I own nothing.
Firstly, I would like to apologise to Rachel Caine, for ever doubting her MACNIFICENT writing skills – the tasters for Bite Club didn't fill me with confidence about it, but I think it is a definite contester for the best book in the series… yes, meaning it beats Carpe Corpus…
Secondly, I would like to thank WH Smith, who have been AMAZING and already are selling the book: get down there today! I read it in just over two hours and I was in shock with the amazingness of it!
So, on with my fic idea from the story!
**contains Bite Club spoilers**… if my ode to how I got Bite Club didn't already show that.
(I am in England but wh smith are already selling it xD)
Oliver's POV:
"I want you to pretend to have been glamoured by her; I want you to infiltrate her little gang and see just what she is up to," Amelie says to me sourly, her fingers drumming on the tabletop to reveal her annoyance. I half smile at the blatancy of this action, the tone of her voice, to show her true feelings for me, that she doesn't want me to be possibly taken from her… not when she already lost the person she loves... loved… "Oh, for heaven's sake, Oliver, you cannot be remembering a time from long ago, can you? Surely she was not that memorable!" she spits out, and this entirely evident display of jealousy proves to me that she loves me, that she doesn't want me to be possibly going into the arms of another simply to protect her.
I shake my head and lean closer to her, damning the desk between us that prevents me kissing her. "Amelie, you don't get it, do you?" I rhetorically ask, watching her grey eyes dart around the room to look anywhere but me. She doesn't want me to be able to read the emotions in them… "I wouldn't do this for anyone, only you. There is a reason for that…" I trail off as she finally meets my unwavering gaze, but with her emotions firmly guarded. I am no longer able to tell what she feels, but the emotion she revealed when she spoke originally suggests my advances, my feelings, are not entirely wasted.
"I do not have the time to deal with you, with your continual pressure on me, right now," she says coolly, seeming locked in my eyes for a moment. She then looks away and clears her throat, an entirely un-Amelielike thing to do. "My father has managed to get free and we need to focus on that. I entirely feel that Gloriana is parry to the plan and if we do not have a strong spy in her camp, I fear that I could lose Morganville…" she sighs deeply, and she reveals her utter fear in Bishop's escape.
He has managed to get loose from her holding of him… I agreed with her before that punishing him was better than death, simply because that that was the course of action her beloved pet alchemist thought about taking and I didn't want to be agreeing with him: not even if he had the right idea. Also, in terms of her father, Amelie has never been… sane about taking the right course of action. She was his apprentice, she learned everything he knew but on a much smaller scale, and she truly can be as frightening as him… rather, she could have if she didn't have the slight weakness in her that allowed her to love. If she didn't have that, then Bishop would never have been a problem…
"I swear to you, Amelie, we will find Bishop and destroy him," I growl from the depths of my throat.
"I know we will, because I am ensuring it: it is not up to you, Oliver, to have made this decision, nor Myrnin," she snaps at me, and frustration rushes through me at the mention of her friend: why does she have to bring him up continually? It's as if… no, it cannot be, can it? "I will make the decisions how to catch him, in my own game plan, so I would appreciate it if the menfolk of this town could stop telling me how to run my life!" she exclaims, her hand moving to her hair as if she wants to rip it out. Yet the tight grip relaxes as she remembers she has company and she cannot be the free, loose, at ease, girl she used to be in the past: a twenty year old frozen forever, truly perfect but having no regard for rules. The society she has set up needs rules; without rules, it cannot operate.
"That is your decision, Amelie," I say finally, having no other thing to say. "I simply pray that you take the right course of action this time… it wouldn't be a good idea for him to be able to escape again," I finish and she contemplates this, her hand moving back to fold itself over the other neatly.
"I shall do, although it is not because of your advice – honestly, Oliver, I taught you most of what you know," she responds, her voice turning dreamlike and distant as she stares off into a far corner. "You may go… but remember, you must appear as if you are being glamoured… you cannot allow her to have an affect on you in real life, as that would destroy my entire game plan."
I stand up and smile at her, knowing that the love I have for her, the burning candle in the darkness of my life, will keep me from being glamoured. I have no need, no desire, for Gloriana and I most certainly will not succumb to her.
"Like chess," I point out in regards to her mentioning of a plan.
Her lips curve into the approximation of a smile she normally gives, before continuing further on – a further indication I am more than an ally. But then it turns bitter and calculating, as if a heavy burden has suddenly returned to her shoulders. "Yes, exactly like chess," she agrees slowly, her brow furrowing further than I have ever seen it before. "You are an influential piece, a rook perhaps, and to loose something like that so early on would be a travesty. Remember, Oliver, that you need to stay focused… after all, if you lose focus, what will the world be like?" she manages an approximation of a joke, which would be only understood by those who have seen us through the centuries, but I don't laugh. It is neither the time, nor the location. There will be plenty of time for true laughter in the future.
"I quite agree," I sigh, moving over to the door before turning back. "Goodbye, chess master, and remember that you must not be afraid of fire if you are willing to play with it," I caution her in regards to her father, who she must fight simply because he will be out for her and her only… well, I suppose I will be in the firing line also, like Myrnin, for 'betraying' him although I was never his.
"Oh, I am not afraid of the fire," she smiles wryly, standing up and turning to look out of the window at the silvery moon in the sky. The stars twinkle as if they know some hidden fate of ours, mocking us on the earth. "I am not afraid… he is the one who should be afraid… to steal something from me so dear and precious was a heinous crime that he will never get away with," she continues, crushing my hopes and desires in one sentence.
"Goodbye," I whisper, walking away, leaving the woman who is torn between the past and the future… I hope she wins. Because, after all, if she doesn't, then I die with her.
And that, I lament wryly, wouldn't be such a good thing, would it?
So, I'd appreciate it if you told me what you thought.
I tried to keep the characters (particularly Amelie, but Oliver was a little trickier) in character
Please review!
Vicky xx