“The ringtone was a dead giveaway, emphasis on dead . . . creepy organ music. She didn’t even have to glance at the image of fangedbunny slippers on the screen to know who was calling. She just sighed, thumbed it on, and held it to her ear.“Claire! I need you here immediately. Something’s wrong with Bob.” Myrnin, her mad-scientist, blood-addicted boss, sounded actually shaken. “Ican’t get him to eat his insects, and I used his favorites. He just sits there.”“Bob,” she repeated, looking at Shane in wide-eyed disbelief. “Bob the spider.”“Just because he’s a spider doesn’t mean he deserves any less concern! Claire, you have a way with him. He likes you.”Just what she needed. Bob the spider liked her. “You do realize that he’s a year old, at least. And spiders don’t live that long.”“You think he’s dead?” Myrnin sounded horrified. So wrong.“Is he curled up?”“No. He’s just quiet.”“Well, maybe he’s not hungry.”“Will you come?” Myrnin asked. He sounded calmer now, but also oddly needy. “It’s been very lonely here these past few days. I’d like yourcompany, at least for a little while.” When she hesitated, he used the pity card. “Please, Claire.”“Fine,” she sighed. “I’m bringing Shane.”After a second of silence, he said, flatly, “Goody,” and hung up.”

“Her phone rang again. “What?” she snapped as she answered it.Myrnin, of course. “Are you on your way?”“No!”“Claire, there are things to do.”“Here, too,” she said. “And I’m staying here, believe me.”Myrnin was silent for a beat, and then he said, “Bob would be very disappointed in you.”“Bob the spider?”“He looks at you like a mother, you know. I’m surprised at your lack of work ethic. Think of the example you set for—”She hung up on him and turned the phone on vibrate and relaxed in Shane’s arms.”

“It's only a hunting spider, it won't hurt you." -Myrnin"So not the point!" -Claire"Oh, pish. It's just another living creature. Nothing to be frightened of, if handled properly. I think I'll call him Bob. Bob the spider." -Myrnin"You're insane." -Claire”

“Myrnin: "I shall name him Bob, Bob the spider"Claire: "You're insane."Myrnin: "Why Claire, I thought that was part of my charm." (something like that)”

“Claire found herself staring at his feet, which were in bunny slippers. Myrnin looked down. "What?" he asked. "They're quite comfortable." He lifted on to look at it, and the ears wobbled in the air. "Of course they are," she said. Just when she thought Myrnin was getting his mental act together, he'd do something like that. Or maybe he was just messing with her. He liked to do that, and his dark eyes were fixed on her now, assessing just how weirded-out she was. Which, on the grade scale of zero to Myrnin, wasn't much.”

“Tempting. But you see, I can simply insist on a lifetime contract with none of your silly restrictions, or kill you right now.”“You won’t,” Shane said. That made Morley’s eyes open wide.“Why not? Jacob and Patience were quite specific—they’re concerned for Claire. Not for you, boy.”“Because if you kill me and Eve, you’ll make her your enemy. This girl won’t stop until she sees you all pay.”Claire had no idea whom he was talking about—she didn’t feel like that Claire at all, until she imagined Shane and Eve lying dead on the ground.Then she understood. “I’d hunt you down,” she said quietly. “I’d use every resource I have to do it.And you know I’d win.”Morley seemed impressed. “She is small, but I see your point, boy. Besides, she has the ear of Amelie, Oliver, and Myrnin; not a combination I would care to test.”