Chapter 14:
SHEESH a lot's going on!
*Author Rant* - right, this is going to sound truly horrific & rude, but my reviews haven't exactly been sky high in comparison to other stories... It's not a lot to ask for, but the hit number is rather large, in comparison to the reviews... I'd love it if I got more reviews. *End of Rant*
Thank you to Tori, for that lovely review!
The next day - Claire - 7pm
I spend all night and day working, besides three hours to sleep in my office, on new legislation because I've nothing else to do. Noone to love, noone to go and have a mocha with... Everyone hates me.
Pain grips my stomach like nothing I've ever experienced before. It's like I'm a human that's being shot continually in the stomach, then my intestines wrangled around with someone's hand before my blood is sucked by a vampire from my wounds. I don't know why this is happening... I was fine a moment ago. Well, not fine, given I was bawling my eyes out over the fact my husband doesn't love me, my best friend hates me and that I have no allies whatsoever that I can truly call my friends. But yeah, I wasn't cringing in agony like I am now.
I drop to the floor and almost cry out with pain; instead, I simply gasp and cry into the carpet. I wrap my arms tenderly around my stomach to try and stem the pain slightly and, to my entire relief, it works. No longer is the pain constant, stabbing and agonising... It's simply lingering, duller and very very painful!
I slide along to the mini fridge in the corner of the room and open it to find it well stocked with blood. Thank god! I pull a bottle out, wincing as I have to remove one of my support arms around my stomach to do this. I use the force of my teeth to open the bottle before glugging it down... Yet it does nothing to help. The pain simply increases until, finally, I cannot move a muscle. I'm trapped as I am, unable to shift even a little, and slowly delve into unconsciousness with open arms...
Sam's POV - day before :
Thankfully, Amelie is completely fine.
"You should go to bed," I urge her as we sit on the sofa together for a moment before dashing off to our respective activities. Oliver and Michael are in the library whilst Gérard is sussing out the guards around our fighters.
She snorts before wrapping her arm around me and kissing my cheek. "Sam, you seem to have forgotten that I'm stronger and more powerful than you are," she says. "There is absolutely no need for me to go to bed. I am going to go and collect my troops... I don't need to sleep! I'm not a human!"
I stroke her hair softly, smiling at her. "If you're sure... Probably only because if you did go to bed, you'd get up as soon as I left," I sigh, mindful of how stubborn she is. My, that's one thing I wish she had, just toned down a BIT!
"What time are we going for Myrnin?" she asks me quietly, placing her head on my chest.
"We'll go at midnight," I decide - then there's no sun to bother me or hinder my movement. That's the one thing about being so much younger than Amelie and Oliver - it means that whilst they can go out during the day to fight or whatever, I'm hindered inside and entirely worthless.
"Now that sounds interesting," Amelie says with a smile. "Any particular reason why not now?" she says, rather alluringly. I laugh softly and lift her into my lap, smiling as she protests slightly.
"Because I'm with you and I'd not give up these couple of hours with you," I say into her skin at the nape of her neck.
"Well then... Let's enjoy," Amelie says, leaning back and kissing me softly on the lips. I wrap my arms around her back and she moves around so now she's facing me and twisting her fingers through my hair. "I love you," she whispers quietly as I kiss her neck in a series of small kisses.
Thankfully, this room is soundproofed so Oliver and my grandson can't hear - it may be a little awkward!
"I love you more," I say into her skin, making her squirm as I recommence kissing her.
This action continues for a while, until I hear a knocking at the door. Instantly, Amelie slides away and fixes her top (which has slipped slightly... Not that I mind!) before I pull her back into my side.
"Come in!" I shout and Michael enters, his face entirely blank. "What's up?"
"It's like 11.15pm, so I was checking that we're still planning for midnight?" he says with a small smile now. What? It's that time already? I could have sworn it was only about 8pm when we sat down!
"Yeah, midnight's the plan," I say quickly and he nods. Amelie stands upright fluidly, so fast that I don't even see her moving!
"Have you any ideas, Michael?" she asks him softly, moving towards him. He blinks before nodding.
"Let me go ahead to the house, just in case she's there," he suggests - no! I won't have him risking his life anymore than he already is! "See, you guys are supposed to be locked up - Oliver's still having nightmares about how he got locked up-"
"I am not!" Oliver's crabbit voice comes out of the space behind Michael. I snort - Michael truly has found the best way to insult Oliver... He'll do me proud!
"Anyway," Michael says with a smirk at Oliver. "She released me. Therefore, I could be just going to her house to see her... Whilst you, she'd be psychotic because you were locked up! So I can go and suss it all out then come get you, whatcha think?"
"No, absolutely not!" I jump in. "Michael, I forbid you to!"
Amelie turns and looks at me whilst nodding. Michael, however, looks distraught and looks sort of like a moody brat.
"But why?" he moans - yes, he sounds like a spoilt moody brat as well! Does he think that I'm going to let him put himself into such a dangerous situation? Now his father has left town, and his mother, I am the only one he has left - and I'm never leaving him... He's stuck with my overprotectivness forever!
"You're not getting yourself in any more dangerous situations, not if I can help it," I say vehemently, standing up to give it more 'oomph' and strength.
"You don't get to decide," Michael says, moving closer to me to try and prove his point. "I can make that decision." He moves even closer - stupid boy - and I reach out to try and flip him, to catch him off guard and show how unprepared he is. Unfortunately, he seems to have been expecting it and circles out of the way, grinning and motioning for me to come closer. "Bring it, old man!"
I laugh involuntarily before getting down to the real business here. "I'm not old!" I protest, zooming across the room to grab him before he can react. I get him but he sends up a sneaky punch to make me stagger slightly before grabbing him again.
"Boys," Amelie's cool, dry, voice says with enough authority that we both stand still instantly. "You can decide how to classify 'old man' later... We have a duty to do now."
"So, Michael cannot fight, right Amelie?" I say, urging with my eyes to get her to back me up. However, Michael plays the innocent grandson card and damn, I think she may be falling for it. Then she looks away from both of us and hesitates further.
"Oliver, you are the only one with no bias here," she says, making me inwardly groan. Oliver is going to go for the option that puts him in the path of least danger, aka, Michael's request. "Therefore, will you make a decision as to whether Michael or Sam's method should be used?"
Oliver dramatically clears his throat before realising that both Michael and I are staring at him and trying to get him to choose our way.
"If we truly have to save Myrnin," Oliver begins, making we three look at him sardonically. "Apologies, Samuel, but Michael makes the best argument and point," Oliver, not surprisingly, says. "He's the only one who could technically be there without needing to explain why being out of jail, sorry Sam," he continues - well what a prick! I would attack him or something... But with the extra four or five hundred years Oliver has on me, I wouldn't stand a chance!
"Fine," I say, whilst Michael dances around for joy - if he wasn't dating Lindsay, I'd have sworn he was gay! "Go, whatever," I continue, slightly sourly that Michael and Oliver went against me - normally it's only one of them! Amelie smiles slightly before coming over to my side and taking my arm in comfort. She mouths something to me and I smile and nod - that's definitely cheered me up!
"Absolutely," I smile really widely and Amelie radiates happiness as well - brilliance! I cannot wait... But not now, we're on a rescue mission for first Myrnin and then Morganville.
OoOoOo
"Michael, you have four minutes to get there and be back here or I come straight through and get you," I say forcefully and he nods.
Amelie's POV:
My, Sam is truly taking his responsibilities to the extreme, isn't he? He's so concerned for his grandson, it's adorably cute, but perhaps is being a little overprotective as he is with me. Still, it's better him to be overprotective and care (in my opinion) than to not care!
"Yes, Grandad, I will be back shortly," Michael says, slightly exasperated, and disappears through the portal. Gérard and Oliver begin to pace the room, anxiously awaiting the return of our scout.
"Samuel, relax!" I say slightly sharply as he begins dancing around like a child impatient to get somewhere. I hold him down with his arm that I've had for the past half an hour or so and he smiles in apology before wrapping his arm (the other one... I wouldn't ever let go of this one!) around me in comfort.
"Ok, I am now," he says, his words making me want to blush and giggle for some strange reason. "Happy now?" he says into my hair as he pulls me close. I nod slowly, pressing my face into his shoulder and just enjoying being with him... After all, we're going to be risking our lives in only a few weeks at most. Who knows if our happiness can last - it didn't last time.
"Yes," I admit softly before pulling away - professionalism is needed at this current time. He keeps his arm around me as I turn and I keep my arm wrapped around his, so it's not exactly the definition of 'pulling away' yet it's more formal than before!
"Get a room," Oliver moans, making me roll my eyes in his direction.
"Oliver this is our house," I make clear the fact that he's the visitor. "Still, let's wait for Michael and then go get Myrnin. Ok?"
"If we have to," Oliver mutters. "Can't we just leave him wherever he is to die a long, slow, painful death?" he continues. Honestly, why do these two hate each other so much? Christmas 1709 (also known as 'Peach Day' by Myrnin... I still need to throttle him about then - just the events where I've had to do that before then are still in line to occur!) (a/n - one shot called 'peach day' on this!) springs to mind... But no, they hated each other before then!
The sudden return of Michael jolts me from my meander down memory lane and I jump slightly as he dashes through the portal. Sam chuckles at this but I silence him with a look - I am not to be messed with! He then looks sheepish - good!
"Well Michael, is he there?" I turn on Michael sharply, who looks slightly scared and shocked but holds his ground.
"Yes, he's there and he appears to be pretty ok," Michael says - well if he's 'ok' why on earth isn't he here and helping us?
"Well lets go then!" I say, marching forwards and heading for the portal before Sam stops me.
"Hold your horses... Wouldn't it be better for you to stay here?" he says and I growl at him. How dare he? Does he truly expect me to wait here whilst he goes and saves my longest friend? No! Not on his life!
"No, it absolutely wouldn't be!" I hiss at him, anger the only emotion I can think could be present in my system. "I am going and there is nothing you can do to stop me! I'm not terminally ill or an elderly and crippled human, Sam, I don't need to 'sit down' every five seconds!" I continue, my voice shrill as I put obvious sarcastic marks in my voice around 'sit down' - I mean, I'm an elderly vampire! It's the opposite: we get stronger etc as we get older!
"Ok then," he wisely replies, looking a little scared. As he should, mind, given that I mean every word I say! I retract my fangs (didn't realise that they'd fallen down... It's too natural now!) and return my eye colour to normal (again, didn't notice it changing - now it's back to normal I see how it affected it though) before heading towards the portal at the head of our motley little party.
I emerge into the room which brought about the biggest shock of my life... For the past year or two at least. Oh, no, actually I have changed my mind - it's a woman's preogative - it brought the second biggest surprise of my life in recent times.
Everything appears normal. I scan around, looking for things that are abnormal, and don't immediately spot anything.
"Michael, where is he?" I ask sharply - sharp is my forté today! "Unless he's been rolled into the sofa or stuffed in one of those cupboards, he's not here!"
Michael shakes his head and points towards the lab door. My eyes follow and realise that there is one heck of a lot of silver on the door... Silver that wasn't there the other week when I last came around - Sam's kept me away for some reason (I predict he knew, or at least suspected, about Claire) and earlier wasn't exactly the time I was looking for new deçor around the place! I strain my ears and realise, behind the sound proofing, that there is someone in there. Myrnin!
I dash over to the door and wait for Gérard to remove the loosely wound silver chains. If Claire has done this, she hasn't been watching many Criminal Mastermind shows - they are so loose I would have snapped them with one finger if I didn't want to burn myself! Once the chains are off, I kick down the door to reveal a shocking sight.
Myrnin is bounding around the room on a silver chain, doing whatever he can (unsuccessfully) to remove the silver chain that's attaching him to this room. I sense if he removed it, anyway, it wouldn't have done much good: this room can withstand a bomb, let alone one vampire (even a very strong one).
"Myrnin!" I say softly, rushing over to his side to see him. I note, abstractly, that his wedding ring appears to be missing as he fights a losing battle to remove the cuff. "Are you alright?"
He seems rather... Vital, if I'm honest. Too vital. My eyes fall to a pile of empty blood bottles... All of which seem to have been consumed.
"As fine as I could be," he replies wearily. I place a hand on his shoulder in comfort before motioning Gérard forwards to unlock the silver chain with the bolt cutters he's just picked up. As this happens, I notice something in Myrnin's neck.
"Myrnin, why do you have bite marks in your neck?" I ask him, noting how he flinches away as I go to touch them. No, she can't have...
"I'd rather not talk about it with him around," he says edgily with a pointed look at Oliver who rolls his eyes.
"Oliver, Sam, Michael, Gérard," I reel of their names quickly. "Please return to the house and I shall be there shortly."
All four of them follow my command, although Sam a little reluctantly, and soon only Myrnin and I are left. I know we shouldn't linger, for fear of any of the opposition turning up, yet I need to know what happened with Myrnin.
"What happened?" I ask him as we stand still. "Why did you drink all that blood?"
"She nearly drained me, Amelie," he admits with a tear falling out of his eye. "I thought she loved me and she nearly killed me! She left me here, for hours, with so little blood in me and had people chain me up without giving me anymore blood!"
I reach for him and give him a comforting hug, sorrow overpowering me entirely. This isn't right. He shouldn't have to put up with this... It shouldn't have happened.
"Ssshhh," I say quietly. "It's alright... But where did the blood come from?"
"She came back," he admits into my shoulder. "She gave me it all and expected me to forgive her. I was so hurt for what she did that I told her I didn't love her anymore... I left her - well, technically only verbally given I was locked up," he confesses and begins to cry even more. That's why he isn't wearing his ring.
For the first time, I feel a little sorrow for Claire. She obviously never realised how strongly Myrnin would take this... How strongly any vampire would take being bitten, let alone by someone so close to him. In a sense, the leaving is comparable to Sam and I. Yet neither of us did anything as wrong as she did...
"Come on," I say to Myrnin, pulling him along with me. "Let's go... We can plan destruction as we go!" I pray on his love of war to try and cheer him up but it doesn't work. After all, how do you cheer up a man who's lost his pride and wife in the same blow?
Sam's POV - 7pm - time of Claire's POV at beginning:
I press the button that activates the crystals and wince slightly - she may be an entirely evil bitch right now, but she's still Claire and I hate causing anyone pain. Pain that I know this will cause her - especially as it lasts about five minutes or so.
"Where is she?" Amelie asks desperately, having returned from the kitchen with Michael carrying the blood for us all. She's a master at getting others to do her dirty work!
I pick up the crystal (made from the same batch of drugs in Claire's system) and the vial of Amelie's blood, pouring a few drops onto the end of it. I then position this over the map and let it pull towards it. I don't know the logistics behind it all, but soon it drops onto City Hall and identifies a medium sized office belonging to Harry Ferguson (now apparently Claire) as her location.
"I'll go and get her," I say firmly. "You lot work on getting our troops out - we should get them tomorrow morning, I think," I decide and they all nod.
I spent the day setting up one of the many spare rooms in this house for Claire to enjoy. There's a nice silver cage, silver powder and a range of other silver items - yes, silver is the na of the game! I cannot really use stakes, because through any other part of her body is sort of pointless and if it's through her heart a) she can't move but b) she'd die because of her age. Leaves silver! None of the others besides Michael have seen it but I know they'll want to be present during 'questionning' - that makes me sound like such a cop! I don't mind them being there... As long as I get five minutes at first alone with her to make my displeasure tangiable in the air.
I head through the portal which was sent straight to the office she's in - less scope for error - and see a slumped figure on the floor. Claire. She's over by her mini fridge (the door of which I close... No point wasting blood in shortages!) and has a half drunk bottle of blood in front of her. She probably thought that the pain was from bloodthirst and never suspected the fact that I've used this drug on her!
Something about the way she's lying, with her arms around her stomach, reminds me of Amelie. Then again, they are related with Claire being descended from Amelie... How she came to be so evil from someone so loving is beyond me, but hopefully we'll find that out!
I pick her up gingerly, not wanting to touch her, and take her through the direct portal to the inquisition room. Here goes!
Ok, well I thought we'd get into the next part this chapter, as well as Amelie's secret... Yet it was too long (was going to be about 8000 words... Too long for me!) Therefore, I will update soon, if I get 5 or more reviews!
Also, Bright Lights and Dark Shadows - DON'T FORGET TO READ IT!
Vicky xx