Chapter 6:
Next chapter of twistedness and darkness... Enjoy! Also, things have been changed slightly from the books!
I don't own anything!
Claire's POV:
"Where the hell can he be?" I yell, pacing up and down the living room.
"With his father," Michael shrugs, pacing in the opposite direction.
"Because you told him that Brandon bit him," Eve continues, standing in the corner because Michael and I are taking up all the room pacing.
"Jeez, Claire, I thought you said you wanted to keep it from him so that he didn't react like that?" Michael says, shaking his head. He turns around and throws a huge punch into the wall, the house shaking in response.
"No need to destroy the house," I reply, my voice shaking slightly. "And did I? I... I just thought that it'd be best that he knew about it, now, rather than later because then he'd get even madder," I continue, a tear escaping down my cheek. Michael's angry expression relents slightly and he moves over to give me a hug.
"To be honest, I agree with it," Michael whispers into my ear. However, Eve doesn't say anything, simply walks out of the room in a stony silence. "Ignore her, Claire, she's just mad because she didn't protect you from this happening," he soothes me, as my tears turn into full sobs.
"B-but she couldn't have done anything: she wasn't there and... And I can't believe that Shane's gone..." I wail, Michael pulling me onto the sofa.
We wait for Shane to come back, Michael comforting me as we do.
He doesn't come back...
OoOo
"Hello?" I say into the phone, sleep flooding my tone.
"Claire, if you want to save Shane, you'd best come to City Hall now," an unknown voice says down the phone. I know who it is, but my brain is being too slow for me to realise.
"Who is this?" I ask groggily.
"Sam Glass, Michael's Grandfather," he reminds me, sounding stressed and worried.
Then it hits me; what's up with Shane? What has he done?
"Sam, what's wrong with Shane?" I ask, sitting upright in shock. I move out of bed and down into the living room, where Michael ceases playing the guitar in shock of seeing me, before he answers.
"He's been caught with Brandon's body," he confesses. NO! I told him not to do anything; he's gone and killed Brandon, the one who bit me. NO! He's going to be arrested and murdered, all because of me! "Hans and Gretchen are on their way over, but I decided to give you a heads up to get ready. Amelie never has been happy with people dressed haphazardly - even in the middle of the night," towards the end his voice turns soft and longing, but I don't care. Shane is in danger and two violent sounding vampires are coming to pick me up; this cannot be good.
"Thanks Sam... I gotta go," I say, hanging up before he could answer. Michael grabs my shoulders and holds me up as I suddenly begin to fall, wails of hysterical worry coming out of my mouth.
"Claire, what's happened?" he asks, worry and panic in his voice.
"Shane... Shane has been found with Brandon's body," I whisper, that being the only information that I know. "Michael... He's going to die, I know he is!" I continue, Michael hugging me in sympathy.
"Claire, it's going to be fine: go and get ready and I'll hold them off for a little while," he says, as we suddenly hear a car. I nod before he continues: "Well, they can't get in anyway until I invite them in."
I rush up the stairs, elevated speed caused by the unequivocal worry for Shane. I wrench open my wardrobe and randomly select a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, debating whether or not to wake up Eve. She isn't awake, so why wake her? She should be allowed to have a few more hours of not knowing, something I wish I have.
"Claire," Michael calls only thirty seconds later, and I know I have to go with these unfortunately named vampires. I wipe some of the tears away from my face, only for them to be replaced by more... I give up wiping them away, as my eyes overflow continually as I walk down the stairs. "You dare hurt her and I'll make sure Amelie knows," Michael threatens the two vampires who hover over the doorway, unable to enter with the lack of permission.
"Amelie?" the vampire I take to be Gretchen (as she's female) snorts before they both laugh. "Amelie, you silly boy, isn't going to be bothered about the death of a little human child, is she? No, I thought not.."
"If you want to say that inside the house, I'm sure that you won't be alive much longer," Michael hisses, making both vampires suddenly cease in their laughter.
"Whatever," Gretchen rolls her eyes before motioning for me. "You, girl, come with us if you want to see your boyfriend again," she clicks her tongue and I nod. Michael gives me a quick hug as I pass from the safety of the Glass House into the realms of Hans and Gretchen.
"Come with us," Hans says, pulling me none too softly by the arm in the direction of their huge police cruiser. Tinted so darkly that you cannot see inside, it is a monster that takes up the majority of the road, in the middle of which it is haphazardly parked.
"Where's Shane? What's happened?" I ask shrilly, wanting to know what's going on.
"All in good time, little Claire," Hans laughs as he pulls away from the house with a huge screeching of the tires. It's pitch black in the back and all I can think about is Shane and his face, how it was before he left me...
OoOo
"Out you get," Gretchen's squeaky voice orders me as she opens the door. She waits for me to get out before frog marching me through a dimly lit (therefore for vampires' personal use) underground car park, where I have never been before. She pulls me through some doors and into a lift, where she presses the fourth floor button - where am I? Where is she taking me? What's happened to Shane?
The doors open with a ping and I instantly realise that I must be in County Hall. This is the only building in town that is this high - it was built to be higher than any other... Well, I guess Amelie isn't exactly going to be living in a hole... Yet where she lives, I do not know.
"This way," Gretchen orders me, pointing towards a set of ornately designed doors, which are open. Babbling voices greet me, making my head spin as I try to find the voice of my loved one, the voice of my Shane.
"Shane," I breathe his name in shock, stopping still from shock in the doorway. He's being held back by two vampires, as he fights to get free. He's shouting, but I can't hear any words: I can see his mouth moving furiously, his eyes frantic, fighting desperately to get free but unable to. I cannot focus on anything but him: he's here and it's all my fault...
Oliver's POV:
Yes! This is exactly what I wanted! This wasn't a particularly important mission, but it has proven that Claire is entirely under my control: once she has experienced the kiss by me, she does everything I want. She is truly mine: if I wanted her to kill Eve or... No, I mustn't think in such rude ways. Amelie is here and my expression could give me away: I cannot allow this power I have over Claire, through the drugged drinks and compulsion, to be taken from me.
And now I get to punish an innocent human, whose Father committed this crime! Yet who is going to believe that vampire hater Shane Collins is innocent? I know I most certainly don't, and Amelie must (even if she doesn't believe it) take the death option for the death of one of our kind; if not, she knows she could loose so many more followers on her side!
"Shane Collins, you are here as you were found with the body of Brandon, one of the older vampires in town," I sneer, before Amelie shoots me a degradatory look.
"I believe that I am the Founder of the town, not you, Oliver, so I shall be chairing this inquisition," Amelie states coldly: I'm getting under her skin! However, the way that I am doing it, in the future at least, will be done in a way that she cannot link it to me. I will be having Claire wreak havoc on this town in unimaginable ways, causing Amelie stress and concern that will weaken her. I hope she introduces Claire to Myrnin soon, which she will do if she truly believes that there is a disease...
... I'll have so much fun!
But back to the fun right now; Amelie is currently interrogating Shane, whilst his beloved girl stands in the doorway, frozen. Finally, bored, Gretchen drags her into the room and forces her to listen to the charge being brought against her boyfriend.
"It wasn't him, it was his Father!" she suddenly screeches, causing Amelie to wince slightly with the high-pitchedness of the screech.
"If I ever wanted your input, I would have asked for it," Amelie says, sounding extremely tetchy with Claire. I smile widely at this, knowing that the irritation will only, in the long run, bring Claire closer to Amelie.
I used to feel something for Amelie. We lived in close proximity in England for hundreds of years, until I acted stupidly. Too young, I tried to steal her power but she thwarted me at the last moment. I was exiled and only returned to Morganville last year, on my quest for the book I knew Amelie had. There was a small section of my heart that ached for her, but that was soon eradicated once I realised she had moved on and now was inflicting her distance and carefully controlled movements on some unfortunate soul. I never intended to stay in Morganville - I wanted to get the book and to leave - but when she said she had 'lost' it (a likely story), I decided that to stay would be to get the book. If I could raise a large enough army on my side, I could remove her from power and instate myself as the top of the food chain in the town. I may be not strong enough to fight her head on to win, but who would suspect little Claire Danvers to be such a murderer?
"Oliver, what is your vote?" she asks me, interrupting my thought process. I smile very slightly before settling on a blank expression as Claire turns to look at me. If I want her to trust me, to be more in line with me, so it is easier for her to be taken over by me, I need to appear as if I am deliberating over guilty or not.
Amelie has already voted guilty, the weak Mayor Morrell has done the same, so this is simply a courteously vote.
"I abstain from voting," I decide, my decision making every head in the room turn to me in shock. "I don't have the time: I have to return to my cafe before someone decides to steal the expresso machine, as they almost did last month. You don't need me. Shane Collins has already been found guilty; I see no point in tarring my name in this town by voting also," I continue, explaining my (fake) reasons. Claire looks at me in shock, as if she wants something from me but then looks away as she notices my returning of the attention.
Amelie is shell-shocked; this is the expression I want to be seeing on her face so much more often and will be, with Claire's wondrous assistance. She cannot explain why I am not voting, just continues to stare at me, her eyes narrowed. I can almost see the question in her head: why is he doing this? Why is the most anti-human rights vampire in town not voting to send this boy to death?
Finally, after a long pause, she relaxes and refocuses on Shane, looking rather desolate. She doesn't want to have to do this: but hopefully making her do things she doesn't want to continually will mean that she is weakened further - after all, to do something you don't want to takes a great deal of energy. The first time Claire's smooth lips pressed to mine, the amount of energy I used (I didn't particularly want to kiss a human, did I?) was astronomical... If Claire makes Amelie have to do things like this more often, she will be extremely weakened.
It would be, I believe, both good and bad for me if Claire was offered Protection by Amelie. She would be closer to her, so she could kill her easier... But Amelie may, if she offers Body and Soul contractual agreements, be able to tell Claire is under my control. I need to get there first...
"Shane Collins, I hereby find you guilty of murder in the first degree," Amelie sighs, causing Claire to scream out. Shane fights back and I have to hold in a smile as I pass Claire, the way that she's even begging me to help. She's truly under the belief that I am the good one in the situation, not the perpetrator of it. "Punishment will be display in the cages in Founders Square for two days and two nights. On the second night you will be placed within a ring of fire and will perish in response for your crime. That is all, gentlemen," she gives the punishment.
I turn back to look at the mayhem in the room: Claire, all but collapsed on the floor; Amelie, her head dipped slightly in shame for what she has done; Shane, fighting to get out of the binds he is being dragged away in, to get to Claire.
As I walk down the corridor towards the lift to take me to the car park for my car, I smile widely, knowing that my plan is already coming together.
On the way back to Common Grounds, I stop for a snack (i.e., one of the homeless idiots just waiting to be bitten) and savour the sweet taste of the blood in my mouth. That, mixed with the victory in me, almost tastes as good as Claire... Almost.
I deserve the snack: after all, it's been a good day's work!
Whoa, MAJOR prick action here...
...something interesting next chapter, me thinks.
Go ahead and press the review button, find out the interesting thing :P
You know you want to...
Hehehe... I'm off to Ireland now, so lots of reviews would be nice!
Vicky xx