Chapter 6
"C'mon. Out. Let's go!" Shane was impatient.
"Shane, calm down. Maybe she hasn't found him yet." Eve closed the door behind her, and it thumped against the metal frame of the car.
"Found who?" Eve and Shane just looked at him, neither one wanting to spill the news. Suddenly, a large sob wreaked the silence of the night. The three of them turned their heads towards the alley. Then there was a scream, too definitive to second-guess the screamer. It was Claire. The three of them raced to the alley together, but Eve was quickly left behind.
Once Shane had entered the alley, he was almost jerked to a stop by what he saw. There was a tall, thick vampire holding Claire up by grabbing her upper arm. She was sobbing and trying to fight free.
"Let her go!" He was beyond furious. The guard only snarled at him, and in response, Claire kicked him. The guard wasn't fazed, but he still yanked Claire up and spat in her face. Shane lurched forward and wrapped his hands around Claire's waist. He was lucky that the guard was taken by surprise, or else Claire may have lost her arm as
he pulled her out of the large vamp's clutches.
"Claire? You're okay. I'm here." She tried to fight away from him. "Claire! It's Shane." She still kept kicking and jerking.
"Let me go, Shane!" She kicked him square in the shin. Flipping her hair out of her face, she screamed at him again. "I said, let me go!" Shane's heart twanged, and he sucked in a breath. Her words hurt him so bad, he felt like the pain was physical. He loosened his hold on her, but then tightened it again as a voice, more regal than he had ever heard, soared over the echoes of Claire's sobs.
For the first time since he had come into the alley, Shane focused on his surroundings instead of Claire. There was a semicircle of vamps—every one he had ever seen, and more—enveloping them. There were so many, and they were so close, he had no idea how he had not seen them before. As he took this in, a tall, pale, cold figure walked down an aisle that the vamps had respectfully made for her. Amelie.
"Shane." She did not raise her voice, but it still sent shivers up and down Shane's spine. "Hold her. Don't let her go. She has a sentence to fulfill." Without meaning to, Shane squeezed Claire tighter.
"Sentence?" There was no shift in her icy expression as she gestured to a body not ten feet from him, lying flat and immobile. Even in the dark night, Shane could detect the shock of flame-red hair on the body that he knew belonged to Sam.
Suddenly, his hold on Claire became less resigned and more feral and restraining.
"She…" A sharp nod was his only answer. As if that nod lit a fuse, Shane exploded from the inside. In less than a fraction of a second, he had Claire's fragile body spread out, prone, in front of him, his fangs slowly extending. Her sobs caught in the back of her throat because of her position, and it one might worry that she was choking. That is, if anyone cared. But no one did. Except for Eve, who was one mere human amidst a large pack of vampires. Even Michael had lost all human emotion, and he was crouched in a position that announced loud and clear that he was 100% on the offensive.
Shane's muscles flexed and clenched Claire harder. Slowly, his mouth dropped lower until he was poised over her neck, mouth opened wide. She whimpered.
"Are you ready, human? Are you ready sweet, sweet Claire? Let's see how sweet you really are." She began to sob again.
"Shane! Stop!" It was Amelie. "She has just felled one of our kind; killing her would be just as bad."
"Wrong," he growled. He had no idea where he found the courage to defy Amelie, but he was not in the mood to deal with this white knight crap. "She did us a disservice." He was looking at Claire's neck intently. "Killing her would benefit us. Huge difference." Under the strength of his taut muscles, Claire began to writhe and gag.
"Let her up, Shane." Again, it was Amelie who spoke. He did not want to, but with great reluctance, he let Claire stand up, though he still gripped her arm. She would not be able to break free.
She whirled on him, her short hair flying. "I don't get it, Shane. You're a vampire! You're a vampire! You hate them!" She was pleading with him now. "Shane, please. I thought you would want me to kill him." There was silence around the ring as all the vamps waited for Shane's reaction. And then it came. With viper-like speed, he let go of her arm and swung his own like a baseball bat and smacked her on her cheek. She twisted from the force behind the blow, and when the momentum died, she crumbled at his feet.