"You're taking weapons," Shane said.
"Just what we can conceal," Michael said. "If we go in there with crossbows, Amelie will kill us all just for doing it. She'll overlook personal defense. Not armed assault."
Claire lifted her backpack. People were so used to seeing it on her that it didn't matter what she carried inside. She knew Michael had stakes on him. It would have to be enough. "I'll call you if it's okay," Claire promised, and kissed Shane quickly. He grabbed her hand when she tried to leave the car, and pulled her back for another kiss, a longer one. He didn't want to let go, and neither did she, but he finally sighed and nodded, and she opened the back door.
"Hey, Mikey? You get her hurt and I'll end you."
"You let anything happen to Eve and I'll do the same," Michael said. He'd just finished kissing Eve, too. "While you're at it, don't get yourself killed, either, bro."
"Ditto. And don't kiss me." Claire cocked her head at him, exasperated. "Seriously, Shane? Ditto? That's the best you can do?"
Shane and Michael exchanged identical looks and shrugs. Guys.
"Let me show you idiots how it's done," Eve said, and hugged Claire fiercely. She kissed her on the cheek. "I love you, CB. Please take care of yourself, okay?"
"I love you, too," Claire said, and suddenly her throat felt tight and her eyes burned with tears. "I really do."
Shane and Michael watched them with identical expressions of blank bemusement, and finally Shane said, "So basically, it's what I said. Ditto."
Michael grinned and headed for the elevator that would take them up to the Elders' Council level. "Coming?"
Claire picked up her heavy backpack and ran to join him.
The elevator was empty and cool, the metal gleaming as if someone had just finished polishing it. Michael pressed the button and looked down at her. "You okay?"
"Fine."
"Your heart's beating really fast."
"Gee, thanks. That's very comforting that you can hear it."
He smiled, and it was the old Michael, the one she'd first met before all the vamp stuff. "Yeah, I know it is. Sorry. Just stay behind me if there's trouble."
"You sound like Shane."
"Well, he did say he'd kill me if I got you hurt. I'm just looking after my own neck."
"Liar."
He ruffled her hair, like an annoying big brother, and stepped in front of her as the elevator dinged to a stop, and the doors slid open. She couldn't see anything, but evidently the coast was clear, because Michael stepped out and walked down the hallway.
"There's usually a guard there," Claire said, peeking around him at the double doors of the council chamber.
"When they're meeting," Michael agreed. "No reason to guard an empty room. It's this way."
He turned at a T intersection and went right down another identical hallway, all paneling and marble floors and steadily burning dim lights. It still reminded Claire of a funeral home. No sounds in the building except for the muted sighing of central air. The air was cool, verging on cold. All the doors were unmarked, at least to human eyes.
"Up there," Michael said. Claire nodded. She could see a vampire guard in black stationed outside of one of the doors--the woman who'd been one of the guards at the council chambers. She was sitting in a chair reading a magazine, but as Michael and Claire approached, she stood up and assumed her usual at-rest position.
"Michael Glass and Claire Danvers for Amelie," Michael said.
"You don't have an appointment."
"No," Claire said. "But it's important. We need to see her."
"My instructions are that she isn't to be disturbed," the guard said.
"But it's an emergency!"
"I have my orders."
"Amelie will want to see us," Michael said.
The other vampire raised her eyebrows, just ever so slightly. "It doesn't matter whether she would," she said. "Amelie no longer gives the orders. Oliver does, and his orders are that she should rest undisturbed. Now go or I'll have you removed."
"Maybe we should see Oliver," Claire said doubtfully.
That made the vampire guard smile, with the tips of fangs showing. "An excellent idea, but again, you have no appointment. Oliver sees no human without an appointment."
"What about me?" Michael said. They got into a staring match.
"I'm afraid Oliver is not available to anyone at the present time," she finally said. "Orders."
"Then we'll just see Amelie," Michael said, and reached for the doorknob. The guard's hand flashed out and closed white and hard around his wrist, stopping him an inch from the metal. "Really? You're sure you want to do it this way?"
The guard smiled, with vamp teeth showing fully now. "You're the one pushing the issue, New Guy. I told you: go away. There's no more discussion--" Her expression suddenly altered, and even Claire felt some kind of force sweep past them, a kind of pressure wave that made both vampires turn toward the Founder's closed door.
Claire found she was holding her hands to her head, and couldn't remember doing it. She looked up at Michael, who looked just as shaken as she felt. The vampire guard looked just as surprised.
"What was that?" Claire asked.
"Amelie," Michael said. He reached again for the doorknob, and the vamp blocked him. He grabbed the vamp's arm above the elbow with his left hand, and tipped her over his head in a sudden, shocking movement. She should have been down on the floor at the end of it, but instead she twisted in midair and came down lightly on her feet, got her balance, and slammed him against the paneled walls with her clawed fingernails at his throat.