“Yes,” Claire said. “Never.” There was a low growl from around the table. And she still wasn’t afraid. “Never,” she repeated. “You get your blood from taxes. You don’t need to do that to us. There’s no reason.”
Glory smiled. It was still a warm, charming smile, the kind that invited you to feel part of it. “Of course we have to do it,” she said. “Ask anyone who works with predators; suppressing the instinct to hunt is very, very tricky, and some animals never quite manage it. You must provide a controlled outlet, or inevitably someone will run wild. That would be much worse. Don’t you agree?”
“No,” Claire said. “If somebody breaks the rules, then he’s a criminal. And you ought to treat him like any other criminal.”
“How amusing you are, little one,” Glory said, and laughed just to prove it. “You’re Michael’s friend, aren’t you? One of those who lives in his house?”
“Yes.”
“And the other boy is called…?”
“Shane,” Claire said. She felt a pulse of dread, deep down inside, but it was just a twinge. “His name is Shane.”
“I’ve seen him at the gym,” she said. “He’s got good instincts, I must say. A good fighter. He’d be very valuable, in the right situation.” There was a glint in those lovely blue eyes, and Claire knew, in that same distant, unimportant way, that Gloriana was playing with her now, batting her around like a mouse. “Yes, I can see how he’d be very profitable to have in your corner.”
Oliver leaned back. “Too bad you don’t still own the boxing clubs that you were so fascinated by in Victoria’s time. Those were very lucrative for you, weren’t they?”
“Oh yes, quite profitable,” she said. “Too bad. He’d be quite an asset, wouldn’t he? And an orphan, too, I understand. So sad. Not having good influences makes one so…vulnerable.” She leaned across the table, and the warm intensity of her gaze on Claire’s cranked up so high that it felt like being bathed in pure, warm light, floating in it without a care in the world. “I understand you know my old friend Myrnin. How is he? I do so adore that mad old man. Is he working on anything…interesting?”
“Claire,” said a voice in her ears, a metallic voice that took her a second to place. Frank. “Claire, you can’t answer that. Snap out of it. Do it now.”
But she couldn’t. Even though Glory was talking about Shane as if he was a side of beef, even though she was asking questions about Myrnin, Claire still felt calm and entirely comfortable. She just couldn’t bring herself to feel anything else. Frank sounded angry and upset, but she couldn’t understand why. Glory was the best friend she could imagine having, better than Eve, because Glory would never judge her, never make her feel bad or guilty.
Claire said, “He’s working on—”
“Claire, sorry, but you need to stop this before you get in over your head,” Frank interrupted. And in the next second, she felt a burning, hissing pain that zipped through her body in a flash so fast, it was over before it registered. A shock coming from her headphones. Claire jerked a little, blinked, and her heart rate sped up with a jolt. She yanked out the earbuds, shuddering, and the calm fell away like a shed blanket.
Fear closed in, icy and sharp. Gloriana was still smiling at her, but it didn’t look warm anymore. It looked…predatory. And cruel. Claire swallowed and stood up. Her chair scraped back loudly. All of them were staring at her now, and the only one who didn’t seem to be on the verge of flashing fangs at her was Oliver. He was frowning, but now it was aimed at Gloriana.
“Glory,” he said. “Were you glamouring the girl?”
“A little,” she shrugged. “I just wanted to play.”
“Oh, for pity’s sake, play with someone else. She’s Amelie’s property. And she’s hardly worth your efforts.”
Glory laughed. “I know. But I didn’t hurt her, did I?” She turned that smile back on Claire. “Leaving us so soon, little one?”
Claire took a giant step back. The smile didn’t work now, probably because she had so much adrenaline racing through her body. “Stay away from us,” she said. “Stay away from Shane.”
Glory rolled her eyes. “I don’t want your boy,” she said. “Whatever would I do with him? He isn’t good for very much except violence. So much of that inside him.”
Claire left her mocha sitting on the table and moved for the door as fast as she could. She looked back over her shoulder as she left, but nobody had moved, not even Oliver, although he was watching her go. Glory was laughing and seemed to have forgotten all about her already.
Claire stepped out into the sunlight, ran half a block down, and leaned against the rough bricks between two storefronts. She closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing and controlling her shaking. Then, finally, she put her earbuds back in place. It took her two tries, thanks to her unsteady fingers.
“I didn’t get anything,” she said to Frank. “I didn’t know she could do that, make me feel like that. I didn’t know anyone could do that. Bishop couldn’t.”
“It’s a pretty rare power, even among vampires,” Frank said. “I only knew of three or four who had it. Killed two of them. Too bad I didn’t make it a clean sweep.”
“I didn’t even know what she was doing. I had no way to fight it.” Claire took a deep breath. “Thanks for snapping me out of it.”
“She wasn’t even trying,” Frank said. “If she had been, you wouldn’t have left that easily. Like she said, she was just playing.”
That was awful. Awful. Claire felt ill and filthy, as if she’d drunk a gallon of sewer water. She wanted to throw up, thinking about how easily she’d been walked around like a puppet. About how she’d felt everything that Glory wanted her to feel. “It didn’t do any good,” she said. “We didn’t find out anything.”
“Maybe we did,” Frank said. “She mentioned that she saw Shane at the gym, didn’t she?”
“So? Even I’ve been to the gym. So has Eve. Lots of people go there. Including vampires.”
“But why would Glory? She doesn’t fight. She makes other people do her fighting for her.” Frank’s voice sounded oddly preoccupied. “I’ve been going over the rolls of vampires in Morganville. Looks like some haven’t been surfacing in their usual routines recently.”
“You mean…you mean they’re missing?”
“I don’t want to jump to that conclusion, but I found five—no, six—that aren’t following their usual patterns.”
“Well, some left, you know. With Morley. They’re in Blacke, that little town outside of—”
“I know about Morley. I’m not talking about his people. These are other vampires that haven’t surfaced in the past three weeks. No checkouts at the blood banks. They haven’t shown up on surveillance. They’re not communicating at all on the phones or computers.”
“How can vampires go missing? Who are they?”
“Nobodies, in terms of the Morganville hierarchy. Just your regular vampire working class. And they haven’t been missed all that much. Vampires may socialize, but not like humans do; they’re used to not seeing each other for long stretches. Doesn’t raise any questions.”
“So where are they?” Claire asked. “Do they have any connection to Bishop?”
“Not that I can find. In fact, looks like they were on Amelie’s side in the conflict with her father.” Frank was silent for a moment, then said, “It bothers me that I don’t have eyes inside the gym. I can’t see or sense anything within those walls.”
“What?”
“It’s recent construction. No cameras. No portals. No way of observing what’s going on there. It seems like a lot of this connects through there, some way. I wish I had some devices there.”
“Inside the gym.” She thought about it for a second. “You want me to…what? Put cameras in there?”
“What, you’re scared to act as my spy?” Frank sounded amused now. “Knowing you, that doesn’t stop you. Never seen a kid so fearless, deep down. Not even my son.”