Claire POV-
I'd never realised how boring being held ransom was before. I had no idea how long I'd been here but it felt like days. Weeks, even. Logically I knew it wasn't since Amelie only had until 9 o'clock to hand over the blood banks. If she did, I'd be set free. If she didn't, I'd be killed. Since I hadn't been killed or set free, I was safe to assume that the full 36 hours hadn't passed yet.
I sat myself up, my body aching. My ribs were hurting from where I'd been kicked, as well as various over parts of my body that they tortured me with. My head was still pounding from the chloroform which made me wonder how strong the must have had it as. Sleeping on the hard floor had left my muscles in pain everywhere around my body. Basically, I felt like crap.
It was strange really. I probably had a few hours left, then I'd be dead. I knew Amelie well enough to know that she wouldn't hand over the town for anyone,let alone me. There was no way I was being rescued and as well as I knew Amelie, I knew my captors well enough to know they weren't going to set me free out of pity of let me live longer if Amelie didn't hand over the keys to the blood bank.
I was going to die.
I started picking my nails, tears welling in my eyes. I thought of Shane and how I promised that I'd never leave him after the Draug. I thought of Eve, my best friend. I would never say goodbye to her. Michael, too, he was like my big brother and I'd miss him.
I heard a phone ring from outside of the room, a basic simple ringtone, of course. I heard my captor (his name was Ryan, I'd asked) sigh and walk over to pick it up.
"Put it on speaker," another person, James, said, "Who is it?"
"Oliver," Ryan muttered and for a few seconds, I got excited. Maybe Amelie had changed her mind after all. Then I realised that this was Amelie, she rarely ever changed her mind, especially not when it would damage Morganville. And it was Oliver on the phone and even if Amelie did change her mind, he'd tell her to fight for the town anyway. I sighed and shuffled back down the wall.
"How is the girl?" I heard Oliver's rough voice ask down the phone. Wait! If he knew where I was and who I was with, why hadn't he staged a rescue or something? I knew Oliver didn't really like me, but I'd figured that I was valuable enough that they would at least try and save me.
"She fine," Ryan told him blankly, his voice hard and emotionless, "What about the founder? What has she decided?"
"She will not hand over the keys. I have tried getting through to her, but she is firm on her decision." Oliver explained. He was talking about Amelie of course and I wasn't surprised to hear that she has stuck to doing what was best for Morganville. I'd be worried if she didn't.
"So are we doing Plan B then?" James asked. Plan B? What the hell was Plan B?
"Yes,"Oliver agreed, "I will kill her tomorrow night. We'll go from there." My heart stopped. Was Oliver talking about me? Why would her come all the way underground to kill me. Surely, Ryan and James would be happy to do it for him. Oliver probably wouldn't want to get his hands dirty, anyway. It all confused me.
That's when I realised they weren't talking about me. They were talking about Amelie. Oliver wanted control over the town - he was planning to kill Amelie to get it, too. There was nothing I could do about it, either. If I could, I would run to Amelie and tell her about Oliver's plans. But I couldn't, because I was trapped down here. Well played, Oliver. Well played.
I wondered if Oliver had been part of this all along. Are Ryan and James working for Oliver? Did they choose to kidnap me or did Oliver bribe them with something so they would do it? Knowing Oliver, it was most likely to be the latter.
Amelie POV-
I was sitting in my office, waiting for Oliver to get to back. I'd ordered him to tell Claire's kidnappers that I refuse to hand over the blood bank to them. Handing over the blood bank meant that they would have control over the vampires and by default, humans. It was basically giving up the whole town. Giving up the whole towns sounds too much like giving up for my liking.
So, I'd left Claire's fate in the hands of strangers. They could kill her if they wanted. I felt terrible, I had grown a soft spot for sweet, innocent Claire but I couldn't hold her life with more value than I held for everyone else in the town. She'd understand, but that didn't make me feel any better.
I had gotten too close to her. This happened every time, it was the reason that I kept myself cold and pushed people away. Whenever I took a liking to someone, they were only used to hurt me in the end. I couldn't help but think that if I never got involved with them, they woul still be here.
Like Sam, I loved him. My father had known that, and he'd killed Sam to make sure that I felt pain. To make sure that I knew that I didn't deserve love or friendship. I deserved an eternity alone.
"Ma'am," I heard Bizzie call from across the room, "Oliver is here to see you."
"Send him in," I ordered. Oliver came straight in as Bizzie left.
"I told them that you refused their ransom," he told me and I nodded, knowing that there was more than that, "Claire Danvers is dead, ma'am."