Carpe Corpus (14 page)

“Now, don’t be doing that,” said a honey-dark voice from the doorway’s shadows. “There’s no need for violence, is there?” The light caught on the vampire’s face, and Claire felt sick. Ysandre, Bishop’s icky little pet slut. She was dressed for business just now, in black leather pants and a long-sleeved heavy jacket with a hood. She could have been drawn in black and white, except for the slash of red that was her mouth. “Got something for you, missus.”

She reached back, grabbed two people by the hair, and propelled them both inside. It was the Goldmans’ other son and daughter, Clarence and Minnie. Vampires didn’t often look beaten up, but these two did, and Claire felt a little sick at the sight of the fear on Mrs. Goldman’s face.

“Let them go,” she said. “Children! Come here!”

“Not so fast,” Ysandre said, and yanked on the hair she was holding. “Let’s talk about this first. Mr. Bishop is not too pleased with your family breaking its word to him. He allowed you to stay here, alive and free, and in return you were supposed to stay out of his business. Did you stay out of his business, sugar? Because it really doesn’t look like you did, since you sent these two fine children of yours to try to break his enemies out of jail.”

Claire stopped moving at all. She was curled on her side, still struggling to breathe, shaking, and now it felt like the whole world was crashing in on her.
Try.
Try
to break his enemies out jail.

They hadn’t done it. Shane was still a prisoner.

Ysandre hadn’t come alone. She shoved the Goldman boy and girl over into the arms of their mother, and behind her a solid army of vampires filled the darkness. “Didn’t know about this place,” Ysandre remarked. “Didn’t know it had a tunnel going right up under it, anyway. That’s real convenient. Didn’t even have to take a sunburn to get to you.” She brushed her shiny hair back, and as she did, her gaze fell on Claire. She gave her a slow, deadly smile. “Why, lookit. It’s little Miss Perfect. Oh, I think Mr. Bishop is going to be
very
disappointed in you.”

Claire tried to get up and almost fell. She wasn’t hurting yet, but she knew she would be. Bruises, mostly, maybe a couple of strained muscles.

Theo Goldman caught her. He’d gotten to his feet when she wasn’t looking, and now he helped her stand up. At close range, she saw the misery in his eyes before he put on a fake smile for Ysandre’s benefit.

“I suppose we will be going with you,” he said. “For another interview with our benevolent master.”

“Some of you will,” she agreed. “And some of you won’t.” She snapped her fingers and pointed at Claire. Two big, muscular vampire guys lunged from behind her and grabbed Claire by the arms to haul her off. When Theo protested, they shoved him back with his family. “I want to introduce you to an old friend of Mr. Bishop’s. This is Pennywell. I believe you may already be acquainted, though.”

As she was dragged out of the room, into the dark open area of Common Grounds, Claire passed the stranger she’d seen in Bishop’s office on her birthday. He—she? it was hard to tell—walked past Claire as if she didn’t exist, heading into the room where the Goldmans were being held.

“Wait!” Claire yelled. “What are you going to do?”

Pennywell didn’t even pause. Ysandre looked back and winked at her.

“Don’t you worry about any of this, now,” she cooed with false sympathy. “You’ve got plenty of your own problems to worry about. Good-bye, Claire.”

7

There was a hidden ladder down to a surprisingly large, well-lit tunnel underneath Common Grounds. It had a false brick wall that led into one of the maze of tunnels that was big enough for cars—and there was one waiting, a big idling limousine. One of Claire’s vampire captors opened the back and pushed her inside before getting in with her. The other one took the front seat, and before more than a few seconds passed, they were driving on into the hidden world underneath Morganville. “Hey,” Claire said. The vampire sitting next to her in the back glanced at her, then away. He was about twice her size, and she had a feeling that he could have broken her in half with a harsh word and his little finger. “What’s going to happen to them?”

He shrugged, not like he didn’t know—more like he just flat didn’t care enough to tell her. The Goldmans didn’t mean much to him. Claire meant even less.

“What’s your name?” she asked, and surprised herself. But for some reason, she wanted to know. Dean’s brother—he hadn’t been just some nameless Bad Guy Number Four. This vampire wasn’t, either. He had a name, a history, maybe even people who cared what happened to him.

“My name is none of your business,” he said, and continued to stare out the window, even though there was nothing but blurry brick out there.

“Can I call you None for short?” It was an Eve joke, but Claire didn’t think she delivered it very well, because the vampire didn’t even blink. He just shut her out.

She concentrated on not thinking about what might have happened to Shane.

The car burst out of the tunnel at a high rate of speed, rose up a ramp, and exited from what looked like an industrial building—another of Morganville’s secret roads. They turned onto a residential street near Claire’s parents’ house—she recognized two of the burned-out homes and the carefully clipped hedge animals in front of the yellow clapboard house on the corner. She’d always thought the squirrel looked kind of crazy.

They didn’t slow down as the limousine sped through the streets. People got out of the way—bikes, cars, even one or two pedestrians hurrying home into the sunset. The vampire driver had a blacked-out windshield, but he was still wearing sunglasses, gloves, and had most of his face covered as well.
Young,
Claire thought. Older vampires wouldn’t care about the sun that much. It hurt them, but it wouldn’t kill them. So maybe Bishop had recruited some new guys.

Before she could think of anything else to say that wouldn’t get her killed, the limousine took a turn down a shaded wide street. At the end of it, Claire saw familiar buildings, and the big green expanse of Founder’s Square.

They were taking her to Bishop.

She slid over to the far side, taking her time about it, and as the car slowed for the next turn, she tried to open the door and throw herself out.

Locked. Of course. The vampire in the back didn’t even bother to look at her.

Another ramp, this one leading down under the streets, and thirty seconds later they were parked underground. Claire tried to come up with a plan, but honestly, she didn’t have much. She’d lost her cell phone when Theo had crashed into her, not that she had even a vague idea of who she could call, anyway. There was a stake hidden at the bottom of her backpack that maybe,
maybe
she could use—but only if it was one-on-one, and the one was a lot less scary than the two currently escorting her around.

“Get out,” the vampire in the back said, as the door locks clicked open. “Don’t try to run.”

She didn’t want to. She wanted to save her strength for something more useful.

Whatever that useful thing was, it didn’t become clear as they headed for the elevator and crowded inside. Phony not-really-music was piped into the steel-and-carpet box, making it seem that much more like a nightmare.

The elevator doors opened in a big formal room, the round one where she and Myrnin had circulated in their costumes before Mr. Bishop’s welcome feast, the one that had been the starting point for everything going so wrong in Morganville. The doors to the banquet hall were closed, and her vampire guards marched her up the hallway to Bishop’s office instead.

Michael opened the door. He hesitated, and almost lost his cool, then nodded and stepped aside for the three of them to come inside. There was nobody else in the room.

Not even Mr. Bishop.

“What’s going on?” Claire asked. “I thought . . . Where is he?”

“Sit down and shut up,” her vampire backseat guardian snarled, and shoved her into a chair. Michael looked like he might have been tempted to come to her defense, but she shook her head.
Not worth it.
Not yet, anyway.

The office door opened, and Mr. Bishop came in, wearing what looked like the same black suit and white shirt he’d been wearing the day before. There was something savage in the look he threw Claire, but he didn’t pause; he walked to his desk and sat down.

He never did that. She couldn’t imagine it was a good sign.

“Come here,” he said. Claire didn’t want to, but she felt the power woven into the tattoo on her arm snap to life. It responded to Bishop’s voice—only to his—and the harder she tried to resist it, the worse it was going to hurt. But Patience Goldman was right . . . it hurt a lot less than it had before. Maybe it really was fading.

Better not to fight it and tip him off, if that was the case. She took a deep breath and let it pull her closer, right in front of his desk. Bishop leaned forward, staring up at her with cold, empty eyes, elbows braced on the polished wood surface. “Did you know what Goldman was going to do?” he asked. “Did you put him up to it?”

“No,” she said. She wasn’t sure whether it would help Theo if she took the blame, anyway.

Bishop stared a hole into her, then sat back and let his eyes drift half closed. “It hardly matters,” he said. “I knew those people could not be trusted for any length of time. I kept watch on them. And you—I know you can’t be trusted, either, little girl. I tethered you, but I didn’t tame you. You’re harder than you look, like my daughter, Amelie. No wonder she took you under her Protection.”

“What are you going to do to the Goldmans?”

Bishop slapped his palm down on the desk, hard enough to leave his imprint half an inch deep in the wood. “I am done with restraint. This town will
learn
I am not to be taunted, not to be toyed with, not to be mocked
. You will learn.
”

Claire wanted to shoot back some smart-ass remark, but she could see the vicious anger in him, and knew it was just waiting to pounce. She stood there, silent, watching him, and then he slowly relaxed. When she started to back away, he said, “Stay there. I have something for you.”

He snapped his fingers, and when the door opened, Shane walked in. She hadn’t noticed it in the cell, but he was thinner than he’d been a few months ago—and he was also bruised and simmering with fury. When he saw Bishop, he lunged for him.

“No!” Claire yelled. “Shane, stop!”

He didn’t, but he also didn’t have to. Michael flashed across the room and got in his way, wrapping Shane in a bear hug and bringing him to a sudden halt.

“Let go!” Shane’s voice was ragged, splitting and tearing under the strain of his anger. “Screw you, Michael;
let go
!”

He tried to break free. Michael didn’t let him. He pushed him back, all the way to the wall, and held him there. Claire couldn’t see Michael’s face, but she could see part of Shane’s, and she saw something change in it. Shane stopped fighting, as if he’d received some message she hadn’t seen.

“I am a good master,” Bishop said, as if none of that had happened. “You asked me for a birthday favor, Claire. I granted you a visit. Today, I have decided that it was a poor gift. I will give you what you want. Shane will be free to go.”

Claire didn’t dare to breathe, blink, move. She knew this was a trick, a cruel way to crush her hopes, and Shane’s, too. “Why?” she finally said. Her lips felt numb. “Why now?”

“Because I intend to teach you both what it means to defy me, once and for all, and let you carry the tale for me,” Bishop said. “Michael. Hold them, but make sure the two of them see everything. I won’t have my students failing their lessons.”

Bishop’s control let go, and Claire stumbled backward into Michael. His arm went around her waist, and she felt the pressure of his lips close to her ear. “Stay still,” he whispered. “No matter what happens, just
stay still.
Please. I’ll protect you.”

On Michael’s other side, Shane was very, very quiet. He wasn’t looking at Bishop. He was looking across at Claire, and he was scared—scared that something was going to happen to her, she realized. She tried for a smile, but wasn’t sure how it came out.

Shane opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, a vampire guard came in, bringing a thin, scraggly man with a mess of graying, curling hair and a nasty scar down his face.

Shane’s dad. He looked older, thinner, and even more vulnerable than he had back in his cell—nothing like the big, scary monster who’d terrified her when she’d first met him.

“Are you watching, Shane?” Bishop asked. “I want you to learn, so that you don’t make the same mistakes again.”

“Dad,” Shane said. “Dad?”

Frank Collins put his hand out to stop Shane from trying to break free. “It’s all right. Nothing he can do to me now.” He faced Bishop straight on. “Been there, done that, not scared of anything you can bring to this party, bloodsucker. So just kill me and get it over with.”

Bishop slowly rose from his chair, staying behind the desk.

“But, Mr. Collins, you mistake me. I’m not going to kill you. I’d never do such a thing. You’re far too valuable to me.”

His pale hands flashed out, grabbed Shane’s dad, and jerked him forward over the desk. Claire shut her eyes as the fangs came out, and Bishop’s eyes flashed red. She didn’t see the actual biting, but she heard Shane screaming.

It was over in about thirty seconds. Shane never stopped fighting to get free of Michael’s hold.

Claire didn’t fight at all. She just couldn’t.

She heard a thud as Mr. Collins’s body hit the floor, and when she opened her eyes she realized that she’d been wrong about everything. Very wrong.

Bishop wasn’t finished.

He gnawed at his wrist, pried open Frank Collins’s mouth, and poured blood into it as he spread his other hand over the top of the man’s head. Claire had seen this before—Amelie had done it to Michael—but Amelie had found it difficult and exhausting to make a new vampire.

For Bishop, it seemed easy.

“No,” Shane said. “No,
stop.
”