Chapter 14 – The Battle

Claire's POV

As Amelie walked forward, I noticed something about her that I hadn't before. Amelie was tired – completely exhausted – and she had just taken up the protector stance.

"Over my dead body," she said, pronouncing each word with an emphasis that only Amelie could pull off, and she kept her posture as elegant as it would have been had she just woken up from her beauty sleep in Morganville and had a speech prepared for the Morganville residents.

I walked forward, terrified inside but showing no fear. I couldn't allow Amelie to stand and protect us when she was just as in need of protection. While I was walking forward, I could hear the bitterness of Sam's laugh. The delightful shiver it sent down my spine and the chilling way the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as they imagined the pain that was away to come was almost unbearable. "You care so deeply and affectionately for these... these children and their fellow companions. If you could have been like this a few millennia ago, we would not be standing here today, and we would not be standing against each other but with each other, united as a team, as a faction. But you failed us then, and I will ensure that you fail your current family now."

Before I could even think to be terrified, I could hear words forming, and it was me who spoke them. "You call us children but I assure you we are not. Three years ago, I was as innocent and care free as children could be. I moved to Morganville to study physics, and along with that I found the most loving family that any person on this earth would die to have – literally. You may believe that in a fight Amelie, Oliver, and even Myrnin would have to stand tall and defend all of the children that stood with them, but us children have been through enough that we could almost guarantee that we are no longer children, and we will fight with our companions (as you call them) and we will help them to win the battle that you and all of your people start."

Sam stared at me with uncertainty flowing off of him in waves, and I could see the glint of pride in Amelie's eyes as she turned to wink at me.

Sam seemed to come to a decision and his eyes turned cold and hateful. "No matter. You may fight along with your companions, though I should warn you that you will be fighting for not only escape but for your lives. As you see, you are much outnumbered, so if you have any last thoughts you would like to share, I would be very happy to allow you to speak."

And then Eve sauntered forward, and she allowed her weight to balance on her left side and folded her arms across her chest. "I just wanted to say Mr. ButtHeadBasket that I hope one day you will regret all of the crimes you have committed – and are about to commit – and find true peace in the world." Everybody stopped in surprise, and then Eve finished with, "Anyway, enough with all the sweet talk, it's time to bring it on like kung fu Panda!" She performed a very dramatic karate move that resulted in Eve lying on the floor with her arms flailing in the air, but she quickly recovered and jumped up into the move it seemed that she had meant to perform in the first place. And in the moment that followed, the crowd of raged vampires burst into fits of laughter, and I heard Eve's motive loud and clear.

We all ran forward, using the element of both time and surprise to get a head start on our opponents. Unfortunately we had no stakes, but as I had proved so many times before, stakes can be found anywhere in the form of very simple objects; for example, the pencil that I hadn't noticed sat in my pocket.

I grabbed the pencil and looked around for the closest opponent's heart, and when I turned in an almost three hundred and sixty degree circle, I caught someone scrambling towards me in the corner of my eye. I let them think that I hadn't seen them, and when they were close enough, I turned on the spot and stabbed the pencil into the place the woman's heart should have been beating.

Continuing on, I could see that Shane was tackling a male vampire about twice his age – in looks, obviously – who seemed to be twice as tall as him, and if they hadn't been in this particular situation at the time, I would have burst into fits of laughter.

Three men came running at me and I had the tempting urge to scream, not because I was scared of them, but because they held Eve in their arms. She lay draped across the six arms of the men that kept running forward, but she looked unconscious. And when the urge became impossible to resist, I broke into an endless scream and ran in the opposite direction as the men, which meant right into them.

All cried in surprise and I was certain that I had broken one of their noses – for all the good it would do; he would probably recover in minutes. Eve had been thrown into the air and I was now waiting on her safe return. When Eve was in catching distance, I did my best to hold my arms in the proper position, but before I could catch my best friend, someone pushed me from behind.

I quickly turned on my spot on the floor to see which vampire attacker had come to make sure that Eve had fallen down and crashed into the floor, but it was just Michael, and he was holding Eve in his arms.

"Sorry," he apologised quickly, "I didn't think you would be able to catch her."

"No problem," I assured him. "And you were probably right, but I didn't have much choice other than let her fall."

Michael pulled me up with one arm as the other kept Eve in place over his shoulder, and then he scooted away.

There were quite a number of the opposing vampires lying in heaps on the floor, or rubbing their hands together as if they were in some kind of unspeakable pain, and then there were the vampires that stayed on the outlines; either waiting until the other vampires were down to just swoop in and take the last chance, or too scared to get involved – which didn't make any sense in the least.

I looked around for some sort of way to get the group of vampires attacking Amelie, the group attacking Myrnin, and the group attacking Oliver away from their victims – wow, vampires could hold a grudge. There was nothing in sight, until I turned and noticed a pillar standing not too far from the fights. It was quite obviously on its last legs, but if I was to push it down, chances were it would crush quite a few of my people in the midst of crushing the attackers.

I rushed over to them and repeated pillar over and over again while they were being attacked by hungry vampires, and then I did giant U-turn and headed toward Shane, Michael and Eve (who was still unconscious in Michael's arms. "The pillar," I said, pointing over to it and running toward it, and then I heard footsteps behind me.

It was Shane. "What?" He asked when I gave him a dumbfounded look. "Like you have enough muscle to pull that stunt off. I'm just here to help." He held his hands up in surrender, but the reply he got was me rolling my eyes and saying, "Fine."

We sprinted toward the pillar meanwhile making sure that there were no vampires following them, because there would be soon enough. When we reached the pillar, Shane stood behind the pillar and I stood behind Shane. We pushed with all our might (Shane pushing the pillar and me pushing Shane) and when I let out a heavy groan, Shane turned and looked at her with a guilty expression on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"Is it bad that I'm a little turned on right now?" He asked, and I slapped him on the back and turned his head to face the pillar. We both pushed just a little bit more and the pillar seemed to give way under Shane's fingertips and it began to fall.

As Shane watched the tumbling commotion, I shuffled forward and held onto his hips, standing on my tip-toes I whispered, "Not at all." I could see the little smirk that formed even from behind him, so when he turned around to face me, it looked brighter than the sun – and that was pretty bright. He bent down to kiss me but seemed to realise the situation that we were in, the fact that they'd just pushed a pillar over to crush some people, and when he came to this conclusion, he just nodded his head and turned back to face the uproar.

We had managed to crush a number of vampires under the weight of the pillar – none that we knew, thankfully – and now the scene was quiet, completely silenced, and everyone was staring at Shane and I. Eve, who seemed to have come to, gave a very weak applaud. The opposing vampires weren't in the mood to give praise, though, and it didn't look like they were in the mood to offer mercy either.

Well, it had been a good idea at the time.