Bite Club Page 0,103

"We should be at the address Mr. Anderson gave us in just a moment. You should be ready."

"About that..." Claire forced herself to stop marveling at the incredibly bad timing, and remembered just what it was they were doing. "We know the safe entrances, but how are we going to do this? Go in together? Separately?"

"I assume the priority is to find your friends and remove them from the premises first, before calling in Amelie and Oliver--that being equivalent to summoning a nuclear strike. Is that correct?"

"Yes," Eve said. "Shane and Michael, first priority. Oh, and not getting killed. That one's big, too." She frowned and grabbed Claire's cell phone back. "Hey, is this thing Internet ready?"

"Yeah, it's a smartphone," Claire said. "Why?"

"I think we should see what's going on at the Web site," Eve said. She worked with the phone for a minute or so, then held it out so Claire could also see the small but clear screen. The Immortal Battles site loaded slowly, but it loaded, and Eve expanded the part that talked about upcoming bouts.

There was a countdown counter going, and it was winding down fast. The banner read live event. There was a video embedded next to it that started playing when Claire clicked it.

Vassily again, dressed in his dumb Halloween interpretation of a vampire (although, truthfully, Myrnin wasn't costumed so differently right now). Vassily looked excited and a bit nervous as he leaned toward the camera, enough that it caught glimpses of his long, white teeth. "Hello, members," he said. "We have a very special treat for you, so get ready to place those bets. On one side, we have our reigning champion, Shane `The Hammer' Collins." And Vassily drew back to show Shane sitting there in a chair, stripped to the waist, all those awful bruises showing. He wasn't tied up or anything. He seemed fine, but very focused.

Vassily moved on, and the camera moved with him. They went through some kind of a door, very walk-and-talk, and all of a sudden the camera fumbled and focused on another familiar face.Michael. He seemed okay, but unlike Shane, he was tied up--no, chained. Chained to a wall. He lunged for Vassily, but he came up short. Vassily flashed fangs at him. Michael flashed them right back.

"And this, my friends, is our newest warm-up contender for our champion...Michael! These two have been building a grudge match for more than a year, and it's all the more violent because they were once best friends. So, who do you think will come out on top: the current victor, or the vampire? Place your bets! The match starts in just a few minutes, with the winner meeting our special benefactor..."

Vassily was walking and talking again, leaving Michael's frustrated, anguished face behind. The camera jostled after him, through tunnels and darkness, and quite suddenly, apparently to Vassily's surprise, there was a man standing in his way. His patter faltered and stopped.

It was Mr. Bishop. Not the skeletal, desperate thing that Claire had seen before...no, Bishop had showered, found fresh clothes, and, clearly, fed until he was completely recovered. He lookedyounger than before. And very, very strong. The menace came off him like black light.

"Well," Vassily said awkwardly. "Uh, sir, I don't think you should be--"

"Shut up, Vassily. I make the decisions here," Bishop said. "And I have decided that today--I will fight the winner of today's match. I feel the need for a bit of exercise before we move on to bigger prey."

"Sir, this isn't...this isn't what we agreed--"

Bishop's eyes went red and his fangs came down, and Claire almost dropped the phone. Even whoever was running the camera was moving backward. "I'm changing our agreement,minion. Tonight I'm changing all the agreements. Tonight we will take the fight out of the cage. Into the streets. To the Founder."

"Sir--"

Bishop hit Vassily hard enough to knock him into the wall, and stood there staring down at him. "I've waited long enough," he said. "I don't need your filthy money. What Ineed is to feel her blood in my mouth. Are we understood?"

Vassily got up, cringing, and bowed his head. "Yes, sir. Understood. Uh, but first, we bring you the fighting...?"

"By all means," Bishop said, and smiled. "I want to see these two do damage to each other. It would please me a great deal."

The video ended. Claire fumbled with the phone and, hands shaking, pulled up the counter again. Next to it were odds. Shane was favored over Michael two to