Fade Out

“What do you want?”

“We want freedom,” Morley said. “We want to live as God meant us to do. Is that such a terrible thing?”

There were a few vampires in his group that Claire recognized with a nasty jolt of surprise. “Jacob,” she said. “Jacob Goldman? Patience?” Two of Theo Goldman’s family—and Theo was the last vampire she’d expect to be in the middle of this. His kids, though . . . she really didn’t know them very well.

Jacob looked away. Patience, on the other hand, stared right back, and lifted her chin as if daring Claire to say anything else. From her last encounter with the Goldmans, Claire had been aware the younger generation was starting to hate the whole philosophy of their parents; it made sense that they’d found someone here in Morganville more like-minded.

“Amelie and Oliver are trying to make us into something we never were,” Patience said. “Tame tigers. Performing bears. Toothless lions. But we can’t be those things. Vampires are not caretakers of humanity. I’m sorry, but it will never be true, however much we wish it could be.”

“You’re not making much headway on this Let’s be friends argument,” Eve said. “I’m just saying.”

Morley let out an impatient sigh, and looked back at the other vampires. “Surely you want us out of your town,” he said. “As much as we’d like to go. But Amelie won’t allow us to leave. We have only two choices: destroy Morganville, or destroy her. Destroying Morganville seems easier, in many ways.”

The light dawned. “You were working with Kim. She suggested the cameras, didn’t she?”

“It seemed a way to achieve what she wanted, and what we wanted,” he agreed. “The end of Morganville. The begi

“Until the camera’s on you,” Eve shot back.

“A valid point.” Morley bowed slightly in her direction.

“You’re the one who put the cameras in Vamptown for her.”

“Me?” His thick eyebrows climbed into his tangled hair. “No. I’m hardly welcome there, you know. Nor are any of my people. I know nothing about how she managed that.”

“Then let us go find out who did.”

“You know, I don’t have to bargain with you. I could just distribute you among my followers as a treat if you’d prefer that.”

“No,” Jacob Goldman said. He and Patience exchanged a look that was more like a silent argument, and then he stepped forward. “Not her. Morley, if you hurt her, we walk away.”

“Patience?”

She sighed and shook her head. “The girl helped, before,” she said. “Theo wouldn’t want us to hurt her.”

“The girl left you in a cell to die at Bishop’s hands!”

“That was my father’s mistake, not hers,” Jacob said. “I will do many things to get our freedom. I won’t do this.”

The tension was ramping up fast. Claire swallowed. “Then let’s make a deal,” Claire said. “We want Kim, and whatever video she turned over to you.”

Morley frowned at her. “In exchange for . . . ?”

“I’ll ask Amelie to let you all leave.”

“Asking is an easy task; there’s no commitment required. Doing is accomplishment. So you will get Amelie to let us leave. Here is my incentive: if you don’t manage to secure her permission, your two friends here sign lifetime contracts to me.” Morley turned to Jacob and Patience, who nodded. “You see? Even they agree with that.”

“Oh hell no,” Eve said.

“And you are in a position to bargain . . . how?” Shane held out a hand toward Eve, trying to restrain her a little. “No lifetime contracts,” he said. “One pint a month, blood bank only. Ten percent of our income.”

“Hmmmmmm.” Morley dragged the sound out, still staring through half-lidded eyes. “Tempting. But you see, I can simply insist on a lifetime contract with none of your silly restrictions, or kill you right now.”

“You won’t,” Shane said. That made Morley’s eyes open wide.

“Why not? Jacob and Patience were quite specific—they’re concerned for Claire. Not for you, boy.”

“Because if you kill me and Eve, you’ll make her your enemy. This girl won’t stop until she sees you all pay.”

Claire had no idea whom he was talking about—she didn’t feel like that Claire at all, until she imagined Shane and Eve lying dead on the ground.

Then she understood. “I’d hunt you down,” she said quietly. “I’d use every resource I have to do it. And you know I’d win.”

Morley seemed impressed. “She is small, but I see your point, boy. Besides, she has the ear of Amelie, Oliver, and Myrnin; not a combination I would care to test. Very well. Limited contract, one year, one pint per month at the blood bank, ten percent of your income payable to me, in cash. I will not hunt, bite, or trade your contracts. But I insist on standard punishment clauses.”

“Hey,” Eve said. “Don’t I get a vote?”

“Absolutely,” Morley assured her. “Your thoughts?”

“I’d rather die,” she said flatly. Shane turned toward her, and from the look on his face, that was not at all what he’d expected her to say. “Don’t look at me like that. I told you, I’ll never sign a contract. Never. If Mor lock here wants to kill me, well, I can’t stop him. But I don’t have to die by inches, either, and that’s what this town does to us, Shane; it takes little pieces of us away until there’s nothing left and I won’t sign!” Eve’s eyes flooded with tears, but she wasn’t scared; she was angry. “So bite me, vampire. Get it over with. But it’s a one-time thrill.”

Morley shrugged. “And you, boy?”

Shane pulled in a deep breath. “No deals if Eve doesn’t buy in.”

Claire’s mouth tasted like ashes, and she was trying frantically to think of something, anything to do. She tried to build a portal behind them, but the system bounced her back, wouldn’t let her so much as begin the process.

Ada.

She took Shane’s hand in hers. “You’ll have to kill me, too,” she said. “And you can’t. Not without consequences.”

Morley looked positively unhappy now. “This is getting far too complicated. Fine, then we do it this way. I give you the video you’re looking for, and if you don’t manage to secure Amelie’s permission within, let’s say, a month, your friends’ lives are forfeit. Yes?” When she hesitated, he bared his stained teeth. “It’s not a question, really. And my patience is wearing thin. In fact, it’s positively threadbare.”

“Yes,” Claire said.

He spit on his palm and held it out. They all just looked at him. “Well?” he demanded.

“I’m not shaking that,” Shane said. “You just spit on it.”

“It’s the way deals are sealed—” Morley made a sound of frustration and wiped his palm against his filthy clothes. “Perhaps not anymore. Better?”

“Not really,” Shane said.

Claire stepped forward and shook Morley’s hand. She’d done worse.

He turned, dirty raincoat flapping, and the other vampires fell in behind him. Jacob Goldman held back, staring at Claire. He looked unhappy and tormented.

“I wouldn’t have let him do it,” he said. “Not to any of you. But you understand why I have to do this? For myself, and Patience?”

“I understand,” Claire said. She didn’t, really, but it seemed to make him feel better.

Claire, Eve, and Shane picked up their weapons and followed them into the dark.

Morley’s hideout was a series of what looked like limestone caves, hollowed out into actual rooms, with doors and windows—a city, underground. Not fancy, but it was definitely livable, if you were sunlight averse. There were more vamps here, living rough, hiding out. Claire figured a lot of those who’d decided not to take sides during the Amelie and Bishop fight had fled down here, taken up with Morley’s crew.

“I guess this means you aren’t really homeless,” she said. Morley looked back at her as he opened up the ancient, cracked door of one of the rooms. “I’d still look into ru