor in his lab, each with a plate of pasta.

"There is no way you made this, Myr!" I tease him

He pretends to be offended and then gives up and smiles at me: "Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's really nice."

When I finish, he whisks my plate away and replaces it with a bowl of my favourite ice cream. My eyes widen in surprise.

"How did you know?"

Myrnin grins at me and winks.

My phone rings, breaking the cosy atmosphere. It's Michael, for the sixth time today. Sighing, I press reject call and turn the phone off before tucking into my ice cream.

Shane

The light reflects off sharp fangs and sunken , haunted eyes. This isn't a vampire like the ones you see every day in Morganville; the wild hunger in the female's eyes awake a spark of recognition in my memory.

No time for my trip down memory lane, though, as the vampire lunges for Eve. I shoot her with the Super Soaker, soaking her with silver nitrate.

She screams and claws at her burning skin before falling to the ground. I stake her quickly, just to make sure and feel the life slip away from her.

Eve is trembling; I've never seen her like this before.

"What's wrong?"

"I...I knew her. She went to school with me: Stephanie Jones...I think Amelie's not the only one who knows how to make new vampires."

Suddenly, something in my memory clicks. The expression in the vamp's eyes was the same longing that the other vampires had when they were sick.

"And the vampire that knows how to reproduce...wasn't treated, so he's passed the sickness along to all the vampires he's created."

"Which basically means: we're fucked."