Bite Club

took a cell phone out of his pocket and handed it over. She dialed, waited, and said, “We are on our way. You have the address, yes? I will expect you there. And, Oliver? Come prepared for a fight. We’re going to wipe out this nest of vipers. There can be no delay. Things have gone far enough.”

But what about Shane? Claire reached out toward Amelie but didn’t touch her; she didn’t dare try. As it was, a guard grabbed her wrist and held it there in midair, frozen. He didn’t hurt her, but there was no doubt that he could have. “Stop,” he told her. “Think what you’re doing.”

“Amelie,” Claire said. “I told you, Shane’s not part of this. Please don’t—”

She didn’t take the phone away from her mouth. She looked directly at Claire with no expression in her iron gray eyes and said, “Detain everyone. We will determine guilt or innocence on-site.” She handed the phone back to her flunky, who turned it off and put it away. “Why do you have your hand out toward me, Claire? Do you believe that I would harm your…friend, without proof?”

Actually, Claire did believe that. She’d seen Amelie go full contact before, and she knew that she wouldn’t hesitate to sentence Shane if there was even a suspicion that he was willingly part of all this stuff.

Not reassuring.

And right on cue, Kim was there to articulate all that terror in her head. “She’s going to kill them all,” Kim said. “And you and me, we’re the ones to blame for that. If Shane’s still there, she’ll go all Red Queen on him, too. Off with his head. Talk about poetic justice.”

That was exactly what Claire was afraid of, and what she was afraid to put into words. Trust Kim to blurt it out, make her worst fears real. Amelie didn’t confirm or deny any of it. She looked toward Mr. Martin, who took Kim’s hand in his and said, “Enough.” He sounded quiet and not especially threatening, but Kim shivered. Claire felt it. “Be quiet, now. Enjoy your hours of freedom.”

“You call this freedom? I’m trapped in a town car with a bunch of fanged prison guards. Oh, and her.” Kim bumped shoulders with Claire, not too gently. “The Team Vampire mascot.”

“I actually am going to punch you,” Claire said.

“Yeah, I am absolutely terrified, Danvers. Without Shane around to fight your battles, do you think you can take me?”

Claire turned and stared Kim full in the face. “Yes,” she said. “I’m pretty sure I can.”

She meant every word of it, and Kim must have decided to back off—or Mr. Martin’s presence decided it for her. They lapsed into a heavy silence as the limousine drove and drove and drove…and, finally, to Claire’s simultaneous relief and terror, began to slow down.

Claire took out her phone. Amelie gave her a sharp look. “I’m only calling Eve. I want her to know I didn’t just disappear. Like Michael and Shane. You know how she is.”

Amelie looked bemused and nodded. “Do not tell her where we are.”

“I don’t actually know where we are.” Claire dialed. Eve picked up on the first ring.

“Hello?” Her voice was tense and madly uncontrolled. “Michael?”

“No, it’s Claire—”

The yell blasted out of the cell phone loud enough to echo around the inside of the car. Claire yanked it away from her ear, and she could still hear very clearly what Eve was shouting. “What the hell are you doing? Where are you? You can’t just run off and leave me and not even leave a note. My God, you’re as bad as the boys. How do I know the vamps haven’t dragged you off and snacked on your—?”

“Eve,” Claire said, yelling into the phone. “Eve! Shut up! I’m with Amelie!”

Silence, and then much lower in volume, “Oh. Sorry.”

Claire put the phone back to her ear. Next to her, Kim was smirking again. Claire sincerely wanted to put her shoe through that smile, but again didn’t. She took a deep breath. “We may have found out where the fights are being held. I’ll call you if Michael’s here, okay?”

“Okay,” Eve said. “Uh, you’re being careful, right?”

“Sure.” She glanced around at the heavily fanged contingent. “Safe as houses.”

“I’ve been in some pretty shaky houses.”

“I’ll be fine. Call you later.”

The car had come to a complete stop now. Amelie looked out through the heavily tinted windows. “There’s very little cover out there,” she said. “Move quickly. When we stop, get out and go directly to the shade. We may not have time for protective clothing. I assume all of you can handle the sun for a limited period.”

Her guards murmured affirmations; then sunlight lanced in, bright and harsh, as the vampire guard threw open the door. He was out and moving fast, followed by the second guard. Mr. Martin practically yanked Kim’s arm out of its socket dragging her from the car, and somehow, although she started moving as quickly as she could, Claire was the last one out of the limousine. Amelie was just ahead of her, though.

It was a good thing they were toward the back.

Claire was never sure exactly how it happened until much later. Right then, it was impressions: a big, empty desert area. A flapping, rusting tin barn, apparently abandoned, with a thick area of shade under a leaning awning that probably was used to park cars or something. The vampire guards in their black suits heading for it at top speed, with Mr. Martin slowed down by a foot-dragging Kim, and Amelie holding back, probably to stay closer to Claire.

And then the explosion.

It hit her as a hard, hot shove, and then she was down and rolling across the sand, and then the massive roar rattled in her ears and she saw the plume of fire and smoke, and finally, finally she realized that the building they’d been headed toward, the one Kim had led them to, had just blown up.

Claire sat up, staring. The tin building was collapsing in on itself, burning, sagging—a wreck. The awning, the one where the guards had been headed, was utterly gone, destroyed. Flames and smoke hissed straight up in a black-and-red column, and the wind caught it and blew it out in a plume that drifted west. There were pieces of wrecked metal and junk everywhere, still falling like flaming rain, and Claire covered her head as a thick piece of sharp-edged siding slammed down into the ground a few feet away.

Amelie lay on her side about ten feet closer to the explosion site. Claire got to her feet, weaved around a little, and shook off the lingering dizziness.

Amelie moved before she reached her—a twitch at first, and then she rose to a standing position in one unnaturally fast, smooth motion. There was blood running down her face. More cars were pulling up now, black and heavily tinted. Oliver got out of the first one, dressed in a heavy coat and hat, took one look at the burning building, and then moved in a blur. He reached Amelie, and when he paused, his hands were on her shoulders. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and mopped up the blood; the cut had already closed. Claire saw the look on his face for a few seconds, and then it smoothed out into a cynical neutrality.

“Functional?” he asked her. She nodded. He let go, then stripped off his coat and hat and put them on her. “Get to the car. You should not be here.”

“You think I will run from cowards who try to kill me from a distance?” Amelie laughed, and it sounded wild and strange to Claire’s blast-deadened ears. “You are my second in command, not my bodyguard.”

“Your bodyguards are indisposed,” he said. “And at least one is not coming back. I can see parts of him in several places. Don’t be foolish. Be safe.”

Kim and Mr. Martin were getting up now. Kim was holding her arm like it hurt, and she was covered in ashes.

Amelie focused in on her with narrowing eyes. Oliver’s head turned, too. Claire couldn’t see his expression, but she saw the tension gathering in his shoulders.

“How very odd,” Amelie said. “She begs for a day off and leads us here. To our deaths, presumably.” She gestured to Mr. Martin. “Bring her here. Now.”

Kim clearly didn’t want to come; she was staggering all over the place, but Claire didn’t think she was dazed. Just worried about her chances. “Wow,” Kim said. “That was intense.” Her lips curled into a vicious little smile. “Guess we got the right address after all.”

Amelie didn’t seem to move quickly, but suddenly she had hold of Kim and was pulling her very, very close.