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Chapter Three

 

  THREE

  Claire wasn't needed for the actual investigation. Myrnin wanted to do it himself. . . a fact that left her a little bit worried, not so much for him as for the people he was out to question (not very nice people, granted, if Frank Collins had decided they were worth losing). She left a message for Oliver, figuring that it was his problem now, and headed for home.

  She expected to find everyone there, but when she unlocked the front door of the house on Lot Street, it sounded quiet. Way too quiet. They weren't a studious bunch, her housemates. If Shane was home, there should have been game noise; if Eve, loud music. If both, shouting plusboth those things.

  Michael wasn't home, either, because she didn't hear guitar.

  "Helllooooooooo," she called, as she locked the door behind her in standard Morganville precautionary measure. "House ghost? Anybody?" Not that they had a house ghost anymore, but it always seemed polite to ask. Weirder things had happened.

  Silence. Claire dumped her book bag on the couch, on top of a sweatshirt someone (Shane) had left balled up there, flopped down, and stretched out. She rarely had the house to herself; it felt nice. Strange, but nice. When nobody was moving around, she could hear something like a low, electric vibration from all over--walls, floors, ceiling. The life of the house.

  Claire reached down and patted the wooden floor. "Good house. Nice house. We should do a repaint or something. Make you pretty again. "

  She could have sworn that the house's low hum cycled, like a very faint, approving purr.

  After half an hour, she got up and checked the table and other likely spots for any sign of notes left behind, but there weren't any hints about when she might expect anybody to show up. She was about to go upstairs to study when the flyer caught her eye. It had slipped off the kitchen table and was lying curled against the wall. She picked it up and smoothed it out.

  The new martial arts gym. Not likely Eve was there, but for Shane, it was definitely a safe bet that was where he'd gone off to. Claire tapped the paper thoughtfully, then smiled.

  "Why not?" she asked. The house didn't answer or have any opinion one way or another. "I could use the exercise. And I'vegot to see this place. "

  She raced upstairs, changed into a pair of low-riding sweatpants and a faded T-shirt that advertised The Killers, and at the last second, added the gold Founder's pin to her collar. It scratched, but better that than getting caught outside without Protection. After all, she hadn't gotten martially artedyet.

  It was still light out, but fading fast toward twilight. Cold wind twirled the leaves in the gutters, and as she walked, Claire wished she'd thought to bring a sweater. A few cars passed her, some with blacked-out, vampire-friendly windows, but nobody paid her more than a glance that she could tell. The new gym was located in one of the less-trafficked parts of town, near a bunch of warehouses that had seen better days and businesses with long-ago-faded closed permanently signs in the windows. In all that industrial

  devastation, one neon sign still glowed, with a red-and-green dragon swishing its tail.

  The storefront looked newly renovated, and Claire could swear she still smelled fresh paint. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot and lining the street. With surprise, Claire recognized Eve's black hearse; she didn't expect Eve to be a fan of sparring. Well, people probably wouldn't have bet on her showing up, either.

  There were no windows to look in through, so Claire pulled open the heavy metal door and walked into a large tiled area with a wooden counter. A buffed-up guy of postcollege age sat on a stool behind it, reading a magazine. He had a lot of tattoos, and a particularly sharp buzz cut. When he glanced up and saw her, his sandy eyebrows went up.

  "Here for class?" he asked.

  "Uh, maybe. I just want to check it out. "

  "All right. You can do a pay-as-you-go for the first couple of visits, but after that, it's a monthly fee, no refunds. " He shoved a clipboard at her, along with a pen. "Fill out the forms. It's ten dollars. "

  Ten was a lot for just checking it out, but Claire put her name on the papers, along with her address, phone number, medical history, and all the other stuff that was asked about exercise and mobility. Some of it seemed pretty intrusive. She handed it back, along with her faded ten-dollar bill, and got a sticky name tag to slap on her T-shirt. Then the bouncer--she couldn't think of him as a receptionist--hit a hidden button, and a sharp, electronic buzz sounded.

  "Push the wall, right there," he said, pointing. She pushed, and it opened, cutting off the buzz. It swung shut behind her as she stepped through, and if it locked, she couldn't hear it over the noise.

  Amazing that she'd missed it on the other side of the barrier, because this gym wasworking. The clang of free weights hitting supports. Solid, heavy clunks from the weight machines as men and women sweat, grunted, and worked at the stations. Whirring wheels on exercise bikes. And in the center of the room, a large open space with mats in the middle, and about thirty people dressed in white martial arts clothes, kneeling with their hands on their thighs, all facing in toward the middle.

  Claire looked quickly around, and although she recognized some of those doing the straight exercise stuff, she didn't see Shane or Eve among them. She edged around toward a stair-climber not in use and stepped on so she could get a better vantage point of the class in progress. Whoever had used it before her had set it to murderous levels; she had to back off on the resistance almost immediately, and so she almost missed Shane, who was sitting facing the mat at an angle.

  She spotted him only because he got up and walked to the center of the mats. He wore his uniform well, she realized, like he'd done this before. Maybe he had. He had that look, the one she recognized from watching him fight, though those had been more down-and-dirty street things than martial arts bouts. He wasn't looking at anything but the man facing him.

  Shane was a pretty big guy for his age--broad shouldered, kind of tall. And he had at least a foot on the man facing him, who looked frozen at the age of about thirty. The vampire instructor, Claire thought. He had long hair he'd tied back in a ponytail.

  They bowed to each other formally and settled back into some kind of stance, almost mirroring each other.

  Shane kicked, high and fast. The vampire ducked and let Shane's momentum spin him out of position, and with one economically placed, almost gentle push, sent him tumbling to the mats. Shane rolled and came up with his hands out, ready to defend, but the vampire was just standing there, watching him.

  "Nice attack," he said. "But I can move out of the way of a kick. You'd do much better to move in close, reduce my reaction time. It's the only real chance you have, you see. You need to remember how much faster we can move, and how much more observant we are of things like shifts of weight and eye movements. "

  Shane nodded, shaggy hair rippling around his hard, intent face, and took two quick, light steps in to close the distance. He struck as he did it, and even though he didn't land the punch, he came closer. The vampire's open hand stopped it less than an inch from his face.

  He hadn't flinched.

  "You're quick," he said. "Very quick, and unless I miss my guess, very well accustomed to fighting all sorts of enemies. You're young to be so angry, by the way. That can be either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on who you're fighting. And why. "

  Shane fell back into a waiting stance and didn't answer. The vampire gave him a little one-more-time signal, and Shane went for a punch. . . but it was a distraction, and this time, his kick actually hit the vampire in the side of his knee, forcing a shift in balance.

  The vampire, without seeming to even think about it, spun and kicked Shane right off the mat. He tumbled across the wood floor and into the kneeling students like a ball into bowling pins. They scattered.

  Claire gasped and gripped the stair-climber handles more tightly, resisting the urge to jump off and run to him. He was already ro
lling up to his feet--slower than last time, granted--and walked back to the mats. He put his right fist against his left palm, put feet together, and bowed.

  The vampire bowed back. "Again," he said. "I congratulate you on being the first to actually touch me. Now see if you can hurt me. " He bared his teeth in a savage little smile. "Come on, boy. Try. "

  Shane settled into attack stance again, and then, very suddenly, it wasn't all about the polite martial arts form at all. He went all street fighter, and the vampire wasn't prepared for it. In fact, despite the vampire's being faster and deadlier, Shane got him off balance in two quick, well-placed punches, swept his legs out from under him, and sent him on his back to the mat.

  And he didn't stop there. Claire gasped and stopped climbing, frozen, as he dropped down on the vamp, slamming both knees into the man's chest, and pantomimed ramming a stake into his heart. There was something savage on Shane's face, something she remembered seeing before, but only when he was fighting for their lives. A real, deep, burning hatred.

  Shane didn't move. He was staring down at the fallen vamp, and the vamp was locking eyes with him. Then, slowly, he stood up, hand with the invisible stake falling back to his side.

  The vampire rolled up to his feet in one fast, fluid movement, keeping a healthy distance between them. He stared at Shane for a beat too long, then did the formal bow. Shane echoed him.

  "You have a gift," the vampire said. It didn't sound like a compliment, exactly. "I think you're too

  advanced for this entry-level class. See me later. I think you may be suitable for some advanced placement. "

  Shane bowed again, stepped back, and took his place at the edge of the floor, kneeling down.

  A thin blond girl got up to take his place, looking terrified. Claire didn't blame her. Shane had brought a sense of real violence into the room, and that had gotten everyone's attention; the sound of weights clanging and people talking had hushed and slowed, if not stopped.

  Claire realized she was standing still on the stair-climber, and began pumping her legs again, mind not on the exercise at all, even though her calf muscles were already burning. She couldn't stop looking at Shane now. She could see only a thin slice of his face between the others, but from that she knew that he wasn't paying attention to the blond girl getting her ass kicked--gently--in the middle of the floor. He was staring straight ahead, face set and still, and if the victory had given him any kind of peace or triumph, she couldn't see it.

  SHANE

  I wasn't always like this. I know people think I like to fight, and, yeah, maybe they're right--I do--but I didn't when I was little. I just wanted to fit in and get along. The usual crap in a town where not fitting in got you a whole lot of trouble.

  I guess the first time I hit somebody was in elementary school, which is pretty standard for guys, but it wasn't because I was personally getting attacked. No, I threw the first punch.

  I hit a guy named Terrence James because he was shoving around my best friend, who was littler and couldn't stand up to save his life. I was about Terrence's size, and there was something about seeing a big guy pick on a little one that made me see red.

  Yeah, I'm not that complicated. I know why I felt like that. My dad. My dad, the guy who was okay when he was sober, but was a mean drunk. He didn't hit me much, not then, but he was scary, and he'd always liked to push people around.

  Felt good to push somebody like him around for a change. Punching Terrence didn't feel nearly as good, though. My knuckles felt like I'd broken them into little pieces, but after the first horrific shock the pain was a good kind of pain, and it all fed into a red haze of euphoria as I looked at Terrence lying on his back, tears streaming down his face, telling me he was sorry and that he'd never do it again, ever.

  And that's how I discovered that I liked that feeling, that righteous, hot feeling of winning for what I thought was the right cause. I wasn't afraid of a little pain to get there, either, which is a huge advantage in a fight. Let's face it: most people don't like to get hurt, so if you show you're okay with it, they're going to get a little bit weird. And maybe walk away. I don't mind a win by default, as long as I win.

  When I got older, people pretty much left me alone. I had that pit-bull mentality and a useful amount of height and muscle, both of which I probably owed to my father. Girls liked it, too, but not the right kind of girls, generally. I won most fights, lost a few, but I never quit. I took boxing and wrestling in high school and did okay, but I didn't like the rules that much. I was a street brawler.

  I guess I was on track to being my dad--maybe not as bad, but let's face it, it wasn't easy to resist the black hole that was Frank Collins, and I'd always done what he said. He liked that I could hold my own in a fight. After my sister and mother died, well, it got worse--a whole lot worse. Sending me back to

  Morganville to scout out the weaknesses had been a real show of faith from my dad, but the farther I got away from him, the more I realized that I didn't want to be him anymore. He'd taken it too far.

  Meeting Claire made me realize that I could be something different. Something better. The first time I saw her, black-and-blue but with this strange little core of strength. . . I recognized something we had in common. We didn't quit. And we suffered for it.

  I started out wanting to protect her, and the more I was around her, the more I realized that she was one girl who could take care of herself. I wasn't used to chicks being equals--and Claire was, and is. She's not that physically strong, but she's quick and smart and fearless, and if sometimes I get overprotective about her, she's the first one to remind me of that.

  But I want to be ready, if it comes to a fight again--which it will. Not just against the normal human bullies and criminals; those were a piece of cake. No, I want to be able to defend her against the vampires, and that is a whole lot harder. Weapons are good, and I never turn those down, but the reality is I can't count on always having one. I worry. There have been a couple of times--more than a couple--when only the fact that Michael had vampire strength he could throw in with mine had saved us.

  And that really bothered me. I couldn't depend on Michael, either. Or anybody else.

  Mixed martial arts--that was the ticket. Hit your guy however you can, and put him down fast. My kind of fighting, and something that could work on vampires, if you knew what you were doing. I'd been itching to try it, and when the flyer came in the mail, it seemed like somebody up there liked me after all.

  Michael had pulled me off to the side after Claire left to say he didn't think it was a good idea. I told him to stuff it, but in a nice way, because even though he's got fangs and a thirst, he's still my bro. Most times. Took me a while to accept that, but I'm almost okay with his whole night-stalking lifestyle now.

  Doesn't mean I don't want to be able to kick his ass if I have to, though. The chance to learn martial arts from a vampire. . . that was way too good to pass up.

  I know how to do the real kind of martial arts. I mean, I had karate until I was thirteen and decided I was too cool for it. So I know how to put on a gi and tie a belt and be formal on the mats. Turned out that was good, because the instructor--some dude named Vassily, with an Eastern European accent straight out of an old movie--wanted to start out that way.

  I was okay the first couple of passes, when he got me up to spar. It was like fighting anybody else, no big thing, until he started using vampire speed and strength on me. I couldn't help it; that made me angry, and anger kind of makes me forget the rules. I went for his knee. He hit me like a wrecking ball smashing a wall, and next thing I knew, I was shaking it off with a giant ache in my chest. I'd been lucky. He could have caved in my ribs and Swiss-cheesed my heart if he'd hit full strength.

  Then don't let him hit you again, loser. I could almost hear my dad's voice, dry and mocking. He was dead now, but in my mind he was always there, always watching, and always judging. He'd hated vampires. I didn't much lik
e 'em, either. We'd always had that in common.

  I didn't think about walking away. I went back to the mat and bowed, and the second I got a chance, I attacked with everything I had. Full-on blitz. I knew I was going to get hurt, maybe badly, maybe killed, but I wasn't going to be humiliated. Not by a vampire. No way in hell.

  I got him. Hard. I could see the shock in his face, and the rush of rage, and as I stood there with the

  bloody taste of victory in my mouth, I actually wanted him to go for it, come get me, because, damn, I felt alive, actually alive. . . . . . .

  But he shut me down, said something I didn't register, and bowed me off the mat. I don't remember leaving or kneeling down. I just remember thinking,Next time, next time, next time,regular as a bell ringing in my head and drowning out every other thought.

  I watched him go through the rest of the class. He didn't hurt anybody else, but he could have. He wanted to; I could see it in flashes in his eyes. They're all alike, you know. Hunters. Even Michael's got it, though he hides it, and sometimes I pretend like I don't see it, either. You have to be ready for them to turn on you.

  Because if you're not ready. . . somebody you love could get hurt.

  I closed my eyes and imagined Claire. She always made me feel better. But although I could see her face, her smile, almost feel her presence, all I could think about was how easy it would be for them to take her away from me.

  I couldn't let that happen.

  It occurred to me that what the vamp had said to me was that he'd see me later. Some kind of special class? Hell, yeah. I could do that. I needed to do that.

  I needed to understand how to fight them, one on one, without help or weapons or hope.

  Only the vampires could show me that.

  Still. . . sitting there, hands on my knees, breathing fast, I couldn't help but feel that even though I'd won, even though I'd done the impossible. . . somehow, I'd lost.

  And it was first of a whole lot of losses.

  Watching Shane kneeling there, so closed-in and so. . . cold, Claire felt a little sick. She didn't like it. She didn't like how he'd just fought, and she didn't like how he looked afterward. Shane was usuallyhappy after a fight, not. . . angry.

  This whole thing is a bad idea,she thought. She didn't know why, but she knew it was true.

  "Hey," said a low voice at her back, and Claire looked back to see Eve standing there. For the gym, she'd dispensed with the Goth makeup, but her tight T-shirt had a pink skull with a bow on it, and there were a skull and crossbones in rhinestones down the sides of her workout pants, too. She'd tied her straight black hair back in a shining ponytail. It was about as unadorned as Eve ever got, unless she was in disguise. "Did you see that? What the hell wasthat ? Did Shane just go all Wolfman, or what?"

  "I don't know," Claire said, and jumped down from the exercise machine. "But--"

  "Boyfriend's got issues," Eve finished. "Yeah, no kidding. So, you came to spy, too?"

  "Too?"

  "Really, come on. Do you see me as the heavy-sweating type? So very not. " Eve looked her over critically. "And you aren't, either, but you can pass for it, probably. Did they make you pay the ten bucks to get in?"

  "Yeah. "

  "This is so much less fun than I'd hoped. For one thing, nobody here is worthy of being ogled, and if they are, they're way too sweaty. Or scary. Or both. " Eve gave a theatrical little shudder. "What do you say we do something else?"

  "Like what?" Claire was still distracted by the sight of Shane, kneeling like a statue at the edge of the sparring space. He was still in that other world, looking off into the distance. Scary.

  Eve gave her a slow, wicked smile. "Let me ask you this. Have you ever fenced?"

  For a second, Claire thought she meant the traditional kind of thing, like hammering pickets onto rails in front of a house, but then she figured it out. "Oh. You mean with swords?"

  "Exactly. If I'm going to sweat, I'm going to sweat in a cooler way. Follow me. "

  "Wait. Youfence ?"

  "I took it up in high school," Eve said. "Come on, walk and talk, walk and talk. That's a girl. Yeah, I had to have a sport, but I don't like those icky team things. Fencing seemed retro cool, and plus, there were pointy things you try to stick into your opponent. It seemed like a good idea. "

  Eve had clearly spent her time in the gym checking out every corner of it, because Claire had no idea there was another part to it, behind a door near the restrooms. Behind it lay a couple of racquetball courts (safely caged up behind clear plastic), and even an indoor tennis court; maybe the vampires had been craving it and couldn't get out in the sun. But at the very back was a wood-floored room with racks on the walls that held swords, as well as neat stacks of white uniforms and those funky mesh helmets.

  "Right. I wouldn't start you out with a saber," Eve said, moving Claire from contemplation of one particular row of choices. "Too whippy for a beginner. How about a plain old foil? You can only target from the neck to the waist; no double touches. Easy peasy. "

  She grabbed a couple of the long, slender weapons and tossed one to Claire, who caught it. It felt strange in her hand, but not at all heavy. The blade was kind of square, and there was a round tip on the end. She made a tentative slashing motion with it, and Eve laughed.

  "It's a lunging weapon," she said. "Hang on, let's get you suited up before you start attacking anything. "

  Suiting upsounded much less complicated than it actually was; by the time Eve had finished dressing her like a sword-bearing doll, Claire felt clumsy, hot, and claustrophobic. Between the thick padding and the tight mesh helmet, she had no idea how she was supposed to move, much less fight.

  Eve had her own fencing suit, which she took out of a cheerful, skull-featuring bag of her own. Her outfit was black, with a pirate skull and crossbones where the heart would be. She lookeddangerous. And a little bit crazy, even without the beekeeper helmet.

  "Okay," she said. "First fighting lesson is, we don't fight, so stop pointing that foil at me. It's not going to go off. "

  Claire blushed and dropped the point down toward her toes. "Sorry. "

  "No worries. You couldn't hit me, anyway," Eve said, and smiled. "I'm going to line up next to you. Just do what I do, okay?"

  The first thing, apparently, was how to grip the sword properly. That took a while. Then there was lunging, which involved stabbing the sword out in a smooth, straight line while stepping out on her right leg in a deep crouch.

  It hurt. A lot. In fact, after about ten of those, Claire was gasping for breath and sweating; in about fifteen, she was ready to cry. Eve stopped after twenty, but it seemed like she could have gone all day.

  "I had to put all this on forthat ?" Claire muttered, as she pulled off her helmet. Her hair was soaked with sweat and sticking to her face. "Seriously? Nobody even waved a sword at me!"

  "You have to get used to the weight and moving in it," Eve said. "Suck it up, newbie. "

  "You're enjoying this. "

  "Yeah, well, a lot. I had to do it. You should, too. " Eve winked. She moved off to a padded pole that had a red circle marked on it, and practiced some lunges on her own. Her sword point landed in the circle every time.

  Claire spun around at the dry sound of hands clapping. She hadn't heard anybody come into the room, but there he was, dressed in white fencing gear, with a sword in one hand and his helmet tucked under his arm. Oliver. He looked leaner and harder in the uniform.

  Next to him, also dressed in white, was another figure. Amelie. The Founder of Morganville had never seemed so small before; the clothes she wore tended to enhance her height, as did the high heels. But like this, Claire realized that Amelie wasn't much taller than she was, and was very slender. In the fencing clothes, she could have passed for a boy, except for the feminine curves of her face.

  "You're coming along, Eve," Amelie said. Eve broke off her lunges and stood very straight, sword point do
wn. "I remember when you first began your lessons. I had to give personal approval for anyone who practiced those types of martial arts. "

  "Yeah, well, it's been a while since I was competitive," Eve said. "Hey, Ollie. "

  "For that," Oliver said, "you may step onto the piste. "

  "I didn't come to fight. "

  "You're dressed for it. What is that--a foil? Nonsense. You're more suited to an epee. " Oliver snorted and took another weapon from the wall, which he threw in Eve's direction. She grabbed it out of the air with her left hand. It had a deadlier look to it, Claire realized; more like a triangular blade than the square base of the foil. Still had a tip on it, but it looked like a tougher thing to master.

  Eve shrugged and tossed the foil back to Oliver, who put it on the rack. "All right," she said, and cut the

  weapon--the epee--through the air with a hissing sound. "Your funeral, dude. "

  Oliver bared his teeth in a grim smile and put on his helmet. "I doubt it," he said.

  Eve put on her helmet, too, and stepped into the narrow path marked on the floor. Claire moved back to stand by Amelie, who watched with an intense, focused expression on her pale face. As Eve and Oliver raised their swords in salute, she nodded and said, "Go. "

  It was literally over in seconds. Claire was used to the kind of fighting from the movies--long, clanging duels with lots of moving around and occasional cape swirling. This was fast and incredibly deadly. She didn't even see what happened, only that there was a blur of motion, some metallic clangs that came too fast to register, and suddenly Eve was standing there with Oliver's sword tip tenting the fabric of her pirate-skull emblem, right over her heart. "Well, crap," Eve said, and took a step back. "No fair using vampy speed. "

  "I'm not," he said. "I don't need to. Fencing was a survival skill in my day. Again?"

  "Sure. " Eve backed up to the far end of the marked-off strip--the piste?--and settled into a low crouch that somehow didn't look at all awkward.

  "Go," Amelie said, and there was another blur of motion. This time, Claire made out a couple of things--one, that Eve seemed to lunge for Oliver's chest and then dropped way down, and her point took him in the lunging leg. His slid over her shoulder. Eve hit the ground and rolled up to her feet, raising her epee in triumph.

  "Dude,gotcha !" she said. "Mortal wound, right there. Femoral artery. You are sodead . "

  He didn't respond at all, just walked back to his spot on the other side of the strip.

  "Seriously? You can't walk away with a tie?" Eve asked. She'd pulled off her helmet, and her black eyes were wicked bright. "Can't we all just get along?"

  "Fence," he barked. "Don't talk. "

  Eve popped her helmet back on and took her place on the strip. Amelie drew in a breath, and instead of giving the signal, said, "Oliver, perhaps you should let it go. "

  His helmeted face turned toward her, as if he couldn't believe she'd said it, and then focused back on Eve, who was taking the en garde stance. "Start us," he said. "Two out of three. "

  "He doesn't like to lose," Amelie said to Claire, and shrugged. "Very well. Go!"

  Claire focused, and managed to see exactly what happened this time. Oliver lunged. Eve parried, but he was ready for it, and got his blade back in line by knocking hers out of line. She tried for another thigh wound, but that didn't work this time.

  Oliver slammed the point of his epee into her chest so powerfully, it drove her back a step and made her drop her sword.

  "Oliver!" Amelie snapped, and he backed off. Eve staggered backward, lost her footing, and fell on her butt. Her epee clattered away across the floor as she put both hands to her chest, then reached up to rip

  her helmet off. Her face had gone chalk white, and her eyes were huge.

  "Ow," she said. "Damn. That's going to leave a mark. "

  Oliver walked away, circling restlessly, turning his epee around and around in his gloved hand. "You asked for it," he said. "Now get off the piste if you're going to complain about a bruise. "

  Eve slowly rolled up to her knees, collected her helmet and sword, and stood up. She didn't seem too steady.

  "Help her out," Amelie said. "Make sure she's not broken a rib. Oliver, that was unnecessary. "

  "What wasunnecessary was her gloating," he replied. "I didn't come here to fight children, and she needs to learn the same harsh lesson I did: taunting those who are stronger has consequences. "

  "The stronger have a responsibility to the weaker," Amelie said. "As you very well know. "

  "I've had quite enough responsibility. And I thought we came here to fight, woman. If all you want is to hold philosophical discussions while attractively dressed, surely we can do that elsewhere. "

  Eve looked better now, with the color coming back to her face--coming back too fast for Claire's comfort, because there was an angry, frightened glitter in her eyes. "Bully," she muttered.

  Oliver took off his helmet and stared at her. He looked as solid as bone, and like someone nobody wanted to mess with. "I don't allow people to mock me," he said. "And the next time you presume to call me by a pet name, I'll do worse than crack a rib for you on the piste. Now get out of the way. The adults require space. "

  Amelie cocked her head to one side, studying him, and said, "I'm bored with all these rules. Shall we dispense with the conventions, then?"

  "By all means," Oliver said, and tossed his helmet into the corner. She put hers safely out of the way. "Weapons?"

  "I prefer the epee," she said. "Two of them. "

  "Ah. Florentine. That suits me well enough. "

  They each took two swords, and as Claire and Eve retreated back to a bench in the rear of the room, Amelie and Oliver faced off. Amelie crossed her two swords in front of her face, and Oliver followed suit; the sound of four blades cutting the air in salute made Claire shiver. "What are they doing?" she whispered.

  "Free fighting," Eve answered, keeping it quiet. "No rules. More like the old-style duels. "

  "Not quite," Amelie said. She was almostsmiling . "This likely won't end in death. "

  "But no guarantees," Oliver said. Hewas smiling, and not his usual eviler-than-you sort of twisted lips, either. He almost lookedhappy . "Ready?"

  "Of course. " Amelie didn't seem to be; she was holding her swords down, almost not seeming to know

  what to do with them.

  Oliver took one step toward her, and the weapons snapped up and targeted him so fast, Claire blinked. Oliver raised one over his head in a pose that made her think of a scorpion's stinger, and circled to the right. Amelie circled, too, keeping the distance between them. . . until suddenly she was moving, two light, quick steps, a sudden jump that ended in a sliding lunge, andboth her epees hit targets, one slicing across Oliver's leg, the other under his arm. He whirled and hit her in the back with an underhand stroke--or tried to. She must have known it was coming, because she bent forward, graceful as a willow, and rolled up on her knee to parry the next lunge.

  And that was just thestart.

  "You know," Eve said distantly, about five minutes later, as the two vampires were still circling, slashing, hacking, and scoring points on each other, "I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't ever piss him off. Or her. Again. "

  "You think?" Claire whispered back. "Jeez. It's likeThe Terminator meetsBuffy. "

  "How do they decide who wins? I mean, clearly, they're hitting each other, but they don't even pretend those are going to hurt. . . . "

  "I don't think it matters," Claire said.

  She was proven right just thirty seconds later, when Amelie reached down and tapped the point of one epee three times on the floor. Oliver, moving in for a lunge, veered off at the last second and went to a neutral position.

  "Done?" he asked.

  "Most enjoyable," she said. "Thirty-two mortal touches for you; thirty-one for me. But I don't mind losing to a master, Oliver. " She bowed slightly, swords down.

&nbs
p; He bowed back, a little more deeply. "Nor do I," he said. "But winning is always better. You're favoring your right again, you know. "

  "I noticed. We can't all overcome nature's disadvantages so easily. "

  They exchanged a smile, a real one, and Claire exchanged a look with Eve. Eve cleared her throat.

  "Are you still here?" Oliver asked without changing his expression. He didn't look away from Amelie. "Leave. "

  "Right," Claire said. "Going. "

  She picked up Eve's stuff and walked with her to one of the small changing rooms to strip off the sweat-damp uniforms. Eve stuffed hers into the bag and stripped off her pink shirt. Claire gasped at the forming bruise, which was at least three inches across and looked very painful.

  "Dammit," Eve said. "That's going to show over my bra. Got to rethink the wardrobe for the next few days. " She probed at the bruise with a fingertip and winced. "Nothing broken, just a nice reminder not to screw around with Ollie on the pointy-object dance floor. "

  "I can't believe you fought him. "

  "Fought him? Damn, girlfriend, I got atouch on him. You know how difficult that is? I've been a serious fencer for years, but I never even got close to a touch on anybody without a pulse. He used to duel for real, you know. Without the safety tips on the blades. "

  Claire could believe it. What she couldn't get her head around was that Eve thought that was cool.

  Maybe,she thought,fencing isn't my sport after all.