Bite Club Page 0,31

hadn't seen anything and didn't know anything." Jason rested his forehead against his knees. "I don't know where Bishop is. I don't know what he's doing. And, trust me, I don't work for him. It was just supposed to be an introduction, a friend-of-a-friend kind of a thing. I figured he was scoring drugs or something. Once I realized who he was, I should have just gotten the hell out, but I was too scared to run. I knew if I didn't get him where he wanted to go, he'd--"

Claire could only imagine what Bishop would have done if disappointed, and it wasn't good, that was certain. "It's not your fault," she said. "You didn't have a choice." Jason was lucky to be alive at all.

"And I don't have a choicenow , either," he said. "Claire, if they think they can torture some info out of me about where Bishop's new hideout is, they can't. I'd give it up if I had it, in a heartbeat, because, damn, does that thing scare me. But I just don'tknow anything."

She believed him. She glanced up, looking for the cameras, and found a tiny glass eye in the far corner of the ceiling. She stared up at it for a few seconds, wondering who was watching this. Amelie, almost certainly. And probably Myrnin, if he wasn't still lurking on the other side of the door.

"I'm going to try to get you out of here, Jason," she said. "I don't know if I can do anything for you with the police, though."

He shrugged, falling into that silence again. His eyes still looked dead, but now she realized that it wasn't indifference.

It was fear.

She got up and walked toward the door, waiting. The lock disengaged and the door popped open.

"Claire?" Jason said suddenly. She looked back. "If I don't see you again, thanks for trying. Nobody ever tried before. Not even Eve. I mean, she's my sister and I love her, but...I think she always knew I was a lost cause."

That was the saddest thing she'd ever heard. Claire tried for a smile, but she didn't think it was authentic. And Jason didn't smile back.

"You'll see me again," she said. "I promise."

She hoped she wasn't lying, as the door clicked shut behind her and locked with a thick, chunky sound of metal. The hallway was deserted, both directions, just straight lines and scratches on the walls and a sense of despair as thick as the white paint.

And then the vampire from the front desk--John, the one who'd called her the apprentice vampire hunter--appeared in the corridor. Claire stopped dead in her tracks, tense and ready for anything. He stared at her for a second, then beckoned.

She stayed where she was.

"Suit yourself," he said. "I was told to get you out. You want to stay, I can make that happen, girl. I got plenty of open cells."

"I'm waiting for Myrnin."

"You'll be waiting a while," he said. "He's up with the boss lady. You come with me or get in a cell. Your choice."

If Amelie was watching the closed-circuit feeds, she'd see Claire in the hallway and witness whatever might happen. Hopefully John knew that, too. That, and only that, made Claire nod and move toward the other vampire.

He didn't touch her. He opened and closed gates, and finally they were in the last section, barred at one end, thick steel door at the other.

And, Claire realized, there were no cameras right in this particular section.

Oh, God.

John stopped and turned toward her. "I don't forget what you did," he said. He tapped the skin below his clouded, blind eye, eerily silver. "This is on you. You hurt me so bad, it's never going to heal."

Well, she'd done this to herself, trapped with a vamp whoreally didn't like her, knowing she was responsible for his current not-so-great looks. "You were trying to kill me when I did that," she said. "So it's on you. If it helps, it makes you look way scarier than before."

He bared fangs, and the look on his face made her feel painfully aware of the blood running under her skin and the terror that seemed to be growing spikes in her stomach. "You want to say that again?" he said. "How it was my fault you threw liquid nitrogen in my face?"

"Maybe it's shared responsibility," she said. "But that's as far as I'm willing to go. Now open the door."

"Once I'm done," he said. "Eye for an eye. That's what the Bible says."

"I'm