by Rachel Caine
‘‘Mistress,’’ said one of the bodyguards. ‘‘We should go.’’ He made it sound as if they had someplace to be, but Claire had the eerie feeling that he was intervening deliberately. Providing Amelie an excuse to back off.
‘‘Yes,’’ Amelie said. There was a husky tone to her voice Claire had never heard before. ‘‘By all means, let us be done with this. You have heard my words, Claire. I warn you, don’t test me on this. You’re valuable to me, but you are not irreplaceable, and you have friends and family in this town who are far less useful.’’
There was no mistaking that for anything but an outright threat. Claire nodded slowly.
‘‘Say the words,’’ Amelie said.
‘‘Yes. I understand.’’
‘‘Good. Now don’t bother me again. You may go.’’
Claire backed away toward the stairs. She even backed down two steps before turning and hurrying down the rest, and when she was halfway there, she realized that the control to open the door from inside lay at the top, in the couch where Amelie sat.
If Amelie didn’t want to let her out, she wasn’t going anywhere.
Claire reached the landing at the bottom. The door was still closed. She looked back up the stairs and saw shadows moving, but heard nothing.
The lights went out.
‘‘No,’’ she whispered, and fear came down like a bucket of freezing water, from head to toe. Her hand reached out blindly to stroke the closed door. ‘‘No, don’t do this—’’
Something had changed in Amelie. She wasn’t the cool, remote queen she’d been before. She was more—animal. More angry.
And Claire finally admitted it to herself: Amelie was more hungry.
‘‘Please,’’ she said to the dark. She knew there were ears listening. ‘‘Please let me go now.’’
She heard a sharp click, and the door moved under her fingertips, swinging inward. Claire grabbed the edge with both hands and pulled it open. She was suddenly in the hall, and when she looked back, the door was closing.
She collapsed against the wall, trembling.
That went well, she thought sarcastically. She wanted to scream, but she was almost sure that would be a very, very bad idea.
Downstairs, the front door opened and closed, and Claire heard the clump of heavy shoes on the wood floor.
‘‘Eve?’’ she called.
‘‘Yeah.’’ Eve sounded exhausted. ‘‘Coming.’’
She looked even worse than she sounded. The red outfit that had flattered her so much before seemed to scream now, overpowering her; she seemed ready to drop, and from the state of her makeup, she’d already shed a lot of tears.
‘‘Oh,’’ Claire said. ‘‘Eve . . .’’
Eve tried for a smile, but there wasn’t much left. ‘‘Pretty stupid to be upset about Monica, right? But I think that’s why it hurts so bad. It’s not like he’s taking somebody halfway nice or anything. He has to pick the walking social disease.’’ Eve wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. Her eyeliner and mascara had made a true Gothic mess, trickling in dirty streaks down her pale cheeks. ‘‘Don’t try to tell me he was ordered to do it. I don’t care if he was—he could have told me first. And why aren’t you arguing with me?’’
‘‘Because you’re right.’’
‘‘Damn right I’m right.’’ Eve kicked open the door to her room, walked in, and threw herself facedown on the black bed. Claire clicked on the lights, which mostly consisted of strings of dim white Christmas lights and one lamp with a bloodred scarf draped over the shade. Eve screamed into her pillow and punched it. Claire perched on the corner of the bed.
‘‘I’m going to kill him,’’ Eve said, or at least that was what it sounded like filtered through the pillow. ‘‘Stake him right in the heart, shove garlic up his ass, and—and—’’
‘‘And what?’’
Michael was standing in the doorway. Claire jumped off the bed in alarm, and Eve sat up with her pillow clutched in both hands. ‘‘When did you get home?’’ Claire demanded.
‘‘Apparently just in time to hear my funeral plans. I especially like the garlic up the ass. It’s . . . different.’’
‘‘Yeah, well, I’m not finished,’’ Eve said. She slithered off the bedspread, dropped the pillow, and faced Michael with her arms crossed. ‘‘I’m also going to stake you outside in the sun, on top of a fire ant mound. And laugh.’’
‘‘What did I do?’’
‘‘What did you do?’’ Eve’s glare was fierce enough to rip even a vampire’s heart right out of his chest. ‘‘You can’t be serious.’’
Michael went very still, and Claire thought the expression in his eyes was the definition of busted. ‘‘Monica. She told you.’’
‘‘Duh. Why wouldn’t she take the chance to rub my face in it, you loser? And speaking of that, Monica? Did you lose a bet or something? Because that’s really the only reason I can think of for you to humiliate me like this.’’
‘‘No,’’ Michael said. His gaze flickered to Claire in an unmistakable plea for her to leave. She didn’t. ‘‘I can’t explain, Eve. I’m sorry, I just can’t. But it’s not what it—’’
‘‘Don’t you even say it’s not what it looks like, because it’s always what it looks like!’’ Eve lunged forward, shoved Michael square in the chest, and drove him a foot backward, out of her room. ‘‘I can’t talk to you right now. Get out! And stay out!’’
She slammed the door and locked it. Not, Claire reflected, that a lock would do any good, considering how strong Michael was. But he probably wouldn’t go around battering down doors in his own house, at least.
‘‘Eve, you have to listen to me. Please.’’
Eve threw herself back on the bed, grabbed her iPod from the drawer, and shoved headphones over her ears as she hit the play button. Claire could hear the thundering metal all the way across the room.
‘‘Eve?’’
Claire opened the door and looked at Michael. ‘‘I don’t think she’s listening,’’ she said. ‘‘You really screwed this up—you know that, right? At least Shane got ordered to do what he did. You chose, didn’t you?’’
‘‘Yeah,’’ Michael agreed softly. ‘‘I chose. But you really don’t have any idea of what my choices were, do you?’’
She watched him walk away, enter his room at the end of the hall, and shut the door.
Maybe he was right. Maybe it really wasn’t what it looked like. Not that Eve was going to listen. Claire stood there for a while, listening to the cold and stony silence, and then shook her head and went downstairs.
Chili dogs weren’t the same eaten alone.
Shane got home after dark, and the second Claire saw him, she knew something was wrong. He looked— distracted. Different.
And he barely nodded to her on his way through the living room to the kitchen. She was curled up on the sofa highlighting text in her English book, wondering for the thousandth time why anybody thought knowing about the Brontë sisters was important and multitasking by not really watching a cooking show on cable TV.
‘‘Hey,’’ she called after him. ‘‘I left the chili on for you!’’
He didn’t answer. Claire capped her marker pen and went to the kitchen door. She didn’t open it, but she stood and listened. Shane wasn’t making the normal dish noises of a guy desperate for dinner; in fact, he wasn’t making any noise at all.
Claire was debating whether to return to studying when she heard him open the back door of the house. Voices, hushed and muffled. She eased the door open just a little, and listened harder.
‘‘You’re lucky I don’t call the cops,’’ Shane was saying. ‘‘Walk away, man.’’
‘‘I can’t. I need to talk to her.’’
‘‘You’re not coming near either one of the girls, got me?’’
‘‘I’m not going to hurt anyone!’’
She knew that voice, or thought she did. But that couldn’t be right, it just couldn’t be.
; Shane could not be talking to Eve’s brother, Jason, especially not at the back door. She had to be imagining things. Maybe it was someone else, someone who just sounded like Jason Rosser. . . .
Claire eased the door open enough to get a tiny slice of a view.
No, that was Jason. There was absolutely no doubt about it. He was even wearing the same skanky, stained jeans and leather jacket. His hair was lank and even greasier than the last time she’d seen him, and he looked sallow and sick.
‘‘Come on, man,’’ he said. ‘‘Just let me talk to Claire. You keep me waiting out here in the dark, I’m lunch meat.’’
‘‘Good to know.’’
Jason put out a hand to stop Shane from closing the door on him. ‘‘Please, man. I’m asking.’’
Shane hesitated. Claire couldn’t really imagine why. Jason had stalked Eve; he’d killed—or at least he said he’d killed—innocent girls out of some misguided attempt to get the vampires to sign him up for service. He’d stabbed Shane in the guts.
Shane did swing the bat at him first, Claire’s prim little voice of conscience said. She told it to shut up. Jason had engineered that fight, he’d provoked Shane into it, and it was only the fact that they’d gotten an ambulance there so fast that had saved Shane’s life.
Jason didn’t look like a crazy killer just now. He looked like a half-starved scared junkie kid who was terrified out of his mind. And desperate.
Claire came into the kitchen. Jason’s face lit up. ‘‘Claire! Claire, tell him—tell him it’s okay. I promise, I’m not going to hurt anybody. Tell him it’s okay to let me in so I can talk to you.’’
‘‘It’s not okay,’’ Claire said. ‘‘But he already knows that.’’
Shane nodded. He shoved Jason backward, off-balance, off the porch. Jason tripped over a brick and fell flat on his ass. He glared up at Shane and rolled slowly to his feet. ‘‘Claire, I’m supposed to tell you something. From Oliver.’’
‘‘Oliver’s got nothing to tell us that we want to hear, man. Especially from you.’’
‘‘You sure about that?’’
Shane grinned. ‘‘Pretty sure. Good luck with that survival thing out there in the dark.’’
Shane started to shut the door. He almost made it before Jason blurted out, ‘‘Bishop’s setting a trap. We can tell you where and when.’’
Claire put a hand on Shane’s shoulder, and he kept the door open, just a crack. ‘‘What are you talking about?’’
‘‘Let me in and I’ll tell you.’’ Jason looked desperate enough to claw paint off the door. ‘‘Please, Claire. I swear, I’m on the level here.’’
‘‘No,’’ she said. ‘‘If Oliver’s got something to say, I’ll talk to him, not to you.’’
Resentment flickered in Jason’s dark eyes like oil on fire, and he got up and shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘‘Yeah? You gonna play it like that?’’
‘‘I’m not playing at all,’’ Claire said.
‘‘I think you are. So maybe we do it the hard way after all.’’ Jason threw himself against the door with such force that Shane was knocked backward, and Claire lost her footing and ended up flat on her back on the kitchen floor. As she twisted around to try to get up, she felt Jason’s hand close on her hair, painfully tight. He yanked her up to her knees and dragged her out into the night. She yelled and fought, but he had a lot of experience with making girls do what he wanted.
And she stopped fighting when he put a gun to her head.
‘‘Good,’’ he said in her ear, and even in a blind, black rage she thought his breath was disgusting enough to peel paint. ‘‘Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you. I was serious. You need to listen to me.’’
Shane followed them outside, moving slowly but never taking his eyes off Jason. Off the gun. ‘‘Let her go.’’
Jason laughed, and dragged her backward to the driveway, where a big black car was waiting. Shane followed at a safe distance. Don’t, Claire mouthed. She’d seen Jason nearly kill Shane before. She couldn’t stand to see it happen again. I’ll be okay.
Jason opened the driver’s-side door of the car, shoved her inside, and pushed in after. She immediately lunged for the other door.
Locked.
Jason slammed the car door and turned the key to start the engine. He took a firmer grip on Claire’s hair. ‘‘Stay still!’’
Something heavy fell on the roof of the car, denting it down almost to the level of their heads; Claire and Jason both ducked, and Claire yelped at the thought that panic might make him squeeze the trigger.
It didn’t.
A fist punched through the metal roof of the car, grabbed the ragged edge, and peeled it back like a tin can lid. And the face that looked down was Michael’s.
No—not Michael; it was Vampire Michael. Fangs completely down, eyes completely crimson.
Michael was angry. Also, terrifying.
He dropped through the hole in a fall of moonlight, took hold of Jason’s gun hand, and yanked him away from Claire like a toy. A breakable one. Jason screamed. The gun went off, and Claire flinched and covered her head, trying to pull into a ball in the corner. The car shook as Michael threw Jason out, straight up through the opening in the roof. Jason screamed the whole way up, and the whole way down. He hit the ground with a sickening thud and rolled.
Michael launched himself up out of the car, landed lightly on his feet in the wash of headlights, and walked to where Jason was crawling to get away. Jason rolled over. He still had the gun.
He shot Michael six times, point-blank. Claire flinched with every loud crack.
Michael didn’t.
He reached Jason, took the gun, ripped it in half, and threw the two pieces into the trash can leaning at the side of the house. Jason looked shocked, then resigned, as Michael reached down and grabbed him by the collar of his leather jacket.
Shane reached through the ragged sunroof, opened the car door, and grabbed Claire. He pulled her out and to her feet. ‘‘You okay?’’ He sounded deeply shaken, and he kept running his hands over her, looking for bullet holes, she guessed. ‘‘Claire, say something! ’’
‘‘Stop him,’’ she whispered, looking past him at Michael. ‘‘Don’t let him do that.’’
Because Michael was going to bite Jason, and once he did, there’d be no going back. Shane sent her a look, one that probably meant he thought she was crazy, but she forced herself to stay still and calm, even if her insides were quivering in terror.
‘‘Shane,’’ she said, and tried her best to channel Amelie’s cool authority. ‘‘Stop him.’’
She saw the reality of what was happening dawn on Shane, and he nodded and turned toward Michael, who didn’t look as if he was in any mood to be talked off the murder ledge.
But Shane didn’t have to try, because Michael looked up and saw Eve standing in the doorway, hands pressed to her mouth, dark eyes wide in horror, staring at her boyfriend threatening to suck blood out of her little brother.
Michael let go. Jason collapsed back to the ground, whimpering, and tried to crawl away.
Michael put his foot on Jason’s back, holding him in place. ‘‘No,’’ he said. His voice sounded low and very, very dangerous. ‘‘I don’t think so. Attempted kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and attempted murder of a vampire? You’re done, man. It’s all over but the screaming.’’
‘‘You asshole!’’ Jason yelled. ‘‘I’m working for Oliver! You can’t touch me!’’
He skinned back the sleeve on his jacket, and there, on his wrist, was a silver bracelet.
Michael responded by pressing his foot harder into Jason’s back. ‘‘Then you and I are going to have a talk with Oliver about how he sends his little worm to my house to shoot me,’’ he said. ‘‘I think you’re not going to like that very much. Because I’m pretty sure that Oliver didn’t ask you to do that kind of thing.’’
‘‘Michael,’’ Shane said. It was a warning, and as Claire turned, she saw why—ano
ther car was arriving, a police car with lights flashing. It pulled to a stop in the driveway, blocking in Jason’s half-peeled car, and Richard Morrell got out of the driver’s side carrying a shotgun. Detectives Joe Hess and Travis Lowe were with him, and each of them held a drawn gun.
She’d never seen the three of them looking so grim, but she was glad to see them. At least this meant somebody would be putting a stop to Jason and his craziness at last. Michael was right: it wasn’t going to be a good ending for him, but—
Richard Morrell put the shotgun to his shoulder. He was aiming at Michael. The other two men took up shooting stances.
Claire gasped.
‘‘Out of the way,’’ Detective Hess ordered Shane, with a jerk of his head. Shane didn’t argue. He held up his hands and backed away. Michael turned and saw the cops aiming at him, and frowned.
‘‘Let him go, Michael,’’ Travis Lowe said. ‘‘Let’s do this easy.’’
‘‘What’s going on?’’
‘‘One thing at a time. Let the kid up.’’
Michael removed his foot. Jason scrambled to a standing position and tried to run; Richard Morrell sighed, handed his shotgun to Joe Hess, and took off after him. As fast as Jason was, Richard was faster. He took him down in a flying tackle before he was halfway to the fence. He rolled Jason onto his back and handcuffed him with brutal efficiency, yanked him upright, and marched him back to where the other two policemen held Michael at gunpoint.
‘‘What’s going on?’’ Michael repeated. ‘‘He tries to kidnap Claire, and you come after me? Why?’’
‘‘Let’s just say we’re saving you from yourself,’’ Detective Hess said. ‘‘You okay? You calm?’’
Michael nodded. Hess lowered his gun, and so did Travis Lowe. Richard Morrell put Jason in the backseat of the police car.
‘‘We got a tip,’’ Hess continued, ‘‘that you’d gone berserk and were trying to kill your friends. But since I see they’re all standing here alive and well, I’m guessing little Jason is the real problem.’’
Richard came back, wiping his hands on a handkerchief. Clearly, he didn’t like touching Jason, either. ‘‘Did he break in?’’