Chapter 32 – Information Chains
Shane's POV
I didn't know what to think, I didn't know how to act. Instead of lashing out and allowing myself to see red as I would have done a while back, I decided that I would stay calm and make my journey to the Glass House.
There I would find Eve, Claire... and Myrnin. Of course it was Myrnin! Who else would it be? Claire had decided to tell him over me, like always.
I was surprised not to be attacked suddenly by a bypassing vampire, but my guess was that they probably didn't want to attack me. I was radiating heat like a steam train.
The funny thing was, even when I knew that Claire had decided to keep this information from me, I couldn't bring myself to be mad at her. She wouldn't have done something like this without reason, and it was my intention to find out what that reason was.
"You can kill me all you want, but we both know that killing me won't solve your problems." The voice that said this was surprisingly familiar, although, it sounded much more distressed than I had ever heard it.
"Maybe not, but I can guarantee that it will make me feel a whole lot better," was the reply from another horribly familiar voice.
I turned to look to my left and found an incredibly angry Morley holding a distressed Amelie hostage. He was facing away from me, so he didn't notice me standing only a few feet away.
I felt the need to do something but evaluated my current situation. Claire was in labour, and if I didn't hurry, I might never see her again before we both died and lost the child that we never got the chance to meet.
Taking a deep but silent sigh, I turned to the door and continued the way I had intended to travel in the first place. Amelie could take care of herself.
Amelie's POV
"You can kill me all you want, but killing me isn't going to solve your problems," I said to Morley. He was still holding me in a tight grip and continued to balance the knife gently against the skin of my neck.
"Maybe not," he replied, "But I can guarantee that it will make me feel a whole lot better."
"How about a negotiation," I offered after a few seconds of hesitation. I didn't know what I was doing in the slightest but the words slipped out without my consent.
"What sort of negotiation? You do realise that any bargain made between you and I would have to benefit me greatly."
"I can't promise you anything, as I do not know what you would expect, although, I can say that if you release me at this moment we can discuss further on appropriate terms."
He seemed to stay silent in thought for the next minute, leaving me in horrifying suspense. Some part of me, however, wanted him to say no. I didn't have any idea what this so called bargain would consist of; therefore, a fight would have been so much less problematic at this precise moment.
"I have considered, and I realise that I have been rather harsh. I agree to a bar..." He was cut off in the middle of the last word, and suddenly I was released from his strong grip.
I turned instantly to see what had caused this irregular occurrence, and I was surprised to discover a cursing Shane standing behind a furious Morley. All I could see of Morley was the back of his head.
"What is going on?" I demanded.
Instead of a spoken answer, Morley turned slowly to face me; what I saw made me gasp in horror.
His face was covered in red burns, and his right eyelid was drooping so low that I wondered if there was still an eye in the socket. I heard Shane murmur quietly behind him, "You're looking a bit under the weather."
Instead of turning back to Shane, Morley looked at me accusingly, asking, "Was this your big plan? Stall me for a few trivial minutes and have one of your minions throw acid on my face."
As I began to reply, Shane interrupted, "I am not her minion! Nor anyone else's for that matter. In fact, I wish to have a word with Amelie alone, if that's alright with you. And just to be clear, if it isn't alright with you, I really don't care."
"First your little minion throws acid on my face and next he's telling me to buggar off?!"
Shane repeated, "I am not Amelie's minion and I am certainly not small! But yes, may you please buggar off – if you want me to put it in posh terms."
Morley said, "I'll leave you two to talk, and not because I wish to be kind and allow you some privacy, but because I have acid on my face and wish to clean it off." Before leaving, he turned to look at me and said, "I will be back, and I don't agree to your bargain deal, this little minion changed my mind."
To my surprise, Shane didn't react a third time to what Morley called him. Instead, he allowed Morley to saunter away before taking hold of my arm and dragging me over to the corner.
As all of these occurrences took place, the battle continued on. I was mesmerized at the fact that we hadn't been attacked yet, although, I had noticed the loss in numbers over the period of time that we had been fighting.
"Why didn't you tell me Claire was in labour?" Shane demanded immediately, and I instantly regretted not arguing with Eve. The dear boy held unshed tears in his eyes that could not be seen by the normal human eye, but with the heightened sense of sight that vampirism brought, I could see them perfectly clear.
"She didn't want a fuss, and she didn't want to place us at a disadvantage."
"She could have said that! You could have said that! All I'm saying is that I should have been informed that my baby was on its way!"
"How did you find out?" I asked, suddenly curious.
"You told Myrnin, Myrnin told Michael, Michael told me. It's kind of like a food chain, just instead of containing food, it contains information... It's an information chain!"
"What were you doing with Michael?" I asked.
"I'd been trying to find you," he replied.
"Why? You hadn't known that Claire was in labour at that point."
"No, but I thought I should have informed you of something important."
"And that something is..?"
"You didn't tell me about Claire, so why should I tell you about Sam?"
"What about Sam?"
"Damn, I'm terrible at keeping secrets!"
And as he told me, my eyes grew wider with each passing second.
Claire's POV
I wish I could say that the pain had died down over the period of time I had been in labour, but if I were being honest, what I would actually say is, "This is painful! Help! Can you be in labour for me?"
I must admit, it wasn't as scary as I had thought it would be – not the dying part, the childbirth part. Dying still scared the hell out me when I thought about it too deeply; and it probably didn't help with my scientific nature.
Once you die, you're dead. That's it. Nothing to live for afterward, science proves it – or at least that's what I believe, unless your magic house saves you and allows you to continue on as a ghost. Most people that I knew of died at the age of seventy onwards, if they lived a healthy lifestyle and weren't killed by a vampire anyway – wow, my life is crazy – but I was going to die at nineteen years old! What would there be after that? A never ending darkness? A place of nothing where you're forgotten amongst your friends and family?
It scared me so much that the fear itself might end up being the thing to kill me, and if it didn't, my child was sure to.
Well, that would just be a short summary of my messed up and twisted life in the vampire world, but that was what kept going over and over in my head, over and over and over and over and over...
Shane's POV
I had planned on leaving, I'd even reached the front door to the Elders' Council Building – and that was without being attacked by an angry evil vampire dude – but I knew that Amelie was in danger, and I also knew that the answers I wanted were with her, so I did what I should have done in the first place. Turning on my heels I began to head back the way I had come, thanking my common sense that I had thought to put acid in my back pocket.
I didn't listen in to their conversation this time, I just took action. With the acid in my hand, I quickly threw it over Morley's face (careful not to get it on Amelie.) He let go of Amelie faster than I could comprehend, and suddenly he was facing me with a face full of rage; it was just a shame that I wasn't scared of him – well, for him anyway.
"What's going on?" I heard a shocked Amelie exclaim.
"You're looking a bit under the weather," I remarked silently as he turned to face Amelie. When his back was facing me, I could hear Amelie gasp in horror. What she would be seeing right now was a bright red face covered in burns and scratches and an eye so closed it looked as if it didn't exist.
"Was this your big plan?" Morley asked Amelie, and I was immediately confused. Maybe I should have eavesdropped before I threw that bottle of acid on his face. He continued, saying, "Stall me for a few trivial minutes and have one of your minions throw acid on my face."
Before I could tell myself to stay quiet, I shouted, "I am not her minion! Nor anyone else's for that matter. In fact, I wish to have a word with Amelie alone, if that's alright with you. And just to be clear, if it isn't alright with you, I really don't care."
Still facing Amelie he said, "First your little minion throws acid on my face and next he's telling me to buggar off?!"
"As I said before," I started, calmer than the first time, "I am not Amelie's minion and I'm certainly not small! But yes, may you please buggar off – if you want me to put it in posh terms."
"I'll leave you two to talk," Morley chirped in a rather unpleasant voice, "and not because I wish to be kind and allow you some privacy, but because I have acid on my face and wish to clean it off." Just before he left, he turned to Amelie and said, "I will be back, and I don't agree to your bargain deal, this little minion changed my mind."
Instead of telling him a last time that I was not Amelie's little minion I decided to let him go. The next few minutes consisted of me and Amelie arguing about Claire being in labour. It finally rested on Amelie asking, "How did you find out?"
"You told Myrnin, Myrnin told Michael, Michael told me. It's kind of like a food chain, just instead of food it's information... An information chain!" I exclaimed.
Then it moved onto a full-blown investigation.
"What were you doing with Michael?"
"I'd been trying to find you."
"Why? You hadn't known that Claire was in labour at that point."
"No, but I thought I should have informed you of something important." I had decided not to tell her of my encounter with Sam, considering she hadn't told me of my baby soon being born and all three of us soon being dead.
"And that something is..?"
"You didn't tell me about Claire, so why should I tell you about Sam?"
"What about Sam?"
Well, I'd put my foot in that one. I was currently leading her back to the point that I had last seen Sam, and she was asking me thousands of god-damn questions that I wasn't in the mood to answer.
Finally we reached a point in the hall of quarrelling vampires that didn't have any individual battles taking place. Turning to my right, I pointed toward the chair in the corner of the room that was covered in dust.
"Sam."
He must have heard Amelie's silent statement, because he turned his head in our direction. His smile made my stomach churn, and worse was the fact that in his hand held a silver stake – and I was betting that the blood at the tip of that stake had once been running through his veins.
I shivered at the thought.