Bite Club

The sudden flare of rage made Claire flinch, but after a glance at the man standing behind Kim’s chair, she wet her lips and continued. “Shane’s in trouble,” Claire said.

“Good.” Kim sat back in her chair, as far as the cuffs would allow. “Hope it’s fatal for both of you this time.”

That was harsh, even for Kim. Claire was surprised. She could understand Kim’s anger toward her, but why Shane? He’d always been the focus of her stalkerish obsession. “You don’t mean that,” Claire said.

“Oh, I completely do. I’ve had therapy, you know. I’m in touch with my feelings and crap.” Kim raked untidy hair back from her face with her left hand and laughed. It sounded raw and aggressive. “He never cared about me; I know that now. So screw him. And you. Thanks for dropping in.” She glanced backward, at her guard. “I’m ready to go back now, sir.”

“Kim,” he said, still smiling. He had dimples, even. “Her five minutes aren’t up yet. Be nice.”

Kim faced Claire again, once again back to that thousand-yard stare and closed-down expression.

“There’s a Web site that’s operating,” Claire said. “Running encrypted video. Do you know anything about it?”

“Because I did the whole encryption thing first?” Kim shrugged. “Why would I? They haven’t given me a computer to play with, you know. Said I had to earn one. Screw that. I’m not playing the games to get what I want.”

“You were working with someone outside Morganville, though. You were planning to make a deal for a TV show. That was what all the streaming video was for. I think whoever it was found another…source. And another program.”

“Good for them.” Dismissive words, but Kim was eyeing her with a little more interest. “What kind of show are they running?”

“Pay-per-view,” Claire said. “Extreme fighting.”

“With vampires?” Kim actually laughed. “Dude, that’s brilliant. I should have thought of that. Would have been a lots-better show than you sickeningly cute couples playing house and getting your wild thing on.”

Claire wanted to smack her—badly. But she took a deep breath and said, with unnatural calm, “I need to know how to break the encryption and figure out how to trace it to the source. I figured you’d know.”

“Sure, I know, if it’s the same encryption I put together,” Kim said, and leaned back in her chair. “But why should I tell you?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do?”

Kim rolled her eyes. “Wow, you actually are an idiot. Do you think the vamps are going to do the right thing once you point the finger at whoever’s behind it? You think this is all going to end with somebody getting a slap on the wrist and a fine? I was lucky, you know. Lucky to still be breathing. People are going to die. You need to get that through your head. It isn’t about the right thing. It’s about the thing that gets you something. If you think the world works any other way, you’re just as stupid as you look.”

Claire said, “You know, you’ve got something wrong.”

“What is that? I swear, you’re more clueless than a Care Bear.”

“You think that because I want to do what’s right, because I want to make things better, I’m weak,” Claire said. “Or that I’m stupid. But I’m not. It takes a lot more strength to know how bad the world is and not want to be part of that, give in to it. And I do know, Kim. Believe me.”

Kim’s sneer faded as Claire stared at her very steadily. Then she looked away. “You should say that after you spend a few months in this hellhole.”

For the first time, Amelie stirred from where she stood at the back of the room. She advanced to the table, leaned forward, and rested her palms on the flat surface. Her gray eyes were intent and level on Kim, and again Kim couldn’t hold her stare.

“You might bear in mind that in earlier times, young lady, your crimes would have meant you died in a particularly horrible way, with your screams ringing in the ears of decent folk,” Amelie said. “You’re kept in a clean cell, with decent if unremarkable food. You receive reading material and have television. In what way is that a hellhole? What can someone of your age possibly know of surviving hell?” There was a keen edge to her voice that Claire had rarely heard. “The man guarding you today knows of hell, very well. He can tell you what it was like to survive in a prison camp with nothing to eat but crawling insects and rotten bread, for years, until one night his life was taken —”

“Saved,” the guard in the knit shirt said.

“Saved, by one of us,” Amelie finished softly. “Ask him about the kindness of your treatment, and then speak to me or him of hellholes.” She let that sink in for a moment before she said, in a brisk and businesslike tone, “Now, you wanted to know what helping us means for you. That entirely depends on what you can do for us. Can you reverse the encryption and tell us the location where these…people are staging and broadcasting their fights?”

“Yeah,” Kim said. She picked at a rough spot on the table with a short, well-chewed fingernail. “I could do that. But not for free.”

Amelie didn’t seem too surprised. “Your price?”

“I want out of here.”

“That will not happen. And you know it will not happen.”

Kim smiled down at her lap—a secret, cynical kind of expression that made Claire feel a little tingle of alarm. “Oh, I don’t know. You want to keep Morganville’s big secret, right? How are you going to do that with millions of people watching vampires flashing fangs at each other on pay-per-view? Maybe most don’t believe it, but maybe some do; maybe somebody decides to come check it out, like a news crew. Then where do you run?”

“Farther and faster than you can, Kim. You’d do well to remember that.”

Kim said nothing. Amelie, after exchanging a look with Claire, shook her head. “Take her back to her cell, please. We’re getting nowhere.”

“Wait!” Kim said as the vampire behind her stepped forward. “Wait. You want these people, right? I can find them. I’m probably the only one in Morganville who has the skills!”

“I doubt that, but you are the one I have readily available.”

“Then come on. What do I get for it?”

Amelie’s eyes turned red—a muddy, rippling crimson that sent prickles of warning across Claire’s skin, like the feeling before lightning strikes. “You get to survive this meeting with me, little girl. And I warn you, that possibility is fading with every unpleasant word you utter. Be careful.”

“You wouldn’t do it. You’re like her.” A flick of Kim’s eyes included Claire in her scorn. “Full of talk, short on action.”

Amelie smiled, very slowly. It was one of the most unsettling things Claire had ever seen her do…as if a mask had been pulled away and something terrible looked out of her eyes. Kim saw it, too. Her handcuffs clicked as she tried instinctively to draw away. “Oh, child,” Amelie said. “I have worked very diligently to achieve that image, because a ruler should be seen as just and fair and merciful. But you would not like to see me take action. I am, after all, my father’s daughter. Now. You will give me the help I require to trace this signal that Claire has found, and you will be grateful that I choose to allow you to continue in your presently comfortable state. Once you have demonstrated results, we may discuss an improvement in your conditions.”

Amelie rarely exerted the power that Claire knew she had, but she felt it now—heavy, suffocating, full of dread. It pressed down on everyone in the room; she even saw the other vampires shift uncomfortably.

But mostly it was directed at Kim, who crumbled like a sugar cookie. “Okay,” she said, after about a second’s delay of false bravado. “But I can’t do it in here. I need access to the Internet.”

“We can arrange that.”

“And I need to get out of here. Just for a little while.” Kim looked up, and Claire saw that, incredibly, she was still trying to bargain. Maybe she wasn’t quite the sugar cookie, after all. “A day. Just a day. I need—I need to see the sun.”

Amelie didn’t move, and the dark atmosphere didn’t let up, but finally she gave a regal nod and stepped back.