Morganville (Justin Bieber)

Chapter 17

Justin was in the doorway, ready for action, when Eve screeched the car to a stop; if he was still mad, at least he wasn't letting it get in the way of a good fight. Eve frantically signalled for him to stay where he was, on safe ground and checked the street on all sides.

"Do you see anything?" She asked me anxiously. I shook my head, still sick. "Okay..you know the drill? Asses and elbows. Bail!"

I fumbled open the lock, bottled out of the car, and hit the sidewalk running. I heard Eve's door slam and running footsteps. Now all we needed was for Brandon to show up and act like a total asshole.

I nearly ran into Justin as I pelted across the threshold; he stepped out of the way just in time, far enough to let me pass, and grabbed Eve to pull her inside as he slammed the door and locked it.

"You have got to get a better job" he said. Eve wiped at her ruined make up with the back of one hand and threw him a dirty look.

"At least I have a job!" She said.

"What, professional blood donor? Because that's what you're going to be if you-"

I turned, ran into a vampire, and screamed my lungs out. Okay, so she wasn't a vampire. That was established in about thirty more seconds by a combination of Justin doubling over with laughter, the vampire screaming in fright and cowering, and Eve saying, in blank surprise.

"Miranda! Honey, what the hell are you doing here?" She asks.

The vamp - she looked like a vamp, I amended, but now that my heart rate was going down below race car speeds I saw that I was make up and drama not nature - slowly lowered her arms, peered at me uncertainly through her thick black mascara lashes, and made a little O with her ruby red lips.

"I had to come" she said. She had a breathy floaty voice, full of drama. "Oh, Eve! I had such a terrible vision! There was blood and death, and it was all about you!"

Eve didn't seem impressed. She sighed, turned to Justin and said, "You let her in? I thought you hated her?"

"Couldn't leave her out there could I? I mean, she's got a pulse. Besides, she's your friend" he said. From the look Eve gave him, friend might of been stretching things.

Miranda gave Justin a loopy smile, great, I thought, annoyed and disgusted and still trying to contain the aftermath of a nuclear terror explosion. The girl was tall and most of her was thin, storklike legs revealed by a black leather mini skirt. She had lots of make up, and standard dyed black hair, shag cut around a white face. Ragged Magic Marker crosses drawn on her wrists and around her neck.

Miranda suddenly swung around and looked up at the ceiling. She raised her hands to her mouth in dread. "This house" she said. "Oh my, it's so strange. Do you feel it?"

"Mir, if you wanted to warn me about something, you could of called" Eve said, and steered her into the living room. "Now we've got to figure out how to get you home. Honestly, don't you have any sense?"

As Miranda sat down on the couch, I caught sight of something else on her neck..bruises. And in the centre of the bruises, two raw red, holes. Eve saw it too, and blinked, looked at Justin, and then at me.

"Mir?" She asked gently, and turned the girls chin to the side. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing" Miranda said. "Everything. You've really got to try it. It's everything I dreamt it would be, and for a second I could see, I could really see-"

Eve let go of her like she'd caught on fire. "You let somebody bite you?"

"Just Charles" Miranda said. "He loves me. But Eve, you have to listen - this is serious! I tried to call, but I couldn't get anyone, and I had this terrible dream-"