Midnight Alley

The article in the newspaper. Captain Obvious. Somebody had decided to take out the newest vampire in town, and it was sheer luck that they'd gotten Sam instead. It could have been Michael lying in the street.

And from the look on Michael's face, he was thinking the exact same thing.

###

Amelie was agitated. It wasn't really obvious, but Claire had seen her enough to know the difference. She moved more swiftly, and there was something less calm than usual in her eyes. Claire shivered a little when Amelie summoned her into a side room. It was small and empty, probably some kind of meeting room. Amelie didn't come alone; a tall blond vampire guy followed along and stood with his back to the door, a flesh-and-blood deadbolt. No getting out quickly, or at all, really.

"What happened?" Amelie demanded.

"I don't know," Claire said. "I was asleep. I woke up when — " When I heard the sirens, she'd been about to say, but again, that wasn't really true. She'd felt something, a flash of alarm that had come out of nowhere. And Shane and Eve had felt it too. It normally would take a nuclear explosion to blast Shane out of sleep in the pre-dawn hours, but he'd been wide awake. "It was like some alarm went off in the house."

Amelie's face went very still and smooth. "Indeed."

"Why? Is that important?"

"Maybe. What else?"

"Nothing — we went downstairs. The sirens were going outside, and by the time we got down there it was all over, I guess. Sam was down on the road, and the cop was already there."

"You saw no one else."

Claire shook her head.

"And your friends?" Amelie asked. "Where were they?"

It wasn't a casual question. Claire felt her pulse speed up, and tried to stay calm. If Amelie didn't believe her ... "Asleep," she said firmly. "Shane was with me, and I saw Eve come out of her own room. They couldn't have done it."

Amelie shot her a look. Not one that made her feel any too secure. "I know how much you value their lives. But understand, Claire, if you lie for them, I will not forgive it."

"I'm not lying. They were in their rooms when I came out.[note:Shane was on the couch with Claire, not in his room] The only one missing was Michael, and he was here with you."

Amelie turned away from her and paced the length of the room in slow, graceful steps. She looked so perfect, so ... together. Claire couldn't help it, she blurted out, "Aren't you worried about Sam?"

"I am more concerned that whoever attacked him not receive another chance to do such harm," Amelie said. "Sam was old enough to survive such a thing — but only barely. If the stake had remained in his chest much longer, or the sun had burned him, he could not have survived. Had the assassin succeeded in attacking Michael, he would have died almost instantly. It would take decades for him to build up an immunity."

Claire's mouth opened, shut, and opened again when she found the words. "You mean — vampires don't die from stakes in the heart?"

"I mean that it takes quite a lot to kill one of us," Amelie said. "More every year we survive. You could put a stake through my heart, and I would simply pull it out and be very a

"But — Brandon — "

Amelie's smile faded. "He was tortured," she said. "Burned with sunlight to reduce his resistance. By the time he was murdered he had no more strength than a newborn. Shane's father understands us too well, you see."

And now, so did Claire. Which probably wasn't good. "The cops took Shane and Eve to the police station. I don't want anything to happen to them."

"I'm sure you don't. As I did not want anything to happen to my dear Samuel, who would willingly die for the rights of breathers in this town." Amelie's tone had gone cold and dark, and it gave Claire a deep-down trembling in her stomach. "I wonder if I have been too lenient. Allowed too much freedom."

"You don't own us," Claire whispered, and it seemed like the bracelet around her wrist tightened all of a sudden, pinching. She grabbed at it, wincing.

"Do I not?" Amelie asked coolly. She exchanged a glance with the vampire at the door. "Let her leave. I am done with her."

He bowed slightly and stepped out of the way. Claire resisted the urge to lunge for the exit. Being in the same room with Amelie, never mind her guard, was scary and intense, but she needed to at least try. "About Shane and Eve — "

"I don't interfere in human justice," Amelie said. "If they are i

Claire hesitated.

"Sam was supposed to take me to Myrnin — who's going to — "

Amelie spun on her, and there was something wild and terrible in her eyes. "Little fool, don't bother me with trivia! Go now!"

Claire ran.

###

The house was empty when she arrived. No Shane, no Eve, and she hadn't seen Michael again at the Elder's Council building before Hans and Gretchen had bundled her off. Claire felt very alone, and she locked all the doors and made sure of all the windows.

The house felt ... warm, somehow. Not in the hot-air sense, but cozy. Welcoming. Claire put her hand flat on the wall in the living room. "Can you hear me?" she asked, and then felt stupid. It was just a house, right? Just wood and bricks and concrete and wiring and pipes. How could it hear her?

But she couldn't shake the feeling that the house had jabbed her awake this morning, her and Shane and Eve. That it had been trying to warn them. The house had saved Michael, after all, when he'd been killed by Oliver; it had given him what life it could, as a ghost. It wanted to help.

"I wish you could talk," she said. "I wish you could tell me who tried to kill Sam."

But it couldn't, and she was talking to a dumbass wall. Claire sighed, turned away, and caught a glimpse of a piece of paper stirring in a breeze.

A breeze that wasn't there.

The paper was lying on the table, on top of Michael's guitar case. Claire grabbed it and read it, barely daring to believe —

What was she thinking? That the house was going to provide her with the name of Sam's would-be Van Helsing? Of course not. It wasn't an answer to her question.

It was a class schedule printout, stamped AMENDED in big red letters. Her core classes were mostly gone; the notation next to them showed that she'd tested out.

What caught her attention, though, was what had been scheduled in their place. Advanced Biochem. Philosophical Studies. Quantum Mechanics. Honors Myth & Legend.

Wow. Was it wrong that she felt her heart skip a beat over that? Claire checked the times, then her watch. She barely had an hour until the first new class, but she couldn't go yet. Not until she'd heard from Shane and Eve.

Thirty minutes later she was on the phone, trying to get somebody to answer her questions at the police station, when she heard the locks rattle on the door and Eve's voice saying, " — dumbass," and the knot of fear in Claire's chest began to loosen. "Yo, Claire! You here?"