Chapter 16:
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Claire's POV:
This is from the official paper, the one which college students who are unbeknownst living amongst vampires read.
Last night, there was an unfortunate accident at the City Hall. Although police are yet to confirm it, it is believed to have been started due to a faulty gas pipe, killing 21 and seriously injuring 45 others…
I can't read on anymore. This is just lies, every part besides the death toll and the injured. Oliver and I are the only ones, besides Amelie and her people I guess, who definitely haven't been injured whatsoever because we were outside… any weakness I feel is because I donated my blood to Michael, so that he wouldn't be injured, so that I would have someone to come home with me. But nobody did.
I must have passed out because I woke up on the sofa, a blanket tucked around me, Sam having left me a note saying to call him if I felt dizzy whatsoever. When I got up, it turned out he had cooked me breakfast and left it on a low heat so that it wouldn't be charred when I ate it – he is actually a damned good cook! But… where is Michael? I know he is probably still injured, that the blood I gave him won't have been enough, but I just want to speak to him.
So I got up and ate the breakfast before picking the two papers up from the porch. And now, I'm about to turn to the vampire one, the one that tells the truth about everything and only certified definite knowers get the paper: I think it's more of a vampire paper, actually, and this is Michael's copy, but I don't care. I want to know what is definitely going on.
Last night, somebody blew up City Hall with a bomb, styled exactly like one of the bombs released in Northern Ireland throughout the troubles. Forensics experts have identified the epicentre of the explosion to have been near the door, thus impacting our people's chance of escape and the rescue effort.
We have an enemy living within this town. Somebody knew that there would be a party of nearly every vampire in the town here, last night, and they used that knowledge to their advantage. They attempted to kill us all, and they got 18 of us, also killing three notable humans: Mayor Morrell, Richard Morrell, Chief of Police, and Hannah Moses.
There has been a vigilante effort here to dispose of our vampires, but let the perpetrator be warned: we will find you. The Founder is most displeased, to say this lightly, having tended to the injured at the Council Building.
Eighteen of our vampires are dead, with 40 others whose injuries range from light to life threatening. Let us remember these souls who were silenced for doing no wrong.
Oh my god. The vampires are seriously pissed… but a bomb? I mean, I suspected that, but seriously knowing that this has happened… I never thought that bombs would be something I would have to worry about in Morganville; I thought the only threat would be the vampires. But evidently there is a human on the loose who wants to destroy every vampire, or most likely Amelie. They just didn't know that she left early… they killed Richard. Richard is dead – the detective told me that he had been rushed to hospital but… but I never expected he would die. And now we have no mayor, no chief of police, and no whatever Hannah Moses was. I never met her before but it is a travesty that I never will get to meet her, now that she has perished in a bomb not intended for her.
A noise in the living room makes me turn back through there in fear, stopping only to grab the anti-vampire weapons bag incase it is someone dangerous, and I stop still in shock at who it is.
Amelie.
She is standing in the centre of the living room and staring in my direction with an approximation of an amused expression on her face, her eyes locked on the bag. I shove it onto the floor, knowing it would not be a good idea to use the contents of the bag on her, especially when such events have happened in correlation with her and 'her people'. I may still despise her for sentencing Shane to death, but seeing how she cared for Sam and Michael yesterday sort of changed my opinion of her slightly.
"Claire," she states my name without any infliction of emotion in her voice, her perfect face not moving a centimetre as she recognises my existence.
"Ma'am," I reply, not knowing how else to address her, even though I have spoken with her all but two or three times. "What… what are you doing here?" I ask the question I have to ask, wanting to know what reason she has for coming here to see me, when it is quite obvious that I am the only one in.
"I simply wished to confirm that you hadn't died after giving so much blood for your first time last night," she replies coolly, but I get the feeling that that isn't it. There is something to her tone, the slightly strange way she is looking at me that makes me feel as if she is scrutinising everything about me.
"I'm fine – Sam left breakfast for me and I only feel a little woozy when I run or stand up fast," I acknowledge the speed at which I got through here upon hearing an intruder in the house.
She smiles, albeit extremely briefly, and nods, evidently unsure what else to say in terms of my well being. "Very well. I also require to inform you that classes begin today, on your new timetable which Oliver so very kindly showed me earlier. If you have had time to look, you will see that you have no classes today but only English Literature this evening, with Samuel. I implore you to be careful at this class, for although you will be protected by Samuel, he cannot always be with you, when he has to teach," she explains her true purpose for being here: informing me that classes start today, even though there has been a tonne of destruction last night.
"How am I meant to get there?" I ask her and she shrugs her petite shoulders, evidently not bothered at all.
"I believe Samuel shall be collecting you and bringing you back, since Michael is still indisposed," she responds as if she doesn't care – something which I suppose is actually the truth. "I cannot say how long it will be until Michael is home, but I assume you shall be capable to run the house in his absence?" she seems to have a little concern in her voice, though it seems a little false, as if she needs to 'check up' on me since Oliver is… well, I have absolutely no idea what he is doing and I don't care. He is only my Protector, and since I still can't remember anything about that, it's a little sketchy in my mind.
"I will be fine, I'm sure," I respond with a smile and she nods, backing away towards the door.
"Lock your doors and don't answer if anyone knocks; people are angry about the bomb and they will take it out on anyone, particularly the weak and defenceless," she basically insults me as she doesn't even attempt to conceal it. This is what irritates me about her, and god knows how many others: the way that they think that, just because they are vampires, they have the right to insult us.
"Already done," I respond in a harsh tone – harsh to be speaking to Amelie in, anyway. Her eyebrows raise but she doesn't comment, simply walks out of the portal and back to wherever she was, probably where Michael is as well.
I feel lonely and desolate, as if there is nobody in the world who wants to spend time with me. At the moment, I don't blame them: everyone I have spent even more than a minute or two right now seem to be unconscious, missing, or dead.
But at least there is something to keep me going: school. It's the one thing that means that I don't have to go entirely crazy, just waiting for someone to come home. After all, I'm the only one here and I need one of my friends, my boyfriend, to come home soon… otherwise, I may go crazy.
"Sam?" I dial his number and question the voice on the other end of the line, even though it is most definitely Sam. I just want to give him a chance to recognise who it is.
"Claire, is that you?" he asks, and I realise that the line isn't particularly good. I'm ringing off the home phone but I hear crackling so he must be someplace where it isn't very good signal. Maybe a devil's lair or something… but no, because that's what Oliver's office is called, since the devil (hello, he tried to kill us) lives there the majority of the time.
"Yeah, it's me," I confirm my identity and he laughs slightly, but it seems forced – he must be in the thick of the wounded or something. That's not a surprise: he seems as if he would care for anyone who is injured and if Amelie is there, of course he is going to be stalking her… even though she just came here, so I don't know if she is there anymore, but still!
"What's up? Do you need a lift tonight to class or something?" he seems to guess my reason for calling before another thought hits him. "Oh, are you ok? You're not dizzy or anything, are you?" he reverts back to thinking about the note he left earlier, evident worry in his tone for me. That's so nice: he barely knows me and he is concerned for me.
"No, no, I'm fine – honestly!" I protest my state of health to be fully fine, settling down in one of the chairs in the living room as I talk. "I was just, erm, wondering if you would mind taking me and stuff to school tonight? As I don't really have any other way of getting there… speaking of that, how is Michael?" I ask him about Michael, hoping to god that he is alright because if he isn't, I'm going to be alone in his house. Eve could never wake up and Shane… I haven't a fricking clue where Shane is.
"He'll be home in a couple of days; he's just recuperating fully before coming back to the house," he soothes me, his tone evidently levelled to just the right level of calmness in order to make me relax. "As for a lift, sure thing. Class starts at like 2:30am so I'll get you at 1:45, as I need to set up," he decides – I'm not going to complain because otherwise I can't get to one of the classes I chose to go to. I can't give Oliver any chance to dispose of me because I failed on one of the clauses in the contract – one of them was to continue going to school, so I need to go.
"Sure, see you then," I say, trying to sound as cheery as possible but failing: what have I got to be cheery for? Everyone I know is pretty much indisposed everywhere I go and it isn't as if I have something to do now, is it? I have no classes the same, pretty much, as every class I am in, according to this timetable, is at a level which is three years ahead of what I was doing even last week.
"Claire, I haven't got anything to do after about 4pm, so if you want, I can come over and just watch TV with you or something?" he suggests, evidently trying to help me out by not letting me be alone. But can I drag him away from his plans and stuff to just sit with me?
"That'd be great, thanks," I whisper, being selfish enough to take his offer because I just can't be alone anymore.
"See you at 4pm then," he says, sounding distracted. "Look, Claire, I gotta go so I'll see you later."
"Bye," I say softly, placing the phone back in the holder as I can tell he has already hung up.
I look at the clock and realise it is barely 11am. So what am I supposed to do for the next four and a bit hours?
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