Ghost Town (21 page)

Claire shuddered, and changed the subject. “Is . . . is he human? Your boyfriend, I mean.”

“Yeah, he’s human. Why?”

“It’s not just humans who get it, whatever it is. Vampires do, too.” Claire hesitated, then plunged on. “I think Michael forgot who I was this morning. Not for long, just for maybe a minute or two. But I don’t think it’s the first time he’s forgotten.”

Hannah looked, if possible, even grimmer. “That’s not good news. Not at all.”

“I know.” Claire couldn’t shake the memory of the vampire in the diner, who said the world was wrong, and then tried to kill the first person who came close. What if that happened to Michael? To Oliver? God, to
Amelie
? “That vampire who went crazy, the one from Marjo’s Diner the other night—how long did it take for her to come out of it?”

Hannah gave her a sideways look as she made the last turn toward Founder’s Square, and slowed for the security station they had to pass. “She didn’t,” she said. “Best we can tell, she never will.”

NINE

K
yle was still in the cage in the middle of the park, heavily guarded; Claire caught a glimpse of the barred square box and the heavy police presence as the car passed the borders of the square, and then took a ramp down to the underground parking beneath the buildings. Hannah had a reserved space, and as they walked toward the elevator it opened with a hiss. One of Amelie’s black-suited guards—the woman—nodded to Hannah and looked at Claire with pointed intensity.

“She’s with me,” Hannah said. “I’ll take responsibility.”

“Good enough,” the vampire agreed, and pressed the button for the meeting floor. “I’ll warn you, they’re not in a wonderful mood.”

“They never are.”

The vampire chuckled, a very human sort of sound, but somehow at least twenty percent more sinister. “Well, that’s true. Good luck.”

Once they’d stepped out of the elevator, the vampire was all business again, following Hannah and Claire as they walked down the long marble hall to a set of polished wooden doors that opened before they arrived, from inside. Claire supposed that was intended to look impressive, but it wasn’t any big trick; the vampires could clearly hear them coming.

There was only one guard in the room this time, and their escort stopped outside and pulled the doors shut behind them. Amelie was seated in her place, and so was Richard; there were folders on the table, each one neatly labeled.

Oliver was pacing, hands behind his back.

“You’re late,” he snapped at Hannah. The guard was right—he was clearly not in a good mood. Hannah sat down beside Richard, leaving Claire standing in indecision. “And you’ve brought a friend. How . . . nice.”

Claire quickly sat down in the first available chair. Oliver was eyeing her like a piece of trash he was considering taking out.

“Claire,” Amelie said. “This is unexpected.” Unexpected, Claire thought, did not mean welcome. Amelie, like Hannah, looked un-characteristically tense.

“I needed to talk to you,” Claire said. “Both of you.”

“
Must
we always be distracted by the yapping of your favorite pet?” Oliver said, and crossed the room in a flash to slap both hands flat on the table, glaring at Amelie. “Silence her until we’re done. She shouldn’t be here.”

That was . . . shocking. Claire had never seen him quite that aggressive toward the Founder before. It occurred to her, uneasily, that maybe she ought to have called Amelie first before showing up.

Amelie didn’t flinch, blink, or react to Oliver’s anger in any way. “She’s not my pet,” she said evenly, “and I don’t take orders from you, Oliver. Truly, you must try to remember that from time to time.”

He showed his teeth, but not his vampire teeth. Not quite. He pushed off from the table and paced again, moving like a lion who wanted a gazelle very, very badly.

Amelie turned her attention to Claire and said, “You’ll wait until our business is done. He’s quite right. You shouldn’t be here.”

Claire nodded. She didn’t really want to wait—she wanted to blurt it all out—but there was a warning in Amelie’s cold gray eyes that made it clear blurting was not a good idea.

“You are on edge, Oliver,” Amelie said. “Sit, please.”

He threw her a filthy look and kept on pacing, back and forth. “I had to put down one of my own last night, like a rabid dog. Do you imagine I should feel relaxed?”

Claire bent her head close to Hannah and whispered, “What happened?” Hannah shook her head in warning. “But I—”

Oliver rounded on her, eyes flaring red. “Do you want to know what happened, Claire?” he said. “Which part of it? The part where one of my oldest associates lost her mind and began to attack humans in the street? The part where I couldn’t reason with her? Or the part where I was forced to kill her, on
Amelie’s
orders?”

That met with ringing silence. Amelie continued to watch him, face calm and smooth, body very still. After a moment, she said, very quietly, “You are overwrought. Sit down, Oliver. Please.”

“I will not,” he snapped, and turned his back.

After another moment of silence, Amelie went back to the open folder before her. “Then let us move on to the business at hand. This request to expand the hunting permits is unacceptable. They’re asking for four times the current limit, and they want to include the university grounds as well. This is highly risky to all of us. My proposal is that, rather than expanding hunting licenses, we discontinue the program altogether and seek another alternative. There are always a few humans who would willingly volunteer to be bitten.”

Richard started to say something, but he was crushed by Oliver. “This is an old, tired argument. Are we vampires or not? We
hunt
. That’s our nature. Restricting it, even outlawing it, doesn’t curb our instincts. It only makes us criminals for having them.”

“Oh, but I fully expect you to control your instincts, as I do. Unless you’re unable to master yourself. Are you, Oliver?” Amelie’s tone was sharper than Claire expected, almost . . . angry. It occurred to her, finally, that Amelie was upset, too.

Very
bad combination, having both of them on edge, in a confinedspace.

This time, Oliver did flash fangs at her. “You’re on dangerous ground, woman. Don’t push me.” Amelie’s guard took a step away from the door. “And don’t presume to have your dogs threaten me, either. I’ve supported your rule in this town. I’ve even agreed to your experiments and social rules of behavior. But I
will not
allow you to make us into pale copies of humans. It is not who we are, or who we should be, and you know that better than anyone.”

“I take it you will not entertain any alternative plans,” Amelie said after a moment. “Then we will leave the program as it is, with a limited number of licenses, and the university remains protected ground.”

Oliver laughed. “Are you
listening
? They won’t obey you for much longer. They’ll do as they choose, regardless of the law. They’re angry, Amelie. You’ve allowed
humans
to kill vampires and walk away. If you choose to punish vampires for following their natures, you’re as stupid as you were when you thought you could manipulate your way onto a throne as a girl of twelve. You never did reach that goal, did you? I’m sure dying a mere princess never sat well with you. That must be why you appointed yourself queen here.”

Amelie stood up, and the room went very, very quiet. Claire no longer felt the urge to try to talk. She felt the urge to crawl under the table. It was as if she, Richard, and Hannah no longer existed, at least to Amelie and Oliver.

“Are you telling me that you no longer want to serve as my second?” Amelie asked him. “Because that is what I hear.”

“Amelie . . .” Oliver’s voice was full of angry frustration. He, at least, hadn’t forgotten the presence of others, and glanced quickly aside at the humans. “Send them out. We need to settle this. It’s been a long time in coming.”

“Richard and Hannah are equal members of this council. I will not dismiss them like servants.”

He laughed, and Claire saw the sharp glitter of his fangs. “
Equal?
How long have you been deluding yourself like this? You think any of them are ever
equal
to us? You are ceding control of this town to fools and mortals, bit by bit, and we are all going to suffer for it.
Die
for it. It
cannot
go on!”

“Sit down,” Amelie said. “Now.”

“No. You are destroying us, Amelie, and I can’t—I won’t permit it to continue.”

They froze in place, staring at each other, and Claire hardly dared to breathe at all.

Oliver didn’t blink. He finally said, “Your human pets are turning on us. They’re turning on
you
. The boy in the cage down there is proof enough of how much in contempt the humans hold your rules, and you. And they’re not wrong, because we are killers, and they are our natural victims. If we let them have control, they will destroy us. They have no choice.”

“That’s not true,” Claire said. She hadn’t exactly meant to say it, but now it was out, hanging in the air, and Oliver’s attention was on her like a freezing blanket of snow. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

He whirled to face her, and she wished she’d kept her mouth shut. “So what is your solution, little Claire? Keep us in zoos, the way you keep other predators who threaten you? Exterminate those you can’t control? That’s what humans
do.
We know this. We used to be just as flawed, just as human.” Oliver looked back at Amelie. “I’d have wiped all vampires off of the face of the land, in my breathing days. If I could have managed it.”

She smiled thinly. “I know very well what you would have done,” she said. “You did the same in your day with humans who worshipped differently from you and yours. But not all humans are as genocidally inclined as you.”

He hit the table so hard it vibrated. “I did what was right!”

“You did what was right for those who agreed with you, and that is all in the past. We are talking about our
future
. Oliver, we cannot live as we did. We cannot hide in the shadows and run when discovered, like rats. In this modern age, there is no hiding among the humans, not for long. And you know it.” She hesitated, and then said softly, “You must trust me, as you once did.”

He laughed, a rusty, raw sound, and turned to go.

Amelie flashed around the table in a white blur and put her back to the door before he reached it. He paused just a step away from her. Seeing them that close together, Claire realized how tall he was, and how he towered over her. Amelie looked fragile, suddenly. Vulnerable.

“Don’t make me do this,” Amelie said. “I value you. Don’t destroy the peace we have.”

He reached out and fastened his hand on her arm. The guard moved toward them. Amelie shook her head, and the guard stopped, but stayed ready to jump. “Out of my way,” Oliver said. “This is useless. I’ve bowed to you for too long, and if I continue to do it, we will all suffer. You can’t change us, Amelie. You can’t change
me.
For the love of God, stop trying.”

“Sit.
Down.
”

“No. I’ve been your trained dog long enough.”

She broke free of his grip and slapped her hands on both sides of his face, freezing him in place. Her eyes . . . her eyes went
white
. Pure, cold, icy white. Claire looked away, because what howled through the room just then was a feeling of wild power nothing like she’d ever felt from Amelie before. Hannah and Richard had moved out of their chairs and were pressed against the far wall. Even the guard was backing up.

“Do
not
defy me,” Amelie said fiercely. “I don’t want to destroy you, but I will rather than allow you to hunt and kill as you wish. Do you understand me?”

It had to be impossible for Oliver to do anything but agree. Claire felt the pressure in the room increase, a kind of heavy psychic weight that made her gasp and want to curl into a ball—and it wasn’t even aimed at her.

Amelie opened her mouth, and her fangs slid down, elegant and slow. She was no longer vulnerable. Not at all. She was . . . terrifying.

Oliver had to kneel to her. He
had to
. Claire could feel just the edges of what Amelie was doing, but the pressure on Oliver must have been like the weight of the ocean, driving him to submit.

He took a deep breath and brought his arms up sharply between hers, and knocked her hands away from his face. Amelie’s eyes widened in surprise, and then he reached out and put
his
hands on
her
face.

Amelie’s eyes faded back to gray, then turned very dark. “No,” she said. “No.”

“Yes,” Oliver said. “I warned you before. I won’t be ruled. Not even by you. I don’t wish to do this, but you’ve left me no choice.”

Amelie was shuddering now. Power was pouring out of Oliver, and unlike Amelie’s cold control, his felt hot, blood-hot, pounding like a pulse. Overwhelming. Claire’s head was splitting from the pressure, and she saw that Richard and Hannah were feeling the same pain.

“Submit,” Oliver said. “Submit and I’ll spare you the humiliation of kneeling.”

“No,” she whispered, but it was weak. Only a thread of sound. Her eyes had turned black. “You will never have me, Oliver. Never.”

“I already have you,” he said.

“No.”

“This has been coming for so many years. You knew it. Let go. Amelie, I don’t want to hurt you.”

It seemed to take everything Amelie had, but she struck his hands away from her face, just as he’d done to her. Her eyes paled back to gray. She was breathing,
visibly
breathing, which for a vampire meant she’d just done something extremely hard. “I will never be your creature, Oliver,” she said, voice trembling. “I will accept you as an equal. Never as a conqueror. You should know that by now.”

He stared down at her, and Claire felt the pressure in the room slowly bleed away. She should have felt relieved, but instead she just wanted to collapse and sleep. Hannah and Richard were holding hands, she noticed. That seemed odd. Maybe they were just as freaked-out as she was.