will ever say its name again without shuddering. The nightmare is coming now. Wake up and enjoy it."
Myrnin stared at Bishop in outright horror and backed up fast. He let go of Claire. In fact, he put her and Shane in the way.
"What's the matter, my old friend?" Bishop asked. He calmly reached back, grabbed the door, and slammed it closed behind him with a rattle and boom of metal. Then he bent the frame so that it wouldn't open--more effective than a lock. "No clever plans? No silly games? Because you know I haven't forgotten what you did when you betrayed me. You know I'll take you apart one piece at a time...fingers and toes first, then working my way in. And your little humans here, they're only a moment's work. By the time Amelie and her court reach us, I'll be drinking their blood out of your skull."
"You could still run," Claire said. She couldn't believe she had enough strength to talk, but she did. She was scared, but notthat scared. Somehow, after everything she'd seen, Bishop wasn't the worst anymore. "You could break out of a wall and disappear in the confusion. You know if Amelie catches you, she'll kill you."
"Indeed, I think Oliver's quite convinced her that making an example of me is bad strategy," Bishop said. He paced side to side, but every turn closed the distance between them. "I expect she'll execute me instantly. Or try. But I'm better at this than they are, either of them or all of them. I am the best killer who ever lived."
"Yeah, you don't seem too worried," Shane said.
"I had a great deal of time to consider my place in this world, while she had me sealed up in that tiny, airless hell. Nothing to eat. Nothing to hear or feel or touch. Just endless, dark eternity. Do you know what I decided?"
Shane shook his head. Claire realized she was still holding the small, silver-coated knife, and now she nudged the black bag closer to Shane, who glanced down at it.
"I realized that if I can survive that, survive being starved down to bones, I can survive Amelie's worst," Bishop said. "I don't need Vassily and Gloriana. I thought I needed an army to take this town, and they were making me one--humans like you, Shane, who'd take out vampires without flinching. But I don't need them. Or you. Any of you." His eyes flared blood red. "Except as fuel."
Shane crouched down and reached inside the bag, pulling out a crossbow, but it wasn't set. It would take seconds to cock and load, and Bishop wasn't going to give it to them.
Bishop smashed the crossbow into splinters with one blow, and threw Shane headfirst into the bars.
Claire screamed, because it should have killed him...and probably would have, if he hadn't been dosed up with that drugged sports drink Vassily had given the fighters. Instead, it only stunned him. Shane
collapsed to the floor, moaning, and tried to get up. Bishop kicked him twice: once in the stomach, once in the head.
Claire didn't think. She threw herself at him, and when his strong, pale hands reached for her to rip her open, she slashed with the silver knife she held. She didn't know what she cut off, but Bishop howled and backed away from her. Then he came for her.
Shane couldn't get up, but hecould roll, and he did, right in front of Bishop's feet as he moved. Bishop fell, twisted, and grabbed Shane's head in his mangled hands.
Claire tried to stop him, but couldn't get close enough. She slashed with the knife and delayed him from snapping Shane's neck, but it was useless; she couldn't get to him, not without getting killed, too.
That was what Bishop wanted. To kill one of them while the other watched.
"Hey!" Eve shouted, just on the other side of the bars. She had something in her hand, something long and thin and sharp. "Heads up, CB!" It came flying at her, and Claire grabbed it.
It was a sword. One of those things Eve had used against Oliver. She'd gotten a touch on him with it.
This one had a point, not a button, and the edges were sharp on all three sides of the triangular blade.
Claire grabbed the handle and threw herself into a lunge. It probably wasn't a good lunge, probably wasn't steady, but it wasfast.
And she stuck the point straight into Bishop's throat.
He let go of Shane and clawed at the sword.