Bite Club Page 0,21

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.

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