Chapter 18:

Merci for the reviews, guys :)

I don't own anything - a fact that gets me down sometimes.

People requested more of Oliver's POV so here you are, an entire chapter in his POV!

Oliver's POV:

I have to get her here today, to begin the next stage of the plan. This is the stage which I, perhaps, may slightly regret… but not really. It is only a little qualm I have with such a mass murder, especially with the intended targets.

I sit down in the chair in my office and contemplate as to whether or not I should ring right now, or allow her a slight lie in – I believe that that is what they call them nowadays – especially since she had her first night class last night. I wonder whether or not she is now regretting deciding taking a night class, if she has survived the night. I suppose Sam will have protected her if anything went down, so to speak, but I doubt that she would have enjoyed it if she was being attacked. Something tells me that the girl is opinionated to the point of being too opinionated: why else would Monica have chosen her to pick on at the university?

It's past ten am now, so she has had long enough to sleep. After all, I feel nothing for her, nothing whatsoever, so why should I care whether or not she has had enough sleep? I feel nothing whatsoever, I don't!

Yet something in me wants to contest this, to make me realise something that is in my heart. It wants me to admit something; it wants me to admit that when I kiss her, it is more than just business. I shall not do that for… if I do, then I jeopardize the plan I have had in action for months. If it was not for Claire coming to town, I would still be planning it; you see, if such a worthy candidate had not been found, I was going to have to use Eve. Whilst she may have been a good one for the whole 'anti vampires' thing, it would nowhere near have worked as well… since half of what I have done has revolved around specifics of Claire, not Eve.

I feel as if I wish to rip something in half, preferably a human; I cannot focus on anything without this child here. It's as if I need her to be here to be able to focus on the matter at hand.

And that isn't what I want.

I reach out and pick up the landline, dialling her mobile number, the one I memorised the second I found it out – not just because of my vampire memory but because I wanted to know it.

An alert voice answers – much more alert than I would have thought a night student would be at this time – and startles me. "Hello?"

Evidently, she has not had the forward thinking to programme my name into her phone… or she has and simply is inquiring what I want.

"Claire, I require you to come down in a short while," I say, thinking half an hour shall be adequate: after all, I need to clear away all of the plans I have made so she doesn't see them in her regular state and escape before I can control her.

"Five minutes?" she suggests – what? I suppose she must have already been on her way here… but her voice sounds so eager, as if she wants to see me. How quaint… and strange. Very strange indeed.

I look around at the mass of plans and remember I have vampire speed – and an ancient vampire's speed at that – so it is plenty of time. "Five minutes, certainly. But do knock before you enter, Claire, I am wrapping up important dealings," I caution her, being literal in my meaning of 'wrapping up'.

"Sure thing, see ya soon!" she, once again, sounds too chipper to be talking to me. But I throw the phone down on the jack, not wanting to hear her voice anymore. It's getting too hard to do this… but I must. This town is more important to me than any individual and that shall never change, I swear. I cannot loose sight of that end goal, the chance to have my name as the head of this town whilst the mutilated corpse of Amelie is paraded around to show my power.

As soon as I put the phone down, I stand up and move across the room, preparing to deal with all the plans I have. As I pack them away, snippets of my writing stand out at me:

"bring Claire under my control by any means possible"

"have Shane locked away and do not let him go"

"use gas to kill many in the school"

"kill someone close to Amelie"

"Kill Amelie"

The main stages of my plan, barring the bomb and shooting Eve, are here, the next stage still a slight thorn in my side. After all, the person to kill is a hard one right now for some people… for even under my control there may be a limit which Claire reaches before I have to… go to certain new extremes to keep her under my control.

"bring the town under my control from beneath, quietly so that Amelie doesn't suspect anything, so that when Claire kills Amelie, the town follow me rather than their dead Founder… true, there may be a little resistance from some of her more 'hardcore' fans, but I will have the town"

I read things as I go, realising that I have a great chance of getting this. Claire knows nothing is wrong and with the fact that none of her little friendies are in the house – Michael's injuries were bonuses I had not factored in – means that she cannot ask anyone if she does believe something is wrong. The only one she could ask would be Sam but I doubt she did last night; she would have been entirely focused on learning, I think. But I can ask her when she is under my control because, well, I need to make sure she hasn't let something slip.

By the time I hear the knock at the door, I am sitting down in my chair and looking as if I haven't been doing anything since I waited for her to come. Everything in the office is pitch perfect; it looks as if there hasn't been an evil controller in here (me) plotting to overthrow Amelie from the town with the use of a poor, defenceless girl.

"Come in, Claire," I call loudly enough for her to hear. I can recognise the beating of her heart, can recognise the scent of her blood from the luscious taste I managed to taste at the beginning of this.

The door opens and she steps in hesitantly, evidently unsure as to why she is here. I know that I need her to tell me about her classes whilst she is still 'normal' so that if someone asks her, or she manages to overthrow my influence which is something I am always fearful of, she has a reason for coming here.

"Sit down," I motion to the chair in front of me and she nods, no emotion crossing her face. Her bag is filled with school books but she doesn't have any classes till this afternoon; perhaps she was going out to enjoy the scenery for this morning even though it was scheduled for her to recover from her class. "So, Claire, tell me about the class of last night. Are you regretting taking a night class?" I ask her with an evil grin, pressing my fingertips together and pointing my hands at her.

She shakes her head and smiles for the first time. "No, it's a really good class," she surprises me by saying, not even a little upset about being in a vampire class as the only human. "I mean… even though it's with vampires, Sam is the best teacher I have ever had; he has made English seem interesting to me. It was a bit weird with some of the vampires I have seen trying to attack me once but they didn't dare to do anything on the school premises or with Sam there," she continues, entirely positive about it.

"So you learnt lots?" I confirm, stalling for time. I didn't realise she would be so positive and happy about having been to her first night class – ahead of her other classes with humans in.

She brightens greatly and opens her mouth to talk before shutting it again, the brightness dimming in her eyes. She knows something that she isn't allowed to tell me; all that indicates to me is that Sam told her something Amelie told him but that she told him not to tell Claire, therefore myself. I can ask her this when she is under my control.

"Yeah, I learned loads," she confirms, her voice weak and not showing her full emotion.

"Good, I am glad," I say, standing up and walking around towards her. I, with the power of my mind, seem to force her head up to look at me, the height difference between her sitting and me standing almost comical. But her eyes connect with mine and I throw out the most power I have ever done before to control her, wanting her entirely under my reach, my influence.

She buckles under my control, as if she is fighting the control, but I grab her arms and pull her to me, pressing my lips to hers. Naturally, since she is still herself, she fights me off but doesn't manage to budge me one inch.

I feel the heat from her body spreading through me as my hands grip her shoulders tightly, forcing her against me. As she comes under my control, she relaxes against me, no longer fighting me but just embracing the fact that she is enjoying my kissing her. Her lips kiss me back and ignite a beast inside of me, one that wants her and only her – the feelings I have for her erupt and force me to act without thinking.

I force her mouth open and kiss her further, spurred on by her slight moan of delight. Somehow, she ends up with her back against the wall and she leans into me, her hands roaming my chest. She kisses me back harder, smiling as she does so, and her leg manages to wrap itself around her waist. Her pulse is fast, erratic, and it drives me mad, wanting her more than ever.

I rip my lips from hers, knowing she has to breathe, and kiss her neck, the desire to bite her intoxicating. I want to rip into her skin, to take some of the vitality in her veins, to taste her blood in my mouth. I want her blood now; I have used so much energy getting her under my control so greatly that I feel as if I haven't fed in months.

Yet I cannot. If I do, I will have no way of explaining the bite mark: Brandon, the one who 'bit' her last time, is dead and why would anyone else bite the girl under my Protection? I cannot bite her but I want to so much… it's driving me mental.

Her touch on my skin increases my lack of control and I almost take things too far, my hand on her shoulder and teasing off—no, no, NO! I can't do this.

So, with a ferocious snarl, I suddenly rip myself away from her besides to take her hand and pull her back to the chair. She seems disappointed that I have left her but she doesn't say a single word, still utterly under my control. If I told her to go jump under a bus (not that there are any in Morganville) she would do right now.

"Claire, what did Sam tell you?" I ask her gently, refastening the buttons she undid sometime. I look right into her eyes and she contemplates answering. "Claire, what was it that he told you that he told you not to tell me?" I continue, realising that he probably told her a lot yesterday and that my original question wasn't specific enough.

She nods, understanding now and stands up. "I need to show you… it's this portal system that means you can get from one place to another without going outside – the Founder Houses, Common Grounds and other main places in Morganville," she says: WHAT? There is a system that means people can get to different places through a door… I suppose that it is Amelie with Myrnin who has made this, Myrnin has created it the daft bugger. He is 'suffering from this disease' and has created some portal system and I am not allowed to know of it?

"Show me," I order sharply, standing up and moving across the room to stand behind her. She nods and waves a hand theatrically, a door suddenly appearing: it is old fashioned and entirely Myrnin-like; he is the one who created it.

She opens the door and reveals the inside of the Glass House: something which ought to be impossible because of the geographical distance between them. It isn't possible but… it is… it's here and… Amelie doesn't know that we know about this. We, I, can use this to the advantage. It is possible that-

"Is it linked to the school?" I ask urgently and she nods: YES! This is perfect. "Good, now thank you Claire… come and sit down whilst I give you my instructions," I instruct, moving back to sit down. This is an unexpected bonus, to have the portal and it will make the plan so much easier.

"Yes, Oliver?" she seems to have more control over her speech which is strange but perhaps… oh, I don't know how far this mind control works but maybe… maybe she is falling for me and it is more choosing to do this rather than being forced.

So much of me wants this to be the truth but so much doesn't…

"Look over there," I instruct, directing her gaze to the fifteen gas canisters in the corner of the room. "I want you to set these up in the air conditioning system in the schools, primarily in the primary school. I want you to set them up to go off in the assembly halls to go off at a peak level of concentration at 9am tomorrow morning," I pause for a moment. She does not say a single word in this time, just continues to stare at the cylinders in the far corner.

"I want you to kill children in Morganville Primary and Secondary School."

Thrilling?

This is the next twist, incase it wasn't obvious!

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Vicky xx