It was dark, it was Morganville, and I was seventeen years old. Not the best idea ever, going out of the house again, but I put on my darkest pair of jeans, a black shirt, and a big, gaudy cross that Eve had given me. I felt queasy at the idea of stakes. Double queasy at the idea of actually stabbing somebody with one.
I still have protection. Amelie said so. I hoped that would actually mean something. I called Detective Hess's number from the card Eve had left pinned to the board in the kitchen. He answered on the second ring, sounded tired and depressed.
"I need a ride" I said. "If you're willing. I need to talk to Amelie"
"Even I don't know how to get to Amelie" Hess said. "Best kept secret in Morganville. I'm sorry kid, but-"
"I know how to get to her" I said. "I just don't want to walk. Given...the time"
There was a second of silence, an then the sound of a pen scratching against paper. "You shouldn't be out at all" Hess said. "Besides, I don't think you're going to get anywhere. You need to find something who can back up Justin's story. That means one of his dad's biker buddies. There may be one or two running around loose, but I don't think talking sweet to them's going to get you much
"What about his dad?"
"Trust me, you're not going to find Jeremy Bieber. Not before the powers that be do, anyway. Every vampire in town is out tonight, combing the streets, looking for him. They'll find him eventually. Not a lot of places he can hide when it's an all out effort" he says.
"But...if they catch him, that's kind of a good thing. He could tell them Justin didn't do it!"
"He could" Hess agreed. "But he's crazy enough to think burning in a cage alongside his kid is going out in a blaze of glory. Some kind of victory. He might say Justin was a part of it just to punish him. We can't know"
I couldn't deny that. I swallowed hard. "So are you going to give me a ride or not?"
"You're determined to go out" Hess said. "In the dark"
"Yes. And I'll walk if I have to. I just hope I don't have to"
His sigh rattled the phone speaker. "All right. Ten minutes. Stay inside until I honk the horn"
I hung up the phone and turned, and nearly bumped into Micheal. I yelped, and he reached out and steadied me.
He looked like he had something he wanted to say, but he didn't know how to say it. And finally, he looked away. "Hess coming?"
"Yeah, ten minutes, he said"
Micheal nodded. "You're going to see Amelie?"
"Maybe. I've got exactly one shot. If that doesn't work, then..." I spread my hands. "Then I guess I talk to Oliver instead"
"If...you do see Amelie, tell her I need to talk to her" he said. "Will you do that for me?"
I blinked. "Sure. But...why?"
"Something she said to me before. Look, obviously I can't go to her. She has to come here"
That raised a little red flag in the back of my mind. "Micheal, you're not going to do anything, well, crazy, right?"
"Says the seventeen year old about to walk out the door in the dark to go see a vampire? No, Ana. I'm not going to do anything crazy" he smiled. "I hate this. I hate letting you go. I hate Justin for getting himself caught. I hate this-"
"Don't punch anything, okay?" Because he had that look again. "Take care of Eve. Don't let her go crazy, okay? Promise? If you love her, you need to take care of her. She needs you now"
"I promise" he said, and rubbed his hands gently up and down my arms, then let go. "You tell Hess that if anything happens to you, I'm killing him hard"
I smiled faintly. "Ooooh, tough guy"
"Sometimes. Look, I didn't ask before. Is Justin okay?"
"Okay? You mean, did they hurt him?" I shook my head. "No, he looked pretty much in one piece. But he's in a cage, Micheal. And they're going to kill him. So, no. He's not okay"
The look in his eyes turned a little wild. "That's the only reason I'm letting you go. If I had any choice-"
"You do" I said. "We can all sit here and let him die. Or you can let Eve go in her wild ass rescue mission and let herself get killed. Or you can let sweet, calm, reasonable Anastasia do some talking"
"Guess that means there's no choice"
"Not really" I agreed. "I was kind of lying about that choice thing"
Detective Hess was surprised when I gave him the address. "That's old-lady Day's house" he said. "She lived there with her daughter. What do you want with them? Far as I know, they're not involved in any of this"
"It's where I need to go" I said stubbornly. I had no idea where Amelie's house was, but I knew of one door into it. I'd been thinking about ways to explain how you could open a bathroom door and be in a house that might be halfway across town.
"You prepared for trouble?" He asked. When I didn't answer, he reached into the glove compartment off the car and pulled out a small jewellery type of box. "Here. I always care spares"
I opened it and found a delicate silver cross on a silver chain. I silently put it around my neck and dropped it onto my chest. I already had a back up, one of Eve's handmade woods ones, but this one felt real, somehow. "I'll give it back to you" I said.
"No need. Like I said, I've got more"
"I don't take jewellery from older men"
Hess laughed. "You know I thought you were a mousy little thing when I first saw you, Ana, but you're not, are you? Not underneath"
"Oh, I am a mousy thing" I said. "All this scares the hell out of me. But I don't know what else to do, sir, except try. Even a mouse bites"
"Then I'll try and give you a chance to show some teeth"
He drove half a mile or so, navigating dark streets with ease. I saw glimpses of people moving in the dark, pale and quick. The vampires were out in force.
Hess pulled to a halt in front of the old Victorian style house. "You want me to come up with you?" He asked.
"You'd just scare them" I said. "They know me. Besides, I'm not exactly threatening"
"Not until they get to know you" Hess said. "Stay out of the alley"
I paused, hand on the door. "Why?"
"Vampire lives at the end of it. Crazy old bastard. He doesn't come out do there, and neither does anybody who wanders in. So just stay out"
I nodded and ducked out into the dark. Outside, the Morganville shadows had a character all their own. I looked at the house, and felt its presence. It was like the Glass House, all right. It had some kind of living soul, only where the Glass House seemed mildly interested in the creatures scuttling around inside of it.
I shuddered, opened the picket gate, and hurried up to knock on the door. I kept knocking, frantically, until a voice shouted through the wood, "Who the hell's that?"
"Anastasia! Anastasia Ian, I was here, you remember? You gave me some lemonade?" No answer. "Please, ma'am, please let me in. I need to use your bathroom!"
"You what? Girl, you better step off my granma's porch!"
"Please!" I knew I sounded desperate, but then...I was desperate. Not to mention just one step shy of crazy. "Please, ma'am, don't leave me out here in the dark!"
I nearly screamed as the door was suddenly opened, and a hand closed around my arm.
"Oh, for gods sake, get in!" Snapped Lisa. She looked irritated, tired; and rumpled; I had clearly rattled her right out of bed. She yanked me, and I stumbled forward across the threshold, and Lisa slammed and multiply locked the door behind me.
Then she turned, crossed her arms, and frowned at me. It was a formidable frown, but the pink pj's and bunny slippers undermined it.
"What the hell are you doing here? Do you know what time it is?" Lisa demanded. I took a deep breath, opened my mouth...and didn't have anything to say. Because grandma was debasing there in the hallway, Amelie was with her.
The contrast couldn't have been more striking.
Amelie looked every inch the glorious, perfect ice queen, from her carefully braided and coiled hair to her unlined face to the sleek white dress she wore.
"The visitor is here for me" Amelie said calmly. "I've been expecting her. I do thank you, Katherine, for you kindness"
Who's Katherine? I looked around, and realised after a few seconds it had been grandma.
"And I appreciate your vigilance, Lisa, but your caution is unnecessary" Amelie continued. "Please return to your-" for a second, Amelie hesitated, and I couldn't imagine why until the vampires gaze was fixed on the sight of of Lisa's bunny shoes.
Amelie recovered her poise. "You may return to you sleep" she said, and bowed her head gracefully to Lisa and her grandma. "Anastasia. If you would attend me"
Amelie opened the bathroom door and stepped through into the same study I had visited before, only now it was night, and a fire was roaring in the enormous hearth to warm the chilly room.
Amelie crossed to a chair near the hearth and gracefully motioned me to one across from her. "You may sit" she said. "But we wanted, Anastasia, what I expect you want from me is not in my power to grant"
I settled carefully, not daring to relax. "You know why I'm here"
"I'd be a fool if I thought it was any reason other than young Justin" Amelie said, and smiled very sadly. "I can recognise loyalty when I see it. It shines strongly from you both, which is one reason I have trusted you so much on insignificant acquaintance" she lost her smiled, and her pale eyes turned to frost again. "And that is why I cannot forgive what Justin has done. He broke faith with me, Anastasia, and that is intolerable. Morganville is founded on trust. Without it, we have nothing but despair and death"
"But he didn't do anything!" I knew I sounded like a whiny little girl, but I didn't know what else to do. "He didn't kill Brandon. He tried to save him. You can't punish him for being in the wrong place!"
"We have no ones word of that. And no mistake, child, I know why Justin returned to Morganville in the first place. It is regrettable that his sister was so brutally and unnecessarily killed; we tried to make amends with his family, as us custom. We even allowed them to leave Morganville, which you understand is not common, in hopes that Justin and his parents might heal their grief in less difficult surroundings. But it was not possible. And his mother broke through the block surrounding her memories.
I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. It was too big, I'm too high up; my toes barely touched the ground. I gripped the arms firmly, trying to remind myself that I was strong and courageous that I had to be, for Justin.
"Did you kill her? Justin's mother?" I asked, as bluntly as I could. It still sounded timid, but least I'd gotten the question out.
For a second I thought Amelie wasn't going to answer me, but then the vampire looked away, towards the fire. Her eyes looked orange in it's glow, with dots of reflective yellow in the centre. She shrugged, a gesture so small, I barely even saw it.
"I have not lifted a hand against the human in hundreds of years, little Anastasia. But that is not what you ask, is it? Am I responsible for his mother's death? In a larger sense, I am responsible for anything that is done in Morganville, or even beyond it's borders if it relates to vampires. But I think you asked if I gave an explicit order"
I nodded. My neck felt stiff, and my hands would have been shaking if they hadn't been grabbing the arms of the chair so hard my knuckles cracked.
"Yes" Amelie said, and turned her head back to meet my eyes. She looked cool, merciless, and absolutely without conscience. "Of course I did. Justin's mother was one of the rare cases who, by focusing on a single event in the past, are able to overcome the psychic block that is placed on them when they depart this place. She remembered her daughter's death, and from that, she remembered other things. Dangerous things. As soon as we became aware that this was happening it was brought to my attention, and I gave the order to kill her. It was to be done quickly and without pain, and it was a mercy, Anastasia. Justin's mother had been in so much pain for so long, do you understand? She was damaged, and some damages cannot be healed"
"Nothing heals if you're dead" I whispered. I remember Justin on the couch, blurting out all the horror of his life, and I wanted to throw up on Amelie's perfect lap. "You can't do things like that! You're not god!"
"For the safety of all who live here? Yes, Anastasia, I can. I must. I am sorry for my decisions do not meet with your approval, but nevertheless, they are mine, and the consequences are also mine. Justin is a consequence. My agents warned me at the time that they believe the boy might have been tainted by his mother, that his block was slipping, but I chose not to expand the tragedy by killing a boy who might not have been a threat" Amelie shrugged again. "Not all of my decisions are cruel, you see. But the ones which are not usually wrong. Had I killed Justin then, and his father, as well, we would not now be facing this bloody and painful farce"
"Because he'd be dead!" I felt tears sting hard in my eyes and at the back of my throat. "Please. Please don't let this happen. You can find out the truth, can't you? You have powers. You can tell that Justin didn't kill Brandon.."
Amelie said nothing. She turned back forwards the fire.
I watched a miserably for a few seconds, and felt tears break free to run down my cheeks. "You can tell" I repeated. "Why won't you even try? Is it because you're angry at him?"
"Don't be infantile" Amelie said distantly. "I do nothing out of anger. I am too old to fall into the trap of emotion. What I do, I do for expedience, and for the sake of the future"
"Justin is the future! He's my future! And he's innocent!"
"I know all that" Amelie said. "And it does not matter"
I stopped, stunned. My mouth is open, and I tasted woodsmoke on my tongue until I closed it and swallowed. "What?"
"I know Justin is innocent of the crime which he is accused" Amelie said. "And yes, I could countermand Oliver. But I will not"
"Why!" It burst out of me like a scream, but it was really a whimper, all the fight kicked out of me.
"I have no reason to explain myself. Suffice to say that I have chosen to place Justin in that cage for a purpose. He may live, or he may die. That is no longer in my hands, and you may save both your breaths and your hopes; I shall not stand up dramatically at the last moment as they light the pyres, and save your lover. Should it come to that, Anastasia, you must be prepared for the harsh reality that the world is not a fair or just place, and all your wishes cannot make it so" Amelie sighed. "A lesson I learned long ago, long ago, when oceans were young, and the sand was still rock. I am old, child. Older than you can possibly understand. Old enough that I play with lives like counters in the game. I wish this was not so, but damn me if I can change what I am. What the world is"
I said nothing. They didn't seem to be anything left to say, so I just cried, silently and hopelessly, until Amelie pulled a white silk and handkerchief from the sleeve and gracefully held it out to me.
"Wash it and return it someday" Amelie said. "But go now. I grow tired, and you will not change my mind. Go"
I slid off of the chair and stood up, turned, and gasped. There were two of Amelie's bodyguards standing there, and I hadn't even known they were behind me.
"Go to sleep, Anastasia" Amelie said. "Let things be. We shall see how the cards fall in our game"
"It's not a game: it's Justin's life" I shot back. "And I'm not sleeping"
Amelie shrugged and folded her hands neatly in her lap. "Then go about your quest" she said. "But do not come back to me, little Anastasia. I will not be so well disposed to you again"
I didn't look back, but I knew the bodyguards followed me all the way to the door.
"Was there not something else li wanted to tell me? Amelie asked, just before she went out. I glanced back; the vampire was still staring into the fire. "Did you not have another request?"
"I don't know what you're talking about"
Amelie sighed. "Someone asked you for a favour"
Micheal. I swallowed hard. "Micheal wants to talk to you"
Amelie nodded. Her expression didn't change.
"What do I tell him?" I asked.
"That is entirely your affair. Tell him the truth - that you did not care enough to deliver his message" Amelie waved her hand without even looking at me. "Go"