"They thought you had killed one of our own," Amelie said. "Any vampire can, by law, pursue such an offender and claim him for trial. Your actions, defensive or not, sent this legally pursuing group into a blood rage. Everything that followed, including all the human deaths, can be laid directly at your door. Am I correct, Mayor Morrell?"
Richard was reading his file, frowning. Now he looked up, directly at Kyle. His brown eyes were narrowed, and there wasn't any hint of sympathy. "Correct," he said. "If it were only the human deaths, I could argue for a life sentence. With vampire deaths involved, it's out of my hands. You're a native, Kyle. You know better."
Kyle looked as if he might start to cry. Oliver took the photos back, neatly stacked them, and closed that folder, too. "Any defense?" he asked, not as if he really cared.
Kyle's mouth opened, closed, and opened again. "I . . . Look, we didn't know that first dude was a vampire. I mean, we never would have . . . I swear."
"So your defense is that you'd have done the same thing to a human. Which would almost certainly have killed him."
"I--" Kyle clearly didn't know what to say to that. "I just mean we didn't know he was one of you."
"Weak," Oliver said. "And the vampire you did manage to kill, do you claim to not know what he was? Because I think you recognize him very well, since his name appears on the bracelet you wear around your wrist."
Claire took in a slow breath. Kyle had killed his own Protector. She didn't know if there was a law for that, but if there was, the punishment wasn't going to be anything less than gruesome.
Kyle shut up. He looked so pale he might have been a vamp himself.
"Well?" Oliver snapped. "Yes or no, did you recognize your Protector before you beheaded him?"
"I . . . The lights . . . I don't . . . No, I didn't know who it was; I just knew it was a vamp coming after my friends." He gulped. His voice sounded faint and rusty. "I'm sorry."
"Well," Oliver whispered. "I suppose that excuses everything, doesn't it? He was seven hundred and sixty years old. But you're sorry." Oliver shoved his chair back from the table as he stood up, so hard it tipped over and crashed against the floor with a bang. "This is what being soft with the humans gets us, Amelie. You already know my vote. Guilty. I'm done with this nonsense."
"And what about Claire?" Amelie asked quietly. "She's charged with a similar offense."
Oliver was heading for the door, but he hesitated, just a brief step. He didn't look back. "Guilty," he said. "She should have left it to us to police our own. I'd be hypocritical if I said anything different, wouldn't I?"
The security guard let him out, closed the door behind him, and took up that waiting, alert pose again.
Claire was having trouble breathing. Guilty. She'd been defending herself. Defending her friends. And Oliver knew that, and he'd still voted against her.
"Mayor Morrell," Amelie said. "Your vote on Mr. Nemeck."
Richard rose slowly, put his hands flat on the table, and looked at Kyle as he said, "Guilty. I'm sorry, Kyle, but you left me no choice."
"Chief Moses?"
Hannah got up, too. She looked as focused and cold as Amelie. "Kyle," she said. "One question first. Do you swear you really didn't know who you were killing?"
"Yeah, I swear!"
Even Claire could tell that he was lying. He'd known. He'd thought he could get away with it in all the confusion.
Hannah shook her head. "Guilty as hell, I hate to say."
Amelie hesitated, then rose smoothly to her feet. "By unanimous verdict, Kyle Nemeck, you are found guilty of the highest crime of Morganville: the murder of your own Protector. I had sworn that the more barbaric punishments we once practiced would be outlawed, for the sake of harmony with humans, but I see no alternative than to punish you as harshly as you deserve. You will be placed in a cage in the middle of Founder's Square for ten days and nights, so that all may come and read an account of your crime. After that, you will die in the traditional way. By fire."
"No!" Kyle screamed, and threw himself out of his chair, stumbling around in his hobbling chains. "No, you can't do this to me! You can't! No!"
Claire stood up. She wasn't shackled; maybe that was a sign they respected her more, or just weren't afraid of her at all. She didn't know. But she looked directly at Amelie and said, "Don't do this. Please don't do this."
"He's guilty of the worst crime that may be committed, short of attempting to kill me," Amelie said, and Claire had the feeling she was no longer talking to the sometimes-almost-kind person Amelie could become. She was talking to the Founder, or to the long-ago royal princess Amelie had once been. "There are times one cannot afford mercy without showing weakness. Weakness invites worse outrages." She nodded to her guards. "Remove him to the cage."
Claire opened her mouth to protest again, but she saw both Richard and Hannah sending her warning looks. Hannah actually made a "sit down" gesture and mouthed, Don't be stupid.
Claire slowly sank into her chair as Kyle was dragged out of the room. She felt sick and angry, but mostly, she was scared. While the guards were busy, she could have made a run for it, found Shane, done . . . what? Tried to get out of Morganville? She knew better than to even try it. Security was tight, and getting tighter.
Amelie was still watching her, and anyway, Amelie could catch her before she got within touching distance of the door.
"Now to you," Amelie said, as Kyle and the security detail disappeared down the hall, and his screaming was muffled by distance. Another security guard, this one female but dressed in the same black suit and sunglasses, stepped into the room and shut the door behind her.