Page 9 (1/2)
NINE
Kyle was still in the cage in the limpse of the barred square box and the heavy police presence as the car passed the borders of the square, and then took a ras Hannah had a reserved space, and as they walked toward the elevator it opened with a hiss One of Auards--the woman--nodded to Hannah and looked at Claire with pointed intensity
"She&039;s with me," Hannah said "I&039;ll take responsibility"
"Good enough," the va floor "I&039;ll warn you, they&039;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&039;s true Good luck"
Once they&039;d stepped out of the elevator, the va 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 i trick; the vauard 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&039;re late," he snapped at Hannah The guard was right--he was clearly not in a goodin indecision "And you&039;ve brought a friend Hownice"
Claire quickly sat down in the first available chair Oliver was eyeing her like a piece of trash he was considering taking out
"Claire," Aht, did not mean welcome Amelie, like Hannah, looked un-characteristically tense
"I needed to talk to you," Claire said "Both of you" "Must ays be distracted by the yapping of your favorite pet?" Oliver said, and crossed the roo at Amelie "Silence her until we&039;re done She shouldn&039;t be here"
That wasshocking Claire had never seen hiressive toward the Founder before It occurred to her, uneasily, thatup
Aer in any way "She&039;s not my pet," she said evenly, "and I don&039;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 froazelle very, very badly
Amelie turned her attention to Claire and said, "You&039;ll wait until our business is done He&039;s quite right You shouldn&039;t be here"
Claire nodded She didn&039;t really want to wait--she wanted to blurt it all out--but there was a warning in A 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 ine 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 knohat happened, Claire?" he said "Which part of it? The part where one of an to attack humans in the street? The part where I couldn&039;t reason with her? Or the part where I was forced to kill her, on A silence Amelie continued to watch him, face calm and smooth, body very still After a ht 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 per for four times the current lirounds as well This is highly risky to all of us My proposal is that, rather than expanding hunting licenses, we discontinue the prograether and seek another alternative There are always a few huly volunteer to be bitten"
Richard started to say so, but he was crushed by Oliver "This is an old, tired argument Are we va it, even outlawing it, doesn&039;t curb our instincts It onlythem"
"Oh, but I fully expect you to control your instincts, as I do Unless you&039;re unable to master yourself Are you, Oliver?" Amelie&039;s tone was sharper than Claire expected, alry It occurred to her, finally, that A both of thee, in a confinedspace
This tiround, wouard took a step away fros threaten me, either I&039;ve supported your rule in this town I&039;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 e are, or e should be, and you know that better than anyone"
"I take it you will not entertain any alternative plans," Aram as it is, with a limited nuround"
Oliver laughed "Are you listening? They won&039;t obey you for ardless of the law They&039;re angry, Amelie You&039;ve allowed humans to kill vampires and walk away If you choose to punish va their natures, you&039;re as stupid as you hen you thought you could irl of twelve You never did reach that goal, did you? I&039; a mere princess never sat ith you That must be why you appointed yourself queen here"
Amelie stood up, and the rooe 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 Aer want to serve as my second?" Amelie asked him "Because that is what I hear"
"Ary frustration He, at least, hadn&039;t forgotten the presence of others, and glanced quickly aside at the humans "Send the ti"
"Richard and Hannah are equal members of this council I will not dished, and Claire saw the sharp glitter of his fangs "Equal? How long have you been deluding yourself like this? You think any of the control of this town to fools andto suffer for it Die for it It cannot go on!"
"Sit down," A us, Amelie, and I can&039;t--I won&039;t per at each other, and Claire hardly dared to breathe at all
Oliver didn&039;t blink He finally said, "Your hu on you The boy in the cage down there is proof enough of how much in contempt the hu, 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&039;s not true," Claire said She hadn&039;t exactlyin the air, and Oliver&039;s attention was on her like a freezing blanket of snow "It doesn&039;t have to be that way"
He whirled to face her, and she wished she&039;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&039;t control? That&039;s what humans do We know this We used to be just as flawed, just as human" Oliver looked back at Amelie "I&039;d have wiped all va days If I could have ed it"
She smiled thinly "I know very hat you would have done," she said "You did the same in your day with humans orshipped differently froenocidally inclined as you"
He hit the table so hard it vibrated "I did as right!"
"You did as 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 thisAnd you know it" She hesitated, and then said softly, "You hed, 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 froether, Claire realized how tall he was, and how he towered over her Aile, suddenly Vulnerable
"Don&039;t make me do this," Amelie said "I value you Don&039;t destroy the peace we have"
He reached out and fastened his hand on her aruard uard stopped, but stayed ready to jump "Out of my way," Oliver said "This is useless I&039;ve bowed to you for too long, and if I continue to do it, ill all suffer You can&039;t change us, Ae "
"Sit Down"
"No I&039;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 eyesher eyes hite Pure, cold, icy white Claire looked away, because what howled through the roo like she&039;d ever felt from Amelie before Hannah and Richard had ainst the far wall Even the guard was backing up
"Do not defy me," Amelie said fiercely "I don&039;t want to destroy you, but I will rather than allow you to hunt and kill as you wish Do you understandbut agree Claire felt the pressure in the rooasp and want to curl into a ball--and it wasn&039;t even ais slid down, elegant and slow She was no longer vulnerable Not at all She wasterrifying
Oliver had to kneel to her He had to Claire could feel just the edges of what A, but the pressure on Oliverhiht his arms up sharply between hers, and knocked her hands away from his face Amelie&039;s eyes widened in surprise, and then he reached out and put his hands on her face
Aray, then turned very dark "No," she said "No"
"Yes," Oliver said "I warned you before I won&039;t be ruled Not even by you I don&039;t wish to do this, but you&039;ve leftout of Oliver, and unlike A like a pulse Overwhel from the pressure, and she saw that Richard and Hannah were feeling the same pain
"Submit," Oliver said "Sub"
"No," she whispered, but it eak 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 coo Amelie, I don&039;t want to hurt you"
It see Amelie had, but she struck his hands away from her face, just as he&039;d done to her Her eyes paled back to gray She was breathing, visibly breathing, which for a va extremely hard "I will never be your creature, Oliver," she said, voice tre "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
"Equals," Oliver said "How could we ever be equals, do you is We both need to rule It&039;s in our natures"
"Then force me to subht he started to turn, but then his right hand shot out and closed around Aainst the wood She tried to speak, but his grip was cutting off her voice
"We can&039;t be equals," he said "I&039;m sorry I never wanted it to come to this"
And he bit her in the throat
Claire screahting hiuard wasn&039;t uard, but he just stood there She dashed to the other door and threw it open The feuard there, and turned when Claire screa, either
Oliver suddenly let go of A blood from his mouth with the back of one hand She stood there, eyes closed, and put a tre hand over the wound on her neck There was blood spilled on her immaculate white jacket She didn&039;t speak
Oliver turned to the guard and said, "See her to a chair Gently"
The guard bowed his head briefly, then came toward her, but Amelie&039;s eyes snapped open "Don&039;t touch me," she snapped, but he didn&039;t obey her Not at all He took her aruided her back to a chair at the side of the tablenot the head, where she&039;d been sitting before Ary, and humiliated
Oliver stood where he was for a et Ysandre and John," he said "I want theuard nodded and left "Ysandre?" Claire said "You&039;re bringing her in here?" Ysandre was a stone-cold menace Amelie had kept her in prison for a while, and Claire hadn&039;t seen her much recently She&039;d hoped that someone had accidentally thrown her under a bus
Ysandre had tried to hit on Shane And that alone was reason enough to hate her
"Quiet," Oliver said "Sit down, all of you You have no reason to panic The situation is under control" Under his control, which was in itself plenty of cause for panic, not to mention freakout But Claire didn&039;t dare not obey, not until she understood what had happened, and why
Richard looked at Aht?"