Myrnin Conwy sighed, readying his most dazzling smile for Amelie. He wasn't exactly sure what he done to incite a summons to her office and so he supposed that erring on the side of caution and assuming that he'd done something wrong was the best way to go.
He stepped through the portal into Amelie's office with a little skip in his step, but his expertly crafted smile fell form his face when he saw the other occupants of the room.
Oliver, Sam, Richard, Hannah, Michael, Shreve and Shame were all there too. Sam, Richard, Hannah and Shreve all occupied a chair in the room, while the rest stood around in varying degrees of rigidity.
"Amelie? What's going on?" Myrnin asked with a frown, absently closing the portal behind him as the members of Amelie's office turned to look at him.
"Bishop has escaped." Amelie announced, cutting right to the chase.
Myrnin noticed the surprised look on the faces of Claire's friends with bemusement, clearly she hadn't told them yet. Although, speaking of Claire…
"Where is Claire?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest and regarding Amelie with a frown.
"At the university." Michael offered before any of the others could.
"She could be a target." Myrnin pointed out after a pause, looking at Amelie pointedly.
Amelie nodded, pressing a button on her desk that connected her to her assistant. "Bizzie, please contact the university and inform them that I require Claire Danvers here as a matter of urgency."
"Right away, Ma'am." Bizzie replied over the system.
"How did this happen?" Myrnin asked, rubbing his hand over his brow.
"We believe that-"
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but the university is closed due to a power outage." Bizzie interrupted.
"Understood, thank you, Bizzie." Amelie replied shortly, looking up at the rest of the room as she removed her hand from the intercom button. "One of you contact her, now. Claire is not a player we can afford to lose to Bishop, for all we know he already has her."
Shame and Shreve already had their peculiar little phones out, Myrnin really hated those infernal devices, but Claire told him it was useful and he supposed he could kind of maybe see why, but to him they were mostly just confusing.
He didn't really bother to pay any attention to which one of them called little Claire, but he did notice when both of their calls were refused and Michael took his phone out to try.
The young vampire sighed and took his phone away from his ear moment later, shaking his head slightly.
"Maybe Bishop has her already?" Shreve suggested, biting her nails. "She can't still be mad, can she?"
Myrnin raised a confused eyebrow, noticing similar expressions on the faces of the others in the room. Although, Michael hung his head, looking slightly regretful.
"Claire and I got into an argument last night," Shame volunteered the information finally, "Eve and Michael sided with me." He dared any of us in the room to challenge him.
Sam's eyebrows virtually shot into his hairline and he glared at his blonde grandson, clearly unhappy with hearing how he had treated Claire last night. Michael avoided his grandfathers, well, anyone's gaze really, when an idea suddenly made itself known to Myrnin.
He began patting himself down, earning himself some rather bemused and confused looks, but he was sure that these pants had pockets, and in his pockets he was sure that he must have…
"Aha!" He pronounced, pulling out his dratted phone and navigating his way through menus to call Claire.
"Hey, Myrnin, what's up?"
"Whe- be quiet would you?" Myrnin snapped at the oh-so-annoying Glass House residents when they expressed their bewilderment at Claire answering her phone for him and not them. "Claire, where are you?" He tried again, trying to channel some normalcy into his voice although he really was rather worried, if Bishop hadn't gotten to her yet then he could be anywhere.
"Home," Claire replied rather chirpily, accompanied by a soft thud through the phone and a worried gasp from Myrnin, "power's out at the university so classes are cancelled for the day, and don't even start on how stupid it is that everything is done electronically, its so much easier, Myr."
"You're home now? At the Glass House?" Myrnin probed, simultaneously trying to open the portal to the house and realising he was locked out.
Claire laughed, a lovely, light, tinkling sound, although slightly muffled by some other rustling nose. "That's what I said, Myrnin, honestly, sometimes I could swear you never listen to a-"
"Claire, you have to listen to me." Myrnin interrupted, not at all worried that he was proving her point.
"I swear, if this is just because Bob's gone missing again-"
"You need to get out of that house, Claire."
"What are you on about?" Claire laughed again, clearly not sensing that he was being serious.
"Get out of the house, Claire!" Myrnin yelled, frustrated with her; Bishop had to be in that house he was sure of it, why else would the portal be locked? But how would he have gained access to the system in order to lock him out?
"I was so hoping he would hurry up."
Myrnin, Amelie, Oliver and Sam froze when they heard Bishop's smooth voice come through the phone, Myrnin could almost swear that his blood actually ran cold, if that wasn't completely against all known laws of Biology.
A scream tore out of Claire's throat and Myrnin grimaced as the sound pierced his sensitive ear, moving the stupid device away.
"I just want to talk to you, darling, you're hurting my feelings you know."
"You don't have feelings." Claire spat back, making Myrnin smile slightly, although insulting vampires was generally a bad idea, she had fight in her, she'd need it.
"Your little pet won't be able to save you this time, Claire." Did he mean Myrnin? He wasn't Claire's pet…was he?
Focus, Myrnin!
Right, focus, the portal still wouldn't open; he could feel Amelie trying to get through as well, but maybe he could… no, no, that's quite useless, anything he did would take far too long, Bishop could kill Claire in an instant, which did make him wonder what exactly he wanted.
"What do you want?" Claire asked, clearly wondering exactly the same as Myrnin.
"I'm going to punish them for what they did to me." The words sent another chill through Myrnin, Claire had no hope.
"They'll kill you." Claire breathed. "You know they will."
"They'll have to find me first." Irritatingly, Bishop was right. The second he left the Glass House, he would be nearly impossible to trace, he knew that all too well.
Myrnin and Amelie locked eyes, both of them having come to the same conclusion, there was nothing they could do to help Claire now. It was midday, there was no way they could get to the house quickly enough to stop him.
Claire was running again, he could hear her feet pounding on the floor, but not for long, they stopped as suddenly as they had started.
"You're coming with me, little girl."
"Claire?" Myrnin asked. "Claire, you're going to be alright!"
He could hear her yelling, the words muffled and misshapen by something; he could hear her thrashing around, trying to get free. And then suddenly everything got even quieter, he heard several soft thuds and realised that she must have dropped the phone. Myrnin could hear her struggling go quieter, until it was almost non-existent.
"That's it, sleep."
"Let her go, Bishop, your fight isn't with her." Myrnin demanded, knowing that Bishop would be able to hear him through the abandoned phone.
"You're quite right," Bishop conceded, his voice sounding far away for a few long moments until he picked up Claire's phone, "but she has spunk, I like her. In fact, I think I'll keep her around for a while."
"Bishop-" Any protests that Myrnin had were cut off as the call ended.
"Myrnin, we need-"
"I know!" Myrnin cut Amelie off, his brow creasing as he tried desperately to get the portal to open to the Glass House. After a few long, tedious moments, it finally did, and Myrnin darted through it in an instant.
He couldn't hear anything, they were already gone. Claire's rucksack lay, abandoned and forgotten on the couch, her phone was in pieces at the top of the staircase. They were too late.
"What did he mean, he wants to keep her around for a while?" Michael asked hesitantly, probably the only piece of the conversation he'd managed to pick up on.
"I don't think we really want to find out." Oliver sighed, standing from where he'd crouched to examine the remains of Claire's phone.
"I agree." Amelie sighed. "We need to find them, now."