Chapter 21 – Miranda

Claire's POV

Okay, so maybe I'd been a little overdramatic when I said "and all went dark". It was just the power cutting out. The illumination that had allowed us to see was now gone. I heard voices mumbling in confusion, and then Amelie's voice overpowered them all.

"We must leave here. Something is going to happen and we are not going to be here when it does."

"What's going to happen?" Eve asked, but her voice dripped with sarcasm. "A vampire jumps out at us? News flash, we're not afraid of vampires."

"Maybe I can help to change your mind."

Everybody turned on their heels in a blur, hoping to find the source of the voice somewhere in the darkness. And we did, it was a female of about 30 years old. She held a cat in her arms, and guessing by the way her eyes turned red, I realised that my first judgement of her age had been wrong – she was a vampire; a vampire that seemed to radiate light.

"Speak of the devil," Shane muttered.

"And the devil comes," Michael finished.

"Oh boys, boys, boys, boys. Don't think of me as the devil, prejudice is not something that I agree with under any circumstances, let alone being discriminated against myself. I am here to help."

Her hair was a beautiful vibrant red, flowing down her back in silky waves. Her eyes were emerald green – the type of eyes that I had always dreamed of having myself – and her lips were full and red. She was like a rainbow with a dark personality, although, as she had just said, we were judging her before we knew her. She could have had a personality as bright as her hair.

"Well, I believe I have made myself clear on some sort of level. And before I begin, can I just say. Amelie Bishop! What a pleasure it is to meet you." She stood forward and held out her hand, Amelie just stared at her. "Very well. This must be Myrnin," she said, holding her hand out to him. He also stared at her, but he was more focused on her hand than her face.

"Do you realise that you have a bag of silver attached to your hand?"

"Yes I do. I put it there, in fact. It was a test, one that you have managed to pass – although you ruined the game for the rest of the people here." She turned and looked at 'the rest of the people here' and finished with her gaze on me. "Claire Danvers." And this time she didn't hold out her hand, instead she embraced me with open arms. "You are famous in my family, the first of the Danvers bloodline to be introduced to the vampire world after Sam Danvers and Amelie Bishop. Oh, I cannot tell you how many times I have read that book."

"What book?" It was a synchronised question asked by Shane, Amelie, Eve, Michael, Myrnin, me, and even Oliver.

"Why, you are all so observant," she noted, taken aback. "It is called 'The First of the Danvers Bloodline to be Introduced to the Vampire World After Sam Danvers and Amelie Bishop'. You have never heard of it?"

Her answer was silence and a few shaking heads. But before she could talk again, which seemed to be her specialty, I cut in and asked, "Em, what's your name?" And every face that stood close by seemed to fill with confusion at not wondering the same thing.

"I am Miranda," she stated. That name brought back so many memories of a sweet psychic girl that had died in an act of bravery to save her friends. Why were there so many people with the same name? It just got confusing.

"Anymore questions before I continue on with what I was saying?" And not giving anybody the chance to even attempt to cut in, Miranda continued, "I am here to help you. You probably wonder what for, and I shall now answer that unasked question."

She smiled and that smile lit up her already bright face, which made it really hard to look at her without going blind. She was the only person-slash-vampire that I had ever met who radiated light, had vivid red hair, emerald green eyes, and a smile that made her look like the sun.

"I, ladies and gentleman, am going to help you kill Samuel Danvers. But first," she paused and turned to Amelie, "Is there a restroom close by?"

We waited for Amelie and Miranda to return – Amelie had told us that it was not safe to be wandering around the halls with the only source of light in the building, and then we had argued back why is it okay for her to be wandering around the halls with the only source of light, and then she argued back and then we argued back and then a full blown argument (which we made sure was kept to a quiet one-person-speaking-at-a-time) erupted, and eventually Amelie won. She had told us to wait here – where it was apparently safe – and said she and Miranda would be back soon.

And so they were.

"Those hallways are so very confusing, how is it that you learned them all? I don't think I would ever be able to..." We heard this before we even saw the glow of light in the corridor, but that was only because we were listening intently for them to get here.

Amelie interrupted her in the middle of a sentence and asked her, "Do you ever stop talking? I am becoming quite irritated at the fact that you seem to have plenty to say about every sort of situation."

"I do apologise," Miranda replied, "But you must admit that the restroom was a disgrace!"

"And as I explained the first time you said that, that restroom was built – along with this entire building – a few millenniums ago."

Miranda heaved a very dramatic sigh, but before she could say whatever she had needed to take that giant breath to say, Amelie began talking again.

"Is everybody here?"

"No. Eve left to get a hot dog and Michael's away to work." It was Shane, clearly trying to shed some light on the situation.

I pushed down a giggle and replied, "Yes."

"Perfect," Amelie said, completely ignoring Shane's comment – which was probably for the best. "And I assume that everybody is ready, so let us take off on our journey home."

"The last time we 'took off on our journey home'," Michael began, "We ended up being bombarded by an extremely large group of vampires, how do we know it isn't going to end with the same result this time?"

"We just do."

"Wait!" Miranda said, "We cannot leave. My purpose here is to help you all kill Sam. If he is still alive, Claire cannot have her child."

"We will find another way," Amelie replied. "At this moment, we need to focus on escaping this disaster."

"Amelie's right," I said, walking over to stand next to Miranda. "You should all leave. Miranda and I will find and kill Sam and meet you later."

Shane came to stand beside me, "Count me in. I won't let him be the reason that wecan't have our baby."

Amelie made a noise of anger and frustration, but seemed to appreciate that we wouldn't change our mind. "I guess we should start searching then."

"You guys are leaving," I said, "I'm not putting anybody else in danger when they don't have good reasons." Although even before I said it, I knew that they would find some sort of excuse to join us.

Eve's was, "Your baby is my niece-slash-nephew, and besides, we always do cool stuff like this together." And if by cool stuff she meant killing vampires, I couldn't disagree with her.

Michael's was, "What she just said."

Myrnin's was, "I am a very important asset to these sorts of situations, and you need me. And I am also in need of a restroom."

Oliver's was, "Since everybody else is coming..."

And Eve interrupted him by saying, "You just want to see Sam die because you're jealous."

Oliver had no come back for that.

Amelie said, "I have the most leverage, although that is no excuse for why I should be coming. I have a town to run, and I sure cannot do it from inside this place."

"Amelie, I said you could go."

"Maybe so, but I won't be letting that weasel kill any child born of my bloodline. Let us go."

With that she sauntered ahead of the group, the heels that I had only just noticed she was wearing clicked rhythmically as she went, and her flowing hair seemed to glitter in the darkness.

As we followed, Oliver just stared.